President-elect Barack Obama Proposes Economic Suicide For US

by Christopher Booker - November 29th, 2008 - London Telegraph

If the holder of the most powerful office in the world proposed a policy guaranteed to inflict untold damage on his own country and many others, on the basis of claims so demonstrably fallacious that they amount to a string of self-deluding lies, we might well be concerned.

This is another article in the huge proliferation of recent scientific sanity ridiculing the deluded opinions of the chicken little environmental extremists. Who would have thought that our new President is as much of an imbecile as Al Gore?

If you want to read some of the numerous facts that dispute the partisan political posturing about man caused global warming which our MSM refuses to report, this article is a good place to start.

Man Convicted In Eagle Deaths Grateful For Pardon

by Jim Salter - November 30th, 2008 - Yahoo News

The 1995 incident that changed the life of the farmer from the Charleston area of southeastern Missouri began when he noticed an increasing number of wild turkeys, which were believed to have died away. "I got it in my head that if I eliminated some of the coyotes it would give the turkeys a jump-start," on their comeback, Collier said.

So he put out hamburger meat laced with the pesticide Furadan in an effort to kill the coyotes. It worked; seven coyotes died.

The problem occurred when the eagles fed on the coyotes' carcasses. They died, too.

We have become a nation of evil bureacrats. If this man had continued to feed poison to the coyotes, which was not a crime, after the eagles died then he should have been prosecuted for killing the eagles. The reason he was prosecuted for this first offense was that he was a decent man. Our court system only grants rights to criminals. Average everyday Americans are not permitted to avoid prosecution for accidents or results they do not intend. That right is reserved for illegal aliens, drug peddlers, rapists, murderers and Democrats. If he had killed somebody he would probably have been given probation.

Of course the same rules do not apply for those who defend our nation's borders. Ramos and Compean are in jail for 10 years for shooting back at a drug smuggler. George W. Bush's buddy U.S Attorney Johnny Sutton will never allow those patriots to be pardoned.

The same applies to people like Collier. I am actually astounded that Bush gave him a pardon. It is not typical of the first socialist President that he actually cares about average Americans.

My Husband Was A Blackwater Hero

by Marybeth Laguna - November 30th, 2008 - Washington Post

Our all-volunteer military is overwhelmed and doesn't have enough soldiers with the experience it takes to guard the kinds of high-profile and highly targeted Americans who must travel around Iraq. That's why veterans working for contractors such as Blackwater, DynCorp, Triple Canopy and others are stepping up to serve their country again.

My husband and his fellow contractors answered a call. Art didn't do it for the money. He wanted to contribute in any way possible so that his kids and grandkids could continue to enjoy the American dream. He wanted to test himself and give back to his country using the training he'd received throughout his life.

Just like soldiers, security contractors based in Iraq face daily threats to their lives. Rather than demonizing these men and women, we should be thanking them for the essential service they provide. Whether they are working for Blackwater or directly for the U.S. military, they are all risking their lives to work for the United States. And they deserve our respect.

They do deserve our respect. And they get it from most Americans who love our nation. It is Democrats and liberals and pacifists who have invented this ridiculous premise that we are an evil nation who tortures others for profit. They are the ones who demonize Blackwater.

These America haters also smear both our active military and contractors like Blackwater as "mercenaries", solely because they work primarily for the defense of our nation. With 70% of our nation's youth so brainwashed that they voted to end freedom and liberty and install socialism with the election of the Magic Marxist Messiah, it is clear how close our nation is coming to the next civil war. It will be both a religious war, Christian against Atheist/Muslim and a war about economics, socialist against free market.

It will happen because there are two Americas, just not the two America's that John Edwards claims. The two Americas are the patriots, who love America and the gutless, who are ashamed of America. Which are you?

Mumbai Could Happen Just About Anywhere

Mark Steyn - November 28, 2008 - Orange County (California) Register

There was a photograph that appeared in many of the British papers, taken by a Reuters man and captioned by the news agency as follows: "A suspected gunman walks outside the premises of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus or Victoria Terminus railway station." The photo of the "suspected gunman" showed a man holding a gun. We don't know much about him – he might be Muslim or Episcopalian, he might be an impoverished uneducated victim of Western colonialist economic oppression or a former vice-president of Lehman Brothers embarking on an exciting midlife career change – but one thing we ought to be able to say for certain is that a man pointing a gun is not a "suspected gunman" but a gunman. "This kind of silly political correctness infects reporters and news services worldwide," wrote John Hinderaker of Powerline. "They think they're being scrupulous – the man hasn't been convicted of being a gunman yet! – when, in fact, they're just being foolish. But the irrational conviction that nothing can be known unless it has been determined by a court and jury isn't just silly, it's dangerous."

Mark Steyn is once again right on target (as is John Hinderaker). The most frightening concept the Magic Marxist Messiah has put forth is that we need to treat Islamo-fascist (not terrorism - the George W. Bush stupidity of calling it that has got to end) as a criminal matter. The one thing Bush did right is fight it as a war and fight anyone, even Sadam Hussein, if they support it. Bush got a lot of things wrong, but that he got right.

Update 11/30/2008

Melanie Phillips of the United Kingdom has written a similar article, The war against civilisation, that makes the point even our allies are starting to get it too. Idiot government officials in England and America need to understand the nature of this war and need to understand it FAST.

Why "Tulsa Today" Went Dark

by David Arnett - November 27th, 2008 - Tulsa Today

Monday morning Tulsa Today posted an analysis by veteran New York journalist and the recipient of seven Long Island Press Awards, Joan Swirsky, titled, “The Great Birth Certificate Scandal/Cover-Up of ‘08” - questioning the missing Barack Obama birth certificate and his eligibility to serve as President of the United States. Two hours and 10,000 page views later, our local Internet Service Provider and domain hosting service, Tulsa Connect locked us off the Internet

This is another one of the many stories starting to surface about individuals who oppose Barack Obama suffering from hostile actions by those who will not explain their actions. There were earlier stories about private individuals being fired for looking up records about Obama, while government officials who helped Obama look up dirt on Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber were ignored.

This is exactly how socialist societies become the tyrannical nations they have always been, and always will be.

The Magic Marxist Messiah and his manic minions will be no different as they install socialism here in America.

I used to disapprove of the idea of secession by individual states but it is starting to look better and better as our only chance to remain a free people.

U.S. Media Ignoring Obama Mistakes

by Warner Todd Huston - November 28th, 2008 - Newsbusters

During his first major effort to contact foreign leaders as president elect, Obama called Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari but neglected to call India's Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. This short shrifting did not sit well with the Indian government.

Then, Obama ...

Curiously, I can't find this news reporting Obama’s thus far failed attempts at diplomacy in any American news source. Why do you think that is?

You will never see such criticism. See Larry Elder's article below pointing out the MSM cover up for any Obama mistakes. It happened repeatedly during the campaign, "57 states", etc. Never did a single reporter pick up on his fumbles. They excused them. If mistakes are ever reported they will be blamed on George W. Bush, an aide being thrown under the bus like Jeremiah Wright, or the coverage will glowingly refer to the heroic efforts of THE ONE to overcome some problem beyond anyone's control. Only in the conservative press will any truth sneak into the coverage.

This naive, inexperienced, racist, socialist, sociopath will never be criticized by his creators, the Main Stream Media.

The Teflon President-Elect

by Larry Elder - November 27th, 2008 - Creators Syndicate

"How long do you think it will take for the press to turn on Obama?" a friend asked.

"Eight years, if he's in that long," I told him. "Doesn't matter what happens. Either they'll blame Bush or 'circumstances beyond Obama's control' while writing articles about how heroically Obama handles them." It's already started.

The biggest problem we have in America today is the willingness of the MSM to propagate illusions. These illusions become conventional wisdom and it destroys the ability of the American people to have an intelligent discussion, in restaurants, coffee shops, the work place, and even in political gatherings.

In this last election, a large percentage of Republicans thought that we should get out of the Iraq "war", even though they thought we should continue the war against "terror". The MSM has successfully portrayed the illusion that Iraq is not a battlefield in the larger war, but a separate thing we can end without encouraging our enemy. This is a perfect example of the illusions I am frustrated by.

The next illusion being perpetrated is that the Magic Marxist Messiah can do no wrong. For the next 8 years the MSM will assure that the illusion is maintained that all problems are the fault of someone other than Barack Obama. Larry Elder is once again amazingly foresighted in his predictions.

Meltdown Far From Over, New Mortgage Crisis Looms

by Matt Apuzzo - November 27th, 2008 - Associated Press

"The system has never been tested for a deep recession," said Ken Rosen, a real estate hedge fund manager and University of California at Berkeley professor of real estate economics.

One hope was that the U.S. would use some of the $700 billion financial bailout to buy shaky investments from banks and insurance companies. That was the original plan. But Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has issued a stunning turnabout, saying the U.S. no longer planned to buy troubled securities. For those watching the wave of commercial defaults about to crest, the announcement was poorly received.

"He's created havoc in the marketplace by changing the rules," Rosen said. "It was the stupidest statement on Earth."

Who is surprised that George W. Bush and Henry Paulson have screwed up again? Bush, a man who has little understanding of free enterprise, sought advice from people who are as ignorant as he about free enterprise and the need to limit government power. Bush is a tyrannical big government supporter whose main claim to fame is that he sold socialism as being "conservative".

When this crisis arose, no one should have expected that it either came as a surprise or that it would be simple to fix. The major process of getting out of any recession is letting losers fail. Bush of course joined Paulson in thinking that they were smart enough to twiddle with the Government controls and voila, Bush would go down in history as the man who saved the banking system.

The problem is all those nasty bad loans are poisoning the mortgage system. They are wrecking real estate prices and wrecking the economy. The more you try to hide the tears in the balloon, the more pressure builds up. The losers must be allowed to fail or trying to cover up their failure merely spreads the crisis to those who made no mistakes.

As he comes to power, Barack Obama is totally oblivious to how the system works as well. He thinks all those "rich white people" that he and Jeremiah Wright are convinced are running the system are going to give him their money to spend as he wishes. As one socialist nation after another has learned, wealth is fragile and can disappear overnight. Obama is a Marxist and believes the socialist gibberish and will never understand what hit him as our economy collapses. Just like the last socialist, Jimmy Carter.

Will 'Wal-Mart Effect' Be Diluted ...

... By Capital's New Strain Of Politics?

Editorial - November 26th, 2008 - Investor's Business Daily

Early in the presidential campaign [Barack] Obama was vying with John Edwards for the title of Wal-Mart basher, but as the campaign evolved during the financial crisis, that sort of talk evaporated.

But there is much that could be done in Washington to undermine the progressive success story that is Wal-Mart — from rising tariffs and other protectionist measures that would increase the cost of imported goods, to passage of the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act, which could set off a series of labor-management battles and prompt Wal-Mart and its competitors to rethink some of their expansion plans in the face of potentially higher employee costs.

That would be the wrong kind of Wal-Mart Effect.

Barack Obama is a Marxist. The incredible stupidity of some of his proposals is based on the inability of Marxists in general to understand why their policies always destroy the economy of the nations where they get political power. Bureaucrats, especially Marxists, are arrogant and self righteous in their belief that the people are stupid. This means they never listen when others tell them they are wrong.

A perfect example is the issue of cheap energy. Wind power and solar power are devastatingly stupid. They will bankrupt any nation that seriously tries to rely on them, since they are intermittent and outrageously expensive. No nation can subsidize these forms of energy into being sufficiently cost effective. In addition, carbon gases are NOT causing global warming. The evidence is becoming obvious to all but the most stubborn chicken little proponents of this stupidity.

Carbon trading, Obama's great love, has already been used in Europe to create a stupid bureacracy that proclaims success, when in fact they have not reduced use of CO2 at all. They have actually simply created a huge new tax on business and a huge new pool of power hungry bureaucrats who burden society with useless regulation for a goal that even if they accomplished it would be useless. Can anything be more ignorant?

These same Government bureaucrats and their labor union supporters hate Wal-Mart with a frenzy. This is an important article about an important lesson in free enterprise that Barack Obama has already flunked.

Obama On The 'Urgency' Of Combating 'Global Warming'

by The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley - November 26, 2008 - American Thinker

Few challenges facing America and the world are less urgent than combating the non-problem of "global warming". On all measures, there has been no increase in global mean surface temperatures since 1995; and, according to the University of Alabama at Huntsville, near-surface temperatures in 2008 will be lower than in 1980, 28 years ago, the first complete year of satellite observations. On all measures, global temperatures have been falling for seven full years since late 2001. The January-to-January fall in temperatures between 2007 and 2008 was the greatest since global temperature records were first compiled in 1880, 128 years ago. The rate of new Arctic sea-ice formation in mid-October 2008 was among the fastest since satellite records began almost 30 years ago. There has been no decline whatsoever in the total global extent of sea ice since satellite records began. New records for the extent of northern-hemisphere snow cover were observed by the satellites in the winter of 2001 and again in 2007. This year, many ski resorts are opening early as Arctic weather strikes. Many temperature stations in the northern hemisphere recorded record low temperatures in October/November 2008.

These facts are inconsistent with the notion that "global warming" is occurring, still less that it is dangerous. The Sun continues to show very few sunspots. Many solar physicists now predict at least half a century of global cooling, which would be a far greater and more destructive problem than a little warming.

Obama is not correct to say, "The science is not in dispute."

In truth, Barack Obama does not think that global warming is a problem. Barack Obama thinks that people are stupid enough to believe the lie that it is happening because of man and that he can use this lie to accomplish the goal of vastly increasing government power over our lives.

This duplicity and deceit is contemptible and proves only that Obama is a Marxist, an accusation that is being denied by his supporters only to distract people from the hidden goals of his actions.

With Gratitude To Our Military

Click on the title above (or here) to link to a short movie that shows the new "sign" that has been created to say thank you to our military for their service and sacrifice. It is a great idea, and doesn't mean you cannot say it verbally when you have the chance.

God bless America.

The Sector Formerly Known as Private

by Matthew Continetti - December 1st, 2008 (Publication Date) - Weekly Standard

Senate Democrats like Christopher Dodd and Charles Schumer want to set compensation rates and loan criteria for the banks that have accepted federal money. They want to overrule the boards and shareholders who normally determine CEO salary and bonuses. They want to force financial institutions to lend to consumers who may not be able to repay the debt. This, even though loan defaults are what got us into trouble in the first place.

At a time of crisis we have elected a government that wants to increase the use of the very poison that caused the crisis. With the permanence of everything ever passed in Washington, I do not understand why some Republicans think that Obama and the Democrats making things worse will somehow rebound to their benefit. Much of the damage that Jimmy Carter caused was never undone by Reagan. Much of the damage done by Barack Obama will never be undone as well. Free enterprise is probably never going to be a part of America again. Free enterprise will probably never be seen again until some nation goes through a revolution to rid itself of its socialist masters.

Time For The Real Bush To Stand Up

by Caroline Glick - November 25th, 2008 - Jerusalem Post

As Israel's failure to defeat Hizbullah in 2006, and as the US's championing of the UN ceasefire resolution which facilitated Hizbullah's takeover of Lebanon showed, neither Israel nor the US was willing to protect Lebanon's democrats. Today, with the forces of democracy defeated after Hizbullah's violent takeover of the government in May, rather than decry this state of affairs and work to undo it, Bush has chosen to deny it. And not only does he deny it, he exacerbates it. Bush welcomed the "stability" that Hizbullah's takeover has facilitated. And today he is arming the Hizbullah-dominated Lebanese army with tanks and other heavy arms. That is, in Lebanon, Bush has adopted the very same Faustian bargain he rejected in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

George W. Bush has pompously talked about capitalism while he has quietly subverted our free enterprise system. George W. Bush has talked about protecting our monetary system while he has repeatedly subverted our financial stability by printing money as fast as our system allows. George W. Bush has arrogantly proclaimed himself the stalwart fighter for the world's freedom and a champion of democracy while he has secretly abandoned our allies around the world, and especially in the middle east.

This article describes his legacy pretty well. He is not just a traitor to conservatives and to America, he is a traitor to his own views of the world which he started with and which now lie abandoned in tatters for the trade off of being liked. Check out his popularity ratings and tell me how you think that is working out.

Future Ex-Democrats

by Robert Stacy McCain - Novermber 24th, 2008 - American Spectator

Obama gained his margin of victory in large measure by enlisting the support of the disengaged, the disaffected and those too young to know better. Voters under 30 -- who weren't yet in high school when Bill Clinton was elected -- went for Obama by a 2-to-1 margin. Many of these young Obama supporters will be among the first to feel the shock of discovering how wide is the chasm that separates their Hope from any Change that Obama can actually accomplish.

Already, their disillusionment is beginning, the Internet rumbling with discontent as Obama staffs his administration with Washington insiders, Clinton cronies and even, perhaps, Hillary Clinton herself. Many more will be disheartened to discover that there is no magic in Obama's economic plan, a patchwork of warmed-over Keynesian "pump-priming" claptrap as stale as the memory of Hubert Humphrey.

What I don't understand though is why anyone thinks that getting these people to vote Republican will accomplish anything. These are the very same gullible fools who bought in to George W. Bush's "Compassionate Conservative" idiocy. These are the 40% of so-called Republicans who abandoned the war on terror and decided that we needed to pull out of Iraq. A few years of no attacks and they cannot make the connection between fighting against the Islamo-fascists and the Islamo-fascists not attacking America. They want us to abandon the war, allow a huge victory to our enemies, slink home, and "hope" they leave us alone.

These people are not committed to freedom. They are so stupid they think that socialism is Utopia. Getting the rude awakening that socialism is not the answer will not cure them of their delusions. The last thing we need is for them to come vote Republican, not until they have grown up enough to love freedom.

Disillusion with Obama is not going to get them to that point in political maturity. When they have stopped looking for a free ride and reach the point of loving freedom for themselves ... and others, then we could use their votes.

Obama's One-Trick Wizards

by Spengler - November 25th, 2008 - Asia Times

One wants to ask the Wall Street wizards who comprise the talent pool for the incoming administration, "If you so smart, how come you ain't rich no more?"

[snip]

Without leverage, the clever folk around Barack Obama are fleas without a dog. None of them invented anything, introduced an important new product, opened a new market, or did anything that reached into the lives of ordinary people. They wore expensive cufflinks, read balance sheets, exercised regularly, sat on philanthropic boards, and assumed that their flea's ride on the Reagan dog would last forever.

This is an interesting article. It zeros in on the reality that "leveraging securitized mortgages" and selling insider knowledge are the two main drivers of the Wall Street wizards who got rich during the 90s selling hype. It focuses in on the Reagan revolution and its freeing up the creative energy of small business in America to create wealth by ending capital gains and vastly reducing the regulatory load that disproportionately hampers small business.

I think it overlooks the secondary wave of productivity expansion driven by the World Wide Web of Tim Berners-Lee, probably the single greatest short term productivity engine that the world has ever seen. America got in on that boom early, but then rode the world wide expansion of productivity as well.

However though investment banks and mortgage brokers went from small profits to huge profits by riding these two growth cycles of the late 80s and through the 90s, based on an explosion of increased leverage, they never really deserved the nearly 40% of corporate profits that they were getting at the end. Leveraged to the hilt, they could not survive the minor correction that we have started to experience.

The solution that they have demanded, government infusion of cash to keep the leverage cycle going, will trigger massive inflation and do nothing to return profits to companies which produce value. To do that we must not load companies down with taxes and red tape. The merger and acquisition process of the Wall Street types is just another form of leveraging companies into bankruptcy over the long haul.

As noted in the article, Rahm Emanuel, who studied ballet, is not going to understand how to produce new products that will drive the next generation of economic growth. The $16.2 million he earned in two and a half years at a company, providing nothing of value except schmoozing, is not a form of training that will lead to providing the Marxist Messiah with any understanding of how wealth is created. The Wall Street types only know how to "redistribute" wealth themselves. The evil era of corporate socialism of the recent past is ending and about to be replaced with an even more evil era of government socialism. It is not going to be pretty.

The Price Of Dissent On Global Warming

by David Bellamy - November 25th, 2008 - The Australian

People such as former American vice-president Al Gore say that millions of us will die because of global warming, which I think is a pretty stupid thing to say if you've got no proof. And my opinion is that there is absolutely no proof that CO2 has anything to do with any impending catastrophe. The science has, quite simply, gone awry.

In fact, it's not even science any more; it's anti-science.

There's no proof, it's just projections, and if you look at the models people such as Gore use, you can see they cherry-pick the ones that support their beliefs. To date, the way the so-called Greens and the BBC, the Royal Society and even political parties have handled this smacks of McCarthyism at its worst.

What you have to understand is that liberals have no problem with what they call McCarthyism. They use that charge as a way to silence their critics, when the only real practitioners of McCarthyism have always been those on the left. McCarthy himself did not practice what the liberals claim. This is another good article that addresses the insanity of the left in their touting a lie. Man is not causing global warming. By the time this is figured out by the gullible followers of the irrational left, our world may be hopelessly too late to generate the cheap energy needed to adjust to the catastrophe that liberals are about to create.

Jamiel’s Law

by The Editors - November 24th, 2008 - Front Page Magazine

Seventeen year old Jamiel Jr., a good student and outstanding running back at Los Angeles High School, where he had been MVP for three consecutive [] years, had stepped out of the Shaw home [his home] on March 2, and was talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone when he was approached by Pedro Espinoza, a member of the 18th Street Gang. Thinking Jamiel belonged to a rival gang, Espinoza pulled a .45 pistol and shot him once in the stomach and a second time, a coup de grace, in the head. Espinoza had just been let out of county jail the previous day after serving four months for a firearms violation. He was not only a gangbanger but an illegal alien as well.

Over the next few months, the case became a cause célèbre on talk radio. Part of the outrage came from the fact that such a promising life had been snuffed out. Jamiel had been the sort of kid who led in locker room horseplay but also led the team in prayers in its huddle just before the opening kickoff. But there was outrage, too, at the fact that this young man had become a victim of a “sanctuary city” policy that led to hundreds of other deaths, homicides and accidents, caused by illegals around the country in the last few years. (Chris Simcox of the Minutemen has chronicled some of them on his website).

Liberals are outraged that anyone would dare to interfere with their subversion of our culture and their idolatry of "foreigners" as expressed by the sanctuary city. Their standard defense is "Of course we decry that this man lost his life BUT ISN'T IT BETTER FOR HIM TO DIE SO THAT AMERICA CAN BE DENIGRATED? That isn't the words they use but that is the logic they express.

When will Americans be outraged? When will Americans stop this "sanctuary" campaign? When will Americans stop voting for people who tolerate, no not tolerate, who advocate these idiot laws whose clear goal is anti-Americanism?

Is America already lost?

Stealth Jihad

How Islam is Infiltrating Your Neighborhood

by Doug Giles - November 22nd, 2008 - Townhall.com

If Christians ever attempted any of the above [a list of demands by Muslims that liberals are happy to accept] they would be righteously ridiculed, castigated and condemned by the MSM, school administrators, cartoonists, talk radio, the blogosphere, Rosie, the coven on the View, religious leaders, the ACLU, Alec Baldwin and president elect Barack Obama. All of the aforementioned people would land on our crotch firmly with both feet. Heck, Christians can’t even say “merry Christmas,” cheer on traditional marriage, or champion the life of an unborn baby without being called Hitler, haters of humanity and intolerant bigots of other people’s values.

The difference is that liberals are happy with anything that disparages Christianity, because like American patriotism and belief in American exceptionalism, they see it as an obstacle to their destruction of American culture and the creation of a socialist Utopia. Liberals get outraged at any suggestion that what they are doing harms our nation because they so arrogantly believe they with their idealistic vision are superior to our culture or history.

The same actions by America or Christians that even they laud in any other culture are anathema to liberals when done by us. This blatant bigotry will only be obvious when the wimps on the right recognize the current political battle is a war for freedom. These conservatives, libertarians and patriotic moderates better become FREEDOM WARRIORS and start fighting, because right now our future is pretty well doomed by the trends we all can see. That future is the normal tyranny that mankind has endured through most of history.

Until recently we have been exempt and this nation was the one place where someone really could have the freedom to excel based on intelligence and hard work. That is being ended and a campaign is being accelerated to take us back in time to a socialist evil that we have avoided until now.

The Only Way For Republicans To Win

by Lorie Byrd - November 21st, 2008 - Townhall.com

I wondered why the Congress controlled by the Democrats for the past two years was not suffering the wrath of voters’ intent on “throwing the bums out.” It wasn’t because the public loved the job they were doing. The approval numbers for the Congress have consistently been lower than that of President Bush, sometimes dipping close to single digits. But those interviewed on camera by HowObamaWasElected.com overwhelmingly believed the Republicans controlled Congress.

This is a great article that delves into some of the problems Republicans face in continuing to be meaningfully involved in future political races in America, after they figure out what they actually stand for. It is of great frustration to me that we will probably be an unalterably socialist nation long before they figure this out. In the meantime though, this one paragraph (above) points to a key issue that Republicans really need to learn how to deal with. Conservatives constantly compare the percentage of people who self identify as conservatives, 34%, with those who self identify as liberals, 22%. Ignoring that a large number of conservatives really aren't conservative on key issues, there is that huge remainder of people who self identify as "moderates", 44%, that we never seem to come to grips with.

The key attitude of "moderates" is that they want to live their lives without caring about politics. Therefore they only listen to short clear positions, their key memory is not the details of the argument but the implications of the position, and most important to understand, they stop listening after the initial discussion. After that they filter further discussion out and it is impossible to get their attention again until some totally new issue arises.

Democrats have consistently taken the position that Republicans are ruling our nation badly. Therefore the fact that Democrats control Congress and the Senate is not the implication that comes through to these people. It is the implication that is communicated and Democrats constantly blame Republicans for everything. It is ridiculous for Republicans to complain since this reality has been well known, at least by Democrats, for quite some time. Why can't Republicans understand this?

When, if ever, will Republicans care about the 44% of our nation who ARE self identified "moderates"? When, if ever, will Republicans start to communicate with the realization that the debate is going to end quickly and they better figure out the implications of their initial positions in the mind of "moderates" or liberals will destroy them in the long run. When Republicans couch their positions in emotion rather than logic, they find that to a great extent, "moderates" agree with them. However they allow socialists like George W. Bush, his father and Pat Buchanan to pretend to be conservatives and confuse these moderates who Republicans really are. I wonder right now if Republicans even know themselves who they are?

How Tom Daschle Might Kill Conservatism

by James Pethokoukis - November 21st, 2008 - U.S. News & World Report

Daschle and the Obamacrats certainly have the momentum: a near-landslide presidential election victory, at least 58 Democratic votes in the Senate, and a nasty recession that will make many Americans yearn for economic security. Already the health insurance companies seem set back on their heels. The industry's trade organization now says it would accept new rules requiring them to cover pre-existing conditions as long as there was a universal mandate for all Americans to have health insurance. On top of all that, Obama clearly wants to make healthcare reform a priority in his first term, as evidenced by the selection of a heavy hitter like Daschle. And even if he wasn't interested, Congress sure is, with Max Baucus and Ted Kennedy readying a plan in the Senate.

It is clear that Republicans still don't understand the game at all. Bill Bennett and Michael Steele were on TV last night assuring everyone that they are pleased with the apparently "moderate" appointments of OBama. This is going a long way to lull America's nervous Obama voters that they did not make a mistake. These two obviously think that later when they criticize Obama people will remember their earlier comments and give them credit for being fair and objective. Actually, the public has little memory for anything like that. What they will remember is that Republicans agreed that Obama is "moderate" and when they criticize him they will be labelled vicious lying Republicans attacking the "moderate" Obama.

With people as stupid as Bennett and Steele representing Republicans, it takes little intelligence to figure out why Republicans are getting their brains pounded in by Democrats. To Democrats this is a war for power. For Republicans it is an intellectual exercise about adhering to Republican principals, civility and non-partisanship ... whatever that is supposed to be. Even a feint towards being "moderate" by Obama thrills them.

At the same time even very conservative libertarians like me are smeared as RINOs and asked to leave the party. Read this article and assume even half of it is right. Then you may understand why I am so angry at the Republican Party and self righteous conservatives with their RINO insults. It was these same social conservatives who sat out this election and gave America to the socialists.

Conservatism is DEAD already. Musing that it might be killed is way late.

F.A. Hayeks Road Now Taken

By Robert Romano - November 19th, 2008 - Americans for Limited Government

Understandably, but mistakenly, the debate over the causes of the financial crisis has generated a false dichotomy between two camps: those who argue that the problem was deregulation, and those who argue that it was overregulation.

The reality is that it was central planning that caused the current economic crisis—and it is central planning that is taking us ever further down that dead end road to serfdom.

There are probably no two more important philosophers to study at this point in history than Frederick Hayek and Martin Niemoller. Niemoller's lesson is a short and cryptic one, warning about the dangers from recognizing too late the impending dangers, obvious when the rights of others are being taken and we fail to act. The Hayek lessons are more numerous and more subtle, but just as imperative. This is a great article about the current economic crisis and the need to remember the tyranny predicted by Hayek. Whether you call it serfdom, slavery or socialism, the result is the same.

Obama Out-Gores Gore At Climate Summit

by Marc Sheppard - November 20th, 2008 - American Thinker

"Few challenges facing America -- and the world -- are more urgent than combating climate change" - Barack Obama.

Stop right there! Waging a Don Quixote style battle against the very forces of nature trumps all but a few challenges? Do these happen to include the immediate issue of collapsing international markets and their very real potential to spark a worldwide depression? Or assuring the denial of weapons of mass destruction to terrorists and rogue nations? Or evading the strangle hold our dependency on oil allows those same factions and governments to leverage over us? Or our deteriorating confidence in the safe stewardship of a nuclear weapons arsenal already in the hands of an Islamic State of dubious intent and political cohesion? Or the successful outcomes of wars currently waging in Iraq and Afghanistan? Or resolving our increasingly tenuous relationship with Russia? Or the "poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan [that] could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris" Obama himself spoke of in his July "fellow citizen of the world" speech in Berlin?

Or, for that matter, any of countless bona fide and resolvable dangers the planet actually faces in the immediate future?

This article is a logical and methodical deconstruction of the idiocy behind the extremist positions of the environmentalists, positions that Obama publicly applauded. The cap and trade scheme that Obama is ready to foist on America will devastate our economy and lead to total socialist style control of every act of commerce. If we have an essentially socialist government of control, who cares if Obama denies that is his intent. It is of course the precise intent of the Marxist Messiah. Pretending to believe in this environmental nonsense is another of his stealth programs to take America down the road to socialist control.

The question is whether America will wake up before it is too late.

Time To Reassess the Iraq War?

by Larry Elder - Novemberr 20th, 2008 - Creator's Syndicate

According to Siobhan Gorman, writing in The Wall Street Journal: "President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration intelligence policies, advisers say, an approach that is almost certain to create tension within the Democratic Party. … (Obama) recently voted for a White House-backed law to expand eavesdropping powers for the National Security Agency. … The new president could take a similar approach to revising the rules for CIA interrogations, said one current government official familiar with the transition. Upon review, Mr. Obama may decide he wants to keep the road open in certain cases for the CIA to use techniques not approved by the military, but with much greater oversight."

So was the Iraq war, as Obama insisted, a mission that "never should have been authorized and never should have been waged"?

I agree with Larry's astute criticism of Barack Obama's apparently naive opposition to the so-called Iraq war. I have always felt it was a reasonable and useful creation of a new battlefield in the war against Islamo-fascism, the movement that is dedicated to our destruction. It was never a separate war. It was always justified by the need to prevent the nuclear holocaust we avoided during the cold war. The title itself though appears to concede that there is an Iraq war, rather than a battlefield in the greater war against Islamo-fascism.

What I am concerned with in Larry's article is the assumption that Obama is agreeing with some of the tactics because he has become more reasonable about their usefulness in fighting the Islamo-fascists. The specific capabilities he sees Obama accepting could just as easily be a part of his desire to create a huge new Civil Police Force reporting to the President to assist him in shutting down political opposition.

His stealth campaign to use the new "localism" strategy to shut down talk radio, allowing him to insist he will not re institute the "fairness doctrine", is typical of his duplicity. Goals for Obama are always going to be misdirection. His duplicity is something that everyone needs to be frightened of.

The stealth candidate dedicated to the stealth techniques of Saul Alinsky is not likely to be adopting these capabilities because he has suddenly become a fan of the things he has always stood against. I don't trust the Marxist Messiah.

E.D. Hill, Fox Contract Not Renewed

Fired Over Obama Comment?

by Warner Todd Huston - November 19th, 2008 - Newbusters

Some may remember the left-media storm targeting E. D. Hill that occurred back on June 6 when she off handedly said that Barack and Michelle's on stage fist bump was a "terrorist fist jab." The Huffington Post and Media Matters raised a storm of protest and soon after, E.D. Hill lost her Fox show.

The Barack Obama organization has been quick to sue, threaten to sue, or use their obedient fanatics in the MSM to intimidate ... anyone who has in any way earned Obama's disfavor. This is not the last conservative media star who will disappear in the near future. Welcome to what Obama calls bringing people together. We used to call this partisan destruction of your opponents but that was before the Marxist Messiah created "unity" in pursuit of "hope" and "change".

As Martin Niemoller reminded us, who will stand up for E.D. Hill?

Anybody still think Fox News will stand up and be counted?

Evil Concealed By Money

by Walter E. Williams - November 19th, 2008 - Townhall.com

The bottom line is that we've become a nation of thieves, a value rejected by our founders. James Madison, the father of our Constitution, was horrified when Congress appropriated $15,000 to help French refugees. He said, "I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." Tragically, today's Americans would run Madison out of town on a rail.

To those who see the evil of socialism, this article is obvious. To those who cannot see the evil of socialism, this article makes absolutely no sense at all. The socialist John Edwards was close to right when he said there are two Americas. There are not just two Americas. There are two human species; those who want to live free and those who are perfectly willing to live in slavery as long as they can make their neighbor live in slavery too.

That second position is unfortunately what America in the 21st Century represents. Our nation has become an insane joke. The free-est and richest people in history are throwing away both for socialism, a proven lie that has always failed. Can anything be more insane?

Where's The Birth Certificate?

by Joseph Farah - November 19th, 2008 - Creator's Syndicate

Incredibly, we are just nine weeks away from inaugurating the next president of the United States, and millions of Americans still have citizenship eligibility questions that have never been addressed by Barack Obama and his entourage.

All that Barack Obama would have to do to put this issue to rest is release his complete birth certificate, revealing where he was born and who were his parents. It seems like a simple thing.

[snip]

So, it would seem Obama is simply thumbing his nose at the Constitution and the concerns of millions of American people. After all, he has made it clear the Constitution doesn't mean what it says anyway; it's all a matter of opinion.

Maybe his intransigence on this seemingly ridiculous matter is just his way of showing he will, as president, consider himself above the Constitution. I don't know any other way to interpret his behavior, do you?

No. I don't. What about you reader? Do you care if Obama abides by the Constitution?

Barney Frank To Run General Motors

Does that headline give you comfort? That is the reality of what the Democrats are trying to do.

The article Democrat tied auto aid to conditions by Alexander Bolton in the magazine "The Hill" explains the democrat plan. "Frank said Sunday that automakers will be required to submit to Congress their plans for future economic viability and environmental efficiency." Yes. That's right. Barney Frank is going to decide whether the automakers have the right plan for economic viability.

I assume he will make this decision drawing on his vast experience in secretly sleeping with a male executive in a bank that he is regulating as a public official, allowing that bank to fail with billions in losses which the taxpayer is now covering. That act of blatant corruption is about as close to actual corporate management as Barney has ever gotten. Before we pass this bill he proposes isn't it a fair question to ask if Barney is sleeping with any GM executives?

ROTFL

The Right To Win

by Thomas Sowell - November 18th, 2008 - Creators Syndicate

The worst of all the reactions from people who act as if they have a right to win have come from gay activists in the wake of voter rejection of so-called "gay marriage," which is to say, redefining what marriage has meant for centuries.

Blacks and Mormons have been the main targets of the gay activists' anger. Seventy percent of blacks voted against gay marriage in California, so racial epithets were hurled at blacks in Los Angeles — not in black neighborhoods, by the way.

Blacks who just happened to be driving through Westwood, near UCLA, were accosted in their cars and, in addition to being denounced, were warned, "You better watch your back."

Even blacks who were carrying signs in favor of gay marriage were denounced with racial epithets.

Amazingly, blacks voted in huge numbers for the political candidates who support this type of behavior. It is Democrats who believe in this view of "right to win", not Republicans.

As usual, Thomas Sowell has gotten to the heart of a real problem in America today. The real problem is that the only tolerance is on the part of Republicans who do not understand that this is a war for the heart and soul of our nation. The recent election was not a huge endorsement for Barack Obama. It was another election where Republicans didn't vote because things had gotten contentious and they blamed their own party rather than the party that started the war. That is two elections in a row now where Republicans in large numbers have simply not voted.

The solution of the Republican Party? Run out of the party anyone does not meet a litmus test of ideological purity. The real question is, as always, who is willing to fight for what they believe in? Thanks for reminding me Thomas!

Obama Declares War On Conservative Talk Radio

by Jim Boulet, Jr. - November 17th, 2008 - The American Thinker

Barack Obama sought to silence his critics during his 2008 campaign. Now, with the ink barely dry on this November's ballots, Obama has begun a war against conservative talk radio.

Obama is on record as saying he does not plan an exhumation of the now-dead "Fairness Doctrine". Instead, Obama's attack on free speech will be far less understood by the general public and accordingly, far more dangerous.

The stealth candidate is moving fast to launch his stealth subversion of free speech. Practicing the same strategies of Marxist and communist subversion he taught as a community organizer, Obama moves quickly to shut down political opposition and consolidate the power he will need to create his Civil Police Force. This force, which will report to him personally, will be the second step needed to end freedom in our great land.

The initial tactic will involve promoting a concept the left has named "localism" as a process to have the FCC sue any radio station that does not carry the message they deem appropriate. Legal fees will crush management and ownership of these stations until they give up. Who has the money to fight the federal government?

I assume since America was deluded enough to vote for him, they will be deluded enough to let this suppression of free speech go through. Martin Niemoller's poem seems more and more prescient. Obama keeps saying exactly what rights he is going to take away and most Americans just respond, "Oh well that doesn't affect me, how bad can it be?"

Lawrence Of Eurabia

by Mike Adams - November 17th, 2008 - Townhall.com

... those who work as Directors of Intercultural Affairs are all cut from the same cloth. They are Democrats, self-described liberals, and, in 2008, they voted for Barack Obama. In other words, they aren’t a very diverse bunch of people.The multiculturalists also envision a world without borders. They want open-ended immigration. And they think it’s really neat that U.S. Supreme Court justices are starting to interpret our constitution by relying on the laws of other nations and the so-called “international community.”

Put simply, Directors of Intercultural Affairs have an affinity for cultural, if not economic, Marxism. And that is why they are offended by posters that make references to “Obama and Socialism.” They want their candidate to win. But they want their agenda to remain hidden.

This is an article describing the ability, and the willingness, of a college's administrators to shut down open debate by anyone who is not a liberal. The reaction of this college to anything critical of Obama is the future reaction of government to anything critical of Obama. The Civil Police Force that Obama has made a key component of his plans, will be staffed with the same intolerant and duplicitous personnel that have staffed all of the Intercultural Affairs and African Studies departments on college campuses nationwide. America is about to become the tyranny predicted in Orwell's 1984.

Obama Vows To Shut Guantanamo

by Correspondents - November 17th, 2008 - Agence France-Presse

"I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm going to make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world,'' Senator Obama said.

The only people who doubt the moral stature of America are the global socialists, communists, Islamo-fascists and fanatical liberals who support Barack Obama. We have not tortured anyone. Closing Guantanamo is much like Jimmy Carter's abandonment of the Panama Canal, not something that will help anyone who is on America's side. It will merely be done to appease our enemies, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, and a number of middle eastern fanatical Muslim groups that are generally referred to as Islamo-fascists. Certainly this action makes clear how extremist the Magic Marxist Messiah truly is. It makes a mockery of the judgement of all those people who insisted that Obama was a moderate and voted for him as a rational alternative to a patriot.

Senator Obama said that from his inauguration, "it is a top priority for us to stamp out al-Qaeda once and for all'' and that killing or capturing the group's mastermind Osama bin Laden was "critical" to US security.

Of course it is critical for us to win the war against the Islamo-fascists and assure that they no longer have the power to hurt us. However what imbecile thinks finding a single man, a man who has been marginalized and rendered powerless, a man who has cowered from public view since 2001, is critical to the security of a nation that has accomplished that goal?

Al Qaeda is not alone who we are at war with and even in Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden is a ghost at this point. The Islamo-fasicst movement is much larger than that one organization. Obviously the inexperienced "organizer" the American people have put into the most powerful position in the most powerful nation on earth is completely unable to fathom the complexity of the war we are in. This obsession with the ghost of Osama Bin Laden by Obama proves beyond all doubt he is unfit to command.

A Recession Can Clear The Air

by Charles Morris - November 16th, 2008 - Washington Post

For years now, even Democrats have been drinking the free-market Kool-Aid that the best economy is whatever markets decree it should be. So for most of the past two decades, the U.S. economy has been driven by whatever Wall Street is best at financing -- mostly bigger houses, fancier cars and more electronic toys from Asia. We have become a nation where people struggle to make payments on four-bedroom houses with faux-marble bathrooms and two SUVs in the driveway even as they worry about their lousy health insurance, evaporating pensions, shaky Social Security benefits and tapped-out 401(k)s.

Wall Street, meanwhile, prospered mightily. Financial-sector profits, which typically average about 10 to 15 percent of corporate profits, had leapt to 40 percent by 2007. Total corporate profits also soared, nearly doubling as a share of national income. But instead of triggering an investment boom, the gains were mostly distributed to shareholders.

What has happened to America is that the illusion of Free Markets has been replaced by Corporate Socialism. Wall Street is no longer emblematic of Free Markets. Wall Street has become an advocate of Corporate Socialism, where mergers and acquisitions are engineered with special treatment for insiders and little concern for whether the companies actually advance society.

The premise which defends Free Markets as a superior way to run a society is that competition assures the most effective allocation of assets and labor to serve people with products they need. Wall Street has ended that allocation by eliminating competition to maximize profits based not on serving people with better products, but simply eliminating competition through acquisitions and mergers.

It is outrageous. The reality that financial sector profits have soared to 40% of ALL profits is a red flag that should have gotten the attention of the conservatives in the Republican Party that Free Markets have been subverted. The traditional 10% profit for the financial sector was probably already higher than pure Free Markets would have allocated. Even that level of profits was due to our governments fixation on Wall Street as the method of capital formation. Unfortunately, neither George W. Bush or John McCain or any other major Republican leader seems to understand Free Markets.

The current structure of Wall Street is destructive of Free Markets. Why do they think that so many of the Wall Street types are becoming Democrats? If we expect a return to Free Markets, someone is going to have to go after Wall Street and rein in their power to manipulate the economic engine of our nation. Otherwise we are in the process of killing the goose that laid the golden egg. With the election of Barack Obama we seem to be going the other way. Rather than return to Free Markets, we are about to replace Corporate Socialism with Government Socialism.

That is not going to be an improvement even if we allow a recession to shake out weak companies and bankrupt the citizens who have taken on too much debt.

The Perils Ahead

by Caroline B. Glick - November 14th, 2008 - Jewish World Review

As the election drew closer, the Obama campaign expanded its efforts to present its candidate as a foreign policy moderate. Moderate foreign policy advisors like [Ambassador Dennis] Ross were paraded before reporters. Both Obama and his surrogates insisted that he supports a strong American alliance with Israel. Obama abandoned his earlier pledge to withdraw all US forces from Iraq by 2010. He attempted to temper and later deny his public pledge to hold direct negotiations with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad without preconditions.

Due in large part to media credulousness, Obama's new image as a centrist was widely accepted by the public. And it is likely that Obama owes a significant portion of his support in the American Jewish community to the campaign's success in distancing Obama from men like Brzezinski and Malley.

But now that the campaign is over, it appears that as his critics warned, Obama's moves toward the center on issues relating to the Middle East were little more than campaign tactics to obscure his true policy preferences.

Hatred for George W. Bush has led to the election of a global socialist candidate, and in the words of Jeremiah Wright, the chickens are about to come home to roost. Barack Obama is about to turn American foreign policy into the most severe anti Israel, pro Muslim, advocacy power imaginable. Global socialists like Obama see the Islamo-fascists as a sure ally in the destruction of free markets. Global socialists hate free markets much more than they hate religious fanatics. Therefore Barack Obama cares much more what Islamo-fascists want than what liberal American Jews want.

The only real question at this point is whether Israel goes down fighting, or is destroyed in a slow tyranny of Muslim subversion (and then hidden eradication) as Nazi Germany tried. That may well be decided by whether middle east powers keep the Islamo-fascists from moving too fast to satisfy Barack Obama. It will not matter what the Jews of America want any longer. They have made their bed with Obama and what he wants is all that matters now. It is clear that the Jews were conned into abandoning Israel by the master of stealth, the Magic Marxist Messiah. They can't say they were not warned.

Orwell's Children

by Bruce Walker - November 16th, 2008 - American Thinker

November 18, 1978, three decades ago, 918 people drank Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. Jim Jones, the communist leader of Jonestown, Guyana, had become "Big Brother." Soviet and Communist Chinese propaganda films and condemnations of capitalist and imperialist America blared continually to the subjects of this island of Leftist Hell.

Jonestown ended in mass suicide, but the real horror was that ordinary people, Americans like you and I, had become so decoupled from reality and morality that they could be led to surrender everything, even their lives, intoxicated only with the venom of modern Leftism. These were Orwell's Children.

We are drifting into the sort of horrific future he described.

You will not see this type of article, or the TV equivalent, on CBS, or CNN, or even Fox News.

It can be depressing, but it is also enlightening. This is the reality of today. Jews refuse to believe that the history of his previous statements and allies indicate what Barack Obama is actually planning for Israel, and so they vote for a man who assures them, with his soft baritone voice, they can trust him. Not even a bizarre speech that simultaneously takes the position that Jerusalem will be given to the Jews and the Arabs shakes the mesmerizing effect of his voice.

One fifth of self identified Christian Conservatives voted for Obama, believing that his occasional promises of being a believer were more important than his history of supporting elements of our society dedicated to the destruction of our God.

Orwell's 1984 is probably the most important book ever written, and yet few can intelligently explain its premise and its reality today. Bruce Walker has written a brilliant article that is probably more important than at any time in our history. I just wish a few more conservatives and moderates in our nation had read it before this recent election.

Obama: Fear And The Security Force

by Selwyn Duke - November 15th, 2008 - American Thinker

In all my life I have never seen an American politician who could make so many Americans' blood run cold. Some may mention the left's feelings regarding Reagan or President Bush, but there is no equivalency. For all of leftists' bluster and melodrama, they weren't afraid of those men as much as they, well, just hated them. Sure, leftist ideologues said those two Republicans were scary, but the same people also said that each one was both dumb and Machiavellian. Hatred is an emotion, and emotion isn't logical; it just conjures up whatever feels right at the moment.

In Obama's case, however, I sense a real, palpable, go-white-in-the-face fear akin to what might be evident in someone who has a gun put to his head or believes he has seen a demon. I know for instance, a stout-hearted man of rough-hewn breeding and my political persuasion who has said about the impending changing of the guard, "I'm afraid."

Towards the end of this article there are comments about the fact that those who feel this fear, and sense the coming Marxist command nation that Obama's Security Force will be used to create, are ridiculed by average Americans for this idea. As noted in the article, Churchill did not get a positive response when he predicted the evil of Hitler. People actually shunned Churchill until his predictions proved correct. That is how I feel right now. Especially when the Party I have been a part of has told me that I am not conservative enough and that I should leave and go away.

The world is going insane ... and I feel that what is happening is making me the same.

'Socialism'? It's Already Here.

by George F. Will - November 16th, 2008 (Publication Date) - Washington Post

Hyperbole is not harmless; careless language bewitches the speaker's intelligence. And falsely shouting "socialism!" in a crowded theater such as Washington causes an epidemic of yawning. This is the only major industrial society that has never had a large socialist party ideologically, meaning candidly, committed to redistribution of wealth. This is partly because Americans are an aspirational, not an envious, people. It is also because the socialism we do have is the surreptitious socialism of the strong, e.g., sugar producers represented by their Washington hirelings.

In America, socialism is un-American. Instead, Americans merely do rent-seeking -- bending government for the benefit of private factions. The difference is in degree, including the degree of candor. The rehabilitation of conservatism cannot begin until conservatives are candid about their complicity in what government has become.

You are certainly right about this George. Conservatives are not honest to any degree about their positions on many things. That includes their self righteous proclomation of being Christian. They display more intolerance and lack of Christian Charity than any group in America. Also, their love affair with Wall Street, which regularly abuses the concept of free markets and has never met a monopoly building acquisition that it did not embrace, has turned the term capitalist into a joke.

An Historical Certainty

By Robert Romano - November 14th, 2008 - getliberty.com

"History has shown that the greater threat to economic prosperity is not too little government involvement in the market, it is too much government involvement in the market." -- President George W. Bush, November 13th, 2008.

Welcome to the corner level of Hell, Mr. President.

Belatedly, President Bush yesterday delivered remarks in defense of free market principles at the Manhattan Institute, while simultaneously defending unprecedented market interventions by the U.S. and other governments throughout the world in the wake of what the President called a “global meltdown.”

He said he’s usually a market-oriented kind of guy, but “not when I'm faced with the prospect of a global meltdown.” What he failed to say, but essentially implied, is that the meltdown is already here. And not he—nor any of the central bankers and planners throughout the world who are scrambling to prevent it from occurring—may be able to indeed avert it, despite all of the creativity in the world.

Nonetheless, world leaders are determined to thwart what they view as a worldwide economic and financial catastrophe.

To be sure, a meltdown of the global economy would have severe consequences for regional economies, jobs, and individuals. This is a problem that was not created overnight, although it seemingly has come to the forefront rapidly. And it could and perhaps should be viewed in a macro-historical perspective, with the cycling of the rise and fall of civilizations.

Persia. Alexandria. Rome. Constantinople. The Mongolian Empire. European colonialism. Fascism. The Soviet Empire. All these systems inevitably fell. And it appears all but an historical certainty that they will not be the last.

These rises and falls perplex historians, economists, and leaders, who are determined not to share in the same fate. And certainly, free market capitalism—poisoned for more than a century by the market interventions that it now depends to limp along—appears poised on the brink of ruin. But this is deceiving.

The President is right when he says that this “crisis was not a failure of the free market system.” He correctly points out that the mortgage industry in the U.S. was essentially government-run. The easy credit system combined with low interest rates were also government-created problems.

For too long, the global economy has depended upon a financial and credit system that currently fuels everything from retail sales to home purchases. That dependency is to such an extent that the economy can seemingly not even sustain a drop in those sales and purchases.

The immediate reason for the crisis is that [] money [is] failing to flow around as it has. Investments are drying up. Pensions falling. Asset values plummeting. But how can this be? How could the most prosperous economy in the world have become so addicted to credit? The answer is not pretty, and the problem is insidious.

More and more, we have become a cashless society. How many of us even bother to withdraw money? Why not just slide a debit card? Investment firms the world over were operating on the same principle, and the current contraction—which was inevitable—is the result of just about everybody becoming over leveraged.

The interventions now are only tailored to cope with the symptoms of the contraction. Some delude themselves into believing they can stop the contraction. Either way, the downward plunge was unavoidable, and the question is not whether there can be a cushion for the fall, but how to rebuild from the crash.

The truth is that our currency, and currencies around the world that have fallen into this seductive credit system, have become so far debased that nobody can even discuss the absolute values of those currencies. They are mostly viewed relatively. There is no such thing as hard money anymore.

Throughout the housing boom, the central bankers kept injecting liquidity to keep the boom going. After 9/11, they injected liquidity to help markets “recover.” Then when the housing bubble popped, they injected more liquidity to shore up those markets. And now that the entire financial system is collapsing under the weight of all that “liquid,” it is used as yet another excuse to pump yet more cash into the system.

And yes, this is all as menacing as it appears.

The tautology never ends when it comes to central planning. It only escalates into tyranny. F.A. Hayek’s wisdom of The Road to Serfdom is instructive in this regard. Therein he makes the case that the road to totalitarianism is paved with central economic planning that only gets worse over time. It was prophecy:

“Most planners who have seriously considered the practical aspects of their task have little doubt that a directed economy must be run on more or less dictatorial lines. That the complex system of interrelated activities, if it is to be consciously directed at all, must be directed by a single staff of experts, and that ultimate responsibility and power must rest in the hands of a commander-in-chief whose actions must not be fettered by democratic procedure, is too obvious a consequence of underlying ideas of central planning not to command fairly general assent.”

Over 60 years before it happened, Professor Hayek described essentially how the Treasury’s new Troubled Asset Relief Program now operates, above all consideration of popular will, representation, and even oversight. No longer is the program—which was intended to unclog credit markets of troubled assets—even being pursued along the lines of its original intentions. The Federal Reserve refuses to transparently disclose the terms of billions of dollars of loans.

The Treasury claims it is being flexible, and that as circumstances change, so too will their strategy to deal with perhaps the worst financial crisis ever. While there is wisdom with responding to changing realities, in this case, the foolish consistency is proceeding with yet more market interventions after the previous market interventions have failed to halt the de-leveraging that is occurring globally.

In this case, failure is an option. We’ve been told it is unthinkable. But really, this over leveraged credit system’s failure—which is already being witnessed—may be the only option.

The current crisis was the result [of] too much credit, too much liquidity, and too much tinkering of the economy by central banks in an effort to perpetuate growth. For too long, the economy has been essentially on credit-steroids until finally the value of purchases of goods and services no longer has any meaning. Global markets cannot find a top or a bottom. They do not know where to land, because they cannot price in when and where the interventions end.

When government removes failure as an option, it removes the reward of success, it removes the certainty of price stability, and with that uncertainty, unnecessarily prolongs an economic contraction that can only now be finally measured but has been decades in the making.

The markets have paused waiting to see what the new rules of the game will be. That will be when the bottom is found. So, what should those new rules be?

The fact is that governments the world over have spent far beyond their means, printed too much currency, and created far too much debt. Nations must now apply the principles of individual savings in order to survive. The President is right about one thing, “the long-term solution to today's problems is sustained economic growth. And the surest path to that growth is free markets and free people.”

But, only long-term, genuine growth—and not growth based on incurring debt—will sustain free markets that are the natural implication of human liberty. The astronomical national debt represents so many shackles around the ankles of future generations of Americans. And it must stop now.

Too much debt is clearly killing marketplace activity, not fueling it. We cannot sin our way out of an extended stay in Hell.

History shows great civilizations consistently collapsing under their own weight, and the current global economic system will be no different. However, while the cycles of the rise and fall of societies may appear to be a natural function of fortune, it is hardly an inevitability. The true historical certainty is that bad government policies will lead to bad economic consequences.

And we must deal with the consequences of this failed system. The first is starting with the truth: The current system has failed.

The world’s leaders meet now to determine what must be done. They can continue down the road to Hell and attempt to create a short-term illusion of a solution through incurring more debt, or by creating a new system that really is the old system in disguise. Or they can make the harder, better, more long-term, strategic decision to return to sound monetary policies that focus on price stability and avoiding the escalating boom and bust cycles that now threaten a “global meltdown.” If leaders now fail to address this true root cause, the next system will fail.

No matter how many times George W. Bush was criticized for his excessive and wasteful spending, monetary experts assured us that it would be okay as long as the economy was sound. No one could get Republicans, the only people who truly care about a sound economy and sound monetary policy, to acknowledge that Bush was creating a huge glut in money to make up for the fact that our economy was NOT sound and our money was NOT on solid ground. The astronomical increase in our nation's debt is an insidious anchor around all of our necks, dragging us down. No one can deal with this until we stop pretending it is not true.

The democrats thought that as long as they ran the two frauds, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, they could drain huge monetary rewards into the pockets of government bureaucrats, steer relative fortunes to the poor in the form of home loans they could not pay, and there would never be a day of reckoning.

What is totally astonishing is that our press, even the conservative press like Fox News, continues to act like the ongoing financial meltdown is just a short term problem. We are experiencing a total restructuring financial meltdown of free enterprise and free markets, much like the financial meltdown that wiped out the Soviet Union. The cause is the same reason, profligate spending by government without accepting the limits of reality. The real question is not what happens to these two corrupt organizations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The real question is what happens to America when the financial ruin continues to escalate and our government proves unable to salvage our economy or any form of economic prosperity for the American people.

We have been practicing socialism for 8 years under George W. Bush. He did not cause the problems but he has certainly escalated them. However the American people, deluded by some of our best leaders ... as well as naive infants like the Magic Marxist Messiah, think that everything is okay and that no one will have to pay for the insanity. We can just become even more socialist and everything will be okay. The Soviet Union thought the same and it is as much wishful thinking for us as it was for them.

No one seems willing to accept that the next few years will be a continuing crisis based on the destruction of free enterprise and free markets by the corrupt minions of Wall Street. Wall Street controls both political parties and neither Party cares about free enterprise or free markets any longer.

Confessions Of A McCain Voter

by Cinnamon Stillwell - November 13th, 2008 - San Francisco Chronicle

I have a confession to make. I voted for John McCain, and yet I'm incredibly relieved that Barack Obama won the presidential election.

Let me explain.

The past eight years have been defined largely by Democratic and leftist opposition to George W. Bush and to all things deemed Republican. As someone who rallied to Bush's side after 9/11 and supported him in the 2004 election, only to find myself deeply disappointed both in his second term and in the arrogance and complacency of the GOP, I've grown quite weary of the partisan culture wars.

Oh Yeah. It was always the right wing that waged a partisan culture war to make their children attend schools which ridiculed their family morals and taught their children that America was a racist and evil nation. Now that the party which supports the liberal culture war and its left wing teachers is in power, they will mellow out and teach our children the morality that made our country great, ending the culture war. If you believe that, you are an idiot. The partisan culture wars are about to get worse.

In fact, if you believe this left wing San Francisco writer voted for George W. Bush, you are an idiot too.

The idea that the liberal anti-war pacifists will suddenly be fair with their treatment of our military now that Barack Obama is Commander in Chief, as this writer claims she believes, can be disproven by the way they treated the military under Clinton. They called them evil and baby killers during that 8 years too. I am just sure that on this issue Ms. Stillwell is ... WRONG.

This article's introduction proclaiming her support for John McCain was really all just a set up so that you would not puke when she talked about how glowingly everyone feels now that the Magic Marxist Messiah is in power ... how hopeful they are, how they are just ready to reach out and unite with all the Republicans in bipartisan humility, just the second Republiicans become socialist loving anti-American hate mongers like the left. That does not mean for a single solitary second that they have any intention of despising America less, hating free enterprise less, or ending the determination that our churches are to be closed by a secular federal government. Uniting is about conservatives abandoning their principals and uniting with the left in agreement that everything we have ever stood for is evil. That is the unity the Magic Marxists Messiah and his manic minions dream about.

And that includes the deluded liar who wrote this bilge.

Defending American Liberty

It’s still about Communism

by William R. Mann - November 12th, 2008 - Canada Free Press

Barry Goldwater’s “extremist rhetoric” [a favorite Left Wing smear] words were certainly no more extreme than most of the writings of Paine, Jefferson, Hamilton or Madison before and during our Revolution. Take your time and read but a few randomly selected quotes from each of these ardent patriots and judge for yourself:

Read the article to get a truly awesome list of the quotes on human freedom of our founding fathers. They have the same power to inspire today that they had at the time our nation came into existience.

That is one thing that I wish I could communicate to more people in the Republican Party. We are not about "limited government". That is just one policy of a program whose purpose is much grander. It is about HUMAN FREEDOM. That is what made America great and what we must stand for. The problem we currently face is too many people have become so detail oriented and worried about the tactics, the grand goal has been lost.

We do not stand for limited government as a goal, but as a part of a commitment to human freedom on which the greatness of America has always been based.

Another World Record

by ALG Admin - November 12th, 2008 - Net Right Nation

Over the last week we’ve all become accustomed to hearing how “historic” the Obama election is, how the world loves us now, how “record breaking” the campaign was. But virtually no attention has been paid to the real world record Barack Obama has set.

Within 48 hours – not days or weeks, but hours – after his election was declared, Barack Obama not only broke one of his most serious promises, he showed the world how his campaign was little more than showmanship, slight of hand to fool the rubes. In short, Obama snickered at the American people and raised his middle finger.

With the name of the writer suspect, and the site being a less than well known organization, I cannot verify that the accusations are correct. It is known that at least one "fact" reported in this article is disputed by Obama's campaign, which is that the individual named, Rob Malley, was not talking with Hamas. This is disputed by Hamas though who claims he is talking with them on Obama's behalf, so who knows what the truth is.

Considering the fact that Obama self leaked his conversation with George W. Bush, and then tried to deny he was the leaker (there were only two people in the room and it is unlikely that Bush leaked something that harmed him), it is becoming harder and harder to concede any denial from the Magic Marxist Messiah has credibility.

I therefore tend to believe this accusation. Obama is colluding with Hamas to harm Israel. Congratulations to the vast majority of Jews who voted for Obama and helped to elect him. When the nuclear bomb goes off in Tel Aviv they should be reminded of their vote.

Washington's $5 Trillion Tab

by Elizabeth Moyer - November 12th, 2008 - Forbes

For all the fury over Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's $700 billion emergency economic relief fund, it seems downright puny when compared to the running total of the government's response to the credit crisis.

According to CreditSights, a research firm in New York and London, the U.S. government has put itself on the hook for some $5 trillion, so far, in an attempt to arrest a collapse of the financial system.

FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS!

As noted on this site, the final tab for the October 1st bailout that George W. Bush and John McCain foisted on the American public was nearly TWO TRILLION DOLLARS alone. I have kept up an insistence that Republicans need to stop using the $700 billion number but with no success. The MSM has made that number the presumed number by its use in headline after headline and gullible Republican idiots have accepted the number.

This article talks about the following reality. We are rushing in to socialism with a speed that will stun the world. This rush is being led by the first socialist President, George W. Bush. By the time carbon trading and environmental led abandonment of rational energy is implemented by the Magic Marxist Messiah, America will lose its lead as the richest nation per capita on earth.

The coming future is a disaster of human insanity.

Saudi Arabia To Lead U.N. Faith Forum

by Colum Lynch - November 12th, 2008 - Washington Post

Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich Islamic kingdom that forbids the public practice of other religious faiths, will preside Wednesday over a two-day U.N. conference on religious tolerance that will draw more than a dozen world leaders, including President Bush, Israeli President Shimon Peres and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

George W. Bush is a "decent" man who always harbors hope in his breast that Russian Dictator Putin, Saudi King Abdullah and other tyrannical world rulers are just as "good" and "decent" as he thinks he is. However the real problem is that unlike Reagan, who worked on the premise of trust but verify, Bush is a blithering idiot. Either that or this "decent" man is the most hypocritical bigot of all and is attending this farce for the final opportunity to be a part of the world stage before he loses the power that comes from holding the most powerful office on earth.

The real agenda of the Saudi King has been well reported, including in the article "The Big Saudi Swindle" posted here. From that article:

As President Bush and other world leaders convene for the farce, King Abdullah’s plan will move steadily along and his image as peacemaker will be broadcast far and wide. He can back off of whatever lukewarm peace initiative he’s laid out once he’s made his case for global blasphemy.

I have grown sick of Bush's sanctimonious bleatings, and his willingness to trust our enemies, internal and external, more than he trusts those who voted for him. It is not in the interest of the United States to support this ridiculous goal of a world blasphemy statute which will be used to destroy anyone who criticizes Islam. You can bet it will never be used to defend Christianity. Just how stupid and gullible is George W. Bush? We who voted for him are regularly reviled and insulted. Only Democrats and foreigners are treated with his "decency".

Europe Is Obama's First 'Global Test'

by Soeren Kern - November 13th, 2008 - American Thinker

The main obstacle to European superpower ambitions is, of course, the United States, in whose likeness the present global system is made. Indeed, the unprecedented interest in the outcome of the US presidential elections in every corner of the globe has underscored once again that, even considering the current financial crisis, America's economic, political, military and cultural influence still remains second-to-none.

This is where Europe's six-page letter to Obama comes into play. All the high-minded post-modern verbiage about global solutions to global problems included in that document is the eurospeak way of saying that Europeans want a final say in how American power is exercised. It is what Europeans mean when they use the words "multilateralism" and "globalism."

Will Obama play ball the European way and agree to turn the levers of American power over to others? Or will he, like Bush before him, recognize the European demand for equal status with America for what it really is? Will Obama stroke European egos with the superpower recognition they crave so much? Or will Obama call their bluff and ask Europeans to pull their weight in Afghanistan and elsewhere?

The Magic Marxist Messiah is a manipulator, but he is very interested in global power, not American. That makes his response to this move a difficult one to predict. The final answer has much to do with internal power plays within the global socialist movement, and little to do with what is in the interest of the United States of America. That is exactly why the election of the racist bigot is so frightening. Only those with inside knowledge of the socialist movement really have a clue what he is likely to do ... and that leaves us in serious jeopardy.