Dienekes' Place

Common Cause Communists? Van Jones & Robert Reich Plan Protest of Koch Brothers' Confab #toct #ocra #LUR

2011-01-30T16:42:00.001-08:00

Hypocrites and sycophants to protest that which they themselves do.

The liberal activist group Common Cause is rallying its supporters to protest David and Charles Koch’s convocation of conservative heavy hitters in California this weekend. The billionaire Koch brothers, whose family business is one of the largest private companies in the world, are longtime funders of many conservative causes, including Tea Party groups, and initiatives to defeat Obamacare and global warming legislation.

Common Cause and its allies see a more sinister agenda. They’ll be shouting outside — and in at least one case, from above. Greenpeace has chartered a blimp emblazoned with the words “dirty money” to fly over the conference.

Prior to the rally, the liberal group plans to host an opposition panel discussion called, “Uncloaking the Kochs: The Billionaires’ Caucus and its Threat to our Democracy.” The featured speakers include Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary and now chairman of Common Case’s National Governing Board; Van Jones, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress and former “Green Jobs Czar”; Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California-Irvine; Lee Fang, an journalist at the Center for American Progress; and DeAnn McEwen, co-President of the California Nurses Association.

Despite the hyperbole, the Koch conference doesn’t sound so different from many off-the-record political conferences, including those held by the professional left. Shortly after the 2010 elections, for example, liberal groups converged on Washington D.C.’s Oriental Mandarin hotel, The meeting, hosted by Democracy Alliance featured liberal leaders such as Van Jones, hedge fund manager Donald Sussman, and AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka. Michael Vachon, a George Soros representative, Peter Lewis, CEO of Progressive Insurance; and Fred Baron, the former president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America also attended.
Read more at dailycaller.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/ao1ci

Former SEIU Boss Andy Stern May Be About to Make Millions on Smallpox #tcot #sgp #unions

2010-12-30T00:16:00.001-08:00

Andy Stern, the former head of the SEIU went to work as a corporate board member for SIGA Technologies, a bio-defense contractor. At the time, SIGA's president acknowledged Stern's hiring had everything to do with his inside track within government.

Now, it looks like that inside track may pay out in spades:

The editor of Stealth Stocks explains, "Siga is a bio-defense company. In 2004, the U.S. started an initiative called Project BioShield, which gave the government the right to purchase and stockpile vaccines and drugs to fight anthrax, smallpox and other potential agents of bio-terror.

"SIGA is a leader in the development of pharmaceutical agents to fight potential bio-warfare pathogens and their ST-246 drug is considered to be the only known cure for smallpox, which the government is keenly interested in.

"Recently, BARDA has stated their intent to award SIGA a $500 million contract, with options that potentially could be as high as $2.8 billion in orders.

Half a billion? Options as high as $2.8 billion?

It looks like SIGA's investment in Stern may just be paying off.

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/k16c

If ObamaCare passes Constitutional muster, can the government be restrained at all? #tcot #sgp

2010-12-24T21:28:00.001-08:00

This is the challenge and the threat to America: Can the federal government be constrained at all if ObamaCare is ruled to be Constitutional?

The recent court decision striking down the linchpin provision of the health care bill is a reminder that what's at stake is larger than the future of Obamacare.

If this law passes constitutional muster, the question is whether the federal government can be constrained by any limits at all.

At issue is the personal mandate, the part of the law that says everyone must buy health insurance or pay a penalty.

The implications were aptly captured by U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson, ruling in Virginia vs. Sebelius -- one of several lawsuits challenging Obamacare.

If the government can dictate how you live your life, what is to stop them on dictating how you end it?

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/jgsh

No Labels? Left-wing "law center" calls mainstream Conservative orgns. "hate groups" #tcot

2010-12-24T20:17:00.001-08:00

It's surprising that a "law center" would be so close to slander. Perhaps there's some legal minds on the Right to take this on?

Amplify’d from www.foxnews.com

Conservative groups and lawmakers are firing back at the Southern Poverty Law Center for releasing a new report labeling some mainstream conservative organizations as "hate groups" for their opposition to gay marriage.

In its latest report, the center added 18 "anti-gay groups" to its list of active hate organizations, including Concerned Women for America, the Traditional Values Coalition, the Family Research Council and the National Organization for Marriage.

They join the center's list of more than 900 hate groups, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, skinheads, white nationalists, neo-Confederates, and black separatists like the New Black Panther Party and the Nation of Islam.

"Even as some well-known anti-gay groups like Focus on the Family moderate their views, a hard core of smaller groups, most of them religiously motivated, have continued to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at homosexuals and other sexual minorities," the report reads. "These groups' influence reaches far beyond what their size would suggest, because the 'facts' they disseminate about homosexuality are often amplified by certain politicians, other groups and even news organizations."

Outraged conservatives, led by the Family Research Council, have launched an online petition called "start debating, stop hating," which was published as a full page advertisement in the print editions of Politico and the Washington Examiner.

"Tell the radical Left it is time to stop spreading hateful rhetoric attacking individuals and organizations merely for expressing ideas with which they disagree," the petition reads. "Our debates can and must remain civil – but they must never be suppressed through personal assaults that aim only to malign an opponent's character."
Read more at www.foxnews.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/jgmc

GOP Vows to Stop Obama in January

2010-12-24T18:03:00.001-08:00

There's only so much appeasement and bi-partisanship this country can take before it goes bankrupt. However, incoming GOP freshman say they're all about stopping Obama.

All the momentum President Barack Obama picked up at the tail end of the 111th Congress means he'll hit the partisan wall that much harder when the 112th Congress opens, according to liberal and conservative lawmakers who are girding for political warfare in January.

"Nov. 2 wasn't about working with the president," Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, new chairman of the influential and deeply conservative Republican Study Committee, told POLITICO Wednesday. "It's about stopping him."

It's the singular, not-on-my-watch determination of Jordan's wing of the GOP — bolstered by the coming influx of tea party Republicans in both chambers — that has many lawmakers convinced the deal-making lame-duck session will give way to a blood-feuding 112th Congress. Liberals are gearing up, too, ready to defend Obama when he takes up their causes and to treat him as a traitor when he embraces Republicans.

We'll see if the GOP can keep their word.

If not, then they must go as well..

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/jgd8

Property taxes to rise as pension deficits increase #unions #tlot

2010-12-24T17:25:00.001-08:00

The politicians who have neglected their duties and are robbing both the taxpayers and the public workers should go to jail.

Amplify’d from www.wallstreetjournal.com

Philadelphia's pension fund is 45% funded—meaning its assets represent 45% of its long-term liabilities—and the city's payments are projected to increase to $600 million in 2015, up from $230 million in 2004. Actuaries recommend pension systems be 80% funded.
Read more at www.wallstreetjournal.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/jgak

2010 is America's Thermopylae

2010-06-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

If you saw the movie 300, you essentially know the computer-generated and highly-stylized story of the Battle of Thermopylae. However, it is the real story of the Battle of Thermopylae that is far more inspiring.

It has been argued that, were it not for this battle and, ultimately, the defeat of the hordes of the Persian Empire at Salamis and, later, at Marathon, the nation-states of Greece would not have united as one nation. As a consequence, Western Civilization and all that Greece gave birth to (including the democratic principles of representative government, the western philosophy of Aristotle and others, as well as the United States itself) might never have occurred.

On November 2, 2010, America's Battle of Thermopylae will take place. This time, however, it is not the birth of Western Civilization that is at stake but, rather, whether we live as a free people, or succumb to the yoke of a government that does not care about the liberties that so many have fought and died for.

Over time, our nation's children and the simple-minded have been brainwashed into believing that enslaving freedom is "social justice," that the taking of liberty is "leveling the playing field," and that individual rights are inferior to the will of the masses.

While the last 18 months have been an awakening to many, our nation's fall has been long in the making.

Today, though, we see the evidence all around us that America may be at the end of her rope.

It is not one set of politicians or the other set of politicians. It is the addiction to power and control over a free people that has driven our nation to the brink of destruction. Whether by malice or asininity no longer matters.

Our nation will either live free, or it will perish. There, what so many have thought and many have uttered has now been stated...openly and publicly. 2010. This is our Thermopylae.

Our nation's treasury has been looted by those entrusted with it;
Our nation's debt is over $13 trillion and rising;
Our children's future has been reduced to become nothing more than servants to the State in order to pay our nation's debt;
We have been asked to bail out banks and auto companies;
Labor union bosses control two branches of our federal government and a multitude of the states and municipalities;
Union pensions are causing many states to teeter on the brink of bankruptcy, and we are being told we must loot our children's future even further by paying out another $165 billion to bail them out;
We have thugs storming private property while the police stand idly by;
Politicians refuse to secure our borders from terrorists or invaders from other nations
Democrats want to eviscerate the First and Second Amendments of our Constitution and have taken over the health of our bodies; and
Our nation's gulf shore lines are being ruined due to ineptness of our nation's leader.

America is near the end of its rope and we, as a people, will either use that rope to pull our nation up, or we will hang by the rope we give to our nation's rulers. It is an either-or alternative. There is no other alternative. And, it will be decided on November 2nd. America will either live to fight another day, or it is finished.

Like the allies at Thermopylae, the forces marshaled against the American citizenry are vast.

Labor unions have vowed to spend more of their members' money on the 2010 mid-term elections than they did in 2008.
Moveon.org boasts of 5 million members
The Democratic National Committee's Organizing for America, with its 13-million member e-mail list, is spending $50 million on getting out the vote (GOTV) for November 2nd.

Raise Your Vote is part of a one-two punch on the part of Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee. The first, of course, is using technology to get useful voters registered and to the polls. Other groups, notably Rock the Vote and the League of Women Voters, have done similar work in the past, though OFA has demonstrated a quiet competence in pulling together those efforts in this graceful a package.

[snip]

The second punch, though, is applying some of that Obama '08 organizing magic to the new and newish voters who flow through the site. "After we have that information," says Stewart when asked, "we're going to treat them like any first time voter." A 'chase program' includes following up with people who filled out a registration form on the site to make sure that they actually folded, stamped, and mailed their papers. (The Republican National Committee hasn't rolled out any comparable voter registration or information project.) And registering to vote includes the option of signing up to stay in contact with the DNC and OFA.

The Republican Party, by its abject failure to keep up with the machine that is the OFA, has been derelict in a core, fundamental principle in politics: GOTV.

This means, we, as Americans, we must do it ourselves if the nation is to survive to fight another day. This is our Thermopylae.

OFA Flyer

What you should be doing now...

Forge alliances: Set aside petty differences and turf battles and vow to work together. Be you a Libertarian, Conservative, Independent or Moderate, save the bickering over individual policies or candidates until the nation is steady again. There is no difference between Libertarian, Conservative, Independent or Moderate if there is not a nation in which those debates cannot occur. Work together or perish.
Embark on outreach: Ask friends and family alike, do you like the way our nation is headed? If they answer in the negative, then have them commit to you they will vote and, just as importantly, will help Get Out The Vote (GOTV). Then, fan out from there. Do you belong to a bowling league, a rifle club, a church or a synagogue? Get to work and do it now. The Marxist hordes have already begun their march to finish this war.
Repeat numbers 1 and 2
Follow up and follow through, develop lists including telephone numbers and e-mails
Get Out the Vote on November 2nd.

America, this is it. While control of the federal apparatchik will not be wrested from the hands of the hordes, at least the destruction can be slowed. But only if you begin working now.

If we fail, America fails and a nation borne from the blood of patriots 234 years ago—who were inspired by warriors who died nearly 2500 years ago—will fall.

2010 is America's Thermopylae.

Cross-posted.

Valley Girls Gone Bad: Our Home-Grown Wannabes...

2010-05-14T08:11:00.000-07:00

Chances are, she grew up in the Valley, got rejected by the cheerleading squad, and found a new life...

As a supporter of terrorism...

Too bad.

[Watch to the end.]

Something is very, very wrong here

2010-05-06T07:20:00.000-07:00

[Via Drudge]

Have we really become a nation that is so politically correct that it is offensive to wear the American Flag...because it offends someone else?

It certainly seems that way:

On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galliand his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population.

Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal's office.

"They said we could wear it on any other day," Daniel Galli said, "but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today."

The boys said the administrators called their T-shirts "incendiary" that would lead to fights on campus.

And, to add insult to injury, school officials wanted the boys to apologize for "offending" the Mexican-Americans.

But to many Mexican-American students at Live Oak, this was a big deal. They say they were offended by the five boys and others for wearing American colors on a Mexican holiday.

"I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day," Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. "We don't deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."

As for an apology, the boys and their families say, "fat chance."

"I'm not going to apologize. I did nothing wrong," Galli said. "I went along with my normal day. I might have worn an American flag, but I'm an American and I'm proud to be an American."

The five boys and their families met with a Morgan Hill Unified School District official Wednesday night. The district released a statement saying it does not agree with how Live Oak High School administrators handled this incident. [Emphasis added.]

Why isn't the ACLU suing on behalf of these children?

If Americans cannot display the American flag for fear of offending people who are from other countries (regardless whether they are here legally or not), there is something drastically wrong with this picture.

A short film brought to you by Progressive...

2010-05-05T11:14:00.000-07:00

Politicians...

h/t: iowntheworld.com
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Should our enemies' arrows blot out the sun, then we shall fight in the shade.

John Stossel's program on Atlas Shrugged

2010-05-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

Having missed this episode, we finally found John Stossel's Fox program on Atlas Shrugged.

via The Ayn Rand Institute

You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet...

2010-04-16T09:11:00.000-07:00

"We need to defeat these bastards."

Let this be the battle cry for November!

Via RedState

After the circus starts, the White House tries to put a pretty face on a clown...

2010-03-05T19:08:00.000-08:00

Almost three weeks ago, we noted Joey "Botox" Biden's clown-like comments on national television regarding the terrorist trials to be held in a civilian court:

On NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Feb. 14, host David Gregory asked Vice President Joe Biden, “The reason for a civilian trial as given by the president and others was a question of perception: That it was very important that the rest of the world see that we treated Khalid Sheikh Mohammed fairly. But hasn’t the administration already made the decision that even if he were to be acquitted that he would never be released?”

Biden answered by guaranteeing that Khalid Sheik Mohammed would not be acquitted.

“Look, there is no doubt that he would not be acquitted,” said Biden. “The facts we have are overwhelming. We are absolutely confident he will be convicted and for whatever he is tried. The attorney general made the decision that he should be tried in the court of the greatest jurisdiction, which was in New York City.”

The today we learn:

In a potential reversal, White House advisers are close to recommending that President Barack Obama opt for military tribunals for self-professed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and four of his alleged henchman, senior officials said.

The review of where and how to hold a Sept. 11 trial is not over, so no recommendation is yet before the president and Obama has not made a determination of his own, officials said. The review is not likely to be finished this week.

It is really, really comforting to know that not only is the U.S. is being run by clowns, the bigger the circus becomes, the sillier they look.
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Should our enemies' arrows blot out the sun, then we shall fight in the shade.

In Their Own Words: The Nuclear Option is an 'Arrogant Power Grab'

2010-02-24T11:16:00.000-08:00

May lightning strike us down but, for once, we find we agree with the Democrats in Congress....Well, at least we agree with the Democrats in 2005.

As Democrats consider using the so-called "nuclear option" to nationalize America's health care, perhaps they need to be reminded of their own words just a few short years ago. Afterall, the 'nuclear option' is not what the Founding Fathers intended, according to the Democrats.

What they said THEN...

Should our enemies' arrows blot out the sun, then we shall fight in the shade.

On Twitter.

Climate Culprits: Senator asks for criminal investigation...

2010-02-23T06:16:00.000-08:00

With his Oscar and Nobel in tow, the former inventor of the internet may have some explaining to do over the hoax that has become known as "climate gate."

According to Pajamas Media:

Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) today asked the Obama administration to investigate what he called “the greatest scientific scandal of our generation” — the actions of climate scientists revealed by the Climategate Files, and the subsequent admissions by the editors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4).

Senator Inhofe also called for former Vice President Al Gore to be called back to the Senate to testify.

“In [Gore's] science fiction movie, every assertion has been rebutted,” Inhofe said. He believes Vice President Gore should defend himself and his movie before Congress.

As he approaches becoming the first 'climate billionaire,' Mr. Gore has been having more light shed on his nefarious scheme to advance a theory fraught with fraud and deceit.

We shall wait and watch to see where this goes.
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Should our enemies' arrows blot out the sun, then we shall fight in the shade.

On Twitter.

Instant Karma taps the well of Latin American Leftists

2010-02-22T11:14:00.000-08:00

Instant Karma's gonna get you,
Gonna look you right in the face,
Better get yourself together darlin',
Join the human race...

John Lennon

Petty dictators the world abound, their time usually cut short by the folly of their ways.

Now, Mother Nature is weighing in:

Hugo Chávez may be wondering, as Venezuela's taps run dry and its cities fall into darkness, whether God is on the side of the Yankees.

The El Niño weather phenomenon appears to be taking sides as it parches leftist-ruled parts of South America and brings bounty to US farmers and corporations. One of the severest droughts in decades has given Venezuela's socialist president a political nightmare as hydro-electrical power dribbles to a standstill, unleashing blackouts, rationing and protests. The waters behind the Guri dam, which supplies more than half the nation's power, have touched perilously low levels. Chávez has declared an "electricity emergency", urging people to spend no more than three minutes in the shower. The president has even dispatched Cuban pilots to seed clouds for rain.

The state oil company Edelca has aimed higher: it summoned workers to a prayer meeting entitled "Clamour to God for the National Electricity Sector".

The crisis has extended to Paraguay, where another leftist leader, Fernando Lugo, ordered the presidential palace lights switched off. In Argentina and Brazil – also with leftist governments – torrential rain and high temperatures have blighted crops with insect and fungi attacks.

A suspicious soul could ask whether El Niño, a Pacific weather system that influences climate worldwide, is on Washington's payroll. Monsanto and Dow Chemical are enjoying booming pesticide and fungicide sales in Argentina as farmers battle to save soy harvests. But in the US Midwest, farmers expect record corn and soy crops.

Nuestra cosecha está abundante!

Send in the Clowns Quick!…Because These People Are Idiots!

2010-02-18T18:39:00.000-08:00

[Non-Decorum Warning]

Please read this post because, after you do, you will likely agree that the people running this country are F**KING idiots.

[From CNSNews.com]

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs agreed that part of a civilian trial is the presumption that the accused is innocent until proven guilty, but Gibbs also said that Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks, would be "convicted" and "executed for his crimes."

On Wednesday, CNSNews.com asked Gibbs, “The vice president (Joe Biden) said on Meet the Press that he guarantees that KSM (Khalid Sheik Mohammed) would not be acquitted. Isn't part of a civilian trial presumed innocent?”

Gibbs said, “Yes.”

[snip]

On NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Feb. 14, host David Gregory asked Vice President Joe Biden, “The reason for a civilian trial as given by the president and others was a question of perception: That it was very important that the rest of the world see that we treated Khalid Sheikh Mohammed fairly. But hasn’t the administration already made the decision that even if he were to be acquitted that he would never be released?”

Biden answered by guaranteeing that Khalid Sheik Mohammed would not be acquitted.

“Look, there is no doubt that he would not be acquitted,” said Biden. “The facts we have are overwhelming. We are absolutely confident he will be convicted and for whatever he is tried. The attorney general made the decision that he should be tried in the court of the greatest jurisdiction, which was in New York City.”

Nevermind the fact that the trial isn't going to be held in New York (Joe must have missed that White House briefing), here's a prediction:

If the trial judge does not toss the case first, KSM's "conviction" will eventually get overturned after BHO, Joey "Botox" Biden, and Gibsy are long gone because the government does not have a case once KSM's [non-Mirandized] confession and the [warrantless-obtained] evidence is tossed out.

KSM cannot have a 'fair trial' by a 'jury of his peers' in any venue within the United States when you have the President and the Vice President declaring him guilty [on Meet the Press(!), no less]…and the President's spokesman (to reporters) stating the same thing.

If BHO thought putting KSM through a 'civilian court' would show the world "we practice what we preach," his administration has undone everything he claims he wanted to do.

The ONLY way BHO can get out of the mess he and his team of idiots created is for them to put KSM in the lead car of Joe Biden's motorcade.

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On Twitter.

Cross-posted.

Should our enemies' arrows blot out the sun, then we shall fight in the shade.

The Climate Change Con: 'The Whole F**king Thing is Falling Apart..."

2010-02-16T15:31:00.000-08:00

Imagine spending years and ~~tens~~ hundreds of millions to create a worldwide public hysteria with the ~~plot~~ plan to reap billions in rewards...only to have the fraud discovered just as the cash register is about to ring.

Such is the scam of ~~global warming~~ climate change.

The Continuing Climate Meltdown

It has been a bad—make that dreadful—few weeks for what used to be called the "settled science" of global warming, and especially for the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that is supposed to be its gold standard.

First it turns out that the Himalayan glaciers are not going to melt anytime soon, notwithstanding dire U.N. predictions. Next came news that an IPCC claim that global warming could destroy 40% of the Amazon was based on a report by an environmental pressure group. Other IPCC sources of scholarly note have included a mountaineering magazine and a student paper.

Since the climategate email story broke in November, the standard defense is that while the scandal may have revealed some all-too-human behavior by a handful of leading climatologists, it made no difference to the underlying science. We think the science is still disputable. But there's no doubt that climategate has spurred at least some reporters to scrutinize the IPCC's headline-grabbing claims in a way they had rarely done previously.

Some additional headlines to help add insult to the scammers' injury:

Global Warming Professor Admits to Unorganized Data and More...

Special Edition: Phil Jones's Revelations and the The Meltdown of Global Warming Alarmism...

Global-warming arguments contested yet again...

And then there's this:
[Strong Language Warning]

On Twitter.

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Should our enemies' arrows blot out the sun, then we shall fight in the shade.

BIG SISTER IS WATCHING YOU...

2010-02-13T19:57:00.000-08:00

If you tweet on Twitter and other social media sites; if you blog about (or comment on) the obese, bloated, tax-and-spend federal bureacrats, BIG ~~BROTHER~~ SISTER IS WATCHING YOU!

As the winter Olympics begin, the Department of Homeland Security has disclosed that it will be monitoring the comments and posts on websites and social media like Twitter for information on possible terror threats. Among the sites listed in a privacy impact statement filed Friday afternoon by DHS are the Drudge Report, the Huffington Post, Twitter, Google and this web site, the Blotter.

The National Operations Center of DHS will watch the web for information, according to the statement, to "provide situational awareness" in the event of natural disaster, an "act of terrorism, or other manmade disaster."

Is it not comforting to know that the United States' Department of Homeland Security, in all their competence could not catch a a**hole with explosives shoved down his briefs, but is now spending time and resources monitoring U.S. citizens?

Cross-posted ...

On Twitter.
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Should our enemies' arrows blot out the sun, then we shall fight in the shade.

Bi-Partisanship or a White Flag?

2010-02-09T09:14:00.000-08:00

In watching this video, while the President talks about 'bi-partisanship,' one cannot help but wonder if the tone is not one of surrender...

No. Probably not.

It's just the President positioning the media so he can accuse his opponents of being narrow-minded and dogmatic...and partisan.

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Should our enemies' arrows blot out the sun, then we shall fight in the shade.

Democrats are Astroturfing Themselves

2010-02-03T21:24:00.000-08:00

Do you remember when Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats tried to label tea party protestors and town hall attendees astroturf? The term astroturf, of course, is the creation of opposition that appears to be grassroots but is, in reality fake.

Now, it seems Democrats have taken to astroturfing themselves. In other words, Democrats are creating faux opposition to themselves and the leader of their party, President Obama.

Wednesday's meeting with Obama gave Lincoln a televised opportunity to challenge Obama on a broader question. As one of eight Democrats hand-picked by party leaders to question the president, all but one up for re-election this year, Lincoln urged Obama to ``to push back against people in our own party that want extremes.''

Then, in short order, her campaign website featured a news report: ``Lincoln challenges Obama on liberal `extremes.'" [Emphasis added.]

If things are so bad your party has to orchestrate the creation of fake opposition to your own party's priorities, perhaps its time to revisit those priorites.
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Should our enemies' arrows blot out the sun, then we shall fight in the shade.

Artic Winds Just Blew Through Hell: CNN's Rafferty Calls Nancy Pelosi a "Horrible Woman"

2010-02-02T07:26:00.000-08:00

Satan can surely see his breath today for here is something we never thought would happen in a ~~million years~~ EVER: A CNN anchor taking Nancy Pelosi to task...and calling her a "horrible woman" on top of it!

Jack, we couldn't agree with you more!

Follow Dienekes' Place on Twitter.

AMERICA RISING

2010-02-01T20:06:00.000-08:00

Have you seen this video? If not, you should watch it...and take heed.

Follow Dienekes' Place on Twitter.

President Admits to Breaking HCR Pledge...Gee, Ya Think?

2010-01-31T17:09:00.000-08:00

Tom Bevan's post on RealClearPolitics points out a stunning admission from President Obama's meeting with the GOP leadership on Friday.

Here are the President remarks (also on video):

The last thing I will say, though -- let me say this about health care and the health care debate, because I think it also bears on a whole lot of other issues. If you look at the package that we've presented -- and there's some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your -- if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you're not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge. [emphasis added]

So, Mr. President, whatever happened to that pledge? Ya think Pelosi, Reid and your band of merry zealots broke your pledge?...Ya think?

It's never been about fixing health care. It's been about control.
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Should our enemies' arrows blot out the sun, then we shall fight in the shade.

Cross-posted.

Could Noah build his ark today?

2010-01-27T15:41:00.000-08:00

An e-mail came in today that we felt was very poignant given the state of our union and the reaching tentacles of Big Brother. We do not know the origins of this tale, but we thought we'd share it with you:

If Noah had lived in the United States today, the story may have gone something like this:

And the Lord spoke to Noah and said, "In one year, I am going to make it rain and cover the whole earth with water until all flesh is destroyed. But I want you to save the righteous people and two of every kind of living thing on earth. Therefore, I am commanding you to build an Ark." In a flash of lightning, God delivered the specifications for an Ark. In fear and trembling, Noah took the plans and agreed to build the ark. "Remember," said the Lord, "you must complete the Ark and bring everything aboard in one year."

Exactly one year later, fierce storm clouds covered the earth and all the seas of the earth went into a tumult. The Lord saw that Noah was sitting in his front yard weeping. "Noah!" He shouted. "Where is the Ark?"

"Lord, please forgive me," cried Noah. "I did my best, but there were big problems.

First, I had to get a permit for construction, and your plans did not meet the building codes. I had to hire an engineering firm and redraw the plans.

Then I got into a fight with OSHA over whether or not the Ark needed a sprinkler system and approved floatation devices.

Then, my neighbor objected, claiming I was violating zoning ordinances by building the Ark in my front yard, so I had to get a variance from the city planning commission.

Then, I had problems getting enough wood for the Ark, because there was a ban on cutting trees to protect the Spotted Owl. I finally convinced the U.S. Forest Service that I really needed the wood to save the owls. However, the Fish and Wildlife Service won't let me take the 2 owls.

The carpenters formed a union and went on strike. I had to negotiate a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board before anyone would pick up a saw or hammer. Now, I have 16 carpenters on the Ark, but still no owls.

When I started rounding up the other animals, an animal rights group sued me. They objected to me taking only two of each kind aboard. This suit is pending.

Meanwhile, the EPA notified me that I could not complete the Ark without filing an environmental impact statement on your proposed flood. They didn't take very kindly to the idea that they had no jurisdiction over the conduct of the Creator of the Universe.

Then, the Army Corps of Engineers demanded a map of the proposed flood plain. I sent them a globe.

Right now, I am trying to resolve a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that I am practicing discrimination by not taking atheists aboard.

The IRS has seized my assets, claiming that I'm building the Ark in preparation to flee the country to avoid paying taxes. I just got a notice from the state that I owe them some kind of user tax and failed to register the Ark as a 'recreational water craft'.

And finally, the ACLU got the courts to issue an injunction against further construction of the Ark, saying that since God is flooding the earth, it's a religious event, and, therefore unconstitutional.

I really don't think I can finish the Ark for another five or six years."

Noah waited. The sky began to clear, the sun began to shine, and the seas began to calm. A rainbow arched across the sky.

Noah looked up hopefully. "You mean you're not going to destroy the earth, Lord?"

"No," He said sadly. "I don't have to. The government already has."

--------------------------------------

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Cross-posted.

'DESPERATION' DEFINED...

2010-01-18T11:28:00.000-08:00

Thesaurus.com has synonyms for the word desperation, as follows:

Main Entry:	desperation
Part of Speech:	noun
Definition:	hopelessness
Synonyms:	agony, anguish, anxiety, concern, dejection, depression, desolation, despair, despondency, discomfort, disconsolateness, distraction, distress, fear, gloom, grief, heartache, melancholy, misery, pain, pang, sorrow, torture, trouble, unhappiness, worry

An example of desperation via the Boston Globe:

Faced with the possibility that Republican Scott Brown could win tomorrow’s US Senate election, Democrats in Washington are discussing with great urgency how they could keep his vote from scuttling comprehensive health care legislation, President Obama’s top domestic priority.

Democrats have been counting on having all 60 members of their caucus on hand to pass the bill, which is the number needed under Senate rules to defeat a Republican filibuster. Without all 60 votes, Democratic leaders would still have a number of options for hustling a health bill through Congress.

None is certain to work, and all carry political risks.

One possibility is that the House could quickly pass the Senate version without changing it, and later, both chambers could pass fixes that reflect the evolving House-Senate compromise. This could be done using a special parliamentary procedure called “reconciliation,’’ which requires only a simple majority vote of 51 votes in the Senate.

Whether House Democrats who disliked the Senate bill can be persuaded to go along with that idea, remains in question. It would outrage Republicans and provoke the conservative grassroots. Antiabortion Democrats in the House oppose the Senate bill’s provisions on abortion coverage; liberals might prefer to ditch the Senate bill and start all over again; and moderates might balk at voting for any health care bill after what went on in Massachusetts.

Either way, the desperation, hopelessness, agony, anguish, anxiety, concern, dejection, depression, desolation, despair, despondency, discomfort, disconsolateness, distraction, distress, fear, gloom, grief, heartache, melancholy, misery, pain, pang, sorrow, torture, trouble, unhappiness, worry has set in.

OBAMA FAILS TO FILL HALL IN BLUE MASS

2010-01-17T14:47:00.000-08:00

In what may be a first-ever, President Barack Obama, according to this Fox News clip, has failed to fill a hall as he stumps for Senatorial candidate Martha Coakley.

This does not bode well for the Democrat candidate who, just a few weeks ago, was a shoe-in to fill Teddy Kennedy's shoes.

Meanwhile, her opponent has packed the hall and the street outside.
Hat-tip: RedState

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The Differences Between the North & the South

2010-01-16T18:01:00.000-08:00

From our inbox came this great post:

The North has Bloomingdale's; the South has Dollar General.

The North has coffee houses; the South has Waffle Houses.

The North has dating services; the South has family reunions.

The North has switchblade knives; the South has .45's

The North has double last names; the South has double first names.

The North has Indy car races; the South has stock car races.

The North has Cream of Wheat; the South has grits.

The North has green salads; the South has collard greens.

The North has lobsters; the South has crawfish.

The North has the rust belt; the South has the Bible Belt.

FOR NORTHERNERS MOVING:

In the South : If you run your car into a ditch, don't panic...

Four men in a four-wheel drive pickup truck with a tow chain will be along shortly. Don't try to help them, just stay out of their way. This is what they live for.

Don't be surprised to find movie rentals and bait in the same store... Do not buy food at this store.

Remember, 'Y'all= is singular, 'all y'all' is plural, and 'all y'all's' is plural possessive

Get used to hearing 'You ain't from round here, are ya?'

Save all manner of bacon grease. You will be instructed later on how to use it.

Don't be worried at not understanding what people are saying. They can't understand you either. The first Southern statement to creep intoa transplanted Northerner's vocabulary is the adjective 'big'ol,' truck or 'big'ol' boy. Most Northerners begin their Southern-influenced dialect this way. All of them are in denial about it.

The proper pronunciation you learned in school is no longer proper .

Be advised that 'He needed killin..' is a valid defense here.

If you hear a Southerner exclaim, 'Hey, y'all watch this,' you should stay out of the way These are likely to be the last words he'll ever say.

If there is the prediction of the slightest chance of even the smallest accumulation of snow, your presence is required at the local grocery store. It doesn't matter whether you need anything or not. You just have to go there.

Do not be surprised to find that 10-year olds own their own shotguns, they are proficient marksmen, and their mammas taught them how to aim.

In the South, we have found that the best way to grow a lush green lawn is to pour gravel on it and call it a driveway.

And remember: If you do settle in the South and bear children, don't think we will accept them as Southerners...

After all, if the cat had kittens in the oven, we ain't gonna call 'em biscuits

.
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The Guy from Boston Goes Off on Global Warming

2010-01-16T08:25:00.000-08:00

WARNING: VERY, VERY STRONG LANGUAGE!

Judge Tosses Terrorist Confession

2010-01-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

We've pondered this before: What will happen when the WTC Terrorists get set free?

The likelihood of that happening just got greater on Friday:

A federal judge has tossed out most of the government's evidence against a tarrorism detainee on grounds his confessions were coerced, allegedly by U.S. forces, before he became a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay.

In a ruling this week, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan also said the government failed to establish that 23 statements the detainee made to interrogators at Guantanamo Bay were untainted by the earlier coerced statements made while he was held under harsh conditions in Afghanistan.

[More here.]

As the saying goes: We hate to say we told you so...

On Stossel: Free-Market vs. Socialist-Run Health Care

2010-01-04T20:55:00.000-08:00

John Stossel's new FBN show had a serial statist debating Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey on the merits of Market-Run Health Care vs. Government-Run Health Care.

Here's the clip:

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CONSPIRACY THEORIES

2010-01-02T15:45:00.000-08:00

Conspiracy theories are always interesting.

For every malaise that befalls man, there is generally a conspiracy behind it.

While many of the conspiracy theories make all-too-often convenient sense, others are sometimes just too outlandish to remotely make sense.

Among the many conspiracy theories out there is the "thin the world's population" theory. That is, a powerful (and rich) grouping of individuals wish to commit mass murder in the number of billions in order to control the remaining populace.

Could it be true? Sure.

However, it doesn't make sense. Here's why:

If there is a group of omnipotent control freaks wishing the world dead, from a pure power and economic standpoint, they would be sacrificing their own self-interests. If they are that powerful (in that they already control the world), then more people, not less, is better...for their profits, their power, their experimentation, and their wealth.

In the meantime, former-Navy Seal-turned-pro-wrestler-turned-actor-turned-politician-turned-conspiracy-theorist Jesse Ventura is the latest to jump on the conspiracy bandwagon.

Here, he takes on the Big Bilderberg Conspiracy Theory.

Ventura may be right, he may be wrong, or he may merely be after ratings (or a combination of all of the above). In either case, the conspiracy theories will continue and the world will either continue to grow, or we'll all be killed off by a secret society of ne'er do wells (or, as they're more commonly referred to: 'THEM.')

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Senator Slur: Baucus is Bombed on Senate Floor

2009-12-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) shows he can get drunk on power...

h/t: Drudge Report

Is Obama Losing His Black Base?

2009-12-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

An interesting post on The Daily Beast yesterday regarding disappointment that some prominent blacks feel toward President Obama may, ultimately, hurt Dems and Obama in 2010 and 2012.

“He may be just a different face, and that face may happen to be black—and if it were Hillary Clinton, it would happen to be a woman,” says Danny Glover. “But what choices do they have within the structure?”

“I think the Obama administration has followed the same playbook, to a large extent, almost verbatim, as the Bush administration. I don’t see anything different,” the activist movie actor said of Obama’s policies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. “On the domestic side, look here: What’s so clear is that this country from the outset is projecting the interests of wealth and property. Look at the bailout of Wall Street. Why not the bailout of Main Street?”

....

...[S]uch prominent voices as Rep. John Conyers, the powerful chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and New York Times columnist Charles Blow have been among those taking shots at Obama over his policies, rhetoric, and political positioning.

“He called me and told me that he heard that I was demeaning him and I had to explain to him that it wasn’t anything personal, it was an honest difference on the issues,” Rep. John Conyers told The Hill. “And he said, ‘Well, let’s talk about it.’ ” But the 80-year-old Conyers informed the president that he was in no mood to chat. “I’ve been saying I don’t agree with him on Afghanistan, I think he screwed up on health-care reform, on Guantánamo and kicking Greg off,” Conyers added, referring to the forced resignation of White House counsel Gregory Craig over the Guantánamo prison issue...

“There was an expectation, particularly among African Americans, that the first African-American president would at least be vocal about feeling their pain,” [NYT's] Blow said last week on MSNBC’s Hardball. “I think that has not been the case. The president has given a couple of speeches and he has been very heavy on the stick and not very heavy with the carrot… Just in the inability for him to commiserate with that group of people, people feel a bit deflated… He said he’s not going to focus separately on African-American issues at all. That let a lot of people down.”

“A lot of people are pissed off out there,” said one well-known political player...

[Emphasis added.]

Given the anger from the Left on health care and Afghanistan, combined with African American disappointment, it appears Obama is alienating more of his base...the base that he (and Democrats) will need to rely on in 2010 and 2012 to get out and vote.

While it would be delusional to think that this base would vote for anything other than a leftist, the chances are many of them may just stay home.

In that case, Mr. President, keep alienating and disappointing your base. The rest of the country will thank you for it.

Let There Be No Mistake: Copenhagen is a Conference to DESTROY AMERICA

2009-12-17T12:51:00.000-08:00

Some would argue that the Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change is about saving the planet.

To those who would argue this point, you are wrong!

The Copenhagen conference is a confab designed to bring down America and American capitalism. It is a meeting of petty dictators with an agenda to topple America and they are doing it with the full cooperation of America's political leaders.

If you doubt this fact and want to believe that the delegates have only the best interests of the planet in their hearts, then listen to Hugo Chavez (beginning around 5m 30s) and, more importantly, the applause he receives from the delegates:

President Chavez brought the house down.

When he said the process in Copenhagen was “not democratic, it is not inclusive, but isn’t that the reality of our world, the world is really and imperial dictatorship…down with imperial dictatorships” he got a rousing round of applause.

When he said there was a “silent and terrible ghost in the room” and that ghost was called capitalism, the applause was deafening.

But then he wound up to his grand conclusion – 20 minutes after his 5 minute speaking time was supposed to have ended and after quoting everyone from Karl Marx to Jesus Christ - "our revolution seeks to help all people…socialism, the other ghost that is probably wandering around this room, that’s the way to save the planet, capitalism is the road to hell....let’s fight against capitalism and make it obey us.” He won a standing ovation.

Whatever the outcome of the Copenhagen talks, you can be assured that it will be to America's detriment.

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EATING THEIR OWN: House Dems Harass Harry

2009-12-16T07:51:00.000-08:00

As Senate Dems bent on their socialist 'progressive' principles on health care yesterday to accomodate Joe Lieberman, the fallout is causing more problems for Harry Reid.

Rolland Burris (D-IL) indicated that he would not be supporting a bill without the public option and Ben Nelson (D-NE) is still "not on the bill" due to its public funding for abortion.

This means the math is even worse for Harry Reid than it was yesterday.

Meanwhile, House Democrats are getting impatient with Harry Reid.

“I think the majority leader sometimes has to have the leadership to resolve these things,” says Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak, a Democrat challenging Sen. Arlen Specter, in a direct attack on Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “I understand it’s politically challenging, but we have the votes — and we should be doing much better than we are. I think this place needs a change, quite frankly.”

Further demonstrating their frustration, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is trying to quell fears of a populist backlash that is leaving her vulnerable House members feeling...well...vulnerable in 2010.

According to The HIll, Pelosi is assuring her queasy fellow Dems that the House will not take up any controversial bills unless the Senate acts first.

After a year of bruising legislative victories that some political analysts believe have done more to jeopardize her majority than to entrench it, Pelosi is shifting gears for the 2010 election.

....

“The Speaker has told members in meetings that we’ve done our jobs,” a Democratic leadership aide said. “And that next year the Senate’s going to have to prove what it can accomplish before we go sticking our necks out any further.”

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the president of the freshman class, said that Pelosi came to last Wednesday’s freshman breakfast to deliver that message, and that it was met with wide spread approval.

“I think freshmen, particularly, are not enamored of the idea of being asked to walk the plank on a controversial item if the Senate is not going to take any action,” Connolly said.

This means that the liberal legislative agenda which includes things like amnesty for illegals, the job-destroying Employee Free FORCED Choice Act, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", as well as "Tax & Trade" may be doomed for the next year--until after the mid-terms (depending on the outcome then).

If this is indeed the case, the decimation of America may be forestalled for another year and perhaps Christmas has indeed come early.

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Cross-posted.

----------------------------

"In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit." - Ayn Rand

Copenhagen Cannibals, the Death of Kyoto & the Inconvenience of Truth

2009-12-14T10:11:00.000-08:00

Many have known for years that there is something fishy about the Al Gore-inspired industry known as "Global Warming, Inc." In fact, as the planet's temperatures have decreased in recent years, the global warming hysterians have had to change their whole brand identification from that of global warming to "climate change," while not changing their tactics at attempting to extort "developed nations" on behalf of developing nations.

Thanks to Al Gore, who can't let a little thing like truth get in his way of becoming the world's first environmental billionaire, the world is watching countries like the U.S. and those that make up the European Union scramble to find a way to squander their wealth, end their sovereignty and enslave their peoples to those "developing" countries deemed to be too poor in sound government, civility or the rule of law to manage themselves.

In sum, as 'Climate Gate' is only beginning to shed light on Al Gore and his pseudo-scientific, climate-controlling cronies want America to accept fraud as fact and to willingly pay for its own economic and national destruction.

Thankfully, as the Copenhagen con unfolds, bureaucrats the world over cannot seem to agree on how to destroy America...and at what price said destruction should come. According to news reports:

China, India and other developing nations boycotted U.N. climate talks on Monday, bringing negotiations to a halt with their demand that rich countries discuss much deeper cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions.

Representatives from developing countries - a bloc of 135 nations - said they refused to participate in any formal working groups at the 192-nation summit until the issue was resolved.

Moreover...

"I don't think the talks are falling apart, but we're losing time," said Kim Carstensen, of the World Wildlife Fund. The developing countries "are making a point."

The dispute came as the conference entered its second week, and only days before over 100 world leaders including President Barack Obama were scheduled to arrive in Copenhagen.

"Nothing is happening at this moment," Zia Hoque Mukta, a delegate from Bangladesh, told The Associated Press. He said developing countries have demanded that conference president Connie Hedegaard of Denmark bring the industrial nations' emissions targets to the top of the agenda before talks can resume.

Poor countries, supported by China, say Hedegaard had raised suspicion that the conference was likely to kill the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which limited carbon emissions by wealthy countries and imposed penalties for failing to meet those targets.

Poor countries want to extend that treaty because it commits rich nations to emissions cuts and imposes penalties if they fall short. The United States withdrew from Kyoto over concerns that it would harm the U.S. economy and that China, India and other major greenhouse gas emitters were not required to take action.

"We are seeing the death of the Kyoto Protocol," said Djemouai Kamel of Algeria, the head of the 50-nation Africa group.

It was the second time the Africans have disrupted the climate talks. At the last round of negotiations in November, the African bloc forced a one-day suspension until wealthy countries agreed to spell out what steps they will take to reduce emissions.

An African delegate said developing countries decided to block the negotiations at a meeting hours before the conference was to resume. He was speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was held behind closed doors. He said applause broke out every time China, India or another country supported the proposal to stall the talks.

Hope may be beginning to emerge that no agreement will be reached in Copenhagen and the enviro-phonies will leave Denmark with nothing but their proverbial diatribes in their hands. For there is something truly unholy when other nations, as well as the present and former leaders of this nation, try to bring the best nation on earth to its knees to appease the equivalent of cannibals.

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Copenhagen: Al Gore's Woodstock

2009-12-14T08:57:00.000-08:00

As the planet watches the prostitute-laden scam of the Copenhagen Climate Conference, Politico has a puff piece on the arrival of Nobel and Oscar winner Al Gore's arrival for the conference.

As international climate talks appeared in danger of disintegrating, Al Gore arrived to a rock star’s welcome in Copenhagen today.

If Copenhagen is the enviros' Woodstock, then Gore is The Who, the Grateful Dead and Creedence Clearwater Revival as a one-man band. The former vice president drew such a big crowd that security had to shut down access, with hundreds of unhappy activists left outside.

Given the comparison to Woodstock, we felt the following montage most appropriate:

Party on, Danes!

AND THE STUPID QUOTE OF THE WEEK GOES TO...

2009-12-13T14:39:00.000-08:00

From the New York Times on Senator Harry Reid's "breakthrough" agreement to take over the nation's health care...

Background:

'Senate Democrats said on Wednesday that they were not sure exactly what was in a deal that the majority leader said would surmount a disagreement over a proposed government-run health plan.'

"Any big agreement is progress,” said Senator Bob Casey, Democrat of Pennsylvania. “Even if we do not know any of the details.”

And the runner up is...

“The Senate made critical progress last night,” President Barack Obama said, “with a creative new framework that I believe will help pave the way for final passage and a historic achievement on behalf of the American people.”

And these are our nation's leaders?

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ATLAS SHRUGGED TO BE FEATURED ON STOSSEL'S NEW SHOW?

2009-12-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

The Daily Beast interviewed John Stossel about his new show on Fox. As we've been admirers of both Stossel and Ayn Rand for many years, we were heartened to read the following:

Tell me a little bit about what the show is going to be.

It will be one subject. The first subject will be maybe Atlas Shrugged or global warming—Atlas Shrugged because I think 50 years ago, Ayn Rand predicted today. It sort of sums up what I’m going to be reporting about.

Ayn Rand predicted what?

Big government, nice-sounding legislation like “The Preservation of Livelihood Law,” which mandated that Hank Rearden’s production must not be bigger than any other steel mill, to make it a level playing field. It’s silly.

Is that a new law passed by this Congress?

No, but it’s what Wesley Mouch, the evil bureaucrat in the book, passed. And what Tim Geithner and what Barney Frank might like to pass.

Suffice it to say, we'll be tuning in.
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LT. COL. ALLEN WEST: A Man Worth Watching

2009-12-11T16:33:00.000-08:00

Lt. Col. Allen West is running for Congress. Congress is the wrong spot for him. He should be running for Senate.

Then, he should run for president in 2012.

He would make a better Commander-in-Chief than the current CiC...and he is spot on regarding the Ft. Hood massacre: The "enemy is infiltrating our military." And, he is even more to the point here.

Moreover, he doesn't f*ck around with terrorists either.

This video has been making its way around via e-mails and posted on various sites.

Take a look. Allen West is a man that could use your support.

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Obama's Polls Sinking Like a Stone as Prez Pimps "Cash for Caulkers"...

2009-12-08T10:14:00.000-08:00

While White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs--either in a show of complete arrogance or idiocy--dismissed "the meaninglessness" of Gallup's most recent job approval numbers (47%) for his boss, the Commander-of-the-Unemployed-in-Chief rolled out his "jobs" plan this morning calling for--you guessed it--more government spending (although he won't put a price tag on it...yet).

Obama touted the success of his stimulus and economic recovery efforts so far this year and endorsed a series of new ideas, including tax cuts for small business, new infrastructure spending on highways, rail and other projects, and a so-called “cash for caulkers” program that would give rebates to people who retrofit their homes to be more energy efficient.

Obama’s remarks represent a sort of political doubling down on the idea of federal stimulus spending. Indeed many of the ideas he mentioned are extensions of or additional funding for, items that were included in his $787 billion stimulus package earlier in the year.

Apparently, other than a photo op, last weeks' faux-jobs summit where it appeared only one businessman had the ~~testicular~~ testinal fortitude to tell the naked emperor the truth, was a big waste of time.

Meanwhile, it appears more and more Americans are catching on to the smoke and mirrors of "audacity."

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Harry Reid Has a Problem: His State Opposes Obamacare

2009-12-06T21:37:00.000-08:00

Harry Reid has a problem. According to a poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, a majority of Nevadans are opposed to the Obama-Pelosi-Reid health care nationalization effort.

President Barack Obama has lost ground in the last month in getting Nevadans to embrace his health care reform package and, for the first time, opposition is above 50 percent and support is below 40 percent, a new poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal reveals.

The telephone poll of 625 registered voters found that 53 percent of Nevadans oppose the president's attempt to provide a remedy for problems in the nation's health care system. Support for the plan is at 39 percent....

Fueling discontent with the bill, the poll shows, is the growing belief by Nevadans that Obama's reform package will raise taxes, result in rationing of health care, and cause major cuts to Medicare programs.

"When you look at the entire poll, it's clear the voters of Nevada do not want this bill to pass," said Brad Coker, managing partner of Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., which conducted the poll Monday through Wednesday. "When you break it all down, it appears that Nevadans would just as soon throw this bill out and start over." [Emphasis added.]

Harry, listen to your constituents: Scrap the bill!

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The SEIU & Obama's Job Summit: How Much Influence Will the Queen of Labor Have?

2009-12-02T20:54:00.000-08:00

Behind every man, there is a woman...
Behind every king, there is a queen...
Behind SEIU boss Andy Stern, there is Anna Burger.

Who is Anna Burger?

She's the less public face of the Union of Purple People Eaters (aka the Service Employees International Union). But her less-public profile should not fool you. She is as every bit as powerful (and perhaps moreso) than her public counterpart, the Lord of Labor, Andy Stern.

When SEIU boss Andy Stern broke apart the AFL-CIO in 2005, Anna Burger's the woman that he appointed to head his new federation "Change to Whine."...er..."Win"

Make no mistake about it: Anna Burger is the Queen of Labor.

If Andy Stern is the hand in Barack Obama's puppet, Burger could easily be the rubber glove.

In addition to her bonafides in the utmost upper echelons of the union pyramid, Ms. Burger also happens to be the vice chair of George Soros' Democracy Alliance.

When people focus on Andy Stern, they lose sight of just how powerful Ms. Burger is and how integral she has been in helping orchestrate the Left’s coup d’ etat…and how she, like Andy, has the president’s ear.

On Thursday morning, President Obama is holding his overly-touted "Jobs Summit". As Politico noted over the weekend:

It’s one of the oldest tricks in the presidential playbook: when you want to focus attention on an issue, hold a meeting and call it a “summit.”

However, on Sunday, with union bosses on the exclusive invite list, we questioned whether union bosses would use the "jobs summit" to push the job-destroying and hallucinogenically-named Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

All evidence suggests that, not only were we correct on our assumption that EFCA would be pushed at the jobs summit, but that union bosses plan to use the jobs summit to push more government spending programs that will further add to the nation's debt.

Considering that the Queen of Labor has never created a job, we find what Ms. Burger, writes today in the Huffington Post rather fascinating:

Creating jobs isn’t rocket science. We just need the political will, courage and determination to make it happen.

Now it’s time to get to work.

1. We need to extend the safety net, including increasing unemployment insurance and expanding work sharing programs to provide unemployment benefits for reduced hours of work. and

2. We need to use TARP funds to increase credit for small businesses.

3. Federal fiscal relief to states and local governments needs to be expanded to save an anticipated 900,000 jobs and the vital services in our communities.

4. We need to target the fastest-growing sectors of human services such as child care, in-home services for the elderly and disabled, and other services our communities need through a public jobs program. This will create jobs in the public and private sectors and ensure our communities are healthy, educated, and well cared for.

5. We need to leverage private investment with public dollars through a Green Bank that will promote energy-efficiency and renewables as a major source of job creation, in both the short and the long term. The jobs we create today will lay the groundwork for the industries of tomorrow.

Expanding the home retrofitting programs begun under the Recovery Act will
create good jobs in construction and related industries. Including commercial and public buildings would increase the scope of the program, create high skilled jobs, and protect the planet by reducing demand for energy. By acting now, America can lead the way on green technology.

6. We must invest in our aging and failing infrastructure by rebuilding our schools, roads and bridges—putting millions to work. An Infrastructure Bank can foster public/private partnerships in developing regional and large scale projects critical for a 21st century economy.

7. The passage of health care reform will add tens of millions of Americans to the healthcare rolls and create more than a million new and different jobs in healthcare and related industries. We need to ensure our present healthcare workforce is prepared and we need innovative recruitment and training programs to meet this new workforce demand.

8. We must pass the Employee Free Choice Act to once again protect workers’ freedom to form unions and allow them to share in the prosperity of a new 21st century economy.

9. We need expanded worker training programs on a national scale so that young people are prepared for new industries and workers can the learn skills necessary to compete for new jobs. It’s time to coordinate across agency lines and provide flexible lifelong training for the new economy.

Paid for by whom?

Without saying 'you,' Ms. Burger's answer is as any wealth re-distributor's would be: Tax the rich bastards!

It’s time for Wall Street and the financial industry to pay back their debt to our society. Wall Street must do its part by paying a speculators tax on their obscene profits and transactions. This tax can fund the entire program over ten years.

This isn’t a hard ask. After the trillions in taxpayer investments to bail them out, the excessive profits of firms like Goldman Sachs, and the $150 billion in compensation and bonuses the top six banks plan to dole out this year, this is a small price for Wall Street to pay.

Of course, "Wall Street" is made up millions of "Main Street" investors who have their 401(k)s, their pensions, and their investments in Wall Street.

So, what Queen of Labor is essentially pushing for is a hidden tax on anyone with any kind of investment, covered in the we'll screw the rich blanket.

Given that government can only steal from, expropriate, or tax the wealth of its citizens, it cannot create jobs without killing jobs in the private sector.

In ordinary times, Ms. Burger's proposals would be laugh-out-loud funny.

However, these are not ordinary times where leaders in Washington understand basic economic principles (which is why there is a job summit to begin with) that, in order for the private sector to be able to create jobs, government needs to get the hell out of the way.

Unfortunately, these are extraordinary times. Our nation has a president whose ear is being bent by the Lord of Labor and his Queen whose only apparent know-how on meeting a payroll is through taking the hard-earned income from working Americans. And, whose only apparent growth plan is through higher taxes, bigger government, and stripping Americans of their right to vote on unionization.

Here's our prediction: If President Obama chooses to take union bosses' advice, he can be assured unemployment will reach 13% or more by 2012.

Cross-posted on LaborUnionReport.
_____________________

"I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes." Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE TERRORISTS GO FREE?

2009-12-01T10:23:00.000-08:00

It's a bad enough insult that KSM and his terrorist buddies are being tried only a few blocks from where the Twin Towers once stood. However, to confer the rights of U.S. citizens on these enemy combatants borders on the criminally insane. Here's why:

First, it seems much of the government's case rests on confessions and "evidence" obtained overseas.

On the confessions: Once in custody, KSM apparently succumbed to 'waterboarding' and other 'enhanced interrogation techniques,' then spilled his guts.

Upon his capture, was he given his "Miranda Rights"?

If not, everything he said from the time of his capture will be thrown out, since he was not afforded his "constitutional right" to representation.

Second, the entire 'enhanced interrogation techniques' will damn the confessions to inadmissibilty.

As the Washington Post reported earlier this year:

Any plan for terrorism trials in federal courthouses would face extraordinary difficulties, lawyers say. Much of the evidence is classified, and key witnesses are reluctant to testify. Government secrets can be spilled. Litigation can be expensive and stretch for years. Security is a nightmare.

The Guantanamo detainees pose hurdles on a scale rarely seen. They were arrested mostly in Afghanistan and were interrogated there and in Cuba by soldiers and agents more focused on stopping attacks than reading the detainees their rights. Much of the evidence is expected to come from their own statements, and those will be thrown out -- along with leads derived from the interrogations -- if the detainees were coerced.

On the "evidence" obtained: Were there search warrants issued? [Whether here or abroad?] If not, then Obama and Holder have another huge problem.

Lastly, can any defendent (whether citizen or not) have a "fair" trial when the President of the United States (once the most powerful person in the world) expresses confidence that the "presumed innocent until proven guilty" defendent is going to be executed when he's found guilty?

The defendent's attorneys are going to have a field day going to trial in New York. It will be easy for them to make the case that the government's entire case should be thrown out.

When that happens, as the title of this post asks: What happens when the terrorists go free?

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Without his Teleprompter, BHO Ditches the WH Press Corps.

2009-12-01T06:06:00.000-08:00

We're big fans of Barack Obama's Teleprompter.

In fact, were it not for TOTUS, the news coming out of of this White House might be viewed as mere propaganda if left only to people like Anita Dunn, Patrick Gaspard, or David Axelrod (et al.).

However, TOTUS brings so much balance and levity to the news coming from the White House that we just couldn't imagine life without it.

Well, apparently the President feels much the same as we do. He has a hard time working without TOTUS too. So much so, apparently, that BHO has been ditching the White House press corp of late.

It's been 19 weeks, according to the Washington Times, since BHO has had a press conference (you know, where POTUS-friendly reporters get to ask planted questions so POTUS can appear to be answering regally and...spontaneously--without TOTUS).

The president, whose job-approval ratings have been on a steady slide, hasn't held a formal news conference in 19 weeks, since July 22. That one ended badly, when Mr. Obama waded into a racial controversy by saying a white police officer "acted stupidly" when he arrested a black Harvard professor.

"It can't be a total coincidence that the last time he faced the press corps, we ended with beers in the Rose Garden with Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley, when the focus was supposed to be health care," said Julie Mason, a White House reporter for the Washington Examiner who also covered the Bush administration for the Houston Chronicle.

"It does seem like they are responding to the overexposure argument and trying to exert more control over his appearances," she said.

Veteran White House reporters have been grumbling about the lack of access to the president, who as a candidate vowed an unprecedented level of transparency. [Emphasis added.]

As the Ditherer-in-Chief preps for his big focus-group-tested speech on Afghanistan tonight, it appears the only thing transparent coming from this White House is Barack Obama's Teleprompter.

And, for its level of transparency, we are great admirers of TOTUS.

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KAMIKAZE POLITICS: White House Picks Another Fight With the Press

2009-11-30T21:35:00.000-08:00

President Obama, albeit for other reasons than cited below, has earned himself a new nickname: The Kamikaze-in-Chief. [To read Ralph Reiland's reasons for POTUS' new nickname, go here.]

On Monday, it seems that the White House has decided to take aim at another media outlet: Politco.

Here's the background: Politico ran a piece entitled "7 stories Obama doesn't want told."

In sum, Politico's seven points consisted of:

He thinks he’s playing with Monopoly money
Too much Leonard Nimoy
That’s the Chicago Way
He’s a pushover
He sees America as another pleasant country on the U.N. roll call, somewhere between Albania and Zimbabwe
President Pelosi
He’s in love with the man in the mirror

[Read entire piece here, and watch the video below.]

Later on Monday, the Atlantic posted that the White House is not taking the Politico piece laying down:

It's not just Fox News that's become subject of White House derision. The following is an excerpt from a joke e-mail that is circulating among White House staffers. It's a response, of sorts, to the analytical essay that POLITICO editor-in-chief John Harris wrote about the "seven stories that Barack Obama doesn't want told."....

...But make no mistake: many on the White House senior staff dislike POLITICO's brand of journalism, and they do not like the effect that POLITICO's metabolism has on the rest of the press corps, including this (i.e., my own) corner of it....
_______________

7 narratives politico is fighting in their efforts to get an interview with the President
1. They are more interested in readers than accuracy
2. Its okay to be wrong everyonce in a while, if your are the first to break the news
3. More interested in gossip than news
4. A spouter of the worst sort of insider conventional wisdom
5. Their analysis about obama has been wrong more than any one
6. Click ... period
7. More obsessed with personality than policy

After the debacle of the White House attacks on Fox News this past fall, one would think that the White House would have learnt its lessons...Apparently, this is not the case as the Obama administration nose dives into another war with another media outlet.

Crazy...Kamikaze crazy.

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OMG! Barack's Teleprompter Crashes!

2009-11-27T09:18:00.001-08:00

Why isn't the MSM covering this earth-shattering news?!?

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Hat-tip Gringo Madre

Angelina Jolie Doesn't Like Obama Either...

2009-11-25T10:53:00.000-08:00

Having been an occasional admirer of uber-mom and mega star Angelina Jolie--especially as the gun-toting Laura Croft--Ms Jolie's cred just went up in our book.

According to Us Magazine, Ms. Jolie is not a fan of the Organizer-in-Chief either.

Barack Obama does not have Angelina Jolie's seal of approval.

"She hates him," a source close to the U.N. goodwill ambassador, 34, tells the new issue of Us Weekly (on newsstands now).

"She's into education and rehabilitation and thinks Obama is all about welfare and handouts. She thinks Obama is really a socialist in disguise," adds the source.

But don't expect to see the Salt actress rally against Democrats on Fox News like her staunch Republican father, Jon Voight.

"Angie isn't Republican, but she thinks Obama is all smoke and mirrors," the source says.

Well said, Ms. Jolie (even if credited to a "source").

No word, however, if Ms. Jolie is still slated to play Dagny Taggart in the Atlas Shrugged movie, or whether the part is going to Charlize Theron.

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Afghanistan: The Ditherer Cometh Hither as Congressional Morons Propose a War Tax...

2009-11-24T06:21:00.000-08:00

The Ditherer-in-Chief will be addressing America next week (on prime time) to explain his better-late-than-never new Afghanistan policy.

President Obama is expected to announce his Afghanistan policy with an address to the nation next Tuesday, Dec. 1, likely in prime time, officials told POLITICO.
Obama held his ninth formal Afghanistan strategy session in the Situation Room on Monday night.

His ninth...?

And he still can't make up his mind while American troops are being killed?!?

Hmmm. Thoughtful or incompetent? Our guess is the latter.

Meanwhile, those morons in Congress are proposing a tax to fund the costs of the war...while they use tax dollars buy auto companies, banks, and abortions.

Pathetic!

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SLAVERY TO THE STATE: DEMOCRATS VOTE TO MOVE FORWARD...

2009-11-22T07:35:00.000-08:00

Another piece of slavery to the state falls into place...

Last night, the rulers and would-be slaveholders took another step toward their totalitarian takeover of America's health care.

Of note, they use the excuse of insuring the uninsured and lowering costs. However, the House bill leaves 18 million uninsured and the Senate bill leaves 24 million uninsured, according to Bloomberg.

Under both bills, all Americans will see their health care costs increase.

Under both bills, all Americans' health insurance will be controlled by government bureaucrats.

Under both bills, ALL Americans will become subjects of the State.

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AN IRATE ATTORNEY PENS A LETTER TO A FECKLESS FASCIST

2009-11-18T17:09:00.000-08:00

Somehow, we missed Attorney Dennis Guthrie's August letter to the Big Government Bureaucrat Nancy Pelosi. Download the PDF here.

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Supporters of Amnesty for Illegals Beat Tea Party Cameraman

2009-11-16T21:17:00.000-08:00

America is quickly devolving into a civil war over ideology.

Here is the video.

Be sure to read Atlas Shrugs' entire post here.

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Obama Throws Another One Under the Bus...

2009-11-16T21:00:00.000-08:00

The Daily Beast has an interesting article on the now-departed White House counsel Greg Craig.

Since the summer, word had been leaking that Greg Craig’s days were numbered and that Obama campaign legal counsel Bob Bauer would be moving in to take Craig’s spot. But the situation seemed similar to the leaks about National Security Adviser Jim Jones’ supposedly tenuous hold on his job—which were either untrue, or turned around by Jones’ performance. The leaks about Craig also seemed unfounded—especially in light of direct statements from the White House that the statements were untrue and that he was not departing....

In fact, leaks are becoming standard fare by key players in the Obama administration. Someone, most likely on the military/intel side of the president’s national security bureaucracy, leaked Afghanistan Commanding General Stanley McChrystal’s report to Bob Woodward. Recently, other political players infuriated U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry by leaking his eleventh-hour contrarian view on a U.S. force surge to the press.

But it’s quite hard to maintain the kind of Obama-esque upbeat tone of transparency and forthrightness and punish staff for leaking when the president himself is standing by and doing nothing as his closest advisors undermine one of their own.

NPR’s Nina Totenberg puts the finger on White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. “There doesn’t seem to be much doubt that these leaks came at least indirectly from Rahm Emanuel,” she reported. “What is the cause of the friction? It's very hard to say. Was it Rahm not wanting to have another power center? Was it their personalities? Was it Rahm seeing the GITMO stuff as a distraction from the president's agenda?"

We have another theory:

Since Mr. Craig has been replaced by attorney Bob Bauer who just happens to be the husband of Maoist Anita Dunn, we think Chairman Mao himself is the source of those leaks...Or, perhaps, Mother Theresa.

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POLITICO: AYN RAND GOES MAINSTREAM

2009-11-12T18:52:00.000-08:00

Politico posts an interesting article about author and philosopher Ayn Rand--A main inspiration of Dienekes' Place.

For some, she never went away. But Ayn Rand is having a minstream moment.

Tea party protesters hoisted signs reading "Ayn Rand was right" and "Who is John Galt?" at the Sept. 12 taxpayer march. There’s talk that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are attempting to bring "Atlas Shrugged" to the big screen. Nearly every major media outlet — including GQ and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart — reviewed the two new Rand biographies. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) penned a piece on Rand's newfound relevance for Newsweek.

Rand has even gone prime time. In a sketch on Jimmy Fallon, recession-stricken audience members ate pages out of Rand’s books for sustenance. Chris Matthews, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh all recommend her work. CNBC reporter Rick antelli’s on-air tirade against government intervention made him a cult hero. He later explained: "I know this may not sound very humanitarian, but at the end of the day I'm an Ayn Rand-er."

President Leaves Nuclear Option Open & Nancy Dodges Jail Question...

2009-11-11T20:17:00.001-08:00

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Democrats may use the 'budget reconciliation' process to avoid getting 60 Senate votes, if a compromise is not reached on the nationalization of health care.

The Hill reports that Gibbs stated that...

President Barack Obama is hopeful that the Senate will pass a healthcare bill with 60 votes, but...held out the possibility that budget reconciliation rules could still be used.

If that is indeed the case and the Seante goes through with the nationalization of the country's health care system, there is likely to be a huge backlash in 2010.

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi dodges a question about the fairness of sending people to jail for refusing to by health insurance.

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Maoist Anita Dunn is Done...Sort of...

2009-11-10T20:52:00.000-08:00

White House Communications Director and Maoist Anita Dunn is stepping down at the end of November.

According to The Hill, Dunn will stay on as a "consultant" [perhaps Czar of Propaganda?].

White House communications director Anita Dunn will resign by the end of the month, the Obama administration confirmed on Tuesday morning.

Dunn, who signed on for a temporary stint after Ellen Moran stepped down from the post, will stay on as a consultant. Deputy communications director Dan Pfeiffer will replace her.

Dunn's tenure has not been without controversy. She helped lead the White House battle against Fox News, once calling the network an "arm of the Republican Party."

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Health Care: Who Voted to End Individual Rights?

2009-11-08T17:43:00.001-08:00

Under the cover of darkness on Saturday night, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 220-215 to nationalize America's health care system.

"If this health care bill becomes law, America, life as you have known it, freedom as you have exercised it and privacy as you have enjoyed it will cease to be," says Judge Andrew Napolitano of the nearly 2,000 page freedom-ending monstrosity of a bill (download all 1,990 pages here or view a partial breakdown of the bill on WSJ here).

Despite the freedom-ending language contained in the bill, 219 Democrats and one Republican voted to end freedom as we know it.

Click here to view who voted for it (in blue) and who voted against it (in red).

The question is, fellow Spartans and Patriots, will you remember these anti-freedom, anti-individual rights, peddlers of pull when election time comes?

We certainly hope so, as the best place for these Congressional culprits is the unemployment line.

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Nancy's Health Care Nationalization

2009-11-07T16:30:00.000-08:00

Let there be no mistake, Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats' health care bill is the nationalization of America's health care system.

From Betsy McCaughey, writing in the Wall Street Journal [emphasis added]:

Sec. 202 (p. 91-92) of the bill requires you to enroll in a "qualified plan." If you get your insurance at work, your employer will have a "grace period" to switch you to a "qualified plan," meaning a plan designed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. If you buy your own insurance, there's no grace period. You'll have to enroll in a qualified plan as soon as any term in your contract changes, such as the co-pay, deductible or benefit.
Sec. 224 (p. 118) provides that 18 months after the bill becomes law, the Secretary of Health and Human Services will decide what a "qualified plan" covers and how much you'll be legally required to pay for it. That's like a banker telling you to sign the loan agreement now, then filling in the interest rate and repayment terms 18 months later.
Sec. 303 (pp. 167-168) makes it clear that, although the "qualified plan" is not yet designed, it will be of the "one size fits all" variety. The bill claims to offer choice—basic, enhanced and premium levels—but the benefits are the same. Only the co-pays and deductibles differ. You will have to enroll in the same plan, whether the government is paying for it or you and your employer are footing the bill.

Sec. 59b (pp. 297-299) says that when you file your taxes, you must include proof that you are in a qualified plan. If not, you will be fined thousands of dollars. Illegal immigrants are exempt from this requirement.

Sec. 412 (p. 272) says that employers must provide a "qualified plan" for their employees and pay 72.5% of the cost, and a smaller share of family coverage, or incur an 8% payroll tax. Small businesses, with payrolls from $500,000 to $750,000, are fined less.

To understand how this latter provision will lead to socialized medicine within three to five years, go here.

NANCY PELOSI AND HER FELLOW FLESH-EATING FASCISTS...

2009-11-06T17:22:00.000-08:00

If the opposite of freedom is slavery, then Nancy Pelosi wants to own you and your body.

Her aims to become the Queen of the Slave Traders has her lining up the votes to bind the American population to her health care scheme.

Ms. Pelosi and her fellow flesh-eating fascists have decreed that Americans shall be imprisoned should they refuse their prescription for nationalized health care.

From GOP's Committee On Ways & Means:

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

In response to the JCT letter, Camp said: “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail. It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.”

Key excerpts from the JCT letter appear below:

“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1] -
- - - - - - - - -
“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from
willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]
- - - - - - - - -
“Criminal penalties

Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:

• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.

• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]

When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties. The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.

“The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration. Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates. Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare,” said Camp.

According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.

[Emphasis added.]

In the name of health care nationalization, Pelosi and her ilk seem hell bent on nothing less than the enslavement of the American people.

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NANCY PELOSI: LIAR OF THE HOUSE

2009-11-06T04:46:00.000-08:00

Should anyone be surprised that Nancy Pelosi lied?

Pelosi Breaks Pledge to Put Final Health Care Bill Online for 72 Hours Before Vote

Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the speaker will not allow the final language of the health care to be posted online for 72 hours before bringing the bill to a vote on the House floor, despite her September 24 statement that she was "absolutely" committed to doing so.

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Walking the Plank: You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Majorities

2009-11-05T16:15:00.001-08:00

A great radio spot by the American Future Fund.

America's Cannibal Society

2009-10-31T16:10:00.000-07:00

In 1964, the late radio commentator Paul Harvey broadcast the following commentary.

It bears repeating today.

America has become a cannibal society, devouring its best. The competent, numerically outnumbered by the incompetents, are being corralled, restrained, confined and milked like barnyard cattle. The giants who created our skyscraper civilization are now ordered to obey Lilliputian bureaucrats. Common men—who owe their jobs to uncommon men who create jobs—gang together to shackle their providers.

Americans are becoming congenital dependents. Even as loafing relatives extort a livelihood by claiming they have a “right” to your money—so today eight million homegrown moochers insist that you are responsible for their welfare! Thus, we subsidize promiscuous mothers and their illegitimate babies and lazy feather bedders and goldbricking government pay rollers...While we penalize the strong, the purposeful, the productive with disproportionate burdens of taxes, pressures, red tape.

We praise ventures which are "non-profit" and grant them tax advantages and social acceptance, yet we damn the men who make the profits which make the "non-profit" ventures possible. Americans want to keep the electric lights but destroy the generators. What if the men of brains and initiative and industry should go on strike?

It happened once. “The Dark Ages” were a period of stagnation when men of exceptional ability gave up, figured “what’s the use?” and went underground—for a thousand years. Ayn Rand, author of “Atlas Shrugged,” thinks it may have to happen that way again. Dr. Charles Mayo says, “I know of no individual, no nation, that ever did anything worthwhile on a five-day week.” Already many American industrialists are turning the keys on their corporations and going to Florida—either part-time or full-time—to become non-productive beachcombers.

Curiously, Russia is beginning to reward the uncommon men. Soviet scholar Vadim A. Trapeznikov—not without Kremlin sanction—is now referring to the Soviet system as “obsolete.” He says Russia’s economy must now rely on the “more productive profit motive.”

We, on the other hand, continue to play the democratic con-game which pretends that all men are equal and that anybody who demonstrates any inequality should be punished for it.

Any insolent beggar can wave his sores in your face and plead for help in the tone of a threat. You are expected to feel “guilty” for having more than he. Any barefoot bum from the pestholes of Asia or Africa cries out, “How dare you be rich!” And we beg them to be patient and we promise to give it all away as fast as possible.

The economic creed of “enlightened selfishness” which made our nation the powerhouse of this planet has been so maligned that now it sounds like heresy when I say:

Any man who claims you owe him a living is a cannibal.
Whether foreign or domestic, he is a cannibal.
If you choose to help him, that is one thing.
If he demands you “help” as his “right,” he is a leech,
a sycophant, a parasite.
He is a cannibal seeking to survive by consuming you.

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Will the Armed Forces Turn Their Guns on American Citizens?

2009-10-29T11:34:00.001-07:00

An interesting article from the Examiner makes it appear that the current government is oblivious to the Posse Comitatus.

Obama administration, Pentagon prepare for homeland military deployment

Nineteen federal agencies and organizations and 17 states and the District of Columbia have participated in one or more of the seven large-scale exercises that NORTHCOM has conducted since September 2005. However, NORTHCOM faces challenges in involving states in the planning, conduct, and assessment of its exercises, such as adapting its exercise system and practices to involve other federal, state, local, and tribal agencies that do not have the same practices or level of planning resources....

"It is up to the residents of individual states to tell their governors they do not want the federal government intruding on law enforcement and public safety issues," said former NYPD detective and Marine intelligence officer Sid Frances.

"This is especially true if their governors share the same political philosophy as the President and his minions in Washington," he added....

"Obama appears oblivious to Posse Comitatus and to the US Constitution when it comes to using the military against civilians within US borders," he added.

While So-called military experts appear excited about this use of soldiers within the borders of the United States, many police commanders and officers are less enthusiastic.

"I cannot understand why the federal government is so intent on using such military force within our borders. It reminds me of the Branch Davidian massacre in Waco, Texas when the feds used excessive deadly force against men, women and children. And they used that deadly physical force based on false information," warns former Det. Frances.
"While I've served in the military and continue as a reservist, as a [New Jersey] cop I'm troubled about the use of federal troops coming into our communities during any emergencies," said Detective Lieutenant Stephan Rodgers.

Read the whole piece here.

Perhaps they will begin dressing the armed forces with red coats as well.

Obama Takes Over Corzine Campaign

2009-10-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

New Jersey's tainted above-the-law billionaire governor John Corzine may win re-election next week, but it will only be because of three main contributors: His own money, third-party candidate Chris Dagget, and Barack Obama taking over this failure of a governor's campaign.

From Politico:

The White House was so concerned about Corzine's chances during the summer that Corzine's aides feared the first-term governor was being pressured to step aside for a stronger candidate. Those fears turned out to be groundless, but were part of the reason Corzine hired Joel Benenson, who has helped impose discipline on a struggling campaign and crystallize Corzine’s aggressive attacks on the character of his Republican opponent, former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.

The race is seen as extremely close, complicated by the presence of a third candidate, Chris Daggett. For the White House, it’s a crucial symbolic prize. With Democrat Creigh Deeds running far behind his Republican rival in Virginia, the New Jersey race – once believed to be hopeless for Corzine – is now seen as the White House’s best bet to make the 2009 election cycle a political wash and to calm the nerves of congressional Democrats approaching the crucial 2010 midterm elections.

While Corzine may win the election, he's still a loser for New Jersey.

RON PAUL ON THE SWINE FLU "EMERGENCY"

2009-10-28T20:51:00.000-07:00

Sometimes people forget that Ron Paul is actually a doctor (as in MD).

Dismantling America

2009-10-27T18:10:00.000-07:00

Thomas Sowell, one of the more prolific writers of our age has penned a poignant piece on the Dismantling of America.

Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent?

Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers-- that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish?

Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get life-saving medical treatments?

Read the rest here.

Obama Does Deeds Dirty?

2009-10-24T19:19:00.001-07:00

It appears that Barack Obama has given up on helping Virginia's Democratic candidate for governor, Creigh Deeds, a move that has Deeds & Co. carping.

Virginia Democratic candidate R. Creigh Deeds said Friday that he was confused and frustrated by statements from senior aides to President Obama that Deeds had rejected their advice in running his campaign for governor as some state party activists denounced what they saw as a betrayal by advisers to a president they helped elect a year ago.

Bye, bye, Deeds. You've been abandoned by your party's Organizer-in-Chief.

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Is Dems' Health Care Plan Unconstitutional?

2009-10-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

Nancy Pelosi's refusal to answer a question on the Constitutionality of the federal government mandate health insurance raised an important question:

Is the Democrats plan to nationalize health care constitutional?

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2010: Are Americans Ready to Confront Obama's Organizing Against America War Machine?

2009-10-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

There are some that are positively giddy over the prospects of the 2010 mid-terms, thinking that our country can turn back the tide of Marxism that has begun to sweep across America.

Hopefully, this post will serve as a warning to all those who believe in individual rights and free enterprise: The opposition is better armed, better organized, and has already begun its campaign to win 2010.

Like an advance scout reporting the movements of our foes, this post may better explain what America's adversaries are up to, before asking you: Are you ready for this fight? Can this nation be saved from the onslaught of Marxism?

First, unions are endorsing candidates far and wide for the mid-term elections. The reason unions are endorsing now is that, for many unions, once a candidate is endorsed, the unions can begin to spend their members' money and marshal their resources for those candidates.

Secondly, and most importantly, as this post [with emphasis added] from the Leftist publication Truthout explains, the war apparatus that is known as Organizing for America has already begun its campaign to diminish the risks to Democrats in the 2010 mid-term elections:

Congressional switchboards were bombarded on Tuesday with over 300,000 calls from supporters of Barack Obama's plan for health care reform....

The event was a part of a national call-in day billed as "time to deliver" by Obama's political arm, Organizing for America (OFA). OFA is the Obama campaign transformed into a political organization that is housed in the DNC in Washington, DC.

DNC Chairman and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine said that OFA is the largest department in the Democratic National Committee, with staff in 48 states. Kaine said that when he assumed the chair of the DNC, OFA was not part of the DNC, but that now it is the heart of the organization.

In the past, incumbents had begun to raise money and set their agenda for re-election early in their terms of office. The difference here is that Obama is cranking up the ground game before his first year is over. He will already have a national field campaign in full gear before the off-term elections, a move that could help him avoid the usual losses the party in the White House usually suffers. OFA may also emerge as the most powerful voice in 2016. A candidate with access to OFA's organizational strength will have a huge leg up.

While there is a grassroots model in place, the agenda will come from the top.

While it would be ideal for the agenda to come from the grass roots, in this case, since the glue that holds the organization together is Barack Obama, from an effectiveness standpoint it makes sense for the organization to organize around his agenda. Many national organizations fizzle when the leader who formed them moves on. Case in point, has anyone heard from the Reform Party lately? Once Ross Perot was gone, there was brief life as they fought over the money the party had coming in matching funds, but once the money was gone, so was their momentum.

OFA Still Has Paid Staff in 48 States

Florida has seven paid staff statewide. OFA's Miami Dade Regional Field Director Brad Schenk described the model structure of the organization, which he said was the campaign's model in Iowa in 2007. Neighborhood groups would form and chose captains and team leaders, who would report to a community organizer responsible for multiple neighborhoods. The community organizer communicates with the field office. From there, information continues on up straight to the national office at the DNC in Washington.

The goal would be to have the neighborhood groups extremely well organized; they would have their own phone banks, canvas operations and events. The campaign would provide the neighborhood groups access to data from the 2008 campaign. This is extremely important. In the past, campaigns guarded their lists, but in this case, volunteers in the community will have access to data that will allow them to organize their neighborhoods. Picture the old Chicago model with block captains all over the country.

Schenk described the organization as progressive, but not radical. He said that while the organization will hold rallies, they would not pull off stunts that could make the organization look bad. When others argued that the "tea baggers" were succeeding, Schenk countered by saying that they were hurting, not helping, their cause, going on to say that they were "polarizing the Republican Party."

All of OFA's resources are currently focused on the health care fight and it is an issue that is easy to rally around. The true test will come when OFA is focusing on an issue or supporting a candidate that its supporters are not excited about. The organization has daily access to the Oval Office, it is in transition right now, working hard to reactivate the foot soldiers from the 2008 campaign. If Tuesday's effort is any indication, they are succeeding. The result could give Obama a more powerful political arm than even the two major political parties themselves.

So, tell me, fellow Spartans and Patriots, now that you know the odds America faces, are you ready for this fight, or will we let our nation fall?

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Revolution...

2009-10-19T21:15:00.000-07:00

A good video worth sharing...

Hat-tip to The Gipper Review.

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OMG! The Booger-Picking Politician's Still Around?!?

2009-10-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

Just to be clear: This is a post about an alleged incident (of which we have no doubt of its actual occurrence, but cannot prove due to lack of 'evidence'). Indeed, under-reported incidents as the one described below should be made into a crime against humanity...

That is, nose picking in public places.

It's an insidious practice that should be outlawed in every civilized land. In fact, there should be a U.N. resolution adopted, for booger-picking in public is a form of torture to all those who have had to witness the horrendous spectacle.

In fact, public booger-picking is so vile and reprehensible that, if its victims do not receive professional treatment (usually through hypnosis), its victims who have witnessed booger-picking can often be emotionally scarred for life and may even require years of therapy to overcome the trauma.

Case in point:

It was around 1990 in Arizona and a gubernatorial election was taking place between a Republican named Fife Symington and a Democrat named Terry Goddard.

Although the Republican ultimately won the election (later to be ousted amid corruption allegations), it was during the campaign that the Democrat Goddard attended a Billy Joel concert at an open-seating venue.

Although he was a minor celebrity and well-known politician, apparently Mr. Goddard felt that his actions in public would go unnoticed. Either that, or he just didn't care who saw him commit a crime of which there can be no statute of limitations--that of picking his booger-infested nose in public.

The term 'gross' is an understatement.

Now, being that this booger-picking incident is nearly two decades old, other witnesses are far and few between, but it (allegedly) happened according to at least one eye-witness account. However, the evidence could have been eaten for all we know.

As a result of this scarring incident, you can imagine our shock when we saw Terry Goddard's name come up on a post from AZCentral.com, stating that Goddard is ahead of GOP hopefuls in a poll.

According to the post, not only is Goddard running for governor again, he is now Arizona's Attorney General! Imagine, a booger-picker enforcing the laws of the Grand Canyon State!

Needless to say, flashbacks and bad imagery flooded the consciousness when reading that post.

Indeed, only moments ago, when asking the question: Do you remember Terry Goddard?

The response from the floor was: You mean the nose-picker?

Can you see why booger-picking in public should be deemed a crime?

To know that a booger-picker is still roaming the streets after so many years is shocking! The Shame! The Injustice of it all!

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On Pitbulls & Poodles: Meghan McCain is an Asset to the Future of the GOP

2009-10-18T18:39:00.000-07:00

In the dog-eat-dog world of politics, it seems there is ample room in the proverbial dog pound for poodles and pit bulls.

In 2008, then-candidate Obama had Obama Girl and David Axlerod. And, for better or worse, John McCain had Sarah Palin...and Sarah Palin.

While policy wonks will always have their place, it seems that much of today's electorate could care less about details and more about sex appeal. [Hey, how else could an inexperienced candidate sell 'change' without really defining it?]

This brings us to Meghan McCain and the assets she brings to her father's Grand Old Party.

If the GOP really wants to get over its eight years of GWB, Cheney & Co., as well as its old fart image so it can move on, it had better start viewing Meghan McCain and her assets as...well...assets toward its future rebuilding.

While Ann Coulter is attractive, she is a policy pit bull. Ms. Coulter has great intellect and many other great points [like pointy elbows and pointy knees to go along with her pointy wit], but she is also only one attractive voice in an otherwise overly male and pale party that can't seem to get out of its own way.

Ms. Coulter may appeal to logic and reason but Ms. McCain appeals to something entirely different. In fact, while Ms. Coulter may provide the policy reasons American soldiers put their lives on the lines fighting enemies abroad, Ms. McCain gives the emotional appeal that young soldiers think of when they think of home.

Ms. McCain may not have the answers to Afghanistan (nor should she at 24) but she certainly has other assets that the GOP could (and should) put to good use--like creating a media frenzy over one 140-character "tweet," and a picture of herself holding a book. Further, when the picture posted creates a backlash, Ms. McCain has the ability to throw a curvy punch or two back at her critics as well.

In terms of making news, Ms. McCain's 'twitslip' last week garners twice as many google hits as Ann Coulter and half as many as Mitt Romney does over the same time period.

In fact, as vote-getters go, if they were to go head to head, it would be a safe bet to put Meghan McCain's sex appeal against Ann Coulter's brilliant razor sharp tongue for drawing new and much-needed young people into the GOP.

As ad men have known for years, sexy 'hipness' sells. However, if the policy wonks within the GOP don't realize this and begin to appreciate Meghan McCain and the assets she can bring to restoring their appeal to younger voters, we're sure the Libertarian Party would welcome her with open arms!

So, unless the GOP chooses to let itself go entirely to the dogs, it would be wise for the GOP to embrace both the pitbull and the poodle to ensure its future.

November 5th

2009-10-17T20:38:00.001-07:00

It was a movie made during the Bush presidency. However, it seems more applicable now than it did then.

Curiously, it is airing on MTV this evening.

If you haven't seen it, you should.

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For $12 Million, We Could Begin Galt's Gulch!

2009-10-12T09:48:00.001-07:00

In response to the question: "If invited to join Galt's Gulch, would you go?" a reader of Linkedin posted a link to a private island that is for sale off the coast of Chile for $12 million.

Here is the information:

A 16,000 acre island sanctuary, Isla San Pedro offers a doorway into the ancient world, where unique species of flora and fauna still flourish, and history is an open book.

Located in the southern region of Chile in South America, Isla San Pedro offers stunning views of the lower Andean Mountains, natural lakes, and a wealth of natural history. Darwin surveyed this Patagonian paradise in 1834. Roads have been constructed around the island as well as some beautiful rustic cabins. In addition to the island, a 2.5 acre parcel in Quellon within walking distance of the airport containing three cottages, one boathouse and dock, 28 foot fibreglass boat and truck will be included.

Is anyone interested?...

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Al Gore Gets an Inconvenient Question

2009-10-11T20:34:00.000-07:00

Al Gore, speaking before the Society of Environmental Questions, got an inconvenient question.

Posted on Andrew Breitart's Big Hollywood, the questioner was polite, but it seems Gore got caught flat footed. Watch the exchange before the questioner had his mic cut off.

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ASTONISHING! Oslo Chooses Obama Over King of Pop for Nobel Peace Prize

2009-10-10T16:59:00.000-07:00

Decidedly, we must weigh in, having originally opted not to post anything on the President's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday. What more could we add that has not already been said?

Therefore, instead of adding more to the cacophony of commentary, we compiled some of the most brilliant analysis we found on the topic of awarding a prize based on words, rather than deeds.

First, this video was just too funny to pass up (hat-tip to Left Coast Rebel):

Next, we surmise that Michael Jackson's fans must be in utter disbelief that their guy, after their intense campaign, failed to win. But despite the Oslo's public humiliation by passing over the late King of Pop, we thought the following quotes were as inspiring as the President's winning the prize itself:

“The Nobel committee would have more credibility had they given the prize to Michael Jackson for his work with children” - 10.9.2009 Caller on national talk radio show
“It’s an odd Nobel Peace Prize that almost makes you embarrassed for the honoree,” said the Washington Post.
“It’s hard to escape the impression that Obama was honored because he isn’t George W. Bush.” opined the LA Times.
"Though not being George W. Bush may cause impressionable Norwegians to flush with ardor, it is not an actual Nobel-worthy accomplishment," wrote the Dallas Morning News.
"The Nobel Peace Prize is now something to be found in a Cracker Jack box," wrote John.
"Upon realizing that it was not a joke, the next thing to come to mind was, where in the world did they get all those horse's heads to put in the beds of the Nobel Prize Committee members? Poor horses." observed Janice.

And, from the one closest to The One and responsible for all those brilliant speeches (if not the prize itself), TOTUS (there is no POTUS without TOTUS):

"...there are some positive things coming out of this surprise award. Big Guy is actually thinking that now that he's won the Nobel, he might take a call from the Dalai Lama now that the Dalai is his almost his equal. I say "almost" because, the Lama won his for bringing world attention to the plight of the Tibetan people. That's not quite as great an effort as the one Big Guy exerted to draw world attention to himself."
Lastly, there is the London Times response:

And that is all that we can add to this topic!

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CNN Gets a Dose of 'God, Guns, Guts & Pick-Up Trucks'

2009-10-10T14:39:00.000-07:00

Though a few months old, this hilarious video shows the cultural conflict so prevalent between the Left and ordinary Americans.

Hat-tip to Tom W.

AMERICAN HEROES DESERVE MORE THAN DELAYED DELIBERATION

2009-10-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

As the Obama Administration deliberates with the decision of whether to 'cut and run' or 'fight to win' in Afghanistan, ABC News has an inspiring story of the heroism and bravery of our American forces and the fight that took eight of their lives last weekend.

While the entire piece is absolutely worth reading and will capture your attention throughout, several passages stood out:

By the time Chief Warrant Officer 3 Ross Lewallen and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Chad Bardwell arrived over the embattled outpost, dubbed Camp Keating, parts were in flames and dozens of insurgents could be seen on the camp's perimeter.

When the battle was over and the fire extinguished, many who survived had nothing left "except the clothes off their backs and the weapons in their hands," one soldier told ABC News.
....

Hunkered down inside the base's operations center were 1st Lt. Cason Shrode, 24, of Dallas, and Sgt. Jayson Souter, 22, of Tuscon, Ariz. The two men were working radios and directing traffic for the Apaches and attack jets that swarmed overhead.

But they knew the camp was ablaze and that insurgents had breached the camp's defenses and were inside the wire.

"It's definitely not a comfortable feeling to be at a place where you're most vulnerable, just not a comfortable feeling knowing these guys are right outside," Souter told ABC News.
....

The soldiers quickly realized the assault was much larger than any they had ever endured. The camp's generator was hit immediately, plunging the camp into pre-dawn darkness.

Soon the camp was on fire with strong winds fanning it along to additional buildings. Eventually, every building in the camp, except one, was burned.

"We were basically surrounded 360 degrees," Shrode said. "I think there were significant numbers [of enemy fighters] throughout the day."

He immediately called for air support.

"We had fixed wing [jets] 20 minutes after fight started," Shrode told ABC News. "We had helicopters 20 minutes later. ... We had so many different assets up in the air ... they were stacked on so many different levels."
....

ABC News had previously reported that when the Medevac flight arrived, some of the wounded refused a chance to leave Keating and kept on fighting. Soldiers also confirmed an earlier ABC News report that some troops gave blood during the fight to be transfused into wounded comrades.

When the attack was over, Souter and Shrode said the soldiers checked on each other and assessed the damage. The fire had destroyed much of the camp.

Lost in the blaze were "cameras, movies, stuff that helps you pass the time ... but there were guys who literally lost everything except the clothes off their backs and the weapons in their hands," Souter said. [Emphasis added.]

Read the entire piece here.

As the Commander-in-Chief deliberates, and deliberates some more, these brave and heroic soldiers cannot, must not, lose our nation's support.

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More on the 'Safe Schools Czar'

2009-10-07T22:29:00.000-07:00

More on President Obama's influence on the nation's children.

This vid is the 'Safe Schools Czar' Kevin Jennings stating that all aspiring teachers should be required to take a LGBT course...

The Washington Times has the video and transcript posted here.

Currency Manipulation: Obama's Secret Plan to Win the Mid-Terms?

2009-10-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

Newspapers are running rampant with stories of the weakening dollar, gold is at an all time high and, rightfully so, people are beginning to get concerned. While President Obama is drawing some fire over the dollar's plunge, it is a story on the Daily Beast which caught our attention.

According to the Beast's Simon Johnson, the falling dollar may actually serve Democrats well in the 2010 mid-term elections. While Johnson's article is appealing to economists and policy wonks, it is also a bit confusing. However, his general theory on how a weakened dollar is summarized here:

"...think what a weaker dollar does for the industrial heartland, where so many congressional seats will be in play and where today it’s easier to export or compete against imports because the same dollar costs convert into fewer euros, yen, or renminbi (this is what a “weaker” dollar means—foreigners can more easily afford our goods and their stuff is more expensive to us). If the dollar stays weak or declines further, our car companies, machinery makers, and turbine blade manufacturers will soon be rehiring and we’ll finally get some job growth as part of our sputtering economic recovery."

Now, macro-economics was not a favorite course in college, however, the professor was a kindly old retired Fed economist who was good at explaining theory and putting it into normal, every day terms. [Not that it always helped.]

In sum, here is how a weakened dollar may turn out to help Dems retain (or even gain) seats in the 2010 mid-terms:

Fed prints a lot of money, driving down value of dollar on worldwide markets

Weaker dollar means imported goods are more expensive, exported goods cheaper for foreigners to buy

More foreigners buy American-made exported goods, more jobs are generated.

More jobs means the White House can claim "we did it!"

Americans never realize they've been manipulated (like the dollar) and vote to keep the manipulators in office.

Hmmm. Sounds pretty easy, doesn't it? So, the question then becomes, is Ben Bernacke and Tim Geitner purposefully devaluing the dollar on the global markets to help Democrats win the mid-term elections?

Does anyone else smell a trap?

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Will GOP Cave on Nationalized Health Care?

2009-10-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

Will they...?

Will the GOP help the DNC deliver Americans into the shackles of socialized medicine?

It looks likes Republican faux-resolve is beginning to turn into GOP gutlessness.

According to CSM, the White House is using some former leaders and faux GOPers to twist arms on the Hill:

The list of high-profile, outside-the-beltway Republicans backing an overhaul of the healthcare system is raising eyebrows.

• California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

• New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (technically an independent, but he’s running for reelection on the Republican and Independence Party tickets).

• Bill Frist, the former GOP Senate majority leader and a physician whose family founded Hospital Corporation of America.

• Tommy Thompson, former secretary of Health and Human Services.

• Mark McClellan, former Medicare chief.

The White House freely acknowledges that it nudged most of these men – Frist came out on his own – toward making public statements. But just as freely, they did say what they said.

The wave of endorsements has already gotten through to one of its most important targets, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) of Maine. She is the only Republican member of Congress potentially willing to vote for the Senate Finance Committee’s version of reform.

“It is important to hear all voices in the party,” she said Tuesday, according to the Washington Post. “The more we hear, the more we learn, the better job we can do in the final analysis.”

Watch Frist stutter and stammer when Neil Cavuto tries to pin him down...

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Politicians Want to Hide Health Care Bill...

2009-10-06T08:11:00.000-07:00

It's kind of scary when politicians want to hide the stuff they're up to from the very people who pay their salaries and keep them in their posh DC digs. In fact, it sort of stinks.

Yet, that is what Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid & Co. are plotting to do as they try to nationalize the health care system by passing one of the most intrusive pieces of legislation written in U.S. history.

From the Washington Examiner:

As Congress lurches closer to a decision on an enormous overhaul of the American health care system, pressure is mounting on legislative leaders to make the final bill available online for citizens to read before a vote.
Lawmakers were given just hours to examine the $789 billion stimulus plan, sweeping climate-change legislation and a $700 billion bailout package before final votes.
While most Americans normally ignore parliamentary detail, with health care looming, voters are suddenly paying attention. The Senate is expected to vote on a health bill in the weeks to come, representing months of work and stretching to hundreds of pages. And as of now, there is no assurance that members of the public, or even the senators themselves, will be given the chance to read the legislation before a vote.
....
The [Sunlight Foundation] has begun an effort to get Congress to post bills online, for all to see, 72 hours before lawmakers vote on them.
"It would give the public a chance to really digest and understand what is in the bill," [Lisa] Rosenberg said, "and communicate whether that is a good or a bad thing while there is still time to fix it."

A similar effort is under way in Congress. Reps. Brian Baird, D-Wash., and Greg Walden, R-Ore., are circulating a petition among House lawmakers that would force a vote on the 72-hour rule.
Nearly every Republican has signed on, but the Democratic leadership is unwilling to cede control over when bills are brought to the floor for votes and are discouraging their rank and file from signing the petition.
Senate Democrats voted down a similar measure last week for the health care bill.

While it is argued that Republicans are guilty of the same obstruction of transparency (e.g., the Patriot Act), both sides should be more accountable for their actions and it is up to the citizens to make that happen by demanding transparency by all the politicians.

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DOC SAYS SWINE FLU VACCINE MAY BE MORE DANGEROUS THAN FLU...

2009-10-04T16:25:00.000-07:00

'...a proven neuro-toxin...'

And more...

NEWS RELEASE
Release: No. H1N1-15
Date Mailed:
September-15-2009
For Immediate Release

Contact: Rob Potter—949-715-2217 or 310-877-3002

WARNING: Drug Cartel Exposed Creating, Releasing, Injecting, Infecting, and Depopulating Planet with Pandemic H1N1 Swine Flu Viruses and Vaccines

Los Angeles, CA— World leading drug-industry investigators have uncovered stunning documents proving an international drug ring, operating from New York City, is behind the H1N1 swine flu fright and vaccination preparations.

Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz, America’s leading consumer health expert, and Sherri Kane, an investigative journalist, have released shocking proof in legal affidavits that leaders of a private global biotechnology “trust” are behind everything you ever heard about pandemic flu, including its origin and alleged prevention via vaccination. Their documents, being sent through attorneys to the FBI today, evidence powerful industrialists operating a crime ring within “Partnership for New York City” are behind the pandemic’s creation, media persuasions, vaccination preparations, and health official promotions seen everywhere from supermarkets to health clinics.

Read more...

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AFGHANISTAN IS NOT VIETNAM, AND COMPARING THE TWO IS FOOLISH

2009-10-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

This morning, Drudge Report posted as its main header: 10 TROOPS KILLED IN DEADLIEST BATTLE OF YEAR. The story posted tells of 10 U.S. servicemen killed in two separate incidents:

Ten American troops were killed at the weekend in two surprise attacks that caused alarm in Nato’s US-led coalition.

In one, hundreds of insurgents attacked a pair of isolated outposts in eastern Afghanistan, killing eight US soldiers and several Afghan policemen in the deadliest battle in 15 months. Scores more Afghan policemen were reportedly captured by the Taleban.

In the other an Afghan policeman opened fire on the American soldiers with whom he was working in central Wardak province, killing two and injuring three.

It was unclear whether the policeman was working for the Taleban or simply ran amok but the attack fuelled the distrust that many Nato soldiers already feel for the Afghan security forces that they are supposed to be working with and training as part of the coalition’s eventual exit strategy.

In a separate, but equally significant story Drudge posted, as Commander-in-Chief, President Barack Obama is between a rock and a hard place about what to do in Afghanistan. His choices, it seems, can be broken down into two:

Declare defeat. Obama can bow to political pressure (mainly from the Left), ignore his commanders and declare defeat which would give America yet another black eye on the world stage further hastening the devolution of the Greatest Nation on Earth to that of a mediocre has been; or

Fight to Win. Obama can listen to his commanders on the ground in Afghanistan and finish the job started eight years ago.

To that end, military commanders are making their views known:

By openly declaring their views on the Afghan war, US military leaders have placed President Barack Obama in a bind as he faces a fraught decision over the troubled US-led mission.

Obama has refused to quickly approve a request from his commanders for a major troop build-up in Afghanistan, insisting first on a full vetting of the current strategy.

But while a war council takes place behind closed doors at the White House, top military officers have made no secret of their view that without a vast ground force, the Afghan mission could end in failure.

"They want to make sure people know what they asked for if things go wrong," Lawrence Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense, told AFP.
As a result, if Obama chooses to change course in Afghanistan or decline a request for large numbers of troops, he will be rejecting the advice of the US military, raising the political stakes.
Commentators on the left say the military ought to keep its advice private without trying to influence public debate, with New York Times columnist Frank Rich accusing the generals of an attempt to "try to lock him (Obama) in" on Afghanistan.
....
The White House meanwhile acknowledged some members of Obama's team have been reading "Lessons in Disaster," a book about flawed decision-making in the
Vietnam war.
In the book, author Gordon Goldstein suggests the late president John F. Kennedy, if he had lived, would have rejected the military's demand for combat troops in Vietnam -- as he had lost faith in his generals' advice after the Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba.
"Perhaps this is Obama's JFK moment," George Packer of the New Yorker wrote
in his blog. "We?ll know in a few weeks."

The problem for the President and his allies on the Left is that Afghanistan is, as Obama himself has said, the "appropriate war" and, just as importantly, Afghanistan is NOT Vietnam.

Unlike Osama Bin Laden and Al Quaeda, Ho Chi Minh never had North Vietnamese live in 'sleeper-cell' clusters throughout the U.S., nor did Ho Chi Minh send covert operators to commit more than 3,000 mass murders on American soil.

Unlike Afghanistan, Vietnam was never used as a base from which to dispatch terrorists all over the world.

Unlike Al Quaeda and its Taliban abettors in Afghanistan, Vietnam was never really a direct threat to America and its citizens.

If the President chooses to ignore the threat of Afghanistan by ignoring the commanders on the ground, America and its allies will leave the entire world open to more terrorist attacks which could easily make 9/11 pale in comparison.

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OLYMPIC-SIZED FAILURE: While American Soldiers Die and Unemployment Climbs, Obama Ogled Olympics for Big Union Backers

2009-10-02T08:43:00.000-07:00

As America's Campaigner-in-Chief returned home empty handed from Copenhagen, where his herculean effort to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago ended in global humiliation and failure, his critics and pundits have, thus far, missed a few big recipients who would have benefited from the extravagant campaign (at taxpayer expense) to snag the games for Chi-Town.

As the Republican National Committee blasted Obama's overnight excursion as playing "booster" to "Obama's Chicago Fat Cat Friends" on the day it was announced unemployment hit 9.8% nationwide, they failed to mention the biggest recipients to bringing the Olympics "home" to Chicago would have been Obama's union buddies.

It has long been estimated that the cost of bringing the Olympics to Chicago would be $4.8 billion or more. Since Chicago is a big union town, second only to New York, much of the money that would have been spent would have gone the city's unionized workers and, of course, their union bosses--from the construction trade unions to the hotels workers' union, UNITE -HERE.

By way of comparison, were the Olympics to have been awarded to Chicago, one need only look to Atlanta, as Time notes:

If there is one Olympic city for Chicago to emulate, it would be Atlanta. The city's $1.7 billion privately funded Summer Games in 1996 sparked a construction boom in the city's downtown core and, according to the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, generated $5 billion in economic activity, including $1.8 billion in hotel, residential and commercial construction.

Since Chicago would have spent nearly three times the amount Atlanta spent (assuming no union cost over runs occurred), it is likely they assumed the amount of money made would be three times its investment, or about $15 billion, which translates into the hundreds of millions in union dues.

Unfortunately for the union bosses, Obama and his teleprompter's star power was not well enough received to even come in a close second, as Chicago was eliminated in the first round of IOC voting. As the Times (UK) comments, Obama's failure adds to growing doubts about his presidency stating that "he is full of lofty vision, but is actually achieving nothing with his grandiloquence."

Writer Amanda Keller is even more direct in her assessment of Obama's folly to Denmark:

Hypocritical acts attached to this venture are endless. The mere appearance of the Commander in Chief jet-setting to Copenhagen simultaneously to soldiers coming home in body bags from Afghanistan (the appropriate war) while his general, McCrystal, waits and waits and waits on an answer to a request over a month old is nothing short of criminal neglect. This ineptitude piled on to the arrogance of his wife, a woman who has benefited all her adult life from the sacrifice of other Americans for her ivy-league education, the education she used to flunk the Bar the first time, only to eventually pass and practice law for all of a nanosecond opting instead to ride her husband’s political coat tails along the corrupt avenues of Chicago. Fancy. [Read the rest of Ms. Keller's piece here.]

So, as Americans die overseas and more and more lose their jobs back home, we taxpayers will be stuck with the multi-million dollar tab of a president and his entourage campaigning to pay back his supporters.

[Note: We suspect it will be only a matter of hours before the Liberal Left makes the claim that the IOC's rejection of Chicago is due to racism.]

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MILLIONAIRE MICHAEL MOORE DENIES CAPITALISM DID ANYTHING FOR HIM...

2009-10-01T18:24:00.000-07:00

In addition to being accused of hypocritically using non-union labor during the shooting of his most recent anti-capitalism movie, Capitalism: A Love Story, it seems Michael Moore really hates the system that made him rich.

Telling CNS News that "capitalism did nothing" for him, Moore denied the very system that has made him a millionaire.

Though Moore derisively laughs off his millionaire status, CNS News reports:

According to Fortune Magazine, Moore’s films have grossed over $300 million worldwide. His highest grossing film was “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which critiques the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq and earned over $200 million worldwide.

Moore reportedly was paid $21 million by Disney for producing, directing and creating the film.
Moore also earned 50 percent of the profits of his 2007 film "Sicko,” totaling $25 million plus DVD sales, according to Vanity Fair.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Moore would receive all of the profits made from DVD sales of “Sicko,” sales of which have been estimated at over $17 million.

“Look, you know, I mean, I make documentary films,” said Moore. “So, clearly, I’m not loaded in the way you described. But I do well, obviously because my films do well.”

With his most recent film getting a lot of pre-release hype, Moore is sure to be hating depositing all those checks in his capitalist-run banks. Of course, he probably doesn't mind paying his millionaire superstar agent Ari Emanuel (White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's brother) his cut of the capital earned.

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IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE: John Edwards & His "Sycophantic" "Butt Boy"

2009-09-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

America, take solace. For those who lament the fact that President Barack Obama is turning the country inside out, here's one consolation: It could have been worse.

Instead of dealing with BHO and his gang of purple union thugs, America could have had a redneck, his dying wife, his mistress and his love child occupying 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue....along with the same gang of purple union thugs, PLUS an aide with Fatal Attraction-like qualities.

You see, in addition to cheating on his cancer-stricken wife while she was out campaigning for him in between chemo treatments, and despite having a 'love child' with the hired help, the man who was almost Vice President of the United States in 2004 and who had his sights set on becoming President, former Senator John Edwards, has something else haunting him.

That something else turns out to be Edwards' former aide-turned-spurned-lapdog, Andrew Young.

According to a blistering account of Young's seeming infatuation and Edwards' seeming hypocritical narcissism, Politico lays out a more detailed accounting of the sordid tale of sexual cover-ups and menage a trois betrayals than anyone else thus far has.

John Edwards & His 'Butt Boy'

From the very start of the piece, Politico writers set the stage for a weird saga of a lapdog doing anything for its master--including putting his own life and reputation into the meat grinder of public ridicule, pity and humiliation.

When John Edwards returned to North Carolina in the course of his long quest for the presidency, Andrew Young always met him at the airport in Edwards’s big black Chevy Tahoe. Young drove, and Edwards rode shotgun, silently raising his left hand whenever he wanted a Diet Coke, which Young would wordlessly supply.

Ouch. But it gets harsher from there...

Young sometimes described himself as Edwards’s “special assistant” and dreamed of serving in an Edwards White House. Other aides, with a combination of disgust — and, perhaps, a bit of envy — referred to him as Edwards’s “personal servant,” or worse, Edwards’s “butt boy.”

Politico goes on to explain the Edwards affair with new mommy Rielle Hunter, Elizabeth Edwards' suspicion and jealousy, all set against a backdrop of Andrew Young's self-sacrifice for his version of "John Kennedy."

Here are some excerpts:

“He believed that Edwards was the next Kennedy,” said a person who was close to Young. “It’s not enough to say that he idolized the guy — there’s something deeper and weirder than that.”
....

First he was the fall guy, and now he’s the sellout, peddling his story in a tell-all book. But the real story of Young is about the passions of politics and the classic political triangle of the candidate, his wife and the sometimes sycophantic aide.

If you thought Barry & Co. was bad, one can only imagine what it would have been like if the former North Carolina senator had made it all the way to the White House.

Go here to read the entire Politico piece.

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THE NEW MESSIAH: PLEASE SPELL IT AN 'O'...

2009-09-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

With nut jobs like this, it is little wonder that Obama represents the Messiah to some and the Anti-Christ to others...

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin

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HEY KIDS! THE PREZ SAYZ MORE SCHOOL 4 U!

2009-09-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

We don't need no education!

We dont need no thought control!

No dark sarcasm in the classroom!

Teachers leave them kids alone!

Another Brick in the Wall

Pink Floyd

Among President Barack Obama's most ardent fans is America's youth. That is, until now.

As videos circulate around the internet and on cable news showing children singing propaganda-(ad)ministered praises to President Barack Obama, the Teacher-in-Chief is making a new proposal that is sure to cause his poll numbers to plummet, especially among America's youngsters.

The President wants kids to stay in school later and longer, according to the Associated Press.

Students beware: The summer vacation you just enjoyed could be sharply curtailed if President Barack Obama gets his way.

Obama says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe.
....

"Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working the fields today," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Fifth-grader Nakany Camara is of two minds. She likes the four-week summer program at her school, Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville, Md. Nakany enjoys seeing her friends there and thinks summer school helped boost her grades from two Cs to the honor roll.

But she doesn't want a longer school day. "I would walk straight out the door," she said.

Of course, the Teacher-in-Chief and his minions may just have an ulterior motive:

Aside from improving academic performance, Education Secretary Duncan has a vision of schools as the heart of the community. Duncan, who was Chicago's schools chief, grew up studying alongside poor kids on the city's South Side as part of the tutoring program his mother still runs. [Emphasis added.]

We're sure this proposal from our Teacher-in-Chief is going to really sit well with all his suburban soccer-mom fans as they field the whining complaints from their state-controlled kids.

NOTE: Dienekes' Place will be focus group-testing the President's proposal tonight...Of course, not until after school is out and the homework is done.

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LA RAZA'S HEALTH CARE MISSION: ASTRO-TURFING FOR ILLEGALS

2009-09-28T09:01:00.000-07:00

We've all heard the term "astro-turf" coined by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to apply to grassroots opposition to the nationalization of Americans' health care.

And, we've heard President Obama state that illegal aliens would not be covered under Obamacare (which we exposed as another "You Lie" moment a couple of weeks ago).

However, today, we read that Liberals are seeking health-care access for illegals:

"Fearful that they're losing ground on immigration and health care, a group of House Democrats is pushing back and arguing that any health care bill should extend to all legal immigrants and allow illegal immigrants some access."

"The Democrats, trying to stiffen their party's spines on the contentious issue, say it's unfair to bar illegal immigrants from paying their own way in a government-sponsored exchange. Legal immigrants, they say, regardless of how long they've been in the United States, should be able to get government-subsidized health care if they meet the other eligibility requirements."

This is different from the president's plan to exclude illegals (while they're illegal), then grant amnesty under "immigration reform" to make formerly-excluded illegal aliens into fully- included legal citizens.

And, joining in the chorus for illegals to have access to the nationalized health care coverage is one of the first astro-turfing organization out there, La Raza:

"The National Council of La Raza launched its own 'flood their voice mail' campaign last week to put pressure on Mr. Baucus to expand coverage in his proposal to include all legal immigrants and to drop verification language in the legislation that would prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining coverage."

Of course, with nationalization (and, ultimately, unionization) of the entire health care industry and the inclusion of 11 million or so illegal aliens under a Democrat-imposed bill, the Democrats are aiming to be the party in power for generations to come.

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OBAMA DROPS OBJECTION TO DROPPING HABEAS CORPUS

2009-09-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

This little gem seemed to slip through the main stream media's hands...and apparently civil libertarians have missed it as well.

President Barack Obama has quietly decided to bypass Congress and allow the indefinite detention of terrorist suspects without charges.

The move, which was controversial when the idea was first floated in The Washington Post in May, has sparked serious concern among civil liberties advocates. Such a decision allows the president to unilaterally hold "combatants" without habeas corpus -- a legal term literally meaning "you shall have the body" -- which forces prosecutors to charge a suspect with a crime to justify the suspect's detention.
More...

So much for "change" we you can believe in...

Hat-tip Freedom's Phoenix

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THY BROTHERS KEEPER: REFUSE GOV'T INSURANCE, GO TO JAIL

2009-09-25T14:08:00.000-07:00

If you doubt the government's intent to control your body and your health care, consider this:

If you refuse to accept government-imposed health insurance, you will be fined $1900. If you refuse to pay, you can be charged with a misdemeanor, fined up to $25,000 and jailed up to a year.

Here is the post from Politico:

Ensign receives handwritten confirmation

This doesn't happen often enough.

Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) received a handwritten note Thursday from Joint Committee on Taxation Chief of Staff Tom Barthold confirming the penalty for failing to pay the up to $1,900 fee for not buying health insurance.

Violators could be charged with a misdemeanor and could face up to a year in jail or a $25,000 penalty, Barthold wrote on JCT letterhead. He signed it "Sincerely, Thomas A. Barthold."

The note was a follow-up to Ensign's questioning at the markup.

Here is the letter given to Ensign.

Remember, according to the President, you are your brother's keeper...and he is yours!

WERE THE 'BRAINWASHING THE KIDS' CLAIMS OVERBLOWN...?

2009-09-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

By watching this video, the resounding answer is "NO!"

AS THE LEFT ACCUSES THE RIGHT OF RACISM, HISTORY PROVES THEM WRONG

2009-09-22T18:50:00.000-07:00

It has become a cacaphony from the Left: Opposition to President Barack Obama's policies is rooted in racism.
It has gone from the subtle to the super-hyperbolic, like when Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), speculated that Rep. Joe Wilson’s shout of "You lie!" during the President's speech a few weeks ago could signal the return of “folks putting on white hoods and white uniforms again, riding through the countryside.” [Yeah, it's gotten that pathetic.]

Even today, as reported by Politico, members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) continue pushing the race issue.

[A]n underlying sense of nervousness and concern about the shifting political landscape in the eight months since Obama was sworn in. The sudden explosion of tea party groups, with right-wing protesters carrying signs depicting Obama as an African witch doctor or in a Nazi uniform, has infuriated some black lawmakers, who say such behavior wouldn’t be tolerated for a white president. [Emphasis added.]

The problem for the CBC and the rest of the Liberal Left, is that their memory is too brief.

A quick google image search of the words "Bush" and "Hitler" yield over two million hits.

The images posted here are just a few, but they show that the Liberal Left is lying when they claim the 'virulence' in opposing Obama's policies are based in racism.

In fact, if nothing else, the images demonstrate that the Right is using the same tactics that the Left has used for years.

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SENATE NEWS: ...AND THEN THERE WAS 58

2009-09-22T12:40:00.000-07:00

A glass half-empty to one man may be half-full to another.

West Virginia's Senator Robert Byrd (D), who is the third in the presidential line of succession (after House Speaker and ultra-frightening Nancy Pelosi), was rushed to the hospital this morning after falling, according to Politico.

As a former Exalted Cyclops (no kidding!) of the Ku Klux Klan, the 93-year old Byrd is the longest-serving senator in U.S. history but has been missing in the Senate much of this year due to health issues.

According to Politico:

Byrd, a pillar of the Senate who has first elected in 1958, has become increasingly frail in recent years. After running the powerful Appropriations Committee, he relinquished his gavel in January but continues to chair a powerful homeland security spending subcommittee. He was hospitalized in May for what his aides described as a “minor infection,” but was admitted for nearly two months after his ailment turned into a much-worse staph infection.

Since then, he’s been recovering at his McLean home, and his presence in the Senate
has been exceedingly rare. On Sept. 10, Byrd delivered a speech on the Senate floor in honor of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who died last month after a 47-year Senate career.

“As I look at his desk, draped with black cloth and covered with flowers, I still have difficulty believing he is gone,” Byrd said in an emotional tribute, delivered in a quivering voice as he sat from his chair. “My ebullient Irish-to-the-core friend has departed this life forever. How bleakly somber. How utterly final. How totally unlike Ted Kennedy in life.”

While we are no predictors in matters of life and death, it does seem that Byrd may not be quick in returning to the Senate chambers, thereby continuing to temporarily deprive Democrats of another vote in shoving their statist agenda down the throats of ordinary Americans.

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DISSENTION NO LONGER WELCOME IN AMERICA

2009-09-22T07:51:00.001-07:00

The United States of America was born out of dissention and revolution. A repressed people revolting against a king and his British minions.

The right of citizens to dissent is codified in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution where it states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

In fact, it is the First Amendment that allegedly guarantees the citizens of the United States to dissent to whatever the government is doing. For as long as the Republic has stood, the right to dissent under the First Amendment has been (for the most part) honored.

Unfortunately, that tradition of dissention has been under attack by the very government that is sworn to uphold that right. Nowhere is that more evident than that which the Obama Administration and his Democratic Party is attempting to do with the debate over the nationalization of health care.

According to the Associated Press yesterday, the Obama Administration is "investigating a major insurance company for allegedly trying to scare seniors with a mailer warning they could lose important benefits under health care legislation in Congress."

In a warning letter to Humana, HHS said the government is concerned that the mailer "is misleading and confusing" partly because the company's lobbying campaign could be mistaken for an official communication about Medicare benefits.

HHS ordered the company to immediately halt any such mailings, and remove any related materials from its Web site. In the letter, the government also said it may take other action against Humana, which is based in Louisville, Ky. [Emphasis added.]

Irrespective of whether the insurance company (Humana) is accurate in its mailers to seniors (which, based on reports of Congress' initial draft legislation, it probably is), the precedent that the Administration is setting by attacking a deep-pocketed insurance company sends a dangerous shot across the bow of every American who dares exercising their First Amendment right of dissent against this government.

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OBAMA ADMITS ILLEGALS DO GET HEALTH COVERAGE...SORT OF

2009-09-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst of "You Lie!" during Barack Obama's health care pitch to Congress and America has become the rallying cry of both the Left and the Right!

On the Right, it's become a point to be made with t-shirts and placards at last weekend's March on Washington, where an estimated 1.7 million took to the streets in our nation's capitol protesting big government.

On the Left, Joe Wilson's outburst has become a rallying cry of 'racism,' as the Democrats and their allies try to deflect and obfuscate the truth. This has culminated this week with former President Jimmy Carter accusing those opposed to Barack Obama's policies of being racist.

The problem for the Left, however, is no matter how hard they might try, the fact is, Joe Wilson was right...sort of. And, the fact that Joe Wilson is even remotely right is something they would rather hide.

When Joe Wilson shouted out "You Lie" during the President's speech, it was in response to the President's assertion that the health care package he is pitching would not cover illegal aliens.

While Joe has been ridiculed as racist and rebuked by Congress, the fact is President Obama does plan to have his health care plan cover those people who are here in the United States illegally. And that is not something that is invented by the Right, it is something the President has said himself on Wednesday:

President Obama said this week that his health care plan won't cover illegal immigrants, but argued that's all the more reason to legalize them and ensure they eventually do get coverage.
He also staked out a position that anyone in the country legally should be covered - a major break with the 1996 welfare reform bill, which limited most federal public assistance programs only to citizens and longtime immigrants.

"Even though I do not believe we can extend coverage to those who are here illegally, I also don't simply believe we can simply ignore the fact that our immigration system is broken," Mr. Obama said Wednesday evening in a speech to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute.

"That's why I strongly support making sure folks who are here legally have access to affordable, quality health insurance under this plan, just like everybody else.

Mr. Obama added, "If anything, this debate underscores the necessity of passing comprehensive immigration reform and resolving the issue of 12 million undocumented people living and working in this country once and for all."

So, there you have it. President Obama's plan does exclude illegal aliens BUT, he wants illegal aliens to be legalized so they do get the benefits of nationalized health care.

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The Man of Peace Just Helped Attack...Somalia...?

2009-09-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

What happened to Barack Obama, the Man of Hope, the Man of Peace, the man who was supposed to get the U.S. out of Iraq, do a better job in Afghanistan and, overall, be the Man of Peace and Change? What happened?

Not only is America still in Iraq, Afghanistan's a mess with more U.S. casualties since we entered that country after the 9/11 attacks but, now, the U.S. has attacked Somalia. Why?

According to the Associated Press:

Foreign troops in helicopters strafed a car Monday in a Somali town controlled by Islamist insurgents, killing two men and capturing two others who were wounded, witnesses said. U.S. military officials said U.S. forces were involved in the raid.

The commando-style action took place in a village near Barawe amid growing fears that al-Qaida is gaining a foothold in this lawless nation.

Two U.S. military officials said forces from the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command were involved. The officials gave no details about the raid or its target, and they spoke on condition of anonymity because the operation was secret.

According to Anti-War.com

What the officials wouldn’t comment on was exactly why the United States, which launched a failed “peacekeeping” operation in the nation in 1993 and backed an Ethiopian invasion in 2007, had decided to launch yet another foreign adventure, though media outlets speculated that it was probably something to do with al-Qaeda.

The United States has recently been supplying the self-described Somali
“government” with “tons of arms,” according to the State Department. Yet reports on the ground suggest that forces loyal to this faction, which only controls a handful of city blocks in the capital city of Mogadishu, have generally just sold the US-supplied weapons on the open market.

Hat-tip to Freedom's Phoenix

AXLEROD: D.C. PROTESTORS NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF MAINSTREAM AMERICA

2009-09-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

He may be right, or he may be very, very wrong...

2010 mid-term elections will tell.