Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Bill Comes Due for Socialism ... by Alan Caruba




The Bill Comes Due for Socialism
By Alan Caruba



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"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." -- Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister

It began as a beautiful cruise to a land of “hope and change”, but it has become a nightmare in which the ship of state is being deliberately steered toward a whirlpool of debt from which, if Obama is successful, the nation cannot escape.

One of the primary reasons the U.S. economy has grown over the years has been the confidence in its innovation and productivity. It has generated investment from around the world from those who wanted to profit from our success story. There was a time when U.S. securities were the safest in the world, but that is no longer the case.

On December 24, 2009, the U.S. Senate voted to raise the ceiling of the government debt to $12.4 trillion, described by an Associated Press reporter as “a massive increase over the current limit and a political problem that President Barack Obama has promised to address next year.”

On January 20, 2010, barely a month later, Senate Democrats “proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion to pay bills, a record increase that would permit the national debt to reach $14.3 trillion.”

This is the reason, by virtue of the Massachusetts special election; the United States has dodged the bullet of a “reformed” healthcare system which would have slashed a half trillion dollars from Medicare coffers while adding millions more people to its rolls.

It would have turned the health insurance industry into a public utility. They would have ceased to be private enterprises of competing companies. It would have driven physicians out of practice. It would have bankrupted the nation and reduced a widely acknowledged excellent health system to that of a third world nation.

The proposed “Cap-and-Trade” bill, a huge tax on all energy use—the lifeblood of any economy, must be defeated. This will come most likely from a lack of votes as Senate Democrats are finally scared enough of the electorate to act with some degree of rationality.

In a recent commentary, Jerome R. Corsi, the author of “America for Sale: Fighting the New World Order, Surviving the Global Depression, and Preserving USA Sovereignty”, wrote “With the recession and the huge stimulus package added to the beginning of the baby boomers retiring, United States debt is already at 50 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2019, according to the Congressional Budget Office estimates of the Obama administration plans as they currently stand.”

In other words, the U.S. government is committed through various “entitlement” programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, along with other expenditures, to spend more than it takes in via taxes. The other major expense is for defense. These three factors represent half of the annual U.S. budget.

The situation is so grave that, on January 18, The Washington Times editorialized that “Obama is killing the economy.”

The bill has finally come due for decades of socialism that began in the 1930s.

“The 2009 budget deficit tripled over 2008. The deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) went from 3.1 percent in 2008 to 9.9 percent in 2009. The deficit for the first month of fiscal year 2010 was $176 billion, which was greater than the $161 billion deficit for the entire 2007 fiscal year.”

At present rates, the public debt of the United States will reach 85 percent of GDP by 2018, just eight years from now, and 100 percent by 2022. It would be 200 percent by 2038 unless some brakes on spending are not applied before the ship of state gets sucked down beneath an ocean of debt.

What does President Obama propose? He wants to apply an unconstitutional special tax on banks! And not all banks, but just those banks on “Wall Street” whom he blames for the current recession.

His most recent proposal to regulate the banking system drove down the Dow Jones Average signaling further fears of his intention to micro-manage the economy. It is a recipe for disaster and shares of the big Wall Street banks in particular fell. He is deliberately attacking the great engine of the nation’s economy.

Wall Street is not the problem. The government is the problem.

Obama made no mention of the real culprits for the housing market meltdown, the reckless spending of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Community Reinvestment Act that underwrote a program that put $12 trillion of mortgage loans, half of all such loans, in the hands of the federal government!

As John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute points out, “President Obama’s proposal (would) bring back 1930s-like separation of commercial and investment banks, dubbed Glass-Steagall II or Glass-Steagall 2.0, (and) would do little to prevent the problem of financial institutions being too big to fail. What it would do is hurt economic recovery, reduce types of financing available to businesses big and small, and give European and Asian financial services firm a huge competitive advantage over their U.S. counterparts.”

The billions still unspent in the so-called “Stimulus” bill should be returned to the Treasury. Plans to expand Medicare and Medicaid need to be scrapped. Taxes on greenhouse gas emissions, mostly carbon dioxide, must be avoided if for no other reason that CO2 has nothing to do with a non-existent global warming.

The capacity of the United States to recover calls for an end or at least a cap on the mindless spending of taxpayer millions on the pet projects and crony deals of Representatives and Senators.

It calls for an end to the restrictions on the exploration for and extraction of the nation’s vast coal, oil and natural gas reserves, including in ANWR and aggressively in the offshore continental shelf.

It calls for an end to huge multi-million dollar subsidies for “renewable energy” schemes such as solar and wind power.

It calls for an end to the ethanol mandates that dilute the mileage of every gallon of gasoline and actually increase CO2 emissions!

It calls for an end to congressional mandates on the auto industry that have, in part, driven two of its largest manufacturers, General Motors and Chrysler, into bankruptcy. The U.S. must divest its ownership in both companies.

It calls for reining in the rogue government agency, the Environment Protection Agency that is attempting to unilaterally impose control of CO2 emissions and has long engaged in practices that impede economic growth for business, industry, and the nation’s agricultural sector.

There are many reasonable and rational steps that can and should be taken, but it seems clear that the President, with the support of a Democrat controlled Congress, has no intention of taking any of these steps and, indeed, is intent on bankrupting the U.S. government and its people.

Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/. An author, business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.






Saturday, January 30, 2010

Is Obama A Racist? ... by Frances Rice

Is Obama A Racist?
By Frances Rice
****************

How do we decide who is a racist? The dictionary tells us a racist harbors feelings of antagonism and superiority based on biological differences, such as skin color. So, what demonstrates that President Barack Obama harbors such feelings toward white people?

Glimpses of Obama’s mindset can be obtained from reading his two books, “The Audacity of Hope” and “Dreams from My Father” where Obama describes his animosity toward white people.

In “Dreams from My Father” Obama wrote: "I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother's race." This book also contains an explanation of why Obama joined and remained for 20 years in Trinity United Church of Christ, the church of black liberation theologian Rev. Jeremiah Wright who preached hatred against whites. Obama wrote: "It came about as a choice and not an epiphany". The core of black liberation theology is black separatism, a movement that, for more than a century, has been opposed to racial integration. Equally troubling is Obama’s church giving a lifetime award to one of our nation’s most racist men, Louis Farrakhan.

Obama’s belief system on race was on full display during the 2008 campaign when, on a Philadelphia radio sports program; he described his grandmother as a "typical white person" who fears blacks.

From the roots of Obama’s enmity toward white people sprang his gratuitous attack on Cambridge Police Sergeant James Crowley. Obama declared that the sergeant “acted stupidly” while doing his duty, when all Obama knew, admittedly, was that the sergeant was white and the person arrested, Obama’s friend Harvard Processor Henry Gates, was black. Without bothering to learn the facts, Obama used the power of his position as President of the United States to demonize an American citizen because of his race. Details of the arrest are in the article “Obama Plays the Race Card” by Ronald Kessler that is on the Internet HERE.

A video featuring the testimonial of two black officers in support of Sergeant Crowley, including the comments of Officer Kelly King who states that she supported and voted for Obama, but would not vote for him again, is posted on YouTube HERE.

Obama, in his rush to judgment, ignored pertinent facts, such as one of the arresting officers is black, the Cambridge Mayor is black and the Massachusetts Governor is black. From his lofty perch as the leader of the free world, Obama focused like a laser beam on the skin color of one man and engaged in grievance mongering about “racial profiling,” a charge that hampers law enforcement in black communities and was not even a factor in the Cambridge case. In an instant, Obama abandoned any pretense of being “post racial” and, before our very eyes, was transformed into our “race-baiter-in-chief”.

How ironic that the wrongs against blacks that are the genesis of Obama’s racial hostility were committed by the whites who supported the racist agenda of the Democratic Party (not that many years ago), the party Obama now heads. During his research, author Wayne Perryman uncovered documents which reveal that the Democratic Party was once proudly called the “Party of White Supremacy”. According to Perryman, Democratic Party campaign posters issued from 1868 to the early 1900’s declared: "This is a white man's country - let the white man rule". Perryman further pointed out that Democratic Senator Ben Tillman in 1909 said: "We reorganized the Democratic Party with one plank and only one plank, namely, that this is a white man's country and the white men must govern it."

Today, Obama is changing the Democratic Party into a party with the sinister premise that America is a black man’s country and the black men must govern it. Perhaps this is why Obama refused to prosecute Black Panthers who wielded weapons, hurled racial insults at voters and blocked the entrance at a Philadelphia polling place during the 2008 Election. “Protecting Black Panthers” is an editorial by “The Washington Times” that reveals how Jerry Jackson, one of the Black Panther defendants, is an elected member of Philadelphia's 14th Ward Democratic Committee and was a credentialed poll watcher for Obama and the Democratic Party. That article can be found on the Internet HERE.

The intimidation tactics by Black Panthers are a chilling reminder about how the Democrats not long ago used the Ku Klux Klan, the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party, to intimidate and terrorize Republican voters, black and white. Democratic Party racism is precisely what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Republican, was fighting against. In Obama’s world, the civil rights accomplishments of Dr. King have been abandoned, and we are now encouraged to judge people by the color of their skin, not the content of their character. An analysis of Obama’s embracement of racial bigotry is provided in the article “How Our Post-Racial President Uses Race Card As Both Sword And Shield” by Larry Elder and is on the Internet HERE.

The article “A Post-Racial President?” by Thomas Sowell reveals in stark relief how destructive to our national fiber is Obama’s racial politics and can be found on the Internet HERE.

Frances Rice

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Frances Rice is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel, a lawyer and chairman of the National Black
Republican Association. She can be contacted at: http://www.nbra.info/


Friday, January 29, 2010

Partisanship Is 100% American!

Partisanship Is 100% American!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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The ignorance of today’s Americans, about the way their country’s government was designed (By The Founders) to work, is not only lamentable -- it is dangerous!

If you are one of those Americans decrying partisanship in the US Congress and you are educated enough to read this article, then there is NO EXCUSE for your ignorance.

Yes, I understand the Public School System in America rarely teaches American History and in many cases they don’t even teach European or World History and they certainly do not teach “Civics” anymore. (Pause) OK, for those of you younger folk who have NO IDEA what “CIVICS” is -- the simplest explanation is this: Civics is the study of the rights and duties of citizenship. In other words, it is the study of government with attention to the role of citizens in the operation and oversight of government.

Back in the day, we actually studied Civics in High School. THAT is where I first got the idea in my head that I actually had a say in the way the US Government is run. It is a right I have exercised over and over ever since. I fear it is a right a large portion of the US population doesn’t even realize they have – because they were never taught CIVICS and never studied American History or European History and/or World History. You see, the combination of these three studies is dangerous to the ruling elite in America.


Those of us, who HAVE studied the history of this country and HAVE studied the Constitution and the government of the US --and our role in it -- are extremely dangerous people. We KNOW when our leaders are snookering us, as they are today, for instance.

I have come to believe there is now, and there has been for some time, a deliberate effort to keep you and the generations that follow completely ignorant as to your constitutional rights -- and even more important, how your government was designed, by the Founders of this country, to work.

Today we hear calls for “bipartisanship” from the Socialists/Progressives in Congress. They KNOW the Congress is SUPPOSED to be PARTISAN! That’s why there is more than one political party. Since the days of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson there has been partisanship in the government of the US.

Let us establish, right up front, that the Founders intended the government to be partisan. They intended to make the process of law-making a slow and tedious process. The idea was to insure that laws were not passed in “the heat of the moment” or, as we like to say today, as a “knee-jerk reaction.”

If thee was no partisanship in Congress laws would be flying through the hoppers of both houses and onto the law books, willy-nilly, and we would very quickly become a dictatorship of some kind. That would indicate that there was NO OPPOSITION to the ruling party. The representative republic, that is America, would cease to exist almost immediately. The ruling party would simply take over the government and run it as they saw fit and if you disagreed you would have no say, whatsoever, in the matter. I must say, our current government bears a great deal of resemblance to a dictatorship today.

Take a good look at the ruling party in America today… the “Marxists.” Oh, they prefer you call them “Progressives.” But be aware of this: the title “Progressive” has been used for decades in America as code for Marxist or Communist.

Now observe the manner in which the Obama Regime rules America. As Obama could not dissolve the Congress, as he gives every indication he would LIKE to do, he created a cadre of “Czars” to do his biding. These Czars did not have to be vetted by the Congress and there is no advice and consent from the US Senate sought.

The Czars exist only to do Obama’s bidding and they answer ONLY to him. I suspect as soon as someone challenges Obama’s “politburo of Czars” in the courts, they will be found to be unconstitutional and he will be ordered to disband them. That does not mean, however that they will not continue to serve Obama informally.

IF the AMERICAN people were up on their constitution and IF they had any knowledge of how their government is SUPPOSED to operate under that constitution, they would be demanding that Obama do away with his Czars -- or be impeached for abuse of power, abuse of the office of President, and abuse of the American people.

But there is no hue and cry. Why? Ignorance. How is that possible? It is possible because the Public School System is run by the labor unions which are closely allied with Obama’s political party and his Marxist philosophy and they have turned the Public School System’s classrooms into Leftist Indoctrination Centers for America’s young.

Our kids are being indoctrinated in the same Progressive/Marxist philosophy favored by Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, et al. THAT is way they are ignorant of the constitution and the constitutional way our government is supposed to work -- and that is why they do not understand partisanship in the Congress.

Boiled down -- the American electorate is split between conservatives and progressives/Marxists. We both have strongly held beliefs and every individual has certain core beliefs that dictate how he/she sees the world around them. It is totally ludicrous to insist that we stop arguing. To do that, one side, or the other, would have to completely dominate the other. If and when that happens, democracy is dead.

Let’s face it. As long as Congress is busy fussing and arguing with itself, the people are somewhat safe. Actually, the only time I feel safe these days is when Congress is in recess.

Remember, when you hear someone arguing bipartisanship in Congress, what they are actually saying is they want the opposing side silenced so only their argument is heard. As I said, that spells the doom of democracy. In America partisanship is a GOOD THING. Bipartisanship is just plain dangerous to freedom.

J. D. Longstreet

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Should God Apologize To Sodom And Gomorrah?

Should God Apologize To Sodom And Gomorrah!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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"This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country they love because of who they are. It's the right thing to do." … B. H. Obama President of the United States in his State of the Union Address January 27th, 2010.

There is an old expression that says: "If God does not destroy America the He owes an apology to Sodom and Gomorrah!" It seems more applicable today than ever before.

Look, having a known homosexual in a military unit disrupts that unit’s cohesiveness. If it happens to be a combat unit, lives are at stake.

Homosexuality is even splitting apart mainline religious denominations in America and around the world… and you REALLY think it will not disrupt the US Military? Get REAL, PLEASE!

As a subscriber to the Christian faith, I believe homosexuality is an sinful lust forbidden by God. In the scriptures we are told that God, himself, said to His people Israel, "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination" (Leviticus 18:22). "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them" (Leviticus 20:13). In these passages homosexuality is condemned as a sexual perversion. It is considered a “Prime Sin.” As a Christian I cannot change how God views homosexuality and I cannot turn my back on it and say that well, times have changed, and God must change too. THAT is blasphemy.

Now, before some of you point out the obvious, that this scripture is from the OLD Testament; I give you Saint Paul’s view of Homosexuality from the NEW Testament. (Paul is the Apostle credited with bringing the Christian faith to the Gentiles of the world.) Paul wrote a letter to the people of the Christian church in Corinth. In that letter Paul said the following: “ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10- nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.”

It could not be any clearer. Homosexuality is condemned in the scriptures just as murder, adultery, premarital sex, kidnapping, lying, and idolatry are condemned.

Back to the incompatibility of Homosexuality with the military: “Homosexuality is simply incompatible with the principles of military services, which include a focus on the mission, service, discipline, bodily integrity, and control over one's impulses. Homosexuality does not appropriately reflect these principles.” This sentiment was reflected in an article signed by Gen. Carl E. Mundy, Jr., a former commandant of the Marine Corps; Adm. Leighton W. Smith, a former commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe; Gen. Charles A. Horner, who commanded U.S. aerial forces during the 1990-91 Gulf War; and Adm. Jerome L. Johnson, a former vice chief of Naval Operations. They wrote, succinctly, "Homosexuality is incompatible with military service". Read the article HERE.

In 2008, the Republican Party Platform said the following: "To protect our servicemen and women and ensure that America's Armed Forces remain the best in the world, we affirm the timeliness of those values, the benefits of traditional military culture, and the incompatibility of homosexuality with military service." Read the article HERE.

Many retired military officers, including several who were top commanders, have urged President Barack Obama and Congress to maintain the law that bars gays from serving openly in the armed forces. They claim openly serving homosexuals would undermine recruiting and retention, impact leadership at all levels, have adverse effects on the willingness of parents who lend their sons and daughters to military service, and eventually break the All-Volunteer Force. They, too, believe that repeal of the current law, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” could jeopardize morale and “unit cohesion.” Read the article HERE.

Back in June of 2006, I wrote the following: “As a veteran, when I served, a homosexual was not allowed in the service, period. If they did manage to get in, as soon as they were found out, they were gone. And it was quick.

I remember, in July of 1959, at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, as we stood in formation on Tank Hill, we recruits were instructed to immediately turn in any in our ranks we suspected might be homosexual. We were led to believe that if we knew, and did not turn them in, we were in danger of being kicked out of the service as well.

I liked that. It gave me a certain confidence in my fellow soldiers… that they were who they said they were.

In my time in the US Army there was no such thing as privacy. You did everything as a unit. You slept in the same room, you showered together, you ate together, and you even relived yourself in full view of all the other soldiers who happened to be in the latrine at the same time. There were no “stalls” with toilets in them. There was a line of toilets, in a row, and it was quit possible for two soldiers to have a conversation, while relieving themselves, sitting on those toilets. Did I mention there was no privacy? I did, didn’t I?

It was important that a soldier knew his fellow soldier was the same gender as himself.”

My opinion has not changed.

There is no effort here to “gay-bash.” I am merely expressing my opinion as a Veteran of the US Military and as one who subscribes to the Christian faith.

For the record, I do not care a whit what other country’s militaries do. They can have all homosexual regiments for all I care. But, I DO care what the US military does.

Public support of the US military is vital to their morale and their effectiveness as a fighting force. Allowing homosexuals to serve openly in the US military will rob them of the support they now enjoy from the American public. It will destroy the All Volunteer Force we have so painstakingly built up. That means the return of the draft.

I do not support the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. I support the old policy of not allowing homosexuals to serve in any branch of the US Military -- at all.

J. D. Longstreet

Conservatives and Progressives. Huge Difference!

Conservatives and Progressives. Huge Difference!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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The difference between Conservatives and Progressives, er liberals, er, socialists… (Whatever!)… is now more obvious than ever before -- especially now that Americans have seen the Progressives in action.

Are you as sick of the Democrats claiming the Republicans are looking out for their rich friends… at the cost of the poor folk in this country? Every time one turns around it is on the TV, in the Newspapers, and on the radio. Of course, the Democrat party controls the mainstream media outlets. (That’s why FOX News Channel is such a threat to them, and, why it is burning the ratings up. People have become sick and tired of hearing the old leftist spin on the news and are rushing to Fox News, in droves, to hear the “real” news and, as they say, get it “fair and balanced.”

Here’s the thing. It really is propaganda… plain and simple. It is political pabulum fed to the media, by the DNC, and the MSM laps it up and regurgitates it onto their respective networks or print media. They have been the willing accomplices of the Democrat Party since, well, since the beginning. Nothing has changed.

One of my own regional newspapers, owned by the New York Times, is no different. Readers get the same old rotgut, left wing, propaganda. However, they have been doing this so long they have begun to believe their own propaganda. They actually believe they are unbiased! Talk about denial! Just a brief scan of their editorial page and a fair-minded person will understand immediately their approach to reporting. It carries over onto the pages of the news. The sources are well known left leaning news associations.

So, with the Democrats controlling the Mainstream Media, why is there a hue and cry when a conservative voice pops up on TV, the radio, or the print media-- because, we conservatives are a very real threat to the left. Our ideas actually work. They are not difficult for folks to understand. We don’t have all the “nuance” intertwined in our remarks. We speak plainly and to the point. Oftimes, we are not politically correct, but then most folks aren’t.

Conservatives are a mixed lot, the same as Liberals/Progressives/Socialists. But for the most part, we are a people who base our political belief in the rock solid fundamentals that built this country. We believe the founders were honorable men. Flawed, but honorable. We believe they meant what they said when they wrote the constitution -- and they said what they meant. We see no reason to change it one-way or the other. Unlike Progressives, conservatives do not believe the Constitution is “a living document” subject to radical interpretation by whim. What you see is what you get.

Most conservatives are morally grounded in the scriptures and we believe that is the root of all things good. But, even more important than all these, we believe there are absolutes, moral and otherwise. There are boundaries. We, for the most part, do not believe in moral relativity. It is either right, or it is wrong.

You can see why we lock horns with the liberals/progressives/socialists, especially the new socialists that now form the bulk of what used to be the Democratic Party. Sadly, that is exactly what has happened to the old Democratic Party. It has become a socialist/secular/humanist (and, we suspect, a sprinkling of communists.) party. The truly sad thing is… they have yet to realize the American people will have none of it. They have isolated themselves from the electorate and they are now, seemingly, bent on self-destruction.

In by-gone days, the Democrat party was a party in which Zell Miller could feel at home. It was a political party the Southern folk could align with, especially since the Lincoln administration was a Republican administration. Things have changed. The pendulum has swung and now the Republican Party is the party the Democrat Party used to be. Thus, the switching of parties by Southerners and the reason the South now leans most favorably toward the Republican.

Presidential elections cannot be won without the South (i.e. the states of the old Confederacy). It will be a cold day, in warmer climes, when the South switches back to the Democrat Party.

Many conservatives don’t feel the Republican Party is conservative enough. They feel the Republican Party has forsaken its conservative agenda and it’s conservative members. I fall in that group. As a result the Tea Party Movement was born. The Tea Party Movement may yet become a full-grown third political party in America, a conservative political party. However, caution must be exercised that Tea Party candidates for office do not harm the campaigns of GOP candidates who have clear shots at removing an incumbent democrat, or a liberal, or RINO Republican from office.

Just some thoughts today on why politics are as they are in the USA. Subject to change, of course!

J. D. Longstreet

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Obama: “I’m from the government, and I am here to help you!”

Obama: “I’m from the government, and I am here to help you!”
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

**********

The Obama Regime has set it sites on America’s Middle Class. And it has scared the bejesus out of them! You can almost hear the cries emanating from the Middle Class… “Please, Mr. President, STOP helping us!!!”

But that is not going to happen until Americans isolate Obama in the White House by ousting his congressional supporters in the Mid-Term Election this coming November.

The so-called Middle Class Task Force made up of White House flunkies, and chaired by Vice-President Joe Biden, have been searching diligently in the round about to find issues, any issues, the American Middle Class has been dealing with and then promise to help solve those issues.

I have to ask, how connected to the American public is the President when he has to appoint a task force to learn the current condition of the Middle Class in America?

Nevertheless, that is what Obama did and NOW he KNOWS what the Middle Class is dealing with and he, Obama, “The One,” is going to solve those problems, just as he has solved America’s economic woes and just as he has solved America’s unemployment problem, and just as he has solved… well, you get the picture.

Obama, apparently, believes that all he has to do is PROMISE to solve all those things, not ACTUALLY solve them. Why, who could expect him to do THAT?

So after all the data on the problems faced by the Middle Class in America was in, Obama chose a handful of problems to solve. What are they? Here they are, listed below:

Expansion of the child tax credit -- doubling it among families with incomes up to $85,000;

Increasing funding for child care;

Broader support for families supporting elderly relatives, including counseling, training and temporary respite care;

Limiting student loan payments to no more than 10% of their income; and

Establishing an automatic employer-based individual retirement account plan, so that workers can establish an IRA through their workplace.

So – how much is this going to cost taxpayers, huh? Nobody in th Obama Regime will say. In any event, guess who will pay. Remember the Middle Class? Yep! See, there is NO FREE LUNCH!

I looked carefully at the list and there is nothing on it that affects me, as a member of the Middle Class, at all. It would appear that only those members of the Middle Class, who are potential supporters of Obama, and the other Socialists in the Congress, would reap any benefit from Obama’s Middle Class Iniatives. What I DO see, however, is in keeping with Obama’s Marxist belief. What I see is -- the Redistribution of America’s Wealth.

Never forget that our President is a Marxist… some even say he is a communist. There is no question in our mind that he IS a Marxist and this is what Marxists do. They take from those who have it and give it to those who do not. No matter that those who have it worked for it and earned it and have a God-given right to the fruits of their labor. Either they fork it over willingly, or the Marxist government will take it and redistribute it. That is the underlying reason for the Middle Class Iniatives.

Oh, and we must not forget that all these problems suffered by the Middle Class are the fault of the Bush Administration. Obama is as pure as the wind driven snow.

The “Blame Bush” excuse is wearing rather thin, now, isn’t it? Even the Mainstream Media is getting a bit leery of running his “Blame It On Bush” mantra. I mean, Obama has been President for over a year now. At what point in his presidency does HE take responsibility? Or does Obama (as many in his generation of Americans) subscribe to the philosophy of “no ownership of screw-ups?” At some point he must accept ownership of the rotten economy, the incredible debt he piled on us, or kids, or grandkids, and our great grandkids, as well as the abysmal unemployment situation in America.

The State of the Union is precarious at best. But you won’t hear that tonight. All you will hear are glowing reports of the accomplishments of the Obama Regime and the lofty aspirations of the Marxists who make up that Regime.

I won’t be listening tonight. I’ll probably be watching the “SyFy channel” where the stories are much more believable.

J. D. Longstreet

My State of the Union ... by Alan Caruba

My State of the Union
By Alan Caruba
*********************


Each one of us has their own “state of the union” so far as the economy is concerned. Much of the workforce receives a paycheck, but many of those jobs have ceased to exist. Other jobs involve contract services. A reported 10% of the workforce is unemployed and the likelihood is that the actual percentage is much higher.


Small business, one of the largest components of the economy, is hurting because consumers are cutting back on spending. It is no surprise either that the banking community, under direct attack by the President, is reluctant to stick its neck out. The result is an understandable reluctance to extend credit and loans, and a loss of investor confidence. On Wednesday, the President will give his first State of the Union (SOTU) speech, but if it looks and sounds familiar, it is because it will be the third time in the past year he has addressed a joint session of Congress. That has to be some kind of record, but he has set records for more than 400 speeches in the past year.


When the President reads yet another speech written for him by other people, keep in mind that he has surrounded himself with a cabinet and advisors composed primarily of lawyers like himself. Most have no experience in private enterprise. They have not managed a business, nor met a payroll. Less than ten percent of them have experience in the business sector. And these are the people charged with solving the current financial crisis!


I do not need to wait until Wednesday to hear President Obama’s State of the Union speech. I already know he cannot be trusted to respond honestly and candidly about any issue. Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) gained fame by calling out “You Lie!” in an earlier speech and he was right. He did, however, apologize for the breach of etiquette, but I am pretty sure other Republicans in the chamber will feel the same impulse.


After fifty years of earning a good living as a public relations counselor and a provider of editorial skills, the market for my skills has contracted in response to the economy. That’s my SOTU. I am confident that, when the economy improves, there will be individuals, corporations, trade associations and others who will rev up their efforts to influence consumers and issues, but until then, while the President lives off the fat of the land, I am pretty much living off my “fat.”


A recent issue of U.S News & World Report devoted an entire issue to my generation and those closely gaining on it. It concluded that many either do not want to retire, nor can afford to. I have a cousin, also in his 70s, who’s in his Wall Street office every day. According to the magazine, both of us have a good chance of making it to age 100! Many investments intended to provide a retirement nest egg have been reduced in value, interest on savings is miniscule, and the rising cost of living has left those in their seventies and older often unable to opt out of the work force if they are fortunate to be employed or considering re-employment if a job can be found. We make excellent workers because we come equipped with a good work ethic and attitudes. Meanwhile, a legion of Baby Boomers is beginning to join our ranks, lining up for their Social Security and other benefits.


Tampering with Medicare this year, a huge distraction from the task of encouraging job growth, was possibly the dumbest thing the White House and Democrat Congress could have done. There will be a senior citizen payback at the ballot box in November.


I have a younger member of my family who, like thousands of Americans these days, owns a home whose value is less than his mortgage. Like all homes, it is a money pit. And worse for him, it is in New Jersey, a state with the highest property and other taxes in the nation. At the height of the housing bubble, I sold the home in which I had lived for more than sixty years and moved to a luxury apartment complex. I miss my former home, but it didn’t come with a pool, a fitness center, and a charming concierge staff.


Having been born during the Great Depression of the 1930s, I have now lived long enough to be in a new Depression. The irony is that both had their roots in government policies and, in both cases, were prolonged by government hostility to corporations, banks, and other generators of income and growth. The present administration is maniacally opposed to Wall Street. They oppose the engines of energy in America, oil, coal, and natural gas. They waste billions on so-called “renewable” energy or “biofuels”, all of which are incapable of producing sufficient energy for even a moderate-sized city or town. Biofuels just drive up the cost of crops like corn for no sensible reason.


Those “shovel-ready” construction projects have not yet materialized while the nation’s infrastructure continues to be neglected. Not one single new nuclear plant or refinery has been built since the 1970s.


Over the years, the auto industry has been destroyed by increasing congressional interference in the form of mileage mandates, by requirements for ethanol use, and, internally, by the auto unions that demanded and received huge medical and retirement plans that ate profits. Two of the largest American auto manufacturers are essentially owned by the taxpayers due to massive, multi-billion bailouts, and controlled by the unions that destroyed them.


So my SOTU is to find a market for my editorial and other skills. I don’t give a rat’s patoot what the President will say Wednesday evening. He’s not the solution. He is the problem.


Alan Caruba

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Failed Presidency of B. H. Obama


The Failed Presidency of B. H. Obama
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
******************

A conservative friend, early on in the presidential campaign of Obama, informed me that the man was an empty suit. There was no "THERE" there, my friend insisted. I was assured Obama was, and is, running a con game on the American people.

Now that I, along with all of America and the world, have had a chance to observe the man in action (actually, that should be "INACTION"... about the only action we have seen from him is his mouth moving during those hundreds of speeches he made over the past year) I have to admit there was more than a little truth to what my friend said. So far as getting anything done, well, what did he DO?

There can be no question Obama's presidency is a failure. In my opinion Obama is a phony. He ain't that smart and he ain't that articulate. Take away the TelePrompTer and the man is clueless.

I have been a public speaker practically all my life and I must tell you, speaking with notes is quite different than speaking extemporaneously, without notes, off the top of your head, so to speak. (No pun intended.) The use of a TelePrompTer basically requires that you show up for the event and that is about all there is to it.

A well-written speech can make anyone look exceptional. The President, all presidents, have a battery of speechwriters to do just that. One of the best, in my humble opinion, is Peggy Noonan. The lady has a way with a phrase, any phrase. If I learned that Ms. Noonan had written a speech -- I wanted to hear it. She is THAT good!

The American Thinker, in a piece by Geoffrey P. Hunt entitled: "Another Failed Presidency" said the following: "... It's not so much that he's a phony, knows nothing about economics, is historically illiterate, and woefully small minded for the size of the task-- all contributory of course. It's that he's not one of us. And whatever he is, his profile is fuzzy and devoid of content, like a cardboard cutout made from delaminated corrugated paper. Moreover, he doesn't command our respect and is unable to appeal to our own common sense. His notions of right and wrong are repugnant and how things work just don't add up. They are not existential. His descriptions of the world we live in don't make sense and don't correspond with our experience.

In the meantime, while we've been struggling to take a measurement of this man, he's dissed just about every one of us--financiers, energy producers, banks, insurance executives, police officers, doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, post office workers, and anybody else who has a non-green job. ...” You can read the entire article, and we encourage you to do just that,
HERE.

It is a shame there is no constitutional mechanism by which Obama can be removed from office before he does even more harm to the country. Alas, there isn't.


But what if there was? Back in August of 2007 Robert Dallek wrote an op-ed piece for the Washington Post entitled "Ouster By the People." He proposed a constitutional amendment which would allow a national referendum to decide whether to remove a President and Vice-President by voting "Yes" or "No".

In the article Mr. Dallek said the following: "Such an amendment would need to set a high bar for removal and include a process that would be the greatest possible expression of the popular will. This could best be achieved through a recall procedure beginning in the House and the Senate, where a 60 percent vote would be required in both chambers to initiate a national referendum that would be open to all citizens eligible to vote in state elections. The ballot would simply ask voters to say yes or no to removing the president and vice president from office immediately. Should a majority vote to recall both incumbents, the speaker of the House would succeed to the presidency and, under the provisions of the 25th Amendment, would choose a vice president, who would need to be confirmed by majorities in the House and the Senate." Mr. Dallek concluded by saying: "The nation should be able to remove by an orderly constitutional process any president with an unyielding commitment to failed policies and an inability to renew the country's hope."

Mr. Dallek was lamenting the "failed presidency of George W. Bush" at the time. What is truly frightening about such a "law" is the current Speaker of the House of Representatives is... Nancy Pelosi! I'd vote "NO!" Yes, I admit it! I'd vote to keep Obama rather than place the country in the hands of Madam Speaker. You may read the entire article
HERE.

(By the way, there are eighteen states that allow recall elections for removing a sitting governor.)

Obama has made it clear to Americans that the office of President has become far too powerful. His appointing "Czars" to by-pass Congress, and carry out his wishes, smacks of abuse of power. I am still not comfortable assuming Obama's Czars are constitutional. I have been waiting for someone to challenge the Czars in court, but I know of no such litigation.

Obama has shown disdain for the constitution, he has embarrassed a huge portion of the country by bowing to foreign leaders, and making that world-wide “Apology Tour” in which he spoke ill of America while on foreign soil. That was unforgivable.

By delaying a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan, in my opinion, he was directly culpable in the deaths of American servicemen during the months he delayed those reinforcements. Those were wasted American lives.

Obama has placed America in unbelievable debt. America is so deeply in debt that our grandkids and great grandkids will be stuck with the bill. It will take generations to pay it off.

The Obama Regime knows that if it expects to get anything done he must do it now -- before the Mid-Term Election in November. The handwriting is on the wall. Consider what happened in Massachusetts. It was a referendum on the Obama Regime and it is the bellwether of things to come for the Democratic Party.

Obama has secured his place in the history books. America's first black President. Other than that, well, there's not much to tell, really.

J. D. Longstreet

Monday, January 25, 2010

They Still Don't Get It! (UPDATED)

They Still Don’t Get It!
NO GOVERNMENT HEALTHCARE REFORM!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

**********

The dunces in the Congress, both houses, apparently still do not get the message the American people have been sending them loudly and clearly over the past few months. Even AFTER the election of the 41st vote against ObamaCare, they insist the American people want healthcare reform.

They are absolutely wrong!

As an American “people,” myself, I can attest to the fact that we want nothing to do with government-run, government controlled, government sponsored, so-called universal healthcare, otherwise known as ObamaCare.

Some leftists organizations who pretend and, in some cases, presume to speak for their membership, and for the American people as a whole, insist to the Congress that we DO want government sponsored and/or government-run healthcare reform. THEY, TOO, ARE WRONG!
The Washington Examiner is reporting in an article by Susan Ferrechio entitled “Dems look for a way to press ahead on health care,” that Obama's top adviser and senior Democratic lawmakers are going to push ahead with health care reform. They are insisting that the American people STILL want ObamaCare despite weakening poll numbers for Obama and the Democrats and in spite of the Republican win in a Massachusetts election that became a referendum on their proposal.

White House senior adviser, David Axelrod, said people still want health care, but they want the proposal to be put together differently.

Democrats are looking at two avenues of approach: They could try to pass a scaled-back version in smaller pieces, or they could try to move the current Senate health care bill through the House and then make changes to it through a parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation, which would require just 51 votes for passage.You may read the entire article HERE.
Again -- they have it dead wrong!

What we want is for the government to get the hell out of it and allow the free market to work in the healthcare industry as it does in any and every kind of business in America. At least it USED to before the socialist in the White House, and those in Congress, began to meddle in the business affairs of the country.

The Democrats are busy looking for a way, anyway, to save face for their president, Obama. They KNOW his presidency, so far, has been a failure and will be recorded by history as such. But if they can get a bill, any bill, he can sign that will provide the appearance of having accomplished something, anything, in his first year in office, it will, they think, counter balance, or mitigate, history’s record of Obama’s failure as a President.

They are partly correct in thinking that. I mean, how often do you read, see, or hear, when references are made to former President Bill Clinton, that he was impeached? EVER? That’s what I thought.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) has said a decision on exactly how to proceed should not be long in coming. Schumer said: “That doesn't mean we're going to sit here and twiddle our thumbs for weeks and weeks and weeks, but it'll take a few days to figure out what the best solution is,” he said.

A word of wisdom to the good Senator from New York: “Senator, LEAVE IT ALONE! DROP IT and LET IT GO!”

It IS conceivable the Dems will use their old trick of "Incrementalism", as mentioned above, to get ObamaCare passed, anyway, right in front of our eyes, without us seeing it. They will take the bill apart, literally, and pass bits of it, one bit at a time, until they have ObamaCare passed into law. In fact, Pelosi has said: “One way or another, those areas of agreement that we have, will have to be advanced, whether it’s by passing the Senate bill with any changes that can be made or just taking pieces of it. “

We must be even more vigilant, now, than ever. The Democratic Party is wounded and a wounded animal is at its most dangerous when it is hurt and afraid.

The Obama Regime has not given up on securing major healthcare reform. They have yet to grasp the truth that the American people are far more concerned over the country’s economic mess than in government-run healthcare – ObamaCare.

Many democrats are fearful the President will take a stand for a renewed effort at passing ObamaCare this year in his State of the Union Address. Many in the President’s own party want ObamaCare scuttled and off the board, completely. They are taking heat from their constituents back home to do something about the economy and the abysmal unemployment figures. They have begun to understand the American people already have their priorities straight. Fix the economy FIRST! Do it NOW!

The “Far Left” is pouring on the coal and stoking the fires under the dems to stay with ObamaCare until they get it passed -- anyway they can. The Far Left has expended a huge amount of money, energy, and effort in their campaign to reshape public opinion toward government-run healthcare. They are giving democrats in the House and the Senate “fits.” The pressure is intense. But, hey, the politicians asked for the job!

The old expression: “It ain’t over ‘til the fat lady sings!” certainly applies here. Actually, try as I might, I can’t even see the fat lady in the wings!

No, I don’t think it is over. Maybe it is my natural paranoia, but I cannot get past the feeling that the dems will continue to press ObamaCare in hopes of wearing down the resolve of the American people and finally, finally, get it passed into law.

Now, I have a question to ask: When did the relationship between the American people and their government become adversarial?? I can’t put my finger on a date, but I think the cause is the absence of term limits. When a politician stays 18, 20, or 24 years in Washington, DC, instead of at home with his friends and relatives and the people he purportedly represents, he/she loses touch. Caught up in the grandiosity of the nation’s capitol he/she begins to think in elitist terms. Consciously, or not, he/she BECOMES a member of the ruling elite. When that happens the ties between him/her and his/her constituents is severed. He/she no longer represents the constituent. He/she represents the government. He/she, and his former constituents, are then adversaries. That is where we find ourselves in modern day America -- us against them.

The American people are angry, angrier than I have ever seen them. If you think the anger of the Massachusetts voters, in a BLUE state, no less, was hot, test the white-hot heat of rage in the RED states!

There are nine months, and a few days, until the Mid-Term Election in November. If the election were held today there would be a massacre of incumbents at the polls. As if stands today, even if the rage cools somewhat in the intervening months, incumbents can still expect a political blood bath at the polls this fall. Americans do not suffer fools lightly.

Back on January 12, 1848, Abraham Lincoln said the following: "Any people, anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable and most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may revolutionize, and make their own, of so many of the territory as they inhabit." Those words should be engraved in stone over the doors to the US Senate, the US House of Representatives, and most certainly, over the door to the Oval Office.

J. D. Longstreet

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Democracy Countdown

Democracy Countdown
A Commentary by J.D. Longstreet
**********

We have been ranting for some time now on the socialist takeover of the US government. If you are a regular reader of our frequent rants you know that we are convinced that the US is already committed to a socialist form of government replacing what is left of the democratic representative republic our founding fathers gave us with their blood.

A while back, I wrote the following: “There has been a movement underway, in this country, which the Democratic Party adopted, way back in the fifties and sixties, to turn America into a socialist state like unto Europe. They have almost accomplished their goal.

For all intents and purposes, America is no longer a democratic republic. America has already become a socialist state. Those of us old codgers who remember when we were prepared to go to war to fight the spread of socialism cringe when we see how our country, America, has deteriorated into the black hole of socialism. We cringe when we hear today’s politicians, national leaders, as it were, spouting Marxist slogans from the floor of the national legislature. The national nightmare has become the American dream. Now we wait to see socialism suffocate the human spirit in Americans as it has already begun to do.

This was once, not very long ago, a land of unlimited possibilities…a land of new horizons everyday. No longer. We have chosen security over freedom. That’s all it took.

Freedom is s fragile thing. One blow from the hammer of socialism and freedom shatters… and is no more.
Those of us who remember the REAL America weep for our country.”

Someone once said: “A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.” I haven’t a clue as to who actually said it. Experience has taught us, however, that it IS true.

Socialism has failed, utterly, everywhere in the world it has been tried. The European nations have begun to awaken to this fact and are voting socialists out of public office. Here in America, we have just voted into office our first socialist President, if you don’t count FDR who actually iniated socialism in the American government.

Those of us in the American middle class are going to feel the brunt of Obama’s socialist policies. With a willing and compliant Congress of the same political party, and same political mind, he will get practically everything he seeks from them. Guess who will pay the bill? The middle class, that’s who.

We catch a lot of flack for our denouncement of socialism. Understand, this: My generation was trained to go to war against the socialist movement, if it became necessary. Today we are told we must stand down and accept it as the norm in America. If you think that is easy to do, then you totally misunderstand our commitment to democracy in America. You do not have an inkling as to our commitment to the representative republic that was America.

Those of us who wore the military uniforms of America swore to uphold, to protect, and to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and/or domestic. Ask any of America’s military veterans and we will quickly tell you there was no expiration date on the oath we took.

One of our Founding Fathers, a fellow by the name of Thomas Jefferson said the following: “To take from one, because it is thought that his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare others, who, or whose fathers have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, 'the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry, and the fruits acquired by it.”

T. Coleman Andrews, a former US Commissioner of Internal Revenue, said the following back on May 25, 1956 in U.S. News & World Report: “I don't like the income tax. Every time we talk about these taxes we get around to the idea of 'from each according to his capacity and to each according to his needs'. That's socialism. It's written into the Communist Manifesto. Maybe we ought to see that every person who gets a tax return receives a copy of the Communist Manifesto with it so he can see what's happening to him.”

And finally, a man I have admired all my life, Sir Winston Churchill said this: “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy.” I would ask you to consider his phrase ”the creed of ignorance.” It is my belief that ignorance is to blame for the United States government being in the hands of a socialist elite today and the underlying reason for the election of B.H. Obama to the Presidency of the US.

J. D. Longstreet
*****************
Note from Ed: Scroll down a tad more and consisder the National Debt Clock.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Be Civil? ... by Frances Rice


BE CIVIL?

By Frances Rice
*********************

It's a sure sign that Republicans are winning a debate on issues when Democrats, aided by well-meaning civility police pundits and activists, demand that Republicans stop showing their passion and "be civil.”

I am still waiting for those with such a keen sense of civility to demand that Democrats cease their unrelenting and uncivil, even racist, attacks on black Republicans. I won't hold my breath.

High on the Democrats' list of those to be denigrated are accomplished black Republicans who do not toe the Democrats' liberal agenda line. Shamefully, Democrats do not want poor black children to have as role models any black person who does not engage in victim mongering and works hard to become prosperous rather than become dependent on government handouts.

The message that Democrats gives to poor blacks is despicable. If you remain poor, uneducated and vote for Democrats, we will celebrate your victimhood. If you get a good education, get a good job and vote for Republicans, we will denigrate you as "acting white,” a "sellout", an "Uncle Tom", a "House Negro", a "House N-word", a "Lawn Jockey", and worse.

Brazenly, on the left-wing Internet website called "The News Blog," Democrats posted a doctored photograph of then Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele (now chairman of the RNC) when he was running for a Senate seat, depicting Steele as a "Simple Sambo" with a blackened minstrel-style face, nappy hair and big, think red lips. The cartoon caption read: "Simple Sambo wants to move to the big house.” This contemptible racist stereotype is the same one Democrats used to demean black men during the era of slavery and segregation.

In addition to other outrageous racist images of Dr. Condoleezza Rice produced by several Democrats, cartoonist Jeff Danziger depicted Dr. Rice as an ignorant, barefoot "mammy", reminiscent of the stereotyped black woman in the movie "Gone with the Wind" about the slave era black woman who remarked: "I don't know nothin' 'bout birthin' no babies". This is the type of racist stereotype Democrats used to demean black women during the era of slavery and segregation.

Democrats now love Gen. Colin Powell, but spewed out racist attacks on Powell before he endorsed Obama and embraced the liberal agenda of higher taxes and a bigger government to provide poverty producing handouts to blacks.

A video was shot by WKRN Video Journalist Beau Fleenor at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee that shows Al Sharpton demeaning Gen. Powell and Dr. Rice, when Sharpton was asked to give his opinions about whether Powell and Rice were "House Negroes". That video can be found on the Internet.

An article that appeared in a Portland, Oregon paper was one of many exposing how hardly a ripple of protest was made by black Democrats when Harry Belafonte publicly denounced Gen. Powell as a "House Negro".

With impunity, the late Democrat Senator Ted Kennedy called black judicial nominees, including Judge Janice Rogers Brown, "Neanderthals.” Democrat Senator Harry Reid slurred Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as an incompetent Negro who could not write good English. "Slap at Thomas stinks of racism," was the headline of the New York Daily News' December 7, 2004 editorial.

Even black Democrats will be maligned if they dare step off of the Democratic Party's political plantation. When black Democrat Juan Williams wrote his book entitled "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-end Movements and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America" that exposed the deplorable conditions in black communities caused by the Democrats running those communities, Williams was denounced on national TV by another black Democrat as a "Happy Negro".

For details about how Democrats during the 1960's even smeared Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was a Republican, see the article posted on the NBRA website. "Civility, Ours and Theirs" is an article that provides more details about how Democrats vilify black Republicans while wagging their finger at Republicans about being civil. Our political discourse can be elevated to the high standards demanded by the civility police only when Democrats are also required to play by the rules of civility.

Frances Rice
************

Frances Rice, a retired lawyer and US Army Lieutenant Colonel, is chairman of the National Black Republican Association and may be contacted at: www.NBRA.info

Friday, January 22, 2010

The Kamikaze Congress!


The Kamikaze Congress!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
**********


Have you noticed that the US has a Congress with a death wish? Oh, yes! We have a Congress made up of socialist and communists who are set on suicide.

You may ask, “How can you say such a thing, Longstreet?”

Well, actually, it is stating the obvious -- obvious to everyone, it seems, but the “so-called democrats” in the White House and the Congress.

ObamaCare is a death sentence to the democratic majority in the Congress and will certainly relegate Obama, himself, to the long list of one term democratic presidents. To pass the bill is suicide for the democrats and they are hell bent on doing just that! Their work continues in the shadows of locked rooms as they devise alternate plans to get that bill to the President's desk for his signature.

A TV evangelist has recently been credited with having said the Haitians had made a pact with the devil, a couple of centuries ago, and that led to the earthquake. Following that logic -- I have to tell you, it surely appears the current Congress of the US has made a pact with an evil force of some kind! They appear to be under some sort of “spell.” They are racing toward oblivion and nothing we can say will deter them. They are totally heedless of the warnings. It really does appear they are automatons marching to their demise.

The American people do not want ObamaCare. According to the Rasmussen poll 58% of Americans do not want ObamaCare! We have said it over and over. We do not want Cap and Trade! We have told them time and time again that we don’t want it. We do not want Amnesty for illegal aliens. We have instructed the Congress to forget Amnesty and to close and seal the borders of the US and allow no one in save for those legally seeking to enter the country.

They are not listening to us and they are unresponsive to our wishes. Therefore, they must go -- and go they will this coming November. Why do you think so many of them are already announcing their retirement? They are the smart ones. They want to leave and save what little face they have left.

Look, as much as I hate to even think it, the truth is the United States is now ruled by an oligarchy. An oligarchy is the rule of many by a few. In other words, we have a country, at the moment, which is no longer ruled by “the people,” as the Founding Fathers intended, but ruled by a handful of elite politicians -- and Obama’s Czars -- and intellectuals educated beyond their abilities.

We have referred to it as a “rogue government.” However, now that Scott Brown, a conservative republican, has won the special election in Massachusetts, the socialists in Congress will be frantically trying to stir back toward the political center. Their chief problem will be the indisputable fact that they have been exposed for what they are and any actions they attempt at creating the appearance of becoming centrist will be suspect, at the very least, by the electorate.

Their facade has cracked and is crumbling around them.

We told you many months ago that this socialist led Congress would overreach. They did. Now they must pay the consequences. The Speaker of the House of Representatives has said Americans will have ObamaCare “one way or the other!” She didn’t even blink when she said it! I don’t know about you, but I read that as a clear confirmation that the Congress simply does not care what the American citizens want or don’t want. We will get what THEY decide we are going to get… PERIOD! Now, if that isn’t the act of a rogue government, I don’t know what is.

It is now clear, however, Ms. Pelosi underestimated the near rage of the American people over the absolute arrogance of such a statement, and I suspect it contributed to Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts, and a turning point in the direction the Congress and the Obama Regime had planned for the next three years. Her admission that she did not have the votes in the US House to pass the Senate version of ObamaCare was evidence that the current socialist government of the United States had just taken a severe blow to their collective solar plexus and were reeling back on their heels.

They have been acting as though they are some sort of fringe religious cult. It is common knowledge many democrats in the House and Senate are, indisputably, going to lose their seats in Congress if they continue their socialist plans and policies. Yet many say the loss in Massachusetts resulted from their not being Progressive enough! It is as though they have lined up to drink the poisoned Kool-Aid and die a political death, sacrificing their political lives for a Progressive/Socialist idea that REAL Americans WILL REPEAL at the very first opportunity.

So, what to do?

Throw the bums out!

We will have that opportunity this coming November in the Mid-Term Election. Americans must flood the polls on that Tuesday to save The Republic. For make no mistake about it — The Republic is in peril. Our Rogue Congress is, in my opinion, “a clear and present danger” to the Republic and it is the duty of American citizens to make every effort to save their country by voting the Socialists, Communists, Statists, and Progressives out of office in November.

It is a necessary first step in reclaiming our country -- AND our birthright as free Americans.

J. D. Longstreet

Deadly Earth, Deadly Humans ... Alan Caruba


Deadly Earth, Deadly Humans
By Alan Caruba
**************

The earthquake in Haiti is a perfect example of the arrogance of environmentalists who are always running around crying “Save the Earth” or making claims that any or all forms of life are going extinct. For three decades we have listened to these charlatans claim that the Earth was heating up to a point where, if we didn’t cut back or replace all forms of energy, oil, natural gas and coal, it would become a vast desert devoid of life. Then, in 1998, the Sun began yet another of its eleven year cycles of low sunspot activity, a diminution of magnetic storms on its surface, and the completely predictable result was a new, perfectly natural cooling cycle, a prelude perhaps to a predictable new ice age.

When I do radio, I like to remind listeners that Mother Nature has a message for humankind. It’s “Get out of the way. Here comes an earthquake, a volcano, a flood, a forest fire, a mudslide, a blizzard, a hurricane, et cetera.”

In an excellent book, “Devastation! The World’s Worst Natural Disasters” by Lesley Newson, she starts by noting that “The Earth is a rocky sphere nearly 8,000 miles in diameter. It is surrounded by a shroud of gases more than 60 miles deep. Sandwiched in between is a fragile layer, only a few miles thick, where humans are able to survive. It is perhaps not surprising that in this tiny zone of life there are occasional upheavals that make survival impossible.”

Haiti is the perfect definition of devastation. As bad as the earthquake’s damage has been, the aftermath will be testimony to the way those not killed in the initial quake will fall victim to the diseases that will ravage the area as well as the difficulty to provide immediate medical care.

There are an astonishing number of ways humans can die and Mother Nature is utterly indifferent.
What makes matters worse, however, is the indifference of environmentalists who would deny everyone access to the energy sources needed to fuel a complex, technological, global society beginning with the provision of electricity. The Earth is not running out of coal or oil, only the right to mine it and drill for it.

The first thing to go in Haiti was its communications system. The next was the capacity to fuel means of transportation. The lack of a government was nothing compared to the long-standing failure to provide clean water and, worse, the failure to educate Haitians to compete in a world where literacy and modern skills are vital to survival.

Another factor that will kill many Haitian survivors is the spread of disease by insect and rodent pests. Environmentalists have striven to deny Americans and all others access to one of the greatest developments of the modern era, pesticides with which to control the mosquitoes, the ticks, the fleas, the rats and all the other creatures that constantly threaten humanity.

In April 2005, I wrote a commentary, “The Black Plague and its descendants” that was published in The Washington Times. It noted that the Black Death made its way from inner Asia and, in 1347, Yersina pestis arrived in Europe. What followed was the second greatest catastrophe in the human record. By the time it ended around 1352, a quarter of Europe’s population was dead.

Only World War II killed more people. And yet, as this is written, millions die of malaria in Africa and Asia because some bureaucrat in the Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT. History gives ample evidence that the Earth is a dangerous place, in addition to earthquakes, it is ringed by volcanoes and, in the U.S. the beloved Yellowstone National Park is one giant volcanic caldera which, when it explodes, will alter life as well as take it in the hundreds of thousands, if not more.

Scientists track the nation’s “hurricane season” and all manner of effort is made to anticipate them and warn residents, but even that was not enough when Katrina hit the Gulf States on August 29, 2005. It is stupid to politicize this event, blaming former President Bush as if he either caused it or failed to respond effectively. No President and no government are prepared for a Category Five hurricane. It was just as stupid not to flee when told it was coming.

It is not for nothing that we call such events “an act of God”, but in reality they are an act of a huge planet, unique among all others in our galaxy because it has spawned all manner of life, including our own.

It is a planet subject to the action or inaction of the Sun. Nothing we do alters that simple fact. It is a planet that must hope to dodge any of the thousands of asteroids that threaten it. It is an Earth whose tectonic plates shift unpredictably. Its interior is unimaginably hot and whose circulation of molten rock carries the heat to the surface, allowing its mantle to keep the core stable.

What I am arguing for is a bit of humility, something that humans are not famous for. There are six billion of us and the world’s intelligentsia scorns us and seeks ways to ensure as many as possible will die by thwarting the development of genetically modified crops to feed us, by stopping the building of more power generation plants, by making war in the name of a misguided belief in the superiority of a religion like Islam, or the evil desire to grow rich and powerful by ruling vast populations.

In Iran, ruled by certifiably insane ayatollahs, the people are in the streets to overthrow a brutal regime that is determined to create its own nuclear weapons and the world is standing by instead of uniting to destroy their means to do so. A so-called international organization, the United Nations, is shot through with corruption and both unwilling and unable to assert the sanctions to stop the inevitable outcome of doing nothing.

And here in the United States, we have fallen victim to a regime so dedicated to the destruction of the nation’s economy that we wait on the election process to save us from ourselves.

Alan Caruba
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Thursday, January 21, 2010

Intellectuals, Elitists, Fools, and Democrats


Intellectuals, Elitists, Fools, and Democrats
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A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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The intellectual elitists in charge of the US government these days have amply demonstrated “There is no fool like an educated fool.” The socialists in the White House and the Congress currently are the most condescending bunch I can ever recall taking up space in those grandiose halls of power. They show their disdain for us, the great unwashed, the proletariat, the hillbillies, the red necks, all of us from the lower economic and social classes, in ways too numerous to count.

I am reminded of an old story of an over-eager young man who tries, repeatedly, to help an elderly lady across the street, even though the elderly lady DID NOT WANT TO CROSS THE STREET!

The socialists in Washington are doing the very same thing with ObamaCare. They are forcing it upon us when we, the American people, have said, loudly and clearly, we DO NOT WANT IT!

It is almost funny to observe the near panic in Congress and the White House as they race to and fro trying desperately to come up with a plan to pass ObamaCare into law now that Scott Brown, the Republican candidate for the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat has won the election and is on his way to Washington with a vow to vote AGAINST ObamaCare. If that happens they will not have the votes to pass the bill in the Senate -- at least not the way they had planned. They are searching desperately, in the roundabout, for an alternative plan to insure ObamaCare passes the Senate and gets to Obama for his signature. The socialists are scared witless!

Americans are tired, nay, exhausted, with the intellectual, elite, “Progressives” telling their constituents to sit down and shut up, and telling us THEY know better than we what we need, what we want, and what we are going to get because, well, they are smarter than we are. If you dare question how much smarter they are than you and me, ask them. They’ll tell you, in no uncertain terms, just how dumb YOU really are.

Of course, the dumbest of all are we folks on the conservative right of the political spectrum. It has always amused me that, according to the leftists intellectual elites, ALL Republican Presidents are dumb as posts! Ever noticed that? How they can say that with a straight face, when you consider their glittering jewels of leftist intellect such as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, is just beyond me. And now they have the socialist Obama who has proven to be even worse. The man is cold and distant in his elitism. He radiates narcissism, a “better than thou” attitude, a SMARTER than thou, attitude, while he practices his superior thought processes to come up with an answer months after the question. Those of us in the proletariat see that as indecisiveness. We also understand that while he wallows in his wishy-washy “superior” thinking the problem grows worse and in some cases cost the lives of fellow Americans. His dragged-out decision on sending the troops, requested by the Commander of US Forces in Afghanistan, springs to mind. US troops died while Obama was trying to make up his mind, which is, as we all know by now, because his henchman, and the Mainstream Media, continue to tell us, is far, far, advanced when compared to the mental capability of his fellow Americans.

Even though Obama is articulate, at least when he has a teleprompter with him, many are now convinced his intellectualism is, indeed, fake.

When one listens to Obama’s oratory and observes his mannerisms, one can detect guilt and shame. One must then wonder if his egomaniacal narcissism isn’t over compensation for all the guilt and shame he feels. He strikes me as one with a deep inferiority complex to boot. But he IS an elite – at least in his own mind.

As for the socialist elites in the US Congress they have finally succeeded in bringing America, at least our economy, to its knees. It was the policies of the pointy-head elites in the Congress that caused the lending institutions to make ill-advised loans to borrowers any idiot, surveying their loan application, would see instantly could not afford it and could not pay back the money loaned them. But the Congress insisted they make those loans. They did and, of course, the inevitable happened -- and whom does Congress blame – the very banks and lending institutions they compelled to take the risks in the first place. See how smart those intellectual elites really are.

In one year’s time they have managed to virtually destroy the economy of the US and throw ten percent of the US work force out of their jobs and onto the streets.

Maybe intellectual elites have a place in our society, but for the life of me, I cannot identify that place. Maybe like the cartoon gurus they should be relegated to some mountaintop in the Rockies – and left there.

Many Americans are now concerned that our constitution is in danger. These same Intellectual elites are making it known they are of the opinion the constitution is outdated and has very little application to modern times. It is an inconvenience to them and their plans to transform America into some sort of socialist paradise. One can remind them that socialism has never worked anywhere it has been tried, but OUR Intellectual elites believe they are smarter than the intellectual elites of those countries; therefore THEIR brand of socialism for America will work. In their arrogance they actually believe that. See? How DUMB is THAT?!

America has ten months to save herself. In November we will have a chance to replace enough representatives in the US House of Representatives and the US Senate to repeal ObamaCare (If it, indeed, passes) and the same with the Cap and Trade Bill if it should somehow pass into law as well.

Conservatives and Moderates and Independents should understand there will likely be a flood of Obama supporters from the minority communities at the polls in November in an all out attempt to salvage what has already become a referendum on the Obama Regime. To put it as plainly as I know how: The Mid-Term election in November MAY be our last chance to save America, our country.

J. D. Longstreet