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Rapper Ludacris Does a Lil’ Ditty ‘Bout Obama

Yesterday, the Atlanta-based rapper Ludacris released a song touting Barack Obama’s candidacy.  Due to the subjective and offensive lyrics that this (and many other) song uses, it has gained denunciations from all around the political world. I’m sure Jim Lawrence is going to have a field day with this.

I’m going to link to a story that features the song lyrics, the Obama reaction and a video that plays the song (its on the left of the story). 

*As a disclaimer the link does have some coarse language, including an offensive term for women.*

Ludacris Raps About Obama

Barack, Who exactly is saying those things?

 Here is a humorous graphic that is on the drudge report.

Its based on a story that Obama is saying the Republicans are using fear tactics because Obama does not look like the other Presidents on our Money.   Obama keeps using this stealth race card argument.

Mr. Obama, who exactly is saying not to vote for you because you are black? I haven’t heard it from anyone. Where are these comments? I haven’t even seen anything on the Loony right wing blogs, short of the Aryan nation blogs. Those guys are nuts and we condemn them like all good Americans do.

What I want in a president is someone who will keep me safe, have policies that will not put their hand in my wallet every chance they get and maybe lower gas prices a little. So if any one of the  good people on either side  of the isle or ideological leaning knows of anybody saying do not vote for you because of your race, please let us know so we can condemn them as well.

Media again fails to report big Obama crowd was helped by free concert

Remember back in May when the media gushed and fawned over a huge crowd in Portland, Oregon? Supposedly people gathered to hear the words of Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama. However the media chose not to report the free concert given before his speech?

How many of you know that’s exactly what happened in Berlin?  Two popular German acts, reggae artist Patrice and rock band Reamonn entertained the gathering audience.

Will the media report this, or just gush and fawn over the huge crowd again? Its apparent once again the main stream media will not tell you all the facts.

Reamonn’s website proudly tell us that they performed. Does anyone know if Patrice or Reamonn have any songs about communism like the Decemberists did in Portland?

Gov. Pattersons’ Office Continues to Spend

Gov. Paterson gave a statewide address Tuesday which he said New York faces a $6.4 billion budget gap in the upcoming fiscal year and an alarming $26.2 billion budget gap over the next three years.  The governor also proposed a $1.2 billion cut in the current year’s spending, including a hiring freeze and a 7 percent reduction in state agency spending.

Well as Governor Paterson broke the news about the financial turmoil our state is currently in, his executive chamber has spent almost $1.4 million more in the first quarter of the fiscal year than former Gov. Eliot Spitzer did in the first quarter last year. 

Paterson has also increased the size of his staff adding six more employees for a total of 202 employees.  Also, the number of people in his chamber making over 100k grew from 59 to 62 since March when he took office.

According to the Democrat and Chronicle’s front page story:

Even though the lieutenant governor’s office has been shut down, the office still spent $137,584 from April 1 through June 30, including nearly $22,000 on travel and $83,614 on salaries, according to the comptroller’s office.

Despite the increased spending in his office, he said, “we have to wake up New York to the possibility that we’re all going to feel some pain. The sooner we address it, the sooner we are going to recover from it.

You know something, he is right on this topic.  I just wish he would stop and take his own advice.  He of all people should realize that the residents of New York State will just think he is talking out of both sides of his mouth.  You cannot tell people there will be financil cuts in the state, then continue to increase spending in your office.

Obama Skips Visit to Wounded Troops in Germany

This is old news, but I had to give the shout out to Election Geek for covering  the story about Barack Obama skipping a visit to wounded troops while playing President in Germany. 

Note to Obama:  Pssst.  Visiting wounded servicemen and servicewomen who put their lives on the line defending our Country’s freedoms and the freedoms of others around the world is something else the President should do.  As a matter of fact, it’s the least he or she can do while overseas.

Here’s Election Geek’s entire post.

Obama: “Inappropriate” to Visit Wounded Troops
July 25th, 2008

“The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign,” Gibbs said.

Senator Obama skipped a meeting with wounded troops in Germany saying it would be “inappropriate” to do so during the campaign portion of the trip “out of respect” for the troops. In response:

John McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said, “Barack Obama is wrong. It is never inappropriate to visit our men and women in the military.”

McCain’s Senate colleague Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., also took a shot at Obama.

“I noticed that Obama had plenty of time to shoot hoops … but he didn’t have the time to stop by (the Ramstein base),” he told FOX News.

How would it be any more inappropriate than meeting with government leaders while openly bashing the current administrations foreign policy and hinting that they would be better off working with him than the sitting President of the United States?

Nice story Election Geek.  I think Barack Obama needs to realize that being President isn’t just about giving eloquent speeches.  At some point, Obama will also need to start providing some sort of substance to his supposed policy initiatives.  Right now everyone is letting him off the hook.  The media is too busy heaping adoration on him instead of asking him appropriate questions about his policies.  Barack needs to learn, you can’t just talk, you gotta walk too.

Another Person With Questions On War Kids Relief

We first raised questions several months ago about Jon Powers’ charity War Kids Relief.   Take a look at that post if you missed if the first time around.  Our questions focused on the fact that all we could find out about was from the Powers’ PR machine.  All of the website linking to it didn’t work.  We suspected that this organization was little more than a resume builder from a congressional wannabe.

Now others are asking questions.  Here is an e-mail we received from reader goodhuntingwill on this subject.

So Jon Powers started running for Congress sometime in 2007. According to the Buffalo News, the first mention of him as a candidate is March 30, 2007 “Iraq War veteran eyes race against Reynolds”.

In this article by Jerry Zremski, Powers is described as “A 28- year-old Iraq War veteran who later started a charity to help that nation’s children …” (*The Buffalo News*, 03/30/2007, Iraq War veteran eyes race against
Reynolds).

So that is March, Powers officially announces in July. This time in *The Buffalo News*, Bob McCarthy writes, “He founded War Kids Relief, a nonprofit organization aimed at providing Iraqi children with the resources and education to keep them out of terrorism.” (*The Buffalo News*, 07/01/2008, Powers gets a early start)

So two articles in *The Buffalo News* mentions that Powers started a charity to help kids in Iraq. I certainly took notice of this young man who certainly seemed to be about something larger than himself.

However, in an article in the *Niagara Gazette* on July 17, 2007, Powers says to Jill Terreri (and this is Powers’ words, no the reporters) “War Kids has struggled to do much in Iraq on the ground itself…” <http://www.niagaragazette.com/archivesearch/local_story_196174005.html>(*Niagara Gazette*, 07/15/2007, Veteran talks about Iraq and running forCongress)

(Note: Powers first connection to helping Iraqi kids was noted in *The Buffalo News* previously in 2005 for similarly named group called “Orphans and Street Kids Project”. Does anyone know if this is the same group as War Kids Relief?)
So I guess the question this raises is that clearly Powers has used his experience running War Kids Relief as an important start to his candidacy. But in his own words he admitted that War Kids Relief didn’t accomplish much on the ground in Iraq. So what did it accomplish? I would think he would want to discuss and get all of his good accomplishments out there of War Kids Relief.
My e-mail is there: goodhuntingwill@gmail.com. I am certainly willing to listen to any and all sides on this. I just am looking for some answers.

We hope you get some answers goodhuntingwill.  If you do, please share them with us.

Poor Tom Golisano — It Must Be Hard Being A Billionaire

I’m really starting to believe that Tom Golisano is going down the road of Jack Davis — a guy with too much money and not enough to do. I say this as someone who has about $15 in my checking account until I get paid this Friday.

Did you see the article in the business section of the Democrat and Chronicle about Tom Golisano trying to steal the show at the RBA press conference on a property tax cap with Tom Suozzi? Sandy Parker is lucky the Steamroller isn’t still Governor — if she allowed Golisano to do this while he was Governor he wouldn’t talk to her for the rest of his term.

First, the article states:

In crafting a cap on school-related property taxincreases, already a controversial idea, Thomas Suozzi learned Tuesday that some people are hard to satisfy.

Appearing at an event sponsored by the Rochester Business Alliance, Suozzi, chairman of the state Commission on PropertyTax Relief, invited Rochester-area businessman Tom Golisano to speak.

But Suozzi got a surprise dose of tax-related anger from someone he expected to be an ally on the issue.

(snip)

Golisano strode to the podium at SUNY Brockport’s downtown MetroCenter and said that Suozzi’s proposal was too timid, that tougher controls on spending — even spending reductions — are needed.

Golisano said a 4 percent cap would mean that New Yorkers would still be much more highly taxed than residents and businesses in many other states and cities. A 4 percent cap, he said, would take “100 years” to lower taxes to the level in Columbus, Ohio.

“The cap does not stop the bleeding,” said Golisano.

I agree with Mr. Golisano so far. But if he really believes what he is saying, then why would he want to get involved in the Albany “reform movement”, and back candidates endorsed by the Working Families Party? That would be like owning a hockey team, saying you want to have a winning team, and then letting Danny Briere and Chris Drury get away.

Take a look at the Working Families Party website. Then go to their “Tax Plan Calculator.” A reader sent us this link a couple of weeks ago pointing out that a family with a combined income of $60,000, paying $3500 in property taxes would not benefit from their plan. Take a look for yourself.

So, these are the people Tom Golisano is teaming up with to straighten up New York State? That’s plain crazy.

Tom, please stop what you’re doing. You have proven yourself to be a successful business (one of the top in the world) and you are a tremendous asset for western New York. But please, please stay out of politics. You’ve already given us a political party that stands for nothing, isn’t that enough?

Al Gore And Global Warming

(Editor’s note: we welcome new blogger Jdelaney3 to monroerising.com — he currently has a site opinorlog which is listed on our blogroll.)

Al Gore’s oft-repeated assertion that here exists a “consensus” within the scientific community that human activity has accelerated global warming to perilous levels was officially and strongly debunked in May by thousands of participating scientists of the Oregon Institute of Science & Medicine(OISM).

Rejecting the climatic doomsday scenarios advanced by Gore, environmental activists and their opportunistic political accomplices in D.C., 31,000 scientists petitioned the U.S. Government to reject Kyoto or any similar proposals noting that dire “predictions of harmful climatic effects due to future increases in minor greenhousegases like CO2 are in error and do not conform to current experimental knowledge” and that “proposed limits on greenhouse gases would, in fact, harm the environment, hinder the advance of science and technology, and damage the health and welfare of mankind.”

Their petition maintained that “there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of CO2, methane or other greenhouse gases is causing, or will in the foreseeable future cause, catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of Earth’s climate.”

Though not receiving widespread coverage in the mainstream media, the petition went on to state that “there is substantial evidence that increased CO2 is environmentally helpful…creating many beneficial effects upon the natural plant and animal environments of the Earth.”

Just to keep it in perspective, the countervailing “scientific consenus” about which Gore and his minions are so fond of touting reflects the collective viewpoints of 600 scientists who represent less than 1% of the worldwide scientific community!

Is it any wonder why Gore stubbornly and  nimbly dodges any real debate on the “issue” with those representing a divergent scientific viewpoint?

Ah, yet again, another shattered myth perpetuated by our ambitious friends on the far left. Looks like the high priests of environmentalism will soon need to find another way to advance their dreams of social engineering and political dominance. We can only hope that their fall  from grace occurs before they’ve managed to completely wreck our economy.

(”The largest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy, and prosperity is not longer socialism. It is, instead, the ambitious, arrogant, unscrupulous ideology of environmentalism.” Pres. Vaclav Klaus, President of Czech Republic, May 2008)

I Did Not Realize that Members of the 110th Congress Used to Own Slaves

Apparently, the House of Representatives is about to pass a resolution that formally apologizes to African-Americans for slavery.  I guess now is as good a time as any, since they just solved the energy crisis, balanced the budget, resolved the bankrupt social security system, and fixed our nation’s failing inner-city schools.

 Stupid gestures like this really irritate me.  In the first place, none of the members of the House of Representatives had anything to do with slavery.  In fact, most of their ancestors had nothing to do with slavery.  How can you apologize for something for which you have no culpability? 

Of course, logic has no place in the Democratically controlled House of Representatives.  In fact, the resolution also apologizes for Jim Crow laws.  The CNN story, with no hint of irony, explains that Jim Crow laws “were state and locallaws enacted mostly in the Southern and border states between the 1870’s and 1965.”  Again, what does the 110th Congress have to do with the state and local legislatures from the South from several generations ago? 

 As long as you can get credit for making grand apologies for terrible things over which you had no control, we at MonroeRising would like to formally apologize to women because they did not get the right to vote until 1920.  That was really terrible, and we offer our heartfelt sorrow and deepest apologies.  We hope that someday women can forgive us, MonroeRising, for this awful awful thing. 

I am also irritated by the smug self-righteousness of the whole thing.  These cretinous members of the House of Representatives can now slap each other on the back and celebrate how much they have done for African-Americans.  I seriously doubt it makes much difference to an impoverished kid from inner city Rochester who attends the horrid Rochester City School District that a bunch of wealthy elected officials formally apologized for something that happened almost one hundred and fifty years ago.  It reminds me of those morons who want credit for saving the entire planet Earth because they switched to compact fluorescent light-bulbs.   But I will save that rant for another day.

Congratulations to the Democratic House and its vapid and ineffectual leader, Nancy Pelosi.  The economy may be going to crap before our very eyes, but at least the House has taken responsibility for slavery.

  

Virginia Governor Kaine Leading The Pack for VP to Obama

Governor Tim Kaine has been quoted as saying he has had “very serious” conversations with Obama and has provided documents to the campaign, several sources close to Kaine told The Washington Post.  Senators Joe Biden and Evan Bayh are also said to be on the short short list, according to the Post

 Kaine, a former Richmond mayor, would satisfy many of the criteria Obama is seeking in a running mate. He is an outside-the-Beltway type, suggesting he represents “change,” Obama’s key campaign theme. He also is very popular in an important potential swing state this year, and could attract Catholics, Hispanics and working-class voters.

However, Kaine has no foreign policy background to speak of nor has he achieved any major or notable accomplishment while governor.

Kaine and Obama have been friends for about three years, since Obama campaigned for Kaine during his gubernatorial bid. Kaine has since done the same for Obama during his presidential bid.

The Post reported that several people who have spoken to Kaine have discussed with him the depth of the vetting process, and one source told the paper that Kaine chief counsel Larry Roberts is coordinating with Obama’s team.

Why would Obama choose a VP with absolutely no foreign policy background?  If Obama were to win the election in November, we would not only have a President with no experience, but a VP as well.  In a time of such turmoil, there is no question that our foreign policy and how we interact with other nations should be our top priority.  When one stops to think, what has Barack Obama truly accomplished? 

In Chicago, Obama headed the transportation committee for the city.  That is really about it.  In these challenging times, people should really question giving their vote a man who has done nothing but head up a transportation committee.  Obama doesn’t have the first clue as how to deal with foreign countries.  Obviously, neither does his “future” VP Tim Kaine.  Not very reassuring.