Ft. Hard Knox

So now your taxpayer dollars are paying for abortions other countries. Happy Independence Day, America.

Jenn Sierra — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:17:18 +0000

Yes, seriously. Our pro-abortion (up through birth) POTUS is is pretty straightforward on this, so I’ll let him speak for himself. The following is from the White House’s web site.

Mexico City Policy and Assistance for Voluntary Population Planning
MEMORANDUM FOR

THE SECRETARY OF STATE

THE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE UNITED STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

SUBJECT: Mexico City Policy and Assistance for Voluntary Population Planning

The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151b(f)(1)), prohibits nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that receive Federal funds from using those funds “to pay for the performance of abortions as a method of family planning, or to motivate or coerce any person to practice abortions.” The August 1984 announcement by President Reagan of what has become known as the “Mexico City Policy” directed the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to expand this limitation and withhold USAID funds from NGOs that use non-USAID funds to engage in a wide range of activities, including providing advice, counseling, or information regarding abortion, or lobbying a foreign government to legalize or make abortion available. The Mexico City Policy was in effect from 1985 until 1993, when it was rescinded by President Clinton. President George W. Bush reinstated the policy in 2001, implementing it through conditions in USAID grant awards, and subsequently extended the policy to “voluntary population planning” assistance provided by the Department of State.

These excessively broad conditions on grants and assistance awards are unwarranted. Moreover, they have undermined efforts to promote safe and effective voluntary family planning programs in foreign nations. Accordingly, I hereby revoke the Presidential memorandum of January 22, 2001, for the Administrator of USAID (Restoration of the Mexico City Policy), the Presidential memorandum of March 28, 2001, for the Administrator of USAID (Restoration of the Mexico City Policy), and the Presidential memorandum of August 29, 2003, for the Secretary of State (Assistance for Voluntary Population Planning). In addition, I direct the Secretary of State and the Administrator of USAID to take the following actions with respect to conditions in voluntary population planning assistance and USAID grants that were imposed pursuant to either the 2001 or 2003 memoranda and that are not required by the Foreign Assistance Act or any other law: (1) immediately waive such conditions in any current grants, and (2) notify current grantees, as soon as possible, that these conditions have been waived. I further direct that the Department of State and USAID immediately cease imposing these conditions in any future grants.

This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

The Secretary of State is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE, January 23, 2009.

H/T to Emery McClendon of www.armad.net.

WE’LL TALK ABOUT IT NOW! Helen Thomas White House Daily Brief

Orlando — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:26:37 +0000

The press is actually up in arms over Obama’s scripting of the press. Helen Thomas was especially upset.

It’s Not Iran - It’s the Obama Administration

Orlando — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:22:28 +0000

OurCountryPAC.Org provides a chilling comparison of Iran and the Obama administration.

Obama’s War On Talk Radio

Orlando — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:18:54 +0000

Dick Moress discusses how Obama, Congress and the Special Interests are turning a slump into a crash, freedom into socialism, and a disaster into a CATASTROPHE.

What? Reporters Actually Grill Gibbs Over Prepackaged Questions for Obama

Orlando — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:16:00 +0000

“The point is the control from here. We have never had that in the White House. And we have had some control but not this control. I mean I’m amazed, I’m amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency and have controlled…” veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas said Wednesday.

Alltop.com - a Social Blog Index with Some Potential (UPDATE - New! Check out Right-Wing News on Alltop!

Jenn's Tech Tips — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:15:52 +0000

@GuyKawasaki of Alltop.com saw our post from last week, and contacted us on Twitter to offer to add a category for conservative posts. I worked with him to consolidate a list of the conservative sites already signed up on Alltop, and he set up: Right-Wing.Alltop.com.

Very cool! Check it out!

ORIGINAL POST 06/25/09: We’re trying out a new social blog index called AllTop.com. It’s a great place to discover new blogs, and share stories. You can set up your own profile page, and use it as a feed reader to quickly catch up on your favorites.

The Tech section is great. The politics section is a little lop-sided to the left at the moment, so all of you right wing nut jobs need to get over there and get your blogs indexed. My feed is HERE, so if you’re already on AllTop, and I’ve missed you, please let me know.

UPDATE: Video of Press Conference by Sally Kern on Oklahoma Citizens’ Proclamation for Morality (Also: Link to Sign the Petition Online)

Jenn Sierra — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:30:47 +0000

UPDATE 07/02/09: Following is video from the press conference. For more information, see Michael McNutt’s report on The Oklahoman.

UPDATE 06/30/09: There is now a petition for a National version of this, HERE. Also, Oklahomans who are not able to make it to the Courthouse on Thursday can sign the petition online HERE.

ORIGINAL POST, 06/30/09: The following proclamation, authored by OK State Rep. Sally Kern, will be signed by religious leaders, elected officials, and citizens of Oklahoma at noon on Thursday, July 2, 2009 on the steps of the Capitol in Oklahoma City:

PRINT

We the People of Oklahoma,Invoking the guidance of Almighty God, in order to secure and perpetuate the blessing of Liberty; to secure just and rightful Government; to promote our mutual Welfare and Happiness, do establish this proclamation and call upon the people of the great State of Oklahoma, and our fellow Patriots in these United States of America who look to the Lord for guidance, to acknowledge the need for a national awakening of righteousness in our land.

WHEREAS, “It is Religion and Morality alone, which can establish the Principles upon which Freedom can securely stand” (John Adams); and

WHEREAS, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by Religion and Morality” (John Adams); and

WHEREAS, “Our Constitution was made only for a Moral and Religious people” (John Adams); and

WHEREAS, “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government…but upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God” (James Madison); and

WHEREAS, “Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God (Benjamin Franklin); and

WHEREAS, “God who gave us life gave us liberty and can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God” (Thomas Jefferson); and

WHEREAS, “Whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of Religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state” (Joseph Story); and

WHEREAS, “We hold sacred the rights of conscience, and promise to the people…the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion” (Roger Sherman); and

WHEREAS, “This great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians” (Patrick Henry); and

WHEREAS, “When you…exercise the right of voting for public officers, let it be impressed upon your mind that God commands you to choose just men who will rule in the fear of God” (Noah Webster); and

WHEREAS, “The principles of genuine Liberty and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible” (Noah Webster); and

WHEREAS, the people of Oklahoma have a strong tradition of reliance upon the Creator of the Universe; and

WHEREAS, we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis; and

WHEREAS, this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery; and

WHEREAS, alarmed that the Government of the United States of America is forsaking the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was built; and

WHEREAS, grieved that the Office of the president of these United States has refused to uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in giving recognition to our National Day of Prayer; and

WHEREAS, deeply disturbed that the Office of the president of these United States disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure lives by proclaiming an entire month to an immoral behavior;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that we the undersigned elected officials of the people of Oklahoma, religious leaders and citizens of the State of Oklahoma, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world, solemnly declare that the HOPE of the great State of Oklahoma and of these United States, rests upon the Principles of Religion and Morality as put forth in the HOLY BIBLE; and

BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned, believers in the One True God and His only Son, call upon all to join with us in recognizing that “Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord,” and humbly implore all who love Truth and Virtue to live above reproach in the sight of God and man with a firm reliance on the leadership and protection of Almighty God; and

BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned, humbly call upon Holy God, our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer, to have mercy on this nation, to stay His hand of judgment, and grant a national awakening of righteousness and Christian renewal as we repent of our great sin.

Signed on the second day of July in the year of our Lord Christ Two Thousand and Nine.

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David All Suggests: Make History - Tweet the White House

Jenn Sierra — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:10:54 +0000

Just got this from David All - I think it’s such a great idea, I just did it:

Send a Tweet to the @WhiteHouse about health care and use the hashtag #handsoff

As you may know, President Barack Obama has been doing some extraordinary things online to better communicate his message. And, yes, I say that as a proud Republican.

Along with 126 Members of Congress and U.S. Senators, President Obama has started Tweeting (@WhiteHouse). In fact, with a mere 247 updates, the account has already grown rapidly to 550,253 Followers.

One of the issues the @WhiteHouse is Tweeting about is health care reform so we thought we’d have a little bit of fun with it and propose an experiment in online activism for an upcoming release of the next Twitter @101Guide.

So here’s the plan:

It is clear that a White House communications staffer is serving as a SpokesTwitterer and will read and perhaps even reply to our Tweets.

We are going to track and record all uses of the hashtag #handsoff for this experiment and report back our findings to you.

As long as you’re logged in to Twitter and using a web browser, just click here to load a draft Tweet and click “Update.” See below for more examples — please feel free to amend as you like.

This is the first time I’ve ever heard of anyone orchestrating a coordinated Twitter advocacy strategy. You’re going to be a part of history and help redefine activism.

Thanks for helping us make a difference.

Revolution,

@DavidAll

DRAFT TWEETS (copy/paste/update)*:

@whitehouse a “public plan” would lead to a government takeover of health care #handsoff plz RT

@whitehouse a “public plan” would force millions of Americans to lose their good private health coverage #handsoff plz RT

@whitehouse a government-run health care plan would mean long, even deadly waiting time for patients #handsoff plz RT

@whitehouse a “public option” would lead to government rationing and lower quality of care for all Americans #handsoff plz RT

*These tweets are sourced here.

Why You Need to Include your Keywords in Your Blog Post Titles

Jenn's Tech Tips — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:52:34 +0000

Keywords, according to DefineThat:

Keyword is the term used for words included in a web page that would match words used by web surfers in finding that web page (via a search engine). Keywords can simply be words included in the body text of the document, or added to the header using meta tags to increase the number of keywords. Selecting keywords, that match your target audiences’ use of the web is a critical marketing tactic.

Blogging is a natural transition from print media to the world wide web for many traditional writers of all stripes. While there are some writing skills that transition well, some do not. One of those is choosing titles for your posts is one technique that has changed dramatically.

Back in the old days (circa 2005), writers of all strips (creative writers, journalists, op-ed writers, etc.) would title their pieces very much the way music artists and movie producers choose their titles. The title would be something “catchy,” but the reader would have to read the piece before knowing how it related to the story.

You see, there is a difference between print media and online media. In print media, the reader has already made somewhat of a committment to read an article, story, book, or chapter by purchasing the book, magazine or newspaper, and opening it. Online media, and especially blogging, doesn’t work that way. A handful of your readers will be regulars to your blog, but most will find you through their networks and through the search engines. A few of your readers are going to find your post via referrals from their friends on social networks. Some may have even visited your blog before and liked it enough to add your feed to their feed reader. But most of your blog readers are going to be people who don’t know or care who you are - they just found your post on a search engine like Google, Bing, Yahoo!, or Ask.

Except for your fans (your regular blog readers), the majority of your potential audience will decide whether or not to even click on your post solely by the title that is displayed on the social network, feed, or search engine results page (SERP). Most of hundreds, or even thousands of blog titles to skim on a weekly basis, and they only have time to click on a few of those posts. Your title needs to tell them exactly what your post is about, so if that’s the information they’re looking for, they’ll click on it, (hopefully) read it, and (even more hopefully) forward it to others in their network.

Also, the search engines seem to be increasingly giving more page-rank weight to titles of posts, as opposed to tags, categories and text. SEOWizz.net has a posted some early research on this, entitled Bing SEO – How Does it Differ To Google? (Do you see what I did there? I took a blog post that had a great “title tag” because it had the keywords in the title, and then I helped SEOWizz.net with its page rank by making hyperlinking to that post using the same keywords.)

Here at Ft. Hard Knox, we’ve been noticing this trend for a while - posts which contain the terms most likely to be searched on the search engine in the title consistently get higher traffic than posts with “clever” titles that do not reveal the subject matter of the post.

So, give it a try: Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to start including your keywords in your post titles, and let us know if you see any changes in your traffic sources. Good luck!

Where do you Google? (Bing, Yahoo, Ask….)

Jenn's Tech Tips — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:53:37 +0000

There’s an old joke in the south that goes something like this:

A guy walks up to the counter and asks for a Coke. The kid behind the counter says, “Sure, Mister. What kind of Coke would you like? We have Dr. Pepper, Sprite, Pepsi…”

Just like “Coke” has become a household name synonymous with “soda,” or “cola,” so has the name “Google” become a synonym for “online search,” as is satirically illustrated in this College Humor Video, Googling with Bing: The easiest way to Google since Yahoo!

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

So, why am I bringing this up now? Well, Bing.com is the new search engine that wants to eclipse Google. It’s run by Microsoft. So far, we’re getting almost 10% of our our search engine traffic from Bing.com right now (compared to just a little over 10% from Yahoo, and nearly 80% from Google). That’s pretty good for a search engine that is so new. Naturally, there are a lot of questions - Ian Paul, of PC World addresses a few in his post from May, 5 Things I Want to Know about Bing (So far the answers to the questions are “yes” to the first four, and “?” to the 5th).

For now, if you want to compare Bing with Google, try Bingle, a nifty little site that shows a side-by-side comparison of the search results on both sites. Example below. (Note, the web address is not what you’d expect: http://bingle.pwnij.com).

Click to Enlarge Photo

WebWarriors: Fireworks and Tea: Once again, it’s time for a #TeaParty

forthardknox — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:00:52 +0000

This Saturday’s the Day! We’re celebrating Independence this year, not just from Great Britain, but from our own government legislators that seem to have no problem with mortgaging our great-grandchildren’s future to promote their strange little social experiments (aka “progressivism”). So, find a tea party near you - go, and let your voice be heard. As usual, the parties are mostly being organized online. The Twitter hashtag is #teaparty.

Here are some other resources:

Have we missed your link? Put it in the comments below, and we’ll get it added to the post as time allows. Thanks!

Drew Edmondson is at it again

forthardknox — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:09:32 +0000

From Oklahomans for Responsible Government:

Drew Edmondson, a man who wants to be the leader of Oklahoma, is once again using his powers as Attorney General to confuse voters by changing language of ballot initiatives set to be up for a vote in 2010. You may remember that Edmondson changed the language of the term limits ballot measure making it sound like it did not allow any re-elections. Well, he’s done it again with two other measures.

Senate Joint Resolution 13 passed overwhelmingly in the Senate (42-2) and the House (78-17) and is now known as State Question 750. It changes the calculation for the number of signatures needed to put a measure on the ballot, basing it on the last race for Governor in stead of alternating between the last presidential election and the last gubernatorial election. Here’s what lawmakers wanted you to see on the ballot…Continue reading on OFRG.org >>

Al-Qaeda Threatens France Over Burqa

Phyllis Chesler — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 04:00:41 +0000

Today, al-Qaeda threatened France over the ostensible issue of the burqa. Tommorrow, America will be in their gun sights on this same issue.

The burqa, niqab–even hijab–are being used as pawns in the power struggle between jihadic Islam and the West. These dress codes are primarily political in nature.

For those people who really and truly believe that the burqa is a religious and not a political/jihadic issue–consider this:

According to the United States monitoring service SITE Intelligence, Al-Qaeda, has just announced that it plans to “take revenge on France for its opposition to the burka, calling on Muslims to retaliate against the country.” Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, head of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb said…Continue reading on Chesler Chronicles >>

Lies of AE911Truth Exposed 2

Victor Chabala — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:13:49 +0000

More research at this site exposes yet more lies by the Architects and Engineers for 911Truth ( AE911Truth):

Go about three-quarters of the way down the page here, and you’ll see the claims made by David Chandler, who is a high school physics teacher, NOT an architect or engineer.

This site provides this quote from David Chandler from here: “NIST has now officially accepted that WTC7 came down with the acceleration of gravity, but they still couch it as a phase in a 5.4 second interval they claim matches the 5.4 seconds required for their model to collapse 18 floors.”

However, like most CT’s, Chandler is being dishonest.

As we see here, WTC 7 did NOT come down with the acceleration of gravity ( i.e., freefall)- in point of fact it took 40% longer to collapse than it would have at freefall speed.

Furthermore, NIST went into more- and better- detail as they have more precise equipment than Chandler, and , yes, they did find a period of 2.25 seconds where WTC 7 fell at freefall speeds ( Hint: 2.25 seconds does not the entire event make). However, what Chandler and the rest of the “truthers” won’t tell you is that in those 5.4 seconds of the roofline’s collapse, there is a period both before and after the 2.25 seconds where there is a period of SIGNIFICANT resistance- and Chandlers OWN MEASUREMENTS show EXACTLY THE SAME THING ( reference) Hint: If, as Chandler and other “truthers” claim, the NIST is lying, and Chandlers own numbers match the NIST, then, logically, Chandler would have to be lying as well.

As for the controlled demolition theory, Richard Gage, founder of AE911Truth often quotes Danny Jowenko, a Dutch expert on controlled demolition to “prove” controlled demolition ( source).

While it is true that Jowenko says WTC 7 was a controlled demolition, and Gage is not misquoting Jowenko on WTC 7, there is one tiny little detail Gage doesn’t want you to know: Jowenko believes, correctly, that the Twin Towers came down on their own ( source).

Furthermore, as we see here, Jowenko is first shown a video of Silversteins “pull it” statement, which, of course, would logically affect his view of the WTC 7 collapse, then this site provides the interview with Jowenko in 3 videos.

Of course, if you go to the 4^th video here, you’ll see the TRUTH about Silversteins “pull it” quote.

At about 25 seconds into the 4^th video ( the one that Gage did NOT show Jowenko and is actually the SAME PBS Special “Truthers” like to use when misquoting Silverstein), you here Silverstein saying he got a call from the FIRE DEPARTMENT COMMANDER ( source ).

At about 46 seconds, we see the details “truthers” leave out- pull it in demolition means pulling the building away from another one with cables, and this video ( which also happens to be the same one Alex Jones uses) shows the heavy construction equipment getting ready to pull WTC 6 down with cables ( source).

Scroll down a little farther here, and you’ll see that Jowenko is only given select information.

This quote from here tells the truth: “Jowenko is then shown a video of the building falling. There is no indication whether he is shown the complete collapse or a video starting at the favorite cut-in spot favored by Gage and similar conspiracy theorists.

He is also shown a simple drawing of the building’s placement of core columns. He is given no information about the cantilevered section to the north, or the crucial transfer trusses in the area of column 79.

Other bits of information are given to him here and there, and the interviewer appears to have pages of the FEMA report on WTC 7 on the table. Close to the end, he’s shown the FEMA estimate of column damage. But Jowenko basically refers to the video, the Silverstein quote, and the column drawing during the interview. He certainly has never seen the Final Report from NIST on WTC 7.

Experts who have examined much more evidence than that presented to Jowenko have concluded that 7 World Trade fell due to damage to its unusual structure by thermal expansion of structural elements.”

In short, despite it’s name, The Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth are about as interested in the truth as OJ is in finding the real killers.

Lies of AE911Truth Exposed

Victor Chabala — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:01:46 +0000

It is time to bring the lies of Architects and Engineers for 9/11 “Truth” (AE911Truth) to light.

First, as we see, here, AE911Truth claims that over 24,000 Architects and engineers came face to face with the truth. However, as this site points out, if you go to AE911Truth’s own site, you’ll see they only added 50 new petitioners, and if you watch the videos from AE911Truth’s own Web site, you’ll see that only 4 of those 50 were architects or engineers.

As we see here, that means the actual percentage of Architects and Engineers that are members of AE911Truth is a whopping 0.000166%.

In addition, if you go a little further down the Web site here, you will see even more evidence of Ae911Truth’s deception. The owner of this Web site (who I might add is, as we see here, by his OWN ADMISSION, a LIBERAL who, again, by his OWN ADMISSION, is more than willing to believe the worst of the Bush Administration. However, unlike AE911Truth, the “Scholars” for 9/11 “Truth,” etc, he is, at least, an honest researcher) points out that a little further research shows that there’s a problem with the Architects and Engineers for 911Truth’s claim to have 640 architects and engineers asking for a new investigation. In point of fact, that total of 640 includes architect and engineering students, as well as other people who work in those offices ( Hint: People who work in those offices aren’t necessarily architects or engineers- they could be secretaries). In point of fact, when everyone except those with licenses and degrees is excluded, there are only 284 names, and that’s with a broad definition of engineer- there are landscape and electrical engineers on that list (source). Scroll further down this site, and you will see that AE911Truth is again using the Beijing skyscraper fire just last February to “prove” their point.

AE911Truth states’ that the Beijing skyscraper was comparable in size to WTC 7, which is technically true, but this site points out some details that AE911Truth leaves out: 1) The skyscraper in question was REINFORCED CONCRETE and steel, much like the new WTC 7 will be- and concrete is far more resistant to fire than steel. This site also makes an aside that the “truthers” who support a controlled demolition of the WTC use the Madrid Windsor fire and make a big deal out of the fact that it didn’t collapse, while ignoring the fact that the steel in the Madrid Windsor fire DID melt, and it’s the reinforced concrete that survived, 2) The Beijing skyscraper was built by Arup AFTER conducting an EXTENSIVE study of the WTC collapses, and 3) The Beijing skyscraper was built to withstand major earthquakes. If it’s built to withstand the huge earthquakes that often occur China ( and the Pacific Rim ( aka, the “Ring of Fire”) in general, how is fire going to bother it?

Oh, and one other detail: As I pointed out in a previous article, there are two other differences as well: 1) The Beijing fire was fought, and 2) Unlike WTC 1,2, and &, the Beijing skyscraper did NOT suffer SEVERE structural damage before catching fires.

When it comes to honesty, AE911Truth makes Bill Clinton look like a Boy Scout.