Terrorism threat Levels and Other Nonsense

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge claims in a new book that he was pressured by other members of President George W. Bush's Cabinet to raise the nation's terror alert level just before the 2004 presidential election. (Source: RCP)

This is right up there with Obama accusing Republicans of playing politics. Oh, the horror! Politicians playing politics!

I always thought the whole Terrorism threat levels, with its Christmas tree colors, was nonsense.

What is my 85 year old granny supposed to do with this alarming information blared out by the government? What am I supposed to do with it? Be more alert?

OK, I see two men in flowing robes and dishdashas taking pictures of a railway trestle on my way to work. Am I going to report it? Of course not! That would be identifying myself as a bigot who unfairly stereotypes people. Screw that, I don't need the hassle.

Threat levels and alerts are good things for military installations and government agencies, but do nothing for a citizenry just trying to live their daily lives.

RCP - Ridge
FEC Diary

Obama's Science Czar Demonstrates the Dangers of Progressivism

Why is John Holdren a perfect progressive?

Because he believes in grand government schemes cooked up and implemented by cognoscenti rather than letting people make their own decisions. Secondly, he has no regard for the constitution, or he is purposely stupid about its meaning. This is a dangerous combination

Population Bombs and Other Progressive Power Grabs
Zombietime has the definitive summary on his population control views, complete with page scans from the book Holdren wrote with the Ehrlichs of "The Population Bomb" fame. If you want to understand the issue completely, along with rebuttals from the Obama camp, go read that article.

Chris Mooney at Science Progress mounts a defense of Holdren, but the best he can come up with is that Holdren, in his book, was merely presenting an array or resume of population control methods, not actually advocating any of the abhorrent practices. Read his article then go to Zombietime and decide for yourself.

Holdren's Constitutional Ignorance
My criticism of this man is aimed at his obvious constitutional ignorance. Here is what Holdren wrote on page 838 of the 1977 Book, Ecoscience:

Individual rights. Individual rights must be balanced against the power of the government to control human reproduction.

Some people—respected legislators, judges, and lawyers included—have viewed the right to have children as a fundamental and inalienable right. Yet neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution mentions a right to reproduce.

Where the society has a “compelling, subordinating interest” in regulating population size, the right of the individual may be curtailed.

How did congress let this constitutionally ignorant man assume an executive branch position? No right to reproduce in the constitution? Well, there's no right to smoke cigarettes, write a book or get an abortion in there, either.

The Constitution is not an exhaustive list of our rights. It is a contract between the people, the individual states, and the federal government that was set up to serve them.

Consider the 10th Amendment:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Holdren and his ilk have is bass-ackwards
Our rights come from God, not the government. Holdren, good progressive that he is, has it exactly backwards. In his worldview, Government is all-powerful and the rights of the people are limited.

WRONG!

The Constitution limits the powers of government to what is stated in the document and acknowledges that the rights of individuals can only be circumscribed in specific instances. For a good, short commentary on this amendment, see Findlaw.

Progressives: Wrong on Eugenics, Wrong on Population Predictions, Wrong on Global Warming

That these neo-Malthusians were oh so wrong about the "population bomb," that was supposed to have killed millions by now, should give us pause as we consider the hysterical global warming claims. Predictive science is only as good as the models. And global warming advocates, like the overpopulation screamers before them, are working off of simplistic and highly speculative models with more gaps than data.

Also, ask Europe, Russia and China how population control is working out. A preponderance of old people with no one to care for them, and in Europe's case, people from other parts of the world come in to fill the vacuum, fundamentally changing the continent's culture.

This is why grand progressive schemes should always be viewed with skepticism.

Washington Examiner
Shepherd's Voice
Zombietime.com - Page Scan
LifeNews.com
Daily Dose
Zombietime.com - Holdren
Science Progress - Chris Mooney

Smart President, Dumb President

So, tell me again why Barack Obama is so smart and George Bush is so dumb?

If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky?

If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent "Austrian language," would you have brushed it off as a minor slip?

If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisors with people who cannot seem to keep current on their income taxes, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the fourth of May (Cuatro de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment?

If George W. Bush had misspelled the word advice would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as "proof" of what a dunce he is?

If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on "Earth Day," would you have concluded he's a hypocrite?

If George W. Bush's administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually "get" what happened on 9-11?

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes?

If George W. Bush had failed to send aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence?

If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had proposed to double the national debt --which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate -- in one year, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved?

If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved?

So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything? Don't worry. He's done all this in 6 months -- so you'll have three years and six months to come up with an answer.

HT to OD - Thanks for the E-mail! I don't know who wrote this, but it bears repeating.

Walter E. Williams: Rules to Avoid Poverty

Walter E. Williams, that brilliant and funny economics professor, has a few simple rules to avoid poverty:



* Graduate high school
* Get married before you have children
* If you get married, stay married
* Get a job, any job. A minimum wage job is a stepping stone
* Avoid engaging in criminal behavior

Dr. Williams on Tolerance:

It’s my personal preference that people be able to conduct their lives in any manner they please. Tolerance doesn’t require approval, only non-interference.

Tolerance also doesn’t require recognition of what one might call himself. A man and a man might call themselves married, but I’m not obliged to recognize it as such anymore than my calling myself the King of Siam should require that you recognize me as such.

He also instructs his students, when he spouts an unsubstantiated assertion without first prefacing it with "in my opinion," to raise their hand and remind him that they are paying him to teach them economics, not indoctrinate them.

This is a true teacher.

Issues & Views

Name Than Socialist Tune!

Here's a fun game!

Who made the following statements, Communist Dictator Fidel Castro or a Democratic party spokesperson?

"President Barack Obama is trying to make positive changes in the United States, but is being fought at every turn by right-wingers who hate him because he is black..."

Still can't decide? Here's some more...

Obama does not want to change the U.S. political and economic system, but "in spite of that, the extreme right hates him for being African-American and fights what the president does to improve the deteriorated image of that country"

"I don't have the slightest doubt that the racist right will do everything possible to wear him down, blocking his program to get him out of the game one way or another, at the least political cost," he said.

Who said these things? Hugo Chavez? Or angry nutroots at Daily Kook or HuffPo?

Although the Republicans ... claimed they oppose President Obama's health care plan because it would increase the nation's debt, the real reason is driven by racism and the fact that the majority who would benefit from health care reform are minorities, the poor and families burdened by uninsured health challenges

So why was it okay to raise the debt when Bush was in power but not okay to raise the debt when Obama is in power?

Because of racism...

Fidel Castro wrote the first three (Source: Reuters), but the last two came from a flaming red Hopium smoker at HuffPo.

The Democrats and their Nutbag fringe are in big trouble when you can't distinguish their rhetoric from that of a murderous Communist.

If I Had a Trillion Dollars...

Archimedes' Lever:

“Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.”
-- Archimedes

Modern political corollary:

"Give me enough money to spend and and I will fix the whole world."
-- DC Fatcat

I'm tired of hearing "if we only raised taxes and spent more money..." this big program or that government initiative would work.

Of course! Like Archimedes, if you give me enough money I can do anything. That's not the issue. The trick isbeing smart enough to figure out how to efficiently use what you've got. Working class people know that because they have to do it every day.

Bureaucrats don't know it because what they can't squeeze out of you and me they borrow from China. It's the loaves and fishes for them...

...And now, in honor of our dishonorable free-spending politicians... If I had a Million Dollars by The Bare Naked Ladies




NYU.edu - Archimedes' Lever

Dealing with Commercial Spies

Knowledge is power. Here, I'll present three levels of privacy postures - one most likely will fit you.

Here's the threat: cookies, applications, email groups, and purchases all work together to paint an accurate picture of who you are. The less information you give "little brother" (corporate America) the better off you are. Little brother likes to talk to Big Brother.

I've never been tempted by a targeted advertisement, but at one time I used to purchase targeted lists for telephone sales. $0.10 a name was the going rate at the time. These lists are broken down to almost every demographic and economic strata.

Low Privacy

- Set Internet Explorer or Firefox to block all but the necessary cookies
- Set browser to delete cookies often
- Ditch Adobe Flash Player - uses persistent cookies that aren't easily blocked. Warning: YouTube will be disabled... can you survive?
- Kill the Google cookie

Medium Privacy

- All the steps above
- Use an anonymizer when cruising controversial websites
- Do you really need to fill out that rebate card?
- Have two computers at home - one for internet use, the other for personal files. The personal computer should not be connected to the Internet.
- Subscribe to usenet groups and blogs with a pseudonym
- Use a firewall security program like ZoneAlarm that allows for in-depth program / cookie control

Very Serious Privacy

- All the steps above
- Make controversial purchases with cash and don't use your club card. That DVD of "V for Vendetta"? Whip out a $20 spot instead of the Visa. Same with any 2nd Amendment purchases also.
- Use shopping savings cards under a psuedonym. Your purchases are stored and sold to dozens of companies
- Have mail delivered to a P.O. box but not your home
- Online purchases made with prepaid debit cards
- Don't answer surveys... and consider carefully what you put on your Census form
- Consider a live CD Linux distro for your Internet computer
- Use TrueCrypt for your personal off-line computer
- Use prepaid cell phones and recharge with prepaid PINs, not your credit card

-- Hugh Farnham

Google is Watching You (And Uncle Sam is Jealous)

Yes, you are being spied on

I find it amusing how the left criticized Bush over fevered paranoid fantasies that he was spying on them but find nothing wrong with what the Obama Administration is doing. Yes, conservatives do the same in reverse. At least the ACLU is consistent.

Supporters of a change say social networking and similar services, which often take advantage of the tracking technologies, have transformed how people communicate over the Internet, and Obama's aides say those services can make government more transparent and increase public involvement.

Some privacy groups say the proposal amounts to a "massive" and unexplained shift in government policy. In a statement Monday, American Civil Liberties Union spokesman Michael Macleod-Ball said the move could "allow the mass collection of personal information of every user of a federal government website."(Source: WaPo-Web Tracking)

We're arguing over cookies while corporate America buys and sells our personal information.
Ever get one of those "opt out" letters? Unless you explicitly opt out, all the companies and government entities you do business with will traffic your personal information. Why doesn't Congress outlaw this? Because they profit from it most of all. Donor lists are the lifeblood of the non-stop campaign. Additionally, corporations make millions off of our information and they thank congress with political contributions.

Google knows way more about you than the federal government does. So does Yahoo and all those social networking sites. That's why they always want you to log in: So they can track your interests to more effectively sell you more crap. Nothing nefarious, it's just creepy targeted marketing down to the individual consumer.

Amazon has a digital memory that would make an elephant envious. I bought a Johnnie Paycheck CD from them back in 2001 when I was in Colombia, and I just got an e-mail from them today pitching the newly released, Johnny Paycheck - The Collection. We should outsource immigrant tracking to these guys.

Domestic spying is not a kook conspiracy; it really happens. Your moves are tracked and cataloged. Don't worry, you won't be thrown into some gulag, but you will endure the torture of being turned upside down to empty all the money from your pockets.

WaPo - Web Tracking

Read these books now to fight the progressive scourge

Rifqa Bary: The Muslim Girl and the Christian Pastor

The Christian Come Hither

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - The fate of a 17-year-old girl who ran away from her Ohio home because she says she feared punishment for converting from Islam to Christianity could be decided in an Orlando courtroom Friday.

The teenager disappeared last month and police used phone and computer records to track her to the Rev. Blake Lorenz, pastor of Orlando, Fla.-based Global Revolution Church, who she had met through an online Facebook prayer group.

My first thought was, this one's easy.

Send her back to her family and prosecute Reverend Blake Lorenz for luring a minor child.

Yes, I know about the Muslim husband who cut his wife's head off in New York, as well as the Muslim father in Georgia who strangled his daughter to death because of his twisted, 7th century sense of honor. We also have the Texas "honor" killings.

Still in question is whether this young lady, Rifqa Bary, is in that kind of danger. He parents found out awhile back, and they were mad as hell, I'm sure. But she's still alive, which says something in her father's defense.

Too many things don't smell right. 17 year old girls are famous for being drama queens, even more so than Muslims are for decapitations. I saw the YouTube video and all I kept thinking was, she's saying exactly what those church people want to hear. And this whole episode is quite an advertisement and money boost for the pastor who used the internet to lure her to Florida. Striking a blow against Islam is just icing on the cake.

Could this be merely a cultural and generational clash gone viral?

I'd like to know more about what went on back in Ohio. How are her grades? Are boyfriends or some other teen-parent conflict behind this? Any parent can tell you how a simple matter can spin out of control when angry parents and emotional teens are involved. Religious conviction in the mix just makes the situation hotter. Her Christian faith could be sincere and her parents could be really mad, but that doesn't prove her dad will kill her.

Hillary Clinton and Marian Wright Edelman Would be Proud

The family unit is sacrosanct, and unless lawbreaking is going on, no judge or pastor or anyone else has any business poking their nose in. This is a fundamental freedom that conservative Christians usually stand up for.

I guess if you agreed with preemptive war, it's not much of a stretch to support preemptive justice. It's all well and good until Uncle Sam decides to bust up your Jesus Camp and liberate your brain-washed kids from your home and your authority.

To those who are convinced this is a black and white case, ask yourself this question: If this were a 17-year old girl from a fundamentalist Christian family running into the arms of an imam, would you still be sticking up for the girl and the mosque?

Once again, you can't use the honor killing excuse. If such arguments were valid, the Branch Davidian episode could be used to outlaw Christians having custody of their children.
It remains to be seen if this girl's life is really in danger. I trust the good judge in Florida will sort that out in due time,

One thing's for certain: Reverend Blake Lorenz must be prosecuted under Florida law for Luring a Minor.

* Update: I posted this over at Free Republic and got over 60 comments. You can read them here. Although debate was empassioned, it never stooped to the level of the kook left sites. Conservatives are good people, especially Freepers.

ABC News
Breitbart
Bailaman
YouTube - Rifqa Bary

Obama "Goes Chicago" Down South

Does our government know what it's doing in Latin America?

President Obama shook hands with Chavez and accepted that poisonous book. He stood against the Hondurans who were trying to protect their constitution, but Edward Schumacher-Matos throws some kudos the president's way. He makes a convincing case that there may actually be some strategy behind what our government is doing down there.

CARTAGENA, Colombia -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is a liar and a troublemaker. Congressmen and columnists can say this, but President Obama is correct not to do so, even though his critics want a tougher U.S. policy against the Venezuelan.

A testament to the success of diplomatic finesse is that Chávez and his pan-regional socialist dreams have been losing ground in Latin America since the inauguration of Obama and his appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.

Ecuador and Colombia are patching things up after Colombia bombed a rebel hideout across the border in Ecuadorean territory, angering that Chavez-allied government. Panamanians frustrated his Central American plans in May by overwhelmingly electing conservative businessman Ricardo Martinelli over the leftist Chavez candidate.

Additionally, Chavez clients in Honduras, Argentina, and Paraguay are suffering political setbacks and Little Fidel Junior's oil infrastructure is crumbling, resulting in less petrodollars to bribe clients with.

He doled out $79 billion last year vice only $6 billion this year, with little to show for it. If he weren't keeping his own people mired in misery to do this, it would be funny. He's sinking of his own weight, and I think President Obama is correct to keep silent and keep his distance.

So, is Tio Sam putting on a happy face while secretly screwing his enemies?
That may just be what we are doing. Throwing some words of support to ousted Honduran President Zelaya, but otherwise keeping out of it, probably provided space for Latin American countries to deliberate at their own pace. There really hasn't been an outcry over the Honduran situation, with criticism being muted if expressed at all. Unlike the Middle East or Central Asia, Latin American governments are generally loath to routinely criticize neighbors or get in their business.

By staying out of the mix and being charismatic, Obama has deprived anti-US leftists their usual target. Meanwhile, he's moving US anti-drug operations into Colombia, angering Chavez all over again, since the Venezuelan Napoleon stands embarrassingly naked and impotent against this pact.

The Chicago Way, Down South
So, kudos to President Obama for flashing that charismatic grin while he twists the knife. It works for him here at home against the hated conservatives, so it's refreshing to see him "Go Chicago" on some foreigners for a change.

Personally, I think any success by this amateurish team can more likely be chalked up to happy coincidence, but either way, the Change happening in Latin America is indeed something I can believe in.

Drill There! Drill Now!

Far be it from me to accuse an international currency manipulator of dirty deeds, and I certainly wouldn't want to accuse a Chicago politician of political kickbacks, but where there's smoke...

US to Finance Oil Exploration off the Coast of Brazil
Our President is going to lend $10 Billion to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to finance exploration of the Tupi oil field, as covered in this short Wall Street Journal article. This gigantic oil field find is great news, and I'm glad we're in on it, but the WSJ rightly asks, why aren't we doing the same here at home?

Soros to Finance Oil Exploration off the Coast of Brazil
Bloomberg reports that George Soros just invested $811 in the same Petrobras on 30 June 2009. He stands to benefit greatly once this massive resource is tapped. He'll get his billions quicker thanks to the Obama administration decision to help fund this project.

He Ain't Scary, He's My Brother
Can you imagine what a hated figure George Soros would be if he were a conservative? A shadowy international currency manipulator, uber rich, powerful, and so involved in American politics. He would be reviled daily by the left. But he hates capitalism (while profiting richly from it) and uses his proceeds to fund socialist propaganda here and abroad, so he's OK!

From a Recent News article lionizing this America-hating globalist for handing out free money:

Gov. Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg joined Soros to announce the payments at Public School 208 in Harlem, where the billionaire reminisced that as a penniless student in London, he survived because of a handout he got from Quakers.

"This gift has a special personal meaning to me, because I was once also a recipient of charity," Soros said in a choking voice. "I'm very pleased that I'm able to repay what they gave me."

This international exploiter was so grateful that he repayed England by trying to crash their currency.

This would be a scandal if...
Remove President Obama, George Soros and Brazil. Replace them with President Bush, Rupert Murdoch, Saudi Arabia. Throw in hysterical mention of Halliburton and Blackwater, and we'd have a red-banner, five-alarm, around-the-clock screaming scandal on our hands. This must be more of that Change they're talking about...

HT to OD





NY Daily News

Peace and Freedom Through Anarchy

Public Opinion Snapshot (It's not looking good for the O Man)

Obama's Health Care Plan, Approve: 46%, Disapprove 50%

WaPo has a nice visual summary of of this Democratic shipwreck here

Caster Semenya's Gender Called into Question

South African Caster Semenya's success in track has led some to question her gender.

It's not as easy a question as you think, according to the Daily Mail.

One would imagine that sex is something fairly clear-cut: that you are either one or the other.

It seems even stranger to discover that the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) says that the tests are 'extremely complex', and that the results will not be known for days, even weeks.

Again, this seems to run contrary to common sense. Surely, one would think, determining one's sex is as simple as removing one's underwear and taking a look.

In fact, it can be rather more complicated than that. It is not generally appreciated that gender in humans - and many other species, too - is not just a binary affair, a simple case of being male or female.

While the vast majority of people are clearly either a man or a woman, many others are somewhere between the two - often with tragic consequences.

Reminds me of an old song...

Depression has already started...

What's Wrong With Government?

It's growing while our economy sheds jobs, according the the NY Times.

While the private sector has shed 6.9 million jobs since the beginning of the recession, state and local governments have expanded their payrolls and added 110,000 jobs, according to a report issued Thursday by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government.

These same state and local governments are threatening taxpayers with police and firefighter layoffs and furloughs.

Why is this bad?
Because every dollar consumed by the government is one less dollar that could be used for something more productive. Same for each individual. Don't believe me? Imagine a government that employed every one of it's employable adults. At the micro level, that would help each individual, but on the macro level that government's economy would be in permanent contraction, ending ultimately in national bankruptcy.

We need government to provide many of our basic services, but we're way beyond that now.

We Don't Trust Our Government
ObamaCare is floundering, along with Obama and his Democrats, and Daniel Henninger blames trust.

The left likes to say that conservatives hate government. The truth, and it holds for many people beyond conservatism, is closer to what Alfred Hitchcock said when he was accused of hating the police. "I'm not against the police," Hitchcock said, "I'm just afraid of them."

We the People Say, Prove It!

President Obama in his public pleas for the plan appears to be truly upset that his benign view of it isn't obvious to all. In his op-ed Sunday for the New York Times he said, "We'll cut hundreds of billions in waste and inefficiency in federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid."

Hundreds of billions? Just like that? This is nothing but an assertion by one man. It's close to Peter Pan telling the children that thinking lovely thoughts will make them fly.

Why don't they prove it? Because they can't.

Bed Wetters Continue to Whine to CNN about Scary Guns

PHOENIX, Arizona (CNN) -- A man toting an assault rifle was among a dozen protesters carrying weapons while demonstrating outside President Obama's speech to veterans on Monday, but no laws were broken. It was the second instance in recent days in which weapons have been seen near presidential events.

Arizona law has nothing in the books regulating assault rifles, and only requires permits for carrying concealed weapons. So despite the man's proximity to the president, there were no charges or arrests to be made.

Hill said officers explained the law to some people who were upset about the presence of weapons at the protest.

Gun-toting protesters have demonstrated around the president before. Last week, a man protesting outside Obama's town hall meeting in New Hampshire had a gun strapped to his thigh. That state also doesn't require a license for open carry. (Source: CNN)

Lesson learned: Law abiding citizens carrying guns are not a threat.
If you piddle-down-your-leg, thumb-sucking liberals don't like our Out West gun laws, you can slink back to the liberal urban cesspools you crawled out of. Big Daddy will take care of you there by taking your rights away and ensuring only criminals have firearms, you constitutionally-ignorant morons.

Here's a quote you lefties love throwing around:

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

It's almost as pithy as "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns," which is proven true every day in the enlightened "gun free zones" all over the world.

Health Care: Spreadin' it Around

Why would doctors be for health care reform? Here's one answer from an AP story about Rep Barney Frank's town hall meeting:

Dr. Sheila Levitt, a physician from Newton, said she hoped for changes that would support primary care physicians who aren't paid as much as specialists.

Like corporations and other moneyed interests, this good doctor wants to use the coercive power of government to violate the laws of supply and demand. Why are specialists paid more than primary care physicians? Because they are more scarce, and can charge more for their services. Why are they more scarce? Because it is harder and takes more time to become a specialist. What will result if Uncle Sam steps in and makes sure everybody is paid the same? A scarcity of specialists.

Why are unions so supportive of government-run health care?
One union worker said it would give them something to fall back on if something happened with their current plan. He doesn't realize just how close to the truth he is.

Generous health care plans negotiated by unions for its members are breaking the unions and the companies. A health care "public option" will shift this multi-billion dollar burden off of unions and companies and onto the backs of taxpayers. Union leaders and corporate heads know this, which is why they are mobilizing the rank-and-file. Union members haven't realized this yet, so they oblige by marching in support of what will surely be the demise of their hard-won, gold-plated health care plans.

Ain't politics grand?

Breitbart - Frank

The Face of 21st Century America: Can the GOP Capitalize?

The Obama Jokerizer has been fingered!

This is the face of 21st century America. He laughs at the Obama hype but wasn't much of a Bush fan, either, disagreeing with our adventurous foreign policy under the last president. He also seems socially conservative, but would vote for Dennis Kucinich.

"After Obama was elected, you had all of these people who basically saw him as the second coming of Christ," Alkhateeb said. "From my perspective, there wasn't much substance to him."

Alkhateeb's assessment of Obama: "In terms of domestic policy, I don't think he's really doing much good for the country right now," he said. "We don't have to 'hero worship' the guy."

The GOP should be seeking this young man's vote
True conservatism is chary of foreign entanglements as well as bloated government schemes at home. True conservatives also view cults of personality, even conservative ones, with skepticism.

This young man represents a generation that isn't hung up on 20th century terms. Socialism is not fraught with cold war baggage for them. After all, social networking is all the rage.

This is a generation with a keen sense of right and wrong. A generation with morals that largely (with exceptions) concord with our traditional Judeo-Christian heritage, although their morality may not be derived from Christianity.

How can the GOP attract young voters?
Stand for freedom. Let The Constitution be your guide. Stop preaching religion, but stand up for the rights of the religious and irreligious alike to peacefully practice their beliefs in the public square.

The GOP should stand for freedom to demand our politicians write bills that ordinary people can understand, not catalogs of legalese that benefit only state-favored corporate entities.

Freedom to be a freak, a garishly painted transvestite, a global warming denier with a gigantic carbon footprint, a global warming hypocrite with a gigantic carbon footprint, an atheist, a tree worshiper... People gotta be free, and as long as your freedom does not impede anyone else's, we're all good.

Could such a freedom message alienate religious folk? Consider this typically clueless twaddle from the El Lay Times:

A series of sex-related scandals over the last few years has undercut the party's assertions of moral authority and, worse, may serve to reinforce the doubts that many evangelical voters have traditionally harbored about the unholiness of the political realm

The unholiness of the political realm? I am not an evangelical, but I doubt many are looking to a political party for holiness and "moral authority." That would be like looking to Hollywood for patriotism. There is a natural affinity between the GOP and Christians--preaching freedom instead of morality won't imperil that.

Conservative Reconquista
Our morbidly obese feral government is on the verge of massive myocardial infarction. It has stuck its snout into every corner of society, and people are fed up. Including tuned in young people who see oldsters siphoning off their future. If this isn't a golden opportunity for conservative revanchists, I don't know what is.

Freedom Message Can Win It For Republicans
A Republican party that stands for liberty, as envisioned by our founders, could regain its mojo. A Republican party that vows to roll back government regulation could actually find itself in power again.

Jim DeMint, as quoted in a Cato article, has a pitch perfect campaign message based on freedom and states rights:

... the organizing principle and the crucial alternative to the Democrats — must be freedom. The federal government is too big, takes too much of our money, and makes too many of our decisions….

We can argue about how to rein in the federal Leviathan; but we should agree that centralized government infringes on individual liberty and that problems are best solved by the people or the government closest to them.

Moderate and liberal Republicans who think a South Carolina conservative like me has too much influence are right! I don’t want to make decisions for them. That’s why I’m working to reduce Washington’s grip on our lives and devolve power to the states, communities and individuals...

It’s the Democrats who want to impose a rigid, uniform agenda on all Americans. Freedom Republicanism is about choice — in education, health care, energy and more. It’s OK if those choices look different in South Carolina, Maine and California.

CATO rightly asks how DeMint can square this federalist philosophy with his support for an anti-gay marriage amendment to the US Constitution. Can states decide for themselves or not?

Issues like these are not easily resolved, but they provide much more productive debate than arguing over how to out-Democrat the Democrats. And intelligently addressing these issues may just attract a few voters who haven't yet sprouted gray hair.

Cato - DeMint
El Lay Times - Evangelicals
El Lay Times - Joker Unmasked
WSJ - Demint

Welcome to the New World

MSNBC - Adult Curfew

Patterson, New Jersey contemplates implementing adult curfew.

The curfew would bar people of all ages from gathering outside from midnight to 7 a.m, violators would face a $2000 fine and 90 days in jail.

The measure, scheduled for consideration by the city council Monday, has been postponed until September 1st.

Welcome to America, please wipe your feet on the constitution before stepping in.

Are these people stark raving mad? Have to admit, I'm firmly in the ACLU's camp on this one, this insanity must be completely and utterly defeated. Six murders and thirty shootings in a city of approximately 150,000 and they are ready to toss your civil liberties out the window with a defacto declaration of martial law.

~Finntann~

Robert Novak, RIP

“Always love your country — but never trust your government!"
-- Robert Novak, advice to college graduates

Sun Times

Socialized Medicine on Life Support!

Dispatch From Canada: Health Care System "Imploding!"

SASKATOON — The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association says this country's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it.

"We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize," Doing said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

"(Canadians) have to understand that the system that we have right now - if it keeps on going without change - is not sustainable," said Doig. (Source: Google-Canadian Press)

Read the whole story and it appears the health care debate down here has brought the precariousness of the Canadian system to the fore. I do not say this gleefully, although this constitutes one more strike against us implementing a government system. Canada is a great country and I wish them all the best in putting their health care system back on solid footing.

BS may get you to the top, but it can't keep you there
Meanwhile, down here in the US, the progressive "mandate" is proving to be a Daily Kook Nutroot Huff and Puff mirage. The President is sinking in the polls, and he'll end up taking his party with him, because he's all they've got.

More Ammo For the Conservative/Libertarian Approach
Steve Chapman has written an informative article and shares the following facts:

A 2006 poll found that 89 percent were happy with the medical care they get.

Some 62 percent of uninsured Americans are satisfied with their medical care.

It's true that the United States spends more on health care than anyone else, and it's true that we rank below a lot of other advanced countries in life expectancy. The juxtaposition of the two facts, however, doesn't prove we are wasting our money or doing the wrong things.

Life Expectancy: We're #1 (When excluding homicides and accidents)

One big reason our life expectancy lags is that Americans have an unusual tendency to perish in homicides or accidents. We are 12 times more likely than the Japanese to be murdered and nearly twice as likely to be killed in auto wrecks.

In their 2006 book, "The Business of Health," economists Robert L. Ohsfeldt and John E. Schneider set out to determine where the U.S. would rank in life span among developed nations if homicides and accidents are factored out. Their answer? First place.

That discovery indicates our health care system is doing a poor job of preventing shootouts and drunk driving but a good job of healing the sick.

He goes on to explain how the US also ranks first in cancer and heart disease survival rates.

Finally, I recommend you visit Betsy McCaughey's web site, Defend Your Health Care, for up to date info on the health care debate from an expert who is fighting the good fight.

We've got 'em on the run. Don't let up now.

One more thing, being a Johnny Cash fan, I couldn't help but recall his song, Girl in Saskatoon:



Defend Your Health Care
Yahoo - Retreat
Google-Canadian Press
RCP - Steve Chapman

Divide and Conquer

Elect a community organizer president and he will try to become a national organizer.

What President Obama and his activist-followers are engaged in is not community organizing. It is community dividing, creating chaos that splits neighborhoods, towns, cities, and eventually, a nation.

Bussing in rent-a-screamers constitutes an invasion that disrupts a community. Hot Air Pundit has a good example. HT to Can We Keep Our Republic?

Either way, it's not good. But what did we expect from the community organizer model?

Community organizing is not about reducing poverty and helping people. It is about milking more tax money in exchange for herding the underprivileged to the voting booth and protest rallies. Angry city dwellers are the foot soldiers in this liberal activist army. The last thing the poverty hustlers want is to thin their ranks by making productive, tax-paying citizens of these people.

To keep everybody on the Democratic plantation, people with useless college degrees legitimize societal dysfunction by calling it culture and refuse to be judgmental. They stoke historic grievances to keep everybody in that cage of despair.

So what's the alternative?
Defund acorn, americorps and all the other professional troublemakers. If their model is so good they should be able to get private funding for their activities.

Bring in extra cops and enforce a zero-tolerance policy. It worked for New York City under Mayor Giuliani.

Next, make every minor and every unemployed person go to school. Once they finish school make them get a job. We could facilitate this by enforcing immigration policy so entry-level jobs are no longer the exclusive domain of illegal aliens.

How do you motivate people to get a job? By cutting off food stamps and welfare. You don't work, you don't eat. A little piece of natural law that has worked since the dawn of time.

A Nazi Behind Every Tree

Are terms like Fascist and Nazi overused? Before we begin, as Socrates would say, let's define our terms:

Fascism (From The Free Dictionary)
a. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.

b. A political philosophy or movement based on or advocating such a system of government.

2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.

Adolf and Benito
German national socialism and Italian fascism were kissing cousins, both growing out of Socialism and violently opposing classical liberalism and traditional aristocratic conservatism. Nazism just happened to have the additional component of virulent racism.

Mussolini was a prolific writer and thinker for the socialist cause before he came to power. Both movements hated communism because of its international flavor and Russian roots. To appeal to the masses, Mussolini and Hitler adopted much of the Communist agenda, threw the international stuff overboard, and added in conservative nationalistic elements.

Fascism includes:

* Grab the corporations by the throat and challenge them: You're either with the state or you're against us!
* No more collective bargaining--The state is looking after the worker now. Unions only march on companies the state has declared evil
* Central control by the state of everything, from schools, to commerce to public health.
* Manipulation of societal institutions such as church, family and community

An excellent short history on the intersection of fascism, communism and conservatism can be found here: Mises - Liberalism vs Fascism

Is Obama a Fascist?
While I wholeheartedly agree that the term Nazi has been completely overused, I agree with libertarian professor Tibor Machan, who draws parallels between that hated German regime and our current Obama administration. The connection is not Jew hatred, death camps or the other odious aspects of Hitler's reign.

The connection Machan makes is the belief in Keynesianism: That government can stimulate the economy by "priming the pump," and generally run the economy best by centralizing control (aggregated production).

“It is interesting that so many Obama supporters are invoking the name of John Maynard Keynes as they promote the current official approach to dealing with the economy because of a little known fact about Keynes. He wrote an introduction to the German translation of his famous book, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, in which he said that his ideas were especially applicable to the way a dictatorship is supposed to be governed!

As Keynes wrote there, ‘the theory of aggregated production, which is the point of the following book, nevertheless can be much easier adapted to the conditions of a totalitarian state [einestotalen Staates] than the theory of production and distribution of a given production put forth under conditions of free competition and a large degree of laissez-faire.’

Yes, Fascist and Nazi are Overused Words (but so are Love, Hero, and Ironic)
I do think terms like fascist and Nazi are overused, but what are we to conclude upon looking at where our government is headed: Ownership or dragooning of private companies, picking winners and losers, worming its way into the family, mobilizing private citizens in the cause of supporting the leader (acorn, americorps). And now, a health care industry takeover.

This didn’t start with Obama, but I think we’ve finally hit the point where too many issues have converged. For the first time, we can see it all at once, and we don’t like it.

Fascism is here, it is real, and both parties indulge in it. Congress could pass a few simple laws to protect the chronically uninsured and pay for it with tort reform. Instead, they chose to tack on more hideous mechanical claws to the clanking government monstrosity.

New York Times, Toilet Paper of Record

The NY Times was wrong on Communist Russia, providing cover as "Uncle Joe" Stalin murdered millions. They were wrong on the intentions of rebel leader Fidel Castro, claiming he was not a communist. This allowed US support and money to flow to his movement that knocked over Fulgencio Batista, replacing one dictator with another.

The NY Times was wrong to publish intelligence information, their political coverage is ridiculously left-leaning, and their economic reporting is useless garbage.

Submitted for your approval: Two real-life examples why this left-leaning dung heap of ink and paper should be held suspect in all instances

EXAMPLE 1: Unemployment reporting under President George H.W. Bush in 1992 vs. Today for Times hero and love interest President Obama, courtesy of Byron York. First, Last week's coverage of the Obama economy:

The lead story, "Job Losses Slow, Signaling Momentum for a Recovery," reporting a decline in the unemployment rate from 9.5 percent in June to 9.4 percent in July, begins by declaring that, "The most heartening employment report since last summer suggested on Friday that a recovery was under way -- and perhaps gathering steam."

"Employers are no longer in a panic," one expert tells the Times.

Now, compare it with this Bush-bashing, in the midst of his 1992 reelection campaign:

"Jobless Rate Dips a Notch to 7.7% in Mixed Showing," was the front-page headline of the August 8, 1992 Times. "The nation's jobless rate improved marginally last month, edging down to 7.7 percent from 7.8 percent," the Times reported. "But the improvement was not enough to signal a stronger economic recovery or to help President Bush as he heads into the Republican National Convention."

EXAMPLE #2: Reportage on the APA's statement on "Gay Reparative Therapy"

From NYT-AP:

The American Psychological Association declared Wednesday that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients they can become straight through therapy or other treatments.

In a resolution adopted by the association’s governing council, and in an accompanying report, the association issued its most comprehensive repudiation of so-called reparative therapy, a concept espoused by a small but persistent group of therapists, often allied with religious conservatives, who maintain that gay men and lesbians can change.

From The Wall Street Journal:

According to new APA guidelines, the therapist must make clear that homosexuality doesn't signal a mental or emotional disorder. The counselor must advise clients that gay men and women can lead happy and healthy lives, and emphasize that there is no evidence therapy can change sexual orientation.

But if the client still believes that affirming his same-sex attractions would be sinful or destructive to his faith, psychologists can help him construct an identity that rejects the power of those attractions, the APA says. That might require living celibately, learning to deflect sexual impulses or framing a life of struggle as an opportunity to grow closer to God.

Somebody is twisting the facts. Here's the part of the APA press release that deals with the issue:

As part of its report, the task force identified that some clients seeking to change their sexual orientation may be in distress because of a conflict between their sexual orientation and religious beliefs. The task force recommended that licensed mental health care providers treating such clients help them "explore possible life paths that address the reality of their sexual orientation, reduce the stigma associated with homosexuality, respect the client's religious beliefs, and consider possibilities for a religiously and spiritually meaningful and rewarding life."

"In other words," Glassgold said, "we recommend that psychologists be completely honest about the likelihood of sexual orientation change, and that they help clients explore their assumptions and goals with respect to both religion and sexuality."

There's no "repudiation" there. Is it any wonder this so-called "news" paper is bleeding red ink?

NYT - Gay Therapy
WSJ - A New Therapy
APA Press Release
Examiner - Byron York

A Conservative Take on the Military Industrial Complex

Michael Goldfarb casts a jaundiced eye on the military-industrial complex, wondering what really scuttled the F-22 program.

This is instructive. Especially coming from Rightwing Neocon bastion, The Weekly Standard. Just because we're conservatives doesn't mean we're kneejerk cheerleaders for the defense industry. Of course we shake our heads at the left's demonization of the industry that has kept us safe for the past century, but like any entity that sells things to the US government, they bear watching.

As Sarah Palin said about her tough negotiating with the oil industry on behalf of her state, "They have their job to do and I have mine." No demonization, no capitulation, just brass tacks bargaining on behalf of the taxpayer.

If General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin had their way, we would be spilling over with ships, fighter planes and impractically vast arrays of armaments. This is not a criticism. They are in business to make money, and government is in charge of protecting the country.

Anyway, Goldfarb's article provides an interesting peek inside military procurement, where political ideology takes a back seat to parochial interests and political contributions. In the DC sausage factory, military necessity is often an accidental afterthought, and the military rarely gets exactly what it really needs. Ever resourceful, the men and women in uniform put what they get to good use.

Are you a fan of some traditional conservative cause like defense? Then cheer every opportunity to shine a spotlight on it, for sunshine is the best disinfectant. It prevents the discrediting rot of corruption. Casting a skeptical eye, even upon the objects of our affection, is very conservative thing to do.

Weekly Standard - Michael Goldfarb

Give Congress a Hamster

Our federal government wanting to take over health care reminds me of a small child wanting a puppy. As any pet owner can tell you, a pet requires dedicated, daily attention. Small children do not normally have the discipline to care for such a pet.

Many parents will start their kids on smaller pets like a goldfish, lizard or hamster.

We need to do the same with government: Give them some small program to run. If they can keep in in the black and not kill or maim anybody in the process, only then will we consider turning over to them one-seventh of the US economy and all life and death decisions.

These incorrigible children stamp their feet and stick out their tongues at the people they are supposed to serve. They have proven themselves unworthy of our trust. In their wake are dessicated frogs, floating goldfish, rotting upside down tortoises and escaped lizards whose progeny are taking over the house.

No, little Nancy, we're not trusting you with a dog.

How a Leader Maintains His Cult of Personality

Billionaire Currency Market Manipulator George Soros and El Presidente Obama give away Billions

From the NY Daily News...

"Thousands of people lined up at banks and check-cashing shops to withdraw the cash that magically appeared on their electronic benefit cards."

"It's Free Money!"

"Thank God for Obama!"

President Obama is building a cult of personality with your tax dollars and help from a billionaire leftist. Go read the story. You won't find one line thanking the taxpayer...

Health Care: Damn Lies and Damning Truths

Yes, they will kill granny...

There's a lot of BS flying around out there. The President and his congressional confreres are slinging it like crazy. Worse, some conservative critics are circulating bogus talking points and many more are sucking them up and regurgitating them without thinking.

I heard a snippet of a woman caller to a radio talk show claiming page 55 of the health care bill contained a provision for free health care for ACORN, or some such nonsense. Where's this woman's BS filter at? Yes, Congress lavishes money on their favored groups, but never so blatantly. I don't know what she was reading from, but I bet it has a fw: fw: fw: fw: towards the top and includes a lot of exclamation points.

This clueless woman just provided the angry, smirking left another opportunity to paint us all as Rushbots, insurance company shills or simply stupid right wing kooks. Please verify what you read and hear before propagating it and stay away from the kooks.

However, It's Not All BS...
So, where do the euthanasia and care rationing charges come from? They're not explicitly in the bill, but Betsy McCaughey in the NY Post demonstrates why these are valid issues:

Start with Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. He has already been appointed to two key positions: health-policy adviser at the Office of Management and Budget and a member of Federal Council on Comparative Effectiveness Research.

Savings, he writes, will require changing how doctors think about their patients: Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously, "as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others" (Journal of the American Medical Association, June 18, 2008).

Emanuel, however, believes that "communitarianism" should guide decisions on who gets care. He says medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens . . . An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia" (Hastings Center Report, Nov.-Dec. '96).

Communitarianism is a philosophy that believes right and wrong should be decided by what's best for the community, or society as a whole. Sounds good, but who decides? And how do you decide what constitutes a "participating citizen."

Paging Dr. Mengele!

He explicitly defends discrimination against older patients: "Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years" (Lancet, Jan. 31).

President Obama has appointed this man to head up his health care effort. What conclusion are rational people to draw from this, other than the president agrees with this man's philosophy? And they have the temerity to call us Nazis?

Stumblin' In

I'm glad the Americans have been sprung from the Pot Bellied Pig's North Korean gulag. I pray for the captured Americans now being used as political pawns by the Iranian Mullahs.

I also think they should be publicly scolded for their stupidity, and the Administration should declare that if such an event happens again, the clueless kids who stumble into the black widow's web are on their own. Unlike an innocent American getting kidnapped off the streets of some presumably-safe capital, these naifs recklessly put themselves in danger, providing political ammunition to their captors, and putting the US government in a difficult situation.

Three blissfully ignorant Americans, looking for a cool adventure they could brag to their friends about, have instead given the Iranian dictators a propaganda coup:

"Their illegal entry cannot be altogether unrelated to the post-election unrest ... What mission were the three pursuing in Iran? Why did not they apply for Iran visas?" said Mohammad Karamirad, a member of parliament's Foreign Affairs and National Security Committee, the official IRNA news agency reported.

In North Korea, President Clinton's rescue mission was a dressed-up form of ransom, paying off a nuclear-armed nut. In exchange for doing the right thing, Kim Ill got his inflated ego stroked by having a former president play supplicant to him.

According to Richard Halloran, it also greatly enhanced the standing of this porn party, sex offending egomaniac. Kim's standing was enhanced even more.

It's time for us to stop feeding the tyrants of the world, and it's time for US citizens to grow up and realize that the world is a dangerous place.

Reuters - Iran
RCW - Halloran