Post Scripts

Thanks go to Harold for this find…

Here are the 10 worst charities in America from the list compiled by the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Tampa Bay Times, along with the percentage of money raised that went to the supposed cause:

1. Kids Wish Network (2.5%)
2. Cancer Fund of America (0.9%)
3. Children’s Wish Foundation International (10.8%)
4. American Breast Cancer Foundation (5.3%)
5. Firefighters Charitable Foundation (8.4%)
6. Breast Cancer Relief Foundation (2.2%)
7. International Union of Police Associations (0.5%)
8. National Veterans Service Fund (7.8%)
9. American Association of State Troopers (8.6%)
10. Children’s Cancer Fund of America (5.3%)

The charities were ranked based on how much money they spent on solicitors. Kids Wish Network paid about $110 million of $128 million raised to fundraisers, the report said.

Groups like these tend to rely on telephone solicitations to collect donations. Some are little more than fronts for the companies that raise the money. Every time a consumer makes a donation to the “charity,” the bulk of it stays with the company that made the pitch.

Here are some tips to avoid donating to for-profit telephone solicitation operation when your intention was to support charity:

• Don’t make a donation on a call from a fundraiser. A legitimate charity will be more than happy to accept a donation on your time frame through a means you feel comfortable with, whether it’s by mailing a check or using a credit card online.
• If you’re interested in a charity, take the time to find out how it plans to spend donated money.
• Research the charity before you donate, using charity evaluation sites including GuideStar, the BBB Wise Giving Alliance and Charity Navigator.
• Use the Internet to see what other people have said about the charity.

Posted by Tina

While the government has been targeting and badgering conservative groups and illicitly collecting data on most American’s there is one group that is excused from the Obama administration’s blanket intrusion, profiling, and punishing policies:

Since October 2011, mosques have been off-limits to FBI agents. No more surveillance or undercover string operations without high-level approval from a special oversight body at the Justice Department dubbed the Sensitive Operations Review Committee.

According to IBD, “the names of the chairman, members and staff” of this group “are kept secret.”

Okay, benefit of the doubt, let’s say this is an attempt to specifically monitor and target based on sensitive information gathering regarding Muslims and Mosques. But if a more specific targeting is the purpose behind this special group why were so many red flags missed or ignored in the Boston Marathon case?

There’s something wrong here; it has the same smelly odor that surrounds the Fort Hood case.

Americans need to start asking the question, “Exactly who or what does this administration serve?”…cause it sure doesn’t seem like America, the safety of Americans, equality under the law, freedom, justice, privacy, religious freedom, or any number of other American values are the top concerns of our leadership.

Watch what they do not what they say. The list of egregious policies and actions just keeps growing.

by Jack

Perhaps you have heard the radio commercial about Republicans having the solution to immigration reform…so, we should vote Republican.  And we probably would if the bill was remotely close to what’s being advertised.   But, right off we get into trouble with the lead line, “The first thing we do is secure our border.”  No, the first thing we do is grant 13 million people that are here illegally amnesty – then we throw some money at the border.  Big deal. It’s still not secure. 

The Dems and the Obama Administration lies too.  They say we have effective control over our Southern border…news to me.  If by [effective] they mean narco-traffickers must now use remote locations to smuggle their wares and they can’t come across at Tijuana check point anymore, then I can agree.   Hey, if we have such great control of the border now, why is it that we have have rescue stations in the desert with placards written in both Spanish and Chinese that says, if you need water press this button and help will be on the way?  That’s right I said Chinese - this is what they are calling effective border control?   

To clear up one point…  it’s not actually a Republican reform bill,  it’s just 4 Repubilcans and 4 Democrats who have formed this “Gang of 8” that wrote the bill.  The Republicans who are now speaking for the bill, like Haley Barbour and Marc Rubio, have a history of being soft on immigration.  I’m told that many more Republicans in Congress oppose this bill than support it. 

Polls affirm that the issue of illegal immigration is one subject that most Americans can are concerned about.  And for good reasons.  In a soft economy like ours where jobs are hard to find, why have 11-13 million more people here seeking our jobs?  For the big companies it’s great to have a vast labor force to pick and choose from and at low wages.  This is great for big businesses!  They want the illegals to be here.   The Republicans support the big companies because big companies support them with lots of contributions – dot connected.   (The Republican Party has a major conflict of interest here that they don’t like mentioning.)   

On the other side the Democrats correctly assume that (this is just my estimate) 99.4% of all the illegal aliens will choose to become part of their voter base – so they have every reason to want them here too.  That’s a heck of a lot of votes and this big number can throw our elections in ways we never imagined!   This is one sweet deal if you are highly partisan dem or rep.   Unfortuantely, the deal isn’t so sweet for us taxpayers.  We must pick-up the tab for their costs, for all the safety nets that get used and abused and for the added costs to the justice system.  Illegals are a hugely overrepresented portion of the prison population.  Today, about 55,000 criminal aliens account for more than one-fourth of prisoners in Federal Bureau of Prisons facilities, and there are about 297,000 criminal aliens incarcerated in state and local prisons. That number represents about 16.4 percent of the state and local prison population compared to the 12.9 percent of the total population comprised of foreign-born residents.  ( http://www.fairus.org/issue/criminal-aliens) 

 Administering justice to criminal aliens costs the taxpayer dearly.   The estimated cost of incarcerating these criminal aliens at the federal level is estimated at $1.5 to $1.6 billion per year!

Under the propose Immigration Reform bill the ads tell us that ALL illegals must pay a fine, go to back of the line and they must learn English!  Sounds pretty tough until you check the facts.  The fine doesn’t begin to cover a fraction of the processing cost.  At the moment the fine amount is being kicked around at about $2000, but most of the backers think this will come down to about $500 before the bill is signed. 

As far as border security, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano simply has to submit a plan for border security and a fencing plan within six months of the passage of the bill. As soon as Napolitano submits the plans, illegal aliens become eligible for work permits.  Rubio’s claim in the ad is that illegal immigrants will receive no federal benefits belies the fact that illegal immigrants already receiving federal benefits will continue to receive them and this bill will do nothing to stop that!   Next, the applicants get a permanent green card right off and basically that’s all they needed.  Citizenship is not that high on their priority list.  Polling suggests most are here  for the money and when they retire their dream is to go back to Mexico and live large while drawing Social Security. 

What happens if their application for citizenship is rejected?  Nothing.  There’s a provision that says if you apply none of your identifying information can be used to kick you out.  You could be wanted for rape and murder and you’re ID information is safe with us.   There is no deportation mechanism in this so-called bi-partisan bill!  And as for learning English – BS.  We have that as part of the citizenship program now.   In the bill learning English does not mean you must be conversational in English, this bar is really low, virtually on the floor.   And if you are older you’re exempt from learning.   So basically we’re helping to expand the huge sub-culture of Spanish speakers.  

It’s estimated that allowing the 11 to 13 million (estimated) illegals to be allowed here on whatever status, green card or citizenship, means in a few short years we will have about 90 million friends and relatives of this core group added to our society that will identify more with the Spanish speaking sub-culture than the American culture. 

The effects of too much uncontrolled immigration is hardest felt with the dilution of traditional American values and an appreciation for our history.  This is played out on many levels from our educational system to our hard hit healthcare system.   And the sum of all these costs is enough to break the bank.   But, you’ve not seen nuthin yet, the worst is yet to come.

by Jack Lee - 12 Jun 2013

Awhile back I mentioned in our blog that in my (limited) spare time I’m an amature horologist,( pocket watch collector).   This hobby dictates that you should either be able to fix your own stuff or be independently wealthy and let somebody else do it for you.  Consider what they charge for a simple cleaning… $85 (yikes!).   Well, obviously I quickly decided I had to learn how to fix and clean my own stuff.  This is a page from that never ending education and my latest watch project.   (A rare version of the Raketa is shown on left)

This particular project came about more or less by accident.  The other day I was cleaning up the ol’ office and noticed I had quite a few left-over parts from some Russian watches I had bought as donors for other watches that required just one or two pieces to be replaced or repaired.    I had no idea if all these watch parts from different watches would interchange, even if they were made by the same manufacturer.   In the watch world there is very little standardization…very little!   Consider that I had parts that covered at least a 50 year spread.   If it was any other brand of watch there is no way this was going to work, but with the Russians, mmmmmm…maybe?  Those Russians are very practical about such things. 

After sorting through my junk parts it looked like I had all that I needed to make one complete watch…that is, if the parts would interchange?   And this is where it started, with just parts, no diagrams to tell me how they go together.  So began my first attempt to build a complete pocket watch from junk.      

The watch was the Molnija aka Molnia.  It’s a fairly drab looking pocket watch that wouldn’t win any prize for style, but it had some good parts.  This is typical of the Soviet era stuff,be it cars, bikes or in this case…watches. 

They just wanted stuff that did the job, forget the glitz.  Before the first watch factory went into production in Russian they looked around the world at various watchmakers to see how they did things.  Eventually they focused on the Rolex company as the watch they most respected and therefore wanted to replicate.  So, they began by buying the original parts from them and eventually they were making all the cloned parts in Russia.  Not sure if they had legal permission, but if it was something the Soviets wanted, they just did it.  Legality was never an issue.  But, they did pick a darn good company to copy from, legal or not.  

The watch company called Molnija is Russian for lightning and it was founded in 1947.  It continued in production until they closed their doors in 2007.   The major buyer in the early years was the Soviet Dept. of Defense.  Molnija supplied clocks for aircraft, tanks, soldiers, you name it, they made it.  See the picture on the right…here’s a Monija aircraft clock from a Mig jet fighter.   Looks similar to our old aircraft clocks. 

See the watch parts on the left?  Thats a lot of parts and this is only part of what I started with.  Just finding the right part would be a challenge.  This pile of scrap does not show all the parts or loose screws (some of smaller than 1/16th of an inch long) that were required. 

First step…I took all the scrap parts that I thought I would need, put them in the sonic cleaner and when they emerged they were inspected and fitted.  After a lot of trial and error…mostly error… I finally had what I thought might work.  Now it was a matter of assembly..uh, no diagrams with this project either!    It’s sort of an intuitive thing, you know…watches being watches, but that’s about all I had to go on.  In a few hours I actually had a movement coming together!  So far so good.  

Backing up a bit, when I had two or three of the same parts, I used the best.  Everything I used was cleaned, inspected, oiled and then carefully and tediously reassembled. 

When it was complete and the movement was dropped back into the case… I wound it.  The moment had arrived.  It was one of the cross your fingers times, but the little watch fired right up!  It wanted to run, and it just took a little winding and away it went.   At first it was running too fast, but a little tweaking here and there and I had it keeping time, virtually second for second with my expensive 21 jeweled Hamilton railroad watch.  I’m pleased to report that after 24 hours on the bench this Russian watch was spot on with the Hamilton and computer time.   

What I now have is a full on restoration of an early 1950’s Molnija.  Check out the pics… like I said, it won’t win any prizes for style, but for function this little  watch is pretty darn good. 

Molnija’s come in mostly 15 to 18 jewel (rubies).  Mine is an 18.  It’s about a size 14 in US watch standards.   Rubies also are added to the pallet fork, a good sign of quality (Pallets are part of the primary timing)   The Ruskies did it right and they didn’t scrimp on the quality of the movement, all the essential moving parts were precision jeweled.

So, I have to admit, in this case the Russian’s did a pretty good job making a pocket watch, even if they had to copy from somebody else.  Lucky for me that parts made in 1997 would interchange with parts made in 1947.   Well that’s about it…oh, next up on my projects is a key wind Civil War era pocket watch similar to what Lincoln carried.      

by Tina Grazier

Post Scripts has consistently endeavored to expose the poor character that is evident at the top. At a time when we are threatened by terrorists and cyber warfare our nation desperately needs people of high moral character in government and yet we discover the opposite in various departments under the current administration. The abuse of power that has occurred under President Obama’s leadership is not acceptable. The NSA scandal is just another in a string of similar abuses at the IRS and HHS. This government, led by a man that is more interested in personal and party power than he is the rights of the people, the stability of the nation under the constitution, or the safety of our nation, has failed to serve the people.

Case in point is the 9/11 bombing of the Boston Marathon. According to Michael Daly of The Daily Beast Tamerlan Tsarnaev visited a radical Islamist web magazine regularly and our surveillance team wasn’t interested. Is it because they were too busy looking for…well…that’s what Americans want to know. What were they looking for? Were they snooping on Tea Party organizations, conservative bloggers, or Republican activists instead? Were they mining for information to target political ads in the next election?

The magazine Inspire posts a recipe that was of great interest to Tarnaev: “Build a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.” He repeatedly visited this site. It is a huge scandal that this attack on Americans that resulted in death, disfigurement, loss of limbs, and head injury was not prevented.

At this point I think it would be good to revisit the manual that guides every political move this administration takes…Rule #12:

Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

Under President Obama’s leadership this manual to destroy his political opposition has been taken to grand new heights of moral depravity and abuse. This administration has used the government to target the American people, particularly those who hold opposing political and social views. It appears that instead of surveilling the enemies of our nation, Obama’s activist organizers betrayed the trust given them and used their power to target Americans.

This administration and the Democrat Party have a character problem. A thorough cleansing of every department in government is needed. A fresh look at the size of government is needed! That will require new people in leadership with fresh ideas who are motivated by American values, a desire to serve the people…and most importantly, who are of good character!

Review all twelve of the proudly evil Rules for Radicals here with our thanks to Glenn Beck.

Posted by Tina

The Daily Caller calls our attention to former abuses:

The revelations detailing the extent of the National Security Agency’s espionage capabilities raises the specter that their powers could be misused to target Americans who have nothing to do with terrorism.

In fact, allegations of such misconduct already exist. Here are two examples where anti-terrorism powers granted to law enforcement were allegedly used to target American citizens not engaged in terrorism.
1.) National Security Agency staffers allegedly listened to personal calls of Americans abroad
Two former intercept officers who worked at the NSA facility in Fort Gordon, Georgia told ABC News’s Brian Ross in 2008 that they and their colleagues listened in on phone calls home of hundreds of Americans living and working abroad.

“These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East, in our area of intercept, and happened to be making these phone calls on satellite phones,” Adrienne Kinne, one of the whistle-blowers and a former Army Reserves Arab linguist, told ABC News.

The second example has to do with new bank regulations in the Patriot Act that requires banks to report unusual financial activity and results in snooping on those engaged in activity unrelated to terrorism.

Character matters, but since religious training is under severe attack and the new generations are making up rules for themselves as they go along…character traits such as loyalty, honesty, trust, and honor become very squishy ideals. As if fighting terrorists, drug lords, criminals and thugs wasn’t difficult enough. Can you imagine how differently it would have been to conduct WWII under these social conditions? No wonder our nation is under stress.

This security matter just adds fuel to an already very dangerous world.

Posted by Tina

Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media suggests that Edward Snowden, the NSA whistleblower who leaked secret documents on security surveillance to the press, is a spy:

The fingerprints of America’s enemies and adversaries are all over the disclosures about the NSA’s terrorist surveillance program. It is significant that NSA contract employee Edward Snowden would flee to Hong Kong—controlled by China—and that he would select Glenn Greenwald, a far-left columnist, as his mouthpiece.

Even CNN is questioning the motivation behind this security leak and quoted Bowden from “The Guardian” article:

“The government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. There is no public oversight. The result is people like myself have the latitude to go further than they are allowed to,” Snowden told the paper.

Persons like himself? Does he realize he just admitted to being a man of questionable character? This man had other choices. He could have expressed his concerns to Congress.

Greenwald insists that terrorists already know “we surveil their communications” and “…the only things we damaged are the reputation of American political officials, not national security.”

Sounds like the intent on Greenwalds part was to give America a big black eye…Snowden still has not turned up after leaving his Hong Kong hotel…well, at least you and I don’t know his whereabouts.

What do you think guys, friend or foe?

Posted by Tina

Frank Ryan over at The American Thinker believes the education bubble has burst and cites startling information to back up his claim. The New York Federal Reserve’s 2012 report finds that the debt for student loans has topped out at $1 trillion dollars ($1,000,000,000,000.00). Only fifteen million borrowers are under age 30…the total number is 39 million! The average amount owed is $25 thousand with delinquency rates ranging from 10% to 20%. Personal wealth losses, a lousy economy, a poor jobs market, higher expenses for new doctors with substantial loan debt, high unemployment for young people and other negative economic factors haven’t helped this situation.

But there’s more bad news for those seeking higher education according to the article. High tuition costs (up 32-42%) and the discouraging thought that a diploma isn’t worth the cost of higher education has caused lower student enrollment at a time when colleges are facing budget problems or insolvency:

Concurrently, Moody’s in 2013 gave a negative financial outlook for all universities. Recent studies have indicated that over 50% of all colleges and universities are projected to close, merge, or shut down in the next 50 years.

The consolidation, failure, and decline have already started, and the pace will accelerate.
The causes of the insolvency for universities include:

• Continued escalation in college tuitions and fees compared to the overall rate of inflation.

• Limited growth in incomes of parents and students in recent years and continued high levels of unemployment of graduates.

• Extensive outstanding student loan debt already amounting to $1 trillion.

• Development of alternative education systems such as remote classes and internet systems.

• Growing debt of colleges and universities.

• Extraordinarily high fixed costs of colleges and universities, making the education system very susceptible to losses from reduced enrollment.

• Growing trend to “discount” tuition at major universities. This is very similar to the problem that faced hospitals with “contractual allowances.”

The sum of all these factors will cause a collapse of the education systems as we know it.

This could be the start of a messy meltdown for higher education. But it will also signal a chance for smart reforms in education and provide a great opportunity for those who are interested in delivering quality education at a reasonable price. According to EDTECH, more than six million students are currently taking at least one online course and the addition of MOOC’s to the college experience is poised to become a new standard. (MOOC – Massive Open Online Courses). 74% of colleges now offer online courses. 83% of schools would consider joining an online education group. 67% don’t think MOOC’s will replace traditional college…but 33% say these classes will, 28% say it will within 6 or more years and 5% within 5 years. I remember when people thought computers would never be in private use! Those who cling to safe spaces and tenured security better hold on to their hats! This new generation is charging ahead on the wings of technology.

Students and parents are hungry for an affordable path to higher education and diplomas that are worth the price to acquire them. When this bubble goes the result may be felt as a gradual oozing rather than one big whoosh but never fear, the solution is right around the corner!

U.S. stock indexes slide on global view

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks fell Tuesday after the Bank of Japan disappointed some investors by holding its policy steady and worries about Federal Reserve tapering continued to haunt the market.

“Today is going to be a truly global marketplace, because the Bank of Japan didn’t have more to say about the volatility in their bond markets,” said Art Hogan, market strategist at Lazard Capital Markets.

“And we have a choppy economic recovery and a big question mark about our monetary policy,” Hogan said.

Investors have been watching closely U.S. economic data for any clues as to when the Fed may begin to scale back its monthly bond purchases.

 ”It does feel like in the last couple of weeks, news has been affecting all markets, not just regional,” said Richard Slinn, an investment specialist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank in San Francisco.

Along with Asian and European stocks, the dollar fell sharply against the Japanese yen (USDJPY) after the Bank of Japan decided to stay put on its policies, dashing some hopes that the central bank would extend the duration on its ultra-low interest rates to banks.

Global stocks were also rattled as a German constitutional court began to consider the legality of the European Central Bank’s pledge last year to buy the government bonds of weaker euro-zone countries to prevent the single currency from breaking up.

Extending losses into a second session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell as much as 152 points, and was lately down 58.97 points, or 0.4%, at 15,179.62, with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) pacing declines that included 24 of its 30 components.

The S&P 500 index (SPX) dropped 8.61 points, or 0.5%, to 1,634.20, with the financial sector hardest hit and telecommunications the sole group in the green among its 10 major industries.

The Nasdaq Composite (COMP) slid 17.18 points, or 0.5%, to 3,456.58.

For every stock rising, nearly six fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where 212 million shares traded by 11:15 a.m. Eastern.

Composite volume approached 1.2 billion.

Gold futures shed 0.8% to 1,375.20 an ounce and crude fell 1.2% to $94.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Inventories at U.S. businesses climbed 0.2% in April to $504.8 billion, the Commerce Department reported Tuesday. Separately, the Labor Department said job openings at U.S. workplaces fell to 3.76 million in April from 3.88 million in March.

Posted by Tina

Apparently HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has a hefty personal piggy bank. She can spend it however she likes…and in future years it will grow to $2 billion per year. This cash will always be available to HHS Secretaries to use however they want! Wow…how is the secretary using this pocket money…why does she need it? Shouldn’t this expense have been be included in estimates of the cost of healthcare? Is it smart to give taxpayer cash to a bureaucrat without direction and in such large amounts? What the hell is going on?

According to The American Spectator this piggy bank was authorized as part of the Obamacare legislation. It’s one of those things we had to pass the bill to find out! The slush fund is called the “Prevention and Public Health Fund” and it was allotted without a provision to account for how the money is spent. Congressional approval and oversight is also bypassed on this yearly $2 billion in taxpayer monies!

Vigilance Pilgrims! We are obliged to demand…how has the first holder of the HHS piggy bank, HHS Secretry, Kathleen Sebelius, spent this money?

Would you believe illegal lobbying and “goofy” grants (redistribution for health!)? What do you want to bet that those granted taxpayer monies for their little businesses will gladly hand over a few bucks to Democrats come election time!!!

A linked report from CATO adds specifics:

…goofy-sounding grant activities ranging “from ‘pickleball’ (a racquet sport) in Carteret County, N.C. to Zumba (a dance fitness program), kayaking and kickboxing in Waco, TX.”

It’s tailor-made for log-rolling and rewarding local friends, but the dangers go beyond that. In particular, as outraged Republicans from Fred Upton (R-Mich.) in the House to Susan Collins (R-Me.) in the Senate have been documenting, large sums from the program have been devoted to the purpose of lobbying for the passage of legislation at the local and state level — notwithstanding specific statutory language making that an unlawful way of spending money raised from federal taxpayers. (emphasis mine)

Forbes fills in the blanks:

…some of that money is going for everything from massage therapists who offer “calming techniques,” to groups advocating higher state and local taxes on tobacco and soda, and stricter zoning restrictions on fast-food restaurants… some of the federal money went to groups who described their own activities as contacting state, city and county lawmakers to urge higher taxes on high-calorie sodas and tobacco, or to call for bans on fast-food restaurants within 1,000-feet of a school, or total bans on smoking in outdoor venues, such as beaches or parks. In a May 9 letter to HHS Secretary Sebelius, Rep. Fred Upton (R,Mich) wrote that HHS grants “appear to fund lobbying activities contrary to the laws, regulations, and guidance governing the use of federal funds.” His letter included the latest in a series of requests for more documents and complaints about responses to previous requests.

Some Democrats, including Obamacare champion Sen. Tom Harkin (D, Iowa), are extremely unhappy with another use of Prevention Fund money. The Obama Administration plans to divert $453.8 million this year from that fund to use for administrative and promotional efforts to enroll millions of people in health insurance exchanges that are said to be vital to Obamacare’s success. Harkin calls this shift, which has not been authorized by Congress, “an outrageous attack on an investment fund that is saving lives.” (emphasis mine)

How can health care costs for every individual American ever be reasonable when our government continues to waste so much on bureaucratic fancy and whim?

Health insurance premiums will rise from 65% to 145% for individual Americans next year! Added expenses like this slush fund in the bureaucracy will either add to our public debt or drive taxes higher on the middle and lower classes. These groups have already seen their opportunities for economic advancement curtailed and dashed…how much more must this segment endure so that progressives can play at being god in the big government machine?