Direction, Anyone?

by Ramesh Ponnuru - September 7th, 2009 (publication date) - National Review (NRO)

Republicans are looking for a leader. Go to any right-leaning gathering, and at some point the conversation will turn to the party’s potential presidential nominee in 2012. Republicans were less consumed by that question in 1993, the first year of the last Democratic presidency. Even when Republicans aren’t talking about the 2012 race, they are debating who speaks for the party — sometimes explicitly, as when Rush Limbaugh and Michael Steele feuded this spring. Or they are wondering who will form the next generation of Republican leaders: Eric Cantor? Paul Ryan?

Sarah Palin is a patriot.
Sarah Palin is a practical outdoor person who understands nature and sees environmentalists for the bigots they are.
Sarah Palin and her husband are hard working middle class Americans
Sarah Palin is as unquestionably ethical as anyone in either party and has the personal integrity that demanded she quit when Republican leadership in Alaska asked her to violate that integrity (that is tough minded indeed in the modern world).
Sarah Palin appears to be fiscally conservative, though she has not taken enough positions on this issue that I would swear to that.
These are all good things.

Yet because Sarah Palin is a social conservative none of these good things may matter.

What scares many in the Republican Party (and among independents) is the question of whether she believes in the free will that God explicitly gave each of us, leaving sin between each individual and God, or whether she joins the sanctimonious in demanding that government must enforce a sin free life - no sex before marriage, a ban on drugs and anything else that they decide is required of us. Palin accepts these restrictions voluntarily for herself and her family. That is good too. Does she demand that government dictate the same rules for all? The answer to that question is what many are unsure of. Because nothing in the Bible or the Constitution allows that it is a really important question. She actually seems to accept these things as sins rather than government policy, but those who attack her ignore those signs of her tolerance. Her future as a leader is dependent on how she stands on this issue of government being a conservative nanny state instead of a liberal nanny state.

What astonishes me is that Ramesh Ponnuru dismisses Sarah from an article talking about Republican leadership. He sees possible conservative entrepreneurship coming from a couple of congressional insiders who are totally in bed with the Party apparatus?

Some of his arguments beg the question of how you can talk about conservative entrepreneurship and not deal with the Republican crisis over Wall Street. Many in the Republican Party are too scared to even acknowledge that Wall Street no longer believes in free enterprise. Wall Street gives most of their campaign contributions to Democrats, not Republicans. Yet because they are still the biggest contributors to many Republican campaigns - we cower and accept their table scraps and never say anything about the hypocrisy of mergers and acquisitions creating huge profits for Wall Street by wiping out competition. When did capitalism become the bastion of socialism and crony capitalism? When did the competition aspect of free enterprise get dropped from the description of capitalism?

The kind of conservative entrepreneurship that Ponnuru advocates requires actions exactly like what Sarah Palin did. She walked away from government so she can write and talk about freedom and policy without constraints. Or does Ponnuru not consider that freedom and small government are truly what Republicans and conservatives are about?

Until the Republican Party abandons its involvement with Wall Street and returns to the party of free enterprise, articles like this one by Ponnuru are an insult to what conservatism means.

UBS Whistleblower Gets Rewarded With Prison Time

by Ann Woolner - August 26th, 2009 - Bloomberg News

If he had kept his mouth shut and his head low, Bradley Birkenfeld would be a free man today. He didn’t, so now the former UBS AG banker wears an electronic bracelet on his ankle and, beginning in January, will spend three years and four months in a federal penitentiary.

He’s headed for prison even though he blew the whistle on a multibillion-dollar international tax fraud conspiracy. Birkenfeld’s information let the U.S. pierce Swiss bank secrecy laws as never before possible.

This episode is proof positive that ALL government bureaucrats are contemptible scum. Anyone stupid enough to trust the self serving parasites that suck at the public trough have never truly understood why government is always the most evil and corrupt element in any society.

Ted Kennedy Loathed Britain

- so why did Gordon Brown knight him?

by Ruth Dudley Edwards - August 27th 2009 - London Mail

Gordon Brown was 'proud to have counted [Ted Kennedy] as a friend and proud that the United Kingdom recognised his service earlier this year with the award of an honorary knighthood'.

Proud? He should be ashamed. Kennedy was a formidable and Machiavellian political operator in the U.S., but he was no friend of Britain. In fact, he was one of our most committed and unrelenting enemies on Capitol Hill.

In his anti-British sentiments, he took after his father, Joseph P. Kennedy, who was unable to hide his bigoted views during a shameful spell as U.S. ambassador to Great Britain.

Ted did his father proud. As a politician dependent on Irish-American votes, this master of empty rhetoric had no scruples about spreading the bitter message of Irish republicanism, especially if there was an election at stake.

Like much else about the Kennedy history, the lies will never stop. Ted Kennedy was indifferent to the death of Mary Jo Kopechne and indifferent to the rape by William Kennedy Smith which Ted Kennedy contributed to by getting his nephew drunk. When the Kennedy family gets together for their drunken parties they never fail to remind each other of how entitled they are.

Entitlement is the one word that dominates the attitude of the Kennedy clan. They are rich beyond most people's dreams from the fortune of Joseph P. Kennedy created by stock manipulation and other marginally legal efforts (rumored to have included bootlegging) even abusing his position as Ambassador to England to extort favorable terms for the importation of Scotch in one endeavor which added to the family fortune.

The Kennedy family is a ruthless group of arrogant entitled rich that use money to destroy anyone who gets in their way. For every person who admires their constant touting of socialism, their is another who despises them for the evil and corruption they stand for.

ACLU: Spying For America's Enemies

by Michelle Malkin - August 26th, 2009 - Townhall.com

Working from a witch-hunt list of 45 CIA employees, the ACLU team tailed and photographed agency employees or obtained other photos from public records.

And then they showed the images to suspected al-Qaida operatives implicated in murdering 3,000 innocent men, women and children on American soil.

Where is the concern for the safety of these American officers and their families? Where's the outrage from all the indignant supporters of former CIA agent Valerie Plame, whose name was leaked by Bush State Department official Richard Armitage to the late Robert Novak? [Who learned about it second hand from Valerie's own husband by his voluntarily LISTING the fact in Who's Who.]

The persecution of Scooter Libby was never anything but politics. The persecution of these CIA agents by the ACLU is again, nothing but politics. Outing them is considered a good thing no matter how much it damages America or our CIA agents and their families. The left wing radicals who surround our left wing radical President were never upset about the outing of Valerie Plane. They were simply doing what Alinsky taught them. Use the laws of America to destroy America. It was always a strategy, not a concern with patriotism.

Panetta Vilified By Liberal Contempt

by Rich Lowry - August 25, 2009 - Washington Post

In response to an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit, a judge ordered the administration to release a 2004 CIA inspector general report about interrogation practices.

Although often discomfiting reading (one incident involved a power drill), the report also outlines the CIA's nearly obsessive quest for legal guidance and its intolerance for unauthorized methods as piddling as blowing cigar smoke at detainees.

Consider the fate of the CIA officer who used a gun to frighten Abd al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind of the USS Cole bombing.

He did it in 2002. The agency immediately called him back to headquarters. He faced an internal accountability board, suffered a reprimand and eventually resigned.

Did you know that threatening someone known to be a terrorist is "torture"? You can''t even say that you might harm them, or God forbid, blow cigarette smoke in their eyes. Rather than praise for getting information without actually harming someone - you can have your career destroyed instead. I didn't know this. I believe Democrats are gutless pansies and they wish to render gutless our own attempts to defend our nation. It is for that reason the CIA is being stripped of the right to interrogate people and this effort to interrogate is being handed to the White House. That is correct. The political White House which has already this year labelled people who rage against a health care bill they disagree with as "domestic terrorists" - will take over interrogation of potential spies and terrorists to assure that we don't intimidate them into saying anything worthwhile.

The reaction of left wing writers has been frustration over the go slow process Obama and Holder have launched. They have already "convicted" the Bush appointees and CIA agents and they want the show trials to start right now. Welcome to socialist America. For those who think that Attorney General Eric Holder is doing this without Obama support, I remind people of the KJFK radio interview between then Senator Barack Obama and host Christiane Brown back during the campaign.

OBAMA: Well one of things that I’ve said, and I’ve said this repeatedly publicly, since I taught constitutional law for ten years is that...one of my first acts as president is going to be call in my new attorney general to review every single executive order that’s been issued... to overturn those that are undermining the Constitution, undermining our civil liberties, that are promoting this cockamamie theory of Unitary government, that says that somehow the executive branch does not need to obey the Constitution…uhh

BROWN: But, but Senator Obama forgive me…

OBAMA: Let, let me finish…and during that process of review, if it’s determined that laws have been broken, then obviously accountability would be part of my Attorney General’s job.

Holder is not doing this against Obama's wishes. Obama is simply exercizing his usual technique of taking both sides of every issue. You can never tell what Obama means until you see what actions his administration takes. Holder is doing what Obama wants, what he said he wants as Obama himself points out... repeatedly.

Meanwhile the man who is charged with running the CIA, left wing political operative Leon Panetta, is reduced to pleading with CIA agents not to panic over White House plans to investigate them for criminal conduct. That is clearly the meaning you get from his letter this week to the CIA personnel.

The article Please Don’t Panic by Jennifer Rubin has just appeared in Commentary Magazine. It quotes the following from Panetta to his agency, the CIA:

As Director in 2009, my primary interest—when it comes to a program that no longer exists—is to stand up for those officers who did what their country asked and who followed the legal guidance they were given. That is the President’s position, too. The CIA was aggressive over the years in seeking new opinions from the Department of Justice as the legal landscape changed. The Agency sought and received multiple written assurances that its methods were lawful. The CIA has a strong record in terms of following legal guidance and informing the Department of Justice of potentially illegal conduct.

Yet, no matter how many times Obama states he does not "want" to go after the CIA and Panetta parrots that intention with "sincerity", both their words and actions make a mockery of the claim. It is interesting how Panetta's letter emphasizes that the CIA is no longer interrogating spies and terrorists (see above - it has now been moved into the White House). On issue after issue Barack Obama has said one thing and yet acted exactly the opposite. Obama may have slipped out of town the day before his Attorney General started this prosecution of the CIA, but no one has any doubts about the source of the action. It is one more attack on our nation's security agencies from Barack Obama, the master of Alinsky deceit.

Obama And The Holy Land

by Edward Bernard Glick - August 23, 2009 - American Thinker

In June 2009, in a speech in Cairo, President Barack Obama announced a historic American tilt toward the Arab and Muslim worlds. It is too early to tell if he, unlike his predecessors, believes in what has been known as the special relationship between America and Israel, However, most of his fellow Americans still believe in it. Not only did they rejoice when President Harry Truman made the United States the first country in the world to recognize Israeli independence in May 1948, but they allowed both Republican and Democratic administrations to put their tax dollars where their feelings are.

The history of relations between Israel, and before its very existence, with the Zionist movement that ultimately led to its creation has always been a close one. The Jewish diaspora has been a compelling part of the world's history. Their return to Israel has been an incredible lesson about the ability of words, the old testament, to inspire a culture and a people. Those same words, the old testament, have been a major inspiration for the huge phenomenon of Christianity. Our own nation like Israel owes much of its dedication to freedom to the "free will" God granted in the old testament to his followers.

Today we have a President that appears dedicated to dissolving the special relationship that has always existed between Israel and America. In fact this same President seems dedicated to ending the relationship between Christianity and America. He has gone all over the world denouncing our nation and declaring that we are no longer a Christian nation. He is not doing that because he believes it. He is doing that because he wishes to make it true.

The question is what happens to free will if these wishes come true? How intertwined is our nation with the inspiration provided for both decency and freedom that comes from the words of the old testament?

Obama seems determined to find out.

Racial Equality Long Way Off

by Lauren Martin - August 21st, 2009 - Martha's Vineyard Gazette

Nodding to Professor Henry Louis (Skip) Gates Jr. at his Whaling Church panel discussion Achieving Equality in the Age of Obama last night, Princeton professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell shook her head and said: ”If you had told me this time last year, when we were all pretty emotionally up and excited, even though George W. Bush was still our President, that we would actually feel worse a year later, when Barack Obama was our President, about questions of race in America, I would have told you you were lying.”

This is an article of amazing enlightenment. In a church filled with blacks who are richer and better connected than 99% of the whites in our nation, speaker after speaker gets up and whines about how the white man won't give them any respect.

One of the Panel speaking was Skip Gates of recent arrest fame. Though it was clear to almost any white person (save a few liberals) his arrest was triggered by his own actions, neither Gates nor anyone in that church believed this to be true. This is not just an issue of blacks having a different interpretation of the facts. This is about not accepting any facts that conflict with their world view. Nothing that anyone in the world, especially a white person, could say would change their mind. Gates was profiled and arrested just to keep the black man down. Nothing that actually happened could change that opinion. They don't want to hear any facts. Even after the so-called "beer summit" Gates has been all over black radio explaining how he was profiled. In fact holding the "beer summit" is proof that President Obama has to kowtow to the white powers. Crowley is a racist. End of story.

One of the speakers whined about how the horrible schools that blacks attend are still the fault of white people. It does not matter that most inner city and rural schools systems that blacks attend have been run by black Mayors and black School Superintendents for 40 years. It does not matter that 40 years ago most blacks did better in schools than they do today. The deterioration is all the fault of whites. Washington DC spends more per student in the nearly all black system of our nation's capital than any other school system in our nation, white or black, public or private. Marion Berry and other black leaders have been in charge for as long as anyone can remember. Yet students in that system consistently fail. Smart blacks are doing everything they can to flee this horribly run and incompetently managed disaster. How is that the fault of whites? Sorry. It is the fault of whites. End of story.

In this article one black professor, in a deranged rambling incoherent explanation, says that Sarah Palin was nominated so that Obama could win in some convoluted explanation about "white Americans over performing" to elect the black guy. I am certain that both John McCain and Sarah Palin would be amazed to discover that they were all part of some white complicity to elect Barack Obama so that blacks could be kept in their place. What? I cannot believe I just read that. Yet it is explained that whites elected Obama so they did not have to make investments in the "system structure" that would allow blacks to "get power" to improve the "opportunity structure". Yep. That is why whites voted for Obama. To keep the black man down. End of story.

Ever wonder why race relations in America are getting worse, not better? Read this article and it will become a lot clearer.

Manufactured Objections

The Washington Post’s Harold Meyerson is wrong on trade.

by Daniel Ikenson - August 20th, 2009 - National Review Online

According to data from the 2009 Economic Report of the President, as gathered and reported recently by George Mason University economics professor Don Boudreaux, since 1987, real U.S. manufacturing output has increased by 81 percent. And as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, American real manufacturing value-added — the market value of manufactured goods, over and above the costs that went into their production — reached a record-high level in 2007 (the last year for which final data are available), breaking the record set in 2006, which broke the record set in 2005, which broke the record set in 2004. Notwithstanding the recent recession that has affected all sectors of the economy, U.S. manufacturing has been thriving in recent years.

If Meyerson isn’t intentionally misleading Washington Post readers, he is simply unqualified to be rendering conclusions about the state of manufacturing. A basic look at the history of the statistic he used shows its uselessness to the point he wants to make. Manufacturing as a share of gross domestic product peaked in 1953 at about 28 percent of the economy — well before the period of U.S. industrial prowess Meyerson yearns for — and has been trending downward ever since. Today manufacturing accounts for about 12 percent of our services-dominated economy, but manufacturing output and value-added are higher than ever in real terms.

Much of my frustration with statistics is their use by liberals to lie through their teeth. I have watched it all my life and it still infuriates me. This article is filled with statistics and I hope they are real, but you just can't tell. Certainly I can tell you from the last manufacturing sector that I was involved with, the growth of auto manufacturing in the United States was primarily related to importing components of cars that Americans could not build competitively so that the processes that we were competitive in could be taken advantage of. It has created a huge number of American jobs.

There were no laws about local content that drove Mercedes and BMW to move to South Carolina. Yet great cars are being built by both companies in the American South. There are car factories all over America, built in recent years to take advantage of the American worker. They do not belong to American car companies. They are in right to work areas where unions are not allowed to sabotage productivity by ignorant work rules. In fact, there are studies that prove the disaster that happened to the clothing and textile factories in America had much more to do with unions than with American lack of competitiveness. The American worker has long been the envy of the world, and still is. So whose statistics do you believe?

Barack Obama and other liberals like him do not believe that we can be competitive unless we legally block imports and turn control of our factories over to the UAW. This is a mindless exercise - trying to head in two different directions at once. Every act that Barack Obama has taken since he was elected has been a disaster for free enterprise. Our economy is in shambles. And it will only get worse as Obama bankrupts Social Security, Medicare, Medicade and simultaneously runs interest rates into the Jimmy Carter range with profligate creation of dollars through his Federal Reserve policies. If he passes his socialized medicine health care reform and cap-an-tax, it will simply happen faster.

All of this will harm manufacturing and trade far more than foreign competition.

A Deck Stacked With Race Cards

by Jonah Goldberg - August 21st, 2009 - Townhall.com

What if America transcended race, and Barack Obama wasn't invited?

The question comes to mind as cries of racism grow ever louder from Obama's supporters.

No one should be surprised. Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, liberal Democrats have to accuse their opponents of racism.

It is not inappropriate to discuss the issue of racism considering the number of Democrats that are hurling the "racist" taunt at anyone who disagrees with Obama about anything. This is an excellent article and does a very good job of analysing the flaws in these racist taunts.

I must admit I am just a little uneasy over the source. Jonah Goldberg has already written a recent article back stabbing Sarah Palin and contributing to the time wasting food fight in the Republican Party - not over the direction of our nation but over personality issues in Palin that annoy them. There is a huge element in the Republican Party that is just as filled with "Palin Derangment Syndrome" as there is in the liberal wing of the Democrat Party. Goldberg has taken sides and is doing his best to roil those waters. This fight over racism is going to roil the waters of America no matter how much it is needed, but once again Goldberg is stirring the fight.

However that issue is another fight as well. On the issue of racism Goldberg is pretty accurate and pretty funny too. Good article. And some bloggers have provided some pretty funny jokes in response.

I love the one from "trapper":

"Excuse me, but would you please pass the salt?"

"What?! What?! After 375 years of slavery the WHITE man still gonna ask the BLACK man will he pass the salt?"

Another one was the comment by "Eheu Fugaces"

"Your race card has exceeded its limit and has been suspended.

Please do not use again until you have paid it off."

The black racists who constantly use the race card are going to discover that when people start to laugh about their use of the race card it will have very little value.

White House Planning To Wind Down Clunkers Program

by Ken Thomas and Dan Strumpf - August 20th, 2009 - Associated Press

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday the department would announce within 48 hours how it intends to discontinue the program that offers car buyers rebates of $3,500 or $4,500 for trading in older vehicles for new, more fuel-efficient models. Department officials met with car dealer trade groups on Wednesday to discuss how the program will eventually end and respond to complaints over a backlog of rebate payments to dealers.

This giant fiasco is the best reminder possible of the incompetence of govenrment. They cannot even give money away. The best line I heard was an old joke updated for Barack, "The Obama regime couldn't pour water out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel."

So very true. That does not mean they will not use all the power of government to destroy their enemies though. When you watch the power-monger Rahn Emanuel in action, the joke goes away. They seem to save their efficiency for intimidation and pay back.

Greedy Sawbones

Editorial - August 17th, 2009 - Investor's Business Daily

The president claims doctors would rather cut off a diabetic's foot than treat the patient, since they get higher fees for amputations. Such a grossly irresponsible statement should not go unchallenged.

[Snip]

Implying that doctors are so greedy that they casually amputate body parts for big bucks is a piece of the Democrats' plan to demonize any group they feel stands in the way of their campaign to seize control of the nation's health care sector.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called medical insurers "villains." Rep. John Dingell said town hall protesters reminded him of the Ku Klux Klan. Obama himself has vilified insurers and in effect ordered opponents of his health care overhaul to shut up and "get out of the way."

Did you forget he said that? Intimidation, reprisals and threats are the not traditionally tolerated by any President. Especially one with the left wing extremist credentials of this President. The Obama regime rightly frightens most Americans. That is why people are so angry in the town hall meetings. They have never before been insulted and reviled by any regime like this one is doing.

Does anyone honestly believe American doctors cut off people's feet for higher fees? If even partially true you would see people walking around without feet on a regular basis. Do you?

This man, Barack Obama, is both evil and a pathological liar.

Catch Me If You Can

by Peter Ferrara - August 19th, 2009 - American Spectator

President Obama keeps repeating over and over that his plan does not include any cuts in Medicare. But the legislation he is supporting specifies $500 billion in reduced funding for Medicare, scored by CBO. When arguing that his health overhaul is paid for, he wants credit for these cuts. But when challenged, he wants to deny before the whole country in broad daylight that he is doing it. I can't recall any precedent for such a Presidential disconnect from reality.

Disconnect from reality? Try outright lying. That is what Obama is doing. The numerous "disconnects" are well identified in this article, including a specific example of Obama living up to his promise to the far left to eliminate private plans in the long run with his clear goal of eliminating Medicare Advantage.

The biggest frustration I have is that Obama is doing exactly what he has long promised the socialists and Marxists of America he would do, while simultaneously insisting that he has never said those things and that anyone who accuses him of that motivation is lying about his intent.

Catch me if you can? No President in history has been permitted to lie this obviously and blatantly and get away with it. Why is the MSM letting Obama do it?

We Don't Spend Enough On Health Care

by Craig S. Karpel - August 16th, 2009 - Wall Street Journal

A study by Deloitte LLP has found that more than 400,000 non-U.S. residents obtained medical care in the U.S. in 2008, and it forecasts an annual increase of 3%. Some 3.5% of inpatient procedures at U.S. hospitals were performed on international patients, many of them escaping from Canada's supposedly superior health system.

"Inbound medical tourism," Deloitte stated, "is primarily driven by the search for high-quality care without extensive waiting periods. Foreign patients are willing to pay more for care within the United States if these two factors play a large role." The deficiencies of the foreign health-care systems the Obama administration wishes to emulate can be counted on to generate ever-increasing revenues for U.S. providers and employment for Americans.

Unless Barack Obama gets his way. If our health care system is made as inefficient and poor as the other single payer systems in the world, those 400,000 people who currently come to America and spend billions on health care, will take their money and go somewhere else. It will not increase each year and become more of an economic advantage for our nation. It will end leaving America poorer in the process. Is that what Barack Obama wants?

This is just one of several good arguments made in this article for keeping the health care system we have. We certainly should avoid the incompetence of the system that Barack Obama is proposing.

Young Voters Should Take Another Look At Obama

by Michael Barone - August 16th, 2009 - Washington Examiner

Centralized government isn’t fast on the uptake. I’ve lived nearly 10 years longer than my grandfathers did because I take pills that didn’t exist when they were alive. Don’t you want the benefits of innovations and discoveries, like tailored genetic treatments, which don’t exist yet? Freezing health care is stasist, not dynamist.

This is a great article and brings attention to the real threat of a statist attitude (i.e. socialist - tyrannical) toward government. It always leads to tyranny on both a micro and macro level. Getting people to believe that is the real key to avoiding the disaster of their voting for policies whose consequences they will hate. However this article brought my attention to two new words, "dynamist" and "stasist", that I had never heard before.

As explained to young voters in the article:

I ask you to examine them [Obama's goals] through the prism of a book published in 1999, when most of you were too young to vote: “The Future and Its Enemies,” by Virginia Postrel (an Obama voter, too, by the way). Postrel assesses policies based not on whether they are liberal or conservative but on whether they are dynamist — promoting or leaving room for change — or stasist — tending to freeze institutions and people in place.

Michael Barone makes it clear how he views the actions of Obama and the Democrats. I think that he is right. However the key to changing the future is getting young people to recognize that stasist is bad and that socialist processes are always stasist (as well as being statist). Unfortunately most of our young have been brain washed for 40 years to believe socialism means good and capitalism means bad. Additionally they have had their deductive logic processes stifled by "political correctness". I wonder whether the young are capable of seeing the disasters they are fomenting?

Manufactured Healthcare Crisis

by James Simpson - August 16th, 2009 - American Thinker

If there were ever any doubt that Barack Obama personifies the Crisis Strategy, it should long since have been removed for anyone with a mind. Since so many Americans seem to have lost theirs, I address this to the rest of you. For with God's help, it is you and I, not our gutless, hapless, corrupt politicians, nor our sleeping populus that will save this country or allow it to fall.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the Crisis Strategy was the brainchild of two radical socialist college professors, Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven. The idea was to overwhelm government with demands for services to the point where the system would collapse and provide an opening for the socialists to take over. Their strategy was behind creation of the National Welfare Rights Organization in the 1960s and 1970s which dramatically increased the welfare roles and caused the near bankruptcy of New York City in 1975; creation of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), prime instigators of the mortgage meltdown; the national Motor Voter law signed by President Clinton in 1993, which opened the floodgates to vote fraud by ACORN and similar groups; and the illegal immigrant amnesty movement. As we all should know by now, Barack Obama worked with and trained ACORN workers for many years.

Healthcare nationalization is a major component of this strategy. As Lenin said, "Medicine is the keystone of the arch of socialism." The Left has agitated as far back as the 1930s for some kind of socialized healthcare system.

The left says what they plan to do. Yet when someone points out what they are doing they deny they actually planned it and insist that "no one would be cynical enough to believe these are our goals". Barack Obama repeats this technique even today.

The most despicable of the Obama techniques is to take both sides of every argument and think that the American people are too stupid to notice. For example, Obama says "the public option would keep the insurance companies honest” and be something “that they’ve got to compete against.” Yet where that current situation exists he argues "the government should cut payments to private plans that are competing with the current Medicare public option.”

The clear goal is his often repeated desire to start with a public option that over time can be used to destroy private health insurance. Yet he adamantly denies this, saying he never said the things we have video of him saying. Does he really think we are that stupid?

Barack Obama has said that Jerusalem should be the undivided capital of Israel and that Jerusalem should be the undivided capital of Palestine. No more blatant example exists of his technique of saying in vague words the exact opposite when it is attractive to two different groups. Nothing he says can be believed.

This article is an excellent summation of the history of the plans for socialized medicine by the left. If you doubt this is what Obama plans, you are delusional.

Unplugging Grandma Isn't The Problem

by Mark Steyn - August 14th, 2009 - Orange County Register

I had an elderly British visitor this month who's had a recurring problem with her left hand. At one point it swelled up alarmingly, and so we took her to Emergency. They did a CT scan, X-rays, blood samples, the works. In two hours at a small, rural, undistinguished, no-frills hospital in northern New Hampshire, this lady got more tests than she's had in the past decade in Britain – even though she goes to see her doctor once a month. He listens sympathetically, tells her old age often involves adjusting to the loss of mobility, and then advises her to take the British version of Tylenol and rest up. Anything else would use up those valuable "resources." So, in two hours in New Hampshire, she got tested and diagnosed (with gout) and prescribed something to deal with it. It's the difference between health "care" (i.e., going to the doctor's every month to no purpose) and health treatment – and on the latter America is the best in the world.

This is an example of the problem with our health care issues under socialized medicine. Gout is not a serious problem even if it is an issue that creates chronic long term pain. How can socialize medicine not deal with it?

What infuriates me about Democrats is that they make up their minds about some problem and then only look at data that supports their plans. That is why they reject the idea that their rationing boards are "death panels". They know that they don't want to kill old people and therefore they will not consider that the unintended consequences of their actions will be "death panels", even when everyone else recognizes that is the certain result.

There are three real problems with our current system that I find unacceptable and which I believe we can argue are inconsistent with a free market insurance system. These are; 1- jacking up insurance rates by exorbitant amounts if someone gets sick after they have bought insurance, 2- refusal to allow portability of insurance, and 3- denial of coverage for "pre-existing" conditions. There is also a recognition that those who are poor can't afford the same health care as those who are rich. (Then they can't afford as big a house either. Does that mean we should tax the rich to give everyone a mansion?) Finally there is a recognition that the current system allows for lawyers and some patients (or their families) to reap lottery type rewards for actions by doctors that are not mistakes. These problems need to be addressed.

However I don't see how we address them fairly until we accept the reality that most people don't get seriously ill until late in life unless they have a chronic illness. The vast majority of health financing problems are a symptom of the fact that 5% of the population needs 50% of the health care dollars. That 5% are the chronic seriously ill people in society, and those in the last year of their life. Pretending that health problems are equally shared just because most people get sick or have an accident at some point, is a delusion.

Turning our health care system into socialized medicine creates many more problems than addressing the existing problems and helping the poor and chronically ill somehow through other means. Socialized medicine will significantly reduce health care for many who currently have it without helping most of those left out by the existing system.

Obama's Deadly Defense Cuts

by Malcolm Wallop - August 13, 2009 - NewsMax

The Obama administration’s proposed defense budget cuts – particularly the deep cuts to our homeland missile defense system – are signaling North Korea and Iran that we do not have the will to counter their aggressive actions. In response, Iran and North Korea have tested ballistic missiles or nuclear weapons on numerous occasions, flouting decades of diplomatic non-proliferation efforts and nudging the U.S. onto a crash course towards armed conflict.

During this current crisis over health care, no one should think that the Obama commitment to gutting our national defense capability has ended. Notwithstanding vague protestations about how Obama is not going to allow our defense capability to be harmed, Obama has Eric Holder working to destroy the CIA and at the same time he has Robert Gates gutting the F22 program and the missle programs noted here.

Obama clearly plans to constantly have so many simulataneous actions to harm America going on at once that they overwhelm the American people's ability to respond.

Sarah Palin Doubles Down - On 'Death Panels'

by Andy Barr - August 13th, 2009 - Politico

Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin defended her claim that the Democratic health care proposal would create “death panels” in a statement Wednesday night slamming President Barack Obama.

“Yesterday President Obama responded to my statement that Democratic health care proposals would lead to rationed care; that the sick, the elderly, and the disabled would suffer the most under such rationing; and that under such a system these ‘unproductive’ members of society could face the prospect of government bureaucrats determining whether they deserve health care,” Palin wrote in a note on her Facebook page.

“The provision that President Obama refers to is Section 1233 of HR 3200, entitled ‘Advance Care Planning Consultation.’ With all due respect, it’s misleading for the president to describe this section as an entirely voluntary provision that simply increases the information offered to Medicare recipients,” she continued.

What she wrote is a very intelligent analysis of the actual wording of HR3200. That wording supports her contention that these panels are intended to compel doctors and patients to avoid life saving treatments that cost a great deal in the late years of their life, or if they are disabled. They are not voluntary. The proponents are not trying to assure the elderly understand their options. The provisions are intended to "reduce costs". They intend to discourage seeking the best care for those who the bureacrats deem fail to meet a sufficient ‘level of productivity in society’ to deserve tax payer money.

To trust a bureacrat with that decision is to sign your death warrant if you are elderly, disabled or a registered Republican.

Obamacare's Tax Hikes

Editorial - August 13, 2009 - Washington Times

Please check out page 203 of the main House version of health care reform. It contains all the evidence you need that the entire bill is a nasty bait-and-switch.

"The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax imposed by this chapter. ..."

When he keeps lying and saying that he is not going to increase taxes for 95% of Americans, you have to assume that Obama is relying on this provision of the bill. You can't call him a liar since the law itself says the taxes are not a tax, right?

Tempers Flare At Town Hall

by Mike Hixenbaugh - August 11, 2009
- Rocky Mount Telegram

U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield attempted to “set the record straight” on health care reform Tuesday during a Rocky Mount town hall meeting that drew hundreds of advocates and opponents of the proposed government overhaul.

The capacity crowd that packed Parker Middle School for the forum seemed evenly divided between those who support President Barack Obama’s plan to reform health care and those who are determined to defeat it.

[Snip]

A recent poll by Public Policy Polling showed 50 percent of North Carolinians oppose Obama’s efforts, with 39 percent in support.

This is an interesting article that tries to remain neutral, yet ultimately is heavily influenced by mis-information from the Democrat pro-health care revolution side. What seems bizarre to me is the fact that no one seems to be interested in who Republicans can possibly be representing in this case. The Democrats insist that doctors are on board - through AMA support, the Nurses are on board, Pharmaceuticals are on board - with the complicity of the Pharmacy lobbying group headed by Republican Tauzin, the largest insurers are on board - as announced by President Obama when he touted AARP support (which is actually involved in writing the bill with its lobbyists). So who are the Republicans in opposition representing?

The Democrats keep using Doctors, Phramaceuticals and Insurers as the bad guys in their vitriolic criticisms of health care, and yet most if not all of these groups are supposedly on board with the Democrat proposal at the same time. So, I repeat, who are the Republicans representing? Democrats have total control of government too. So why do they care if the powerless Republicans are criticizing the concept of government controlled health care anyway? Is it because more than 60% of Independents are opposed?

Meanwhile, the Democrats are advertising in Craigslist to hire people to oppose the Republicans and at the same time screaming about how the Republicans are using artificial grass roots to oppose the bill. How much more artificial can you get than to hire people to go to these meetings?

Something stinks in this health care debate. 80% of Americans consider our system to provide them excellent care. Yet this article never takes note of that at all. Why?

There’s Something Happening Here

by Mary Laney - August 12th, 2009 - Chicago Daily Observer

“There’s battle lines being drawn. Nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong…”

Washington’s attacks on the protesting people have, in the words of Admiral Yamamoto, awakened a sleeping giant – Middle America. Average Americans have watched as companies closed, unemployment grew, and once-busy stores turned into boarded-up empty spaces. They’ve seen their retirement accounts evaporate. And, in the midst of this, as President Obama told the nation that they would have to make some sacrifices, they’ve watched this President plan to take his family to a multi million dollar estate on Cape Cod for the summer. They’ve watched Congressional members travel to far away places to snorkel under the ruse that they’re investigating climate change. They’ve watched the House attempt to tuck into a defense budget 500 million dollars for eight luxury jets for their own use. And they’ve noticed that, while they’re being told to accept a public option health plan, the President, members of Congress and all federal employees will continue to enjoy a health care plan that gives them private insurance top of the line coverage all paid for by them, the American taxpayers.

“Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep…”

This is a very interesting article. Published in the heart of Obama's power base, Chicago, and using the terminology of the left - it talks about the reality that American people do not like to be conned. And that is what they are starting to realize "Fishy" Obama is doing.

Like many others I have never been a fan of music by Buffalo Springfield, so it is truly ironic that an article woven around their famous anti-war song can stike such a supportive chord among so many who are not anti-war, just pro-American.

Obama Failed To Master Alinsky's Rule #12

by Kyle-Anne Shiver August 12th, 2009 - American Thinker

Alinsky's 12th Rule of Tactics:
The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.

You cannot risk being trapped by the enemy in his sudden agreement with your demand and saying, ‘You're right - we don't know what to do about this issue. Now you tell us.'

Obama himself, Organizer in Chief, had no plan. He proposed no plan to Congress. He has let committee after committee of witless tax-and-spend, haggard old liberals write the convoluted mess they're calling healthcare reform, and has virtually done nothing for own his part but bash the insurance companies, the doctors and even the patients, who ask for individual control over their own life-and-death choices.

This, dear readers, is the fundamental difference between an empty-suited celebrity and a nuts-and-bolts executive: flim-flam artistry vs. substance and real results.

Wow. Old "Fishy" Obama has started getting a lot of truly aggressive attacks from people who are pretty angry at him. His tactics of setting up straw men to attack, without naming them, does not work when the straw men are so easily identified. It turns out he is not really all that smart after all. He just played by rules that people were not familiar with. The longer he is around the more obvious his shortcomings appear. It also turns out that though he is the smartest of the liberal Democrats, he is still a pretty lightweight nobody. I don't think you are going to see Obama getting a free ride much longer. Even the moderates in America are starting to get annoyed at the liberal cover-up of this empty suit.

Maybe that is why the Democrats are now openly soliciting paid "rent-a-thugs" on Cragislist to attack Obama's opposition. Hadn't heard about that? Check out this article providing the details about the $350 a week jobs the Democrats have authorized to intimidate the health care protestors by clicking here.

Political Power Hasn't Brought Black Progress

by Walter E. Williams - August 10, 2009 - Investor's Business Daily

Blacks hold high offices and dominate the political arena in Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., New Orleans and other cities. Yet these are the very cities with the nation's most rotten schools, highest crime rates, high illegitimacy rates, weak family structure and other forms of social pathology.

So why is it that blacks cannot see the relationship? Or should I say the lack of it?

Hansen Versus Reality

James Hansen is one of the most virulently adamant proponents of anthropogenic global warming, the concept that man is making the planet heat up. Since 1988 he has repeatedly produced graphs that forecast the dire consequences of not immediately surrendering all control of energy to him and other liberals so they can save the planet. He is also the person who insists against all evidence that global warming has been proved and anyone who doubts it is an evil "denier" who should be incarcerated. Yep. If you disagree with him, you should be incarcerated.

So this is a rather interesting graph. What is shows is that based on his predictions, given to congress in 1988, he could not even accurately predict a two year period with one of his famous computer analyses. The 1988 actual data was less than one of his predictions projected [GISS-B(88)]. However his predictions for the best case under Drastic Cuts is way off the actual data for 2009. Since none of the drastic cuts have taken place that is ironic to say the least. His projections for 2009 based on the [GISS-A(88)] projections (under the assumption nothing is done) are so far off they are laughable.

Why do liberals continue to tout this man as an expert when he has proven so wrong so often?

Man is not causing global warming. In fact the premise itself has been disproved by the last 11 years since CO2 has continued to rise while temperatures have dropped. The opposite is the essence of their arguments. For how many years do they have to be proven wrong before they stop demanding that everyone concede they are right? They have been wrong every year since 1988. Is that not enough?

When a President Lies

Why Linda Douglass Should Resign

by Jeffrey Lord - August 11th, 2009 - American Spectator

Mr. [Arthur] Sylvester's infamous tenure comes to mind as Ms. [Linda] Douglass has put herself front and center to challenge video clips of her boss that have appeared on Breitbart.com TV ("SEIU Health Care Forum 3/24/07"). Contrary to the President's new fable that his health care program is designed to preserve the right of Americans to keep their own private health care insurance, he is pictured pre-presidency saying something quite different.

Here is Obama speaking to the Service Employee International Union in 2007. As all can see from this once buried treasure now on Breitbart, it shows candidate Obama saying: "My commitment is to make sure that we've got universal health care for all Americans by the end of my first term as president….I don't think we're going to be able to eliminate employer coverage immediately. There's going to be, potentially, some transition process: I can envision a decade out, or 15 years out, or 20 years out."

Shown as well on [a] tape [on Breitbart] s Obama saying at an AFL-CIO conclave: "I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care plan…that's what I'd like to see."

Yet Linda Douglas is going out to tell the American people that anyone who believes what Barack Obama said is actually the real liar. You should only believe her and the Democrats when they denounce anyone for pointing out these previous clear commitments to a single payer system. She insists that these are not true. You can see the video of Barack Obama but if you dare believe what Obama says, you are believing something that is not true. Trust her.

In other words, she is lying about what Barack Obama said. Lying in a way that is beyond arrogant. The history lesson about Arthur Sylvester and the arrogant lies of the liberal elite are well worth the time in this great article by Jeffrey Lord.

Untangling The Spaghetti

by Mark Steyn - August 11th, 2009 - National Review

What’s the end-game here? I suppose it’s conceivable that there are a few remaining suckers out there who still believe Barack Obama is the great post-partisan, fiscally responsible, pragmatic centrist he played so beguilingly just a year ago. The New York Times’ David Brooks stuck it out longer than most: Only a few [issues] back, he was giddy with excitement over the President’s “education” “reforms” (whatever they were). But now he says we’re in “the early stages of the liberal suicide march”. For a famously moderate moderate, Mr Brooks seems to have gone from irrational optimism over the Democrats’ victory to irrational optimism over the Democrats’ impending downfall without the intervening stage of rational pessimism.

The end-game is very obvious. If you expand the bureaucratic class and you expand the dependent class, you can put together a permanent electoral majority.

Barack Obama is the most deceitful politician we have ever seen in a profession that is known for deceit. That he was allowed by the majority of our nation to pose as post racial after attending for 20 years the white hating black liberation theology church of Jeremiah Wright, proves that a great number of the students produced by our failed school system over the last 40 years cannot reason.

However the reality that Obama is a racist is the one reality that Mark Steyn still cannot state out loud. Anyone who points out what a racist bigot Obama is will still be denounced on the national stage. Even here in the Inner Banks, most people are afraid to point out Obama's racism. It is politically incorrect to do so and that politically incorrect label still has the power to destroy.

That is the real trauma that Obama's election points out. Truth has become unacceptable in America to the liberal elite. Al Gore can write a book based on the fraud of a single computer program that "predicts" a hockey stick increase in temperatures and no facts will ever be allowed to dispute the fraud, certainly not the program being proved a fraud. Truth is denied. Truth is not just denied but denounced if it disagrees with the politically correct view.

Another politically correct truth? Obama cannot be called racist because only whites can be racist. He can be totally dedicated to special privilege for himself and other blacks but you can't call that racism. Obama can appoint honkey hating Al Sharpton to his campaign committee but that is not racism. Obama can laud anti American Louis Farrakhan but that is not racism. Obama can listen to 20 years of white hate in his weekly visits to Jeremiah Wright's church, he can call him his mentor, he can laud him is his autobiography, but that is not racism.

That free pass on lying is now extended to his position on Obama-care and bank bailouts and government stimulus. Just because he promotes the growth of government at the expense of free enterprise, you can't call him socialist. Truth is not allowed.

Steyn calls it spaghetti. Good description for the entangling mess that Obama is creating. In all cases Obama is swamping freedom in his strands of government. A freedom that we may never get back.

Nancy And The Astroturfers

Click on the title above to link to a great set of pictures about one of the anti socialized medicine protests. It shows extensive evidence that the anti-Obama protestors are not paid stooges, but that the pro-Obama supporters are in fact, union thugs who are willing to use agressive tactics to shut down protests.

See the picture below showing a union member (in the grey sweat shirt) tearing a sign out of the hands of an anti-Obama protestor. Note the union member had to go around the police tape to get to the lady who had the sign that so infuriated her. She is not just being hostile, she is breaking the rules to do it.




The accusations of paid protestors by the left are a classic example of projection. That is exactly what the leftwing pro-Obama supporters are. They are usually paid protestors of either the SEIU or ACORN.

Great coverage of this anti socialized medicine rally. Click here to see it all.

Criminal Investigation Into CIA Treatment Of Detainees Expected

These will be witch hunts, not prosecutions. Kangaroo courts, not a search for truth.

by Greg Miller and Josh Meyer - August 9th, 2009 - Los Angeles Times

U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. is poised to appoint a criminal prosecutor to investigate alleged CIA abuses committed during the interrogation of terrorism suspects, current and former U.S. government officials said.

[Snip]

Current and former CIA and Justice Department officials who have firsthand knowledge of the interrogation files contend that criminal convictions will be difficult to obtain because the quality of evidence is poor and the legal underpinnings have never been tested.

Some cases have not previously been disclosed, including an instance in which a CIA operative brought a gun into an interrogation booth to force a detainee to talk, officials said.

He didn't USE the gun. He just waived it around to get evidence to save American lives. In accord with Democrat principles, this is considered obscene. How DARE he try to save American lives.

I can understand, with the vitriolic hatred of America displayed by both Barack Obama and Eric Holder, they cannot allow such pro-American actions to continue to take place. Gulled by Hollywood into thinking that American CIA agents are all evil assassins like "Jason Bourne" (evil until they reject defense of America and become our enemies of course), both Obama and Holder have only one concern about these prosecutions. How do they prosecute so they destroy some CIA agents lives without triggering a political backlash from American patriots?

Please note. These Democrats are NOT concerned with potential damage to America. Their only heistancy is a concern with political repercussions for themselves.

Georgia Democrat Yells At Local Doctor Over Health Care

by Amanda Carpenter - August 8th, 2009 - Washington Times

[Rep. David] Scott became visibly agitated when one of his constituents, a practicing doctor, asked a few questions about health care reform during a town hall meeting. The meeting was held to discuss a road project, but was opened up for questions near the end. That's when Dr. David Hill stood up to speak.

Dr. Hill asked Mr. Scott why he was going to vote for a health care plan similar to that implemented in Massachusetts "that is shown not to work" and if he supported a government-provided health care insurance option.

The congressman replied by accusing the doctor of "hijacking" his event.

The blatant hypocrisy of Democrats treating anyone who does not remain subservient as THEY try to hijack health care in America is amazing.

Democrats have controlled congress since 2006, yet they pretend that ONLY George W. Bush had anything to do with the collapse of our economy last year. They passed the legislation that led to the collapse, but they DENY anything to do with the collapse. During the two years from 2006 to 2008 they sabotaged anything that George W. Bush tried to do, yet it is ALL his fault. In fact during this period, they sent out organized resistance from ACORN and SEIU to disrupt any meeting held on the problems that needed to be addressed.

Now however anyone who disrupts their meetings on health care are assumed to be guilty of the same tactics they used.

To date though, they keep finding out that the people they assume are outside agitators, are simply angry local people. Certainly the black conservative that Obama's White House had the SEIU beat up in St. Louis was a local guy. So was this Doctor. Where are these so-called "agitators" and why is it that Democrats can't find them when they need to berate them personally?

ACORN's Labor Pains

by Matthew Vadum - August 7th, 2009 - American Spectator

With its members dressed in bright red shirts, ACORN organizes crude protests against businesspeople and public officials. Opposed to the profit motive and capitalism in general, it pushes for more government control over citizens and the economy.

Even if the latest allegations don't lead to criminal charges, it's worth noting that the nation's largest community-based activist organization, which claims to defend the working class, has a record of profound, abiding hostility to the very same pro-labor laws it claims to support.

Although it supports the continued imposition of equal employment opportunity laws on the rest of America, it argued it shouldn't have to comply with those same laws.

The coalition that made Barack Obama a household name is the same coalition that is now at the center of almost all attempts to squash any dissent by those who disagree with Obama's specific plans. Yet they continue to flaunt our laws. ACORN is a corrupt organization. This article is one of the best compilations of their numerous violations I have seen. For those who fear for America losing its freedom, understanding the goals and techniques of this evil enterprise is as important as understanding the deceit of the Alinsky method that Obama and Democrats now follow.

Conformity Is Now The New Dissent

by Mark Steyn - August 7th, 2009 - Orange County Register

"The right-wing extremist Republican base is back!" warns the Democratic National Committee. These right-wing extremists have been given their marching orders by their masters: They've been directed to show up at "thousands of events," told to "organize," "knock on doors" …

No, wait. My mistake. That's the e-mail I got from Mitch Stewart, Director of "Organizing for America" at BarackObama.com. But that's the good kind of "organizing." Obama's a community organizer. We're the community. He organizes us. What part of that don't you get?

Don't you dare think that you can go off and organize against Obama or his plans just because you have the audacity to disagree with the Magic Marxist Messiah. Who the hell do you think you are? That is intolerable. You must report any American who dares disagree with Obama. To make sure that dissent is stifled, we have this nifty new web site where you can report these traitors to the White House thought police. All it takes is an email to flag@whitehouse.gov. We will send out some SEIU thugs to shut these people up.

See how easy that is ...

Obamacare Or Logan's Run?

Or Are We Stupid?

by Alicia Colon - August 5th, 2009 - The Irish Examiner

Had the senior citizens who voted for Mr. Obama bothered to check his voting background and affiliations, they would have known that respect for life that is unborn or disabled is above his pay grade. As state senator, he voted twice against allowing babies born alive after abortions to live.

He has appointed Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, his chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel's brother, to be his health czar. Dr. Emanuel wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association, June 2008, that doctors take the Hippocratic Oath too seriously, "as an imperative to do everything for the patient regardless of the cost or effects on others."

Even more bluntly, Dr. Emanuel wrote in Lancet, Jan. 31, "Unlike allocation by sex or race, allocation by age is not invidious discrimination; every person lives through different life stages rather than being a single age. Even if 25-year-olds receive priority over 65-year-olds, everyone who is 65 years now was previously 25 years."

This is the man Mr. Obama selected to oversee the health care system.

There is no question that Obama plans to use a massive cut in Medicare to fund his new Health Care system. There is also no rational belief that he can cut the level of funds needed (G.K. Butterfield claims it is $400 billion) from Medicare unless he denies health care to senior citizens. There is also no doubt that one option to reduce Medicare is going to be mandatory counseling of older people to not demand health care and instead just die for the benefit of society. This claim is not a scare tactic. It is reality.

The Fuzzy Math Of 47 Million

by Robert Romano - August 7th, 2009 - GetLiberty.org

According [to] the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 report, “Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States,” 46.9 million people are uninsured in the U.S. There’s only one problem with this statistic: approximately 31.85 million of them do not actually exist.

The numbers really cannot lie, although the report does. Out of a total population of 297.05 million, the report states on Page 20 that the “number of people covered by private insurance was… 201.7 million in 2006” and the “number of people covered by government health programs was… 80.3 million in 2006.”

Therefore, 282 million had insurance. Which means that out of a total population of 297.05 million, 15.05 million did not have insurance. Right?

Not at the U.S. Census Bureau. There, 297.05 million minus 282 million equals 46.9 million Americans uninsured.

This article debunks the nonsense about the 47 million uninsured using the figures right out of the census. However what it really proves is that government bureaucrats are biased lying left wing Democrats and will say anything to get power over American citizens.

Even if you use the 47 million figure of so-called "uninsured", the census data proves that number includes illegal aliens, which means the standard Democrat contention expressed 2 days ago by G.K. Butterfield that the 47 million number does not include illegal aliens is also a lie.

Government And Press Cover Up Job Losses

by Rex Nutting - August 7th, 2009 - Market Watch

Job losses moderate in July

Job losses slowed in July to the lowest total since August as the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell back to 9.4%, the Labor Department estimated Friday.

U.S. nonfarm payrolls fell by 247,000 to 131.5 million in July, the 19th consecutive month of job losses, about in line with economists' estimates of a 275,000 decline.

So how does this jibe? Employment fell by 247,000 jobs, yet the unemployment rate is supposedly lower? The reality is that the "unemployment rate" put out by the government is a total fraud. Real unemployment continues to increase and is over 16%, approaching the level of the depression years. It has doubled since Obama became President. The line that "the unemployment rate unexpectedly fell back" is so obvious a lie it is pitiful. Government bureaucrats are frantic to keep the published rate from hitting double digits because they are certain it will hurt Obama's popularity.

This is not about a "government report", it is about an Obama "press release". The article is not "news", it is an Obama "puff piece".

Six People, Including P-D Reporter, Arrested At Carnahan Meeting

by Leah Thorsen - August 6th, 2009 - St. Louis Post Dispatch

St. Louis County police say six people were arrested. Two of those were arrested on suspicion of assault, one of resisting arrest and three on suspicion of committing peace disturbances. [Rep. Russ ] Carnahan was gone when the ruckus started.

Kenneth Gladney, a 38-year-old conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with “Don't tread on me” printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room of the St. John's Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was waiting to be treated for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face that he suffered in the attack. Gladney, who is black, said one of his attackers, also a black man, used a racial slur against him before the attack started.

“It just seems there's no freedom of speech without being attacked,” he said.

That is the reality of these meetings. The mob that the Democrats keep talking about is the mob they are sending out to silence opposition. When the White House sets up a web site for the purpose of intimidating their opposition, any expectation that the normal rules of conduct will be observed has ended. White House intimidation, physical assaults. Both are standard Alinsky tactics by a party of Marxists and socialists. That is what the Democrat Party has become.

What has since been reported in conservative blogs is the attackers were all wearing SEIU T-shirts and were inspired by President Obama to "punch back twice as hard" against conservative protestors. The intent by these union thugs is to intimidate those who oppose the Presidents socialized medicine program and end the protests.

The above article covers what happened outside the meeting.

It was not that peaceful inside either. This link is to an article about what happened inside the Carnahan meeting:
http://www.fox2now.com/ktvi-health-care-town-hall-carnahan-protest-080609,0,4896997.story?track=rss

I love the closing comment, "By evening's end, Carnahan hastily departed without comment. His staff said the meeting did not turn out the way the congressman had intended."

No kidding.

Obama's Dissident Database Could Be Secret -- And Permanent

by Byron York - August 6th, 2009 - Washington Examiner

The White House request that members of the public report anyone who is spreading "disinformation" about the proposed national health care makeover could lead to a White House database of political opponents that will be both secret and permanent, according to Republican lawyers on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are examining the plan's possible implementation.

How does that make you feel? Obama has now created a "dissidents database" that is exempt from the law banning databases of political activities and is legally required to maintain it permanently. Anyone bet he is sorry that he gets to keep his list of enemies?

The only thing that will end this outrageous and un-American activity is if people get angry. I guarantee that the liberals on the left will not be angry that they get to create a database of political opponents, what they call "dissidents". If you are moderate or libertarian or conservative, you may have more qualms about the most socialist and power hungry politician in our history being able to collect information about your concerns and keep it forever.

The Obama regime has already been condemned by some Democrats for their propensity to try and crush anyone who disagrees with them. If some Democrats are concerned about Obama tactics, who has any doubt that those outside Obama's party will not be targets of intimidation at a more egregious level?

Tea Party-Bashers Gone Wild

by Michelle Malkin - August 5th, 2009 - Townhall.com

The activist Left can't stand competition. Last week in Long Island, N.Y., opponents of the Democrats' government health care takeover legislation outnumbered Obama supporters 10 to one. The Tea Party activists toted American flags and signs that read "WE CAN'T AFFORD FREE HEALTH CARE" -- prompting one foe to stalk into the peaceful crowd, gesticulate wildly and shout unintelligible threats at the top of his lungs.

The same Democrat Masters of Astroturf [fake grass roots] who encouraged their followers to use "in-your-face" tactics during the campaign season now balk at vocal opposition from their fiscally conservative neighbors and co-workers.

[Snip]

No, showing up at a congressional town hall and booing a talking points-programmed political hack isn't "civic vigilantism." Throwing rocks, pouring cement on train tracks, blocking military shipments, smashing windows, hurling paint, slashing tires, vandalizing businesses and throwing shoes are vigilante acts.

That is what the anti-war, anti-free trade, anti-Bush mobsters did over the last eight years -- and there wasn't a peep about those brute tactics from Obama's blogging pals.

I can remember when I was working at Republican headquarters and the liberal hate mongers used the tactic of spitting on the back of your neck as a way to incite a response. They thought it funny because done behind your back you could not tell who did it. Yet if you did anything similar their crowd would go berserk.

The outrageous double standard and hypocrisy of Democrats has long been known by the right. Yet it does not matter to the main stream media (MSM). Republicans are not 'protesters', they are a mob. Republicans are not 'outraged', they are thugs. Republicans are not 'volunteers', they are stooges.

The liberal press, what I call the MSM, are the biggest bigots of all because they support this liberal hypocrisy with a straight face, completely ignoring their own complicity. Michelle's title is rather tit for tat since the left has been insisting that Tea Party supporters have 'gone wild'. If the bashers have 'gone wild' too, maybe everyone has 'gone wild'?

Amateur Hour

by William Tucker - August 4th, 2009 - American Spectator

The Caesarian epidemic has occurred because for years trial lawyers feasted on the victims of cerebral palsy. CP is a horrible condition and its victims make dramatic trial witnesses, painfully lolling in their wheelchairs and talking almost indecipherably. John Edwards became a multimillionaire by "channeling" CP victims before juries.

No one knew what caused CP when trail lawyers began their assault and no one knows today. But the lawyers managed to convince judges and juries around the country that it was because doctors weren't performing C-sections. Doctors disputed the diagnosis but after a few dozen $50-million verdicts they gave up. "Alright," they said, "we'll do whatever you want." [So the percentage of C-sections increased from 4% to 33% of all births, with attendant deaths in the tens of thousands due to the defensive medicine.] And as a result, the incidence of cerebral palsy has not dropped one bit . It was 0.2 percent of all live births in 1965 and remains there today. CP may be caused by genetic defects or trauma or injury during pregnancy, no one knows. But one thing we know for sure is that medical malpractice [and C-sections] has nothing to do with it. However, doctors will continue to perform Caesarians at their alarming rate in order to avoid trouble.

The horrible results of allowing a nation to be ruled by amateurs is just beginning. Our court system is the most corrupt court system on earth. The unquestioned fact that America has more lawyers than the rest of the world combined should explain the reality that our courts are corrupt. Yet most people still brag about our system and proclaim it "the best in the world." How can a system that is arguably the worst in the world still be perceived in such a distorted fashion?

The nation that first secured individual freedom is about to abandon their freedom for a security that does not exist. Through the politics of corrupt democracy we have elected a party to power that is completely dedicated to the premise of amateur solutions and simplistic answers that do not work. Yet this same party can always find a scapegoat for their own failures. We have stopped being a meritocracy and become a corrupt democracy.

The best example of this is the recent Crowley-Gates fiasco in Cambridge Massachusetts. The powerful black college professor ranted about white racism by "the man" in a city whose Mayor was a friend of Gates and also black, in a state whose Governor was a friend of Gates and also black, in a nation whose President was a friend of Gates and also black. Not one of these earned his position because he was more talented, but in every case they were in their positions because they have used race to get ahead and attain political power. Yet every one of these four blacks still complain that "whites" are keeping them down.

The article above is an excellent article that discusses the issues of growing tyranny in our nation, and its causes.

$1 Trillion More In Debt Since Obama Took Office

by Mark Knoller - August 3rd, 2009 - CBS News

So rapid is the pace of deficit spending by the federal government, that the National Debt has increased over a trillion dollars since President Obama took office.

On Inauguration Day, the Debt stood at $10.626 trillion. The latest posting from the Treasury Department shows that as of July 31st, the debt hit $11.669 trillion.

During the last administration, it took over 2 ½ years for the National Debt to increase a trillion dollars. [That period included the huge increase in expenditures as a result of the war buildup for the 9/11 response and a huge economic hit reducing tax receipts, also as a result of 9/11.] But by the time former president George W. Bush left office, he had run up the deficit by a record amount: $4.9-trillion over eight years.

A great deal of current deficit spending was already in the pipeline from the Bush administration and Mr. Obama, anticipating this day, said that increases have to be kept in perspective.

"They basically handed me a bill for $1.3 trillion and said, 'Here, fix it,'" insisted the president last week at a Town Hall Meeting in Bristol, VA...

This is duplicitous. As usual with the liar Obama that claim of $1.3 trillion is a fraud. In actuality the Bush deficit would have been slightly more than the record for 2008, or about $500 billion. Though outrageous, it would not have approached the $1.3 trillion number unless you include $600 billion for TARP. Half of that, $300 billion, was merely requested by Bush to help Obama. Obama now blames Bush because his name is on the request. However Bush's plans were when TARP was paid back (as the Wall Street banks are now doing) it would be used to REDUCE the deficit, not as Obama has used it as a permanent slush fund for his Treasury Secretary (tax cheat) Tim Geithner. That is why it is adding to the deficit.

The rest of the excess (over the $500 billion that is clearly accountable to Bush) is money that Bush projected needed to be cut. Obama and the Democrats simply spent the money, rather than finding places to cut, and now have the arrogance to blame Bush for their own decisions. Poor Obama. He can't make a tough decision on where to cut and it is all Bush's fault.

More than $800 billion of the current increase is directly attributable to Obama, but Obama blames Bush. Does anyone remember how Obama excoriated Bush for his failure to cut our deficits when Bush was in charge? It was a fair criticism. Bush spent money like a drunken sailor. Obama seems to think he can vastly increase this spending and excuse it with the explanation, "Bush made me do it! It's all his fault."

At the current rate, the expectation that Obama will spend $2 Trillion in his first year, quadrupling the deficits under Bush's worst year, is proving to be vastly underated. Just how disastrous it will get is anybody's guess.

Audience Shouts Down Sebelius

... [and] Specter, at Health Care Town Hall in Philadelphia

by Staff - August 3rd, 2009 - Fox News

Among those at odds with the officials touting the $1 trillion, 10-year plan was a woman who earned loud applause when she said she doesn't want Washington interfering with her health care choices.

"I look at this health care plan and I see nothing that is about health or about care. What I see is a bureaucratic nightmare, senator. Medicaid is broke, Medicare is broke, Social Security is broke and you want us to believe that a government that can't even run a cash for clunkers program is going to run one-seventh of our U.S. economy? No sir, no," she said.

Click here to see the video of the town hall meeting.

Two comments by bloggers sum up my response to Sebelius.

"What a lovely sneer you have Secretary Sebelius." - maryellen

"Ms. Sebelius seems to drip with condescension and crowd contempt." - lazlototh

How can someone get as far in public life as Sebelius has when she so obviously despises the public she is supposed to serve? Even more amazing is that Obama thinks sending her out to sell his program is helping.

I personally think that if my Mom is too old for "elective surgery", as the bill proposes, then all of the people who vote for the proposed bill are too old for "elective office". Vote them out.

Palin's War With Media May Not Be Her 'Last Stand'

by Frank Miele - August 2nd, 2009 - Daily Interlake (Montana)

President Harry Truman, known as "Give 'em hell Harry," famously said, "I never give them hell. I just tell the truth and they think it's hell."

That could aptly describe the relationship between Sarah Palin and the national media these days. Palin, the now former governor of Alaska, has a knack for stirring up the hornets' nest of the national press corps with her unambiguous, unvarnished, undying love for this country. Every time she talks, it seems like she's got a swarm of angry wasps on her tail.

Frank Miele is becoming one of my favorite writers. His love of America seems almost unique among today's Newspaper Editors. Plus he knows how to argue a point. This is the best summation of Sarah Palin I have seen. I don't know what Sarah Palin will do next, but if she continues to express her love for our nation and for our freedom, I will (like Frank Miele) remain a supporter.

Obama Honors Terrorist

Who really selected Mary Robinson for the Presidential Medal of Freedom?

by Ed Lasky - August 1st, 2009 - American Thinker

President Barack Obama's decision to bestow the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Mary Robinson, who headed a United Nation Commission that condoned suicide bombing against Israelis and who also was in charge of the Durban Conference Against Racism that became an anti-Semitic hate-fest reminiscent of Nazi Germany (and that the Unites States and Israel boycotted, to Robinson's consternation), has elicited some measure of controversy.

If you defend terrorism you are a terrorist. Exept Barack Obama has joined those who feel that committing terrorist acts against Israel is perfectly okay. It is contemptible for the United States to honor someone with the history of Mary Robinson. Like his knee jerk condemnation of cops, his willingness to honor Mary Robinson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom shows where his heart truly is. It shows Obama cares nothing for decency in the war on terror (which he has renamed overseas contingency operations) or for stopping the war against Israel by the Islamo-fascists who have been conducting that war for generations. Only yesterday Hamas rededicated themselves to the destruction of Israel. They insisted that no Jewish state would ever be permitted.

So much for Obama's "peace process". However even with their restating that commitment to Israel's destruction by Hamas, Obama still gave them $200 million to continue their war against Israel. Like his approval of the medal for the anti-democratic anti-American terrorist loving Marxist Mary Robinson, it makes clear how little respect Obama has for American values or America's friends.

A Brief For Whitey

by Patrick J. Buchanan - March 21st, 2008 - Buchanan.org

Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America’s fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?

Barack Obama is a racist, just like his long term mentors Reverend Wright and Louis Farrakhan. It did not get a lot of notice when he gave it, but Pat Buchanan was one of the few who quoted accurately from Obama's famous dissertation on race, during which he blamed everything on "whitey". That not the way you remember it? Well that is because the paraphrasing that you read in the media was Obama cleaned up, selectively quoted and the press spent all its energy in bragging about how post racial the black racist Obama was. That version was mostly lies.

Buchanan tries here to correct a few of the lies that Obama spreads in his standard denunciation of whites, but even he misses a few of the lies. Like the lie that America is responsible for 350 years of slavery. In truth, slavery was ended only 100 years after America was created. It was not legal in over half the states at the time our Constition was ratified and stayed illegal until ended. Only 5% of the slaves brought to the new world were brought to the few states that allowed slavery. Slavery was overwhelmingly concentrated (95%) in Spanish and Portugese colonies, not English colonies. How can America alone be accountable for something that most of the states never tolerated? Did the term "free states" in our history books not ever register with Obama? Is there no credit for the abolitionist movement and the 500,000 white American soldiers that died to free the slaves?

This article is now making the rounds as an email, because of the Gates-Crowley run-in that caused Barack Obama to smear all cops as "acting stupidly". I don't usually agree with much that Pat Buchanan writes, but this article is a lot closer to the truth about Obama than the lies the media are spinning. It is time we stopped pretending that Obama is not a racist.