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Welcome to EDDIE'S RANTS & RAVES A Digest of News & Commentary  Inveighing Against Coercive Busybodyism, Socialism, Greenism, and Big Government Tyranny & Injustice Generally  "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely!"   ~ Acton "Giving money and power to politicians and bureaucrats is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys"  ~ P. J. O'Rourke more or less weekly Archives Links Banner Ads Leave Comments, Questions, or Rude Remarks Please Make a Contribution to Support this Site Books Contact Us About this Site

For many years I have been hoping and dreaming of a true American Backlash (http://www.americanbacklash.com/) against the Liberal-Left miasma into which the U.S. has been sinking. Enough is enough! November 8 was at least a partial realization of that hope and I am extremely happy about it. It was certainly a repudiation of Hillary Clinton, Obamacare, the past eight years of liberal-left policies, the mess that Obama and Clinton made in the Middle East and in foreign policy generally, and the bigotry of the pro-Democrat news media -- as well as the legacy of scandal and criminal activity of the Clintons.

My concern now is: how lasting is this revolution? Can it be reversed? How stable are the victories in Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida? Will further immigration/invasion by New Yorkers into North Carolina and Florida threaten to turn those states to "blue" forever? What about the political education of the millennials?

How durable is this American backlash?

And, of course, the exact nature of the alternative response to the past several decades of the Liberal Establishment ruling class will depend on President Trump and what his administration does. I would be much more comfortable and hopeful if this were a President Ted Cruz, whose ideological inclinations are known and much closer to mine. What can we expect from President Trump? Will President Trump be able to keep his campaign promises? Will the border be secured? Will the in-place machinery of statism be dismantled, at least in part? With a Republican majority in the House and a very slim majority in the Senate, this new president has more opportunity than any in a long time to actually get his reforms passed. Will the Republicans be able to keep those majorities in future elections? Will the new president wimp out and negotiate away the victory and mandate of November 8?

Given the anti-Trump/anti-reform negativity of the media, academia, and the Democrat Party leadership, which will seek every opportunity to sabotage Trump's reforms, a lot of positive, encouraging pressures from the grass-roots public will be needed to keep the new administration on track and to counteract the beltway propaganda.

The propaganda war will become more intense than ever before. Ain't no hate like liberal-left hate. It is pure emotion undiluted by logic or reason. The media will give communists like Van Jones and professionally engineered demonstrations free coverage while putting pro-Trump news on back pages or ignored completely. New conservative, constitutionalist TV and Internet networks must be developed to answer the lies and half truths of the Establishment Media.

We do not know the future, but our chances of achieving less statism are far better with a President Trump than a President Clinton. The hope is great.

Analysis of the 2016 voting in terms of demographics shows that Trump generally improved on Romney's showing from 2012. Before November 8, the media told us that women would generally hate Trump and not vote his way, and this seemed logical because of his remarks on an open microphone from eleven years ago (when he was still a Democrat). It turns out that he still got at least 42 percent of women. We were also told that Latinos would not vote for him, but he did better than Romney with Latinos in 2012. We were told that if he did get elected that the stock market would crash. Not only has this not happened, but just the reverse -- it jumped up. The expectations and lies of the liberal establishment media did not pan out and many Democrats toeay arte still in cognitive dissonance because of the jarring contrast between their ideological template and the real world. Too many on the Left believe their own propaganda. The media has so demonized Trump during the general election campaign that some naive college students think he has horns and a forked tail. As usual, since they do not have substantive arguments on policy, the Democrats resort to claims of "racism" and bigotry or smear tactics. The depth of denial among out-of-touch Democrats about their stunning defeat is breathtaking.

What about Obama's "job approval rating"?  What does it really mean?  The election results seem to contradict it.  Obamacare (the so-called Affordable Care Act) and Obama regime policies in general were clearly repudiated on November 8.  The job approval rating is the result of polling, the same type of polling that proved so wrong about the presiential election.  The concern about being considered "racist" may have caused poll respondents to mislead the poll takers by giving a more positive response.  When specific individual policies afre asked about, the results were very different.

The smackdown of the liberal establishment on November 8 has revealed many assumptions to be a phony "Potemkin village" of false ideological expectatons. Outside of their echo-chamber bubbles in areas like San Francisco, New York, Massachusetts, and Oregon, the U.S. of A. is pretty solidly against Obamaism, liberalism, leftism, and anti-Americanism in general. The liberal-left matrix has been exposed to all as a web of lies and fallacies which are increasingly rejected by the American People. Probably if the GOP had run a decent positively conservative candidate in 2008, Obama would never have been President.

Leftists in general want to impose their own whims as a central plan on everyone else by the force of big government . This is the essence of socialism. They think that government bureaucrats somehow know so much better how to run our lives and so they  should run everybody's lives and spend everybody's earnings for them.  It is called tyranny. By contrast, constitutionalists and conservatives want the government for the most part to get out of the way of peaceful people and allow them to pursue their own plans, spend their own earnings, and run their own lives as long as they don't use violence or fraud. This is the clear distinction politically that must be made to the American people and between which they must ultimately choose.

Special-interest groups and power elites are inevitable as long as the political state can use its power to take from peaceful citizens and give to others for any reason. As long as people continue to sanction interventionism/socialism as a legitimate means to obtain any goal for any reason (noble or evil), there always will be vested-interest groups and lobbies clustering around Congress and the regulatory agencies competing for favors from the public trough at the expense of everybody else. Only when the machinery of interventionism and socialism (the ultimate in political interventionism) has been dismantled, and the false ideas, myths, fallacies, and lies behind interventionism/socialism are discredited and abandoned, can the final cure for all monopolistic conspiracies be realized.

The ultimate solution is not more controls and regulations from government, but to impose on government a policy of "hands off" the private property, money, and all voluntary activities of production and exchange among peaceful citizens. Controls and regulations belong on government, not on peaceful citizens. With the government thus constitutionally limited to dealing with violence and the threat of violence (broadly, crime and external threats), while leaving peaceful adult citizens alone as much as possible, America could be assured a bright future of freedom and progress through market capitalism.

How to "bell the cat" of government to its legit functions? The U.S. founders were on the right track. Constitutional limits on the SCOPE of government, backed up by a strong desire by a sufficient number of people to keep government in its proper place -- that's the ultimate solution in the long run. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance on the part of enough people and their leaders to keep government in its proper place. Not to blindly trust government officials but to bind them down from mischief and tyranny with the chains of the Constitution.

During some of the debates Mr. Trump, Sen. Rubio, and others used such terms as "trade deficit" or "trade surplus" as if those terms meant something relevant to the economy.  There is no such thing as a "trade deficit" or "trade surplus" outside of highly artificial and arbitrary assumptions.  The terms deficit and surplus are legitimate accounting terms which refer to budgets and reflect the balance one way or another.  They do not refer to exchange, either national or personal.  One does not incur a "deficit" when goes to a grocery store and buys a loaf of bread.  Yes, the bread can be said to be "imported" to the buyer, but aftrer all the supermarket imported the dollar as the price for it.  The exchange automatically "balances"; otherwise it would not take place.  The terms "trade deficit" and "trade surplus" are just warmed-over mercantilist fallacies refuted in the 18th century by Adam Smith and others and by Frederic Bastiat in the 19th century.  Yet, the fallacies still hang on even into the 21st century.

If foreign governments want to subsidize the American economy by giving U.S. consumers lower prices, I say let them do so.  It is true this is at the forced expense of the foreign governments' taxpayers and thus harms their own economy by reducing effective demand and/or aggregate savings, but it is the U.S. economy I am most concerned about after all, and I have no power at all over foreign governments' taxation policies. Some call such practices "cheating" and object to them because they are seen as threats to those U.S.-based businesses which produce similar products, but no matter how deserving these are of sympathy they are only small special interests and do not represent the economy as a whole.  Policies should be judged on how they affect the whole U.S. economy, not just a part of it.   Of course I realize that in Washington, D.C. just because a legislative package is labeled "free trade" does not necessarily mean it has anything to do with true freedom of trade, especially if its contents are kept secret. I don't trust politicians in general and especially don't trust Obama and the Obamacrats to negotiate political trade deals for special-interest corporations.  Unless there is some real national security issue involved, governments should not block or impede trade -- nor should the government artificially stimulate U.S. exports with subsidies from the taxpayers. Such federal government entities as the Export-Import Bank and the Commodity Credit Corporation should be abolished.

Does predatory price cutting work to lead to monopoly and monopoly profits in a market free of government intervention?  No.  Here's why, and why I don't believe we will see $100 per barel oil again.

In a free market of voluntary relations a person serves himself only by serving the wants of others.  He cannot receive what he wants from others unless he produces (or already has from inheritance or gift) something they want and are willing to exchange for.  Under such circumstances, how would a businesman acquire an exploitative monopoly in the absence of government favoritism or interventikon??

What if a large, rich company kept out its competitors by undercutting prices -- selling at a loss -- to such an extent that its competitors could no longer stay in business?  Would it not then be a monopoly in its field, and then begin to charge high monopoly prices in order to recupe its loses?  Could a company lower the price of its product below cost to drive out its competitors, and then later raise its price well above the old competitive market price to make up for its losses?

By cutting the price orf its product below what it costs to produce it, that company is taking a loss, not making a profit, at least in the meantime.  Furthermore, the larger the share of the market that the company gains by this tactic, the deeper are its losses.  Not only is it not making any profit, which is the whole purpose of getting a monopoly in the first place, it is sustaining losses.  Not very exploitative so far. From the consumer's point of view, this is a bargain.  The consumer doesn't have to pay as much as he did before.  He has money left over.

It is true the company may now be a "monopoly" since it has driven out its competitors (or more accurately, the consumers have driven out his competitors by buying from the price-cutting company and not the others), but so what?  It may be the only seller in  its market but consider what it had to do to get that way, namely sustain large losses.  It may have the satisfaction of seeing its competitors driven out of business by its "predatory" price-cutting tactic, but it does not gain any monopoly profits as a result.  It is sustaining losses and in the process giving the customers an excellent sale on that product which they will take advantage of by possibly stocking up on that product at its cheap price.

What about the firms that went our of business?  They can go into another field of production or temporarily shut down to re-open later when the monopoly company raises its prices to try to recupe its losses.  Or they might buy up the cheap product of the dominant firm for their own inventories to sell later when the monopoly company has had its fill of losses and tries to raise its price above a competitive level.  The mere possibility of companies re-entering that field of production to make money would often be enough to keep the price down below exploitative levels.  The freer the capital markets, the more likelihood of companies, either new or former producers, going back into competition with the monopoly company when it tries to raise its price too high.  As soon as it tried to raise its price above the market level -- which it would have to do if it wanted to recupe the losses it sustained from its below-cost pricing -- it would inevitably invite competition from many other firms who could product the same product at a lowr price and still make money.  The competition for market share would tend to bring the prevailing price down to market levels and thwart high monopoly pricing.

Also, the firms temporarily driven out by the price cutting could go to the dominant firm's customers -- who are presumably now facing the possibility of being overcharged later on -- and obtain a contract to supply their needs at a more competitive price, thus undercutting and thwarting any threat of monopoly pricing.  These companies have the advantage that they don't have the losses to recupe that the would-be monopoly firm has sustained.

No firm can continue a policy of selling at a loss indefinitely.  Its investors will pull out.  Even if it is a very wealthy company, if it doesn't concern itself with recuping those losses it will be defeating its original prupose in getting a monopoly in the first place:  which is to get even richer.  On a free market a monopoly is an expensive rarity.  It is very difficult if not impossible to achieve and has a very short life if it exists at all.

Leftists and monopolists generally denounce "destructive competition" in the market.  Destructive competition is just a label that a firm uses when another firm is selling the product at a lower price and thus giving the customers a better deal.  Price "wars" are always to the benefit of the consumers.  Price wars are not really wars at all.  A "price war" is just companies trying to outdo one another in offering products at lower prices or better quality.  No one is killed or wounded.   The companies are not competing to destroy.  They are competing to produce and offer a better deal to consumers.  There is no coercion or violence involved.  People are free to accept an offer or not.

But some anti-freedom mentalities complain that "cut-throat competition" (in which no ones throat is cut) can be excessive and they call for government intervention on behalf of a company through so-called "fair trade" laws or government-mandated price floors.  At the same time government uses the alleged lack of sufficient competition to justify anti-trust legislation.  If they don't get you for "too much" competiton (price too low) or "too little" competion (price too high or not low enough), they can get you for "collusion" if your prices are the same as the other firms.   You can't win.  Once government is permitted to interfere in the voluntary relations of peaceful people. there is no end to the pernicious consequences that will result.

Newly applied methods of oil and gas extraction in the United States have now made the U.S.A. one of the main oil producing countries in the world.  Oil's price has plummeted from over $100 a barel to less than $50.  The Saudis have kept their production up at previous levels in the hope of driving the U.S. firms out of business by keeping prices too low for them to stay in business.  The Saudis have little choice.  If they try to raise oil prices back to $100 a barel, the U.S. fracking firms will go back into production and keep supply up and undercut any attempt by the Saudis to hike oil prices up high.  If the Saudis reduce their output, other major oil-producing countries will supply the difference and the world price of oil will be kept low.  OPEC is impotent.  Unless government intervenes, I doubt we will see $100 per barel oil again, at least not for any length of time, as it would invite the U.S. companies back into production.  OPEC  cannot keep competition out permanently.

        Hope and Tragedy
        by Sam Wells
    March 2009 revisited

    In the past, the hope of the world has been based on two things: Market capitalism and U.S. military strength. It was capitalism (to the extent it was allowed to exist) that rescued hundreds of millions of children from short miserable lives and death by starvation. It was capitalism that brought England and America out of pre-industrial squalor to advanced economic status with improvements in life for the majority of people. It was U.S. military strength that liberated the world from Hitler's national socialism and Tojo's imperialist Japan, rescued millions from slave labor and death camps, helped South Korea to remain free from communist invasion from the north, and it was U.S. strength (especially when Reagan was President) that at least pushed back the advance of communist imperialism and helped to quicken the fall of the Berlin Wall and the independence of countries once under Soviet control. It was U.S. military capability that dragged the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein off the backs of the people of Iraq.  People around the world at least began to hope that more freedom and economic opportunities would be possible.

        Unfortunately, what is left of true market capitalism in America has been undercut by many decades of government regulations, controls, monetary manipulations, taxation, and various socialistic programs. America has been coasting on the momentum from its past more-free days when it was closer to being a pure capitalist economy. The heavy burden of socialism is catching up to us now. The new president, Barack Obama, is doing his best to destroy what is left of market capitalism in America and will likely destroy the U.S. dollar completely in the next few years. This will mean economic disaster for the people of the world as well as Americans here at home.

        Meanwhile, President Obama is reducing spending on military defense and is pursuing a foreign policy that kisses up to tyrants and in effect tells oppressed people to go to Hell -- that he will do nothing to help them while he pals around with socialist thugs and bows to fascist dictators. If America's strength is allowed to wane significantly, this will certainly encourage a resurgence of both communist imperialism and jihadist terrorism around the world. I predict terrible times ahead for the people of the world as a result of these policies. And Americans will be increasingly targeted by their envious enemies. I wish I could be more optimistic. The world will be a much less safe place now that the U.S. has a socialist cult leader as President.

        Despite all the socialistic programs and interventions that have been piled on top of the U.S. economy over the past several decades, it is surprising that it is still within the top ten most economically free countries. Sadly, with the Obamacrats now in full control of the economy, I predict that the United States will fall below the top ten most free countries in the next year or two.

        I do not think it is a coincidence that at least 7 out of the top 10 most economically free nations were British colonies at one time or another: Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom itself. (See the current Index of Economic Freedom). Where there is capitalism there is hope and progress.

        It is also no coincidence that the main troublemaker regimes in the world today are among those countries with the least amount of economic freedoms (see near bottom of list), including mainland China, Russia, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea.

        It is a shame that instead of the U.S. and U.K. becoming more free and less socialistic, we seem to be following the failed policies of the loser countries now under full socialism. At least that is what the election of Obama and the Democrats portends here in the United States.

        Increasing the top marginal tax rates on income (the rich folks) does not really hurt the wealthy people, but makes less capital available for funding business starts and economic growth and results in fewer jobs and fewer economic opportunities for regular people like myself who are just struggling to pay bills. Yet, the Obamacrats continue to use the "soak-the-rich" mantra to fool their gullible followers. As an American, I apologize to the people of the world for the election of Barack Obama and for the current backward regime.  It's high time for a pro-capitalist, pro-American backlash but no one knows when that will come.

DECEMBER 5, 2013

KEEPING THE IDEAL IN MIND
AS AN ACHIEVABLE GOAL FOR THE FUTURE

Markets require the existence of government for them to operate, but let's not blur the distinction between proper government functions and improper government activities as there is a clear line of demarcation.  Markets presuppose private ownership and well-defined and government-protected private property boundaries, not just in land but in all ownable things.  To own something is to have exclusive right of control over it.  A proper function of government is to protect peoples' property rights from violation.  There are laws against theft, murder (theft of life), trespass, burglary, shoplifting, embezzlement, etc. which make it a crime to use violence or fraud to violate the exclusive right of control over person and property.

It is a very different (and indeed opposite) thing for government to contradict that proper function of protecting private property rights by itself violating them which it does when it seeks to redistribute wealth or "organize" society or meddle in the private affairs or market (i.e., voluntary) relationships of peaceful citizens.

The Laissez-Faire Republic would limit the scope of government to its legitimate functions while socialism (the opposite of laissez faire) seeks to institutionalize the annihilation of private property always and everywhere.  In real-world practice socialism amounts to a monopoly clique acting through positive government intervention to control all major industries and resources.  As Gary Allen said, socialism is the royal road to monopoly power for the super wealthy.

NOVEMBER 25, 2013

CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC VERSUS WHIMARCHY
The Principle of Individual Rights Versus Arbitrary Whim

 Left-wing activists are now in control of the government and these arrogant control freaks pretend that they know so much better than everyone else how to run our lives for us and spend our earnings for us. But if we are not smart enough or competent enough to run our own lives and spend our own earnings, how can we be smart enough or competent enough to choose the politicians and bureaucrats who will do all those things for us? And why would somebody else's vote to do so bind the rest of us who do not choose to delegate those freedoms?

The statists hastily pushed through their so-called Affordable Health Care Act without even reading it. Have they thought their scheme through very well? Apparently not, judging from the on-going failures of implementation. Not being content to try to persuade us to part with our liberties, Obama and his gang are simply imposing their momentary whims on the rest of us through the full force of political government.

Government by whim is tyranny. Our founders knew this. That is why they opposed whimarchy by binding government officials down with the chains of the Constitution, which sets forth the basic rules and limitations on the scope of the federal government.

 Government is NOT instituted to do anything anybody's whim happens to dictate. The legitimate functions of government are limited to the proper uses of violence force -- national military defense against foreign threats, law courts for the ultimate settlement of disputes, and the police power to defend against and justly retaliate against crime. The role of government does not extend to those activities and areas of human life which by their nature do not and should not involve the use of violent force. It is not the proper function of government to provide health insurance, medical care, dentistry, public education, electric power, retirement income, school lunches, housing, community development, day care, etc.

 Ignoring the limits placed on the scope of government spelled out in the Constitution has brought America to its current sorry state under the present corrupt regime. The Ninth and Tenth amendments -- which forbid fedgov from getting involved in areas not specified in the body of the Constitution itself -- are routinely ignored as if they had been repealed. And the more the political schemes fail, the more the schemers scheme up more schemes to impose.

 The Constitution is just words after all. The ultimate price of liberty is eternal vigilance on the part of enough people to keep government in its proper place. I for one would like to believe we still have enough people who understand that the scope of government must be limited to prevent tyranny and to preserve liberty. Isn't it time for a new American Revolution to take back our country?

NOVEMBER 22, 2013

FALSE CONSPIRACY THEORIES
FOR POPULAR AND INDIVIDUAL MANIPULATION
The climate of left-wing hate speech is hotter than ever.

There are political conspiracies of course, but for every genuine instance of conspiracy there are scores if not hundreds or false conspiracy conjectures which circulate among the populace and are accepted by some people as absolute fact.  Unraveling all the phony plots and setting history straight would be a full-time job and would take years of research and publication of books and articles by an organization of professional historians who did not have an ideological ax to grind.

Just taking the murder of JFK in 1963 as one historic example, there are several conspiracy theories which purport to explain what "really" happened.  There is the one that claims that President Kennedy was going to tell the public about what our government knows about extraterrestrial aliens, and that he had to be killed to prevent that horrible scenario to avoid public panic, according to that claim.  There is no real substance to that theory.  There is also the claim that JFK wanted to stop the War in Vietnam and withdraw some or all troops and bring them home, and that he wrote a memo indicating that.  But in the real world no such memo ever existed outside of the Olive Stone propaganda movie JFK.  There was never any real indication that President Kennedy was just about to end the war in support of South Vietnam against the invading communists, despite what many now believe as a result of Stone's fictional movie.  Then there is the conspiracy theory which claims that JFK wanted to stop borrowing from the Federal Reserve System and instead have the U.S. Treasury print its own paper currency.  Again, there is no real evidence that JFK wanted to do anything like that on any large enough scale -- or that "the powers that be" would have him taken out for doing so.  But those who believe in one of the above conspiratorial tales are not likely to change their minds by the lack of evidence.

I would further point out that the same claim has long been made about Abraham Lincoln's assassination -- the notion that President Lincoln was killed at the behest of powerful banking interests because Lincoln had signed the greenback legislation instead of borrowing from the bankers to pay for the war against the Confederacy.  Not only is there no evidence at all for this belief, but the greenback legislation itself was largely written by a banker from Albany (then a major banking center) and one could much more easily argue that bankers had more of a vested interest in the greenbacks as they would serve as additional reserves against which the banks could inflate in their fractional-reserve demand deposit system.  They could make much more money that way than they had done under the partial gold standard which had limited the extent of their inflation.

Lincoln was not "money martyred" at all.  He was assassinated by a fervent supporter of state sovereignty and secession, someone who perceived Lincoln as a traitor to American freedom and true federalism.

Left-wing ideologues and professional prevaricators from Mark Lane and Fletcher Prouty to Oliver Stone and Michael Moore have always put out whatever spin they consider helpful in distracting people from the truth or in muddying the waters enough to confuse the public about who really did what to whom.  Most of the widespread JFK murder stories have one thing at least in common:  they all seek to distract the public away from the history, personality, and motivations of Lee Harvey Oswald -- either to claim he was not acting alone or to exonerate him altogether as merely a patsy who had nothing to do with anything.  The latest line from the left-wing establishment is that LBJ was behind the assassination.  Again, anything to distract the public from understanding that a U.S. President was murdered by a Far Left zealot.

The point is that some of these conspiracy theories or political spins -- as wrong-headed as they may be --  are nonetheless taken as Gospel by some people -- propaganda being as effective as it is -- and that includes individuals who are mentally or psychologically unhinged or unbalanced.  And sometimes some of these persons act on their false beliefs.  A key aspect of paranoia and schizophrenia involves losing perspective by taking facts totally out of context, disengaging from reality, or perceiving "facts" or relationships that are not true or do not exist at all.

Based on his reading of various left-leaning internet sites, self-styled "liberal" Steve Kangas believed that businessman Richard Mellon Scaife was the center of a great "right-wing conspiracy" and that he was evil.  This belief motivated him to try unsuccessfully to murder Richard Mellon Scaife.

Jared Loughner, a troubled individual who believed in various left-wing conspiracy theories, hated Congresswoman Giffords because it became increasingly clear she was not left wing enough for him.  She had greatly disappointed him when she sided with the conservative Republicans and stayed and even participated in the reading of the U.S. Constitution when almost all other Democrats had rudely walked out.  There ain't no hate like left-wing hate.

This photograph taken by Oswald's wife in their back yard shows Oswald holding up the gun that was later used in shooting President Kennedy.  Along with the gun, the photograph shows Oswald proudly holding up two Marxist newspapers, The Militant and The Worker.  The picture was taken after he tried to assassinate Gen. Edwin Walker, an outspoken anticommunist.

Lee Harvey Oswald's supposed fondness for President John Kennedy turned to anger and hate when he was convinced by the Marxist literature he read avidly that Kennedy had tried to unseat and even assassinate his communist idol Fidel Castro in Cuba.  In his attempted assassination of General Walker and his murder of JFK, Oswald saw himself as a Marxist hero.  He had motive as well as opportunity in Dallas in November of 1963.   Of course I am under no illusion that people will not continue to believe what they already believe about the Kennedy assassination, and that many Americans will always be confused and uncertain about communist Lee Oswald's role in that event.

The programming of individuals by propaganda sets them up to do things they would not do otherwise.  Considering the barrage of inflammatory left-wing hate speech and slanderous rhetoric against such outspoken patriots as Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, and others, might yet another militant leftist emerge to try to do harm to peaceful American citizens?  How many potential Loughners or Oswalds are out there waiting to be triggered into acts of evil?

One should always ask, "Who benefits?"   Will the result be less government interference with the freedoms of peaceful adult citizens -- or more government control over us all?  Will it advance a freedom/constitutionalist agenda or a socialist/tyrannical world view?

Also, another question to ask is:  who will be next?  Will some left-wing kook try to murder Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Ted Cruz, or some other pro-freedom advocate?  I only hope people will be on their guard against a new wave of left-wing violence.

NOVEMBER 18, 2013

SOAKING THE RICH?

Outside of direct confiscation of existing wealth, there is not much the government can do to really hurt the rich. Hiking the income tax a few points on high earners won't make much difference to their lifestyle. They are already rich. The people hurt by "soaking the rich" are the rest of us whose jobs and living standards depend on private savings and investment and more capital accumulation to pay for new and expanded businesses. With less money saved or invested in new tools and machines and wages, fewer job opportunities are the consequence. Targeting the rich on the basis of "fairness" does little or nothing to improve the lives of low-income or middle-income families. What it does tend to do is to make it more difficult for low-income or middle-income people to rise to the high-income level, as income taxes are on current incomes and do not affect already-acquired wealth of those already on top.

Behind the socialistic idea of "soaking the rich" is the false notion that rich people got that way by somehow taking advantage of the poor. The neurotic urge to "redistribute the wealth" comes from false ideas of where wealth comes from and the notion that all wealth is static, so that if someone has more than others then it must have come from those others. The exploitation theories of Marx and Rodbertus and others have been thoroughly refuted by von Boehm-Bawerk, von Mises, Thomas Sowell, George Reisman, and other competent economists. What remains today is the moribund, dishonest religion of the Left still being pushed by the momentum of the emotions generated by those past fallacies. The Left's stale, counterproductive nostrums are dying a slow death. The control freaks will no longer be able to hide their lust for power behind the pretense of helping the common man. In the meantime, will they take the rest of us down with them?

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Bill of Rights for the United States Constitutional Republic

     I.    Fundamental Individual Rights in Person, Liberty, and Property

    II.    Freedom of Production and Voluntary Exchange

   III.    Freedom in Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition

  IV.    Freedom in the Keeping and Bearing of Firearms

   V.    Personal Freedom and Responsibility in the Ingestion of Chemical Substances

  VI.    Freedom in Education

 VII.    Freedom in Money and Banking

VIII.    Freedom in Personal Associations

  IX.    Limitations on the Means of Financing the Government

   X.    Prohibition Against Unwarranted Searches and Seizures

  XI.    Standards and Procedures to Protect the Criminally Accused

 XII.    Retained Rights and Reserved Powers
__________

         THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS WHICH THIS GOVERNMENT IS ESTABLISHED TO PROTECT, AND OF AREAS IN WHICH THE CONGRESS IS PROHIBITED FROM PASSING ANY LAWS, AND IN WHICH THE COURTS ARE PROHIBITED FROM MAKING ANY INTERPRETIVE RULINGS, AND IN WHICH NO GOVERNMENT AGENT OR OFFICIAL, EITHER ELECTED OR APPOINTED, SHALL MAKE ANY ENFORCEABLE DECREE.

    I.    Fundamental Individual Rights in Person, Liberty, and Property

    Each peaceful adult individual, who is neither a threat nor a danger to any other peaceful citizen or the properties of others, shall be recognized as being the owner of himself or herself and not the property of other people. The right of every citizen to be secure in his own person, liberty and property shall be protected against the initiation of violence, force, or fraud by other persons. No law, ruling, or decree shall be made which might infringe upon the freedom of any citizen in his person, liberty, or legitimately-acquired property (legitimately-acquired property being that property obtained by production or voluntary exchange or acceptance of gifts and not obtained through violence, force, or fraud upon the person, liberty, or property of any other citizen or citizens). The right of every citizen to own, control, and dispose of the products and earnings of his life in any manner he may want to try (as long as his activities do not involve the violation by violence, force, or fraud of the equal right of any other citizens to own, control, and dispose of their legitimately-acquired properties in any manner they wish to try) shall be protected by the government, and no law, ruling, or decree shall be made which would violate this right.

   II.    Freedom of Production and Voluntary Exchange

    No law, ruling, or decree shall be made with respect to any business enterprise, or interfering with the voluntary production and exchange among individuals or business organizations.  No subsidy or any other special privilege or encouragement from government shall be given to any business enterprise.  The voluntary organization of citizens for the purpose of production shall not be interfered with by the government, and ownership of the means of production in any noncoercive enterprise shall not come under the authority or jurisdiction of the government. The freedom of trade and commerce shall not be abridged. There shall be no government controls on prices, wages, profits, rents, or interest rates. There is to be no tariff, import quota, or any other governmentally-imposed restriction on voluntary exchange.  Exports shall not be subsidized or underwritten by any agency of the government.

  III.    Freedom in Religion, Speech, Press, Assembly, and Petition

    No law, ruling, or decree shall be made with respect to any establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. No tax of any kind shall be levied against any church, temple, or any other religious house of worship or its properties, and no subsidy or any other special privilege or encouragement from government shall be provided to any church, religion, or religious denomination. No law, ruling, or executive order shall be made for the support of any church, religion. or religious denomination.

    No law, ruling, or decree shall be made abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to assemble peaceably, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
 

 IV.    Freedom in the Keeping and Bearing of Firearms

    The right of an adult individual to keep and bear firearms for sport or the defense of self, family, or property shall not be abridged.

  V.    Personal Freedom and Responsibility in the Ingestion of Chemical Substances

    Adult citizens shall be free to consume any chemical substance, natural or artificial, no matter how controversial its use may be or how dangerous or poisonous or otherwise detrimental it may be to their own health, physical or mental; however, they shall be held fully responsible for their actions, including any criminal acts, which they may commit, either deliberately or accidentally, under the influence of alcohol or any other substance. There shall be no special government bureau or agency to oversee, regulate, or police the use of alcohol, tobacco, food, nutritional supplements, or drugs.

 VI.    Freedom in Education

    No law, ruling, or decree shall be made with respect to any educational enterprise, or interfering with the freedom of any private person or persons to engage in private, voluntary educational enterprises. No tax of any kind shall be levied for the support of any educational institution or enterprise, and no subsidy or any other special privilege or encouragement from government shall be given to any educational institution, enterprise, methodology, approach, curriculum, or teacher.  No tax of any kind shall be levied against any school, college, university, or any other educational enterprise.

 VII.   Freedom in Money and Banking

    No law, ruling, or decree shall be made establishing any privileged monopoly (either private or governmental) or favored enterprise engaged in banking or the issuing of money or money substitutes. No law, ruling, or decree shall be made abridging the freedom of any person to own, use, trade, or dispose of gold and silver in any noncoercive manner. No law, ruling, or decree shall be made interfering with the freedom of any private person or business organization to engage in the enterprises of banking, lending money at interest, and the non-fraudulent issuance of money or money substitutes.
 

VIII.   Freedom in Personal Associations

    No law, ruling, or decree shall be made abridging a person's freedom to associate or not to associate with any other person, regardless of race, nationality, or religion.  No law, ruling, or decree shall be made which would require any citizen, who is not under police arrest or who has not been convicted of a crime, to be forcibly transported for the purpose of a forced association with any other person, regardless of race, nationality, or religion.  No law, ruling, or decree shall be made abridging the freedom of any citizen, regardless of race, nationality, or religion to trade with or not to trade with any other person or persons.

 IX.    Limitations on the Means of Financing the Government

    Private property shall not be taken for the government's use without the consent of the owner or owners and on terms and on payment voluntarily agreed to by the owner or owners. No tax shall be levied on incomes, wages, salaries, profits, interests, dividends, or inheritance; and, during peacetime at least, the legitimate functions of the government shall be financed by non-coercive revenue devices. During genuine national emergencies or war, any tax levied by the national government must be passed with two-thirds or more votes of the full membership of both houses of Congress. The repeal of any tax shall require only a simple majority vote by either house of Congress.
 

  X.    Prohibition Against Unwarranted Searches and Seizures

    The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, including demand deposits and time deposits, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue except on probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and specifying the persons or things to be seized.

    No solider shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any private house or on private property without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war except in a manner set forth in advance by law.
 

XI.     Standards and Procedures to Protect the Criminally Accused

    The purpose of the government is to defend against and combat the use of coercion (violence and fraud) in human relations, but not to try to direct those relations which are voluntary. The only activity in which the government is permitted to engage itself is its proper function of the maintenance of justice through the equal protection of every citizen's rights in his person, liberty, and property from criminal violation and foreign aggression, and to help make restitution to the victims of crime when feasible.

    Coercion (or "violence") is defined as the violation by one or more persons of another person's will with respect to that which is his own (his person or his property), and thus includes physical aggression and commercial fraud.  In contrast, voluntary relations are relations among or between adults in which the wills of all the participants involved are in accord with respect to the terms of the relationship.

    A crime is an act of coercion which is initiated by a person or persons against the life, liberty, or property of any citizen. A victim of a crime is a citizen whose will has been violated through the initiation of the use or threat of coercion by someone else. A criminal is a person convicted of having committed a crime. The rights and immunities accorded to peaceful (non-criminal) citizens in the foregoing articles may be forfeited by persons convicted of crimes.

    The arrest, detention, or custody of a person accused of committing a crime shall follow a specified procedure of due process respecting the constitutional right of the accused to be informed promptly of the reason for his arrest, detention, or custody; the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay; and the constitutional right of <i>habeas corpus</i> for the determination of the validity of the detention or custody, and for his release if the detention or custody is not legally valid.

    Every citizen accused of a crime of importance shall be entitled to a fair and speedy trial involving standard procedures of due process. A citizen is presumed innocent of charges until proved guilty, and his guilt must constitute the violation of another person's rights through the initiation of the use of coercion or through unjust retaliation. Proof of guilt shall involve evidence or testimony sufficient to convince an impartial jury of his peers beyond reasonable doubt that the person under consideration did commit the crime of which he is accused.

    No person shall be held to answer for a capital or other infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service, in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life and limb; nor shall any person be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.

    In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall be entitled to a speedy and open trial by an impartial petit jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law. In the course of the trial the criminally accused is entitled to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him, to be confronted with and question the witnesses against him, to bring forth witnesses in his behalf by compulsory process, and to retain and instruct counsel for his defense.

    In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise re-examined in any court of the Untied States, than according to the rules of the common law.

    The penalties and/or punishments imposed by the sentences declared by the courts shall be reasonably consistent for cases involving similar offenses, and shall not depend on the race, skin color, or other irrelevant biological features of those convicted of crimes, and such penalties and punishments shall be reasonably proportional to the severity of the criminal offenses committed.

    Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted. A convicted criminal may be segregated from the citizens by incarceration or exile. The death penalty for murder or other heinous crimes shall not be considered cruel or unusual punishment.
 

XII.    Retained Rights and Reserved Powers

    The enumeration of certain rights and freedoms herein shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

    The powers not delegated to the national government of the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

    If this government becomes destructive of the basic ends defined herein, and popular attempts to use the peaceful measures of petition and the election process are not permitted by those who have usurped excessive power over the peaceful people, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish the government, by force of revolution if need be, as a last resort, and even to start over with a revised system of government, adding new guards against tyranny and incorporating such improved checks and balances which they may deem necessary or useful to help prevent tyranny or usurpation from occuring again in the future.
 
 

SEPTEMBER 29, 2013

Guy Fawkes Masks and Occupay Wall Street

It is interesting that a mask representing the face of Guy Fawkes, the most notorious of the infamous would-be bombers of Parliament and the British government of 1605, is seized upon by some of the Occupy Wall Street leftists as some kind of badge of protest.  If Fawkes and his zealous cronies had been successful and had had their way and did manage to blow up the legislative, judicial, and executive officials of government (since they were all there on that day), the result would have been far more statism, far more tyranny, not less, as these radical Catholics planned to have the King of Spain over and impose the Spanish Inquisitin and his own religious faith on all, as Bloody Mary Tudor had tried to do.  By contrast, the relatively moderate policies of James I helped set the stage for the development of libertarian thought during that century and ultimately helped to make possible the Glorious Revolution of 1688.   If one is a  genuine libertarian one would assiduously eschew the gunpowder plot of 1605 and celebrate its foiling by burning Fawkes's image on November 5.

SEPTEMBER 21, 2013

THE "BIG BANG THEORY" AND TIME

I am sometimes asked, "When did the Universe begin?" Or, did the Universe begin with a big bang as some scientists claim?  I am not an astrophysicist and make no claim as to the truth or falsity of the Big Bang Theory.  Newspaper and other media aaccounts of it cannot be trusted to be accurate as "journalists" are notoriously inaccurate in the area of science news (or economics or philosophy or almost any specialized field for that matter).  I can only report that some journalists claim that scientists believe that the Universe (everything and every existent) "began" as a tightly dense atomic egg that exploded outward.  I do not know if scientists believe that or not, but IF (hypothetically) that is a correct reporting of the theory, then the rendition is philosphically sloppy at best.  It might be true that the Universe or part of the Universe "existed" as a small atomic egg, but then that egg would be the universe.  It could not exist before itself.  One could say that the universe existed "before" the Big Bang in the form of the "nuclear egg" before it exploded (according to the theory), but even that statement is problematic since any and all temporal terms such as before and after have no meaning in this context.  In philosophy, which is more fundamental than science, the term "universe" does not mean merely a collecxtion of some galaxies or planets.  It means all that exists -- not only every thing but every condition, every relationshipo, every aspect, every energy, every matter, and every anything else.  There is no such thing as "before the universe" or "after the universe."  There is no such thing as stepping "outside of" the universe.  The universe is eternal -- outside of time.  Put another way, the concept of time has meaning and is made possible only in the context of existence and motion within existence.  The universe did not "begin" or "start" on some sumemr day at 2:00 in the afternoon.  It may change its form, but it will "never" "end" on a September evening at 8:00 PM.  The planet Earth could conceivably end, but not the whole Universe.  All notions of time presuppose things that exist and move relative to other things.  Time has meaning only within the Universe, not the other way around.
 
 

AUGUST 10, 2013

ANARCHIST CRED, RIP

What the Rockwelites, Raymondoites, and the handlers around Ron Paul favor is a strange non-American, non-constitutionalist vision they call black-flag "anarchism" -- just more statism under a different, deceptive label.  Instead of calling political government and coercion what it is, they will call it "private" or "corporate" and it will have no limits. There is a reason why there is no such thing as a constitutional anarchy.  They side with the Left which is consistently ultrastatist when in power and which has always cynically used anarcho-statist nudniks in their strategic drive for more and more power over others.  Like jailed Trotskyite communist Lyndon Larouche, the black flaggers and NeoRoths want their own version of big-government tyranny, but they will call it something else, perhaps something like "Murray's Anarcho-Fascist Insurgency Association."  They are an enemy of freedom, not an ally.

MAY 9, 2013

POWER ABHORS A VACUUM

Internationally, the reactionary "liberal" Democrats in the Obama regime who want to reduce American influence in the world today are paving the way for an international power vacuum that will be filled by far less benign forces -- Chinese communism, Russian fascism, Islamic jihad and its oppressiveness. Instead of caving in to anti-American propaganda and anti-western hate from ultra-statist slime, the U.S. and its Dept of State should be supporting its allies and using what strength we have to stand up to those enemies of freedom and U.S. security.
 
 

MARCH 7, 2013

TRUE ATTITUDE IS REVEALED BY ACTION AND INACTION

 

RUSH EXPLAINS WHY THE LEFT PRAISES THUG HUGO CHAVEZ
WHILE SMEARING CAPITALIST ROMNEY

 Rush on Why Left Praises Chavez
 
 

FEBRUARY 27, 2013

I was disappointed by Sen. Rand Paul who yesterday voted to approve Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense.  Apparently he caved to the Obama regime just as a regular RINO such as John McCain would.  Chucklehead Hagel as Secretary of Defense is a dangerous condition for the U.S. to be in.

Our jihadist enemies are cowards.  They hide behind women and children and run into mosques and other places of worship because they know our troops have a policy of not attacking civilians or religious shrines.  They on the other hand do not hesitate to murder innocent women and children and desecrate Christian, Buddhist, and other religious places.  Approving Obama's appointment of Hagel as Secretary of Defense sends a "green light" to America's enemies.

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

COMBATING THE ARROGANCE OF IGNORANCE

In the wake of the 2012 elections, Republicans must try to stay united while continuing to uphold sound principles against the folly of the Democrat agenda.  Much more grass-roots education is needed.  We must combat and refute the propaganda and lies of the Democrats.  That should have been done long ago.  Democrat politicians like Kerry, Gore, Biden, Pelosi, Reid, and Obama should be laughed off the stage.  People should see through their rhetoric easily as not having any credibility.  But they apparently do not.  Too many fools want to be on the Federal reservation.  What can be done about the arrogance of ignorance, i.e., the Democrat Party?  Too often the Republican leadership has tacitly accepted the basic premises of their political enemies instead of challenging them at their roots.  American Conservatives, constitutionalists, and true patriots must become more aggressive in the war of ideas, take over media outlets when and where they can for maximum advantage, and demand choice and reform of the educational system.  As long as the teachers unions control education and the Left controls the colleges, the long-term political future looks bleak for individual freedom for peaceful citizens and American national sovereign independence.  The current pragmatist leadership of the GOP must be supplanted by pro-constitution personalities who will not be swayed by beltway smears.  The Republican Party must continue to advocate less government meddling, more private responsibility, real cuts in spending and taxes, a strong and flexible national defense, free markets, and control of our national borders.

*   *   *
Clichés of socialism & "liberalism"

*   *   *

Mitt Romney was certainly not my favorite presidential candidate. I liked Bachmann early on but her campaign never got much traction for some reason. Some say Romney is too liberal, that he is a RINO. Probably. He is after all from Massachusetts. His father was certainly an even more liberal Republican. But, having said and acknowledged that, considering his choice of running mate and the influence of the tea party groups on the Republican Party now, if Romney had been President instead of Obama, do you think he would have nominated left-wing extremists like Kagan and Sotomayor for the Supreme Court? No way. Forced Republicans to raise FICA taxes on the middle class? Not hardly. Caved to the Moslem Brotherhood? Nope. Release terror master blind sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman (which Obama has not yet done but is considering to appease the Bro'hood)? Unthinkable. Obstruct the building of the Keystone Pipeline and the many jobs that would create? Again, no way. Stand in the way of drilling in ANWR? Nope.

It is not that Romney was so good but that the alternative is so bad. People who obsess about Romney's imperfections forget the great damage someone like Obama (or almost any Democrat nowadays) can do to the U.S. Until enough more Americans share our views, there is unlikely going to be a viable alternative candidate to welfare-state "liberalism" domestically and appeasement in international relations. Until more people can be persuaded to our side, we need to buy all the time we can get for that educational process to take hold. Passively waiting for a perfect candidate while the worst power lusters are given free reign only hastens statism; it doesn't slow it down. Constitutionalists need to be more active in the primaries if they want to take the leadership of the GOP away from the non-ideological prags.

Evolution of a coverup of lies about Benghazi:

http://townhall.com/video/the-white-house-disinformation-campaign-on-libya
The White House Disinformation Campaign on Libya - townhall.com

RAND PAUL BRINGS IT!... Tells Hillary Clinton: YOU Are to Blame for Benghazi!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fG6XNIwBaY&feature=youtu.be

To elect somebody like Barack Obama president would not only be a huge mistake, it would send a signal to the world that most Americans no longer want freedom and independence but prefer to be dependent, regulated, and controlled by a government that has its tentacles in virtually every aspect of human life.. To prevent such a tragedy, a great educational program must be directed toward the low information voters, those who are naive enough to believe in Barack Obama and his rhetoric. and the extremist left-wing agenda of the Democrat Party. They must learn the lessons of history, of politics, and perhaps most of all economics.

I am not sure why Oprah is the appropriate venue for airing Lance Armstrong's admissions of his misdeeds and prevarications but how about that reprobate Bill Clinton confess his crimes and sins on Oprah next time -- yes he did have sex with that woman, yes he did rape Juanita Broderick, yes he did let terrorists out of prison, yes he did cripple SDI, yes he did perjure himself, etc. And Albert Gore could go on Oprah to fess up about his lies about global warming and his carbon credits scam.

  A tall man with short blond hair walked nonchalantly through the door of the little shoe store and entered a closet in the back. After closing the door for privacy, he sat down and switched on a small audio cassette player concealed within a particular shoe box.

    "Good morning, Mr. Phelps," came the voice from the tape machine.

    "In the folder at your right you will find a picture of one John Galt, a former physicist and inventor who disappeared some time ago without paying his fair share of income taxes. Worse still, Galt has managed to convince some of the foremost businessmen, industrialists, scientists, engineers and other men and women of intellectual ability to go with him to a secret mountain compound and no longer produce for the good of our society any more. If enough men of such ability dropped out of society in this manner, it would put our whole system in great peril. With no one producing or inventing new machines and industrial processes, our government would not have enough taxes to support the many progressive and altruistic programs in which it now engages. The hungry Third World countries could no longer receive our government's generous foreign aid and development funding. In addition, the United Nations -- that wonderful monument to global peace, world order and universal brotherhood -- would soon have to fold its operations for lack of sufficient funding.

    "Indeed, our domestic bureaucracy would suffer as well -- and many loyal government employees would have to find jobs in the private sector! Without sufficient private investment and capital formation, however, there would probably be mass unemployment. Why, our Federal Government might have to abandon its welfare and foreign aid programs altogether! This would be a terrible blow to social progressivism. People would be left to fend for themselves without Uncle Sam's generous aid!

    "Jim, I think you can already see that Galt and his cronies are selfish, anti-social, and potentially dangerous right-wing extremists. If Galt's plan to get the key men of ability to go on strike should succeed, we would have virtually no more to tax in order to support our federal establishment and our sister states overseas. This could greatly jeopardize America's crucial role in the emerging New World Order. The world as we now know it could fall apart!

    "And, Jim, you and I would be without a job. I think you realize that we both depend on these men of ability for our survival in the long run. Unfortunately, many of them have become tired of being taxed and regulated for the public interest and the common good. These selfish producers think they have a right to what they produce and that neither the National State nor the World Community has a right to any of it! Clearly, they are shrugging their obligation to Society. And, Jim, that means us -- you and me. WE are society! Those selfish bastards are shrugging at US!

    "This may be the most important assignment your team has ever undertaken. The continuance of our entire progressive system and of the other progressive peoples' states around the world depends on the success of your efforts in this matter. You may use any means whatsoever. You have a license to kill with or without provocation. We can even provide military equipment and BATF boys to assist your team if you need them!  We could even send in the Waco killers if necessary.

    "Your mission, Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to find Galt's Gulch and stop Galt and his men of ability from destroying our world by withdrawing their moral sanction and financial support. As always, should you or any of your agents be caught or killed in the pursuance of this mission, Secretary Clinton and Attorney General Holder will disavow any knowledge of your activities and this proposed covert action. Good luck, Jim."

    After a momentary pause, the tape recorder spoke again:

    "This tape will self-destruct in five seconds."

    As Jim Phelps walked out of the shoe store, he wondered about the moral implications of a society which maintained itself by exploiting its most productive members, the men of ability, ingenuity, reason, and intelligence. It was a society that was set to self-destruct -- like the tape.

Copyright © 1997 by Sam Wells
1972 by Sam Wells in The Tech Talk, Louisiana Tech University

"Who is running our country? We've got a CIA Director sharing security info with his mistress using an unsecure gmail account. We've got the delusional Susan Rice blaming the death of an ambassador on a Youtube video. We've got Iran firing on one of our drones a week before the election. We've got the White House either ignorant of or covering up all of this. Who is minding the store? Everywhere we look we see the rank incompetence or corruption of the people who are supposedly running our country and our major institutions. Let's hope that responsible reporters at Obama's press conference today ask the right questions Americans deserve answers to.

"Here's my question for the president: As our nation's chief executive you claim to be unaware of one of the most important and tragic situations we're facing; so, as a former chief executive, I'd like to know how long it takes for your staff to tell you things like: 'Sir, your CIA Director is under inve

-Sarah Palin

*   *   *

The Obama gang has known about the Patraeus indiscretions for months and have been keeping it quiet until after the election to use against him if he got out of line or changed his story.  He was being blackmailed.  He was told by the White House to go along with the story (which is a lie) that the murderous attacks in Benghazi were the result of a protest that got out of hand that originally was caused by anger at an anti-Mohammedan video on YouTube.  Both he and Obama know it was a planned and equipped Al Qaeda attack on the anniversary of 9/11.  The protests against the video came later.  And the Obama administration did nothing to try to rescue the Americans who were first seized and subsequently murdered.

The Dems Won by Getting Out The Vote In Five States

"The Democrats -- here's the lesson -- the Democrats won this election in five states.  They got their vote out better than we did in Ohio, Virginia, Florida, it looks like, close enough. And some of the other states that we thought were in the bag or close were not anywhere near close.  Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota, nowhere near close.  Colorado, Nevada, nowhere near close.  But the Democrats won this election in five states.  That's where they got the electoral votes they knew they needed.  That's where they got their turnout, and we didn't.  And the polls called this right on the money.  So it doesn't matter that Romney's enthusiasm at his rallies was through the roof and Obama's was nowhere near.  The votes didn't happen at those rallies.  It's why I kept rejecting all that stuff, I kept begging people, "Look, it's anecdotal, it looks good, but please don't make any value judgments based on it."  Anyway, it's hard not to, I know." ~Rush Limbaugh

Paul Ryan tried to tell the truth to the American people about the looming fiscal crisis and the problems of MediCare and SS running out of money. I guess more people believed the lies of Obama and the Democrats rather than one of the few people who actually read the ObamaCare legislation.

The immense fiscal crisis that Paul Ryan tried to warn people about won't go away. He was demonized by the Demokrat Left as a "right-wing crazy" but that's nonsense. When truth is called crazy then reality is turned upside down. The system is unsustainable and the fiscal crisis won't go away.

Some are asking what the Republican Party can do, but the problem is long term. No quick fix or policy change will make Repubs winners against the Democrat Smear Machine. Of course, the GOP needs to be more consistently conservative constitutionalist and less compromising with the corrupt Democrat leadership. But the real problem is that education in this country has been run by the "liberal" Dems for a long time and they have produced the kind of voters they want. The younger voters overwhelmingly voted for Obummer because they were raised in liberal schools and taught by liberal teachers. That won't change overnight.

It was almost inconceivable to me that people could be stupid enough to re-elect a corrupt lying crook like B.H. Obummer for another four years, but I obviously over-estimated the intelligence of the voters (or under-estimated the vote fraud). And the Senate is still in Reid's control! I can't believe it!  If Obama has actually won the election when all the votes are counted, November 6, 2012 will go down in history as a day of infamy in American politics.

Obviously America is divided into two groups of very different people with very different views of what is going on.  The looters are obviously winning at this point.  But ultimately their system will come tumbling down; it is unsustainable.  Reality will ultimately have the last word.

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

STILL UNDECIDED?

For the yet undecideds -- those mugwomps still sitting on the fence with their mugs on one side and their womps on the other -- it is pretty late but there is still time to see a difference between the two presidential candidates and to either vote for one or against one. Gary Johnson has as much chance getting elected President as a gnat getting off hot tar paper, and voting for him or writing in Mickey Mouse or Ron Paul does nothing to advance the cause of liberty; it does not "send them a message" at all. If you did not like the two main party candidates, it means not enough people who think like you organized well enough in the primaries to get your preferred candidate in the race.

In politics there is no substitute for votes.

Voting in the defense of liberty is no vice, but a form of legitimate self-defense of one's rights to person and property from those who would violate them. I believe in voting in self defense. Political pacifism just gives the other side an easy victory. If and when I vote, I am not trying to impose my will on ohters, but am trying to keep others from imposing their wills on me. I have found that if you ignore politics, it will not ignore you. If you were trapped in a locked room with a known homicidal maniac and there is a pistol on the floor between you and him, would you not be a fool not to try to get to that pistol first so that the maniac could not use it to shoot or threaten you with it? To hang back and let the maniac get the gun so he can shoot you with it or threaten to shoot you does not make things better for you or anyone else -- but only helps to empower the evil. You may dislike guns and bullets, and you may hate violence -- but does that mean you should give up your right of self-defense and meekly let yourself be killed? Of course not!

There is a difference. Now maybe it is true that there was a time when there has not been ENOUGH difference between the two parties, that too many Republicans seemed to be just Democrat Lite. But if that was true in the past, it is not the case now. No difference between a Paul Ryan and a Maxine Waters? No difference between Michele Bachmann and Nancy Pelosi? No difference betwen Rand Paul and crooks like Harry Reid? No difference between almost any Republican's voting pattern and that of virtually all Democrats? In the year 2012 those pushing the notion that there is absolutely "no difference" between Republicans and Democrats are setting the public up to help Obama get re-elected by dividing the pro-American vote with one or more third parties or "independent" candidates. That is the false alternative, the real false flag operation that is going on.

Voting Ron Paul? Gary Johnson? Neither will ever be president. And "standing on principle" (mistaken principle) does not mean slitting ones own throat. I perceive a certain strain of nihilism among some of the Ron Paulites which just plays into the hands of the left-wing megastatists. The so-called "anarchism" that some claim to want is never going to be. It is a false alternative, a false flag operation which is just statism under a different label. There IS a difference between the two presidential and vice presidential candidates. To deny that is to evade reality and become an ostrich.

I used to think that a strong Libertarian Party as a third party would help push the GOP further to the pro-freedom right. but I have seen very little if any evidence of that. For one things the libertarian message to the public has been distorted by neoRoth and neoTrot influences and propaganda so that the public received a very confused message. In most cases at least in tight races an LP candidate would usually take more from the conservative Republican than his leftist Dem adversary to the extent his candidacy had any effect at all. Barring a constitutional amendment, the U.S. does not have a proportional representation system like Europe and unlike Europe will never be more than a predominantly two-party system. The influence of the tea parties gives me more hope for change. American conservatives, whatever their drawbacks, tend to be much closer to libertarianism and constitutional liberty than any modern Democrat today. (Even Ron Paul, said to be libertarian, runs as a Republican.)

The tea party constitutionalists must take over leadership of the GOP. That is more possible to achieve, I believe, than trying to influence the GOP with third=party efforts.  It is better than diluting our strength with third-party candidates or write-in votes.

*   *   *
SEPTEMBER 15, 2012

AUGUST 12, 2012

ROMNEY PICKS PAUL RYAN AS RUNNING MATE

Empirically, the ideologies of political liberalism and socialism have proved to be utter failures. The Obama administration and its policies are the best illustration of this failure to produce real results compared to glittering campaign promises. The Obamacrats have apparently sought to "stimulate" the economy back to health by more federal spending and unprecedented, colossal indebtedness. That is kind of like trying to gain nourishment by drinking your own blood. Government can only put back into the economy what first it has siphoned out of the economy. There is no new wealth created. And with the bureaucratic overhead involved in these political programs what is put back in (to the vested interests like international banks such as Goldman Sachs who supported Obama and Biden in the campaign) is often much less overall than what was taken by force from the voluntary price-oriented economy. More tax theft is not the answer. As Paul Ryan points out, it is time to face up to the problem of government overspending instead of using smoke and mirrors to try to hide it from the American people as is done in the monstrous legislation called ObamaCare.

The spin doctors of the Obama clique and their media shills accuse Republicans of trying to destroy medicare -- but it is precisely ObamaCare that we discover plans to take $716 billion away from Medicare and not give it back. It is time we called liars what they are.

Ryan is smarter than 0bama and knows the details of the budget debate and the ObamaCare monstrosity -- and of course Ryan runs rings around that fool Biden.  If there is a debate between Paul Ryan and Biden, the Dems won't be able to get away with trying to confuse the American people about who is doing what to whom. I believe Obama will be defeated in a landslide.

 How many Americans today understand the significance of the Munich agreement made in 1938 with Hitler by England's Neville Chamberlain and France's Daladier? This agreement was made without the presence or consent of Czechoslovakia and was an attempt to appease Hitler and a cowardly betrayal of Czechoslovakia. It is possible that Nazi Germany's forced annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland would have taken place anyway, but it was wrong for England and France to recognize it as legitimate when it was obviously a prelude to further military expansion by Nazi Germany. Hitler's promise that he would not make any further territorial demands was clearly an empty one.  Today, the leaders of the U.S. Democrat Party are much worse than Neville Chamberlain.

Munich Conference and the Annexation of Sudetenland

Like killers Amy Bishop and Jared Lee Loughner and would-be killers Casey Brezik and Steve Kangas,  James Holmes is a pro-Obama leftist who was ideologically motivated to commit his irrational acts of extreme violence against innocence people based on his distorted view of the world based on crackpot left-wing hate speech.

Occupy mob sympathizer caught for mass murder in Aurora, Colorado

JULY 17. 2012

REPEATING THE SAME OLD ERRORS

    Ideally, the proper function of government, essentially, is NOT to govern peaceful people in their private lives or voluntary exchanges or how they use their properties. It ought to be limited to governing criminals -- broadly, those convicted of violating the rights of peaceful people. Government's function is not to set prices, regulate what vitamins we may take, establish racial quotas, manage healthcare, or redistribute wealth among non-criminals. If Obama's goal was to help the economy recover, his policies of massive federal spending and indebtedness have failed. This administration has spent more than all previous administrations combined. Yet, they have destroyed far more jobs than they have created. Trying to "stimulate" the economy back to health through government spending is like trying to gain nourishment by drinking your own blood! The government cannot put back into the economy more than what it takes out of it -- and given the huge overhead and waste involved in government programs -- on net it puts back in less than it takes away while artificially stimulating some sectors at the forced expense of others. When FDR tried this, it kept the country in depression for many years unnecessarily and causing widespread economic anguish. What must be done is to slash federal spending to the bone, cut taxes generally, abolish the capital gains tax, repeal Dodd-Frank and many other laws, and replace the Federal Reserve legal counterfeiting monopoly with a sound (golden) monetary system.

OBAMA OPERATING ON FALSE MARXIST ASSUMPTIONS

What Obama doesn't seem to understand is that the plant and equipment, the tools and machines, the money for wages and salaries all must be paid for before a business even begins to make any money (if it does). These are all paid for by capital funding made available by private savings and investment. Taxing the rich only siphons off money that could go to such business starts -- to finance new businesses for their first few years of operation BEFORE they even start making money (again, if they do). The risks can be high. Reducing capital formation only makes it harder for businesses to find the funding to start up or grow. Obama seems to have no appreciation of the role played by savers, investors, capitalists and entrepreneurs in creating job opportunities. He is operating on false marxist assumptions.

JULY 14. 2012

I believe in voting in self defense. Political pacifism just gives the other side an easy victory.  When I vote I am not trying to impose my will on others, but am trying to keep others from imposing their wills on me, which is certainly legitimate.

JULY 12. 2012

Foundations of American Constitutionalism

American culture has been fed by many traditions from around the world, but early on the two main traditions which influenced North American culture in general were the Greco-Roman heritage and the Judeo-Christian tradition (with some degree of overlap). Cicero, Polybius, Tacitus, Aristotle, Plutarch, Aesop, Titus Livius and other rediscovered ancient writers were at one time required reading for any true scholar. The ideas of constitution, mixed republic, and rule of law derive from the classics which at least some of the American founders could read in the original Greek and Latin. In one of his last letters before his death, Thomas Jefferson wrote that the "principles of the Declaration were found in the — elementary books of public right, as Aristotle, Cicero, Locke & Sidney." Aristotle had examined different types of governments, their strengths and weaknesses, and the possibility of combining stability and justice.

The Bible was a staple in colonial America and throughout U.S. history. It has shaped our view of right and wrong and puts it in proper perspective. The divine injunctions against theft and murder in the Decalogue provide the basis for the principles of private property rights and individual self ownership -- ideas without which liberty for peaceful people would not be possible.  When designing a great seal for the United States Ben Franklin had suggested a proposal (not adopted) depicting the Hebrew people fleeing from Pharaoh's Egypt as the Red Sea swallows up the pursuing troops -- as an analogy with the American colonists' struggle for political independence from mercantilist Britain.

John Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government was almost as widely read by the American colonists as the Bible.  The ideas of natural individual rights, private property, self ownership, and limited constitutional government (in the tradition of 1688-89) were well established among the populace.  Any king or parliament that violated those established principles was looking for a fight.

    JULY 5. 2012

    Roberts's Decision in Upholding ObamaCare as Constitutional

It seems to me quite a "stretch" to cite the interstate commerce clause as the excuse to put medical care under the federal government's growing jurisdiction -- not that it hasn't been used that way before, going back at least to Wickerd versus Filburn. But that reasoning seems to ignore the ninth and tenth amendments. Roberts seems to be saying that if ObamaCare is re-read (i.e., re-written) as a tax, it is OK. Somehow his judicial legislation makes it constitutional. I do not follow that argument. Before a level of government may tax something it must first have purview or jurisdiction. I do not find either "health care" or "medical insurance" mentioned in the Constitution at all let alone Section 8 of Article I. The founders intended for the Constitution to limit the scope of government. As best I can understand, Roberts's argument means that fedgov may tax any area of human life, that its scope of power is unlimited. If this was not clear before his ruling, it seems clear now. Maybe Roberts intends to force Congress to take a more active role in explicitly circumscribing fedgov's power and passing legislation to restrict the Court's purview. Or maybe he hoped it would fire up the GOP base and the tea parties to ensure a Romney victory over Obummer this fall.  I really don't know.

This puts the pressure on Congress to repeal ObamaCare when presumably it will be able to do so after the November elections and President Romney can sign the repeal.

JUNE 6, 2012

THE RECALL HEARD ROUND THE WORLD

    The Republican election triumph in Wisconsin is a major victory for Gov. Walker, honesty, conservative policies and rationality versus Tom Barrett, Barack Obama, Jesse Jackson, and the irrational greed of left-wing unions. Obummer will be a one-termer. A time to savor and celebrate and prepare!

   http://www.humanevents.com/2012/06/06/ann-coulter-the-recall-heard-round-the-world/     Ann Coulter: The recall heard round the world

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The Real False Alternative

Now maybe it is true that there was a time when there has not been ENOUGH difference between the two parties, that too many Republicans seemed to be just Democrat Lite. But if that was true in the past, it is not the case now. No difference between a Paul Ryan and a Maxine Waters? No difference between Michele Bachmann and Nancy Pelosi? No difference betwen Rand Paul and crooks like Harry Reid? No difference between almost any Republican's voting pattern and that of virtually all Democrats?

In the year 2012 those pushing the notion that there is absolutely "no difference" between Republicans and Democrats are setting the public up to help Obama get re-elected by dividing the pro-American vote with one or more third parties or "independent" candidates. That is the false alternative, the real false flag operation that is going on.

DECEMBER 19, 2011

TEA PARTY PATRIOTS POLLING RESULTS

Newt Gingrich 31%
Michele Bachmann 28%
Mitt Romney 20%
Rick Santorum 16%
Ron Paul 3%
... Rick Perry 2%
Jon Huntsman 0% (.34%)
(Results are rounded to nearest percentage point. Margin of error +/-1.59%)

I would prefer someone like Michelle Bachmann, but she has much less traction than Gingrich has right now.  Gingrich is far from perfect, but he would be better than Romney in my opinion.

THE DEATH OF A COMMUNIST DICTATOR

December is the special month in which people celebrate different things -- Hannukah, Christmas, Isaac Newton's birthday, and now the long-awaited death of mass murderer and communist dictator Kim Jong Il of North Korea. Kim Jong Il is now Kim Jong Dead.

The Demise of a Dictator

SEPTEMBER  21, 2011

Ron Paul wins "California Straw Poll":  No One Cares

I have not heard of this California straw poll.  Something tells me its purpose is to promote Ron Paul for President.  Congressman Paul has been led to believe that the source of evil in the world is not militant socialism, the communists, the hateful jihadists, or the militant environmental fascists -- but the United States of America and its military capability. He thinks that if the U.S. would embrace his isolationist policy and remove all of its influence from all other countries, the world would be a much better place. Never mind that the vacuum created by such a head-in-the-sand policy would be filled by either totalitarian communist regimes or corrupt Islamic dictatorships.

The hope of the world is still market capitalism (to the extent it is allowed to exist) and the strength and flexibility of the U.S. military.

Ron does waffle on some issues. For example, he used to favor abolishing the Federal Reserve System -- which I agree with. (If we're going to have a monetary crisis anyway, why not use the opportunity to get rid of the Federal Reserve and start over with a sound money system? Otherwise the Federal Reserve's legal counterfeiting to pay for the government's debts will eventually ruin the dollar as a viable currency. Enough with legal counterfeiting by anybody! Money should be independent of political manipulaiton.) But Ron Paul now seems to be advocating that the Federal Reserve just be audited.  Audited?  I say abolish theFed; don't try to "audit" it! What does that mean? Who would do the "auditing"? What would prevent them from cooking the books? Will "auditing" the Fed really accomplish anything substantial?  Sounds like a copout.

AUGUST 17, 2011

REPUBLICANS WIN 4 OUT OF 6 STATE ELECTIONS IN WISCONSIN

Unions Spent $35 Million to Defeat Wisconsin Gov. Walker — and Lost

AUGUST 2, 2011

KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD AGAIN

The deal to raise the borrowing limit does not make serious cuts and there are no provisions for any real structural reforms in the budget process, such as Zero-Based Budgeting.  At most, in 2012 only $7 billion will be cut, and in 2013 a measly $3 billion.  This is nothing compared to the huge trillion-dollar spending Obama and the Dems are now allowed to get away with.  We will likely not see any real structural reform, such as the House's Cut, Cap, and Balance Act, until there is a majority of constitutional conservatives in the Senate and a new President who is serious about cutting the budget and not just making small cuts in the projected increase in spending. they probably will need to repeal the 1974 Budget Act and institute Zero-Based Budgeting instead. As long as Harry Reid and the Dems are in charge of the Senate and Obama is in the WH, nothing significant will get passed.

Committed patriots and constitutionalists must be prepared to get involved in a serious way in the GOP primaries of 2012 to defeat the RINOs as well as taking out as many Dems in the general election as possible.

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OBAMA'S GRAND SLAM

Republican Leadership folds as U.S. continues on path toward economic disaster-- Emily Miller

JULY 30, 2011

 TWENTY-TWO PATRIOTS WHO VOTED AGAINST THE BOEHNER/REID TRAP

JULY 22, 2011

GOP LEADERSHIP, STAND FIRM
AGAINST OBAMA WH AND BELTWAY MEDIA

We have all heard the old populist propaganda line from George Wallace that there is not a dime's worth of difference between the two major parties.  If that was ever true in the past, it is certainly not true these days.  With the activism of the various tea party groups, constitutional conservatives are taking the Republican Party back from the RINOs.  The difference between the balanced proposals for real budget reform from the House Republicans on the one hand and the non proposal from the current golfer-in-chief and his Democrat buddies in the Senate is very telling.  At most the Dems propose pseudocuts that are way off in the future (and likely never to occur) with more job-killing taxes on the U.S. economy.  The House Republicans, particularly Paul Ryan, are at least trying to put some kind of control on what is a runaway federal spending spree.  The Ryan plan does not go far enough in my opinion, but it is a large step in the right direction and is very good as far as it goes, especially compared to the irresponsible Democrat alternative of politics as usual.

What would really be needed in the longer run in my judgment is Willis Stone's Liberty Amendment -- but that is not on the table and is not supported by enough Americans to be politically viable at the present time.  In the meantime, the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act passed by the House is the only plan that seeks to make the federal government live within its means.  Pressure must be put on corrupt Senate leader Harry Reid to pass a Senate version of the bill and on President Obama to sign it into law.  If he does not, people will recognize where the blame lies for the financial debacle, even despite the best attempts by the news media to cover up for this worst president since at least Jimmy Carter.

If the public remains too complacent and does not show support for the good guys in the House, then it will deserve what it will get.  This should have been done decades ago.  Better late than never.

JULY 13, 2011

OBAMA CONTINUES TO OBSTRUCT BUDGET REFORM
WALKS OUT OF MEETING IN A SNIT
OBAMA DEMANDS MORE JOB-KILLING TAX HIKES
AND REFUSES TO MAKE SERIOUS SPENDING CUTS

Acting more like a spoiled brat than a President, Barrack Obama, after having played golf and going on numerous vacations and doing no work on the budget, tries to blame others for his fiscal irresponsibility.  Obama threatens to withhold SS checks if he doesn't get his way.  Meanwhile more lawmakers are signing onto the Cut, Cap, and Balance Pledge.

JUNE 20, 2011

Fast and Furious Gun Running by BATF to Major Criminals in Mexico
This incredible sounding story continues to unfold as one of the major scandals of this century.

JUNE 13, 2011

Bill Cunningham interview of Peter Barnes of WSJ

Is the U.S. Government Already in Default?

JUNE 5, 2011

FROM WHOM CAN THE DEMOCRATS BORROW NOW?

China Has Divested 97 Percent of Its Holdings in U.S. Treasury Bills

JUNE 4, 2011

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

Top jihadist leader killed
The terrorist described by counterterrorism officials as al Qaeda's "military brain," Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in a drone strike Friday night in Pakistan

JUNE 1, 2011

OBAMA -- ONE-TERM PRESIDENT

Despite that the takedown of Osama bin Laden by the Navy SEALS happened while Obama was president -- based on information obtained by interrogations and Bush policies which Obama and the Democrats opposed -- he is still considered the worst president since Jimmy Carter. He is a job killer who has extended and deepened the recession. He apologizes for America to foreign deadbeat dictators. He has alienated our allies.  Even his kept media are getting tired of propping him up.

SARAH PALIN RISING

One of the worst fears of the Left/Liberal Establishment is a Palin run for the President. they are desperate to find out what she will do.   She is playing them like a violin.  She realizes they are not her allies, that they are out to protect Obama at all costs.

MAY 31, 2011

HOUSE DEFEATS DEBT CEILING HIKE

Republicans racked up a victory in the House of Representatives by soundly defeating the attempt by the Obama regime to increase the debt ceiling to accommodate further borrowing for its colossal deficit spending sprees and bailouts of political buddies.

Democrats are desperate to smear Paul Ryan & his proposals. Their tactic is to hold children hostage and scare senior citizens against any change in the current moribund system. Even though Ryan's plan does not affect current Medicare recipients, the Democrats will claim otherwise. Obstructionist Democrats in the Senate have, for the time being, halted budget reform. But that will not make the problem go away.

Paul Ryan's plan does not go far enough, but it is a step in the right direction. I support it as far as it goes. What is really needed is the old Liberty Amendment written by Willis Stone -- but that is probably "too radical" for most Americans at this point.  Too many people are living in ignorance and in denial about our government's debt problems.

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DNC Chair: Republicans Believe Illegal Immigration 'Should be a Crime'Well, duh!  How stupid can this woman be? *   *   *
MAY 13, 2011

Ron Paul's Foreign Policy Redux

On the grammar school playground there is this big kid who is a bully. He beats up the little kids and takes their lunch money (for those not on the state's Free Lunch Program). You are one of the bigger kids; in fact, you are bigger than all the others and more than a match for the bully. As he attacks your little sister, you stand by and do nothing because he has never initiated force against you personally. It is not any of your business if he breaks your sister's nose. Instead of dragging him off of her, you just stand by and watch in silence.

There is a lot of jumping to the wrong conclusion by some "anti-war" types on when force is justified. They seem to believe that the Non-Aggression Axiom says that retaliation is justified ONLY when the force initiated was against the retaliator and no one else. That is not the case. The Non-Aggression Axiom does not say that.  It is morally justifiable to use retaliatory force against someone who has initiated force period, no matter whom it was used against.

Saddam Hussein had initiated brute force many times and on a massive scale against his own people and against his neighbors. He had lost all legitimate sovereignty long ago.  He was fair game for anybody to overthrow. The U.S. and its allies had the right and the might to drag that bully off the backs of the Iraqi people.  As his regime was developing weapons of mass death and destruction, Saddam was an active menace to his neighbors and to world peace. There is far less coercion and more freedom now that he is gone. I for one will not mourn his death. It is not a "perfect" situation but I salute the U.S. military who did a difficult job and (so far) have achieved a fragile peace there and have made it possible for an elected government (and a badly needed U. S. ally) to emerge and for more freedom in the marketplace to be enjoyed by the people.  If the U. S. abandons Iraq prematurely, there is a risk that the terror state of Iran would take advantage of the situation by making Iraq its satellite, further destabilizing the region and advancing the terrorist agenda.

MAY 2, 2011

OBL FINALLY EXECUTED!
Shot in the head by a Navy SEAL
Cutting off the Head of the Serpent
Was Pakistan Harboring him?

APRIL 18, 2011

Obama targets the middle class while pretending to tax only the rich.

APRIL 15, 2011

DON'T SPLIT UP THE ANTI-OBAMA VOTE

The Republican Party is not a thing.  It is not a monolithic entity.  It is a label that represents a collection of individuals.  What do they have in common?  They are ideologically heterogeneous.  They do not all think the same way.  Whatever some Republicans may have done in the past, this is the present.  They must do the right thing now.  There is no one else who can.  It is a lie that there is no difference between the two major parties.

"A Third Party is NOT the Answer: We must reclaim the GOP from the RINOs."

APRIL 9, 2011

GOVERNMENT "SHUTDOWN" TEMPORARILY POSTPONED

Congress Strikes a Budget Deal for Now

APRIL 8, 2011

UNION SHILL DEFEATED IN WISCONSIN

Americans celebrate the defeat of union stooge Kloppenburg in the recent Wisconsin special election.  The Left is fulminating with rage as it believed it had stolen enough votes to cinch the election.  Poor losers that they are, leftists are braying at the moon more loudly than usual in protest against losing the Wisconsin election.  this is a dramatic show of support for Gov. |Scott Walker in his attempt to rein in the budget of the Stae of Wisconsin.

APRIL 4, 2011

Obama's Illegal War

Well, well. If George Bush were still President, there would be thousands of "anti-war" activists in the streets with already made-up signs denouncing the kinetic action against "revolutionary socialist" dictator Qaddaffi of Libya. You would not hear an end to it in the media.  But Obama is President and he is a Democrat. Where is Cindy Sheehan? Where are the Hollywood Left? Where is Alec Baldwin?  Where is Michael Moore? Where do we hear about them in the media? Hmmm?

The "anti-war" movement, which has sucked in so many unwary "libertarians," is only active when a Republican is in the White House. It is purely partisan.  It is a fraud.

President Bush consulted Congress and got a go ahead for the liberation of Iraq.  Obama did not consult with Congress at all.

 I confess that IF the U.S. had the resources, which it does not, I would use military force to disarm and overturn the regimes of Castro, Ortega, Kim Jong Il, Qaddaffi, Chavez, Ahmadinejad, Putin, and others. I'd take 'em all out. Help make the world a better place. But, hey, that's just me.

APRIL 3, 2011

IF THEY DON'T GET THEIR WAY ON THE BUDGET,
DEMOCRATS THREATEN TO SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT -- AND HOLD THEIR BREATHS UNTIL THEY TURN BLUE IN THE FACE!
Republicans Fear Public Reaction

APRIL 2, 2011

EVEN MORE LOOT TO PAY OFF GREEDY UNIONS
AND CORPORATE SOCIALIST ELITISTS
Democrat Money Laundering Again

Uncovered: New $2 billion bailout in Obamacare
Washington Examiner

MARCH 31, 2011

Outrage: Freddie and Fannie Execs Pocketed $35 Million In Taxpayer Money
Mega Payout to those who are responsible
for the housing debacle!  Only the tip of the iceberg!

MARCH 10, 2011

AMERICANS QUIETLY CELEBRATE WISCONSIN'S VICTORY OVER GREEDY SPECIAL INTERESTS AND OBSTRUCTIONIST DEMOCRATS
WHILE UNION THUGS DEFACE CAPITOL BUILDING

"By eliminating collective bargaining over benefits, Obama’s bloated public employee unions no longer have absolute power to hold taxpayers hostage.  No longer will Wisconsin’s liberal politicians award lavish pension and health benefit packages to their union cronies in exchange for a mother-load of campaign cash and votes." reports NewsMax.com

Despite biased media reporting, union violence, and death threats, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is prevailing (so far) in his plan to save his state from financial catastrophe.  He is demonstrating great leadership for the country as a whole.  It may seem to be a relatively small victory in the overall scheme of things, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a few small steps.  Hooray for Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans!

http://video.foxnews.com/v/4577226/wisconsin-state-senate-passes-union-bill-without-democrats

The Pro-American Backlash is gaining momentum.

MARCH 1, 2011

SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS FREEDOM OF ANTI-AMERICAN FAMILY TO PROTEST AT U.S. MILITARY FUNERALS

The controversial Fred Phelps who calls himself a reverend of a small left-wing church group (consisting mostly of his family members and relatives) spends over $200,000 in travel expenses a year picketing U.S. military funerals all over the country.  I do not contest their freedom of speech, as hateful as it is, but one wonders where all the funding comes from for the Phelps family church.  Lawsuits?  Soros?

FEBRUARY 21, 2011

DEMOCRATS ON THE RUN
Tea Partiers versus Flee Partiers
The Dems can run, but they can't hide forever from the people!

Wisconsin Dems Flee State and Hide, Flushed Out by Tea Party in Illinois Resort

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FEBRUARY 15, 2011

Rush Supports Congressman Steve King on defunding ObamaCare.  Very good summary of the controversey over the issue of House rules.  Rush warns that the Democrats and their media shills will try to replay their successful intimidation of congressional Republicans in 1995  with the threat of government shutdown, and he reminds us exactly what Clinton and the Democrats did in 1995 to make Republicans back down.  Rush advises Congress:  this time do not fear this threat.  He is right, of course.  Click on this link to hear the full third hour of today's broadcast.

FEBRUARY 13, 2011

Ann Coulter's Speech at CPAC -- YouTube

Atlas Shrugged Part I Movie Trailer

FEBRUARY 6, 2011

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ACTS
IN CONTEMPT OF COURT

A contemptuous administration
-- Washington Times

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

Could This Be The Year?
by Sam Wells

The huge debt crisis that Gary Allen and I predicted in the early 1980s is now being taken seriously more and more by some of today's financial analysts.  We had demonstrated with debt-versus-GNP trend charts that there would come a time when the United States would no longer be able to pay even the interest on the federal government's enormous national debt.  That debt is unimaginably higher now than it was back in the 1980s.  The U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have been paying off debt more and more by inflation -- "printing up" more fiat money.  That process has escalated over the last couple years to incredible levels.  At the risk of sounding like the boy who called wolf, if what Gary and I predicted in 1981-1983 was premature then, it may be finally coming to a head in the next two or three years -- or less.

How far can inflation of the Yankee Dollar continue before the world finally rejects the dollar as its reserve currency?  I reckon we'll find out.  When that happens, the feathers will really hit the fan.   Actually, it is already beginning to happen; it has just not been very well reported in the mainstream "liberal" establishment media.  The Chicoms are spearheading an effort to replace the U.S. dollar with an alternative currency.  When this will actually be implemented is uncertain.  China holds a large amount of dollar-denominated debt.  So, it won't abandon the dollar precipitously.  It has a vested interest in a strong dollar.  But China's rulers in Beijing will pull the plug when they think the time is right. In the meantime, they are no longer going to continue to bet on the dollar as they have in the past.  They are reducing their purchases of U.S. Treasury debt.

So, unlike in the 1980s when Gary and I were writing, we are no longer able to begin to think we can possibly "produce our way out" or even "borrow our way out" of the looming currency megacrisis.  As we pointed out two decades ago, the situation is unsustainable.  The U.S. economy has become so burdened and distorted from government intervention -- regulations, "environmentalist" controls, taxes, and inflation -- that its problems are chronic and its ability to grow has indeed become limited.

The U.S. has not had anything approaching a true free-market economy in many, many decades.  For example, the U.S. has the second-highest corporate tax rate in the world among developed countries.  And mountains of political regulations and environmentalist controls also act as a ball and chain around America's producers.  Is it any wonder so many American companies outsource their businesses overseas?  Those are just some of the reasons why the feds are not able to collect enough real wealth from taxes to cover their outrageous spending.

Many younger folks today, especially in states like California, are living a fool's paradise of sorts.  Very few of them have any inkling about what is coming their way in the next few years.  Times will be hard for all of us, of course, but at least some of us will not be shocked or surprised and will be better prepared to deal with the rough times when they come.  Probably the most fortunate (or least unfortunate) people will be those not living in or near urban areas, those who have stashed away emergency food supplies and drinkable water, and those who have already bought gold and silver.  Those who bet everything on paper assets like the stock market may be big losers.

Now more than ever the struggle between those who favor constitutional liberty and the decadent "liberal"-Left establishment must be waged carefully, intelligently, and forcefully.  The smear campaigns by the "liberal" left against constitutional conservatives will become even more hysterical.

Looking ahead, my fervent hope is that Americans will turn away from the California/New York model of unlimited government and instead make sure that Congress enacts the massive spending cuts and other unpleasant measures that are necessary to return the United States to its constitutional foundations.  An American backlash is coming and it is long overdue.

*   *   *

"ObamaCare" Ruled Unconstitutional

JANUARY 27, 2011

THE INCREASING IRRELEVANCE OF BARACK OBAMA AS HIS FAILING POLICIES ARE REJECTED BY CONGRESS AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

The worst President since Jimmy Carter
-- some say even worse.

JANUARY 26, 2011

REPUBLICAN RESPONSES TO THE SOTU
Obama's proposed "freeze" is an insult to our intelligence

Paul Ryan Responds

Michele Bachmann Responds

Rand Paul Responds

Sarah Palin on the SOTU: "a lot of WTF moments"
The increasing irrelevance of Obama as he continues to promote counter-productive policies.

*   *   *

Obama said, "We are the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook."

And then the government outlawed Edison's great invention, made the Wright brothers' air travel insufferable, filed anti-trust charges against Microsoft and made cars too expensive to drive by prohibiting oil exploration, and right now -- at this very minute -- is desperately trying to regulate the Internet.

On the bright side, President Al Gore would have actually outlawed the cars in those driveways.
                                                                            ~Ann Coulter

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S SOTU TRIES TO REPACKAGE HIS AGENDA WITH "CENTRIST" RHETORIC

State of the Union Jan. 25, 2011

JANUARY 20, 2011

NEW HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PASSES BILL TO REPEAL "OBAMACARE"
The repeal got more votes than the original Obamacare bill!

The Left's Push to Assassinate Sarah Palin
Dr. Jack Wheeler

Ann Coulter on the Slanders against Sarah Palin

JANUARY 18, 2011

Democrat Congressman Cohen Commits Blood Slander against Constitutional Republicans, Likens Them to Nazis
The irony is that the policies and programs advocated and voted for by Cohen are a lot closer to being similar to Hitler's platform.

Free China Cartoon Mocking Hu's Visit with Obama.

Attempted Democrat Coverup of Fraudulent Science:  Dems seek to stop investigation into "climate change" manipulated temperature data.

JANUARY 17, 2011

LIBERALS DENOUNCE THE CONSTITUTION AS A CONSERVATIVE "FETISH"

Decades ago liberal Democrat U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright described the Constitution of the United States as "outmoded" as it "hobbles" the President in doing what only he knows is best as the "moral leader" of the people.  More recently, those who support a return to the Constitution have been ridiculed on MSNBC and other pro-Democrat media as "fetishists" for wanting to have the relatively short document read aloud in Congress (during which reading most congressional Democrats left the chamber to show their lack of respect and uncivility.)

Why do "liberal" Democrats hate the Constitution and the constitutionalists in the tea party movement? They abhor constitutionalism as such. They oppose any fixed rules of the game over their use of power. They want always to be able to change the rules at any time in the middle of the game to benefit themselves and their political allies (e.g., Goldman Sachs) at the forced expense of everybody else.

The so-called "liberals" of either party dislike the Constitution because it is an obstacle to their use of power by arbitrary whim. Though they sometimes cite the Constitution and its Bill of Rights if they think it is to their tactical advantage to do so, they more often either claim the Constitution is a "living" document whose basic meaning is malleable according to their tastes -- or that it is "outmoded" and obsolete and should be abandoned altogether.

Government by whim is tyranny. The founders knew this. That's why they devised a constitutional republic of limited scope. Fixed rules of the game that cannot easily be changed by anybody's whim.

Those who would retain or gain back our liberties would do well by rebuilding respect for laws based on and consistent with the proper functions of the organized force of government, that being essentially to protect the rights of person, liberty, and property of peaceful adult citizens from criminal violence and fraud, to secure the national perimeter from invasion, and to leave alone as much as possible the private affairs and voluntary (market) enterprises of the people. Let government neither help nor hinder any business interest as long as its activities are nonviolent and nonfraudulent. Let the scope of government ideally be restricted to and focused on dealing with criminal violence and fraud, military defense, and the pursuit of justice for the maintenance of domestic peace and order. Keep government from engaging in such enterprises as banking, education, housing, health, medicine, and other activities best left to the market.

The near-Augean struggle of restoring constitutional control will not be an easy one or be achieved overnight, but the tea party movements seem to be heading in the right direction. There is hope in the land.

JANUARY 12, 2011

In the future, after our constitutional republic has been restored, January 12 will be celebrated as Rush Limbaugh Day.  There is no doubt that our nation would be much further down the tubes today if there had been no Rush Limbaugh on the airwaves.

JANUARY 11, 2011

DEMOCRATS MOVE TO CRACK DOWN ON FREEDOM

How the Democrats are Using the Tucson Massacre to Advance Their Political Agenda.

President Obama Considers imposing Internet IDs on Americans
The name of the game is always control by the "liberal" control freaks.

Liberals Seek Ban On Metaphors

"Liberals" Call for Even More Gun Control Laws
Rahm says "Never let a crisis go to waste!'

Handgun Sales Surge

Death threats against Sarah Palin at all-time high amid Liberal hate speech and left-wing blood libel
 
 

JANUARY 9, 2011

LEFT-WING KOOK SHOOTS CONGRESSWOMAN
AND A FEDERAL JUDGE
IN PREMEDITATED ATTACK IN TUCSON
MURDERS FIVE OTHERS
INCLUDING A LITTLE GIRL

Shooter possibly linked to a Daily Kos hit piece that had put a target on Congresswoman Giffords for Turning Conservative

The Democrat media and politicians are desperately trying to link the shooting to Sarah Palin -- but there is no evidence that Loughner was inspired by Sarah Palin or ever even looked at her web site. -- but he evidently may have read articles and been influenced by anti-Giffords posts on the Daily Kos, a far-left pro-Democrat Internet site.  Yet, the Democrat hate speech against Palin, the tea party patriots, and the Republicans continues unabated.

JANUARY 7, 2011

Investigate This! -- Ann Coulter

How to Reduce Unemployment to 4% -- Diana Furchtgott-Roth

DECEMBER 31, 2010

2010:  The Year of the Tea Parties

I think that 2010 should go down as the Year of the Tea Parties.  This spontaneous emergence of patriotic, pro-Constitution Americans had an enormous impact on the 2010 elections. This should give us all hope for the future that we may be able to take our country back and restore some measure of control over the scope of big government and eventually rein it in to its proper constitutional role.  The forthcoming year will see this struggle continue against the Establishment Left.

*   *   *

PRESIDENT OBAMA VERSUS JOBS
by Sam Wells

Obama says that he wants to see more jobs and an improved economy -- and he says soaking the rich with higher taxes will somehow create more jobs.  You can bet that Obama and the Democrats will take credit for any "new jobs" that the Bureau of Labor Statistics may report, and the President will claim that the "stimulus" spending is working.

Where does he think jobs come from?

Contrary to what Obama and his Democrat partisans would have you believe, jobs do not come from government spending, not on net.  The government can only put back into the economy what first it has stolen out of it by taxation.  It is like trying to gain nourishment by drinking your own blood!  Federal spending cannot help the economy as a whole.  It can only benefit some sectors temporarily by hurting all the rest of the economy even more.  The massive government "stimulus" programs divert money away from where it would otherwise go in accordance with the free voluntary choices of people in the marketplace.  These humongous government spendathons have been used, among other things, to pay off or bail out the Democrat Party's political allies such as left-wing banksters like Goldman Sachs who have been among the largest contributors to the Democrat Party and the Obama-Biden campaign.  While this has provided lush "golden parachutes" for some special interests, there is little evidence that, on net, new jobs have been created in the private (nonviolent) sector of the economy as a result.  Any real jobs that have arisen in what is left of the so-called "private sector" are in spite of and not because of the political "stimulus" spending.  Meanwhile the government bureaucracy continues to expand and average salaries of federal employees are now several times as high as those in the private sector.  This is an enormous burden on the back of the U.S. economy which hinders productivity, growth, and the creation of new jobs.

The truth is that in order for each and every real job in industry to exist there must FIRST exist an accumulation of hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital to pay for the tools, machinery, plant, equipment, salaries, and wages to make that job possible and be a reality.  Where does that funding come from?  It generally comes from people who have a lot of money.  It comes from private savings and investment -- mostly from wealthy people who have enough income beyond what they need to live to put it to productive use in the hope of a future return.  It is this wealth that creates jobs which can then create more wealth.  This system -- called "capitalism" -- tends to benefit all sides; no one is forced to contribute (unlike government programs).  Market capitalism is a voluntary system in which the self interests of some tend to mesh with the self interests of others to mutual benefit, and it tends to increase the standard of living generally as capital formation increases production through the process of private saving and investment.  This is how Americans gained a higher standard of living in the past than people living in China or Africa or Russia.  There were fewer political barriers to voluntary (market) activities such as saving and investment in pursuit of profit, interest, and rent.   Capital grew by this process and productivity expanded accordingly.  There was no income tax, no tax on capital gains.  People were allowed to get rich if they could manage to do so by purely market (nonviolent) means.  And businesses were allowed to fail as well as to succeed; there were no government bailouts from the taxpayers.  There were exceptions, of course, to this overall policy of laissez faire and the general freedom that prevailed -- but good economists must help people distinguish which factors were responsible for which results.  It was economic freedom from heavy taxes and bureaucratic regulations -- not socialism or redistributionism -- that made the U.S. economy the great success that it once was.

But greedy Democrats want to grab more money from "the rich" -- more of what other people have earned -- so they can spend it on their pet political schemes and buy votes with this stolen loot.  They know the rich folks will hardly feel the loss.  After all, paying more in taxes is not likely to affect the lifestyle of someone as wealthy as Bill Gates or Warren Buffett.  They will still have plenty.  Who gets hurt from taxing the rich more?  Everybody else, at least in the long run.

To the extent that government siphons away money that could have been saved and invested by the wealthy, to that extent it means less capital is available to finance business starts, economic growth, more jobs, or better salaries.  Taxing the rich is a job-killing activity that reduces economic opportunities for all of us, especially those of us who are not anywhere close to being as financially well off as Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

If Obama, Pelosi, and Reid were sincere about wanting to see more jobs created, they would do well to push for an end to capital gains taxes and to freeze "environmentalist" obstacles that are stifling our economy.  That would be a good start.  But don't hold your breath.  That is not part of their agenda.

DECEMBER 30, 2010

Global Warming Fraud -- a Pretext for Imposing Draconian Taxes on Americans to Further Enrich Al Gore and the Corporate Socialist Elite (youtube video)

Global Warming Grinch -- John Fund
Democrat Senator Menendez (New Jersey) perpetuates the discredited anthropogenic global warming scam.  Fewer and fewer people are buying it.

*   *   *

SOME EXCELLENT SAMPLES FROM RUSH LIMBAUGH'S RADIO PROGRAM

Rush Debunks the "No Labels" CryptoLeftists (Dec. 14, 2010) MP3

Rush discusses the "No Labels" Baloney WMP

*   *   *


Political Labels and Ideological Warfare
Neither Left nor Right, just Stupid
by Sam Wells

Having given their previous label "liberal" a bad name (after they stole it some decades ago), establishment leftists began using other labels such as "progressive" or "Democrat" -- but they have given these labels a foul smell as well as shown by their rejection at the polls a few weeks ago.  So, some of the sneakier leftists want to pose as "middle roaders" or "independents" or "centrists" or "moderates"!  Unable to continue hiding behind even these innocuous sounding labels, some "liberal" Democrats are now desperately trying to gain credibility by repositioning themselves behind a new front group calling for "No Labels" in politics.  The outfit is headed up by Mark McKinnon, a former political adviser to George W. Bush, and Kiki McLean, a former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton, and they are being lauded by such well-known "liberals" as NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and notorious RINO David Gergen.  Naturally, the TV networks are giving these new "centrists" free publicity. Democrat Judy Woodruff interviewed Mark and Kiki for PBS "News" Hour.

It figures.  When the Fabian Left gets shellacked, as they did last month in the elections, new labels are trotted out for the public to consider -- while the same old stale agenda continues to be advanced as much as possible behind the scenes.

Instead of a clear-cut choice in politics (rather than a bipartisan echo), there are calls for "less polarization" and pleas to avoid "extreme partisanship" so that we can all work together to "get things done" etc.

On his December 14th radio show, Rush Limbaugh aptly summed it up this way:  "The No-Labels liberals are just a bunch of anti-conservatives."

Why must the Left always try to trick people into supporting it by hiding its agenda of failed programs, anti-American bigotry, and big-government ideology?  It's very simple:  They do not want to clearly identify what they really are and what they really advocate because they know that most Americans reject that reactionary left-wing approach.

Ayn Rand noted one of the three basic principles of ideological warfare in this way:  "When opposite basic principles are clearly and openly defined, it works to the advantage of the rational side; when they are not clearly defined, but are hidden or evaded, it works to the advantage of the irrational side."

In the ideological war being waged today, it is in the interests of those who oppose individual liberty and limited constitutional government to obfuscate and blur as much as they can the distinction in peoples' minds between market capitalism and socialism, between constitutionalism and whimarchy, between freedom and tyranny.  It is in the interests of such statists -- the liberal Democrats -- to confuse and deceive people about the true nature of their political agenda.

Conversely, it is in the interests of those who favor constitutional liberty to define their terms and to make clear distinctions between what they advocate and how they differ from the liberal-left establishment elitists as well as the far-left kook fringites.

Let us fervently hope that American voters in 2012 won't get fooled again as they were in 2008, and that few will be taken in by the "no labels" gambit.

DECEMBER 15, 2010

ARROGANT LAME DUCK DEMOCRATS TRY TO PUSH THROUGH MORE UNPOPULAR BILLS

GOP Slams 6,000 Earmarks in Democrats' Trillion-Dollar Omnibus Spending Bill

*   *   *

Why I Support the Ryan Roadmap by Sarah Palin -- WSJ

Federal Judge Declares Key Elements of ObamaCare as Unconstitutional

The unusually chilly global-warming summit

DECEMBER 7, 2010

OBAMA AGREES TO CONTINUE BUSH TAX CUTS -- BUT ONLY FOR TWO YEARS
Lame duck Dems hold Bush tax rates hostage to more earmarks and more federal spending

Angry Far Left Democrats May Try to Scuttle the Compromise
Extending the current tax rates for only two years leaves a cloud of uncertainty over the econoy as far as business planning and longer-term investments are concerned.  But teh Far left doesn't want to even do that much.

DECEMBER 2, 2010

House Dems Vote To Saddle Small Businesses With Job-Killing Tax Hike

After having denounced the Bush tax cuts as only for the rich, Pelosi and the Dems are now trying to take credit for middle-income tax cuts by voting to selectively continue the Bush tax cuts!  But it won't pass the Senate -- and Pelosi knows that, but she pushed it through the House anyway for partisan propaganda purposes.  It is as if Nancy Pelosi's last gesture as Speaker is to give the middle finger to the Republicans and the tea partiers.

*   *   *

House votes to censure New York Rep. Rangel
Amounts to a slap on the wrist.

*   *   *

 European Banks Get Huge Slice of Fed Bailout

*   *   *

HILLYER: Scooter Libby, on the record
The author Hillyer reminds us that Libby was falsely convicted by a crooked prosecutor and a confused jury -- and that Plame and Wilson conspired to set up the White House in an attempt to embarrass Bush and Cheney.  Plame and Wilson were the liars.

NOVEMBER 22, 2010

This day marks the 47th anniversary of the murder of an American President by a militant Marxist who hated JFK for trying to destabilize the Castro regime in Cuba.

Since that fateful day the U.S. Government has grown immensely in power over our lives with bloated, unsustainable social programs which have siphoned away America's precious capital resources while America's enemies have grown stronger and more dangerous.  And, incredibly, Communist dictator Fidel Castro still rules in Cuba.

NOVEMBER 18, 2010

Corrupt machine politician is apparently re-elected to U.S. Senate

RINO Lisa Murkowski will apparently continue to front for Alaskan Mafia -- Washington Examiner

House Ethics Committee Recommends Censure for Democrat Congressman Charlie Rangel for Ethics Violations
He should be expelled as well as censured.  He is just one of many.

Visualizing Obama's budget "cuts"

NOVEMBER 5, 2010

BONFIRE NIGHT

    For many in the English-speaking world, November 5 is time for those who remember to burn effigies of Guy Fawkes for his part in the infamous foiled conspiracy to blow up Parliament and to replace the reign of King James I with the much more tyrannical despotism of King Philip II of Spain.  Unfortunately, I have to work and will not be at any bonfires tonight.  I will just note the tradition in passing.

    *   *   *
    "Make Mine Freedom" -- a 9-minute video on freedom versus socialism (starring Barack Obama as the snake oil salesman?).

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

MASSIVE REBUKE TO OBAMA POLICIES\
MAJOR SETBACK FOR SOCIALIST NWO AGENDA
DEMOCRATS GET CRUSHED BY TEA PARTY TIDAL WAVE IN THE HOUSE
Repubs gain at least 5 Senate Seats

Yesterday's elections represent a significant potential setback for the Obama regime and its New World Order socialistic agenda. Republicans rode the historic tea party tidal wave into majority control of the House of Representatives gaining at least 63 seats there.  Repubs also gained 10 state governorships and will control the majority of state legislatures.  The new Congress will have a popular mandate for repealing or defunding "ObamaCare" and stopping the massive federal bailouts and will push in favor of keeping the Bush tax cuts from expiring.  Time to start trying to roll back Big Government.  The American backlash has begun!

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

Go Tea Party!
by Dave Wilcox

Democrats from the president down reject the patriotic voices of Tea Party activists---at their own peril. Incredibly, 70% of Americans support the key issues that Tea Party folks advocate: smaller, less-intrusive government, dramatically reduced spending and a rational approach to dealing with America’s enemies.

Given the democrat party’s proclivity for governing against the will of we the people, it is predictable. They never learned that extremism in defense of bad political ends is something we left to Europeans 234 years ago.

We are witnessing a major historical event as the November 2 Midterm Election nears. While California appears to be stuck in the “we can only elect moderate Republicans” syndrome, the rest of America has decided to pursue a political renaissance spearheaded by the Tea Party movement.

Several sitting US senators, for example, have been defeated in Republican primaries, and will likely be replaced by the strong constitutional conservatives who vanquished them.

There’s something in the air that I recognize from my 1960s college days. The ascendance of the conservative movement shifted into high gear with the emergence of Barry Goldwater. I recently reread Goldwater’s book, “Conscience of a Conservative.” I found that his three key issues were: government is too big and constantly infringes on state’s rights, government spending is much too high, and the US has a no-win policy with our enemies. Sound familiar?

While Goldwater lost the 1964 election in a landslide, the generation of young patriots he inspired persisted. In 1980 we elected President Ronald Reagan who validated the wisdom of keeping taxes low and brought down the Soviet Union. In 1994, Republicans gained control of the House and Senate and balanced the budget. In 2000, we elected a Republican President who had a Republican House and Senate.

Sadly, rejecting their conservative roots, these Republicans-in-Name-Only frittered it all away. Their failure helped elect the worst president in America’s history, which has energized a new generation of patriots. Thanks to the Tea Party movement, his regime will suffer a huge setback on November 2. Americans just might proclaim that “In your heart, you know they’re right!”

*   *   *

AuH2O in 2012

Barry Goldwater tried to alert the American people about what was happening in Vietnam and warned against following a no-win strategy there, that the consequence of such a policy would be a bloodbath in the wake of communist invasion and takeover from the north.  LBJ said little or nothing about Vietnam during the 1964 campaign.  People were given the impression that Goldwater if elected would get us into a war in Vietnam -- a war we were already in.  He was depicted by the Democrats as being "trigger happy" and wanting to start a nuclear war.  Goldwater also tried to alert people to the potential Social Security crisis, that the system was unsound.  He was portrayed as someone who would pull the rug out from under the elderly.  These and other propaganda scare tactics worked.  Goldwater lost to LBJ in that election.  But he was correct in what he tried to warn the American people about -- and many people see that now.  I believe the Goldwater of 1964 would win against Obama if the election were held today.

*   *   *
Marxism in America -- short video

OCTOBER 1, 2010

ObamaCare Will Worsen Doctor Shortage
Of course.

SEPTEMBER 30, 2010

AFTER THE ELECTIONS
Eternal Vigilance is the Price
by Sam Wells

Power abhors a vacuum.  If committed constitutionalists do not fill the seats of power in Congress, the ultra-statist (socialist) Democrats certainly will.

Many people distrust the Republicans.  After all, despite the Bush tax cuts, they did not restrain federal spending during the few years they had a majority in Congress.  But we have new faces now and they need to be given a chance.  It is not that I love the Republican Party, but that the alternative is so very evil for our country.  I don't see that we have any real choice.  No third party has any chance to win on the national level.

Also, it should always be kept in mind that the GOP is not an Entity.  It is a collection of ever-changing individuals.  Most of the Republican congresspeople who were responsible for the disastrous policies during the Bush years have been voted out in the elections of 2006, 2008, and this year.  They have been replaced by others who so far have been very good at consistently  voting against the ultra-statist Democrat agenda.  It is not reasonable to hold today's Republicans responsible for the sellout votes of previous Congresses.  New people must help make the new Republican Party more consistently a party of Goldwater and Reagan instead of Lincoln and Grant.

Still, the American people will need to watch them very closely and "keep their feet to the fire" if they should flag or falter in their mandate to reverse Big Government.  It is no good just sitting back and assuming that the new officeholders will do the right thing once they are in.  Eternal vigilance by enough people is the key.

THE GROWING REVOLUTION AGAINST
OBAMA'S SCREW WORLD ORDER

While President Obama gives programmed speeches at that council of criminal regimes and deadbeat socialist dictatorships known as the United Nations, here in the real United States local tea party activists, constitutional conservative Republicans, and other true American patriots are working to try to save the economy from further wreckage (if that can be done at this late date).

The tea party groups, which arose as a grass-roots movement in reaction to the obvious excesses and ruinous policies of the current Pelosi / Obama / Reid regime, seek to take back the nation and restore some measure of constitutional restraint on the federal Leviathan.  The American people have been waking up to what the Democrat Party agenda really is and the formidable financial debacle that looms ahead of us.  There is Obama's almost ONE TRILLION DOLLAR "stimulus" bill that has failed to lower unemployment, but has put plenty of pork in the hands of his political allies and campaign contributors.  Goldman Sachs is making out like a bandit.  Then there is the health care "reform" legislation which is designed to gradually go into effect as the taxes needed to fund the socialistic scheme will fall on Americans later on.  And another bill pushed through is the so-called "financial reform" bill which even its Democrat Party sponsors in Congress have not read and admit that its outcome is unknown.  During the past two years alone, Obama and the Democrats in Congress have created a mind-boggling indebtedness that is unprecedented by many orders of magnitude in all of human history.  The American people are angry as they find out how the Democrats and the Obama administration have put our country on the road to national disaster.

November 2 will be the day to get these bastards out of office and replace them with sincere constitutionalists who will cut spending, cut taxes, cut regulations, and abolish agencies and departments and at least begin to rebuild the restraints on the scope of federal authority and involvement in peoples' lives, the checks and balances which the national central government had broken loose from decades ago and now, under the Obamacrats, has grown like the mushroom cloud of an atom bomb.  The fallout will be felt in various degrees over the next few months and years -- even if the Republicans manage to get a majority in both houses of Congress,  The badness that is to come is already in the pipeline thanks to Obama. Pelosi, and Reid..

A popular backlash is building against the Obama/Pelosi/Red regime.  The upcoming November elections are just the beginning.  Let us hope the constitutionalist revolt against Obama will go far enough not only to stop further disastrous spending policies of the Obama regime, but also to reverse and undo in significant measure existing unconstitutional agencies and programs that the power-mad control freaks who call themselves "progressives" have put in place.  The watch word must be:  "Repeal!"  The hope is great.  Vote for freedom come November 2!  Down with the Obamacrat Screw World Order!

 *  *   *
University of Illinois Denies Obama Mentor William Ayers Emeritus Status

SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

HOW MANY DEAD PEOPLE WILL VOTE ON NOVEMBER 2?

States warned of possible 'resurrection day' on Nov. 2
Campaign trying to crack down on 'dead' voters, other fraud
Are Loreta Sanchez and other Democrats counting on help from dead voters?  Will crooks get away with vote fraud?

SEPTEMBER 22, 2010

JUST THE TIP OF THE CORRUPTION ICEBERG

Politicians like Maxine Waters and Charles Rangel are among the worst (but certainly not the only) examples of political corruption in the District of Corruption.  They were emboldened to get away with so much for so long (and continue to do so) because they knew the news media would cover up for them because they are Democrats and because they are black.  And of course there will be no hearings on any part of their corruption before the elections in November.  The Democrats who have been in charge of Congress since 2006 don't want the public to get a glimpse of their culture of corruption which might cause some people to vote against them.  They thought the media would help cover up for them in the usual conspiracy of silence. It is only because these leftist Democrats have been so brazen that they have got as much notoriety as they have.

Power always tends to corrupt.  And some people are more easily corrupted than others.

Ethics Trials Postponed for Waters and Rangel
Too close to elections.

ObamaCare Causes Insurance Premium Hikes
As was predicted by any decent economist.

SEPTEMBER 7, 2010

Tea Parties, Stay the Constitutional Course!
by Sam Wells

The American tradition of limiting the scope of government by law and constitution, resting on the 17th century British heritage of the idea of individual rights to self and property, has been increasingly abandoned since the War Between the States and especially since the 1930s when FDR threatened to pack the Supreme Court if it did not go along with his massive new interventionist programs.  Since that time the scope of federal power has mushroomed well beyond any true constitutional justification.

The tea party groups, which arose as a grass-roots movement in reaction to the obvious excesses of the current Pelosi/Obama/Reid regime, seek to take back the nation and restore some measure of constitutional restraint on the federal Leviathan.

I fervently hope the tea party movement will maintain its pro-Constitution stance and not be influenced or distracted by various outside factions -- populists, Ron Paul fanatics, neoconservatives, or anarcho-statists.  The populists are "well intentioned" (patriotic) but wrong-headed nuts.  The neoconservatives are not popular because, rightly or wrongly, they are perceived as shilling for a foreign country instead of pushing for an independent foreign policy for a fully sovereign United States.  The Ron Paul zealots would have Ron Paul forfeit his House seat and instead help Obama get re-elected to the Oval Office.  And  gawd help us if the anarcho-whimarchists (neoRothbots, Rockwelites) ever get any political power; that would really be a reign of tyranny and terror.

In short,  I hope the tea parties stay on the constitutionalist conservative (American conservative) course and emphasis as much as possible.

Of course, I would like as many people as possible, in and out of the tea parties, to read books like Atlas Shrugged, Textbook of Americanism, Capitalism the Unknown Ideal, Bastiat's The Law, Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson, George Reisman's Capitalism, as well as articles and books by Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell, Milton Friedman, and other champions of market capitalism -- but with the understanding that in the long run a durable revolution toward the Laissez-Faire Republic politically will require a more fundamental philosophic sea change.  That will not occur any time soon, unfortunately.  In the meantime, a political holding action may sustain sufficient freedom and provide sufficient time for those more basic changes to set in and take hold.  That will not happen over night.  The key war of ideas is a long-term struggle.

SEPTEMBER 1, 2010

IN ALASKA, IT'S MILLER TIME!

Miller Calls for 'Unified Front' for the General Election

*   *   *
CONCERNING GARY ALLEN AND NONE DARE CALL IT CONSPIRACY
by Sam Wells

As we approach the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Gary Allen's phenomenal book None Dare Call It Conspiracy. it is perhaps an appropriate time to deal with certain myths, fallacies, and rumors that have been linked to his life and works.

Frederick Gary Allen was a genuine American patriot and foe of the statist clique and its agenda of subordinating U.S. sovereignty to a global socialist tyranny.  Although he was generally a genial and courteous gentleman, It is a fact that Gary could also sometimes be a bit cantankerous, especially in his last few years when he was suffering from diabetic neuropathy and neurovascular disorder.  To some he seemed somewhat brusk and he made a few enemies -- though his friends and admirers far outnumbered those few who were his detractors in the pro-freedom cause.

A few individuals, some perhaps with an ax to grind against Gary for one reason or another, have alleged that I was Gary's "ghost writer" and that he did not write his articles or books.  Of course, this is a huge exaggeration at best.  I served as Gary's research assistant and helped with article development, in some cases going so far as to suggest phraseology and approach to certain aspects of a subject -- but Gary always had control over every single word of content and always had the last word on article format and wording.  (I say "last word" but the person who really had "the last word" of course was editor Scott Stanley, Jr., the terrific editor of American Opinion magazine, the premier monthly of American conservatism and the most under-rated magazine of its time.)

During the last several months of his life -- when his health was failing from severe diabetes, diabetic neuropathy, neurovascular breakdown, and related disorders -- my role in assisting Gary prepare some AO articles certainly increased but, again, exact wording and content were always his in the final drafts.

Another misconception that I have encountered is that Gary was allegedly inspired to write None Dare Call It Conspiracy by one single book or one single author.  That was not the case.  Although I do believe that the 1969 "Proofs of a Conspiracy" presentation in Los Angeles by Dr. Stuart Crane made an impression on him, he had already been familiar with many other influences and sources relating to power elite theory and socialist conspiracies including the works of Robert Welch, John Stormer, Dan Smoot, Carroll Quigley, Rose Walker, Rene Wormser, John Robison, Ludwig von Mises, Garet Garrett, Cleon Skousen, Major George Racey Jordan, Rose Martin, Antony Sutton, John T. Flynn, J. Edgar Hoover, and many others.

What caused Gary Allen to embark on his quest for the truth about corporate socialist elites and power politics and their relationship to communist agendas?  Who was the prime mover that pointed him in the right direction?  Gary in his article entitled "The Press:  How the Left Turned Me Right" (originally published in American Opinion magazine and later made available as an article reprint) explains how a neighbor friend, John O. Miller, challenged him to read several books about communist subversion.   Miller, who was a veteran anticommunist and conservative patriot who had monitored communist activity in southern California for many years, challenged Gary to read and evaluate several books on communist subversion including Major Jordan's Diaries by George Racey Jordan, I Saw Poland Betrayed by Arthur Bliss Lane, While You Slept by John T. Flynn, and Seeds of Treason by Ralph de Toledano.  Gary read the books with the goal of trying to disprove them, which he thought would be easy to demonstrate to be "extremist" right-wing exaggeration.  Failing to find anything except left-wing rhetorical smears or plain silence by the establishment press and finding instead a body of evidence to support the points made by these various authors, Gary had the intellectual honesty to concede that the case for communist subversion in the U.S. Government and "liberal" complicity was sound. He began to discover the truth that the limited constitutional system of government that the U.S. founders had established and the freedoms taken for granted by most Americans were being threatened by a left-wing mindset and propaganda war funded from the top by extremely wealthy power-hungry individuals.

Later Gary's own books exposed the game of how government interventionism and socialism (the ultimate in political control freakdom) were used by power elites to obtain and maintain special privileges and monopolistic advantages they could not have achieved in a free market economy.  He showed how socialism is "the royal road to power for the super-rich."  (And people wonder why multibillionaires like George Soros support Big Government socialist causes!)  He knew that the remedy was not more government meddling in the economy, but less.  Gary brought a non-populist, individualist/pro-free market perspective to power elites analysis and made it palatable to a mass readership.

Although he actually made little or no money from it, his book None Dare Call It Conspiracy sold in the millions and became the best single recruiting tool that the John Birch Society ever had.  It should be pointed out that NDCC was not Gary's first book.  He had already written and published three others:

Communist Revolution in the Streets, Western Islands, 1967
Nixon's Palace Guard, Western Islands, Western Islands, 1971
Richard Nixon: The Man Behind the Mask, Western Islands, 1971

He had also been writing articles on similar and related topics for American Opinion magazine for several years-- long before NDCC.  And it should also be pointed out that after None Dare Gary also wrote and had published several other books:

Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter, '76 Press, 1976
Kissinger: The Secret Side of the Secretary of State, 76 Press, 1976
The Rockefeller File, '76 Press, 1976
Tax Target, Washington, '76 Press, 1978
Ted Kennedy: In Over His Head, '76 Press, 1981
Say "No!" to the New World Order, Concord Press, 1987 (published posthumously)

I did not come to work with Gary until February of 1980.  I feel honored to have worked with one of the champions of justice and liberty against statist "liberalism" and socialism.  There is no doubt in my mind that Gary Allen was responsible for waking up millions of American to the threat to their traditions and liberties from left-wing elitists and power freaks who desperately want to play god with other peoples' lives.  Although his near-prophetic warnings against what is now occurring to our country have gone unheeded by too many Americans -- as evidenced by the Obama regime now in power -- if understood and taken seriously by a sufficient number of good people, even this calamity can be stopped and turned around eventually so that the United States can once again move in the direction of a constitutional republic and away from the stifling trap of socialism.

AUGUST  31, 2010

OVER HALF A MILLION PATRIOTIC AMERICANS
GATHER AT RESTORING-HONOR RALLY IN D.C
ON AUGUST 28, 2010

Rally Led by Glenn Beck Brings Half a Million
An American backlash is growing!  And unlike Woodstock or any other large mass of people in one area, not only were these folks the best-behaved gathering Washington has ever seen, they were also the neatest. The grounds were actually cleaner when they left than when they arrived.

AUGUST 20, 2010

Bush T-shirts outselling Obama T-shirts on Martha's Vineyard!
“Last year, Obama gave you goose bumps, but I don’t think you’re going to see that this year,’’ said Alex McCluskey, co-owner of the Locker Room, who sold more than 4,000 “I vacationed with Obama’’ T-shirts last year. But so far this year, he said, his hot item is T-shirts of former President Bush asking, “Miss me yet?’’

AUGUST 12, 2010

The stunning decline of Barack Obama
10 key reasons why the Obama presidency is in meltdown
Telegraph.co.uk

AUGUST 11, 2010

The Real Hidden Unemployment Not Reported by the Media by Henry Olsen
How Obama and the Democrats are trying to cover up what's really happening.

AUGUST 10, 2010

*******
What's Holding Back The Hiring? Start With Obama's 10 Job Killers.
JIM POWELL Investors' Business Daily, Op-Ed, 8/9/2010

President Obama claims that he's concerned about "jobs, jobs, jobs," but he has signed laws, issued executive orders and approved regulations that create incentives for private-sector employers to lay off people or delay hiring people. It's no wonder high unemployment persists.

Obama's top 10 job killers include:

• Executive orders and regulations promoting compulsory unionism.

By gaining a bargaining monopoly in workplaces, labor unions have negotiated above-market compensation and benefits for their members, which has driven governments toward bankruptcy, priced unionized businesses out of markets and destroyed jobs.

Although Obama's card-check legislative initiative (to eliminate the secret ballot in union certification elections) stalled in Congress, he has pushed compulsory unionism by other means.

For example, in January 2009, Obama issued executive order 13496 promoting compulsory unionism among government contractors.  The next month, he issued executive order 13502 requiring compulsory unionism for federal construction projects.

In March, Obama named Craig Becker to the National Labor Relations Board. Becker, formerly an attorney for the AFL-CIO and Service Employees International Union, is pushing the NLRB to rewrite union certification rules, making it easier for unions to gain a bargaining monopoly in workplaces — which would destroy more jobs .

• Obama's forced restructuring of GM.

The administration trashed established principles of bankruptcy law to give the United Auto Workers a sweetheart deal and subvert the rights of bondholders. The union had $20 billion of claims and was awarded a 39% stake in the company plus a $10 billion payment into the UAW health care trust fund. The bondholders had $27 billion of claims and ended up with only 10% of the company.

The administration's abuse of power discourages investors from making capital available to companies that might be targeted for government intervention. Investors could demand a substantial risk premium when considering bonds issued by unionized companies that Obama favors.

• Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act of 2010 (ObamaCare).

According to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, ObamaCare will hike taxes an estimated $15.2 billion, and the middle class will get whacked. We've already seen health insurance premiums go up because of costly ObamaCare mandates, which means less money available for spending on other things.

Moreover, employer mandates, taxes and penalties will reduce funds available for private-sector hiring. The mandates, taxes and penalties kick in when an employer has more than 50 employees, and they apply to all employees, so one effect of the law is to discourage small businesses — which create most American jobs — from hiring more than 50 people.

If a business has 45 employees and it needs to hire eight more people for a total of 53 employees, but it doesn't offer health insurance or its insurance plan doesn't satisfy the latest ObamaCare regulations, hiring those eight additional people would entail a $2,000 penalty for each of the 53 employees — a total of $106,000!

Many other provisions are likely to have unintended consequences, as well. The 2.5% excise tax on high-tech companies that produce pacemakers, heart valves, stents, defibrillators and other medical devices that help improve the quality of life or save lives is an estimated $20 billion hit. Anything that increases the cost of doing business is bad for jobs.

• Extension of unemployment benefits to 99 weeks — almost two years!

By reducing the cost of not working, unemployment benefits undermine incentives to find work. Often, when people lose their jobs in a declining industry, they really need to make some kind of career switch rather than delay adapting to new circumstances. Many studies show that extending unemployment benefits tends to prolong high unemployment.

Also, since unemployment benefits are substantially paid for by taxing employers, the more generous the benefits, the higher the unemployment taxes and the fewer people employers can afford to hire.

One might ask: If it's a good idea to offer unemployment benefits for 99 weeks, why wouldn't five, 10 or 20 years be better? Or suppose unemployment benefits were more generous, perhaps $100,000 per year: How eager would unemployed people be to find jobs then?

• American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009.

By spending some $787 billion on government jobs — mainly in sectors and states with low unemployment rates — the law did virtually nothing to stimulate private-sector employment. On the contrary, the enormous cost of the act put upward pressure on taxes.

Unnecessarily high taxes meant that individuals had less money for spending and private-sector employers had less money for hiring. The act also included an extension of unemployment benefits, reducing incentives for people to find a job quickly.

• Minimum wage laws.

By requiring employers to pay people more than they're worth in terms of marketable skills and experience, minimum wage laws discourage hiring. The federal minimum wage has been increased three times in four years, including the July 2009 hike to $7.25 per hour. Obama could have asked Congress to lower or abolish the minimum wage.

Such laws are devastating for individuals with few marketable skills and limited experience — especially teenagers and minorities. But union bosses love minimum wage laws because they eliminate price competition on the low end of labor markets.

People who favor minimum wage laws tend to confuse a wage rate with income: People take home more money when they're employed at a market rate than when they're unemployed at an above-market rate. Imagine how much more unemployment there would be if minimum wage laws made it illegal for employers to pay people less than $100,000. Everyone whose services were worth less than that would be out of work.

• Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010.

This 1,408-page financial "reform" act is likely to backfire in many ways. It authorizes 11 different federal regulatory agencies to issue 243 bureaucratic regulations that could run to thousands of pages in the Federal Register, creating tremendous uncertainty for investors and employers.

Decisions about investment and hiring will be delayed for quite a while — with millions of Americans out of work — until all the regulations are issued, and it becomes apparent what their impact will be.

For example, the law will probably increase the cost of buying derivatives to hedge the risks of exchanging a foreign currency for U.S. dollars, as when a product is made in the U.S., sold overseas and paid for in a foreign currency (like euros or yen). If the hedging cost is too high, more companies are likely to lay off American workers and transfer manufacturing offshore where products will be sold, so costs and revenues will be in the same currency.

• Moratorium on offshore oil drilling.

If it is in effect for six months, it's estimated to throw some 12,000 people out of work nationwide and cost upward of $3 billion. The longer the moratorium on offshore drilling, the greater the job losses. A permanent stoppage of offshore oil drilling could destroy as many as 400,000 jobs.

• Expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

Obama and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner have favored letting these tax cuts expire for private-sector job creators — investors and entrepreneurs. Many families will be shocked to have to pay thousands of dollars more because of big hikes in personal income taxes, capital gains taxes, dividend taxes and death taxes (on assets already subject to personal income taxes, corporate taxes and capital gains taxes).

Perhaps hardest hit will be small business owners filing tax returns for subchapter S corporations, partnerships and proprietorships. By reducing the profitability of future investments, the decision to let the Bush tax cuts expire discourages investors from investing and employers from hiring.

• Obama's runaway spending.

Investors know that ultimately higher spending must be paid for with higher taxes that will reduce the after-tax return on investment. Consequently, rather than making capital available now, many investors remain on the sidelines, and many businesses are sitting on cash, waiting to see how high the taxes are going to be. The prospect of higher taxes is a major factor depressing private-sector job creation.

By increasing the cost of hiring people, increasing the cost of doing business, reducing after-tax returns from investment, and subsidizing unemployment, Obama is repeating FDR's misguided policies that prolonged high unemployment during the Great Depression.

• Powell, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, is the author of FDR's Folly.

AUGUST 7, 2010

No Shady Banking Buddy Left Behind -- Michelle Malkin

AUGUST 3, 2010

The Truth about ObamaCare by Sally Pipes
A former Canadian citizen and economist explains what we can expect from this Democrat Party scheme.

The Left's Rewriting of the History of Fannie Mae -- WSJ
The Barney Frank/Chris Dodd housing scam continues to push for more bad loans in the mortgage industry to people who cannot afford to buy houses.  (Although President Bush was certainly guilty of contributing to the housing crash by using the existing programs of government intervention to artificially promote minority home ownership among blacks and Hispanics, congressional Republicans and factions within the Bush Administration, to their credit, at least tried to put some brakes on those disastrous policies 17 times, but got no cooperation from the Democrats in Congress.  The real escallation of the bad housing loans began during the Clinton administration.)  See the full background here.

The Prospect of an Atomic Iran with Obama as U.S. Presidnet
Deterring the threat of violence from nuclear annihilation

ATOMIC JIHAD; Ahmadinejad’s Coming War For Islamic Revival And Obama’s Politics of Defeat

After the Fall: Saving Capitalism from Wall Street and Washington

JULY 28, 2010

Clinton-appointed judge orders injunction on parts of Arizona immigration law

JULY 26, 2010

OBAMA'S RACIST REGIME DESPERATE TO COVER UP BLUNDER

The Democrat-controlled media is helping the Obama Administration obfuscate the details of what is going on.  Meanwhile, multiple calls for Sherrod to apologize to Breitbart for her slanderous statements.

JULY 21, 2010

Barack Obama's Endless Crises -- Claude Sandroff

America's Fast Track to the Third World -- Dan Gorski
The environmentalist left's attack on American defense.

America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution -- Angelo M. Codevilla
Mr. Codevilla discovers the Left-"Liberal" Establishment power structure that Garet Garrett, John T. Flynn, Robert Welch, Gary Allen, Dan Smoot, Stanton Evans, and others of the anti-establishment Constitutional right have been warning people against for many decades.

Tea Party Patriots Demand Apology from NAACP for its Racist Smear Campaign

JULY 17, 2010

Senate Passes Huge Regulatory Power Grab over Financial Industry.
None of it has anything to do with the financial crisis, warns Sen. Corker.  It benefits pro-Dem unions and other special interests.  All Senate Republicans voted against it except three RINOs, but their three quizzling votes put it over.  Two important culprits behind the financial crisis, Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, had their pictures taken at the signing of the bill by the President.  They are now trying to take credit for "fixing" a mess which their policies created in the first place.

SCOTT BROWN, OTHERS HELP PASS OBAMA'S FINANCE BILL -- Sarah E. Foster
All but three Republicans stand firm against this evil legislation.  It is a Democrat act.

Three Million Imaginary Jobs -- WSJ
The Obama White House is lying about the "stimulus" (porkulus) bills producing new jobs.  Wasteful government spending is no substitute for private savings and investment on a free market (which we have not had for a very long time).

NEW BLACK PANTHERS, YOU'RE FREE TO GO -- NOT SO FAST, ARIZONA! -- Ann Coulter

Control Freaks Attack Our Freedom -- John Stossel
Coercive busybodies micromanaging our lives.

JULY 2, 2010

A Poem on Politics (written in 1964)

Diversity Sucks! -- Just say NO to racial preference programs.
And the "Fair Housing Act" is an unfair attack on private property rights.  It was freedom that made America a great place, not diversity.

JUNE 30, 2010

800 Rabbis Say Elena Kagan's Not Kosher!:  Jewish Clergy Group Observes that Kagan Isn't ‘Kosher’ to Serve on Supreme Court
Not all those of the Jewish persuasion are knee-jerk Democrats.   According to exit polls, Barack Obama received 77 percent of the votes of those who identified themselves as Jewish in the 2008 presidential elections -- an even higher percentage than in the 2004 election, when Democratic candidate John Kerry received 74 percent of the Jewish vote. Al Gore received the highest percentage of Jewish votes in 2000, with 79 percent.  Despite their past pro-Democrat voting records, an increasing number of Jews are becoming more sophisticated in politics and public policy issues and are defecting to a more pro-freedom/constitutionalist independent point of view.  I believe that disillusionment with the Obama regime is only one factor in this recent shift in sentiment.   The Jewish opposition to Kagan is just one manifestation of this growing estrangement from the increasingly fascistic/socialistic Democrat Party.

JUNE 22, 2010

Degeneration of Democracy and Useful Idiots -- Thomas Sowell

*   *   *

It’s The Greens That Sowed The Seeds Of The Gulf Oil Disaster
June 9, 2010 by John Myers

To the Greens I have six words regarding the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico: Your President, your policies, your fault.

The Greens Made Us Drill So Deep
Last January I wrote about the problems and costs of drilling for oil at such extraordinary depths as those being worked off the coast of Louisiana. It was called The Deep Truth About Oil and the Gulf of Mexico.

In that column I said: “Chevron has spent 10 years and a whopping $2.7 billion for this project. This is the cost of running a drill and casing more than 30,000 feet through earth and ocean, the same distance that an airliner flies above the earth. Chevron will spend billions more and in the end, even with all the high-tech in the world, there are no guarantees that its deep-water experiment will hit pay-dirt. In fact there is less than a 50/50 chance that Chevron’s latest deep-sea adventure will yield anything. Still Chevron and their brethren don’t have a choice.

“The Wall Street Journal sums up the situation: ‘Big easily tapped oil fields close to shore have become off-limits.’”

Fast forward a few months and we saw the real danger in not drilling in shallow waters and places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). We see what happens when Big Oil is forced to drill in 5,000 feet or more of seawater; depths at which accidents can’t be easily repaired.

I’ve been talking to my friends in the Alberta oil patch about this for weeks. But the problem didn’t see the light of day until the May 29 episode of Meet the Press. There Host David Gregory asked White House Energy Adviser Carol Browner if in response to the Gulf Coast oil spill, America should start drilling in ANWR.

Gregory asked: "Is the problem that we’re drilling in water that’s just too deep?"

Gregory continued: "Should you (the White House) even rethink your own approach to the environment to say… maybe in the Arctic Wildlife Reserve; we ought to be drilling there… we ought to be going into shallower waters so that this can be done more safely?"

Incredibly Gregory wasn’t given an answer. But even I know this simple truth—that we need to be drilling in shallow water and places like ANWR. Places where accidents can be corrected.

Don’t expect any leadership on this from the President even though his decision to suspend deepwater drilling off the U.S. coast will have consequences.

“An extended moratorium on safely producing our oil and natural gas resources from the Gulf of Mexico would create a moratorium on economic growth and job creation,” said Jack Gerard, chief executive of the American petroleum Institute.

It’s worth noting that the Gulf of Mexico currently produces about 1.6 million barrels of oil per day—an amount larger than the output of Canada’s oil sands. It was expected to grow to 1.9 million barrels by 2025. But the jury is out on this until Obama—"The Chosen One"—chooses leadership over politics and stops this catastrophe.

Yours for real wealth and good health,

John Myers
Myers’ Energy and Gold Report

JUNE 11, 2010

 A FASCINATING BUT MISLEADING MOVIE
Much Balance Needed Against Partisan Bias

The article below is over two years old, but I missed it at the time.  I think it is appropriate to post it to remind us what can be done with the right leadership (in contrast to what the U.S. has now in the White House).  The following short article is a brief rebuttal to the misleading idea conveyed by the Hollywood movie "Charlie Wilson's War" that Congressman Charlie Wilson was practically single-handedly responsible for helping the Afghan mujahidin win the war against Soviet occupation.  The IBD article below helps to set the record straight about who were the major players responsible for sending Stinger missiles to the Afghan resistance, an act which turned the tide against the communists -- a move that was opposed by the U.S. State Dept, the CIA bureaucracy, White House advisors, and the vast majority of Democrats in Congress, but who were all overruled by President Reagan.

The movie is skillfully produced with the interviews of Joanne Herring and former Congresman Wilson carefully edited so that President Reagan and his historic decision are barely mentioned.  Certainly Charlie Wilson did play an important role because of his influence on a key congressional subcommittee and his personal commitment that he shared with Reagan to aid the Afghans against the Soviets, but it was President Reagan who pushed for real anti-Soviet policies and made the daring decision to send the advanced weapon that made it possible for the Afghans to rout the powerful Soviet army from their country.

Reagan’s War, Not Charlie Wilson’s
By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | December 24, 2007

Media Bias: Hollywood would have us believe that Democrats defeated the evil empire in Afghanistan, and that President Reagan played only a minor role and even helped pave the way to 9/11.

If you think Hollywood’s idea of a Christmas movie being one about the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan is strange, even stranger is the plot line. “Charlie Wilson’s War,” which opened Friday, manages to reduce the president who won the Cold War to a background footnote.

Charlie Wilson was a pro-abortion, Equal Rights Amendment-supporting congressman widely known as “the liberal from Lufkin.” To his credit, he did play a role in facilitating support to the Afghan mujahadeen. But it is he who should be the historical footnote.

In his book, “Ronald Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime,” Lou Cannon notes how Reagan “expressed revulsion of the brutal destruction of Afghan villages and such Soviet policies as the scattering of mines disguised as toys that killed and maimed Afghan children.” He did not need much convincing to aid the Afghan resistance.

Cannon credits Undersecretary of Defense Fred Ikle and CIA Director William Casey with allaying any concern that providing Stinger missiles to the mujahadeen might lead to the missiles’ capture and copying by the Soviets. Also involved, says Cannon, was a bipartisan coalition “led by Texas Democrat Charlie Wilson in the House and New Hampshire Republican Gordon Humphrey in the Senate.”

So you have at least five players, including Reagan, involved — four of them Republican conservatives. Ikle notes: “Senior people in the Reagan administration, the president, Bill Casey, (Defense Secretary Caspar) Weinberger and their aides deserve credit for the successful Afghan covert action program, not just Charlie Wilson.” So guess which one Hollywood makes a movie about?

The movie is based on the book by former “60 Minutes” staffer George Crile. Crile’s credits include the infamous 1982 CBS documentary alleging that Gen. William Westmoreland led a conspiracy to mislead America about the Vietnam War. The screenplay was written by Aaron Sorkin of “West Wing” fame.

Wilson’s chief ally in the film is CIA agent Gust Avrakotos who, like Wilson, is portrayed as a enthusiastic supporter of providing the Stingers. But Ikle says, the CIA bureaucracy initially fought against the idea and that Wilson was lukewarm on the matter. Ikle says both came around only after the rebels actually started bringing down the Soviet helicopter gunships.

The movie also perpetuates the left-wing myth that the covert operation funded Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and ultimately led to the 9/11 attacks. Reagan-era officials such as Ikle say Osama never got funding or weapons from the U.S. and that he didn’t launch his terror war until after U.S. involvement and the Soviet withdrawal in 1989.

It was Ronald Reagan, not Charlie Wilson, who gave the order to provide the mujahadeen with the Stinger missiles that denied the Soviet air supremacy and turned the tide of battle after 1986. Yet in the movie, the likes of Dan Rather and Diane Sawyer (director Mike Nichol’s wife) are more prominently mentioned.

To be fair, the movie doesn’t mention Jimmy Carter either. It was his naivete about Communist expansion that led the Soviets to invade Afghanistan in the first place. Had Reagan not beaten Carter in 1980 there would have been no Stingers and no victory in the Cold War.

But don’t expect a movie about Reagan’s victory over communism or Carter’s surrender to it.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=441207&Ntt=charlie+wilson’s+war

Based on a book written by a highly partisan Democrat, the Hollywood movie "Charlie Wilson's War" dramatically depicts important parts of what went on behind the scenes, obviously playing up Representative Wilson's role, but almost completely ignoring President Reagan's.  An alcoholic playboy otherwise, helping the Afghan mujahideen fight Soviet occupation was Charlie Wilson's only significant positive accomplishment while in Congress, and he would not even have achieved that if he had not met and been influenced by Texas socialite and fervant anticommunist Joanne Herring.  Still, Wilson (now deceased) certainly deserves enormous credit for his work with anticommunist CIA operative Gust Avrakotos, and in getting cooperation from Pakistani officials and the support of important Democrat congressional committee chairman Doc Long.  Also, as a rare Democrat working with a few conservative Republicans (and especially in the case of his romance with and brief marriage to Joanne Herring), Charlie Wilson's story illustrates the old adage that politics sometimes makes strange bedfellows.  In this case, it was for the good. ~sw

PRIMARY ELECTIONS ANALYSIS

Primary School for the Tea Parties
by Robert Tracinski
 

JUNE 9, 2010

MAKING MATTERS WORSE

Off-shore oil industry is one of the most highly regulated activities in America; yet, despite all the government regulations, accidents can and do happen on occasion.  There is no guarantee that adding more costly regulations to the mix will prevent such accidents.  The British Petroleum oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is a disaster of incalculable damages, certainly one of the worst industrial accidents in U.S. history  For his part, President Obama has, by executive order, shut down ALL off-shore oil drilling, throwing thousands out of work and cutting oil production.  Isn't that sort of like outlawing the manufacture of all cars because traffic accidents sometimes occur?  Never let a crisis go to waste, says Rahm.  The Democrats will find a way to cynically use this BP disaster to grab more powre and control over the U.S. economy.

JUNE 8, 2010

Gold Price Hits Record HIgh of $1244 an ounce

JUNE 1, 2010

Iran said to have enough U235 to make two bombs
Nuclear weapons in the hands of a regime of anti-Western religious fanatics which includes a leading cleric who insists that earthquakes are caused by women wearing insufficient clothing.   This is the group of superstitious crackpots who will soon have nuclear bombs and missiles to carry them.

MAY 31, 2010

MEMORIAL DAY

Troops in Afghanistan, Iraq mark Memorial Day -- Army Times

MAY 30, 2010

BILL CLINTON CENTER OF OBAMA'S BRIBERY SCANDAL

White House Asked Bill Clinton to Urge Sestak to Drop Out of Senate Race

MAY 28, 2010

TIME FOR A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR?

What did Rahm and Barack know and when did they know it, and what did they tell Sestak?  Is this the "tip of the iceberg" of Obama White House corruption?  In my opnion this is likely the least of the Obama White House corruption yet to be uncovered.
 

MAY 26, 2010

 

*   *   *

The U.S. space program, a legacy of a better time in our history when American culture was not so decadent and our leaders not so weak and corrupt.

The 25-year-old U.S.S. Atlantis Space Shuttle landing from its final space mission.

MAY 25, 2010

WALTER WILLIAMS GUEST HOSTS FOR RUSH
(Includes Interview with Senate candidate Rand Paul)

For those who may have missed it.

Hour 1          Hour 2          Hour 3

MAY 24, 2010

Is Calderon just another racist antiAngloite?

On President Calderon's hypocrisy -- Washington Times
As Mexico exports its poverty and unemployment northward, it uses draconian measures to control its own southern border.

Textbook of Americanism by Rand

The Shady ShoreBank Bailout -- Michelle Malkin

Another Judicial Power Grab by the Left -- Thomas Sowell
Kagan has no business as a judge on any bench.

Prof. Walter E. Williams to Once Again Guest Host for Rush on Tuesday
Don't forget!

MAY 22, 2010

Rep. Tom McClintock's Response to President Calderon
While all the Democrats in Congress stood up and applauded Calderon, Congressman McClintock took exception to his arrogance and hypocrisy in criticizing Arizona's enforcement of U.S. immigration law.

Hispanics to Speak Out in Support of Arizona at Tea Party Gathering
"As a Hispanic, as a Mexican-American and as an immigrant, I am not alone in saying that I support Arizona," says Bert Hernandez. "I think Arizona did the right thing."  Hernandez, general manager of a Ford dealership in Waco, said his family entered the country legally when he was young. "I can understand why the citizens of Arizona want to take the law into their hands and do those things that the federal government won't do," Hernandez said. "They don't want the culture of corruption that's in Mexico to infect our states."

Rand Paul and the bogus "racism" charge against him -- Washington Times editorial
Bogus charge is a sign of the Democrats' desperation.  We hope Dr. Paul will learn his lesson not to trust leftists like Rachel Maddow.

Republican Wins Congressional Election in Obama's Home Town
The seat had long been held by Dems.  We hope this good news will be repeated many times later this year.  The Democrat stranglehold must be broken!

MAY 19, 2010

Rand Paul Wins Kentucky Primary
"We have come to take our government back!"

Good Riddance to Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania
The old RINO-turned-Democrat is leaving for good!

Obama Endorsement Not Helping Fellow Dems

MAY 17, 2010

Senate Candidate Marc Rubio Warns Against Relying on Big Government to Deal with All Problems

"You know what the fastest growing religion in America is? Statism. The growing reliance on government," Rubio said. "Every time a problem emerges, increasingly the reaction in American society is 'Well what can government do about it?'"

"America became the greatest country because of its strong society where people did not sit back and wait for government to act," he said. "They did it themselves," Rubio said.

Iran Targeting Dissidents Through Global Police
One of this evil regime's leading clerics claims that earthquakes are caused by women not wearing enough clothing over their bodies.  He is serious.  This is the group of superstitious fanatics who will soon have nuclear bombs and missiles to carry them.

MAY 11, 2010

WHAT "FREE MARKET"?  WHAT "DEREGULATION"?

The U.S. has not had anything close to a free market economy for many, many decades.  That's the problem.  Typically, problems caused by already-existing government interventions are blamed by the left-"liberal" propagandists on a non-existent "free market" economy -- and demands for regulation and controls (on top of what already exists) then lead to more legislation or court orders which impose another layer of political distortions on industry.  The new political interventions produce their own set of undesirable side effects which are then seized upon by the "liberals" and socialists as excuses for still more regulations and controls.  In this manner controls beget more controls and positive government intervention tends to spread, metastasizing throughout the economy.  This has been the pattern of increasing positive interventionism in the United States.  Contrary to Democrat Party propaganda, the failure is not from non-existent free markets, but rather a failure of highly politically regulated markets.  Randall Hoven drives the point home in the following article from The American Thinker.

~Sam Wells, editor

The Failure of theUnfree Market
Government Regulations and Programs are the Problem,
Not the Solution

By Randall Hoven

What we have here is the failure of the unfree market. That means the failure of Greece. And the other PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain). And Europe. And it means the U.S., too. It even includes the Great Recession. The modern welfare state is collapsing around us.

If you had believed in the 72-Year Rule, you would have seen this coming. The 72-Year Rule says the lifetime of any social order or governing paradigm is about 72 years. For example, how long was it from the adoption of our original Constitution (1789), which sanctioned slavery, to the Civil War (1861)? Call it 72 years. And from then until the New Deal in 1933? Another 72 years. How about from the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) to the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)? That would be 72 years again.

Do you know when the first Social Security check was issued? January 31, 1940.  If my guess is right, Social Security has maybe two more years left.

Generally, the modern welfare states were born in the 1930s. So the 72-Year Rule says the modern welfare states will collapse and/or turn into something else in the 2002-2012 time frame.

Kinda makes you believe in the 72-Year Rule, doesn't it?

Of course, there are more immediate explanations than this rather mystical pattern recognition. The problem is government debts. Huge debts. Unsustainable debts and structural deficits, not just temporary ones to get through recession or war. And what is behind all these debts? The very programs we started setting up in the 1930s, our "social safety nets." Feeling safe?

Blame it on Bush and Iraq or whatever you want. But Bush was not President of Greece.  And Greece was not one of the thirty nations willing to admit to being part of the U.S.-led Coalition in Iraq. In fact, Greece was one of the more socialistic of the modern welfare states. The problem was debt. Debt caused by things like government retirement programs, government health programs, and government unemployment payments.

No one has a free market. I encourage you to look at the U.S. Statistical Abstract, Table 1324. That table tells us how much various governments spent as fractions of their economies. The U.S., the supposedly "free market" cowboy of the bunch, had a government that spent 38.6% of its country's GDP in 2008. The lowest of the bunch was South Korea, at 30.9%, and the highest was France, at 52.5%. Five countries, of 28 listed, spent less than the U.S. did, including Australia and Switzerland. Greece was merely in the middle of the pack at 43.2%.

And that was the U.S. of 2008 -- before the Wall Street Bailout, before Government Motors, before Porkulus, before ObamaCare, even before Obama. Now, in 2010, the U.S. is not even considered one of the "Free" countries in the latest Heritage Freedom Index.

We are all forty-percenters now, essentially spending forty-something percent of our GDPs on government. And we're all going broke together. A bunch of broke blokes cannot save themselves from bankruptcy by lending money to each other that they borrowed from each other in the first place. At least not for long.

"But," you say, "it was the free market that led to all this -- you know, unregulated credit default swaps and derivatives and such." No it wasn't. You have no idea what caused the financial meltdown. While government regulators are quick to say that lack of regulation was the culprit, too much regulation was likely the real culprit.

You want specifics?  OK, take the Recourse Rule, adopted by the U.S. and Europe in only the last few years before the Great Recession. It forced banks to invest more than they otherwise would have in mortgage-backed assets. Or how about "mark to market," which came with Sarbanes-Oxley in 2002 and froze credit because banks had to valuate their assets based on temporary and unrealistic current market prices? Or maybe it was the way Andrew Cuomo, Bill Clinton's HUD Secretary, forced Fannie Mae into the subprime mortgage market in the first place.

I just gave three specifics of over-regulation or government interference that might have caused or contributed to the financial mess. Can any late-night economists who blame it all on Bush's deregulation tell me one thing that was deregulated by Bush?

In any case, the market was not free in the first place. The Federal Register of regulations was 2,620 pages (about two Bibles) in the middle of the New Deal. By 1992, it had 62,928 pages (about fifty Bibles). By 2002, it had 80,332 pages, or another fourteen Bibles added in one decade. Federal spending on finance and banking regulation approximately doubled (in inflation-adjusted dollars) over the last twenty years.

...Not to mention that the financial crunch was merely the last straw on the camel's back, not the cause of all our problems. The GAO saw the unsustainable debt problem clearly in 2007, before anyone even thought the Great Recession was coming. I encourage you to look at this GAO presentation from April 2007. Even then it said, "The status quo is not an option: We face large and growing structural deficits largely due to known demographic trends and rising health care costs."

We all knew this was coming. Republicans would try to do something about it every so often. Reagan had a bipartisan commission headed by Alan Greenspan to fix Social Security for a while. He did what the commission recommended and got blamed for the largest tax increase in history. The new Republican Congress tried to fix Medicare in 1995, but Clinton vetoed it. George W. Bush mentioned cuts to Medicare and "privatizing" a fraction of Social Security. He was accused of trying to kill Grandma.

Every time a Republican would try to talk responsible entitlement reform, Democrats said he was stealing Grandma's Social Security and pushing her into the streets. The Democrats' solution? Half a trillion dollars in new taxes and fees and half a trillion in Medicare cuts to pay for an expansion of Medicare of about another one trillion. Oh, and we're probably going to need a VAT -- the one thing Europe has that we don't yet.

So here we are, with our government spending the largest fraction of our economy in our history, and the party in charge of the presidency, the House, and the Senate is calling those who complain about that anti-government nuts.

Well have at it. Raise tax rates on the rich. Start a VAT. Do whatever you want. You will not get the money. You've run out of other people's money. There is no more piggy bank to rob.

The American voters completed the transition of the U.S. from an entrepreneurial and freedom-loving state to a full-fledged sclerotic European welfare state, just in time to join the Europeans in their collective collapse. Congratulations.

And for your next task, make sure our downfall is blamed on "the free market," just like you did about 72 years ago.

from the American Thinker, May 11, 2010

MAY 8, 2010

Inflation in Venezuela Hits 30% (at least)
Socialism is wrecking the Venezuelan economy.  Do U.S. Democrats really think it will be different here?  Do they care?

Hugo Chavez giving communist salute

*   *   *

THE LEFT'S ANTI-AMERICAN PROFILING BIGOTRY

I have always thought one of the reasons the U.S. "intelligence" community (largely "liberal" bumblers) dropped the ball on 9/11/01 was that their left/liberal ideological template was much more comfortable looking for disgruntled middle-aged white guys who were "right wing" (i.e. who want to return to the traditional constitutional limits on government and who oppose the new order of "liberal" fascism being imposed incrementally in America).  After all, why should our CIA and military intelligence profilers be concerned about venomous threats from Iran or Al Qaeda when they are much more interested in profiling the perps as conservative white guys in constitutional militias (or at least some isolated nut case as long as he is a Caucasian American male like Timothy McVeigh).  The desperate attempt by Democrat politicians and their media allies to pin any violence or act of terrorism on a conservative white guy was recently illustrated in the case of the Times Square bomber.

Leftist New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, with only a little coaxing by a media interviewer, voiced his prediction that the Times Square bomber would be a home-grown, middle-aged white guy who disagrees with Obamacare.  It turns out to be just the opposite:  a left-leaning jihadist of Pakistani descent.

Notice that profiling is considered EVIL and against civil liberties according to the Liberal/Left Thought Police of "political correctness" -- unless it is directed against Caucasian male U.S. citizens, especially conservative patriots who are critical of the agenda of the current regime.  Using that template, it is no wonder that the 911 plotters went undetected and unthwarted.

The intelligence community cannot legitimately take any credit for stopping the Times Square bomb plot.  It was just lucky that the bomb did not go off because of its poor design.

Again, this scenario can be seen as further evidence that the left-"liberals" don't have a clue what's going on and are not taking the jihad threat very seriously. You don't want these people in control of the government while we are at war. As screwup follows screwup (assuming they are mistakes and not deliberate agenda), Obama's ineptitude in foreign policy nevertheless is surpassed only by his incredible arrogance.

The true source of terrorist violence and the threats to our liberties and peace come not from the right, but from the political left and Islamic extremism -- both anti-capitalist/anti-freedom causes which are allied against the United States as their common enemy.

*   *   *
LEAKED VIDEO OF "MASSACRE" IN IRAQ TAKEN OUT OF CONTEXT, USED BY THE ENEMY IN ITS ANTI-U.S. PROPAGANDA

I was skeptical from the start as killing civilians is not typical behavior of U.S. troops and because the websites which posted the video were notoriously unreliable and biased against U.S. forces.  I even thought the video could have been partly faked, or that audio had been dubbed in.

It turns out the video, or that part that is shown of the incident, does not provide the full context of what was actually happening.

The individuals killed in the attack appeared to the soldiers to be carrying an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) launcher and were thus identified as the enemy.  Enemy fire had come from that area only minutes before.  It is understandable that our troops would want to return that fire.  Tragically, it turned out these were journalists carrying camera equipment and were in the wrong place at the wrong time despite warnings to evacuate the area prior to the onset of the military operation.  As tragic as these deaths are, this was no act of wanton murder as implied by the left-wing websites that leaked the video, but an accidental shooting based on mistaken identity.

As I have observed before on this web log, I believe the war with Saddam Hussein's regime was inevitable and ultimately unavoidable, and it was better to get it over with under President W. Bush than wait until the enemy had full WMDs and when the U.S. forces would be under less capable leadership such as a President Albert Gore, a President John Kerry, a President Hillary Clinton, or a President Barack Obama.  (As imperfect as W. Bush was, the alternatives were rfar worse, and  I feel like America narrowly "dodged a bullet" in 2000 and in 2004; then we got hit in 2008.)  Most American military personnel know that the Democrats have long been antagonistic to the U.S. military services.  This was certainly true of the Clintons who, when they were in the White House, were clearly contemptuous of our armed forces people.

I had long predicted that war between the U.S. and either Iraq or Iran would eventually take place when I learned of the signing of the peace between Ayatollah Khomeini and Saddam Hussein, as the U.S. would be drawn in to come to the rescue of its allies and interests in the region as either or both Iraq and Iran turned their imperialistic aggression outward against neighboring countries instead of against each other.  That came to pass.

I believe that President George W. Bush was inspired by the book The Case for Democracy:  The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror by Natan Sharansky (a former Israeli government official).  His hope was that once Saddam was deposed that a stable ally there would emerge and that a relatively free Iraq would shine as an example to other countries.  He believed that the people of Iraq would welcome liberation from the Nazi-like regime of Saddam Hussein and the chance to forge their own destiny as a free people.  He may have misunderestimated the difficulties in keeping the regime in Tehran from taking advantage of the situation by trying to destabilize the new post-Saddam government and to make Iraq a satellite state of Iran.  Those who demand immediate withdrawal of American troops either do not understand or do not care that if this is done prematurely before the Iraqis are able to handle their own protection against Iran and the Iranian-backed insurgents that the terrorist minority will take over Iraq and install a puppet regime of Iran.  If the "anti-war" surrendercrats have their way, the relative freedom and tenuous stability now in Iraq would be destroyed and a blood bath would ensue followed by dictatorship.

MAY 7, 2010

We can't appease Islamists by Ralph Peters
The price of appeasement will be more unavoidable wars

Demonizing DDT – How the Scare Campaign Against ‘the Excellent Powder’ Has Cost Millions of Lives -- Reason TV
New book confirms Prof. George Reisman's article on the Left's malaria holocaust

THIRD NAVY SEAL ACQUITTED IN CASE OF ABUSING CAPTURED TERRORIST.
Three trials. Three acquittals. SEALS WIN! Terrorists lose. Obama Administration sided with the terrorists. They expected the Seals to roll over and take a plea. They clearly don't know much about the Seals. CLICK HERE.

APRIL 30, 2010

The Dems and Their Wall Street Buddies -- Ann Coulter

The Politics Behind the Left's Opposition to Arizona's Immigration Law -- Lowell Ponte

http://www.andrewklavan.com/

Big Hollywood

America Rising
Let's hope so.

Support Arizona

Boycott San Fransicko

Jews Turn Against Obama -- Ronald Kessler
It's about time!

APRIL 15, 2010

There will be many Tea Party gatherings all over the country today.  I wish them all well and hope the Dems and SEIU thugs do not get away with disrupting them (as they are planning to do).  I hope the tea party patriots will keep their cool in the face of expected provocations by the ultrastatist Left.

There will be an organizational meeting in Palmdale.  I wish I could make it, but -- like many Americans who would otherwise be at Tea Party and constitutional conservative meetings -- I have to work today and cannot get off my work duties for this day. But I will be with the tea party patriots in spirit!

http://nguyenkinhdoanh.com/Essays%20on%20Liberty.html

http://Laissez-FaireRepublic.com

APRIL 14, 2010

THE DEMS WANT TO TAKE OVER
THE FINANCIAL INDUSTRY TOO --
TO ASSURE PERMANENT POLITICAL POWER

OBAMA’S TERRIBLE POWERS
By Dick Morris
04.14.2010

If the financial regulation bill that passed the House last year becomes law, President Obama and his Treasury Secretary will acquire the right to take over any financial institution they wish to, provided that, in their sole opinion, it is both “too big to fail” and on the brink of insolvency. The House bill provides for no judicial review and does not require any objective evidence of imminent failure to trigger the takeover provisions.

Once the government takes over such a company, it will acquire the right to replace the entire board of directors, fire the management of the company, wipe out stockholder equity and even sell off divisions of the company.

Essentially, this bill permits the government to launch an unfriendly takeover of any financial institution it wishes without risk and with no poison pill or other counter-measures possible.

This legislation, essentially, confers on the federal government police powers that, under our system, are the exclusive preserve of state and local government. The blank check the bill gives the feds to take over any financial institution is really more of an exercise of eminent domain than it is an extension of traditional federal regulatory power.

This grant of power to the executive branch is unprecedented and potentially totalitarian. Consider:

• Will Obama, or any future president, target companies that are particularly vocal in their opposition to his policies or generous in funding his political opponents? Will the fact that Obama would have this power force companies, investors, CEOs and managers to self-censor their opinions and political involvement because they fear the wrath of a vengeful president?

• Will this grant of authority force companies to hesitate before they grow and expand? Will it function the same way the antitrust powers of the Justice Department do in making companies re-examine mergers and acquisitions with a view toward what Justice will think of their resulting market share? In antitrust situations, where a specific action brings companies under scrutiny — like a merger — such concern is not unreasonable. But when the simple act of making money, showing a profit and expanding in size puts a company in federal crosshairs, does this not have the potential to attenuate the capitalist focus on growth?

• In an environment where the feds are looking over the shoulder of every financial institution to see if they should take it over and shut it down, will this not force financial companies to follow the most risk-averse lending policies possible? Doesn’t this mean that it only makes sense to buy government paper, since consumer loans, mortgages and business lending could be considered risky and lead to a federal takeover? Isn’t this policy precisely the opposite of what we need to catalyze economic growth?

• In a political world where contributions from financial institutions are sought and widely given, doesn’t this power give the president and his party unlimited fundraising ability, simply by baring its teeth and showing the power it has to take anybody over and fire anybody? Given the fact that Goldman-Sachs was the second-largest donor to Obama’s campaign, giving $954,795, doesn’t this new power raise the specter that the federal government could take over financial institutions so as to make the competition lighter for its donors? Already, there is considerable evidence (cited in our new book, 2010: Take Back America — A Battle Plan) that Goldman profited handsomely from the decision of its former CEO — Bush’s Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — to allow Lehman Brothers to fail. Now that the Treasury secretary will have the takeover power, might it not be used as irresponsibly and with as many bad consequences as Paulson used his power in the Lehman crisis?

While the focus on the regulatory bill has been on the consumer protection provisions, which I tend to support, there has been far less scrutiny on these horrific expansions of federal power.

Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez could only dream of this power.

*   *   *

OBAMA'S RACE TO MEDIOCRITY
FOR AMERICAN AEROSPACE

APRIL  13, 2010

FAR LEFT GROUP PLANS TO CRASH APRIL 15 TEA PARTIES WITH FAKE RACIST SIGNS
This is the kind of gutter politics we expect from the Left.

Liz Cheney: Obama Putting America on Path to Decline
My only question is whether it is deliberate or utter stupidity.  How can someone be so consistently wrong on so many fronts?  Maybe only the false assumptions of a warped Far Left ideology can explain it.

APRIL  12, 2010

What Policies Prolongued the Great Depression -- and What Finally Revived the U.S. Economy? -- Wall Street Journal
These wrong-headed policies didn't work for FDR either.

APRIL  6, 2010
LEFT-WING HATE INTENSIFIES AGAINST TEA PARTIERS AND OTHER AMERICAN PATRIOTS

Democrat talking head Chris Matthews openly fantasizes about shooting Rush Limbaugh in the head.  The White House urges Obama supporters to "punch" Tea Party activists -- following which several SEIU thugs savagely beat a black tea party patriot while calling him "nigger" and other names.  Other Obama disciples pelt Tea Party bus with rotten eggs.  Republican Congressman Eric Cantor has shots fired into his home, threatening his family. Although one shot was reported to be a "random" bullet supposedly fired aimlessly in the air, Philadelphia police have finally caught and arrested the man who was threatening Rep. Cantor and his family.  The man arrested, Norman Leboon, even refers to bullets in Cantor's office: "You received my bullets in your office."  It turns out that Norman Leboon is a long-time Democrat activist and financial contributor to the Obama presidential campaign.  The guy was even broadcasting his threats on You Tube.  Also, bricks have been thrown through other Republican representatives' offices.  Left-wing propaganda is stoking this violence.

The reactionary Left's hate speech is being intensified in an attempt to silence growing dissent against the policies and actions of the current Obama/Pelosi/Reid regime. Meanwhile, the Democrat shills in the "news" media carry lies about the tea partiers and conservative talk show personalities -- untruths originating from left-wing propaganda outlets being carried as legitimate news.  I have heard the claim that tea partiers screamed the "n" word at Obama supporters; however, this event never occurred.  No factual verification exists.  It is a lie churned out by the DNC propaganda machine.

Obama network media supporters are now peddling the lie that all those who oppose the current regime's policies are "racists" who dislike the President because he is black or half black.  No real evidence against the Tea Party patriots for this charge has been brought forth to justify the claims; the charges are just made and are intended to be accepted on their face.  We are all supposed to look the other way and ignore what is going on while the President and the Democrat-controlled Congress ruin the economy and undermine national security.  The truly racist Democrats hide behind the false charge of racism against those who dare dissent -- to help those now in power get away with more and more.  Anyone who criticizes them is branded a racist and a bigot.  The smear campaign continues.

But the lame use of the "racism" card has been played so many times by the left-"liberal" establishment that it is wearing pretty thin with an increasing number of Americans of all racial and ethnic identities.  Many, perhaps even most, of those who voted for Obama in 2008 are now beginning to see that as a big mistake. Voter remorse may be setting in for a lot of Democrats.  With each new outrage, the President's approval ratings continue to fall.  If the election were held today, Obama would lose.

MARCH 26, 2010

ARE DEMS KILLING U.S. DOLLAR?
(Does a bear go in the woods?)

Rapidly Eroding Confidence in U.S. Treasury Bonds

MARCH 23, 2010

27th ANNIVERSARY OF SDI PROPOSAL

SDI:  A Better Approach to Peace from the Threat of Nuclear Missiles Than Deterrence Alone

Ending the MADness paradigm of the McNamara/Kissinger doctrine of mutual vulnerability to nuclear holocaust, President Reagan boldly proposed using American technological prowess to prevent a nuclear exchange from occurring in the first place.  Inspired by proposals by Army Gen. Daniel Graham, Dr. Edward Teller, Lowell Wood, Michael J. Dunn, and Henry F. Cooper, the technology for such a space-based missile defense system has been available for well over 20 years.  That technology is even better today.  The threat from nuclear-warhead-tipped missiles is greater today than ever before. The United States must quickly restore and implement the space-based High Frontier system as soon as possible. Such a system would save countless lives even if it were not 100% "perfect" in intercepting all missiles -- and would in any case introduce a huge element of uncertainty in the minds of any enemy generals as to the degree of "success" that any contemplated first launch would have, thereby making nuclear missile warfare increasingly obsolete. The fledgling ground-based anti-missile stations deployed by the Bush Administration, while better than nothing, are not enough.  The Obama Administration is obviously not planning to pursue missile defense at all.  The next President must make High Frontier, or a similar space-based defense system, a top priority for the security of Americans and of the peoples of the world.

"Wouldn't it be better to save lives than to avenge them?" -- President Reagan

Full Text of Speech by President Reagan March 23, 1983

Latest Successful SDI Laser Test

*   *   *

Freedom to Rip off Others:  Pelosi and Marx on 'Freedom'
By Ed Kaitz

MARCH 22, 2010

DEMOCRAT TAKEOVER BILL PASSES HOUSE NARROWLY AFTER PRESSURES AND BRIBES
Buying Votes with Money They Don't Even Have

Cuban Dictator Applauds ObamaCare

219 Democrats against America
No (Zero) House Republicans voted for this.
All (100%) of House Republicans stood firm against it.

CONSTITUTIONALIST CONSERVATIVES VOW REPEAL

Republicans Quickly Call for Repeal

http://senateconservatives.com/repeal

Gingrich: "This will not stand."

Democrats suffer lowest approval ratings
Pelosi 11%.  Reid 8%

An American Backlash is Coming!

MARCH 10, 2010

Some people are suggesting that the White House be renamed the "White Westinghouse" as it has a black agitator inside stuck on spin cycle.  The Democrats in the White House and Congress are desperate to pass some kind of plunderous bill they can label "healthcare reform" and Obama is putting pressure and making deals to make sure there are enough votes.  There is a lot of hoopla in the TV media to get people to accept it.  How many "undecideds" or even allegedly "No" blue-dog Dems will switch at the last minute?  How much of the taxpayers' money will be used to bribe them for their votes?

MARCH 1, 2010

CONSERVATIVES WARN
THEY WILL PUSH FOR REPEAL
IF DEMS USE "RECONCILIATION"
TO FORCE  THROUGH
NATIONAL HEALTH CARE

"If they get it done,  the objective and the [Republican] campaign theme has to be: 'Roll it back.  Roll it back.'  Do you remember all the people on Social Security, getting Social Security benefits of one kind or another, in all those years where the Democrats said, 'The Republicans want to take away your Social Security. The Republicans want to kick you out of your house.'? It worked for a whole lot of election cycles.  It was only in the early to mid-nineties when it started bombing out because after so many years of these predictions it never happened.  Nobody ever took their house away. Nobody ever tried to cut Social Security.  It was all a lie -- and when the New Media was born (led, of course, by me), this option and reality was presented to people.

"But if they get health care done, everybody's going to be on government health care under their plan at some point.  If it's ten years down the road or five, whatever it is, that's the objective. Everybody's going to be on government health care.  If we don't roll it back, then we're stuck with it, and any attempt to roll it back after it gets settled in -- any attempt to roll it back after more and more Americans are being insured by the government -- will lead to charges of:  'Those Republicans fought giving you health care! They want to take your health care benefits away! They want to take away your health care, and it will work.  This cannot be allowed to stand even if they get it done.

"So it's not enough just to take comfort and even enjoyment in what will no doubt be a disastrous election for them.  If they get this done before November, then a serious plot to undo it has got to become the focus, and they are banking on the fact that the Republicans don't have the guts to do that.  We'll see." --Rush Limbaugh March 1, 2010

FEBRUARY 28, 2010

THE PARTY OF ULTRA CONTROL FREAKS
SEEKS MORE PERMANENT POWER

It is all about control.  Lord Acton said that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absotuely.  Some people are considerably more amenable to being corrupted by power and power lust.  Anyone who has been paying attention knows that individuals like Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton,Charles Rangel, Henry Waxman, Charles Schumer, Barney Frank, et al are among the most corrupt and afflicted with advanced Acton's Disease.  They are extreme control freaks who desperately want to run other peoples' lives and spend other peoples' earnings.  They wish to play God with other folks' lives.  They view other people as mere clay to be molded according to their whims.  They will do almost anything to gain power over others.  They can do that best through getting control of Big Government, in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, and most especially in the permanent governmental bureaucracies which have been established in layer on top of layer over several decades.  Their proposed answer to any and every problem, real or bogus, is still more government, still another layer of political bureaucracy, regulation, and taxation to compound already existing problems created or aggravated by previous statist interventions.  Whatever their current agenda or cause happens to be -- and currently it appears to be national health care -- for them it trumps virtually all other considerations -- especially the rights of peaceful American citizens -- and if the "liberals" cannot get others to accept their psychoceramic (crackpot) notions through relentless propaganda, then they will use government force to shove them down our throats.

Most Americans oppose more government involvement in our already partially politicized and bureaucratized medical and health system.  There is no system that is so screwed up that another layer of government intervention won't make it even worse. Despite its unpopularity, it appears that the Democrat leadership will try to ram through some form of socialistic national health care scheme for President Obama to sign -- even though this will likely mean that many Democrat politicians will lose their attempt at re-election in November.  Why then would Pelosi and Obama want Democrats to commit what appears to be political suicide?

Political observer Andy McCarthy makes the following point about the Far Left's long-term strategy and why it may be seen as trumping even retaining Democrat control of Congress in the short term:

Transformation by Andy McCarty

FEBRUARY 26, 2010

"HEALTH CARE SUMMIT" REVEALS DEM INTOLERANCE

It looks like BO's Health Care Summit sort of backfired on the Dems,  President Obama came off as arrogant, condescending, petulent, and superficial compared to any of the Repubs.  Especially impressive were Canter and Ryan, both of whom obviously knew much more about the content of the Democrats' proposal than did the President.  Obama cut off Republicans when they were making points and Democrats enjoyed more than two minutes for every one that Republicans were granted in terms of time to speak.

Bottom line:  BO and the Dems showed their intolerance for any other point of view  and appeared to be stubbornly deaf to the American people -- and I think that will redound to the benefit of the Repubs politically as they can run against BO and the Dems as trying to Rahm this scheme down peoples' throats.

Rush Limbaugh reported:  "The Democrats hoped Republicans would look like stuffed-shirt, mean-spirited, hateful, uncompromising extremists who don't care if people are dying for lack of health coverage. Instead what's happened is that Obama has been shown to be petulant, whiny -- out-of-control, almost -- unprepared, ill-informed, and basically arrogant and cocky."

SO FAR SO GOOD

I am very encouraged by the grass-roots tea party movements which have sprung up in backlash against the Democrats' agenda of massively increasing fedgov involvement in the lives of the American people and increasing spending and taxes on a scale never before seen in history. These policies could lead to a worthless U.S. dollar and an economy ruined by hyperinflation.  But trying to head that off at the pass are patriotic conservative Americans who are coming to retake America.  Let's hope they keep their eye on the prize, the oveerall goal.

The ultimate political choice is between a constitutional government limited in scope by the rule of law (with the Laissez-Faire Republic being the ideal toward which to strive) versus any variant of Whimarchy (democracy, oligarchy, monarchy, anarchy).  The U.S. Constituton and Bill of Rights were the greatest step in the direction of the ideal.  Time to return to our roots!

 *   *   *

FOR ANY FOOL WHO STILL BELIEVES THERE IS "NO DIFFERENCE" BETWEEN THE TWO POLITICAL PARTIES ...

While it is certainly true that there are too many left-leaning "liberals" in the Republican Party -- Arnold Schwarzeneggar, Alan Greenslime, John McCain, Olympia Snowe, David Gergen, just to name a few -- but most of the House and Senate Republican politicians and the party's grassroot base are conservative to right-libertarian in orientation.  They are in the tradition of Jefferson, Madison, Mason, Paine, and Adams whereas the Democrat Party is more in the tradition of Marx, Lenin, Hitler, and Stalin.

The National Journal recently did a study of Congress and one of the observations that was inescapable was that the top ten most "liberal" (statist) in both the House and the Senate are all Democrats and the top ten most "conservative" (anti-statist, pro-constitutionalist) in both legislative houses are all Republicans.  Whether you use the National Journal's congressional ratings or that of the American Conservative Union or the Birch Society's Conservative Index, the same pattern emerges very clearly.  Those who are sincere about taking the country back from the socialist Democrat regime now in control would do well not to fall for the third-party trap (which the Dems would love conservatives and libertarians to get diverted into since that tends to divide the anti-Dem vote) and work within the GOP and make it more of a Party of Goldwater and Reagan (instead of a Party of Lincoln and Grant).

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

OBAMA DISCIPLE MAY HAVE PLANTED A "HERPES BOMB"

After her arrest for shooting six of her colleagues at the University of Alabama, left-wing biology instructor Amy Bishop is now suspected of also planting a "herpes bomb" or attempting to contaminate school equipment with the herpes virus.  According to a New York Times story, those who worked with Bishop in the Biology Department warn that she "might have booby-trapped the science building with some sort of 'herpes bomb,' police officials said, designed to spread the dangerous virus."  If she indeed did do that, we have to wonder what kind of sick evil mentality must this reactionary leftist have to do this sort of thing as well as witnessed multiple premeditated murders.

Also new evidence suggests that Bishop may also have murdered her brother more than 20 years ago.

FEBRUARY 13, 2010

OBAMAITE LEFTIST MURDERS THREE TEACHERS
WOUNDS OTHERS AT UNIVERSITY

Obama-Obsessed 'Liberal' Professor Kills Three In Rampage

Amy Bishop Arrested after Murder Spree

FEBRUARY 12, 2010

Barack and Rahm bail out Goldman Sachs, AIG, and their other Wall Strreet buddies. As usual, socialism and liberal Big Government bailouts are the road to special privilege and monopoly power for the super wealthy financial cliques.  When the taxpayers are forced to underwrite or subsidize the bad loans and bad financial decisions of the Wall Street banksters or mortgage lenders, the result is more bad loans and bad financial decisions.  Is anyone really "too big to fail"?  Stop the bailouts to the mega-wealthy corporate socialist elite.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Obama is Owned - You Can Bank On It
by Ann Coulter

The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are bristling with the news that Republicans have decided now is the time to suck up to Wall Street. As the saying goes, there is no truer friend than a Wall Street arbitrageur -- they are the salt-of-the-earth, the most loyal men who ever drew a breath!

What are Republicans thinking? While not every money-manipulator on Wall Street deserves to be treated like a heroin dealer, lots do. Could the Republicans be a little more discriminating in picking up the Democrats' old friends?

The Democrats are acting as if they want to punish everyone in the financial services industry, including the innocent, while the Republicans seem to want to protect everyone on Wall Street, including the guilty.

How about just punishing the guilty? The Democrats can't do that because the list of Wall Street's biggest offenders may turn out to be eerily similar to the list of Obama's biggest campaign contributors.

Employees from Goldman Sachs gave more to the Obama campaign than any other organization except the University of California -- with Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase quickly following in sixth and seventh place.

Whatever Obama has in mind for punishing the financial industry, I promise you, he won't punish his friends. After JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon took a $17 million bonus this week, and Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein got a $9 million bonus, Obama said he didn't begrudge them their bonuses, saying, "I know both those guys."

Obama seems to be hoping that his vague bluster about "obscene profits" will lure Republicans into embracing Wall Street welfare recipients -- thereby losing Americans forever.

Never bet against Republicans being outwitted.

Risk-taking and speculation are good. But the Democrats' crony capitalism is the worst of both worlds: risk-taking without any real risk for the risk-takers. It's like gambling with your rich daddy's money, except we're the rich daddy.

Obama, like the rest of his party, is an ideologue who doesn't understand or particularly like the free market. He fundamentally believes in the efficacy of the welfare state, whether the beneficiary is a layabout single mother or a rich Wall Street banker.

As Peter Schweizer describes in his magnificent book "Architects of Ruin," the Democrats have been bailing out investment houses from their bad bets since the Clinton administration. The bankers got all the profits when their risky bonds were paying -- and then gave massive donations to their Democratic benefactors. But once the bets went bad, it was the taxpayers' problem.

Heavily leveraged securities packages put together by Goldman Sachs and others were the HIV virus that killed the American economy. And the reason investment firms piled leverage on leverage on leverage was that they knew the government would bail them out if their house of cards collapsed.

On one hand, Goldman put together toxic securities packages for their clients, but on the other hand, Goldman knew the mortgage securities being sold on the market were crap, so they also took out lots of insurance with AIG on crappy products being traded on the market.

It would be as if, anticipating a major earthquake, Goldman bought massive insurance policies on every house on the San Andreas fault line.

There's nothing wrong with taking risks and making bets, provided that if you bet wrong or if you bankrupt your betting partner with wild gambles: You lose.

The problem was that Goldman and AIG, among many others, knew they wouldn't lose. Twenty years of Democratic bailouts have led them to understand that when their bets go bad, the taxpayer will save them.

Which is exactly what happened.

When the earthquake hit toxic securities, the insurer, AIG, couldn't pay up. Normally, that would result in the insurer going bankrupt, an orderly proceeding in bankruptcy court to distribute AIG's assets, and Goldman recovering only a portion of the insurance payout on the crappy products.

But instead of AIG going bankrupt and Goldman taking a hit, the U.S. taxpayer made good on AIG's securities insurance. In a deal arranged by former Goldman CEO and current Obama BFF, Hank Paulson, Goldman ended up being paid -- by you -- an astonishing 100 cents on the dollar.

So Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein's boast that his firm didn't want TARP money and has paid it all back is completely irrelevant. Goldman took billions of dollars -- that's millions with a "b" -- of the AIG bailout money. How about paying that back?

It took The New York Times a year and a half to figure out Goldman's jackpot winnings from the AIG bailout -- $12.9 billion, according to the Times -- so the first thing Republicans ought to do is hold hearings to determine who benefited from the Democrats' crony capitalism, and not take their bluster as fact.

The next step should be to get all the bailout money back.

When the government steps in to save the very financial institutions that poisoned the nation's financial system with contaminated securities and derivatives -- all while the bankers get to keep the fees and bonuses on their bad bets -- we are not talking about a free market.

We're talking about regular Americans being forced to foot the bill for the gambling habits of left-wing multimillionaires by buying the malefactors more chips every time they lose.

Republicans should defend any investment houses that never benefited from a government bailout. But anyone who took huge gambles, lost and got bailed out with taxpayer money should be tortured and then shot, miraculously brought back to life, tortured some more, then shot a few more times.

BO's bogus 'fight' with Wall Street
Even Obama's populist posturing is phony!  Coulter cuts through the left-wing propaganda to expose the relationship between Democrats and fat cat banksters.  This is a theme that the late Gary Allen and Antony Sutton wrote about over 20 and 30 years ago, and it is still true.  Socialism is not for the "little guy":  socialism and "Big Government "liberalism" are the royal road to monopoly power and privilege for the super-rich Wall Streeters.

Iran moves closer to nuke warhead capacity
 

Memphis Tea Party Chairman Mark Skoda outlined five "first principles" that candidates must follow in order to get support from his newly formed Ensuring Liberty Corporation and PAC: fiscal responsibility, lower taxes, less government, states' rights and national security.

FORMER GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN
DELIVERS KEYNOTE SPEECH

"The tea party movement is the future of politics."

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IS THE CULT FAD OF MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING HYSTERIA
FINALLY STARTING TO WANE?

An increasing number of real scientists are backing away from the hoax that deceived millions.

*   *   *

New Video Exposes Al Gore Getting Rich off of Global Warming Scam

Al Gore won a Nobel Prize and an Oscar warning us about the catastrophe we will cause if we don't reduce our carbon footprints - but he travels the world in his private jet and racks up $30,000 in energy bills every year at his Nashville mansion.  Al Gore parades around the globe condemning humans for causing global warming and destroying the earth. He chastises us for our way of life and demands that we reduce our "carbon footprint". All the while, he has amassed a fortune and been the beneficiary of his doom and gloom scare tactics.

Al Gore refuses to do public interviews because he is unable to defend his positions and claims. Do As I Say exposes Al Gore as the fraud that he is and proves that the liberal environmental movement is a scam.

Do As I Say uncovers not only Al Gore's hypocrisy, but also the hypocrisy of other liberals like Michael Moore, Hillary Clinton, Noam Chomsky, The Kennedys and George Soros.

The Great Global Warming Collapse -- Margaret Wente

I thought of killing myself, says climate scandal professor Phil Jones

Monster Snowstorm Hits Mid-Atlantic States
While foolish Gorites prepare for global warming....

RFK, Jr. 15 months ago: Global warming means no snow or cold in DC
Well, what about the record cold and snow in D.C. right now?

Coulter has corrupt climategate scientists for lunch

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Highly Recommended MP3 Audio:

Rush Limbaugh second hour 12/09

Rush Limbaugh third hour 12/09
 
 

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WALESA (via translator): The United States is only one superpower. Today they lead the world. Nobody has doubts about it. Militarily.  They also lead economically but they're getting weak. But they don't lead morally and politically anymore.  The world has no leadership.  The United States was always the last resort and hope for all other nations.  There was the hope, whenever something was going wrong, one could count on the United States

Lech Walesa stumps for conservative IL candidate for governor -- AmericanThinker.com

"PROGRESSIVES" -- OR TRUE REACTIONARIES?
by Sam Wells

Whether they call themselves "liberals" or "progressives" or "socialists" or "fascists" or "Democrats" or "welfarists" or "populists" or whatever, they all have one thing in common:  they are extreme control freaks who desperately want to run other peoples' lives and spend other peoples' earnings.  They wish to play God with other folks' lives.  They view other people as mere clay to be molded according to their whims.  They will do almost anything to gain power over others.  Their proposed answer to any and every problem, real or bogus, is still more government, still another layer of political bureaucracy, regulation, and taxation to compound already existing problems created or aggravated by previous statist interventions.  Whatever their current agenda cause happens to be, for them it trumps virtually all other considerations -- especially the rights of peaceful people -- and if the "liberals" cannot get others to accept their psychoceramic notions through relentless propaganda, then they will use government force to shove them down our throats.  They would like to call themselves "progressives" in order to imply they are for progress, but in fact leftists are enemies of freedom and progress.  An American backlash is growing.  High time we took back our country.

He says the deficits will save the economy, then blames them on George Bush. So will he credit Bush for the recovery? Besides, he voted for Bush's deficits and has surpassed them fourfold.

There are so many lies and so much disinformation coming out of the White House and the DNC that it is hard to keep up with it all.  Fortunately, Obama is not nearly as good a liar as Bill Clinton was.  Although there will likely always be the Kool-Ade-drinking blind followers of BHO, an increasing number of Americans are seeing through his arrogant posturing and bogus partisan claims.

An Unusually Bad Prevaricator -- David Limgaugh
.

Oh, the "progressive" reactionaries are really trying to spin the election results of Massachusetts.  I saw one piece that tries to claim that the reason Brown won over Coakley is because Coakley is a woman and the people up there don't like women!  The DNC and its Far Left backers are desperately trying to spin the election results with their own interpretation.  The reality is that Brown ran as a conservative Republican on conservative Republican issues -- and he won in a state that is registered 3-to-1 Democrat over Republican.

My concern is that Glenn Beck continues to call these people "progressives" when they are welfare-state fascists and reactionary socialists.

They hearken back to the New Deal as if it was not corporatism, but the NRA was written by General Electric's Gerard Swope.  FDR was bought and paid for by Wall Street.  The New Deal kept the ocuntry in depression for many years unnecessarily with the deepest trough in 1938 -- five years into the Roosevelt regime.  The "Great Society" of LBJ was a failure in terms of results.  The only way the "war on poverty" could be seen as a success was in buying votes for Democrat politicians from people made more dependent on government.  Those programs are becoming more obviously unsustainable.

Bernanke and Geitner and their use of taxpayer money to bail out their buddies on Wall Street and elsewhere certainly does not represent market capitalism.  They represent corporate socialism.  What is needed is less government, not more. But it looks like the arrogant Obamacrats are so ideologically committed to leftism that they will ignore the obvious signs of impending economic catastrophe and go on with their mammoth, unprecedented spending spree.  Obama's collosal arrogance makes even Bill Clinton's pale by comparison -- and that's saying something.   These people are out of touch with reality, but they continue with their ultra-statist agenda.  Barney
Frank's Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac socialism set the mortgage market up for collapse when those bad loans could not be paid.  Yet, the Democrats demand even more socialistic government intervention on top of what has already created the existing problems.

Those reactionary "liberal" propagandists who want to call themselves "progressives" still continue to control the bulk of the electronic media,and they can fool many people, but that will not always be effective.  Too many Americans are beginning to see leftism for what it is.  The old Demokrat Party coalition is starting to crack up especially as more and more people realize the politicians cannot guarantee goodies from the public tough any more; that well is drying up.
 

Does President Obama Hate White Folks? -- Steve Gill
Even though Obama is himself at least half Caucasian, this is a very legitimate question.

It should have been ruled as unconstitutional a long time ago.  It should never have been signed into law by Dubya (which was one of his worst mistakes as President; he acted as if he did not know about the Veto Power).

http://bigjournalism.com/fross/2010/01/21/supreme-court-drop-kicks-mccainfeingold-scores-victory-for-1st-amendment/

This country just got a little safer -- Ann Coulter

Watchdog Group Raises Concern About Dead Voters on Massachusetts Rolls
Republicans and independents must learn to be good poll watchers.

Today's televised speech by BO was at the Left-Liberal Establishment's Brookings Institute.  Like an arrogant kid, he blamed all problems on the previous administration while taking personal credit for anything that passes for optimistic news.  He did not sound very convincing.

Despite the impression the presidential teleprompter reader tries to give, and as poor as the Bush Administration was in holding the line on federal spending, the Obamacrats have been far, far worse.  In less than one year in office, Obama and the Democrats -- with Republicans almost completely in full opposition -- have increased the annual federal deficit considerably more than it had gone up during the entire 8 years under Bush 43.

I used to say that under President George W. Bush the Republicans in Congress were spending the taxpayers' money like drunken Democrats.  Guess that wasn't really true.  There is no way to outspend the Dems. (And of course the Repubs who try to do so make a terrible mistake.)  By any and all measures, Obama and the Democrats (and remember the Dems have been in control of Congress for the last three years) are several times as statist as the Bush Republicans were.

President Obama's approval ratings continue to sink despite the establishment media's best efforts.  Even many of the black folks who voted for Obama in 2008 (perhaps believing he had something significant in common with them because of his partial African blood) are now beginning to see through him.  They are beginning to realize how they were duped by believing in lofty-sounding promises given in political campaign speeches.  The media still covers up for him and there will always be some who will carry his water for him and even drink his Kool-Ade.  But the bloom is off the rose.  The backlash is growing.

Americans should remember the sneak attack on the U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 and also the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001 -- and America's enemies should remember what happened at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the actions which finally ended the war and saved countless lives in the long run.  Those regimes which today truly believe that the U.S. is a "paper tiger" and push America too far will find they have made a grave error.  They should not mistake a willingness to negotiate for military weakness. *   *   *
"In war there is no substitute for victory."

NOVEMBER 30, 2009

Climategate:  Will crooked scientists get away with global warming hoax and coverup?
Truth will win out in the long run.

Rush Limbaugh voted the most influential conservative in America today

President Obama's Approval Rating Continues to Fall
Obama and the Democrats can fool most of the people some of the time, and they can fool some of the people most of the time, but they cannot fool all of the people all of the time.  Their comeuppance is coming.

Private Enterprise Regained (pdf format) by Henry Hazlett
Originally published as "The First Thanksgiving" in the American Mercury magazine.

This could be the final nail in the coffin for the widespread cult belief in man-made global warming, but I doubt it.  Those who truly believe in this have ideological, psychological, and temperamental reasons to cling to the cause of anti-capitalism, anti-industrialism, and anti-human progress.  But for those who may be sitting in the gallery trying to decide which way to go, these new revelations of manipulating evidence, suppressing dissenting scientists, and creating phony climate change charts should help many understand how the Left lies in order to further its ultra-statist agenda.

Climategate:  The Final Nail in the coffin of this Global Cult? -- James Delingpole

Junk Science Exposed Among Anthropomorphic Climate-Change Claimers

Kentucky Census Worker Committed Suicide
The leftist nut tried to make it look like he was murdered by an "anti-government extremist."  Another left-wing scam exposed.

Army says morale down among troops in Afghanistan
As Obama dithers over backing up the troops in Afghanistan....

Considering how many gullible folks fell for the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme and how many more were taken in by the Albert Gore "global warming" greenist scam, is it any wonder that enough politically naive people voted for Obama and Biden in 2008 to give them the White House?  From comments I have heard, I believe many voted for Obama because they were preoccupied with race and skin color and they thought it would be a novelty to have someone of mixed race to become President.  Such was the superficial depth of their thinking and the extent of their hope for change. Principles, issues, and policies? -- too hard for them to think about on that level.  And, of course, there is a sucker born every minute, some of whom grow up to be voters.

But more and more people are beginning to see through the empty suit in the White House and his Far Left reactionary agenda.  I believe that many of those Americans are now waking up a little and experiencing serious cases of Voter's Remorse. The question is whether the Repubs will put up a decent candidate to vote for as an alternative next time or whether they will try another "Demokrat Lite" type of standard bearer.

Malik Nadal Hasan, a fanatic believer in the cult of Mohammed and in Islamic global imperialism, went on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood and murdered 13 American soldiers and wounded several others.  This is the largest act of terrorism since 9/11/2001.  Many questions hang over this heinous crime.  For now, my reaction is that this should make Americans want to wage the war against Islamofascism and terrorism more than ever before.   And it seems to me it should make the U.S. military much more careful in screening out those who have any sympathy with the reactionary jihadist war for world domination.

The Single Largest Terror Attack on America since 9/11 by Walid Phares
 

For many in the English-speaking world, November 5 is time for those who remember to burn effigies of Guy Fawkes for his part in the infamous foiled plot to blow up Parliament and to replace the reign of King James I with the much more tyrannical despotism of King Philip II of Spain.  Unfortunately, I have to work and will not be at any bonfires tonight.  I will just note the tradition in passing.

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"Make Mine Freedom" -- a 9-minute video on freedom versus socialism (starring Barack Obama as the snake oil salesman?).

Video of Chris Wallace Interview of Rush Limbaugh

Why European Style Healthcare System Is Not the Answer for America

Election 2009: Change I Can Believe In! by Ann Coulter

The Citizen Revolution Has Begun!  by Wayne Allyn Root

 
The New Jersey Republican gubernatorial victory is amazing, especially considering that Obama and the Dems and their union machines pulled out all the stops to win, and spent zillions of dollars, and still lost.  And if you add the independent candidate's votes to that of the winning Republican, the margin of defeat for Corzine was quite significant, especially for a deep blue northeastern statist state that went heavily for Obama in the 2008 presidential election..

In New York of all places, Hoffman's amazing 45% of the vote against Owens should scare the Dems and should be seen as a shot across the bow for RINOs everywhere.

This is a hopeful bare beginning, but much more has to be done to reform the GOP into a principled party instead of the David Brookes-type "moderate" (i.e., liberal or unprincipled) petit machiavelians trying to win by hiding pro-freedom,pro-capitalist values and positions or trying to be "Democrat lite" to the public. As Schlaffly said 45 years ago, people need to be given a choice and not an echo.  If Americans reject right principles then at least they would have had the choice.  These elections were a step in the right direction.

Some of my friends on the "extreme Right" believe that it is wrong to vote in political elections for one reason or another.  I respectfully disagree with that position.  Not being a pacifist, I believe in the righteous use of violent force in legitimate self defense.  If there are those who are trying to impose their wills on me by initiation of the use of violence via the ballot box, I have the right to use that same legal mechanism open to me to try to defend myself from that violence or at least try to minimize the amount of initiatory coercion as best I can.  If I am trapped in a room with a mad man who wants to kill me and there is a gun on the floor, I am going to try to get that gun before he does and use it to defend myself.  I have the right of self defense and defense of others in the room who may be trapped with the Democrat madman as well.  By refraining from getting and using the gun on the floor, the result is that the crazy man gets it and uses it to kill me and other peaceful people. It seems to me that is not principled; it's just stupid.  Staying home on election day for any "principled" reason (other than laziness, which I can personally understand and accept) just leaves the field of battle to the enemy, giving the statist Dems  an easy victory and increasing coercion in society.

Regardless of what you think of his performance once elected to office, this 1964 speech by Ronald Reagan on behalf of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater is so significant that it is considered by many to mark the true beginning of the American "conservative" movement to reimpose constitutional limitations on fedgov in the cause of preserving and restoring individual liberty and economic freedom.

San Fran Nan, Rahm, and Barack and their surrogates are escalating the hate campaign against those they perceive as their most effective adversaries:  Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and even Fox News (for not being sufficiently part of the lapdog media in the pocket for Obama and the Demokrat Party as the other networks are).  The Pelosi/Obama/Emanual enemies list is targeting the most outspoken dissenters of the current regime.  There will be attempts to curb freedom of speech, at least in the area of political reporting and analysis.  Will Americans put up with this outrageous over-reaching by these power-mad Democrats?

We're in good company!

Michelle Malkin chastises Newt for supporting "Liberal"-left candidate
I have to agree with her.  This is inexcusable.

Given the recent unprecedented gargantuan upsurge in federal government spending by the Obama Administration (on top of the already bloated national spendathon by fedgov), these new programs, bailouts, and for the Democrat special interest groups,  How will this be paid for?  The government will pay for part of it by borrowing -- going into the credit markets, pushing itself to the head of the line, and finding out who will buy its debt instruments and at what rates.  To the extent that this is done, it "crowds out" desperately-needed capital funds from being made available to other borrowers -- small businesses, business expansions, money for wages and salaries or for raises, new enterprises, qualified home buyers, etc.  That slams the economy down even more than it already is.  But foreign central banks and foreign governments (such as China) already hold a huge quantity of dollar-denominated debt. While they may try to help support the dollar in the short term, they will not likely buy much more if they sense the dollar is on the way out and at some point they will abandon the dollar for something else.

What about having the Federal Reserve finance the debt through inflation?  That is what they are doing or trying to do.  Whenever the Federal Resere legal counterfeiting ring "buys" federal government debt instruments (Treasury bills, notes, bonds, etc.), it does so with fiat it creates out of nothing.  It is just as if a criminal counterfeiter prints up new funny-money bills on a printing press and passes those new bills off by purchasing real goods and services with those bills. This inflation of the money supply by the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve does not hit all people and all parts of the economy at the same time.  The people who get the new money first benefit at the forced expense of everybody else (you and me) who gets the new money later on after it has made its way around the economy.  This has been happening for many decades, but now the government under the current Democrat regime is givng the coup de grace to the once mighty dollar.

This will not happen overnight, but could happen much more quickly than many think.  First, interest rates may dip temporarily, then we will begin to see prices shoot up as price indices soar to double digits.  Then, like other prices, interest rates will go up as well.  There will be both high price inflation and high interest rates as in the late 1970s.  After that, the sky is the limit.  As the hyperinflationary depression sets in, people will try to spend their money as fast as they can rather than holding it in savings or investing it for future return.  A full-scale economic collapse will affect everyone, espeically those who still have their savings and wealth in dollar-denominated forms.  I hate to think what the major urban areas will be like when the dollar becomes worthless. Those who can afford it will anticipate this grim scenario by buying gold and silver coins and items useful for barter. If markets break down completely, a supply of stored food and other necessities will prove to have been a very good investment.  Appropriate firearms and ammunition should also not be overlooked, especially for those living near large urban areas.

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Former Thatcher adviser warns that UN "global warming" conference's real goal is One World Government
'Global warming' to be used as 'pretext' for 'change'

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Natural Born Losers:  Dems root against their own country
"To the extent you can get liberals to focus on national security at all, you will find they are rooting against their own country."

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CORPORATE SOCIALISM IS NOT MARKET CAPITALISM!

It is important to remind the public that Wall Street banksters like Goldman Sachs are not market capitalists.  They are corporate socialists -- political businessmen who use their connections to big government to bail them out and get special privileges at the expense of others.  Government cannot give anybody anything unless it takes it from somebody.  Remember that Goldman Sachs was a major contributor to the Clinton/Gore and Obama campaigns -- a small investment for which they expected -- and received -- payback in a major way.  Under laissez-faire capitalism this would not be possible as government would be prohibited from intervening to dispense special privileges or bailout money from the public treasury.

*   *   *

A Short Essay on the Ideals of Libertarianism and the Policy of Laissez Faire

*   *   *

Seen in the Urban Dictionary:

"Truther" = A crazy person who believes the US government committed 9/11. Truthers get their inspiration from a moronic documentary called "Loose Change" which provides no facts whatsoever and has been thoroughly debunked. People who disagree with the truthers are repeatedly called government shills since truthers have no logical argument to counter the evidence.
Truther: 9/11 was an inside job!
Sane person: Prove it.
Truther: There was no plane at the Pentagon, only a missile!
Sane person: There's dozens of witnesses and plane debris was found all over the place.
Truther: ...Well the WTC was a controlled demolition!
Sane person: Why did both buildings collapse from the point of impact then? Pretty crazy the explosives were in the exact spot the plane hit and didn't explode upon impact.
Truther: ...You're just a government shill!

Over the past five years or so I have gone into more detail on my views with respect to foreign policy in general and the war for Iraq in particular and the Bush administration's decision to get involved there.  I have not agreed with everything that Bush decided to try to do there or with some of the early decisions. I certainly do not believe (as some have charged) that the U.S. should or could be the "policeman of the world" and I believe the commitment of American troops anywhere should never be done lightly and without a basis in U.S. national interest.  Neither extreme of ostrich isolationism nor global U.S. military imperialism is a realistic or acceptable policy.

And even though I was never any major fan of Dubya, I think America "dodged a bullet" in both the presidential elections of 2000 and 2004.  Clearly, either Albert Gore or John Kerry would have been far worse had they been elected.  (America's luck ran out in the elections of 2008.)  Anyone who believed that Albert Gore, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, or any leading Democrat would have been a better (or less bad) president than George W. Bush, despite his admitted faults, is a fool.  I believe the military mission in Iraq was in line with the 2002 Iraq war resolution of Congress and even backed by umpteen UN resolutions (not that I would look to the United Nations as a moral basis for anything).   I support the troops and the mission (as difficult and dangerous as it surely is).

My heart sinks in sincere anguish and great sorrow when I think of the many fine Americans who have died in any war, including the liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein. To reduce that tragedy in the future as much as possible (since wars are unlikely to ever go away completely) I support an increasingly high-tech military for America.  I oppose conscription ("the draft") and favor a professional military with emphasis on the use of high-tech weaponry to minimize human casualties.  Better to let sophisticated Predator drones and cruise missiles take the risks instead of warm American bodies in wiping out enemy combatants.  Increasingly in the future America's military edge will have to rely on advanced technology. Until then there is probably no substitute for having enough troops on the ground in many situations.

A stable exit point will occur when enough of the good people of Iraq take over responsibility for defending against and combating the terrorist insurgency and keeping the small militant minority from destabilizing the government.  But that will not happen overnight.  From our point of view, of course, the sooner the better.  We all want the U.S. troops to come home as soon as possible and for them not to spend any longer than they have to trying to stabilize the peace there.  However, pulling U.S. troop support out of Iraq prematurely before the Iraqi people can effectively take over maintenance of peace and order there will only give the green light to the insurgent minority and the Iran-backed terror squads to resume their bloody attempts at destabilization.  It seems to me that we must learn from history and remember the communist blood bath that took place in the wake of U.S. withdrawal of military support for the Army of the Republic of Viet Nam before it was fully prepared to take over the defense of South Vietnam against the northern invaders.  Many have forgotten that lesson.

What about civilian casualties?  Who is responsible?  Yes, admittedly there have been some cases when American or allied troops have accidentally killed noncombatants in the civilian population.  That is extremely regrettable. But, especially since Iraqi liberation (April of 2003), at least 85 to 90 percent of the civilian casualties in Iraq have been killed by the jihadists, the Al Qaeda death squads, the Iranian-backed insurgency, and suicide/homicide bombers (often children or young people brainwashed in the madrasas to hate Americans and who believe their families will get money if they blow up innocent people).

We must keep in mind that the enemy hides behind women and children, using them as human shields becausethey know that the Americans will avoid, at virtually all costs, killing noncombatant civilians.  In some cases the civilians that were killed by Allied fire turned out to be part of the insurgency instead of innocent bystanders. The jihadist enemy also hides in mosques -- again because they know that it is the policy of the U.S. military to avoid destroying religious buildings or shrines if possible.

Many more people were being killed, tortured, and raped in the rape rooms under the Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein and his two sons than have been killed or tortured since Sadam was dragged off the backs of the Iraqis.

While numbers of deaths in Iraq during the initial phases of the war are only estimates, and have been greatly exaggerated by Soros-funded anti-US propagandists, more specific, reliable figures are available since April of 2003.  Website thereligionofpeace.com makes this point:

Iraqi civilians killed (all deliberately) in 2006 by the Iraqi resistance: 16,791.

Iraqi civilians killed (all accidentally) in 2006 by Americans: 225.

In other words, the incredibly careful and skilled Americans have hardly killed anyone innocent since 2003, and those that have died have all been killed accidentally while engaged in street warfare with jihadis. Almost all the deaths in Iraq are at the hands of the resistance, not at the hands of the Americans. As Glen Reinsford says: "Iraqis aren't dying from war. They are being murdered by Islamic terrorists."

Again, all wars are destructive and horrible.  There are innocent victims of war as well as casualties among the fighting troops.  But, considering the deaths and tortures caused by the Hussein regime against the Kurds, against other Iraqis, against the Kuwaitis, and against the Iranians -- all BEFORE the U.S. got involved (in its own geopolitical interests) -- the carnage has been reduced considerably by American military action as a salutary side effect or byproduct of U.S. retaliation against Saddam's bloody aggressions.

Some say Ron Paul is "courageous" for taking a stand against the war and for immediate withdrawal -- pretty much like Obama during the election campaign.  This seems to me only to embolden the enemy and give them encouragement that they can come back in earnest and destabilize the current government and take over and make Iraq into an Iranian puppet state under sharia law.  This has resulted in more killing, not less.  Courageous is not the word I would use.  (Even so, I am a big fan of Ron Paul on most other issues, especially on his "radical" ideas for monetary reform, and have been for some decades.  I am not sure what he will accomplish with his bill to "audit" the Fed even if by some miracle it gets passed and signed by the President.  I am more interested in the legislation he proposed about 25 years ago to abolish the Fed altogether and establish a gold coin money system.).

At the close of the Bush Administration, the war in Iraq was clearly a definite though tenuous success.  With the help and cooperation of key Iraqi religious leaders, the U.S. and allied forces were able to achieve a degree of stability and peace there even though sporadic attacks from the Iranian-backed resistance continued on a reduced level.  The question is:  will the Obama administration turn this fragile victory into defeat for peace and independence in Iraq? Will the violent reactionary minority be able to destabilize or take over the current government in Iraq and turn that country into an Iran-style tyranny?  Or will Iraq continue to serve as an example to others in the Middle East and in the world at large of a country where a relative amount of freedom and self government can work?  Will the U.S. abandon Iraq prematurely as it did South Vietnam?  Or will Iraqis be able to completely take over the job of providing their own defense and police security against the violence of the anti-freedom insurgency?  Given all that we know about Obama and the Democrats now in charge of our national government, we cannot expect anything good or helpful from them.  I am not optimistic.  I believe Obama will likely betray the iraqi people and the U.S. military by undermining the peace and collapsing the good that has been achieved at great American sacrifice.

*   *   * 

SEPTEMBER 12, 2009

THE D.C. TEA PARTY RALLY
MILLIONS OF REAL AMERICAN PATRIOTS MARCH ON WASHINGTON, D.C.
OBAMA HIDES

The following are only a few photos of this historic event.  The general public was not told of the magnitude of this demonstration.  No fights...  no litter... just real patriotic Americans.

 Chants of “Freedom, freedom, freedom”, “No more czars! No more czars!” carried through the air without the slightest hint of rancor or incivility (which is the norm at leftist rallies).  At the time this photo was taken, around 1:00 p.m., Pennsylvania Avenue was still jammed completely, and the mall was packed from the Capitol Building past the Washington Monument .The backlash against Democrat rule and Big Government/socialism in general is growing and those who attended this rally represent only a fraction of the numbers of Amerians who agree but who had to work that day or could not come for other reasons.

"A government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you've got."

Mike Pence (R-Indiana) was one of the speakers who addressed the crowd: “After years of fighting runaway government on this hill, you people look like the cavalry to me..I believe we are on the verge of a great American awakening.”

No No one was having sex in the Reflecting Pool let alone the mud, and I saw no one projectile vomiting on the steps of the Capitol. There were no warnings to avoid the bad acid which would send you on a trip to the hospital. Not just a different era, but a different level of civilized behavior and thought. Oh, and by the way, these people didn’t leave tons of garbage behind when they left. Actually they left no trash behind at all.

Obama Lied, Capitalism Died.

Madam Speaker: Kiss Our Astroturf!

Compassion is Voluntary, Not Compulsory!

Ever present at Tea Parties are Sons of Liberty reenactors. The couple on the left is from Tennessee and the young lady on the right is not but she joined in the photo. The clothing for the couple was hand stitched by the lady on the left

Obama and his power-mad krats are trying to make it sound (at least to uninformed listeners) that he and his party are trying to do something great and good about health care but that it is being blocked by recalcitrant Republicans.  But it is not the Republicans who control both houses of Congress.  Republicans do not have the numbers in either house to stop whatever the Dems choose to pass.  If the Dems all vote according to party line, they can pass whatever they want at any time.  The Democrats have clear and absolute majorities in both houses of Congress.  There is nothing the Repubs can do to block whatever they come up with.  They can pass it at any time and he can sign it into law. This rhetoric on the part of Obama and the Dems is disingenuous in the extreme.

So, why is Obama "calling out" Republicans?  Obama and the Dems are really afraid of getting stuck with their own scheme and the possible popular backlash if (when) it backfires and screws things up even more than they already are in medical care industry.  They do not want to "own" the legislation and its consequences.  They want political cover.  That's why they want at least some of the Republicans to vote with them on this thing.  That way if it really messes up and people hate it, they can at least say that both parties supported it and not just them.  The Republicans and their leadership should laugh in Obama's face.

Wyoming Governor Calls For 10th Amendment Resolution

They go home and tell their constituents they are "moderate" or even "conservative" but they vote with their leftist colleagues consistently.  Don't be a sucker.  Don't vote to re-elect the so-called "Blue Dogs"!  Thank you, Human Events!

Blue Dog Dems Report Card
by  Michelle Oddis

“Blue Dog Democrats” -- a formal group of 52 House members -- premise their campaigns on the idea that they are moderate or conservative and are independent of the liberal leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md).

But are they?

The official “Blue Dogs”  website states that the Coalition has been “particularly active on fiscal issues, relentlessly pursuing a balanced budget and then protecting that achievement from politically popular ‘raids’ on the budget.” But since the beginning of this congressional session -- which has spent more tax dollars than any other in the history of the United States -- it’s been hard to see how valid -- if at all -- their claims to fiscal conservatism are.

Recently much attention has been focused on the Blue Dogs’ opposition to the Democratic leadership's sweeping healthcare proposals, highlighting the power the group holds when voting as a block. If they remain true to their word they have the power to defeat President Obama's expensive healthcare overhaul.

But will they?  A number of organizations -- ranging from the American Conservative Union to the ACLU -- score the voting records of all members of congress.  But no one has so far scored the Blue Dogs against their claims to conservatism. We decided to do just that.

With help from the Heritage Foundation and a variety of Congressional Republican staffers HUMAN EVENTS picked 16 of the most important votes from the 111th Congress and examined how the Blue Dogs voted using Democrat House Majority Leader Hoyer as a benchmark (Rep. Nancy Pelosi -- because she is House Speaker -- often does not vote except when her vote might be decisive.  With the large Dem majority in the House, that's not very often).

When calculating 16 of the most important votes so far in the 111th Congress of the 52 members in the Blue Dog Coalition 78% have voted in lockstep with ultra liberal Rep. Steny Hoyer.

Vote 16 HR 2: State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) The passage of SCHIP was the beginning of increased government interference in healthcare. SCHIP increased the cost of tobacco products in order to offset the $35 billion dollar expansion. The Washington Post reported that GOP critics said the “proposals will slow the economy, dramatically increase the deficit and make health care worse for the millions who already have insurance.” 96% of all Blue Dogs, voted for the expansion with Hoyer, only two members of the coalition voted against it.

HR 384: Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) -- Set conditions for using the second $350 billion of the $700 billion TARP bailout provided to failing banks, insurers, and automakers that included huge amounts of money spend on localized projects that had little to do with the failing economy (pork barrel spending). 82% of all Blue Dogs voted with Hoyer for the bailout

HR 1: Economic Stimulus  $787 billion spending package (the largest in US history) said to restore the ailing economy. Not one House Republican voted for the bill.  80% of all Blue Dogs voted with Hoyer for the spending package.

HR 1: Economic Stimulus -- Substitute Republican alternative to stimulus package that pushed for economical growth by way of investments rather than taxation. 96% of all Blue Dogs voted with Hoyer against the substitute. Only two voted for the Republican substitute Walt Minnick (Id-01) and Travis Childers (Ms-01).

HR 1105: Fiscal 2009 Omnibus Appropriations  This $410 billion bill passed with over 8,500 earmarks. 69% of all Blue Dogs, voted with Hoyer for this bill.

HR 1106: Mortgage Loans Modification Passage of this bill gave bankruptcy courts the authority to modify the terms or reduce the principal balance of a homeowner’s mortgage, while protecting lenders from investors when loan terms are altered. It increased the number of people eligible to file for bankruptcy and permitted homeowners to file bankruptcy if the current value of their home is less than the amount owed on it. By doing this more banks would be in trouble and banks would have effectively lost their ability to write and have borrowers keep the terms of their loans. 68% of Blue Dogs voting, voted with Hoyer.

H Con Res 85: Fiscal 2010 Budget Resolution Obama's $3.6 trillion budget included large tax increases on small businesses, proposed a $646 billion dollar tax on families through “Cap and Trade” legislation, and a resurrection of the Death Tax. Again not one House Republican voted for the bill.   73% of Blue Dogs voting, voted with Hoyer.

H Con Res 85: Fiscal 2010 Budget Resolution – Substitute Led by ranking Republican of the House Budgetary Committee, Paul Ryan (R.-Wi.), a Republican alternative to Obama's budget suggested major policy changes to the Congress. Aimed heavily at tax reform, calling for a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35 to 25%, keeping federal spending at the pre-recession level of slightly above 20% of the GDP and proposing a moratorium on earmarks. Overall, this alternative would have resulted in $23,000 less in debt per household than President Obama's budget. 100% of Blue Dogs voting, voted with Hoyer against the fiscally conservative Republican substitute.

HR 1913: Hate Crimes Prosecution Passage of this bill expanded federal hate crimes law to cover those based on sexual orientation, gender identity or disability and in doing so put freedom of speech and religion at risk. 68% of Blue Dogs voting, voted with Hoyer.

HR 2847: Fiscal 2010 Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations More dramatic increases in spending. CQ.com reported the bill “would appropriate $64.5 billion in fiscal 2010 for the departments of Commerce and Justice and other agencies such as NASA and the National Science Foundation. It would provide $27.7 billion for the Justice Department and $13.8 billion for the Commerce Department. It would appropriate $7.9 billion for the FBI and $6.2 billion for the federal prison system. The bill would fund NASA at $18.2 billion, the National Science Foundation at $6.9 billion and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at $4.6 billion.” Rep. Steven King (Rep.-Iowa) tried to introduce an amendment that would have cut ACORN out of the 2010 Census. This would have prevented taxpayer dollars from being allocated to ACORN After Obama hired the organization to “partner” with the 2010 Census Bureau.  89% of Blue Dogs voting, voted with Hoyer

HR 2996: Fiscal 2010 Interior-Environment Appropriations More dramatic increases in spending. The bill represents a 17% increase over the spending from the 2009 bill and a 38% increase of federal funding for the Environmental Protection Agency. Combined with the stimulus, the EPA will receive $25 billion this year. Of the 105 amendments offered to the bill, mostly dealing with cutting specific extraneous costs, only 13 were approved after being neglected by the Democratic House Rules Committee. 78% of Blue Dogs voting, voted with Hoyer

HR 2454: Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Cap and Trade)  In 2012 when the 1,200-page bill is enacted, for a household of four, energy costs go up $436 and reach $1,241 in 2035, averaging $829 annually over that span, cites a Heritage Foundation study. Between 2012 and 2035 over a million jobs will be lost. GDP will be reduced by an average $393 billion per annum between 2012 and 2035, totaling $9.4 trillion. Low-income households would be hit hardest by Cap and Trade, because they use a greater proportion of energy. 44% of all Blue Dogs voted with Hoyer.

HR 2997: Fiscal 2010 Agriculture Appropriations  This bill represents a $2.436 billion or 11.9% increase over 2009 spending. Republicans offered an amendment that would have represented only a 2% increase in spending, but this was rejected along party lines. The bill contains 320 earmarks, totaling $225 million. Compared to 4 years ago, the FDA will receive a 54% increase in federal funding. The FDA will receive $3.04 billion for FY 2010. All Republicans voted in opposition. 88% of all Blue Dogs voted with Hoyer.

HR 3081: Fiscal 2010 State-Foreign Operations Appropriations Of all the appropriations bills, HR 3081 represents the biggest increase in spending from FY 2009. This bill entails total spending of $48.8 billion, $12.2 billion, or 33% increase over spending in 2009. The cost for the average family is $460.54. Agencies funded through HR 3081 also received $4.2 billion in stimulus handouts and $14.7 billion from the Supplemental War Funding bill. From FY 2007 to 2009, non-defense spending increased 85%. According to gop.gov, $26.2 billion funding for the Department of State includes “the civilian stabilization initiative, educational and cultural exchange programs, embassy protection and security, overseas peacekeeping, contributions to international organizations (such as the United Nations), international commissions, and broadcasting activities.”  90% of all Blue Dogs voted with Hoyer.

HR 3170: Fiscal 2010 Financial Services Appropriations This bill barely passed in the House needing 215 votes -- just squeaking by with 219. It allocates $24.15 billion in discretionary spending in addition to the stimulus bill total. Agencies receiving money from this bill will rack in $29.7 billion. Overall, the bill contains 150 earmarks and will cost the average family $448.19. 57% of all Blue Dogs voted with Hoyer.

HR 3183: Fiscal 2010 Energy-Water Appropriations This bill allocates $33.3 billion in discretionary spending, or less than 1% above the FY 2009 level. But agencies receiving funds through HR 3183 already received $58.7 in emergency spending, mostly from the stimulus bill, totaling $92 billion. Will cost the average family $413.57. An amendment for a 5% cut across the board was rejected.  94% of all Blue Dogs voting, voted with Hoyer.

Again, in these 16 important votes in the 111th Congress, Blue Dogs have voted for the Democratic agenda 78% of the time.

The Blue Dogs have to answer to the voters for their record of fiscal irresponsibility which doesn't match their promises. They have an opportunity coming to redeem themselves -- at least in part -- by standing strong against Obama's expensive (and expansive) nationalization of health care.

In the past -- in the “Cap and Trade” committee vote, for example -- the Blue Dogs quickly bowed to pressure by liberal Committee Chairman Henry Waxman and voted for the bill.  Should they choose to once again bow to their leadership -- and vote for government run healthcare that is so expensive and complex that it would change the role of the federal government forever -- they should have to answer to their constituents. And they should also rethink their “Blue Dog” label.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Miss Oddis is Assistant Managing Editor at HUMAN EVENTS. Before working with Human Events she was a researcher for syndicated columnist and author Robert Novak. Ms. Oddis has appeared on FOX News Hannity and Colmes, and The O'Reilly Factor. She has a bachelor's degree in English from Eastern Connecticut State University. E-mail her at moddis@eaglepub.com. You can also request to follow her on Twitter.  Human Events interns Kathryn Gaines and Teo Molin contributed to this article.
 

Certainly one of the most spectacular scientific and technological achievements in all of human history was the first landing of human beings on the surface of the Moon on July 20, 1969.  It is a dramatic testimonial of the American ability to overcome enormous obstacles and accomplish the very difficult in a relatively short period of time.  The United States is the only country to send men to the moon so far.  Will the current Democrat Congress and Obama Administration allow the U.S. to fall behind in space-based military defenses against hostile, tyrannical regimes bent on world domination?

Apollo 11 Moon Landing

40 Years Later Still A Giant Leap Forward for Mankind
 

Beijing Intensifies Crackdown on Internet Use
Control over peoples' lives is the name of the game under socialism.

Law & Order Actress Dares Disagree with Obama, the Anointed One
She will incur the wrath of the hateful Hollywood Left.

House Passes "Climate" Bill
211 Democrats and 8 quisling Republicans voted for this job-killing monstrosity.  The eight Republicans who sided with Nancy Pelosi on this bill were:  Mary Bono (Calif.), Michael Castle (Del.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Leonard Lance (N.J.), Frank LoBiondo (N.J.), John McHugh (N.Y.), David Reichert (Wash.) and Christopher Smith (N.J.).  Remember those names when their election cycle comes up again.

Nine Dead In Metro Train Collission
Is Atlas Shrugging?

Iran is a powder keg in a region which is a cauldron of irrationality, religious superstition, tribalism, and authoritarianism. From what I have read, the mullahs -- the ruling witchdoctor class there -- are the ones who pick the few who are allowed to be on the ballot, who can "run" for election and who cannot. It seems to me that until and unless the mullah ruling class is rejected and overturned by the people, there will be little real progress in Iran politically. The extreme version of Shia religion has been in control of Iran for at least 30 years.

The Middle East is a region which seems dominated by rigid mystic superstitions and religious beliefs, including those beliefs in "prophecy" which many want to help fulfill at any cost. It seems to me the ruling mullahs are kept in authority by the supposed widespread belief in the religion of Mohammedanism, specifically of Shia. As the people lose faith in that bundle of superstitions or as the current dominant religion is supplanted by something else (perhaps Zoroastrianism), the mullahs will eventually lose control. But that could take time; meanwhile, the current regime could continue to wreak much havoc in that region and in the world. The Shah, far from perfect, was probably the closest thing Iran ever had to a "libertarian" government, given the nature of its culture. And Kissinger and Carter pulled the rug out from under him while the Marxists and the Mullahs agitated for his removal from power. The Ayatollah Khomeini was 1,000 times more statist than the shah ever had been; yet, when I asked Libertarian Party presidential candidate Ed Clark in 1980 what he thought of Khomeini's rise to power in Iran, he said it was a step in the right direction!  How naive, I thought!  This was said at a time when "revolutionary" firing squads were shooting to death anyone considered anathema to the new ayatollah dictatorship.

Today, thirty years later, we see the increasing discontent of the people of Iran finally erupting into protests and demonstrations against the ruling junta -- and the attempt by those in power to suppress those demonstrations with brute force.  Although western news networks report only 17 dead so far in the Iranian regime's attempts to crush pro-freedom demonstrations there, unofficial reports from inside Iran put the number at more than a hundred deaths.  One such victim was Neda, a16-year-old girl who was shot to death by a military sniper.  the murder was captured by video camera.

The political authorities in Iran have attempted to keep what is going on from reaching the outside world, but even though major trunks feeding the Internet have been shut down by the government, news is finding its way out by use of modern technology.  It is capitalist technology to the rescue.  With cellular phones, digital camera phones, and access to alternative communication networks, the people of Iran are able to bypass regular channels to get their messages out. By use of Facebook, Twitter, and other web-based technologies using proxy servers with ever-changing IP addresses, those who would resist the tyranny of the mullahs have not been silenced.  Despite its best efforts, the current regime cannot keep the truth from leaking out of Iran to the world beyond its borders.  This is at least a partial victory over mullah control.

Many people in Iran, seeing the admittedly imperfect examples of liberation from tyranny in Iraq and Afghanistan, have been emboldened to think it could happen in Iran as well.  Hopes are soaring.  What the outcome of all this will be is unclear, but it seems possible that a spontaneous popular uprising that began as a protest against a rigged "election" has grown into a full-scale revolution which may overthrow the current reactionary regime.

Meanwhile, as I long predicted, the U.S.'s attempt to placate the Communist regime of North Korea has always been a failure. Give credit where it is due: Carter, Clinton, Allbright, Bush, and Rice. That is coming back to bite us in the buttocks more and more. Our only possible sanction in the real world is the hope that our fledgling missile defense will be adequate. But of course both presidents Clinton and Obama have shelved further missile defense work. (Thank goodness President Bush kept it alive and at least deployed it on a small scale.) I look for Japan to adopt its own missile defense and possibly even reverse its constitutional ban on the development of nuclear weapons. As America's "nuclear umbrella" wanes under the current Democrat regime, Japan will increasingly have to rely on its own defenses in its own national interests.  Can you blame them?

Where have all Obama's records gone?
Footprints of president's own history either vanish or remain covered up.  Isn't that special?

Rush Limbaugh Receives Freedom of Speech Award
Rush:  "They won't silence us."

Obamacrats Release Secret Nuclear Details by Accident
Can these people be trusted with national security matters?

U.S. blabocracy makes intelligence sources clam up.by Deroy Murdock

The 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre
The memory of that slaughter is something that the Beijing bureaucrats are trying to cover up.

The military state of North Korea under communist dictator Kim Jong Il is gearing up to transfer power over to Kim's youngest son, Kim Jong Un.  This announcement follows several days of missile tests and inflammatory propaganda messages against South Korea and the United States.

In its own self defense, Japan plans to use satellite in an early warning system for detecting North Korean missile launches.  (A year ago Japan dropped its previous ban on the use of space for military purposes.)

Former Vice President Cheney reiterates position that "gay marriage" is a state, not a federal, issue; explains why Gitmo was necessary as a way to deal with most dangerous terrorists.

"American decent into Marxism is happening with breath-taking speed," says Russia's Pravda.   I cannot vouch for the authenticity of this article, but it looks legit.

Newly published articles by John Hospers

MAY 31, 2009

KILLING THE GOLDEN GOOSE OF CAPITALISM

It was capitalism, the market economy -- especially the freedom to become wealthy, save and invest in the hope of future returns -- that made economic growth, jobs, technological advancements, and progress possible. This was the source of a higher general standard of living in the U.S. and in the West generally.  By trying to "punish the rich" and direct the economy by political programs, the Obamacrats are attacking the source of progress.

The Obama regime represents an order-of-magnitude increase in statism over all previous administrations, a huge quantum leap backward for America.  In the name of reviving an economy already burdened with socialistic and fascistic regulations and taxes and social programs, the Obamacrats may kill what is left of American free enterprise. They are like six-year-old boys playing with matches in a room full of dynamite sticks.  If the investment markets are destroyed, where will funding come from for new growth and innovation?  When the U.S. dollar is destroyed by the federal debt and the Fed's unrestrained depreciation policies, who will invest in the U.S. economy?

*   *   *

Democrat Lite a Big GOP Tent Does Not Make -- David Limbaugh

The Housing Boom and Bust -- Walter E. Williams

Obama Offers Prime Posts to Top Campaign Contributors

*   *  *

MORE REACTION TO THE SOTOMAYOR NOMINATION

The same left-wing partisans who crucified the brilliant jurist Miguel Estrada (the first Hispanic to be nominated to the Supreme Court) are now enthusiastically supporting Sotomayor, whose record as a judge is far from impressive.  The same megastatists and prevaricators who were involved in the nasty smears of justice Clarence Thomas during his confirmation hearings are now championing Obama's selection for the Supreme Court.  Those who now posture as the friends of minority groups and make so much of Sonia Sotomayor being a Latina are the same people who viciously opposed black libertarian judge Janice Rogers Brown when she was picked by President Bush for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Early questions raised by Judicial Watch

Ann Coulter's take on Sotomayor

America's Piñata Strikes Back: We Won't Shut Up on Sotomayor

Too Many Washington Republicans Seem Perfectly Content as Losers

OBAMA NOMINATES ANTI-WHITE RACIST
TO REPLACE SOUTER ON SCOTUS

Democrats and those who call themselves "liberals" and "progressives" tend to think in terms of groups, of collectives -- race, sex, ethnicity, class, and so on -- rather than in terms of individuals and individual freedom.   In their distorted "politically correct" catechism, everything is seen through the template of trying to "balance" specially-designated groups against each other, and especially against Caucasian and Asian Americans and others (including most Hispanics) who work, produce, save, and invest (and thereby make progress possible).  It is not surprising that the Democrat administration and its choir of news media promoters focus primarily on the fact that Sotomayor is Hispanic or Latino rather than on her actual decisions as a judge.  They seldom look past skin color or ethnic background.  It is much more important to the Left that she is a daughter of a Puerto Rican family than if she is really qualified to serve on the highest court in the country.  Conservative Republicans, on the other hand, will be questioning her consistency with the Constitution, the logic (or lack thereof) in her judicial decisions, and whether her personal racial and sexual prejudices will dictate her judgments in cases that come before her.

Sotomayor versus the Rule of Law by David Limbaugh

Sotomayor's Court Record: Controversial or Just Lame? by Jillian Bandes

KLAN-TYPE GROUP SUPPORTS SOTOMAYOR NOMINATION

The nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to be one of the nine justices on the Supreme Court has been enthusiastically endorsed by the notoriously racist group National Council of La Raza ("The Race") whose motto is:  "FOR THE RACE....EVERYTHING!  FOR OTHERS,....NOTHING!"!

It is not too clear to me what "race" this group thinks is numero uno.  Latino is not a race as far as I can tell.  Nor is Hispanic.  Many people speak Spanish who may be ethnically different from each other.  Perhaps La Raza members see themselves as descendants of the Spanish conquistadors and they wish to claim the southwestern states of the U.S., from Texas to California, for Spain, then make Spanish the official language, and force everybody to watch bull fights instead of football.  That wouldn't be so terrible, I suppose.  But, if they brought back the Inquisition and began torturing and burning folks alive for not believing in the "true faith" (some version of Marxism-Leninism), that would not be so nice.  Of course, one could speculate that it is just another Marxist front group used to propagandize non-gringo groups against the U.S. and the allegedly evil gringos, sow seeds of mistrust and resentment against others, and stir up friction between people inside the United States to further an agenda of its own.

As a member of La Raza, Sonia Sotomayor would appear to share its psychoceramic racism and anti-American activist agenda.  Let's turn it around.  Consider, for a moment, what would be the uproar if a Caucasian male had been chosen for a spot on the Supreme Court and it was revealed that he was or had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan or the National Socialist White Peoples Party, and had made statements that he believed that a white male would make better judgements than a Puerto Rican female.  You would not hear the end of it in the media.  Yet, we hear nothing about Sotomayor's sordid background from the New York Times or Washington Post, which are just doing puff pieces on Sonia and her mother instead of focusing on the nominee's views, political activities, and judicial decisions.

*   *   *
KIM JONG IL'S RED FASCIST REGIME THREATENS WAR AGAINST SOUTH KOREANS AFTER SUCCESSFUL UNDERGROUND NUCLEAR TEST

North Korea Issues War Threats
Whether these statements are mere propaganda bluster or serious threats, these developments cannot be ignored by South Korea, Japan, and other countries threatened by the mad little communist dictator's growing military menace.  How much is directed by Beijing and how much is at the orders of Kim Jong Il is anybody's guess.  Meanwhile, will the Japanese government decide to go nuclear in self defense?  Has it already embarked on a secret program? Meanwhile, let's all give a round of applause to the Carter/Cliinton/Albright deal which helped Pyongyang advnace its nuke program!

Secretary of State Albright with Kim Jong Il, Oct 23, 2000

*   *   *
AS USUAL, LEFT-WING TYRANTS DESIRE TO CRUSH
FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND COMMUNICATIONS

Venezuela police raid opposition broadcaster

Obama Set to Create Internet Czar

MAY 24, 2009

AN AWESOME ACHIEVEMENT IN SPACE
A PERFECT LANDING ENDS A DANGEROUS
BUT HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL HUBBLE REPAIR MISSION
BY AMERICA'S SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS CREW

The Hubble Space Telescope lifted out of the payload bay of Atlantis moments before it is
released into space following the successful repair/upgrade mission of STS-125

U.S. astronauts and the NASA team are to be congratulated by all rational beings for their stunning high-tech accomplishments this week in earth orbit during a very challenging mission to do extensive repairs and upgrades on the amazing Hubble telescope.  The 13-day space mission extends the Hubble telescope's life for at least another five years ( perhaps much longer) and the improvements made will allow us to see even further out in space and further back in time than ever before -- and perhaps to unravel more of the secrets of the universe. The lessons learned from this space mission will shape future space exploration.

From left are specialist astronauts Michael J. Massimino and Michael T. Good,
pilot Gregory C. Johnson, commander Scott D. Altman, specialist astronauts Megan
McArthur, John M. Grunsfeld, and Andrew J. Feustel. (NASA photo)

Hubble repair mission showcases the value of human space flight -- Houston Chronicle

Space Shuttle Atlantis reaches orbiting Hubble telescope - UK Telegraph

STS-125:  The Final Hubble Repair Mission
It's a mission to once more push the boundaries of how deep in space and how far back in time humanity can see. It's a mission to again upgrade what already may be the most significant satellite ever launched.

Special danger posed by satellite debris in a cluttered orbit

VIDEO:  STS-125 launch

MAY 21, 2009\

FORMER VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY EXPLAINS THE REALITIES OF TERRORISM TO BARACK

VIDEO:  Excerpt from Cheney remarks

VIDEO:  Dick Cheney on anti-terrorist interrogation policy

Full text of Dick Cheney's Speech

MAY 19, 2009

Democrat fundraiser finally convicted of corruption
Yet Bill and Hillary and Sandy Berger still remain free.

MAY 15, 2009

MORE LIES FROM NANCY PELOSI

According to intelligence officials and other congresscritters, Speaker of the House Pelosi was fully briefed on interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, several times in the period 2002 to 2003 -- and that she at least tacitly endorsed the use of those measures, but she is still pretending to the world that she was never told.  An independent investigation should be initiated to determine and demonstrate just what did she know and when did she know it.  If it is confirmed that she is now lying, Pelosi should step down as Speaker and resign her seat in Congress and return to San Fransicko in disgrace.  She has already shown herself to be incompetent and dishonest in other matters and is clearly out of her depth when it comes to U.S. foreign policy or American national security issues.  She apparently assumes the Democrat-controlled network media will cover up for her as usual, but that is no longer possible because she has made serious charges of illegality -- that the intelligence community and the military misled Congress -- and such charges are too serious to be ignored.  For the good of the nation she should finally do the right thing and leave the House of Representatives to someone more responsible.

*   *   *

"YOU MAY BE TALIBAN IF ..."

 1. You refine heroin for a living, but you have a moral objection to beer.

 2. You own a $3,000 machine gun and $5,000 rocket launcher, but you can't afford shoes.

 3. You have more wives than teeth.

 4. You wipe your butt with your bare hand, but consider bacon "unclean."

 5. You think vests come in two styles: bullet-proof and suicide.

 6. You can't think of anyone you haven't declared Jihad against..

 7. You consider television dangerous, but routinely carry explosives in your clothing.

 8. You were amazed to discover that cell phones have uses other than setting off roadside bombs.

 9. You have nothing against women and think every man should own at least one.

 10. You've always had a crush on your neighbor's goat.

Rush on Principled Conservatism versus the so-called "Moderates" and RINOs (Specter, Gergen, et al)
Specter has been a Democrat at heart all along; now it's just official.

In the past, the hope of the world has been based on two things: Market capitalism and U.S. military strength. It was capitalism (to the extent it was allowed to exist) that rescued hundreds of millions of children from short miserable lives and death by starvation or malnutrition. It was capitalism that brought England and America out of pre-industrial squalor to advanced economic status with improvements in life for the majority of people.  It was U.S. military strength that liberated the world from Hitler's national socialism and Tojo's imperialist Japan, rescued millions from slave labor and death camps, helped South Korea to remain free from communist invasion from the north, and it was U.S. strength (especially when Reagan was President) that at least pushed back the advance of communist imperialism and helped to quicken the fall of the Berlin Wall and the independence of countries once under Soviet control. It was U.S. military capability that dragged the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein off the backs of the people of Iraq.  People around the world at least began to hope that more freedom and economic opportunities would be possible.

Unfortunately, what is left of true market capitalism in America has been undercut by many decades of government regulations, controls, monetary manipulations, taxation, and various socialistic programs. America has been coasting on the momentum from its past more-free days when it was closer to being a pure capitalist economy. The heavy burden of socialism is catching up to us now. The new president, Barack Obama, is doing his best to destroy what is left of market capitalism in America and will likely destroy the U.S. dollar completely in the next few years. This will mean economic disaster for the people of the world as well as Americans here at home.

Meanwhile, President Obama is reducing spending on military defense and is pursuing a foreign policy that kisses up to tyrants and in effect tells oppressed people to go to Hell -- that he will do nothing to help them while he pals around with socialist thugs and bows to fascist dictators. If America's strength is allowed to wane significantly, this will certainly encourage a resurgence of both communist imperialism and jihadist terrorism around the world. I predict terrible times ahead for the people of the world as a result of these policies. And Americans will be increasingly targeted by their envious enemies. I wish I could be more optimistic. The world will be a much less safe place now that the U.S. has a socialist cult leader as President.

Despite all the socialistic programs and interventions that have been piled on top of the U.S. economy over the past several decades, it is surprising that it is still within the top ten most economically free countries. Sadly, with the Obamacrats now in full control of the economy, I predict that the United States will fall below the top ten most free countries in the next year or two.

I do not think it is a coincidence that at least 7 out of the top 10 most economically free nations were British colonies at one time or another: Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, United States, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom itself. (See the current Index of Economic Freedom). Where there is capitalism there is hope and progress.

It is also no coincidence that the main troublemaker regimes in the world today are among those countries with the least amount of economic freedoms (see near bottom of list), including mainland China, Russia, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea.

It is a shame that instead of the U.S. and U.K. becoming more free and less socialistic, we seem to be following the failed policies of the loser countries now under full socialism. At least that is what the election of Obama and the Democrats portends here in the United States.

Increasing the top marginal tax rates on income (the rich folks) does not really hurt the wealthy people, but makes less capital available for funding business starts and economic growth and results in fewer jobs and fewer economic opportunities for regular people like myself who are just struggling to pay bills. Yet, the Obamacrats continue to use the "soak-the-rich" mantra to fool their gullible followers. As an American, I apologize to the people of the world for the election of Barack Obama and for the current backward regime.  It's high time for a pro-capitalist, pro-American backlash but no one knows when that will come.

The Housing Boom and Bust by Thomas Sowell
What really caused the mortgage mess?  Nothing inherent in the capitalist system.

Those whom the establishment media refers to as  political "liberals" and "progressives" are really welfare-state fascists and socialists who want to impose their schemes on the rest of society and spend other peoples' money and run other peoples' lives.  The Nancy Pelosis, the Ted Kennedys, the Harry Reids, the Barrack Obamas, the Rahm Emanuels.  But, under the original American Republic people believed that peaceful adult citizens have a right to run their own lives, spend their own money, and pursue their own private plans and dreams -- and that government has no legitimate role in trying to impose any central plan on everybody or in redistributing wealth from those who have earned it.

Those whom the establishment media and the Obamacrats call "right-wing extremists" are those Americans who. like the founding fathers, favor a constitutional government of limited scope, controls on federal spending, lower taxes, much fewer regulations over our lives and business enterprises, freedom for domestic oil, coal, and nuclear energy, and a pro-American foreign policy.  The Obamacrats make it very clear that if Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, and John Adams were here today, they would be classified as right-wing extremists and considered subversive to the current regime.
 

We're in good company!

Confirmed: The Obama DHS hit job on conservatives is real
by Michelle Malkin

Tax Day Tea Parties Prepare for Leftist Media Smear Campaign

How the tea parties could change American politics.

U.S. Navy Rescues Hostage from Somali Pirates
But Americans expect to be increasingly targeted now that Obama is President.

APRIL 13, 2009

REPEATING THE MISTAKES OF THE PAST

This is a cartoon from the 1934 Chicago Tribune.

*   *   *

What real economic recovery would require -- and why the Obama "stimulus package" will not succeed but in fact makes things much worse

Environmentalism's Malaria Holocaust The suffering and death of millions of children are on the bloody hands of the green fascists.
by Dr. George Reisman, Pepperdine University.

The dignity and prestige of the office of U.S. President continues to be undermined by the new chief executive.  Although the White House spinmeisters are denying it was an actual bow, it certainly looks as if President Obama briefly bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia.  You be the judge by watching the video.

Overall, the president's lavish tour of Europe, which failed to net any substantial gains for the U.S., has to be ranked as one of the most embarrassing series of presidential events for the United States since the scandals of the Clinton administration.  Obama is being made fun of not only in the Turkish media, but also by many others in Europe and even by some outlets which would ordinarily be his political allies.

In England his tacky wife did not know any better than to put her arm around the Queen, violating protocol.  (Can you just imagine the enormous uproar and stink the media would have stirred up if Sarah Palin had done this?)

Congressman Paul Ryan presents Republican alternative to Obama's unprecedented red-ink-forever spendathon
What is needed to stop the advance of socialism is to freeze federal spending and then start abolishing whole agencies and departments to roll back fedgov to something closer to its legitimate functions.  We cannot reasonably expect to reverse over night several decades of the growth of Big Government and its multitude of political interventions which have distorted our nation's economy.  This plan at least would be an initial step in the right direction IF the Republicans could get some cooperation from their Democrat colleagues to pass this proposal instead of the Pelosi/Reid/Obama monstrosity.  The Democrat politicians need to put forth a more bipartisan spirit of cooperation to get this alternative budget passed..

The GOP's Alternative Budget — It’s Like George Washington vs. Che Guevara -- Peter Ferrara
A brief comparison with the Obamacrat spending-and-tax scheme.

Gingrich Warns GOP to Shape Up and Return to Principles or conservative third-party efforts might siphon enough votes away to help re-elect Dems in 2012.

MEP Hannan Rebukes PM Gordon Brown to His Face
We need some Republicans like him to do the same to the Democrat crooks in control.

War of the Words -- IBD
Under President Obama's new Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano the word "terrorism" is to be replaced with the phrase "man-caused disaster" and the war on terror will now be called "overseas contingency operation."  But reality does not go away or change by renaming it no matter what words are used.  This is part of a long political tradition, especially among Democrats, of playing word games -- such as calling their massive expenditures of taxpayers' money "investments" instead of grand legal robbery.

Obama's Remarkable 9/11 Blindspot -- John Ziegler reacts to Command-in-Chief Obama's incredible doubletalk, hypocrisy, and ignorance about terrorism and the facts about the attacks of 9/11/01.

Obama was totally wrong about what happened to those who committed the 1993 WTC bombing-- but, of course, he was never called on this by the DNC's kept news media.  Here is a short excerpt from Blocking The Path to 911 which exposed Democrat Party censorship of one of the most important documentaries since 9/11/2001.

*   *   *
American Tea Party Anthem 2009

*   *   *

 There was a Pied Piper who said, "We live in the greatest country in the world.  Help me change it!"
And the people said, "Change is good!"

Then he said, "We are going to tax the rich fat-cats,"  And the people said "Sock it to them!"

"-- and redistribute their wealth."
And the people said, "Show me the money!"

And then he said, "Redistribution of wealth is good for everybody."
And Joe the plumber said, "Are you kidding me?"

And Joe's personal records were hacked and publicized.
And one lone reporter asked, "Isn't that Marxist policy?"

And she was banished from the kingdom!
Then someone asked, "With no foreign relations experience, how will you deal with radical terrorists?"

And the Pied Piper said, "Simple.  I'll sit down and talk with them and show them how nice we really are and they'll forget that they ever wanted to kill us all!"

Then the Pied Piper said, "I'll give 95% of you lower taxes."
And one lone voice said, "But 40% of us don't pay ANY taxes."

So the Pied Piper said, "Then I'll give you some of the taxes the fat-cats pay!"
And the people said, "Show me the money!"

Then the Pied Piper said, "I'll tax your capital gains when you sell your homes!"
And the people yawned and the already slumping housing market collapsed further.

And he said, "I'll mandate employer-funded health care for EVERY worker and raise the minimum wage."
And the people said, "Gim'me some of that!"

Then he said, "I'll penalize employers who ship jobs overseas."
And the people said, "Where's my rebate check?"

Then the Pied Piper actually said, "I'll bankrupt the coal industry and electricity rates will skyrocket!"
And the people said, "Coal is dirty!  Coal is evil  No more coal!  But we don't care for that part about higher electric rates."

So the Pied Piper said, "Not to worry.  If your rebate isn't enough to cover your expenses, we'll bail you out.  Just sign up with ACORN and your troubles are over!"  Then he said, "Illegal immigrants feel scorned and slighted.  Let's grant them amnesty, Social Security, free education, free lunches, free medical care, bi-lingual signs and guaranteed housing."
And the people said, "Olé! Bravo!"  And they made him King!

And so it came to pass that employers, facing spiraling costs and ever-higher taxes, raised their prices and laid off workers.  Others simply gave up and went out of business and the economy slowed even further.  Then the Pied Piper said, "I am the Messiah and I'm here to save you!  We'll just print more money so everyone will have enough!"  But our foreign trading partners said, "Wait a minute.  Your dollar isn't worth what it was.  You'll have to pay more."
And the people said, "Wait a minute. That's not fair!"

And the world said, "Neither are these other, idiotic programs you've embraced.  You've become a Socialist state and a second-rate power.  Now you'll play by our rules!"
And the people said, "What have we done?"

But it was too late.
If you think this is a fairy tale, open your eyes and ears. It's happening RIGHT NOW!
Did you know the president's name is really an acronym.

One Big Astounding Mistake, America!

*   *   *

Kathleen Stewart sings "It Ain't Your Money to Spend!" -- a message to the politicians in the District of Corruption

As I tried to point out years ago, I intend one day to write a book or at least an essay titled None Dare Call it Bullshit.

I do believe in the existence of political conspiracies, of course, but I have seen over the decades how "conspiracy theory" can be abused and how some good folks on the constitutionalist Right can be misled and distracted by false conspiracy theories and dysinformation originating from the Left.  Preoccupation with "conspiracy" can be a neutralizing factor as far as effective activism against the ultrastatist agenda of the Left is concerned.  Those who place their guesswork about "the conspiracy" above keeping their eyes on the real "eight ball" of ideology (sound principles) can easily be misled into populistic or other left-wing dead ends or even suckered into supporting a left-wing agenda which actually serves the conspiratorial aims they believe they are opposing.  One of the problems of those of us on the pro-freedom Right has been that the Left has made inroads with populist propaganda and phony conspiracy tales to confuse and mislead those who would otherwise be more consistent in opposing the left-wing agenda.  One of these days I will elaborate.  Until then, an excellent book that exposes many examples of the way the Left-"Liberal" Establishment practices precisely the kinds of tactics that they routinely accuse conservatives of committing is the latest best seller by Ann Coulter:  Guilty.  The hyperhypocrisy of the partisan establishment news media is particularly revealed.  I recommend the book highly as well as the author's regular columns.

MARCH 9. 2009

Milton Friedman versus "liberal" fascist Phil Donahue:  A Blast from the Past if capitalism is based on selfishness, is socialism based on envy?

Capialism.net:  The Intellectual Voice of Capitalism on the Internet -- personally created by Dr. George Reisman

The Capitalism Issues Site

"You're a smart guy, Mr. President.  You've debated the best. You are one of the most gifted public speakers of our age.  I would think you would jump at this opportunity. I'm offering the biggest audience in radio to a Democrat who happens to be President of the United States for fairness and balance -- all without needing the Fairness Doctrine or government mandates."  -Rush Limbaugh

Rush to Obama:  Debate Me

Rush's nationally televised CPAC speech!

*   *   *

Rush's Advice to new RNC Head Michael Steele

All of the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against the colossal porkulus package pushed so hard by the Obamacrats and their media shills.  I salute them.  The House Republicans, being in the minority, did not have enough votes to stop this unprecedented attack on the American economy, but at least each and every one of the Republicans there stood firm against it.  Speaker Pelosi cannot credibly pretend this to be a bipartisan measure.  The Repubs refused to give Pelosi and her Democrat cleptocrats any of the political cover they were looking for.  The House Republicans deserve popular approbation from their district constituents and indeed all Americans for their bold attempt to stop this destructive nonsense.

The U.S. Senate, traditionally the weaker sister of the two legislative houses, passed its version of the massive Democrat payoff package by a slim margin of 61 to 37.  All Senate Republicans voted against the unprecedented monstrosity except for three RINO (Republicans In Name Only) quislings -- Arlen Specter (RINO -- Pennsylvania), Olympia Snowe (RINO - Maine) and Susan Collins (RINO - Maine) -- who have a history of caving to their Democrat colleagues instead of standing on principle and defending the rights of the American people. The bill could have been stopped in the Senate had Specter, Snowe, and Collins not voted with the Democrats. These three should hear sharp protests from the American people, while the real Republicans in the Senate should receive praise and support for their stand against the Obama porkulus scheme.

Three RINOs Help Senate Dems Pass Porkulus Package
All other Senate Republicans voted against this monstrosity.

Obama's Failed and Tired Ideas From the Past -- American Spectator

but Republicans refuse to grant them political cover for this monstrosity.  Still think there's no difference between Republicans and Democrats?  Think again.  The battle now goes to the U.S. Senate.

VIDEO:  Sen. David Vitter Speaks Out Against the so-called "stimulus" bill and denounces Obama and the Democrats for seeking to channel billoins in political payoff money to their buddies in ACORN, under investigatoin for massive pro-Dem voter fraud and one of the key culprits in the banking and mortgage mess. Obama is planning to give $5.2 Billion dollars of "stimulus" money to the ACORN crooks!

JANUARY 23. 2009

Rush Limbaugh's third hour
Rush gives his reactoin to a controversial poll supposedly of GOP base.

Rush's first hour          Rush's second hour

Judge Obama on Performance Alone  -- Juan Williams
It is evident that far more people voted FOR Obama because of "skin color" than who voted against him for that reason.

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiently or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else."

~Theodore Roosevelt

Who Elected Obama? -- Mark Alexander

CNN Exit Poll Analysis for 2008 Presidential Election
While one must be careful in drawing conclusions from exit polls, and there are good reasons to be suspicious of the accuracy of exit polls in general and CNN's in particular, they can still give us a general bird's eye view of who voted for whom.   It looks as if those ethnic groups which have long been targets of leftist propaganda efforts showed the most dramatic percentages.  According to national exit polls, Obama received 77% of the votes cast by Jewish voters and 95% of the votes of Negro voters. But most in these groups had long ago sold their souls out to the Democrat Party and these numbers should come as no major surpirse.

VIDEO:  Economist Dan Mitchell on Keynesian fiscal policy and the attempt to "stimulate the economy" by massive government spending -- a clear explanation and refutation

The Real Reason NBC and the Democrats Want to Ban Ann

Government Regulaitons Instill a False Sense of Security  -- John Stossel
He's right, of course.  He cites the Madoff con job as an example.

Outgoing President Bush Admits "I chucked aside my free-market principles"
Caving in to the Bailoutocrats was a major mistake.

Atlas Shrugged After 52 Years -- Wall Street Journal
There are two categories of people in the Universe:  those who have read Atlas Shrugged and those who have not.

Media Malpractice:  Excerpts from John Ziegler's video interview with Gov. Sarah Palin on Media Bigotry in the 2008 Election Campaign

Franken's Funny Business Exposed -- Morris & McGann

On the last day of the year 2008 plain-speaking George Mason University economist Walter E. Williams, beloved by millions of Americans, again guest hosted for Rush Limbaugh on his award-winning nationally syndicated radio talk show (heard weekdays from 9:00 a.m. to noon Pacific Time).  Whenever Dr. Williams does so, tens of millions of listeners are exposed to this scholarly man's patient refutations of the fallacies of socialism and "liberalism" and his clear explanations and cogent defenses of individual liberty, market economics, and constitutional government of limited scope.   When Professor Williams is on the air, it is the premier pro-freedom media event of the year.  Nothing else comes close.  Walter Williams is the real deal, folks.  We thank Rush Limbaugh, who is deservedly Numero Uno in talk radio, for making this possible.

The Official Walter E. Williams Website

Republican National Committee draft resolution to censure President Bush for embracing socialist policies -- Washington Times
I say good for them!

Republican Party officials say they will
try in January to pass a resolution
accusing President George Bush
of embracing socialistic policies.

*   *   *

Barack, The Magic Negro?  Do Democrats believe in magic?  Is Obama really magic?
Even though Barack Obama is of mixed race, liberal Democrat writer David Ehrenstein, an African-American gay activist, called him the "Magic Negro" in the Los Angeles Times  and a parody song based on that Times nickname has become controversial in some circles.  Judge for yourself by listening to the "Magic Negro" song.

Scientist Fired by Gore Calls Warming Fears ‘Mistaken’
Another scientist dares to point out that emperor Albert has no clothes.  How many gullible people still believe in Gore's global warming folly?

Arrogant Conceit-- John Stossel
Ignoring the lessons of both history and economics, the Obamacrats will make things worse, not better.

DECEMBER 18. 2008

LESSONS PEOPLE SHOULD LEARN
FROM THE MADOFF SCAM

Greed, Gullibility, and Group Identity Syndrome Contribute to Global $50-Billion Affinity Scam
Most of his victims were Jews and thought they could trust him because "he is one of us"!   This is one prime illustration of the pitfalls of group think and group conformity or ethnic chauvinism.   Lessons:  Avoid stupid greed, Ponzi schemes, and belief in ethnoreligious identities or tribalism as a basis for trust and confidence.

Rahm Emanuel Caught Talking to "Blago" 21 Times about Obama's Senate Seat Replacement -- Chicago Sun-Times
It looks like the Obama regime will rival Clinton-Gore as the most corrupt administration since FDR.

The Black Hand:  New Book Exposes Wide Influence of Mexican Mafia

News Video:  Anti-Bush Reporter Throws Shoe at President, Misses

Growing Grassroots Resistance Says "No!" to Obama Agenda

A Real Hero: Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus
A man who lived through the tyranny of Soviet Communism speaks out against the latest threat to our freedom.

This is really nothing new, but just seems more obvious in the 2008 presidential election.  Sooner or later the more ignorant majority was bound to prevail.  Those who voted for Obama were found to know nothing about his associations or background and what little they knew about McCain and Palin were almost exclusively DNC talking points and media propaganda from Saturday Night Live.

How Obama Got Elected
Watch the video!

Republicans Successfully Block Bailout for Auto Makers/UAW
Using the filibuster in a right way.  Congressional Republicans have been in open revolt against Bush and Paulson over bailouts.  Good for them!

Five Short Economics Lessons For the Age of Obama -- John Hawkins

Big Three Auto Makers Hand Keys over to Government -- Don Lambro

Stop ACORN

Neal Boortz Reiterates his Book Recommendations for Veterans Day:
    The Law by Frederic Bastiat
    Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
    Basic Economicsby Thomas Sowell\
    Economic Facts and Fallacies by Thomas Sowell

More Book and Audio Recommendations

Obama's Phony Selective Service Registration

Inside a U.S. hostage rescue mission -- U.S. Army Times
Since the New York Times has "spilled the beans" on such covert rescue ops, shouldn't people be told of the success stories?  The Army thinks so!  Now it can be told.

Red Hot Lies:  How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed by Christopher Horner

More Evidence Pours in that Albert Gore is Wrong about Global Warming

Obama to Expand the Bush-Democrat Mega-Bailout Folly
Good money after bad.

Georgia Congressman Warns of Obama Dictatorship

NOVEMBER 10. 2008

Liberal Censorship and its Roots -- David Limbaugh

Mortgage Crisis Culprits Chosen by Obama for his Regime
Instead of being sent to prison, the corrupt CEOs of Fannie Mae, Jamie Gorelick and Rahm Emanual, are being rewarded by Obama..  A Cabinet of crooks?

Loose Lips & Treasonous Leaks:  The New York Times Again Undermines the War on Terror by Aiding the Enemy
Where are the indictments?

Franken Trying To Steal Senate Seat Election in Minnesota
Nasty, bitter leftist is sore loser and will cheat if he can get away with it.

NOVEMBER 6. 2008

Tuesday evening was a sad night for America (at least for the 56 million people who did not vote for Barack Obama), a very bad setback politically in which the party/faction most responsible for undermining those values and principles which once made America a great nation stacked up many electoral wins, not only in the presidential campaign, but also in both the House and Senate, adding to their already-existing majorities in Congress.  There is no sugar coating of this:  This bodes bad for America's future.

Obama cult followers are ecstatic in the wave of media euphoria pouring down in the wake of the election.  I have been mentally prepared for this for a long time.  Considering how close the last two presidential elections were, I was not at all surprised that the Dems won this time around.

The U.S. economy, historically at least, provided more opportunities for more people than any other system in the history of the world because it approached (but never achieved in full measure) laissez-faire capitalism.  It was the most moral and efficient economic system in human history.  To the extent that it still exists, it is capitalism -- the system of private ownership and the freedom to save, invest, market, and trade -- which made American economic advances possible.  And it is capitalism -- to the extent it is still allowed to exist -- that is the powerhouse behind America's military strength and national security.  To the extent that that system has been undermined by taxes, regulations, controls, judicial restrictions, and the ever-increasing burdens of government spending programs, to that extent America's national health and success have been increasingly undermined and are at risk of being destroyed.

As a result of the election of Barrack Obama as President and the clear majorities controlled by the Democrat Party in Congress, we can expect several deleterious consequences over the next several months and years.  We can expect the new regime to do as much as it can to consolidate its power and try to prevent losing it ever again.  I expect the Senate will propose new legislation for federal government censorship of talk radio programs with which it disagrees.  Anyone in talk radio who dares to voice disagreement with the Obama regime will be attacked as "racist" or "reactionary" and steps will be taken by the new government to drive them off the air.

The U.S. economy, already burdened by financial crises brought on by previous programs of government meddling, could become stagnated into a long-lasting depression under the new Democrat power monopoly in Washington.  These politicians are like four-year-old kids playing with matches in a room full of dynamite sticks.  Of course the partisan "news" media networks will help the Democrats blame any problems on the other party and the supposed demon of free enterprise -- even though America has been taken a very long way from its free-market roots.  Like the communists, American Democrats, both in and out of the media, are brilliant propagandists and always accuse their opponents of what they themselves are guilty of.

In foreign affairs, we can expect appeasement and concessions to America's enemies and potential military adversaries -- from Russia's Putin to Red Beijing to the ayatollahs of Iran.  Because of Obama's perceived weakness and inexperience, he will be "tested" by a revival of Russian socialist imperialism in Georgia and the Ukraine.  Also, mainland China, still under communist control, will continue its massive military buildup, and take an increasingly adversarial stance with respect to the United States.  To prove to the world that he is tough after all, Obama may overreact during a military crisis and wind up making it much worse than otherwise.  America will move closer to war under Obama while the relative freedom achieved over the past two decades in some parts of the world will begin to slip away once more as socialist imperialism renews its deadly march.

Depending on whether Obama is a one-term or two-term President, he will have opportunities to appoint the most left-leaning (ultra-statist) judges to the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court.  The salutary appointments made by President Bush of Roberts and Alito cannot be reversed, but Obama will try to create a permanent Democrat majority on the high court and continue the Clinton administration's practice of packing the federal judiciary with partisan Democrats.

What should freedom-loving Americans do?  Resistance!  This is not the time for cooperation and conciliation.  This is the time to continue to build resistance to these advances in socialist tyranny.  Now, more than ever. I predict that secessionist movements may see a revival in Texas, Alaska, and elsewhere.  Those who support the Ninth and Tenth Amendments in the U.S. Bill of Rights must work to restore their legal force.  And our Second Amendment rights as armed citizens must be preserved at all costs, else none of our other rights will be secure.

If the Republican Party is to become a viable vehicle to retake America, its leadership must change and it must be better prepared to wage ideological battles with its political adversaries in the Democrat Party, a party that has moved further and further in the direction of the totalitarian left in recent decades, so much so that the Communist Party no longer runs candidates for President.  Given the way the political system works in the U.S., third party efforts are doomed to fail on the national level.  What is needed is not a third party but rather a new second party.  Before we can take back America, we must first take back the Republican Party which all too often has included politicians guilty of ideological "me-tooism" and collusion with the Democrats.  What America needs is a choice, not an echo. Republicans must learn that trying to out-promise and out-spend the Democrats is futile and is politically counterproductive.  A better job must be done in counteracting left-wing propaganda which has been all too successful in misleading and confusing many good Americans and even in exploiting divisions within the population and within the conservative movement.

If 9/11/01 was America's wake-up call about terrorism, 11/04/08 was a final political wake-up call for many Americans who have been complacent and out of touch with what has been going on for the past several decades in the struggles for power in the national political arena.  If nothing else, at least one good thing came from this presidential campaign:  the national news services (with the possible exception of Fox News) were so blatantly obvious in their pro-Democrat anti-GOP partisan bigotry in their coverage that only morons who were not paying attention could fail to notice, if they had not figured it out before now.  With its credibility shattered (at least among intellectually honest thinking people), the leading wire services, TV networks, big newspapers, and national slick magazines (especially Time, Newsweek, U.S,. News) showed themselves to be unofficial spokespersons for the DNC.  If American patriots and conservatives are ever going to recapture their country and get Big Government under any kind of control or limitation, talented conservatives and libertarians must get into the news media and in academia.  Americans must find alternative venues for news and analysis -- and reject the superficial "liberal" talking points offered up as conventional wisdom by the television networks and other organs of the drive-by media.

The U.S. will survive the Democrat Party tantrum of 2008 -- but only if enough good people take action over the next few years to reverse statist encroachments on our liberties.  Get informed and inform others -- and stop watching network television!  Those on the pro-freedom Right must cooperate as never before against the common enemy of Obama's Evil Establishment.  Conservatives must recapture control of the leadership of the Republican Party away from the "moderates" who have betrayed the base.  To that end I offer the following observations and suggestions:

1. Electoral pacifism -- staying home on election day -- only leaves the field to those who choose to vote. If all the good people -- conservatives and libertarians and patriots -- took that position and stayed home on the grounds that voting is a dirty business, all that would accomplish would be to relinquish the political arena to our enemies and make it easy for them to take over. It is sort of like being locked in a room with a madman and there is a gun on the floor between you and him, and you elect to allow him to get the gun and shoot you with it because of your abhorrence of guns. Voting against bad propositions or bad candidates is a righteous act of self defense and pacifism/passivism only encourages the worst power lusters to gain control; it does not discourage the use of organized violence (contrary to what some misguided "anarchists" may believe).

2. Third party efforts on the national level appear to be futile -- given the way our electoral system operates today and the news media refusal to cover small-party candidates for national office while focusing on only the major candidates. At most, in a very close election between the two major parties, a third party candidate could conceivably divert enough votes away from one of the major candidates and thereby allow the other major candidate to win. What we need is not a third party but a new second party which can provide a true choice in distinction to the socialist/welfare statist party of the "Democrats" and their partisan allies in the media.

3. Do not be naive about the Democrat Party agenda. It is fascism and they will move to consolidate their power and try to make it impossible for them to lose national power ever again in the future. They will demonize anyone whom they spot as a potential opposition leader, as they have been doing already for a long time. This smear campaign will be ramped up now more than ever. They will try to enact national censorship legislation to quash anyone who disagrees with their policies or agenda. They will target talk radio and try to force off the air anyone who dares to voice criticism of their programs and plans. They have long targeted Rush Limbaugh with their politics of personal destruction. I predict that will escalate even beyond their previous efforts. The Democrats will try to reinterpret talk radio -- broadcast speech -- as "pornography" as a pretext for banning views which they dislike. This must be opposed on all levels.

4. Reality is not on the side of Obama and the Democrats. After he takes office as President, Obama will finally have to start making some tough decisions about what to do on several problematic fronts. He can no longer hide behind glittering generalities or nice sounding rhetoric. We know that the "solutions" he has advocated during his campaign -- to the extent he could be pinned down in terms of specific policies -- have been tried and failed in the past in other countries. Socialized health care and redistribution schemes do not enhance a nation's wealth or well being. Will President Obama really risk destroying the U.S. economy in the name of fighting Albert Gore's "global warming"? Will he really sit down with terrorists and terrorist-sponsoring regimes? If he does some of the things that he has suggested, his popularity will fall as low or lower than that of the current President as Obama's dreamy nostrums will be revealed as the nonsolutions they surely are. Conservatives, libertarians, constitutionalists, and patriots must articulately explain to their fellow Americans why the Obama policies are failing and offer the pro-freedom alternative to those failed socialistic policies.

*   *   *

Related Articles

NO REALIGNMENT -- Robert Novak
No mandate for Obama, no lopsided Congress

NEVER GIVE IN -- Jerry Bowyer

Media Bias in Electoin 2008

Propaganda Redux-- ION MIHAI PACEPA
High-ranking Soviet defector recounts successful dysinformatoin strategy

The Reign of Lame Falls Mainly on McCain -- Ann Coulter
Ann wanted more of a choice, not an echo.  What a concept!

NOW IS THE TIME -- Rich Galen
"Yes we can!  The reestablishment of principled conservative opposition begins today. McCain did everything the Wizards of Smart on our side told him to do, and he failed. Moderate Republicanism lost. Conservatism didn't." -- Rush Limbaugh

Voter registration drives have been ubiquitous this election cycle. These efforts, however, could have a pernicious effect on the country and Americans’ understanding of the duties of citizenship.

Consider the ‘Rock the Vote’ campaign. Begun in 1992, Rock the Vote “uses music, popular culture and new technologies to engage and incite young people to register and vote in every election.” If you visit the Rock the Vote website, DJ Diplo will e-mail you a copy of your state’s voter registration form. Bloggers rave about Diplo’s work at registration events, noting that his music is so loud that groupies “can still feel the dull throb of the speakers blasting full force” 24 hours later.

Not to be outdone by Diplo, Bothervoting.org offers prospective voters maps to the polling places and runs an aggressive advertising campaign. One of the ads features a blond bombshell salaciously whispering “I just can’t picture myself sleeping with a non-voter.” Not only can you help solve the country’s problems by voting, you might get lucky too.

With all the commotion about voter registration, one would think that barriers to registration abound. This is not the case. Since 1995, state governments have been required to provide uniform registration services through drivers’ license registration centers and government offices offering public assistance benefits. The states also must permit citizens to register using mail-in forms. Or they can choose the old fashioned way and go to the local voter registration office to fill out the necessary paperwork.

Participation in local, state, and national elections is not something Americans should take lightly. In our system of government, the people are recognized as the ultimate sovereigns and exercise their power in special conventions (such as the conventions that ratified the Constitution) or during elections when they vote for representatives, and, in some states, for various ballot initiatives. In 1776, the General Court of Massachusetts summed up popular sovereignty as follows: “It is a maxim, that, in every government, there must exist, somewhere, a supreme, sovereign, absolute, and uncontrollable power; But this power resides, always in the body of the people, and it never was, or can be delegated, to one man, or a few.” Thus, elections should be viewed as bulwarks of our Republic.

But for elections to serve this lofty purpose, the people must be informed. In recognition of this, the First Amendment was added to the Constitution, in part, to ensure the free flow and availability of information regarding public concerns. Because an informed electorate is a prerequisite to an intelligent exercise of the franchise, the Founding Fathers, in the words of James Madison, viewed the dissemination of information as “the only effectual guardian of every other right.” An ignorant public exercising the franchise was seen as inimical to a free society.

Today’s mass voter drives stand this notion on its head. Because it is already so easy to register without the aid of Rock the Vote or Bothervoting.org, one must wonder what sort of person the mass voter-registration drives are reaching. Obviously not people who take their citizenship seriously enough to register without the assistance of DJ Diplo or the enticement of a “party-on” atmosphere.

Although the First Amendment is still in place and information is readily available, an intellectual laziness has crept into much of society. Recent polls show that when asked to name two of Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs and two of the nine U.S. Supreme Court Justices, 77 percent of those polled were able to identify two dwarfs, while only 24 percent could name two Supreme Court Justices. Regarding the basic structure of our government, only 42 percent of Americans could name the three branches, whereas 73 percent could name all of the Three Stooges.

If Rock the Vote and Bothervoting really wanted to contribute to solving the problems facing our country, they would focus less on numbers and more on knowledge.

An ignorant voter is more dangerous to the Republic than a non-voter. Unfortunately, the registration movement teaches citizens that an uneducated vote is better than no vote at all. Such a lesson is pernicious and could have lasting effects on the electorate.

[Note: Following are excerpts from this edition of The Ayn Rand Letter, written in the summer of 1972 when George McGovern was running for president on the most extreme liberal agenda ever mounted by a Democrat since FDR… some of the points raised by Ms. Rand are especially relevant in today’s Presidential campaign]

… Mr. McGovern announced that he proposes a “redistribution of wealth.” That term has been bandied about for some time by the intellectual Establishment, as a dreamily sloppy metaphor. Mr. McGovern adopted it as an explicit political program.

If a man proposes to redistribute wealth, he means explicitly and necessarily that the wealth is his to distribute. If he proposes it in the name of the government, then the wealth belongs to the government; if in the name of society, then it belongs to society. No one, to my knowledge, did or could define a difference between that proposal and the basic principle of communism. It might be said, perhaps, that communism is more practical and less cruel, at least in theory: a communist government takes over an entire economy and forbids men to act, but assumes the responsibility of providing for their livelihood. Mr. McGovern’s proposal is closer to the theory of fascism: it leaves to individual men the responsibility to production and of struggling for existence, but lets the government assume the power to dispose of anything they produce.

No one, to my knowledge, has asked the only relevant question: By what right? [emphasis added]

This proposal is not aimed at the very rich, because it would not expropriate what one owns already, but only what one earns…. The McGovern plan would stop everyone on whatever level he has happened to reach and forbid him to rise. It would freeze the nation into economic castes and destroy one of the country’s best features, the hallmark of economic freedom: upward mobility…

It is against this class – and its symbol: the self-made man – that the McGovern proposal is directed…

The Democratic Party has gone past the middle and reached the dead end of the welfare-state road, which it has spent forty years denying: expropriation and confiscation.

*   *  *

Let Them Fail
By Amit Ghate

Everywhere today politicians are blaring that they must save America’s financial institutions, alleging catastrophic risk to the economy were any to fail. Paulson and the entire Bush administration, in a discernible panic, are now pouring $700 billion into the big banks, having already bailed out AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Bear Stearns to the tune of $300 billion.

Capitalism doesn’t work, they declare, but fortunately the government is here to rescue us.

Sadly, they have it all backwards. The credit crisis is just more evidence that whenever the government supplants the free market and attempts to “manage,” i.e., control, the economy--disaster ensues.

Overlooked here is that in a free market business failures are not just normal, they’re crucial for the best products and ideas to emerge. Most restaurants fail in their first three years because customers have other preferences. Many mom-and-pop grocers go out of business because Walmart offers better selection and lower prices. Even whole industries--think typewriters, 8-tracks and horses and buggies--vanish because new inventions and competitors arise.

None of these failures are a problem, nor do they threaten the system. On the contrary, they are an inherent part of the progress which only capitalism makes possible.

So why would failures in the financial industry be any different?

Typically, the answer given is also the one used to rationalize the creation of the Federal Reserve, the FDIC, the FSLIC and any number of other government agencies and regulations intended to “manage” the banking system: financial firms carry systemic risks for the nation’s economy and therefore can’t be allowed to fail. As evidence, bank failures from 1870 to 1913 (pre-Fed) are cited, followed by the assertion that their number was simply “unacceptable.”

But every business forms part of the economic system and thus has “systemic” impact. If Microsoft were to fail, thousands of suppliers, customers, and workers would be affected, as would their customers, suppliers, workers, etc. Yet this would be no reason to bail them out. We know that new businesses would arise to fill the void, better for having learned from Microsoft’s mistakes.

And as a historical fact, the U.S. economy during the period 1870 to 1913 grew significantly faster than it did after the Fed was established. True, there were many bank failures in this period, but there were also many business failures in general: banks were actually less likely to fail than were other businesses. The number of bank failures speaks to the dynamism of the period, not to anything fragile in the financial system. Precisely because market mechanisms were permitted to work, depositors, creditors and counterparties all kept a close eye on banks, monitoring leverage and withdrawing funds at the first sign of problems.

When the free market functions--and failure is allowed--people become viscerally aware of risk, with the result that they voluntarily assume less of it.

Conversely, when the government tries to “manage” the economy--when the consequences of risky behavior are shifted from self-interested actors to taxpayers, as was done by the creation of the Fed and its various insurance programs, or when weak financial firms are propped up rather than being allowed to fail--people take on risks they would not otherwise. Banks are less careful, depositors no longer evaluate their institutions, and risks are concealed and amplified until they become catastrophic.

So pre-Fed we had runs on banks, some undoubtedly severe--but with the Fed we’ve had the Great Depression, the S&L meltdown and now perhaps the greatest worldwide credit crisis ever.

An analogy may be helpful here. Historically certain types of forests naturally experienced frequent, but small, wildfires. Because their frequency kept deadwood at a minimum, the fires never grew into large conflagrations. However, when government forestry services instituted fire suppression policies, they eliminated most small fires, but caused deadwood and other fuel to accumulate. When at last a fire came that could not be suppressed, it grew into a devastating inferno.

Learning from their errors, forestry services have abandoned fire suppression policies.

It’s time for our government to do likewise. First, by immediately abandoning its bailout binge, and then by phasing out all of the economic controls by which it attempts to “manage” the financial system--from the FDIC to the Federal Reserve itself. Nothing less can reestablish the freedom essential for a sound and vibrant economy.

Amit Ghate is a guest writer for the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. The Ayn Rand Center is a division of the Ayn Rand Institute and promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of “Atlas Shrugged” and “The Fountainhead.”

*      *      *
U.S. Deaths in Iraq Plunge to Wartime Low
[It's more dangerous to live in Chicago!]
Friday, October 31, 2008 4:30 PM

BAGHDAD -- U.S. deaths in Iraq fell in October to their lowest monthly level of the war, matching the record low of 13 fatalities suffered in July. Iraqi deaths fell to their lowest monthly levels of the year.   Eight of the 13 Americans died in combat, most of them in northern Iraq where al-Qaida and other Sunni insurgent groups remain active. The U.S. military suffered 25 deaths in September and 23 in August.

The sharp drop in American fatalities reflects the overall security improvements across the country following the Sunni revolt against al-Qaida and the rout suffered by Shiite extremists in fighting last spring in Basra and Baghdad.

But the decline also points to a shift in tactics by extremist groups, which U.S. commanders say are now focusing their attacks on Iraqi soldiers and police that are doing much of the fighting.

Iraqi government figures showed at least 364 Iraqis killed in October _ including police, soldiers, civilians and militants.

Balance of article at:
http://newsmax.com/international/ml_iraq/2008/10/31/146436.html

Pro-Obama ACORN gang members tied to election crimes

Wackonomics -- Dr,. Walter E. Williams
A great economist challenges some common assumptions about the way things work.

I strongly oppose the superficially "libertarian" positions expressed in the media against California Proposition 8 which would ban same-sex marriage; and although I am in favor of Prop 8, I am nevertheless disappointed and unpersuaded by the conservative and religious arguments for it.

The conventional libertarian argument against ballot initiatives and laws which ban same-sex marriage is that the state should not have anything to do with sanctioning marriage in the first place.  However, this would lead to an expansionist libertinism where politicians would be continually seeking new constituencies to provide sanction for marriage, not limited government libertarianism. To resolve this problem a bright line first needs to be drawn between what is expansionist versus limited government with regard to marriage.

The arguments in favor of California Prop 8 are overly defensive, conjectural, seemingly discriminatory and wrongly moralistic. Concern over a speculative future harm to children as the weakest members of society will not likely overcome the perception of actual discrimination against gays today in the eyes of much of the liberal public.

Conversely, the arguments against Prop 8 on the basis of injustice and unfairness and the unhappiness and social stigma inflicted on gays by denying them the sanction of marriage equally miss the mark.  The social status of gay couples is no different than that of anyone else who lives in an unmarried status, including widows.

The utopian notion that progressive “change” will overcome the “centuries long struggle for civil rights” for gays is historically myopic. The past Progressive reforms of busing in our public schools (“white flight”) and recent reform of affordable housing credit as a civil right (“sub-prime” loan foreclosures and investor wipe-outs) are tragic cases of the unintended consequences of the misguided quest for “civil rights.”

The word “marriage” comes from the Latin word “mater” for mother. And “mater” is what matters in marriage. Marriage is unavoidably built around female sexuality and procreation. Marriage can only concern a relationship to a woman for procreation. Marriage is the opposite of concubinage, which is an involuntary relationship with a man of higher status in a traditional society.

Civil libertarian and feminist philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote "over one's mind and over one's body the individual is sovereign."  A social order that doesn’t protect a woman from rape or incest or concubinage can’t give women freedom to control who the father(s) of their children are, or their own bodies, or even their own health. Marriage is the structure of this freedom of choice for women in a modern society.  Women’s freedom to control access to their body is what marriage is all about. Without that there is no legitimate societal basis for laws to protect marriage, including gay marriage.

Feminists are essentially right about marriage but not same-sex marriage. Defining marriage down to a mere contract between companions or non-procreative sex partners will only end up harming all women for if everyone can marry, no one needs to and it becomes meaningless. Women will ultimately suffer most. Gay marriage robs something that belongs exclusively to women. Man-woman marriage is not anti-gay, it is pro-feminine. Same sex marriage is anti-feminist.

Modern society has no legal basis to sanction same-sex marriage because there is no procreation, no need for protection and safety and no need to preserve freedom and choice for women.

Same-sex marriage is expansive, not limited government.  If we grant rights to one group - gays - we will find it politically impossible to deny marriage rights to others scripted with their own resumes of "victimization."

Traditional society is about fate; modern society about choice.  Modern marriage isn’t a conspiracy of patriarchs, straights, or the respectable capitalistic bourgeoisie class. It is about the sovereignty and choice of individual women.

The only basis for government to sanction marriage is to preserve freedom for women not to elevate the status of a few famous elite gays. This transcends the politics and religion of Left and Right. Even though I am disappointed with the arguments of the proponents for Prop 8, I nonetheless urge you to Vote Yes on Prop 8 as the libertarian option.

Wayne Lusvardi is a Pasadena resident.

OCTOBER 22, 2008

The Myth that Laissez Faire Is Responsible
for Our Financial Crisis -- Dr. George Reisman

Was the Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis Caused by Lack of Regulations? -- William B. Conerly

Another "Deregulation" Myth:  A cautionary tale about financial rules that failed  -- WSJ

Hawaii ending universal child health care program -- Breitbart.com
The budget-busting scheme failed after only seven months.

Lessons from the Bailout -- Dr. Walter E. Williams

The Deregulation Mantra? -- John Stossel
Blame "deregulation"?  What "deregulation"?

The Betrayal of America  -- Edward Cline

Hugo Chavez calls Bush a "comrade" in socialism:  "Bush is to the left of me now!"
Whether mockery or not, Chavez is correct, unfortunately.

Karl Marx Wanted Poster

ACORN is an important issue now because of at least two reasons:  it was a significant factor in causing the current mortgage financial crisis, and it has been involved in massive voter registration fraud on behalf of their favorite presidential candidate (Barack Obama) and other Democrat politicians.  There is an election coming up soon in all 59 states (as Obama would put it) and the world is also currently reacting to the financial crisis triggered by the mortgage mess which ACORN helped to precipitate.  I can think of no more relevant an issue for the American people to be aware of  than ACORN, its history, nature, and connection to current events.  Crooked political oafs from corrupt ACORNs grow.

ACORN members have staged demonstrations in lobbies of banks and S&Ls, deliberately obstructing foot traffic and trying to intimidate customers from doing their business.  ACORN has had its people get in lines at banks and other lending institutions with jars of pennies just to hold up the line while the tellers count out the pennies and give them bills in exchange -- then they get back in the same line again to make change.  Over and over, continually, to slow and disrupt business until the bank or S&L capitulated by agreeing to make their demanded quota of low-income home loans on high-risk terms.  This kind of pressure coupled with the push during the Clinton Administration by Barney Frank, Christopher Dodd, Nancy Pelosi, et al for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to make even more such high-risk, uneconomic loans to officially designated "minorities" and others were behind the bubble of bad loans which led to the current mortgage crisis.

It was coercion, both the coercion of government intervention in the housing market and also the coercion of criminal gangs like ACORN that led to the current Dodd-Frank mortgage mess.  Many of the same culprits are now involved in massive voter fraud in several states trying to fix the election in favor of the Democrat Party.  This is something that I think people should know about.

The "mainstream" media support Obama and are not likely to tell much if any of the truth about ACORN and its connection to the current presidential candidate.  Obama's website denies he worked for ACORN either as an attorney or as a trainer, but ACORN officials brag that he not only worked for ACORN as a lawyer but also was involved in their annual training sessions.  Here is a picture of Mr. Obama at just one of those ACORN training sessions:~SW

Barack Obama's Involvement with ACORN Unearthed, Missing Article Recovered

While Barack Obama's connection with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has not gone entirely unreported, it has not been fully explained. Most media background pieces simply note Obama's involvement in a 1995 lawsuit on behalf of ACORN. Obama's own website, as well as most major media, fail to reveal the full depth and extent of his relationship with the organization.

Attempts to hide evidence of Obama's involvement with ACORN have included wiping the web clean of potentially damaging articles that had appeared, and were previously publicly accessible. Unfortunately, those behind the attempted cover-up failed to realize that in today's day and age, nothing disappears forever. There also exists another layer of the web, the hidden web, which is full of information included in proprietary scholarly databases where these very same "missing" articles can be easily uncovered.

Obama's campaign website states:

Fact: Barack was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity.

Is that really a FACT, or just another lie? Let's take a look at a quote from a 2004 article - Case Study: Chicago- The Barack Obama Campaign - written by Toni Foulkes, a Chicago ACORN Leader, which was published in the journal Social Policy. Did we mention that Social Policy recently pulled this particular article from their website, while leaving links to all other articles up?

"Obama took the case, known as ACORN vs. Edgar (the name of the Republican governor at the time) and we won. Obama then went on to run a voter registration project with Project VOTE in 1992 that made it possible for Carol Moseley Braun to win the Senate that year. Project VOTE delivered 50,000 newly registered voters in that campaign (ACORN delivered about 5,000 of them).

Since then, we have invited Obama to our leadership training sessions to run the session on power every year, and, as a result, many of our newly developing leaders got to know him before he ever ran for office. Thus it was natural for many of us to be active volunteers in his first campaign for State Senate and then his failed bid for U.S. Congress in 1996. By the time he ran for U.S. Senate, we were old friends."

Not only does Foulkes boast of Obama's ACORN leadership training, but also makes it clear that Obama's post-law school organizing of "Project VOTE" in 1992 was undertaken in direct partnership with ACORN. The tie between Project VOTE and ACORN is also something that Obama and others have attempted to disprove in recent weeks as ACORN has come under fire for allegations of voter registration fraud.

As recently as March 2008, the Los Angeles Times also made reference to Barack Obama's involvement with ACORN:

"At the time, Talbot worked at the social action group ACORN and initially considered Obama a competitor. But she became so impressed with his work that she invited him to help train her staff." (LA Times, March 2, 2008)

All this information was easily pulled up with minimal time investment. It took less than thirty minutes to find, despite attempts by some to bury the truth. If I could find this with little effort, imagine what could be dug up with a serious, in-depth investigation. Scary, isn't it?

Nevertheless, Barack Obama's campaign website continues to lie and deny the truth about his involvement and association with ACORN. No matter how many times you say it, it does not make it true. The facts do not lie, Senator Obama. It's time to come clean and tell the truth, and it's time for the American people to demand it.

***Update: A person who left a comment on the story below (thank you) has notified us that the Obama website has changed. We have done a follow up story that can be read following this link Here is our follow up story:

http://www.Cleveland.com/node/7231 ***

OCTOBER 10, 2008

ACORN: A Clear and Present Danger
by Burt Prelutsky

As you may have noticed, left-wingers really hate to lose. That’s why, even eight years after the fact, they are still wringing their hands over the 2000 presidential election. They still insist that George W. Bush and the Republicans swiped it, even though several objective sources have since confirmed that, chads or no chads, Bush carried Florida, and that Sandra Day O’Connor, otherwise a heroine to leftists, was one of the Supreme Court justices who ruled against Al Gore, the candidate who couldn’t even carry his home state. Which is reason enough all of us should be forever grateful to the voters in Tennessee.

The idea that the Democrats have been crying “Foul!” for eight long years should appeal to everyone who appreciates irony. For it is those on the far left who have done everything in their power to corrupt the election process. One of their chief means of doing so has been through the activities of a group known as ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). With approximately 175,000 dues-paying members, they own TV stations, businesses and periodicals, and have offices stretching from Canada to Peru, with over 80 offices in the U.S.

To give you some idea how all-encompassing the group is, they have schools where the children of leftists are trained in class-consciousness; they run boot camps for training street activists; and, like Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition, they extort money from banks and other businesses by threatening racial violence and trumped-up civil rights charges. One can almost imagine Marx, Lenin and Stalin, shaking their heads in admiration and hoisting their glasses in toast.

Apparently, the members of ACORN have gained control of the New York City government, resulting in a rollback of welfare reform; the appointment of a politicized Civilian Review Board, empowered to prosecute police officers and ban racial and ethnic profiling in the city that experienced 9/11 firsthand; raise corporate taxes; and is attempting to prevent any corporation from fleeing the city without obtaining an “exit visa.” Even before Berkeley got around to having its own foreign policy, New York’s City Council, by a 31-17 vote, passed a resolution condemning the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

For several years, the leadership covered up the fact that Dale Rathke, the brother of Wade Rathke, who co-founded ACORN, had embezzled nearly a million dollars from the organization. Once the theft finally came to light, the excuse given for not informing the authorities was that those of us on the right would use it as an excuse to attack the group. That of course is an obvious lie. Those of us on the right have far better reasons than financial skullduggery to attack ACORN. In fact, I, for one, regard Dale Rathke as something of a folk hero. I say it was far better that he squandered his ill-gotten gains on wine, women and song, than that the group got to spend it subverting the democratic process.

These people, self-proclaimed defenders of freedom, liberty and the working man -- or, more often, non-working man -- devote most of their energy and resources to making sure that they fix elections in much the same way that crooked gamblers fix fights. During the 2004 election cycle, ACORN ran a “voter mobilization drive” that resulted in countless allegations of fraudulent voter registration, vote-rigging and vote-for-pay scams. One of their specialties was registering convicted felons. Attorney generals in many states filed charges against several members of the group, charges that included voter-intimidation, vandalism and the destruction of voter registration forms.

What I have not been able to figure out is why the leaders of the group have not been indicted under RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) for taking part in an ongoing criminal organization. The only logical reason that the feds have backed off is because of ACORN’s close ties to organized labor. Tragically, in 2008 America, it’s not only individuals who are easily intimidated, but the government itself.

It’s no surprise that Barack Obama is ACORN’s choice for the White House. ACORN, after all, was created by those who subscribed to Saul Alinsky’s left-wing belief that class warfare is the only war worth fighting and that in order to win it, the ends always justify the means. And however much the left has recently attempted to pass off “community organizer” as a Christ-like vocation, everyone in his right mind knows that these days it’s code for Communist activist.

To my way of thinking, as catastrophic as it would be if Sen. Obama were to wind up in the White House, it would be far worse if he were to be elected because he and his colleagues had stolen the election.

An acorn, as we all know, is a nut. ACORN, however, home to 175,000 nuts, are the seeds, not of mighty oaks, but of political stinkweed, and the sooner they’re eradicated, the better.

The Audacity of Socialism -- Investors Business Daily
An exploration of the record of Barack Obama

*   *   *
OCTOBER 9, 2008

 Lessons From the Bailout
More on the Dodd-Frank Mortgage Mess
by Walter E. Williams
Wednesday, October 08, 2008

In my more cynical moments, I think that we Americans deserve what we get from our politicians, many of whom can be generally described as nothing less than loathsome. You say, "Williams, that's a pretty heavy putdown." My question to you is how else would you describe these congressmen who are now blaming the financial mess on the failure of the free market? Starting with the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, that was given more teeth during the Clinton administration, Congress started intimidating banks and other financial institutions into making loans, so-called subprime loans, to high-risk homebuyers and businesses. The carrot offered was that these high-risk loans would be purchased by the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Anyone with an ounce of brains would have known that this was a prescription for disaster but there was a congressional chorus of denial.

Five years ago, Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) vouched for the "soundness" of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and said, "I do not see any possibility of serious financial losses to the treasury." In 2004 congressional hearings, where the Bush administration sought greater oversight over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said, "We do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac and particularly at Fannie Mae," adding that "the GSEs have exceeded their housing goals." Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) said, "There's nothing wrong with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." In these hearings Barney Frank said that he doesn't see "anything in the reports that raises safety and soundness problems." Earlier this year, Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) praised Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for "riding to the rescue" to help people get home mortgage loans, adding that they "need to do more" to help high-risk borrowers get better loans.

The financial collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is not a failure of the free market because lending institutions in a free market would not have taken on the high-risk loans. They were forced to by the heavy hand of government. The solution is not a taxpayer-financed bailout. The solution is to let them fail and allow the people who invested in them, as well as the people who purchased homes they couldn't afford, suffer the losses. Of course that takes a level of political courage that is in short supply. There are other measures that should be taken as part of a second-best solution.

In 2002, when the Enron and WorldCom scandal broke, the Congress held hearings and some chief executives were jailed. Who did what was the big story in the major news media almost every night. Congress rushed to enact the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002. The act placed unnecessary, onerous and costly accounting standards on American businesses. The Enron and WorldCom debacle is a drop in the bucket compared to the financial mess that Congress has created through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in the name of "affordable" housing. Have you heard Congress calling for hearings? They haven't called for hearings because many of them, both Democrats and Republicans, receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars, were in cahoots with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If Americans are going to be on the hook to bail out these government-sponsored enterprises, at the minimum congressional hearings ought to be held to find out who did what and when.

Corporations employ accounting practices promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) that established Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and government agencies have accounting practices that don't come close to, and never did, the honesty of private accounting practices. Accounting fraud and deception are the dominant features of government agencies. If a private business kept and cooked the books, like government agencies do, the top executives would go to jail. Shouldn't the accounting standards businesses have to meet be applied to Washington? My answer is yes and if a congressman says no, I'd like for him to tell us why.

    *   *   *

BARNEY FRANK'S BOYFRIEND WAS KEY FANNIE MAE DIRECTOR -- PUSHED POLICIES THAT LED TO MORTGAGE MELTDOWN

    *   *   *

Bush called for reform of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae 17 times -- but was ignored by Democrats in congress
It is too bad that Bush and other Republicans did not call for abolition of Fannie and Freddie and repeal of CRA and other interventionist legislation.  Too often when Republicans manage to get into a political majority in Congress and the Presidency they do not get rid of programs already established in the past by Democrats and RINOs; so, instead of rolling back previously established socialistic progrms, too often they accept them as the status quo.  The GOP is not nearly as "right wing" as the Democrat Party is left wing.   If the Bush administration had really managed to get deregulation of the housing industry -- as the Democrats incredibly claim -- perhaps the mortgage crisis could have been averted or resolved more quickly and permanently so it would not happen again.  Instead, the crisis was temporarily patched over and the problem kicked down the road by the Democrat-controlled Congress and a timid Bush administration.

SEPTEMBER 28, 2008

Summary of the Development of the Financial Crisis
How the Fuse Was Lit
by "Progressive" Legislation

Henry Lamb
  From World Net Daily
Posted: September 27, 2008

The meltdown in the financial markets has caused the finger of blame to spin like a weathervane in a hurricane. The underlying cause of the debacle, however, has been largely ignored. Driven by "progressive" Democrats and Republicans, the cause is the relentless shift from a free market economy to a socialist economy.

Until the Roosevelt era, the responsibility and privilege of having a home was left solely to the individual. Few people realize that Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) was created in 1938 by FDR, to provide a federal guarantee for home loans extended by local banks.

Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) was created in 1970, during Nixon's reign. Both were designed to buy mortgages from local lenders as a way to insure an adequate supply of money for local lenders. These "secondary" mortgages were packaged into "bundles" of securities that were traded among an array of financial institutions.

During the 1960s, the United Nations produced the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. Article V(e)(iii) proclaimed that all people had a "right" to housing. Both the Kennedy and Johnson administrations supported the treaty, but it was not ratified until the Clinton administration, Nov. 20, 1994. No one noticed or connected the dots to the emerging socialist, communitarian concept called "sustainable development." Grass-roots organizations across the nation were deeply involved in preventing ratification of another U.N. treaty, the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was also under consideration at the time.

To meet its obligations under the U.N.'s Racial Discrimination Treaty, the Clinton administration instructed Fannie Mae to expand loans to low-income borrowers, according to Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman. Thus, the "sub-prime" market was born, and government guaranteed-loans were extended to millions of families who could not qualify for a mortgage in a free market economy, but easily qualified under the new socialist scheme.

In 2005, Republican senators saw the danger and tried to reform these institutions with the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulator Reform Act (S.190), but Democrats blocked the bill.

Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were institutions that were neither purely socialist, nor purely free market – a blend that is best described as communitarian, in that they allowed private investors to buy and hold shares in the corporations, but were also guaranteed by the federal government. That is, until recently, when the federal government took over both institutions. Now, the federal government essentially owns all those properties – a result that is as socialist as had the government nationalized those properties by force.

AIG, the international insurance giant, and other Wall Street and international financial institutions bought the bundles of mortgage securities that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac offered. Everybody involved made a ton of money, and housing for low-income families expanded exponentially – just as the Treaty on Racial Discrimination and the proponents of sustainable development had predicted. With all the new loans being made, the home building industry flourished, the real estate industry flourished, all industries related to housing flourished – until the market became saturated.

Home values stopped rising. Housing inventories began to rise. Home values began to decline. Foreclosures began to rise. Homebuilding slowed, housing-related industries began to lay off workers. Energy prices began to rise. Paychecks fell short of family needs. Foreclosures skyrocketed. Suddenly, there was little or no value in the bundles of security Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had packaged. Financial institutions found themselves in possession of massive "assets" that had no value. Creak, crumble, crash! The financial markets came tumbling down.

The piper must be paid. The question is whether to do it now – and let the chips fall where they may, or, to kick the can down the road and pay the piper later. The answer, of course, is to kick the can into the next generation, with another leap toward socialism. The bailout plan – whatever the particulars – is nothing short of a government takeover of the financial industry. The next president will have to sort it out and build the road toward future recovery or final disaster.

Barack Obama's incessant drumbeat about the failure of the economic policies of the last eight years is either gross ignorance or, more likely, political blame shifting. The cause of the current meltdown is clearly the Democrat's insistence upon giving federally guaranteed mortgages to people who could not afford them. Even now, Democrats insist, not on the minimum government involvement possible, but on adding all sorts of give-away ornaments on the bailout Christmas tree. Obama is also promising to take over the energy industry, the health industry, and to give tax credits and even refunds to some people with money he shamelessly takes from others. This is redistribution of wealth – pure socialism.

McCain may be only marginally better, but any deterrent to the Democrats' determined transformation of America to unabashed socialism should be welcomed. Despite the U.N.'s declaration to the contrary, no person has a "right" to housing. If Democrats prevail and continue their pursuit of the U.N'.s goal of universal socialism, America can expect to experience the same total collapse experienced by the Soviet Union.

Ultimately, the piper must be paid.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=76302

SEPTEMBER 27, 2008

The Betrayal of the American Taxpayers
by Sam Wells

It's pretty clear that the ONLY people in Washington that are going to bat for the American taxpayers are the conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives.  They are like the little Dutch boy holding his finger in the dike.  They are the only ones opposing this outrageous bailout proposal from Secretary Paulson (and which they trotted President Bush out to support on TV the other night).

The Democrats and the Bush Administration are trying to push this outrageous corporate welfare bailout scheme down the throats of American taxpayers.  The only real opposition is coming from the pro-freedom minority in the House of Representatives.  It's the conservative Republicans in the House on one side versus  the House Democrats, the Senate Democrats, the Senate Republicans, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Chairman, and the President of the United States on the other.  The House Repubs are the good guys --  the ONLY ones standing up for capitalism and the American taxpayers at this point!  The House conservative Repubs  need to get some positive feedback -- to hear applause and support from Americans.  They are the only heroes in Washington and they may not hold out much longer.

Meanwhile, here is my alternative proposal to Paulson's bailout scheme:

1.  Abolish the capital gains tax.

2.  Defund ACORN.  No more taxpayer money to groups like ACORN!  And repeal the Community Reinvestment Act and all other such legislation.

3.  Sell off Fannie and Freddie assets to highest bidders.  Let prices fall to whatever is necessary to clear the market.

4.  Frog march the following crooks and culprits to federal lockups:  Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, Christopher Dodd, Barney Frank, Charles Schumer and initiate an independent investigation of all those individuals who served as officers or board members on, or had any supervisory or oversight responsibilities over, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

5.  No bailout money from taxpayers.  Let the hammer fall!  Clear the unsound politically-induced investments and loans.

6.  Forbid the federal government from ever again getting involved in the mortgage industry or housing market.  We don't need government's reverse Midas touch meddling in the marketplace.

What about those brokers and lenders who made fat fees and bonuses off the bad loans and deals?  Of course, many gladly cashed in on and took advantage of the politically-induced, "politically correct" pressures to make the bad deals and get fees for them --  but it can also be argued that many were coerced/blackmailed into doing it by the federal government agencies and groups like ACORN.  They were not all fully willing accessories to the unsound mortgage practices.  One of the greatest evils of government meddling in the market is that it blurs the distinction between the good and moral on one side and the evil and immoral on the other, and it is sometimes virtually impossible to practically separate the villains from the victims.  In an avalanche, no single snowflake feels responsible.  But I hold those who actively and deliberately created the agencies and interventionist context which led to the (easily predictable) crisis to be most culpable.

From left: Christopher Cox, Henry Paulson,
Harry Reid, Richard Shelby, Nancy Pelosi,
Chris Dodd and Ben Bernanke.  Barney Frank must
have been hiding in the background.

Economists such as Walter Williams and George Reisman and Milton Friedman, as well as a few conservative Republicans in the House, all warned of this long ago.  If such financial crises are to be avoided in the future, their warnings should be heeded instad of being ignored.

By repealing the Community Reinvestment Act signed by Carter and all the legislation that created Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and all the other government involvements in the housing industry as well as the antidiscriminaiton legislaiton, we could go to a true free market in housing and this would make certain that this kind of mortgage crisis could not occur again in the future.  Of course, initially the housing bubble artificially blown up by political involvement would collapse, and prices would fall to their true market levels.  That is a necessary corrective.

But, even if a fully free market were to be established today -- right now -- even the free market could not completely reverse or undo all the malinvestments, resource misallocations, and all the harm done as a consequence of the interventionism of the past.  Again, one of the worst evils of legislation like the Community Reinvestment Act and Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and other forms of government intervention in the economy in general is that it blurs the distinction between good and evil and often makes anything close to accountability and perfect justice virtually impossible to achieve.  So, even if America were politically ready to go to a fully free market economy, there would be, I am sure, many malefactors who would never get their comeuppance.

SEPTEMBER 16, 2008

Continuing to demonstrate why he is still Numero Uno in talk radio, El Rushbo explains why the Democrats are so politically vulnerable on the issue of the economy, particularly the mortgage crisis which they set into motion and presided over, as well as the issue of American access to energy.  Is McCain savvy enougn to run with these issues that are falling right into his lap?

Even Robert Reich admits that Democrats caused the mortgage mess.
The culprits include Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, Chris Dodd, Barney Franke, Chalres Schumer, Frank Raines, Jamie Gorelick, et al.  Why aren't the Republcans calling for a special prosecutor to investigate these Clinton-era crooks and demanding that they repay the millions they raked off for themselves?

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

Rush correctly identifies government intervention as the cause of the mortgage industry debacle and warns us not to let "free market capitalism" (which has not existed in the housing market) take the blame for what the liberal-left politicians and bureaucrats have done.  Rush explains the real roots of this financial crisis:
Capitalism isn't the problem -- it's the solution!

Listen to Rush's entire program:

First Hour           Second Hour           Third Hour

SEPTEMBER 13, 2008

Charlie Gibson's Gaffe:  In trying to trip up Gov. Palin with a trick question, Wilson exposed his own ignorance and partisan prejudice.  "Bush Doctrine" is a media term and has been applied to several policies of the Bush Administration.

SEPTEMBER 11, 2008

Capitalism versus Terrorism by Jerry Bowyer
America's strong defense and survivability depends on market capitalism (what's left of it).

*   *   *

Despite our several strong disagreements with much of what President Bush has done (and not done), it is only right that we give him his due.  September 11th  is an appropriate date on which to do that, and Ann Coulter does it here:

Bush 7, Terrorists 0
by Ann Coulter

Morose that there hasn't been another terrorist attack on American soil for seven long years, liberals were ecstatic when Hurricane Gustav was headed toward New Orleans during the Republican National Convention last week. The networks gave the hurricane plenty of breaking-news coverage -- but unfortunately it was Hurricane Katrina from 2005 they were covering.

On Keith Olbermann's Aug. 29 show on MSNBC, Michael Moore said the possibility of a Category 3 hurricane hitting the United States "is proof that there is a God in heaven." Olbermann responded: "A supremely good point."

Actually, Olbermann said that a few minutes later to some other idiotic point Moore had made, but that's how Moore would have edited the interview for one of his "documentaries," so I will, too. I would only add that Michael Moore's morbid obesity is proof that there is a Buddha.

Hurricane Gustav came and went without a hitch. What a difference a Republican governor makes!

As many have pointed out, the reason elected officials tend to neglect infrastructure projects, like reinforcing levees in New Orleans and bridges in Minneapolis, is that there's no glory when a bridge doesn't collapse. There are no round-the-clock news specials when the levees hold. You can't even name an overpass retrofitting project after yourself -- it just looks too silly. But everyone's taxes go up to pay for the reinforcements.

Preventing another terrorist attack is like that. There is no media coverage when another 9/11 doesn't happen. We can thank God that President George Bush didn't care about doing the safe thing for himself; he cared about keeping Americans safe. And he has, for seven years.

If Bush's only concern were about his approval ratings, like a certain impeached president I could name, he would not have fought for the Patriot Act and the war in Iraq. He would not have resisted the howling ninnies demanding that we withdraw from Iraq, year after year. By liberals' own standard, Bush's war on terrorism has been a smashing, unimaginable success.

A year after the 9/11 attack, The New York Times' Frank Rich was carping about Bush's national security plans, saying we could judge Bush's war on terror by whether there was a major al-Qaida attack in 2003, which -- according to Rich -- would have been on al-Qaida's normal schedule.

Rich wrote: "Since major al-Qaida attacks are planned well in advance and have historically been separated by intervals of 12 to 24 months, we will find out how much we've been distracted soon enough." ("Never Forget What?" New York Times, Sept. 14, 2002.)

There wasn't a major al-Qaida attack in 2003. Nor in 2004, 2005, 2006 or 2007. Manifestly, liberals thought there would be: They announced a standard of success that they expected Bush to fail.

As Bush has said, we have to be right 100 percent of the time, the terrorists only have to be right one time. Bush has been right 100 percent of the time for seven years -- so much so that Americans have completely forgotten about the threat of Islamic terrorism.

For his thanks, President Bush has been the target of almost unimaginable calumnies -- the sort of invective liberals usually reserve for seniors who don't separate their recyclables properly. Compared to liberals' anger at Bush, there has always been something vaguely impersonal about their "anger" toward the terrorists.

By my count, roughly one in four books in print in the world at this very moment have the words "Bush" and "Lie" in their title. Barnes & Noble has been forced to add an "I Hate Bush" section. I don't believe there are as many anti-Hitler books.

Despite the fact that Hitler brought "change," promoted clean, energy-efficient mass transit by making the trains run on time, supported abortion for the non-master races, vastly expanded the power of the national government and was uniformly adored by college students and their professors, I gather that liberals don't like Hitler because they're constantly comparing him to Bush.

The ferocity of the left's attacks on Bush even scared many of his conservative allies into turning on him over the war in Iraq.

George Bush is Gary Cooper in the classic western "High Noon." The sheriff is about to leave office when a marauding gang is coming to town. He could leave, but he waits to face the killers as all his friends and all the townspeople, who supported him during his years of keeping them safe, slowly abandon him. In the end, he walks alone to meet the killers, because someone has to.

That's Bush. Name one other person in Washington who would be willing to stand alone if he had to, because someone had to.

OK, there is one, but she's not in Washington yet. Appropriately, at the end of "High Noon," Cooper is surrounded by the last two highwaymen when, suddenly, his wife (Grace Kelly) appears out of nowhere and blows away one of the killers! The aging sheriff is saved by a beautiful, gun-toting woman.

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Top Al Qaeda Operatives Killed in Pakistan
As the U.S. Steps Up its Attacks
Click here for full story.

North Korean Communist Dictator:  Sick or Dead?
But No Clear Sucessor Yet

SEPTEMBER 9, 2008

Anti-Palin Lies Pushed By the Left Are Debunked One By One...

» Read It! False Internet Claims, Rumors Fly About McCain's Running Mate
» Sarah Palin's Expenses As Governor...80% Lower Than Her Predecessor's!
» Kirsten Powers: Obama Pays Price for Bungled Attacks on Palin
» Was Joe Biden Referring to Sarah Palin's Child?
» Hillary Backers Defend Sarah

 Rush Limbaugh:  "I can't be around this pessimism and defeatism of conservatives saying, 'What are we going to do?' when they're not doing anything, except whining. You're falling prey to the age-old belief that the media and the Democrat Party are invincible. I have no patience for it." (Rush 24/7 Members: Listen Here)

The Truth About Freddie & Fannie
...The fact that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were private sector entities is a joke because the federal government always had partial ownership.  These were private sector entities with federal government involvement.  Well, right there, when they admit that, they admit that they do not have a private sector entity, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae have always been government entities.  But here's the thing, here's the thing.  The people who destroyed the housing market, the people who destroyed the mortgage industry are now running it, and everybody is going, "Yay, all right, all right, all right."  The socialists around the world are beside themselves, world stock markets through the roof over the news that the US government is taking over the mortgage industry.  ...The very thing they told us they were doing to save and protect and keep this mortgage industry aboveboard is what destroyed it!  And the truth be known, these two things have just been little playthings of the Democrats..... Full remarks.

SEPTEMBER 6, 2008

The Coming War Against Sarah Palin

I am writing this newsletter from St. Paul, MN, where Alaska Governor Sarah Palin electrified the crowd at the Republican National Convention Wednesday night. And I think it's safe to say she showed the entire country a fresh new face of conservative reform.

There was a lot of build-up to Governor Palin's speech, both in the media and among the professional Republican political class. Everyone was telling us that the speech was the Governor's big moment; if she could perform well Wednesday night, she would break free of the despicable, sustained partisan and personal attacks being leveled at her by everyone from the left-wing blogs to the elite media.

But the pundits and the consultants were wrong. Palin's success last week doesn't mean the left-wing is going to give up attacking her.  Palin's success means that now the left really has to destroy her.

Why? Because she's proved that she is an intelligent, articulate and mortal threat to the left's claim that it is the sole, legitimate voice of women and blue-collar, working Americans.

Sarah Palin is a mother of five who is also an accomplished woman. She is a lifelong member of the NRA who is also an intelligent, articulate professional.
She is pro-life in her words and in her deeds, and she controls an $11 billion budget and 15,000 Alaska state employees.

Simply put, the left has a greater vested interest in destroying her than any presidential or vice presidential candidate the Republican Party has nominated in the last fifty years.  The media will try to downplay her accomplishments as when Ron Allen of MSNBC tried to get me to accept that she had too little experience.

Echoes of the Clarence Thomas Nomination

We've seen this kind of desperation before, of course. Those of us who lived through the effort by the elites to destroy Clarence Thomas when he was nominated to sit on the Supreme Court by George H. W. Bush have an unsettling idea of the fight that lies ahead.

The left and the elites regarded Thomas - an African-American who is also a conservative - as a threat to their ability to be the arbiters of what African-Americans and other minorities should believe.

Allowing Thomas to ascend to the high court would show that skin color does not dictate political affiliation - just as allowing Sarah Palin to become vice president would show that being a woman and a blue-collar American does not dictate political party.

So they threw mud at Thomas. They called him ... (continued below) a traitor to his race.  Just like what's happening now with Governor Palin. We've seen this before.

If Palin's Still Standing in November, Republicans Will Win the Election

The road ahead promises to be bumpy. But the good news is that if Governor Palin survives the next few months as a national figure of competence and reform, then the left suddenly has a tremendous problem.  It's a problem that is bigger than just losing the election for them (which is what will happen if she is a star in November).

The left's problem will be that, at 44, Sarah Palin represents potentially 30 years of Republican Party leadership and transforming the party and America. The stakes are high, and the race is on.  It's time to brace ourselves for the coming war against Sarah Palin - and its time to win it.

~Newt Gingrich

SEPTEMBER 5, 2008

\
Sarah Palin of Alaska
(a lot better than Lieberman!)

The Best Man Turned Out to Be a Woman! by Ann Coulter
But is Palin prepared for the onslaught from the Democrats' liberal smear machine?

Vice President Cheney slams Russia over war against Georgia
I don't care if he is a member of the CFR; I still like Cheney.

UK Environmental Minister Denounces Global Warming Hysteria as "Pseudo Religion"

White House Disputes Woodward's Election-Season Book as Partisan Political Propaganda

Bill Maher Mocks Sarah Palin's Down Syndrome Child
In bad taste.  How low will this unfunny comedian go in his leftist partisan pique?

Victory in Iraq!  Why Big Media is burying the story of the year

Partisan Bias:  Oprah Declares Her Refusal to Interview Palin
This is hardly a surprise.  Oprah had no problem supporting pro-communist California congresscritter Barbara Lee, friend of Huge Chavez and Fidel Castro, and one of the most corrupt and virulently anti-American politicans in D.C.

Sarah Palin - Acceptance Speech - Republican National Convention (09/03/08)

SEPTEMBER 1, 2008

O = ZERO
Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
Thursday, 05 June 2008

The O-man, Barack Hussein Obama, is an eloquently tailored empty suit.  No résumé, no accomplishments, no experience, no original ideas, no understanding of how the economy works, no understanding of how the world works, no balls, nothing but abstract empty rhetoric devoid of real substance.

He has no real identity. He is half-white, which he rejects.  The rest of him is mostly Arab, which he hides but is disclosed by his non-African Arabic surname and his Arabic first and middle names as a way to triply proclaim his Arabic parentage to people in Kenya.  Only a small part of him is African Black from his Luo grandmother, which he pretends he is exclusively.

What he isn't, not a genetic drop of, is "African-American," the descendant of enslaved Africans brought to America chained in slave ships.  He hasn't a single ancestor who was a slave.  Instead, his Arab ancestors were slave owners.  Slave-trading was the main Arab business in East Africa for centuries until the British ended it.

Let that sink in:  Obambi is not the descendant of slaves, he is the descendant of slave owners.  Thus he makes the perfect Liberal Messiah.

It's something Hillary doesn't understand - how some complete neophyte came out of the blue and stole the Dem nomination from her.  Obamamania is beyond politics and reason.  It is a true religious cult, whose adherents reject Christianity yet still believe in Original Sin, transferring it from the evil of being human to the evil of being white.

Thus Obambi has become the white liberals' Christ, offering absolution from the Sin of Being White.  There is no reason or logic behind it, no faults or flaws of his can diminish it, no arguments Hillary could make of any kind can be effective against it.  The absurdity of Hypocrisy Clothed In Human Flesh being their Savior is all the more cause for liberals to worship him:  Credo quia absurdum, I believe it because it is absurd.

Thank heavens that the voting majority of Americans remain Christian and are in no desperate need of a phony savior.

Obama is a Zero.  There is nothing really there.  O=Zero.  You can get a O=Zero bumper sticker for your car, a O=Zero t-shirt, encourage your friends to do the same, and get the message out there:

That his candidacy is ridiculous and should not be taken seriously by any thinking American.

http://www.tothepointnews.com/content/view/3227/44/\

*   *   *

AUGUST 15, 2008

Nevada's Interesting GOP Primary
The conservatibvd base will be heard!

Georgia Under Cyber Attack As Well As Russian Military Invasion

*   *   *
San Fran Nan Pelosi Is Our Neville Chamberlain
 Neville Pelosi: dangerously inept and naive

By Ronald Kessler

With her trip to Syria, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi achieved two things: She undercut her own credibility in Washington, and she spotlighted what is wrong with the Democrats’ approach to national security.

The spectacle of Pelosi making nice with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Damascus and accepting at face value his claim that he is ready to “resume the peace process” with Israel had a large portion of official Washington tittering.

At the same time, Syrian authorities were telling the local press that there had been no change in its position. And Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Pelosi that “a number of Senate and House members who recently visited Damascus received the impression that despite the declarations of Bashar al-Assad, there is no change in the position of his country regarding a possible peace process with Israel.”

Pelosi’s Charade

Moreover, Pelosi misrepresented Israel’s position to Assad, announcing that she had delivered a message from Olmert that “Israel was ready to engage in peace talks” with Syria. Olmert quickly issued a statement denying that.

Even the Washington Post saw through the charade.

“Ms. Pelosi not only misrepresented Israel’s position, but was virtually alone in failing to discern that Mr. Assad’s words were mere propaganda,” an editorial in the paper said. The editorial added that “Ms. Pelosi’s attempt to establish a shadow presidency is not only counterproductive, it is foolish.”

While that is certainly true, the specter of Pelosi naively chatting with Assad and announcing that she had helped achieve a diplomatic breakthrough also highlights all that is wrong with the Democrats’ approach to foreign police today.

Syria hosts the exiled leadership of Hamas, as well as other Palestinian radical groups, and is a major supplier of funds to Hezbollah. Syria is also believed to be involved in the assassination of Lebanese political figures and allowing its territory to be used by jihadists fighting against the United States-led coalition and the coalition-backed government in Iraq.

History Repeats

Pelosi’s willingness to undercut the president and accept the word of the chief of state of a sponsor of terrorism is on a par with the Democrats’ effort to set a timetable for fighting the war in Iraq. It brings to mind the efforts of Joseph P. Kennedy, the founder of the Kennedy dynasty, to appease Adolf Hitler.

As ambassador to the Court of St. James, Joe Kennedy met on June 13, 1938 with Herbert von Dirksen, the German ambassador. The two got along famously, and Dirksen later reported on the conversation in great detail to Baron Ernst von Weizsacker, the German state secretary.

According to that report, Kennedy confided to the German ambassador that Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister, was anxious to have some sort of settlement with Germany. By saying this, he undercut Great Britain’s negotiating position with Hitler. Moreover, Kennedy said President Roosevelt was not anti-German and wanted friendly relations with Hitler. However, no European leader spoke well of the Germans because most of them were “afraid of the Jews” and did not “dare to say anything good about Germany . . .” Kennedy stated.

Even as the two met at the German embassy in London, Hitler was planning to gobble up most of Europe and exterminate the Jews. The following year, World War II began after Hitler invaded Poland.

“Speaker Pelosi is the Neville Chamberlain of our time,” said Brad Blakeman, a Republican strategist who was an aide in the Bush White House. “Cowering to and appeasing the dictator of a terrorist state was a disgrace to the high office she holds. The Syrians used this visit to validate their bad behavior by propagandizing the whole visit and her anti-war stance.”

The Pelosi visit underscores that, when it comes to dealing with our enemies, the Democrats live in a dream world. Yet when another terrorist attack occurs in the U.S., they will be the first to say President Bush did not do enough to protect the country.

___________

Ronald Kessler writes the Washington Insider column for NewsMax Magazine.

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