Feds probe Tea Party’s Christine O'Donnell's Campaign Spending!!!!

The U.S. Attorney's office has confirmed it is reviewing a complaint about O'Donnell's campaign spending lodged this year by a watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics of Washington. CREW filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission raising allegations about O'Donnell's campaign spending. The group asked Delaware's federal prosecutor to investigate.

The allegations came about from two former campaign workers who alleged that O'Donnell routinely used political contributions to pay personal expenses including her rent in recent years as she ran for the Senate three consecutive times, starting in 2006 and the case has been assigned to two federal prosecutors and two FBI agents in Delaware.

O'Donnell, had set a state record by raising more than $7.3 million in a "Sarah Palin" backed Tea Party fueled campaign this year, and has long been dogged by questions about her personal and campaign finances. O'Donnell acknowledged she paid part of her rent at times with campaign money.

Federal law prohibits candidates from spending campaign money for personal benefit. FEC rules state that this prohibition applies to the use of campaign money for a candidate's mortgage or rent "even if part of the residence is being used by the campaign!"

One former O'Donnell staffer, Kristin Murray, accused O'Donnell of “living on campaign donations using them for rent and personal expenses, while leaving her workers unpaid and piling up thousands in debt.”

Another former aide, David Keegan, said he became concerned about O'Donnell's 2008 campaign finances as she fell behind on bills and had no apparent source of income besides political contributions. He submitted an affidavit to CREW alleging that she used campaign money to cover meals, gas, a bowling outing, and rent to her boyfriend and now landlord, Brent Vasher.

O'Donnell, who announced just after Election Day that she had signed a book deal, hasn't held a full-time job in years and has struggled to explain how she makes a living.

She reported in July that she earned only $5,800 in income for the previous 18 months through freelance public relations work. She said she lived mostly on a savings account that she reported in an amended Senate disclosure report as being worth between $1,000 and $15,000.

Her financial past includes a tax lien from the IRS, a lawsuit from the university she attended over unpaid bills and a foreclosure action that she avoided by selling her house to Vasher just before a sheriff's auction.
I will close with this message of here is just one more example of how those claiming Tea Party affiliations, have been yet once again bamboozled by the Republican Political Con Men.

New 2012 Presidential Campaign Poll: Obama Rising, Palin Falling

A new political poll provides fresh data on the standing for candidates on both sides of the aisle. The poll finds that Mr. Obama's standing for the 2012 nomination is improving rapidly, while the Tea Party champion, “Sarah Palin: has lost ground to fellow potential Republican candidates.

OH MY!!! How can the Teabaggers handle this one? Their beloved, mindless, “Caribou Barbie” is no longer the darling of the Republican Party?!?!?

Could it be true what I have been saying for well over two years? If anyone would consider referencing my past postings and comments on other blogs, one can see that I foretold this happening. As an active member of the Republican Party, I have been saying that the Republican’s have only been using the current wave of “CONSERVATIVE NUT JOB” Teabagger movement to only further their needs yet once again!!

To add insult to injury, not only this latest devastating news that the Tea Party is now considered useless by the Republican leadership, but President Obama is coming out as the better and preferred choice for 2012!!!

War On Christmas Bill O'Rielly.....Really?

Let me start out by saying that “Religion” is just another business no different than any other business. Marketing agents will come up with what ever they can to gain more market shares of the population’s expendable income and the “Business of Religion” is no different. Hence the marketing message to the populous lemmings that, THERE IS A WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!!

Below are some real facts on Christmas in the United States that goes back long before there was a United States.

1. One of the recent non-issues alarms that The Fanatical Religious Conservative Right, like Bill O’Rielly, is propagating that there is now TODAY a War On Christmas!!

Truth:
In sounding their alarm, the Fanatical Religious Right does not pass on that it was illegal to celebrate Christmas in the colony of Massachusetts in 1681. The Pilgrims had Christmas outlawed because it was too Catholic. Yes, the pilgrims, the very Christian religious English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs. The Puritans made it illegal to mention St. Nicolas' name, people were not allowed to exchange gifts, light a candle, or sing Christmas carols. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. Anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings. That Christmas was ignored in this country for the first hundred years of its existence because it was viewed as an idolatrous Catholic invention...until retail stores discovered it was a way to make $$$. Christmas is the major holiday today because of retailers, so ranting against retailers for modifying their message is well...intellectually dishonest, especially when it comes from the same people who claim to represent the views of our founding fathers who didn't even recognize the holiday.

Presbyterians, Baptists, nor many Methodists, particularly those converted by revival during the Great Awakening of the 1740s and 1750s even recognize the celebration of Christmas. So the holiday did not have a prominent role in the community at the birth of the new United States of America.

No state legally recognized a Christmas holiday until 1836, and the federal congress did not acknowledge such a holiday in legislation until 1870, just six years before the nation's centennial. Santa Claus was invented in the 1840s by a committee of New York businessmen who wanted to promote sales. They borrowed the tradition of "Sinter Klaas" brought to New York by Dutch immigrants, originally a variation on St. Nicholas.

The early 19th century was a period of class conflict and turmoil. During this time, unemployment was high and gang rioting by the disenchanted classes often occurred during the Christmas season. In 1828, the New York city council instituted the city’s first police force in response to a Christmas riot. This catalyzed certain members of the upper classes to begin to change the way Christmas was celebrated in America.
In 1819, best-selling author Washington Irving wrote The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, gent., a series of stories about the celebration of Christmas in an English manor house. The sketches feature a squire who invited the peasants into his home for the holiday. In contrast to the problems faced in American society, the two groups mingled effortlessly. In Irving’s mind, Christmas should be a peaceful, warm-hearted holiday bringing groups together across lines of wealth or social status.
Irving’s fictitious celebrants enjoyed “ancient customs,” including the crowning of a Lord of Misrule. Irving’s book, however, was not based on any holiday celebration he had attended; in fact, many historians say that Irving’s account actually “invented” tradition by implying that it described the true customs of the season.


2. Another point that The Fanatical Religious Conservative Right gives as proof that there is a War On Christmas is the use of the letter “X” in Xmas.

Truth:
The "X" in Xmas came from the Greek spelling of Christ and is as old as the Christian religion itself. The word Christmas originated as a compound meaning “Christ’s Mass.” "Cristes" is from Greek “Christos” and "mæsse" is from Latin "missa" (the holy mass). In Greek, the letter “X,” pronounced “chi,” is the first letter of Christ, and it, or the similar Roman letter “X,” has been used as an abbreviation for Christ. Hence, Xmas was returned to popularity by retailers in their advertising as a cost issue and not for any anti-Christ aspect.

So in closing, my Christmas message to those claiming The Fanatical Religious Conservative Right, is be more critical and check the facts on what others would pass onto you because……
A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring:
There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.

Christmas Card For Teabaggers

In the sprit of the season, I am sending this Christmas card to all those silly, mislead, uneducated, and obviously sexually frustrated Tea Party Members. Let’s hope that for some, the New Year brings you true enlightenment…..even though I really don’t see it for the mass majority of these lemmings.

Captain Beefheart Passed Away At The Age Of 69

For all of my good friends who can identify with the fact that I am telling my age with this one, I am passing on that Captain Beefheart has passed away today, Friday, December 17, 2010.

I have always marched to a different drummer so to speak and I like the quirky edge of many things dealing with art and music.

The avant-garde rock legend and visual artist Don Van Vliet, who performed under the name, Captain Beefheart, passed away today of complications from multiple sclerosis at a hospital in Northern California this morning at age 69.

Captain Beefheart was not only a musician but also an artist. A representative of New York City’s Michael Werner Gallery, which showed his paintings, confirms the sad news.

Born in California in 1941, Van Vliet dubbed himself Captain Beefheart and began experimenting with eccentric rock’n'roll sounds in the mid-1960s. His first two releases with the Magic Band drew positive notice from some connoisseurs but failed to connect with the wider public. (Much like Frank Zappa too) In fact, Van Vliet forged a close creative partnership with Frank Zappa, a former high school classmate, who signed Beefheart to his Straight Records and produced 1969′s Trout Mask Replica. While the bizarre double album was not a major commercial success, it quickly became a cultural landmark. Van Vliet effectively redefined the frontiers of popular music, singing snatches of surreal imagery in disturbing tones over music that drew on blues, jazz, psychedelia, and a thousand other subgenres. Trout Mask Replica is still cited today as an essential art-rock document.

Van Vliet continued recording as Captain Beefheart with a rotating group of Magic Band members through 1982. In later years, he shifted his primary focus to creating visual art, a world in which he won some acclaim. The Michael Werner Gallery displayed his work for decades, with their most recent Van Vliet show occurring in 2007. Earlier this month, one of Van Vliet’s paintings was reportedly being offered at an asking price of $40,000.

Tea Party Member, Neo-Nazi, and White Supremacist, Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce

I have been giving more and more of my recent thoughts to how far the Extreme Right of the Tea Party have embedded themselves into our Local and National Government under the pretence of being members of the Republican Party. Well I thought that I would pass on this bit of evidence to my readers with the hopes it would be passed on to other more critical thinking blogs.

While the Arizona Immigration Reform Act may not appear to be a racist agenda on the surface, the Tea Party has supported it and the Arizona Bill was written by a Tea Part member who also has (SURPRISE, SURPRISE) direct ties to the group called, "Stormfront" and White Supremacists:

I TOO AM SHOCKED!! (:-0}

Yes, Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce, who submitted the bill, has, for many years, been associated with local Neo-Nazi and White Supremacist groups.

Now please note how he is dressed trying to proclaim a statement that he is a "Good American Values" patriotic person by wearing a shirt like the American flag…..I bet he also has an American flag pin on his lapel when he is wearing a dress suit just to make it complete.

I have always found that when someone thinks they need to blatantly proclaim their “Good American Values”…..Freudianly speaking….they really don’t have “Good American Values.” They are over compensating and hiding the exact opposite....Just as Shakespeare wrote, "Me thinks thou protests too much."

In 2006, he came out speaking enthusiastically about the 1950’s deportation act “Operation Wetback” and for sending email to his supporters reminiscing the greatness of this program. In this email he included an attachment from a white supremacy group and made the conspiratorial claim that journalists pushed the view of: “a world in which every voice proclaims the equality of the races, the inerrant nature of the Jewish ‘Holocaust’ tale, the wickedness of attempting to halt the flood of non-White aliens pouring across our borders…”-http://news.jornal.us/article-5005.NeoNaziAZ-GOP-co...

In 2007, Pierce was photographed with J.T. Ready spokesman for the National Socialist Movement, better known as the Nazi Party. They refer to themselves, “the premier white civil right organization in the world.” The group claims to be true patriots claiming that they are only against non-white immigration. J.T. Ready has said that closing the borders is crucial to preserving the white race. “Let’s face it,” he said. “We’re not being invaded by Swedish nuns here. We’re on a border with a country that is a hostile country.” Pierce is also known for speaking at Neo-Nazi rallies and conferences.”

In 2008, Pierce sponsored Senate Bill 1108, which would make it impossible for students at Universities to join groups based in whole or part because of their ethnicity, claiming it would indoctrinate people with anti-American mentality. As if the relationship could not be any clearer, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer yesterday signed a bill targeting a school district’s ethnic studies program, Arizona law now prohibits classes that promote ethnic solidarity, that are created primarily for students of a particular race or that promote resentment toward a certain ethnic group.”

So to all of the Tea Party "Wing Nut" Members…..You Should Be So Proud!! In truth, instead of supporting "Good American Values," you are destroying them!!

An Essay on Criticism

by Alexander Pope

As many know of me, I find it important to familiarize myself and constantly learn subjects that I think are important to be a well rounded educated person. Hence, the name, “Engineer of Knowledge.”

I recently have been reading the prose of Alexander Pope’s, “An Essay on Criticism.” Even though it was written over 300 years ago, 1709 to be exact, its applications are still current today. The poem covers a range of good criticism and advice and represents many of the chief literary ideals of Pope's age. The Age of Enlightment.
To the more intelligent and learned readers of my blog, I highly recommend reading this piece of work by Pope. You will find it rewarding.

Pope has been quoted almost as much as Shakespeare and many have heard the quotes of, “To err is Humane; to Forgive, Divine” or one of my favorite, “A Little Knowledge is a Dangerous Thing, etc.”

To be correct, the accurate quote from this work is:

“A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring:
There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.”

Pierian Spring relating to the region of Pieria in ancient Macedonia or to the Muses who were once worshipped there. The Pierian Spring from Greek Mythology is the spring believed to be a fountain of knowledge that inspires whoever drinks from it.

This last passage is where Conservative Radio or Fox’s Conservative Programming leads many astray. They pass on accurate statements but only up to a point.

An example being on “Global Warming” or “Climate Change.” I have heard statements with the purpose of discrediting the science behind this issue such as, “Weathermen can’t even predict the weather from day to day, much less week to week. There is no way that they can predict weather or Climate Change 10, 20, or 50 years from now.” I very kindly correct there misuse of the two terms and take the moment to correct their misconceptions and incorrect application of these science terms.

Weather Verses Climate:
The difference between weather and climate is a measure of time. Weather is what conditions of the atmosphere are over a short period of time, and climate is how the atmosphere "behaves" over relatively long periods of time.

When we talk about climate change, we talk about changes in long-term averages of daily weather. If summers seem hotter lately, then the recent climate may have changed. In various parts of the world, some people have even noticed that springtime comes earlier now than it did 30 years ago. An earlier springtime is indicative of a possible change in the climate.

What Weather Means:
Weather is basically the way the atmosphere is behaving, mainly with respect to its effects upon life and human activities. The difference between weather and climate is that weather consists of the short-term (minutes to months) changes in the atmosphere. Most people think of weather in terms of temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, brightness, visibility, wind, and atmospheric pressure, as in high and low pressure.

In most places, weather can change from minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season. Climate, however, is the average of weather over time and space. An easy way to remember the difference is that climate is what you expect, like a very hot summer, and weather is what you get, like a hot day with pop-up thunderstorms.

I could go on and on with examples of misuse of science terms or half presented science facts but this posting is getting too long now. The whole complete aspect as presented would change the message of what Conservative Radio or Fox’s Conservative Programming presents as proof to their slanted arguments.

So in concluding, this posting is to the Teabaggers, Ultra Conservatives, and Religious Right Wing people. I would pass onto the Conservative’s point of mind; “Be sure to completely read and learn all on a subject and do not come to conclusions with only a part of the facts that seem to support your viewpoint.” This is your pitfall and how you are led astray by this slanted message media.

This is the lesson of Pope’s message of:
“There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.”

In the Ultra Conservative person’s viewpoint cases; “A little Learning is a dang'rous Thing.”