Taxed Enough Already

The End Of The Ginger White Media Circus - Next!

2011-12-01T01:59:00.001-05:00

Now that the media has used up another sap they'll slink off to Google Craigslist for the next one.

And so it ends. The latest accuser is a serial squatter and a certified liar. Cain is completely exonerated, as we knew he would be.

Ginger White's former lesbian lover comes forward saying that she and White's relationship lasted 13 years and only ended this year. Those are the same 13 years White says she was involved with Cain in an "inappropriate" relationship.

Anyone looking at Ginger White's story knew it was ridiculous. Ginger White was supposedly a businesswoman whose "business" from last year until early this year was fitness - teaching spin classes. Physical conditioning. Seriously? Is this the "before" pic?

No, that pic is from last week. How many spin classes has she taught lately -- or ever taught? Does she look like a physical exercise professional? No.

A business that lasted only a few months -- from some time in 2010 to early 2011 -- doesn't qualify a person as a "business woman". Maybe a "failed business woman". The "business woman" description pushed in the media clearly is an attempt to legitimize Ginger White, as she is otherwise utterly devoid of credibility. It's yet another deception.

While Ginger White isn't the "business woman" we were told, she does appear to have this feather in her cap: In April 2011 former "business partner" Kimberley Vay, a competitive body builder, sued Ginger White for publicly libeling her.. Earlier this year White sent out a mass email to all their clients defaming Vay. This was simultaneous with failure of their alleged "business partnership." Vay won the suit, meaning White had libeled her, and Ginger White agreed to a settlement but did not honor the agreement. Vay won a default judgment in November 2011 - yes, just a few weeks ago.

According to the mass email Ginger White sent out to Vay's clients, "Vay preferred to date black men". Preferred to what? Dating Ginger White? Where's the liberal media screaming "racist"?

What does Ginger White have to say about the libel case? "I admit it. Whatever happened with Kim and I happened."

Hmmm. Isn't this whole media frenzy about Ginger White preferring to date a black man? Can you say "hypocrite"? Hello, liberal media? (***crickets***)

The relationship between Vay and White doesn't sound like much of a "business arrangement" (except maybe "monkey business"), but it does sound a lot like White is a jilted lover. This so-called fitness business "partnership" also included a non-business "partnership".

One thing we do know with certainty about Kimberley Vay: Fitness is her life. One look will tell you. I definitely can see her in the fitness business.

Laura Reddy of ABC News found out in an interview with Kimberley Vay, White's former partner (and lesbian lover):

The lesbian relationship lasted 13 years...during the same 13 years White says claimed to be involved with Cain.
Vay says that Cain's name "never came up" one time in the 13 years of her relationship with White.
White settled in Vay's libel case against her, but failed to live up to the agreement
"White did not respond to a subpoena or appear at a hearing. A DeKalb County judge entered a default judgment in Vay's favor on Nov. 3, 2011. A jury will decide damages."

Note that this last bullet point happened less than a month ago. I'm sure that needing money hasn't figured into White's action to accuse Cain. Perish the thought.

White sounds like a perfectly honorable person of unimpeachable character! LOL

We've also learned through additional media reports that Ginger White:

Declared bankruptcy twenty-plus years ago
Is"struggling" financially,
Has had "several" eviction notices over the last 6 years, the latest this November, and
Is a single mom with 2 kids

So this month only, she's evaded a court order, been evicted, and felt she had to "step forward" against Herman Cain. Goodness, she sounds like a paragon of fiscal responsibility and virtue. (not)

What I want to know: (1) How much is she being paid, and (2) who is paying her.

OK, I'll also mention the 800-pound gorilla since no one else will: Who and where is the baby daddy? They are not Cain's kids; so what other man or men was she having a sexual relationship with during the time she alleges to have had the Cain affair? And during the same 13 year period she was having a lesbian affair with Vay?

This woman Ginger White apparently is a sexual proficient - a real Energizer Bunny - if she could have an ongoing lesbian relationship, a heterosexual relationship with at least one man whose 2 children she bore, while simultaneously having a 13-year sexual affair with Herman Cain!

THE WILDLANDS PROJECT

2011-11-30T01:16:00.001-05:00

THE WILDLANDS PROJECT

Step by step, piece by piece, the Wildlands Project is coming to fruition. The Project, foundational to the U.N.Biodiversity Treaty which was never ratified by the U.S. Senate, calls for approximately 50 percent of the United States to be set aside as "wildlands", where no human can enter. Much has been accomplished over the past 10 years toward that goal, and the pace is stepping up, with the help of the federal agencies under Clinton/Gore.

Here is the North American wildlife corridor map:

The Bruntland Commission authored the Global Biodiversity Assessment, which is a directive on how land, water, living and mineral resources will be allocated in the "sustainable" global economy. The Wildlands Project describes how the US will be "re-wilded" into zones where human habitation and activity is either forbidden or highly restricted. This is the global "sustainable utopia" promised by UN Agenda 21.

Watch this video about The Wildlands Project.

More from Citizen's Review Online about The Wildlands Project

Map from www.wildlandsproject.org

"The Wildlands Project’s work to reconnect the continent begins with "MegaLinkages"—vast pathways that tie natural places together. Each MegaLinkage is made up of regional "Wildlands Networks." Within the Spine of the Continent MegaLinkage, six Wildlands Networks have been proposed, and within these networks, the Wildlands Project has launched a campaign to protect "Endangered Linkages"—the critical connection within each network that is most threatened."

Room to Roam - "Saving Wildlife Linkages along the Spine of the Continent

America’s Assassination of Herman Cain

2011-11-30T00:24:00.001-05:00

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

I recall some time ago living in a country that prided itself on justice. Not phony “socialjustice” but real, actual "unmodified" justice.

I can’t find that country any more.

What’s happening to Herman Cain not only runsagainst our system of justice, but also against every concept of common human decency. Which, apparently, is no longercommon.

The slanderous accusations, accompaniedby zero proof, and with no factual basis behind any of them, are held up by themurderous media like twisted keys to theKingdom of Obamanation.

The drama and hysteria surroundingeach accusation against Herman Cain is the kind of liberal tantrum that broughtus the union invasion of Madison, Wisconsin, the communist OWS astroturf, andthat also ran Palin out of contention. It’s also straight of Alinsky’splaybook. You recall Saul Alinsky, the Marxist agitator whose teachings fed thebrain of…..Obama.

· The end justifiesthe means.
· Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it andpolarize it.

Those that stand by and complicitly observethis public assassination are just as guilty as those perpetrating it. Thosewho are calling for a Cain resignation have absolutely forsaken thefoundational concept of our justice system. That concept is the principle “innocentuntil proven guilty" beyond a reasonable doubt. It is not "guilt by volume of complaints."

The marxist media and Democrats alsounderstand Alinsky’s concept, “Power is not only what you have but whatthe enemy thinks you have.” If we think they have power, they do.If we refuse to grant them thatpower, they are powerless. So far wehave shrunken silently from any confrontation with the shrieking Marxist machinethat, bit firmly in teeth, is hell-bent on destroying this country.

We do not have the luxury of time towatch silently any longer.

If We The People stand idly by andallow this satanic, sadistic assassination of a man of good standing —apresidential candidate—then we also participate in this assassination. We woulddeserve justice meted out against us as we have allowed it against Cain—guilty!Guilty! Guilty! Of unfeeling complacency and inert indecency. Of caring morefor TV and football than defense of justice. Of abandoning the very qualitythat used to define Americans: just.

If We The People allow Cain to beslain in this battle, we lose more than another excellent candidate: we losethe election, and the country. Fight for justice. Defend Herman Cain’s right to presumption of innocence. Otherwise you participate in hisassassination. The stakes could not be higher.

Jefferson 's Solution to Runaway Government

2011-11-27T00:11:00.001-05:00

Jefferson 's Solution to Today's Runaway Government:
Educate the People and Restore Original Principles

Many students of American History stand in awe at the careful wording of the Declaration of Independence which incorporates eight magnificent principles necessary for freedom to exist in America . What some do not fully understand is that Jefferson spent the rest of his life, exactly fifty years to the day, trying to defend those principles and holding the line against an increasingly powerful federal government which seemed to want to break out from the cherished confines and principles of the Declaration.
During the difficult years of the nation's second president, John Adams, the federal authorities assumed powers that alarmed many of the Founders who thought they had gone well beyond Constitutional limits, especially with the passage of the Alien and Sedition Act. This led Jefferson to help draft the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798 which were formal protests against such federal acts and declared the states' rights to not obey such unjust laws

"...we have nothing scarcely to propose."

When Thomas Jefferson became the third President of the United States in 1801, he was so determined that the federal government, by strictly following the Constitution, would work quietly in carrying out its few and defined powers that he eventually said:
"The path we have to pursue is so quiet that we have nothing scarcely to propose [to Congress]. A noiseless course, not meddling with the affairs of others, unattractive of notice, is a mark that society is going on in happiness."
Imagine Congress convening in Washington and the President telling them that he doesn't know of a single new law needed to make the system run more smoothly!
But it wasn't long before succeeding administrations and Congressmen yielded to the urge to let the federal government assume more and more power than the Constitution gave them.

Jefferson's Final Declaration and Protest

After watching federal power accumulate over a period of nearly two more decades, Thomas Jefferson had to speak again. It was as though he was giving his final warning to the people. It was in 1825, less than one year before he died. He drafted a document entitled, The solemn Declaration and Protest of the Commonwealth of Virginia on the principles of the constitution of the United States and on the violations of them .
In this Declaration, Jefferson once again reiterated the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. These included:

The people and the states have agreed to form a single federal government with respect to relations with each other and with foreign countries.
The people and the states retain the rights to independent government in relation to domestic affairs.
Each government has a distinct and separate set of functionaries to carry out its duties.
The commonwealth of Virginia religiously adheres to this distribution of powers and opposes with firmness the usurpation of either set over the other.
The greatest calamity to befall the people and the states is submission to a federal government of unlimited, usurped powers, the dissolution of the Union , and living under a government of unlimited powers.
"We know and value too highly the blessings of our Union ," he said, so we will stay with our union, be patient and suffer much with the hope that time will bring consequences to the usurpers.

"We owe...the world at large to pursue with temper and perseverance..."

The great Jefferson then spelled out a formula that should be followed when and if the federal government degenerates from its original brilliance. He said that when things really deteriorate, rather than admit that this great experiment has failed, we must show the world that we can endure and recover. Said he:
"We owe every other sacrifice to ourselves, to our federal brethren, and to the world at large to pursue with temper and perseverance the great experiment which shall prove that man is capable of living in [a] society governing itself by laws self-imposed, and securing to its members the enjoyment of life, liberty, property, and peace;..."
Jefferson continues his counsel by telling us what our frame of mind must be as we see the union crumbling around us:
"and further, to show that even when the government of its choice shall manifest a tendency to degeneracy, we are not at once to despair , but that the will and the watchfulness of its sounder parts will reform its aberrations, recall it to original and legitimate principles, and restrain it within the rightful limits of self-government."
His four-step solution is:

Do not have the negative spirit of despair
Join with the nation's sounder parts
Recall original and legitimate principles
Restrain the runaway government within its proper limits

The Nation's Sounder Parts are Awakening

Millions of citizens across this country are alarmed at the progress of the destructive forces and are awaking to a realization of our awful situation. They do not have a spirit of despair but one of hope and faith in the eventual victory of good and right. They know that things are terribly wrong and that there must be some better answers. They see hypocrisy and deception and they are determined that there are better solutions. They are realizing the only real answer to this deteriorating dilemma is found in the words of Thomas Jefferson when he said:
"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."
These sounder parts are those who have the spirit of freedom and liberty. They are members of churches, political parties, tea parties, and citizens who don't belong to any organization. They are Americans concerned for their country. They are turning to The National Center for Constitutional Studies (NCCS) for help in understanding the original and legitimate principles of the Founders, for in them they hope they will finally find answers that will work.

Taken from the the National Center For Constitutional Studies. www.nccs.net

Obamacare Lawsuit Includes Tea Party Challenge Purpura v. Sebelius

2011-11-20T23:16:00.001-05:00

ImmediateRelease

Is health care reform part of UNAgenda 21? Yes, absolutely.

The Supreme Court has docketed the case of Purpura v. Sebelius as docket number 11-7275. This case affectsevery man, woman and child in the Republic. It identifies 19 specificviolations of the US Constitution by the Patient Protection and Affordable CareAc t and how the harm of eachviolation affects each and every person specifically. Real, imminent harm thatwill occur and already is occurring. Get involved.

1. Write a letter to theSupreme Court Requesting they hear each of the 15 points and 19 violations inthis case.

Here are the Justices' names.

Address:

The Honorable (name ofJustice here)

United States SupremeCourt

One First Street, N.E.

Washington, D.C. 20543

Re: Purpura v. Sebelius, Docket # 11-7275

Dear (Madam, Mr. Or Chief) Justice < name >,

As a United Statescitizen who would be adversely affected by the Patient Protection andAffordable Care Act, I respectfully request you hear the subject case,addressing fully each of the 15 points and 19 violations of the law. This caseis extremely important to Constitutional interpretation and will set precedentfor other law. The case sets forth argument that real, imminent harm already isoccurring and will continue to occur until the violations of the law arestopped. Again, I respectfully request you hear the subject case in itsentirety, point by point.

Sincerely,
< name >

2. Read more: Here is information about the lawsuit and SCOTUSaction. Please send to all on your lists.

Examiner article (one in a series):
http://www.examiner.com/essex-county-conservative-in-newark/nj-anti-hcr-plaintiffs-call-for-miracle-on-34th-street

Purpura v. Sebelius lawsuit - description consisting of 15 separateconstitutional violations. The actual lawsuit is attached.
http://www.examiner.com/essex-county-conservative-in-newark/purpura-v-sibelius-series

Bayshore Tea Party article:
http://www.bayshoreteaparty.org/btpg-blog/2011/11/16/scotus-adds-tea-party-challenge-to-obamacare-review.html

Agenda 21: "The common enemy of humanity is man"

2011-11-05T08:11:00.001-04:00

Agenda 21 is filled with nice beautiful warm fuzzy words designed to make you feel good about your help to save the environment. The purpose of the Agenda is masked by the authors. Let us never forget the real purpose:

“The common enemy of humanity is man. In searching for a new enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like would fit the bill. All these dangers are caused by human intervention, and it is only through changed attitudes and behavior that they can be overcome. The real enemy then, is humanity itself.” – Club of Rome,

“In Nature organic growth proceeds according to a Master Plan, a Blueprint. Such a ‘master plan’ is missing from the process of growth and development of the world system. Now is the time to draw up a master plan for sustainable growth and world development based on global allocation of all resources and a new global economic system. Ten or twenty years form today it will probably be too late.” – Club of Rome, Mankind at the Turning Point

The goal of Agenda 21 is to eliminate private property.

Americans for Prosperity addresses the issue of property rights.

The United Nations defines it this way:

“Land… cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market… The provision of decent dwellings and healthy conditions for the people can only be achieved if land is used in the interest of society as a whole.” This can’t be a choice according to the UN:

“Agenda 21 proposes an array of actions which are intended to be implemented by EVERY person on Earth…it calls for specific changes in the activities of ALL people… Effective execution of Agenda 21 will REQUIRE a profound reorientation of ALL humans, unlike anything the world has ever experienced… ” Agenda 21: The Earth Summit Strategy to Save Our Planet (Earthpress, 1993)

Here are a list of warm fuzzy words that are used:

Environment * Economy * Equity * Consensus * Affordable Housing * Friends of… * Action * Protect * Preserve * Quality of Life * Benefit of all * Sanctuary * Social/Environmental Justice * Best Management Practices * Watershed * Facilitator * Traffic Calming * Outcome Base Education * Endangered Species * Invasive Species * Restoration * Public/Private Partnerships * Common Good * Regional * Collaborative * Inter-disciplinary * Stakeholder * International Baccalaureate * School to work * Historic Preservation * Vision * Sustainable Medicine.

To mask what is not sustainable:

“Ski runs, grazing of livestock, plowing of soil, building fences, industry, single family homes, paves and tarred roads, logging activities, dams and reservoirs, power line construction, and economic systems that fail to set proper value on the environment.” -UN’s Biodiversity Assessment Report.

Plus Maurice Strong : “…current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class – involving high meat intake, use of fossil fuels, appliances, home and work air conditioning, and suburban housing are not sustainable.”

The History of Sustainable Development
and Sustainable Developments Connecting the Dots
The objective is to set up a group of sustainable communities where people are forced to:

live in government controlled housing
use government controlled mass transit
work in government controlled businesses
use government controlled utilities at a specified time
eat government controlled food.

In the center of this government controlled city, the Elite will live (like a series of castles). We The People will live on the outskirts of the elite development. We will work for the elite and go home to our little cubicle. Our children will attend substandard schools. We will own nothing and will be their indentured servants or slaves. Bye Bye Freedom.

The sustainable communities will be separated by vast amounts of empty space ("wildlands") where no humans will allowed access. These sustainable communities will be connected by HIGH SPEED RAIL where you will need permission to travel out of your community. Today these open space plans are being promoted by grants under projects with no fact or foundation like The Endangered Species Act, the Wildlands Projects, and National Parks. All are designed to close businesses and confiscate private land. California farmers are subject to this rule as 40,000 acres of rich farmland is closed due to a 2 inch fish. Florida land owners are losing land continually under phony wetland rezoning designations.

Congress almost signed onto this until Dr. Michael Coffman showed Congress the actual map for the purposed development of the “wildlands” under Agenda21 in the USA.

Congress said NO but our buddy President Clinton said, “too bad” and used his executive power to create the President’s Council of Sustainable Development in 1996. He put his VP Al Gore in charge.

Bye Bye Property Rights - hello, eminent domain and burdensome environmental regulations!

If any NJ official insists their state is not wrapped up in UN Agenda 21, send them to the Sustainable Website for Denville. Or Sustainable New Jersey.

WHAT IS UN AGENDA 21? WHY IS IT A PROBLEM?

2011-09-19T23:11:00.003-04:00

Agenda 21 is the 21st Century PLAN for a “New World Order” through GLOBAL GOVERNANCE.

Agenda 21 is the ELITIST plan to control your life demanding you, “do as I say, not as I do”. You will be required to give up your individual freedom, your personal property and redistribute your wealth. Gone forever will be American exceptionalism, American nationalism and the western way of life as all will be classified as unsustainable.

From the Global Biodiversity Assessment:

Agenda 21 stands as as a comprehensive blueprint for action to be taken globally -- from now into the twenty-first century -- by governments, United Nations organizations and independent-sector groups in every area in which human activity impacts on the environment.

What is "unsustainable"? Everything.

Read Agenda21

The 4 “E’s” of Agenda 21 are not what you think:

Education = Indoctrination into believing that nature is more important than man and the group is more important than the individual . The new purpose of education is to learn values not facts. Students must become global, not American citizens

Equity = Theft of private property, open borders

Economy = Redistribution of America’s wealth to foreign countries by outsourcing jobs, factories and technology creating massive unemployment

Environment = Nature is more important than man. The new god is Mother Earth. Phony science creates phony regulations destroying energy independence and Industry.

Each policy and regulation is in place to control more and more of your life.

The elitists will use the government to take your money, exercise more power and to control every aspect of your life. Agenda 21 is not a Democratic or Republican “plan”; it reaches across the aisle. The elite will call us names and make up lies to try and divide us. We will not listen. We Are Americans and we will never give up our lives, family, morality or country.

HOW TO TALK TO PEOPLE IN YOUR EFFORT TO DEFEAT ICLEI

2011-09-19T22:48:00.005-04:00

Tips on dealing with an defeating ICLEI / Agenda 21 in town meetings etc.

From Karen B. Always ask questions:
What facts support their conclusion?
This is one of my favorite experiments when they talk about GHG
Ask how do they know that co2 is a dangerous gas and must be regulated?What facts are they using? They will tell you co2 is a toxin and willkill the people and the planet.
If co2 is a toxin then will kill you if you breathe it? They willsay yes.
Tell them to put their hand over their mouth and nose and breathe. If they are still alive in 5 minutes co2 has no effect.
If it was a toxin they would be dead. Why are we regulating aGHG?

What is the cost of the project?
Who is paying? They will tell you that is a grant - Remind them thatgrant money is borrowed by the American people and would be better spendon helping the people living in cars and tents then on buying grass orplanning for a village forty years from now.
How do they know where people will want to live 40 years from now unlessof course you are forcing them to live in a restricted area like asustainable community?
What happens when the grant money is gone?
Who pays for the land taken off the tax roles?

The best event I heard was from Karen B who attended a county meetingwhereby the commissioners were supporting sustainability. She askedit they believed that if they wanted sustainability, then everything notsustainable was off limits. They agreed. She then started readingthe unsustainability list. The commissioner then asked for aprivate meeting to understand this better.

You will find that once you start defining their words most people has atotally different understanding of what they are supporting.

General Overview: Bernie De Castro YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaLqPLIfmzI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-_5BZNd3c0

Summary: Agenda21for Dummieshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzEEgtOFFlM

Property Rights: takingliberty.us

Climate and the fraud of Global Warming spaceandscience.net

Schools: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7lW5hJw6-8

When you talk to any elected official, stick to scientific fact andfinances.
If you go to any meetings do not let the moderator divide you intogroups. They do this to control the outcome. Tell them you want to hear what everyone is saying that you are unitednot divided. You need everyone's opinion. Make them give you examples of their words like social justice, howdoes that work if social justice states that wealth is unacceptable?Everyone must have exactly the same thing. Are they willing to take inless fortunate and support them? Sustainability or Are they willing to give up their home? Salary, Car,Golf all unsustainable to name a few. Sustainability supports man made climate change, Can they provethat? Scientists proved the the sun control the climate.

PROTEST THE UN DAY OCT. 24 2011

2011-09-19T00:22:00.000-04:00

"The world is in fact full of evil. Expose it. Fight it tooth and nail."
- Alan Levesque

ORGANIZE A PROTEST AT YOUR STATE CAPITAL!

IF YOU ARE IN NEW YORK OR ACROSS THE HUDSON IN NEW JERSEY, GO TO THE UN ITSELF!

www.unausa.org/

405 E 42nd St, New York

(212) 355-4165

http://www.un.org/events/calendar/Edetail.asp?EventID=1872&BeginDate=10/24/2011

ICLEI is a part of UN Agenda 21. The UN recently renamed it to obscure that fact.

SAMPLE TWEET: #Agenda 21 Protest: Tallahassee #FL - Protest the UN on United Nations Day Mon Oct 24 2011 http://bit.ly/rlBcxj #tcot #teaparty #wethepeople

EVENTS:

FLORIDA:

http://1787network.com/upcoming-events/protest-the-un-and-agenda-21-at-the-state-capitol

http://www.teapartymanatee.org/events/2011/10/24/events /agenda_21_un_protest_in_tallahassee/

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

Event Type: Observances

Event Name: United Nations Day - http://www.un.org/en/events/unday/2010/

Event Description: UN Day marks the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter. With the ratification of this founding document by the majority of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, the United Nations officially came into being. 24 October has been celebrated as United Nations Day since 1948. In 1971, the United Nations General Assembly recommended that the day be observed by Member States as a public holiday.

UN Sponsor: Department of Public Information (DPI)

Event URL: http://www.un.org/en/events/unday/

Date & Time:

From: 24-Oct-2011 TO: 16-Nov-2010 (sic)

Agenda 21 will remove your rights to property and liberty by subsuming them covertly through themes of "save the environment" "human rights" and "bring peace".

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL MESSAGE:

"UN Day is a day on which we resolve to do more. More to protect those caught up in armed conflict, to fight climate change and avert nuclear catastrophe; more to expand opportunities for women and girls, and to combat injustice and impunity; more to meet the Millennium Development Goals."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Message on UN Day, 24 October 2010

Global Warming, now termed "climate change" since global warming has been shown to be a fraud, is the UN's "in" to collapse Western economies and redistribute their wealth to the globalist oligarchy.

AGENDA 21 TODAY NEWSLETTER SEPT. 18, 2011

2011-09-18T20:18:00.003-04:00

AGENDA 21 TODAY NEWSLETTER SEPT. 18, 2011

1. President Clinton said President Obama's new jobs bill plan is a good plan. He also goes on to say that if Congress stands the way of passage it will give Obama a campaign platform that will give him a win. THINK about this.

2. Here is a great article by Dr. Coffman. I shared this very same information with you in a previous email. The thought is if/when the economy crashes there will be no money. Carbon credits left over at the end of the month will not be carried over. They will just be gone. Like minutes on your Verizon Cell Phone account. This way no one can accumulate ANY wealth at all. Anyone that does not think Agenda 21 will control EVERY aspect of your life has not been paying attention.

3. The latest from Henry Lamb. Some good examples of how Agenda 21 is tromping all over our Constitutional rights.

4. Undermining parental rights in CA. Remember another tentacle of Agenda 21 is to strip parents of all rights to make decisions for their children. We will be reduced in the future to nothing more than breeders for the government. The government will decide through testing which babies live and which babies do not. How many children you can have and who can have children and who can not. Sounds sick and it is. But it is another reality of our future if we allow Agenda 21 (and the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child) to continue. Every time we hand over small freedom it opens the door for the government to take another step closer to complete control. This was sent to me by K.B.

5. Think the FDA is your friend? Well think again. It is looking more and more each day like we have no friends in government. Thanks again to K.D. for sending this video.

6. Newt Gingrich talks about the UN Agenda21 at a Tea Party Townhall in Florida. I don’t like or trust him, but I appreciate the fact that he is addressing the issue.

Mexican Gray Wolf Reintroduction

2011-09-18T18:56:00.000-04:00

Mexican Gray Wolf Reintroduction --
(A product of the US Fish And Wildlife Service)
"Re-Wilding" Project from UN Agenda 21 Wildlands Project

The Mexican gray wolf is an impressive and majestic animal: a large canine carnivore standing 28-32" at the shoulder and 4.5-5.5' from tip of nose to tip of tail. A subspecies of the gray wolf, it once ranged several large areas of the US including the area now known as New Mexico and Arizona.

In 1996 it was very rare, existing almost exclusively in captivity. The Mexican gray wolf was eradicated by ranchers because of their pack ability to kill any large prey, including moose, elk, buffalo and even, if pressed, bears. While obviously not the natural prey, if the opportunity presented itself, these packs were fully capable of killing domesticated animals and humans.These are not evil animals, just very efficient at hunting, with no human moral code to place certain behaviors "off limits". This created an understandable coexistence problem for human inhabitants, obviously.

Despite these historic problems between the Mexican gray wolf and human domestic and commercial activity, the US Fish and Wildlife Service in 1996 published a report that it was about to "reintroduce" (release back into the wild) Mexican gray wolves into the Sonoran and Chihuahan Deserts of southern Arizona and New Mexico, and also into the Rockies and Midwest.

Many residents of the targeted "reintroduction" areas warned stridently against this action. Area ranchers, particularly, raised a hue and cry. Residents in nearby towns expressed extreme concern for pets and even children, who could be considered gray wolf prey.

Here is where the Mexican gray wolf ranges now, in the Arizona-New Mexico "wolf recovery areas".

It did not make sense. Why did the federal government deliberately, and at ongoing cost to taxpayers, reintroduce an eradicated predator which would, according to the USFWS' own statement, kill a number of private (US ranch) cattle (mostly calves) each year and tens of thousands of deer and elk "long term"?

From the 1996 Report:

"After the wolf population grows to approximately 100, it is projected to kill between one and 34 cattle annually, mostly calves. A private livestock depredation compensation fund*** exists. For the Blue Range Wolf Recovery Area, the net long term effect on wild ungulates is projected to be between 1,200 and 1,900 ...elk, and between 4,800 and 10,000 ...deer."

‎"Private livestock depredation compensation fund" means that you and I [taxpayers] reimburse ranchers for cattle killed by Mexican gray wolf packs. Remember, these are a large, very efficient species of wolf that ranchers had gotten rid of long ago because of their risk to livestock. But the US FWS purposely "reintroduced" the Mexican gray wolf. Not only costing taxpayers money but affecting commerce and even placing humans at risk. What is wrong with this picture?

It makes no sense unless you understand UN Agenda 21, the United Nations' implementation plan for global governance. GHW Bush signed the US onto the Rio Accord in 1992. The Rio Accord, and its implementation plan UN Agenda 21, include a "Wildlands Project" which calls for complete re-wilding of 50% of the United States, with another 45% devoted to very restricted wildlife "management" activities only - no commerce, etc.

This is not a joke.

UN Agenda 21 included The Global Biodiversity Assessment, part of which is The Wildlands Project. The report, directed by theUnited Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) calls for urgent action toreverse the effects of "unsustainable" human activities on "globalbiodiversity", including but not limited to the following:

What is 'Unsustainable'?‎"
Farmlands, rangelands are unsustainable"

350 - Grazing of Livestock: cows, sheep, goats, horses
351 - Disturbance of the Soil Surface

350 - Large hoofed animals, compaction of soil, reducing filtration
351 - Fencing of Pastures or Paddocks
728 - Modern Farm Production Systems
730 - Human-Made caves of brick and mortar, concrete and steel
730 - Paved and Tarred roads, highways, rails (page 351)
730 - Railroads
730 - Floor and Wall Tiles
733 - Aquaculture
733 - Technology Improvements
733 - Farmlands, Rangelands
733 - Pastures, Rangelands
733 - Pastures
738 - Modern Hunting
738 - Harvesting of Timber
749 - Logging Activities
728 - Fossil Fuels - Used for driving various kinds of machines
755 - Dams, Reservoirs, Straightening Rivers
757 - Power Line Construction
763 - Economic systems that fail to set a proper value on the environment
766, 838 - Modern Attitudes toward nature - Judaeo-Christian-Islamic religions
767, 782 - Private Property
774 - Fragmentation of Habitat - cemeteries, derelict lands, rubbish tips, etc.
774 - Sewers, Drain Systems, Pipelines
783 - Land use that serves human needs

Basically all human activity past the Stone Age hunter-gathering level of sophistication is "unsustainable".

How much more of the US could be re-wilded right now? For many states in the Western US, 70% or more of the land is owned by the government. At any moment, the government could restrict access.

Before this happens, inform yourself of this globalist agenda which is impacting ever more strongly on our national sovereignty and our individual property and other rights.

For more information, see Freedom Advocates web site.

THE USELESSNESS OF FEDERAL "JOB TRAINING" PROGRAMS

2011-09-17T07:15:00.001-04:00

The Wall Street Journal published a very good article about the billions wasted in federal "job training" programs over the past several decades. The sub-headline alone is an eye-opener:

What Job 'Training' Teaches? Bad Work Habits
A 1969 government study warned that teens in federal jobs programs 'regressed in their conception of what should reasonably be required in return for wages paid.'

Talk about #EPIC #FAIL.

Most of us realize that government activity is not efficient, and that government activities do not generate wealth or productivity - it drains them from the economy, using those resources to fuel itself.

Lest some claim that these redundant, expensive programs "help" a "disadvantaged" "community", the article shows that, in fact, these "job training" programs actually are a disservice to these communities:

"...most urban teens 'were exposed to a worksite where good work habits were not learned or reinforced.' And in 1985, a National Academy of Science study found that government jobs and training programs isolated disadvantaged youth, thus making it harder for them to fit into the real job market."

Is this a big problem?
With unemployment above 9% on average, and upwards of 50% in these "disadvantaged communities", why make finding meaningful employment any harder?

Can we really afford such programs, with huge federal deficits and a rising sixteen-trillion dollar debt?

Okay then, but after all, how much do these "job training" programs really cost taxpayers?

"Begun in 2003, Georgia Work$ gives people a chance to "train" at an employer for eight weeks. They receive no salary but continue collecting unemployment compensation and as well as a $240 weekly stipend from the state of Georgia. Last year, the stipend was increased to $600 a week and anyone who said they needed a job was allowed to participate. After costs exploded, Georgia Work$ was scaled back early this year."

Wouldn't participants have gotten useful employment, been boosted into a career? Incredibly, the government has not kept statistics on much of the effectiveness of these programs.

"Earlier this year, the Government Accountability Office reported that there were 47 different federal employment and training programs, costing taxpayers $18 billion a year. There is massive overlap and duplication, and few programs seriously evaluate their impact on trainees."

What history there is does not support any conclusion that these programs help the unemployed or underemployed, or are effective expenditures of taxpayer money. Of Georgia Work$, a program touted as a "model" by the Obama Administration:

"At last report, only 14% of trainees were hired by employers—a success rate akin to other unemployed Georgians who do not participate in the program."

"Georgia Work$ has produced far more headlines than jobs—fewer than 200 this year, according to a recent article in Politico."

Time to stop the useless federal "job training" programs, which do not actually help people get real work, and which serve to demotivate and disincentivize participants, increase poverty, and boost dependence on government

2011-09-15T21:34:00.001-04:00

What's the "Progressive" about in "Progressive Insurance"?
Know where your dollars go...

PROGRESSIVE INSURANCE is owned by Peter Lewis

Who is he?

Like Barack Obama and George Soros, Peter Lewis is actively helpingdestroy America. His so-called "philanthropic" contributions arequestionable since they support organizations and programs that are destructiveto American social or functional structure and the American way of life. Thissupport includes dissident and left-wing movements, ACLU, and"non-government organizations" - NGOs - which (through largeanonymous donors) funnel hundreds of billions, if not trillions, in(essentially) "washed" money - e.g., "grants" - to supportglobalist and America-destroying agendas.

Peter Lewis and hisextremely wealthy ilk also actively support disinformation and propaganda,one-party dictatorship, legalization of marijuana, anti-Semitism, and cronycapitalism. These players manipulate media through buying controlling stockinterest, defends terrorism as a means to revolution, support the eugenicsorganization Planned Parenthood, supports assisted suicide, and by every meanspossible tries to impose a liberal and radical agenda.

PETER LEWIS, CRONY CAPITALIST

PROGRESSIVE AUTO INSURANCE

You know their TV commercials, the ones featuring the ditsy actress alldressed in white. What you might not know is that the Chairman of Progressive is Peter Lewis, one of the major funders of leftistcauses in America ..

Between 2001 and 2003, Lewis funneled $15 million to the ACLU, thegroup most responsible for destroying what's left of AmericasJudeo-Christian heritage.

Lewis also gave $12.5 million to MoveOn.org and America Coming Together, two keypropaganda arms of the socialist left.

His funding for these groups was conditional on matching contributionsfrom George Soros, the America-hating socialist who is the chieffinancier of the Obama political machine.

Lewis made a fortune as a result of capitalism, but now finances aprogressive movement that threatens to destroy the American free enterprisesystem that is targeting television shows on Fox News.

Peter Lewis is making a fortune off Americans who buy his auto insurance, whichhe then applies to dismantle the very system that made him wealthy. People likethis count on anonymity, obfuscation ad darkness. Shine the light. Tell others.Stop buying Progressive Insurance.

Chairman Lewis must agree with the activities ofthe ACLU, or he would not support it at this level. Lewis' gifts to the ACLU haveenabled it to promote their anti-Christmas agenda such as:

· Removing nativity scenes from publicproperty

· Banning songs such as Silent Nightfrom schools

· Refusing to allow students to writeabout the Christian aspect of Christmas in school projects

· Renaming Christmas break Winter break

· Refusing to allow a city sponsoredChristmas parade to be called a Christmas parade

· Not allowing a Christmas tree in apublic school

· Renaming a Christmas tree displayedon public property a Holiday tree

In addition to their war on Christmas, the ACLUuses gifts like that from Chairman Lewis to:

· Sue states to force them to legalizehomosexual marriage

· Force libraries to remove pornfilters from their computers

· Sue the Boy Scouts to force them toaccept homosexuals as scout leaders

· Help legalize child pornography

· Legalize live sex acts in bars in Oregon

· Protect the North American Man BoyLove Association whose motto is "sex by eight or it is too late"

· Censor student led prayer atgraduation

· Remove "under God" from thePledge of Allegiance

· Remove "In God We Trust" onour currency

Take back our country! And expose “Progressives.”

Verify at http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/peterlewis.asp

or http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/a/aclu-lewis.htm

2011-09-14T11:36:00.000-04:00

Cool news! Thanks for the Team Work - Constitution Tea Party

Cool Counties initiative rescinded in
Albemarle County, Virginia

The Jefferson Area Tea Party is pleased to announce that on Wednesday, September 7, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors voted 4-2 to rescind its participation in the Cool Counties initiative it adopted in 2007. The JATP led the effort in opposition of Cool Counties, as it did for paid membership in ICLEI - International Council for Local Environmental Issues, and once again our activism has proven successful. Congratulations to everyone involved!

On a disturbing side note - without provocation, Supervisor Dennis Rooker waged some inappropriate, incorrect, and insulting accusations at the JATP following the vote. These comments are transcribed below from the audio pod cast recorded by Charlottesville Tomorrow. The entire Cool Counties discussion, vote, and post-discussion can be heard via this link.

(Supervisor Rooker's comments about the JATP may be heard beginning at time marker 23:50)

"But, you know, I mean, where we're going now, is, in my view,
is in a direction where we're afraid
to be perceived as environmentally committed because,

you know, I guess, the tea party has told us that's it's a bad thing

and they can put another notch on their gun and send out an
e-mail to all of their people saying we got Albemarle County out of ICLEI,

and we got Albemarle County out of Cool Counties.

There will be an e-mail that goes out nationally today or tomorrow
on that issue because it's a notch on the gun.

And that's what this is about. A notch on the gun."

JATP chairwoman Carole Thorpe has issued the following response:

The JATP has stated repeatedly that it stands FIRMLY in favor of reasonable, responsible stewardship of our resources and maintenance of a healthy environment. We trust our community can be environmentally committed and perceived as such by operating under scientifically sound policies and practicing common sense solutions executed within the bounds of the proper role of local government. It is unnecessary to ally ourselves with dangerous, politically-motivated organizations (such as ICLEI) or participate in scientifically inaccurate initiatives which set arbitrary goals (such as Cool Counties). In fact, the oft-repeated motivations cited by Supervisor Dennis Rooker and Supervisor Ann Mallek to gain positive "perception" by national and international environmentalists while creating a gateway to receive grant money is seemingly, as much if not more, the reason they support these programs. In my opinion, the dangers of bad alliances and bad policy should outweigh the benefits of outsider perception and grant money.

There is no "tea party gun". I sat incredulous as Supervisor Rooker spouted this figment of his imagination which was both uncalled for and highly inappropriate. His imagery of a "gun" in association with the JATP was inflammatory and irresponsible. The tea party movement has been and remains a non-violent expression of citizen concern which operates within the confines of civil discourse and the rule of law. Its members are taxpaying constituents who have every right to respectfully petition their elected representatives for desired action, just as members of many other organizations do. Neither Supervisor Rooker's politics nor frustrations entitle him to misuse his prominent position on the Board of Supervisors to cast disparaging remarks against those with whom he disagrees.
The JATP advocates for public matters as guided by adherence to its principles - not in exercise for self-aggrandizement to "put another notch on their gun." Supervisor Rooker asserts; "And that's what this is about. A notch on their gun." This ridiculous statement is born out of his obvious and mounting resentment of the JATP to win the arguments and votes necessary to defeat the ill-advised policies he champions.

It is the reasonable, common response of any organization that affects the change it seeks to share its good news with others. This is especially true with all-volunteer groups like the JATP, where the personal satisfaction earned for many hours of hard work is part of the reward. I typically notify our members, state and local media, and area tea party organizations of our successes - but there is no rash "e-mail that goes out nationally". If news of anything we do reaches national awareness, it is the result of the unsolicited effort by other groups to forward the information.

In conclusion, I am profoundly offended by Supervisor Rooker's unwarranted attack on the JATP. It is not the first time he has made bizarre accusations against our organization - such as his allegation of our possible attempt to "infiltrate" local government. I have remained relatively silent up to now, but this level of destructive rhetoric demands reaction and sharp rebuke.

I call on Supervisor Rooker to reconsider his remarks and offer a public apology. He has an obligation to serve his constituents, the Board of Supervisors, and our community in a rational, responsible, and more professional manner.

2011-09-14T11:06:00.001-04:00

STRIKE OUT FEDERAL FUNDING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Tom DeWeese sent a notification (see below) with action needed Sept. 20. We can and should try to marshal our resources statewide and nationally to participate in this effort. What a wake-up call to our Senate if tens or hundreds of thousands of patriots tell them to maintain the funding levels set by the House! Please alert your networks and ask them to participate. Copy and re-post the information from Tom DeWeese below.

FROM TOM DEWEESE:

There Is a Real Chance to Stop Funding for “Sustainable Communities.”

Action Alert:

The House of Representatives have cut funding from Obama’s  Partnership for
Sustainable Communities program. The program has been targeted for
elimination from the House FY 2012 spending bill.

Defunding Sustainable Development has also come through a Department of
Transportation bill, a draft of which completely eliminates funding for what
are called TIGER grants, which provides funding for the largest grants
through the Partnership for Sustainable Communities program.

This is great news for those of us opposed to Sustainable Development. It
means less money and fewer weapons coming out of Washington, DC to enforce this assault on property rights and America’s way of life.

Now the spending bill is moving to the Senate – the danger zone.
Sustainablists are planning a major push to get the Senate to replace the
appropriations for the Sustainable Communities budget. The American Planning Association (APA) is leading the charge, calling for massive pressure to be put on Senators in what the APA is calling “Planners Day,” set for September 20th.

The APA’s message to the Senators is that the cuts “ignores both our
nation’s jobs crisis and the drastic need for infrastructure investment.” In
fact, the House action is not only fiscally responsible in a day when the
government is completely broke, but it is a lie that the program will help
either jobs or infrastructure. The exact opposite is true. Sustainable
Development is a jobs killer and it destroys infrastructure – refusing to
build roads, tearing down dams and the like.

We can strike a huge blow against Sustainable Development.
Action to take:

1. On September 20th, call both of your U.S. Senators and demand that they
maintain the House restrictions on the sustainability planning grants and the caps on planning expenses now called for in the Fiscal Year spending bill. Tell them America cannot afford these grants. The cuts will save billions of dollars and keep special interests out of your community’s planning decisions. Tell them you oppose Sustainable Development.

The Senate switchboard is (202) 224-3121

Make the calls and counter the impact of one of the nation’s most powerful forces behind Sustainable Development (APA). Win this fight and we will show that we are now strong enough to turn the tide away from top down control and soviet-style government - and towards freedom!

2. If you have a chance, call your Representative in the House and thank them for standing firm against this Sustainable Development monster. And ask them to continue to stand firm if the final bill goes to a conference committee. Defund Sustainable Development and strike a blow for fiscal sanity and freedom.

Thank you for reading,

Tom DeWeese
President
American Policy Center
tom@americanpolicy.org
http://americanpolicy.org

2011-09-14T02:12:00.001-04:00

NEW YORK SHOWS SIGNS OF REANIMATION

Decades of Democrat Control In Question

Liberal Democrat "Damage Control" Spin Machines Already Cranking

My posts and tweets today in chronological order; descending:

Bob Turner #NY9 Special Election Results: “The numbers keep coming in stronger and stronger” http://t.co/zhR7Sit #NY #NYC #tcot #teaparty

RT @Reenit: RT @CFA2: This will be the 1st time since the 1920's that a Republican has won in this disrtict! #GOP for Weiners seat

RT @Reenit: RT @jamiedupree: Almost 50% of precincts reporting in NY9 and the GOP leads 52-48%; 69-30 in Brooklyn, Dem up 51-49 in Queens

Michelle Malkin » Special Elections Watch: New York and Nevada; Updated http://t.co/pal20sC via @michellemalkin #ny #nyc #gop #teaparty

PPP Predicts Turner In A #GOP Upset In #NY9 | New York Daily News http://t.co/gaG1B0v #gop #tcot #teaparty

RT @ConservativeLA: We took NY and Nevada special election seats. Let not your heart be troubled. #tcot

RT @JasonBWhitman: MT @adamhasner: Congrats to Bob Turner & team in #NY09. Victory proves voters are more concerned w/ issues & record than traditional party

RT @FloridaJayhawk: Democrats The Punishment Will Continue Until You Remove ObowMao From Office. #NY9 #NYC #NY #NYDEMS #LOL

RT @thehill: Republican Bob Turner wins #NY9 Congressional seat http://ow.ly/6tKqb #tcot #teaparty #gop #wethepeople #acon #conservative

RT @FloridaJayhawk: DUDE WE GOT PEEPS IN #NY9 #TEAPARTY #NYC

RT @emilykschrader: @Drudge says, "Revenge of the Jews, Dem seat turns RED in #NYC!" #NY9 #tcot #gop http://t.co/3UuRgcV

RT @jamestaranto: NYT's "In Race for Weiner's Seat, Awaiting Outcome" is top story on Google News right now.

Bob Turner Wins New York 09 Special Election - Nancy Scola - Politics - The Atlantic http://t.co/EcAFNa8 #tcot #teaparty #gop #wethepeople

RT @DCDude1776: Erections have consequences. #ny9 h/t @liberty_chick

Thank You Assemblyman Dov Hikind for crossing party lines to endorse Turner in #NY9 and opposing the #GZM http://t.co/sysPz6n #gop #israel

THANK YOU EX- #NYC MAYOR ED KOCH for crossing party lines & endorsing BOB TURNER for #NY9 http://t.co/Mx28WKK #tcot #gop #teaparty #israel

The #NY Daily News endorsed Bob Turner for #NY9 Congress to replace Weiner http://t.co/r3lBsWY #tcot #teaparty #acon #hhrs #wethepeople #rs

Thank You Mayor Giuliani for endorsing Bob Turner for #NY9 and publicly decrying Bloomberg's atrocious handling of 9/11 10-yr memorial. #NYC

Top story on Google is NY-9! This seat has not been GOP since 1923!
The race for this seat is seen as a referendum on Obama. YA THINK?!

HOUSE -- NY-09 Votes
Turner (R) 53% 29,064
Weprin (D) 47% 25,562
79% reporting

#NY9 TURNS RED! TURNER WINS DECISIVELY#NY #NYC http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLeC9RvrKrU

2011-09-13T20:56:00.003-04:00

PROTEST THE UN DAY OCT. 24 2011

"The world is in fact full of evil. Expose it. Fight it tooth and nail."

- Alan Levesque

ORGANIZE A PROTEST AT YOUR STATE CAPITOL!
START A VIRTUAL PROTEST ONLINE! TWEET YOUR DISPLEASURE!
The UN wants everyone to hold hands, take a vacation day, sing Kum-ba-ya, and CELEBRATE THEM!
Tell them to PACK UP AND GO instead!

IF YOU ARE IN NEW YORK OR ACROSS THE HUDSON IN NEW JERSEY, GO TO THE UN ITSELF!

405 E 42nd St, New York
(212) 355-4165

ICLEI is a part of UN Agenda 21. The UN recently renamed it and purged direct references to the UN from the ICLEI web site, however, to obscure that fact, because people are rightly appalled when they realize their local government is implementing a UN agenda to remove their property and human rights.

SAMPLE TWEET: #Agenda 21 Protest: Tallahassee #FL - Protest the UN on United Nations Day Mon Oct 24 2011 http://bit.ly/rlBcxj #tcot #teaparty #wethepeople

EVENTS:
FLORIDA:
http://1787network.com/upcoming-events/protest-the-un-and-agenda-21-at-the-state-capitol
http://www.teapartymanatee.org/events/2011/10/24/events/agenda_21_un_protest_in_tallahassee/

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Event Type: Observances
Event Name: United Nations Day - http://www.un.org/en/events/unday/2010/
Event Description: UN Day marks the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter. With the ratification of this founding document by the majority of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, the United Nations officially came into being. 24 October has been celebrated as United Nations Day since 1948. In 1971, the United Nations General Assembly recommended that the day be observed by Member States as a public holiday.
UN Sponsor: Department of Public Information (DPI)
Event URL: http://www.un.org/en/events/unday/
Date & Time:
From: 24-Oct-2011 TO: 16-Nov-2010 (sic)

Agenda 21 will remove your rights to property and liberty by subsuming them covertly through themes of "save the environment" "human rights" and "bring peace".

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL MESSAGE:

"UN Day is a day on which we resolve to do more. More to protect those caught up in armed conflict, to fight climate change and avert nuclear catastrophe; more to expand opportunities for women and girls, and to combat injustice and impunity; more to meet the Millennium Development Goals."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Message on UN Day, 24 October 2010

"Global Warming," now termed "climate change" since global warming has been shown to be a huge scientific fraud, is the UN's "in" to collapse Western economies and redistribute their wealth to the globalist oligarchy.

2011-09-12T00:43:00.001-04:00

9/11 Tribute

Keeping it simple today. Never Forget 9/11.

We honor the dead from New York, on the ground, in the towers and on the plane.
We honor the dead from Washington, D.C., on the ground, in the Pentagon, and on the plane.
We honor the dead from Flight 93 in Shanksville, PA.

Kevin Cosgrove's final minutes alive - 105th floor, 2 WTC. He dies as the 911 operator is on with him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbOzSeu6sJA

Tower 2 being hit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI8u-I0GWs4&NR=1

God rest their souls in peace.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwHQKfcgAjk

2011-09-08T23:58:00.001-04:00

Rick Perry, Dhimmi Globalist Candidate

Pamela Geller published an article in The American Thinker that exposes facts which may very well doom Perry’s candidacy.

Geller writes:

But Perry has been sucked into the propaganda vortex, and is now wielding his enormous power to influence changes in the schoolrooms and in the curricula to reflect a sharia compliant version of Islam. He is a friend of the Aga Khan, the multimillionaire head of the Ismailis, a Shi’ite sect of Islam that today proclaims its nonviolence but in ages past was the sect that gave rise to the Assassins. Perry has concluded at least two cooperation agreements between the state of Texas and the Ismailis, including a comprehensive program to feed children in Texas public schools and taqiyya nonsense about how Islam is a religion of peace. Another agreement stipulates that Texas officials will work with the Ismailis in the “fields of education, health sciences, natural disaster preparedness and recovery, culture and the environment.” Perry let on that this was all about whitewashing Islam’s bloody historical and modern-day record: “traditional Western education speaks little of the influence of Muslim scientists, scholars, throughout history, and for that matter the cultural treasures that stand today in testament to their wisdom.”

It gets worse. Last March, Perry gave a speech in Dallas in the company of Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. Norquist was close to George W. Bush, and Perry’s anti-tax, anti-Big Government rhetoric sounds like it’s right out of Norquist’s playbook. But there is a dark side to Norquist as well: Norquist’s ties to Islamic supremacists and jihadists have been known for years. He and his Palestinian wife, Samah Alrayyes — who was director of communications for his Islamic Free Market Institute until they married in 2005 — are very active in “Muslim outreach.” Six weeks after 9/11, The New Republic ran an exposé explaining how Norquist arranged for George W. Bush to meet with fifteen Islamic supremacists at the White House on September 26, 2001 — to show how Muslims rejected terrorism.

The only problem was that the ones with Bush didn’t. To Bush’s left sat Dr. Yahya Basha, president of the American Muslim Council, an organization whose leaders have repeatedly called Hamas “freedom fighters.” Also in attendance was Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, who on the afternoon of September 11 told a Los Angeles public radio audience that “we should put the State of Israel on the suspect list.” And sitting right next to President Bush was Muzammil Siddiqi, president of the Hamas-linked Islamic Society of North America, who once told a Muslim crowd chanting pro-Hezbollah slogans that “America has to learn if you remain on the side of injustice, the wrath of God will come.”

The Muslim Histories and Culture Project sponsored by Aga Khan and Rick Perry unfortunately has been removed from Internet records. Pamela Geller documents her research on this:

In one of my first posts on the controversial Aga Khan/Perry school curriculum on Islam for Texas public schools, I published the links (URLs) to the Muslim Histories and Cultures Program (MHC). The MHC page said proudly: “In April 2004, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) and UT-Austin finalized a grant proposal that created the partnership that became known as the Muslim Histories and Cultures Program (MHC)…. Governor Perry was instrumental in getting this program off the ground.”

Soon after I posted about it, the links went dead. It was curious that the multiple pages of all nine lessons plus adjunct powerpoints and lesson plans were all taken offline. Subsequently, I found the Google cached pages and posted those links of the curriculum material. Now those links have also been removed. The cache is gone. Why are they hiding this?

Before everything disappears, I am posting the text and the screenshots of all nine lessons of this proselytizing whitewash of Islam. We are handicapping our children by whitewashing the jihadic doctrine and the threat it presents to the West. This is the actual curriculum, not any one single teacher’s lesson plan (which is what other misinformed blogs are using, claiming it is the actual official curriculum, in an attempt to exonerate Perry of this dastardly action).

To make matters worse, Perry also supported NAFTA and, as recently as 2006, supported the Trans-Texas Corridor (part of the NAFTA Superhighway rail/toll road – itself a UN Agenda 21 project).

http://townhall.com/columnists/rachelalexander/2011/08/12/rick_perrys_nafta_superhighway_problem

Perry therefore is a globalist. He also is a Bilderberg member. Kathleen Sebelius, also a Bilderberg member, admits both are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCZiA2VBaEE

Additional background at this link regarding Perry's 1980s ties to Al Gore. This article also mentions that he favors amnesty for illegal aliens and panders to the Hispanic lobby (witness his speech before La Raza recently).

This man is not the candidate we Constitution- and freedom-loving conservatives want. However, he may very well become president with the media pushing him. Do not be fooled by their questioning in the MSLSD debate — for most of the time, it was the Romney-Perry Show. The leftist media have already settled on whom they could live with as POTUS. They allowed Perry and Romney the most speaking time despite Bachmann winning in Iowa. How would the media class be able to live with a private-sector jobs, states-rights death-penalty advocate — from Texas fer cryinoutloud ? Because this cozying up with Muslims indicates a dhimmi - effectively a cowed non-Muslim who pays their dues to be left alive. Someone who will adhere to the practice of al-taqiyya (lying to promote your agenda). In this practice the religion of peace shares an ethical tie with Bill Ayers (the end justifies the means).

The globalists understand that Obama is finished. They fooled enough Democrats and independents last time to vote for him with grand sweeping talk, and magical thinking, of hope and change. This time everyone sees Obama really meant hype and chains. The globalists will have to fool Republicans and conservatives this time, and enough independents again to eke out a win for their GOP globalist candidate. So they will have to foist another Trojan horse upon us — a good-looking candidate who says enough of the right stuff — and the immobilized, irrelevant GOP sheeple class will rush to nominate him. Voila, our next President.

Perry is not whom I would want to see winning the GOP nomination, despite many things he says with which I agree. I do not trust him to tell the truth, and fear he would be another bait-and-switch big-promises guy like the Rezident currently inhabiting the White House.

Have we not learned to judge past actions and behavior, and not current bloviation, to judge the likely performance in office? The lessons of 2008 should be fresh enough in our minds that we will not allow wool to be pulled over our eyes. I pray it is so!

2011-09-08T22:16:00.001-04:00

American Muslims Speak Out Against Enforcement of Shari‘ah in America

Islamic Coalition announces support for Michigan legislation that will bar state courts from

enforcing ‘foreign law’ above U.S. and state constitution

NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MEDIA CONTACT:

Gregg Edgar
Gordon C. James Public Relations
gedgar@gcjpr.com
602-690-7977

American Muslims speak out against the enforcement of shari‘ah law in America
Islamic Coalition announces support for Michigan legislation that will bar state courts from enforcing ‘foreign law’ above U.S. and state constitution

Washington, DC (August 31, 2011) – A coalition of diverse American Muslim leaders has announced support for a proposed bill in the Michigan State Assembly, HB 4679, that is intended to bar Michigan courts from enforcing any foreign law, if doing so violates any rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and/or the state of Michigan’s constitution.

Like many Americans, members of the American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC) have been observing the efforts of a growing number of state legislatures, which are seeking to address the incompatibility of various shari‘ah court systems around the world with the principles and foundations of our Constitutional republic and its laws. As American Muslims, we believe that the law should treat people of all faiths equally, while protecting Muslims and non-Muslims alike from extremist attempts to use the legal instrument of shari‘ah (also known as Islamic jurisprudence, or fiqh) to incubate, within the West, a highly politicized and dangerous understanding of Islam that is generally known as “Islamism,” or “radical Islam.”

We see no evidence that statutes like HB 4769 will adversely impact the free exercise of our personal pietistic observance of Islam, which is not in conflict with the U.S. or Michigan constitutions. We recognize that not only Muslims, but also Jews, Christians and all people of faith need the government to protect their right to peaceful assembly, mediation and arbitration free of coercion, but also within the bounds of American constitutional principles. Therefore, we stand together as a diverse coalition in support of any legislation that serves to protect and integrate our communities into the fabric of this great nation, by strengthening our accountability to the laws of the land, and the constitutions of the various states in which we live.

As American Muslims we are conscious of the fact that Muslim Brotherhood legacy groups and other Islamists and their surrogates in the U.S. are trying their best to portray any opposition to manifestations of shari‘ah law as “racism” and “discrimination against Muslims.” However, as a coalition of traditional, liberal and secular Muslim Americans, we denounce this fear-mongering and playing of the race card, which only serves to mask the Islamists’ highly politicized agenda. According to AILC member C. Holland Taylor, “the Islamist agenda threatens not only the well-being of the United States and its inhabitants, but also undermines and distorts the highest principles of Islam itself.”

“Michigan House Bill 4769 seeks to ensure that American Muslims can live in freedom and safety, in accordance with our constitutional principles, and not be enveloped by the tentacles of medieval, man-made laws that have been falsely accorded divine status,” said the AILC.

“To equate Bill 4769 to racism is not only dishonest, but is a poor and clumsy attempt at making ordinary Muslim Americans feel alien in their own homeland, while creating a rift between Muslims and the rest of our country,” said AILC member Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser.

Michigan House Bill 4769 states:

“[To] ...limit the application and enforcement by a court, arbitrator, or administrative body of foreign laws that would impair constitutional rights; to provide for modification or voiding of certain contractual provisions or agreements that would result in a violation of constitutional rights; and to require a court, arbitrator, or administrative body to take certain actions to prevent violation of constitutional rights.”

The AILC statement reinforces the American Muslim community's commitment to the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause and the separation between religion and state. Unfortunately, Islamist groups would like to compromise this separation and provide cover to medieval, misogynistic and homophobic laws that no Muslim is obligated to demand as public law.

“Shari‘ah law, wherever it has been applied in the public domain, be it in Iran, Saudi Arabia or Pakistan, has resulted in untold misery and oppression of Muslims, in particular Muslim women, by Islamists and dictators who invoke shari‘ah law to justify their rule,” said AILC member Manda Ervin. “Many of us fled the Muslim world to escape shari‘ah law and to practice Islam in our personal lives, by moving to the USA and other western countries. We do not wish these laws to follow us here,” she concluded.

The Michigan state senators are not alone in expressing concern about foreign laws creeping into North America under the guise of religious freedom. Many Muslim academics, religious scholars and human rights activists have voiced their concern.

The contrast between what has occurred in Britain and in Canada provides a roadmap for how the U.S. may address these legal issues. In Britain, shari‘ah arbitration courts have been allowed to assume virtually unchecked control of legal arrangements in many Muslim communities. This is creating a ghettoized, medieval and separatist state within Britain. In Canada, however, local Muslims led strong opposition to the Islamists’ shari‘ah agenda and were successful in preventing its implementation, thereby sparing our Northern neighbor the fate of so many Muslims in the United Kingdom, where women are commonly subjected to forced marriage and the denial of basic human rights.

“We Muslims in Canada defeated an attempt by Islamists to sneak shari‘ah law into Ontario,” said AILC member Tarek Fatah, who has been on the front lines of this struggle for many years. “We recognized the damage shari‘ah had inflicted on Muslims in the UK, and its oppressive nature in Muslim-majority countries, and decided to oppose it. We urge American Muslims not to succumb to the Islamists’ propaganda, and to back the Michigan Bill, which will protect Muslims and non-Muslims alike from the impact of foreign laws that violate the U.S. or Michigan constitutions.”

About the American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC)
The American Islamic Leadership Coalition (AILC) is a diverse coalition of liberty-minded, North American Muslim leaders and organizations. AILC’s mission advocates for defending the US Constitution, upholding religious pluralism, protecting American security and cherishing genuine diversity in the faith and practice of Islam. AILC provides a stark alternative to the Islamist organizations that claim to speak for what are diverse American Muslim communities. For more information on AILC, please visit our website at http://www.americanislamicleadership.org/.

AILC Coalition Signatories

Bahman Batmanghelidj Founding Member Alliance for Democracy in Iran Virginia, USA	Manda Zand Ervin President Alliance of Iranian Women Maryland, USA	Tarek Fatah Founder Muslim Canadian Congress Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Jamal Hasan Council for Democracy and Tolerance Baltimore, MD	Farzana Hassan, Ed.D. Past President Muslim Canadian Congress Toronto, Ontario, Canada	M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. President American Islamic Forum for Democracy Phoenix, AZ
Hasan Mahmud Member, Advisory Board World Muslim Congress Dallas, TX	C. Holland Taylor Chairman & CEO LibForAll Foundation Winston-Salem, NC	Jalal Zuberi, MD Associate Professor of Pediatrics Morehouse School of Medicine Atlanta, GA

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TELL CONGRESS NO! NO TO A DEBT CEILING INCREASE #STOPTHEBLEEDING

2011-07-17T22:49:00.000-04:00

TELL CONGRESS NO! NO TO A DEBT CEILING INCREASE #STOPTHEBLEEDING

NO overspending.

NO more debt.

NO excuses.

Tea Party Patriots has started a web site for those like us opposed to any increase in the debt ceiling, for any reason. Help get the word out and generate grassroots support.

http://nodebtincrease.com

Please go there, read about it and sign the petition.

"It is time to cut up Washington’s credit card and get federal spending under control.

In 1917, Congress created the debt limit to control spending. Instead every time they "hit" the limit they’ve raised it. Like irresponsible teenagers they’re at it again for the 11th time in as many years.

Since 2000, the National debt has increased three fold to $14.3 trillion or $130,000 per household.

Federal government spending has skyrocketed to nearly one quarter of the economy. The U.S. Department of Labor alone will spend approximately $1,250 per household this year!

Washington must stop overspending. If we can’t stop them now when will we?

Say NO to another debt ceiling increase. Say NO to more government spending."

NO DEBT INCREASE! #STOPTHEBLEEDING

2011-07-17T22:14:00.002-04:00

NO DEBT INCREASE! #STOPTHEBLEEDING

NO overspending.

NO more debt.

NO excuses.

Tea Party Patriots has started a web site for those like us opposed to any increase in the debt ceiling, for any reason. Help get the word out and generate grassroots support.

http://nodebtincrease.com

Please go there, read about it and sign the petition.

"It is time to cut up Washington’s credit card and get federal spending under control.

In 1917, Congress created the debt limit to control spending. Instead every time they "hit" the limit they’ve raised it. Like irresponsible teenagers they’re at it again for the 11th time in as many years.

Since 2000, the National debt has increased three fold to $14.3 trillion or $130,000 per household.

Federal government spending has skyrocketed to nearly one quarter of the economy. The U.S. Department of Labor alone will spend approximately $1,250 per household this year!

Washington must stop overspending. If we can’t stop them now when will we?

Say NO to another debt ceiling increase. Say NO to more government spending."

FIVE REASONS NOT TO RAISE THE DEBT CEILING

2011-07-17T22:11:00.000-04:00

YOU DESERVE BETTER! FIVE REASONS NOT TO RAISE THE DEBT CEILING

Fellow Patriots,

We've already told you the Four Big Lies you will hear in connection with raising the debt limit and over the coming days we will show you the reasons why we don't have to increase the debt limit.

At what point do we say enough is enough? At what point of government borrowing will our liberty be encroached upon enough that Americans will demand REAL change in Washington? The time may very well be upon us.

Five Reasons Why Not To Increase the Debt Ceiling

1. We won't default if we prioritize our spending.

The federal government takes in enough revenue to cover our debt obligations. The real problem is the spending. We must act now to control our spending for the sake of America's future.

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the U.S. Government can't pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies." - Senator Barack Obama, March 16, 2006*

2. If they raise it they will spend it.

Since the debt ceiling was first put into place, Congress has not failed to raise it when the debt was critically close to reaching and exceeding the limit. The debt ceiling has been raised 10 times in the last 11 years and we are on the verge of raising it yet again. What makes this time any different? What is to stop them from raising it the next time we reach the limit? Isn't that the point of the debt ceiling, to prevent the borrowing of more money?

"If Washington were serious about honest tax relief in this country, we would see an effort to reduce our national debt by returning to responsible fiscal policies. But we are not doing that..." - Senator Barack Obama, March 16, 2006*

3. We have been warned to stop the reckless spending.

Moody's, Standard & Poor's, economists, and even China have warned us to stop our reckless spending. Increasing the debt ceiling is an enabler to our spending problem. If the government is not able to borrow anymore money, they will be forced to start prioritizing spending.

"[T]he more we depend on foreign nations to lend us money, the more our economic security is tied to the whims of foreign leaders whose interests might not be aligned with ours. Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that ''the buck stops here.'' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit."

- Senator Barack Obama, March 16, 2006*

4. We don't have to reinvent the wheel on spending.

If we go back to 2003 spending levels we can begin to pull ourselves out of this fiscal crisis that we are in. If we went a step further back to the spending levels at the end of the Clinton administration, we could balance our budget. It is true that sacrifices will have to be made but if we don't make those sacrifices now, just imagine how much harder it will be in the future.

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure."

- Senator Barack Obama, March 16, 2006*

5. A rising national debt hinders jobs and the economy.

As the government continues to borrow money, confidence in the economy dwindles, business owners worry about how the government will pay its debts, and the talks of increasing government revenues by raising taxes causes businesses to save capital and plan for survival rather than planning for growth.

"[T]he cost of our debt is one of the fastest growing expenses in the Federal budget. This rising debt is a hidden domestic enemy... interest payments are a significant tax on all Americans-a debt tax that Washington doesn't want to talk about." - Senator Barack Obama, March 16, 2006*

Enough is enough.

America deserves better.

WHO IS THE MAHDI, THE 12TH IMAM? WHERE DID HE GO AND HOW WILL HE RETURN?

2011-07-17T22:01:00.001-04:00

Sunday, July 17, 2011 at 9:37PM

WHO IS THE MAHDI, THE 12TH IMAM? WHERE DID HE GO AND HOW WILL HE RETURN?

"Yazdi is the chief living authority on the Mahdi, the "Guided One," better known as the Twelfth Imam or the Hidden Imam. The belief in Shiite Islam is that Muhammad al-Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam in line of succession from the Prophet Muhammad, disappeared down a well in the 10th century A.D., going into "occultation," or hiding, until the appointed time to return"

Idealized picture of 12th imam

Read more: Islamic messiah at center of Iranian policy
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=112311#ixzz1S25XW3cM

Bible prophecy tells us exactly the above. They will surround Israel, they have just done that with the muslim brotherhood. The kings of the north will band together with them and attack Israel. [Russia, Turkey, Iran or as the Bible says, Tubal, Rosh, Gog, Magog]. Iran [and all muslims] has/have repeatedly said they want to wipe Israel off of the face of the earth. As far as Jesus goes, you are right most Jews, [orthodox Jews] do not look at Jesus as their savior. Messianic Jews, do. The Bible prophecy also says, only 12 thousand from the 12 tribes of Israel will be saved and it says that the world will be deceived by anti-christ, when he gets a fatal head wound and satan raises him from the dead-possessing him. The world will see this, the orthodox Jews also. Will think he is Christ. As far as the muslim faith, its a forced system of hate. Hate for anyone who is not muslim. Special hate for America, christian founding and JEWS the favorites of God. Why? Because 1] Satan has always wanted to be GOD. 2] He hates God's favorites.

Mahdi

From February 2011
Glenn Beck: Who Is The 12th Imam?
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/glenn-beck/transcript/beck-who-12th-imam
Glenn Beck: Three-part video series on the 12th Imam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOeZsnHMMlE

USA taxpayer is supporting the chaotic Islamic states, for example rebuilding mosques:
http://www.youtube.com/user/firesign58?feature=mhee#p/u

Uncoverage: “12th Imam” Documentary Release in West Causes Cracks in Iranian Regime
http://www.uncoverage.net/2011/05/%E2%80%9C12th-imam%E2%80%9D-documentary-release-in-west-causes-cracks-in-iranian-regime/

It is out of chaos that the Shia Islamic 12th Imam, Mahdi, returns. Stories in the Christian Bible, especially in Revelation and the Old Testament prophets, foretell such chaos, called "the Great Tribulation".

Eclipse - World Chaos

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

Don't take my information as truth; hear it from a Shia historical scholar.

http://www.ahlalhdeeth.com/vbe/showthread.php?t=289

If the link becomes dead, here is the content; it is brief. Check out the picture.

"07-22-2007, 01:50 AM
Haitham Hamdan
Administrator

Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 2,276

Picture of the hiding basement of the 12th Imam of Shiah

Basement of the 12th Imam, Mahdi

Shiah believe that the 12th Imam (al-Mahdi) voluntarily went inside this basement located in Sharra', which is in modern Iraq. He has been there since then!

He took with him the full Quran, which is 3 times the size of the Quran currently used.

Everyday, a man stands in front of the door of this basement, and calls on the Mahdi to come out!

Always remember … without total fluency in the Arabic language, you can only attain basic Islamic knowledge ... but basic knowledge is the path to advanced knowledge

haitham_hamdan@hotmail.com"

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

FROM FACEBOOK CONTACT:
http://www.bibledefended.com/prophetical/tetrad.htm
http://youtu.be/-vH2wrJ4YsQ

Frederic Bastiat, the Nineteeth-Century Tea Party Economist

2011-06-30T20:03:00.001-04:00

Excerpted from a longer blog post on The Free Republic

Thoughts from Frederic Bastiat, French economist and political philosopher.

Nineteenth Century Dudes Knew A Lot.

"Perverted Law Causes Conflict

Law may be diverted from its true purpose — that it may violate property instead of protecting it. Then, everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder...This odious perversion of the law is a perpetual source of hatred and discord...and tends to destroy society itself.

Look at the United States [in 1850]. There is no country in the world where the law is kept more within its proper domain: the protection of every person's liberty and property. As a consequence of this, there appears to be no country in the world where the social order rests on a firmer foundation. But even in the United States, there are two issues — and only two — that have always endangered the public peace.

The law has come to be an instrument of injustice...The proper purpose of the law has been perverted in Europe, where the perversion of the law is a principle...a system...

Two Kinds of Plunder

Mr. de Montalembert wrote: "We must make war against socialism." He meant: "We must make war against plunder."

But of what plunder was he speaking? For there are two kinds of plunder: legal and illegal.

I do not think that illegal plunder, such as theft or swindling can be called socialism. The Law Defends "Legal" Plunder Sometimes the law defends plunder and participates in it. Thus the beneficiaries are spared the shame, danger, and scruple which their acts would otherwise involve. Sometimes the law places the whole apparatus of judges, police, prisons, and gendarmes at the service of the plunderers, and treats the victim — when he defends himself — as a criminal. In short, there is a legal plunder, and it is of this, no doubt, that Mr. de Montalembert speaks.

How to Identify Legal Plunder

This is how legal plunder is to be identified: Does the law take from some persons what belongs to them, and give it to other persons to whom it does not belong? Does the law benefit one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime?

Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law — which may be an isolated case — is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a system.

The person who profits from this law will complain bitterly, defending his acquired "rights." He will claim that the state is obligated to protect and encourage his particular industry; that this procedure enriches the state because the protected industry is thus able to spend more and to pay higher wages to the poor workingmen. <--(Ed.: Didn't Nancy Pelosi say something like this?)

Do not listen to this sophistry by vested interests. The acceptance of these arguments will build legal plunder into a whole system. In fact, this has already occurred. The present-day delusion is an attempt to enrich everyone at the expense of everyone else; to make plunder universal under the pretense of organizing it.

Legal Plunder Has Many Names

Legal plunder can be committed in an infinite number of ways...Thus we have an infinite number of plans for organizing it: tariffs, protection, benefits, subsidies, encouragements, progressive taxation, public schools, guaranteed jobs (Ed.: tenure), guaranteed profits, minimum wages, a right to relief, a right to the tools of labor, free credit, and so on, and so on. All these plans as a whole — with their common aim of legal plunder — constitute socialism.

Now, since under this definition socialism is a body of doctrine, what attack can be made against it other than a war of doctrine? If you find this socialistic doctrine to be false, absurd, and evil, then refute it. And the more false, the more absurd, and the more evil it is, the easier it will be to refute. Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting out every particle of socialism that may have crept into your legislation. This will be no light task.

Socialism Is Legal Plunder

It has been said, "The war that we must fight against socialism must be in harmony with law, honor, and justice." But ...that is a vicious circle: You would use the law to oppose socialism? But it is upon the law that socialism itself relies. (ed.: Everything Hitler did was legal) Socialists desire to practice legal plunder...they, like all other monopolists, desire to make the law their own weapon. And when once the law is on the side of socialism, how can it be used against socialism? When plunder is abetted by the law, it does not fear your courts, your gendarmes, and your prisons. Rather, it calls upon them for help.

To prevent this, you would exclude socialism from entering into the making of laws? You would prevent socialists from entering the Legislative Palace? You shall not succeed, I predict, so long as legal plunder continues to be the main business of the legislature. It is illogical — in fact, absurd — to assume otherwise.

The Choice Before Us

This question of legal plunder must be settled once and for all, and there are only three ways to settle it:

The few plunder the many. Everybody plunders everybody. Nobody plunders anybody.

We must make our choice among limited plunder, universal plunder, and no plunder. The law can follow only one of these three.

Limited legal plunder: This system prevailed when the right to vote was restricted. One would turn back to this system to prevent the invasion of socialism.

Universal legal plunder: We have been threatened with this system since the franchise was made universal. The newly enfranchised majority has decided to formulate law on the same principle of legal plunder that was used by their predecessors when the vote was limited.

No legal plunder: This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic. Until the day of my death, I shall proclaim this principle with all the force of my lungs (which alas! is all too inadequate)."

Here is What is Happening at The Wisconsin State Capitol Today

2011-06-16T22:04:00.000-04:00

The mainstream media is not covering most of the ongoing events in Wisconsin. The state capitol is still under daily siege, with physical threats and violence, and frequent arrests.

Names have been redacted or changed.

============================================

Good Afternoon, Wisconsin Taxpayers.

Here are a few items that are taking place at your State Capitol that you might like to be aware of:

1) The State Budget passed the Assembly around 3 a.m. this morning. The full Senate convened this morning around 11 a.m. to the sounds of shouting protesters and have now broken for Caucus. To add to the political theater we have become so accustomed to here at the Capitol, I just heard protesters have used bicycle locks to lock themselves to the balcony on the 3rd Floor Gallery overlooking the Senate Chambers. If you would like to follow the budget debate throughout the day, click here: http://budget.wispolitics.com/

2) Publishing the Recent Wis. Supreme Court Ruling - "Unlike the state lawsuit the Supreme Court dismissed this week, the federal case does not seek to prevent Secretary of State Doug La Follette from publishing the law, the last step before it can take effect. La Follette said Wednesday that he plans to publish the law on June 28 unless a federal judge orders him not to."
Full article: http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_e0810a92-9782-11e0-a27f-001cc4c002e0.html

Contact Information for the Secretary of State: http://ethics.state.wi.us/scripts/Officials/officials.asp?agenid=139

3) Another Air Horn Incident - Here is a nice blog recap that came to my attention this morning containing pictures involving another Air Horn incident at the Capitol yesterday as well as pictures of some fine Wisconsinites taking a stand on Flag Day -

http://sytereitz.com/2011/06/wisconsin-supreme-court-upholds-collective-bargaining-law-or-%E2%80%9Cmy-ears-are-still-ringing%E2%80%9D/

4) Segway Guy video - http://maciverinstitute.com/ (See the "Protests Escalate" tab on the right side-2 minute video)

5) Capitol Police Reports - As of recent, we started receiving reports about incidents at the Capitol such as the one posted below detailing arrests made, etc. (The protester cited for drug paraphernalia may be a holdover from last week's "Free the Weed" Pot Rally.)

The timing of these reports is most interesting in light of Representative Farrow's recent letter to Capitol Police Chief Charles Tubbs expressing concerns about the poor handling of protesters which has led to the bullying of other innocent Capitol visitors.
Letter: http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=238220

I am trying to get you the latest information regarding the lastest pricetag Wisconsin's taxpayers will be shouldering because of some of the over-the-top the actions of some Capitol protesters. The last estimate I read was in the range of $7 Million in police salaries and clean up.

The Noon hour protest rally is getting underway right now in the Rotunda.

- A
1-800-xxx-xxxx

------------------
From: B
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 9:20 AM
To: 'WI Dept. of Military Affairs'
Subject: Situation Report 13, June 15, 2011 6pm, on behalf of Capitol Police

Dear Dept. of Military Affairs,

We would appreciate the removal of the officer that has been stationed on the Ground Floor-South Entrance which is a closed entrance to the public.

Just as inspecting/wanding 1,000s of little 4th graders taking school tours was a waste of taxpayer dollars, so too is having an officer stationed in the hallway all day reading the newspaper, playing with their cell phones, laptops, etc.

Thank you.

- B's Staff

From: WI Dept. of Military Affairs [mailto:dma_wi@service.govdelivery.com]
Sent: Wednesday, June 15, 2011 7:09 PM
To: B
Subject: Situation Report 13, June 15, 2011 6pm, on behalf of Capitol Police

Situation Report #13

Date: June 15, 2011

Time: 6:00 p.m.

WI Legislature
- The Assembly reconvened this afternoon to consider the state budget bill in Extraordinary Session.
- Visitors to the Capitol should refer to the rules of conduct posted on-line at http://wicapitol.wi.gov.

Law Enforcement
- There have been four arrests at the Capitol today. Three individuals were removed from the Assembly Gallery and charged with disorderly conduct and one was cited for drug paraphernalia while coming through screening.
- Law enforcement continues to be provided by Capitol Police, WI State Patrol, UW Police and WI Department of Natural Resources wardens.

Capitol Access
- The Capitol is open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for regular business hours. Visitors entering the Capitol will be screened.
- The four entrances open to the public are North Hamilton Street, Martin Luther King Jr., Blvd, East Washington Avenue and West Washington Avenue. Persons with physical disabilities can enter through the Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, East Washington Avenue and West Washington Avenue entrances.
- At 6:00 p.m. tonight, three of the public entrance doors will be closed – consistent with normal procedures. The Martin Luther King Jr., Blvd. will remain open to the public until the legislative work concludes for the day. This practice of closing all but one entrance after the end of regular Capitol business hours when the legislature remains in session has been a longstanding practice going back through several administrations.

- The following items are not allowed inside the Capitol:
Signs on sticks
Bull horns, whistles, drums and other noise makers
Tape for posting signs
Tents and/or sleeping bags
Weapons

- The following items are allowed inside the Capitol:
Bottles of water
Signs (not on sticks and signs cannot be posted on the Capitol walls)
Other Information

The public can email questions to WICapitolpublic@wisconsin.gov or call (608) 267-3839.
Twitter: www.twitter.com/WICapitol
Facebook: www.facebook.com/WICapitol
Web: http://wicapitol.wi.gov

.

Of Philanthropists and Monsters

2011-02-09T15:31:00.000-05:00

http://newzeal.blogspot.com/2011/01/of-philanthropists-and-monsters-rockin.html

Of Philanthropists and Monsters - Rockin' the Casbah

Further to my article on the situation in Egypt this morning, and my 2007 article on the annual Cairo Conference and its ties with the Socialist Workers Party which I just re-posted, I am cross-posting an article below by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton. In it she zeros in on... you guessed it, George Soros' connection to the situation in Egypt...

The 1st Edition of Wasla - The Link Featuring Mohamed Mustafa ElBaradei on the Cover

Riots. We are seeing them erupt throughout the Middle East everywhere we look: Tunisia, Algeria, Albania, Yemen, Jordan and of course, Egypt. And in the wings, drooling with horrific glee, Iran is pushing and prodding for a Muslim uprising to oust the enemies of Islam - primarily the US and Israel - using their Muslim Brotherhood henchmen and utilizing Hezbollah and Hamas. And Iran's chosen vessel for Egypt - Mohamed ElBaradei, who, until a day or two ago, was under house arrest.

You remember ElBaradei right? He's the tool for the IAEA who kept giving blessings to Iran and their nuclear program. But I'm sure he's a good guy - he has a Nobel Peace Prize just like Obama does. Wait a minute... On second thought, I guess that designation is pretty much a joke currently. I'm also sure it is a huge coincidence that George Soros and ElBaradei both sit on the Board of trustees for the International Crisis Group.

By all accounts, Mubarak is a vicious dictator who routinely uses torture and murder to achieve his goals. The brutal Egyptian police are the feared enforcers for Mubarak and now they have all but disappeared from the streets, leaving Egyptians to protect themselves from roving gangs and militant Muslims who were freed from the prisons by radical Islamists. He needs to go, but G-d forbid he is replaced by Islamofascists. Since the Muslim Brotherhood is approximately 20% of the rioters and the Coptic Christians are about 20%, there is hope for a free government to be put in place. But much is in doubt.

Side note: Why does the media keep calling the Egyptians who are protecting their homes and families vigilantes? A vigilante is someone who illegally punishes an alleged lawbreaker, or participates in a group which metes out extralegal punishment to an alleged lawbreaker. That word unjustly labels these people as criminals which they are not. Wouldn't you protect your home and family if it was you? Of course you would...

Let us return to the beginning of the riots. I have seen many who are asking who started all this in Egypt, including Walid Phares on Fox News last night. That's a very good question. And Phares stated that he believed it was bloggers on Facebook who began the riots. Curious, I started to dig and I believe he has stumbled upon something.

In April of 2010, a weekly magazine aiming to link Arab bloggers with politicians, the elderly and the elite was launched in Egypt. The weekly Wasla - or "The Link" - is being heralded as a first for the Arab world, with plans for articles by bloggers as a way of giving them a wider readership. I understand that only 50 issues were planned. Sounds like just enough to accomplish an intended goal. 1,000 copies are planned for distribution to political, academic and literary circles.

Wasla is published by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information and financially supported by the Open Society Institute created by none other than George Soros. That wasn't very long ago and Soros has a definite track record of rallying the youth to create chaos and revolt. This is a link between Soros and Egypt and the other riots as well. Of course, he is several levels removed as he always is, but this has his telltale stamp on it as well as his documented financial support.

If bloggers on Facebook started the riots, Wasla and ANHRI could well be involved. I don't read Egyptian or Arabic so I cannot know for certain. But I do know this, Soros always cloaks the implementation of revolutions in human rights. The names of his front groups are always misleading and usually state the opposite of what he does.

Look at the links here:

Soros + OSI + Wasla/ANHRI + ElBaradei + The Muslim Brotherhood + Iran

Get it now? Not good.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air puts it succinctly:
The Western nations that think ElBaradei will be a leader they can trust had better hope that ElBaradei can deal with the Islamists in his own backyard better than the ones in Tehran. He seems more like a convenient beard for the Muslim Brotherhood at this point than a charismatic revolutionary leader for democracy and personal liberty. Obama and the EU don’t have many choices here — in fact, they have none at all, really — but ElBaradei is a long shot at best to survive as leader of a free Egypt.

Update (AP): Sounds like the Muslim Brotherhood has decided on its cat’s paw.

The Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday threw its support behind Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei to hold proposed negotiations with the government in order to form a unity government.

Speaking to Al-Jazeera, Muslim Brotherhood official Essam el-Eryan said that “political groups support ElBaradei to negotiation with the regime.”

Read Morrissey's post all the way through. We seem to be in complete agreement on this issue and besides he's one hell of a writer and there are a lot more pieces in this puzzle than you are seeing in the media.

ElBaradei spouts massive lies on ABC today:

“This is total bogus that the Muslim Brotherhood are religiously conservative,” he said. “They are no way extremists. They are no way using violence. They are not a majority of the Egyptian people. They will not be more than maybe 20 percent of the Egyptian people.

“You have to include them like, you know, new evangelical, you know, groups in the U.S., like the orthodox Jews in Jerusalem,” ElBaradei said.

He said the Islamists were “not at all” behind the uprising.

Right... More Jihadist propaganda from ElBaradei. Who would've thought?

Is Soros somewhere behind this lurking with another of his regime collapse scenarios? Every piece of information and evidence I see adds up to it. Here's a refresher on his 5 step plan for a regime collapse:
Step One: Form a shadow government using humanitarian aid as cover.
Step Two: Control the airwaves. Fund existing radio and TV outlets and take control over them or start your own outlets.
Step Three: Destabilize the state, weaken the government and build an anti-government kind of feeling in the country. You exploit an economic crisis or take advantage of an existing crisis — pressure from the top and the bottom. This will allow you to weaken the government and build anti-government public sentiment.
Step Four: Provoke an election crisis. You wait for an election and during the election, you cry voter fraud.
Step Five: Take power. You stage massive demonstrations, civil disobedience, sit-ins, general strikes and you encourage activism. You promote voter fraud and tell followers what to do through your radio and television stations. Incitement and violence are conducted at this stage.

Sounds eerily similar to the riots in Egypt currently doesn't it? Do you think it is possible that Mubarak shut down the Internet to stop the bloggers from continuing the riots? That I don't know, but it is a possibility. Doesn't make it okay by any means, but it does show a level of desperation and a knowledge of who was behind the original flash point.

Once again, a country is devolving into violence and revolution. Only this time it is spreading throughout the Middle East and it could have deadly consequences for Israel and the US. Many of the people in Egypt are starving or hungry. Inflation and food prices are going through the roof. They can't find jobs. When people get hungry and desperate, all bets are off. You will always find the likes of anarchists, communists, Marxists (CodePink is now in Egypt) and of course George Soros, just waiting to offer their help; waiting for that perfect moment to make their move to create chaos so they can grab more power and more wealth. It may be that the monster Soros is rockin' the Casbah right now and it is getting ready to explode.

Sarah Palin's Way Forward

2011-01-28T16:47:00.000-05:00

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/sarah_palins_way_forward.html

January 28, 2011

Sarah Palin's Way Forward

By J.R. Dunn

It's apparent that the recent media attacks on Sarah Palin have, for the first time, actually drawn blood. Palin's negatives have shot up substantially, rising 7 points from 49% to 56%. The proximate cause is held to be the fact that she defended herself against the charge of complicity in murder in the Tucson shootings, along with engaging in some unclear variety of anti-Semitism by using the term "blood libel." It's safe to say that no other current politician would ever be held to such standards.

This slump is surely temporary -- no more permanent than Obama's miniscule "leap" in popularity over the same period. If political careers could be knocked out so easily, they'd last a matter of weeks at most. Such variations are typical of any politician's career. The only odd thing here is the fact that Palin has gone so long without such a slump.

Governor Palin has received a lot of advice on how to handle the situation, all of it well-meant and some of it quite valuable. One example is Charles Krauthammer's suggestion that it's not necessary to answer every last attack. The murder accusation was so absurd that it could have been left to collapse under its own weight. On the other hand, it's easy to grasp how any fundamentally decent person would find it difficult to resist answering.

But such advice -- in fact, all the comments related to Palin's current situation -- overlooks one basic fact: that the leftist attacks on Governor Palin are in no way new, not even in their viciousness. They are simply the latest examples of a tactic in use for generations -- one that has given the left considerable advantage, and one that the American center-right has utterly failed to address.

When liberalism mutated into an ideology in the wake of the New Deal, it also adapted the "enemies" mindset of its model ideologies, fascism and communism. No longer was politics the grand democratic game. Opponents of liberalism were enemies of progress, of justice, and of the People, deserving no consideration or mercy. The old rules of decorum and civility went out the window, replaced with any below-the-belt move that worked.

The first prominent victim was Joe McCarthy. While some would say that he had it coming due to both his obnoxiousness and his own low tactics (the first a product of his personality, the second learned, so legend holds, from the Wisconsin communists who supported him against Robert LaFollette, Jr.), he was in no way the menace to democracy that he was so often painted as. The caricature of McCarthy as a right-wing monster was wholly synthetic. He had started out as a New Deal Democrat, and he maintained an interest in traditionally "liberal" political issues such as civil rights throughout his career. The 1952 defeat of Senator Millard Tydings, a strict segregationist of the old school, was almost solely due to McCarthy's support for his opponent. Democrats attacked McCarthy not so much to protect his "victims" but in defense of their own record as regarded communism during the New Deal period. Liberal efforts against McCarthy reveal clearly how little they had to learn from Saul Alinsky.

Liberal Democrats must have been delighted with their success. Not only had they destroyed McCarthy, but they had negated any further resort to anticommunism and turned the term "McCarthyism" into an epithet so powerful that it retains its sting to this day, sixty years on (even though most people think it refers to Eugene).

The next victim was Barry Goldwater. A no-nonsense type with a high reputation as a senator, Goldwater made a few outspoken comments ("extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice") that served as the basis of attacks of a viciousness that made those on McCarthy look pale. Not only was Goldwater portrayed as a political throwback and a Nazi (even though he was half-Jewish), but his very sanity was publicly questioned. A high-class porn merchant, Ralph Ginzburg (no relation to Beat poet Allen) published the "results" of a poll of "500 psychiatrists" claiming that Goldwater was paranoid schizophrenic. Despite being thoroughly bogus, these results were published throughout the national media. The campaign climaxed with the notorious "Daisy" commercial, which accused Goldwater of desiring to trigger a nuclear war.

So it continued. Once every political generation -- which, for our purposes, equals two presidential terms -- liberals have selected a representative right-wing monster to serve as a lightning rod for criticism and invective. These included Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, George W. Bush, and Sarah Palin.

Liberals did not succeed in all cases. Only seriously flawed individuals such as McCarthy, Nixon, and Gingrich succumbed to these attacks. Politicians without serious failings prevailed. Reagan shrugged them off with his endless good humor. Bush faced them with his customary stoicism. Both were reelected, and while they departed office under the artificial clouds generated by leftist rhetoric, both had generally successful presidencies, with growing reputations as time passes.

Until recently, Sarah Palin hewed closely to the Reagan method, dismissing attacks with a joke and a smile (even when such slanders were aimed at her disabled infant child, a display of personal strength that would inspire anyone not blinded by ideology). She needs to return to that method. She need not comment on attacks of this level. She has no deep personal flaws such as Nixon's neuroticism or Gingrich's egotism, and she will not experience any similar downfall.

Palin also has something else, something not possessed by previous targets. She has a following. All previous figures had their admirers, and Reagan led a movement. But none had or has what Palin has -- a large group of people who look up to her, who view her as an example and a role model, who bleed when she bleeds and hurt when she hurts. It is those people who should be left to handle Palin's attackers.

They also provide larger possibilities. Republicans have never struck back against these attacks, lacking the means in a media-dominated political world. But now the means do exist, in the form of millions armed with access to the net and Twitter. What would happen if these people were turned on the next crowd who attacked Palin or any other politician?

Liberals are vulnerable. Consider Steven Cohen, soon to be ex-representative from Tennessee, who backed off from his rancid little Republicans-are-Nazis shtick as soon as the spotlight was shined on him. One thing we must never forget about leftists is their essential cowardice. They strike only as part of a mob, never on their own two feet. (Isn't that right, Larry O.?)

I leave the details and self-organizing to the people involved. I'm sure they're far better at that than I am.

The new technologies, together with the political will embodied in the Tea Parties, offer us a means of breaking this squalid liberal tactic and restoring a sense of balance to the political debate. It is never a good thing when a political party has access to non-political means to achieve its goals. The liberal Democrats have been abusing their exclusive access to media for close to sixty years. It's past time they were pulled up short.

J.R. Dunn is consulting editor of American Thinker and the author of the new book Death by Liberalism.

Sharks Are Not Misunderstood Dolphins, and Islam Is Not a Religion of Peace

2011-01-28T16:29:00.000-05:00

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/sharks_are_not_misunderstood_d.html

January 28, 2011

Sharks Are Not Misunderstood Dolphins, and Islam Is Not a Religion of Peace

By Kevin DuJan

I've often been told rumors from very old, wise people about a time, long before I was born, when "Saturday Night Live" was both funny and relevant. It's hard to believe, but in those unimaginably distant days deep into the past, Chevy Chase played a Land Shark who wore various disguises in attempts to break into people's apartments and eat them. When subterfuge and gimmicks failed, he just lied and told various idiots he was a dolphin.

``````````
[Knock, knock]

"Who's there? It's not that Land Shark I've heard about, is it?"

"Nope. Just a candygram, Ma'am."

"Candygram? I've never heard of such a thing. I think you are that Land Shark."

"No, Ma'am. I am just a misunderstood dolphin."

"A dolphin? Well, okay then. No cause for alarm if you are only a dolphin. I certainly wouldn't want to appear to be species-ist by having reservations about trusting a dolphin."

``````````

In case you haven't seen it in late-night reruns, that scene ends with a monstrous foam shark head bursting through the door to devour Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Laraine Newman, Lily Tomlin, and other unsuspecting New York City victims in one hungry gulp.

Whenever there's a new Islamic terrorist attack somewhere in the world (and that's somewhat redundantly phrased because just about the only terrorist attacks that occur in this world are Islamic, unless of course you have heard of murder sprees the Amish and Buddhists often go on whenever someone draws a cartoon they don't like or names a dog after a self-proclaimed prophet they revere...oh wait, no, those are Muslims who do that, as usual...never mind), I always think of this dusty old SNL skit. The American media deliberately plays the role of stunned bystander shocked that there really was a Land Shark at the door.

The idiots.

No matter how many times the delusional fools in the American media try to convince you otherwise, sharks are not misunderstood dolphins, and Islam is not a religion of peace.

I think that even the media knows this, on some level, because I've noticed that few journalists ever cover Islamic terror attacks the way they'd report on other murder sprees and tragedies committed by non-Muslims.

In the case of the latter, great effort is made to explain precisely why someone like Jared Lee Loughner picked up a gun, killed six, and injured a dozen more in his assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. His parents, friends, teachers, distant relatives, acquaintances, and kindergarten teacher, and a kid who sat next to him for an hour and a half on the ride to summer camp fifteen years ago, are all scrutinized for clues into his behavior, then blamed for being bad influences on him. The media stokes an abusive outrage against these people -- the parents in particular -- for not catching the warning signs that could have prevented these murders. Simultaneously, the media and the left join together in politicizing the tragedy, invoking Rahm Emanuel's corollary to the Alinsky Rules for Radicals that no good crisis should go to waste. This means that in addition to the people a murderer like Loughner actually knew, the entire conservative movement in this country must also be held responsible for this single man's actions, including people Loughner never met, spoke to, or even knew much about, like Governor Sarah Palin.

When a Muslim commits an act of mass-murdering terrorism, in contrast, the left does not camp out in front of the shooter/assassin/bomber's home and scrutinize every person he ever in his life came in contact with and blame them all for his actions. Instead, the media personalities report on acts of terrorism the way they do shark attacks.

When great whites gobble a surfer or menace a beach somewhere, the media runs footage of vacationers running screaming from the water, family members of the victims shocked and in tears huddled together by the lifeguard station, and plenty of stock footage of ambulances racing to hospitals with helicopters overhead surveying the carnage.

No effort is made to track down the family of the sharks responsible for the attacks, and not much effort at all is made to get inside the mind of the sharks to figure out why they did what they did, or to pretend Governor Palin was behind it after all, just as everyone in the media suspected. Palin is behind everything, you know, except the things the media likes, which she's singlehandedly responsible for making less likable just because she's breathing. Always breathing, somewhere, living rent-free in the media's nightmares.

There is no attempt in the media to connect shark attacks to any political ideology, because the sharks are of course brutes composed entirely of teeth, fins, and bite, churning the waters with blood, guts, and foam because that's just what sharks do. Everyone accepts that, even the most delusional bleeding hearts in the media ranks.

Sharks are just animals. Animals like sharks kill people sometimes. It's horrific and frightening, but there's no one to blame. After a day in the headlines, it's back to reporting on how terrible the Tea Party is and how Governor Palin hunts werewolves from helicopters she, Todd, and her children make themselves in their backyard in Wasilla -- or some other nonsense the likes of Ashley Judd are bound to parrot at the next red-carpet gala. "Did you hear what Sarah Palin did now?" Because the entire Palin family has been ascribed everything the media elite detest about regular, hardworking Americans, including the twisted fixation the media has on the conceit that these regular Americans are virulent racists.

But have you realized how intensely condescending and bigoted the left is toward Muslims in all of its reporting? The actions of a non-Muslim mass murderer like Loughner are pinned on everyone he ever met (and conservatives like Governor Palin whom he never in fact met), but the carnage caused by Muslims and sharks alike isn't blamed on anyone or anything and just chalked up to "tragedy." Nothing more to see here, just move along now, and stay out of the water or don't get on an airplane for a while, and you'll be just fine.

The reason terrorist attacks are reported on with the same style of coverage reserved for shark attacks is because the left sees both sharks and Muslims as just dumb animals who do what they do, unexpectedly, in gruesome fashion, without any blame assigned for their actions.

Sharks aren't people who can be held accountable for what they do -- and neither are Muslims in the eyes of the left.

When is the last time you saw MSNBC devote hour-long news specials to the parents, friends, teachers, and other relatives of Muslim terrorists responsible for mass murders and assorted bombings? When was the last time CNN scheduled an in-depth look into the Koran and the very clear recipes for murder and mayhem contained in its instructive pages? Probably about the last time the Discovery Channel set aside a night of Shark Week to explore the familial relations of the deep's apex predators and why their behavior is influenced by blowfish with chalkboards or barracudas who put targets on treasure maps at the bottom of the sea.

If a big story about some explosive, horrific event comes knocking at the door, rest assured the New York Times and rest of the dinosaur media will first ask if a Muslim's involved before they decide on the course and tone of their coverage.

If it's a member of the "Religion of Peace" who blew dozens to pieces, then the trusty old shark attack template for reporting is dusted off, with no blame assigned to anyone or anything for this lone animal's aggressive actions.

If it's anyone at all with a link to conservatism who held the gun or lit the fuse, especially anyone connected to Governor Palin, no matter how remotely, then the story is covered obsessively, for months, with the full resources of the Gray Lady dumped into an indictment of every Republican less than a thousand miles away from the scene of the crime.

It is as predictable and tired as a stale old "Saturday Night Live" skit.

Only it's half as funny, and ten times as stomach-turningly tragic.

Kevin DuJan is the editor of Hillbuzz.

Excuses, Excuses: Obama's Failed SOTU Address

2011-01-28T16:07:00.000-05:00

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/excuses_excuses.html

January 26, 2011

Excuses, Excuses
By Jeffrey Folks

What Obama really demonstrates is that he can read but can't lead in a positive direction for the nation.

On January 25, the president delivered his State of the Union address. Speaking with vigor and aplomb, the president demonstrated once again that he can look serious, act like a president, and read the words that have been written for him. But so far, he has not demonstrated his ability to be a president, create jobs, or do anything else.

In his well-scripted address, Obama spoke of the "accomplishments" of his first two years in office. Surprisingly, health care and financial regulation reform were not at the top of the list. In fact, they were barely mentioned. Instead, the president boasted of "his" extension of the Bush tax cuts. These are the same Bush tax cuts that the president consistently opposed extending until after his party's "shellacking" on Nov. 2.

If the Bush tax cuts are a good thing for the economy, why not make them permanent instead of blocking that proposal? If tax cuts are what it takes to spur growth, why not permanent tax cuts accompanied by spending cuts?

Instead, at the same time that he speaks of fiscal restraint, Obama proposes more spending. He calls this "encouraging innovation," but by that very phrase, he shows how little he understands the free market. The American economy does not need the "encouragement" of government to engage in innovation. It is government "encouragement" that got us in the current housing mess, the deficit mess, and the regulatory mess. Government encouragement will lead only to further misallocation of the nation's resources.

Obama understands so little of capitalism that he actually thinks that businesses need more government oversight and "investment." He simply can't get beyond the idea of statism: the belief that every aspect of life, from what sort of car the public drives to how much profit a business is allowed to retain, must be decided by government planners in Washington. Now, at the desperate hour when America needs free-market capitalism above all else, Obama's response is more regulation.

The president, it seems, has experienced a "Sputnik moment." He now realizes, after 112 weeks in office, that America needs to compete with China and India rather than grow jobs, as Nancy Pelosi helpfully suggested, by handing out unemployment checks. The problem is that he still thinks that government grows jobs by handing out stimulus checks.

The State of the Union address, in fact, was a perfect reflection of policy-making based on political expediency. The address was cobbled together in a continued attempt to placate the left wing of the Democratic Party, which Obama cannot abandon if he wishes to be reelected. The left is ideologically opposed to economic development of every kind, so there is nothing in this speech about removing environmental regulations and fast-tracking exploration and production of conventional fuels. Not only does Obama ignore the promise of the vast new natural gas reserves within our borders, but he also asks Congress to eliminate whatever subsidies now exist for conventional fuels and turn them over to less efficient producers of alternative fuels. And this at a time when the free market is turning its back on alternatives.

Then there is the president's plan for more spending on education. Spending on education has increased more rapidly in the past two years than any sector other than alternative energy. Yet the president reports that America continues to fall behind its competitors. There is no measurable evidence that Obama's injection of funds has had any effect other than to enrich teachers' unions, which are then able to contribute to the political campaigns of Democratic candidates. Obama's call for more spending on education is nothing more than another payoff for his political constituency.

Making America greener and smarter is just a start. How about giving 98% of Americans access to high speed internet? Giving 80% of them access to high-speed rail? Giving them new roads and bridges so as to create more of those "shovel ready" jobs that weren't quite ready two years ago?

How about free-trade agreements with Korea, Colombia, and Panama? Fine, as long as the union bosses approve. Less regulation? Great, but not from the EPA, the SEC, the FCC, and the thousands of other agencies that are doing such a fine job of strangling the economy.

And finally, let's talk about that little problem with the national debt. Let's freeze discretionary federal spending for five years at 2010 levels -- the highest levels of government spending in absolute terms and as a percentage of GDP since World War II. An effort of that magnitude will only add another $6 trillion dollars to the national debt, bringing it up to $20 trillion ahead of schedule. What a sacrifice!

Toward the end of his address, the president began to repeat the mantra "We do big things." There was nothing in his speech about big businesses doing big things -- nothing about the very real accomplishments of IBM, Microsoft, Boeing, Apple, Exxon-Mobil, Wells Fargo, or America's other large and productive corporations, or even his admirers at GE. So I assume he was speaking of government doing big things. That's certainly what he talked about for nearly all of his 65 minutes.

America's economy has already been wounded by Obama's politically inspired stimulus spending, health care bill, and financial regulation reform act. Now he wants to kill it off with two more years of "encouragement." Republicans in the House would have to be barmy to support any of it.

What we saw Tuesday night was not a new Obama. It was the same old Obama, a calculating politician schooled in the Chicago patronage system. Obama pretends to be a unifier speaking to the country as a whole. But on Tuesday, once again, he was speaking only to his political base. Obama will never turn his back on the political elite, greens, unions, trial lawyers, and the urban underclass. And yet he can never unleash the power of the free market to create jobs until he abandons these anti-growth constituencies.

Obama's solution: Pretend that he has shifted toward a more business-friendly, free-market stance while changing nothing. It's still the unions, environmentalists, lawyers, and welfare clients who matter -- not the middle class.

In reality, the State of the Union had nothing to do with creating jobs or competitiveness. Obama knows that he has lost the war on both of these fronts. Realistic economic projections indicate that the nation's unemployment rate will still be over 9% well into 2012. Obama will not win reelection on his job creation record. Nor will he win on competitiveness -- a nebulous term when the president uses it.

To win reelection, the president must reignite his political base -- and raise a great deal of cash. Shamefully, and unabashedly, Obama devoted his second State of the Union address to these two goals. Winning reelection seems to be the only competition he is interested in.

Jeffrey Folks is author of many books and articles on American culture and politics.

Obama ‘Investment’ Proposals Remind Us of Failed Stimulus Spending

2011-01-28T15:54:00.000-05:00

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/obama-s-investment-proposals-remind-repu

Obama’s ‘Investment’ Proposals Remind Republicans of Failed Stimulus Spending
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
By Fred Lucas

Washington (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama called for increased spending, or “investments” in infrastructure and alternative energy -- part of his “winning the future” theme in Tuesday’s State of the Union speech. But Republicans said such expenditures amount to a second stimulus act.

“At the same time he’s talking about freezing 12 percent of the budget, he’s talking about all kinds of new investments,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told CNSNews.com. “These investments are basically government expenditures. I don’t think he’s quite gotten the message of the last election. The message of the last election is, we’re being consumed by debt. It’s going to take some bold thinking. I don’t think it’s quite enough.”

Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said the president was paying "lip service" to the deficit and reducing government spending:

"If you listened carefully, you heard the president’s true agenda when he spoke of making ‘investments’. That word ‘investments’ sure does sound good, but it’s really just a fancy way of saying ‘increase government spending’, because it isn’t his money he’s talking about, it’s yours – the American taxpayer,," Inhofe said. "We’ve seen this type of ‘investment’ before from President Obama and the Democrats in Congress. It was called their Stimulus plan – which by the way – only strapped us with even more deficit spending."

Some Republican critics say the 9.4 percent unemployment rate is evidence that the Democrats’ $787-billion stimulus law – the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- did not improve the economy, even though much of the money was funneled to infrastructure improvements and alternative energy.

“I think the interesting thing is, when you divide out all of the stimulus money, it’s like $400,000 per job,” Paul said – referring to jobs supposedly created or saved by the infusion of taxpayer dollars. “Some of these jobs have gone to buy Chinese solar panels. Chinese companies got rich off of this. But it didn’t work. The reason it didn’t work is because you need to let the consumer decide where money is spent, not bureaucrats in Washington decide. We shouldn’t be deciding what energy source. We should be letting the market decide.”

But Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) believes the first round of stimulus spending was a success.

“We hear from mayors and governors that it saved a lot of jobs. It saved first responders. It saved teachers’ jobs,” Waters told CNSNews.com. “They all agree that it certainly helped their cities and their states.

“A lot of so-called shovel-ready projects did not seem to get off the ground, Waters admitted. “I’m not so sure they were shovel ready,” she said. “So it is baffling why the stock market is doing so well and the banks are making lots of profits but the unemployment numbers are not changing fast enough. Nobody knows how to figure that out right now, but the president concentrated a lot on jobs, infrastructure and all of those things you just alluded to.”

Obama, during his address to the nation, called for “rebuilding America.”

“South Korean homes now have greater Internet access than we do,” Obama said. “Countries in Europe and Russia invest more in their roads and railways than we do. China is building faster trains and newer airports. Meanwhile, when our own engineers graded our nation’s infrastructure, they gave us a D. We have to do better. America is the nation that built the transcontinental railroad, brought electricity to rural communities, constructed the Interstate Highway System. The jobs created by these projects didn’t just come from laying down track or pavement. They came from businesses that opened near a town’s new train station or the new off-ramp.”

Obama promised to “put more Americans to work repairing crumbling roads and bridges. We’ll make sure this is fully paid for, attract private investment, and pick projects based [on] what’s best for the economy, not politicians.”

Senate Republicans, anticipating Obama’s call for more government spending, noted the “poor track record” of previous stimulus investments. They compiled a list of projects they consider wasteful, including:

-- $336,000 to collect plants in Ohio for a database.
-- $219,000 to study the “sex patterns of college women” at Syracuse University.
-- $1 million for the Sunset Strip in Hollywood.
-- $50,000 to fix cracks in the city tennis court in Bozeman, Mt., that even Democratic Gov. Brian Schwetizer criticized, saying, “What they violated was that rule of common sense.”
-- $300,000 for “mapping radioactive rabbit feces.”
-- $325,000 to study “the mating decisions” of female cactus bugs.
-- $535 million given to solar panel maker Solyndra of Freemont, Calif., which “scuttled its factory expansion in Fremont, a move that [would] stop the company's plans to hire 1,000 workers,” and would “eliminate 155 to 175 jobs in Fremont.”

During a speech on the Senate floor prior to the State of the Union address, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) criticized the president’s approach:

“And now we hear that he plans to stick with the same failed approach of economic growth through even more government spending with a call for 'investments’ in education, infrastructure, research, and renewable energy,” McConnell said.

“We’ve seen before what Democrats in Washington mean by investments. In promoting the failed stimulus, the president referred to that, too, as an investment in our nation’s future. Fourteen times alone during his signing statement, he referred to the stimulus bill’s ‘investments.’ We all know how that turned out.”

2011-01-28T15:48:00.000-05:00

http://budget.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=221249

Remarks of Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI)
As Prepared for Delivery
House Budget Committee Hearing Room, Washington, DC
January 25, 2011

Good evening. I’m Congressman Paul Ryan from Janesville, Wisconsin – and Chairman here at the House Budget Committee.

President Obama just addressed a Congressional chamber filled with many new faces. One face we did not see tonight was that of our friend and colleague, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. We all miss Gabby and her cheerful spirit; and we are praying for her return to the House Chamber.

Earlier this month, President Obama spoke movingly at a memorial event for the six people who died on that violent morning in Tucson. Still, there are no words that can lift the sorrow that now engulfs the families and friends of the fallen.

What we can do is assure them that the nation is praying for them; that, in the words of the Psalmist, the Lord heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds; and that over time grace will replace grief.

*****

As Gabby continues to make encouraging progress, we must keep her and the others in our thoughts as we attend to the work now before us.

Tonight, the President focused a lot of attention on our economy in general – and on our deficit and debt in particular.

He was right to do so, and some of his words were reassuring. As Chairman of the House Budget Committee, I assure you that we want to work with the President to restrain federal spending.

In one of our first acts in the new majority, House Republicans voted to cut Congress’s own budget. And just today, the House voted to restore the spending discipline that Washington sorely needs.

The reason is simple.

A few years ago, reducing spending was important. Today, it’s imperative. Here’s why.

We face a crushing burden of debt. The debt will soon eclipse our entire economy, and grow to catastrophic levels in the years ahead.

On this current path, when my three children – who are now 6, 7, and 8 years old – are raising their own children, the Federal government will double in size, and so will the taxes they pay.

No economy can sustain such high levels of debt and taxation. The next generation will inherit a stagnant economy and a diminished country.

Frankly, it’s one of my greatest concerns as a parent – and I know many of you feel the same way.

*****

Our debt is the product of acts by many presidents and many Congresses over many years. No one person or party is responsible for it.

There is no doubt the President came into office facing a severe fiscal and economic situation.

Unfortunately, instead of restoring the fundamentals of economic growth, he engaged in a stimulus spending spree that not only failed to deliver on its promise to create jobs, but also plunged us even deeper into debt.

The facts are clear: Since taking office, President Obama has signed into law spending increases of nearly 25% for domestic government agencies – an 84% increase when you include the failed stimulus.

All of this new government spending was sold as “investment.” Yet after two years, the unemployment rate remains above 9% and government has added over $3 trillion to our debt.

Then the President and his party made matters even worse, by creating a new open-ended health care entitlement.

What we already know about the President’s health care law is this: Costs are going up, premiums are rising, and millions of people will lose the coverage they currently have. Job creation is being stifled by all of its taxes, penalties, mandates and fees.

Businesses and unions from around the country are asking the Obama Administration for waivers from the mandates. Washington should not be in the business of picking winners and losers. The President mentioned the need for regulatory reform to ease the burden on American businesses. We agree – and we think his health care law would be a great place to start.

Last week, House Republicans voted for a full repeal of this law, as we pledged to do, and we will work to replace it with fiscally responsible, patient-centered reforms that actually reduce costs and expand coverage.

Health care spending is driving the explosive growth of our debt. And the President’s law is accelerating our country toward bankruptcy.

Our debt is out of control. What was a fiscal challenge is now a fiscal crisis.

We cannot deny it; instead we must, as Americans, confront it responsibly.

*****

And that is exactly what Republicans pledge to do.

Americans are skeptical of both political parties, and that skepticism is justified – especially when it comes to spending. So hold all of us accountable.

In this very room, the House will produce, debate, and advance a budget. Last year – in an unprecedented failure – Congress chose not to pass, or even propose a budget. The spending spree continued unchecked.

*****

We owe you a better choice and a different vision.

Our forthcoming budget is our obligation to you – to show you how we intend to do things differently … how we will cut spending to get the debt down… help create jobs and prosperity … and reform government programs. If we act soon, and if we act responsibly, people in and near retirement will be protected.

These budget debates are not just about the programs of government; they’re also about the purpose of government.

So I’d like to share with you the principles that guide us. They are anchored in the wisdom of the founders; in the spirit of the Declaration of Independence; and in the words of the American Constitution.

They have to do with the importance of limited government; and with the blessing of self-government.

*****

We believe government’s role is both vital and limited – to defend the nation from attack and provide for the common defense … to secure our borders… to protect innocent life… to uphold our laws and Constitutional rights … to ensure domestic tranquility and equal opportunity … and to help provide a safety net for those who cannot provide for themselves.

We believe that the government has an important role to create the conditions that promote entrepreneurship, upward mobility, and individual responsibility.

We believe, as our founders did, that “the pursuit of happiness” depends upon individual liberty; and individual liberty requires limited government.

*****

Limited government also means effective government. When government takes on too many tasks, it usually doesn’t do any of them very well. It’s no coincidence that trust in government is at an all-time low now that the size of government is at an all-time high.

The President and the Democratic Leadership have shown, by their actions, that they believe government needs to increase its size and its reach, its price tag and its power.

*****

Whether sold as “stimulus” or repackaged as “investment,” their actions show they want a Federal government that controls too much; taxes too much; and spends too much in order to do too much.

And during the last two years, that is exactly what we have gotten – along with record deficits and debt – to the point where the President is now urging Congress to increase the debt limit.

We believe the days of business as usual must come to an end. We hold to a couple of simple convictions: Endless borrowing is not a strategy; spending cuts have to come first.

*****

Our nation is approaching a tipping point.

We are at a moment, where if government’s growth is left unchecked and unchallenged, America’s best century will be considered our past century. This is a future in which we will transform our social safety net into a hammock, which lulls able-bodied people into lives of complacency and dependency.

Depending on bureaucracy to foster innovation, competitiveness, and wise consumer choices has never worked – and it won’t work now.

We need to chart a new course.

*****

Speaking candidly, as one citizen to another: We still have time… but not much time. If we continue down our current path, we know what our future will be.

Just take a look at what’s happening to Greece, Ireland, the United Kingdom and other nations in Europe. They didn’t act soon enough; and now their governments have been forced to impose painful austerity measures: large benefit cuts to seniors and huge tax increases on everybody.

Their day of reckoning has arrived. Ours is around the corner. That is why we must act now.

*****

Some people will back away from this challenge. But I see this challenge as an opportunity to rebuild what Lincoln called the “central ideas” of the Republic.

We believe a renewed commitment to limited government will unshackle our economy and create millions of new jobs and opportunities for all people, of every background, to succeed and prosper. Under this approach, the spirit of initiative – not political clout – determines who succeeds.

Millions of families have fallen on hard times not because of our ideals of free enterprise – but because our leaders failed to live up to those ideals; because of poor decisions made in Washington and Wall Street that caused a financial crisis, squandered our savings, broke our trust, and crippled our economy.

Today, a similar kind of irresponsibility threatens not only our livelihoods but our way of life.

*****

We need to reclaim our American system of limited government, low taxes, reasonable regulations, and sound money, which has blessed us with unprecedented prosperity. And it has done more to help the poor than any other economic system ever designed. That’s the real secret to job creation – not borrowing and spending more money in Washington.

Limited government and free enterprise have helped make America the greatest nation on earth.

*****

These are not easy times, but America is an exceptional nation. In all the chapters of human history, there has never been anything quite like America. The American story has been cherished, advanced, and defended over the centuries.

And it now falls to this generation to pass on to our children a nation that is stronger, more vibrant, more decent, and better than the one we inherited.

Thank you and good night.

###

NJ Redistricting Public Input Meetings Sat. Nov 29 - Rutgers & Toms River

2011-01-28T13:10:00.000-05:00

REAPPORTIONMENT (REDISTRICTING) COMMISSION NOTICE

TO: MEMBERS OF THE APPORTIONMENT COMMISSION
FROM: Assemblyman Jay Webber, Chairman
Assemblyman John S. Wisniewski, chairman
SUBJECT: COMMISSION MEETING - JANUARY 29, 2011

The public may address comments and questions to Frank J. Parisi, Commission Secretary, or scheduling inquiries to Jill Bodnar, Secretary, at (609)292-9106 or fax number (609)777-2998.

The Apportionment Commission will hold two public meetings on Saturday, January 29, 2011.

The first meeting will start at 9:30 AM at the Rutgers University, Camden Campus Center Multipurpose Room, Main Level, 3rd Street between Cooper and Pearl Streets, Camden, New Jersey.

The second meeting will start at 2:30 PM at the Toms River Municipal Building, 33 Washington Street, Town Council Chambers, 2nd Floor, Toms River, New Jersey.

The purpose of the meetings will be to take testimony from the public on the establishment of legislative districts in New Jersey that will be in effect for the next 10 years.

Parking is available at each location and directions are available upon request.

----

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey
303 Cooper Street, Camden, NJ
(856) 225-6043 ‎

Township of Toms River
33 Washington Street, Toms River, NJ 08753
(732) 341-1000 ‎
tomsrivertownship.com

The 40-Percent President: Obama's Cruise to Re-election

2011-01-26T10:15:00.000-05:00

Forget the Teflon Don - This is Tyvek Barak. No matter what Barack Obama does - no matter what he says, who he bows to, how badly he shreds the Constitution - nothing penetrates through his protective aura. His approval ratings do not dip below 40%. This should frighten every America-loving conservative into extreme activism. We can not survive as America with this nation-trashing usurper in office another term. This is not a pretty concept, but it's necessary to wake up conservatives sleeping in the foggy trail of the 2010 elections. There is fifty years of work to be done now -- we need to act now, and act decisively! -- wake up conservative sleepyheads!

From American Thinker:
January 26, 2011

The 40-Percent President: Obama's Cruise to Reelection

By Paul Kengor

We're at the halfway mark of Barack Obama's first term as president. I say "first term" because I'm confident that this isn't his last. Conservatives will not want to hear this, but I've felt all along that Obama will be a two-term president, and nothing I've seen dispels that notion.

My thinking is grounded primarily in two sets of data.

The first is expressed in the title of this article: 40 percent. President Barack Obama does not dip below 40-percent approval. Period.

Liberals called Ronald Reagan the Teflon President. No matter what Reagan did, nothing undermined his presidency. Well, Barack Obama is the 40-Percent President. No matter what Obama does, nothing undermines his presidency -- or at least nothing drops it below 40-percent approval.

Of course, Reagan achieved record approvals, which is how he was reelected by winning 49 states and taking the Electoral College 525-13. I don't expect Obama to get anywhere near that; his disapproval ratings are too sizable. Of course, Obama doesn't need 525 Electoral votes; he needs only enough to win.

It will be difficult to defeat a presidential incumbent who can't seem to ever slip below 40 percent and, in essence, merely needs to muster another 10 percent at election time. Picking up that 10 percent shouldn't be terribly difficult with a public that prefers to know about who's prancing around half-naked on "Dancing with the Stars" or who's stripping on "Desperate Housewives" over bothering with trifling concepts like wealth redistribution, nationalization, progressivism, or negative liberties. One hilarious video clip shows Obama's own supporters literally not knowing the difference between a Kenyan and Keynesian (click here).

It frustrates me when I hear conservative talk show hosts (Sean Hannity especially) shouting, "Obama's approval is dropping like a rock!" Each time I've heard that, I've paused patiently to listen for the information that followed, only to discover that the president's numbers weren't dropping, or were barely dropping, and never below the 40-percent range.

Dropping like a rock? No.

Barack Obama has an incredibly devout base, made up of a handful of super-loyal constituencies. This includes the roughly 20-23 percent of Americans who are genuine liberals. Alas, that's another frustration: Conservatives occasionally claim that Obama's angry left-wing base has turned on him. Nonsense. Sure, liberals fume at Obama now and then, but they're usually angry. In the end, those liberals will never vote for a Republican as president and against Obama. The left is too disciplined.

In short, Obama can do practically anything, including worsen an already awful economy, generate unimaginable debts, and retain a lock on a significant portion of the electorate. Beyond that portion, it's simply a matter of Obama again duping enough of the oblivious -- who pay attention to presidential politics only about four weeks every four years -- and enough of our nation's exalted "moderates" and "independents." These folks are incredibly fickle, often not making up their mind for president until they're in that voting booth, as they did in November 2008.

As I wrote here at the time and have reiterated elsewhere since (click here), these were the dupes that made Obama president. Will they again? They've certainly done nothing to fill me with optimism.

I know the counter-response to this: Kengor, you're wrong -- the moderates and independents that elected Obama in November 2008 bailed on the Democrats in November 2010. Yes, they spurned the Democratic majority in the House in 2010, but that will not necessarily extend to Obama in 2012. Besides, Obama doesn't need all of them. He needs just enough of them.

If Americans were willing to elect a man as far to the left as Obama in November 2008 -- despite his background, his remarkably radical associations, and his highly troubling and still mysterious background -- enough of them will again.

Finally, that brings me to my second set of data: Obama is again surging in the polls, just when it looked like he might dip below 40 percent. (I recall one poll had him momentarily at 39 percent.) As I write, Obama's RealClearPolitics cumulative job approval is 51%. Yes, 51 percent.

That's stunning. After everything that has happened during this man's presidency, from nearly $1 trillion in blown stimulus to nationalizing GM to persistent 10-percent unemployment, and after the Democrats' trouncing in the November midterm, how could Obama suddenly pop above 50%? Was it the rally-round-the-president after the Tucson shooting and Obama's (admittedly) well-done speech? Was it Obama's compromise to extend the Bush tax cuts?

Maybe, in part. But those positives shouldn't outweigh all the negatives. And yet, the negatives haven't sunk Obama. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright may have damned America, but he couldn't damn Obama.

Again, conservatives will not want to hear this. But unlike liberals, we conservatives are supposed to base our judgment not on emotion, but on cold, hard facts, and I fear that my pessimistic appraisal may fall in the category of cold, hard fact.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying conservatives should lie down, roll over, and accept this as a fait accompli. Quite the contrary -- that would be un-American. I'm simply not optimistic.

--------

Paul Kengor is professor of political science at Grove City College. His books include The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism and the newly released Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.

American Thinker: Obama Fakes Right

2011-01-26T09:51:00.000-05:00

January 25, 2011

Obama Fakes Right

By Steve McCann

The country will be treated to yet another orgasmic reaction by the once-mainstream media upon the conclusion of President Obama's State of the Union speech. On the right, pundits such as Peggy Noonan are swooning once again and offering advice to the president on how to follow in the footsteps of Bill Clinton and move to the right with facile rhetoric and symbolic actions.

The majority of the current Ruling Class will fall prey to the Obama cult of personality, as they will measure success not by what he does, but by how he says almost anything. The media elites, living in a fantasy world wherein they choose which history will be repeated, will in fact move heaven and earth to assure that Obama will be reelected as was Bill Clinton in 1996. Clinton won a major reelection victory after having suffered a significant blow in the 1992 midterms, as did Obama. There are, however, innumerable differences between 1996 and 2012. Just how similar are the circumstances between 1994-1996 and 2010-2012?

The most obvious point of comparison is the economy. In January of 1995, the unemployment rate was 5.6%, declining to 5.4% by Election Day, November 1996. The current rate is 9.4%, and the Federal Reserve projects that that rate will average 9.0% for the next two years. The Gross Domestic Product grew at an average rate of 3.9% from 1994-1996. The Federal Reserve projects the GDP to grow an average of 2.5% over the next two years.

Per the Bureau of Economic Statistics, personal income increased 11.7% the second half of Clinton's term; however, the forecast is for a growth of only 3.0% during the later part of Obama's first term. In 1996, the annual federal government deficit was $126 billion; in 2011, it will be over $1.1 trillion. Further, in 1996, the U.S. gross public debt was 66% of GDP; in 2011, it will exceed 100% of GDP. Lastly, for the first time in any ten-year period in the nation's history -- 2000 to 2010 -- the net wealth of the population declined. It fell by 4.5% (inflation-adjusted), all of the losses occurring in 2008-2010. Not only are the people feeling poorer, but they are poorer.

In 1994, one of the major factors in the overwhelming victory of the Republicans in capturing the Congress was Clinton's attempt to enact a health care reform package which failed to pass. Therefore, during the reelection campaign, he was not saddled with the onerous duty of defending something that did not become law, and it was quickly forgotten in the economic good times of the period. Obama, on the other hand, passed a similar measure, and he will have to defend a highly controversial bill whose unpopularity grows as the public continues to learn what is in its 2,700 pages.

China was a relatively benign supplier of cheap goods in 1996. Its Gross Domestic Product today has increased by a factor of six since 1996. It has become a major military power and holds an inordinate amount of influence over the United States due to Chinese ownership of a trillion dollars of American debt. With the near-supine approach to the Chinese leadership by the current occupant of the White House, China is emboldened to push forward with its hegemonic policies in Asia while the United States does nothing to counter Chinese economic growth by promoting American job creation and economic activity. The American people now recognize the threat that China presents, unlike in the 1990s.

Iran, in 1995, was mired in internal politics and a stagnant economy and was barely recovering from a decade-long war with Iraq in the 1980s. Today, Iran holds the key to war or peace in the Middle East with its development of nuclear weapons and its underwriting terrorism throughout not only the Persian Gulf region, but also the world. President Obama has done nothing about this issue except to apologize for the United States and appear feckless on the world stage. Thus, Iran will continue to make headlines and pursue its current path until powerful enough to cause a major conflict in the region.

In 1994, the United States imported 40.1% of its crude oil needs; today, the number is 51.5%, the majority of which comes from volatile countries and regions. Thus, prices at the pump are more susceptible than ever to the vagaries of the market. At this time in 1995, the cost of a gallon of gasoline was $1.26; today, it is $3.17. (Adjusted for inflation the cost of 1995 gas would be $1.89 per gallon in 2011). The prospect for the next two years is for continued high prices, as this administration has effectively killed all domestic exploration and development. The impact on the consumer pocketbook will continue to be overwhelming as incomes continue to stagnate.

Due to the above factors, the Tea Party movement was born. Thus, Obama will face a sustained opposition to his policies. It will make certain that Congress toes a responsible line, and it will not allow the Republican Party to nominate another Bob Dole for president.

The backdrop for President Obama's attempted pirouette to the right is far different from Bill Clinton's. But above all, Barack Obama is no Bill Clinton. Obama is steeped in socialist thinking from his earliest days and has known no other, nor has he cared to embrace any other, thinking. Clinton from his time as governor of a Southern conservative state learned how to deal with reality and did not have any rigid ideological foundation.

Barack Obama will not be able to fool all the people again as in 2008. Too much water has gone over the dam. The country has seen this play before, and thanks to the internet, talk radio, and Fox news, unlike the triangulation of Bill Clinton, the once-mainstream media cannot control the message regardless of how marvelously Barack Obama delivers a propaganda oration.

Mass Murder Gets A Pass From The "Civil" Left

2011-01-21T14:35:00.000-05:00

The Philadelphia Horror: How mass murder gets a pass
By Michelle Malkin
January 21, 2011

http://michellemalkin.com/2011/01/21/the-philadelphia-horror-how-mass-murder-gets-a-pass/

"Let’s give the “climate of hate” rhetoric a rest for a moment. It’s time to talk about the climate of death in which the abortion industry thrives unchecked. Dehumanizing rhetoric, rationalizing language, and a callous disregard for life have numbed America to its monstrous consequences. Consider the Philadelphia Horror."
.....

"The mainstream news reports about Philadelphia’s serial baby-killer Kermit Gosnell and his abortion clinic death squad only scratch the surface of his barbaric enterprise. You must, must, must read the entire, graphic, 281-page grand jury report (embedded after my column below) to fully fathom the systematic execution of hundreds of (not just seven) healthy, living, breathing, squirming, viable babies — along with an untold number of mothers who may have lost their lives in his sick, grimy chamber of horrors as well. It is explicit. It is enraging. It will haunt you."
.....
"Deadly indifference to protecting life isn’t tangential to the abortion industry’s existence – it’s at the core of it. The Philadelphia Horror is no anomaly. It’s the logical, blood-curdling consequence of an evil, eugenics-rooted enterprise wrapped in feminist clothing."

---------

Related must-see from The Anchoress:

http://www.patheos.com/community/theanchoress/2011/01/20/gosnell-baby-feet-kick-the-nation/

"It[']s funny how framing works. A massacre perpetrated by a deranged man is not about the deranged man; it’s about “rhetoric.” But a massacre perpetrated by an abortion provider whose violations against laws of the nation and of humanity were overlooked for years is “not about abortion.” It’s about criminal behavior, and that’s all. But some of our most prominent politicians have voted against the very bill — the “born alive” bill — that defines such behavior as criminal. Meaning, I guess, that if only enough politicians had voted with Sen. Barack Obama, Gosnell’s behavior would not be “criminal” at all, and therefore we wouldn’t even be talking about it?

Well, the story of Kermit Gosnell is about abortion; it’s about abortion in America. And abortion in America is about a mindset, — even (or especially) among regulation-happy folk who will make a big noise about public safety on issues large and small — a mindset that will protect a Gosnell, and purposely turn a blind eye to abortion centers and practitioners and all of their lapses and illegalities, as long as the abortions keep on coming."

---------

Grand Jury Report: Philadelphia Abortionist Kermit B. Gosnell Multiple Counts of Murder (January 2011)
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/69618219/Grand-Jury-Report----Philly-Abortionist-Kermit-B-Gosnell-Multiple-Counts-of-Murder-(January-2011)

"Civil Discourse" Is Just Another Term For "Shut Up"

2011-01-21T14:18:00.000-05:00

Freedom Eden carries an in-your-face example of the extreme partisanship and "do as I say, not as I do" behavior of the left, and in particular, the media. The left-wing media is spiraling ever more quickly into irrelevance and obscurity, with more and more desperate examples like this daily.

http://freedomeden.blogspot.com/2011/01/rebecca-kleefisch-and-sly-sylvester.html

"On Monday, Sylvester was ruthless in his attack on Wisconsin's Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. He was jaw-droppingly cruel and offensive and insensitive."

The story is just one of the many instance of left-wing hate and vitriol directed against Republicans and conservatives, and women in particular. Still waiting for NOW to come out condemning these diatribes.... how's their "tone" these days? (Talk about irrelevant!)

Repeal Obamacare! Why and How To Do It

2011-01-20T18:19:00.000-05:00

Show Your Support for the Repeal Vote

From Tea Party Patriots official web site
www.teapartypatriots.org

We've worked for two years and the repeal vote on Wednesday is just the first of many of our victories. Make this victory even more powerful by calling Congress all week to voice your support for the repeal of Obamacare. The supporters of the job-killing, government takeover of health care have already been calling Congress to voice their opposition to repeal. Are you going to let them be the only voice that is heard? We have melted the phone lines before, and it is time to do it again. We must not let the media and the supporters of Obamacare build a false narrative about public opinion. Let's melt those phone lines and show them what the American people really think. Call your Representative and your Senators and let them know you support repeal. Lastly, we need to start calling the GOP Senators and pressure them into using the procedures that Brian Darling has outlined to make sure the repeal bill doesn't get buried in committee somewhere.

Repeal of ObamaCare in the Senate - How To Do It

American Thinker: Obama 2.0: The Reinvention Begins

2011-01-20T18:09:00.000-05:00

Obama 2.0: The Reinvention Begins

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/obama_2o_the_reinvention_begin.html

Look for Obama to feint center to better appeal to independents, without which he cannot win re-election.

The year 2012 looms large in the mind of Barack Obama. After two years of decline in the number of those who view his policies, his performance, and his personality favorably, Barack Obama has begun yet another process of reinvention on the road to reelection.

Will he succeed in bamboozling voters once again?

The policy shifts following the November shellacking the Democrats received from voters are clear.

Foremost among these shifts to the center is the tax deal reached with the Republicans. There will be others to come, as renewed attention is devoted to transforming the tax code itself to make it simpler and fairer. There will be more feints to the center.

Barack Obama will adapt even more, altering his image so he can again appeal to the great center of American voters: the jackpot that every candidate must win to enter the White House. Will Obama be able to connect with voters, as every politician must, on a personal level?

Conservatives should not count Obama out yet. He may be cold-blooded, but he is a chameleon who can change the way people perceive him.

Indeed, he has already begun to do so. The premiere of Obama 2.0 took place in Tucson, where his speech was warmly received and a new, more emotional Obama was on display (the voice cracking brings to mind the lip-chewing of a thoughtful Bill Clinton). And the road show has only just commenced.

A clue to Obama's ability and willingness to adapt can be found in the words of his book Dreams from My Father. There he mentioned only one book, Malcolm X's autobiography, and wrote that Malcolm X's "repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me." Therein lies the clue to Obama's plan to rebrand his own image. A man who can fake a Southern accent, the story of how his father came to America, and the story of his parents' being inspired by the Civil Rights march in Selma to conceive him has no problem morphing for political purposes.

We are about to watch the extreme makeover of Barack Obama in real time.

Let me suggest the contours of the plan.

Obama achieved national prominence during his 2004 speech, when he famously declared that "there's not a liberal America and a conservative America -- there's the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asia America; there's the United States of America." He went on to decry the splicing of states into red and blue.

Very inspiring words, but as president, Obama has been perceived as playing favorites. His Department of Justice has been plagued by accusations of following race-based policies, and these biases may extend to more areas than the DOJ. Obama did not help heal divisions when he casts aspersions of racism against the Cambridge police and avowed that Hispanics should vote against their enemies (presumably white Republicans). He has lost a great deal of the white vote, a bloc he needs to win reelection. We will see more of the Obama the Uniter and less of Obama the Divider.

People should not be surprised when Eric Holder resigns to spend more time with his family. He and the Civil Rights Division he has overseen have become lighting rods in the eternal American debate over racial and ethnic preferences. Holder can't seem to help himself; his latest pledge is to ensure that "minority communities" experience environmental justice. If his serial flubs in dealing with Islamic terrorism were not enough, his stewardship in other areas of the DOJ has been a political problem for Obama.

Lady Justice wears a blindfold for a reason. It's a symbol that Holder refuses to recognize.

He should be preparing his resume.

We will likely see more bloodletting as Obama continues to throw the old crew under the bus. He is jettisoning people as fast as he can since they have rubbed so many people the wrong way -- and, more importantly, reflected poorly on Obama as a leader. These offenders have also made Obama's own actions seem sinister, since having key positions filled by fans of Karl Marx and Chairman Mao led to voter suspicions regarding Obama's own agenda. Hence, Van Jones and Anita Dunn got the heave-ho.

The always acerbic Robert Gibbs is packing his bags. The often foul-mouthed Rahm Emanuel departed to become the likely mayor of Chicago. David Axelrod, Obama's campaign strategist, who was promoted to chief domestic adviser upon Obama's ascension to the Oval Office, will also be returning to the Windy City. The White House and the man who lives there will be perceived as less insular and arrogant. A supporting cast can do wonders for the image of the lead actor.

What is intriguing is how Obama has been filling these actors' places with Democratic moderates who have less of an axe to grind and more of an income to earn. Bill Daley takes over the Chief of Staff job -- he has warm relations with the business community. Vice President Joe Biden has just announced his own new Chief of Staff, Bruce Reed -- also a moderate. The cast of characters Obama is now assembling has a Clintonian tint to it; Clinton is, of course, the only Democrat to win reelection since Franklin Roosevelt. Obama will continue to surround himself with moderates; their images will rub off on him, and the image of him as a polarizing figure will fade in time.

Conversely, those on the left who indulge in extremist hyper-partisan rhetoric will serve as useful foils to Obama as he shape-shifts into a moderate. We have seen two examples of this tactic: his rebuke of those on the left who criticized the bipartisanship on display over the tax deal and his admonition during the Tucson speech that finger-pointing should be avoided. Bill Clinton had his Sister Souljah moment -- and so will Barack Obama.

Obama will get religion -- fast.

When Barack Obama's relationship with Jeremiah Wright became a scandal, Obama dropped Wright and his church and surrounded himself with other members of the clergy. Since he became president, he has compiled quite a truancy record regarding church attendance. Americans like their leaders to be religious, for we are a God-loving nation. Daily devotionals sent to Obama's omnipresent Blackberry just won't do as 2012 approaches.

We can expect Obama's speeches to be more laced with religious imagery. The dry run happened in Tucson. Obama consulted clergy and Scripture before giving his warmly received speech there. Many criticized Obama when he casually kept dropping the word "Creator" when quoting the Declaration of Independence. (Incidentally, he included the word "Creator" when he gave his big speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention -- but he was in full campaign mode then. He threw that word under the bus when he became president.)

We can expect Obama's chief speechwriter, Jon Favreau (the highest-paid White House staffer, who played a key role in drafting Obama's Race Speech to deal with the Jeremiah Wright problem), and up-and-coming wunderkind Cody Keenan (who helped draft the Tucson speech) to be pulling out Bartlett's Book of Quotations to deal with all the Christians religious "stuff."

President Obama has a penchant for divisive rhetoric that Candidate Obama almost never used. The words "hostage-takers" and "enemies" will be deleted from Obama's lexicon, as will be phrases that characterize Republicans as people he has to "clean up after" who should "not do a lot of talking" while they ride in the "back of the bus." Since Obama has driven more people to declare themselves Republicans, such rhetoric constitutes a self-defeating indulgence of his rage. The partisan rhetoric probably colored people's perceptions regarding his policies. So those types of words will vanish.

President Obama has had chillier relations with the media than Candidate Obama experienced. The fawning that was satirized by "Saturday Night Live" and others has been replaced by sobriety. Perhaps Obama's stiff-arming of the media since he became president chilled the partnership. But he needs the media now, so they have been pulled out from under the bus. The magazine U.S. News & World Report noted the climate change:

After two years of snubbing Washington's snootiest journalism clan, the Gridiron Club, President Barack Obama has agreed to attend the group's annual dinner know for silly skits and songs performed by reporters and political celebrities. "Oh what a difference a bad election makes," says one Gridiron member. Another suggested that it was a sign that the administration's effort to make end-runs around the White House press corps is ending and the president is eager to improve relations with the news media.

Robert Gibbs's resignation will also help improve relations with the fourth branch of government (since Obama lost the House), as now, a "softer tone" with the press seems to be a priority. Barack Obama will have to shed his thin skin and be less peevish at press conferences, but he has a powerful incentive to control his temper: reelection.

Obama has had a penchant for making sport of cable news channels (i.e., Fox News) for their coverage. But the end of the football season brings us to the beginning of the campaign season. Thus, we see the paradoxical Bill O'Reilly interview with Barack Obama before the Super Bowl. Since Obama needs white males to win the White House, there can be no better time to reach out to them than right before the supreme sports ritual of the American White Male.

Obama will paper over his rhetorical history and return to the type of rhetoric that appealed to so many during those halcyon and hallucinogenic days of 2008.

(I digress, but I find it appalling that speeches seem to sway so many people. Granted, Barack Obama has a way of speaking that can inspire millions. It's a gift -- just ask him; he will tell you, as he told Senator Reid. No wonder those who work with words, whether they be John Kennedy's speechwriter Ted Sorensen or Professor Garry Wills, or any number of talking media heads, are besotted with Barack Obama. The dynamic borders on the self-reverential.

But why has Ronald Reagan been dismissed as a mere actor while Barack Obama is never dismissed as merely a master of the teleprompter? After all, when Obama is off the teleprompter and otherwise not reading others' words, he is far less impressive. We see the gaffes that are so revelatory about him during those moments of truth: think of the bitter people clinging to guns and religion, the spread-the-wealth promises, the boast that he would bring a gun to a knife fight, the "I won" braggadocio, ad nauseam.)

We can also expect Obama to spend less time on the links and more time in the pews. As president, he has rarely been seen at any churches, unlike during the campaign, when churches were a regular stop, where he sometimes spoke from the pulpit.

But that is changing.

Obama attended church on January 16, an occasion that prompted CNN to characterize it as an "unusual move for a president who is accustomed to attending Sunday services at a private chapel at Camp David." Actually, the news that Obama attends Sunday services even at a private chapel comes from White House sources -- so consider the source. Also, he barely spends any time at Camp David, according to Politico journalist Carol Lee.

But as his political support faded, he found God.

Politico took note of the timeline in an article published at the end of last year, commenting that there has been "a steady rebirth over the past few months in public expressions of his [Obama's] Christianity" and that "he has publicly mentioned his Christian faith more times than he has over the past year." Obama has recycled the phrase "I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper" from the 2008 campaign (he has used it 24 times in a three=month period toward the end of last year compared to just four times before then as president).

Obama's churching is timed to politics. When a Pew poll came out last year that reported that many Americans thought Obama was Muslim, he attended church within weeks of the poll's release, and within days, he started quoting from the book of Job. And that was before the November shellacking. We will see and hear a lot more about Obama's Christianity because, after all, there are no atheists in foxholes and almost none in politics.

Obama will choose a church for regular worship, will again surround himself with esteemed religious figures representing all major branches in America, and will begrudgingly begin the political Conversion on the Way to the White House. He will become one more desperate person clinging to religion; he knows all about those people, after all.

Back to basics for Michelle

The fancy foreign trips to Spanish luxury hotels and the like? Michelle and crew will have to sacrifice those creature comforts and keep their travels stateside, at least until 2012. Aren't we all supposed to be sacrificing for the common good these days? The belt-tightening will do some good. Michelle is on an anti-obesity kick anyway, so why not give up some of the calorie-laden fine dining to get hubby reelected? Expect more invasions of backyard bar-b-ques and fewer stays in deluxe digs.

There will be fewer fashion statements and designer sneakers; more down-home photos of the family plus Bo, the photogenic family dog. Barack Obama, who has done a fine job shielding his young daughters from the paparazzi, will be more inclined to show them off in the type of winsome family tableaux that win votes.

We will also, thankfully, hear less from Obama about Obama. The narcissistic addiction to the "first person singular" will be a thing of the past. Instead, we will hear more about "us" and about American "exceptionalism" -- a course suggested by Democrat William Galston and already begun by Obama. Obama was criticized during the campaign for not wearing a flag pin in his lapel -- then one started appearing. But once Obama became president, he blithely declared that America is not exceptional. We won't be hearing that language again -- at least not until 2012.

We can also expect Barack Obama to take more time off the links and journey to Arlington Cemetery and other spots that symbolize patriotism. He skipped the traditional presidential visit to Arlington to spend some quality time with friends back home in Chicago. That will not happen again. Even though one aide calls him the most unsentimental man he has ever met, and Juan Williams characterized Obama as not the type of guy you want to share a foxhole with, he will make a landmark tour of America to commemorate our fallen patriots. Historical sites that resonate with all Americans will feature prominently on the president's agenda. We should not be surprised if Obama's next winter break in Hawaii includes a trip to Pearl Harbor.

Buddy up to business

Obama will also make nice -- at least in a surface way -- with the business community. The Chamber of Commerce initially supported some of Obama's moves, the stimulus bill among them. But when Obama's agenda was more fully rolled out, many businessmen objected to the pain it would inflict on them and the free enterprise system. Obama did not seem to mind until the Chamber got its act in gear and started a potent campaign to defeat Democrats. Obama resorted to claims that the Chamber was using foreign money to bankroll its campaign. Obama lost that rhetorical battle, and the Democrats went on to lose seats across America.

A change of course is needed. Obama has a vested interest -- the one he cares most about, himself -- in defanging the Chamber. He accepted an invitation from the Chamber of Commerce to address them in early February. Gone will be talk of "fat cats"; in will come talk of "partners" and "visionary entrepreneurs" and "job creators." If Obama is able to offer some sugar -- say, suggestions of tax or regulatory breaks -- he may be able to erode their will and resources to defeat him in 2012. Indeed, the olive branch has already been offered in the form of tax breaks and the sending of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on a goodwill tour with executives.

SOTU

We can expect the olive branch to be extended to all Americans during Obama's next big step in rebranding: the upcoming State of the Union address.

As we learned from Ronald Reagan and others, visual images and sound bites shape campaigns. Telling was Obama's latest vacation reading: a book on Ronald Reagan, who was able to tap into the emotions of the American people in a way that has eluded President Obama. Obama performed well as a candidate; his oratory levitated him to the presidency, after all, but the pretense could be held for only one season: the campaign one.

Will we forget Barack Obama's true nature when he flashes the big smile and soothes us, if not smothers us, with mellifluous words?

America's great strength and great weakness has been our ability to forgive and forget. Indeed, Obama seems to have been counting on this trait, given the numberless series of broken promises during his presidency.

Will we be taken for suckers again?

In the internet and YouTube age, we can unbury the time capsule and relive the days when President Obama was at the peak of his powers. We can remember how he chose to wield them.

The Republicans will do well to focus on the harm of Obama's policies, since voter dissatisfaction with his agenda remains high. ObamaCare continues to be an albatross around Obama's neck -- one that he can neither disown nor throw off since it was his pride and joy. Republicans must go round and round with a newly revivified Barack Obama to point out the flaws of ObamaCare. But they must avoid the heated rhetoric that will only serve to make Obama appear moderate. He has already primed the populace to look at Republicans as the partisan party of No and exhorted us to put "politics" aside. He triangulated against the image of a panicky John McCain during the stock market meltdown in 2008. He should not again be given the opportunity to improve his image relative to his opponents.

He can use such hyper-partisan rhetoric on the right, just as he can from those on the left, to gain back the Great Center. Republicans need articulate spokesmen front and center, such as Paul Ryan, to explain the crippling costs of the ObamaCare program and how it will harm our health care. But Republicans must go beyond ObamaCare and beyond proposing their own health care plans. They must critique the entire Obama agenda for the challenges it poses to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We need to declare our independence once again -- this time from the grasping hands in Washington, D.C.

Ed Lasky is news editor of American Thinker.
49 Comments on "Obama 2.0: The Reinvention Begins"

Communism in America: The Democrat Party and the US Government

2011-01-18T21:21:00.000-05:00

Communists are all over the place in government. They hide. They proselytize and make it look so appealing. If you don't believe this, listen to this podcast. If you think this is right-wing blathering claptrap and there are no communists in government, then you REALLY need to listen to this podcast. You will be stunned to find out how many admitted communists there are in our government; and how many more are communists but hiding their beliefs. Especially those who are in high positions of power in the federal government. The podcast goes into the godlessness of communism and why communism is so bad. The best way to spot communism is to read the words of communists themselves: check out www.cpusa.org (the Communist Party USA). They are proud of their communism and are selling these ideas as fun, peaceful and sensible things. People are easily taken in by these sales tactics. People who trust the Democrat Party are already fooled. There is no difference between the Democrat Party and the Communist Party. The two are aligned on all points. Trade unions have become trusted entities but are and always have been communist constructs. They have no business being in politics; they are supposed to represent the "workers" (a communist concept in itself). Listen to the podcast and find out more.

Part 2 - DECEPTION
http://freedomtorch.com/podcast/?powerpress_pinw=1019-podcast

Part 1
http://freedomtorch.com/podcast/?powerpress_pinw=1015-podcast

Death By Liberalism (Yes, It IS Really Lethal)

2011-01-18T16:42:00.000-05:00

Death By Liberalism

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/death_by_liberalism.html

January 18, 2011
By J.R. Dunn

Many AT readers are aware that I have been working on a book project for the past several years. I have mentioned it occasionally on this site, more often in the past few weeks as publication drew nearer. Now zero hour has arrived: Death by Liberalism. The Fatal Outcome of Well-Meaning Liberal Policies is available as of today. (Buy it here.) It's the first publication from Broadside Books, renowned editor Adam Bellow's new conservative imprint.

Simply put, DbL deals with the appalling and overlooked fact that liberalism kills. This is no metaphor, no exaggeration, and no mistake. Liberal policies put in place by liberal politicians to achieve liberal goals kill thousands of Americans each year. In the past half-century, liberalism may have killed up to 500,000 American citizens (and this is not even counting DDT or ethanol, which are responsible for a death rate orders of magnitude larger in the international sphere). We have known for years that liberalism is corrupt, wasteful, and futile. Now we know that it is even worse. Liberalism is lethal.

How does this work? Is it some sort of grand Sorosian conspiracy to assure limitless political power? An environmentalist Green scheme to cut the population on behalf of Mother Gaia? Not at all. The soft lethality of liberalism is a result of that saddest of English phrases: "unintended consequences." Liberal politicians, academics, and operatives want to do good. They want to benefit Americans and the country as a whole. They want to do it their way, through large-scale governmental policy. They know exactly how it is to be done, and they will brook no interference. So they set out on their grand schemes, and it ends, always and without exception, in disaster. Some of those disasters go over the line into something resembling mass negligent homicide: the legal procedural revolution, the DDT ban, CAFE fuel standards, federalized child protection, deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill, and gun-free zones, to mention only a few.

Let's take federal child protection as an example. Shortly before becoming vice president under Jimmy Carter, Senator Walter Mondale sponsored a bill aimed at the reform of child protection services. Established to assist and rescue children from abusive and neglectful adults, these services had been operating for a century with good results, many of them privately run and associated with churches and other charities. Mondale wished to transform them all into state agencies, funded by government, staffed by trained professionals, with operating standards set by federal bureaucrats.

The result was exactly what any student of Hayek, Parkinson, or Sowell could have predicted. The government-run agencies became typical bureaucracies, marked by incompetence, callousness, and endless paperwork. Across the country, children under the care of such agencies began dying. For thirty years and more, scarcely a week has gone by without yet another newspaper report of a child murdered while under the "protection" of one of these agencies. The numbers may well mount into the thousands. We can't be sure, since the bureaucrats in charge often hide behind privacy laws to stifle investigations and outside oversight. (This doesn't always work -- in Philadelphia last year, no fewer than nine social service social workers were found guilty of complicity in the starvation death of Danieal Kelly).

Did Walter Mondale intend any such thing? Not at all -- he meant well. He went for the customary big-government solution; he was intent on fixing something that wasn't broken. The result was suffering on a massive scale. To his credit, Mondale is on record as regarding the bill as an action he regrets. Most liberal politicians responsible for similar policies would admit to no such thing.

They would remain silent because liberals do not look upon their ideology as a political doctrine to be judged by the same standards as all others. No -- liberalism is viewed as a religion -- a religion of the purely millennial type, promising its believers a new, pure, utterly transformed world. Its leaders are the saints and heroes -- Oldsmobile Teddy Kennedy, Grand Kleagle Robert Byrd, and Charlie "what taxes?" Rangel -- who will lead us into this new world. But with DbL, this illusion has come to an end. No longer can liberals shield themselves from their actions. No longer can they present themselves as messianic figures magically and unerringly healing a fallen world.

They are not happy about this. The first reviews of DbL have been marked by a sense of shock coupled with outrage. The common response is that the book is "illogical"--- it's like being criticized by an army of Mr. Spocks. None have actually critiqued that logic -- which consists of simple empiricism, the contention that effects must have a cause -- in any detail. Several reviewers have outright lied about the book, one claiming that I'm referring to people "dying of heart attacks from working too hard to pay taxes." Another states that I claim that liberals will soon be hunting us down "with their guns." (What kind of liberals does she know, I wonder?) And this is only the beginning. I'm scheduled to appear on Lawrence O'Donnell's "Last Word" this Thursday, and I doubt that he intends to congratulate me on the excellence of my research.

Such a reaction is understandable. All that liberalism has left is its patina of virtue -- the claim that liberals are always right, that they know all the answers, that they alone embody the good in the political sphere. This is fading fast, as liberalism becomes the ideology that abuses Down infants, that supports and excuses terrorists, that attempts to exploit mass murders. I hope that DbL represents yet another step in this process.

I've been writing for AT for a little over five years now. In that time, I've gotten much in the way of encouragement and useful criticism. It was an AT reader who inspired DbL in the first place, with a question as to whether "there was anything like a black book of liberalism." I know I've come a long way as a writer, a thinker, and a conservative in that time. I'm sure we all have. We have a long road ahead, and we are now moving into a new phase, a new level of activity and influence. I hope you are all looking forward to it as much as I am.

J.R. Dunn is consulting editor of American Thinker and will edit the forthcoming Military Thinker.

Listen Up Little Patriots! Official Tea Party Patriots Coloring Book!

2011-01-18T10:28:00.000-05:00

Listen Up, Little Patriots! Here's Something Fun!
The Official Tea Party Patriots' Coloring & Activity Book

Tea Party Patriots is proud to present the Tea Party Patriots' Coloring and Activity Book for children. This is a perfect gift for the little Patriot, full of puzzles, games, and songs designed to teach and inspire pride in their heritage as an American. It introduces children to the Tea Party Patriots' core values and how they can become involved in preserving the liberty our Founding Fathers enshrined for We the People.

Inspired by the principles of Freedom and Liberty immortalized in the United States Constitution the 36 page book is complete with games, puzzles, mazes, activities and denotes a historical perspective on the tea party movement. The book includes a simple and fun emphasis on fundamental freedoms and is part of a long term effort to educate the next generation of children on the basics of American liberty.

This commemorative and historical children's book costs under $5.00 (even less in quantity) and can be purchased from Tea Party Patriots by clicking here .

The books can also be purchased by local coordinators in bulk at a discount and sold as a fundraising tool for the local chapter. Learn more.

Raising the Debt Ceiling: A Bad Precedent And A Bad Continuing Policy

2011-01-18T10:23:00.000-05:00

From http://www.teapartypatriots.org

Raising the Debt Ceiling: A Bad Precedent And A Bad Continuing Policy

In a recent conference call poll, Tea Party Patriots' local coordinators were asked if they were opposed to raising the debt ceiling. 94% said yes, they are opposed to the raise. The question that profligate politicians must answer is "when is enough, enough?"

They continue to wait until the very last moment to address serious fiscal issues (see the tax increase deal at the end of 2010), and then use the short timeframe to manufacture a crisis that they say can only be solved with more spending and back-room deals.

If any lawmakers consider voting to increase the debt ceiling, without demanding significant spending cuts in return, they need to know this: We will remember. The future of this country depends on the courage of our Representatives to cut spending, reform the budget, reform entitlements, and return power back to the people. It is time for the members of Congress to act like adults instead of teenagers on a spending spree with their parents' credit card.

We understand what is at stake. The question remains: do the politicians?

"Net Neutrality" Is Anything But Neutral

2011-01-18T10:19:00.000-05:00

From http://www.teapartypatriots.org

"Net Neutrality": Anything But Neutral

Net neutrality is an innocuous sounding term for what is really media Marxism. This is an ideological attempt by those on the left to control the greatest means for the distribution of information ever devised. It provides a playing field which the government does not control, and this is immensely troubling to those on the left.

There are two pieces to net neutrality:

Equal Access: Equal access says that everyone should always have equal priorities to the flow of information on the internet. In practice, this means that if I am updating my Twitter account, and my neighbor is downloading a movie, he shouldn't have access to more bandwidth than me. Right now, the large providers manage access, with some handling over one million URL requests a second. They are doing a phenomenal job. Net neutrality would prevent them from doing so, and would essentially "socialize" the internet.

This would also create some horrendous situations with the providers being unable to provide more bandwidth and priority to a hospital downloading an emergency transmission of an MRI, than they provide to me while I update my Twitter feed. We are obviously against this.

Equal Rates / Equal Service: Proponents of net neutrality are also trying to stop providers from offering "tiered" service plans. Think "first class," "business pricing plans for phone service etc." According to proponents, under net neutrality, everyone has to be charged the same, and provided the same services. This is the antithesis of capitalism, and would result in the stifling of technology development. Providers spend billions developing the technology; it is their right to charge as they see fit, and to create pricing plans that serve the needs of real customers in a real marketplace.

Our position is that net neutrality is simply government interference in the most important communications medium in history. Tea Party Patriots across the nation are very concerned about government regulation and interference in the internet, and we will be continuing to educate them about the reality of net neutrality, and the damage it will do to both the progress of technology and to the operation of the free market.

The Real Cause of the Arizona Killings

2011-01-18T09:54:00.001-05:00

The Real Cause of the Arizona Killings

Severely mentally ill people need to be institutionalized, not imposed on America so that left-wing propagandists can castigate the supposed "failure" of "capitalism" - a straw argument manufactured in the '60s by pop psychiatry and promulgated successfully by leftists.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/the_real_cause_of_the_arizona.html

January 11, 2011
By Bernie Reeves

One or two commentators got it right, characterizing the shootings in Arizona of a congresswoman, judge, and four other bystanders -- including a 79-year-old woman and a nine-year-old girl, who attended the fateful event due to her interest in government and politics -- as an act committed by a deranged gunman. But the spin is on by the usual MSM suspects that the shootings were due to "hostility" and "polarization" caused by (guess who?) right-wingers who have ratcheted up the rhetoric about health care and immigration. Even the sheriff on the scene went to great lengths to politicize the tragedy, stating that the killer was a product of the vitriol emanating from talk radio hosts, Sarah Palin, and conservatives opposed to Obama and the Democrats.

But I knew immediately what was going on. Once again, a mass killing has sickened the nation, a killing perpetrated by a mentally ill trigger-man. And once again, the nation will carry on without examining what really happened, satisfied with political propaganda over the reality that mass killers are almost always schizophrenics who should be institutionalized to protect them -- and us -- from random and murderous violence.

Nothing is created out of whole cloth in the affairs of mankind, and mentally ill killers don't simply pop up and take down their victims randomly. And as always, public officials and the media ignore the specific facts and precedents that have caused this preposterous and appalling set of circumstances to continue.

Serving as chairman of a downtown advancement committee in the early and mid-'80s, I assigned a subcommittee to make an inventory of the homeless population that was thwarting our effort to lure people back to the city core after 25 years of white flight and a negative image that seemed permanent. The homeless were assaulting passersby and congregating wherever they chose -- and the police would not act.

The report was startling: of the 85 homeless in the downtown area, 80 were mental patients. And the reason the police could not act to control their behavior with arrests was also shocking. Concomitant with new rules passed in 1978 that released the mentally ill into the streets across America, a nationally linked cadre of activist law professors managed to have vagrancy and loitering laws expunged.

I approached various city and county agencies to ask what they could do to return the streets to taxpaying citizens. I was offered that look so common amongst the care-taking community, communicating the attitude that I was being mean-spirited to question the "rights" of the homeless and abusive to take action to curtail their behavior. And furthermore, the homeless were "fine" as long as they took their medications.

They obviously didn't take their meds, and we had a problem, as did cities everywhere. I decided to investigate how this ludicrous state of affairs could have happened, and I ran into nothing less than a conspiracy by the activist community to impose the homeless on America and identify the problem as the failure of the American free-market system. And they succeeded. Every day for ten years, the homeless were in the news, associated with the accusation the phenomenon itself of homelessness was caused by the unfeeling crassness of a capitalist society that throws the less fortunate on the street.

But the homeless, for the most part, were not rejects from a cruel capitalist system. They were mentally ill, creating the irony that the care-giving left conspired to mistreat these unfortunate patients and toss them out of institutions and into the street as sacrificial lambs, as a contorted vanguard elite to undermine American values. The left-wing lawyers did their bit to protect them, and Americans were made to look cruel and unfeeling in the eyes of the world.

The plot begins with British psychiatrist R.D. Laing, who theorized that schizophrenics were actually more in touch with the correct view of life than so-called "straight" people. Laing, a sort of Timothy Leary of psychiatry, experimented with patients acting as doctors, and doctors as patients, to make his point that we "squares" were out of touch, while his patients were at one with nature and inner spirituality.

It was absurd '60s pop theory, but it appealed to a Stanford graduate student named Ken Kesey, who wrote a play applying Laing's theories. The film made from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest turned into a huge hit and helped pave the way for major changes in the care of the mentally ill, which resulted in new laws in 1978 that forced institutions to release patients who could theoretically function in society -- most notably schizophrenics, since they are known to be smarter than the average bear. The point was that the mentally ill have "rights" too -- the clarion call of the era.

The homeless problem has receded, even in bad economic times, because it was actually not caused by economic cruelty. Those who still roam the streets are usually gathered up at day's end and shipped to overnight quarters --- and then transported back into the city to panhandle during the day. Like most fake social movements, advocates don't want to give up feeling good about themselves by helping out the unfortunate.

But numbers of schizophrenics are still out and among us due to the deinstitutionalization of the late 1970s. And ever since, we have experienced sudden and deadly rampages and attribute the cause to the issue du jour -- this time to vitriolic politics. The Arizona killer will claim to be insane and maintain that "voices" told him to act, as is usually the case.

But only a few will dare state the truth: these people need to be institutionalized.

Bernie Reeves is editor and publisher of Raleigh Metro Magazine.

Tax Hikes in Obamacare

2011-01-18T06:38:00.000-05:00

TAX HIKES IN OBAMACARE

From: http://www.atr.org/comprehensive-list-tax-hikes-obamacare-a5758#

Comprehensive List of Tax Hikes in Obamacare

From Ryan Ellis on Friday, January 14, 2011 6:00 AM

Next week, the U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on an historic repeal of the Obamacare law. While there are many reasons to oppose this flawed government health insurance law, it is important to remember that Obamacare is also one of the largest tax increases in American history. Below is a comprehensive list of the two dozen new or higher taxes that pay for Obamcare’s expansion of government spending and interference between doctors and patients.

Individual Mandate Excise Tax (Jan 2014): Starting in 2014, anyone not buying “qualifying” health insurance must pay an income surtax according to the higher of the following

2014 - 1% AGI
2015 - 2% AGI
2016 - 2.5% AGI

Exemptions for religious objectors, undocumented immigrants, prisoners, those earning less than the poverty line, members of Indian tribes, and hardship cases (determined by HHS)

Employer Mandate Tax (Jan 2014): If an employer does not offer health coverage, and at least one employee qualifies for a health tax credit, the employer must pay an additional non-deductible tax of $2000 for all full-time employees. This provision applies to all employers with 50 or more employees. If any employee actually receives coverage through the exchange, the penalty on the employer for that employee rises to $3000. If the employer requires a waiting period to enroll in coverage of 30-60 days, there is a $400 tax per employee ($600 if the period is 60 days or longer).

Combined score of individual and employer mandate tax penalty: $65 billion/10 years

Surtax on Investment Income ($123 billion/Jan. 2013): This increase involves the creation of a new, 3.8 percent surtax on investment income earned in households making at least $250,000 ($200,000 single). This would result in top tax rates on investment income (Capital Gains, Dividends and Other*) as high as 43.4%.

*Other unearned income includes (for surtax purposes) gross income from interest, annuities, royalties, net rents, and passive income in partnerships and Subchapter-S corporations. It does not include municipal bond interest or life insurance proceeds, since those do not add to gross income. It does not include active trade or business income, fair market value sales of ownership in pass-through entities, or distributions from retirement plans. The 3.8% surtax does not apply to non-resident aliens.

Excise Tax on Comprehensive Health Insurance Plans($32 bil/Jan 2018): Starting in 2018, new 40 percent excise tax on “Cadillac” health insurance plans ($10,200 single/$27,500 family). For early retirees and high-risk professions exists a higher threshold ($11,500 single/$29,450 family). CPI +1 percentage point indexed.

Hike in Medicare Payroll Tax($86.8 bil/Jan 2013): Current law and changes:

First $200,000
($250,000 Married)
Employer/Employee

All Remaining Wages
Employer/Employee

Current Law

1.45%/1.45%
2.9% self-employed

1.45%/1.45%
2.9% self-employed

Obamacare Tax Hike

1.45%/1.45%
2.9% self-employed

1.45%/2.35%
3.8% self-employed

Medicine Cabinet Tax ($5 bil/Jan 2011): Americans no longer able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).

HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike ($1.4 bil/Jan 2011): Increases additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.

Flexible Spending Account Cap – aka “Special Needs Kids Tax” ($13 bil/Jan 2013): Imposes cap of $2500 (Indexed to inflation after 2013) on FSAs (now unlimited). . There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington, D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education.

Tax on Medical Device Manufacturers ($20 bil/Jan 2013): Medical device manufacturers employ 360,000 people in 6000 plants across the country. This law imposes a new 2.3% excise tax. Exemptions include items retailing for less than $100.

Raise "Haircut" for Medical Itemized Deduction from 7.5% to 10% of AGI($15.2 bil/Jan 2013): Currently, those facing high medical expenses are allowed a deduction for medical expenses to the extent that those expenses exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI). The new provision imposes a threshold of 10 percent of AGI; it is waived for 65+ taxpayers in 2013-2016 only.

Tax on Indoor Tanning Services ($2.7 billion/July 1, 2010): New 10 percent excise tax on Americans using indoor tanning salons

Elimination of tax deduction for employer-provided retirement Rx drug coverage in coordination with Medicare Part D($4.5 bil/Jan 2013)

Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tax Hike ($0.4 bil/Jan 2010): The special tax deduction in current law for Blue Cross/Blue Shield companies would only be allowed if 85 percent or more of premium revenues are spent on clinical services

Excise Tax on Charitable Hospitals (Min$/immediate): $50,000 per hospital if they fail to meet new "community health assessment needs," "financial assistance," and "billing and collection" rules set by HHS

Tax on Innovator Drug Companies($22.2 bil/Jan 2010): $2.3 billion annual tax on the industry imposed relative to share of sales made that year.

Tax on Health Insurers($60.1 bil/Jan 2014): Annual tax on the industry imposed relative to health insurance premiums collected that year. The stipulation phases in gradually until 2018, and is fully-imposed on firms with $50 million in profits.

$500,000 Annual Executive Compensation Limit for Health Insurance Executives($0.6 bil/Jan 2013)

Employer Reporting of Insurance on W-2 (Min$/Jan 2011): Preamble to taxing health benefits on individual tax returns.

Corporate 1099-MISC Information Reporting ($17.1 bil/Jan 2012): Requires businesses to send 1099-MISC information tax forms to corporations (currently limited to individuals), a huge compliance burden for small employers

“Black liquor” tax hike (Tax hike of $23.6 billion). This is a tax increase on a type of bio-fuel.

Codification of the “economic substance doctrine” (Tax hike of $4.5 billion). This provision allows the IRS to disallow completely-legal tax deductions and other legal tax-minimizing plans just because the IRS deems that the action lacks “substance” and is merely intended to reduce taxes owed.

http://www.atr.org/comprehensive-list-tax-hikes-obamacare-a5758#

Sen. Jeff Sessions: Action Alert About DREAM (Amnesty) Act

2010-12-18T13:25:00.000-05:00

From Sen. Jeff Sessions: His action alert before the DREAM cloture vote:

UPDATED CRITICAL IMMIGRATION ALERT
DEMOCRAT LEADERS PLAN VOTE ON FIFTH VERSION OF FLAWED DREAM ACT

PROPOSAL CONTAINS A SAFE HARBOR FOR CRIMINALS, ELIGIBILITY FOR REPEAT OFFENDERS, AND IS SUBJECT TO MASSIVE FRAUD. IT DOES NOT REQUIRE ILLEGAL ALIENS TO GRADUATE HIGH SCHOOL, FINISH COLLEGE, OR JOIN THE MILITARY AS A CONDITION OF AMNESTY.

Senator Reid has filed cloture of the House-passed version of the DREAM Act, setting up a vote this Saturday as the lame-duck session continues. Stunningly, it is the fifth version introduced in the Senate in just over 2 months. Not one of the versions has received committee process. In fact, the House bill was introduced just one day prior to passage. Further, Senator Reid filled the tree, and won’t allow any amendments to the bill.

Though the DREAM Act would grant mass amnesty, the lack of hearings and committee process means the public and the Senate have not had time to analyze the proposal. The Congressional Budget Office says that the DREAM Act is expected to add more than $5 billion to the federal deficit—a figure that will grow given that the CBO fails to take into account a multitude of factors, such as the resulting litigation, fraud, and chain migration.

In addition to immediately placing an estimated 1–2 million illegal aliens on a path to citizenship (a number expected to grow since the bill has neither a cap nor a sunset), the DREAM Act will give them access to federal student loans and federal work-study programs. The bill allows illegal aliens to get legal status indefinitely by simply claiming they have a high school diploma or GED, and even opens eligibility to those with multiple criminal convictions.

Once naturalized, aliens granted DREAM Act amnesty will then have the legal right to petition for entry of their family members, including their adult siblings and the parents who illegally brought or sent them to the United States—easily tripling the number of green cards.

Americans reject amnesty as long as the unacceptable lawlessness continues. But this bill simply incentivizes and rewards more illegality. And, if it passes, what principle would lawmakers cite to object to another amnesty, for another group, and another one after that? Its passage will only encourage more people to unlawfully enter our country expecting a DREAM Act of their own.

Ten Things You Need To Know About The DREAM Act (H.R. 6497)

1. The DREAM Act Is NOT Limited to Children

30 year old age cap on “children” only applies to date of enactment, and the registration window will remain open indefinitely regardless of future age.

2. The DREAM Act Will Be Funded On the Backs Of Hard Working, Law-Abiding Americans

3. The DREAM Act PROVIDES SAFE HARBOR FOR ANY ALIEN, Including Criminals, From Being Removed or Deported If They Simply Submit An Application

4. Certain Inadmissible Aliens, including those from high-risk regions, Will Be Eligible For Amnesty Under The DREAM Act

5. Certain Criminal Aliens—including drunk drivers—Will Be Eligible For Amnesty

6. Conservative Estimates Suggest That At Least 1.3 Million Illegal Aliens Will Be Eligible For the DREAM Act Amnesty. In Reality, We Have No Idea How Many Illegal Aliens Will Apply

7. The DREAM Act Does Not Require That An Illegal Alien Finish Any Type of Degree (Vocational, Two-Year, or Bachelor’s Degree) As A Condition of Amnesty

8. The DREAM Act Does Not Require That an Illegal Alien Complete Military Service As A Condition For Amnesty, and There Is already A Legal Process In Place For Illegal Aliens to Obtain U.S. Citizenship Through Military Service

9. Despite Their Current Illegal Status, DREAM Act Aliens Will Be Given All The Rights That Legal Immigrants Receive—Including The Legal Right To Sponsor Their Parents and Extended Family Members For Immigration

10. Current Illegal Aliens Will Get Federal Student Loans, Federal Work Study Programs, and Other Forms of Federal Financial Aid

###

[1] MPI’s October 2006 publication titled “New Estimates of Unauthorized Youth Eligible For Legal Status Under the DREAM Act” (available at http://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/Backgrounder1_Dream_Act.pdf)

HISTORY AND IMPACT OF THE AMT (ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX)

2010-12-18T05:18:00.000-05:00

HISTORY AND IMPACT OF THE AMT (ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX)

http://hnn.us/articles/11819.html
http://www.house.gov/jec/tax/amt.htm
http://www.ombwatch.org/files/budget/amtbackgrounder.pdf

"The alternative minimum tax, or AMT, is a separate system of income taxation that operates in parallel to the regular income tax. There are two AMTs, one for individuals and the other for corporations."

"This controversial tax was enacted as part of the Tax Reform Act of 1969 to target the rich. But because the rates were not adjusted for inflation, it now targets not only the rich but also the middle class."

Congress enacted the minimum tax following testimony by the Secretary of the Treasury that 155 people with adjusted gross income above $200,000 had paid no federal income tax on their 1967 tax returns.9 Adjusted for inflation, $200,000 in 1966 dollars equals about $1.1 million in today's dollars.

In 1990, about 132,000 individuals paid the AMT.

"By 2010, nearly 30 million taxpayers will be hit -- among them, a staggering 94 percent of married filers who have children and make $75,000 to $100,000." The Alternative Minimum Tax was designed as a parallel tax system to the federal income tax and checks it to ensure that that "the rich" pay some tax."

"The AMT was supposed to prevent individuals with very high incomes from using special tax credits and deductions to pay little or no tax. It was not intended to become a major source of revenue for the federal government, but simply a fix to a loophole in the income tax code. But for various reasons the AMT impacts more people every year."

"With the AMT most tax deductions are disallowed. In 1969 the minimum tax was a 10 percent flat rate. Over the years the AMT has evolved to also include a corporate AMT. With each tax reform effort from the Carter to Clinton Administration the AMT has increased. As of the latest revision, which was passed in 1993, there is a two tier system: 26 percent and 28 percent for individuals."

The rate at which the AMT captures more taxpayers is increasing more than the tax revenue it generates for the government. This is an indication that the tax is capturing people at lower and lower income levels, which was not the original intent of the tax.

"The AMT was originally devised to reduce certain deductions used frequently by high-income taxpayers and infrequently by other taxpayers. Hence the AMT has provisions concerning deductions for drilling oil wells, farm tax shelters, interest from tax-exempt "private activity bonds," and other things unfamiliar to the average taxpayer."

The AMT is not an "income tax". The way the AMT net "catches" taxpayers is not by income measures alone, but also by the kinds of deductions the taxpayer claims. For example, the AMT applies to everyone who claims a deduction for stock options not exercised in the same year they were received. Such taxpayers go straight to the AMT system and out of the federal income tax system. Other taxpayers may be subject to the AMT if their taxable income plus certain other items exceeds a base amount for individuals and married couples.

"Many, even those in the IRS, recognize that the AMT produces anomalous outcomes, policy distortions, and others problems. The revenue that the AMT generates is also rising, though not as fast as the number of AMT taxpayers.
• Failure to Index AMT Exemptions for Inflation"
• Disproportionate Impact on High-Tax State Residents (The three highest-ranking states in terms of AMT filers are CA, NY and NJ)
• Impact on “Wrong” Taxpayers
• Complexity
• Adverse Impact on Large Families
• Adverse Impact on Married Couples
• Unpredictability of Estimated Tax Payments"

SOLUTION: www.FairTax.org

The Spirit of the Constitution: The Meaning of the Ninth Amendment

2010-12-18T04:12:00.000-05:00

Mark Kalinowski December 17 at 11:01pm
Fellow Tea Partiers,

As you may have noticed, the official motto of our North New Jersey Tea Party Group is:

Liberty, Free Markets, and Individual Rights

With regard to individual rights, we have obtained the permission of Robert Tracinski to pass along the following below, which he wrote. Robert produces TIA Daily, "daily news and analysis from a pro-reason and pro-individualist perspective." If you are not already a subscriber to TIA Daily, I highly encourage you to try TIA Daily for free for 30 days. You can do so at:

http://www.intellectualactivist.com/

TIA Daily • December 14, 2010

FEATURE ARTICLE

The Spirit of the Constitution: The Meaning of the Ninth Amendment

by Robert Tracinski

"Editor's Note: The folks at the Jefferson Area Tea Party asked me to represent them on Wednesday at a celebration of the 219th anniversary of the Bill of Rights. Speakers were asked to read one of the amendments in the Bill of Rights and talk about its importance as a protection for our liberty. I chose the Ninth Amendment, and the article below is based on my remarks.—RWT

"The Ninth Amendment reads: 'The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.'

"The Ninth Amendment is the least used, least recognized article of the Bill of Rights—which is a shame, because in my view it is the most important.

"It is the least understood because it is abstract rather than concrete, and because it is open-ended rather than particular. But this is what makes it so important. While the other amendments are stated in legal terms, like the terms of a contract, the Ninth Amendment is stated in terms of political philosophy. It doesn't address the specific powers granted to government or specific limitations on those powers. It names the principle behind those powers and those limitations: the principle of individual rights.

"The Ninth Amendment is about the spirit of the Constitution. It is about how to understand and interpret all of the other provisions of the Constitution.

"It is no surprise, therefore, that the Ninth Amendment is widely denied and disparaged today, both by the left and by the right.

"On the right, Robert Bork famously compared the Ninth Amendment to an inkblot, the idea being that the meaning of the 'other rights retained by the people' is so mysterious and inscrutable as to be of no use in interpreting the Constitution.

"But its meaning is not mysterious at all. The Ninth Amendment is an appeal to political philosophy—and not just any political philosophy. In mentioning the rights retained by the people, the Ninth Amendment is referring to a philosophy of individual rights—as developed by the English philosopher John Locke and proclaimed in America by Thomas Jefferson—which was well understood by the Founders and expressed in the nation's founding document, the Declaration of Independence.

"But what Bork was responding to, in dismissing this appeal to political philosophy as subjective, was the prevailing jurisprudence of the left, which constantly seeks to reinterpret the fundamental law of the land in a way that reads the left's agenda—which is actually antithetical to the philosophy of individual rights—into the Constitution.

"We got a flavor of that in the recent confirmation hearings for the newest justice on the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, in an exchange where a Republican senator asked her whether she thought there were "natural rights" that preceded the Constitution. She dodged the question by saying that her own views were irrelevant because she had to decided cased based only on what is in the Constitution.

"Her answer was intended to make her look as if she was in favor of sticking the Constitution, even as she refused to affirm the philosophy of individual rights. But Ninth Amendment tells us: affirming natural rights is sticking to the Constitution.

"The Declaration of Independence established the Lockean theory of individual rights as the official political philosophy of the United States. The Ninth Amendment followed up by establishing that philosophy as the official standard for interpreting the Constitution.

"As I said, the Ninth Amendment is abstract and general. Its importance is not in any particular clause establishing any particular right. Instead, its significance is in its view of the basic relationship between the individual and the state. For the people, there are a few actions that are forbidden, but the rest of life is a clear field of action unobstructed by the state. For the state, the reverse holds true: there are a few fields of legitimate action, marked out by the enumerated powers explicitly granted to Congress in the Constitution—but everything outside those fields is blocked off. For the people, the default condition is freedom of action. For the government, the default is constraint and limitation. For the people, that which is not forbidden is permitted. For the government, that which is not permitted is forbidden.

"James Madison, the Father of the Constitution and chief author of the Bill of Rights, put it this way, specifically in talking about the role of the Bill of Rights and of the Ninth Amendment: 'the powers [of the federal government] are enumerated, and it follows, that all that are not granted by the Constitution are retained; that the Constitution is a bill of powers, the great residuum being the rights of the people.'

"The Ninth Amendment is not widely understood or acknowledged today, but it is still alive in the mind of anyone who understands this basic attitude toward the powers of government. Let me cite just one recent example. I am sure you have already heard about the recent ruling striking down the individual mandate in ObamaCare, the provision forcing individuals to buy health insurance. The best thing about the ruling was the judge's approach to the question. The usual approach of today's left-leaning jurists and politicians is to say: so long as there is nothing in the Constitution explicitly blocking me from doing something, I can do it. The assumption behind this ruling is the opposite: that unless the power to impose an individual mandate is already established in the Constitution, then it is not allowed.

"Here is the climactic sentence of the judge's opinion: 'A thorough survey of pertinent constitutional case law has yielded no reported decision from any federal appellate courts extending the Commerce Clause or General Welfare Clause to encompass regulation of a person's decision not to purchase a product.' That is Ninth Amendment thinking. It says: I looked in the Constitution for specific authorization to do this, and I didn't find it. Then I looked through all of the established interpretations of the Constitution, and I didn't find it there, either. And if I can't find it, then you can't do it.

"The Constitution is more than just a collection of legal clauses. Beyond the letter of the law is the spirit of the law, which is a whole philosophy about the limitation of government power by the principle of individual rights. This is what I call the Constitutional creed, and the Ninth Amendment is the central statement of that creed."

We thank Robert for permitting us to have shared the above comments with you!

*** The North New Jersey Tea Party Group is the largest New Jersey-based tea party organization on Facebook in terms of members, with over 4,500 of them combined in our two group pages. ***

Mark Kalinowski
North New Jersey Tea Party Group
Liberty, Free Markets, and Individual Rights
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=172402990061
and
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111373848903476
E-Mail: nnjteaparty@gmail.com

ObamaCare Loses in Court: A victory for the Constitution in Virginia

2010-12-14T12:39:00.000-05:00

Editor's Note: Judge Hudson is named after a famous explorer in the New York-New Jersey area: Henry Hudson. The Hudson River is named after Henry Hudson, an Englishman whose sailed his ship, the Half Moon, throughout the upper mid-Atlantic. He was the first European to sail up the river now known as the Hudson River.
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/colonial/jb_colonial_hudson_1.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/henry-hudson
-ed.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703727804576017672495623838.html

ObamaCare Loses in Court
A victory for liberty and the Constitution in Virginia.

Only a few months ago, the White House and its allies on the legal left dismissed the constitutional challenges to ObamaCare as frivolous, futile and politically motived. So much for that. Yesterday, a federal district court judge in Virginia ruled that the health law breaches the Constitution's limits on government power.

In a careful 42-page ruling, Judge Henry Hudson declared that ObamaCare's core enforcement mechanism known as the individual mandate—the regulation that requires everyone to purchase health insurance or else pay a penalty—exceeds Congress's authority to regulate the lives of Americans.

"The unchecked expansion of congressional power to the limits suggested by the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision [the individual mandate] would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers," Judge Hudson writes. "At its core, this dispute is not simply about regulating the business of insurance—or crafting a scheme of universal health insurance coverage—it's about an individual's right to choose to participate."

So the issue is joined, and no doubt with historic consequences for American liberty. For most of the last century, the U.S. Supreme Court interpreted the Constitution's Commerce Clause as so elastic as to allow any regulation desired by a Congressional majority. Only with the William Rehnquist Court did the Justices begin to rediscover that the Commerce Clause has some limits, as in the Lopez (1995) and Morrison (2000) cases.

The courts up through the Supremes will now decide if government can order individuals to buy a private product or be penalized for not doing so. If government can punish citizens for in essence doing nothing, then what is left of the core Constitutional principle of limited and enumerated government powers?

Judge Henry Hudson

Judge Hudson's opinion is particularly valuable because it dispatches the White House's carousel of rationalizations for its unprecedented intrusions. The Justice Department argued that the mandate is justified by the Commerce Clause because the decision not to purchase insurance has a substantial effect on interstate commerce because everybody needs medical care eventually. And if not that, then it's permissible under the broader taxing power for the general welfare; and if not that, then it's viable under the Necessary and Proper clause; and if not that, well, it's needed to make the overall regulatory scheme function.

But as Judge Hudson argues, the nut of the case is the Commerce Clause. Justice can't now claim that the mandate is "really" a tax when the bill itself imposes what it calls a "penalty" for failing to buy insurance and says the power to impose the mandate is vested in interstate commerce. Recall that President Obama went on national television during the ObamaCare debate to angrily assert that the mandate "is absolutely not a tax increase."

Moreover, Judge Hudson says that no court has ever "extended Commerce Clause powers to compel an individual to involuntarily enter the stream of commerce by purchasing a commodity in the private market."

Liberals are attacking Judge Hudson because he was appointed by George W. Bush, but his ruling is relatively narrow. He didn't strike down the rest of ObamaCare even though it lacked a severability clause, and he didn't enjoin the law's implementation pending appeal. His opinion also doesn't touch Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's long-shot claim that his state's "health freedom" law can nullify an act of Congress. In fact, federal laws that are constitutional are supreme under the 10th Amendment.

Yesterday liberals were crowing that even if the mandate is eventually declared illegal, it's no big deal because the rest of ObamaCare's new system would remain intact. Yet they've argued for years that the mandate is essential to health reform, because the mandate is at the heart of the regulatory machine. ObamaCare without a mandate would mean individuals wouldn't have to pay into a system until they were sick, driving up costs even faster and ruining what's left of health insurance markets.

While Judge Hudson's ruling is the first to declare part of the law unconstitutional, more than 20 state attorneys general and the National Federation of Independent Business are also suing in Florida. Oral arguments will be heard on Thursday in that case, which we think is the strongest constitutional challenge to the law.

As the Virginia case shows, ObamaCare really does stretch the Commerce Clause to the breaking point. The core issue is whether the federal government can order individuals to do anything the political class decides it wants them to do. The stakes couldn't be higher for our constitutional order.

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HOUSE -- NY-09 Votes Turner (R) 53% 29,064 Weprin (D) 47% 25,562 79% reporting

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ObamaCare Loses in Court: A victory for the Constitution in Virginia

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Educate the People and Restore Original Principles

Top story on Google is NY-9! This seat has not been GOP since 1923!
The race for this seat is seen as a referendum on Obama. YA THINK?!

HOUSE -- NY-09 Votes
Turner (R) 53% 29,064
Weprin (D) 47% 25,562
79% reporting