Love Is In The Air

A recent spike in air traffic control errors is likely attributable to a change in the Federal Aviation Administration’s chosen contractor for training air traffic controllers, The Daily Caller has learned. That change was likely the result of an government contracting shuffle orchestrated by an FAA official and her lover — a former FAA official who worked for Raytheon at the time the contract was awarded. Raytheon won the contract, worth nearly $1 billion.

Potentially deadly aircraft incidents attributable to control tower mistakes have increased dramatically in recent years. Professor Jack Williams of Georgia State University told The Daily Caller that these operational errors averaged 10.8 per month between December 2008 and October 2010 — a startling 3,300-percent increase compared to the period between January 2007 and November 2008.

Williams told The Daily Caller that the only substantive change the FAA has made to the air traffic control system during that time was controllers’ training program. The FAA consolidated two separately run training programs: a “basic training” class in Oklahoma City, and the on-site control tower training future employees undergo during the ensuing three to five years.

For decades, the FAA contracted with the University of Oklahoma for the classroom program, and with the specialist firm Washington Consulting Group for the on-site training.

Read more here.

Herman Cain Says Jesus Was ‘a Perfect Conservative’ Who Was Condemned By a ‘Liberal Court’

Last December, GOP presidential contender Herman Cain penned an interesting article about Jesus Christ that has been resurrected (no pun intended) and is getting some attention in the blogosphere. Published just five days before Christmas, the piece claims that Jesus was “a perfect conservative” and that “he…changed the world for the better.”

In his article, Cain goes on to explain, though, the reasons why he believes that to be true. He writes:

He helped the poor without one government program. He healed the sick without a government health care system. He [fed] the hungry without food stamps. And everywhere He went, it turned into a rally, attracting large crowds, and giving them hope, encouragement and inspiration.

For three years He was unemployed, and never collected an unemployment check. Nevertheless, he completed all the work He needed to get done. He didn’t travel by private jet. He walked and sailed, and sometimes traveled on a donkey.

Read more here.

ATF priorities: Smuggle guns to drug cartels, arrest cigarette smugglers

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms may have knowingly allowed thousands of guns to be trafficked across the U.S.–Mexican border in the botched Operation Fast and Furious, but don’t worry! The agency is busy keeping Americans safe from the scourge of cigarette trafficking.

The ATF announced Wednesday that, in conjunction with Georgia law enforcement agencies, it had executed seven search warrants and 50 arrest warrants as part of a three-year investigation for violations of state law involving the illegal possession, sale and distribution of contraband cigarettes.

“By working together as a cohesive unit, our law enforcement partners were able to identify and apprehend individuals participating in racketeering activity, which included defrauding the state and federal governments of revenue by evading cigarette and cigar excise taxes,” said Georgia State Attorney General Sam Olens. “These arrests send a strong message that if you do not play by the rules in Georgia, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

As the second word in its name implies, the ATF has jurisdiction over contraband and counterfeit tobacco products.

Read more here.

Obama’s bus tour a flat failure

The question is, when will reality set in for Obama?

Closing out his bus tour on a low-key note, President Obama made a pitch for his jobs package at a firehouse, where a subdued crowd needed a bit of prompting to applaud his proposal to boost the economy.

Anytime a crowd needs “prompting” to applaud what a president says – especially on friendly turf with presumably his core supporters in attendance – you might want to get out the butter and jam because you know the prez is toast.

Obama visited Fire Station 9 to draw attention to a major piece of his $447-billion jobs package. He wants to spread $35 billion among states and cities, in part to prevent layoffs of police and firefighters, and would pay for it with a surtax on millionaires. Congress may vote on that measure as early as this week.

On Wednesday afternoon, Obama stood at a lectern against a backdrop of firefighters and offered his prescription for solving the persistent jobs crisis: “A fair shot for everybody; a fair share from everybody. That’s the principle that built America.”

The president got a polite reception from the 100 or so people crowded into the station garage. Early in his speech he mentioned his American Jobs Act.

One or two people clapped.

“You can go ahead and clap,” the president said. “Go ahead, nothing wrong with it.”

What an embarrassment.

This entire “Class Warfare Tour” has been a bust. He tried to do a balancing act with the OWS crowd, endorsing their protest without endorsing some of the loonier and hateful things that are coming out of the encampments. He tried pretending his jobs bill isn’t dead. He tried to rev up crowds by getting them angry at “millionaires and billionaires” without much success.

Nobody is listening and few care. He already gives of the stench of not a lame duck, but a dead duck – a failed one term presidency that people will talk about in the same breath as Jimmy Carter.

All We Need to Do is Tax a Few Very Rich People

This is the message Joe Biden is also working hard to sell. You remember his economics lesson he gave to that fourth grade class in Pennsylvania the other day, right? From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs, government picks the winners and losers, government knows best how to spend your money. You get the idea.

Then at a campaign-like rally yesterday, Biden said that millionaires “know it’s the equitable thing to do.” Meanwhile, those evil Republicans … they “want to curry favor with guys who aren’t even asking for [tax cuts].” Oh, so if they were asking for tax cuts, would that then make it OK? After all, who wouldn’t want to keep more of the money they earn? Oh wait, that’s greeeedy. Biden says, “So I say to the American people, watch your senator, watch him or her choose” between teachers and first responders or the evil rich. It’s us versus them. That’s sure going to promote a lot of prosperity!

By the way … speaking of “greedy.” Can someone explain to me why it is perfectly OK for one person to ask the government to seize money from someone else to give to them, but it’s greedy for a person to want to keep the money they earn? Been trying to figure that out … isn’t working.

Then we have Barack Obama out on the campaign trail .. yes, campaign trail .. espousing the same idiocy. In Virginia the other day, Obama said:

“We’re going to ask the Senate to pay for it (the jobs bill) by making sure that folks like me are paying their fair share, and if I’m paying my fair share, then you get a tax cut or a tax break.”

Fair share. I am so sick to damned death of that phrase. Barack Obama wants to make sure that “folks like him” are paying their “fair share.” Hey .. Obama! If you don’t think you are paying your fair share, they write a check to the Treasury Department and pay some more? That’s perfectly legal, you know.

I’ve been through a few elections, folks. This is my 11th or 12th presidential election as a talk show host. I have NEVER in all these elections seen a level of class warfare rhetoric anywhere close to this. This man is going to end up getting someone killed with his eat-the-rich campaign.

So how does Obama make sure the rich are paying their fair share? First he must assess what percentage of total taxable income folks like him are earning. That would be a bit less than 20% of all income. Then our class warfare commander in chief must figure out what percentage of total income taxes folks like him are paying. That would be a bit more than 30%. Then this class warfare revolutionary must sell to the people the idea that if a group of people earn about 20% of all income and pay almost 40% of all income taxes .. that doesn’t constitute a “fair share.”

Do you want to know who isn’t paying a “fair share?” How about the 47% of Americans who pay absolutely no income taxes at all? Now THAT is an easy to understand statistic. Also, the rich paying higher taxes doesn’t necessarily equal less taxes being paid by others. What it most likely means is growing the size of government.

But Barack Obama wasn’t done. He says, “[P]eople like me can afford to pay a little bit more.” Sure, they can afford to, but that’s not the question. The question is, should they be forced to hand over that money at the point of a gun? But this is coming from a president who believes that “at some point, you’ve made enough money.” So I’m not surprised that he is willing to chip away at the wealth people of people who have “made enough money.”

Dear Ruler didn’t end there. He went on to explain that “we’re talking about the top 1, 2% of people at the very top of the income scales.” Wait, 2%? How did the 2%ers get it there? In fact, how did all the 1%ers get in there? After all, only the top .2% of taxpayers earn over a million dollars. I thought his jobs bill was only supposed to be targeting millionaires and billionaires? The top 1% of taxpayers includes people earning $380,000 a year. That’s a far cry from millionaires and billionaires. And that number gets even lower if you include the top 2% that he mentioned.

Let’s finish this thing out. Obama said, “You got corporations who are getting special deals on their tax codes. They don’t need a special deal. Let’s give a good deal to hardworking men and women who are out there struggling to make ends meet.”

Wait you mean like the special deals on the tax code that the Obama adminstration granted to the now-failed Solyndra?

Sorry, Obama. The truth is that government and your Washington DC cronies are the biggest manipulators, and the solution is not to increase taxes to make up for the inadequacies of our lousy tax code. We need to scrap the whole system that allows this to happen to begin with. It’s not just corporations who are benefiting from our tax code. I don’t believe you are that ignorant to believe that, but I do believe you are that desperate as to campaign on it. Herman Cain was exactly right the other night when he said that the current tax code allows for politicians to manipulate the American people.

Graphic Warning: CNN Airs Alleged Photo of Dead Gadhafi

Commmunists Involved in “Occupation” Movement, Nationwide