Old Time Gospel Sunday

This young lady identifies herself only by her YouTube nickname, but she performs this song beautifully. What a sweet voice! I hope it blesses you, too.

MiAmor0911, 'I Know Who Holds Tomorrow'

Friday Funnies

Michael Ramirez, Investors Business Daily

Thursday Morning Jazz Interlude

This is so good, I don't mind having a rainy day Thursday to go with it...

Jon Faddis (w/ Dizzy Gillespie Sextet 77), 'Here's That Rainy Day'

Anatomy of a Recall, Part 1

I have lived in a wonderful, small, rural township at the base of Michigan's Thumb for the past 22 years. Many things are exactly as they were when I moved in. We still have the Flea Market twice a week in the summer and the biggest little agricultural Fair around every August. For Holly Days, local farmers string Christmas lights (and we still call them Christmas lights) on their combines and parade them down Main Street. In so many ways, this is a 'It's A Wonderful Life' kind of town. I love that.

Many other things have changed dramatically over the years. One of the more unfortunate changes occurred at the election last November, when our Township Board was turned upside down. The five members of our Board have been in office exactly six months and a recall campaign against three of them is already in progress.

How bad can it get in just six months? Well...pretty bad. There are a number of issues prompting the locals, including myself, to get angry and involved. In my next installment, I'll detail the impetus for the recall movement and the steps necessary to get it started. As it progresses, I will update the series so you will be able to see the process from start to finish. Information is also available at www.armadarecall.blogspot.com.

Old Time Gospel Sunday

Unidentified Choir, 'When the Roll is Called Up Yonder'

Friday Funnies

From our friends at the Columbus Dispatch...

Thursday Morning Jazz Interlude

George Duke, 'Summer Breezin'

Washington Wants Michigan's Water

From our friends at Citizen's Voice for Property Owners, here's a heads-up on more central planning from the Democrats in Washington:

Michigan, through its Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is one of only two states in the Union that regulates wetlands with a state agency rather than through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. This has been a problem because the state guidelines are much more strict than the federal guidelines. Additionally, the DEQ has proven to be arbitrary and capricious in its decision making and has often caused long, unnecessary delays in approving permits.

While the concerns about over-regulation by a state agency are valid, they may be rendered "moot" by recent efforts in Congress. U.S. Senator Russ Feingold has introduced a bill, S787, which was sponsored by 23 other members (all Democrats including Levin and Stabenow.) Senate Bill S787 is entitled, "To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to clarify the jurisdiction of the United States over waters of the United States." Notice they start the description with the words "pollution control." That makes it sound caring and good, doesn't it?

All surface waters will come under Congressional Control...

The fact is, this legislation will put ALL surface waters in the United States of America under Congressional jurisdiction. The bill language, which can be read here, has a couple of key phrases in it. The first changes the definition of what is under Congressional jurisdiction. Ever since the Commerce Clause of the Constitution and several test cases in the Supreme Court, Congress has had jurisdiction over navigable waters. The meaning of that word has been argued, but according to precedent and legal definition, navigable includes anything you can get a canoe down, or anything that is connected by water to the same.

...mudflats, wet meadows, prairie potholes...

No matter because under S787, the word navigable is stricken, which means now ALL surface water is under Congressional jurisdiction. Additionally, in case there was any question of state's rights, the bill also states that this applies to interstate and intrastate waters. That means there is no state sovereignty over waters within that state's boundaries. And, if you have any doubt as to what the Congressional definition of "waters" is, they spell that out, too. It includes, "all waters subject to the ebb and flow of the tide, the territorial seas, and all interstate and intrastate waters and their tributaries, including lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, wetlands, sloughs, prairie potholes, wet meadows, playa lakes, natural ponds, and all impoundments of the foregoing, to the fullest extent that these waters, or activities affecting these waters, are subject to the legislative power of Congress under the Constitution."

...interstate and intrastate...

The bottom line is this: Congress is taking over all the water. If the Obama administration and Congress are anything like this state's governor and her administration, you will see free trade and commerce come to a virtual stand still. Manufacturing especially will come to a screeching halt. Water is an essential resource in the manufacture of virtually any consumable or durable good. Without ready access, manufacturers will be stifled in their attempts to create new products for market and the jobs that go with them.

Apparently the only things Congressional Democrats don't want to control is their power-grabbing and deficit spending...in other words, they will control you but not themselves.

Michigan Weather Report...

What a gloriously beautiful day we've been given today....

Electric Light Orchestra, 'Mr. Blue Sky'

Wise Guy: Abraham Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

"Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties."

"Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors."

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."

How about a special one for President Obama?

"How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."

This one is just for Joe Biden:

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."

NADA: National Auto Dealers Assassination

The fallout continues in the wake of last week's dealer reduction programs announced by Chrysler and General Motors. To the shock of some in the 'let them fail, it won't affect me' camp, thousands of closing dealerships will mean big job losses in communities and states with little or no automotive manufacturing base.

We tried to tell you.

In my opinion, the dealers are among the victims in this debacle, as are the small investors. To a large degree, the companies and the union are laying in the bed they made. I think I can make that case by citing one very illustrative example: the Jobs Bank.

True enough, the practice has finally been eliminated - in the face of bankruptcy - but for years the auto companies continued to pay people who no longer worked for them. What a deal, eh? Sit on your butt in the 'Jobs Bank', do no work of any kind, and get a check. The wizards of smart in the executive suites and board rooms actually signed off on the insanity.

Union leaders, who should have realized they were killing the golden goose, instead demanded ever increasing wages, benefits and control over business operations, while the corporations rolled over and took the abuse.

Unfortunately, the union wasn't the only group abusing our car makers.

It's an accepted canard that the United States has a free-market economy. We used to, but don't now and haven't for a long time. The federal government has been restricting, regulating and mandating the auto industry for years. It kept raising the stakes and no one in management had the spine to say 'I don't think so.' Instead, they submissively did as they were told and passed the costs on to the consumer, until they killed that golden goose, too. Now we have the President dismissing auto executives, a Federal Auto Task Force and Government Motors.

Atlas didn't shrug, he committed suicide.

I wish the auto dealers good luck in pleading their case, especially the Chrysler dealers who have been given six weeks to move six months worth of inventory before losing their franchises. Assassination indeed.

Old Time Gospel Sunday

Mormon Tabernacle Choir, 'All Creatures of Our God and King'

Wise Guy: Jack Kemp

On May 2nd, America lost a statesman and true voice for fiscal responsibility in government: Jack Kemp. We could use more like him, especially now. He will be missed.

"Every time in this century we've lowered the tax rates across the board, on employment, on saving, investment and risk-taking in this economy, revenues went up, not down."

"There is a kind of victory in good work, no matter how humble."

"There are no limits to our future if we don't put limits on our people."

And here's one to really drive the radical left-wing extremists off the edge:

"Democracy without morality is impossible."

Back In The Saddle Again....For Now

Finally. I have my 'puter back and the programs are being reinstalled this very minute. I won't be able to to a full and proper post until tomorrow, but at least I can do this. Later, Crumb Crunchers!

Pray Today

Today is the National Day of Prayer.  The President may not see fit to honor the day, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't.  Please join me and millions of your fellow Americans in praying for our nation, her allies and her enemies.

Broken Windows Blues

Can you believe it? It seems I just got the last of my hardware issues resolved and now I have a complete failure of Windows shutting me down. I'm one unhappy Cracker this morning! The good news is I have someone working on the system right now, so I could be back in business by the end of the day. See you soon, Crumb Crunchers!

SCOTUS Help Wanted Ad

April Showers Bring....

May flowers, of course! Here are some of mine; I hope they brighten your day, too.

Yellow Tulip

'Watercolor' of Japanese Iris

Red Tulip

Yellow Parrot Tulip

Pink Hyacinth

Forsythia

Cherry Blossom

Old Time Gospel Sunday

This isn't old, but it is beautiful and uplifting - just the right song for today. I hope it blesses you, too.

Chris Tomlin, 'How Great Is Our God'

R.I.P. Congressman Jack Kemp

The Associated Press is reporting that former quarterback, Congressman and Vice Presidential candidate Jack Kemp died today after a battle with cancer. He was 73. Please keep his family in your prayers.

The Wall Street Journal article on his passing notes that Congressman Kemp referred to himself as a 'bleeding heart' Conservative. He will be missed.

Is The Census Bureau 'Mapping' Your House?

Judging from my inbox, the blogosphere is buzzing about the use of GPS technology to 'map' every residence in the United States for the Census Bureau. I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next girl, but this sounded like tin-foil hat territory to me, so I did some research.

Here's the big scoop, Crumb Crunchers: it's true. True, but not new; the plan was devised 2 1/2 years ago. From a report on National Public Radio's 'All Things Considered', July 31, 2006:

Two-and-a-half years from now, in early 2009, the Census Bureau plans to send an army of 100,000 temporary workers down every street and dusty, dirt road in America. They will be armed with handheld GPS devices.

[snip]

"We will actually knock on doors and look for hidden housing units," he says. "We will find converted garages; from the outside, it may not look like anybody lives there."

But census workers will add each dwelling, legal or not, to the Census Bureau's Master Address File.

[snip]

...the census will end up with the geographic coordinates — accurate to within 10 feet — for about 110 million residences.

[snip]

Nothing to worry about, though...the government assures us that the information will never be made public or shared with scary people like, oh, law enforcement.

"People would not tell us about hidden housing units," LaMacchia says. "People would not respond to the questionnaire if they believed that that information would be turned over to law enforcement or code enforcement and become public information."

Just what we need, and another indictment of the Bush administration. That's right, Bush. This little gem was his administration's idea, after all. Of course, Obama will be adding Acorn to the mix, which only serves to make a bad situation worse. Oy.

Friday Funnies: Arlenocchio