Month: March 2015

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Our Daily Thread 3-9-15

Good Morning!

Today’s header photo is from Kim.

And I believe today is Janice and her husband Art’s 30th Anniversary!

Congratulations! 🙂

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On this day in 1788 Connecticut became the 5th state to join the United States.  

In 1793 Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first balloon flight in North America. The event was witnessed by President George Washington.  

In 1822 Charles M. Graham received the first patent for artificial teeth. 

In 1863 General Ulysses Grant was appointed commander-in-chief of the Union forces. 

And in 1965 the first U.S. combat troops arrived in South Vietnam. 

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Quote of the Day

“Oh yeah, I was one of the first guys writing comic books, I wrote Captain America, with guys like Stan Lee, who became famous later on with Marvel Comics.”

Mickey Spillane

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 For Janice and her husband. And I insist they play it and dance at some point today. 🙂

And it’s Mickey Gilley’s birthday.

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Anyone have a QoD?

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Prayer Requests 3-9-15

Anyone have something to share?

Psalm 80

¹Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth.

2 Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up thy strength, and come and save us.

3 Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

4 O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?

5 Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.

6 Thou makest us a strife unto our neighbours: and our enemies laugh among themselves.

7 Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

8 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.

9 Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it filled the land.

10 The hills were covered with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly cedars.

11 She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto the river.

12 Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all they which pass by the way do pluck her?

13 The boar out of the wood doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it.

14 Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and behold, and visit this vine;

15 And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.

16 It is burned with fire, it is cut down: they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.

17 Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself.

18 So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.

19 Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

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News/Politics 3-9-15

What’s interesting in the news today?

1. The White House is dragging out Obama’s favorite excuse.

Scandal? What scandal? Oh, you mean the one Obama read about in the news?

Yet another lie. They’ve known since August of last year at least.

From Politico  “The White House, State Department and Hillary Clinton’s personal office knew in August that House Republicans had received information showing that the former secretary of state conducted official government business through her private email account — and Clinton’s staff made the decision to keep quiet.”

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You mean these Clinton staffers?

From FoxNews  “Emails obtained through a federal lawsuit show that two top aides to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were running interference internally during the 2012 Benghazi terror attack.

The aides were Philippe Reines, widely described as Clinton’s principal gate-keeper, and Cheryl Mills, who has been at Clinton’s side for decades.

The emails show that while receiving updates about the assault as it happened, Mills told then-State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland to stop answering reporter questions about the status of Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was missing and later found dead. 

Also littered throughout the State Department emails, obtained by conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch, are references to a so-called Benghazi Group. A diplomatic source told Fox News that was code inside the department for the so-called Cheryl Mills task force, whose job was damage control.”

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FOIA requests? Never heard of ’em….

From TheFreeBeacon  “The State Department may have ignored or rejected a request made in 2012 under the Freedom of Information Act by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) seeking Hillary Clinton’s email addresses, according to a Daily Caller report on Thursday.

The New York Times reported on Monday that Clinton exclusively used a private email account and server for her email during her four years as secretary of state, skirting federal records laws, as well as State Department and Obama administration transparency guidelines, and raising suspicions that numerous public records requests for her emails were improperly blocked.

Anne Weismann, CREW’s general counsel, submitted a FOIA request to the State Department on Dec. 6, 2012, seeking “records sufficient to show the number of email accounts of or associated with Secretary Hilary Rodham Clinton, and the extent to which those email accounts are identifiable as those of or associated with Secretary Clinton.”

CREW’s request came on the heels of news that former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson had used an alias email account to conduct government business, and the organization was seeking to see if other senior officials used similar pseudonymous email accounts.”

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2. And Clinton and Jackson aren’t the only ones….

From TheDailySignal  “IRS manager Lois Lerner allegedly used an msn.com email account labeled ‘Lois Home’ for government-related communications. Lerner was a key player in what the IG found was the tax agency’s unfair targeting of conservative groups.

Former Obama EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson used private email accounts, as well as a secret EPA email address under the pseudonym “Richard Windsor,” to conduct official business. That included communicating with a climate lobbyist.”

“The EPA inspector general recently found the agency’s Chemical Safety Board Chairman Rafael Moure-Eraso and two top officials used personal email accounts to conduct official business. The IG said the officials did not preserve the emails, in violation of federal regulations.”

“Attorney General Eric Holder’s criminal division head, Lanny Breuer, was caught forwarding controversial Fast and Furious-related emails to his personal account.”

“Obama Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, Holder’s former assistant attorney general for civil rights, allegedly used his private email account to leak non-public information about official business.

As to whether Holder himself ever used personal email for government business, the Justice Department isn’t saying. A spokesman did not respond to requests for information about Holder’s email practices.”

This is common practice in the self-proclaimed “most transparent administration ever.”

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3. And since I brought up Holder….

From InvestorsBusinessDaily  “Unable to pin racism charges on Ferguson policeman Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, Attorney General Eric Holder is using half-baked data to manufacture a case of racism against his entire police force.

Holder’s race-baiting civil rights crew combed through several years of Ferguson Police Department data on traffic stops, searches and arrests and “found a pattern of racial disparities in Ferguson’s police activities.”

“African Americans are overrepresented in FPD’s vehicular stops” and victims of “racial bias,” Holder concludes in his report.

He notes that blacks accounted for 85% of vehicle stops, “despite comprising only 67% of Ferguson’s population,” while whites made up 15% of stops, despite representing 29% of the population.

So there you have it, a slam-dunk case of racism, right? Hardly.

Outrageously, the nation’s top prosecutor failed to control for factors that explain the racial “disparity” in traffic stops, such as speeding, DUI, expired license plates, headlight, seat-belt and child-restraint violations and other reasons for being pulled over.

Holder’s own department statistics show that African Americans, on average, violate speeding and other traffic laws at much greater rates than whites.”

You mean Holder’s race-baiting dishonestly and fudging the numbers? Say it ain’t so….. 🙄

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4. This is just one more reason Boehner has to go. Like I said, he’s a Democrat’s best friend.

From TheHill  “A number of right-wing Republicans, long wary of Boehner’s commitment to GOP efforts attacking President Obama’s policy priorities, have openly considered a coup in an attempt to transfer the gavel into more conservative hands.

But Democrats from across an ideological spectrum say they’d rather see Boehner remain atop the House than replace him with a more conservative Speaker who would almost certainly be less willing to reach across the aisle in search of compromise. Replacing him with a Tea Party Speaker, they say, would only bring the legislative process — already limping along — to a screeching halt.”

““I’d probably vote for Boehner [because] who the @#$% is going to replace him? [Ted] Yoho?” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) said Wednesday, referencing the Florida Tea Party Republican who’s fought Boehner on a host of bipartisan compromise bills. 

“In terms of the institution, I would rather have John Boehner as the Speaker than some of these characters who came here thinking that they’re going to change the world,” Pascrell added.”

Yeah, nobody wants to change the world. Just the horribly broken and corrupt Washington DC.

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Our Daily Thread 3-7-15

Good Morning!

It’s Saturday!!! 🙂

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On this day in 322 BC Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, died. 

In 1854 Charles Miller received a patent for the sewing machine.

In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell received a patent (U.S. Patent No. 174,465) for his telephone.  

In 1911, in the wake of the Mexican Revolution, the U.S. sent 20,000 troops to the border of Mexico. 

And in 1965 State troopers and a sheriff’s posse broke up a march by civil rights demonstrators in Selma, AL. 

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Quote of the Day

“Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody ever seems to do anything about it.”

Willard Scott

🙂

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 Today is Nikolay Artzibushev’s birthday. From incorporefestival 

And tomorrow is Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach’s 301st birthday. From Voices of Music, a very talented bunch.

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Anyone have a QoD?

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Prayer Requests 3-7-15

Anyone have a request or a praise to share?

Psalm 79

¹O god, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps.

2 The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.

3 Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.

4 We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.

5 How long, Lord? wilt thou be angry for ever? shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

6 Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.

7 For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling place.

8 O remember not against us former iniquities: let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us: for we are brought very low.

9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name: and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.

10 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is their God? let him be known among the heathen in our sight by the revenging of the blood of thy servants which is shed.

11 Let the sighing of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thy power preserve thou those that are appointed to die;

12 And render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

13 So we thy people and sheep of thy pasture will give thee thanks for ever: we will shew forth thy praise to all generations.

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News/Politics 3-7-15

What’s interesting in the news this weekend?

Open Thread, you tell me…. 🙂

Here’s what I’d like to talk about……

Dirty Democrats, and there seem to be a bunch. Especially troubling is that all 3 of these are in leadership positions and sit on influential committees.

1. I told you about these accusations against Senator Bob Menendez and his doctor friend before. Looks like he may finally have to answer to them.

From NationalJournal  “The Department of Justice is preparing to charge Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, with corruption, CNN reported Friday.

According to the news outlet, Menendez is facing allegations that he traded his political influence for perks and favors from a top donor, Dr. Salmon Melgen—an eye doctor and political backer.

 While a formal announcement could still be weeks from now, CNN reported that Attorney General Eric Holder has given the green light to move forward with the case before time runs out to pursue some of the charges.”

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2. Next up, Elijah Cummings. We knew he was involved in the IRS targeting of conservative groups, and now we have some proof of his colluding.

From GatewayPundit  “Last April House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) released a report implicating Democrat Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) in colluding with the IRS and Lois Lerner against the nonpartisan voters rights group “True the Vote.”

Catherine Engelbrecht, the founder of “True the Vote,” testified before Congress in February. She was targeted by FBI, IRS, ATF, and OSHA after she filed for tax exempt status for her voters rights group.

Engelbrecht said this during her testimony before Congress and Cummings, “Frankly, to sit before my accuser and be silent in the face of what he did was unconscionable.”

“This week the House Oversight Committee released more emails that prove the IRS was feeding Rep. Cummings with confidential tax information on the voter fraud prevention group True the Vote.
Townhall reported:

New IRS emails released by the House Oversight Committee show staff working for Democratic Ranking Member Elijah Cummings communicated with the IRS multiple times between 2012 and 2013 about voter fraud prevention group True the Vote. True the Vote was targeted by the IRS after applying for tax exempt status more than two years ago. Further, information shows the IRS and Cummings’ staff asked for nearly identical information from True the Vote President Catherine Engelbrecht about her organization, indicating coordination and improper sharing of confidential taxpayer information.”

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3. Next up, Harry Reid, the influence peddler. Harry’s been steering taxpayer money to his friends, lackeys, and donors.

From TheFreeBeacon  “Corporate donors to a green energy nonprofit operated by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s (D., Nev.) former staffers and a current campaign operative have received billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees and grant money as a result of Reid’s advocacy.

Fulcrum Bioenergy began contributing to the Clean Energy Project (CEP) in 2013. One year later, the Nevada Democrat steered tens of millions of dollars in federal grant money to the California biofuel company.

Fulcrum is one of at least nine corporate donors to the Clean Energy Project (CEP) that have secured federal financing for themselves or a client due in part to Reid’s behind-the-scenes advocacy—activity that watchdogs warn could be construed as unethical.

Rebecca Lambe, Reid’s top political strategist who has been directed by Reid to take the lead in hiring for his 2016 reelection campaign, founded CEP in 2008 and served as its executive director. Reid’s former chief of staff Susan McCue served as CEP’s president at that time. Lambe is now an adviser to CEP, according to her official bio. McCue is a member of its board.

McCue and Lambe also run Senate Majority PAC, a powerhouse Super Pac with close ties to Reid that spent $67 million to elect Senate Democrats last year.

Far from denying a role in steering subsidies to donors to aides’ group, Reid’s office brags about it.”

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Our Daily Thread 3-6-15

Good Morning!

It’s Friday!!!

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On this day in 1820 The Missouri Compromise was enacted by the U.S. Congress and signed by U.S. President James Monroe. The act admitted Missouri into the Union as a slave state, but prohibited slavery in the rest of the northern Louisiana Purchase territory.

In 1834 the city of York in Upper Canada was incorporated as Toronto.

In 1836 the thirteen-day siege of the Alamo by Santa Anna and his army ended. The Mexican army of three thousand men defeated the 189 Texas volunteers.

In 1854, at the Washington Monument, several men stole the Pope’s Stone from the Lapidarium.

And in 1947 the first air-conditioned naval ship, “The Newport News,” was launched from Newport News, VA. 

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Quote of the Day

“How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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 Random selection day. From PassionVEVO/EMI

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Anyone have a QoD?

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Prayer Requests 3-6-15

It’s Friday, so don’t forget to pray for Mumsee, Mike, and the young folks at The Nest.

Anyone else?

Psalm 78:1-7

¹Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.