Online headline: "U.S. Navy official says 'pings' unlikely from missing Malaysia jet" -- Poor CNN... 24/7 coverage.. endless 24/7 coverage ...of nothing.. business as usual. Wonder if its listener ha been told?

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Judas 00-Barnum speechified to West Point graduates . He told them they would probably be the first West Point class since 9-11-01 not to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Of course, he didn't bring up Africa, Ukraine or Syria

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Hmmm, A subject Judas 00-Barnum didn't mention was the West Point Cadets future with military healthcare.

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If Judas 00-Barnum spoke like he did in last half of his West Point speech , he could have won the Republican nomination in 2008 & 2012.. Guess Karl Rove must have hacked into Judas 00-Barnum's TelePrompTer

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One thing rather obvious in Judas 00-Barnum's speech is that when he paused for "applause" time, the cadets had to be prompted to respond at all.

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From the "our education system is in worse trouble than we ever thought" department - Online story: "A demolition crew uncovered a secret underground room after they tore down a building in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. * The deed shows the demolished building went up between 1870-1880. * Theories abound about whether the room was used in the Underground Railroad, or during Prohibition. " -- Excuse me, but has Columbus' Reverend Richard Jessie been visiting Dauphin County, PA recently? He's been pot-stirring about prisoners doing garbage duty being slaves, and slaves building a 20th century school, so with his obsessive slave disorientation, I had to ask, because history tells us the Underground Railroad pretty much dissolved before the building in PA was ever built, and reporters have no clue!

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HuffPost headline: "Brad Pitt Assaulted At Film Premiere" -- Ooops, my bad.. thought maybe some movie critic was filming a realistic reality show.

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HuffPost headline: "Chicago Group Pushing For $15 Minimum Wage" -- Oooops, my bad.. thought the Cubs might be going on strike.

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HuffPost headline: "California Voters Contemplate Forming New State" -- Hmmm... maybe the new "state" could be called "Reality", and the old one be renamed as the state of "Denial"....

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HuffPost story: "Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday the United States is setting up a $5 billion "terrorism partnership fund" to help other countries push back against radical extremists." -- Good grief..and just who does Kerry plan to give this money...the leaders who will give most of it to the terrorists groups just to leave them in power?

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Online headline: "Chicago mayor proposes all gun sales be videotaped" -- How, by street buyers using their stolen ObamaPhones? Good grief.. the gun problems are not caused by legal gun sales to law abiding citizens. At least I graciously assume Mayor Emanuel does consider some Chicagoans to be law abiding.. but..maybe not.

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Future textbook compilers will really have to make specific decisions when trying to encapsulate the life of Hillary Clinton.. will they write down history or herstory?

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L-E headline: "Chrysler, others join effort to bar discrimination" -- You know... I'd be happy if Chrysler, GM, too, would first work on barring recallable car defects!

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You know..I'll bet Walmart's pension plan is fully funded.. no wonder union and education, and government entities hate being looked at closely.

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Soapbox moment: Let's talk about "grants"... government "grants" in particular..Why... why do otherwise sane... logical people look at "government grants" and think it's "free money". Why do ordinarily prudent and successful citizens think that since "grant money" exists, if we don't take it, some body or some other city/state will take so why not? Other than what the US Treasury prints that's not backed, government does not have any money of its own. Those "grants" are already our money.. government just took it out of our pockets with no idea at the time on how it was going to spend it.. so government devised "earmarks" so government entities could claim it was them who are "good guys" because they give "grants" to whomever they want to do this for. Contact your state and federal reps and demand that all monies taken and redirected to earmarks/grants be immediately returned via tax reductions for those who actually paid taxes.

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Once again... has anybody heard how the vote on Mayor Obamalinson's "grant driven", River Walk "royal throne room" went? Since the L-E hasn't mentioned it, my guess is that it passed.

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You know,,, have you ever seen or heard of a "grant" from Congressman Bishop that he wasn't present for the photo-op session of the check presentation? It's like he dipped into his pocket, rather than ours, to make a donation.

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From the "it doesn't get anymore ironic than this" department - Online story: "Jack in the Box fast food restaurants is among those that fail to see what’s happened elsewhere and decided to repeat the same mistake that others have made. * It all started several weeks ago with an open carry protest in Texas. A number of the protesters, still openly carrying their sidearms then went to a Jack in the Box restaurant to eat. Supposedly it frightened guests and employees who called the police, making a big deal out of nothing illegal. * As a result, Brian Luscomb, Vice President of Corporate Communications for Jack in the Box issued the following statement:“Creating a warm and inviting environment for all of our guests and employees is a top priority for Jack in the Box. The presence of guns inside a restaurant could create an uncomfortable situation for our guests and employees and lead to unintended consequences. While we respect the rights of all our guests, we would prefer that guests not bring their guns inside our restaurants.” * Within 10 days of their announcement, 3 Jack in the Box restaurants were held up at gunpoint." -- Well, Jack-in-the-Box is no longer worthy of my exposing my family to such dangers.

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You know...there's a pattern to all of the appointed department heads that refuse to step down on their own volition, and at the same time, seem unwarrantedly supported by Judas 00-Barnum. It makes me wonder if there's something going on that may point directly to 00-Barnum as to knowing more than he's admitting. It's the same feeling I got when former Attorney General Janet Reno didn't automatically resign at the end of Bill Clinton's first term and await re-appointment.

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I've always heard the term "evangelical right" and taken it with a grain of salt, but yesterday, I heard the term "evangelical left". That, at a minimum, is an oxymoron.. At best it would be the atheists.

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You know..when Judas 00-Barnum starts filling his Presidential Library, he'll be able to fill it quickly and in less space than his predecessors . Since he never learned about anything except from the NY Times, there won't be carton after carton of documents and emails/memos preceding all the scandals.

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Yesterday, I wrote our Council and asked this question: "How many residential homes/rental homes are in Columbus, and what is the total tax assessed value of such homes in Columbus?" This is the response I got directly from Mayor Obamalinson:

"Hal - According to our Tax Assessors Office, this is not information the city keeps. I special program would have to be written to obtain this type of information. You can make an Open Records Request if you would like a formal response to your inquiry." - Teresa Pike Tomlinson - Mayor ...

You know, literally, without this information available at a moments notice, how can Mayor Obamalinson even know how much tax revenue a single mil will bring in? How can a budget be made? How can Mayor Obamalinson even suggest how lifting the tax freeze would cure her money ills if she has no idea of what such an elimination would do? I would issue a sarcastic "thanks" to all the voters who returned her to office, but they would probably take it as a compliment.

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From L-E's story on the City Budget proposal:

1 -"Public Works Director Pat Biegler asked for about $81,000 to hire an internal services manager for the recycling center. She also asked to eliminate the need to cut almost $124,000 from her operating by raising fees at animal control/special enforcement. The new hire was declined, but the fee hikes were added to the budget."

2 - District Attorney Julia Slater asked for $17,700 for operations, $41,000 for a juvenile court clerk and $74,200 for a new assistant district attorney. The operations request was denied, but the two positions were added to the budget.

3- Councilor Gary Allen proposed eliminating more than $64,000 in general fund revenue by removing proposed fee increases for youth league teams. The fees were not eliminated and remain in the budge

4- In the end, what started as a $263.1 million budget grew to $263.7 million, an increase of about $615,000. But $484,000 of that was offset by additional revenue, reducing the impact to the reserves to about $131,000.

5 - • Increasing fees at the city’s tennis and golf facilities and at other parks and recreation venues and the Civic Center. Parking violation fines would also increase, as would the garbage collection fee

Good grief... This is how government thinks? No wonder debt is out of control. When the Mayor Obamalinson thinks new fees and raised fees will increase based on previous user figures, it's obvious she's not in touch with how everyday people react to fee/tax increases... users will be down, therefore expected revenue increases will not happen. It's quite apparent that citizens have been overloaded with specialty and state sales taxes, so users haven't been spending as much and revenues have spiraled downward, which means lower revenues produce more debt when spending just keeps on happening.

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Once again... has anybody heard how the vote on Mayor Obamalinson's River Walk "royal throne room" went? Since the L-E hasn't mentioned it, my guess is that it passed.

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L-E headline: "COLUMBUS STATE UNIVERSITY * Mescon finalist for top job at Eastern Washington Univ." -- Everybody keep your fingers crossed! I will even go so far as to say, after this blurb, that I will not mention anything that may detract Mescon from consideration.. I may even send EWU a complimentary recommendation (backhanded, of course) encouraging its selection choice. Ask yourself when was the last time you heard him bragging about the CSU enrollment numbers he was so proud of in his first 3 years? On a good note, I will now consider restarting donations back to CSU when he's gone.

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LIV's L-E "soundoff": "Obama would not have used 9/11 as an excuse to start a 10-year, trillion dollar war with the wrong leader of the wrong country." -- "would not have used 9/11 as an excuse"? Bush used 9/11 as an "excuse"? Truth is, Judas 00-Barnum would have responded by drawing a red line in front of the right side of the House and Senate Chambers and dared terrorists to cross that line.

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LIV's L-E "soundoff": "In regard to the shootings in California, Republicans ask, “When are we going to cure mental illness?” Right after we cure cancer." -- Good grief.. if mental illness could be cured, we wouldn'y have Democratic Party politicians!

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Online story: "A new political party is being built in the United States to turn Muslims in America into an Islamic voting block. They’ve set their sights on the 2016 elections. * Ten Muslim groups have banded together to form the U.S. Council of Muslim Organizations, a coalition that will “unify the approach, agenda and vision of the Muslim community” in America according to Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). * As reported by The Washington Post: "The council plans to advocate for issues important to American Muslims and to boost their voter registration. Awad said, 'Muslim Voters have the potential to be swing voters in 2016.' -- "swing voters"? You have to think that a voter group would actually consider a conservative candidate to feel such a group shold be in the "swing voters" category. This will just be another further left wing of the Democrats.

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The State Bar of Georgia just finished its essay contest based on "American Democracy and the Rule of Law: Why Every Vote Matters,". Next year, I'd like to see the theme be either, "American Democracy and the Rule of Law: Why Voter ID Matters" or "American Democracy and the Rule of Law: Why Voters Knowledge of the US Constitution Matters".