Obama’s Assault On The INTERNET Has Begun

Obama’s Assault On The INTERNET Has Begun
A Commentary By J. D. Longstreet

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It is called “Net Neutrality.” On April 6th, 2010, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the Federal Communications Commission has no regulating authority over how any Internet provider manages its network -- period!

So what IS Net Neutrality? There is as good an explanaiona as I have found at the Wise Geek’s website. You’ll fine it HERE.

The importance of this issue is the protection of freedom. Will the Internet remain free, or will the government regulate it? That is the question. Obama’s minions are salivating at the opportunity to regulate the hell out of the Internet and shut up commentators such as “yours truly.”

The courts told the FCC this week to “stand back,” and keep their hands off the Internet. But, do not think, for one second, they are about to allow a little thing like the law to get in the way of a take over of the Internet -- not for one second. Already, they are looking at regulating the Internet as a public utility.

Look, we warned and warned and warned that Obama’s Marxist buddies in the FCC and the Congress would come after free speech on the Internet. Well, here they come!

Socialist/Marxist/Progressive Congress persons and Senators are scrambling to get in line to do fulfill Obama’s wish to control the Internet and the free speech on it. They can see the Mid Term Election looming on the distant horizon of November and they know they have limited time to strangle free speech on the Internet with their Marxist chains. Think I’m blowing smoke? Think again. They are vowing to do whatever is necessary to see that the Federal Communications Commission is handed control over providers of Internet services.

“In the long run, we may need a new legal and regulatory framework for broadband,” said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. “I know the Congress did not intend for cable and telephone broadband Internet service providers to fall outside the authority of the FCC to protect consumers.”

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, later said the court’s decision “must not be the final word.” Markey went on to say that he would: “continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to provide the commission any additional authority it may need to ensure the openness of the Internet for consumers, innovators and investors.”

Obama’s cohorts have run into a wall of resistance, however from the republican side of the aisle. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas said: “I hope the FCC Chairman will now reconsider his decision to pursue expanded commission authority over broadband services in current proceedings before the agency.”

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas), ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said: “the 1996 Telecommunications Act explicitly directs the government to “preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that exists for the Internet and other interactive computer services, unfettered by federal or state regulation.”

FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, appointed by Obama with net neutrality as his top priority, has indicated he will try to reclassify broadband in the communications statute passed by Congress in 1996 to broaden the FCC’s authority over the service.

There is a MUST READ article concerning this topic at “The Hill.” We encouraged you to read it and digest it. You will find it HERE.

The dems will certainly claim this new power grab is to “protect the citizens” from the big corporations. You can see it coming. Don’t fall for it. It is, as we say, a power grab. The new socialist government in America is bound and determined to control the Internet. It scares the hell out of them -- and with good reason.

The government controls the press in America today. The Mainstream Media may have voluntarily given themselves over to control of the government, but -- in the long run -- it makes no difference. Because, for the first time in America, we have a government controlled mainstream media.

On the other hand the citizen journalists on the Internet are disseminating the news, unedited and unfettered, and it has become an effective weapon against the socialist/marxist controlling the American government today.

Obama’s government MUST crush the Internet and they can, and WILL, do it through the FCC unless they are stopped.

J. D. Longstreet

Today Everything Changes in America ... J. D. Longstreet

Today Everything Changes in America
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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America, as we knew it, ceases to exist today (Sunday, March 21st, 2010). You may think that is an overly broad statement, a statement that just isn’t so. But, I would assure you it is, if anything, an understatement!

Today the socialists in the US House of Representatives will pass (or by the time you read this tome will have passed) National Healthcare Reform – that which we have chosen to refer to as ObamaCare. It will forever have HIS name on it, as well it should, because it was his campaign to “fundamentally change America” and his use of the ignorance of most publicly educated Americans that brought us to this reintroduction of slavery in America.

Yes, ObamaCare, by any other name, would still be slavery. Why? Because it is pure, flat-out, socialism, and socialism is the enslavement of a people until communism takes over their nation’s government.
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I may have lost one of the best friends I have ever had, in my entire life, as a result of our own debate over ObamaCare and socialism in America today. His belief in a strong central government and my belief that a strong central government is pure evil, and my persistent belief in “state’s rights” as granted by the US Constitution, drove us to a heated debate. Later, I reminded myself that the socialists in charge of our government today NEED Americans at each other’s throats.

You know, ObamaCare is scary enough -- all by itself. But when one understands that it is only the BEGINNING, only the very first step in total control of the lives of Americans, it is not only frightening, it is terrifying. Freedom loving Americans must, somehow, stop this socialism.

Freedom-loving, liberty-loving, Americans must begin the campaign to repeal ObamaCare right now, today. Actually, I have already begun my personal campaign to have the “law from hell” repealed. I urge you to do the same.

I was thrilled to see the crowds of Americans in Washington yesterday demonstrating against socialized medicine. It was a great event for the Tea Party. I thought, as I watched on TV, that we have to bring this same level of energy toward defeating as many of the socialists and RINO’s in Congress as we possibly can this coming November in the Mid-Term Election. America will need a fresh start and she cannot get it if the incumbents remain in power in our national legislature. What is even more important -- we won’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of repealing ObamaCare if we do not remove the incumbents and replace them with representatives and senators sworn to support repeal of ObamaCare.

Repealing ObamaCare will certainly not be easy. Some fellow commentators are questioning the fortitude of the GOP members of Congress when the chips are down and the battle rages for repeal. I must tell you, I have the same concerns. Remember, even if we manage to gain control of both houses of the Congress this November, Obama will STILL be in the White House and he will most certainly VETO any bill that repeals ObamaCare -- should it ever reach his desk. Yes, repeal will be an uphill battle – all the way.

Repeal of ObamaCare will be one of the most difficult tasks ever undertaken by the American people. Once a government program wraps its tentacles around the freedoms and, yes, the wallets, of the American people it is near impossible to loosen them enough to forcibly extract them and return America to its free state.

We have a most difficult job ahead of us. It begins now, today. We absolutely must see that the democrats are defeated at the polls in the Mid-Term Election this coming November. Between now and then we have to locate and encourage candidates who believe in freedom for Americans -- and candidates who hate socialism -- to run for the offices up for election. And, somehow, we must only elect that candidate who will not fold when the going gets rough in Congress.

Bipartisanship be damned! It was bipartisanship that got us to this point in American history where the country has adopted socialism. In order to repeal ObamaCare and return America to its “constitutional republic” form of government, we cannot afford to elect a single limp-wristed, weak-spined, candidate. We will be engaging in a war in our national legislative body and we will need WARRIORS!

I urge you to begin your personal efforts today to Repeal ObamaCare.

J. D. Longstreet

Applying Alinsky: Why Obamacare Makes No Sense ... by Alan Caruba

Applying Alinsky: Why Obamacare Makes No Sense
By Alan Caruba

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After seven and a half hours of the Republicans trying to introduce some rationality into the discussion of Obamacare, the “reform” of Medicare that actually takes trillions out of the present system and adds millions of people into it, the ordinary American can be excused for being confused, frustrated, and angry.

That’s exactly where President Obama, the Chicago political mafia around him, Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi want people to be. At one point in the pointless all-day meeting on Thursday, she even claimed that passing Obamacare would create four million jobs overnight! Even for Speaker Pelosi, that’s a new level of insane babble.

Nothing coming out of the leadership in the White House or Congress makes a grain of sense and it is calculated to making the public so hopeless that, in the end, when they manage to bribe their way to a “reconciliation” vote to pass it, the public will feel defeated by all their efforts to date and ripe for more legislative horrors such as Cap-and-Trade.

Those efforts were seen in the heated town hall meetings during the summer, a march on Washington, D.C. in September, the elections of Republican governors in Virginia and New Jersey, and a Senator from Massachusetts. In very obvious ways, the public is shouting No! No! No!

Forgotten and unreported in all this are the “Rules for Radicals” by the godfather of all radical community organizers, Saul Alinsky. The President who began his political career as a community organizer and whose entire approach to politics is based on his book, said “It was that education that was seared into my brain. It was the best education I ever had, better than anything I got at Harvard.”

Alinsky taught that Americans must be overwhelmed with a never-ending barrage of crisis, emergencies, and unworkable ‘solutions’ that exacerbate problems. This is why Rahm Emanuel, the President’s Chief of Staff, famously said that a crisis should never be wasted.

It may even explain why the financial crisis conveniently occurred in the last weeks of the Bush term and during the campaign for the presidency.

It also explains why the so-called “stimulus” bill has done nothing to create jobs and, in fact, why some ten million Americans have lost their jobs in the past year while billions were allocated to countless political pork projects rather than taking steps to lower the taxes on corporations and small businesses in order to actually stimulate hiring and growth.

Alinsky also preached the importance of intimidation and of ridicule to achieve one’s goals. Though guarded, the President used both at the meeting to discuss Obamacare. Just ask Senator John McCain or Rep. Eric Cantor.

Again, because the mainstream media, still in love with a President whose approval ratings now stand at only 44% and heading south, neither vetted him as a candidate, nor analyzed the Alinsky approach that he cites as the greatest influence in his life. The public can be forgiven for not knowing that Alinsky’s book is dedicated to “the very first radical”, none other than “Lucifer” a.k.a. Satan

Now perhaps you can understand why, when the 2,400 page bill was actually put on display during the meeting, President Obama dismissed it as “political theatre” and “a prop”, but it was neither. How can one discuss such a massive bill without, at least, bringing it to the meeting allegedly intended for that purpose?

The bill, however, contains some of the most wrenching and damaging changes to the nation’s healthcare system and the insurance programs involved with it that it cannot and must not be so casually dismissed.

If Obamacare passes, the healthcare system that Americans value will be destroyed and turned into one resembling the failed systems in neighboring Canada and in Great Britain where horror stories of delayed and denied care are routine.

Barack Obama is the apotheosis of Saul Alinsky’s gameplan to destroy the republic and replace the Constitution with an all-powerful socialist central government.

First we must, by drowning Congress in calls, faxes, and emails, make it abundantly clear that we are opposed to Obamacare. We must sway as many fence-sitters as possible.

Then, in November, we must vote out of office those incumbents who have supported and voted for it.

And lastly we must return power in Congress to the Republicans who have been chastened and learned from their mistakes in the 2006 and 2008 elections. The nation’s future depends on it.

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.

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Is the Obama Regime About to Confiscate Your Savings?

Is the Obama Regime About to Confiscate Your Savings?
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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There is no question but that The Obama Regime has plans for your savings. Obama’s Treasury Department and even the Labor Department are already investigating "the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams."

Ok, let me see if I can break it down for you. What Obama is planning to do is: Take you savings, the money you have squirreled away for your retirement in 401-K’s and IRA’s, and hand you an IOU with which they will promise to pay you a small annuity each month of your retirement.

Got your attention yet?

I am not making this up! Businessweek magazine is reporting on it.

Don’t think they can do it? Does the government raiding the social security trust fund ring any bells? They took every dime of that money and left an IOU in its place.

Oh, they’re going a take your money. Make no mistake about that -- and they intend to spend it, almost immediately, to try to offset the trillion dollar plus deficits, which will, of course, leave the government coffers empty again. So, then, YOU and I will be broke right along with our pathetic, hapless, government.

Now, they are not going to tell you that. In fact, they will probably tell you they will be investing your money in Treasury bonds, or some such.

There is some thought that the process will begin by the Treasury Department making it optional for you to purchase Treasury bonds with your retirement money. (Aren’t we free to buy Treasury bonds any time we want today?)

As I said above, I am not making this up! The House Education and Labor Committee met last fall and they focused on "redirecting (IRA and 401k) tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute,"

It surely appears the Obama Regime is going to war against seniors in America. Why do I say THAT? Well, seniors have accumulated the most wealth in America, when you average it out, simply because they have been around the longest. When the left speaks of their attacks on the rich, they really mean attacks on the seniors of America.

What we are seeing, dear reader, is socialism in action. We have been telling you for months now that the current US Government IS a socialist government. Maybe you’ll believe it when your 401k and/or your IRA account is wiped out by the socialist Obama Regime.

Look, the democrat/socialist/Marxist/Progressive government of the US is looking for money anywhere they can find it. They know there are, very likely, multi-billions of dollars in 401k and IRA accounts owned by the citizens of the US. Do not kid yourself for one moment. They are going to seize that money.

"Oh, but they can’t do that," you say. "That’s MY money. It is private property!" Well, normally, you would be right. That is to say, IF we had a government that recognized the US Constitution as anything but an outdated bunch of suggestions, you’d be right. Unfortunately, that is not the reality we live in today in America.

The democrats’ inspiration for this theft (call it anything you like, but it IS THEFT!) comes from the South American nation of Argentina. You see, back in 2008 Argentina nationalized the private retirement funds of their citizens on the grounds that "the private system never achieved what was needed."

Rep. Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, is reported to have said the following: " … the savings rate isn't going up for the investment of $80 billion [in 401(k) tax breaks], we have to start to think about whether or not we want to continue to invest that $80 billion for a policy that's not generating what we now say it should."

Again, simply put – the US government is going to take our retirement money and make us a worthless promise to pay us some sort of monthly payment during our retirement years.

"House Democrats recently invited Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School of Social Research, to testify before a subcommittee on her idea to eliminate the preferential tax treatment of the popular retirement plans. In place of 401(k) plans, she would have workers transfer their dough into government-created "guaranteed retirement accounts" for every worker. The government would deposit $600 (inflation indexed) every year into the GRAs. Each worker would also have to save 5 percent of pay into the accounts, to which the government would pay a measly 3 percent return." You may read the entire article HERE.

There are some among us, even conservatives, who believe that confiscating the retirement money of America’s seniors is beyond the pale -- even for the Obama Regime. I am not among them. I’d have to ask, if they were not considering it -- then why do what they have already done? I refer you to a paragraph above in which we reported the following: "The House Education and Labor Committee met last fall and they focused on "redirecting (IRA and 401k) tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute," See what I mean? The Obama Regime is certainly exploring the possibility of doing just what we are warning you about today.

How serious is this possibility. Well, it is serious enough that we are hearing unconfirmed reports that some Americans have already stopped acquiring money in their 401k's and IRA's and are buying, instead, precious metals such as gold and silver. You see, precious metals are tangibles. You can touch them, and see them, and feel them -- and, better yet, they are untraceable by the Obama Regime.

Kim Priestap writes, at wizbangblog.com, the following: “Ever since Barack Obama was elected, we've seen larger and larger chunks of American life being gobbled up by government. Today's Democrats are nothing more than thug socialists who can't stand that there are still large swaths of the American people still living independently from government largesse and control. Now they are using what remaining power they have in Congress to change that. If the government takes over health care, college student loans, and retirement savings then no one, no matter how wealthy, can escape the thumb of big government.”(You may read the entire article HERE.)

In a little over a year, the Obama Regime has taken America from a glorious constitutional “representative” republic, to a “Banana Republic.” This is socialism, dear reader.

As we have warned until we are blue in the face, socialism rots a nation’s soul. In the past few months under the Obama Regime America has become a hollowed-out husk of its former self.

As the Mid Term Election approaches Americans need to “suck it up” and go to the polls determined to save America from the socialist/Marxist/Progressive/democrats now transforming our precious country into a socialist dung heap.

J. D. Longstreet

The Multi-Billion Dollar Global Warming Fraud ... by Alan Caruba

The Multi-Billion Dollar Global Warming Fraud
By Alan Caruba

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As the massive global warming fraud implodes, the one aspect of it that has not been explored in depth is the equally massive waste of billions of dollars spent by the United States and nations around the world, we were told, to avoid global warming.

Whole industries such as automobile manufacture had demands and limits put on them. Some states required utilities to buy “carbon credits” to offset their use of “fossil fuels.” The list of things attributed to global warming expanded to the point of total absurdity.

The codification of the fraud into law began with the Kyoto Protocol, an element of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change whose purpose was to fight a global warming that we now know was not happening.

The data to support the fraud came out of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that specialized in distorting climate data in every way possible to emphasize a normal warming cycle and then to minimize any indication of a new cooling cycle dating to around 1998 or earlier.

The IPCC data, released periodically in reports purporting to be the work of some 2,500 scientists from around the world, were actually based the handiwork of a few academic centers such as the Climate Research Center (CRU) at East Anglia University in England, Penn State University, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and climate modeling from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Other participants in the fraud were NASA’s Goddard Institute and NOAA, both of whom produced claims, predictions, and questionable data to support “global warming.”

In the U.S. alone, I have heard figures in the area of $50 billion that have been spent on “climate change” over the course of administrations dating back to Clinton. In England, between 2006 and 2008, the government spent the equivalent of nearly $14 million (U.S.) on publicity stunts to convince Brits that global warming was real.

It is legitimate to ask if global warming has not in effect been a criminal enterprise.

The Kyoto Protocol required the nation states that signed onto it to commit to a reduction of four “greenhouse” gas, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride, and two groups of gases, hydrofluorocarbons and perflourocarbons. These gases occur in minimal amounts in the Earth’s atmosphere which is composed primarily of 95% to 97% water vapor!

The cost of accepting this commitment is measured in several ways, not the least of which was the sale of “carbon credits” to utilities and to industrial enterprises that would permit them to function outside the limits imposed. The exchanges created for this purpose prospered but it increased the cost of providing electrical energy and the manufacture of all manner of products.

The limitations, however, did not apply to either China or India, both of which were exempted, as were undeveloped Third World nations.

The climate change fraud also affected major U.S. corporations, none of whom wanted to appear to be opposed to it. However, on Tuesday, February 16th, BP America, Conoco Phillips, and Caterpillar all announced they were dropping out of the Climate Action Partnership that advocated energy-rationing. Some of the millions squandered on various global warming and “environmental” projects and groups came from the bottom line of corporations across the nation.

At this point, any corporation that speaks of “climate change” in its advertising and other public statements is part of the global fraud that originated in the United Nations Environmental Program.

The carbon emissions limitations also served to justify huge public subsidies for U.S. producers of wind and solar energy, called “clean” energy. Several nations, such as Spain, Germany and Great Britain, invested heavily in these alternative energy sources only to discover that they were massively inefficient and unreliable.

At the same time, the global warming fraud in the United States limited the building of coal-fired plants to generate electricity when, in fact, coal provides 50% of the nation’s electricity needs. Combined with fears of nuclear energy dating back to the 1970s, the United States has essentially starved itself of the energy it needs.

According to a recently released study by the National Association of Utility Regulatory Commissioners, the U.S. gross domestic product would lose $2.36 trillion and American consumers will pay an additional $2.35 trillion for energy if the oil and gas on federal lands remain off-limits through 2030. This constitutes a form of energy and economic suicide!

A British newspaper, the Daily Mail in a recent interview with CRU Prof. Phil Jones, revealed he knew there had been no “statistically significant” warming for the past fifteen years. Little wonder Prof. Jones and the CRU refused to honor UK Freedom of Information requests for the data on which the IPCC claims were based. He and others who provided IPCC data are under investigation.

In essence, the IPCC reports were all fraudulent and all were used to advance the global warming fraud. That is why President Obama’s claim of “overwhelming evidence” of climate change, i.e., global warming is particularly troubling.It is essential to understand that the “Cap-and-Trade” legislation passed by the House and waiting for a vote in the Senate is based on the IPCC reports and the threat by the Environmental Protection Agency to begin regulating carbon dioxide emissions throughout the nation have no legitimate basis in science.

There are still billions at stake if global warming-related laws, projects such as wind farms or the requirement that ethanol be added to every gallon of gas purchased are permitted to proceed or continue. Global warming as an issue or basis for any law or expenditure of public funding no longer exists.

It’s long passed the time when the nation’s news media should stop referring to it as anything other than a fraud perpetrated on the people of the world.

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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.

America’s Tough Times Haven’t Arrived Yet!

America’s Tough Times Haven’t Arrived Yet!
Much worse to come for America
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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I have the uneasiest feeling that the American citizenry is being led down the “Primrose Path” -- a path, I’m afraid, that leads to destruction. I am beginning to think it may very well be time for all of us to ask ourselves if we are prepared to survive in a post apocalyptic America?

I have mentioned before that I foresee a complete collapse of the American economic system. Something, I feel, that will be much, much, worse than the Dot-Com Crash back in 2000, or even the Sub Prime Credit Crash in 2008. No, what I feel is coming will be worse than both these two former crashes added together. In fact, it has, I believe, already begun.

We Americans, indeed, all the citizens of the world, may well be facing a period of lawlessness the likes of which, the world has never experienced before. We are talking worldwide anarchy.

Look at what is happening in Washington, DC, today. There is a breakdown of our form of democracy – a constitutional republic. Our leaders in Congress have chosen to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the constituents they are sworn to represent. Our US government has never in its history been as separated from the people as this congress is. Not only that, but the Congress has become expendable. It is no longer necessary.

Laws are being made and enforced from the Oval Office of the White House completely by-passing Congress. The President’s use of Executive Orders and Czars, answerable only to him, is, effectively, a dictatorship. The US Constitution is viewed by those in power in America today as “an outdated list of suggestions” that needs to be trashed.

That American Dream, we Americans grew up hearing about, is no longer a dream but a nightmare. America’s capitalism is being tossed aside in favor of nation killing socialism. Our children and grandchildren are now carrying a debt load, imposed on them by the government, which they will never be able to pay off. We are headed toward, some say, to a global debt bomb which, when it explodes, will bring worldwide anarchy. Our civilized infrastructure will simply collapse. Here in America the dreaded Great Depression of the last century will be replayed in this century. Some are referring to it as “The Great Depression II.”

Once again, American will be forced to look to themselves for answers on survival. As did our famous Pilgrims and Frontiersmen ancestors we will be called upon to provide for our families as best we can. Preparation is called for. Those preparations should be made NOW!

Each of us should be stockpiling food and necessities for many months of anarchy. If you do not have a firearm, get one, learn how to use it, and be sure to stockpile plenty of ammunition. We are talking self-defense here. If you have food and others do not, you may be called upon to defend your family and your family’s foodstuff.

Hide your guns! The current US Presidential administration has made known its desire to join with the United Nations in an effort to strip you of your constitutional right to own and bear arms. (The 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution.) Remember, we warned that many in our current government view the constitution as outdated suggestions? They WILL come after our guns, so hide them. You may need them later.

When the collapse comes you will be forced to act in your own self-interest and that of your family FIRST – IF you intend to survive.

Americans have been asleep for the past few generations. We have allowed our government to be overtaken by socialist, and Marxists, and Progressives and today we are reaping what we have sown. We find ourselves on the brink of total collapse. And all this while -- we thought it couldn’t happen here. But it can – it has!

Will there be a Second American Revolution as some are predicting? Frankly, I do not know. I sincerely hope it does not come to that. Many American voices are calling out that if we wish to reestablish a new capitalist society after the collapse, we must consider every avenue. One can only prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Rest assured, there will be no renewal as long as our government remains in the hands of the socialists and Marxists. We can begin the process of removing them from office in the Mid-Term Election in November of 2010.

As Thomas Paine said in “The American Crisis” these are, indeed, “the times which try men’s souls.” These times will also try our determination to survive and our determination to ensure the survival of our country. But FIRST – WE MUST SURVIVE.

J. D. Longstreet

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.

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

Tangled Webs

Tangled Webs
Jostling Amongst Legislators For Seats On Conference Committee.

White House Prepares To Force Its Will On Conference Committee

House Members Declare “Public Option” A Must For Passage Of “ObamaCare”

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Watch for all the “stuff” mentioned in the headlines above this commentary to become fact in the next few weeks. As a matter of fact some of it has already happened. A number of US House of representatives members are demanding that the Public Option, a government run health Insurance company, be put back in the Healthcare bill before it will get their support. Truth be told – I don’t believe a word they say.

Want to know what’s going to happen? OK. There will be this great show, complete with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, and then the House will pass the bill. Simple. All the fuss and bother is sorta like the old magician’s trick of “misdirection.” While you are watching the show, the real work is going on behind the scenes and the bill WILL be passed – and America will be shafted!

Look, if the White House can get it’s people into the conference committee’s meeting room, the White House “muscle” will take over and literally RUN the Conference Committee. The fascists from the White House have no problem forcing their will on Senators and they sure as heck have no problem with pushing a few lowly Congresspersons around.

Yes! Of course, this is “Stalinist” behavior by the leaders of our current government in the Executive Branch of our government! We have told you many times in the past that THIS White House is unlike any before it. This is a Socialist, Marxist, and Communist White House and they are certainly not above using Stalinist tactics to get what they want. It is an oligarchy! A handful of people have completely by-passed the legislative branch of the government and are running the government their way, which is … as a Marxist state! They are running the country with their klatch of White House “Czars!” They don’t NEED a Congress, except for show – to provide cover for their nefarious strong arm activities in the shadows. Too strong, you say? Well what would you call it when the White House threatens to shut down an Air Force Base in a certain state if the senator from that certain state does not quit stalling and support Obama’s healthcare bill in the Senate? Sounds nefarious to me! Yes, THIS White House has made the Congress totally dispensable, totally expendable, and totally meaningless.

So, what is in the healthcare bill for us to be afraid of? Huh? Again – truth be told—NOBODY KNOWS! It hasn’t even been written yet! Oh, sure, there are some “hard copies” of bits and pieces of “stuff” proposed for the bill, but the actual bill, the bill Congress will eventually vote on, has yet to be written. This frenetic rush, to get a bill passed, was all a part of the scheme to hit us, the American people, hard and fast. So fast, that we would not be able to react quick enough to stop the stream roller effect -- and -- if their plan worked, the bill would be the Law Of The Land before you and I even knew what hit us.

But, as is so often the case, a few of us old screwballs, you know, “nutz” like us who still believe in the Constitution, (For you graduates of the Public School System in America, the Constitution is the supreme law of the land. It is one of our founding documents. I understand you may never have heard of it, but you can easily look it up on the Internet and read it for yourself. It is actually easy to understand -- when you read it for yourself -- and not have it interpreted for you by a Liberal/Socialist/Marxist/Progressive/Communist judge. Try it. You’ll learn some things!) and have been around the political block a few times, took one look at it and saw right through the ruse and began alerting everyone we could about “the scam” the Socialists in the White House, and the Congress, were perpetrating on their fellow countrymen.

I came across a short list of just a handful of concerns about the proposals for the bill from a LIBERAL blog site, of all places. Take a look at these:

It forces you to pay up to 8 percent of your income to private insurance corporations -- whether you want to or not.

If you refuse to buy the insurance, you'll have to pay penalties of up to 2 percent of your annual income to the Internal Revenue Service.

After being forced to pay thousands in premiums for junk insurance, you can still be on the hook for up to $11,900 a year in out-of-pocket medical expenses.

Many of the taxes to pay for the bill start now, but most Americans won't see any benefits -- like an end to discrimination against those with pre-existing conditions -- until 2014 when the program begins.

It allows insurance companies to charge older people 300 percent more than other customers.
The cost of medical care will continue to rise, and insurance premiums for a family of four will rise an average of $1,000 a year -- meaning in 10 years, you family's insurance premium will be $10,000 more annually than it is right now.

Check this out at Jane Hamsher’s blog -- the “Fire Dog Lake” Blog. You will find her blog site HERE.

The bottom line is this: The Socialist/Stalinists in the White House are going to pass the healthcare bill no matter what the American people want. They entered the White House with the sole purpose of “changing” (remember that word – CHANGE) into a “hell-hole” of a third world country where everyone SUFFERS equally!) And, to be honest, they are making tremendous progress. Look at our national economic situation and look at the millions already out of work and soon to be joined by millions more until we reach somewhere around 20 to 23 percent unemployment. There are reports floating around to the effect that the 10% unemployment figure is not to be believed. They tell us the true figure is closer to 13% and closing fairly rapidly on 17%. Controlling the flow of accurate information to the people of the country IS Stalinist behavior.

Yes, we live in a very different America today than was envisaged by the Founding Fathers. I suspect that if they could see us now they would be asking how we ever allowed it to progress THIS far. The answer: Apathy and Ignorance instilled in at least one generation (and at least part of another) of Americans through the government controlled Public Education System which has become little more than Government Indoctrination Centers.

Go over to Lew Rockwell.Com and take a look at a piece titled:” Hooray for Stalinist America!” You’ll find it HERE.

A fight is coming. Whether it will be a hot fight or a cold fight will be determined later as it unfolds. But rest assured a fight is coming and it is going to get VERY UGLY! The chickens are being plucked and the tar is being heated as brand new rails are being split from those endangered trees we hear far too much about.

The ONLY C H A N G E Obama has been able to successfully accomplish, that I can tell, is changing this country from a Democratic Representative Republic, to a Socialist/Stalinist oligarchy. How long now until the official government approved greeting for Americans, one to another, will be “Comrade?” Not long, I suspect!

J. D. Longstreet

US Accepts SOCIALISM and CAPITALISM and Self- Destruction!

US Accepts SOCIALISM and CAPITALISM and Self- Destruction!
A Commentary by: J. D. Longstreet
******************************************
I have written thousands of commentaries during my career as a broadcast journalist, reporter, and broadcast commentator. This one, however, was painful to write. It was akin to writing the epitaph for a dearly beloved friend now deceased. Read on and you will understand.

Last April, while addressing a small group, in Paris, France, Howard Dean is reported to have said the contest between Socialism and Capitalism in America is over. He declared that Americans have decided to have BOTH! There is video of his speech in which he made this declaration available for you all over the Internet. In fact, here is a link to one such location: SOURCE. http://www.hotair.com/archives/2009/12/01/howard-dean-the-debate-on-capitalism-and-socialism-is-over/

Dean is reported to have said: " Capitalism is always going to be with us because capitalism represents part of human nature. But the other part of human nature is communitarianism. The debate for the new generation is instead of capitalism or socialism, is we're going to have both and then which proportion of each should we have in order to make this all work."

The problem, Dr. Dean, is... it WON'T WORK!

The democrat/socialists in charge of America these days simply will not accept, or, they already know and will not admit it, or -- they are just too dumb to grasp the intricacies of socialism and therefore they cannot conceive of it's inability to co-exist with capitalism.

Look. Socialism is a "bully.” It cannot co-exist with Capitalism because it thirsts for power with an insatiable thirst. It will devour capitalism until capitalism no longer exists, they a nation ends up, not as a socialists nation, as the socialists/democrats would have you believe, but as a communist nation. Socialism is only a stepping-stone, a forerunner, as we have said before, to communism.

As of today, America is a socialist nation well on its way to becoming a godless communist nation. The people who pull the strings from behind the curtain already know this. A few more thoughtful Americans know this. But, ignorance is having a field day in America these days. If you doubt it, I offer as evidence -- the election of Obama.

Ignorance insured the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States. Smart, intelligent, people, people who saw through Obama's facade, did not vote for him. Unfortunately, with our public education system run by the government, the current electorate in America is, quite likely, the dumbest in the history of this nation.

Look, America was not founded for dumb people. No democracy can long endure when its people are dumb. Why? The answer is simple -- because those dumb people will invariably vote for the candidate offering them "something for nothing." Intelligent people know there is no such thing as "something for nothing." But, when America's public education system is dumbing down the populace it allows one political philosophy to gain power -- and -- it ensures the hold on power by the political party, which adheres to that philosophy. Of course, that means democracy in America is doomed.

What I have just described to you is exactly what has happened in America. And it is going to happen again in 2012 unless the intelligent among us can find a way to prevent the human tidal wave of ignorant voters sure to converge on the ballot boxes in 2012 to "save THEIR President."

In the quote above Dr. Dean says: " But the other part of human nature is communitarianism." Ok. So what is communitarianism? The short answer -- communism. And that is where America is headed -- as straight as a Martin to a gourd.

I honestly don't know what it will take to get Americans to understand: Socialism is only a phase a nation goes through, a necessary phase, on its way into communism. America is in the socialism phase, at this moment, on its inevitable way to communism. The stage is set, all the actors are in place, in fact, the curtain is raised, and the play has already begun.

The problem with socialism is: It kills it's host!. It has failed everywhere on earth it has been tried and it destroyed the nations foolish enough to try it. It WILL destroy America, too.

It is a terrible thing to watch a great nation commit suicide. It is especially awful when the people of that nation have all the knowledge of the ages at their fingertips and all of it warns of the dangers of covetousness, sloth, greed, and ignorance. All four combine to become socialism -- a cancer that will devour the core of any society weak enough, ignorant enough, and greedy enough, to covet that which his neighbor has, so much, that he is willing to destroy his neighbor, and himself, in his quest -- not to raise himself up -- but to bring his neighbor down! THAT is what socialism does. It is a philosophy straight out of hell itself.

If Dr. Dean is correct, then America is well on the way to the dustbin of history. And those who led her into socialism will answer at the final judgment for the murder of a nation.

J. D. Longstreet

Afghanistan: Obama's War! by: J. D. Longstreet

Afghanistan: Obama’s War!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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As much as I dislike doing this, I am going to offer President Obama some sound advice, which I fully expect him to totally ignore. That advice is: “Get the hell out of Afghanistan!”

Just recently I published a piece, on my own blog, by my friend, Alan Caruba, calling for the same thing. Getting US troops out of Afghanistan is just another thing Alan and I agree on.

Maybe it is a generational thing. Both Alan and myself were in the military and both of us experienced what the wrong war in the wrong place can do to a military and to a country and we don’t want to see our country go through that again.

Having said all of the above, I fully expect President Obama to maintain US troops in Afghanistan and stand-by as they are chewed-up by twos and threes until, we have a death toll of Americans rivaling that of the Vietnam debacle.

Here’s the thing. We cannot win in Afghanistan.

I am a realist. I look at the facts and choose my position on a subject based upon those facts. I do not interject optimism into my decision-making in so far as taking a position or forming an opinion. When one does that and applies that process to the war effort in Afghanistan one can come up with only one inescapable truth -- and that is, we cannot win in Afghanistan.

This is not defeatism. Understand that. Of COURSE, the American military could, fairly easily, wipe that country off the map in short order. But, what would we have gained? As far as I can see, nothing of value to the US would be gained. Occupation of the country would, it seems to me, be nothing short of another decades long shooting war with our military bases becoming “Fort Apaches” in enemy territory. None of this takes into consideration the cost in dollars to the American economy.

The question, then, for our current President and Commander - in - Chief, is: why continue to feed our young men into a sausage grinder, such as Afghanistan, knowing full well that at some point, down the road from now, the Commander- in- Chief, in 2013, or beyond, will be ordering their withdrawal from that hell-hole? Saving face for Mr. Obama, or any President, is certainly not enough reason to spill the precious blood of American soldiers.

Afghanistan is not really a country. Not REALLY. Frankly, I’m not sure WHAT it is, but a country - it ain’t. It is sort of a no-man’s land with a conglomeration of tribes and/or clans usually at each other’s throat over some sort of “slight.” Their major industry is dope. Yep! “DOPE.” They grow beautiful fields of opium poppies -- and they sell it on the world market -- both the legal market and the black market. Get between them and their dope money and you are asking for serious trouble.

Afghanistan’s next-door neighbor, Pakistan, is where the serious threat to America lies. Pakistan already has nuclear weapons. Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons Program was established as far back as1974. Earlier this year, some American officials expressed concern that Pakistan is enlarging its nuclear weapons facilities. They fear that Pakistan is moving to increase its stockpile of fissile material. That would allow them to develop more destructive atomic weapons. Some experts are concerned that Pakistan may be in the early stages of creating thermonuclear weapons. Thermonuclear weapons are far more destructive and could be more easily developed to fit inside warheads.

As much as I hate the thought, it is entirely possible, and highly probable, that we will awaken one morning, in the not too distant future, to the news that Pakistan has been overrun by some terrorist organization, and those terrorists are in possession of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. In fact, this is the ONLY reason, I can conceive of, for American troops to remain in Afghanistan. At least, America would have forward deployed troops -- just in case this very scenario became a reality.

If Obama is determined to keep America’s military engaged in Afghanistan, then he needs to huddle with the Pentagon and actually listen to the “fighting generals” and follow their advice. America has had more than enough of bureaucrats in Washington directing US troops in battle with an enemy. Mr. Obama should immediately drop any thought of “winning the hearts and minds” of the Afghans. It isn’t going to happen. Forget “nation building, too.

I am aware that I will earn the title of “Armchair General” by making this observation, but here goes, anyway. It seems to me that America has only two real choices in Afghanistan. Get out – or -- “fort-up” as near the Pakistan border as we can and with the use of electronic eavesdropping (otherwise known as “spying”) and “humint” or “human intelligence” gathering sources (That simply means spies on the ground in Pakistan) stay as well informed as is humanly possible so that threats to Pakistan’s’ nuclear weapons and their development program can be thwarted as quickly and efficiently as possible. Even that won’t be one hundred percent effective, but, at least, our efforts in Afghanistan will not be a total waste, as they certainly appear to be today.

Hard choices? You bet they are. But that is the reason the President gets the “big bucks,” the nice house, the nice cars, and even a primo aircraft to fly about the globe. And, we would go so far as to suggest that Mr. Obama kiss and make up with Israel, our only REAL friend in the Middle East. He may not like it, but, from the looks of the diplomatic struggles with Israel these days, there remains the very real chance we will need to use Israel’s military facilities in the event the war in that region becomes even hotter and even wider.

So now it is “Obama’s War.” It will make his administration -- or -- break his administration. If Mr. Obama has any doubts about that, at all, we suggest he pluck a few history books from the White House library and look up the Jimmy Carter Administration. Many of the problems America is trying to deal with today, in the Middle East, were inherited directly from the hapless Carter Administration. It will be a very long time, indeed, before the American electorate entrusts the lives of their young military assets to the likes of the Carter Administration ever again. Unfortunately for the America people, Mr. Obama exhibits a host of the Carter foibles and will cost the US, over time, an abundance of time, money, and American blood.

This is, admittedly, not an easy problem to deal with. But deal with it Obama must. We Americans and, indeed, the remainder of the world, both friend and foe alike, will have their eyes upon Obama observing, trying his metal, and looking for that single weakness Obama may display. They will be searching for a weakness they can exploit to bring even more death and destruction to America’s shores. We can only pray that Divine Providence will look mercifully upon America and extend his arm of protection around the US as He has so lovingly done in the past.

J. D. Longstreet

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" rel="tag">Conservative+Liberal+Progressive+Afghanistan+War+Obama+Pakistan

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.

Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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“I cannot accept, your canon that we are to judge pope and king unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power ... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”… Lord Acton

What will it take to convince Americans that the people we place in office ought to be of high moral character? I no longer think it is even possible. I no longer think Americans even care… as evidenced by the results of the presidential election, and numerous congressional elections, and even state and local elections around the country just last year.

We have become so accustomed to self serving, double-dealing, dishonest, greedy, callous, crafty, deceitful, duplicitous politicians that we now accept it as “normal”. What that says about Americans, as a people, is absolutely shameful. What it says about the future of America is terrifying!

I dare say ancient Rome was not as corrupt as America is today. We have managed to dumb down our populace, the voter base, the electorate, concerning what is expected of public servants, until we think nothing of electing to public office people of such low morals they ought not be allowed IN public, let alone serve in a public office. Nowadays, the use of the phrase “choosing the lesser of two evils,” when describing our choice of candidates, is in regular use… and we don’t even raise an eyebrow. Why? Because it is true!

James L. Buckley once said: ” What people fail to appreciate is that the currency of corruption in elective office is, not money, but votes.” He was spot on!

I am not surprised at the corruption of our politicians. How could I be? How could YOU be? It is we who elected them. It is we, the people of America, who bear the shame and the guilt for placing these people of low repute in offices that good men fought, bled, and died for on foreign and domestic battlefields to secure for us. Do we not understand that we have disgraced our heritage? Do we not understand that we have brought shame upon our ancestors, upon our forefathers, upon the Founders of this nation, and… upon ourselves for not being good citizens and good stewards of this priceless jewel of a country?

Too long have we abrogated our singular duty to study the foundations of this country, the constitution of this country, the legal/judiciary system of this country, and, just as important, the government of this country, and… the way that government was intended to operate. We haven’t done any of this.

Our public education system has failed, utterly, in educating our young about their heritage as Americans. It has failed at instilling pride in our young as Americans. The angry cries of “nationalism” have drowned out “patriotism” until one is frowned upon for any public display of pride in America. There is something intrinsically wrong about that! In modern day America education has been devalued while ignorance is celebrated… even unto the voting booth! It is revolting!

Yes, I am angry. It is an anger born of frustration. I am frustrated with my fellow Americans who absolutely refused to see that substance does trump style every time. The percentage of the electorate who voted to place a man in office, primarily because of the color of his skin and, secondly, his eloquent way with words, have done America a huge disservice. The cost is going to be monumental, biblical, even.

One of the great men of the American Revolution, Samuel Adams, said this: “The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.”

I would draw your attention to the last portion of the last sentence above: “… or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men.” THAT is precisely where we find ourselves in America today. And we have no one, no one, to blame… but ourselves.

Are you ready for the years, immediately ahead, with tailgating scandals and stories of corruption and graft and the peccadilloes of powerful men unable to restrain themselves when let lose on an ignorant populace? You’d better be - for I am mighty afraid that is exactly where we are heading. The political shenanigans in Washington, to which we have, unfortunately, become accustomed, are, I’m afraid, only the tip of a vastly underestimated iceberg of such conduct. America’s ship of state is sailing directly into that iceberg.

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative Liberal+Progressive+Socialist+Obama+Absolute-Power+Corruption

Obama’s Communists ... Alan Caruba

Obama’s Communists

By Alan Caruba

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“Tailgunner” Joe McCarthy, a 1950s U.S. Senator who lent his name to any effort to expose America’s enemies, was right. At the height of his fame, he said the U.S. government was shot through with communists, many of whom were participating in a vast espionage effort orchestrated by the Soviets.

Though McCarthy was singularly unsuccessful in uncovering communists within the government during Eisenhower’s first term, the “Army-McCarthy” hearings, April 22 to June 17, 1954, were televised for all to see and he became one of the best known anti-communists of his day. Were there Communists and spies for the Soviet Union? Yes, but we would not learn more until a young Senator from California, Richard M. Nixon identified Alger Hiss, a high-ranking State Department official as one.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the records that became available to historians and other scholars confirmed McCarthy’s worst fears.

During the 1930s and 1940s, communism appealed to many Americans. Some had soured on capitalism because of the Great Depression. Others saw communism at work in the Soviet Union and, believing the propaganda, concluded it was a viable alternative to capitalism. It would take a speech by Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Krushchev to draw back the curtain and reveal the horrors of living under Stalin.

Then, as now, communists found a home in the American labor movement and among the liberal elites of the Democrat Party who saw in the New Deal the way to transform America into a socialist nation, as well as among America’s intellectuals on its college campuses. Not much has changed.

One of the founders of the “Weathermen” group that conducted a number of bombings in the 1960s is now a “distinguished professor” at the University of Illinois—Chicago. Bill Ayers is also a longtime, close friend of Barack Obama.

Sen. McCarthy was quite possibly the worst person of his era to lead the investigation of communist infiltration and Soviet espionage. He was bombast and a boozer. In August 1954, a Senate committee released a report censoring him for having abused his power as a committee chairman. He would remain in the Senate, but his days of glory were over. His drinking increased and in May 1957 he died from acute hepatitis.

The sad irony of McCarthy’s story is that the government was, indeed, filled with communist sympathizers, known as “fellow travelers”, and with Soviet-run spies. The story can be found in “The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America’s Traitors” by Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel. “Venona” was the U.S. code word given to secret Soviet spy communications.

Venona revealed the full extent of the spying that was occurring. Venona documented that Harry Hopkins, a close friend and advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt was also a spy. Both the FDR and Truman administrations were chockablock with communists. The Venona program of interception and analysis ran from February 1943 to 1980.

In the post-war years, the U.S. created the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency to discover and monitor not just the Soviets, but many other enemies of the nation.

A significant example is the way the Soviets were able to build their own atomic bomb long before their own scientists ever could thanks to their espionage program. There were many others who were known in spy craft as “agents of influence”. One of them was I.F. Stone who wrote a widely read newsletter that provided cover for the actual spies and their activities. Stone continues to be hailed in journalism circles as an outstanding investigative reporter.

Among the Soviet spies were the Rosenbergs who were found guilty of passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviets. The most famous spy of that era was Alger Hiss who at one point served as the director of the Office of Special Political Affairs in the State Department. He would go on to serve as the secretary general of the founding conference of the United Nations and later become president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The current attacks on the CIA, include a statement by the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who said “They lie to us all the time.” The Obama Justice Department has re-opened an investigation into interrogation techniques of the CIA as a further effort to discredit the Agency. If you don’t believe this is at the direction of President Obama, you’re being naïve.

In “The Venona Secrets”, the authors note that a classic Stalinist tactic was “demonizing an opponent and then using his vilified name in a broad-brush smear against anyone who challenged Communist views or activities.” This is why the term “McCarthyism” has entered our political vocabulary. This is also what is occurring right now as former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Governor Sarah Palin, get the treatment.

How can you spot a communist sympathizer in the U.S. Congress? You can visit the website of the “Progressive Caucus” where, as of February 2009, more than 80 members of the House, including two from the Senate, self-identify themselves as progressives. “Progressive” was the term communists used after the McCarthy era. It is still in use today.

Some of the progressive caucus members are Ed Markey and Henry Waxman, co-authors of the “Cap-and-Trade bill that would impose a huge tax on all energy use in America. You will find Charles Rangel, currently under ethics investigation for having hidden hundreds of thousands of dollars from authorities. Barney Frank, the “brains” behind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s purchase of millions in worthless mortgage loans, is a member. He is the godfather of a meltdown on Wall Street that remains a threat to our capitalist economy.

A significant number of the caucus are Afro-Americans. They include Jesse Jackson, Jr., John Conyers, Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, Donald Payne, and Bobby Rush to name just a few.

With the collapse of the former Soviet Union, many former communists became “environmentalists”, often playing major roles in the many organizations serving that cause.

Among President Obama’s ever-expanding circle of “czars” is Carol Browner, the former Clinton-era director of the Environmental Protection Agency (1993-2000) whose latest appointment also revealed that she served on the Commission for a Sustainable World Society, which is part of Socialist International. Her association with the group has since been scrubbed from their website.

Most obvious and notorious is Van Jones who has never made a secret of his political preference for communism and who is Obama’s new “Green Jobs” czar. The links between the environmental movement and communist goals are numerous, nor should it surprise anyone that the “global warming” hoax was birthed in the bowels of the United Nations.

Today, thanks to the way history is taught in America’s government schools, the threat to freedom that communism posed then and still does pose, is barely a subject for discussion. When he was still an adolescent in Hawaii, President Obama came under the influence of Frank Marshall Davis, a widely known communist in the 1950s.

Obama is completely at home with communists, but is ironically being attacked by the nation’s far Left for not fulfilling their dream of the complete transformation of the nation from capitalism to socialism fast enough.

The destruction of the nation’s economy is necessary to complete the transformation and it is only the outrage and protests of Americans that will save us from a fate that has been and remains the goal of the nation’s communist enemies.

Alan Caruba

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

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