What's fair...

...is it right for the Governor of New Jersey to not pay retirement benefits to those who already worked their 20 or 30 years under the promise to receive those benefits?

...only when the government created and run by those retirees was not set up to actually have the money to pay for it! The Governor is telling government workers that they have to contribute to their own retirement funds, and they have to pay a portion of their medical insurance.

...to pay for it.

...that would be out of line, if the government employees took a lower salary for 20 to 30 years in exchange for that. But they didn't. They don't.



...I happen to know a federal government employee who was forced to move to New Jersey. In 2009, that employee paid $170 a paycheck for health insurance for a family, in Ohio. In 2010, the rate went up to $264 a paycheck. In New Jersey, it went to $376 a paycheck.

...that is $814 per month, $9776 per year. For insurance.

...I don't want to name names (Aetna!!!!) but the insurance company saw what was coming (Obamacare costs). Oh, and they announced that rates will have a sharp increase in 2010. So a 55% increase was not "sharp." Can't wait to find out what's next.

...let me make a prediction, though I can't take credit for it since EVERY Republican against Obamacare said this - NOBODY will "choose" to pay that insurance company (Aetna!) premium, and they will eventually be forced to take the government option.



(interesting side note: Look at the first clip - its a speech written for him, to try and allay the fears of most Americans, so doctors in white coats are behind him - and since he has to be on point, of course, HE READS FROM THE TELEPROMPTER. Look at the second clip, he's talking off the cuff - what he thinks, what he believes - "I don't think we're gonna be able to eliminate employee coverage immediately...")

And then this...

...each time I returned to post on something (like the public corruption case in Cleveland, or the primary in Delaware, etc), I looked at the post regarding Gary Box, and decided to leave that. It still gets to me when I look at that picture.

So, fitting, Gary Box is gone because of one thing. Gary's family knows that he went to work on September 11th. They know that he did not come home. They don't know what he did, they don't know what he was thinking, they don't know what happened to him.

Gary Box did not come home because of one thing.

Watch the video in this post.

STEALTH JIHAD

Gary Box...

New York (CNN) -- Judson Box has never known exactly how his son, Gary, died on September 11, 2001. But an unexpected find nine years later has given him a glimpse into his son's final hours.

Gary, then 35, had been working as a firefighter in Brooklyn for roughly five years when the terrorists attacked. He did not speak to his father the day of the attack and his body was never recovered, leaving the circumstances of his death a mystery.

On September 11, 2009, Gary's sister, Christine, was visiting the Tribute Center when an employee asked her if she was looking for someone specifically. She mentioned her brother Gary, and the employee showed her to a picture of a firefighter in the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel that had a caption bearing Gary's name.

But it was not Gary. It was a photo of Brian Bilcher, another member of Gary's fire squad who also perished on 9/11.

The discovery compelled Gary's father to dig deeper, clinging to the possibility that there could be a similar picture of his son out there.

Box scoured photo archives of the National 9/11 Museum and the memorial's website, which allows users to upload photos from 9/11 directly to the site.

After searching one night for more than five hours, Box went to sleep, physically and emotionally exhausted. The next morning, his wife, Helen, called him into the living room as he was eating breakfast.

She showed him a photo of a firefighter running through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel toward the Towers alongside cars stuck in traffic.

This time, it was Gary.

"I was out of out control, emotionally," Box said. "Thanking God, being so happy that I had something to see."

Eager for more answers, Box contacted the National 9/11 Museum and Memorial in an attempt to track down the photographer. Several months later, the museum gave him the e-mail address of Erik Troelson, a Danish businessman who was stranded in the tunnel on his way to a meeting when he snapped the picture of Gary.

They shared an emotional moment onstage. Afterward, they spoke at length, with Box expressing his gratitude.

"I think I said about 300 times thank you and God bless you, that's all I could say," Box said. "I think I told him I love you, and I don't tell anybody that."

Nine years after September 11, Box said he still feels the pain of that day. He doesn't have the means to make large donations to the museum, but has sought to promote their cause through his story.

"We need that in this country because too many people forget," Box said of the museum.

"I wish everybody could get what I got."

MSM...

...at it again.

I make it a point to go to CNN and MSNBC websites to see what they are putting out as news. I also try to watch Olberman, or Maddow, but can only last a few sentences before I lose it.

The piece below was front and center on CNN's page. Bachmann is campaigning (doesn't it seem like some politicians are fighting every campaign, while some can do 30+ years without a real challenge?). Watch the piece. Fair and balanced? Its no wonder she has to fight for her seat every two years.



Bachmann is no superstar in my book. I don't think she is the best this country has to offer. But if we had 434 other Michelle Bachmanns in the House - we wouldn't be in the mess we are in today.

Everything Old...

...is New Again:

U.N. Nuclear Agency Sounds Alarm Over Iran

"...It followed Iran's recent decision to strip two experienced inspectors of the right to monitor its nuclear activities after the two reported what they said were undeclared nuclear experiments."




Barack Obama: "...this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful programme." "It is unacceptable for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon."

Joe Biden: "The United States is determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons."

Hillary Clinton: "..We believe, as a matter of policy, it is unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons..."

Nancy Pelosi: "An Iran with nuclear weapons is simply unacceptable."

Happy Labor Day...

The hot Cold War...

Iran Paying Taliban to Kill US Troops...

Is anybody surprised? Is anybody surprised that little seems to be done about it?

Little was done about it when it was revealed they were fighting us in Iraq.

This, after Obama promised to talk to Iran?

We are approaching November 4, which will mark the 31st anniversary of Iran’s “declaration” of war against the United States in 1979. Though it won’t be marked in the press, just like it wasn’t on the 25th anniversary.

Iran isn’t just attacking Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan. From The Washington Institute for Near East Policy:

“…Elsewhere, an Azerbaijani court convicted fifteen Iranian-supported individuals of treason in December 2007, on charges of plotting to overthrow the government in an attempt to establish a Shiite regime. The cell was also charged with counterfeiting and possession of weapons and drugs. According to local security officials, two of its members traveled to Iran and received training, equipment, maps, and more than $10,000 to finance their activities. In addition, the cell reportedly passed information on American, British, and Israeli activities in Azerbaijan to Iranian intelligence.

The Azerbaijani case also illustrates Iran's practice of using humanitarian and diplomatic footholds as a cover for IRGC or MOIS operations. The leader of the convicted cell reportedly ran a suspect charity in Baku. Similarly, in 1998, Time magazine reported on a case of Iranian surveillance of Western interests in Kazakhstan. And in 1997, a Defense Intelligence Agency report quoted in the Washington Times detailed Iranian plots targeting U.S. interests in Tajikistan; the plots including kidnappings, threats, and the casing of U.S. diplomats by Iranian intelligence operatives.”

…from Dr. Walid Phares, Iran is Infiltrating Arabia: Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf…Targeting North Africa…has Facilities in East and West Africa…is
Stretching into the Americas…meddling in Turkey and Qatar…

“…The threat from Iran goes far beyond its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Its use of terrorist proxies and its creation of global terror networks has been one the longest-standing bones of contention with the West. Despite the current focus on the Taliban and al-Qaeda, no group has had more practice in global terrorism than Hezbollah, and no state has proved a better and more consistent patron than Iran.

From a U.S. counterterrorism perspective, the threats posed by Iran, Hezbollah, and its global terrorist network are considerable. But the addition of nuclear weapons into this global network of Khomeinists may well prove as dangerous if not more so than nuclear weapons in the hands of al-Qaeda.”

Barack Obama: "...this facility is inconsistent with a peaceful programme." "It is unacceptable for Iran to possess a nuclear weapon."

Joe Biden: "The United States is determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons."

Hillary Clinton: "..We believe, as a matter of policy, it is unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons..."

Nancy Pelosi: "An Iran with nuclear weapons is simply unacceptable."

Harry Reid: "I'll say whatever you want, just vote for me." (Okay, I made that one up, but the rest are real..)

...straight from the horses mouths...