Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Tina Davila - Victim of U.S. Governmental Ineptitude




The following news story is heartbreaking, frustrating and just plain maddeningly unnecessary. I am posting it here today for a very clear purpose.

The scum killer in the story is - you guessed it - an Illegal Alien. Yep, that is correct. If the do nothing bozo's in Washington D.C. had simply DONE THEIR JOBS, the probability is that this loser wouldn't have been in the US in the first place.

This murder of a Mom, a wife, an American is the responsibility of our leaders. This is the result of - and therefore the fault of President Bush, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, the Mayor of San Francisco, and every other politician or law maker who has not stepped up and put an end to the open borders of the United States. If I had my way, this family would take this to the people named above (and all the others I did not have room to name). I think this family should sue every political 'leader' who has failed the citizens of the US - and this Mom in particular.

Let me ask you this; how many more Americans have to die and families have to be left bereft before we demand action? I am SO past the point of 'enough'. Write, call, meet with, demand that your elected officials CLOSE the borders NOW.

Too bad Houston citizen - and fighter of crime - Joe Horne - was not at this location - maybe he would have had his shotgun with him. I know that I for one will be supporting the 'open carry' bill in Texas.

Slain mom's kids plead for help finding her killer.

Tina Davila died defending baby from carjacker: 'She was the coolest mom'

By Mike Celizic

TODAYShow.com contributor


They wanted her car. She wanted her baby. And because of that, Tina Davila, mother of five and beloved by all, is dead. Her family wants her killer brought to justice.

"She was a good person and she was good to be around," Davila's 17-year-old daughter, Patricia Matt, told TODAY's Meredith Vieira Wednesday in New York. "Everybody wanted to be around her. All the kids liked her. They thought she was the coolest mom."

It was April 17 when Davila was killed in Texas because she refused to give an assailant the keys to her car, in which she had left her infant daughter. But the pain of the loss, painted in tears that flowed down Patricia's cheeks, is still fresh for those she left behind.


The 39-year-old Davila had pulled into a parking lot of a Harris County, Texas, cell phone store to pay her bill. She left her daughter, 4-month-old Kaylynn, in the back seat and started to go inside when she was accosted by a man who grabbed for the keys to her SUV.

The confrontation was captured on grainy surveillance video from inside the store. It shows a man, identified by police as 23-year-old Timoteo Rios, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, grabbing for the keys. Davila pulls back, and the man stabs her in the chest several times before turning and fleeing. Davila, mortally wounded, runs after him before turning and staggering into the store for help. EMTs rushed her to a hospital, but she died there of her wounds.

Still at large!

Rios remains at large, and police suspect he's fled to Mexico. A man identified as his accomplice and the driver of the car in which they arrived at the store and fled the scene, is in custody. Police said he is Kennedy Escoto, 17. He has been charged with aggravated robbery for his involvement with the theft of beer from a convenience store immediately before the attempted carjacking that left Davila dead.

Eric Matt, Davila's first husband and the father of three of her children, got a call saying his ex-wife and high school sweetheart had been injured. Though the two had divorced in 1996 after eight years of marriage and three children, they remained friends. Matt said his ex-wife continued to help him out in tough times many times over the years.

"They told us that Tina was involved in an accident," Matt told Vieira. "My oldest son, we both went to the hospital, thinking she was in a car accident or something. When we arrived, we asked about Tina Davila that was in an accident, and the people said, 'You mean the woman who got stabbed?' Right then and there is when it kind of shocked and hit us."

Matt never got to see Davila. But he did learn that she had died protecting Kaylynn. "The officers said she wasn't willing to give the keys," he told Vieira. "Her last words were, 'My baby. My baby's in the back of the truck.' "

That Davila gave her life to protect her child didn't surprise Matt. "She would do that for every one of her kids," he said.

'Sticker mom'

Indeed, in her community, Davila was known as the "sticker mom," a title that reflected her penchant for covering the back of her car with decals representing the sports teams her children belonged to. She never missed any of their games and always led the cheers.

Her 15-year-old son with Matt, Payton, tried to describe his mother to Vieira. He got out the word "just," hesitated, swallowed hard, chewed his lip, took a deep breath, fought back tears and finally gave up, overcome by grief.

And that, said Payton's father, is why the three came to New York to appear on TODAY. "The reason we're here is the fact that there's one more person out there that maybe somebody will know. Tina was very important in our lives. She was a mother that was a good mother. She cared for every one of her children. Just to see the sadness in my kids — it's a lot of adjusting going on through this period of time. I feel there would be some closure in our family if this other man would be caught."

A $10,000 reward has been offered for information leading to the capture of Rios, whose police record includes brief jail terms last year for marijuana possession and for criminal mischief and failure to identify himself to police. Authorities say he may still be driving the gold Ford Taurus with Texas plates P42 CYY and a broken left-side mirror held on by duct tape that he was in at the time of the murder.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Fairness Doctrine - NOT Fair to America

"Our massive strategy was to use the Fairness Doctrine to challenge and harass right-wing broadcasters and hope the challenges would be so costly to them that they would be inhibited and decide it was too expensive to continue."

--Bill Ruder, Democratic campaign consultant and Assistant Secretary of Commerce, Kennedy Administration [1]

Today, there have been a number of reports that the liberal Democrat lead Congress is making yet another attempt to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine.

  • For those who do not know what the Fairness Doctrine was;
    The rule was first articulated in 1949, when television was in its infancy and radio meant a handful of AM stations in each market. In its final form, the rule required broadcasters to "afford reasonable opportunity for discussion of contrasting points of view on controversial matters of public importance." Until it was abolished in 1987, this Federal Communications Commission rule required broadcasters to air all sides of controversial issues.

At first glance, something called the 'Fairness Doctrine' may sound innocuous. Fairness is, after all, a basic American value. But as a matter of principle, any such government controls on media content is anathema to constitutional guarantees of free speech. And in practice, the so-called fairness doctrine was deeply unfair.

Liberals are so intimidated by conservative talk radio that they are attempting to bring back the Fairness Doctrine. The Democrats state that the Fairness Doctrine will guarantee that more opinions will be heard. Of all arguments for the reinstitution of the fairness doctrine, the most inaccurate and insidious is that it will permit a greater diversity of opinion to be heard.

By requiring, under threat of monetary penalties, that broadcasters "fairly" represent both sides of a given issue, advocates of the doctrine say they believe that more views will be aired while the editorial content of the station can remain unaltered. But with the threat of potential FCC retaliation for perceived lack of compliance, most broadcasters would be more reluctant to air their own opinions because it might require them to air alternative perspectives that their audience does not want to hear.

Thus, the result of the fairness doctrine in many cases would be to stifle the growth of disseminating views and, in effect, make free speech less free. This is exactly what led the FCC to repeal the rule in 1987. FCC officials found that the doctrine "had the net effect of reducing, rather than enhancing, the discussion of controversial issues of public importance," and therefore was in violation of constitutional principles. [2]

Additionally, I believe that Nancy Pelosi and her crew know EXACTLY what the re-enactment of the Fairness Doctrine would do - that it would decimate conservative talk radio and TV. These are broadcasts where not only are opinions given; news stories are reported that are not heard at all on mainstream media channels and information is given to Americans who are too busy with work and families to chase the truth of news themselves.

If the fairness standard is reinstituted, the result will not be easier access for controversial views. It will instead be self-censorship, as stations seek to avoid requirements that they broadcast specific opposing views. With the wide diversity of views available today in the expanding broadcast system, there is a simple solution for any family seeking an alternative viewpoint or for any lawmaker irritated by a pugnacious talk-show host. Turn the dial.

[1]Quoted in Jesse Walker, "Tuning Out Free Speech," The American Conservative, April 23, 2007

[2] Excerpts from the Heritage Foundation - 1993




Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Build YOUR American Dream - on your own merit

To all those that get the fact that hope and advancement come from within:

This is exactly the point of the father/daughter story: You have to decide to succeed and keep on trying – there will be obstacles at times – that is what faith is for – faith in God, tomorrow, good people, your efforts.

I have heard stories about those who have been discriminated against and they have been hurt and discouraged. What it demonstrates is that you came in contact with an organization full of absolute total jerks. (Good that they are all concentrated in one place) But, for every company like that there are 10-fold companies who are not like that.

I bet everyone in the working world was discriminated against at some time – black, white, woman, too educated (intimidated the hiring manager), too fat, dressed in a different manner, too many earrings…it goes on and on. Do you think as a woman in the technology field – especially in the early and mid-90's that I was not discriminated against? I was.

I have had 40+ year old mainframe developer's walk out of advanced programming classes – before the class started - when they realized I was not the secretary setting up the class but the instructor. I have had these men write notes to leave with our admin – before they ever heard me say one word that I could not teach them a thing because I was a "girl". They said that I should teach graphics and word processing classes because I was a girl and only good for being a secretary. Think that didn't hurt? Wasn't a crushing blow to the ego? I was a huge blow. But, keeping your head high and ignoring the idiots are a better way to succeed. I just went forward and put the turkeys out of my mind – could be worse - at least I wasn't married to them!

You are the master of your soul and the captain of your destiny – I know trite right? It actually is not. You are the only one who can change your situation. Fail at something? Learn the lesson and try again. Not getting anywhere? Change your approach. The answer is not to give up and wait for someone to fix the mess – if you quit, you have no chance. Obama's message is "poor you, you have been hurt, held back, given a short stick" his platform answer is "the government will help you out, bail you out, fix the wrong". In short grow government and taxes to hand out money to those who perceive their deserved success has not been met.

You know, punish the successful as they must have cheated in some way to achieve success. THAT path my friends will lead the people of this nation to a multi-generational society of governmentally dependent people who are not abject to failure and being told what to do.

That my friends leads to the common man thinking that the socialist "re-distribution of wealth is a good thing - giving the corrupt in government an open door.

Friday, May 30, 2008

A Conservative Father's Discussion with his Liberal Daughter

Father and Daughter Discussion


A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words, redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil and selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs. The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.

He responded by asking how she was doing in school. Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened then asked, 'How is your friend Audrey doing?' She replied, 'Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties, and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over.'

Her father asked her, 'Then why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct a 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend Audrey, who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPAs.'

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, 'That's a crazy idea. How would that be fair? I've worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work. Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!'

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, 'Welcome to the Republican Party.'



Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Canada's National Healthcare cost VS US Healthcare cost - 2007 data

Many in Obama's camp are parading Canada's "National" healthcare - and what the extolling virtues of that plan are - after all - they don't pay anything for a heart transplant or any other service. Well, my scholarly Obamites - let's compare Canada's tax rate and health premiums with the US (using my income/taxes etc)

NOTE: Please see end of post for source research links.


In the US (2007 rates):
Total Income tax on household - $21,000
Medical Insurance (Family of 4) - $3,600
RX Drugs - $900 (Thyroid disease - mine)
Office visits - $100 (10 /year - family of 4 for 2007)
Total Medical Expense + Taxes 2007 - $25,600

In Canada 2007 rates:
Total Income tax on household - $$40,894
Medical Insurance to cover additional expense (Family of 4 )- $3,600
(increased care provided to = what I have now)
RX Drugs - $720 (Thyroid disease - mine)
Office visits - $140 (10 /year - family of 4 for 2007)
Total Medical Expense + Taxes 2007 - $45,354

Difference in cost:
Canada: $45,354
US: $25,600
______________
$19,754 MORE in my pocket in the current US System.

DO I REALLY need to say more?????

SOURCE -
Canadian Info: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/individuals/faq/taxrates-e.html
http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/content/full/170/13/1906
US Info: My 2007 tax return

Do you still think Obama's "National Healthcare" is such a great plan? We all know Washington gets very gluttonous with new programs and fees so the cost will likely be more than this. Personally, I prefer to keep the almost $20K in my pocket.....