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Saturday, October 9, 2010

Rare Thoughts

Hi Everyone,

Today was my friend Rachelle's birthday and we celebrated it with the family.  Aunt Peggy made this massive dinner with chocolate cake and ice cream and it was delicious.  I haven't been able to hang out with my cousins or my aunt for the past month due to the show, classes, work and life in general, but it was good to be around them even if they were in rare form tonight.

On a totally different note, I think I need to look for another job.  Today was a beautiful day, and it was Friday, but in the past three weeks, they have been putting two extra people on and I have gone from making over $100 a shift to $30-40 a shift on a Friday.  Friday and Saturday were my money days and now I don't even make enough to cover a tank of gas.  Plus, this past Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday rained cats and dogs, so I made $17 on Monday and $7 on Tuesday and they called me to tell me not to come in on Wednesday.  So for the past 4 shifts I have made less than $75!  Nope not going to cut it.  So Sunday I have the day off, I am going to take Jen to the movies for her birthday and rehearse my final scene for Brad's class with my scene partner and then I am going to start calling people about jobs.  Wish me luck!!!!

On a totally different different note, I keep having the song, I Want to Hold Your Hand in my head.  I know it is because I just watched the episode of Glee, that had me bawling when that song was sung.  But when I sing it to myself it is the Beatle's version of the song I hear.  It is only one stanza that I repeat over and over in my head and it makes me happy.  Does anyone have certain songs that get stuck in their head from time to time.  I remember junior year of high school everyday at 5:15am I would wake up to Tom Petty's, Free Fallin and I literally had that song stuck in my head for all of 1993.  Now every time I hear that song, I can't help belting it out as if I am 16 all over again.  I am laughing at the memory.

Does anyone have any song memories they would like to share?

Until tomorrow.  Take care and be safe.

All my love,

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Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Guess he thinks he built it....

Click on picture to read small type.

Political Digest for July 31, 2012

The Old Jarhead Blog: Bringing you news and information the MSM is too busy covering American Idol, celebrity affairs and sensational missing person cases to cover. Please forward to friends who need to be informed.

Advice for my Granddaughter: For When I'm Gone
All royalties go to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation.

Gun Control Works
Picture worth seeing and remembering. ~Bob.

Elizabeth Warren Praising Communist China as a Model for America
See picture in link above. ~Bob. Excerpt: Massachusetts residents who tuned in to the Olympics opening ceremony saw a new 30-second campaign commercial from the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Elizabeth Warren, that said America should be more like Communist China.

Excerpt: Here’s the most underreported story of the summer. When the Supreme Court ruled on the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) it inadvertently liberated millions of people who were going to be forced into Medicaid. Now they will have the opportunity to have private health insurance instead. What difference does that make? It could be the difference between life and death. A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report this week says there are 3 million such people. The actual number could be several times that size. But first things first. … Now if you were a resident alien, the rules are different. Since they don’t generally qualify for Medicaid, immigrant families at your income level can get subsidized private insurance in the exchange. But alas, you’re a citizen. So this option isn’t open to you.

Swing states give Obama the edge
Excerpt: President Obama has an overall edge in the 12 decisive battleground states that is measurably greater than his advantage in national polling. The dynamic, which may reflect a combination of lower swing-state unemployment rates and demographic advantages for the president, is causing stirrings of unease among Republicans, even as they emphasize that it is important not to read too much into the state of the race right now.

Romney says Israel’s capital is Jerusalem, vows to move embassy
Excerpt: Mitt Romney on Sunday declared Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel and said he would seek to move the U.S. embassy there from Tel Aviv as president if the Israeli government ascents. "A nation has the capacity to choose its own capital city, and Jerusalem is Israel's capital," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said in an interview on CNN, conducted in Jerusalem. "I think it's long been the policy to ultimately have our embassy in the nation's capital of Jerusalem." (This will enrage the Jew-haters among both Muslims and Progressives. ~Bob.)

Romney laughs off Newsweek magazine’s 'wimp' cover story
Excerpt: GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney brushed off a Newsweek cover labeling him a “wimp,” saying that the media tried the same tactic to discredit former President George H. W. Bush. “They tried that in George Herbert Walker Bush. He was a pretty great President and anything but,” said Romney in an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation. (Trying to drum up subscriptions from Progressives. But this could have a huge impact among Newsweek’s five or six remaining readers. ~Bob.)

Opinion: Obama camp facing cash crisis. By Juan Williams
Real Headline: Media joins Obama fund-raising efforts. This has been a talking point on their “gummier” e-mails lately. ~Bob. Excerpt: Get ready for this year’s “October Surprise” — the news event in the weeks before the presidential election that has the potential to push the remaining undecided voters behind one candidate and decide the outcome. Here’s a sneak peek at the “surprise.” In late October, President Obama announces his campaign is tapped out of money and unable to answer the final round of attack ads from his opponent, Mitt Romney.

Election up for grabs with 100 days to go
Excerpt: With 100 days until the 2012 election, President Obama has a tenuous lead, but the struggling economy hurts his bid for a second term. Obama leads Mitt Romney by a narrow margin in most national polls, and has a slightly wider lead in most swing states, giving Romney little room for error. But while Obama continues to lead Romney in personal likability — a major asset — there are few signs that Obama’s sustained summer attack on Romney’s business background has changed the contours of the race. (I think 95% of the people have made up their minds, and the others are among the low-turnout folks. So depends on who votes. Or a factor that hasn’t happened yet with the economy or foreign policy. ~Bob.)

Report: Adviser says Romney would back Israeli attack on Iran
Excerpt: A top Mitt Romney foreign policy aide on Sunday said the GOP presidential candidate would back an Israeli military strike on Iran to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. “If Israel has to take action on its own, in order to stop Iran from developing that capability, the governor would respect that decision,” said Romney adviser on Middle East affairs Dan Senor in a briefing with reporters, according to media reports.

Land-Use Regulation Increases Income Inequality
Excerpt: Harvard University economists have proven that land-use regulation is a major cause of growing income inequality in the United States. By restricting labor mobility, the economists say, such regulation has played a "central role" in income disparities, says Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute. When measured on a state-by-state basis, American income inequality declined at a steady rate of 1.8 percent per year from 1880 to 1980. The slowing and reversal of this long-term trend after 1980 is startling. Not by coincidence, the states with the strongest land-use regulations -- those on the Pacific Coast and in New England -- began such regulation in the 1970s and 1980s. Forty to 75 percent of the decline in inequality before 1980, the Harvard economists say, was due to migration of workers from low-income states to high-income states. The freedom to easily move faded after 1980 as land-use regulation in many of the highest-income states made housing unaffordable to low-income workers. 9It also increases the wealth of the 1% by putting parks and green areas near their up-scale homes. They get the value, but not the cost, and it eliminates low-income people living near the Obamas, Kerrys, or George Soros. ~Bob.)

Important: IRS Data Shows That Businesses Will Bear Brunt of Obama's Tax Hike. By Scott A. Hodge
Excerpt: Today, President Obama renewed his call for allowing the Bush-era tax rates to expire for families earning over $250,000 while extending the lower rates for taxpayers below that threshold. The president and his economic team tend to dismiss the impact that such as tax hike will have on business activity because only 2 or 3 percent of taxpayers with business income are taxed at the highest rates. While this statistic is true, the more economically meaningful statistic is how much overall business income will be taxed at the highest rates. For example, Treasury data for 2007 indicates that 50 percent of all pass-through income is earned by taxpayers subject to the top two tax brackets of 33 percent and 35 percent. (Alas, so many voters are economically ignorant and not paying attention, these facts will have no impact. ~Bob.)

Why States Have a Huge Fiscal Incentive to Opt Out of Obamacare's Medicaid Expansion. By Avik Roy
Excerpt: Eight state governors have stated that they will take advantage of the recent Supreme Court ruling, allowing them to opt out of Obamacare’s dramatic expansion of Medicaid. Their actions have been dismissed by liberal columnists as mere partisan posturing. After all, argue the liberals, the federal government is picking up most of the tab, so what’s the problem?

Green Jobs Gone Bust : Obama’s green investments drown in red ink. By Deroy Murdock
Excerpt: DOE’s website boasts that its “clean energy” initiatives — dubbed 1703, 1705, and Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) — loaned $34.7 billion and launched “nearly 60,000” jobs. This totals a staggering $578,333 per position. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, private employers pay workers, on average, $62,757 annually in wages and benefits. So, Obama is “creating jobs” at 922 percent of the private sector’s cost of employing workers for a year. For every green job that Obama supposedly spawns with taxpayer dollars and borrowed Chinese money, private enterprises could hire nine people.

New Farm Bill: Welfare in Disguise

A Healthcare Blueprint For A President Mitt Romney
Excerpt: First, Romney and company must create a functional consumer market for health insurance by changing the way that it’s taxed. Currently, individuals do not have the same ability to purchase insurance tax-free that businesses do. Not only is that unfair — it also drives up the cost of insurance and of care. Because folks don’t directly shoulder the costs of the care they consume, they demand more of it.

Key Pro-Israel Obama Ally Splits. By Eli Lake
Excerpt: Dennis Ross, who had worked with the Obama team since 2008, had the ear of the pro-Israel lobby. Now he’s bowing out of politics, Eli Lake reports, just when Obama needs him most. As Republican donors are financing multimillion-dollar campaigns to bring Jewish voters over to Mitt Romney, one of President Obama’s most important liaisons to the pro-Israel community has opted to sit out the 2012 election cycle.

The East Asia Pivot. By Bill Gertz
Excerpt: A Pentagon-sponsored report to Congress outlines the U.S. military’s new pivot to Asia and calls for adding attack submarines and Marines based throughout the Pacific to head off a future war with China. The report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies presents three options based on impending cuts in defense spending. They include keeping the current status quo forces, mainly in Japan and South Korea, or modestly increasing military forces by adding attack submarines, Marine Air-Ground Task Forces, more warships and bombers, another aircraft carrier strike group, and more intelligence aircraft.

America’s New Bomb Threat
Excerpt: Now, IEDs could be coming to U.S. shores. According to Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, head of the military’s Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, some of the same terrorists who amassed the know-how on building IEDs are setting their sights on the U.S. (I’ve been pleasantly surprised it hasn’t happened already. ~Bob.)

Netanyahu: Obama's Sanctions Haven't Stopped Iran By “One Iota”
Excerpt: Speaking with presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney at his side, Netanyahu said a "strong and credible military threat" was needed on top of the sanctions to get Iran to make a change.

Mitt Romney Delivers Foreign Policy Speech From Israel
Excerpt: It is a deeply moving experience to be in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel. Our two nations are separated by more than 5,000 miles. But for an American abroad, you can’t get much closer to the ideals and convictions of my own country than you do in Israel. We’re part of the great fellowship of democracies. We speak the same language of freedom and justice, and the right of every person to live in peace. We serve the same cause and provoke the same hatreds in the same enemies of civilization.

Romney faces Palestinian criticism for Jerusalem remarks as he heads to Poland
Excerpt: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney angered Palestinian leaders on Monday when he suggested here that the Israeli economy had outpaced the economy of the Palestinian territories in part because of advantages of “culture.” Palestinians said that Romney had ignored the long-running Israeli restrictions on crossings from the Gaza Strip and West Bank, which they say are an enormous drag on trade. The Romney campaign disputed media accounts of Romney’s remarks. (Romney may have lost the important terrorist vote. ~Bob.)

Romney Goes to Israel and Dershowitz Flacks for Obama. By Roger L. Simon
Excerpt: Why is the august professor suddenly acting like a political hack, a kind of low-rent Ivy League Deborah Wasserman-Schultz, flacking for the president at the exact moment the administration is unleashing various forms of “aid to Israel” in a patently obvious attempt to undermine Romney’s trip?

Tweet from Dan Collins @vermontaigne
Mayo Clinic preliminarily diagnoses Jesse Jackson, Jr with chronic graft, a heritable condition.

Actual Border Patrol representatives describe the real situation
Listening to these two guys explain what really goes on may make your head explode, but what they've revealed needs to be understood by every American. --Del

The Media’s Racial Prison. By Bruce Thornton
Excerpt: Two incidents last week suggest once more that our confused, hypocritical, and politicized notions of race and relations will play a huge role in the presidential election. In the first, Virginia state senator L. Louise Lucas, part of Obama’s “Truth Team” campaigning for the president in Virginia, told a radio interviewer, “Mitt Romney, he’s speaking to … a segment of the population who does not like to see people other than a white man in the White House or in any other elective position. (Any Republican running against Obama would be charged with racism, except Herman Cain. He’d be called “an Uncle Tom..” ~Bob.)

Olympics Opening Ceremony: Liberty Forgotten. By Bruce Bawer
Excerpt: The Olympics hadn’t even started yet when the disgraces began to pile up. First the International Olympic Committee, plainly loath to offend Muslim governments, ruled out a moment of silence at the opening ceremony for the Israeli athletes murdered in Munich forty years ago. Then last Wednesday, when South Korea’s flag was mistakenly displayed instead of North Korea’s at a women’s soccer game, Olympics officials fell all over themselves apologizing to baby tyrant Kim Jung-un’s henchmen for the error.

New Book: Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam, 1973-75 By George J Veith
Just saw this, have not read it. It looks good. ~Bob.

‘Summer Brides’: Under-age daughters sold as ‘sex-slaves’ in Egypt, report claims
Part of the “Arab Spring,” roundly cheered by Progressives, the Obama administration and the Liberal Media. ~Bob. Excerpt: Wealthy Arab tourists from Gulf countries are paying money to purchase under-age Egyptian girls as “summer-brides”, claims a new report on human trafficking released by the U.S. State Department. The marriages are not legally binding and end when the men return to their home countries.

Business Owners Battle Obamacare for Religious Freedom
Excerpt: Two days from now, employers across America will become vulnerable to crushing government penalties for exercising their religious freedom. This isn't exactly what lawmakers advertised when they pushed Obamacare, but it is part of the Obama Administration's agenda—forcing nearly all employers to pay for abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization services. Beginning August 1, employers must amend their health insurance offerings to include these drugs and services. And if they don't? How about a fine of $100 per employee per day for non-compliance.

Excerpt: A couple of days ago, I posted France24's account of the Muslim mob attack on police in Marseilles while they were trying to do an identity check on a burka-wearing woman. Le Figaro also published a report on it, which has some interesting details the France 24 account left out, notably those that relate to the Muslims declaring that they refused to recognise French law. (Well, they could take a rope and find out if they recognize the law of gravity… ~Bob.)

Foreign Office investigates reports of Britons among Islamist kidnappers of journalists in Syria
Excerpt: During their time in captivity they were threatened with death unless they converted to Islam, and both were shot and slightly wounded when they attempted to flee barefoot. … The group accused them of being spies, and considered holding them for ransom, said Mr Oerlemans. He added: "As soon as Assad has fallen, these fighters want to introduce Islamic law, Sharia, in Syria." (this is the side the Obama administration is helping…. ~Bob.)

Scalia: ‘Limitations’ could be imposed on guns in the future. By Jeff Poor
Excerpt: On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” host Chris Wallace asked Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to react to the possibility that gun laws might change in the wake of the shooting tragedy in Aurora, Colorado earlier this month. “Obviously, the amendment does not apply to arms that cannot be hand-carried. It’s ‘to keep and bear,’ so it doesn’t apply to cannons. But I suppose there are hand-held rocket launchers that can bring down airplanes, that will have to be decided.” (Already they won’t let me buy a Ma Deuce, which would be very handy in Chicago. ~Bob.)

Rubio's plane makes emergency landing. Marco clowns: 'I know how to take a hint' http://www.wnd.com/2012/07/rubios-plane-makes-emergency-landing/?cat_orig=politics
Excerpt: Sen. Marco Rubio’s plane was forced to make an emergency landing in New Mexico on Saturday, preventing the Florida Republican from stumping for Mitt Romney in Iowa. But the Romney surrogate and contender for the Republican vice presidential nomination saw the humor in his aeronautical adventure in Albuquerque.

Obama's entrepreneurial Communist Manifesto: Chuck Norris examines founders' ideas on building success. By Chuck Norris
Excerpt: President Obama’s business comments a couple weeks ago in Roanoke, Va., in which he said, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen,” sounded more communistic than capitalistic, especially since the “somebody” to whom Obama referred was, in fact, the U.S. federal government. …. The truth is, Obama’s statements in Roanoke were in no way reminiscent of great capitalists and innovators like Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc. On the other hand, his words did smack of a few other societal manipulators

Powerful Wall Street Banks Hijacked TARP and Stole the Recovery
Excerpt: Neil Barofsky, a lifetime Democrat, was picked by then-President George W. Bush (on the advise of his Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson) to police how the banks spent the $700 billion in TARP economic stimulus funds that should have helped the United States avert the recession that all Americans now suffer under. Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee on April 20, 2010, Barofsky said: "To declare TARP a success is revisionist history. TARP was supposed to restore lending, and that didn't happen." (It started out as a socialist program to force banks to lend to the insolvent and just-barely solvent but degenerated into a time bomb that brought economic devastation to the entire world. Even in the hands of morally upright people, socialism can't work. But put it in the hands of the corrupt politicians now nesting in Washington and the disaster spreads at warp speed. --Don Hank)

Worth Reading: California: “The Road Warrior” Is Here. By Victor Davis Hanson
Excerpt: George Miller’s 1981 post-apocalyptic film “The Road Warrior” envisioned an impoverished world of the future. The movie was remarkably prophetic of today's seemingly post-apocalyptic California. (Another great piece from Dr. Hanson, though he should remind us again why he is optimistic about the nation’s future. In WWII Budapest, it is reported that the Nazis (doubtless to the approbation of their Islamic admirers) would line up Jews who were chained together on a bridge over the Danube. They would shoot the more fortunate one on the end, who would fall into the river, dragging the others to their drowning deaths one by one. The world economy has the prudent states chained to the feckless, and ultimately to other economies, eventually to Greece, Spain, Ireland, and the rest of the EU disaster states. In the US, prosperous states, like Texas and North Dakota, are chained to disaster states like California and Illinois. It’s hard to see how their collapse doesn’t drag the rest of us into the abyss with them. We are, I fear, close to fiscal collapse, followed by political and social collapsed. ~Bob. This 4-page article—a bit long, even for Hanson—shows Hanson at his best, reminding us how we got into this mess. When Bob and I were in electronics schools in San Diego in 1965, all of California’s roads were superb. In 2005, I visited for the first time, driving for about two hours on 99, the major north-south highway in the interior of the state. The condition of the road was appalling with many major potholes, broken pavement, and even missing exit signs. Roads in rural areas of “poor” states are usually in better shape than this. Although Hunger Games might be a strong second choice, I think Hanson has hit the perfect metaphor with Road Warrior. –Ron P.)

6-Year-Old Gives 10 Reasons NOT to Vote for Obama!

2012 Campaign Very Different Than Kerry vs. Bush. By Michael Barone
Excerpt: Does the 2012 campaign look a lot like the 2004 campaign? Many Democrats think so. … But, as William Galston of the Brookings Institution, an alumnus of the Clinton White House, writes in The New Republic, "the evidence in favor of all these propositions is remarkably thin."

Obama in '08: I Will Not Run Negative Campaign Ads
Ho, hum, another BO lie. Who cares? ~Bob.

Excerpt: The threat of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is over, for now. On July 27, the U.S. joined Russia, Indonesia, and India in saying they needed more time to think about the pact before going forward, thus negotiations ended. And although this won't keep the treaty from coming back up should Obama be re-elected, it does means that gun owners can breath a sigh of relief for the next six months.

Obama backs race-based school discipline policies. By Neil Munro
Excerpt: “What this means is that whites and Asians will get suspended for things that blacks don’t get suspended for,” because school officials will try to level punishments despite groups’ different infraction rates, predicted Hans Bader, a counsel at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Bader is a former official in the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, and has sued and represented school districts and colleges in civil-rights cases. “It is too bad that the president has chosen to set up a new bureaucracy with a focus on one particular racial group, to the exclusion of all others,” said Roger Clegg, the president of the Center for Equal Opportunity. (Yes, Neil, of Rose Garden Heckle fame—Barb. So, if a black thug murders a decent black citizen [we call that the Weekend in Chicago], we should send an innocent white guy to prison with him to balance punishments. The Constitution used to guarantee “equal protection of the law.” ~Bob.)

Mitt Romney and the wimp factor. By Chris Cillizza and Aaron Blake
Excerpt: Newsweek seems to define Romney’s alleged “wimpiness” as a sort of wide-ranging insecurity that forces the Republican presidential candidate into a series of gaffes like the ones he committed in London late last week.

Blown DEA sting riles truck owner
Excerpt: Commandeered by one of his drivers, who was secretly working with federal agents, the truck had been hauling marijuana from the border as part of an undercover operation. And without Patty's knowledge, the Drug Enforcement Administration was paying his driver, Lawrence Chapa, to use the truck to bust traffickers. At least 17 hours before that early-morning phone call, Chapa was shot dead in front of more than a dozen law enforcement officers — all of them taken by surprise by hijackers trying to steal the red Kenworth T600 truck and its load of pot.

DHS Gears Up for Civil Unrest Prior to Presidential Elections
Excerpt: The Department of Homeland Security has ordered masses of riot gear equipment to prepare for potential significant domestic riots at the Republican National Convention, Democratic National Convention and next year’s presidential inauguration. (Even paranoids have enemies… ~Bob.)

Jewish businessmen show support for Romney in Israel with big bucks
Excerpt: In private, President Barack Obama may be kicking himself for missing out on a campaign finance bonanza in Israel after learning that a group of U.S. Jewish businessmen are handing over $50,000.00 each during a fundraising breakfast Sunday with GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, according to the Law Enforcement Examiner's Israeli police source. (Not to worry. Obama will now buy back Jewish votes with our tax dollars. It’s The Chicago way. ~Bob.)

The Week That Was: 2012-07-28 (July 28, 2012)
Excerpt: EPA has announced that it is delaying until next year the implementation of certain rules, both under the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. These rules largely, but not exclusively, pertain to coal-fired power plants. One can speculate that real reason for this delay is the upcoming election, which may be very close. In a number of states, voters are expressing outrage at the rules which will raise electricity rates and make coal-fired power plants prohibitively expensive. (The excerpt is from Ken Haapala’s summary. I urge reading the 1st and 3rd numbered articles (reprinted in full at the end of the file) and the second article under the heading “Challenging the Orthodoxy” about computer climate models. --Ron P.)

The Sad Truth About Bad Bulbs
Excerpt: Fluorescent bulbs don’t burn out all at once like incandescents do. Instead, they lose their apparent wattage output over time. In my experience, CFLs have a half-life of about 30 months in normal usage. In other words, a 1000-lumen CFL will produce only 500 lumens after two-and-a-half years. By the time the rotten thing finally does completely give up the ghost, you’ll be half-blind from squinting. (Note that these problems are in addition to the mercury/chemical hazard CFLs present. –Ron P.)

PA Hails IOC's Refusal to Honor 1972 Munich Victims
Excerpt: The Palestinian Authority (PA) thanked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for refusing to hold a moment of silence during today's opening ceremonies in London in honor of the Israeli victims of the 1972 Munich massacre, the Jerusalem Post reports. (I suggest organizing a worldwide “moment of remembrance” the media can’t ignore. ~Bob.)

Obama’s overly optimistic economic forecasts. By James Pethokoukis
Excerpt: Of course, the White House and its Keynesian economic models have continually forecasted mini-booms as being right around the corner. And those forecasts have yet to pan out. (You mean 2009 wasn’t a “Recovery Summer”? Who knew? ~Bob.)

Excerpt: South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley's husband received orders from the South Carolina National Guard on Monday and is expected to deploy to Afghanistan in January, a spokesman in her office said. 1st Lieutenant Michael Haley will deploy to Afghanistan, spokesman Rob Godfrey said.

Flash mob robs Chicago clothing store
Excerpt: A flash mob of nearly two dozen teenagers invaded a Chicago area store, the owner says, stealing thousands of dollars in clothing before walking out the door. (Here’s the video. Don’t mention the ethnic background of the teens, as that would be racist. The truth often is non-PC. ~Bob. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNHVOuKiPQ8)

Another ABC News Reporter Marries an Obama Staffer
Excerpt: President Obama’s Press Secretary Jay Carney is married to ABC News reporter Claire Shipman. Over the weekend a deputy press secretary married another ABC News reporter. How very cozy! (We already knew ABC News was in bed with the Obama campaign, but this is taking it to a whole new level. –Ken Gardner. Well, the good news is they couldn’t be any more biased. ~Bob.)

Monday, July 30, 2012

Political Digest for July 30, 2012

The Old Jarhead Blog: Bringing you news and information the MSM is too busy covering American Idol, celebrity affairs and sensational missing person cases to cover. Please forward to friends who need to be informed.

I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article, or that I was able to verify the information present, which is the responsibility of the author. In some cases I post things sent to me by readers I might not have posted on my own, to get ideas circulating.

Is California the welfare capital? Delving into why California has such a disproportionate share of the nation’s recipients. By Michael Gardner
Excerpt: When Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature overhauled the state’s welfare program last month, some people learned a jarring fact for the first time: California has one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients. That California has a lot of people on welfare was not a secret. In addition to its size, the state has a long history of heavy focus on social services, in part because of years of Democratic dominance in Sacramento. But the size of California’s welfare rolls is disproportionate when you consider the state has only 12 percent of the nation’s population.

Does billboard comparing Obama to alleged shooter go too far?
Excerpt: A Caldwell billboard is raising questions in the Treasure Valley as it compares President Obama to accused Colorado killer, James Holmes. The billboard on Franklin Road equates the actions of the president's foreign policies to the acts of Holmes, who's suspected of killing 12 people in the theater shooting.

Cojones Required to Defeat Racist Democrats and Media. By Lloyd Marcus
Excerpt: When Obama entered the national arena, the bias of the mainstream media intensified times ten. Obama was their dream come true. Not only was Obama a left-wing hater of traditional America like them, but he was black. Perfect! What white person would have the cojones to criticize the first black presidential candidate?

Economy: Growth sluggish, ranks of jobless remain high. By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer
Excerpt: High unemployment isn’t going away — not as long as the economy grows as slowly as it did in the April-June quarter.

Release Huma Abedin's Security File! By Judith Reisman
Excerpt: Michele Bachmann upset the press again. Strange. The news media love handsome movie stars who daringly expose government corruption; why does the press now circle the wagons to pretend that government corruption cannot really exist?

The White House blunders again over the Churchill bust. By Nile Gardiner
Excerpt: As Telegraph readers will recall, one of the earliest actions of the Obama presidency when it came to office in 2009 was to return a bust of Sir Winston Churchill to the British Embassy, an extraordinary move considering the huge admiration for the wartime leader on both sides of the Atlantic. Tim Shipman, The Sunday Telegraph’s Washington correspondent at the time (now Deputy Political Editor at The Daily Mail), was the first to break the story:

Doctor shortage likely to worsen with health care law
Excerpt: The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that in 2015 the country will have 62,900 fewer doctors than needed. And that number will more than double by 2025, as the expansion of insurance coverage and the aging of baby boomers drive up demand for care. Even without the health care law, the shortfall of doctors in 2025 would still exceed 100,000.

Clash with al Qaeda linked group kills 11 in Philippines
Excerpt: Philippine forces clashed with Muslim extremists on a southern island Thursday, leaving seven soldiers and four militants dead, the military said.

Excerpt: At the urging of Valerie Jarrett, President Barack Obama canceled the operation to kill Osama bin Laden on three separate occasions before finally approving the May 2, 2011 Navy SEAL mission, according to an explosive new book scheduled for release August 21.

Some funny anti-Obama graphics posted

PETA: Marine Corps Terminology, ‘Leatherneck’ Term Promotes Animal Abuse
Satire. ~Bob.

Tweet from @PolarCoug
It takes a village, a lot of weed, a little blow, and a composite girlfriend to raise an idiot.

Muslim preacher who tried to strangle his daughter, 16, for refusing an arranged marriage to her cousin spared jail
Excerpt: Abid Hussain, 56, grabbed the neck of Rabiyah Abid and said: 'If you don't follow my rules I will kill you' after she rejected his plans for her to wed. Hussain also left the teenager in fear of her life as he battered her about the head at the family home above the mosque he runs at Longsight, Manchester.

The Deadliest Global City
Excerpt: Among what are considered Alpha world cities, Chicago has the highest murder rate -- higher even than the Third World metropolises of Mexico City and Sao Paolo.

Boycott impacting Chick-fil-A

Tweet From @MaxMagnet1
People think Chick-fil-A should be banned from Boston & Chicago because the owners hold the same views that Obama held six months ago.

Excerpt: While NAACP President Benjamin Jealous lashed out at new state laws requiring photo ID for voting, an NAACP executive sits in prison, sentenced for carrying out a massive voter fraud scheme. (Hope they didn't make him show an ID in court. ~Bob.)

Pelosi Galore: Jews want tax cuts, don’t care about Obama Policies to Israel
Excerpt: Here is video of Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi in an interview with Al Hunt saying Jewish Republicans are “being exploited” into opposing President Obama because they actually want tax cuts – not because they are concerned about Obama’s policy toward Israel. (Dem outs greedy Jews! ~Bob.)

Pelosi: President Obama's Been To Israel ‘Over And Over Again.’ By William Kristol
Wow. I'm involved with the Emergency Committee for IsraelWe have an ad up in several states calling attention to the fact that President Obama, who's been quite the world traveler, has never visited Israel as president.

Woman burnt alive in front of daughters
Excerpt: The failure to give birth to a son and the inability to fulfill her husband and in-laws' demand for money cost a woman her life. She was burnt alive allegedly by her husband and in-laws in front of her minor daughters on Friday night. ... The victim, Jahiran Biwi, married Serajul Islam, a labourer, seven years back.

NBC Edits Out Tribute To Victims Of Islamic Terrorism
Excerpt: If you are watching the Olympics in the States, there's a part of the opening ceremony NBC chose to leave out. While the Olympic Committee opted not to have a moment of silence for the Israeli athletes murdered in 1972, they did have a tribute for the victims of the 7/7 Islamic terrorist attacks. The tribute included the Christian hymn, "Abide With Me" performed by Scottish singer Emeli Sandé. NBC opted not to air it.

(Islamic) Charity official held for money laundering
Excerpt: Abu Dhabi authorities arrested an employee at the Islamic and Endowments Authority (IEA) on charges of involvement in money laundering, a crime revealed by his bank, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

World holds its breath as America's debt battle looms
Excerpt: It is just hard to make any sort of plans for what we're going to do," complains Pat Conroy, the founder and president of MicroMain, a small software company based in Austin, Texas. "It is very hard to know what sort of investments we're going to make."

Excerpt: California ranked last or bottom tier in all of those categories. And California’s 9.3 percent income tax on middle class workers — those who earn more than $48,000 — is higher than what millionaires pay in 47 states.

Excerpt: Six Uzbek fighters were among those reported killed in the latest US drone strike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The remotely piloted Predators or the more advanced Reapers fired at least six missiles at a compound and a vehicle in the village of Khushhali Turikhel near Mir Ali, according to reports from Pakistan. The Uzbek fighters were "visiting a spring for leisure" when they were attacked, a Pakistani intelligence official told The Express Tribune, which put the number of Uzbeks killed at six. (And then it's Miller Time... ~Bob.)

Collapse Of Financial System Will Come In August, Maybe September: Market-Watchers. By Eleazar David Meléndez
Excerpt: Disappointed by the lack of aggressive action by the U.S. Federal Reserve at the meeting of its powerful rate-setting committee last week, and assuming a wait-and-see posture on results from this week's European summit, pessimistic market-watchers are turning once again to guessing when the clock atop the euro zone time-bomb will finally run to 0. The consensus? The world economy has entered a final countdown with three months left, and investors should pencil in a collapse in either August or September. (Not sure this is likely, but possible. And I keep remembering that in August, 2008 McCain was ahead in the polls. Then came September... ~Bob.)

Anti-Israel Bomber in Bulgaria Was Released From Gitmo Thanks To Left. By William Bigelow
Excerpt: Leftists who hate Israel can rejoice; their efforts at securing the release of a Gitmo detainee and their subsequent lionizing of him allowed him to murder five Israelis in the bombing Wednesday in Burgas, Bulgaria. The bomber has been identified as Mehdi Ghezali, who was detained at Gitmo Bay in Cubafrom 2002 to 2004.

National Debt? No Such Thing
Excerpt: Imagine sitting at the kitchen table, stressing out over your family's finances. Between the student loan debt, the credit card debt, the car loan, the mortgage, the phone bill, the groceries, electricity and the water, you only have so much in your bank account to cover a few of those things. To avoid defaulting on your debt or having your car repossessed, you'll either have to forgo electricity for your home, or you can simply collect the debt owed to you by your rich neighbors, all of which totals more than you would make in 10 years. Would you shut off your lights, or collect what you're owed and settle all of your debt?

A rabbi talks about 2nd Amendment rights. By Rabbi Judah Freeman
Excerpt: In light of the evil perpetrated at a crowded Colorado movie theater, and now that the Wisconsin legislature has partially re-established the right of the people to publicly bear arms, Jews in the state must reexamine some of their beliefs. (In rabbinical studies students have to learn not just about the Torah, etc, but also about things like reasoning to understand and solve problems. This rabbi seems to have had those lessons really bear fruit. --Del)

She Feels Your Pain – Michelle Obama Sports $6,800 Jacket to London Soiree. By Jim Hoft
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/07/while-americans-suffer-michelle-obama-sports-6800-jacket-at-london-party/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter Excerpt: The liberal media was all upset that “elitist” Ann Romney wore a $990 top during a May interview on “This Morning.” Yet this same media cheered the fashion and style of Queen Michelle Obama whose taste in sweaters cost her over$2,000 a pop. But, yesterday Michelle Obama outdid herself. (Some of the 99% are doing better than others. I wouldn't pay $6,800 for body armor if I was rich and headed to a gun fight. ~Bob.)

I’m in Shock — ACLU Supports Chick-Fil-A!
Excerpt: When mayors of major cities came out and said that they would deny a business license to Chick-Fil-A because of the beliefs of the president of the company, I wondered if the ACLU would get involved.

Democratic Party Operative Calls Out Obama Administration Over Security Leaks
Excerpt: The national security leaks that some within the Democratic Party have indicated are coming directly from the Obama White House is an issue that could incapacitate the Obama White House. Longtime political operative Pat Caddell points to David Axelrod as being a central figure regarding who knew what and when – while also bringing up the subject of Watergate.

Shooting the One-Percenters On Sight
Excerpt:. Matt Damon, the reigning king of speaking before thinking, recently lamented the state of the U.S. political landscape. It seems that Damon believes that financial inequality in America is a much bigger problem than the media is letting on. And he knows this because he went to a Bruce Springsteen concert in New York City. Good for you, Matt. What can’t be learned from the liberal media can always be learned from a liberal singer.

Romney's speech in Israel (Transcript)

Romney voices strong support for Israel
 Excerpt: Mitt Romney would "respect" an Israeli decision to make a unilateral military strike against Iran aimed at preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear capability, a top foreign policy adviser said Sunday as he outlined the strong posture the Republican presidential candidate will take toward Iran in a speech in Israel later in the day.

God, I hope this can't be true. One can't know what to believe anymore. ~Bob. Excerpt: The other day we learned that President Obama is forming a new African American education office. It appears that part of the mission will be to impose race-based disciplinary policies on schools. President Barack Obama is backing a controversial campaign by progressives to regulate schools’ disciplinary actions so that members of major racial and ethnic groups are penalized at equal rates, regardless of individuals’ behavior.

"If we want to keep our nation's secrets a 'SECRET' then we should store them where President Obama stores his college transcripts and birth certificate." --Gov. Mike Huckabee

Reward: $50,000 For ‘Khalidi Tape’ Of Obama At Anti-Israel Party
Excerpt: Breitbart News hereby announces a $50,000 reward to whomever can provide the complete video recording of the 2003 farewell party for radical Palestinian academic and activist Rashid Khalidi, at which then-state senator Barack Obama spoke--and which the Los Angeles Times has refused to release since reporting the event in April 2008. Then-reporter Peter Wallsten (now with the Wall Street Journal) noted that the event was one of many signs that had encouraged Palestinian-Americans to believe "that Obama is more receptive to their viewpoint than he is willing to say."

Mayor Guiliani: Obama The Least Supportive President Towards Israel We Have Ever Had
Excerpt: In comments made this past week, former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani took President Obama to task for claiming to be a friend of IsraelSaid Giuliani, "I think that's the biggest joke I've ever heard." ….When asked why he thought President Obama refused to visit Israel during his first term, promising to do so only if given a second term, Giuliani said the thinking behind that was fairly easy to understand, and that it boiled down to the fact that "Obama feels much more empathy and sympathy for [Israel's] enemies than he does for Israel."

All Those Bad Things Mitt Romney Said About the Olympics in England Are True
Excerpt: I’ll tell you what’s “disconcerting” David Cameron, Boris Johnson, and all the Fleet Street twits who came down on Mitt Romney for using that word to describe preparations for the Olympics. “Disconcerting” is giving into blatant hate and bigotry. Times of Israel: The Lebanese judo team at the 2012 London Olympics refused to practice next to the Israeli one on Friday afternoon, and a makeshift barrier was erected to split their gym into two halves.

Excerpt: Egypt’s new president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood, met in Cairo today with Gaza’s “prime minister,” Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas — the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestinian branch. As PJM’s David Goldman observes, Morsi is getting ready to have the red carpet rolled out for him by the Obama White House in September. …Morsi will also be ready to press on President Obama his demand for the release of the blind sheikh, Omar Abdel Rahman. Right after his election, he assured Egyptians that this was among his top priorities.

Jobless claims rose again by 35,000 last week. Not good. But it does show that if you’re unsuccessful in this country, you didn’t do it on your own. You had help. Thank you, President Obama. –Jay Leno

The Bizarre Situation With Huma And Terror
Excerpt: Senator McCain’s chivalrous defense of Huma Abedin, intimate confidant of Hillary Clinton, is not only inappropriate, but it borders on gross negligence and incompetence. We have come to expect the release of classified information that puts our servicemen and ultimately the Republic at risk from the present administration, but it is disconcerting to hear Republicans defending possible terrorist moles with the bravado of latter-day Chamberlains, promising peace in our lifetimes.

Excerpt: Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe told The Daily Caller he believes President Barack Obama pressured the military into granting an unprecedented exception to rules that prohibit participation in political activities while in uniform. The Defense Department authorized a waiver to allow uniformed service members to march in last weekend’s San Diego gay pride parade, overriding a Defense Department directive‘s specific rules against uniformed service members’ participation in political events. “The Department of Defense isn’t allowing this to go on, it’s the president,” Inhofe said in an interview with TheDC.

U.S. Bridges, Roads Being Built by Chinese Firms
Think Diane Sawyer is getting the message? ~Bob.

Excerpt: In a strange twist of fate, religious institutions now find themselves under attack from America’s new theocracy: Obama, Sebelius and their ilk — would-be theocrats who seek to impose their own moral orthodoxy of collectivism, political correctness and statism. Now it is the president, not the Church, who wants to circumvent the rule of law for the sake of imposing his vision of morality and social justice. The administration’s will to enforce its own moral dogma, rather than the Constitution, is the seed of theocracy…. The separation of church and state is being threatened — by the state.

Democrats Backpedal As China Readies $15.1 Billion Canadian Oil Deal. By Wynton Hall
Excerpt: When President Barack Obama blocked the Keystone Pipeline, Republicans said the move would encourage Canada to pursue oil deals with China instead of the United States and cede a massive chunk of North American oil assets to the communist nation. Now, with China's state-run oil company CNOOC poised to cut a $15.1 billion deal--the largest ever foreign acquisition for a Chinese company--with Canadian oil company Nexen, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) are in full backpedal mode….."Do we really want to be buying our oil or Canadian oil back from the Chinese?" said Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND). "If we don't take action to develop our resources and work with our closest friend and ally Canada, that's exactly what's going to happen."

DOJ to Colorado Family: Give Up Your Religion or Your Business. By Terence P. Jeffrey
Excerpt: The Justice Department last week presented the Newland family of Colorado--who own Hercules Industries, a heating, ventilation and air-conditioning business--with what amounted to an ultimatum: Give up your religion or your business… “The government’s exclusionary attitude would push religion out of every sphere of life except the four walls of a church,” they said in their brief. “If for-profit corporations have no First Amendment ‘purpose,’ newspapers and other media would have no rights.”

Marine Corps general to take over at SOUTHCOM
excerpt: The nomination of Lt. Gen. John Kelly to become the next head of U.S. Southern Command — and pin on another star — was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee on July 25. SOUTHCOM oversees U.S. operations in the Caribbean, Central America and South America from its headquarters in Miami. As a result of the confirmation, the U.S. military will now have five Marine general officers wearing four stars.

United States Budget Dilemma

ACORN Whistleblower
Excerpt: This young woman is in possession of something that has become increasingly rare among our professional class, courage. (There are growing concerns that the Democrat Party will use every opportunity to steal the coming elections by fabricating voters from pet names, dead voter rolls, and by registering illegal aliens. This courageous woman (I wonder how many White House "lists" now have her name) gives those concerns credibility. It appears that ACORN is a zombie that cannot be killed as long as the Attorney General and the others in this disastrous administration are in power. --Chet)

Obama’s ‘gaffes’ are what he truly believes: Calls for context are meant to mask economic misunderstanding
Excerpt: This month, he insulted entrepreneurs, saying, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” Last month, he astonished the unemployed, insisting, “The private sector is doing fine.” The Obama campaign’s response is predictable. “Context!” is yelled every time the president is caught off-message.

Blowing the whistle on the federal Leviathan. By George F. Will
Excerpt: The huge humpback whale whose friendliness precipitated a surreal seven-year — so far — federal hunt for criminality surely did not feel put upon. Nevertheless, our unhinged government, with an obsession like that of Melville’s Ahab, has crippled Nancy Black’s scientific career, cost her more than $100,000 in legal fees — so far — and might sentence her to 20 years in prison. This Kafkaesque burlesque of law enforcement began when someone whistled. (This kind of thing should upset every American, regardless of any political position or lack thereof. It demonstrates very well how the government can in fact abuse its power arbitrarily and capriciously to drive almost any ordinary citizen right into the ground. They can use taxpayer dollars for legal work that will bankrupt whichever taxpayer they target. This is something that needs to bring on a lot of forwarding of this article, and a lot of phone calls, letters, and e-mails to congress people in protest. That leash on the feds needs to be made very, very much shorter. --Del)

As Sacramento Dawdles, District Attorneys Revolt. By Debra J. Saunders
Excerpt: California's death penalty has been in limbo since 2006, when a federal judge stayed the execution of Michael Morales, who was sentenced to death for the brutal 1981 murder and rape of 17-year-old Terri Winchell. The judge was fearful lest the state's three-drug lethal injection protocol would cause Morales undue pain. Since then, a number of states have switched to a one-drug protocol. Why hasn't California? The answer could be that Gov. Jerry Brown and Attorney General Kamala Harris don't want the death penalty to work. (Kamala Harris helped Obama get elected. She is a copy of Eric Holder. --DH)

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Tuna Macaroni Salad - Protein Packed

20 mins (prep 20)
10 ingredients
1 servings
I made up this recipe to have more protein and less noodles because I try to not do bread/noodles that much, but I LOVE Tuna Macaroni Salad. This was a good compromise for me. Make sure to use mayo, not miracle whip or salad dressing.

Categories:  salad , beginner-cook , <-30-mins , easy , 3-steps-or-less , main-dish , quick , time-to-make ,
Share on Newzsocial

Serving Size (1362.5 g)
Servings 1
Amount per Serving
Calories 5428.41 Calories from Fat 2723.58
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 302.62g 465.58%
Saturated Fat 60.61g 303.03%
Trans Fat 0.0g %
Cholesterol 210.4mg 70.13%
Sodium 5072.63mg 211.36%
Total Carbohydrate 514.21g 171.4%
Dietary Fiber 23.95 g 95.82%
Sugars 17.49 g %
Protein 169.69g 339.39%
Vitamin A 7515.27IU% Vitamin C 12.06mg%
Calcium 1047.9mg% Iron 33.19mg%
*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your diet value must be higher or lower depending upon your calorie needs:
  Calories 2,000 2,500
Total Fat Less Than 65g 80g
Sat Fat Less Than 20g 25g
Cholesterol Less Than 300mg 300mg
Sodium Less Than 2,400mg 2,400mg
Total Carb   300g 375g
Dietary Fiber   25g 30g
Potassium   3,500 mg
Protein   50 g
Calories Per Gram
Fat 9•Carbohydrate 4•Protein 4
*Nutrition information was calculated excluding the following ingredients:
hard-boiled eggs


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The Butterfly Tattoo Design - Lovely Choice For Beginners

The butterfly tattoo design has become one of the most popular forms of tattoo art among women. Statistics show that over 50% of the female population adorn the butterfly in some form or fashion on their ankle, upper or lower back, or chest.

The butterfly is an amazingly beautiful creature that holds profound meaning of mystery and freedom, and is unmatched in it's design and color. No wonder then, the popularity of the butterfly tattoo design.

The butterfly is symbolic of many things, but the main reason women tend to choose the butterfly design is because it symbolizes change and transformation - and this lovely creature, also stands for love and joy.

Butterfly tattoo designs are very safe choices, especially if you are getting tattooed for the first time. The reason being, is because the meaning behind the butterfly is one that is quite easy to treasure forever. Surely, we can all relate to love, joy, and freedom - and also to the beauty of the it's form, and exquisite colors.

To get inspiration for your designs, you can visit a good online tattoo gallery. You'll find large displays in several different styles. For instance, you can choose Celtic or tribal butterfly, and much more.

Not only will you find the butterfly pattern in different styles, but also in many splendid colors and sizes. Good galleries always use expert artists who can create the butterfly tattoo on any part of the body. However, the post popular areas requested, are the lower backs, arms, shoulders and even the ankle.

If you are having trouble deciding on tattoo ideas, keep in mind the butterfly tattoo design. Also, remember the smaller the design, the better - it will be less expensive and less intrusive, and will give you time if you decide on additional tattoos in the future. Remember to never compromise on who does the tattooing for you - make sure he/she are true professionals.


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Stand Up India Scheme approved by Govt

By | January 7, 2016
(Last Updated On: January 7, 2016)
Cabinet approves Stand Up India Scheme

A boost to promote entrepreneurship among SC/ST and Women

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, today approved the “Stand Up India Scheme” to promote entrepreneurship among SC/ST and Women entrepreneurs. The Scheme is intended to facilitate at least two such projects per bank branch, on an average one for eachcategory of entrepreneur. It is expected to benefit atleast 2.5 lakh borrowers.

The expected date of reaching the target of at least 2.5 lakh approvals is 36 months from the launch of the Scheme.

The Stand Up India Scheme provides for:

• Refinance window through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) with an initial amount of Rs. 10,000 crore.

• Creation of a credit guarantee mechanism through the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC).

• Handholding support for borrowers both at the pre loan stage and during operations. This would include increasing their familiarity with factoring services, registration with online platforms and e-market places as well as sessions on best practices and problem solving.

The details of the scheme are as follows:

• Focus is on handholding support for both SC/ST and Women borrowers.

• The overall intent of the approval is to leverage the institutional credit structure to reach out to these under-served sectors of the population by facilitating bank loans repayable up to 7 years and between Rs. 10 lakh to Rs. 100 lakh for greenfield enterprises in the non farm sector set up by such SC, ST and Women borrowers.

• The loan under the scheme would be appropriately secured and backed by a credit guarantee through a credit guarantee scheme for which Department of Financial Services would be the settler and National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd. (NCGTC) would be the operating agency.

• Margin money of the composite loan would be up to 25%. Convergence with state schemes is expected to reduce the actual requirement of margin money for a number of borrowers. • Over a period of time, it is proposed that a credit history of the borrower be built up through Credit Bureaus.

The “Start up India Stand up India” initiative was announced by the PrimeMinister in his address to the nation on 15th August, 2015. The Stand up India component is anchored by Department of Financial Services (DFS) to encouragegreenfield enterprises by SC/ST and Women entrepreneurs.

Source : Press release Ministry of Finance , 06-January, 2016
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Tax Analysts®Tax Analysts®

Article Archive

September 20, 2004
Historical Perspective: The Unhappy History of Private Tax Collection
Joseph J. Thorndike

Full Text Published by Tax AnalystsTM

If Congress gets its way, the IRS may soon be hiring private tax collectors to pursue public debts. Pending legislation to repeal the extraterritorial income exclusion would also encourage the IRS to farm out some collection chores. Key House and Senate lawmakers have embraced the idea, and Bush administration leaders have signed on too.

But before embarking on this brave new experiment in revenue outsourcing, Congress should consider an unhappy precedent. In 1874 a similar program ended in scandal, tarnishing the already well-sullied reputation of President Ulysses S. Grant. And Treasury Secretary John Snow might take special note: The uproar forced one of his predecessors into early retirement.

In 1872 lawmakers granted the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) authority to employ "not more than three persons to assist the proper officers of the Government in discovering and collecting any money belonging to the United States." It was a modest experiment, small in scope and hastily enacted.

The BIR played no role in devising the plan for private collectors. Its vague origins, shrouded in the secrecy of a House- Senate conference committee, seemed to show the fingerprints of several influential Massachusetts politicians, most of them lately ensconced in key Washington positions. The group included Treasury Secretary George S. Boutwell; his successor, William A. Richardson; and Rep. Benjamin Franklin Butler, famed for his military occupation of New Orleans during the Civil War.

The experiment with private collection got off to a disappointing start. In fact, the Treasury had been unofficially testing the idea for several years, but private dunning had produced little revenue. The first two collectors hired under the explicit authorization of the 1872 contract continued the dismal tradition of their predecessors, raising just $5,000 over two years. But a third contractor, Massachusetts politico John D. Sanborn, did much better. Over a three-year stretch, he collected $427,000 in delinquent taxes. This was not a huge amount; total internal revenue collections in 1874 amounted to $102 million. But the haul easily bested all previous efforts at private collection.1

George S. Boutwell, Treasury Secretary and the nation's first Commissioner of Internal Revenue.  (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division) Sanborn began his efforts with a focus on whiskey taxes. The steep whiskey excise had long been plagued by evasion, and Treasury officials asked Sanborn to collect from 39 delinquent distillers and liquor retailers. He certainly had his work cut out for him. But Sanborn did a good job with this difficult task, and congressional investigators later concluded that he was instrumental in securing the indictment of numerous tax cheats, especially a small ring in New York City.2

That early success endeared Sanborn to the Treasury, and he soon persuaded Treasury supervisors to expand his mandate. In late 1872, the department added 760 taxpayers to Sanborn's list of targets, this time focusing on delinquent income and estate taxes. In early 1873, they appended another two thousand names, also reflecting income and estate tax liabilities. Finally, on July 1, 1873, officials added 592 railroad companies to Sanborn's list; each of those companies had supposedly failed to remit taxes withheld from dividend and interest payments. (For a brief period in the mid-19th century, railroad companies were required to withhold taxes from payments to shareholders and bondholders.)

Sanborn had a powerful incentive to add names to his contract. Under the terms of his agreement with the Treasury, he received 50 percent of any money collected from delinquent taxpayers named in his contract. In fact, it didn't matter whether he or federal officials did the actual collection; once the taxpayer's name was in the contract, Sanborn had a claim to half of any subsequent collection.

Sanborn eventually succumbed to temptation, padding his contract with dubious claims of delinquent taxes. By law and regulation, private collectors were required to furnish details about each delinquent taxpayer, including the nature of the debt and the evidence used to substantiate it. But Treasury officials proved flexible on that point. In fact, congressional investigators later determined that none of Sanborn's contracts had provided the requisite details about listed taxpayers.

As Sanborn expanded his operations, Treasury officials were happy to oblige him at almost every turn. They accepted his taxpayer lists uncritically. And while the 1872 law directed contractors to assist government officials in collecting taxes, Sanborn managed to reverse that relationship, enlisting full-time government employees in assisting him.

At the request of Treasury Secretary Boutwell, who had hired Sanborn in the first place, BIR officials were directed to render the contractor all necessary help and assistance. In one notable instance two BIR employees were assigned to help Sanborn examine the accounts of various railroad companies. Those officials soon delivered to Sanborn a list of 150 delinquent accounts. Sanborn, in turn, used that list as the basis for his contract extension in July 1873. Just to be on the safe side, though, Sanborn added a few extra names to the list. In fact, the 592 companies he persuaded Treasury to add constituted "substantially the entire list of railroads within the United States," according to outraged congressional investigators. Sanborn, it turned out, had compiled his list from a published guide to the U.S. railroad industry.

Sanborn's activity was starting to attract some unfriendly scrutiny. BIR officials were unhappy with his freelance operation, and the commissioner had lodged a formal complaint with the Treasury (which studiously ignored it). Meanwhile, BIR field staff were starting to complain that Sanborn was duplicating official efforts. On several occasions, they said, he was trying to collect taxes that BIR agents were already pursuing.

Congress Investigates

Unhappiness with Sanborn prompted Congress to investigate. The Grant administration, never known for its moral rectitude, was an easy target for critics, and even some of the president's fellow Republicans were eager for reform. In early 1874, the Republican- controlled House asked the Ways and Means Committee to evaluate the Sanborn contracts, with an eye toward reforming the system of private collection.

The Ways and Means Committee quickly concluded that the system of private collection was beyond redemption. In a report issued in May 1874, lawmakers determined that most, if not all, of the $427,000 collected from Sanborn's contractual targets would have ended up in the Treasury even absent his efforts. "These taxes should and would have been collected by the Internal Revenue Bureau [agents] in the ordinary discharge of their duty," the committee said. Many of the tax debts "discovered" by Sanborn were well known to the BIR and some, like legacy and succession taxes, were a matter of public record.

Outsourcing tax collection served no useful purpose, the lawmakers concluded. On the contrary, it undermined the existing apparatus of federal tax administration. "It is certain that a continuance of this system must work to a greater or lesser extent [as] a demoralization of the entire outside working force [field staff] engaged under this Bureau," the panel wrote.

Major General Benjamin F. Butler, undated, 1860-1865 (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Civil War Photographs) Investigators singled out BIR officials for high praise, stressing their attention to duty and protection of the fisc. One Pennsylvania supervisor, a Mr. Sutton, proved especially courageous. "Owing to his energy and vigilance," the committee declared, "these contractors marauding upon the public treasury were unable to take these collections out of his hands, notwithstanding the fact that all of them attempted it."

Clearly, Treasury officials had failed to administer the outsourcing law as Congress had intended. But senior officials from Secretary Richardson on down consistently passed the buck (Boutwell had left the Treasury in 1873). "The disagreements and contradictions given respectively by these gentlemen," the Ways and Means members charged, "is a matter greatly deplored by the committee, as by it they are unable to fix upon any one, or anywhere, the responsibility for the maladministration of the law."

Ultimately, the committee recommended that private collection be halted immediately. "The committee are of the opinion that any system of farming the collection of any portion of the revenues of the Government is fundamentally wrong," they wrote. The government was fully capable of collecting all outstanding taxes; it had the knowledge, machinery, and personnel necessary for the task. Outsourcing tax collection simply encouraged fraud. "If there is anything on earth that seems to me apparent," declared Rep. James Burney Beck, D-Ky., on the floor of the House," it is that these contracts, from their inception to the present time, are reeking and buoyant with corruption."3

Private collection had its defenders, most notably Rep. Benjamin F. Butler, R-Mass., who insisted that people should be made to pay their taxes by any means necessary. With critics suggesting that Butler had helped steer contracts to his fellow Bay State politico Sanborn, Butler lost his cool during a heated House debate. Members of the House, he warned, should be careful with their criticism lest investigators look too closely at their own tax affairs.

But the Ways and Means report sealed the fate of private collection, as well as a few Treasury officials. The New York Times demanded accountability, calling for Secretary Richardson and his cronies to resign. "The report leaves but two judgments to be formed of the conduct of these gentlemen," the Times intoned, "that it was corrupt, or that it was inexpressibly negligent and careless."4

Within days, Richardson left his post for an exciting spot on the Court of Claims. And Congress abruptly terminated the experiment with private collection, repealing the 1872 authorizing language. Sanborn was indicted in New York for corruption associated with his collection activities, but the case petered out when officials determined he had done nothing technically illegal. Ultimately, it was the Treasury that took the fall for the Sanborn scandal.

Arguments Old and New

Today's advocates of private collection insist it would raise new revenue in these lean fiscal times. Eager to raise a few billion dollars -- to replace some of the trillion or so they misplaced in recent years -- government officials have promised that contractors would focus on the "low-hanging fruit," easy targets who will pony up readily when dunned by a collection agency. According to Treasury officials, outsourcing the easy cases will free skilled IRS employees to focus on the tough ones. It's all very efficient.

In 1874 the scandal surrounding private collection also focused on the low-hanging fruit. In this instance, however, lawmakers questioned why federal tax collectors wouldn't do such easy pickin' on their own. If many taxes remained unpaid, why not simply ask the BIR to collect them? Collection, after all, was the agency's statutory responsibility. And if BIR officials had shirked that responsibility, why not simply replace them?

As Rep. Charles Eldredge, D-Wis., asked: "Would it not have been a much easier way, a better mode, more in consonance with republican institutions and republican administration, to have removed those officers who failed to do their duty, and to place in their stead good men and true men who would have assessed and collected those taxes, and not have allowed them to be in arrears for many years?"5

Now that's a good question.

The following document is available from Tax Analysts:

  • 1874 Ways and Means Committee report urging repeal of private debt collection law. Tax History Readings

"Congressional Record." In 1st, ed. 43rd, 2118, vol 2, 1874.

"Discovery and Collection of Monies Withheld From the Government." In Committee on Ways and Means. Washington, D.C.: U.S. House of Representatives, 1874.

"The President and the Sanborn Business." The New York Times, May 5, 1874, p. 4.

United States Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970. Bicentennial ed. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975.

1 United States Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial ed. (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975), Vol. 2, 1108.

2 U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Ways and Means, Discovery and Collection of Monies Withheld From the Government, Washington, D.C.: U.S. House of Representatives, 1874, 2.

3 Congressional Record, 43rd Congress, 1st Session, 1874, Vol. 2, pt. 3 (10 March 1874): 2118.

4 "The President and the Sanborn Business," The New York Times, May 5, 1874, p. 4.

5 Congressional Record, 43rd Congress, 1st Session, 1874, Vol. 2, pt. 3 (10 March 1874): 2118.


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Судебные дела / Зарубежная практика  / Ramon & Dolores Portillo v. Commissioner., United States Tax Court - Memorandum Decision, T.C. Memo. 1992-99, Docket No. 6011-88., Filed February 19, 1992

Ramon & Dolores Portillo v. Commissioner., United States Tax Court - Memorandum Decision, T.C. Memo. 1992-99, Docket No. 6011-88., Filed February 19, 1992

Ramon & Dolores Portillo v. Commissioner.

United States Tax Court - Memorandum Decision

T.C. Memo. 1992-99

Docket No. 6011-88.

Filed February 19, 1992.

David P. Leeper, 661 Mesa Hills, El Paso, Tex., for the petitioners. William R. Leighton and Lewis J. Hubbard, for the respondent.

Memorandum Opinion

FAY, Judge: On February 13, 1990, this Court issued its opinion in Portillo v. Commissioner [Dec. 46,373(M)], T.C. Memo. 1990-68, 1 in which we held that: (1) Petitioner Ramon Portillo (petitioner) in 1984 received unreported income from his job as a painting subcontractor in the amount of $21,380 from Mike Navarro (Navarro), a contractor; (2) petitioners overstated Schedule C deductions for cost of goods sold in 1984 in the amount of $7,462; (3) petitioners were liable for additions to tax under sections 2 6653(a)(1), 6653(a)(2), and 6661(a) for the 1984 taxable year; (4) petitioner Dolores qualified as an "innocent spouse" under the provisions of section 6013(e). On June 11, 1991, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed this Court's opinion with regard to the unreported income issue and affirmed all the remaining issues decided in the opinion. 3 The Fifth Circuit remanded for further proceedings in accordance with their opinion of June 11, 1991. The issue before us is whether petitioners are entitled to litigation costs under section 7430. For reasons stated below, we hold that petitioners have failed to establish that the position of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was not substantially justified regarding the omitted income issue.

1 This case was heard by Special Trial Judge Gussis at El Paso, Texas, on November 17, 1988.

2 All section references are to the Internal Revenue Code in effect for the year in issue, and all Rule references are to the Tax Court Rules of Practice and Procedure, unless otherwise indicated.

3 In Portillo v. Commissioner [91-2 USTC ╤ 50,304], 932 F.2d 1128, 1134 (5th Cir. 1991), the Court held:

In summary, we find that the Tax Court had jurisdiction to consider this case because the Commissioner did issue a valid deficiency notice. However, since the Commissioner failed to substantiate his charge that Portillo received cash payments from Navarro, the deficiency determination is clearly arbitrary and erroneous. Therefore, the judgment below regarding unreported income must be reversed.

Petitioners, the moving parties herein, did not request a hearing on their motion for litigation costs. Respondent, in his response to petitioners' motion, indicated that a hearing would not be required. Accordingly, there being no allegation of a bona fide factual dispute, we proceed to decide this motion based on the written submissions by the parties without hearing. Rule 232(a)(3).

The issue for decision is whether petitioner is entitled to recover its litigation costs pursuant to section 7430. Under that section, in order for petitioner to be entitled to recover his litigation costs against the United States, petitioner must establish that: (1) The position of the United States was not substantially justified, sec. 7430(c)(2)(A)(i); (2) petitioner substantially prevailed with respect to the amount in controversy, or with respect to the most significant issue or set of issues presented, sec. 7430(c)(2)(A)(ii); (3) petitioner's net worth satisfies the requirements of section 504(b)(1)(B) of title 5, United States Code (1982), sec. 7430(c)(2)(A)(iii); (4) petitioner exhausted the administrative remedies available to him within the Internal Revenue Service, sec. 7430(b)(1); and (5) the litigation costs sought to be recovered are reasonable and are allocable only to the United States, sec. 7430(b)(2). All of these conjunctive requirements must be established by petitioners for their litigation costs to be awarded. Sher v. Commissioner [Dec. 44,035], 89 T.C. 79 (1987), affd. [88-2 USTC ╤ 9618] 861 F.2d 131 (5th Cir. 1988).

Petitioners assert that they have established all of the above requirements. Respondent concedes that petitioners have established requirements numbered 2 and 3 above, and we accept such concession. Respondent does contend, however, that petitioners have not established requirements numbered 1, 4, and 5 above. Because we find that petitioners have not established requirement numbered 1 above, i.e., that the position of the United States was not substantially justified, we need not express an opinion as to requirements numbered 4 and 5.

Petitioners bear the burden of proving that respondent's position is not substantially justified. Rule 232(e); Hubbard v. Commissioner [Dec. 44,270], 89 T.C. 792, 798 (1987). The test of whether respondent's position was substantially justified is a test of reasonableness. Sher v. Commissioner [Dec. 44,035], 89 T.C. 79, 84 (1987), affd. [88-2 USTC ╤ 9618] 861 F.2d 131 (5th Cir. 1988). In order to determine whether or not respondent's position was reasonable, we must first determine the relevant period when respondent's position was established. The civil proceeding was commenced on March 28, 1988, and, therefore, section 7430(c)(4) 4 is applicable. The position of the United States is the position taken by respondent in the civil proceeding (sec. 7430(c)(4)(A)), and any administrative action or inaction by the District Counsel upon which the proceeding is based (sec. 7430(c)(4)(B)).

4 Section 7430 became effective for cases begun after February 28, 1983. The section was amended by section 1551 of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, Pub. L. 99-514, 100 Stat. 2752, which amendments apply to amounts paid after September 30, 1986, in proceedings commenced after December 31, 1985. Since this case commenced March 28, 1988 (the date the petition was filed), the issue is subject to the provisions of section 7430 as modified by the Tax Reform Act of 1986.

In this case, respondent, through an agent (the agent), knew that Navarro issued a Form 1099 to petitioner reporting payments to petitioner of $35,305 for painting services rendered during 1984. Petitioner, however, reported only $10,800 as received from Navarro on his 1984 income tax return. Petitioner conceded that he had received additional payments by check from Navarro which he had failed to report on his 1984 income tax return in the amount of $3,125. Thus, petitioner acknowledged total receipts by checks from Navarro totaling $13,925 ($10,800 + $3,125). Petitioner attributed his failure to report check payments from Navarro in 1984 as mere forgetfulness. Although petitioner admitted that he inadvertently neglected to report $3,125 in income from Navarro, petitioner denied receiving any more than $13,925.

At the time of the audit, petitioner could not produce any records or receipts concerning his gross receipts for 1984 because his records had been stolen from his truck. In addition, petitioner did not maintain a bank account during 1984 and conducted his business affairs in cash.

Based on the discrepancy in the amount between Navarro's 1099 and petitioners' 1984 income tax return, the agent concluded that petitioners had not reported cash income received from Navarro. The agent contacted Navarro who could produce copies of checks paid to petitioner in the amount of $13,925 but could not produce any records of additional cash payments to petitioner. Navarro also stated that petitioner had requested cash payments from Navarro in addition to payment by check. The agent later used an indirect method of reconstructing petitioner's income and made an adjustment to incorporate the additional amount into petitioner's income for the year. An IRS reviewer (the reviewer), analyzed the agent's report. The reviewer did not believe the indirect method of confirming the income supported the agent's adjustment. The reviewer believed that there appeared to be several ways to follow up to check if petitioner could have received the cash, and the reviewer recommended that the agent check Navarro's tax return.

The agent replied by stating that it was petitioner's burden to prove that he did not get the payments. The IRS subsequently issued a statutory notice of deficiency for Federal income taxes of $8,473 for the taxable year 1984, plus additions under sections 6653(a)(1), (a)(2), and 6661(a).

Based on the above facts known to respondent, we do not find respondent's position to have been unreasonable during the relevant period.

First, as a factual matter, respondent attributed more weight to Navarro's statements and Form 1099 than he did to petitioner's contentions. This clearly was a judgment with respect to the credibility of the people involved which we do not find unreasonable. 5

5 This Court, which heard testimony from petitioners and Mr. Navarro, also attributed veracity to Mr. Navarro rather than to petitioners. The fact that this Court upheld respondent's position on the issue of omitted income is an important factor, although not dispositive, in determining whether respondent's position was reasonable. Huckaby v. United States Dept. of Treasury [87-1 USTC ╤ 9122], 804 F.2d 297, 299 (5th Cir. 1986).

Respondent also asserts that the position taken in the notice of deficiency had a reasonable basis in law. As a general rule, the Tax Court will not look behind a notice of deficiency to examine the evidence used or the propriety of the Commissioner's motives or administrative policy or procedure in making the determination. Greenberg's Express, Inc. v. Commissioner [Dec. 32,640], 62 T.C. 324, 327-328 (1974). There is an exception to the general rule in cases involving unreported illegal income where respondent introduces no substantive evidence but rests on the presumption of correctness and petitioner challenges the notice of deficiency on the grounds that it is arbitrary. Under this exception, a court must not give effect to the presumption of correctness in a case involving unreported illegal income if respondent does not present substantive evidence linking petitioner with the tax-generating activity. United States v. Janis [76-2 USTC ╤ 16,229], 428 U.S. 433, 441-442 (1976); Suarez v. United States [78-2 USTC ╤ 16,304], 582 F.2d 1007, 1010 n.3 (5th Cir. 1978); Carson v. United States [78-1 USTC ╤ 16,280], 560 F.2d 693, 696-698 (5th Cir. 1977). In this case, while not involving illegal income, some evidence of the necessary link between petitioner and the alleged income appears to have been found to exist by the Fifth Circuit. 6 While the Fifth Circuit ultimately held that respondent's audit was inadequate and that additional work should have been done, we cannot conclude that respondent's position was unreasonable as a matter of law.

6 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Portillo v. Commissioner [91-2 USTC ╤ 50,304], 932 F.2d 1128, 1132 (5th Cir. 1991), stated:

In contrast to Scar, in this case the I.R.S. did consider information directly relating to Portillo's income tax return. The I.R.S. also investigated somewhat whether a deficiency indeed existed. Therefore, this is not a case where the I.R.S. had no basis for sending the notice of deficiency; the I.R.S. did adequately link the deficiency to Portillo.

Although the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed this Court's holding and respondent ultimately lost with respect to the omitted income issue, such a ruling is not dispositive as to whether respondent's position was unreasonable, thus enabling petitioners to obtain litigation costs. Sokol v. Commissioner [Dec. 45,590], 92 T.C. 760, 767 (1989).

Accordingly, we find that petitioners have not shown that respondent's position was not substantially justified at any time during the relevant period. Thus, petitioners' Motion for Award of Reasonable Litigation Costs is denied.

An appropriate order will be issued.

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~ Like the ripples in a pond, the work of one man spreads out and touches the lives of others ~

From The Soul of One ~ To The Hearts Of Many
Taylor Hicks "The Distance"

Friday, November 9, 2007

Wherever I Lay My Hat

I vividly remember sitting in the parking lot of Walmart last December with my friend
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Taylor's just released CD was playing and we were sobbing and hugging!
It was finally here!!
Woo hoo and we had the bonus track!!

I immediately fell in love with Taylor's "Wherever I Lay My Hat",
and it tugs at my heart and moves me every time I listen to it.

I was quite surprised when I learned that it was originally by Marvin Gaye.
I couldn't remember ever hearing it before and then realized
it was recorded before Marvin came to Motown.

I grew up surrounded by the sounds of Motown, listening and dancing to the the songs of Glady's Knight & The Pips, The Supremes, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles and Marvin Gaye ... just to name a few.

I love Taylor's take on WILMH, and though I like Marvin Gaye ...
can't say I care for his original version.
It's doesn't move me or make my heart go ping.

I'm probably showing my limited exposure to music here ...
but I had never heard of Paul Young either.
I guess by the 80's I had already pretty much stopped listening.
Raising 5 kids I already had enough noise in the house

"Wherever I Lay My Hat" was written by Marvin Gaye, Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield, and first recorded by Marvin Gaye in 1964.

Almost 20 years later
Paul Young's version of the song was a UK number one single for three weeks in July 1983.
23 more years passed
Then Taylor Hicks put his own soulful spin on it and recorded it for his self-titled CD "Taylor Hicks"

When you watch the video below you will see why it's Taylor's soulful version that I love!

video capture by Phantom
video presentation by The Boogie Board
(Thank You)

Marvin Gaye's "Wherever I Lay My Hat" (audio only)

Hope you enjoyed today's trip down memory lane

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woo hoo waiting for the release of "Whomp At The Warfield"

Comments welcome!

KarinP said...

I read this post yesterday and have been thinking about it ever since wondering what could I write on this topic.

When I let my daughter hear Taylor's WILMH, she said, hey, that was one of my favourite songs when I was young. She remembered the Paul Young version. I actually found a Paul Young video on YouTube:

I am not sure why I didn't remember it. I must have been "busy" back then.

As I watched the Taylor version of the song, I thought, "wow" - the voice is smooth as silk and he really "felt" this song as he performed it in the video. Just incredible.

My thoughts went a bit further and I realized that a musician "must" feel the song in order to perform it well.

In this video, it is clear to me that Taylor "feels" this song and one must give him credit for choosing the tracks on the CD that he did choose. He obviously chose the songs that felt good to him.

Then, I wondered - why does Taylor love this song so much? Is it because it is a Marvin Gaye song or is it because he relates to it so well. I can't help but ponder the question as to where Taylor feels better. Does he feel better when he is wandering the country like a gypsy or does he enjoy life when he stays put? I think the answer to that question would be very interesting to know.

Some people are born with wanderlust in their veins and being on the road adds a different dimension to their lives. The question, for me right now, is that I wonder if Taylor is happy with this break or is he yearning to be back in the passenger seat of the bus?

Loved the Christmas Butterfly story. What an incredible sight that would be and actually it also ties into your Blog beautifully. Butterflies were given wings so that they could fly and enjoy the beauty of the world. Maybe people are born with wings too.

Bloom said...

Karin, I went searching for Paul's videos when I was working on this page. I had actually added one of them here, but something was the matter with it's flash and it kept shutting down my computer so I removed it.

Your question as to where Taylor feels better ... on the road or wherever he is currrently calling home ... brought to mind this article that I've copied from his scrapbook:
From 'The Olympian'
LOS ANGELES - Some 'pop' stars want fame and money.
"American Idol" winner Taylor Hicks just wants to ride the tour bus.

"I've always wanted to be on a bus .... My home has been on the road since even before American Idol."

As a struggling musician en route to his next gig, Hicks had hoped to travel on his own tour bus one day.

"You would see buses on the road in Alabama going to their next destination, and I would always dream about being on one and now I have the opportunity."

Well Taylor's dream did indeed come true and with over 100 concert venues played since February he certainly has laid his hat in a lot of places!

KarinP said...

Great article and it leads me to believe that Taylor is not going to be able to sit still for very long.

Another question came to my mind as well. How does an artist encourage the "muse" to visit? Perhaps during all of those road trips, the ideas for new material just came to him. What happens if they don't readily come, I wonder?

What inspires someone to write music? I have been listening quite a bit, as you well know, to the Eagles' new CD and all of those songs were written by the band members. Each in his own different way but as I listen to it, I think to myself that these "men" are really able to speak from the heart and I guess that it takes a man with a big heart to write down his feelings and put them to music.

It is quite fascinating to me and I am not sure that I have ever known anyone personally who is able to articulate their feelings in that way. Truly a gift, I think.


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Saturday, March 26, 2016

Getting into SunPy

Attempting Pull Request: Spectrogram log y axis #291

I'm love spectra. So, when the GSoC process required that I dive into issues in the open source Python library SunPy, I looked for something regarding spectra. I'm still getting used to GitHub, though, so attempting to change the code of such a large and utilized library is kind of intimidating. Then, I found the pull request linked above using a spectrogram... Great! I have low resolution data that I can use to test this!

As it turns out, this class is still being developed. I also realized that a spectrogram is slightly different than the spectra I've been working with so far.

A spectrogram show a spectrum of frequencies as they vary with time. It is used to visualize sounds plotted with time on the x axis and frequency on the y axis. This is different, but closely related to a spectra or spectrum of light that I am accustomed to, where frequencies (or wavelengths) are plotted on the x axis and the amount of of light (or flux) is plotted on the y axis. This means that I probably shouldn't try to test it with  my visual range spectra. Instead, this is most likely working with radio frequencies.

This makes sense for solar data. Radio bursts from the corona are observed, and need to be analysed.

Getting Started:

I found the code needing to be tested. On first glance, I noticed that the spectrogram class has a plot definition, and thought that a simple 'logy' keyword and an if statement added in the plot definition would suffice, like this:
  if logy:

I need to test this though, and started with loading in the module and inserting a basic 2D array of random data:

>>> import spectrogram
>>> import numpy as np
>>> data = np.ndarray((10,10), buffer = np.array(np.random.random(100)))
>>> freq_axis = np.linespace(30, 300, 10)
>>> time_axis = np.array(range(0, 10, 1))

Then, I set up some arbitrary start and end times (10 seconds) to suffice the keywords:
>>> import datetime
>>> start = datetime.datetime(2016, 2, 2, 12, 30, 30)
>>> end = datetime.datetime(2016, 2, 2, 12, 30, 40)

Put it all together:
>>> gram = spectrogram.Spectrogram(data, time_axis, freq_axis, start, end)

And, just like that I have a spectrogram object. Next, to test the plot function:
>>> gram.plot()

Colorful! Now, let's try this with my addition if statement:
>>> gram.plot(logy=True)

This flopped with many, many errors. and it is not showing a a frequency range. So, I think my data may not be in the right format.

I tried it again, this time with making a sine wave with 10 being the sampling rate.
>>> sine = np.sin(2 * np.pi * (3*10**4) * (np.arange(100)) / 10)
>>> data2 = np.ndarray((10,10), buffer=sine)
>>> gram2 = spectrogram.Spectrogram(data2, time_axis, freq_axis, start, end)

It produces:
Looking less like noise. But, still not making a frequency axis. I'm going to look for data to use so that I can reproduce the use of this module, and then add my changes to test the log y axis change.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Implementing AIA response functions in SunPy

Project Abstract:

Solar physics uses the CHIANTI atomic physics database to obtain properties about various elements and ionisation states. By using observed elemental abundances and ionization states, one can use CHIANTI to obtain synthetic spectra of solar plasma of various features which informs a response function used by the observational instruments themselves. This response function is vital to understanding observations.

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) is a multi-wavelength imager on the Solar Dynamics Observatory, specifically looking at the solar corona to understand magnetic processes.

This project aims to use SunPy to infer plasma properties like temperature and density by
developing the routines necessary to calculate two response functions for the AIA using python and ChiantiPy:
  • Wavelength response functions: calculate the amount of flux per wavelength measured by AIA
  • Temperature response functions: calculate the sensitivity of light from the plasma per temperature measured by AIA

Why am I interested?

My goal is to explore the connection between what we observe on the sun (heliophysics) and how it relates to what we see in other stars (astrophysics). My current research has been looking at visual wavelength range spectra for stellar objects such as M Dwarfs, K Giants, and eclipsing binaries. I would like to use this summer to expand my knowledge on solar observations, and the modules and vernacular that come with solar research.

I'm excited to learn about ChiantiPy,  the python interface for astrophysical spectroscopy using the atomic database  CHIANTI. I've observed spectra before, but this project is all about understanding observations by the AIA through python code. This project also wants to get away from using SolarSoftWare (SSW), an idl libray, to calculate these response data structures.

 In reading Boerner et al 2012, I'm learning that the response functions need to use instrument calibration to better the results. The main idea for this project is to analyse the AIA  instrument responses to output a wavelength response, and then use a spectral model to obtain a temperature response.  Now back to work on my proposal!

Source of SunPy project idea

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Hello World.

This blog is the beginning of my professional insights. As a current Physics and Astronomy undergraduate at the University of Washington, I hope to join an open source project offered by:

Google Summer of Code 2016

During the summer, Google offers experience to those willing to do the work! Students work with mentors from around the world to better software from various sub-organizations.

Projects of Interest: OpenAstronomy Organization

  1.  Implement Scheduling capabilities for Astroplan
  2.  Implement PSF photometry for fitting several overlapping objects at once

  1.  Lightcurve Refactor
  2.  Implementing AIA response functions in Sunpy
These projects are exciting and have great potential. As part of the next step in the proposal process, I have joined each development google groups associated with the suborganizations above, and introduced myself with a post. Next, I need to pick a project in each that matches my skills and interests to start a proposal. This is this hard part .

Time to do some project research!