Howard Zinn, the left’s favorite historian, was a commie in full support of the idea while millions were dying at the hands of his minders. This alone is enough to justify removing all his books from university coursework unless as an example of the wrong mode of thinking about the United States of America.Howard Zinn, Left’s Favorite Historian Now Proven Member of US Communist Party
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Howard Zinn (1922 - 2010): Rest in Peace NOT!
NOT when you've single-handedly seen to it that millions of American students swallowed the bile of totalitarian dictator scum murderers thinking that they were getting the TRUTH!
Pink Floyd supports Iranian Revolution
Nice to hear that these big Lefties still recognize freedom is a good thing at least somewhere in the world!
I went to a Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd
concert at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium in 1976--AWESOME!!!
The 1979 song, which was released in the same year as the Islamic Revolution, has been reworked by two exiled Iranian brothers.More plus video
Roger Waters, a founding member of Pink Floyd, gave the rights to Blurred Vision, a duo living in Canada, to remake the classic under the title Another Brick in the Wall (Hey Ayatollah, Leave Those Kids Alone).
I went to a Dark Side of the Moon Pink Floyd
concert at the Los Angeles Shrine Auditorium in 1976--AWESOME!!!JOIN THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION
On July 30th Investors Business Daily published the following editorial: Will Washington's Failures Lead To Second American Revolution?
THIS IS THE PERFECT TIME FOR ME TO REMIND YOU ABOUT A COLLECTION OF LINKS ON THE RIGHT PANEL HERE AT LGSTARR ENTITLED "JOIN THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION!"
I STARTED COLLECTING THESE LINKS ON THE SECOND OR THIRD DAY AFTER OBAMA WAS ELECTED IN 2008 AND THE LIST HAS GROWN INCREDIBLY (AND I HAVE PRUNED IT SEVERAL TIMES TO KEEP IT CURRENT).
PLEASE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE HARD WORK THEY REPRESENT AND CHOOSE SOME TO GET INVOLVED WITH! THANK YOU.
THIS IS THE PERFECT TIME FOR ME TO REMIND YOU ABOUT A COLLECTION OF LINKS ON THE RIGHT PANEL HERE AT LGSTARR ENTITLED "JOIN THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION!"
I STARTED COLLECTING THESE LINKS ON THE SECOND OR THIRD DAY AFTER OBAMA WAS ELECTED IN 2008 AND THE LIST HAS GROWN INCREDIBLY (AND I HAVE PRUNED IT SEVERAL TIMES TO KEEP IT CURRENT).
PLEASE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE HARD WORK THEY REPRESENT AND CHOOSE SOME TO GET INVOLVED WITH! THANK YOU.
Why Obama ditched the Boy Scouts for his appearance on "The View"
Scouts salute during the National Anthem at Wednesday's arena show at the 2010 National Boy Scout Jamboree at Fort AP Hill in Bowling Green, Va., Wednesday, July 28, 2010.
In this Wednesday, July 28, 2010 photo provided by the Department of Defense, more than 45,000 Boy Scouts salute during the singing of the national anthem as part of the Boy Scouts of America 2010 National Scout Jamboree at Ft. AP Hill, Va.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Here's what America can look forward to if it follows the NHS model, according to an investigation by the Sunday Telegraph...
"Plans to cut hundreds of thousands of pounds from budgets for the terminally ill, with dying cancer patients to be told to manage their own symptoms if their condition worsens at evenings or weekends." Never has "take two aspirin and call me in the morning" sounded more callous.Dems' Health Care Plans Mean Lower Quality, Long Waits
Nursing homes for the elderly would be closed, the number of hospital beds for the mentally ill reduced and general practitioners would be discouraged from sending patients to hospitals. Accident and emergency department services would also be cut.
Thousands of jobs would be lost at NHS hospitals, reports the Telegraph, "including 500 staff to go at a trust where cancer patients recently suffered delays in diagnosis and treatment because of staff shortages." Katherine Murphy of the Patients Association called the cuts "astonishingly brutal."
She expressed particular concern at attempts to ration (that word again) hip and knee operations. "These are not unusual procedures," she said. "This is a really blatant attempt to save money by leaving people in pain."
What do politicians care about that? In Britain, as in America, top officials (including Berwick, who has lifetime health coverage given to him by the Institute for Health Care Improvement) will always have access to the best care, even while they decide the rest of us cannot.
This paragraph in the Telegraph story should send chills down the spine of every American: "Doctors across the country have already been told that their patients can have the operations only if they are given 'prior approval' by the Primary Care Trust, with each authorization made on a 'case by case' basis."
When cost, rather than the value of life, becomes supreme, rationing will inevitably lead to other cost-cutting policies. And yes, despite protestations from those who favored Obamacare that "death panels" would not be part of the equation, you can count on them.
The problem of Obama's self-adoration
The party is going to need crafty, deft leadership if it hopes to avoid ceding further ground to the Republicans. I have my doubts that this President - overcome as he seems to be with self-adoration - can supply it. I'm guessing that many Democrats are starting to have similar worries.
President Obama's vanity is fast becoming a problem for the Democratic Party. Messages cannot be delivered without messengers. Ideas require expounders. Even if the former are sound, the latter can make them sound foolish. Obama ran for and won that party's nomination based upon the claim that he could sell the party's ideas to Americans who regularly hesitate to pull the lever for Democrats. He is failing to do that, and his vanity is one reason why.
BREAKING: CHAOS IN MEXICO CITY
Karma?
Thousands of Guatemalans stormed into Mexico City early this morning protesting national bias by Mexico against its neighboring countries, including Guatemala....the biased laws of Mexico unfairly target Guatemalans in all manner of southern border dispute and are treated harshly when caught illegally entering at the southern border...BREAKING: Tens of thousands of Guatemalans break through southern Mexico border, claiming Mexican bias against Guatemalans / Mexico City in chaos
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Oh happy day: If Sherrod sues Breitbart...
Now, I'm sure Breitbart does not want to be sued, even though he probably has insurance anyway, which at least would cover the defense costs.Shirley Sherrod May Make Andrew Breitbart's Day
But, if having to defend a suit of dubious merit allows Breitbart to put Sherrod's life on trial, to conduct an inquiry into the NAACP and Sherrod's connections in the movement, and to take the depositions of administration officials, that might just be a price Breitbart is happy to pay.
Great story in the L.A. Times: "The Reluctant Gun Owner"
Ladies (and liberals) take note: I had never wanted a gun. Now I own a Smith & Wesson revolver. Why?
Does anyone have answers about George Soros?
Question from ORLY TAITZ
Posted on | July 29, 2010
Posted on | July 29, 2010
There are some things that really bother me about this whole situation with Obama methodically destroying oil and gas and coal industries in US, particularly off shore oil drilling, while giving a large loan to a company in Brazil, where Soros is a major stock holder.
Did anyone notice that Soros seems to be methodically attacking nations, that were victorious in World War 2. He became a de facto financial persona non grata in Great Britain after he speculated on pound sterling in black September and caused billions of dollars of damage to British treasury.He was convicted of insider trading in France. (He is appealing in international court though). He caused significant damages manipulating Russian ruble and now he brought this Kenyan communist puppet to destroy US economy.
I looked at his past and it provides even more questions than answers.
After World War 2, whern most European Jews were destitute and starving, he made money trading gold and currency. He was 15-17 years old. Where did a Jewish kid after World War Holocast get gold and currency to trade? He later studied in London School of Economics. Again, were did a poor Jewish kid get money to go to London and study in an expensive private school. People were impoverished then. I know that my family lived in a one room shack, heated with wood and coal and an outhouse after World War 2, and they were thankful to be alive.
I also saw an article published recently. It was an article about Raul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat, who saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from sure extermination. He was arrested by Russians after WW2 in Budapest. There were rumors and reports about Wallenberg being alive much longer after he was reported dead. There were eyewitness reports of him living in GULAG years after his reported death. This recent article stated that indeed Wallenberg was alive for years after his reported death. Why the charade? Why was he kept alive but reported dead? Was he kept alive as an eyewitness? As a currency, as an insurance policy? Insurance to what? Did Wallenberg know Soros and his family while in Budapest? Did this article have anything to do with the recent expedient spy swap? At this point I have more questions than answers. Does anyone have answers?
EASY WAY TO SAVE A LIFE WITH NO MOUTH-TO-MOUTH CONTACT!
Every three days, more Americans die from sudden cardiac arrest than the number who died in the 9-11 attacks. You can lessen this recurring loss by learning Continuous Chest Compression CPR, a hands-only CPR method that doubles a person’s chance of surviving cardiac arrest. It’s easy and does not require mouth-to-mouth contact, making it more likely bystanders will try to help, and it was developed at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.
"This video is worth sharing," said Gordon A. Ewy, MD, director of the UA Sarver Heart Center and one of the research pioneers who developed this method.
From the UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
"This video is worth sharing," said Gordon A. Ewy, MD, director of the UA Sarver Heart Center and one of the research pioneers who developed this method.
From the UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Why does the Obama administration want to block American military personnel from voting in national elections?
The Department of Justice is ignoring a new law aimed at protecting the right of American soldiers to vote, according to two former DOJ attorneys who say states are being encouraged to use waivers to bypass the new federal Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act.EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Accused of Stalling on MOVE Act for Voters in Military
You could have heard a pin drop
At a time when our president and other politicians tend to apologize for our country's prior actions, here's a refresher on how some of our former patriots handled negative comments about our country:
JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible.
Rusk responded, "Does that include those who are buried here?"
DeGaulle did not respond.
You could have heard a pin drop.
When in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of 'empire building' by George Bush.
He answered by saying, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."
You could have heard a pin drop.
There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, "Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?"
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: "Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?"
You could have heard a pin drop.
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, "Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?"
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, "Maybe it's because the Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German."
You could have heard a pin drop.
AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...
Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.
"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."
The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
"Impossible...Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France!"
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to."
You could have heard a pin drop.
AHHH...THE GOOD OLD DAYS!
JFK'S Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in France in the early 60's when DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all US military out of France as soon as possible.
Rusk responded, "Does that include those who are buried here?"
DeGaulle did not respond.
You could have heard a pin drop.
When in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of 'empire building' by George Bush.
He answered by saying, "Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return."
You could have heard a pin drop.
There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, "Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intend to do, bomb them?"
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: "Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does France have?"
You could have heard a pin drop.
A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French Navies At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries. Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, "Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?"
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied, "Maybe it's because the Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German."
You could have heard a pin drop.
AND THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE...
Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.
"You have been to France before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
"Then you should know enough to have your passport ready."
The American said, "The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it."
"Impossible...Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in France!"
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to."
You could have heard a pin drop.
AHHH...THE GOOD OLD DAYS!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
The Eagle Has Been Retired As Our National Symbol
New American Symbol:
The skunk has replaced the Eagle as the new symbol of America: It is half black, half white, and everything it does stinks.
The skunk has replaced the Eagle as the new symbol of America: It is half black, half white, and everything it does stinks.
Which is it? The November (2010) election will be a referendum on this question.
This weak GDP effect of federal spending is consistent with the modern peer-reviewed literature; not only are the White House economists familiar with it, some of them have contributed to it. At best, therefore, President Obama and his political advisers have engaged in self-deception; at worst, they have displayed rank cynicism in vastly expanding federal spending and debt merely to subsidize the public employee unions and other allies. Which is it? It is becoming clear that in substantial part the November election will be a referendum on that question, and that the answer will not be one from which the White House will be able to claim vindication.Read the whole thing
Fairness vs. Freedom
5 minutes you need to spend!
Former chamber musician now freedom fighter Arthur C. Brooks on Reason T.V.
Former chamber musician now freedom fighter Arthur C. Brooks on Reason T.V.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs Misleads Public on Obama's Broken Tax Pledge
Responding to a question during his daily press briefing today, Gibbs said, “The President believes raising taxes on the middle class during this economic time would not make a lot of economic sense.”Read more
But President Obama has already broken his “firm pledge” at least eight times:
Newt speaks out about Ground Zero mosque
If Newt Gingrich decides to run for President, chalk the following commentary that he just posted in the "feather in his cap" category. It will go a long way with Evangelicals. Newt is speaking out boldly on these plans for a mosque near Ground Zero in NYC. Read below.Read more
Monday, July 26, 2010
What do you see?
When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion -- when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing -- when you see money flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors -- when you see that men get richer by graft and pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you -- when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice -- you may know that your society is doomed.--author and philosopher Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
Sunday, July 25, 2010
How can Obama keep on getting away with this?
WSJ:
Mr. Obama's economic statements are increasingly divorced not only from competing viewpoints but from those of his own economic advisers. It is surprising how many numerically challenged pronouncements come from this most scripted and political of White Houses. One slip is eventually forgiven, but when a pattern emerges, no one believes it is an accident...Obama's Economic Fish Stories
The president badly needs to make more realistic pronouncements. No one expects him to say his policies have failed (although most have delivered far less than claimed at large cost). A little candor about the results of experimentation in uncharted waters would go a long way. But at the very least, his staff needs to avoid putting these exaggerations on the teleprompter. It undermines confidence and raises concerns about competence. It's doing nobody any good—not the economy and certainly not Mr. Obama.
The Journolist has started to leak like an overripe diaper...
Just in case you've been living in a cave, or if you only get your news from MSNBC, here's the story...
NEWSMEAT 2008 Presidential A-List Donor Chart: Contributions by America's most famous and powerful citizens.
107 ELITE ASSHOLES WHO THINK THEY KNOW BETTER THAN THE REST OF US:
1. Spencer Ackerman – Wired, FireDogLake, Washington
Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect
2. Ben Adler – Newsweek, POLITICO
3. Mike Allen – POLITICO
4. Eric Alterman – The Nation, Media Matters for America
5. Marc Ambinder – The Atlantic
6. Greg Anrig – The Century Foundation
7. Ryan Avent – Economist
8. Dean Baker – The American Prospect
9. Nick Baumann – Mother Jones
10. Josh Bearman – LA Weekly
11. Steven Benen – The Carpetbagger Report
12. Jared Bernstein – Economic Policy Institute
13. Michael Berube – Crooked Timber (blog), Pennsylvania State University
14. Lindsay Beyerstein – (blogger)
15. Joel Bleifuss – In These Times
16. John Blevins – South Texas College of Law
17. Sam Boyd – The American Prospect
18. Rich Byrne – Playwright and freelancer
19. Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Atlantic
20. Jonathan Chait – The New Republic
21. Lakshmi Chaudry – In These Times
22. Isaac Chotiner – The New Republic
23. Michael Cohen – New America Foundation
24. Jonathan Cohn – The New Republic
25. Joe Conason – The New York Observer
26. David Corn – Mother Jones
27. Daniel Davies – The Guardian
28. David Dayen – FireDogLake
29. Brad DeLong – The Economists’ Voice, University of California at Berkley
30. Ryan Donmoyer – Bloomberg
31. Kevin Drum – Washington Monthly
32. Matt Duss – Center for American Progress
33. Eve Fairbanks – The New Republic
34. Henry Farrell – George Washington University
35. Tim Fernholz – American Prospect
36. James Galbraith – University of Texas at Austin (professor)
37. Todd Gitlin – Columbia University
38. Ilan Goldenberg – National Security Network
39. Dana Goldstein – The Daily Beast
40. Merrill Goozner – Chicago Tribune
41. David Greenberg – Slate
42. Robert Greenwald – Brave New Films
43. Chris Hayes – The Nation
44. Don Hazen – Alternet
45. Michael Hirsh – Newsweek
46. John Judis – The New Republic, The American Prospect
47. Michael Kazin – Georgetown University (law professor)
48. Ed Kilgore – Democratic Stategist
49. Richard Kim – The Nation
50. Mark Kleiman – The Reality Based Community
51. Ezra Klein – Washington Post, Newsweek, The American Prospect
52. Joe Klein – TIME
53. Paul Krugman – The New York Times, Princeton University
54. Lisa Lerer – POLITICO
55. Daniel Levy – Century Foundation
56. Alec McGillis – Washington Post
57. Scott McLemee – Inside Higher Ed
58. Ari Melber – The Nation
59. Seth Michaels – MyDD.com
60. Luke Mitchell – Harper’s Magazine
61. Gautham Nagesh – The Hill, Daily Caller
62. Suzanne Nossel – Human Rights Watch
63. Michael O’Hare – University of California, Berkeley
64. Rick Perlstein – Author, Campaign for America’s Future
65. Harold Pollack – University of Chicago
66. Foster Kamer – The Village Voice
67. Katha Pollitt – The Nation
68. Ari Rabin-Havt – Media Matters
69. David Roberts – Grist
70. Alyssa Rosenberg – Washingtonian, The Atlantic, Government Executive
71. Alex Rossmiller – National Security Network
72. Laura Rozen – Politico, Mother Jones
73. Greg Sargent – Washington Post
74. Thomas Schaller – Baltimore Sun
75. Noam Scheiber – The New Republic
76. Michael Scherer – TIME
77. Mark Schmitt – American Prospect
78. Adam Serwer – American Prospect
79. Thomas Schaller – Baltimore Sun (columnist), University of Maryland, Baltimore County (professor), FiveThirtyEight.com (contributing writer)
80. Julie Bergman Sender – Balcony Films
81. Walter Shapiro – PoliticsDaily.com
82. Nate Silver – FiveThirtyEight.com
83. Jesse Singal – The Boston Globe, Washington Monthly
84. Ben Smith – POLITICO
85. Sarah Spitz – NPR
86. Adele Stan – The Media Consortium
87. Kate Steadman – Kaiser Health News
88. Jonathan Stein – Mother Jones
89. Sam Stein – The Huffington Post
90. Jesse Taylor – Pandagon.net
91. Steven Teles – Yale University
92. Thoma – The Economist’s View (blog), University of Oregon (professor)
93. Michael Tomasky – The Guardian
94. Jeffrey Toobin – CNN, The New Yorker
95. Rebecca Traister – Salon (columnist)
96. Cenk Uygur – The Young Turks
97. Tracy Van Slyke – The Media Consortium
98. Dave Weigel – Washington Post, MSNBC, The Washington Independent
99. Moira Whelan – National Security Network
100. Scott Winship – Pew Economic Mobility Project
101. Kai Wright – The Root
102. Holly Yeager – Columbia Journalism Review
103. Rich Yeselson – Change to Win
104. Matthew Yglesias – Center for American Progress, The Atlantic Monthly
105. Jonathan Zasloff – UCLA
106. Julian Zelizer – Princeton professor and CNN contributor
107. Avi Zenilman – POLITICO
NEWSMEAT 2008 Presidential A-List Donor Chart: Contributions by America's most famous and powerful citizens.
107 ELITE ASSHOLES WHO THINK THEY KNOW BETTER THAN THE REST OF US:
1. Spencer Ackerman – Wired, FireDogLake, Washington
Independent, Talking Points Memo, The American Prospect
2. Ben Adler – Newsweek, POLITICO
3. Mike Allen – POLITICO
4. Eric Alterman – The Nation, Media Matters for America
5. Marc Ambinder – The Atlantic
6. Greg Anrig – The Century Foundation
7. Ryan Avent – Economist
8. Dean Baker – The American Prospect
9. Nick Baumann – Mother Jones
10. Josh Bearman – LA Weekly
11. Steven Benen – The Carpetbagger Report
12. Jared Bernstein – Economic Policy Institute
13. Michael Berube – Crooked Timber (blog), Pennsylvania State University
14. Lindsay Beyerstein – (blogger)
15. Joel Bleifuss – In These Times
16. John Blevins – South Texas College of Law
17. Sam Boyd – The American Prospect
18. Rich Byrne – Playwright and freelancer
19. Ta-Nehisi Coates – The Atlantic
20. Jonathan Chait – The New Republic
21. Lakshmi Chaudry – In These Times
22. Isaac Chotiner – The New Republic
23. Michael Cohen – New America Foundation
24. Jonathan Cohn – The New Republic
25. Joe Conason – The New York Observer
26. David Corn – Mother Jones
27. Daniel Davies – The Guardian
28. David Dayen – FireDogLake
29. Brad DeLong – The Economists’ Voice, University of California at Berkley
30. Ryan Donmoyer – Bloomberg
31. Kevin Drum – Washington Monthly
32. Matt Duss – Center for American Progress
33. Eve Fairbanks – The New Republic
34. Henry Farrell – George Washington University
35. Tim Fernholz – American Prospect
36. James Galbraith – University of Texas at Austin (professor)
37. Todd Gitlin – Columbia University
38. Ilan Goldenberg – National Security Network
39. Dana Goldstein – The Daily Beast
40. Merrill Goozner – Chicago Tribune
41. David Greenberg – Slate
42. Robert Greenwald – Brave New Films
43. Chris Hayes – The Nation
44. Don Hazen – Alternet
45. Michael Hirsh – Newsweek
46. John Judis – The New Republic, The American Prospect
47. Michael Kazin – Georgetown University (law professor)
48. Ed Kilgore – Democratic Stategist
49. Richard Kim – The Nation
50. Mark Kleiman – The Reality Based Community
51. Ezra Klein – Washington Post, Newsweek, The American Prospect
52. Joe Klein – TIME
53. Paul Krugman – The New York Times, Princeton University
54. Lisa Lerer – POLITICO
55. Daniel Levy – Century Foundation
56. Alec McGillis – Washington Post
57. Scott McLemee – Inside Higher Ed
58. Ari Melber – The Nation
59. Seth Michaels – MyDD.com
60. Luke Mitchell – Harper’s Magazine
61. Gautham Nagesh – The Hill, Daily Caller
62. Suzanne Nossel – Human Rights Watch
63. Michael O’Hare – University of California, Berkeley
64. Rick Perlstein – Author, Campaign for America’s Future
65. Harold Pollack – University of Chicago
66. Foster Kamer – The Village Voice
67. Katha Pollitt – The Nation
68. Ari Rabin-Havt – Media Matters
69. David Roberts – Grist
70. Alyssa Rosenberg – Washingtonian, The Atlantic, Government Executive
71. Alex Rossmiller – National Security Network
72. Laura Rozen – Politico, Mother Jones
73. Greg Sargent – Washington Post
74. Thomas Schaller – Baltimore Sun
75. Noam Scheiber – The New Republic
76. Michael Scherer – TIME
77. Mark Schmitt – American Prospect
78. Adam Serwer – American Prospect
79. Thomas Schaller – Baltimore Sun (columnist), University of Maryland, Baltimore County (professor), FiveThirtyEight.com (contributing writer)
80. Julie Bergman Sender – Balcony Films
81. Walter Shapiro – PoliticsDaily.com
82. Nate Silver – FiveThirtyEight.com
83. Jesse Singal – The Boston Globe, Washington Monthly
84. Ben Smith – POLITICO
85. Sarah Spitz – NPR
86. Adele Stan – The Media Consortium
87. Kate Steadman – Kaiser Health News
88. Jonathan Stein – Mother Jones
89. Sam Stein – The Huffington Post
90. Jesse Taylor – Pandagon.net
91. Steven Teles – Yale University
92. Thoma – The Economist’s View (blog), University of Oregon (professor)
93. Michael Tomasky – The Guardian
94. Jeffrey Toobin – CNN, The New Yorker
95. Rebecca Traister – Salon (columnist)
96. Cenk Uygur – The Young Turks
97. Tracy Van Slyke – The Media Consortium
98. Dave Weigel – Washington Post, MSNBC, The Washington Independent
99. Moira Whelan – National Security Network
100. Scott Winship – Pew Economic Mobility Project
101. Kai Wright – The Root
102. Holly Yeager – Columbia Journalism Review
103. Rich Yeselson – Change to Win
104. Matthew Yglesias – Center for American Progress, The Atlantic Monthly
105. Jonathan Zasloff – UCLA
106. Julian Zelizer – Princeton professor and CNN contributor
107. Avi Zenilman – POLITICO
Black Spring: "I was just one of 75 Cubans imprisoned for our belief that freedom is an achievable miracle and not a crime against the state..."
Note to all the Castro-worshipers in the Democratic Party: You don't know what freedom really means: Cuban journalist is out of prison, still not free
Thrill seekers beware: God-given emotions, like doctrine, can be counterfeited by the great deceiver
THE IDOL OF EMOTIONALISM
Emotions are a vital part of the Christian experience. The remorse for sin leads to repentance. The thrill of praise enhances our worship. The gratitude for salvation spurs us on to obedience. But God-given emotions, like doctrine, can be counterfeited by the great deceiver, Satan. When this happens, when we seek the feelings associated with worship rather than God Himself, our emotions become an idol.
Certainly conversion itself is a dramatic, life-changing experience, but not all conversions have the emotional impact of the apostle Paul's, or Augustine's, or John Calvin's or Martin Luther's. For some who come up in the church, accepting Christ comes as naturally as breathing. They do not have to go through hell before they come to God. And who is to say their experience with Christ is any less valid than that of one whose life was on the brink of destruction before they found the Lord?
Beware of substituting the love of feelings and drama and emotion for the love of God. Some of us come to Him in tears; others in quiet surrender. Some come running, others walk, others are led by another, but the end result is the same. The bottom line is this: God is sovereign, and He will do it His way. It's not about how we feel—it's about who He is. We are not to tell God what to do...we are simply to report to Him for orders.
MEMORY VERSE
1 John 1:2 And we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.
Dr. Ed Young
WINNING WALK
Emotions are a vital part of the Christian experience. The remorse for sin leads to repentance. The thrill of praise enhances our worship. The gratitude for salvation spurs us on to obedience. But God-given emotions, like doctrine, can be counterfeited by the great deceiver, Satan. When this happens, when we seek the feelings associated with worship rather than God Himself, our emotions become an idol.
Certainly conversion itself is a dramatic, life-changing experience, but not all conversions have the emotional impact of the apostle Paul's, or Augustine's, or John Calvin's or Martin Luther's. For some who come up in the church, accepting Christ comes as naturally as breathing. They do not have to go through hell before they come to God. And who is to say their experience with Christ is any less valid than that of one whose life was on the brink of destruction before they found the Lord?
Beware of substituting the love of feelings and drama and emotion for the love of God. Some of us come to Him in tears; others in quiet surrender. Some come running, others walk, others are led by another, but the end result is the same. The bottom line is this: God is sovereign, and He will do it His way. It's not about how we feel—it's about who He is. We are not to tell God what to do...we are simply to report to Him for orders.
MEMORY VERSE
1 John 1:2 And we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.
Dr. Ed Young
WINNING WALK
Saturday, July 24, 2010
BREAKING: FEC complaint filed against the Obama campaign for “illicit coordination” with ACORN
Breaking news today is that Anita MonCrief will file an FEC complaint against the Obama campaign for “illicit coordination” with ACORN. MonCrief is in possession of his campaign donor list and claims that The New York Times turned down publishing her story before the election, stating that it would be a “game-changer” for Obama if they did. MonCrief claims that ACORN conducted and admitted to a “massive push” for Obama in 2008 instead of fulfilling its purported role of a “non-partisan” organization.IF JOURNOLIST MEMBERS CONSPIRED TO HIDE JEREMIAH WRIGHT FROM THE PUBLIC, WHAT ELSE DID THEY HIDE?
MonCrief’s website, which contains the donor lists, was launched on July 23, 2010.
So why are we going down this dead-end road???
UPDATE: Axe falls on NHS services
Britain Plans to Decentralize National Health Care...and Canada changing too!
It's "the most radical reorganization of the National Health Service, as the system is called, since its inception in 1948."
Canada reconsidering health-care model in face of soaring costs
J.R. Dunn [American Thinker.com]
Britain Plans to Decentralize National Health Care...and Canada changing too!
It's "the most radical reorganization of the National Health Service, as the system is called, since its inception in 1948."
Canada reconsidering health-care model in face of soaring costs
J.R. Dunn [American Thinker.com]
So we come to ObamaCare, the program that, so we're told, will see him carried about in a solid gold sedan chair for the rest of his life by an eternally grateful populace. The sneak appointment of David Berwick to run the thing makes transparent a fact that was brought up continually and just as continually dismissed during the health care debate: that Obama wants a duplicate of the U.K. National Health Service, the sole British feature that he admires.Obama's Failing Presidency
And that's an interesting development. Because, according to studies by British health care specialists, the NHS kills up to 95,000 patients a year through incompetence, mistakes, and accidents. This number is ten times the international per capita average. It is the highest in Europe, and twice that of the U.S., a nation with six times the population.
Since the NHS was established in 1948, hospital beds have dropped from over 800,000 to 160,000, while the number of bureaucrats has expanded to nine for each patient. Tales of patient abuse are a never-ending, almost a daily occurrence. A week ago, the Daily Mail featured a story about a young woman who entered an NHS hospital with excruciating head pain. Assuring her that it was merely a headache, the staff dumped her in a ward. It was actually a rare brain infection. When she began screaming uncontrollably as her brain was crushed against the inside of her skull, the staff tied her to a bed and left her. The next time they checked, she was dead.
Then we have the Liverpool Care Pathway or LCP, a method of end-of-life treatment in which any given doctor decides whether a person is dying or not, and then orders all food and water withheld -- the Terri Schiavo treatment -- along with heavy sedation. Hundreds have died from mistaken LCP diagnoses, including people suffering from such terminal ailments as broken legs, gastritis, and skin infections. I seem to recall a certain lady mentioning "death panels" at some point or other.
Just last week, the NHS ran into a "cash flow" problem (a neat trick with a budget of nearly $100 billion a year). The "trusts" which control hospital operations ran out of funds, leaving the hospitals high and dry. Patients were abandoned on operating tables for hours. Others scheduled for procedures were sent home. Ward patients were denied necessary drugs and painkillers. (The same thing happened in New South Wales in 2008, almost driving the state's health care system -- also based on the NHS -- to collapse. This episode was kept very quiet...so quiet that no single reference to it was made in the American media.)
That's what's coming to us with ObamaCare. Oh yeah -- the number of accidental deaths under such circumstances will rise to the vicinity of 450,000. This won't simply increase Obama's popularity -- it will raise him to the level of legend. The problem is that the legend will comprise equal parts Bernard Madoff, Charles Manson, and Ludwig, Mad King of Bavaria.
With luck, Obama's halcyon days will end this November 2...
BREAKING: MULTIPLE RANCHES IN LAREDO, TEXAS TAKEN OVER BY MEXICAN INSURGENTS
UPDATE: ..muzzled by the "higher-ups"???
UPDATE #2: Report: Police Blotter Confirms Laredo Ranch Story Was Not A Hoax
BREAKING: MULTIPLE RANCHES IN LAREDO, TX TAKEN OVER BY LOS ZETAS -- UPDATE: Story is now 100% confirmed by second source within the Laredo Police Department
UPDATE #2: Report: Police Blotter Confirms Laredo Ranch Story Was Not A Hoax
The bloodbath continues along our southern border and now word is coming in that Los Zetas, the highly trained killers formerly with the Gulf Cartel, have crossed into the United States and taken over at least two ranches in the Laredo, Texas area. I am receiving word that the owners of the ranches have evacuated without being harmed. As of this hour I cannot confirm 100% on the situation (I am at around 90%) - though the source is law enforcement in the area.
UPDATE #3:
DIGGER'S REALM posted a 5-PART SERIES AS EVIDENCE IS RELEASED SHOWING A COVER-UP as well as this story.
DIGGER'S REALM posted a 5-PART SERIES AS EVIDENCE IS RELEASED SHOWING A COVER-UP as well as this story.
***** APRIL 19, 2011 *****
Brutal Mexican drug gang crosses into U.S.
Zetas butcher victims to spread message of fear
Brutal Mexican drug gang crosses into U.S.
Zetas butcher victims to spread message of fear
Is ObamaCare constitutional?
Is ObamaCare constitutional? "If you ask any constitutional law professor whether Congress can do something, the answer is always yes," says Randy Barnett. But Mr. Barnett, who teaches legal theory at Georgetown, isn't just any law professor. A self-described "radical libertarian," he is the author of a 2004 book, "Restoring the Lost ConstitutionOne of America's leading libertarian legal scholars handicaps whether the Supreme Court will find ObamaCare's insurance mandate constitutional.," that argues for a fundamentally new approach to jurisprudence.
Not benign: The practice of breast ironing
Just When You Think You've Heard It All
Cameroon: "Breast-ironing" of young girls, a harmful custom
Cameroon: "Breast-ironing" of young girls, a harmful custom
Breast ironing appears to be most widely-practiced in Cameroon. It's more common in the Christian and animist south of the country than the Muslim north, where only 10 per cent of women are affected.
*It also occurs in Guinea-Bissau, West and Central Africa, including Chad, Togo, Benin, Guinea-Conakry.
*Some 24 per cent of girls in Cameroon, about one girl in four, undergo breast ironing.
*Breast ironing occurs extensively in the 10 provinces throughout Cameroon.
*A sample survey published in January 2006 of 5000 girls and women aged between 10 and 82 in Cameroon, estimates that 4 million women had suffered the process.
*Today, 3.8 million teenagers are threatened with the practice.
Britain Plans to Decentralize National Health Care!
...the most radical reorganization of the National Health Service, as the system is called, since its inception in 1948.
Canada reconsidering health-care model in face of soaring costs
So why are we going down this dead-end road???
Practical details of the plan are still sketchy. But its aim is clear: to shift control of England’s $160 billion annual health budget from a centralized bureaucracy to doctors at the local level. Under the plan, $100 billion to $125 billion a year would be meted out to general practitioners, who would use the money to buy services from hospitals and other health care providers.Read the whole thing
The plan would also shrink the bureaucratic apparatus, in keeping with the government’s goal to effect $30 billion in “efficiency savings” in the health budget by 2014 and to reduce administrative costs by 45 percent. Tens of thousands of jobs would be lost because layers of bureaucracy would be abolished.
In a document, or white paper, outlining the plan, the government admitted that the changes would “cause significant disruption and loss of jobs.” But it said: “The current architecture of the health system has developed piecemeal, involves duplication and is unwieldy. Liberating the N.H.S., and putting power in the hands of patients and clinicians, means we will be able to effect a radical simplification, and remove layers of management.”
The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, also promised to put more power in the hands of patients. Currently, how and where patients are treated, and by whom, is largely determined by decisions made by 150 entities known as primary care trusts — all of which would be abolished under the plan, with some of those choices going to patients. It would also abolish many current government-set targets, like limits on how long patients have to wait for treatment.
Canada reconsidering health-care model in face of soaring costs
So why are we going down this dead-end road???
MOSQUE FREE ZONE
UPDATE (h/t Wizbang): Rauf’s Dawa from the World Trade Center Rubble
No Mosque at Ground Zero
VIDEO
Dr. Jim Garlow on the Cordoba Initiative (7/19/10)
VIDEO
Dawa, whether done from the rubble of the World Trade Center or elsewhere, is the missionary work by which Islam is spread.
No Mosque at Ground Zero
VIDEO
Dr. Jim Garlow on the Cordoba Initiative (7/19/10)
VIDEO
REND: Experts estimate that only 10% of the population would survive an EMP attack
Not for nothing, analysts assert, have Iran and North Korea developed and tested concealed systems for firing ballistic missiles from cargo ships...Imagine Iran With Nukes
Shirley Sherrod and the state-run media owe Andrew Breitbart an apology
SHOCKING VIDEO- What the MSM Won’t Show You From Shirley Sherrod’s Hate Speech
Black Journalists Prove to Be As Biased and Inept as State-Run Media
Black Journalists Prove to Be As Biased and Inept as State-Run Media
The White Journalist Association has not yet released a statement on the controversy.HEH
Friday, July 23, 2010
FOIA Requests delayed and requesters investigated by the Obama regime
Today [July 22, 2010] the Department of Homeland Security has been exposed as having conducted politically-motivated probes of FOIA requesters before releasing any records.Read the whole thing
A second former DOJ attorney has now come forward, blasting the department for failing to protect American soldiers' right to vote.
What's even more alarming, the attorney claims, is that despite congressional mandates passed in 2009 to ensure military personnel overseas can participate in elections, the DOJ's Voting Section is ignoring the new laws and may allow thousands of ballots to slip through the cracks uncounted in November.DoJ scandal reveals how thousands of military ballots may go uncounted
Shoddy Reporting Concerning Closed Chrysler Dealers:What the TARP Inspector General Report Does NOT Say.
From Leo Donofrio:
The TARP Inspector General’s office, SIGTARP, recently released a report entitled, “Factors Effecting The Decision of General Motors and Chrysler To Reduce Their Dealership Networks“. This report set off a firestorm of shoddy reporting, which, if left unchecked, will confuse those familiar with the Chrysler Dealers’ pending litigation on appeal in federal district court. This blog posting has been designed to educate the public as to the truth of the SIGTARP Report.Read more
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Ever wonder why 2008 VP candidate Sarah Palin was so ridiculed before much was known about her?
Turns out liberal journalists engaged in a coordinated smear campaign to aid the Democratic ticket. . .journalists from the Nation, Mother Jones, Time, Politico, Bloomberg cooking up approaches, arguments, "narratives" and templates to paint a false picture of the candidate.JournoGate Continued: Pouncing On Palin
There are so many things wrong with this, we hardly know where to start. Nominally competitors, these supposedly impartial media mavens colluded in a way that would put airline or insurance officials in the dock for anti-competitive practices. They engaged in activism instead of fact-finding and mixed incestuously with activists whom they also should have been covering impartially.
Worst of all, they deprived millions of Americans of the information they needed to size up this new face on the political scene and determine if she really was a candidate who represented their interests.
Race Played Role in Obama Car Dealer Closures
From AMERICAN THINKER:
The Obama administration, already under fire for unprecedented allegations of racial bias, faces a new bias claim from a most unlikely source: one of the administration's own inspectors general.Read more
Decisions on which car dealerships to close as part of the auto industry bailout -- closures the Obama administration forced on General Motors and Chrysler -- were based in part on race and gender, according to a report by Troubled Asset Relief Program Special Inspector General Neal M. Barofsky...
THE STORY OF O
From HillBuzz:
It was interesting to see Ben Smith, from Politico.com, listed as a member of Journolist — the committed Obama operatives in the Media who banded together to make sure negative stories about their Lightbringer were quashed while attacks were coordinated to label anyone opposing Obama “RAAACIST” during the 2008 campaign.Our experience with Journolist member (and committed Obama operative) Ben Smith during the 2008 general election
We had a brief encounter with Smith during September and October of 2008, where he repeatedly refused to run a story we were involved in that would have damaged Obama and drawn closer attention to his continued and longstanding ties to terrorist bomber William Ayers.
Here in Chicago, we’re friends with a woman who used to give the Obama girls swimming lessons. She, and others who worked in the Obama/Rezko Mansion for various projects and assignments, was a source for a lot of what we know about The Lightbringer personally (his affinity for men, his Parkinson’s disease, his chain-smoking and continued drug use, etc.). Between people who’d worked for the City with Michelle, people who attended Trinity United with the Obamas, and people who lived and worked in Hyde Park near the Obama/Rezko Mansion, we collected many anecdotes that raised a lot of questions about the man the Media was pushing to be our next president…if any journalist wanted to follow any of these leads.
The McCain campaign approached us with a story they had on Obama, which needed a second source to confirm. They had found a young woman in Hyde Park who had played with the older Obama girl on occasion, and knew about babysitting William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn did for the Obama girls. The young woman was the daughter of a McCain supporter in Hyde Park (probably the only McCain supporter in Hyde Park), and was barely a teenager. The McCain camp went to Ben Smith with this story, but he refused to look into it because the only witness to the Ayers/Dohrn babysitting operation was a teenaged girl who happened to be the daughter of a McCain supporter.
We were charged with finding someone else who could verify that Ayers/Dohrn babysat the Obama girls. We brought their old swimming instructor up, and Ben Smith shot that person (now a respected advertising executive) down because she, too, was a Republican and a McCain supporter. So, Ben Smith refused to do a write-up on the Ayers/Dorhn babysitting…despite getting two different people who didn’t know each other to verify that this happened on more than one occasion.
When you look at a map of the Hyde Park area, you see Louis Farrakhan, the Obama/Rezko Mansion, and the William Ayers residence in very close proximity to one another…about as close to each other as The Gap, Banana Republic, and Express are to each other in a typical suburban mall. Walking distance. So close, young children could easily walk between the houses without parents worrying about them.
It was impossible to prod the Media into doing any sort of investigative story on Obama, in any way, shape, or form. Ben Smith was not the only reporter we went to with this story. But, he’s the most memorable because he kept playing games with us. ”Get me someone else, someone more important, someone who is not a Republican, and I’ll do the story,” he said. Which made us waste a great deal of time running through contacts and leads trying to do the work of actual reporters, trying to flesh out this story.
To this day, the majority of people in Chicago won’t talk about the Obamas, for fear of their careers being ruined. The Left is vindictive and irrational. Anyone seen as working against Dr. Utopia, The Lightbringer, must be taken out. People are afraid to talk, and will probably remain that way until Obama leaves office. At which time, we expect all the flood gates to open. Secrets can’t be hidden forever.
Ultimately, every “journalist” involved with Journolist or who otherwise served as an Obama operative in 2008 will be exposed, and their careers will be ruined.
We hope the public makes the connection that absent the Journolist members and the support they gave Obama, perhaps he would not have been elected and then maybe many in the public would still have gainful employment in an economy that was not deliberately ruined so our wealth could be redistributed.
We hope the public’s ire is turned full-blast at people like Ben Smith. That’s long overdue.
And while we're at it...
...how about all those who have elevated the use of the race card to the central tool in the Democratic Party arsenal!There are so many apologies needed. Shirley Sherrod is the least of them...
WARNING: Be very careful around the "firestick plant "
From Christianity Today
July 22, 2010 9:25AM
Rick Warren: My Eyes Were Severely Burned (Updated)
by Sarah Pulliam Bailey
Rick Warren just tweeted: My eyes were severely burned by a toxic poison.Hospitalized Mon.Excruciating pain.Now home.Pray my sight loss is restored
Update (11 a.m. Central):
Warren was pruning a firestick plant in his yard on Monday when he got some of the sap from the plant on his hands, according to his publicist, A. Larry Ross. "He went to wipe his brow and immediately experienced excruciating pain in both eyes," Ross said. "His wife came running out, and it was so painful, he couldn’t articulate what happened."
His wife Kay called 911, and an emergency vehicle transferred him to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo where he saw an eye specialist. Warren was kept overnight and released Tuesday.
He is wearing protective contact lenses and using ointment, and doctors expect a full recovery, Ross said. Ross said that Warren did not lose his eyesight, but was unable to open his eyes. "Thankfully, he’s seeing well enough to be able to tweet," he said.
After his initial tweet, Warren tweeted: Thank you for prayers for my eyes. Another doctor visit this PM. May God use this pain for His Glory. Rom.8:28
Last year, Warren was working on a book called The Hope You Need
(Zondervan), delayed it so he could write the curriculum for his church membership program. Amazon lists the release date for The Hope You Need on November 16, but Ross was unsure when it will be released.
July 22, 2010 9:25AM
Rick Warren: My Eyes Were Severely Burned (Updated)
by Sarah Pulliam Bailey
Rick Warren just tweeted: My eyes were severely burned by a toxic poison.Hospitalized Mon.Excruciating pain.Now home.Pray my sight loss is restored
Update (11 a.m. Central):
Warren was pruning a firestick plant in his yard on Monday when he got some of the sap from the plant on his hands, according to his publicist, A. Larry Ross. "He went to wipe his brow and immediately experienced excruciating pain in both eyes," Ross said. "His wife came running out, and it was so painful, he couldn’t articulate what happened."
His wife Kay called 911, and an emergency vehicle transferred him to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo where he saw an eye specialist. Warren was kept overnight and released Tuesday.
He is wearing protective contact lenses and using ointment, and doctors expect a full recovery, Ross said. Ross said that Warren did not lose his eyesight, but was unable to open his eyes. "Thankfully, he’s seeing well enough to be able to tweet," he said.
After his initial tweet, Warren tweeted: Thank you for prayers for my eyes. Another doctor visit this PM. May God use this pain for His Glory. Rom.8:28
Last year, Warren was working on a book called The Hope You Need
(Zondervan), delayed it so he could write the curriculum for his church membership program. Amazon lists the release date for The Hope You Need on November 16, but Ross was unsure when it will be released.Race payday for Obama administration
The Paycheck Fairness Act:
So the extortion and mafioso-style Chicago tactics continue on in Washington unabated, vaguely disguised, this time, as a political bribe for women in the workplace...
"(B) based on the results of the survey and consultations under subparagraph (A), issue regulations to provide for the collection of pay information data from employers as described by the sex, race, and national origin of employees."The National Association of Manufacturers issued a statement about the bill in April:
“The Paycheck Fairness Act, which purports to prevent instances of illegal gender-based discrimination, could outlaw many legitimate practices employers use to set employee pay rates, even where there is no evidence of intentional discrimination and employers act with reasonable belief that their pay policies are lawful,” the statement said.White House Backs Bill to Collect Employee Pay Information from Businesses
“Manufacturers strongly oppose unlawful discrimination in any form, but the Paycheck Fairness Act would impose unparalleled government control over how employees are paid, among even the nation’s smallest businesses,” it added.
“It would drastically alter the Equal Pay Act to allow unprecedented penalties of unlimited punitive and compensatory damages in cases of alleged discrimination,” the statement said.
So the extortion and mafioso-style Chicago tactics continue on in Washington unabated, vaguely disguised, this time, as a political bribe for women in the workplace...
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Why "the public interest" is an immoral idea
"The public interest" is an immoral idea.
As Rand put it elsewhere: "Since there is no such entity as 'the public,' since the public is merely a number of individuals, the idea that 'the public interest' supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning: that the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others. . ."
The lesson? Anytime anyone calls for economic policies to promote "the public interest," he's calling for evil — the sacrifice of individuals who've earned something to those who haven't.
What's the alternative to the tyranny of "the public interest"? Each individual's pursuit of his private interests — in Jefferson's words, the pursuit of happiness.
The result is a nonsacrificial society , in which government is stripped of the power to concoct schemes to promote "the public interest" and is solely focused on protecting each individual's rights, including his property rights. . .
Unless we recapture this quintessentially American spirit, this independent, individualistic ethic — and discover the words fully to name it, to understand it, to defend it and to implement it — we've no right to expect the freedom and progress that earlier Americans achieved.
This is one of timeless themes of "Atlas Shrugged."
Atlas Shrugged's Timeless Moral: Profit-Making Is Virtue, Not Vice
ATLAS SHRUGGED
As Rand put it elsewhere: "Since there is no such entity as 'the public,' since the public is merely a number of individuals, the idea that 'the public interest' supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning: that the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others. . ."
The lesson? Anytime anyone calls for economic policies to promote "the public interest," he's calling for evil — the sacrifice of individuals who've earned something to those who haven't.
What's the alternative to the tyranny of "the public interest"? Each individual's pursuit of his private interests — in Jefferson's words, the pursuit of happiness.
The result is a nonsacrificial society , in which government is stripped of the power to concoct schemes to promote "the public interest" and is solely focused on protecting each individual's rights, including his property rights. . .
Unless we recapture this quintessentially American spirit, this independent, individualistic ethic — and discover the words fully to name it, to understand it, to defend it and to implement it — we've no right to expect the freedom and progress that earlier Americans achieved.
This is one of timeless themes of "Atlas Shrugged."
Atlas Shrugged's Timeless Moral: Profit-Making Is Virtue, Not Vice
ATLAS SHRUGGED
Matthew 25:
14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
16 Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
17 And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
18 But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
19 After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
20 And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21 His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
22 He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them.
23 His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
24 Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25 And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26 His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27 Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28 Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29 For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30 And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
2011: ...it's not just the rich who will pay!
Not all Americans may fully realize what's in store come Jan. 1. But they should have a pretty good idea by the mid-term elections, and members of Congress might take note of our latest IBD/TIPP Poll (summarized above).The Tax Tsunami On The Horizon
Mystery of TWA Flight 800 Lives On
...673 eyewitnesses called the FBI to tell them, to report what they’d seen. So there are probably over a thousand witnesses. Now, we know that many, many of those witnesses contacted The New York Times, and contacted other newspapers, to try to explain what it was that they had seen, but The New York Times didn’t publish it. So think about it: This is homicide. These are 230 counts of homicide within the eyesight of a thousand people. Now, if the government can get away with that, because of the news media, they can really get away with—then, really, it sort of tells us that this country, the population, is kind of losing touch with reality.”Read the whole thing
The Ruling Class in America
...while most Americans pray to the God "who created and doth sustain us," our ruling class prays to itself as "saviors of the planet" and improvers of humanity.AMERICAN SPECTATOR: America's Ruling Class -- And the Perils of Revolution
So bottom line, this isn’t about class warfare. It’s about two different approaches to living life. The ruling class see the country class as ignorant, petulant slobs whose lives need to be fixed for them. The country class see the ruling class as the a**holes who won’t let them live their lives freely. Neither class has much interest in meeting with and understanding the other. For over a century, progressives have been motivated by what they believe is a humanitarian desire to improve life for the ignorant classes. Naturally, this enrages the objects of the progressives’ affection, because at root they see it as a desire to enslave them.THE NEW LEDGER: Class Warfare in America
3 THINGS ABOUT ISLAM YOU PROBABLY DON'T KNOW
IGNORE AT YOUR OWN PERIL
1) Islam has NOT been "hijacked."
2) Striving to institute world-wide Shari'a Law is a religious DUTY.
3) Muslims are allowed to deceive non-Muslims if it helps Islam
(known as "TAQIYYA")
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Republican Election Commissioner Chairman Jim Miller Found Murdered in Monroe County!
UPDATE: ...other related mysterious burning deaths!
As of this report, it is unclear whether or not Mr. Miller was one of the officials willing to present evidence against local officials and law enforcement in Monroe County. But the timing and circumstances of Mr. Miller's death certainly raises interesting questions...This was a Chicago style slaying if ever there was one. The people will want to know who is really responsible and why...Obot's are immediately on the story and immediately looking to pin this on a "right-winger" when in fact the man murdered was himself a "right-winger." The facts support nothing they say or believe, but that has never interfered with Obot propaganda.Read the whole thing
Content Reviewers See Worst of the Web
(Newser) – Imagine spending your workday looking at the vilest images and videos the Internet has to offer. That's the lot of content reviewers, who fill an increasingly necessary role in an online world more and more driven by user-generated content. It's essential for social-networking sites to stay free of snuff videos and scat porn, but the people forced to look at the stuff all day can suffer adverse mental health consequences, reports the New York Times.Too much of the Internet's dark side can affect mental health
Monday, July 19, 2010
Frosty, the "no" man...a story of what ails US
This is an account of what ails us that is radically at odds with the familiar tale of greedy bankers in $5,000 suits...
In 2005, University of Chicago finance professor Raghuram Rajan published a paper in the proceedings of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City called “Has Financial Development Made the World Riskier?” Rajan, then the chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, warned bluntly that incentive structures in the banking profession were leading to reckless credit expansion, herding, and other “perverse behaviors.” He was frostily received when he presented his findings at the Federal Reserve’s annual summer retreat in Jackson Hole that year. The Fed-linked experts who snorted at Rajan’s warnings were sure that financial innovations helped “spread risk” in a way that made the world safer. There was a fixed amount of risk in the world, they seemed to believe, and the more widely distributed it was, the better off we were. Rajan, too, thought the new products and practices “spread risk,” but in a different and more dangerous way: They multiplied it.H/T: INSTAPUNDIT (forgot this so very early this am)!
Rajan is worth reading not just because he was correct when few were but also because his writing is clear as a bell, even to nonspecialists. His new book, Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy, is not a coherent argument so much as a bunch of independent-minded essays on various topics in contemporary global finance.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Democracy or Kleptocracy?
Attached is what I suspect is my final effort at this essay. If you choose to share it, please include the disclaimer on the first page.
In sincerest patriotism,
Arthur L. McGinley, Ph.D.
Retired Marine Corps Major, and currently a college professor.
An administrative system which ignores ethics, culture, and morality cannot survive as a dominant political organism. --Manley P. Hall "America's Assignment with Destiny" 1951
Disclaimer:
This article results from a synthesis of my recent reading, my study of American Politics and international relations of more than 30 years and my own deep concern for the status of my nation in the world community and its security.
Some of what you read may sound familiar to some of you since I am not averse to paraphrasing scholars more erudite than myself. My difficulty is that I read so much and listen to so many points of view that I cannot begin to cite sources for what is essentially a spur of the moment essay. If you recognize something you have written or said please feel flattered that I remembered it and considered it worthy of inclusion in the analysis rather than being offended that I failed to cite the source. I freely acknowledge the contributions made by many scholars to our political discourse and thank everyone who has taught me through their contributions to the discipline.
Arthur L. McGinley, PhD
Major of US Marines Retired
Democracy or Kleptocracy?
Major Arthur L. McGinley, PhD
US Marine Corps Retired
The political system of the United States has begun to swing from that of a representative democracy to that of a kleptocracy. In fact, there has been a distinct departure from the concept of performing public service to the creation of a political class who envision themselves the natural rulers of the people and who are intent on treating their elected offices as family property as if we are reinstituting feudalism. How else can one explain the efforts of this new political class to deny states the right to enforce immigration laws; to deny private citizens the means for self-defense from both tyrannical government and from the criminal class; to fail to enforce voter intimidation laws; to prosecute private citizens for revealing illegal activities of groups like ACORN; and to surround themselves with organizations like SEIU and other elements of the political thugocracy? Why else would they set out to weaken America by decimating the military power of the nation in order to finance their idealistic social programs? As they enrich themselves at the public trough through budgetary earmarks directed to relatives or legislation favoring one section of the country or one social group over another, the nation sinks deeper into the morass of rule by the self-defined political class instead of the rule of law.
Before proceeding further, the terms democracy and kleptocracy must be defined. Coming from the Greek, democracy is roughly translated as Demos meaning people and Kratis meaning “rule by” (in English the suffix -cracy) and is interpreted to mean the “rule by the people” (some would translate “demos” as mob making the word mean “rule by the mob”). Kleptocracy translated breaks down as “klepto” meaning thief or criminal, and –cracy meaning “rule by.” So a kleptocracy is rule by criminals or thieves. The former Soviet Union has been called a kleptocracy in international relations literature because of the influence of criminal elements there. As this essay proceeds, it will be shown that this is the direction in which the government of the United States has headed.
Border Enforcement
Beginning with the assertion that the political class does not desire to enforce border sovereignty, the influence exerted on elected officials by illegal aliens is brought into the forefront. The failure by U.S. federal authorities to enforce immigration law borders on treason. The desire to retain public office has become so great among certain elected officials that they are willing to permit large numbers of people to violate the sovereignty of the nation in hopes of gaining their vote and thus retaining their offices with the inherent power and prestige. At one time, elected officials were considered to be rendering public service by serving briefly in elected office. It was accepted that they had established themselves in a profession and were taking time out from that profession to serve the nation for a time. Most elected officials served one or two terms and then returned to private life. It has been only recently that politics has become a profession. Because holding office is the only means of livelihood for these individuals, they will compromise anything, from their personal integrity to the national security, even to the extent of losing it, and the national checkbook to retain their offices. Probably the two best examples of the compromise of the national check book are former Representative Murtha and former Senator Byrd both of who raped the public purse for self-aggrandizement and the enrichment of both themselves and their families.
In 1979, at the graduation ceremonies for Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Eric Sevareid, a long-time CBS News White House correspondent, told the graduating class to keep a close eye on elected officials. He reminded us that most of them come into office “with patches on their elbows and on the seats of their pants and leave as millionaires, and they do it on $39,000 a year.” While not much money, even in those days, the proposition is true nevertheless. Very few, if any, members of Congress leave office less wealthy than they were when they were elected. Even after leaving office most continue to use their connections to increase their personal wealth. This is public service?
The compromise of national security is personified in Congressman Murtha, Senator Reid, Congresswoman Pelosi, Senator Durbin, Senator Kerry and President Obama who have made unwarranted accusations against U.S. military personnel, who continuously apologize for imaginary sins committed by the U.S., and who never met an enemy of America that they did not like and/or support. One proof of this assertion is the sanctuary the U.S. government has created in Arizona for illegal border crossers and illicit drug importers in a national park. This sanctuary is a key example of how far government has fallen into the orbit of foreign criminal elements. Why else would officials of the U.S. government create an avenue for entry into the heart of Arizona?
Second Amendment
The original intent of the Second Amendment was to provide the means necessary for the citizenry to defend itself from tyrannical government. Further evidence of the gains made by the kleptocracy is the never-ending battle by elected officials to strip citizens of any means of self-defense. While American elected officials have not gone as far as the British in labeling possession of all of the means of defense a crime, efforts are made daily to strip citizens of the tools they need to defend themselves from the criminal elements in the government. One wonders just how far in the pockets of these criminal elements city and county officials are who fight against Supreme Court rulings in order to assure the safety of criminals in their jurisdictions and who do little or nothing to provide for the security of law-abiding citizens. These elected officials appear to be in league with criminal elements as they make every effort to disarm citizens through legislation contrary to US Supreme Court decisions.
Anyone who believes that politicians like Mayors Bloomberg of New York and Daley of Chicago do not desire to control every aspect of the lives of the residents of their cities has not been paying attention. One only needs to look at the recent ban in San Francisco of non-diet soft drinks, and the ban on sodium in restaurants in New York to see that even the most miniscule of personal choices are considered to be subject to government control. Little by little, bit by bit, individual freedoms are being eroded. The case for the right to keep and bear arms has never been as pertinent as it is today. With the erosion of any semblance of border control, criminal and terrorist elements from throughout the world have easy access to our cities, and thus to our families. Stripped of the means to keep and bear arms, we are defenseless against the criminal elements that have infiltrated our governmental system and defenseless against tyrannical elements in the body of our elected officials. A case in point is the recent overturning of City of New York legislation that forbade more than two consecutive terms by the mayor. Mr. Bloomberg made a case for overturning the law and received the necessary votes to do so. Now he can rule New York as he sees fit for a long as he wants.
Voter Intimidation
It is an astonishing turn of events when the U.S. Department of Justice will not enforce voter intimidation laws. Even worse is their seeming choice to enforce the laws selectively. The Democrat Congress passed legislation that demands that a picture ID be showed to obtain basic medical services under Medicare or Medicaid. The regulation was passed under the guise of preventing identify theft and protecting insurance from being used by someone other than the intended recipient. Yet when a potential voter is asked for a picture ID at a polling place, Democrats and their fellow travelers scream harassment and intimidation. The excuse they use is that minorities are so untrusting of the government that they don’t apply for photo IDs. If this is true, how do they manage to sign up for their cell phone service? Drive a car? Cash or write a check? Or accomplish any one of a number of daily tasks that require a photo ID to complete? Could it be that not being required to show identification restricts the number of times and/or places a person can vote in a single election? Surely this is not the case even though Democrat party operatives have been caught falsifying voter registration documents. A case in point is the recent Presidential election where ACORN registered voters in Illinois with names like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
Fellow Travelers
Recently revelations by undercover reporters have pointed out the lack of integrity of the President’s favorite community organization ACORN. These investigators recorded agents of ACORN assisting the establishment of houses of ill-repute populated by underage illegal aliens. Other antics by ACORN have since come to light. Investigative reporters determined that ACORN was receiving millions of dollars from the U.S. government under several aliases. There are no records of where the money went or for what it was spent, although ACORN is supposed to be a 501c organization with stringent reporting requirements mandated by the IRS. The Congress is complicit in the use of federal money for the purposes of ACORN. Yet we should not be surprised. The management of ACORN is composed primarily of members of minority groups. For some reason, they are given a pass by the IRS on the financial reporting requirements to which others are subject.
ACORN and the SEIU were the prime movers in turning out voters for the current administration and the Democrat Party in the 2008 election. The SEIU was one of the Democrat party’s major contributors as well as a heavy contributor to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The SEIU and ACORN have committed acts of violence that are well documented, from attacking members at Tea Party rallies, to voter intimidation, to acts of intimidation at corporation headquarters. Their activities are condoned if not directed by members of the current Presidential administration.
National Security
Call them liberals, progressives or left-wing whack jobs, they all hate the military. True to form the current administration has created a commission to determine reductions in U.S. military forces in order to be able to fund the vast array of social programs they propose. The U.S. military is recognized currently as the most powerful in the world. The President is concerned about the fact that many of our potential enemies, and even some of our so-called friends, are afraid of us. Frankly, I see nothing wrong with that. In fact, I believe that in international relations, it is far better to be feared than to be liked. We have never learned that valuable lesson. After every conflict in which the United States has participated, the military has been down-sized to a point of bare capability. Invariably, within a period of less than 10 years we have come to regret it. By intentionally down-sizing and eliminating acquisition of new equipment several major problems are created. Probably the most important is the loss of warrior officers. In a climate of peacetime machinations the bureaucrats manage to shove aside the warriors who really know how to fight wars but don’t comprehend bureaucratic politics.
A very wise statesman once said, “If you would have peace, prepare for war.” Failure to prepare for war leads to the appearance of weakness. In the current international climate, any appearance of weakness is an excuse to attack. Our Middle Eastern enemy understands exhibitions of strength, and we must continue to be strong if we are to survive. Sadly, the current kleptocratic administration is intent on making the U.S. weak not only in appearance but as a matter of fact.
Conclusion
To answer the question of whether the U.S. is now a democracy rather than a republic or a kleptocracy, we see in the United States today is a government composed of people who could not support themselves if they were not occupants of elected offices. Being incapable of earning a living any other way they have reverted to thievery. It matters not that the theft may be votes rather than money, it is theft nonetheless. As a result, the U.S. federal government should now be classified a kleptocracy. It has made it unacceptable to call illegal aliens illegal. It acquiesces to criminal activity by minorities over the majority by refusing to prosecute cases of voter intimidation, illegal immigration or the importation of illegal drugs across our borders. It financially supports activist anti-capitalist organizations like ACORN and gives support to unions like SEIU who act as shills and shock troops for the Democrat party. And most importantly, it is willing to abandon the military power that has made us the greatest nation in the world in hopes that our conquerors will be appreciative of their efforts. All this change has become about in the relatively short period of two years, although “theft by earmark” has been in effect since the 1960s.
In sincerest patriotism,
Arthur L. McGinley, Ph.D.
Retired Marine Corps Major, and currently a college professor.
An administrative system which ignores ethics, culture, and morality cannot survive as a dominant political organism. --Manley P. Hall "America's Assignment with Destiny" 1951
Disclaimer:
This article results from a synthesis of my recent reading, my study of American Politics and international relations of more than 30 years and my own deep concern for the status of my nation in the world community and its security.
Some of what you read may sound familiar to some of you since I am not averse to paraphrasing scholars more erudite than myself. My difficulty is that I read so much and listen to so many points of view that I cannot begin to cite sources for what is essentially a spur of the moment essay. If you recognize something you have written or said please feel flattered that I remembered it and considered it worthy of inclusion in the analysis rather than being offended that I failed to cite the source. I freely acknowledge the contributions made by many scholars to our political discourse and thank everyone who has taught me through their contributions to the discipline.
Arthur L. McGinley, PhD
Major of US Marines Retired
Democracy or Kleptocracy?
Major Arthur L. McGinley, PhD
US Marine Corps Retired
The political system of the United States has begun to swing from that of a representative democracy to that of a kleptocracy. In fact, there has been a distinct departure from the concept of performing public service to the creation of a political class who envision themselves the natural rulers of the people and who are intent on treating their elected offices as family property as if we are reinstituting feudalism. How else can one explain the efforts of this new political class to deny states the right to enforce immigration laws; to deny private citizens the means for self-defense from both tyrannical government and from the criminal class; to fail to enforce voter intimidation laws; to prosecute private citizens for revealing illegal activities of groups like ACORN; and to surround themselves with organizations like SEIU and other elements of the political thugocracy? Why else would they set out to weaken America by decimating the military power of the nation in order to finance their idealistic social programs? As they enrich themselves at the public trough through budgetary earmarks directed to relatives or legislation favoring one section of the country or one social group over another, the nation sinks deeper into the morass of rule by the self-defined political class instead of the rule of law.
Before proceeding further, the terms democracy and kleptocracy must be defined. Coming from the Greek, democracy is roughly translated as Demos meaning people and Kratis meaning “rule by” (in English the suffix -cracy) and is interpreted to mean the “rule by the people” (some would translate “demos” as mob making the word mean “rule by the mob”). Kleptocracy translated breaks down as “klepto” meaning thief or criminal, and –cracy meaning “rule by.” So a kleptocracy is rule by criminals or thieves. The former Soviet Union has been called a kleptocracy in international relations literature because of the influence of criminal elements there. As this essay proceeds, it will be shown that this is the direction in which the government of the United States has headed.
Border Enforcement
Beginning with the assertion that the political class does not desire to enforce border sovereignty, the influence exerted on elected officials by illegal aliens is brought into the forefront. The failure by U.S. federal authorities to enforce immigration law borders on treason. The desire to retain public office has become so great among certain elected officials that they are willing to permit large numbers of people to violate the sovereignty of the nation in hopes of gaining their vote and thus retaining their offices with the inherent power and prestige. At one time, elected officials were considered to be rendering public service by serving briefly in elected office. It was accepted that they had established themselves in a profession and were taking time out from that profession to serve the nation for a time. Most elected officials served one or two terms and then returned to private life. It has been only recently that politics has become a profession. Because holding office is the only means of livelihood for these individuals, they will compromise anything, from their personal integrity to the national security, even to the extent of losing it, and the national checkbook to retain their offices. Probably the two best examples of the compromise of the national check book are former Representative Murtha and former Senator Byrd both of who raped the public purse for self-aggrandizement and the enrichment of both themselves and their families.
In 1979, at the graduation ceremonies for Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Eric Sevareid, a long-time CBS News White House correspondent, told the graduating class to keep a close eye on elected officials. He reminded us that most of them come into office “with patches on their elbows and on the seats of their pants and leave as millionaires, and they do it on $39,000 a year.” While not much money, even in those days, the proposition is true nevertheless. Very few, if any, members of Congress leave office less wealthy than they were when they were elected. Even after leaving office most continue to use their connections to increase their personal wealth. This is public service?
The compromise of national security is personified in Congressman Murtha, Senator Reid, Congresswoman Pelosi, Senator Durbin, Senator Kerry and President Obama who have made unwarranted accusations against U.S. military personnel, who continuously apologize for imaginary sins committed by the U.S., and who never met an enemy of America that they did not like and/or support. One proof of this assertion is the sanctuary the U.S. government has created in Arizona for illegal border crossers and illicit drug importers in a national park. This sanctuary is a key example of how far government has fallen into the orbit of foreign criminal elements. Why else would officials of the U.S. government create an avenue for entry into the heart of Arizona?
Second Amendment
The original intent of the Second Amendment was to provide the means necessary for the citizenry to defend itself from tyrannical government. Further evidence of the gains made by the kleptocracy is the never-ending battle by elected officials to strip citizens of any means of self-defense. While American elected officials have not gone as far as the British in labeling possession of all of the means of defense a crime, efforts are made daily to strip citizens of the tools they need to defend themselves from the criminal elements in the government. One wonders just how far in the pockets of these criminal elements city and county officials are who fight against Supreme Court rulings in order to assure the safety of criminals in their jurisdictions and who do little or nothing to provide for the security of law-abiding citizens. These elected officials appear to be in league with criminal elements as they make every effort to disarm citizens through legislation contrary to US Supreme Court decisions.
Anyone who believes that politicians like Mayors Bloomberg of New York and Daley of Chicago do not desire to control every aspect of the lives of the residents of their cities has not been paying attention. One only needs to look at the recent ban in San Francisco of non-diet soft drinks, and the ban on sodium in restaurants in New York to see that even the most miniscule of personal choices are considered to be subject to government control. Little by little, bit by bit, individual freedoms are being eroded. The case for the right to keep and bear arms has never been as pertinent as it is today. With the erosion of any semblance of border control, criminal and terrorist elements from throughout the world have easy access to our cities, and thus to our families. Stripped of the means to keep and bear arms, we are defenseless against the criminal elements that have infiltrated our governmental system and defenseless against tyrannical elements in the body of our elected officials. A case in point is the recent overturning of City of New York legislation that forbade more than two consecutive terms by the mayor. Mr. Bloomberg made a case for overturning the law and received the necessary votes to do so. Now he can rule New York as he sees fit for a long as he wants.
Voter Intimidation
It is an astonishing turn of events when the U.S. Department of Justice will not enforce voter intimidation laws. Even worse is their seeming choice to enforce the laws selectively. The Democrat Congress passed legislation that demands that a picture ID be showed to obtain basic medical services under Medicare or Medicaid. The regulation was passed under the guise of preventing identify theft and protecting insurance from being used by someone other than the intended recipient. Yet when a potential voter is asked for a picture ID at a polling place, Democrats and their fellow travelers scream harassment and intimidation. The excuse they use is that minorities are so untrusting of the government that they don’t apply for photo IDs. If this is true, how do they manage to sign up for their cell phone service? Drive a car? Cash or write a check? Or accomplish any one of a number of daily tasks that require a photo ID to complete? Could it be that not being required to show identification restricts the number of times and/or places a person can vote in a single election? Surely this is not the case even though Democrat party operatives have been caught falsifying voter registration documents. A case in point is the recent Presidential election where ACORN registered voters in Illinois with names like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
Fellow Travelers
Recently revelations by undercover reporters have pointed out the lack of integrity of the President’s favorite community organization ACORN. These investigators recorded agents of ACORN assisting the establishment of houses of ill-repute populated by underage illegal aliens. Other antics by ACORN have since come to light. Investigative reporters determined that ACORN was receiving millions of dollars from the U.S. government under several aliases. There are no records of where the money went or for what it was spent, although ACORN is supposed to be a 501c organization with stringent reporting requirements mandated by the IRS. The Congress is complicit in the use of federal money for the purposes of ACORN. Yet we should not be surprised. The management of ACORN is composed primarily of members of minority groups. For some reason, they are given a pass by the IRS on the financial reporting requirements to which others are subject.
ACORN and the SEIU were the prime movers in turning out voters for the current administration and the Democrat Party in the 2008 election. The SEIU was one of the Democrat party’s major contributors as well as a heavy contributor to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. The SEIU and ACORN have committed acts of violence that are well documented, from attacking members at Tea Party rallies, to voter intimidation, to acts of intimidation at corporation headquarters. Their activities are condoned if not directed by members of the current Presidential administration.
National Security
Call them liberals, progressives or left-wing whack jobs, they all hate the military. True to form the current administration has created a commission to determine reductions in U.S. military forces in order to be able to fund the vast array of social programs they propose. The U.S. military is recognized currently as the most powerful in the world. The President is concerned about the fact that many of our potential enemies, and even some of our so-called friends, are afraid of us. Frankly, I see nothing wrong with that. In fact, I believe that in international relations, it is far better to be feared than to be liked. We have never learned that valuable lesson. After every conflict in which the United States has participated, the military has been down-sized to a point of bare capability. Invariably, within a period of less than 10 years we have come to regret it. By intentionally down-sizing and eliminating acquisition of new equipment several major problems are created. Probably the most important is the loss of warrior officers. In a climate of peacetime machinations the bureaucrats manage to shove aside the warriors who really know how to fight wars but don’t comprehend bureaucratic politics.
A very wise statesman once said, “If you would have peace, prepare for war.” Failure to prepare for war leads to the appearance of weakness. In the current international climate, any appearance of weakness is an excuse to attack. Our Middle Eastern enemy understands exhibitions of strength, and we must continue to be strong if we are to survive. Sadly, the current kleptocratic administration is intent on making the U.S. weak not only in appearance but as a matter of fact.
Conclusion
To answer the question of whether the U.S. is now a democracy rather than a republic or a kleptocracy, we see in the United States today is a government composed of people who could not support themselves if they were not occupants of elected offices. Being incapable of earning a living any other way they have reverted to thievery. It matters not that the theft may be votes rather than money, it is theft nonetheless. As a result, the U.S. federal government should now be classified a kleptocracy. It has made it unacceptable to call illegal aliens illegal. It acquiesces to criminal activity by minorities over the majority by refusing to prosecute cases of voter intimidation, illegal immigration or the importation of illegal drugs across our borders. It financially supports activist anti-capitalist organizations like ACORN and gives support to unions like SEIU who act as shills and shock troops for the Democrat party. And most importantly, it is willing to abandon the military power that has made us the greatest nation in the world in hopes that our conquerors will be appreciative of their efforts. All this change has become about in the relatively short period of two years, although “theft by earmark” has been in effect since the 1960s.