Happy Birthday, Callie

Today is Callie's 29th birthday (Callie is Sandy's daughter). Callie took all of her pictures with her when she moved to New York, but we managed to find a few.

Two years old posing pretty for a family photo

*

*

Callie and her brothers, Paul (on the left) and Bill

*

*

High school picture, part one...

and high school picture, part duex

*

*

*

Callie and husband, Scott

Happy birthday, Callie! We love and miss you.

Happy Birthday Jonas!

Yesterday was Jonas' 2nd birthday (he's Sandy's grandson), so here are two years in pictures in the life of Jonas.

Newborn a little unsure of his surroundings

*

*

*

*

*

Catching a few zzz's on the recliner (in training to become a man)

In his car set and ready to go for a ride

Waiting for his lunch at Claim Jumpers

Playing in his brothers' room while they're at school (they'll never know)

Chillin' at the Lowe's

Helping with the laundry

Ready to play in the snow

Enjoying a bubble bath

Wearing his birthday crown at preschool


What a cutie! Happy birthday Jonas!

They've Forced Me to This...

Edie sent the below message to our U.S. Representative, Dina Titus. Washington has forced us to battle -- it's come to this:

"A week or two ago I emailed you regarding the FCC meeting to discuss net neutrality. Your response to me was that if it came to a vote, you would keep my opinion in mind. I noticed today that John McCain is being pro-active for his constituents. He is speaking out against net neutrality. Why couldn't you do that? I emailed you my concerns and that I'm against net neutrality and all you are going to do is vote. Why didn't you take my concerns seriously and call the FCC, ask questions, tell them you have concerned constituents -- then get back to me on what they said? Why not stand up for your constituents like John McCain? Did we only send you to Washington to vote? Who's fighting for Nevadans if you're just waiting around for a vote? Clearly, I have no representation in Washington. I might as well get an apartment in Washington so that I can be available to represent myself."

A Devil By Any Other Name Is Still A Devil

Hmmm... if you take out Lucifer from the below quote and replace it with Barack Obama, it still works:

Lucifer knew that the promise of salvation extended on his conditions was a lie. He could not have delivered the results he promised. He had two despicable motives in taking the course he did. One was to make himself an absolute dictator with all power and glory. The other was to enslave his followers by taking from them forever their right to make choices. Obviously, under such conditions all opportunity for individual progress and development would have been lost. Lucifer sought to aggrandize himself at the eternal expense of all who would submit to this proposition.
N. Eldon Tanner, “Dependability,” Ensign, Apr 1974, 2

Nevadans, Heeeeeere's Harry!

ObamaCare: The (Doc) Fix Isn’t In
posted at 12:02 am on October 22, 2009 by Karl
www.hotair.com

A dozen Democrats — and Independent Joe Lieberman — joined all 40 Senate Republicans to block a permanent repeal of the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) payment formula for doctors, as there was no consensus over how to pay the $247 billion 10-year price tag. Sen. Maj. Ldr. Harry Reid wanted the “doc fix” as a payoff to keep the American Medical Association on board for ObamaCare — so naturally, he blamed the AMA for failing to deliver 27 GOP votes.

The AMA was not amused:
The reference to 27 votes was made well before S. 1776 was introduced and in the context of bipartisan health reform legislation,” said J. James Rohack, AMA president. “The majority of Democrats and Republicans support SGR repeal for seniors and baby boomers, but today’s vote appears to be becoming the victim of Senate politics. Congress needs to fulfill its obligation to seniors, baby boomers and military families, and repeal of the SGR is an essential element for health reform to succeed.”

Accordingly, I doubt docs are going to be too impressed with Reid’s comment that “We’ll take this up again when we finish healthcare.” Moreover, Reid knows he may be forced to take it up sooner:

Aides to Mr. Reid said they had no choice but to try to fix the doctor payment formula ahead of debate on the larger health care legislation. Otherwise, they said, an amendment would be offered on the Senate floor to add the formula adjustment to the bill, pushing the overall price-tag of the legislation above $1 trillion and seriously imperiling its chances.

So Reid, in one fell swoop: (1) failed to keep his caucus together on a cloture vote on healthcare just ahead of a massive battle on the issue; (2) failed to deliver a payoff to one of the Dems’ allies on the issue; (3) blamed that ally for his own incompetence; (4) created the likelihood of a damaging amendment and a bruising floor fight when he brings ObamaCare to the floor; (5) gave the GOP “Exhibit A” for the case that the Dems are running a dishonest shell game to hide the true costs of ObamaCare.

Heckuva job, Harry!

Reid is Ready to Rumble

Politico.com has posted the below article on their website. We hope that fellow Nevadans are smarter than believing attack ads. But if they aren't, it's a certainty that Reid's opponents can come up with plenty of attack ads against Reid.

Harry Reid plan: 'Vaporize' 2010 GOP opponent

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is prepared to run a sharply negative campaign if that’s what it takes to win reelection next year, with a top adviser predicting that the Nevada Democrat will “vaporize” his Republican challengers with attack ads.

Read the rest of the article at this link: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28490.html#

Congressional Honor, Friends and Term Limits

We received the following Personal Liberty Alert in an e-mail. We really like the last paragraph.

Congressional Honor, Friends and Term Limits

*A congressional honor role. Here's a tip of the hat to the seven House members of the Congressional Black Caucus who voted to defund the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). They were Sanford Bishop of Georgia, William Lacy Clay of Missouri, John Conyers of Michigan, Artur Davis of Alabama, Hank Johnson of Georgia, Kendrick Meet of Florida and Laura Richardson of California. Since there are 35 members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the House of Representatives, this means that a staggering 80 percent of them voted not to stop taxpayer funds from going to an organization that has been caught on video at least five times offering advice on how to practice slavery.

*If you're known by your friends... Although it didn't get much publicity, I thought you'd like to know about the tirade Libya's Muammar Qadhafi delivered at the United Nations last month. He was allotted 15 minutes to speak but ranted on for over an hour and a half. Among the highlights: Israel plotted the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the U.S. military produced the AIDS virus and other diseases to help wipe out minorities. Oh yes, and that he hopes Barack Obama—whom he called "my son"—remains president for life.

*More examples of friends helping friends. A start-up car company backed by former Vice President Al Gore has been awarded a $529 million U.S. government loan to help build a hybrid gas-electric sports car. And here's the kicker: the vehicle will be built in Finland, not the U.S. Fisker Automotive, which has yet to build a single vehicle, says the car will retail for around $90,000 if it ever goes into production.

*Now, this is the way to do term limits. I saw a put-down of politicians a few days ago that I really liked. Here it is: "Limit all U.S. politicians to two terms. The first in office, the second in prison. Illinois already does this."—Chip Wood

Reid is A Nut

The Republican Party of Nevada Chairwoman Sue Lowden issued the following statement regarding Senator Harry Reid’s refusal to investigate ACORN despite mounting evidence of the organization’s corrupt activities:

“First it was a bipartisan effort in Congress, then the IRS and now even the main stream media believes ACORN is corrupt and needs to be investigated. Yet, Senator Harry Reid seems to be the last man standing behind ACORN and their shady practices. It’s time for Reid to start working for his constituents who are concerned about ACORN’s involvement in their electoral process and call for an investigation into the corrupt organization.”

Please note the following editorial from the Las Vegas Review Journal on the subject:


EDITORIAL: Reid blocks ACORN probe

Tracking abuse by political allies could be 'distracting'

The question does remain: Do Sen. Reid and congressional Democrats really believe that if they just ignore the big mess their pet bear has dumped in the middle of the room, it'll somehow stop stinking?

ACORN -- the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now -- is stinking up Washington.

And this is far more significant than if a suspiciously large number of operatives for a purely "private" outfit had been found systematically bending and breaking the law, because ACORN receives and spends taxpayer money -- lots of it -- and had carried the imprimatur of official partnerships with the IRS, the Census Bureau ... the kind of "cred" that in the political world comes only from "who you know."

Yes, ACORN has friends in high places -- friends who are still stonewalling attempts to trace where all that tax money went ... perhaps because they know who still has cookie crumbs all over their hands.

It didn't start with those undercover videos made by a couple of independent filmmakers posing as a prostitute and her pimp, visiting various ACORN offices around the country and getting helpful advice on how to hide their income and "qualify" for a tax-subsidized mortgage to set up a house of ill repute, declaring three of their dozen (albeit imaginary) underage illegal immigrant prostitutes as "dependents."

That was just a final shoe dropping loudly enough that the problem could no longer be ignored.

Here in Clark County, Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said last year he saw "rampant fraud in the 2,000 to 3,000 registrations ACORN turns in every week," with some 48 percent of those forms being "clearly fraudulent."

The Las Vegas headquarters of ACORN, "a Democrat-allied organization," was raided after being "accused of submitting multiple voter registrations with duplicate and false names," the Washington Times reported last fall. The outfit claimed it had registered to vote in Nevada, among others, the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys.

The raid "set off a skirmish over efforts to expand the electorate on behalf of Sen. Barack Obama," the Times reported.

Mr. Lomax noted ACORN had hired 59 inmates from a work-release program at a nearby prison and that some inmates who had been convicted of identity theft had been made supervisors. "That led some local wags to joke that at least ACORN was hiring specialists to do their work," reported John Fund at The Politico, last November.

ACORN's 2008 Las Vegas field director, Christopher Edwards, pleased guilty last spring to two gross misdemeanor counts of conspiracy to commit compensation for registration of voters, in a deal that saw him agree to testify against fellow defendants.

Fox News' Eric Shawn reported there were at least 11 investigations across the country involving thousands of potentially fraudulent ACORN forms. Yet none of this was sufficient to block President Obama and his congressional minions from upping federal subsidies to outfits such as Mr. Obama's former associates at ACORN from the mere millions to the billions of dollars in their "economic stimulus" bill last winter.

Only when presented with the undeniable evidence of the "pimp and ho" videotape did the IRS last week announce it would terminate ACORN's participation in the agency's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program -- shortly after the Census Bureau advised ACORN it could forget about helping with its decennial head count.

Smoke? Fire? Washington Democratic leaders have opted to just lay low and not smell nothin'.

Despite all this evidence and a request in writing by 28 GOP senators -- and despite the fact the U.S. Senate voted 83-7 on Sept. 14 to block ACORN from bidding for any more federal grant money -- "Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., is refusing to hold a Senate hearing on ACORN's activities," the National Republican Senatorial Committee complained Wednesday.

Mr. Reid replied additional investigations might distract lawmakers from addressing more important matters, including health care and economic recovery.

"It's become increasingly clear that ACORN may have manipulated tens of thousands of ballots in last year's federal election = -- an area where Congress has clear oversight responsibilities -- yet Harry Reid won't lift a finger," said NRSC spokesman Brian Walsh. "It's hard to see his latest roadblock as anything but another example of Harry Reid protecting his liberal allies in Washington while remaining out of touch with his constituents in Nevada."

That's a politically motivated shot, of course. Stripped of the gratuitous elbowing, however, the question does remain: Do Sen. Reid and congressional Democrats really believe that if they just ignore the big mess their pet bear has dumped in the middle of the room, it'll somehow stop stinking?

Universal Healthcare Rationing Success Story of the Day

Plumber with shattered arm left horrifically bent out of shape has operation 'cancelled four times'

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 10:26 AM on 08th October 2009

A plumber whose arm was left twisted grotesquely out of shape in an accident ten months ago has had an operation to correct it 'cancelled four times'.

Torron Eeles, 50, has been left unable to work since falling down the stairs and now fears he may lose his home after being denied incapacity benefit.

The father-of-three today hit out at the NHS for the 'unacceptable delays', but East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust said Mr Eeles had his operation cancelled on 'only' two occasions on clinical safety grounds.

His left arm has hung limply by his side since he fractured the humerus bone in December 2008.
Mr Eeles, from Welham Green, Hertfordshire, applied for employment and support allowance but a doctor ruled he is ineligible for both because he can turn on a tap.

'Unacceptable': Torron Eeles has been left unable to work since falling down the stairs and now fears he may lose his home after being denied incapacity benefit.

He said: 'This whole situation is absolutely disgusting. I have never heard of anyone else having a broken arm for ten months.

'It's been so long the bones have knitted back together. Sleeping is really uncomfortable because whenever I roll over my arm gets in the way.

'I'm a kitchen fitter and plumber by trade but I can't even slice a loaf of bread let alone work.
'This has been going on and on and it's a complete nightmare.'

Mr Eeles fractured his arm on December 3 and was rushed straight to casualty where doctors put his arm in plaster.

But within a few weeks a specialist said the bones were too far apart and that surgeons would have to insert a metal plate because there was too much movement in the arm.

Mr Eeles claims his first two operations at the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, were cancelled due to a lack of beds and operating time respectively.
His third operation in February was postponed after he was found to have high blood pressure, while the fourth, scheduled for May, was abandoned because of concerns about his smoking.
The plaster was removed from Mr Eeles' arm after three months and he was given a wrist sling, which he branded 'totally useless'.

'Complete nightmare': Mr Eeles claims the NHS has cancelled an operation to correct his grotesquely broken arm 'four times'.

He said: 'My arm just flops about but the sling wasn't doing anything. The plaster didn't make a blind bit of difference after a couple of weeks either.

'How the Jobcentre can say I'm fit I don't know. I was on incapacity benefit until a few weeks ago when I went to be assessed by a doctor in Luton.

'He said because I can turn on a tap and I can lift my arm I don't qualify for help.

'Now I'm worried about losing my house. I've got a mortgage on it and there are credit cards debts I'm struggling to pay because I can't work.'

Nick Carver, the chief executive of the East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, insisted computer records showed the trust had only cancelled two operations and that proceeding with the operations could have put Mr Eeles's life at risk.

Mr Carver said: 'Mr Eeles' operation was cancelled only twice - and then both on clinical safety grounds.

'The first time was back in February when his blood pressure was found to be high.

'As his surgery was not an emergency, our surgeons took the right action in referring Mr Eeles to his GP so his blood pressure could be brought under control.

'His second operation in May 2009 was also cancelled, this time because he had failed to act on our surgeon's advice that Mr Eeles that he should give up smoking.

'In cancelling Mr Eeles' two operation dates, our surgeons were acting on clinical grounds only.
'If they are guilty of anything, then it is of having the best clinical interests of their patients at heart.'

An Upside Down Government

Since when can the feds strip a local law enforcement officer of his duty to enforce the law?



Homeland Security decertifies Arizona sheriff for immigration enforcement
posted at 1:36 pm on October 7, 2009 by Ed Morrissey

http://www.hotair.com/

Say, isn’t the primary mission of the Department of Homeland Security to, er, secure the homeland? Someone needs to remind Janet Napolitano of that mission, which includes enforcing immigration laws, after her agency decertified Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his deputies for acting as ICE agents in that specific mission. Arpaio’s sin? He apparently had too much enthusiasm for the job (via USA Today blog On Deadline):

"The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has stripped Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio of his authority to arrest suspected illegal immigrants based solely on their immigration status.
But Arpaio said Tuesday he plans to continue his controversial 'crime suppression operations,' despite DHS’s decision to not renew an agreement that would allow the sheriff to continue immigration enforcement on the streets. …

"Arpaio said he believes DHS made the changes to stop his “crime suppression operations,” which are saturation patrols in designated areas where deputies would find illegal immigrants by stopping them for traffic infractions and minor violations.

"The Department of Justice and other federal agencies are investigating the sheriff’s office on accusations of racial profiling during the crime suppression operations.

"In a Pulitzer Prize-winning series published in July 2008, the Tribune found the sheriff’s office’s illegal-immigration sweeps violated federal regulations intended to prevent racial profiling. The five-part series also found that the sweeps diverted resources from core law-enforcement functions, which in some cases caused response times to increase."

The Tribune’s point about resource allocation within the sheriff’s department is well taken — and completely irrelevant. The DHS does not have the authority to dictate resource allocation of county sheriffs anywhere. The people of Maricopa County make the determination of whether their sheriff has allocated resources to their liking, not the federal government. Arpaio stands for election every four years, and so far no challenger has come within 10 points of Arpaio. If Maricopa County residents are unhappy with Arpaio’s management of resources, they’re not demonstrating it.

If the Maricopa County Sheriff Department violated civil-rights rules, then the Department of Justice has the duty to investigate and to take corrective action. So far, though, no one has proven anything of the sort — and that still wouldn’t be the jurisdiction of DHS. Instead of working with Arpaio, whose publicity-seeking manner admittedly makes cooperation somewhat more unlikely on the issue of methods, the DHS instead cut off Maricopa County from assisting DHS from enforcing immigration law, which tends to give an indication of the priority of such enforcement in this administration.

Things We All Think About

1. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

5. There is a great need for sarcasm font.

6. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

7. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

8. Was learning cursive really necessary?

9. Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

10. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

11. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

12. Bad decisions make good stories

13. Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from; this shouldn't be a problem

14. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

15. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

16. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

17. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

18. I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

19. As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

20. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

21. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

22. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.

Money Makes the World Go Round

In the month of September Edie had to buy one of these for her car:

and one of these:

At the end of September, both of us found out that our Utah home is doing this:

For October, we are asking for a lot more of this:

It's a good thing we've already done our shopping for this:

You're So Vain... Harry

In Harry Reid's "Reid Report" dated October 1, 2009, Harry almost broke his arm patting his own back for his supposed accomplishments. Below is the text of his report. While we read his egotistical blathering, we couldn't help but ponder the following issues: (1) why would the other 49 states want to pay for Nevadans to have superior Medicaid provisions when they won't be getting the same thing? (2) Harry only decided to fight for Nevadans when he saw his poll numbers sinking in Nevada; before that, Nevadans were convenient doormats on which he could wipe his feet. We're not this stupid, Harry. (3) where is all this extra money coming from at a time when the fed is selling and then buying back their own bonds? Those are just the first things that came to our minds; there are probably many more things below to make our heads explode.

Dear Fellow Nevadan:

Some outside our state have criticized my work to ensure that we pass a health insurance reform bill that is good for Nevada. Last week, I successfully fought for changes in the Finance Committee bill that would send Nevada full federal funding for people added to the provision that would expand Medicaid in our state. Under this deal, federal Medicaid dollars flowing into Nevada will increase by more than 30 percent while the state will only have to increase its funding by 1.6 percent. In the course of their attacks, one Republican even acknowledged that I am leveraging my position as Majority Leader to deliver for Nevada. “And so the Majority Leader did exactly what a Senator, I would think, would do,” said Senator Alexander (R-TN). “[Reid] introduced an amendment, or proposed an amendment to the Senate Finance Committee and said take care of Nevada.” I make no apologies for helping those who are hurting the most in Nevada and I will continue looking for opportunities to help Nevada families weather the current economic storm.

I was also pleased this week to announce that millions in Economic Recovery funds are headed to Nevada for law enforcement and green job creation. These funds will create jobs while diversifying our economy and keeping Nevada safe. With our state suffering from an unprecedented budget crisis, unemployment over 13 percent and the highest foreclosure rate in the nation, I’m pleased to announce this money, which will bring much needed help to Nevadans. That’s what’s at the heart of the economic recovery package, helping those who are hurting. That’s also what the entire health care debate, and my job is all about - looking out for Nevadans in need.

HARRY REIDUnited States Senator for Nevada