America Has Become A Drone Society ... J. D. Longstreet

America Has Become A Drone Society
By:  J. D. Longstreet

It is a painful time for Americans of my age.  We have the memories of an America, glorious and honorable in her past… a past, which has been forgotten and erased, in  many cases, from the history books of America’s students. Above all things our America was honorable. A young American today would be hard pressed to define “honor.”  To define “dishonorable” is much easier. 

As we Americans view ourselves in that inner mirror, we can know that even today, America can be defeated… only by herself. And that is the shameful path we have chosen. 

One of our Founding Fathers and President, John Adams, once said: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."

Americans of my generation, who still recognize a republic, when we see one, also recognize when that republic is gone. The American republic is gone … replaced by a socialist government… complete with Central Planning. 
You see, the new socialist government in America has grasped the American economic system, and by doing so, it now has absolute power over the American people. It will now rapidly proceed to destroy our liberty.  Indeed, it has already begun.

There are a few basic, fundamental truths people who live in a republic know.  Truths, which we Americans, have forgotten because our horrible public education system failed to educate our children over the past two generations.  They are truths which all people who want to live free know.   Now, I am not referring to living free under a socialist government and in a socialist society as we have now chosen.  These are truths FREE MEN and FREE Women (like we used to be) know.

William Boetcker, an outspoken political conservative and Presbyterian minister is perhaps best remembered for his authorship of a pamphlet entitled The Ten Cannots.  In that pamphlet he summed up so much of what modern day Americans have forgotten.  Some the most applicable “cannots” which would apply today are summed up in the few lines which follow.  Please read them and pay careful attention to what the Rev. Boetcker is saying.

“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.”

The good reverend NAILED it!  But our elite intelligentsia in the US Congress and in the White House doesn’t get it.  Voltaire captured the current US Congress a very long time ago when he said:  "In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other."

One of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson, would notice immediately the deep stain of socialism on the fabric of the American Republic were he to see it today under Democratic Party control.  Jefferson said: "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.”

If President Obama has said anything approaching truth during his meteoric rise to the Office of President and his "Bull in a China Shop" actions since taking up residency there, it is the words he uttered declaring that things will get a whole worse before they get better.  That is true.  Right up until the country collapses, of the weight of its government, things are going to decline. 

The true movers and shakers of America understand what is happening and they are worried sick. They are seeking cover until after the collapse.  Then they hope to, once again, try to build an America from the wreckage left by the socialists masquerading as democrats in charge of our government today.

It would seem, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.  For the next few years we are left to stumble about in the darkness of socialism on our own.  For, you see, my fellow Americans, we got ourselves in to this mess and it is up to us to get ourselves out of it.

Unfortunately, in the "bee hive" that once was America, Obama's fundamental change has, indeed, changed us from a colony of workers to a colony of drones.  No colony, insect or human, can long endure in a drone society.

© J. D. Longstreet  
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Israel's Borders ... Alan Caruba

Israel's Borders

By Alan Caruba

When you look at a map of the Middle East, one of the smallest nations is Israel. With the exception of Jordan, it is surrounded by enemies with Lebanon and Syria to the north and Egypt to the south. The Gaza strip, controlled by Hamas, has been a staging ground for rockets and the disputed West Bank, known in ancient times as Judea and Samaria, has both Israeli settlements and is home to Fatah, the other Palestinian faction.

The Israelis are famous for their internal disputes about how to deal with the Palestinians and respond to the likes of Hezbollah to the north. Secretary of State John Kerry has been expending a lot of time and energy to getting the Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table, but if he expects the former to return to their 1967 borders, he is smoking some serious dope. If he expects the Palestinians to accept Israel as a sovereign nation, he’s in for a long wait.

At present, while the Israelis enjoy prosperity the rest of their region of the world is engulfed in turmoil. The horrendous slaughter in Syria is characterized by its regime as a war with “terrorists”, primarily al Qaeda. It is likely that the Israelis are quietly hoping the regime wins its civil war, the result of the regime’s terrible agricultural policies that impoverished a large part of its population, arousing its anger.

Would you believe that Syria is among the nations seeking a seat on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council when elections are held on November 12? Among the others are China, Russia, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia. The Council reflects that UN’s empty and hypocritical definition of human rights. It is corruption personified.

Jordan has become a refuge to a half a million Syrians that fled the fighting. It is hopefully receiving a lot of international aid to respond to their needs. Meanwhile several Gulf nations are covertly shipping arms to the Syrian rebels and the U.S. has moved some military assets to Jordan. Israel has moved its defense forces to its border on the Golan Heights, captured in the 1967 war, and with Lebanon. A lot of jihadists have been flooding into Syria and could decide to head south at some point.  

Across its border with Egypt, specifically the Sinai, a military coup has overthrown the Muslim Brotherhood president and the new leadership is getting ready to address the lawless Sinai Peninsula with an operation ironically called “Desert Storm.” A refuge for Islamic extremists, the clear loser thus far has been the Brotherhood. Six of their leaders have fled to Gaza to prepare for another uprising.

Despite the U.S. State Department’s squishy wish that the new government in Egypt include the Brotherhood, Middle East expert, Daniel Pipes, succinctly says that breaking the Brotherhood’s neck “is good for Egypt, the region, and not least ourselves.”

The turmoil in the Middle East suggests that many of its Muslims have grown tired of life under Islam and, in particular, life dictated by the likes of the Muslim Brotherhood, al Qaeda, and the Taliban.

The other fact of life is the inability of Arabs to unite around any single goal. Left to their own devices, they return to killing one another as is the case in Iraq these days. The Sunni-Shiite divide is the most obvious cause, but one should never lose sight of the billions in oil revenue that is more likely at the heart of the bloodshed.

Egypt holds out the prospect for an evolving Middle East that is tired of its ancient traditions of corruption and oppression. Turkey, that was for decades a secular nation, voted in a president who has tried to move it back toward Islam’s sharia law, but he has run into a lot of opposition. Everywhere in the Middle East there is a desire for a decent, honest, functioning economy.

The most interesting element of all this has been the Obama policy of withdrawing U.S. military from Iraq and, next year, Afghanistan. There truly does not seem to be much justification to spend treasure and blood in the region and, at this point, America has few friends there.

All of which seems to be working to Israel’s advantage. This is not to say that there isn’t peril to address, but for all its internal debates about how to deal with the Palestinians and what to do about the fighting in Syria and Egypt, the Israelis seem to have figured out how to address these issues. I would not want them as an enemy.

© Alan Caruba, 2013

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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 2.7 million page views. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.

Over-Sexed Democrats ... Alan Caruba

Over-Sexed Democrats

By Alan Caruba

The stars have aligned to present two of the most loathsome Democrats we have witnessed in a long time, Twitter-sex addict, Anthony Weiner who at this writing is still running for Mayor of New York and Bob Filner, Mayor of San Diego, a serial groper who gives no sign of resigning.

Is it just a coincidence that both current offenders of the public’s sense of decency are both Democrats? Is it just a coincidence that the most beloved Democrat politician is former President Bill Clinton who got into a heap of trouble over sexcapades in the Oral—er—Oval Office?

Democrats seem to fall prey to sex addictions and peccadillos more than Republicans.

In 2001 before leaving office Clinton pardoned Rep. Mel Reynolds, an Illinois Democrat who was convicted of 12 counts of sexual assault with a 16-year-old. He took a job with Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. And Rev. Jesse made news for fathering an out-of-wedlock child. Jesse Jr. is currently in jail for misuse of campaign funds.

I am not saying that only Democrat politicians get caught in such situations, but I am saying we tend to hear more about them than their Republican counterparts. Perhaps this is due to the traditional values that conservatives embrace?

A short stroll down memory lane reminds us that the late Sen. Daniel Inouye was accused of sexual harassment in the 1990s by numerous women. The Senate Ethics Committee dropped its investigation. The same committee decided not to pursue disciplinary action in 1990 when Rep. Gus Savage was accused of fondling a Peace Corps volunteer in 1989 while on a fact-finding trip to Africa.

Who can forget that former Rep. Barney Frank had a male prostitute running a service from Frank’s residence in the 1980s? Frank was openly gay and from Massachusetts where the schools these days are becoming platforms for indoctrination about homosexual and transsexual sex. Rep. Gerry Studds, also from Massachusetts, was censured for sexual relationships with an underage male page in 1983. The voters returned him to office for six more terms!

The 1970s were filled with news of Democrat office holders who couldn’t keep their pants zipped. Rep. Fred Richman was arrested in 1978 for soliciting sex from a 16-year-old. And he won reelection even though he eventually resigned in 1982 after pleading guilty to tax evasion and drug possession. The most famous Congressman from that era was Wayne Hayes from Ohio who hired a “secretary” who couldn’t even type, but who reportedly provided him with sex.

In more recent years, New Jersey’s former Governor James McGreevey resigned in 2004 after acknowledging a homosexual affair with one of his staff, but he has done an admirable job of redeeming himself through good works.

Back across the Hudson, when Anthony Weiner isn’t hogging the headlines, former Governor Elliot Spitzer is running to be New York City’s comptroller. Spitzer gained fame for patronizing prostitutes.

After a bogus campaign against Republicans, accusing them of waging “a war on women”, the Democrats sat on a bill for more than a year that would help law enforcement quickly track down violent sex offenders. It had been introduced in March of 2011 by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) as the “Finding Fugituve Sex Offenders Act to give the Marshalls Service the tools it needed to track down sex offenders. It was finally passed in November 2012. 

One notable Republican let love and lust got the better of him. Former North Carolina Governor Mark Sanford fell for an Argentinian beauty. It cost him the job and his marriage, but the voters forgave him and sent him to Congress. There may be other Republican office holders who have yielded to their desires, but they appear to be far fewer than their Democrat counterparts.

For now, Weiner will provide enough fodder for the late night TV comedians and all others, but the fact is that the more you see and hear him, the more he makes your skin crawl. 

© Alan Caruba, 2013

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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 2.7 million page views. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.

Descendents Of Revolutionists And Rebels ... J. D. Longstreet

 Descendents Of Revolutionists And Rebels
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*******************

Sometime ago I mused:

Change is not always good.  This “changed” America is definitely not as good as the America we had before we decided to exchange freedom for socialism.

Today, Americans are just beginning to awaken and learn the nightmare they are experiencing is not a nightmare one experiences during REM sleep.  In fact, they learn, to their utter surprise, they are NOT sleeping.  This nightmare is NO DREAM.  It is REAL.  And, Americans who THOUGHT they wanted, and yes, even NEEDED change brought it on.

Many of the votes that were cast for “change” back in 2008 were votes from young people who had no idea what they were trading and what they were getting for the trade. They are the product of a public education system in America now almost totally ruled over by the political left, which still seeks the Nirvana of Utopia through socialism.  After 12, or more, years in the public education system, then 2, 4, or 6 more years in those bastions of liberalism/socialism we refer to as colleges and universities, is it any wonder their Pavlovian response in the voting booth was to pull all the levers by the names of the candidates who were decidedly left-wing candidates? Hardly!  They were simply reacting to the stimuli implanted in their malleable minds as they made their way through an education system designed to do just that.

And now we are watching our country collapse around us.  

Those of us who knew socialism’s sad story of lies, deceit, and destruction are not surprised at America’s perilous position today.  We knew it would happen. We have watched socialism nearly from its birth.  We watched socialism’s struggle to grow as it murdered its host countries all the while.  Like a physician trying to heal a patient, by draining the patient’s body of all its blood, socialism drains a nation of its life-giving force and leaves it a broken shell of its former self. Even as robust a nation as Russia required assistance from former enemies, just to survive, after throwing off the bonds of socialism a few short years ago.

Pope Pius XI once said: “It is wrong to withdraw from the individual and commit to the community at large what private enterprise and industry can accomplish.  So, too, it is an injustice, a grave evil, and a disturbance of right order for a larger and higher organization to arrogate to itself functions which can be performed efficiently by smaller and lower bodies.”

Now we are observing this “wrong,” and this “injustice,” Pope Pius XI warned of, play out right before our eyes right here in America.

The “old” America was truly “something else!”  She was a dream.  She was a land of unlimited opportunities and horizons that went on forever.  She was the envy of the world!

Americans were optimistic people who threw themselves into the task of firing the furnace of the engine of democracy and delighting in the rewards of their own labor. The “American Dream” was so big and so multi-faceted that no one could even describe it! 

One British author, John Keegan, described America this way:

“Left to themselves, Americans build, cultivate, bridge, dam, canalize, invent, teach, manufacture, think, write, lock themselves in struggle with the eternal challenges that man has chosen to confront, and with an intensity not known elsewhere on the globe.

Bidden to make “War” their work, Americans shoulder the burden with intimidating purpose.  If I were obliged to define the American mystery, I would say it is the ethos - masculine, pervasive, unrelenting - of work as an end in itself.  War is a form of work, and America makes war in a particularly workmanlike way.  I do not love war; but I love America!”  - John Keegan, author of “Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America,”  a British military historian, lecturer, and journalist.

Mr. Keegan had it right  This is what America used to be like. And for those of us who STILL remember her, as she was, today’s “changed” America  is a bitter pill to swallow!

Theodore Roosevelt  said: "The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life."

The renown men above speak of an America hardly recognized today.  We have forgotten as President  Dwight D. Eisenhower  said:  " Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine."

We have forgotten as President Harry Truman once said:  "America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand."

Where is our revolutionist spirit, our rebellious spirit?  Where is our courage, our imagination, our determination?  Where is it?

We have forgotten that we are the off-spring, the children, of heroes -- not mythological heroes but real, flesh and blood, men and women who stood, head and shoulders, above the remainder of the human population on this earth.

Former Presidential Candidate, Mitt Romney , during the latest presidential campaign said:  "And the American people are the greatest people in the world. What makes America the greatest nation in the world is the heart of the American people: hardworking, innovative, risk-taking, God- loving, family-oriented American people."
Well, Mr. Romney, we USED to be!  That's why you lost the election, sir. 

It has taken, literally, generations to wipe the collective memory of America of any useful recollection of its roots.  People who remember the "blood of heroes courses through their veins" do not lie down and roll over when adversity strikes.  If they fall back at all-- it is only to fall back to that "steely resolve" instilled in them by heir hero forbearers.

The edifice that is America may be crumbling and in a state of great disrepair -- but our foundation is intact!   And today that foundation is under continuous, incessant, attack by the forces that would wipe America from the face of the earth.

Our founding documents -- the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights remain as a bulwark against every effort the enemies of America have thrown at them -- so far.  They have withstood every campaign against them to date.  But they need our help.   

It is said that today we are living in a "Post-Constitution America."  We are told the constitution is simply too old to apply anymore.  We are told the constitution is a living, breathing, document with the malleability to be twisted and contorted into any shape necessary to fit any agenda our political leaders are attempting to foist on the citizens of America on any given day.

Of course -- it's a lie! 

The constitution says what it means -- and means what it says -- plain and simple.  The US Supreme Court is tasked with determining exactly what the Constitution means when asked.  Now, however, Americans no longer trust their Supreme Court! 

I recently saw a video clip of a gentleman offering a petition to passers-by on a beach boardwalk that petitioned the President of the US to repeal the Bill of Rights!  My jaw dropped as I watched them all but line up to sign away their freedom and liberty!  It was mind-blowing! It served to remind me of just how little value is placed on individual liberty in America today.  Basically -- NONE!

Lady Liberty is being gang-raped by the political left today while the sons and daughters of America's early heroes are standing by and, in some cases, cheering on the assault on their freedom.

Just as God's Spirit "will not always strive with man,"  neither will the spirit of freedom and liberty always strive with Americans.  It can be quenched.  Much of America has already become tone-deaf to liberty's call.

For America to survive, we must reclaim that which is ours by birthright.  

Alexis de Tocqueville said of America: "The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults."

It is long past time for us, as Americans, to employ that inherent ability to heal ourselves, to repair our faults, to restore that which is good and right about our country.  There is not a moment to waste.  We must reach down deep inside and tap the reservoir of revolutionist and rebellious spirits that each of us received as blood-bought gifts from our forbearers.  Along with our faith that God will not abandon a country with yet a remnant of the faithful,  THIS will be our source of strength for the struggle to restore America to her former greatness.  
    
© J. D. Longstreet
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DEFUND OBAMACARE ... or ELSE ... J. D. Longstreet

DEFUND OBAMACARE ... or ELSE
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
***************

A big, nasty, battle is coming up.  It will involve republicans against democrats and republicans against republicans.

We are coming hard up against either stopping Obamacare or having it as a part of US law for, well, FOREVER!

Ronald Reagan once said:  "The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program."

How right he was! (In more ways than one!)

Once Obamacare is up and running, full time, it will NEVER BE CUT from the Law Books of the nation.  Never.

"NO federal program ever gets eliminated once it is put into place. NO federal program ever suffers an absolute real cut from this year's levels because of baseline budgeting (which always projects an overall increase of at least the expected inflation rate plus 1%-2% in future overall growth in federal spending)."  SOURCE:  http://www.telemachusleaps.com/2012/09/the-nearest-thing-to-eternal-life-on.html

As soon as our national lawmakers return to Washington, after their August recess, they will begin the debate over funding the government, keeping it open and operational.

The debate will provide an opportunity to defund Obamacare -- and kill it, or do nothing and have it kill the US.

If you are a regular reader of this scribe's rants then you know I have been against Obamacare long before it was ever introduced into a congressional hopper as a bill.   If it is possible, I am even MORE against it today.

Anything that has to do with socialism is anathema to me.  And Obamacare is nothing more than socialized medicine which will destroy this country. 

Sen. Ted Cruz, a republican from Texas, is urging conservatives to join a petition drive to defund Obamacare, calling it the last chance to stop the national health-care plan before it goes into effect on January 1st of next year.

Here's what Senator Cruz said recently:  “On Jan. 1, the exchanges kick in and the subsidies kick in. Once those kick in, it’s going to prove almost impossible to undo Obamacare. The administration’s plan is very simple: Get everyone addicted to the sugar so that Obamacare remains a permanent feature of our society.”  SOURCE:   http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/27/sen-cruz-defund-obamacare-americans-become-addicte/#ixzz2aLljI94H

In the same speech, Senator Cruz went on to say:  “Right now we don’t have the votes. Right now we’re not even close. There’s only one way we’re going to get 41 Republicans in the Senate and 218 Republicans in the House of Representatives, which is if they hear from the American people in overwhelming numbers.”  SOURCE: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jul/27/sen-cruz-defund-obamacare-americans-become-addicte/#ixzz2aLmeKplR

The Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded and running is scheduled to be voted on in September.  The debate on it will begin next month when the August recess is over.

"Utah Senator Mike Lee along with Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky are currently trying to lead the effort to defund Obamacare in the upcoming Continuing Resolution by vowing not to vote for any CR or appropriations bill that provides funding for the much hated Obamacare. There are roughly a dozen Republican Senators and more than 60 members of the House who have signed on to the idea of not funding Obamacare in the Continuing Resolution scheduled to be voted on in September. They are willing to fully fund the rest of the federal government, just not Obamacare."  SOURCE:  http://www.redstate.com/ulyssesarn/2013/07/27/effort-to-defund-obamacare-is-separating-the-leaders-from-the-cream-puffs-in-the-gop-ranks/

North Carolina Senator Richard Burr who called the defunding of Obamacare effort, “the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard” last week.

The Hill has more:

“I think it’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard,” Burr told journalist Todd Zwilich on Thursday. “Listen, as long as Barack Obama is president the Affordable Care Act is gonna be law.

“I think some of these guys need to understand that you shut down the federal government, you better have a specific reason to do it that’s achievable,” Burr continued. “Defunding the Affordable Care Act is not achievable through shutting down the federal government.”  SOURCE:  http://www.redstate.com/ulyssesarn/2013/07/27/effort-to-defund-obamacare-is-separating-the-leaders-from-the-cream-puffs-in-the-gop-ranks/

You can easily see the politicos are much more concerned about saving their own backsides than in saving the country. Their political careers and the health of their political party is far more important to them than the welfare of the nation and its people.
We can all see now that when saving the country actually MIGHT cost them something, they shrink away from their duty.  (I have already alerted my republican senator that he no longer has my support.)

We need to watch the upcoming debate closely and, in my opinion,  we need to "primary" any republican who fails to back defunding Obamacare in the CR debate over the next few weeks.  If they are NOT going to represent us, then we need to get them the heck out of Washington before they can do anymore damage -- or -- allow any more damage to be done.  It is past time to be rid of these feckless empty suits strutting the halls of Congress.

© J. D. Longstreet
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Obamacare's Data Hub ... Douglas V. Gibbs

Obamacare's Data Hub

By Douglas V. Gibbs

*****************

The Affordable Care Act is so despicable, even the Republicans are beginning to see the reality that it must be repealed, not replaced.  Barack Obama, and his minions,

know that they are losing ground, and are doing whatever they can to get support back for the federal health care law, while targeting individuals, and handing out waivers to allies, and delaying business killing mandates against companies.  Never mind that from a constitutional perspective, regardless of what the ideology-influenced Supreme Court Justices say (remember, those people are supposed to be apolitical, but their rulings, and the opinions attached to those rulings, are telling us otherwise), health insurance, and health care in general, is not an authority granted to the federal government by the United States Constitution in the first place.

As time passes, the truth about the dangers that Obamacare poses become more and more apparent.  None of it surprises those that have opposed the monstrosity from the beginning, be it rising health care costs, rising insurance premiums, tyrannical mandates, and unworkable programs.  In fact, they have been illegally amending it just to try to make some of the components work.  It is so complex, the law is unworkable, unenforceable, and too general. . . by design.

Ultimately, the plan is for all hell to break loose, for the failure of the system to be astronomical, and then Obama stepping in to save the day with federally controlled socialized medicine (a.k.a. Single Payer).

When the IRS and NSA scandals surfaced, Americans began to become more aware of the dwindling liberties we are experiencing under the hidden iron fist of the current administration (while blaming it on the previous administration).  As we wade through the turmoil of the Zimmerman Trial aftermath, we are realizing how divisive this nation is becoming, by design, under the tutelage of the race-baiting manipulators of the Obama administration.  We are discovering, with the alphabet scandals, that our privacy does not belong to us anymore.  This government, under liberal control, is determined to know everything about us, and use that information to control our every move.  We are aware, we think, of the intrusion of the federal government into our lives. . . yet, the real danger, the real liberty killer, is within the pages of the massive Affordable Care Act.

Obamacare's big brother database, for those of us that have been on task since the beginning, is of no surprise.  The Obama administration hired 16,000 more IRS agents to enforce Obamacare, and we know how the IRS likes to target anyone that opposes Obama.  With all of that additional personnel also comes a Data Hub that is a massive comprehensive database of personal information being established by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement the federally facilitated health insurance exchanges.

The presence of the idea of the centralized Data Hub is making some lawmakers nervous, and should be making you very nervous as well.

It brings to mind the famous quote by Ronald Reagan that essentially goes, "The most frightening words in the English language are, 'Hi, we're from the government, and we're here to help.'"

The federal government has already shown that they can't be trusted, and yet they are now doing what they can to access and store our personal information, all of it, in one location, under federal guardianship.  The potential for abuse with this Data Hub is enormous. The massive, centralized database will include comprehensive personal information such as income and financial data, family size, citizenship and immigration status, incarceration status, social security numbers, and private health information - though I wouldn't doubt your political affiliation, and history, will be included, too. It will compile dossiers based on information obtained from the IRS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense, the Veterans Administration, the Office of Personnel Management, the Social Security Administration, state Medicaid databases, and for some reason the Peace Corps. The Data Hub will provide web-based, one-stop shopping for prying into everyone's personal affairs.

The beast of tyranny is a bureaucracy, and the method is Obamacare. . . in the name of the common good.

I wonder if folks like Wikileaks are licking their chops?

Have you ever heard the old saying, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket?"

The federal government is asking us to not only allow all of our information to be in one place, but to trust them with it.  Forget Wikileaks.  What about the IRS scandal where conservative groups were being purposely targeted?  What about the NSA scandal where the federal government is tapping into our lives without any warrants, as if you are the enemy?  The Obama administration is already trying to divide this country, and separate their opposition from the rest of Americans, as if any opposition against the Obama administration is some kind of sedition against the nation.  Will the voters that are dependent upon the government, thus making them forever democrat voters, cry foul when conservatives are denied health services?  Or when the Data Hub is used to hunt them down for daring to drink a soda larger than 16 ounces?  How easy, with this Data Hub, would it be for the government to hunt you down because some doctor snitched that your child told him mommy and daddy has guns?  Who will dare oppose the government when the death panel denies a life-saving procedure because the patient is considered an enemy of the state?

Every science fiction nightmare about a government rising up against the people, and placing that people into technological bondage, is on the horizon, and only a full repeal of Obamacare, and the defeat of liberalism, will stop it.

In other words, a return to the Constitution is our only solution.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Move Over NSA, here comes the Obamacare Big Brother database - Rare

Obama tries to regain ObamaCare edge after mandate delay setback - The Hill

Obamacare has Doctors planning exit - World Net Daily

House GOP on health care: For repeal, not replace - Fox News

WSJ: Health Insurance Rates Could 'Double Or Even Triple' For Healthy Consumers in Obamacare's Exchanges - Forbes

Tyranny of the Abortion Pill Mandate - ACLJ

The IRS Prepares to Enforce Obamacare's Contraception Mandate - Conservative 50 Plus Alliance

Obama Administration Illegally Amends Obamacare - FreedomWorks

Congressman Randy Neugebauer Says Obamacare Is Too Complex for Obama Administration to Handle - KFYO NewsTalk 790

Obamacare is a complete failure - Times-Herald

Obama Orders Executive Action: If a Child 'Confesses' to a Pediatrician that Mommy and Daddy have a gun in the house, Feds can disarm parents - Red Flag
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Doug V. Gibbs is a longtime Internet radio host, conservative political activist, writer and commentator; he is the host of Constitution Radio and teaches weekly classes on the Constitution in Southern California. Follow him @douglasvgibbs.

 

The Last Days of America ... J. D. Longstreet

The Last Days of America

Obama's Bread and Circuses 
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Panem et Circenses

"In modern usage, the phrase "Bread and Circuses" is taken to describe a populace that no longer values civic virtues and the public life. To many across the political spectrum, left and right, it connotes a supposed triviality and frivolity that characterized the Roman Republic prior to its decline into the autocratic monarchy characteristic of the later Roman Empire's transformation about 44 B.C."
SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses

"Roman politicians devised a plan in 140 B.C.E. to win the votes of these new citizens: giving out cheap food and entertainment, "bread and circuses", would be the most effective way to rise to power."  SOURCE:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_circuses

If the above strikes you as being frighteningly like America today, in my opinion, you would be correct to be concerned and yes, even frightened.

How else does one explain the Obama Administration's exponential increase in welfare and food stamp rolls in America.  How else does one explain the sudden presidential executive order awarding certain illegal aliens  the right to remain in the US and even provides a pathway to citizenship.

This is NOT NEW!  It's bread and circuses.  Obama ain't from Rome but he sure as heck IS from Chicago (or, at least, he SAYS he is!)  and -- all things considered -- the pols from Chicago could teach the ancient Roman pols a thing or two about manipulating the voters to win an election or to stay in office -- once they secure it in the first place.  The Romans were no slackers when it came to stealing elections. 

I have often thought that America in decline parallels ancient Rome in decline.

It is striking, at least to me, how accurate those in politics are who assess the electorate's intellect.  It infuriates me that the political left, especially, tends to see the ENTIRE electorate as dumb and stupid, wandering mindlessly, and just waiting to be told what to do. 

Then, we have a couple of elections, as in 2008 and again in 2010, and the results prove the left was absolutely correct in that assessment! 

The democrats played the American electorate in 2008 and 2010, as if it were a Stradivarius.  And they are still trying to do it.  But now -- the violin is out of tune.     

One of the advantages, or disadvantages, of a long life is that one lives long enough to see history repeat itself -- over and over and over again.  Sometimes ad nauseum. It never fails to surprise and disgust me at how easily fooled the general public is when politicians run a con game on the electorate with great success time and again.

See -- nothing much changes in politics.  Names, faces, dates change -- but the tried and true tactics never change -- because the American voter is basically dumb as as a fence post insofar as knowing how our republic is SUPPOSED to work.
Explaining that the US has a constitution is, for them, some sort of ethereal concept that has no equal in their consciousness.    Oh, they've heard about it, seen snapshots of the parchment page on TV, heard quotes from it, but -- they've never actually read it.  And they, sure as heck, have never studied it. 

Dear reader, in a constitutional republic, such as America,  that is a death wish!  And America has just the people currently in charge of the government to insure a very nice funeral for a free America.   

Four and a half years into Obama's administration of the country and Americans of all political leanings are learning that the constitution is an afterthought for Obama, a speed bump, a temporary impediment to be overcome with whatever means necessary.

If you like Obama's governing by fiat, or executive order, then you should be happy with the cloudburst of decrees from the man who would be king of America. 

See -- the left not only THINKS you're dumb -- they KNOW you are dumb, and they KNOW, beyond doubt, that THEY are far superior to you in intellect and, by some celestial right, it is THEY who should be caring for you, as one would a simple-minded child.  For the political left THAT is the NATURAL ORDER OF THINGS.  They believe that Providence would have commanded it so, had God had all the facts.  (Yeah.  There are a few on the left who actually believe in the existence of a god.... gender neutral, of course.)
So far as the bread and circuses for America is concerned, my deepest concern is that it is working.  Obama gives them "free stuff" like welfare, or food stamps, and a free phone.     Like the free cheese giveaway with people lining up down, and around, city blocks to get a hand-out of a huge block of cheese -- I am sorely afraid the beneficiaries of the bread and circuses actually believe, like the cheese, that it is free. And the few who DO understand that you and I (the taxpayers) are paying for all that "free" government largesse don't give a damn.  The left is counting on that. 

The taxpayers of the United States paid for that "FREE" cheese.  EVERYONE will have to pay for the "free" bread and circuses. The currency to be used in this exchange is freedom. Just freedom. That's all.

In the end, bread and circuses did not save Rome -- and it will not save the United States.  It will, however, hasten our demise.  Just as the Roman Empire eventually broke up into numerous countries, the United States will certainly do the same.

If you are sick and tired of being played for a fool then you have roughly sixteen months to pay attention to both sides of the argument and decide which side is playing to the lowest common denominator amongst us and which side actually thinks you are not a simpleton and that you have the ability to think for yourself.

Mr. Obama has already told you that you had nothing to do with making this country great.  Government did it -- not you.  He made a mistake.  He accidentally revealed what he and the left actually believe.  

The bells tolling America's death knell are growing louder.  Many are now of the opinion that is too late to rescue and restore America to her once great glory.

There is an old expression that says:  "It must be dark before you can see the stars."  Well, it IS dark in America and yes, we CAN see the stars of freedom and liberty piercing the shadows cast by socialism and Marxism.  If America resets her compass, takes a new bearing, and maintains her heading toward those stars, we will find our way through this present darkness into a new day with all the promise afforded us by all the Americans who went before us and dared to build that "Shining City on a Hill."
 
These do not have to be America's last days. But they WILL be if we don't rescue her from the hands of those who have stated their intentions of "fundamentally changing" her into something she was never, ever, supposed to be.  

© J. D. Longstreet
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Drowning in Sea Level Nonsense ... Alan Caruba

Drowning in Sea Level Nonsense

By Alan Caruba

New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D) and forty members of Congress believe the sea levels are rising, that a panel should be created to determine what should be done, and, of course, to throw billions of dollars at a problem that does not exist. Politicians were eager to scare the public with the discredited global warming hoax and now they have found a new one.

In New York City, Mayor Bloomberg has proposed a $20 billion flood barrier system to protect the city from future hurricanes and rising sea levels. Well, hurricanes like tropical storm Sandy are real, but rare. Rising sea levels, however, represent no threat at all.

William Happer who researched ocean physics for the U.S. Air Force and is currently a physics professor at Princeton University notes that “The sea level has been rising since 1800, at the end of the ‘little ice age’”, a cooling cycle last from around 1300 to 1850. Far from heating up, the Earth entered a new cooling cycle around 1996 or so.

Harrison Schmitt, a former Apollo 17 astronaut, U.S. Senator, and a geologist, says “Predicting a sea level rise of seven feet over the next few thousand years would seem too risky a prediction on which to spend tax dollars” and that is surely an understatement. Wasting billons on “climate change”, however, is the new siren call of the Obama administration, but the National Research Council is warning, as Fox News reported, “that those kinds of subsidies are virtually useless at quelling greenhouse gases.”

In fact, as the amount of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas—alleged to “trap” heat—has risen and has had zero effect on the cooling cycle.

A recent article in the British newspaper, The Register, reported on a study by scientists in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, that was published in “Nature Geoscience” that concluded there was no “scientific consensus” to suggest the rate of the seas’ rise will accelerate dangerously.

The notion of the seas rising, swamping coastal cities, and creating havoc is the stuff of science fiction, not science. This is why spending millions or billions on the assertions of some who have a real stake in keeping the public frightened is a very bad idea.

At the center of the global warming scare campaign is the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Its most recent report said that “no long-term acceleration of sea level has been identified using 20^th-century data alone” but that does not discourage the IPCC from forecasting an increase due to global warming. This organization should be disbanded and, if I were in charge, many of its leaders would be in jail right now for fraud.

Who can you believe? One such person is Dr. Nils-Axel Morner, the former chair of the Paleogeophysics and Geodynamics department at Stockholm University in Sweden. He is the past president (1999-2003) of the International Union for Quaternary Research Commission on Sea Level Changes and Coastal Evolution. He has been studying sea level and its effects on coastal areas for more than 35 years. I cited his credentials because others making predictions lack the same level of authority.

Dr. Morner acknowledges that “sea level was indeed rising from, let us say, 1850 to 1930-40. And that rise had a rate in the order of 1 millimeter per year. (Emphasis added). Get out your pocket ruler and look at what one millimeter represents. It is small. It is very small. Not surprisingly Dr. Morner is very critical of the IPCC and its headline-grabbing doomsday predictions. He scorns the IPCC’s claim to “know” that facts about sea level rise, noting that real scientists “are searching for the answer” by continuing to collect data “because we are field geologists; they are computer scientists. So all this talk that sea level is rising, this stems from the computer modeling, not from observations. The observations don’t find it!”

A recent paper reviewed by CO2 Science finds that sea levels have risen from 2002-2011 at a rate of only 1.7 millimeters per year over the past 110 years, the equivalent of 6.7 inches per century. This is close to Dr. Morner’s assertion that, at most, there has been a rate of increase that tops out at 1.1 millimeter per year. The review concluded that there is no evidence of any human influence on sea levels.

Even so, in early July a scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Josh Willis, told Fox News, that “There is no question that the time to prepare for sea level rise is now…We will definitely see seven feet of sea level rise—the only question is when.” And who funds NASA?

Between the scientists trying to gin up more government money for their agencies and departments and the politicians trying to find a new reason to spend more money, the public is left wondering if the oceans are rising and whether that represents something worth worrying about. The answer is (a) yes, sea levels are rising in infinitesimal amounts and (b) no, we need to stop spending money based on such claims.

It’s not the sea level rise you should worry about. It is the rising levels of national debt and the deficit.

© Alan Caruba, 2013

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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 2.7 million page views. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.