Author: papundits

By Alan Caruba

Don’t you think, if the Democrats had the votes for Obamacare, it would be the law of the land right now?

I have been telling friends for days that it doesn’t matter if Obamacare is somehow “passed” by the House and sent to the White House for the President’s signature. It is as dead as Marley’s ghost.

The law will be challenged by law suits or possibly nullified because of the manner of passage and elements of its content that require citizens to buy health insurance. That is manifestly unconstitutional.

I know the common wisdom among the Democrat denizens of Washington, D.C. is that once Obamacare becomes law the great heaving mass of ignorant and unwashed citizens will quickly forget about the whole thing. They are wrong.

Obamacare is the equivalent of the Confederate States declaring secession and the first shots fired at Fort Sumter. That time it took a war to restore the Union, but this time a huge majority of people, Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, independents, and every other political flag other than the Communist and Socialist Parties USA is opposed to this 2,700 page monstrosity.

Truly, Barack Hussein Obama has brought us all together. Against him!

With regard to the States, one after another is passing resolutions and laws to exempt themselves from the authority of Obamacare and it is likely to reignite and vivify the Tenth Amendment as nothing has in decades.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The people. That’s us.

The people who got Prohibition repealed. The people who finally granted suffrage to women. The people who volunteer to be in our Armed Forces. The people in our police and fire departments. The people in the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. The people who drive trucks providing goods to the rest of us. The people who marry and raise kids. You know who they are. They are your neighbors, your friends, your co-workers.

In his iconic novel, “On the Road”, Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) wrote, “This is the story of America. Everybody’s doing what they think they’re supposed to do.”

That’s how the Tea Party movement exploded out of nowhere and suddenly was everywhere. It’s all those people jamming the phones on Capital Hill, burning up its fax machines, overheating its email system. It is quintessentially American.

And, as for the States, they are all sovereign republics! They have their own constitutions. And they will fight back, too.

There isn’t a governor breathing who (a) doesn’t know his State is broke and (b) knows Obamacare will aggravate that condition to a point where they no longer will have any budget over which they can exercise any control because this “entitlement” is the ultimate deal-breaker.

So let Madame Pelosi babble away about leaping over fences and parachuting in as if America was some enemy nation to conquer. It does not matter whether she gets Obamacare “passed” or not.

For now, I am going to assume that it will be defeated in the House.

Even if Obamacare passes the House and is sent to the President, Obamacare will still be a dead man walking.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Alan Caruba writes a daily post at Warning Signs. A business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

Read more thought provoking articles at Warning Signs

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Blundering Bureaucrats, Conniving Politicians, Democracy, Democrats, economy, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Liberals, Medicine, Political Prostitutes, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Spine Donor Politicians Tagged: Alan Caruba, Health Care Reform Bill, Obamacare, ObamaCare Catastrophe, President Obama, Tony, Warning Signs

By William R. Hawkins

Last Thursday, President Barack Obama unveiled his plans to double U.S. exports over the next five years to spur job creation. With the official unemployment rate hovering near 10 percent (and the real rate much higher) and with some 8 million people having lost their jobs in the wake of the Wall Street debacle, looking at ways to boost production makes sense. “We can’t return to an economy where too much of our prosperity is based on fleeting bubbles and rampant speculation. We have to rebuild our economy on a new, stronger, more balanced foundation for the future – a foundation that will advance the American people’s prosperity at home, and support American leadership in the world,” said the President. In other words, an economy based more on steel than paper.

The problem is that focusing on only the export half of the trade balance will not be enough. In 2008, as the world slid into recession, the U.S. ran an $816.2 trade deficit in goods. Last year, even with the global slowdown, the U.S. still ran a $502.3 billion trade deficit in goods. If “recovery” means returning to higher deficits, then job creation will be very slow. The trade deficit measures the amount of economic stimulus that is being sent overseas rather than being used at home to support growth.

Markets are needed to support economic activity, but those markets can be either at home or abroad. Indeed, exports are best considered as a way to expand beyond the domestic market which for a large economy like the United States will always be the most accessible and vital foundation for national strength. In 2008, however, Americans had lost $2.1 trillion of their home market to imports from foreign producers. Which would be easier, recapturing half of this lost domestic market to balance accounts, or breaking into foreign markets of equivalent size?

In his speech at the Export-Import Bank, President Obama noted how Americans have “seen the plant across town shut down, jobs dry up, communities deteriorate” due to foreign competition. He said doubling exports would create two million jobs because “every $1 billion increase in exports supports more than 6,000 additional jobs. But the same is true when production is increased to replace imports. Millions of jobs had been lost in American manufacturing due to the trade deficit long before the recession hit. Those jobs need to be recovered to rebuild American economic stability, industrial capacity and national strength.

Consider the current controversy over buying a new aerial refueling tanker for the Air Force. These are the planes that give U.S. airpower its global reach. Boeing has built ever tanker the USAF has ever flown. In the name of “competition” the bidding was allowed to go international. The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) won the $35 billion contract for 179 KC-45A tankers based on the Airbus A330 airliner. EADS had recruited Northrop Grumman as its American face for the contest. At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on March 12, 2008, then Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne conceded that national economic factors had not been taken into account when assessing the EADS bid.

Boeing protested the EADS award and won. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) ruled that the Air Force unfairly evaluated the merits and overall cost of the Boeing bid, and urged the Air Force to reopen the bidding. The U.S. also won an unrelated case at the World Trade Organization against Airbus which, among other things, had improperly been given $5 billion in government subsidies to develop the A330 commercial airliner in competition with Boeing airliners.

The GAO decision was in June, 2008. Now, almost two years later, Northrop has announced that it will not rebid on the contract because it feels the revised USAF request favored Boeing’s smaller 767-based tanker over the larger, more expensive Airbus A330-based design. Aviation Week magazine quoted EADS North America Chief Executive Sean O’Keefe saying the company’s systems integration, program management and government compliance abilities were not mature enough to go it alone on the tanker contract.

The result of the mismanaged attempt to foster “free trade” in defense programs has been to delay the tanker project for several years. The new tanker will replace the KC-135 which was designed in the 1950s. The Pentagon should have simply worked with Boeing from the start to design the plane, get it into production, and preserve the U.S. industrial base in the process.

More is at stake than just the tankers. EADS was going to build an assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama. The plant was supposed to make the KC-45A look more American, but it was also going to be used to assembly civilian airliners, boosting Airbus’s ability to take more business away from Boeing. Though some jobs would have been created in Alabama, more jobs would have been lost in the Boeing production and supply chain in other parts of the country. Mobile had been chosen because it is a deep-water port, and EADS was planning to ship in most of the parts and sub-assemblies from European factories. The A330 has components built in Britain, Germany, France and Spain, the result of work sharing negotiations between governments.

Airbus has been experiencing both financial and technical problems in recent years and the tanker win would have helped to bail it out. But it makes no sense from an American perspective to rescue a major foreign rival. The U.S. aerospace industry ran a trade surplus in 2008 of $70 billion, one of the few bright spots in America’s international accounts. The industry is also key to national security. Nothing could be more foolish than for government policy to undermine this strategic manufacturing sector or add to the trade deficit. There is a reason that President Obama named Boeing’s President and CEO W. James McNerney to head his Export Council.

The European Commission is, of course, unhappy. On March 16th, Commissioner Karel De Gucht said, “It is highly regrettable that a major potential supplier would feel unable to bid for a contract of this type. Open procurement markets guarantee better competition and better value for money for the taxpayer.” His concern for American taxpayers is no more sincere than his concern for the American workers his firm would like to put out on the street. He merely wants Americans to send their tax money overseas to his constituents.

There have also been cries of “protectionism” from France and England. But the tankers are part of the U.S. defense establishment whose mission is to protect America, which includes its economy. During war, factories producing military equipment are targets for attack – but they are also targets during peace as well.

The weekly publication Defense News, which supports international competition as well as cooperation in the industry, said in a March 15th editorial, “Europe’s protests on this front ring hollow.”

Some years ago, the A400M transport plane “beat” Boeing’s C-17 to become Europe’s future airlifter, even though the American jet was proven and the European turboprop did not yet exist. Was that a fair competition or protectionism?

The point is, Europe wanted to develop a new transport plane to keep its industry busy.

And it was their governments’ prerogative to do so.

It is also the prerogative of Washington to maintain the U.S. defense industry at the highest level of capability and capacity as possible. It is not just about jobs. It is about protecting core elements of national strength. President Obama said “We need to secure our companies a level playing field.” But that is not enough. We need to guarantee American producers a home field advantage.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor William R. Hawkins is a consultant specializing in international economic and national security issues. He is a former economics professor and Republican Congressional staff member.

Read more excellent articles from Family Security Matters

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Blundering Bureaucrats, Conniving Politicians, Democrats, economy, Liberals, Military, Politics, Propaganda, Spine Donor Politicians Tagged: Air To Air Refuelling Tanker Contract, Airbus Tanker Aircraft, Boeing Tanker Aircraft, FSM (William Hawkins), Military Contracts, Obama Military Budget

By Andrew Bolt

After 20 years of scares, Americans no longer fall for the greens’ end-of-the-world alarmism:

Gallup concludes:

Americans are now less worried about a series of environmental problems than at any time in the past 20 years. That could be due in part to Americans’ belief that environmental conditions in the U.S. are improving.

Andrew Bolt is a journalist and columnist writing for The Herald Sun in Melbourne Victoria Australia. Read more excellent articles from Andrew Bolt’s Blog

Filed under: America (USA), Climate Alarmists, Climate Change, Environment, Environmental activists, Fanatics, Fear-mongering, Global Warming, Liberals, Opinion Poll, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion Tagged: Andrew Bolt, Climate Change Hypocrisy, Climate Change Religion, Environmental Concerns, Environmental Religion, Environmentalism, Environmentalist Agenda, Global Warming Alarmism, Global Warming Hype, Tony

The Patriot Post Chronicle

The Foundation

“The legislative department is everywhere extending the sphere of its activity and drawing all power into its impetuous vortex.” –James Madison, Federalist No. 48

Editorial Exegesis

“We’re not sure American schools teach civics any more, but once upon a time they taught that under the U.S. Constitution a bill had to pass both the House and Senate to become law. Until this week, that is, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi is moving to merely ‘deem’ that the House has passed the Senate health-care bill and then send it to President Obama to sign anyway. Under the ‘reconciliation’ process that began [Monday] afternoon, the House is supposed to approve the Senate’s Christmas Eve bill and then use ’sidecar’ amendments to fix the things it doesn’t like. Those amendments would then go to the Senate under rules that would let Democrats pass them while avoiding the ordinary 60-vote threshold for passing major legislation. This alone is an abuse of traditional Senate process. But Mrs. Pelosi & Co. fear they lack the votes in the House to pass an identical Senate bill, even with the promise of these reconciliation fixes.   …    House Members hate the thought of going on record voting for the Cornhusker kickback and other special-interest bribes that were added to get this mess through the Senate, as well as the new tax on high-cost insurance plans that Big Labor hates. So at the Speaker’s command, New York Democrat Louise Slaughter, who chairs the House Rules Committee, may insert what’s known as a ’self-executing rule,’ also known as a ‘hereby rule.’ Under this amazing procedural ruse, the House would then vote only once on the reconciliation corrections, but not on the underlying Senate bill. If those reconciliation corrections pass, the self-executing rule would say that the Senate bill is presumptively approved by the House — even without a formal up-or-down vote on the actual words of the Senate bill. Democrats would thus send the Senate bill to President Obama for his signature even as they claimed to oppose the same Senate bill. They would be declaring themselves to be for and against the Senate bill in the same vote. Even John Kerry never went that far with his Iraq war machinations. … This two-votes-in-one gambit is a brazen affront to the plain language of the Constitution, which is intended to require democratic accountability. Article 1, Section 7 of the Constitution says that in order for a ‘Bill’ to ‘become a Law,’ it ’shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate.’ This is why the House and Senate typically have a conference committee to work out differences in what each body passes. … If Congress can now decide that the House can vote for one bill and the Senate can vote for another, and the final result can be some arbitrary hybrid, then we have abandoned one of [James] Madison’s core checks and balances.” –The Wall Street Journal

Upright

“It speaks to the sturdiness of the system our founders installed that it is, as intended, so resistant to passing major legal and cultural changes against the overwhelming will of the public. So resistant that, in frustration, the Democratic speaker of the House has been driven to consider breaking her oath of office and violate the Constitution in order to get her way.” –columnist Tony Blankley

“The debate over health care reform has been messy and often chaotic, but here we are a year later and Barack Obama and his radical agenda might yet win. If it does, he will have put in place the structure for taking over everything else.” –Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden

“Though the two issues may seem utterly unrelated, they do have this in common — both health care and higher education are realms of American life in which government has undermined the operation of market forces and caused artificially high prices. These are two arenas in which the Democrats now propose to do exactly the wrong thing. Their reform reinforces old errors and will infinitely compound the problem of rising prices.” –columnist Mona Charen

“In his book ‘Dreams From My Father’ Obama gives the distinct impression that his gifts are too great for the smallness of our political stage. He regrets not having been born during the civil rights era when the grandness of the cause would have measured up to the grandness of his ambition. He is in search of something big that will allow him to make his mark on the world as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King did. Hence, the defeat of ObamaCare would not just be par for the course in the rough-and-tumble world of politics for him. It would be sign of his ordinariness, his mortality, and that, to him, is unendurable.” –Forbes columnist Shikha Dalmia

Insight

“A fanatic is a person who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” –former England Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

“There can be no prescription old enough to supersede the Law of Nature and the grant of God Almighty, who has given to all men a natural right to be free, and they have it ordinarily in their power to make themselves so, if they please.” –American lawyer and patriot James Otis (1725-1783)

Dezinformatsia

Advocacy journalism: “Bottom line, what happens if you don’t get health care for this president? This is really all-or-nothing for the sense of his power, for his legacy. He’s invested so much in this in this first year. You’ve got to get this for him!” –NBC’s Andrea Mitchell to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD)

“Why not be part of the process? Why not take what you consider to be an imperfect [health care] bill and at least attach some proposals that you support? … How are we going to fix Congress and empower Congress to be able to pass the sweeping kinds of changes that we need in the country?” –ABC’s Elizabeth Vargas interrogating Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)

Kamikaze Democrats: “Democrats will lose their seats over process, but they will take the chance because of the substance.” –ABC’s Cokie Roberts on health care

What happened to dissent being patriotic? “[I]t might take more than arm-twisting with some of the Democrats who voted against [health care] the first time around. It may take waterboarding or something of that nature…” –CBS’s Bob Schieffer

Nonsense: “I’ve never seen the Republican Party so narrow in its appeal. It’s basically come out and said, ‘Dis-invest in America, watch your pocketbook. Don’t do anything, don’t have any government.’ It’s forgotten eight years of sort of spendthrift behavior by President Bush. … What do you make of the fact the Republican Party now isn’t a party of grand conservatism, any more? It’s a party of this narrow, little, nasty, don’t do anything party.” –MSNBC’s Chris Matthews

Newspulper Headlines:

Stop Talking or He’ll Never Shut Up: “Barack Obama: The Time for Talk Is Over on Health Reform” –InTheNews.co.uk ++ “Obama to Ohio Monday for Another Health Care Speech” –Chicago Sun-Times Web site

We Blame Global Warming: “Obama’s Health Bill Push Heats Up” –Associated Press

Where’s Eric Massa When You Need Him?: “Dodd Faces ‘Ticklish Position’ Going Alone on Financial Rules” –Bloomberg

Questions Nobody Is Asking: “Men: Will You Sit and Pee for the Planet’s Sake?” –Houston Chronicle Web site

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: “Earth Under Attack From Death Star” –Sun (London)

Bottom Stories of the Day: “Palestinians Threaten to Halt Peace Talks” –Associated Press

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

The Demo-gogues

Just words, just politics … just the Constitution: “We have debated this issue now for more than a year. Every proposal has been put on the table. Every argument has been made. I know a lot of people view this as a partisan issue, but, look, the fact is both parties have a lot of areas where we agree — it’s just politics are getting in the way of actually getting it done.” –Barack Obama

Arrogance: “The American people want to know if it’s still possible for Washington to look out for their interests and their future. They are waiting for us to act. They are waiting for us to lead. And as long as I hold this office, I intend to provide that leadership. I don’t know about the politics. But I know what’s right.” –Barack Obama (We’re waiting for you to get out of the way so we can look out for our own interests, not have you do whatever you “know” is right whether we want it done to us or not.)

Big Brother: “You know what? It’s been such a long time since we made government on the side of ordinary working folks, where we did something for them that relieved some of their struggles.” –BO

Non Compos Mentis: “Well, a lot of those folks, your employer it’s estimated would see premiums fall by as much as 3,000 percent [sic], which means they could give you a raise.” –Barack Obama

Glass half empty: “I have no intention of not passing this bill. Let me say it in a positive way: I have faith in my members that we will be passing this legislation.” –House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

She may be a dreamer: “Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance.” –Nancy Pelosi (So the rest of us can pay for these unemployed artists and photographers to have insurance?)

Democrats to defeat death! “Today, 70 Americans will die for lack of health insurance, 70.” –Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) (So why don’t most provisions in this bill kick in for four years?)

Village Idiots

Never mind the cost: “Senator Brown comes from a state that has a health care plan that’s similar to the one we’re trying to enact here. We’re just trying to give the rest of America the same opportunities that the people of Massachusetts have.” –White House adviser David Axelrod

Shut up, she explained: “[I]nstead of spending your energy attacking the parts of the president’s [health care] proposal you don’t like, you can use it to strengthen the parts you do.” –Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius

He blames global warming: “The odds have shifted toward much larger downpours. And we have seen that happen in the Northeast, we’ve seen it happen in the Northwest — in both of those regions are among those that scientists have predicted for a long time would begin to experience much larger downpours.” –Al Gore

Hollywood chimes in: “I think the people running climate change denial campaigns are sociopaths.” –actress Lucy Lawless, a.k.a. “Xena: Warrior Princess”

Short Cuts

“House Democrats conjured a strategy Monday that would allow the House to avoid a vote on the health care bill. Instead they would deem the bill passed and send it to the president. We ordered Iraq not to look, this is for mature democracies only.” –comedian Argus Hamilton

“Last year, the House was passing bills without reading them. This year, they’re passing bills without voting on them.” –former House Speaker Newt Gingrich

“What kind of leader sends congressmen out on a kamikaze mission in an election year and right before a recess? The kind of leader whose followers are diminishing in number.” –Human Events editor Jed Babbin

“Democrats, though, continue to close their eyes and cover their ears while loudly singing the la la song.” –The Washington Times’ Kerry Picket

“President Obama would like the House to vote on his health care plan on either St. Patrick’s Day or the day after. That means Congress will be voting on health care either when they’re drunk, or when they’re hung over.” –comedian Jay Leno

Read more informative articles at The Patriot Post

Filed under: 111th Congress, Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Conniving Politicians, Constitution, Demo-gogues, Democrats, Freedom, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Laws, Liberals, Liberty, Marxists, News and Views, Political Prostitutes, Politicians for the Destruction of America, Power Hungry, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, US Government Tagged: Annie, HealthCare Scam, ObamaCare Scam, The Patriot Post

By Alan Caruba

This is a government unlike anything those of us who have been around a long time and have long memories has ever seen.

You may recall that when the Bush administration tried to foist yet another amnesty for illegal aliens, Americans came out in full force to ultimately defeat the bill. When Bush tried to pass legislation to reform Social Security he threw in the towel when it became evident that no one wanted it.

Not so today. Despite the polls that demonstrate that the vast majority of Americans are opposed to Obamacare and despite the protests taking place in Washington, D.C., as well as an avalanche of calls, emails, and faxes to members of Congress (Republicans are exempt as they stand united against it), the Obama administration and his fascist supporters in Congress are determined to pass or send something to the President for his signature.

History is replete with presidents who stumped for legislation that Americans opposed. Have we forgotten Clinton’s effort to pass healthcare “reform”? Woodrow Wilson’s failed campaign to get the U.S. to join the League of Nations comes to mind. I could cite other examples, but the point is that, when the People speak, presidents in the past have listened.   …  

Not Obama. Not the Democrats led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The People be damned!

I am no constitutional expert, but I am pretty sure that Obamacare is unconstitutional in many respects, not the least its provision that authorizes the government to force you to buy insurance you don’t want.

What we are witnessing, however, is something contrary to the way the nation has been governed in the past. We are suffering through the worst abuse of power we have ever witnessed in the modern era.

It took a Civil War to end the movement to succession and it is going to take something short of a new Revolution to stop this President and this Democrat controlled Congress from forcing upon Americans a socialist effort to expand the government by incorporating within its control, the nation’s healthcare system.

Elements of that Revolution can be seen in the emergence of the Tea Party movement. It can be seen in the Oathkeepers movement in which members of the nation’s police forces and others have committed to refuse to enforce unconstitutional laws or power grabs such as a specious declaration of martial law.

What strikes some of us as astonishing is the deliberate ignorance of the President concerning the Constitution. For a man who taught courses on the subject at the University of Chicago, he seems utterly clueless about its limitation and restrictions.

It is more likely that he regards the Constitution as an impediment to the socialist reformation of our government.

The one thing the Founders feared most was the establishment of a monarchy or dictatorship in America. They lived in an era of the “divine right of kings” and saw the French Revolution turn bloody, resulting in the takeover by Napoleon who later crowned himself an emperor.

When George Washington was offered the monarchy by some, he spurned it and after two terms in office stepped aside for a transition of power. When King George III heard that Washington would return to his farm, he declared, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man on earth!”

Is it any wonder then that a growing number of States are distancing themselves from the central government, passing legislation intended to protect their citizens from the imposition of Obamacare if it is “passed” by Congress?

The Obama administration is hell-bent to wear down Americans, to pass Obamacare by any means possible including outright bribery. What Obama has actually managed to do is turn the majority of Americans against him and to set in motion a massive shift in the political control of the government when the midterm elections are held in November.

Whatever the outcome of Obamacare, the President and the Democrats have lost.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Alan Caruba writes a daily post at Warning Signs. A business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

Read more thought provoking articles at Warning Signs

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Blundering Bureaucrats, Conniving Politicians, Democracy, Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Liberals, Political Prostitutes, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Spine Donor Politicians Tagged: Alan Caruba, Health Care Reform Bill, Illegal Alien Amnesty, Obamacare, ObamaCare Catastrophe, TEA Party Movement, Tony, Warning Signs

By James Carafano, PhD

Once again the White House is two steps behind the most imminent foreign policy and national security challenge. It is the one on the nation’s own doorstep – the criminal cartels operating in Mexico are a constant threat to the security, sovereignty, and prosperity of the United States. Between 5,000 and 6,000 died from the criminal violence in Mexico in 2008. Last year, it was even worse, upwards of 8,000. This year violence is even higher. Earlier this month, the Texas Department of Public Safety urged “spring breakers” to avoid Mexican border towns. Why? Too dangerous. When two American citizens and an employee of a U.S. consulate in Mexico were murdered, the president expressed “outrage.” Unfortunately, that outrage has not been matched by effort.

Just last week the president signaled his support for an amnesty bill, allowing those who have illegally entered into the United States to legally stay. The White House plans to reintroduce an amnesty bill to grant permanent status to the millions living in the United States unlawfully is completely wrongheaded. What could he be thinking? Immigration policy has major consequences, not just on national sovereignty issues, but on public safety and border security as well. When Congress granted amnesty in the 1986 immigration reform act, the border immediately got more, not less, porous. Amnesties just encourage more illegal border crossing.

Instead, the president should be putting a lot more emphasis on border security. The debate should move to new approaches that can keep up with the threat. Topping the “to do” list should be getting more of the right technologies: the kinds that can find tunnels, track smugglers and spot small groups crossing rough terrain at night far across the border. Don’t think of it as a “virtual fence.” That term has been much maligned, mostly because the idea was poorly understood and poorly implemented. But the Homeland Security Department really does need technologies that can guide border agents to the right place at the right time to thwart creative, innovative and adaptive criminals.  Specifically, security demands: fixed towers with sensors on established smuggling routes, mobile sensors that can be shifted around rough terrain, and unmanned aerial vehicles both short and long range. These systems must be able to share information with each other in real time.

We also need the right kind of boots on the ground. State and local police are vital to combating illegal border activity. Federal, state and local officers should work cooperatively in Border Enforcement Security task forces.

Finally, we need to help Mexico. The Bush administration started an aid program called the Merida Initiative. The Obama White House should follow up with a full-blown plan of strategic cooperation to help the Mexican government fight back. (Read more at the Washington Examiner.)

Grade for the week “D” for just plain dumb.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., is a leading expert in defense affaires, intelligence, military operations and strategy, and homeland security at the Heritage Foundation.

Read more excellent articles from Family Security Matters

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Amnesty, Conniving Politicians, Democrats, Immigration, Liberals, Mexico, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Spine Donor Politicians Tagged: FSM (James Carafano), Illegal Alien Amnesty, Mexican Drug Cartel Wars, Tony, U.S. Mexican Policy, U.S.-Mexico Border

By William Warren

See more Cartoons by William Warren, and Great Articles at NetRight Nation Blog

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Cartoons, Conniving Politicians, Democrats, Humor, Liberals, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Satire, Spine Donor Politicians Tagged: Health Care Reform Bill, NetRight Nation Blog, Obamacare, ObamaCare Catastrophe, Political Cartoons, Political Humor, Political Satire, President Obama, Tony, William Warren

See more videos at the NewsBusted video channel

See and Read more Quality Material at NewsBusters

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Democrats, Humor, Jokes, Liberals, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Satire, Spine Donor Politicians, Video Tagged: NewsBusted, NewsBusters, Political Comment, Political Humor, Political Satire, Tony

Motivation

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Ask Uncle Jay

“President Obama heads out on the road, March Madness heads out to the courts, the Census heads out to the mailboxes, and Congress has its heads up the usual places. Uncle Jay explains it all, faster than a speeding Toyota!” Watch Video »

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Talking Babies Reject ObamaCare

“After discussing Obamacare, the talking babies have decided that they DO NOT WANT a government-takeover of health care.” Watch Video »

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And now for cartoons

More Cartoon Humor at Patriot Humor
Read more great articles at The Patriot Post.US

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Cartoons, Democrats, Humor, Images, Jokes, Politics, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Satire Tagged: Patriot Humor, Political Cartoons, Political Comment, Political Humor, Political Satire, The Patriot Post, Tony

By Nancy Morgan

After much consideration, I have decided to become a leftist. Here’s why:

As a leftist, I have a right to a living wage. I was born with this right and under the system of social justice Obama and friends are implementing, rich fat cats are under an obligation to pay for my rights.

As a leftist, I also have a right to free health care, a roof over my head, and food on my table. And as long as I keep voting for Democrats, this right will be protected and, hopefully expanded.

As a solid member of the left, I have the right to abort my baby, and even have other people pay for it. I also have the right to free (taxpayer funded) birth control and my boyfriend has the right to obtain sexual enhancement aids for free. Not that he needs them, but, hey, they’re free.

As a leftist, I have the right to indulge in sluttish behavior with whomever I want. Not only that, I can describe myself as ‘empowered’ instead of merely being a tramp.

Being a good leftist, I have the right not to be insulted. My behavior is sanctioned by my fellow leftists and it has been decided that anyone who insults me is, by nature, a bigot, and therefore of no consequence.

I also have the right to redefine words. And the right to ridicule anyone who objects. Especially if they’re white Christian males.

Best of all, I am under no obligation to back up my feelings with facts. We on the left understand very well that any and all criticism coming from the right is motivated by hate and therefore invalid.

As a leftist, I don’t have to worry about the consequences of my actions. It is understood that as long as my intentions are pure, the end results don’t matter. I want it known that I fully intend to donate my lottery winnings to those poor Haitians, just as soon as I win them. Please pat me on the back. (Wait for the cameras, you idiot!)

Being a leftist entitles me to marry someone of the same-sex. And my children will have the right to choose their own gender. And schools, businesses and agencies that don’t accommodate our choices could well be liable for prosecution under the hate crimes bill. How cool is that?

I am also free to choose my own God, or no God. This is a no brainer, as everyone knows that Mother Earth is the source of all spirituality. So as long as I don’t litter and I recycle faithfully, I can legitimately claim piety. And as long as I publicly confess my transgressions, there is no need to atone. Whew.

I am now morally justified in walking away from my home mortgage. Those greedy lenders will be left holding the bag. Maybe that will teach them there’s more to life than the bottom line.

And the car I got under ‘cash for clunkers’ won’t be paid for either. Its not my fault I couldn’t pay for it. But as soon as I get my discrimination lawsuit settlement from my former boss, I’ll be able to get it back. Or maybe a new one.

As a leftist, I need focus only on my rights, and their infringement thereof. The government has decided to shoulder my former responsibilities. And about time!

Life as a leftist is good. Having my needs and problems taken care of by the government leaves me free to indulge my inner child. I no longer need to be ashamed of  my failures, as I now know that the deck has been stacked against me all my life and those failures were not my fault!

I am now liberated and empowered. As an added bonus, I am a member of four different victim groups, which allows me to maintain the high moral ground. This is called social justice.

I never knew life could be so good. All rights and no responsibilities! This could only happen in America. And as soon as the U.S. atones for past sins to my satisfaction, I’ll be happy to admit that America is not a bad place to live.

Nancy Morgan is a columnist and news editor for RightBias.com and she lives in South Carolina.

Read more from Nancy Morgan at Right Bias

Filed under: America (USA), Liberals, Lily-Livered Liberals, Limp-Wrist Liberals, Public Opinion, Satire Tagged: Leftist Ideology, Leftists, Liberal Politics, Liberal Thinking, Political Satire, Right Bias (Nancy Morgan), Tony

By Alan Caruba

The exercise in futility that passes for the relationship between the United States and Israel was played out last week when Vice President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu both got sandbagged by Israeli politics.

For decades since Israel was founded in 1948, various administrations starting with Jimmy Carter have been haranguing Israel every time it had the nerve to actually build new housing for its growing population.

One can only imagine the reaction if the situation was reversed and Netanyahu issued a demand that a housing development near the border of Mexico be stopped because it was being built on land the U.S. secured militarily.

I am sorry if Biden felt embarrassed when some element of Netanyahu’s coalition announced the building of 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem, because I am reminded weekly that Biden is perfectly capable of embarrassing himself without any help.

Suffice it to say, given the way Netanyahu’s cabinet of ministers is held together by duck tape, it did not surprise me that one of them would wander off the reservation.

If you really want to see something embarrassing, just listen to the mindless blather of Speaker Pelosi or Senate Majority Leader Reid. According to Madame Pelosi, never mind that 75% of Americans hate Obamacare, it just has to be passed so everyone, including most of the members of Congress, can find out what’s in it.

The disputed land that the Palestinians, otherwise known as the losers, keep claiming was lost as the result of several wars perpetrated against Israel. Even when the Israelis pulled their own people out of Gaza and returned it to Fatah (who later were chased out by Hamas), the Palestinians continued to fire rockets every day into Israel.

With neighbors like the Palestinians, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria, and the utterly crazed ayatollahs of Iran, a few homes in East Jerusalem is small potatoes against the bigger threat of being annihilated by a nuclear-tipped missile.

Even so, Debka, an Israeli news service, said, “The fallout from the U.S. Vice President Joe Biden’s 48 hours in Israel undid a year of effort by the Netanyahu government to build a foreign policy and an understanding with Washington as the bedrock of a coordinated proactive policy on Iran.”

Given the pathetic foreign policy efforts by President Obama and his administration regarding Iran; essentially getting their face slapped every time they sent a signal seeking a reduction in hostilities, a wish to negotiate issues, or just to get U.S. hostages returned, one would think that a bit of friendship building with Israel would be a good idea.

The really bad news out of the Biden trip is that “the Obama administration is considering withholding from Israel military items urgently needed in case of a flare-up of hostilities with Iran.” Requests for these items had been made by defense minister Ehud Barak as recently as February when he visited Washington and met with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

I’m willing to bet that the Saudis would love to see the Israelis get whatever they need and probably even offer to pay the bill if it meant the Israelis would do what no one else in the region has the guts to do; attack Iran’s nuclear facilities and other military targets.

The U.S. posture toward Iran has been a disaster, sending signals of weakness and consisting of muttered statements that it does not want Iran to acquire a nuclear capability. Obama’s eagerness to pull troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan is hardly a secret.

The constant “settlement” demands on Israel are, at this point, tiresome. As President Obama likes to remind his political opponents, “I won”, and the same principle applies to Israel’s right to provide housing for its people, sufficient defense against the proxy forces that Iran has arrayed against it, and the ability to render Iran’s threat a heaping pile of rubble.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Alan Caruba writes a daily post at Warning Signs. A business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

Read more thought provoking articles at Warning Signs

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Conniving Politicians, Democrats, Iran, Israel, Jerusalem, Liberals, Lily-Livered Liberals, Limp-Wrist Liberals, Middle East, Palestinian, Political Prostitutes, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Spine Donor Politicians, Vice President Joe Biden Tagged: Alan Caruba, East Jerusalem, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama Foreign Policy, Obama Middle East Policy, Tony, Vice President Joe Biden, Warning Signs

By Sammy Benoit

Ethanol is a controversial issue. To some the use of corn to make fuel is causing food shortages and driving up to cost of food. Here is a little secret. It would be much more efficient to use sugar cane to make ethanol than corn. Corn Ethanol generates 2x the energy than it takes to produce it. Sugar Cane Ethanol generates 8x the energy than it takes to produce it. So why are we using Corn? Well Sugar Cane comes from other countries, and most of our Corn based Ethanol comes from Illinois conglomerate Archer Daniels Midland. During the Campaign, the NY Times reported:

Obama’s lead advisor on energy and environmental issues, Jason Grumet, came to the campaign from the National Commission on Energy Policy, a bipartisan initiative associated with Daschle and Bob Dole, the Kansas Republican who is also a former Senate majority leader and a big ethanol backer who had close ties to the agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland.

Not long after arriving in the Senate, Obama himself briefly provoked a controversy by flying at subsidized rates on corporate airplanes, including twice on jets owned by Archer Daniels Midland, which is the nation’s largest ethanol producer and is based in his home state.

Now there is another “bump” in the corn ethanol road. A new analysis (embedded below) analyzes greenhouse gas release for maize ethanol produced in the United States. The study shows that at the very least Corn based ethanol does not reduce green house and it may very well increase green house emissions.

In the March 2010 issue of BioScience, researchers present a sophisticated new analysis of the effects of boosting use of maize-derived ethanol on greenhouse gas emissions. The study, conducted by Thomas W. Hertel of Purdue University and five co-authors, focuses on how mandated increases in production of the biofuel in the United States will trigger land-use changes domestically and elsewhere. In response to the increased demand for maize, farmers convert additional land to crops, and this conversion can boost carbon dioxide emissions.

The analysis combines ecological data with a global economic commodity and trade model to project the effects of US maize ethanol production on carbon dioxide emissions resulting from land-use changes in 18 regions across the globe. The researchers’ main conclusion is stark: These indirect, market-mediated effects on greenhouse gas emissions “are enough to cancel out the benefits the corn ethanol has on global warming.”

The indirect effects of increasing production of maize ethanol were first addressed in 2008 by Timothy Searchinger and his coauthors, who presented a simpler calculation in Science. Searchinger concluded that burning maize ethanol led to greenhouse gas emissions twice as large as if gasoline had been burned instead. The question assumed global importance because the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act mandates a steep increase in US production of biofuels over the next dozen years, and certifications about life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions are needed for some of this increase. In addition, the California Air Resources Board’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard requires including estimates of the effects of indirect land-use change on greenhouse gas emissions. The board’s approach is based on the work reported in BioScience.

Hertel and colleagues’ analysis incorporates some effects that could lessen the impact of land-use conversion, but their bottom line, though only one-quarter as large as the earlier estimate of Searchinger and his coauthors, still indicates that the maize ethanol now being produced in the United States will not significantly reduce total greenhouse gas emissions, compared with burning gasoline. The authors acknowledge that some game-changing technical or economic development could render their estimates moot, but sensitivity analyses undertaken in their study suggest that the findings are quite robust.

The full report is at this following link: Hertel

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Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Blundering Bureaucrats, Climate Alarmists, Climate Change, Conniving Politicians, Democrats, Environment, Environmental activists, Global Warming, Liberals, Lily-Livered Liberals, Limp-Wrist Liberals, Political Prostitutes, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda Tagged: Ethanol Mandate, Ethanol Policy, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, The Lid, Tony

By Andrew Bolt

American Jews are right to worry about Barack Obama’s hostility to Israel, and weakness to its enemies.  As the American Israel Public Affairs Committee puts it:

The Administration should make a conscious effort to move away from public demands and unilateral deadlines directed at Israel, with whom the United States shares basic, fundamental, and strategic interests. The escalated rhetoric of recent days only serves as a distraction from the substantive work that needs to be done with regard to the urgent issue of Iran’s rapid pursuit of nuclear weapons, and the pursuit of peace between Israel and all her Arab neighbors.

We strongly urge the Administration to work closely and privately with our partner Israel, in a manner befitting strategic allies, to address any issues between the two governments.

I understand from excellent sources that Israel is also alarmed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s increasingly hostile comments (especially these) and policies, and major Labor donors among the Jewish Left are finding it much harder to reach for their wallets.

Andrew Bolt is a journalist and columnist writing for The Herald Sun in Melbourne Victoria Australia. Read more excellent articles from Andrew Bolt’s Blog

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Australia, Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Conniving Politicians, Democrats, Israel, Liberals, Lily-Livered Liberals, Limp-Wrist Liberals, Middle East, Political Prostitutes, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Spine Donor Politicians Tagged: Andrew Bolt, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Obama Middle East Policy, President Obama, Tony

The Patriot Post Brief

The Foundation

“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary….” –Thomas Jefferson

For the Record

“‘We allow the insurance industry to run wild in this country,’ President Obama declared [last] Monday. ‘We can’t have a system that works better for the insurance companies than it does for the American people.’ Yet Obama’s plan to tame health insurers would boost their business, protect them from competition and guarantee their profits, all at the expense of consumers and taxpayers. It is therefore not surprising that the insurance companies, while they object to the president’s rhetoric and quibble over some of the details, are happy to be domesticated. … As he himself notes, ‘They’re going to have 30 million new customers,’ thanks to the government’s mandates and subsidies. To distract us from the favor he is doing for insurers, Obama claims to be getting tough with them by demanding that they take all comers and charge them all the same rates, without regard to health. While abolishing risk-based pricing contradicts a basic principle of the insurance business, the industry has to weigh the loss of that freedom against the gain of government-guaranteed revenue.   …    Despite his talk about reining in ‘excessive’ premium hikes, Obama’s plan commits him to keeping insurers financially sound so they can provide the coverage he is promising. … In essence, then, Obama’s plan would use money forcibly extracted from taxpayers and policyholders to keep insurers healthy.” –columnist Jacob Sullum

Opinion in Brief

“For Congress to guarantee a right to health care, or any other good or service, whether a person can afford it or not, it must diminish someone else’s rights, namely their rights to their earnings. The reason is that Congress has no resources of its very own. Moreover, there is no Santa Claus, Easter Bunny or Tooth Fairy giving them those resources. The fact that government has no resources of its very own forces one to recognize that in order for government to give one American citizen a dollar, it must first, through intimidation, threats and coercion, confiscate that dollar from some other American. If one person has a right to something he did not earn, of necessity it requires that another person not have a right to something that he did earn. To argue that people have a right that imposes obligations on another is an absurd concept. A better term for new-fangled rights to health care, decent housing and food is wishes. If we called them wishes, I would be in agreement with most other Americans for I, too, wish that everyone had adequate health care, decent housing and nutritious meals. However, if we called them human wishes, instead of human rights, there would be confusion and cognitive dissonance. The average American would cringe at the thought of government punishing one person because he refused to be pressed into making someone else’s wish come true. None of my argument is to argue against charity. Reaching into one’s own pockets to assist his fellow man in need is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into someone else’s pockets to do so is despicable and deserves condemnation.” –economist Walter E. Williams

The Gipper

“Welfare is another of our major problems. We are a humane and generous people and we accept without reservation our obligation to help the aged, disabled, and those unfortunates who, through no fault of their own, must depend on their fellow man. But we are not going to perpetuate poverty by substituting a permanent dole for a paycheck. There is no humanity or charity in destroying self-reliance, dignity, and self-respect … the very substance of moral fiber.” –Ronald Reagan

Liberty

“It’s all supposed to be voluntary, those ‘home visits’ that are tucked into the mammoth Obamacare bill. If you have a strong stomach, and a stronger bottom, you can find home visitation on pages 568-595. That’s Section 2951 of H.R. 3590, the Senate [health care] bill…. The bill provides for federal funding and supervision for this vast expansion of government intrusion into family life. This is the Nanny State on steroids. Is your family being ‘targeted’ for such home visitations? Let’s see if you fit into one of these very broad categories: Families where Mom is not yet 21. (No mention here whether she is married or not.) Families where someone is a tobacco user. (Does this include the White House? Watch out, Sasha and Malia! Does Grandpa, whom you love and have taken in, enjoy his after-dinner pipe?) Families where children have low student achievement, developmental delays, or disabilities. As if that list were not wide-ranging enough, here’s the net that can encompass tens of millions: Families with individuals who are serving or formerly served in the armed forces, including such families that have members of the armed forces who have had multiple deployments outside the United States. [Emphasis added.] … Do you spank your children? You should know that HHS bureaucrats think you are an abuser. Do you support the Second Amendment? How would you like HHS bureaucrats asking your children if you maintain firearms in the home for family protection? Do you home-school your kids? Take care. Members of Congress who have tried to abolish home-schooling are big backers of this health care bill. Do you wonder why? … One thing is clear: For life and liberty, we must defeat ObamaCare.” –columnist Ken Blackwell

Government

“The most disturbing part of the ObamaCare debate is not about where Republicans and Democrats disagree, but where they agree. Take this issue of those with pre-existing illnesses. Many Republicans actually support government action to prevent insurance companies from refusing to insure them. Ignoring the benefits of cost-lowering free market competition and the role of charity, many Republicans believe it acceptable to force an insurance company — in business to insure against unknown risks — to ‘insure’ someone currently experiencing a known risk. … But this should not surprise anyone who observes the allegedly ‘fiscally conservative,’ ‘pro-free market,’ ‘limited government’ party in action. From the acceptance of the New Deal to government bailouts of private industry, Republicans — sooner or later — go along. … The entire ObamaCare debate starts off in the wrong place — with Republicans agreeing that ‘reform’ is necessary, health care ‘costs too much’ and that government must ‘make health care more affordable.’ But it is because of government — laws, regulations and policies — that users pay more for services and drugs than they otherwise would.” –columnist Larry Elder

Culture

“It was once the proud declaration of many educators that ‘We are here to teach you how to think, not what to think.’ But far too many of our teachers and professors today are teaching their students what to think, about everything from global warming to the new trinity of ‘race, class and gender.’ Even if all the conclusions with which they indoctrinate their students were 100 percent correct, that would still not be equipping students with the mental skills to weigh opposing views for themselves, in order to be prepared for new and unforeseeable issues that will arise over their lifetimes, after they leave the schools and colleges. Many of today’s ‘educators’ not only supply students with conclusions, they promote the idea that students should spring into action because of these prepackaged conclusions — in other words, vent their feelings and go galloping off on crusades, without either a knowledge of what is said by those on the other side or the intellectual discipline to know how to analyze opposing arguments. … A philosopher once said that the most important knowledge is knowledge of one’s own ignorance. That is the knowledge that too many of our schools and colleges are failing to teach our young people.” –economist Thomas Sowell

Faith & Family

“If anyone was looking for a self-righteous extreme feminist, they found one in Angie Jackson. This is a woman who was so proud she was aborting her baby that she announced she would ‘tweet’ her chemical-cocktail abortion live, as it happened, on Twitter. The liberal media found this made-for-TV slaughter fascinating, and not at all a controversy worthy of discussing with two sides. Newsweek’s Sarah Kliff proclaimed: ‘One hundred thousand people have watched Angie Jackson’s abortion. Late last month, Jackson posted a video of herself to YouTube, recorded after she took RU-486, a medication used to end pregnancies.’ Kliff asked only ‘why shame remains’ about the act of killing one’s baby. Jackson was honored for her courage in ‘demystifying’ and ‘destigmatizing’ the procedure: ‘We need 10,000 more of her,’ proclaimed Peg Johnston, chair of something called the Abortion Care Network. This desire for 10,000 more unashamed abortions is what ‘pro-choice’ is all about.” –columnist L. Brent Bozell

Reader Comments

“Mark Alexander’s essay, ‘When Debating a Liberal…,’ was excellent analysis. Thank you! It is very helpful to understand the futility of arguing with the ‘radical left.’ I have been naive enough to believe that surely they, too, sought truth and that a logical presentation of truth would change their minds. I have been beating my head against the wall. I look forward to less knots on my noggin now!” –Anne

“The ‘Slaughter Solution‘ will result in the slaughter of the Dim’s at the polls. It unfortunately will destroy the America health care system first. A bigger tragedy, of course, would be the decimation of the Constitution. I could not sleep last night contemplating the consequences of such a move by the duly elected representatives. This proves that the more local the Govt the more accountable it is and opens new vistas of remedies for such traitorous behavior.

“For the census I will answer only the one constitutionally mandated question (see Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3) the number of residents in the home. If they want any other questions answered they should follow the Fourth Amendment and present a warrant. And if they press further I will follow the Fifth Amendment and refuse to answer. Patrick Henry call your office.” –Howard

Political Futures

“Republicans were fired from their control of the U.S. House of Representatives in the election of 2006 for a number of reasons. Spending too much generally was one of them. Bloating appropriations bills with ‘earmarks’ to reward friends and supporters was another. Iraq was certainly a major contributing factor. But, what weighed House Republicans down like an anchor around their collective necks was: Scandal. Duke Cunningham’s written menu of acceptable bribe amounts. Jack Abramoff buying Members and staff like heads of romaine lettuce at Whole Foods. And the father of all the scandals, Mark Foley. I won’t regurgitate the whole sordid Foley story here … but it involved the Florida Republican having inappropriate text-message conversations with a 16-year-old male page; the House Republican Leadership knowing about it; and nothing being done. The implication was that Speaker’s office thought it was more important to protect the GOP brand than to protect a teenaged page from the predations of a Member of the House. Foley became the shorthand for everything voters disliked — hated — about Republicans in the House. … It is important to remember what that felt like, four long years ago, because House Democrats [now] find themselves in much the same position.” –political analyst Rich Galen

The Last Word

“‘Maybe it will take a woman to clean up the House,’ Nancy Pelosi boasted before the 2006 midterm elections. Looks like those XX chromosomes didn’t give her much advantage over the old cleaning crew. … On Thursday afternoon, by a vote of 402-1, the House overwhelmingly passed a privileged resolution offered by the Republican leadership demanding a formal House Ethics Committee investigation of Pelosi and her (mis)handling of harassment allegations concerning disgraced former New York Rep. Eric Massa. The soft-on-corruption ethics panel (see under ‘Rangel, Charlie’) had decided to shut down its investigation after Massa abruptly resigned on Monday. But with reports piling up on how Massa kept a Capitol Hill playhouse filled with young, low-paid male staffers, and how Pelosi’s office had fielded complaints of his bizarre and inappropriate behavior back in October, the House decided to pry the lid back open and put a stop to what the resolution calls the ‘public ridicule’ the seeming cover-up has invited. Housecleaner Pelosi cannot be pleased by the second-guessing of her handiwork. Color her an un-merry maid. Even Democratic Rep. Patrick Kennedy, fresh from his raving House floor meltdown over media coverage of the Massa mess, voted for the GOP-initiated House resolution. Finally: Bipartisanship we can believe in!” –columnist Michelle Malkin

Read more informative articles at The Patriot Post

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Blundering Bureaucrats, Cartoons, Conniving Politicians, Democrats, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Humor, Liberals, Lily-Livered Liberals, Limp-Wrist Liberals, Medicine, Political Prostitutes, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Satire, Spine Donor Politicians Tagged: Health Care Reform Bill, Obamacare, ObamaCare Catastrophe, Political Comment, The Patriot Post, Tony

By Alan Caruba

During what can only be hoped will be the final struggle between the socialist and capitalist approach to health care the debate is focused on the cost of Obamacare, its impact on the nation’s economy, its legislative over-reach, and the fact that it will ration care.

If Obama wins, America loses. The “reforms” will ultimately end up killing people who would otherwise have survived illness or injury if it is implemented. Beyond that, Obama’s efforts to control large segments of the economy will pick up momentum.

An entire generation or more of Americans who did not live through the Cold War waged against the former Soviet Union or saw the rise of communism in China are unaware of the toll it took on humanity. In a 1997 book, “The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression”, published by Harvard University, it set the death tolls at 65 million in China, 20 million in the Soviet Union, and so on. The total worldwide exceeded 100 million.

This week Americans will see if their system of government works to represent their will. When it controls the provision of health care, the government will literally have life and death authority over people.

Those who voted for Obama, giving him a fairly slim margin of victory, and those who instinctively sensed something terribly wrong in the man have now had their worst fears confirmed.

If our system of government works, it will reject Obamacare because that is what it was designed to do. The Constitution is structured to slow down the passage of a really bad law and to create obstacles to bringing it to a vote.

Only an administration with a totalitarian inclination would go to the lengths we’ve seen to pass a law that 75% of the people reject.

Obama is driven entirely by ideology and it’s the same one that motivated Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, and the other dictators of the last century.

Ideologically, Obama is a communist whose views were shaped by a communist mentor in his youth. He is a true believer in the economic and social views of communism that government must control all aspects of the individual’s life and owns the fruits of his labors and earnings.

Over the years the voters have elected representatives and senators who subscribe to socialism since its introduction during the FDR era. Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not have to concern herself with the nearly 80 members of the Progressive Caucus. She has no Republican votes. It’s the other Democrats who are giving her fits.

Beyond Obamacare, there are other issues that are directly affected by his ideology and at the top of the list is the belief that the economy must be destroyed in order that a new set of governing principles be imposed. It is astonishing how the power of the executive and a highly centralized government facilitates this.

No element of government rule is safe from Obama’s clique of leftist “czars” installed to direct the various departments of government. From attempting to seize large portions of land for federal control to threats to regulate carbon dioxide, the heavy hand of socialist goals can be seen.

The administration moved swiftly to acquire control over General Motors and Chrysler instead of allowing them to go through bankruptcy for restructuring. Its “stimulus” program not only isn’t producing jobs, the number of jobless grows with every passing month.

Obama’s most troubling ideological threat to the nation is in the area of national security. In his book, “Courting Disaster”, Marc Theissen documents “how Barack Obama has exposed (CIA) secrets to the enemy, unilaterally disarmed us in the face of terror, and invited the next attack.” Another attack would be the opportunity to declare a national emergency and impose martial law.

Regarding the CIA interrogation program that produced invaluable intelligence about the structure of al Qaeda as well as its plans for more attacks, Theissen notes that “in his first forty-eight hours in office, President Obama shut the program down.” That is not the act of a man whose very oath of office requires that he swear to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” and, by doing so, protect its citizens.

The President’s ideology and that of his Attorney General blinded both to the obvious idiocy of extending Constitutional rights to enemy combatants, men not even protected by the Geneva Convention rules of warfare. The announcement that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed would be tried in New York City produced instant and widespread outrage.

Outrage has also been demonstrated by the thousand and more TEA Party (Taxed Enough Already) groups that have sprung up around the nation. Their protests are being heard despite the effort of the mainstream media to marginalize them.

The best thing Barack Obama could do for his nation would be to submit his letter of resignation as President. He’s not likely to do that because he is too busy trying to destroy America.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Alan Caruba writes a daily post at Warning Signs. A business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

Read more thought provoking articles at Warning Signs

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama), Blundering Bureaucrats, Conniving Politicians, Democrats, Liberals, Lily-Livered Liberals, Limp-Wrist Liberals, Political Prostitutes, Politics, Power Hungry, Propaganda, Public Opinion, Spine Donor Politicians Tagged: Alan Caruba, Health Care Reform Bill, Obama Czars, Obamacare, ObamaCare Catastrophe, TEA Party Protests, Tony, Warning Signs

I occasionally use these two characters in a bar somewhere in the U.S. They’re Americans, and they’re trying to understand what’s really happening in Israel while watching the news on American TV. A real challenge.

Meanwhile, here in Israel, what we are watching is yet another Israeli Prime Minister being pressured by yet another American President. The hope is that Netanyahu will rise to the occasion, stand firm, and protect our sovereignty with the strength and backbone of a Menahem Begin. Most of our PM’s have a moment of truth. And this, I think, is Bibi’s.

Note: In December 1981, the Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law extending Israeli law to the Golan Heights. In reaction the American administration declared that it would “punish Israel”. Prime Minister Begin then issued a statement that he read to the US Ambassador to Israel and released to the public. It reads, in part:

“A week ago, at the instance of the Government, the Knesset passed on all three readings by an overwhelming majority of two-thirds, the “Golan Heights Law.”Now you once again declare that you are punishing Israel.

What kind of expression is this – “punishing Israel”? Are we a vassal state of yours? Are we a banana republic? Are we youths of fourteen who, if they don’t behave properly, are slapped across the fingers?

Let me tell you who this government is composed of. It is composed of people whose lives were spent in resistance, in fighting and in suffering. You will not frighten us with “punishments.” He who threatens us will find us deaf to his threats. We are only prepared to listen to rational arguments.” -more

Read More Dry Bones by Yaakov Kirschen

Filed under: 111th Congress, America (USA), Cartoons, Conniving Politicians, Democrats, Humor, Israel, Jerusalem, Liberals, Lily-Livered Liberals, Limp-Wrist Liberals, Middle East, Palestinian, Political Prostitutes, Politics, Propaganda, Satire, Spine Donor Politicians, Vice President Joe Biden Tagged: Dry Bones, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Political Cartoons, Political Satire, Tony, Vice President Joe Biden

By Andrew Bolt

If only our own watchdogs were as scrupulous:

TWO government advertisements that use nursery rhymes to warn people of the dangers of climate change have been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for exaggerating the potential harm.

The adverts, commissioned by Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, used the rhymes to suggest that Britain faces an inevitable increase in storms, floods and heat waves unless greenhouse gas emissions are brought under control.

The ASA has ruled that the claims made in the newspaper adverts were not supported by solid science …

They attracted 939 complaints — more than the ASA received for any advertisement last year.

But back here in Australia, any old rubbish gets through. This is from Australian television from the last general election campaign:

Andrew Bolt is a journalist and columnist writing for The Herald Sun in Melbourne Victoria Australia.

Read more excellent articles from Andrew Bolt’s Blog

Filed under: Australia, Climate Alarmists, Climate Change, Environment, Environmental activists, Fanatics, Fear-mongering, Global Warming, Great Britain, Media Mind Manipulators, Muddled Media, Politics, Propaganda, Pseudo-Journalism, U.K. Tagged: Andrew Bolt, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Climate Change Advertisements, Climate Change Religion, Global Warming Alarmism, Global Warming Hype, Tony

Satire by  Shawn Goodwin

In the good old days when somebody mentioned the phrase, “political corruption,” most Americans thought of Washington, D.C., Chicago, Illinois, or New Orleans, Louisiana. They were the trendsetters, the areas that set the bar so low not even the most flexible Jamaican could limbo under it. Then, just when you think that no one can slide under that rigid piece of bamboo, the state of New York slithers underneath with room to spare. There are currently no less than three political scandals plaguing New York politicians: Gov. David Paterson, Congressman Eric Massa, and Congressman Charlie Rangel. Can New York go any lower? That is doubtful.

Despite what some voters believe, politics is a business. Like the hierarchy of most businesses, the garbage rolls downhill. The politician on the top of New York’s dung heap is Gov. David Paterson; a man who is involved in so many scandals that even Bill Clinton thinks he’s an embarrassment to the Party:

The governor has faced increasing calls that he resign after it was revealed that he intervened in a domestic violence case against his top aide, David Johnson. Paterson has admitted to talking to Johnson’s victim, Sherr-una Booker on Feb. 7 – he says to offer her comfort. But the next day, Booker did not show up in court, leading the judge to dismiss the abuse case.

The fact that Booker failed to appear in court is a complete non-sequitur. The governor was simply attending to the needs of a friend, and took it upon himself to be there for Ms. Booker. Paterson talked to her, comforted her, and hugged her tightly until the courts closed. Where is the harm? Besides, Paterson said that no one makes Johnson’s motor run like his Sherr-una, and the governor was merely saving their relationship.

Of course, the fallout from this latest scandal was more disturbing than Johnny Depp’s makeup in Alice in Wonderland. Two New York State Police Superintendants – Harry S. Corbitt and Pedro J. Perez – retired within a week of each other after the scandal was uncovered. No one wants to be near Paterson when the other shoe drops, and the governor is about as popular as Dennis Kucinich right now. Not good.

If the governor’s scandal appears uglier than Eleanor Roosevelt, the recent events surrounding (now former) New York Rep. Eric Massa make Paterson’s problems look like Christina Hendricks in a low-cut gown. Interestingly enough, like the gorgeous Ms. Hendricks, Massa is also getting stares . . . but not in a good way. The Democrat congressman resigned this week after he became the target of a sexual harassment investigation involving a male staffer. When you are a Democrat in this country only the president is allowed to sexually harass staffers. Didn’t Massa get the memo?

“It doesn’t make any difference what my intentions were, it’s how it’s perceived by the individual who receives that action,” Massa, D-N.Y., said on conservative commentator Glenn Beck’s Fox News Channel show. “I’m telling you I was wrong. I was wrong. … My behavior was wrong. I should have never allowed myself to be as familiar with my staff as I was.”

The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, reported Tuesday that the House ethics panel is investigating allegations Massa groped multiple male staffers in his office. Massa has previously claimed his misconduct was limited to using inappropriate language with staffers.

It is uncertain as to where former Rep. Massa received his etiquette training, but in our society it is impolite to “goose” the members of your staff. Unless, of course, the congressional staff is comprised of exotic dancers and Playboy Playmates, but the nation’s capital has not seen that since the Kennedy administration. Similarly, the use of inappropriate and vulgar language with staffers is a major faux pas. Television’s Jersey Shore and The Sopranos are works of fiction, Mr. Massa. Real people do not throw out the “F-word” every three minutes, and just because Cokie Roberts does it does not mean that it is acceptable behavior. Believing otherwise is stupid at best and career-ending at worst.

New York Congressman Charlie Rangel knows a thing or two about stupidity. In fact, he wrote the book on it. (Corruption for Dunderheads is available online at Amazon. Reserve your copy now!) Sadly, even a brilliant intellect like Rangel’s can make a mistake or three. In this case, the congressman thought that no one would notice his two corporate-sponsored trips to island getaways. Even if they did, no one would call him on it, because he’s Charlie Rangel. Moments later, Rangel picked himself up off the floor and started wiping the tire tracks off his back. No one caught the number of that bus, but witnesses said the driver looked suspiciously like President Obama.

An ethics investigation convened and Rangel was forced to step down as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. After that, no politician would take Rangel’s calls, his key to the taxpayer-funded Executive Martini Lounge was confiscated, and his reserved seat at the Beltway Taco Bell was given to Scott Brown. Rangel, like the other disgraced New York politicos, pleaded his innocence to an unsympathetic populace.

Three powerful elected officials make the front page of the scandal sheets in a month. Someone desperately needs to get to Albany to take control and clean house. In order to survive, the Empire State needs a Darth Vader.

FamilySecurityMatters.org’s official satirist, Shawn Goodwin, is a blogger and police detective from Philly.

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Filed under: America (USA), Conniving Politicians, Democrats, Liberals, Lily-Livered Liberals, Limp-Wrist Liberals, New York, Political Prostitutes, Politics, Spine Donor Politicians Tagged: Democrat Corruption, Democrat Scandals, FSM (Shawn Goodwin), Gov. David Paterson, New York Politics, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY), Tony

By Alan Caruba

Both my Father and older brother were Certified Public Accountants. Around the dinner table, the Internal Revenue Services was spoken of as the adversary. “Tax time” which used to mean a March 15 deadline was preceded by a period of long working hours. Over the years the tax laws became so arcane and dense they defy comprehension.

The income tax is probably the worst thing that ever happened to the United States in the last century because it was always punitive and regressive. It punishes saving. It deters economic growth through investment. It takes the wage earner’s money before he or she receives their paycheck.

There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come and you can read all about it in Ken Hoagland’s “The Fair Tax Solution: Financial Justice for All Americans” ($19.95, Sentinel, Penguin Group USA). With notes and index, this book is a mere 151 pages and is small enough to fit into anyone’s pocket or purse. You will learn more about taxation in America from this little book than from several volumes of tax code.

Let me put the Fair Tax is perspective. In early March, The Washington Post reported that “President Obama’s proposed budget would add more than $9.7 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, congressional budget analysts said Friday.” As most people know by now, you can never trust any estimate of costs that the government puts forth unless you multiply it by a factor of two or three.

The U.S. is facing a financial Armageddon.

The projected deficit of $1.5 trillion “would force the Treasury to continue borrowing at prodigious rates, sending the national debt soaring to 90 percent of the economy by 2020.” Someone wants America to collapse and someone is doing everything in his power to ensure that happens.

Real limits on how much the government can borrow must be imposed. Limits on how much it can spend are needed. The claim that taxes only “soak the rich” is false because income tax laws are now destroying the middle class while most of the officially “poor” pay no taxes at all.

Hoagland is the Communications Director of Americans for Fair Taxation, the sponsoring organization for Fair Tax legislation. What he does not know about taxation is not worth knowing and what he does know he imparts with breathtaking simplicity and directness.

“Today we tax the very thing our economy needs to grow—-income and that which produces income. We take money from savings, from returns on investment, and from what we are paid for our labor.”

The Fair Tax, which would replace only federal taxation, is based on what we individually consume. It is paid at the point of sale and it does not take earnings from one’s paycheck, nor punish you for having a savings account or for capital gains as the result of investing wisely. A Fair Tax says your money is your money.

The current tax system actually punishes corporations for being headquartered here. The U.S. levies the second highest (after Japan) corporate tax in the world. The result makes doing business in American far less competitive than in other nations. It forces corporations to collectively spend billions on compliance.

“According to the Tax Foundation, small businesses spend an astounding $724 in compliance costs for every $100 they pay in income tax.” Most people have to hire people to prepare their tax returns for them because of their complexity.

Enacted in 1912, over “almost one hundred years of congressional amendments, court decisions, and taxpayer/IRS disputes (the tax code) has swelled to more than 2.1 million words” and in fiscal year 2006 it was 16,845 pages.

When an earlier version of the income tax was proposed, it was repealed in 1872 and a later 1894 version was rejected by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional in 1895 because the income tax violated the Constitution’s prohibition against direct taxation (article 1, section 9). It took a Constitutional amendment, the sixteenth, ratified February 12, 1913, to permit it.

After that, Congress had an enormous source of revenue with which to swell the federal government.

“The cost of compliance, the hours and money spent on preparing tax forms, totaled close to $300 billion in 2008,” writes Hoagland. “That’s twice as much as the total of all the taxpayer stimulus checks mailed out in 2008.”

The result of the income tax has been “destructive, as politicians from both parties have taken us down a path of unsustainable spending.”

Despite what you will be told, the Fair Tax will collect the same amount of revenue as the income tax, but it will spread the burden more equitably and transparently.

It would literally eliminate any need for the Internal Revenue Service because it is a tax of 23% of what consumers spend “instead of an average of 30% of all the money they earn.”

No more gigantic, impenetrable tax code.

No more prying into the private transactions and earnings of citizens.

No more deductions for withholding and payroll taxes from your paycheck before you are paid.

No more punishment for saving or investing.

No more incentives for corporations to artificially keep salaries low or to move out of the nation to avoid harsh taxation.

Your earnings are your earnings. They do not belong to the federal or state government. With a Fair Tax, the more you earn, the more you keep, depending on how much you decide to spend.

That’s why it is called a Fair Tax and that is why the time has come to enact it.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Alan Caruba writes a daily post at Warning Signs. A business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

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