Rush Pretty Much Sums it Up

NYT Reports Rally Crowd in Thousands, Daily Mail Says Two Million

NYT Reports Rally Crowd in Thousands, Daily Mail Says Two Million
By Noel Sheppard (Bio | Archive)
September 12, 2009 - 23:05 ET

London Daily Mail Picture:


NY TImes Picture:


It goes without saying the Obama-loving media are going to do everything in their power to downplay Saturday's Taxpayer March on Washington, and the New York Times is certainly living down to such expectations.

As evidence, consider the Times headline,"Thousands Rally in Capital to Protest Big Government."

Thousands?

That's certainly not how Britain's Daily Mail saw it (h/t NBer MrShy and reader Keith Brown):

Up to two million people marched to the U.S. Capitol today, carrying signs with slogans such as "Obamacare makes me sick" as they protested the president's health care plan and what they say is out-of-control spending.

The line of protesters spread across Pennsylvania Avenue for blocks, all the way to the capitol, according to the Washington Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

By contrast, the Times reported:

The demonstrators numbered well into the tens of thousands, though the police declined to estimate the size of the crowd.

Which outlet do you think is reporting this more accurately?

If your answer is the Mail, why would a British outlet better estimate the size of this crowd than one of the leading American papers?

Yes, that's a rhetorical question.

Truth from The Black Sphere

The President Without a Country

Essay: The President Without a Country

By Pat Boone
Created 2009-09-03 10:59
"We're no longer a Christian nation." - President Barack Obama, June 2007

"America has been arrogant." - President Barack Obama

"After 9/11, America didn't always live up to her ideals."- President Barack Obama

"You might say that America is a Muslim nation."- President Barack Obama, Egypt 2009

Thinking about these and other statements made by the man who wears the title of president. I keep wondering what country he believes he's president of.

In one of my very favorite stories, Edward Everett Hale's "The Man without a Country," a young Army lieutenant named Philip Nolan stands condemned for treason during the Revolutionary War, having come under the influence of Aaron Burr. When the judge asks him if he wishes to say anything before sentence is passed, young Nolan defiantly exclaims, "Damn the United States ! I wish I might never hear of the United States again!"

The stunned silence in the courtroom is palpable, pulsing. After a long pause, the judge soberly says to the angry lieutenant: "You have just pronounced your own sentence. You will never hear of the United States again.. I sentence you to spend the rest of your life at sea, on one or another of this country's naval vessels - under strict orders that no one will ever speak to you again about the country you have just cursed."

And so it was. Philip Nolan was taken away and spent the next 40 years at sea, never hearing anything but an occasional slip of the tongue about America. The last few pages of the story, recounting Nolan's dying hours in his small stateroom - now turned into a shrine to the country he fore swore - never fail to bring me to tears. And I find my own love for this dream, this miracle called America , refreshed and renewed. I know how blessed and unique we are.

But reading and hearing the audacious, shocking statements of the man who was recently elected our president - a young black man living the impossible dream of millions of young Americans, past and present, black and white - I want to ask him, "Just what country do you think you're president of?"

You surely can't be referring to the United States of America , can you? America is emphatically a Christian nation, and has been from its inception! Seventy percent of her citizens identify themselves as Christian. The Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were framed, written and ratified by Christians. It's because this was, and is, a nation built on and guided by Judeo-Christian biblical principles that you, sir, have had the inestimable privilege of being elected her president.

You studied law at Harvard, didn't you, sir? You taught constitutional law in Chicago ? Did you not ever read the statement of John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and an author of the landmark "Federalist Papers": "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers - and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation - to select and prefer Christians for their rulers"?

In your studies, you surely must have read the decision of the Supreme Court in 1892: "Our lives and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian."

Did your professors have you skip over all the high-court decisions right up till the mid 1900's that echoed and reinforced these views and intentions? Did you pick up the history of American jurisprudence only in 1947, when for the first time a phrase coined by Thomas Jefferson about a "wall of separation between church and state" was used to deny some specific religious expression - contrary to Jefferson' s intent with that statement?

Or, wait a minute . were your ideas about America 's Christianity formed during the 20 years you were a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ under your pastor, Jeremiah Wright? Is that where you got the idea that " America is no longer a Christian nation"? Is this where you, even as you came to call yourself a Christian, formed the belief that " America has been arrogant"?

Even if that's the understandable explanation of your damning of your country and accusing the whole nation (not just a few military officials trying their best to keep more Americans from being murdered by jihadists) of "not always living up to her ideals," how did you come up with the ridiculous, alarming notion that we might be "considered a Muslim nation"?

Is it because there are some 2 million or more Muslims living here, trying to be good Americans? Out of a current population of over 300 million, 70 percent of whom are Christians? Does that make us, by any rational definition, a "Muslim nation"?

Why are we not, then, a "Chinese nation"? A "Korean nation"? Even a "Vietnamese nation"? There are even more of these distinct groups in America than Muslims. And if the distinction you're trying to make is a religious one, why is America not "a Jewish nation"? There's actually a case to be made for the latter, because our Constitution - and the success of our Revolution and founding - owe a deep debt to our Jewish brothers.

Have you stopped to think what an actual Muslim America would be like? Have you ever really spent much time in Iran? Even in Egypt? You, having been instructed in Islam as a kid at a Muslim school in Indonesia and saying you still love the call to evening prayers, can surely picture our nation founded on the Quran, not the Judeo-Christian Bible, and living under Shariah law. Can't you? You do recall Muhammad's directives [Surah 9:5,73] to "break the cross" and "kill the infidel"?

It seems increasingly and painfully obvious that you are more influenced by your upbringing and questionable education than most suspected. If you consider yourself the president of a people who are "no longer Christian," who have "failed to live up to our ideals," who "have been arrogant," and might even be "considered Muslim" - you are president of a country most Americans don't recognize.

Could it be you are a president without a country?

Creepy

I did not see this before the election, but this is plain creepy!

A True Patriot

This gentleman had his finger bitten off by an Obama lunatic during a healthcare protest on the streets of California. Listen to his story and be thankful for men like him.

Obama's Radical Agenda Exposed

Thanks to Glen Beck for putting the pieces together.

Obama's Czars- Van Jones

Obama placed an avowed communist in the non specific, unapproved, unconfirmed job of Green Czar. This guy is frightening and radical.

Liberal Garbage Propoganda

The following video is both stupid and chilling. It promotes a liberal ideology but worse when it says that they "pledge to serve Obama" that is downright scary!

MUSE- Knights of Cydonia

Watch this thing break loose at 4:34!

Morgan Shepherd- Faith on a Shoestring

CONOVER, N.C. - Morgan Shepherd is the Last Man Standing, a relic of a stock-car racing era that is long gone but one he refuses to abandon.

He races on a wing and – literally – a prayer, a 67-year-old man who could be the grandfather of the frisky youngsters he chases in the Nationwide Series. He was born, for Pete’s sake, during the war (not Persian Gulf, not Vietnam, not even Korea – World War II).

He hasn’t been in real danger of winning a race – any race – since the mid-1990s, but he races on largely because it’s what he does and it’s all he knows and the opportunity is there and because there’s a bigger mission in the foundation.

He gets by with a little help from his friends.

Eldora Speedway, Tony Stewart’s half-mile dirt oval in Rossburg, Ohio, is the most recognizable sponsor on Shepherd’s Nationwide cars, and that’s mainly because Stewart himself is the real sponsor. Shepherd rides largely because Stewart puts tires under him. The tire bill goes straight to Stewart, a generous guy who could choose to support virtually any other struggling racer but chose to invest his money in Shepherd, if for no other reason than his doggedness.

“It’s Morgan’s determination,” Stewart says. “He has been around here a long time. He’s one of those guys that’s still doing everything he can do to stay a part of it. There’s hundreds of thousands of people who could come here and try to race and appreciate the same help, but Morgan’s been here and done it.

“He has paid his dues. He has done things the hard way. I guess I just respect his effort. Here’s a guy that could go do something else, but this is what he loves to do and wants to continue to do it. You hate to see somebody struggle, so we decided to try to help.”

Stewart also has helped Shepherd with engines, and fellow Cup driver Kevin Harvick has pitched in with a car and parts.

It has made a big difference for Shepherd, who races from a woebegone little shop in Conover with only a handful of full-time mechanics.

“I’ll be riding down the road, and all of a sudden tears come in my eyes just thinking about it,” Shepherd says. “Why would those guys care about helping me? I’m sure they could figure out better things they could do with their money. It’s not just because I’ve been in the sport so long and don’t give up. It has to be a God thing. I let them know that there’s never a day that goes by that I don’t wear the Lord out for both of them.”

Shepherd sees such encounters as proof that he’s in the right business. He has no delusions about winning five races a year or competing for championships, but he wants to race, not embarrass himself or those who support him and use his driving to spread the word about his strong Christian faith.

“A lot of people ask me if I’ve thought about retiring,” Shepherd said. “I don’t make plans. If I was out there running into the wall, taking people out, making a lot of mistakes, I’d look at my ability to drive a race car. But I can’t tell any difference in the driving part from 10 years ago. If I start missing my lines, I’ll know.

“I know I’ve kept in it a lot more years than most people do. But a lot of that is because of the passion I have for the sport. This is the only thing I know how to do in life. I don’t know anything but cars.”

Shepherd’s story isn’t exactly rags-to-riches, but it is one of the more unusual in the history of NASCAR racing. He lacks a formal education, but he basically trained himself in the ways and means of automobile mechanics.

He got a motorbike when he was 10 years old and soon had torn it apart to see how it worked. At 12, he traded three squirrels, a shotgun and $12.50 for a 1937 Chevrolet and launched into serious car tinkering. A year or so later, he knew enough to rebuild engines in the hot rods owned by local high school boys.

The natural progression was to get involved in auto racing, and that journey landed Shepherd in NASCAR’s top series full time in 1981 (he ran a few races in 1970, 1977 and 1978), and he was a race winner that first full season in cars owned by Cliff Stewart (no relation to Tony).

From there, Shepherd bounced from ride to ride, most notably driving for Bud Moore Engineering and Wood Brothers Racing. He won a total of four Cup races, the last win coming in 1993.

As Shepherd was getting older, racing was getting younger. Teams and sponsors valued youth and smiling faces over experience, and Shepherd found himself struggling to keep racing and to keep his bottom line from swimming in red ink.

He went through a series of financial struggles – and almost as many marriages. His fifth and current wife, Cindy, helped to bring stability to his life and has been his partner in keeping his racing and his ministry alive. They married in 1994.

“When my [fourth] wife left me, I’d finally had it with women,” Shepherd said. “We had been married for nine years, but it just wasn’t good. She finally left. I didn’t even want to see any women. Six months later, a friend called and said he had a girl he wanted me to meet. I didn’t need any more troubles. I had had all the troubles I needed with women. My life with women had not been very good. I had had only one good wife, and that was my first one, and I treated her like a dog. I was a drunk back then, and I always felt like when I got remarried I paid for everything I had done to her.

“But I met Cindy, and we went to dinner and went out a few times. I brought her to a race at Watkins Glen. We kept getting closer and closer. I saw her as genuine.”

They live in Conover in a house across the street from Shepherd’s shop.

“She is a sore loser,” Shepherd said. “She makes it hard on me when things go bad. It kills her when things go wrong. She’s hard to be around when things happen.”

There is CindyWife, and then there is CindyDaughter. This distinction must be made, because Cindy Caldwell is Shepherd’s office manager and also his child from a previous marriage. She pays the bills, pursues sponsors, coordinates Shepherd’s ministry activities and, until recently, stepped out of her small office (located adjacent to Shepherd’s home) several times a day so that the team’s mechanics could visit the office restroom. Before recent renovations, the team shop did not have a restroom.

This is the sort of problem that Jimmie Johnson and Chad Knaus don’t deal with on a daily basis.

It’s fairly normal, though, for Shepherd, who juggles his budget from week to week. He drives his motorhome himself and does the final prep on his race cars.

Around Conover, he drives a green 1996 Nissan pickup with an odometer that reads 220,990. It has had a long road, as has Shepherd.

In the shop, stacked willy-nilly on neglected and dusty shelves, is a collection of Shepherd’s racing trophies, including the winner’s award from his last victory in 1993 at Atlanta. It’s stuck up there, right over the old and apparently retired Maytag washing machine.

More important to Shepherd than his dusty archives is his ministry work and fundraising for the Morgan Shepherd Charity Fund, which assists needy families, primarily in southern Virginia, where Shepherd has participated in a Christmas Santa Claus train gift delivery run for 23 years.

“I was real down and out at the end of last season because we missed three races in a row there,” Shepherd said. “I ran into Carl Edwards after the race in Homestead and was congratulating him. I gave him some brochures about our charity and told him how we started off with one person in 1986 and how we’ll be helping a couple thousand up in the mountains this year. When we finished talking, he said he was going to help us with $25,000. I grabbed him and hugged him and shook his hand. That changed my whole trip up the road.”

Shepherd’s charity and ministry work are likely to continue as long as he’s reasonably vertical. The racing?

“I’m still just as passionate as I ever was about it,” he said. “It’s all good.”

Obama Has Blue Lips

Have you ever noticed that Obama has blue lips? Strange.....and quite distracting.