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Timely Articles that Clearly Explain Current Issues
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Founding Fathers: Quotes on Liberty and Freedom from America's Revolutionaries
All quotes are verified and properly cited!
The 5 Economic Lies the Government Is Telling You | ZeroHedge
1] "The Unemployment Rate Has Been Steadily Going Down: Well...The working age population that actually has a job has fallen dramatically and then remained "remarkably" flat
2] "Inflation Is Low": Well...the M1 money supply has nearly doubled since the beginning of 2008 and they are not including
3] Quantitative Easing is Economic Stimulus": uh... then why are we paying nearly a trillion dollars a year for welfare
4] "Obamacare Is Going to Be Good for Middle Class Americans": uh...about 4 million Americans have already had their health insurance plans canceled (and could reach 93 million) while only about 100,000 have supposedly signed up.
5] "The U.S. National Debt Is Under Control": uh...the U.S. government borrows more than a trillion dollars each year and rolls over trillions more from one year to the other
Thank you Ron Johnson for voting to keep the government from intervening in our right to bear arms, as opposed to the following Republican Senators who voted to advance gun-control legislation in the Senate April 11, 2013:
Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake
Arizona Sen. John McCain
Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss
Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson
Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk
Maine Sen. Susan Collins
Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker
New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte
Nevada Sen. Dean Heller
North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr
North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven
Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn
Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham
Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander
Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker
The following is a list of Democrat Senators who voted against advancing gun-control legislation (they're in Red states):
Alaska Sen. Mark Begich
Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor
Banks Move to Enslave Humanity
King World News Interviews former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts
"What we are seeing [in Cyprus], as in Greece, is the response to the effort to make the public responsible for the mistake of private banks... the whole EU approach is to save the banks from their mistakes and impose the cost on the public." READ MORE (part 1)...
"You see this crisis is being used by the EU bureaucracy in Brussels to destroy the financial sovereignty of the individual countries.... That's what this is all about. They are saying, 'We can't trust you with the euro because you create too much debt. So we're going to decide your budget, your tax policies, and your spending policies.'... to concentrate the power in Brussels and in the private banks.
It's the same here (in the US). Who runs the Treasury? Who runs the financial regulatory agencies? Who runs the Fed? ...the various CEO's who got the banks in trouble are now running economic policy in the United States." READ MORE (part 2)...
The KWN audio interview with Dr. Roberts is available now and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE.
Dept. Homeland Secur*ty - What's the plan? | from a US dissident site
<<Interviews said to be with an insider at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), saying that the US 'fiscal cliff' game, along with these 'mass shooting' incidents like in Connecticut, are all part of the US gov't preparing the US public for a managed US dollar and economic collapse and a new kind of domestic US dictatorship.
The interviews say the plan is to let the system collapse, the EBT 'food stamp money' cards won't work and so on, have a few weeks of chaos and hunger and violence, till most hungry Americans beg for protection from their government
Then they will put in steps where the US government will control nearly everything, many dissidents taken off to camps, and most types of firearms and upper-capacity magazines get confiscated ... with a few less high-power, totally registered guns allowed to be kept by US citizens who don't violate the new rules or restrictions on life
Unsettling stuff, if true ... site is Douglas J Hagmann's 'Northeast Intelligence Network' ... here are the DHS 'insider' interviews in text, two parts
DHS Insider Part 1
http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/archives/7305
http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/archives/7310>>
10 reasons the U.S. is no longer the Land of the Free | J Turley, WashingtonPost
The Patriot Act, Homeland Security, and National Def*nse Authorization Act (NDAA) are anything but patriotic and a protection against harm.
Assassination of U.S. citizens - the president can order the assassination of any citizen whom he considers allied with terrorists.
Indefinate detention - terrorism suspects are to be held by the military; the president also has the authority to indefinitely detain citizens accused of terrorism
Arbitrary justice - The president now decides whether a person will receive a trial in the federal courts or in a military tribunal
Warrantless searches - The government can use "national security letters" to demand, without probable cause, that organizations turn over information on citizens — and order them not to reveal the disclosure to the affected party
Secret evidence - The government now routinely uses secret evidence to detain individuals and employs secret evidence in federal and military courts. It also forces the dismissal of cases against the United States by simply filing declarations that the cases would make the government reveal classified information that would harm national security
War crimes [convincing example not provided]
Secret courts - The government now routinely uses secret evidence to detain individuals and employs secret evidence in federal and military courts. It also forces the dismissal of cases against the United States by simply filing declarations that the cases would make the government reveal classified information that would harm national security
Immunity from judicial review - immunity for companies that assist in warrantless surveillance of citizens
Continual monitoring of citizens - [the gubmint] can use GPS devices to monitor every move of targeted citizens without securing any court order or review
Extraordinary renditions - The government now has the ability to transfer both citizens and noncitizens to another country under a system known as extraordinary rendition...including the possible transfer of U.S. citizens... [in what is now] an expanded security system
Rising Number of States Seeing One-Party Rule
<<Democrats now control all three bases of power – the governorship and both houses of the state legislature – in 14 states and Republicans in 23, with only 12 states sharing power. (Nebraska's unicameral legislature is considered nonpartisan.)Regional power bases are also emerging, with Democrats increasingly dominating state governments across New England.
Conversely, after last week's vote, the GOP for the first time since 1872 now controls the Arkansas House and Senate. Just 20 years ago, Republicans didn't have a majority in a single legislative house in the states of the old Confederacy – now they control all 11.>>
Read more: Rising number of states seeing one-party rule - Washington Times
<<...we agree with Goldman that the country will likely be determining the path for near-term economic growth, medium-to-longer term fiscal stability and monetary policy at a time when the stakes are exceptionally high...>>
Click to read more on ZeroHedge.
We Fund Dependency | John Stossel
John sent an intern to a government-funded "job center" to find a job. <<"I [the intern] explained that I didn't want handouts; I wanted a job. I was told to go to 'WorkForce1,' a New York City program. At WorkForce1, the receptionist told me that she couldn't help me since I didn't have a college degree. She directed me to another center in Harlem. In Harlem, I was told that before I could get help, I had to come back for an 8:30 a.m. 'training session.'"...I asked for any job she thought I was qualified for, and she scheduled an interview at Pret, a food chain that trains employees. At Pret, I learned that my 'interview' was just a weekly open house, publicized on the company's website. Anyone could walk in and apply. Workforce1 offered no advantage. Despite my 'scheduled interview,' I waited 90 minutes before meeting a manager. He told me that WorkForce1 had 'wasted my time, as they always do.' He said, 'They never call, never ask questions.' He prefers to hire people who seek out jobs on their own, like those who see Pret ads on Craigslist.'>> <<America now has 47 federal jobs programs. They fail. Yet politicians want more. They always want more.>>
Bernanke Wants to Monetize Happiness
<<His speech...was the latest foray into a relatively new specialty in economics known as "happiness studies."... In that speech, he [Bernanke] said research has found that once basic material needs are met, more wealth doesn't necessarily make people happier... "Or, as your parents always said, money doesn't buy happiness," Bernanke said then. "Well, an economist might reply, at least not by itself."
...These indicators "could be useful in measuring economic progress or setbacks as well as in explaining economic decision-making," Bernanke said....
Bernanke's own definition of happiness might baffle anyone without an advanced degree. He called it a "short-term state of awareness that depends on a person's perceptions of one's immediate reality, as well as on immediate external circumstances and outcomes.">> Only an elitist could come up with an answer like that!!
Sooooo, as long as you say you're doing well enough, then the Fed and Congress know they aren't taking enough, and we should stop complaining about them!
Dollar Falls in Value Since Fed Created
<<...the value of the dollar remained extremely stable for 150 years, then The Fed was created to "stabilize the value of the dollar" and the result has been a 95% devaluation of the dollar in less than 100 years following its creation.>>
The chart ends in 2008 - Fed printing to infinity since then. History says hyper-inflation will shortly follow.
Crops/Drought Map 1896-2012 Comparison
Remember hearing about the dustbowls of the 1930s? Reading Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath?
See something similar about the patterns in the chart between 1934 and 2012?
HT Jim Sinclair
As Eric De Groot writes, "Mother nature don't care if humans are battling a sovereign debt crisis or not. Natural cycles show no mercy for the unprepared and election-year illusions. If commodity prices surge due to contraction in supply, be absolutely certain consumption-driven GDP will take a hit."
De Groot also highlights a July 19, 2012, NY Times article article: Widespread Drought Is Likely to Worsen.
My Single Greatest Fear | Peter Schiff on King World News
<<Peter Schiff stunned King World News by speaking about his single greatest fear. Schiff, who is CEO of Europacific Capital, gave an extraordinarily candid interview. Here is what Schiff had to say:
"My biggest worry is that capitalism and the free markets will get the blame when it really hits the fan. When we get the real crash and everything implodes, and it's really an Armageddon style collapse, my fear (again) is that capitalism and free markets take the blame for problems that were created by government.">>
Read more. | Listen to the Interview.
Europe, Gold & the Health Care Bill | Peter Schiff
Re Europe: "...they [Europeans] have to worry about all of the stronger countries wanting out of the eurozone. The weak ones will want to stay there because they get a subsidy, while the strong ones will want out because they won't want to pay the bill..."
Re Gold: "People should be buying gold, not selling it, if they understand the broader implications of this bill."
Re Health Care Bill ruling: "They [the Supreme Court] essentially said that even though the intent may have been to punish people for not buying insurance, the effect is that they don't get punished because it's really just a tax. ...[but] it's not a tax, because a tax is there to raise revenue. This is not there to raise revenue, it's there to punish you. It's there to make you buy health insurance.
[The Supreme Court] said it's not a direct tax, because not everybody has to pay it ... only people who don't buy insurance have to pay it.... That doesn't change it from a direct tax to an indirect tax. It's a direct tax on people who don't buy insurance... The income tax was declared unconstitutional as a direct tax. [because] Not everybody paid it. Only the people who had income paid it, and only if you had income above a certain level.
So [whether everybody has to pay the tax] is not a criteria over whether something is a direct or an indirect tax. This (health care bill) is a direct tax on people. They are taxing you if you don't have health insurance, and you have to pay the tax directly to the government.... The Supreme Court is wrong there, and therefore it's an unconstitutional tax, because it's not being apportioned [among the states on the basis of population]. So they did two things wrong, they said something was a tax that wasn't a tax. And then once they said it was a tax, they then identified it as an indirect tax, when it should be a direct tax.
The net of this is it's going to weaken the economy even further because of the extra burden of higher health care costs. It's going to damage the insurance industry dramatically because many people are going to opt to pay for the penalty, rather than to buy insurance.
So the insurance companies are not going to have the revenue to pay the claims. Basically, everybody who is sick is going to be putting in claims. The people who don't get sick aren't going to be paying a premium."
Exodus | Mark Steyn
<<...If the flow of information is really controlled by Jews, as the Reverend Jeremiah Wright assured his students at the Chicago Theological Seminary a year or two back, you'd think they'd be a little better at making their media minions aware of one of the bleakest stories of the early 21st century: the extinguishing of what's left of Jewish life in Europe. It would seem to me that the first reaction, upon hearing of a Jewish school shooting, would be to put it in the context of the other targeted schools, synagogues, community centers, and cemeteries. And yet liberal American Jews seem barely aware of this grim roll call.
Even if you put to one side the public school in Denmark that says it can no longer take Jewish children because of the security situation, and the five children of the chief rabbi of Amsterdam who've decided to emigrate, and the Swedish Jews fleeing the most famously tolerant nation in Europe because of its pervasive anti-Semitism; even if you put all that to the side and consider only the situation in France... No, wait, forget the Villiers-le-Bel schoolgirl brutally beaten by a gang jeering, "Jews must die"; and the Paris disc-jockey who had his throat slit, his eyes gouged out, and his face ripped off by a neighbor who crowed, "I have killed my Jew"; and the young Frenchman tortured to death over three weeks, while his family listened via phone to his howls of agony as his captors chanted from the Koran... No, put all that to one side, too, and consider only the city of Toulouse. In recent years, in this one city, a synagogue has been firebombed, another set alight when two burning cars were driven into it, a third burgled and "Dirty Jews" scrawled on the ark housing the Torah, a kosher butcher's strafed with gunfire, a Jewish sports association attacked with Molotov cocktails...>>
It's Working
WEAC removed the chart from its site after realizing the data promoted Walker's Act 10 reforms. HT Dana Meyers
Can you see how raising taxes on the Rich will help cut the deficit?
Uh, not really.
Buffet complains he doesn't pay enough in taxes, but won't ante up and send in a check for an amount he thinks is fair.
So he supports a congressional bill to get others to do what he won't: S. 2059 -- "To reduce the deficit by imposing a minimum effective tax rate for high income taxpayers" (i.e., the employers of America). The Act describes itself on page 1 as the ''Paying a Fair Share 5 Act of 2012," followed by 6 pages of legalese and politico-double-speak.
With cures like this, who needs solutions?
Too Fast Too Furious II
NSA's Spy Program "Stellar Wind" Exposed | " Stellar Wind is the code name for an effort approved by President George W. Bush following the September 11, 2001 attacks to mine a large database of communications of American citizens but which was allegedly terminated when Congress pushed back against it... However, the National Security Agency, awash with funds provided by Congress, is nearly finished constructing its Utah Data Center as the collection point for data provided from around the country and around the world."
The Socialist Apprentice | "The fundamental question that a people must ask is whether they want to be independent of their government, or dependent on it? The tipping point between tool and master kicks in when government gains the ability to expand its own parameters independently of the people. It's that moment when Mickey Mouse realizes the brooms aren't going to stop and Dr. Frankenstein realizes the monster isn't going to sit down and have tea with him after all."
Paul Ryan's Path to Prosperity text | Topics: Providing for the Common Defense, Restoring Economic Freedom, Repairing the Social Safety Net, Strengthening Health and Retirement Security, Pro-Growth Tax Reform, Changing Washington's Culture of Spending, Lifting the Crushing Debt
Too Fast Too Furious
Americans will need "black markets" to survive. | ZeroHedge <<Black markets are a means of fighting back, and are as important as any weapon in the battle for liberty...So then, if trade is sinking, why has the Dow jumped to nearly 13,000? Low volume is the key. In a low volume market, [fewer] individual investors are present to counteract the buying and selling of larger players, like international banks. When this happens, the big boys are able to trigger market spikes, or market drops, literally at will...A "black market" is only a trade dynamic that the government disapproves of, and the government disapproves of most things these days [e.g., raw milk]...For now, private localized trade is able to flow with only minor interference, but there will come a day when even the most practical and harmless personal transactions will be visited with administrative reproach and vitriol. Alternative market champions will be accused of "extremism", and undermining the mainstream economy. We will be vilified as separatists, isolationists, terrorists, and traitors. I believe it will be far more surreal than what we can possibly imagine now.>>
Eric Hovde is a U.S. Senate Candidate. Click here for his website.
Rush Limbaugh clears up misconceptions about his sponsors (only 28+ of 18,000 requested changes)
Obama embraces Prof. Derr1ck Hill | Breitbart and Another Piece of Obama's Puzzle | Frontpagemag <<"[he lent] his support behind a journal entitled Race Traitor, whose editors stated that "the key to solving the social problems of our age is to abolish the white race, which means no more and no less than abolishing the privileges of white skin.">>
Senator and Governor Recall Petition Pages Online again
Will try to get instructions about checking points, such as: only sign once, address legible, date legible, legal WI residents, date on or before 1/14/2012, addresses not obviously all written by person collecting signatures, etc.
GAB Won't Release Public Documents
_ GAB's decision to prevent the public from viewing the WALKER RECALL PETITIONS is UNACCEPTABLE. Citizens of Wisconsin should immediately be contacting GAB and their ELECTED OFFICIALS to voice their opinion. Recall Petitions are public documents! Call as a "concerned citizen," which, of course, we ARE!
GAB"s general number: 608-266-8005
Kevin Kennedy: kevin.kennedy@wisconsin.gov
Nat Robinson: nat.robinson@wisconsin.gov
Reid Magney: 608-267-7887 reid.magney@wisconsin.gov
If you send an email to anyone at GAB request that it be forwarded to the GAB judges.
We do not have the contact information for the GAB judges but here are their names and where they live.
Judge Barland, Eau Claire
Judge Gerald Nichol, Madison
Judge Michael Brennan, Marshfield
Judge Thomas Cane, Wausau
Judge Timothy Voke, Rhinelander
Judge David Deininger, Monroe
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen: 608-266-1221 FAX: 608-267-2779
Sen. Mary Lazich: Sen.Lazich@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-5400
Rep. Gary Taucken:: Rep.Tauchen@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-3097
Rep. Robin Vos: Rep.Vos@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-9171
Sen. Alberta Darling: Sen.Darling@legis.wisconsin.gov 608-266-5830
We're Watching Wisconsin Elections is a group of concerned citizens following issues related to Wisconsin's elections.
Too Fast Too Furious 1/30/12
_Liberal Hate: High School Teacher Refuses to Accept MLK Award from Paul Ryan HT Breitbart - video and comments
Barack Obama's Rules for Revolution: The Alinsky Model by David Horowitz - an online book in PDF format
Do We Need a Department of Education? by Charles Murray - speaker at Hillsdale College [of note: "At the time the Constitution was written, education was not even considered a function of local government, let alone the federal government." "The Department of Education didn't come into being until 1980." "...this much can certainly be said: The overall data on the performance of American K-12 students give no reason to think that federal involvement, which took the form of the Department of Education after 1979, has been an engine of improvement." "The Department of Education spends about $200 million a year on research intended to improve educational practice. No evidence exists that these expenditures have done any significant good."] Read the article to hear the reasoning behind these statements.
How to Reform a Failing Congress by Rep. Reid Ribble (R-Wis) and Rep. Scott Rigell [in brief: term limits, no congressional pensions, committee reform, budget reform]
Scott Walker Discusses Reform Proponents on Fox & Friends (a video)
GAB to post Walker recall petition signatures Monday By the WTMJ News Team OH, WAIT!! GAB says it WILL NOT post them!!
Presidential Candidates on Spending
The CATO Institute analyzes proposals that the GOP Presidential candidates have made regarding spending cuts they are willing to champion and to what degree they are committed to it.
The image at the left only shows the results for the current field as of the beginning of 2012. Click it for a larger image. Click the title for the complete article and a chart that includes prior candidates.
Cashless Society: ... the first BioMetric ID Program
Are you willing to give the government your eye and thumb scans? It's optional now in India, but how soon will it be mandatory? How many governments are salivating at the thought of doing the same? How have countries used (abused) government identity cards in the past?
Will this really stop corruption? Or will this give government officials and other criminals valuable data to exploit - if not now, what about during a future administration? (Click the image to see a 3-min report about this govt database.) Per the article:
<<New technologies which are being introduced inside the United States, the UK, and Australia such as vein scanners, biometric employee time and attendance systems, voice recognition devices, and behavior analysis systems are all geared toward Total Information Awareness of every human being on the planet.
Only a totalitarian form of government would desire this information; and only a very determined totalitarian government would actively work toward establishing it. India is only the first nation to openly sweep up its entire national population into such a massive biometric database net. We cannot let our nation be the next.>> Thought: We want voter ID, but let's not sanction government national identity cards.
Government Spending Is the Problem
Remember: The bigger the government, the fewer freedoms we have.
Involuntary taxation (taking from one person to now mostly distribute to or bail out another) is just institutionalized theft.
Not for the Feint of Heart! Are you in the banking system?
You know you have wealth tied up in the banking system. Hear the horrifying stories of how nefarious characters, like C0RZINE, are demolishing any integrity that may be left. This interview with Ann Barnhardt lasts a half hour - and it will change how you view money market funds and government officials. Is your wealth something you can stand in front of with a g*n to protect? The financial jargon is there, but her passionate, clear case is easy to understand and compelling. Do we have rule of law anymore? Ann doesn't think so. If you know something's afoot and just aren't sure what it is... Start here!
RealPlayer WinAmp Windows Media MP3
James J Puplava CFP with Ann Barnhardt	Jim is joined by Ann Barnhardt, who recently closed her commodity brokerage firm Barnhardt Capital Management after the MF Global collapse. She believes that her client monies were no longer safe in the futures and options markets, and that the entire system has been 'utterly destroyed' by the MF Global collapse.
Is the New World Order Unraveling? | Patrick Buchanan
Buchanan summarizes the timeline starting "as far as Woodrow Wilson's League of Nations, which a Republican Senate refused to enter. FDR, seeking to succeed where his mentor had failed, oversaw the creation of a United Nations, an International Monetary Fund and a World Bank." Click title to read more.
This Is What a Mob Looks Like (AKA The Flea Party)| Ann Coulter
Contrast types. What's their point again?
<<Sally Kohn, a self-identified "community organizer," praised the Wall Street loiterers on CNN's website, comparing the protest to the Boston Tea Party, which she claimed, "helped spark the American Revolution," adding, "and yes, that protest ultimately turned very violent."
First of all, the Boston Tea Party was nothing like tattooed, body–pierced, sunken-chested 19-year-olds getting in fights with the police for fun. Paul Revere's nighttime raid was intended exclusively to protest a new British tea tax. (The Wall Street protesters would be more likely to fight for a new tax than against one.)
Revere made sure to replace a broken lock on one of the ships and severely punished a participant who stole some of the tea for his private use. Samuel Adams defended the raid by saying that all other methods of recourse -- say, voting -- were unavailable.,,.George Washington disapproved of the destruction of the tea. Benjamin Franklin demanded that the India Tea Co. be reimbursed for it. Considered an embarrassment by many of our founding fathers, the Boston Tea Party was not celebrated for another 50 years.
It would be three long years after the Boston Tea Party when our founding fathers engaged in their truly revolutionary act: The signing of the Declaration of Independence....[Modern Day] Tea partiers didn't block traffic, sleep on sidewalks, wear ski masks, fight with the police or urinate in public. They read the Constitution, made serious policy arguments, and petitioned the government against Obama's unconstitutional big government policies, especially the stimulus bill and Obamacare...>>
A Major Victory, but the Battle Rages On | Peter Brookes - Our Oct '11 Guest Speaker!
"...Sure, some high-fives, back-slaps and oh-yeahs have been earned by our intrepid spooks and military special-operations folks for getting a bad actor like Awlaki, who was born in the US but left for his parents' home in Yemen as a kid.... But it doesn't mean the fight with terrorism is over...
...al Qaeda has been stripped of one of its most powerful propagandists, who was especially skilled in so-called "digital jihad," with a troubling ability to reach out to and recruit both English and Arabic speakers over the Internet... Finally, it's possible that with Awlaki gone AQAP will stop targeting the West, specifically the United States. It may turn to toppling the Yemeni and Saudi governments, which has always been its top prize. [But, al Qaeda] still has the resources: AQAP has seized control of territory in Yemen from which it can still plan, train and operate.
And we shouldn't forget there's still plenty of al Qaeda out there, including al Qaeda in Iraq, al Shabab (Somalia), al Qaeda in the Maghreb (North Africa) and al Qaeda Central (Pakistan) -- not to mention its allies like the Taliban and Haqqani network in Afghanistan..."
Ron Johnson Bids for a GOP Leadership Post
<<Johnson announced earlier this month he would run for vice chairman of the GOP conference in the Senate, essentially the number five Republican leadership position. Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt has also indicated interest in the post, so Johnson could have stiff competition with a veteran GOP lawmaker when the party's leadership team is elected in January. Roll Call bills it as "Tea Party Vs. Establishment" in an article here...[per Johnson] "I do believe I bring a valuable personal perspective, particularly from a communication standpoint. I've been the audience for what comes out of Washington for 31 years. I hear things differently."
Johnson has announced endorsements from 11 other Senators, including fellow freshmen (such as Florida's Marco Rubio and Utah's Mike Lee) and some of the Senate's most outspoken conservatives and fiscal hawks (such as Oklahoma's Tom Coburn and South Carolina's Jim DeMint).>> By Craig Gilbert of the Journal Sentinel HT Joyce Bant, Republican Party of Oneida County
More Unemployed Stop Being Counted by Gov't | ZeroHedge
"...all headlines will blare that claims actually declined by 9K. The game has become so old (and we mean old: the BLS has been doing this very same fudge for 2 years in a row now) we are stunned anyone falls for it. ... Lastly, and most troubling for the economy is that another massive 103,000 people dropped off extended benefit claims in one week. Just as troubling is that 1.7 million people have dropped off the government's dole in the past year as can be seen in the chart... these are people that haven't gotten a job, they have just stopped being counted by the govt."
Dr. Tim's Moment of Clarity: Heartless | "A reader called me "heartless" recently for my libertarian view that three sacred-cow entitlement programs – social security, Medicare, and unemployment compensation - should be abolished as we return to Constitutionally-limited government...What is cruelly heartless is that our government officials knew these entitlement programs were unsustainable 15, 20, even 40 years ago and decided to ride them to perpetual re-election anyway - all the way into bankruptcy...Chile privatized their public pension program years ago. Even those who transitioned in mid-career received double the benefit in retirement than what would have been paid under the old government social security system. Doubled it - top that, Congressman Ryan. Why are we trying to save ours?...The choice is not liberty or compassion; it is liberty or government. You must decide whether you wish to govern yourself or be governed by someone else..."
FEMA's use of term "federal family" for government expands under Obama | "The G-word — 'government' — has been nearly banished, with FEMA instead referring to federal, state and local 'partners' as well as 'offices' and 'personnel.'" More on FEMA camps soon. Recommendation: Avoid them!
Sun Causes Climate Change Shock | James Delingpole reports: "'In this chamber, 63 CERN scientists from 17 European and American institutes have done what global warming doomsayers said could never be done — demonstrate that cosmic rays promote the formation of molecules that in Earth's atmosphere can grow and seed clouds, the cloudier and thus cooler it will be. Because the sun's magnetic field controls how many cosmic rays reach Earth's atmosphere (the stronger the sun's magnetic field, the more it shields Earth from incoming cosmic rays from space), the sun determines the temperature on Earth.'"
NewAmerican's Feds Raid Gibson to Save Endangered Trees: "At approximately 8:45 a.m. on August 24, federal agents raided Gibson Guitar Corporation facilities in Nashville and Memphis, making off with an estimated $1 million worth of Gibson property. Gibson's alleged crime? Using imported wood from endangered trees. At least that's what the company assumes the feds have in mind. Gibson hasn't actually been notified of any charges against the company. In fact, according to a Gibson press release, they still haven't been told on what charges "more than a dozen agents with automatic weapons" raided their factory and stole their property in November 2009. They're being forced to sue in federal court to get their property back, and even there the government is stalling, having requested an indefinite stay of the case. Out of Tune and Out of Touch | Newt Gingrich: "Gibson Guitar maintains it has papers from Madagascar in 2009 and India in 2011 proving the wood from both countries is legal, but hasn't been given the opportunity to defend itself in court since the government has filed no charges. There were apparently 26 armed federal agents assaulting Gibson Guitar in pursuit of endangered wood..."
37 Year Study Shows Spending Cuts, Not Tax Increases, Best for Debt, Growth, Bond, Stock Markets | "Specifically, reducing transfer programs and government wages were the most beneficial to growth, according to the 37 year study."
Conspiracy Roundtable: Global Governance and Agenda 21
A great listen! Download this roundtable discussion on the threat to property rights and economic freedom. It's well worth your time. With "global warming" losing its appeal, you need to prick up your ears and know your rights are continuing to be usurped by the people, organizations, and community "leaders" using these buzz words:
bikeways/greenways
comprehensive land-use planning
[international baccaleaureat]
Becoming a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) requires certification by the U.N. (committed to Agenda 21, btw). International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) is an NGO for "Local Governments for Sustainability" with 600+ contracts here in the United States. A Mayor signs a contract with ICLEI (a foreign political interest) and the city then incorporates ICLEI into their city planning (automatically implementing rules that reduce property rights). Click here to see if your city is part of ICLEI (Milwaukee WI is, of course). Click here to read about ICLEI's global themes and international goals and agreements. For more on ICLEI, go to the Freedom Advocates website. Here's a link to Taking Liberty: How Private Property Is Being Abolished in America.
They Who Live by the Race Card, Die by the Race Card
(Lloyd Marcus)
"...Seeing the handwriting on the wall via polling, the Dems wish they could abandon their disastrous ebony race card for Hillary, their gender card.
But alas, they cannot. After spending the last three years, assisted by their media minions, convincing Americans that any and all criticism of or opposition to Obama is racist, Democrats find themselves victims of their own trap. Fearing the repercussions, Dems do not dare display the slightest abandonment of Obama. I love it! They who live by the race card die by the race card.
Despite the media's relentless attempts to brand us otherwise, the Tea Party has never been about race. Our focus and sole desire have been to uphold the Constitution and restore our freedom, liberty, and culture. The Tea Party's goals are much higher than the Democrats' bottom-feeding agenda of exploiting race for political gain..."
Republicans Who Voted for Debt "Deal"
Wisconsinites who voted for the "deal"
Reid Ribble
Jim Sensenbrenner
GDP versus GDI
Dan Mitchell of BigGovernment writes an article: Basic Economics for Financial Journalists and Other Dummies:
"...I've begun to realize that many people are accidentally sympathetic to the Keynesian government-spending-is-stimulus approach. They mistakenly think the theory makes sense because they look at GDP, which measures how national income is spent. They'd be much less prone to shoddy analysis if they instead focused on how national income is earned...
[a Keynesian financial] journalist would tell us that the household's total spending stayed steady thanks to a big increase in tax payments, which compensated for falling demand for utilities, food, and other spending [but really it means families couldn't spend that money on other things - more taxes does not mean more income] ...
[an] increase in GDP is a natural result of more national income..."
The Constitution and Slavery | Walter E. Williams walks us through rationale behind the 3/5ths clause. "...The compromise reduced the power of slave states relative to the South's original proposal but increased it over the North's original proposal...Abolitionist Frederick Douglass understood the compromise, saying that the three-fifths clause was 'a downright disability laid upon the slaveholding states" that deprived them of "two-fifths of their natural basis of representation.'..."
Do This for 10 Minutes on the Fourth of July | Dennis Prager outlines a ritual to keep the American Spirit alive for the ages, based on "...the Jewish Passover meal [which] has successfully kept the memory of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt alive for over 3,000 years."
Rich Dad Poor Dad | Author Robert Kyosaki is now a prepper. "...Once upon a time he was all about teaching people how they could get rich, but now he is talking about storing food, buying guns, investing in precious metals and preparing for the coming crash." Click 4 video.
Another Federal Program Is NOT the Answer to Natural Disasters | Heritage's Matt Mayer explains the "...push for a federal program at a cost that will far outstrip any claim made today of savings for taxpayers. Their plan, outlined in POLITICO, is to create a 'private-public partnership' that acts as an insurance pool against future catastrophic events at 'little' cost to taxpayers. Of course, there is no such thing as 'ittle' cost in Washington...As The Heritage Foundation has extensively noted, instead of creating another federal program that results in a majority of taxpayers subsidizing other Americans for the well-known risks of living in certain locations (earthquake zones, hurricane zones, tornado zones, and flood plains)...The reality is that the federal government played no role in most natural disasters in America from 1787 to 1992..." We do NOT need "...more spending, more waste, and less federalism."
Collecting rainwater now illegal in many states as Big Government claims ownership over our water | Mike Adams, the Health Ranger points out that "...as droughts and renewed interest in water conservation methods have become more common, have individuals and business owners started butting heads with law enforcement over the practice of collecting rainwater for personal use..."
Kids, You Don't Have to Go to College | Community College Spotlight conveys one parent's thinking that "...Instead of preparing his children for college in the future, he hopes to prepare them to educate themselves, starting now. 'And odds are pretty good that 10 years from now when you are looking to strike out on your own, your passion and your portfolio will take you as far if not farther than a degree that came at a great expense and in all likelihood with only a slice of relevance.'"
Obama's Press Conference: All Your Sacred Cows Belong to US (gov't)
"...The President famous for golfing and fund-raising bragged about his superior work ethic. The head of the MediScare Party claimed he is "not engaging in scare tactics." The head of the party that hasn't passed a budget in over 750 days claimed "we have run out of tools to make sure the bills are paid." The royal presence who dispenses ObamaCare waivers to a favored few, and enjoys the support of certain corporations that somehow manage to avoid paying taxes on billions in revenue, complained about disfavored oil companies taking advantage of tax exemptions. Obama actually claimed his assurances that the Libyan war would last "days, not weeks" had been kept....The deadliest aspect of this press conference is how completely it reinforces the notion that all money belongs to the State. Free citizens "earn" nothing; they are allowed to keep whatever Obama and his colleagues decide they don't need..."
The Extinction of Retirement | Michael Pento 6/11
"...According to the Social Security Administration, in 2008, Social Security provided 50% of all income for 64% of recipients and 90% of all income for 34% of all beneficiaries. With these numbers, it's not hard to see how even small cuts will spark big protests...For over 12 years the major averages have gone nowhere in nominal terms and have declined significantly in real (inflation adjusted) terms. The dreams of becoming rich from investments have crashed along with Pets.com and Bernie Madoff...[and] According to S&P/Case-Shiller, the National Home Price Index has declined some 30% to levels not seen since the middle of 2002. And prices are still falling, with the rate of decline accelerating...[and as if that weren't bad enough] According to the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, "States report that their public-employee pensions are underfunded by a total of $438 billion, but a more accurate accounting demonstrates that they are actually underfunded by over $3 trillion. ...[The upshot is] In other words, for most people retirement is now an illusion, and many Americans will find themselves working far longer, for far less real compensation, then they ever imagined. The quicker we realize this, and plan accordingly, the better off we will be.
Americans Divided on Taxing the Rich to Redistribute Wealth
Not surprising is HOW we are divided...
[I''ll try to get numbers associated with the groups so we can compare the potential voting power of each -- if you happen to know where that info is, please let me know. :)]
The Toxic Influence of Progressive Education on K-12 Curricula | Chuck Rogér
"...Starting in the 1960s, academics took heightened interest in Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci's cultural Marxism. Members of the political class glommed onto the resulting "social justice," affirmative action, "diversity," multiculturalism, political correctness, and other malignancies spawned by cultural Marxism. Progressive politicians came to view society as a hodge-podge of racial, ethnic, gender-based, and now also sexual orientation-based groups locked in zero-sum combat with Western whites...Cultural Marxism entered high school, then middle school, and now infests elementary schools as well as preschools. One illustration of the use of anti-wealth, anti-American fallacies in K-12 classrooms is the showing of the virulently anti-capitalist video, The Story of Stuff. The video presents baseless, hysterical vitriol as fact. For instance, schoolchildren are told that: . . . extraction . . . is a fancy word for natural resource exploitation, which is a fancy word for trashing the planet. What this looks like is we chop down trees, we blow up mountains to get the metals inside, we use up all the water and we wipe out the animals. [See our Video page for a response to this video.]
The Education Mantra | Thomas Sowell
"...Students can graduate from some of the most prestigious institutions in the country, without ever learning anything about science, mathematics, economics or anything else that would make them either a productive contributor to the economy or an informed voter who can see through political rhetoric.
On the contrary, people with such "education" are often more susceptible to demagoguery than the population at large. Nor is this a situation peculiar to America. In countries around the world, people with degrees in soft subjects have been sources of political unrest, instability and even mass violence.
A 62% Top Tax Rate | WSJ Stephen Moore
"...According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, over the past two decades the average highest tax rate among the 20 major industrial nations has fallen to about 45%. Yet the highest U.S. tax rate would rise to more than 48% under the Obama/Democratic tax hikes. ... The Tax Foundation recently noted that in 2009 the U.S. collected a higher share of income and payroll taxes (45%) from the richest 10% of tax filers than any other nation, including such socialist welfare states as Sweden (27%), France (28%) and Germany (31%). And this was before the rate hikes that Democrats are now endorsing..."
Watch Out! Feds Could Seize Your Private Retirement Savings | Newsmax.com
"...As Congress squares off over a debt ceiling vote, Treasury is scrambling to find cash in the couch cushions. One of the ways it will scare up extra money is by putting off saving for the retirements of federal workers — in effect, short-term 'borrowing' from public pension funds..."
DOJ Says It Is Justified to Lie to US Court | "US Justice Department lawyers stated to a Federal Court Judge this past March that they (the US government) had the right to lie to the Court. See highlights from the actual Court ruling [Jesse Trentadue v. United States Central Intelligence Agency, et. Al; Case No. 2:08-CV-0788] [PDF link here]: "The Court found the Government to have lied and provided false and misleading information to the court through sworn statements. When the deception was revealed the Government argued that it had the authority to mislead the court and requested and opportunity to brief the issue."
Potential Abuse Of Same-Day Registration Discovered In Open Records Request | Media Trackers
"Media Trackers conducted an open records request investigation of election day registrations in 15 Milwaukee and Dane County wards for the April 5 election. With just a small sampling of election-day registrations, Media Trackers uncovered significant potential abuses of the same-day registration system and numerous cases of incomplete voter registrations..." See results...
Walk with Walker | Tonette Walker
Join WI's First Lady as she begins a walk at various state parks, starting with High Cliff State Park in Sherwood, Wisconsin Date: Saturday, June 4, 2011 Time: 10 A.M. Admission: Free Parking: On-site Walk will take place on the Lime-Kiln Trail.
Campaign Trail Report | Interesting place to see updates on 2012 campaign.
KISS' Gene Simmons: Obama "Has No F***ing Idea What The World Is Like" (Watch the video.)
And one more...Our first lady: Bitter harridan | Mychal Massie
Michelle Ob*ma "...got him [BO] involved in Wright's church. Obama was little more than a summer clerk, an intern, at the Chicago law firm of Sidley Austin. She was practicing law at the firm when he was hired as summer help and was assigned to mentor him. Something that is not widely publicized is that Sidley Austin also employed Bernardine Dohrn, who was personally hired by Howard Trienens, head of the firm and close friend of Bill Ayers' father. It puts one in mind of the movie "The Firm" – only at this firm, unlike the Tom Cruise theatrical character, the star players aren't motivated by conscience. They're motivated by anarchy and contempt..." P.S. Harridan = scolding, vicious hag/shrew
Understanding Liberals - Walter E Williams
Williams clearly explains the two key liberal concepts behind why there is income inequality and their "solutions":
income redistribution ("the dollar dealer is a racist, a sexist, a multinationalist or a conservative")
the rich must give something back ("they got to the pile first and greedily took an unfair share")
Read the whole article to see how he "Contrast[s] the morality of having to serve one's fellow man in order to have a claim on what he produces with congressional handouts."
P.S. "In regard to economic policy, socialism and communism are identical." Ludwig von Mises - Nation, State, and Economy
The Unraveling of a (Govt) Ponzi Scheme
"...Bill Gross is the world's biggest bond trader. He runs the PIMCO bond fund with over $250 billion under management. He recently disclosed through financial filings that PIMCO has sold every single U.S. bond in its portfolio. Local, state, federal bonds - all sold off. Gross knows bonds are about to default in record numbers. And most importantly, he knows that the last resort of the Federal Reserve buying our own government's bonds at auction is a certain sign of Armageddon. When no one is left to buy your own debt but you, you have reached the end of a Ponzi Scheme..." Who else thinks the same per this article? Legendary Wall Street investor Stanley Druckenmiller, another Wall Street legend, Jim Rogers, and municipal bond expert Meredith Whitney ("She sees America in financial ruin with 50 to 100 cities defaulting on their debt in the next year.") "...The two scourges of any economy are unemployment and inflation. That is why those two statistics make up the entire 'Misery Index.' The only expert I trust to give the true figures is John Williams of ShadowStats.com. He calculates those numbers the way our own government did until 1990, when they decided to rig the system to prevent panic and unrest. Based on pre-1990 calculations, today's CPI inflation is now over 10% and unemployment is 15%. This 25% Misery Index is, by far, the highest in modern history. ...Even more foreboding, 10% inflation is a leading indicator of hyperinflation on the way.."
Greedy Government Guzzles Gas Taxes at Our Expense
Who's greedy and capable of reducing gasoline costs?
Vicki Mckenna and Tea Partiers fueling a peaceful protest.
Economic Crisis and the Typical Response
<<Every ounce of preparation taken today will be worth a tonne in the future... My current favourite pop question and answer on the street is
Q. "What do you think about the economic crisis, the rise of the PM's and the fall of the FIAT currencies, the printing of money to rob everyone via inflation or the imposing of austerity in order to protect the banks"
A. "Well i try not to think about it">> Comment under ZeroHedge's post, Relentless Dollar Plummeting Continues
Tax and Debt Bomb | Larry Kudlow
Tax and Debt Bomb: "...the president's formula of estimating higher revenues to lower the deficit is completely wrong. The reality is that higher tax rates will slow the economy, inhibit new start-up companies, penalize investors, and may very well lose revenues and increase the deficit...According to Internal Revenue Service data, the entire taxable income of everyone earning over $100,000 in 2008 was about $1.582 trillion. Even if all these Americans—most of whom are far from wealthy—were taxed at 100%, it wouldn't cover Mr. Obama's deficit [how much we overspend in one year] for this year."
You Can't Tax the Rich Enough to Close the Deficit | Heritage: "...Over the next 10 years, the Obama tax hikes will take almost $700 billion from taxpayers. That is only 8 percent of the nearly $9 trillion President Obama's budget adds in debt over that same period. Low tax revenues are not the cause of the debt explosion; spending is...
Closing the more than $1 trillion deficit Obama's spending would produce in 2020 by taxing only the rich would require a top income tax rate of 134 percent.... So even if it were mathematically possible to tax more income than the rich earn, there would be none of it left for the government to confiscate"
Click image for the source video and its clear explanation. Conflict of interest: Politicians don't have their money at stake & have everything to gain. At the least, union dues should be voluntary & only salary negotiated. Believe me, they'll still get taxpayer-funded HC&Retirement - just not more than politicians think they can get us to stomach or cough up. THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF MONEY LAUNDERING.
This is only rough approximation to illustrate a point. Govt workers are the govt. Non-govt taxpayers fund the public sector unions and their campaign contributions. We're taking care of our own HC&Retirement. Not expecting anyone (except maybe our kids) to help us out. Insurance is for crisis emergencies.
Shadow Puppet Master
Soros Exposed - Research on the Progressive Puppet Master: Learn more about the man who broke the Bank of England, the "Open Society," and the organizations Soros funds.
Soros: China Has Better Functioning Government than U.S. Who is George Soros?
The Soros Plan to Overthrow The US Government: "1) infiltrate countries with his operatives, under the cover of humanitarian aid; 2) take control of the air waves by creating "independent media" under his own control; 3) destabilize the targeted country with financial manipulations and political agitation, 4) wait for an election, then disrupts it with charges of voter fraud, then; 5) take the streets with armies of activist youth whom Soros has recruited, trained and funded, all demanding that the incumbent step down. The formula often works. In theory, it is supposed to produce a "bloodless" coup, in which few people are killed or harmed. Things went tragically wrong in Kenya, however..."
Committe of Un-American Activities document: "This is a document from the Committee of Un-American Activities, December 30, 1961. It features an essay explaining the radicals top up, bottom down theory."
Related: The Road to Serfdom
Senate GOP Adopts Earmark Ban
Per Jim Demint: The significance of this policy victory [banning earmarks for the 112th Congress] cannot be overstated. Now Senate Republicans will not be pressured to:
1) vote for budget-busting spending bills just to secure a little pork for their states.
2) support federal programs that perform functions that should be left to states, local communities and individuals. Credits Ron Johnson as one reason the ban went through.
What Do China and GM have in Common?
"What-do-China's-economy-and-GM's-sales-have-in-common? Both look great until you realize they're based on bogus metrics... As ZeroHedge has noted one of the more staggering activities the People's Republic has engaged in is actually blowing up buildings and then constructing new buildings on the property in order to maintain its economic 'miracle.'"
"As the mainstream financial media trumpeted the other day, GM announced incredible sales growth of 49% for February. Of course, they didn't bother reporting on the second half of the GM's sales announcement. As Bill King noted in a recent King Report the full sentence from GM's press release was:...General Motors total sales in the United States rose 49 percent in February, as dealers reported 207,028 deliveries for the company's four brands… Month-end dealer inventory in the United States stood at about 517,000 units, which is … about 101,000 higher than February 2010... [and] check out this little snippet from GM's 10-K: …we generally recognize revenue upon the release of the vehicle to the carrier responsible for transporting it to a dealer, which is shortly after the completion of production. Vehicle sales data, which includes retail and fleet sales, does not correlate directly to the revenue we recognize during the period."
Still Too Fast Too Furious
Why did my brother become an extreme Isl*mist? Fascinating...
Obama's Missionless War (If you don't have a mission, it's hard to know when it's accomplished.) by Mark Steyn - Always on target and funny. If you can't figure out what we're doing overseas - you're in good company.
Faux job numbers could lead to real trouble For example, "...the figure included 117,000 jobs that the department thinks, but can't prove, were created by newly formed companies that might not even exist. In fact, the department is getting so optimistic about the labor market that it increased this imaginary job count from just 81,000 in March, 2010...during 2009 and 2010 these springtime assumptions -- which are officially called the Birth/Death Model by Labor -- led to major errors in the annual job count. The next three months should be doozies. In April 2010, the Labor Department guessed that 188,000 jobs were created by these newly formed, maybe nonexistent companies; last May's total job number was jacked up by a 215,000 guess, and June got an artificial boost of 147,000 jobs... This year, Labor will likely be inserting even bigger faux job totals for each of those three months... In other words, you still might not be able to get a job in the real world, but there should be plenty of fake jobs for the newspapers to write about and the politicians to brag about in speeches. Why should you care?"
This article doesn't even go into manipulating the numbers by reducing the numbers born and increasing the numbers who died (therefore they're not counted as part of the employable) or taking more thousands out of the count due to people "dropping out" of the employment scene - really? They just quit looking in theory, so no problem - sort of like the increases in food and oil prices don't mean we're experiencing an inflation problem, because they aren't part of the inflation formula.
It's here. Have you noticed it?
"Official" inflation numbers do NOT include oil, food, and other commodities (i.e., things we need and use in our daily lives).
Liberalology
Today's (1/11/11) SAT question. Does this shed light on what liberals who don't have power want? I'm surprised SAT created this one.
"Their ideal was to combine individual liberty with material equality, a goal that has not yet been realized and that may be as ------- as transmutation of lead into gold.
A. chimerical
B. indispensable
C. historical
D. cynical
E. inharmonious" (Click here to check answer.)
What Happens When Lots of People Get It?
Obviously some people are worried - what happens when lots of people are? Mountain House cans will be back - but at what prices then? Read Breitbart's assessment of Economic Storm Clouds on the Horizon.
Click image to go to the MountainHouse website. Check our Emergency page!
Too Fast, Too Furious
Is Obama saying some forms of Jih*d are okay? See how the media edits this recent response. (video)
Bernadine Dorn ("ex"-terrorist Weatherman and wife of Bill Ayers) talks about the need to overthrow capitalism (the free market). (video)
An interesting panel (including rockstar businessman Gene Simmons) discusses the need to abolish the Fed on Fox News. (video)
College applications gone wild - Colleges encourage everyone to apply so they can brag about their statistics (not mentioned is the incredible amount of money they make on all those rejected applications).
Missed it? Listen to Rush interview President Bush 43 11/9/10
MacIver Principles to Guide Wisconsin's Government Stop being a social services magnet; pursue privatization when cost effective; demand equal treatment for all; scale back taxing authorities; eliminate unfunded mandates; conduct a bureaucratic purge; embrace transparency.
Interesting questions to ask ourselves as conservatives - a comparison of libertarian vs conservative viewpoints. Do you believe it's morally wrong for government (or anyone) to:
Forcibly take one person's money in order to give it to another person for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid?
Regulate, monitor, or control peaceful activity?
Go abroad and kill people for the sake of democracy?
European nations begin seizing private pensions
Hungary, Poland, and three other nations take over citizens' pension money to make up government budget shortfalls...
Think 401ks and trusts are safe forever? By which generation will our government resort to "safekeeping" your wealth and retirement?
Ann's Take on the 2011 SOTUS - Hope, Change, and 'Invest'
Ann Coulter hones in on the key points like no other..."Obama compared "investing" in education to our sending a man to the moon after the Russians launched Sputnik. Say, who was the president who recently gutted spending on NASA? Oh yes, that was Obama..."
"Obama said, 'We are the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook.'...And then the government outlawed Edison's great invention, made the Wright brothers' air travel insufferable, filed anti-trust charges against Microsoft and made cars too expensive to drive by prohibiting oil exploration, and right now -- at this very minute -- is desperately trying to regulate the Internet."
Representing Illinois?
Another WTF moment?
Is this what BO means by Winning The Future?
Others' Tweets:
"Hasn't someone told the WI unions not to worry about their health benefits? ObamaCare will take care of that."
"Just got back from 1 hr in Wisc. Capitol. Crowd blocking access to Senate Chamber is 80 percent college and high school students."
"Are WI senators actually hiding from their own constituents?"
"and we're proud of him!! RT @floridajayhawk: Rush: The Governor of Wisconsin is Fighting For Every American Now. #wiunion"
"I'm curious to see how the MIA Wisconsin Dem Senators will explain escaping the state to the voters."
"Students who believe they have 'taken over' the Capitol have pushed people out of the elevators, & blocked access to hallways/offices."
"WEAC recruiting Illinois teachers to increase crowd size at Madison rallies http://www.ieanea.org/" (MacIver Institute has great tweets and can be followed at http://www.facebook.com/MacIverInstitute and www.MacIverInstitute.com)
"Average value of benefits for MPS teacher in 2001=$17,452. In 2010=$30,202. Not picking on workers, but a 73% jump is unsustainable."
Click here to read the actual bill.
Click here to learn more about home-school curriculum. :)
Federal, state, and local debt hits post-WWII levels (i.e., it exceeds size of entire economy)
"The daunting tower of national, state and local debt in the United States will reach a level this year unmatched just after World War II and already exceeds the size of the entire economy, according to government estimates... But any similarity between 1946 and now ends there...
The labor force is aging, U.S. manufacturing often lags behind Asian and European rivals, households are in hock up to their eyeballs, and consumer appetite for goods is tepid. In addition, inflation is tame and government spending locked into entitlement programs and debt service that will be hard or impossible to alter... Moreover, today state and municipal governments are also facing fiscal woes - another difference between now and the postwar era... Today's consumers and banks are strapped... Zeitz said that many governors speak of "cuts" when they mean cuts from projected spending, assuming continued growth from inflation and other factors. Many states whose governors boast of making budget cuts could end up with higher levels of spending..."
Two Californias | Victor Davis Hanson
"...California does not care whether one broke the law to arrive here or continues to break it by staying. It asks nothing of the illegal immigrant — no proficiency in English, no acquaintance with American history and values, no proof of income, no record of education or skills. It does provide all the public assistance that it can afford (and more that it borrows for), and apparently waives enforcement of most of California's burdensome regulations and civic statutes that increasingly have plagued productive citizens to the point of driving them out. How odd that we overregulate those who are citizens and have capital to the point of banishing them from the state, but do not regulate those who are aliens and without capital to the point of encouraging millions more to follow in their footsteps. How odd — to paraphrase what Critias once said of ancient Sparta — that California is at once both the nation's most unfree and most free state, the most repressed and the wildest..."
Conservative Solutions and Commitment
Don't let anyone say there aren't solutions and specific proposals being made for reducing the size of government and increasing our individual freedoms. Now is the time to read up and educate ourselves. Expect constant learning!
Delivering on Our Commitment (pdf) | Eric Cantor (Future House Majority Leader)
Along with promising to continue listening to the people through the YouCut program, Cantor introduces his suggestions by stating: "New tax increases would not only cause further harm to our economy, but they also fix the wrong problem: Washington doesn't have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem." Click here to read ResistNet's summary of the Commitment highlights.
Solutions for America | Heritage
Read what Heritage.org suggests about the need to freeze and cut spending, repeal Obamacare, stop the Obama tax hikes, protect America, and get control of government. Details about each aspect of the Policy Agenda are readily available (e.g., on Education Reform, Tax Reform, Restoring the U.S. To a Free Economy).Heritage's Get to Work: Freeze and Cut Spending is also worth reading.
CATO Handbook for Policymakers | CATO Institute
The introduction states, "At the Cato Institute we stand firmly on the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, on the bedrock American values of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace...And have confidence that free people, left to their own devices, will address issues of concern to them more effectively outside a political environment." There are chapters on Restructuring Federal Government, Government Reform, Health Care and Entitlement Reform, Cutting Federal Departments and Programs, Threats to Civil Liberties, Regulation, Tax Policy, Energy and Environment, Foreign and Defense Policy, International Economic Policy.
Roadmap for America | Paul Ryan
Of course, WI's own Paul Ryan early on proposed a comprehensive roadmap for America that tackles Health Care, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, Tax Reform, Additional Reforms, and Setting the Record Straight. Understand the difference behind a Choice of Two Futures. Paul's solution for Medicare is summarized at CATO.
Re-Thinking Education?
Wow! A teacher's group inocuously titled, Rethinking Schools, started by MKE area teachers. Click here to see their archived issues. I learned about this group from a teacher in Oregon. Here's their take on what teachers should be telling our children about what's happening in WI today. Only for highschoolers? Nah - they recommend elementary books, too. Take Teaching About Labor Issues and the Wisconsin Worker Fight Back. Do you embrace the way they want teachers to "embrace this 'teachable moment'"?
"According to Labor historian, Mark Naison, the movement of workers that began in Wisconsin and is now spreading to other states is "the most important labor struggle in the United States in the 21st Century."
The current uprising of workers in Wisconsin and other states presents a powerful opportunity to teach students about what the protests are about, and why their teachers and neighbors are joining the struggle. It's an opportunity to critically examine issues, and to model for students responsible civic action and engagement in the political process.
As members of teacher unions, we have an additional responsibility, summarized by the late Howard Zinn in an interview published in Transforming Teacher Unions (: "If teacher unions want to be strong and well-supported, it's essential that they not only be teacher unionists but teachers of unionism. We need to create a generation of students who support teachers and the movements of teachers for their rights."
Embrace this "teachable moment," and share with us (in the comments) what resources you are using, how you are using them, and how your students are responding..." [Click here to see the books they recommend - e.g., Click, Clack, Moo. Here are local names you might recognize!]
Dems Attack Repub Children | Oregon State Outrage
Why Koch Industries Is Speaking Out: "Crony capitalism and bloated government prevent entrepreneurs from producing the products and services that make people's lives better"
Hey Eric Holder: Meet My People! Michelle Malkin uses "a golden opportunity to stand up, identify 'our people' and show the liberal poseurs what post-racialism really looks like."
Charles Krauthammer explains in Rubicon - a river in Wisconsin that "...To redress these perverse incentives that benefit both negotiating parties at the expense of the taxpayer, Walker's bill would restrict future government-union negotiations to wages only. Excluded from negotiations would be benefits, the more easily hidden sweeteners that come due long after the politicians who negotiated them are gone. The bill would also require that unions be recertified every year and that dues be voluntary..."
Click image to see Heritage.org's short video explanation.
You can be an Election Observer
Train yourself from the comfort of your home!
Under the State Statue(7.41), any member of the public, except a candidate, has the right to observe the election process at any polling place in the state. At the website www.WereWatchingWisconsinElections.org, you can find the Wisconsin Election Observer Manual and PowerPoint Presentation (see blue box upper left). This website is in the "public realm" and can be used by anyone to train themselves and go to the polls to observe as a "concerned citizen."
It can be used by anyone to train themselves and go to the polls to observe as a "concerned citizen."
Have you heard that the machine votes for you?! No way! Learn what to do, how to watch and take notes, and report fraud if you see/experience it. See related material and articles explaining the need for reforming voting process anytime.
The + = More Conservatives in Congress; The - = Ruling Class RINOs
More power in Congress doesn't mean anything if it doesn't result in less government, more freedom, and lower (MUCH lower) taxes. Making our leadership more conservative (Tea Party-esque) would be a good step towards indicating the seriousness of the intent to reduce the size and role of government. Reminders of the dangers ahead below:
Senate Republicans May Not Try to Repeal Obamacare - "...It is worth noting that neither Mitch McConnell nor Lamar Alexander have signed on as co-sponsors to Jim DeMint's legislation that would repeal Obamacare."
Empty Promise: When it gets down to brass tacks, the GOP has no brass | Andrew McCarthy." -- "...Inevitably, having an "agenda of government" involves the state choosing winners and losers. It calls for government officials to decide what each of us should have based on their subjective sense of fairness...we don't want to be told how you're going to make Big Government work better. We want to know how you're going to reduce government to a neutral guarantor of liberty...[The GOP Pledge to America] assumes Americans are junkies hooked on entitlement smack, incapable of going cold turkey and insensitive to the fact that we've run out of other people's money...the pledge would leave the welfare state largely intact...By vowing to roll out-of-control federal spending all the way back to#…#the out-of-control levels of 2008[!]...Don't get me wrong. The country will be much better off if Republicans are elected in November. Many of them are very solid conservatives. Among these, Rep. Paul Ryan has made Herculean efforts to wrestle with entitlements and bring spending into line with revenues, not the other way around — although, alas, the Republican establishment has kept its distance despite the fact that Ryan, too, seeks to preserve the welfare state (albeit in reduced form), not pronounce it futile..."
Feingold vs Johnson | Thomas Sowell 10/12/10
"...Although Senator Feingold cast himself in the role of a defender of Social Security, Ron Johnson pointed out that members of Congress like Senator Feingold had in fact undermined Social Security financially, by spending its money on other things...The rationale for the McCain-Feingold law was to reduce the influence of money in political campaigns. But did you notice any reduction in the role of money after that law was passed and before it was declared unconstitutional? Feingold and McCain sold our birthright and didn't even get the mess of pottage...[tax cuts] have increased tax revenues, because people change their behavior in response to tax cuts, and the resulting increase in economic activity generates higher incomes...They are really "tax cuts for the economy," but that name does not have the same political pizzazz as "tax cuts for the rich."
Johnson Impresses in 2nd Debate | National Review Online
"...Johnson scored big on a counter to one of Feingold's standard lamentations — 'woe is me, the lonely independent voice in a Congress of partisans,' etc. — by bringing up Feingold's (decisive) votes on the stimulus package and health-care reform, two highly partisan efforts. Feingold responded that the stimulus wasn't partisan because the two Maine Republicans voted for it, and this seemed to cause a bit of a commotion in the crowd and considerable laughter, as Johnson fittingly threw a look of disbelief in Feingold's direction. This was an absolute low point for Feingold and exposed his biggest weak point. He looked more than ever like a vulnerable incumbent fighting a losing battle...I refuse to write Feingold off just yet. But after watching Johnson's performance tonight, it's clear that — if elected — he will be a force to be reckoned with in the Senate. And Democrats aren't the only ones who should be taking notice."
FBI Terror Probe Targets Group Funded by Obama
"<<President, Bill Ayers channeled money to "anti-Israel" organization (posted 9/29/10)>>
"JERUSALEM – President Obama and Weather Underground terrorist group founder William Ayers provided funds in the 1990s to an Arab group whose executive director had his home raided last week in a terror probe by the FBI... "The [search] warrants are seeking evidence in support of an ongoing Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation into activities concerning the material support of terrorism," Steve Warfield, spokesman for the FBI in Minneapolis, told reporters.... Warfield was referring to the FBI's raid of seven homes Friday, including that of Hatem Abudayyeh, the executive director of the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN..."
How Obama Thinks | Dinesh D'Souza
"...Anticolonialism is the doctrine that rich countries of the West got rich by invading, occupying and looting poor countries of Asia, Africa and South America... | The rich, Obama insists, aren't paying their "fair share." This by itself seems odd given that ... the top 10% pays 70% of the taxes; the bottom 40% pays close to nothing... | Obama Sr. was an economist, and in 1965 he published an important article in the East Africa Journal called "Problems Facing Our Socialism." Obama Sr. ... saw state appropriation of wealth as a necessary means to achieve the anticolonial objective of taking resources away from the foreign looters and restoring them to the people of Africa... | The senior Obama proposed that the state confiscate private land and raise taxes with no upper limit. In fact, he insisted that "theoretically there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100% of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed... | Why support oil drilling off the coast of Brazil but not in America? Obama believes that the West uses a disproportionate share of the world's energy resources, so he wants neocolonial America to have less and the former colonized countries to have more...The anticolonialist believes that since the rich have prospered at the expense of others, their wealth doesn't really belong to them; therefore whatever can be extracted from them is automatically just... | Finally, NASA. No explanation other than anticolonialism makes sense of Obama's curious mandate to convert a space agency into a Muslim and international outreach... | In his own writings Obama stresses the centrality of his father not only to his beliefs and values but to his very identity...'It was into my father's image, the black man, son of Africa, that I'd packed all the attributes I sought in myself.'... | This philandering, inebriated African socialist [Obama Sr.], who raged against the world for denying him the realization of his anticolonial ambitions, is now setting the nation's agenda through the reincarnation of his dreams in his son. The son makes it happen, but he candidly admits he is only living out his father's dream..."
Economic Freedom Suffers First Setback in Decades
CATO's introduction | Economic Freedom of the World: An Interactive Map
"...In this year's index (2010), Hong Kong retains the highest rating for economic freedom, 9.05 out of 10. The other top 10 nations are: Singapore (8.70), New Zealand (8.27), Switzerland (8.08), Chile (8.03), United States (7.96), Canada (7.95), Australia (7.90), Mauritius (7.82), and the United Kingdom (7.81)..."
"...In the most-free quartile, the average income of the poorest 10% of the population was $8,474 compared to $910 for those in the least-free quartile, in constant 2005 international dollars..."
"...To achieve meaningful advances in economic freedom, countries must undertake simultaneous reform to the different areas of the index, rather than trying to change one at a time. Changes to one area in isolation tend to decay back to prior levels unless accompanied by changes in other areas..."
Chapter 3: The Effects of American Recession - Fighting Policies on Economic Freedom (source of Table 3.2)
Scott Walker's Plan for Job Creators
Lower Taxes - specifically early stage and investment capital, corporate taxes for the first two years of operation; [phase out] state tax on retirement income
Eliminate Red Tape - Regulations should be science based and predictable...written in simple, easy to understand terms; and employers should have a one-stop-shop for understanding the regulations that affect them; require state agencies to review permit applications within 60 days of receipt. If the application is not approved or denied by the agency within 180 days of receipt, the application will be presumed approved.
End Frivolous Lawsuits that Kill Jobs
Make Health Care Affordable - More cost and quality information be provided to patient; increasing choices; paying for positive health outcomes, not simply for the volume of procedures; eliminating the state tax on Health Savings Accounts.
Invest in Infrastructure - Lift Wisconsin's nuclear moratorium; [end] the raids on the Transportation Fund so we can adequately maintain our roads and bridge; update telecommunications laws to encourage competition and lower price.
You Might Be a Liberal If...
. . . you believe that a mosque should be built at Ground Zero, but Jews shouldn't build apartments in East Jerusalem.
. . . you believe that opposing abortion violates right of privacy, but you want to tell people they can't eat french fries.
. . . you believe that immersing a crucifix in urine is fine art, but depicting the prophet Mohammed is insensitive.
. . . you spend your day telling people that a border fence can't work, then drive home to your gated community.
. . . you think Sarah Palin was too inexperienced to be VP but that Obama had plenty of experience to be President.
. . . you think credit card companies are evil when they lend money, and mortgage companies are evil when they don't.
. . . you think people have too many kids, and that those kids need to pay for your Social Security.
. . . you think the Government should be obsessed with race, but no one else should ever mention it.
Read more at You Might Be a Liberal If... More Marquette Warrior
...Global Cooling for 10 years proves that there is global warming.
...You think that using less toilet paper will be good for the air.
...The best way to care about a disease is to wear a ribbon.
...People should be allowed to euthanize themselves, but not to eat in McDonald's.
...Career welfare recipients are fat because they can't afford food.
...You see racist code-words in all media except in hip-hop singles such as "Kill The White People".
...You oppose all racial prejudice, but think all whites are racist, consciously or not.
...None of the Constitutional Rights you believe in are actually written in the U.S. Constitution.
...Child molesters can live anywhere and maintain their privacy, but Wal-Mart should be limited to far-away places where children can't be exposed to it.
...Affirmative action is the way to solve racial problems in America.
...You support the United States, you are blind idiot who wraps himself in patriotism. If you support Israel, you fell for Zionist . . . propaganda. If you side with Islamists, you truly understand international politics and your views are intricate and nuanced.
...You laugh at Dan Quayle, but you still can't figure out the difference between "your" and "you're."
Read more at You Might Be a Liberal If... Marquette Warrior
What's Burning Between Us?
The Eternal Flame of Musl*m Outrage | Michelle Malkin -- "Every blogger worth his salt knows "Islamic Rage Boy." He represents the professional Musl-m grievance-monger, always at the ready to protest whatever manufactured insult could be exploited to curse the West."
Bonfire of the Insanities | Ann Coulter -- "...what liberals said about the ground zero mosque only five minutes ago when they were posing as First Amendment absolutists. Suddenly, they've developed amnesia when it comes to the free-speech right to burn a Qur-n...Weirdly, conservatives who opposed building the mosque at ground zero are also against the Qur-n burning...Whenever you see a liberal choking up over our precious constitutional rights, you can be sure we're talking about the rights of Musl-ms at ground zero, "God Hates Fags" funeral protesters, strippers, The New York Times publishing classified documents, pornographers, child molesters, murderers, traitors, saboteurs, terrorists, flag-burners (but not Qur-n-burners!) or women living on National Endowment of the Arts grants by stuffing yams into their orifices on stage..."
A Ground-Zero Mosque is Demanded, But Can Isl-m Itself Learn Tolerance? | CanadaFreePress -- "...It is obvious for Islam to be treated as an equal and looked upon with respect that it must live up to modern standards of religious practice..."
72 Coming to America -- James Thunder in the American Spectator: "...The number of kidnappings and the deaths of people coming to join us from the south over more than 30 years has risen in stages not sufficient to cause us to jump [out of the pot of boiling water]. The massacre of these 72 coming to America may finally cause us to act. Let us recognize that America is an exceptional country and that people from all over the world are drawn to join us. We should not allow conditions that encourage them to risk death to do so. Our memorial to these 72 should be a closed border."
A Speech Every American High School Principal Should Give -- Dennis Prager: "...The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity -- your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American. This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans...If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity-, race- and non-American nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America, one of its three central values -- e pluribus unum, "from many, one." And this school will be guided by America's values..."
Decoupling Now, Currency Crisis Soon -- National Inflation Association: "...Because the rest of the world still likes to follow and emulate the U.S., it might be Americans who initiate the upcoming stampede out of bonds, U.S. dollars and other dollar-denominated assets, and into precious metals. For the time being, the average American is still more likely to be a seller of gold. Recycling of gold increased 35% last quarter to 496 metric tons. Once Americans become educated about how gold isn't expensive and is still trading for only 1/2 of its all time high adjusted to the CPI and 1/4 of its all time high adjusted to the real rate of price inflation, and that by recycling gold they are actually trading real money for fiat paper money, this recycling supply will diminish and the world will face a major gold shortage..."
A Senator and His "Disciples": The Senate's stalwart opponent of big government is intent on electing some allies this year. His new PAC and growing anti-Obama sentiment mean he just might succeed -- WSJ -- "...In 2006 and 2007, he tried to fund raise for the GOP and the official Senate campaign committee. "I discovered that people were just so frustrated with the Republicans. I was over there at the Senate committee making fund-raising calls and so many people were saying, 'I'm not giving you guys another dime until you start acting like Republicans.' That's when I got the idea of starting a committee to just help conservative candidates." Read the article to learn about his 1st meeting with Ron Johnson!
WI Residential Incentives -- an interesting website serving as a database of state incentives (e.g., cash-back awards) for renewables and efficiency.
A Brief for Whitey | Pat Buchanan 3/21/08
A Buchanan piece worth re-reading: "...Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America... We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing... Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago."
Ron Johnson is doing what few believed possible | DeMint
"...Conservative U.S. Senate Candidate Ron Johnson is doing what few believed was possible: he's running a successful campaign against an entrenched incumbent in a state that went for Obama by 13 points in the 2008 presidential election...Feingold is one of the Senate's most liberal members and is responsible for the policies that have driven our nation's debt over $13 trillion...Feingold was the deciding 60th vote for President's Obama's $787 billion stimulus bill, which he said would create jobs and would not be spent unwisely. Both claims turned out to be false. In fact, since the stimulus bill was passed, Wisconsin has lost 82,000 jobs..."
Education related:
NEW The Bright Pupils who shun university for a head start
Why college? Read "alternatives to spending $200,000 per kid so they can waste four years of their lives." DailyFinance
Schools Erase America From U.S. History | Phyllis Schlafly
Further thoughts on the higher education bubble | Glenn Harlan Reynolds
"Many people with college educations are already jumping the tracks to become skilled manual laborers: plumbers, electricians, and the like. And the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that seven of the ten fastest-growing jobs in the next decade will be based on on-the-job training rather than higher education"
Juvenile Jabs Don't Deserve Standing O's | Thomas Sowell
"If you can't tell the difference between luck and performance, what has your education given you, except the rhetoric to conceal your confusion from others and perhaps from yourself?"
Is it worth it to go to college? Daunting debt makes some wary of higher education
"Private schools charge $26,300 a year on average, compared with $7,000 for in-state students at public, four-year schools, according to the College Board" My understanding is that UW Madison is ~$20,000 in state for tuition/room/board.
Mequon-Theinsville and Our Backyard School Nightmares
UN Influence in U.S. Schools
They're doing it: U.N. makes its move into your school: Program already operating in hundreds of U.S. locations. M-T school board in
The International Baccalaureate Curriculum
ParentalRights.org states that "the vital child-parent relationship is exposed to the imminent danger posed by anti-parent judges within the federal courts, as well as to the risks of international law which seeks to undermine the parental role.
HT FinanceTimes
Health Care related:
Think health reform will cut costs? Think again.
"...[Medicare] Enrollees have little reason to refuse extra care because they pay no additional costs...Not surprisingly, that's exactly what has happened. According to the CBO, the average Medicare beneficiary used 40% more physician services in 2005 than in 1997. Similarly, physician use of medical tests increased 40% from 2002 to 2007, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. Needless to say, Medicare spending has exploded..." Reforms won't correct it.
Health Care Reform: 13 Tax Changes on the Way: Here are 13 changes in the massive overhaul that could impact your tax bill, for better or worse.
WI Nurses Association endorses Dems (via WINPAC; see pps. 3-4).
Bright Lights in Texas Leave Wisconsin Taxpayers in the Dark
"...Three days prior to the signing of the stimulus, Senator Feingold issued a press release saying the stimulus would create 2.4 million jobs in the first year, and about nine million jobs in the first three years... The Johnson Campaign will be highlighting wasteful stimulus spending projects Russ Feingold believes are getting the job done..."
Trade Deficit Surges; Q2 GDP To Be Revised To Sub-1%
ZeroHedge alerts us that "As the attached chart shows, the recent Obama initiative to push exports to double in 5 years has started off, just like all other administration efforts, as an abysmal failure... And this was in a quarter when the stimulus was still expected to be boosting GDP. We now fully expect that the final reports of Q3 and Q4 GDP, some time in 2011, to be solidly negative, as the economy is now officially contracting once again. In other words, the Double Dip-recession is (even more) official."
Spending Cut Ideas
Marco Rubio offers his ideas for cutting spending. He is running for Senate in FL and is supported by the Senate Conservatives Fund (as is Ron Johnson). In brief: Cut budgets 10%. Freeze Fed pay and reduce size to 2008 levels. Reallocate TARP to paydown debt. End "Stimulus" program. Ban earmarks. Pass balanced budget amendment. Require 2/3rds vote to pass tax hikes. Allow taxpayers to check-off having 10% of their taxes go to pay down debt and requiring spending cuts to offset reduced take. Automatically sunset Gov't programs. Freeze non-defense, non-Veteran funding to 2008 levels. Give Prez line-item veto. Radically reform SSecurity and Medicare.
Arizona Police and Tribal Policy
James Thunder informs us at the American Spectator: "...President Obama signed into law yesterday [7/29/10] the Tribal Law and Order Act. Why irony? Why hypocrisy?... The report states that tribal police are empowered to enforce federal laws "whether or not the offender is Indian." If there was any merit to the argument that the Arizona law necessarily entailed racial profiling, is there not a great risk of racial profiling when tribal police enforce the federal laws against non-Indians on Indian Reservations? It is far easier for tribal police to discern who does not belong on the reservations they patrol than for Arizona police to discern who does not belong in the United States. So, do we not have the prospect of a person of Hispanic ethnicity on a reservation in Arizona being lawfully stopped and questioned by tribal police, while the same person standing outside the reservation cannot be by Arizona police?"
Think Big - Republicans Should Embrace Paul Ryan's Roadmap
Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard writes: "...There are three reasons Republicans should ignore their jitters about the Road Map. The first is that the nation's disenchantment with Obama and Democrats will take Republicans only so far. There's a residue of bad feelings toward Republicans from the years the party ruled Congress, spent too much, and produced scandals.
Voters have memories. To overcome their qualms, Republicans need to provide more than a litany of Democratic faults. Voters are frightened about the future of the country. They're looking for a serious solution to the mess we're in. The Road Map offers exactly that...The full plan—"A Road Map for America's Future"—is outlined in a formidable, 87-page document. It would give everyone a refundable tax credit to buy health insurance, allow individual investment accounts to be carved out of Social Security, reduce the six income tax rates to two (10 and 25 percent), and replace the corporate tax (35 percent) with a business consumption tax (8.5 percent). And that's not the half of it..."
Six months to go until the biggest tax hikes in history.
NJ Gov Christie wants to privatize MANY services. You go, Guv!
ResistNet has a book and movie club forum -- click on the link you prefer and check out the recommendations.
Check out Sharron Angle's latest ad in her campaign against Reid in Nev. (video)
John Stossel and Guns [really do] Saves Lives.
Thomas Sowell and Gun Control Laws ("It is ultimately an empirical question whether allowing ordinary citizens to have firearms will increase or decrease the amount of violence...")
Historians Locate King Arthur's Round Table (allowing for 1,000 Knights).
Forbes provides an interactive map that allows you to see the inflow/outflow of a county's population. This map shows those coming in and out of Milwaukee County. Red lines are the outflow of at least 10 people as tracked by the IRS. The dark red lines are of 200+ people! Black lines indicate people moving into the county -- not many of those! HT GOP3.com
Teacher Bailout Is Unnecessary (esp. in WI)
"...The current health plan costs taxpayers $26,844 per family, compared to the typical $14,500 cost for a private employer family plan. The plan does not require teachers to pay any premiums toward the cost of the health plan—a situation that is all but extinct in private employment. In the spring, the school board offered a new health plan that would reduce costs to $17,172 per family. The plan would have saved money by requiring co-pays....According to a budget analysis the MacIver Institute obtained from the Milwaukee public school system, shifting teachers to the plan offered by the school board could have saved $47.2 million. This would have prevented, according to the report, the lay offs of "approximately 480 teachers"—more than the number that ultimately lost their jobs. But when union officials were presented the option, they chose to allow their members to be dismissed...Full WSJ article by Stephen Moore: "A Case Study in Teacher Bailouts Milwaukee shows that unions will keep resisting concessions if Washington rides to the rescue"
Feingold faces unexpectedly tough race in WI (AP 7/6/10)
The Daily Caller highlights a totally biased analysis in an AP article updated from earlier version. Love the ending though!! "In conservative fashion, he [Ron Johnson] calls for reducing spending by reducing the size of government and opposes "blanket amnesty" for illegal immigrants as well as cap-and-trade legislation to address climate change: "I do not believe man-made global warming is proven." ... He advocates repealing the health care overhaul, calling it "the greatest assault on our freedom in my lifetime." ... Johnson has suggested that the Second Amendment right to bear arms was intended "so we could keep government in check." He's called shutting down the IRS "a wonderful thing," though questioned the practicality of it. And he has wondered how "Social Security is different from a giant Ponzi scheme." ... Democrats say those remarks illustrate that Johnson is outside the mainstream." Out of the mainstream?! Let them think that way.
Another Anti-Free Speech Act aka the DISCLOSE Act (HR5175)
Democrats' DISCLOSE Act: What you Need To Know, Why You Need To Care [Call your Senator!]
"...Democrats want to decide for us who can be trusted and who can not. Of course, anyone paying close enough attention will quickly realize that organizations such as CodePink, MoveOn, the now-defunct ACORN, and the SEIU (read "big" labor) have been in the back pockets of Democrats for a generation…so the real issue here is not THAT a lot of money is at stake when Politicians run for office…it's which stack of cash is clean and which is dirty…and who DECIDES. This bill will allow big organizations to continue donating big dollars to Politicians, so long as their membership is over 500,000 strong, they have at least one member residing in every state, and they meet certain tax-exempt criteria. It also prevents large dollars from being donated by individuals and small groups and… in my opinion worst of all…it extends to 90 days prior to an election all the limitations to free speech we were guaranteed in the Constitution would never be abridged… and just barely "got back" when the Supreme Court struck down parts of the ill-conceived McCain-Feingold bill when it rendered its Citizens United decision...This is outrageous. But it is instructive as well. We can no longer engage in discussions about candidates and their campaigns and their policy positions during the period 90 days prior to their primary/caucus/conventions and running all the way through the November election. In the case of President and Vice President it's 120 days. Not only are we not allowed to speak…we're not allowed to speak during the WHOLE of the campaign and election cycle when people are actually paying attention enough to consider whether they'll even bother going to the polls!..." Sensenbrenner says/votes NO!
U.S. trying to deport "Son of Hamas": A Christian convert who spied for Israel 5/27/10
Update: Cal Thomas writes about the potential deportation: "...In San Diego tomorrow (Wednesday 6/30/10) before an immigration judge, the government will charge that because of Yousef's "terrorist associations," he should be deported. Yousef tells me, "I acted like a terrorist in order to fool terrorists," but again emphasizes he never committed a terrorist act..."
Original: "...Since publicly declaring his faith in August 2008, he has been condemned by an al-Qaida-affiliated group and disowned by his family...His chief Shin Bet handler, "Captain Loai," has confirmed his account and praised him in media interviews for disrupting dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts by Hamas, saving hundreds of lives...Yousef said he's not so much worried about himself as he is "outraged" about "a security system that is so primitive and naive that it endangers the lives of countless Americans..."If Homeland Security cannot tell the difference between a terrorist and a man who spent his life fighting terrorism, how can they protect their own people?" he asked in his blog post...He recalled that when he arrived in America Jan. 2, 2007, he "walked into the airport like anyone else on a tourist visa. When he went to the Homeland Security office seven months later, he said, he knocked on the door and told them, "Hey, guys, I am the son of Sheik Hassan Yousef, my father is involved in a terrorist organization, and I would like political asylum in your country." He said the officials were shocked. "I wanted them to see that they have huge gaps in their security and their understanding of terrorism and make changes before it's too late," Yousef explained..." See the "Son of Hamas" being interviewed.
The Road to Jobs | Economic Freedom Act (HR5029)
"...Fortunately, there is a bill before Congress based directly on that Kennedy-Reagan tradition. It is the Economic Freedom Act (HR5029), sponsored by Congressmen Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). The centerpiece of this bill is five bold tax cuts modeled after the tax cuts in the American Solutions Jobs First Plan.
These bold changes to our tax system would provide small businesses with immediate liquidity and change the underlying tax structure of America to set the stage for long term economic growth. They include:
Reducing the payroll tax by half for 2010 to provide immediate liquidity for companies and employees;
Eliminating the capital gains tax to encourage investment in new companies;
Reducing the corporate tax rate to 12.5% to make us competitive globally;
Permanently eliminating the death tax so small businesses and family farms can continue creating jobs for future generations;
Providing immediate business expensing so American workers have the best equipment and are the most productive.
At American Solutions we are encouraging our members to contact their representatives in Congress and ask them to support HR 5029. You can click here to help.
Walker offers up a plan to save $176 million
"...Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker said Thursday if elected governor he would save $176 million per year by requiring state employees to contribute toward their pensions. Walker said in a conference call with reporters he would voluntarily pay his share toward his own pension as soon as he took office...'If the overwhelming majority of people in the private sector pick up their share of the employee contribution for their retirement, to me it's only fair that state workers do the same, and that starts with me,' Walker said...State paychecks include pension contributions that are allocated to both employees and the state, but the state picks up both payments in nearly all cases. Walker said he would use any means he could to change that policy, including negotiating with unions or changing state law..."
Why BP will not survive
"...Taking all of this into account, BP is an irresistible cookie jar into which politicians will reach their hands over and over. Again, the dynamic is not "how much do you owe?" but rather "how much can you pay?". The answer is that you keep paying until you're broke. They will also need to demonize BP on a continual basis as a prod to pass cap-and-trade or cap-and-tax and as a club to beat Republicans who stand in their way. Just look at what happened to Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) today to get an idea of how this will pay out...Don't think the law can stop this. The law will accelerate it. BP's negligence will turn out to be criminal, not civil and the criminal penalties are exponentially greater than the civil fines and normal tort claims. Obama will use the threat of criminal prosecution to get more and then use an actual criminal prosecution to get the residual."
Jim Rickard's Interview 6/14/10
Discussing the recent and other financially economic relative topics. E.g., "...the great Depression lasted until ...pick your date '41 [industrial production returned to the 1929 level], '46 [the private economy really turned around], or '54 [when commercial and stock market values got back to 1929 levels]...we're in something like that today...[after meetings in DC with Treasury & FDIC where they expect that the economy will be bouncing back in 2011] ... I personally don't believe that...green shoots will get stomped on immediately...the irony is that the economy in Washington is in fact doing extremely well -- there is so much government spending [including lobbyists]...they're rockin' and rollin'...2008 was the year of the collapse, 2009 was the pause [due to printing $1Trillion]...[looking ahead] you see asset values declining...the mortgage was the one thing you were always going to pay due to the positive equity in the home [not anymore]...it's a grassroots revolt against the banks...just getting started...[those whose home mortgage is greater than value of home are "modifying" their loan on their own]..."
The KingWorldNews interview podcasts are worth downloading and listening while you exercise or commute!
Response's to Obama's Oval Office Speech
RNC Women's Jan Larimer: Obama Out of Touch -- "...There is no comparison that can be drawn between the deliberate, pre-meditated attacks of 9/11 and the accidental explosion that caused the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico...We knew from his failed stimulus bill that the president was out of touch on the jobs issue. And we knew following the ObamaCare debate that he was out of touch on health reform. Now we know he is actually out of touch with reality..."
Peggy Noonan: A Snakebit President -- Although Peggy doesn't acknowledge that Pres. Clinton's "luck" was a direct result of tax-cutting, de-regulating, welfare-reduction policies Reagan and the Rep Congress put through, she writes "...but the lack of adequate federal government response appropriately redounds on him...The first weekend in May, when water was rough, contractors hired by BP to lay boom "mostly stayed ashore," according to a local official. "Shrimpers took matters into their own hands, laying 18,000 feet of boom," compared to about 4,000 feet by BP's contractors [an example of a crony capitalist working within a system of gov't-mandated restrictions and gov't-created bribezilla regulators]...There is a growing meme that Mr. Obama is too impressed by credentialism, by the meritocracy, by those who hold forth in the faculty lounge, and too strongly identifies with them...and the president never sounds weaker than when he suggests his predicament is all his predecessor's fault..."
Overwhelm the System (Obama's Economic Plan)
Hmmmm... How can we increase government dependency and our control of it?.... Universal Health Care | Cap and tax | Making Puerto Rico a state | Legalizing illegal immigrants | Card check | Stimulus and Bailouts | Raising taxes.
That Stench of Rotting Bull Is Just Obama's Oval Office Speech
[Watching the speech...]
BigGovernment.com analyzes the Cap and Tax speech 6/15/10: "...A little truth Mr. President? Only after Bobby Jindal said he was going to build the barrier islands whether they were approved or not, was the barrier island plan approved....The President might have come clean and told us why the United States refused to accept skimmers from the Dutch, or help from any other country. Maybe he could have explained why miles of oil boom remain in a Maine warehouse despite the fact that the administration was informed of the supply the third week of May...Not allowing BP to spend those dollars on growing its business is limiting the company's ability to generate the profits necessary to pay its obligation to the victims of the disaster...the six month moratorium will result in job losses of over 120,000 by 2014...the amount of recoverable oil in the U.S. to be 167 billion barrels of oil, not the 21 billion figure pushed by the Democrats. If exploited that 167 billion barrels could replace America's imports from OPEC countries for more than 75 years....[The POTUS] has not allowed the approval [nuclear energy development] process to be streamlined...The bill passed by the House represents the largest tax increase in American history. It also uses government regulation essentially take over every industry that uses fossil fuel (wait, every industry uses fossil fuel)...."
Religion of Peace News...
New | Taliban can keep their guns (How about the private citizens?)
New | I am a Muslim (says our POTUS to the Egyptian Pres)
New | Of Mosques and Men: Reflections on the Ground Zero Mosque (video)
Muslims attack Jews this April on UWM campus to deny celebrating the founding of Israel (4/10).
Muslim Murders Vatican Cleric in Turkey -- Turkey turns back in time to religious "prosecution."
Barack Obama in Kenya 2006 and 2007 supporting genocide-flamer, Presidential wannabe relative Odinga on US taxpayer funds. (video)
(Link to the pact between Odinga and Nat'l Muslim Leaders Forum - calling for Sharia law, persecution of Christians, etc.)
Geert Wilders (from Holland) on Islam: "...In some elementary schools in Amsterdam the farm can no longer be mentioned, because that would also mean mentioning the pig, and that would be an insult to Muslims..."
Hannity on Homegrown Jihad: training camps in the U.S. (video)
Wafa Sultan speaks out about how she came to repudiate her religion (of peace) beliefs.(video) (She's writing The Escaped Prisoner.)
We Con the World (video)
A Mosque (or two) on/near Ground Zero (upwards of 8,000 protest).
Dennis Prager: If Israel Is Not Evil, the Work Is in Big Trouble -- "If Israel is the decent party in its war with the Palestinian Authority and Hamas -- and nearly all the world's countries, nearly all the world's media and the United Nations are morally wrong [as reflected in their condemnation of Israelis and sympathy for Palestinians] -- what hope is there for humanity? If the world's moral compass is that broken, are we not sailing into a dark age?"
Barry's personal terrorist friends helped coordinate/incite the Israeli flotilla
"...It turns out that Barack Obama's friends Weather Underground leaders William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, along with Code Pink founder and Taliban supporter Jodie Evans, helped to organize the so called "aid flotilla" that sparked the latest incidents in Israel..."
Read more at BadgerBlogger.
Related: Mark Steyn also writes a good column about Israel, Turkey, and the End of Stability.
Click the image above to walk through the facts. See how Spending is the Problem and more.
Looking for a fake 700,000 May non-farm payroll number
"...due to the [Bureau of Labor and Statistics] BLS' voodoo math and double counting, it is distinctly possible that the Census alone will add up to 507,779 workers (organic hirings of 417k and the plug for the prior period of 90k). Also, recall that the Birth-Death adjustment in April "added" another 188,000 workers. Retaining the same level of statistical adjustment, and the May NFP number will be at 700,000 before even one real full-time person has been added to the economy in the month of May!
Instead of shrugging, Ron Johnson is running for office | George Will 5/26/10
"...Asked how much of his wealth he will spend, if necessary, his answer is as simple as it is swift: 'All of it.' The theme of his campaign, the genesis of which was an invitation to address a Tea Party rally, is: 'First of all, freedom.' Then? 'Then you've got to put meat on the bones.' He gets much of his meat from the Wall Street Journal's opinion pages. And from a Wisconsin congressman, Paul Ryan, whose 'road map' for entitlement reform Johnson praises. Health care? 'Mitch Daniels has the solution.' Indiana's Republican governor has offered state employees the choice of consumer-controlled health savings accounts, and 70 percent now choose them.
'The most basic right,' Johnson says, 'is the right to keep your property.'...What Samuel Johnson said of Milton's "Paradise Lost" -- "None ever wished it longer than it is" -- some readers have said of "Atlas Shrugged." Not Johnson, who thinks it is 'too short' at 1,088 pages...."
Update: Listen to and watch Johnson's convention video with segments from Charlie Sykes' show below. Rasmusson Poll Wisconsin Senate: Feingold 46%, Johnson 44%; polled Tuesday, May 25, 2010 before Wall withdrew.
Saga of Paul Rand - Democratic Party Racial Politics in Action
"...Democrats even stoop to condemning as racist anyone who dares to engage in philosophical discussions about the constitutional limitations on federal powers - just ask Rand Paul who dared to voice the fact that a few aspects of the 1964 Civil Rights Act lacked constitutional authority...In his new book, "Whites Blacks & Racist Democrats", Wayne Perryman provides startling details about racism in the Democratic Party from 1792 to 2009. Perryman describes how the Democratic Party became known as the "Party of White Supremacy" that fought to preserve slavery and enacted discriminatory laws to deny civil rights to blacks...[and] how the Republican Party that was founded in 1854 as the anti-slavery party became the party of freedom and equality for blacks. Republicans fought to end slavery; amended the U.S. Constitution to grant blacks freedom, citizenship and the right to vote; and pushed to enact every piece of civil rights legislation from the 1860's to the 1960's over the objection of the Democrats.
Perryman brought to light the 1875 Civil Rights Act, the first law that dealt with accommodations and equality and was passed by a Republican-dominated Congress. To their eternal shame, Democrats in 1883 convinced the United States Supreme Court to declare the 1875 Civil Rights Act as "unconstitutional." Eleven years later in 1894, Democrats passed the 1894 Repeal Act to overturn the previous civil rights legislation passed during Reconstruction by Republicans...[all that and more] Ignored by the media today, as they attempt to paint all Republicans as racist, is the fact that Jim Crow laws were enacted by Democrats to force private businesses to refuse services to blacks..."
Candidate in Race to Unseat Feingold MKE J/S 5/15/10 [& gets WISGOP endorsement 5/23]
"...On Saturday, after a speech to a suburban Republican women's club [actually, THE SRWC] in Glendale north of Milwaukee, Johnson seemed reluctant to take direct swipes at Feingold or the other Republicans in the primary. He pledged to take the high road and make the campaign about warning citizens of the dangers ahead if the government does not shrink and taxes continue to rise...A supporter of term limits, Johnson said: "I'm just respectfully saying it's time for Russ to retire."...His most specific criticism was aimed at the $787 billion economic stimulus package approved in February 2009, supported by Feingold and 59 other senators. He believes it actually slowed the recovery...."We would have been far better off not spending any of the money and let the recovery happen as it was going to happen," Johnson said."
Of Crony Capitalism and European Austerity | George Will 5/12/10
"...A television commercial featuring CEO Ed Whitacre demonstrates the institutional murkiness and intellectual dishonesty that result when the line between public and private sectors disappears...In the commercial, Whitacre says GM has "repaid our government loan in full." Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., noted that GM used government funds to pay back the government: It "simply transferred $6.7 billion from one taxpayer-funded TARP account to another."..."
Scott Walker, Candidate for WI Gov, on Drudge :)
"...Wisconsin Republicans have yet to nominate a candidate for governor. Indeed, the state's primary is not until Sept. 14. But two national GOP heavyweights -- former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- are bullish on the prospects of Scott Walker, the self-described, brown-bag-packing county executive of Milwaukee...Making political hay out of the lunch that he packs for himself, Walker has branded his events around the state as part of a "Brown Bag Movement" that has three tenets: (1) "don't spend more than you have"; (2) "smaller government is better government"; and (3) "people create jobs, not government..."
A Real Housewife of Wisconsin (interview with Rachel Campos Duffy) 5/7/10
LOPEZ: You write, "I know that I am in the presence of a real girlfriend when I feel energized and uplifted after being with her. If I feel drained or anxious, I know that it is not a relationship I should expend energy on." There's something necessarily liberating about that, isn't there? And there's nothing mean or unchristian either, is there? It's necessary and healthy detachment, isn't it? And not just for moms?
CAMPOS-DUFFY (in photo): Yes, there's a difference between an emotionally draining person and a person who is genuinely in need. A person in need is not necessarily a drain. In fact, when I serve others through volunteer work or some charitable gesture, I don't feel drained. I feel great! Not so with an emotionally draining person. Let go of relationships that leave you feeling down, anxious, or even depressed. Stop beating your head against the wall wondering if it's you. Let it go. You may actually be doing you both a favor by freeing up your lives to find other, more edifying friendships and experiences....Motherhood isn't just something we do for our kids and family. It's also something we do for ourselves...." "I think our generation seeks balance between professional and family life. Thankfully, taking time off to be with your young kids no longer always means the end of your career. However, it will most likely involve redefining what success means."
Athens or Washington, It's the Size of Government 5/7/10
"That "anti-government mob [in Greece]," it must be understood, consisted of civil servants, tens of thousands of whom took to the streets to protest austerity measures....Public sector unions are growing in the U.S. More than 50 percent of all union members are now public employees who have negotiated sweet deals with local, state, and federal governments. As economic historian John Steele Gordon points out, 'Federal workers now earn, in wages and benefits, about twice what their private-sector equivalents get paid. State workers often have Cadillac health plans and retirement benefits far above the private sector average: 80 percent of public-sector workers have pension benefits, only 50 percent in the private sector. Many can retire at age 50.' While private employers were shedding jobs during the recession, state and local governments hired 110,000 new workers...Greece is in flames, but if you look around, you can smell the smoke here as well."
Fast and Furious 4/10
30 second sound bite a la Joe the Plumber: Obama says there is a point at which you've earned enough money.
6 minute video - only a bit of which is needed to get the difference between a grassroots Tea Party and an astroturfed Coffee party.
Filtering History: "...slaves and enslavers alike have been of every race, religion and nationality...If the history of slavery ought to teach us anything, it is that human beings cannot be trusted with unbridled power over other human beings." T Sowell
Sensenbrenner says Let Us Pray - "Wisconsin made national headlines recently when U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb of Wisconsin's Western District ruled that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional because it violates the separation of church and state...[However] Holding a Day of Prayer does not "establish" any religion, nor does it require anyone to take part in the National Day of Prayer...[or] to pray to a specific god or pray a specific message – it merely presents an opportunity to do so if they so choose in the way that they choose."
State Rep Kevin Petersen answers the question: Is the National Day of Prayer Constitutional?
"According to the Fed research, 'states with greater economic freedom – defined as the protection of private property and private markets operating with minimal government interference – experienced greater rates of employment growth.'... It is not a coincidence that among the states identified as least free in the Fed study are New York, Hawaii and Alaska, the three most heavily unionized workforces in the country."
Paul Ryan describes the tipping point today: Per the Tax Foundation, "20% of Americans get 75% of their income from the Federal Government; so they're dependent upon the Government already. Another 20% get 45% of their income from the Federal Government; so they're reliant upon the Federal Government. A full 60% of Americans...get more benefits in dollar value from the Government than they pay back in taxes...Once this budget is fully put into the place, 3 out of 10 families in America are either supplying or supplementing the incomes of 7 other families in this country." Adding regulations and regulatory agencies, when they didn't catch the problem in the first place, is not the path to take."
Under crony capitalism the government picks the winners and losers (creating a permanent, business-essential industry to try to make sure you are one of the winners).
The Big Alienation - Uncontrolled borders and Washington's lack of control: Peggy Noonan explains that "Once existing laws are enforced and the border made peaceful, everyone in the country will be able to breathe easier and consider, without an air of clamor and crisis, what should be done next."
WI Legislation Recap
Updates on how the end of the 2009-2010 WI Legislative session -- E.g., "High speed rail – the Joint Finance Committee approved spending $810 million of federal stimulus money for high speed rail between Milwaukee and the Madison airport. The state will need an additional 7.6 million in operating expenses each year to cover the cost of the project (AB-282 for the creation of Regional Transit Authorities – no final action taken, legislation is now dead)"
Tomorrow Belongs to MO
Mark Steyn's "mother grew up not far from Antwerp. If you had said to her in 1960 that within 50 years 40 per cent of the city's elementary school children would be Muslim, she and most other Belgians would have thought you were nuts....it's now estimated that by 2012 a majority of grade-schoolers will be Muslim. Which means that in ten years' time Antwerp may not yet technically be majority Muslim, buts its energy, its character, its culture, its cusine increasingly will be.
Here's my [Steyn's] question for the left - for women, gays, "progressives" generally: Which currently Muslim city would you wish to live in? I don't just mean visit, or pass through for a couple of years. I love Amman and Cairo, but that's in part because I know I have a return ticket to New Hampshire. So in which Muslim city would you like to live permanently? Make your life, build a career, raise your kids. And, if you're having trouble answering, why do you think Brussels and Antwerp - and many other European cities - will turn out any different?"
Not Too 'Hip' and 'Edgy' for Censorship | Mark's follow-up (4/24/10)
"Don't worry about Iran's nuclear program, but if you meet a tea partier waving some placard about the national debt, try not to catch his eye....On Earth Day, lame politicians dig a hole and stick a tree in it. But aggrieved Muslims dig a hole and stick a couple of comedy writers in it. Celebrate diversity!"
Financial Reform: Blocking Innovations, not Meltdowns
Consider the financial reform bill "racing through the Senate (it cleared its committee in 22 minutes, less time than it would have taken to actually read the bill)...Under a CFPA [Consumer Financial Protection Protection], a cell phone company that wants to offer an even more convenient payment mechanism would have to submit to a massive set of regulations. Even if the CFPA didn't just say "no," the prospect of a lengthy and expensive approval process, and restrictions on marketing, might be enough to discourage companies from even considering new services. Who would benefit from such regulation? Big banks: they would be protected against competition and be given an excuse for failing to offer new products. That's no way to help consumer or to avert the next financial crisis."
Overtaxed Homeowners Fight Back and Limited Trust in Gov't
With home prices plummeting, tax appraisers (whose client is the local government, not the local people) are reluctant to lower market values to reflect post-bubble prices. I've personally been told by a tax assessor that it matters not whether homes sit on the market for months or years or even if someone paid less than valued -- somehow they know better and have other variables that count. Well, homeowners are starting to take on the -- what should be unnecessary -- burden of fighting city hall to lower their property taxes. Granted, the overall tax levy should go down if rates/$1,000 remain the same, but tightening belts should also be part of the taxing regimen. In a related article (really!), 78% don't trust big government.
Heritage puts $$$ in perspective. Check out its 2010 Budget Chart Book.
After the Crash, a Crashing Bore 4/9/10 by Peggy Noonan
"..."Let's be real. This is what happened the past 10 years. You, for political reasons, both Republicans and Democrats, finagled the mortgage system so that people who make, like, zero dollars a year were given mortgages for $600,000 houses. You got to run around and crow about how under your watch everyone became a homeowner. You shook down the taxpayer and hoped for the best...Democrats did it because they thought it would make everyone Democrats: 'Look what I give you!' Republicans did it because they thought it would make everyone Republicans: 'I'm a homeowner, I've got a stake, don't raise my property taxes, get off my lawn!' And Wall Street? We went to town, baby. We bundled the mortgages and sold them to fools, or we held them, called them assets, and made believe everyone would pay their mortgage. As if we cared. We invented financial instruments so complicated no one, even the people who sold them, understood what they were..."You're finaglers and we're finaglers. I play for dollars, you play for votes. In our own ways we're all thieves..." Peaked your interest?! Read Noonan's summary of congressional hearings. HT ThadMcCotter
On Stocks and the Costanza Paradox 4/10/10 by globalpersectives
"...In a classic episode of Seinfeld called The Opposite, perma-loser George Costanza comes to the realization that if he would just act completely contrarily to his own instincts, things would begin to go his way...Think about how rewarding it's been for traders who have completely violated any sense of prudence or market savvy:
*AIG ($AIG) barely avoids liquidation - buy it and enjoy percentage gains in the thousands!
*Unemployment remains at around 10%, inital jobless claims are still climbing - so buy some specialty or even luxury retailers!
*Mortgage rates are inching higher and housing has not truly bottomed - so snag some Hovnanian ($HOV), some lumber names and why not a little Home Depot ($HD).
*Oil breaks out above $85 - and the airlines go wild!
*Congress passes a de facto takeover of Healthcare - OMG! Healthcare stocks are rallying on the news of their newly subjugated status!
*Commercial RE is a time bomb - REITs! I gotta have more REITs!" (Do you feel like everyone else must be taking crazy pills?)
Increasing Number of Parents Opt to School-Home
The Onion spoofs this growing phenomenon. "..."It's really a matter of who has more experience in dealing with my child," Cincinnati- resident Kevin Dufrense said of his decision to have his 10-year-old son Jake, who suffers from ADHD and dyslexia, school-homed. "These teachers are dealing with upwards of 40 students in their classrooms at a time, so obviously they know a lot more about children than someone like me, who only has one son and doesn't know where he is half the time anyway."..."Simply put, it's not the job of parents to raise these kids," Dufrense added." HT JoanneJacobs
Liberal = Control the People
Progressives/liberals candidly reveal their philosophy when we listen. Remember these Obama lines: "I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." "[1:50] My individual salvation is not going to come about without a collective salvation for the country, unfortunately...that recognition requires that we make sacrifices and this country has not always been willing to make the sacrifices that are necessary to bring about a new day and a new age." How do you spread the wealth around and get Americans to make the sacrifices you want them to make? Legislation. Congressman Dingell summarizes: "It takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people."
Demonizing everday Americans
"...Agents of big government and their boosters in the mainstream media seem determined to throw cold water on this growing grassroots movement that is a reaction to the Obama administration's power grab of the growth and expansion of this country's central government...There's a great deal of diversity among Tea Party people...But they all have two things in common: They all want smaller government, and oppose the trampling of the Constitution embodied in these efforts to radically expand the size and scope of government. And as part of that desire, they want this utterly ludicrous spending binge to end before it bankrupts all of us...This freedom to assemble was considered so essential to a free nation that our Founders put it in the First Amendment, right alongside the freedom of speech and freedom of religion..."
Universities encourage students to enroll in food stamp programs
"...'A few of our other friends who were in the room also said if they were able to, they would get food stamps … They think that if they're eligible it's the government's fault, so they might as well' ... 'I'm sort of a foodie, and I'm not going to do the 'living off ramen' thing," one young man said, fondly remembering a recent meal he'd prepared of roasted rabbit with butter, tarragon and sweet potatoes. "I used to think that you could only get processed food and government cheese on food stamps, but it's great that you can get anything.'..."
HT Joanne Jacobs who has a terrific summary and the comments are on point!
When things come too "fast and furious" to keep up. Check out these links when you need something to do while waiting in the car, "watching" practices, commuting, whenever -- they all cover something interesting!
All the latest on WI Legislative and church-related pushes are at The Truth USA.
The Tea-Party Express is coming to Milwaukee Wednesday, April 7th at 9:30 am at State Fair Park!
JT Harris describes the Democrat Stockholm Syndrome. You've heard of the Stockholm Syndrome (where the prey identifies with the predator)? The comments are thoughtful. Join in the conversation!
WI Motor-Voter Registration - Senate Bill 640 Get your views distributed at the hearing scheduled for Wednesday, March 31, 2010---10:00 a.m. State Capitol (attend if you can).
Our Education page has 3 new additions to it re: African-American studies, not making the classroom a political platform, and how reading provides role models.
4-Day School Weeks Might Be Coming to Illinois -- with the backwards logic to "save" money (substituting current 5 day week with 4 longer days or a longer year -- so the amount of time in the classroom remains the same).
Chuck Norris warns of the Riders on the Storm. You are aware of the building storm about to descend on D.C., right?
Mark Steyn warns us of Tattered Liberty "...what will ensure it [America's decline] is if the American people accept decline as a price worth paying for European social democracy..."
James Thunder covers Black History Month and Lincoln. A great chronological history of Lincoln's anti-slavery efforts.
Brit Niles Gardiner recognizes that the Congress Health Care Vote: [is] A Dark Day for Freedom in America.
Red Skelton explains the Pledge of Allegiance.
Netanyahu humiliated after Obama "dumps him for dinner"
"For a head of state to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of....Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip seen in Jerusalem tonight as a disastrous humiliation.
After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on Jewish settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisors and "let me know if there is anything new", a US congressman who spoke to the Prime Minister said today.
"It was awful," the congressman said. One Israeli newspaper called the meeting "a hazing in stages", poisoned by such mistrust that the Israeli delegation eventually left rather than risk being eavesdropped on a White House phone line. Another said that the Prime Minister had received "the treatment reserved for the President of Equatorial Guinea..." HT GlobalPerspectives
New Home Sales 2003-2010 (in red) via CalculatedRisk
The Census and the Constitution
"...The purpose of the headcount is to apportion the number of seats in the House of Representatives and derived from that, along with two senators from each state, the number of electors to the Electoral College...Unless a census taker can show me a constitutional requirement, the only information I plan to give are the number and names of the people in my household. The census taker might say, 'It's the law.' Thomas Jefferson said, 'Whensoever the General Government (Washington) assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.'" It's coming. What are you going to do? 3/9/10
Onward, He Said, Regardless
"...After 34 speeches, three sharp electoral rebukes (Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts), and a seven-hour seminar, the president announced Wednesday his determination to make one last push to pass his health-care reform...Obama was reduced to suggesting that his health-care reform was indeed popular because when you ask people about individual items (for example, eliminating exclusions for pre-existing conditions or capping individual out-of-pocket payments, they are in favor...Yet mystifyingly they oppose the whole package. How can that be?..." Read the rest of the article to find out why.
Same Stats? Different message.
BO's page
Gov't jobs UP
Union wages UP
How to play with stats
No More Earmarxists
"...Earmarks erode the ability to say no to more government, and they corrupt often-good politicians with the enjoyment and the power of directing other people's money to those who come to them and ask. And at times, earmarks directly enable increased government when they are used to buy lawmakers off... Did the Founders really envision the federal government paying for developing curriculum in the Tulsa public schools for students at risk of dropping out ($195,000) or a river ferry boat program in Oklahoma City ($1.7 million) or an "engineering incubator" in Norman ($137,200)? What clause of the Constitution do those fall under exactly... It is time to purge the earmarxists from the conservative movement." HT JGramins
Lessons from Afghanistan
"...Our mission faces three major challenges. First, while our troops excel at clearing Taliban forces from population centers, our old strategy did not call for them to hold these positions. Once our troops moved on to the next objective, Taliban forces would simply trickle back in. Another problem facing the mission is Afghanistan's poppy crop: in addition to providing Taliban insurgents and al-Qaeda terrorists with financial resources from trafficking illegal drugs, poppy farming gives the Taliban a way to force Afghan citizens into cooperation. And finally, perhaps most disturbing, the notoriously corrupt Karzai Government has so far been unable to convince many Afghans that it is the legitimate governing entity of Afghanistan...Compounding these issues is the fact that much of the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is largely ungoverned...The anticipated Taliban spring and summer offensives will test the viability of the Administration's new strategy. If our troop and civilian surges prove sufficient to withstand these offensives, it seems the worst will have passed. We can then build on those successes to achieve the desired end state: an independent Afghanistan whose government is capable of providing its own security and denying safe haven to terrorists..." 3/1/10 [To receive Ryan's updates.]
Happy 1st Birthday, TEA Party Movement!
Love good synopses: "...In 1776, by an act of the Second Continental Congress, the original 13 Colonies adopted a Declaration of Independence, dissolving their relations with England. America would be a confederation of independent countries ("states"). In 1777, the Articles of Confederation (our first constitution and governing document) was written and adopted by the Second Continental Congress, though it was not ratified until 1781. The Federalists soon recognized the deficiencies in the Articles of Confederation, so they called for the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia. By the end of their four-month convention, the United States Constitution was adopted, though it was not ratified completely until 1790. It has been amended 27 times since. (The first 10 amendments constitute the Bill of Rights.)
The Framers set out a path for us, and we've strayed from it. And the first thing any rational man does when he's lost his way is to look at a map. If you think, as I do, that America has taken a wrong turn, studying America's Revolutionary history is the first step to helping us find our way back -- just as millions of Tea Party patriots have done already..." Click here or title for full text. (Interesting history summaries.)
Welfare Queen\ Activist
A 2007 timeless insight into current welfare philosophy and community organizing. Click on the link for:
Michelle Malkin's piece.
The news story.
The funny spoof of the story.
White House Bribes Are Federal Crimes
"For the second time in five months, the Obama White House is being accused -- by Democrats -- of offering high ranking government jobs in return for political favors. What no one is reporting is that this is a violation of federal law that can lead to prison time, a fine or both, according to Title 18, Chapter 11, Section 211 of the United States Code." HT BadgerBlogger
An Arab and Oil Fest
War for Islamic Sharia Law by D.L. Adams: "We now fight a war around the world and at home against Islamic brutality against us (our so-called "war on terror") motivated entirely by the doctrine of Islam, yet we fight two wars to create and prop up two new Islamic countries bound to the same doctrine -- folly."
Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling (in Brazil): "You read that headline correctly. Unfortunately, the Obama Administration is financing oil exploration off Brazil." This was back in August, Soros is supposed to be at head of
A Terror Trial Debacle Happening Right Now | Michelle Malkin describes a "civilian trial" going/gone awry. [Aside: Military detainment options for terrorists were set up in 2002 with Gitmo as key component.]
<-- Don't forget to watch the video...
The Fallacy of Fairness
Thomas Sowell always has great analogies: "...Nature's discrimination completely dwarfs man's discrimination. Geography alone makes equal chances virtually impossible. The geographic advantages of Western Europe over Eastern Europe — in climate and navigable waterways, among other things — have led to centuries of differences in income levels that were greater than income differences between blacks and whites in America today...Just the fact that the lay of the land is different in different parts of Europe meant that it was easier for the Roman legions to invade Western Europe...Was it the Slavs' fault that the Romans did not want to climb over so many mountains to get to them?...To those living in Western Europe in the days of the Roman Empire, the idea of being conquered, and having many slaughtered, by the Romans probably had no great appeal. But their descendants would benefit from their bad luck. And that doesn't seem fair either."
In Rawls and Fairness, Sowell says, "...Trying to change whole cultures and subcultures in which different individuals are raised would be a staggering task. But the ideology of multiculturalism, which pronounces all cultures to be equally valid, puts that task off limits. This paints people into whatever corner the accident of birth has put them..." He does a great job turning current assumptions on their head.
How to Get the Country to Solvency on Entitlements
George Will summarizes Rep. Ryan's current Roadmap to America, which covers everything from taxes to universal and affordable health care, to Social Security and Medicare, to reforming the budget and beyond...
Justice Thomas Defends Ruling on Campaign Finance
"'I found it fascinating that the people who were editorializing against it were The New York Times Company and The Washington Post Company,' Justice Thomas said. 'These are corporations.'...
He added that the history of Congressional regulation of corporate involvement in politics had a dark side, pointing to the Tillman Act, which banned corporate contributions to federal candidates in 1907...'Go back and read why Tillman introduced that legislation,' Justice Thomas said, referring to Senator Benjamin Tillman. 'Tillman was from South Carolina, and as I hear the story he was concerned that the corporations, Republican corporations, were favorable toward blacks and he felt that there was a need to regulate them....'" Click the title for the article. Click on Justice Thomas' picture to listen to his talk. He's incredibly compelling and personable.
GDP Data Overstates Economy's Health | per MSNBC!
from Limbaugh Letter...
"...A big part of the latest GDP gain comes from a statistical adjustment for changes in inventory levels that don't reflect real growth. Over the past year, businesses cut deeply into those inventories — not wanting to get stuck with unsold goods. Now that they've cut them to the bone, the rate of inventory-cutting has slowed. The way the GDP is calculated, that slowdown adds to "growth" — even though it doesn't reflect increased production or sales. If you back out that inventory adjustment, GDP grew only 2.2 percent..." And that's not the only overstatement...Author Schoen talks about, but doesn't really make crystal clear, the now huge component of the GDP number made up of government spending and government-induced sales...
Carteresque by Mona Charen
Obama thinks we're losing faith in America? "...That could be it. Alternatively, people may be dismayed to find that they elected a left-wing ideologue who wasted most of his first year pushing health-care reform when something like 17 percent of the nation is unemployed or underemployed; who reads terrorists their Miranda rights and gives them lawyers; who apologizes to the world for America's manifold sins; who increases the national debt by $1.6 trillion in his first year; who elects to try Khalid Sheik Mohammad in Manhattan; who promises transparency and then presides over shameless backroom deals; who clings to cap-and-trade even in the midst of economic misery; who extends more conciliation to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than to Republicans; who has nearly the entire press in his back pocket but nonetheless attempts to punish Fox News; who disdains all Republican proposals as "the failed ideas of the past"; and whose vanity (a presidential podium and teleprompter in a sixth-grade classroom?) is verging on the pathetic."
Half the fall during Bush years (6 yrs Rep--2 yrs Dem); 2nd 1/2 of BO's 1st yr not included. Click image.
Click the image and then Play to see the change from 2007 (Dems control Congress) to 2009.
Home Sales Worst Plunge in 40 Years
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sales of previously occupied homes took the largest monthly drop in more than 40 years last month, sinking more dramatically than expected after lawmakers gave buyers additional time to use a tax credit." Foreclosed inventory still in storage - when will banks start adding the rest of them to the current inventory? And have you see the For Lease signs going up at commercial places?
GOP No Cost Jobs Letter/Plan to Obama
Click on the title above and then scroll down a few pages to come to the real bullet points. Stay vigilant for free-market, limited government, property right-protecting talk...
Clarke plans new inmate-reform program
As Vicki McKenna says "Sheriff Clarke channels Sheriff Joe. (Is jail supposed to be therapy or is it supposed to be JAIL? )" The timing is right to get back to basics with something that sounds like it comes from a foundation of common sense without adding cost! "Although Clarke hasn't divulged details of his discipline program, critics said they feared it would be a boot camp-military style plan." Hmmmm, the military is known for its high rate of turning out men and women who love freedom and value the responsible roles entrusted to them. (1/22/10)
It's the Enemy, Stupid
Andrew McCarthy touts our national security as one of the keys to the Scott Brown victory, whose campaign spokesperson said "...from our own internal polling, the more potent issue here in Massachusetts was terrorism and the treatment of enemy combatants." Mr. McCarthy agrees, "There is a powerful lesson here for Republicans, and here's hoping they learn it." The opposing position [to Bush's strong stance], "espoused most prominently by Sen. John McCain, was counterfactual and incoherent. Senator McCain pronounced both that enhanced interrogation (which he called "torture") never works (which is patently untrue) and that an interrogator might at most use it in a ticking-bomb situation (the last situation in which you'd want to use it if, in fact, it never works)...And our reputation in the international community? Reputation with whom? Sharia states where they stone adulterers, brutalize homosexuals, and kill their own daughters in the name of honor? Rogue regimes where exhibitions of American weakness are taken as license to mutilate? Euro-nannies who rely on us for protection because they're without the will and the resources to do the job themselves" Click on the title for the whole argument.
Bernanke Knew Financial Crisis Was Coming
Mark Skousen reports "...Three years ago [2007] I was in the audience at a luncheon sponsored by the American Economic Association (AEA), the annual gathering of professional economists. Bernanke gave a speech called "Central Banking and Bank Supervision in the United States ... As he talked, I noticed that he used the words "panic," "crisis," and "stress" over and over again ["at least 36 times"] ... "Anyone reading between the lines could understand that Bernanke is worried about a financial storm ahead…Indeed, the evidence is clear now that only the United States (and to some extent the UK) lowered underwriting standards in the real estate market, allowing unqualified housing buyers and "no doc" loans. Countries such as Canada, Australia, and New Zealand refused to permit such lax banking and mortgage business, and did not suffer a financial collapse."
A Country Boy and His Dreams
Wisconsin's Washington County is rightly proud of this young man, currently serving as its Young Republican Chairman.Our country always, now more than ever, needs people of character (no matter the age) to preserve and protect what our Founding Fathers found "self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Josiah's thoughts are poetic and on point. Read also, "Mr. Obama, not even you can ruin my Christmas." Click on Josiah's photo to get to his blog.
Reid's Corrupt Christmas Present 1/6/10
Worth the read. "Here are just a few of the Reid bill's details:
• 2,409 pages (by comparison, the legislation that created Social Security was just 82 pages long)
• $518 billion in tax increases (Joint Committee on Taxation and the Congressional Budget Office)
• $466 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid (CBO)
• Many costs of the legislation won't begin until 2014, but taxes will be imposed immediately (CBO)
• Federal outlays for health care would increase by about $200 billion between 2010-2019 (CBO)
• $26 billion of unfunded mandates to states over the next 10 years that will likely result in higher taxes (CBO)
• Would increase non-group premiums by $300 per individual and $2,100 per family (CBO)
• Up to 10 million people will lose their current health insurance coverage under the bill (CBO)
• Adds a 10% tax on indoor tanning services (Section 10907)"
Debt US to Pay Increases
per Bloomberg: U.S. Treasuries Post Worst Performance Among Sovereign Markets
The interest rate that we have to pay to finance what OUR government officials are borrowing to fund their pet projects+: "The yield on the benchmark 10-year note climbed to 3.84 percent from 2.21 percent at the end of 2008, according to BGCantor Market Data...The 10-year yield will rise to 4.01 percent at the end of 2010, according to the median of 60 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The two-year note yield will climb to 1.96 percent, according to the median response in a separate Bloomberg survey." Translating that into dollars is mind-boggling. Also, don't forget two-year notes get rolled over at the end of a two years when interest rates are likely to be very high!
per WSJ: Fed Chief Edges Closer to User Rates to Pop Bubbles
Threatening and regulating banks into providing mortgages to people in areas and under circumstances that a bank would not prudently do so created billions in risky loans that were destined to default. "Instead, [of blaming that, Bernanke] said, the problem was lax regulation, which permitted banks to issue a slew of exotic mortgages that households later had trouble paying." A part-truth. But it was and is government, not business, practices that march everyone down the path to serfdom.
Know the numbers. Gov't can ONLY redistribute & waste what it takes from US.
Ann Coulter sums things up point blank: "...Milbank was employing the MSNBC motto, "In Other Words," which provides the formula for 90 percent of the political commentary on that network. The MSNBC host quotes a Republican, then says "in other words," translates the statement into something that would be stupid to say, and spends the next 10 minutes ridiculing the translated version. Which no one said. Except the host..." Also love, "Medicare is like a $500 hamburger: I assume it's good -- it had better be -- but no one would say, 'THAT'S A FANTASTIC SUCCESS!'" The rest of the article is definitely worth reading.
Down with Big Business
"...For every encroachment into the market by the federal government--under the guise of "reform"--there exist pro-market alternatives that Republicans must articulate and passionately defend. University of Chicago's Luigi Zingales, who has written extensively on the issue of crony capitalism, reminds policymakers that the path forward requires "adopting a pro-market, rather than pro-business, approach." We must champion an aggressive reform agenda to tackle our outdated financial regulatory structure, the convoluted and anti-competitive tax code, and the looming entitlement crisis, and to fix what's broken in health care, energy, and more. We should focus on removing the hurdles the government has erected, rather than further centralizing power in Washington. The legislative reform must focus on empowering individuals instead of bureaucrats. ... We cannot lose our commitment to individual liberty--a commitment we've shed blood to defend in generations past....
BO's Safe School Czar
WARNING: Offensive words and conjured images. All you really need to know is that BO's "Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings was the founder, and for many years, Executive Director of an organization called the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN)." HT Frugal Cafe Blog Zone for putting together a comprehensive compilation. Related "educational" credentials. Investigating further, workshop facilitators help kids learn how to "satisfy" themselves and others in dangerous ways, also distribute kits for that purpose. Moral: "Experience and higher education" can be misleading, especially without common sense and Judeo-Christian values attached to them.
Is "Rube" Sarah Palin Redefining E-Campaigning?
From Riehl World view: "...I've observed Gingrich use Twitter to tweet what a grand time he's having over dinner with James Carville, much to the chagrin of the Republican base. Meanwhile, nearly every Palin tweet or Facebook post is targeted to speak to the very people reading there, giving them precisely what they want to read, or hear, in promotional or political terms. ...The smartest people in the room tend to be early adapters..."
Business Fumes over Carbon Dioxide Rule
"At the heart of the fight over whether U.S. emission constraints should come from the EPA or Congress is a high-stakes issue: which industries will have to foot the bill for a climate cleanup. A similar theme will play out in Copenhagen as rich countries wrangle over how much they should have to pay to help the developing world shift to cleaner technologies....'There is no agreement without money,' says Rosário Bento Pais, a top climate negotiator for the European Commission, the European Union's executive arm. 'That is clear....'" Obviously, impending doom is only dire if money (and lots of it) changes hands. Related stories:
How Offshore Oil and Gas Production Benefits the Economy and the Environment
Energy and Environment - a chapter from Heritage.org's candidate briefing book.
The Fiction of Climate Science - Thatcher funded scientists to counter global-cooling alarmists way back when. $$ alters many paths.
Uncle Ted's American Job Summit
This rocker has been working his whole life..."Our government cannot punish the producers and expect them to continue to produce and hire Americans. ... You have to wonder if anyone in the Obama administration understands these most basic of economic truisms. I doubt it. Very few fans of Marx, Lennon or Mao get it. Ivy League economic theory is one thing. Experience is quite another. As far as I can tell, no one in the Obama cabinet has ever owned and operated a small business. They have no practical business sense. They are not producers. They are the other thing. ... Broad-based economic growth begins and ends with tax relief and drastically limiting government spending, two ideas that are anathema to this administration's agenda. ..."
Hyphenated American: Republican Talking Point #1
Great advice to our party. After ousting the liberal elite still embedded in our leadership, "...use the occasion [of disappointment in Obama] for a much more pointed message. Instead of "I told you so," we must say - 'It's not your fault you voted for Obama - it's the media's fault, they misled you.'...it's easier and more useful to convince American people that they have mistakenly chosen the rookie marxist as their president because they were misleaded by the media - instead of telling the people that they were stupid and uninformed."
All about Movies
Interesting articles you might enjoy:
Modern Cinema Hasn't a Clue about Eroticism by Alicia Cohan
"The Blind Side" Should Trouble as well as Inspire by Star Parker (and about the real Michael Oher)
Homecoming Scholarships on the Sly
Hmmm...charge more than cost for a public function and then distribute the "profits" to a select few. Imagine this type of entitled quid pro quo at every level of every governmental-type entity you can imagine. A "little bit here and there" ends up adding up to billions. HT MBelling
Mark Steyn: Turning KSM into OJ
"...The other day, for example, he [Barack] told Fox News that 'if we keep on adding to the debt ... people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession.' ... That's a great line – but not from a guy who plans to 'keep on adding to the debt' as a conscious strategy. This is the president who made 'trillion' the new default unit of federal budgeting, and whose irresponsibility is prompting key players around the world to consider seriously whether it's time to ditch the dollar's role as global reserve currency... [Then he] decided to put him [KSM] on trial in a New York courthouse. Why? To show 'the world' – i.e., European op-ed pages and faculty lounges – that America would fight terror in a way 'consistent with our values,' ...So it's like a fair trial consistent with 'our values,' except for the one about presumption of innocence? If the head of state declaring you guilty and demanding the death penalty doesn't taint the jury pool, it's hard to see what would. ... About himself, the president speaks loudly. For America, he carries a small twig."
Community Organization "Walking the Edge of Immorality"
And the author's not referring to ACORN! "...there are others who are a heartbeat away from being the next national scandal. One such organization is the Gamaliel Foundation. You may have come across the organization thanks to the YouTube video of them supposedly praying to President Obama...My former mentors, Greg Galluzzo and his wife Mary Gonzalez, took over the Gamaliel Foundation after breaking with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the organization founded by Saul Alinsky...In fact, Galluzzo used to give a cultish advanced training seminar titled "Walking the Edge of Immorality" where he repeatedly stated "the ends justifies the means" and nonchalantly told us that to have an impact on society we had to be willing to "lie, cheat, and steal for the greater good...The final straw for me was when Galluzzo sent out a weekly report with a reflection that we organizers needed to promote a noble myth to our churches that our work was about justice, God, and peace even though we really knew it was about power..."
Thank you former President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush
Read the HillBuzz's touching change of heart: "...Oh, how we RAILED against Bush in 2000…and how we RAILED against the surge in support Bush received post-9/11 when he went to Ground Zero and stood there with his bullhorn in the ruins on that hideous day.
We were convinced that ANYONE who was president would have done what Bush did, and would have set that right tone of leadership in the wake of that disaster. President Gore, President Perot, President Nader, you name it. ANYONE, we assumed, would have filled that role perfectly.
Well, we told you before how much the current president, Dr. Utopia, made us realize just how wrong we were about Bush. We shudder to think what Dr. Utopia would have done post-9/11. He would have not gone there with a bullhorn and struck that right tone...The world needed George W. Bush, his bullhorn, and his indominable spirit that day…and we will forever be grateful to this man for that..." HT JT Harris
Dirty Stimulus Jobs Data Exaggerates Stimulus Impact
PoliticalMath writes, "Now, if you look at recovery.gov, you'll see that the stimulus has "saved or created" 640,000 jobs. That is only 16% of the promised jobs, but it's still a pretty big number. I was curious how they got it, so I downloaded the raw data and started sifting through it. This is what I found..." [Click the title above for his insight into the numbers.]
The Vilification of Rush (analysis by The Hutch!)
"...The Minority Thought Pattern is the total disdain and hatred of what God has accomplished through the white male throughout history. Coming from an African-American, I know this will shock you... The Minority Thought Pattern is aimed at destroying America, at rending the very fabric that makes America great. The Minority Thought Pattern denies the greatness, honor, bravery, courage, humility, and sacrifice that has brought us the power to be the greatest nation that has ever existed. The Minority Thought Pattern has a mission to undermine and redefine every characteristic of America, maintaining that it is a nation based on greed, cowardice, selfishness, and a lack of genuine humility. The Minority Thought Pattern is the reason for all the apologies to the rest of the world for how bad American is, coming even from our top leader."
Historic Echo: Service.gov and Its Soviet Similarities
Pay attention class ... "Citizens of America, sacrifice your elders and forget your selfish aspirations of prosperity for yourself and your family! Sign onto Service.gov and serve your government!"
Abortion Kills -- leading cause of death for Blacks
JT Harris has a powerful presentation of how and why abortion is of concern for everybody; especially for those who were the target of Margaret Sangor's (i.e., Planned Parenthood's) reason for being. He links to the article, "Abortion Kills More Black Americans Than the Seven Leading Causes of Death Combined, Says CDC Data."
And the song Happy Birthday (video provided on his page) is an amazing testimony. See if you aren't moved by it. It's definitely worth the listen.
BO in Perspective: Fall of the Republic
This series is about 10 minutes a video. Draw your own conclusions. It is very compelling.
Are you ready for 'peace'? How about second place?
Did We Elect a Beta Male as President?
"...Of course, the problem is that he's not simply exposing his throat, he's exposing America's collective throat...Within the confines of a social unit, beta-male behavior can help to defuse aggression and maintain domestic peace. But in a world where other nations' alpha-male leaders are constantly probing for even the smallest signs of weakness, having a beta male president has thrown into stark relief the dangers to which this president's unfortunate character trait is exposing his country..."
Sales 101: Obama's Violated First 3 Rules of Selling
"...Their strategy could not possibly succeed. In their academic arrogance, they thought they could sell a product they clearly do not believe in (the United States) and moreover, they could do so by stressing the benefits to the seller (Chicago) and not the buyer (the IOC). And to top it off, they committed the faux pas of talking too much about the sales force (themselves) and not about the product or the buyer..."
Database Our Children [Training Kids to Be Obama's Servants]
"...President Obama's nearly trillion-dollar Stimulus law designates $128 billion for education, so it's no surprise that tight strings are attached...Buried in the fine print is an ominous requirement to build a national electronic database of all children. Any state that receives federal education funds must 'establish a longitudinal data system that includes the elements described in . . . the America COMPETES Act'...This electronic database will contain 'yearly test records of individual students [through college and into the workforce],' 'a teacher identifier system with the ability to match teachers to students,' 'student-level transcript information, including information on courses completed and grades earned,' and 'student-level college readiness test scores'...Creation of a database of this magnitude is the sort of thing that totalitarian governments do but should not be allowed by those who value freedom."
Dead End Kids: Unemployment of 16-24 year olds is 52%+
Topic: Youth unemployment exploding and mandated increases in minimum wage rates...discuss amongst yourselves. Consequences?
Mo' money doesn't = better results.
Milwaukee T.E.A Party by the Lake
Taxed Enough Already! Thousands of like-minded Americans turned out 9/19/09 express themselves and let others know that what they heard is how they feel, too. JT Harris has a great description of his time there. Other links to photos and speeches:
* BadgerBlogger posts speeches by Scott Walker, Michelle Malkin Sherriff Clarke, an astrophysicist, JT Harris, and more!
* Michelle Malkin follows up with Obama's unbelievable response to ACORN getting funding. Her new book is Culture of Corruption.
* a link to photos of signs will be coming as soon as I can get to it.
From World Regulations to National Garage Sales Standards?!
Sheesh...how loud do we have to yell Uncle before the bully gets off our back?! And aren't garage sales as American as apple pie? I guess personal clutter just has to go to the dumpster instead - sellers and collectors of forbidden goods forget it ... and better throw away the reduce, reuse, recycle mantra: "Violators caught selling anything on the enormous list face fines of up to $100,000 per infraction and up to $15 million for a related series of infractions."
Cognitive Dissonance in Obama's Case for Healthcare
Obama had "...to assure people that a Beltway Bureaucrat won't come between a patient and a doctor to ration care. This much he said during the presser [press conference], which leads me to my first few questions: Why, then, the rhetoric railing against 'unnecessary procedures?'...One of the greatest contributors to the rising cost of medical services are malpractice suits...Most trial attorneys operate on contingency fees, so...they get a cut of the settlement...I may have my figures wrong here, but physicians pay upwards of $250k annually for malpractice insurance premiums...This leads to my next series of questions: Why are the trial lawyers not being asked to sacrifice anything? Why not cap malpractice suits? Why not compel trial lawyers to bill their clients instead of taking contingency fees in malpractice cases?..."
Listening to a Liar (Lessons on Critical Thinking)
Thomas Sowell Listening to a Liar Part 1: "... What Barack Obama says Wednesday night is not nearly as important as what he has been doing-- and how he has been doing it..."
Thomas Sowell Listening to a Liar Part 2: "No message has been more welcomed by the gullible, in countries around the world, than the promise of something for nothing..."
"President Obama tells us that he will impose various mandates on insurance companies but will not interfere with our free choice between being insured by these companies or by the government. ... Mandates by politicians are what have driven up the cost of insurance already. Politicians love to play Santa Claus and leave it to others to raise prices to cover the inevitable costs... Politicians have driven privately owned municipal transit systems out of business in many cities, by simply imposing costs and restricting the fare increases needed to cover those costs. The federal government can drive out private insurance the same way that local politicians have driven out private municipal transit and replaced it with government-run transit systems."
Revolt of the Masses
Daniel Henninger puts it into perspective: "As measured by the by the OECD, the growth in the gross debt as a percentage of GDP sincethe dawn of the new century is stunning [i.e., since 2000]. The data isn't exactly comparable across individual countries, but the trend line is unmistakable...In the U.S., debt as a percentage of GDP rose to 87% in 2009 from 55% in 2000. In the U.K., to 75% from 45%; Germany, to 78% from 60%; France, 86% from 66%. There are exceptions to this trend, such as Canada, New Zealand and notably Australia, whose debt has fallen to 16% of GDP from 25%. [WOW. It can be done!] But for all the countries in the OECD's basket the claim of indebtedness on GDP grew to 92% from 69% the past nine years."
Tax-Relief Day on August 12 This Year
According to the annual Cost of Government Day report, "Americans this year had to toil until August 12 to pay for federal, state, and local governments"... In 2009, government will consume a whopping 61.34 percent of national income." We live "to serve"... in servitude.
What Are You Doing for the Collective Good?
"In the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, I [Svetlana Kunin] was taught to believe individual pursuits are selfish and sacrificing for the collective good is noble.. Those who left Russia found a different set of values in America: freedom of religion, speech, individual pursuits, the right to private property and free enterprise...These opportunities let the average immigrant live a better life than many elites in the Soviet Communist Party. The freedom to pursue personal self-interest led to prosperity. Prosperity generated charity, benefiting the collective good....Critics say that greed is the driving force of capitalism. My answer is that envy is the driving force of socialism.." And as V.Lenin is oft quoted, "Give us the child for 8 years, and it will be a Bolshevik [communist] forever." (Fortunately, not all the seeds thus fertilized grow up as intended.)
Catchy title...'The Post-American World.'
From Diversity to Globalization...Read Amazon reviewers about The Post-American World: "The central thesis of the book is that the pax Romana (Roman peace) model of American foreign policy needs to be replaced by a community organizer foreign policy model. America's considerable military power must be used with great restraint as power and economic status shifts from west to east. The detailed discussion of some common misconceptions about educational differences between the US and other countries reveals the author's ability to carefully reinterpret misleading statistics." "The Post-American World points to the need for America to adopt new ways of doing business with the world, one that is based on 'consultation, cooperation, and even compromise' as opposed to go-it-alone unilateralism. American success in the 21st century will depend on how these newly ascendant powers will be integrated into existing institutions such as the G8, the IMF, the World Bank, and the WTO."
Purge of Iranian Universities Is Feared
"...During the earliest days of the Islamic Revolution, the nation's leaders closed universities and tried to sanitize curriculums to fit their Islamic revolutionary ideology. The efforts ultimately failed under the weight of more pragmatic forces eager to engage with Western economies, and a student population hungry for contemporary ideas and contact with the West...the confession of a prominent [jailed] reformer, Saeed Hajjarian...was read in court and broadcast on national television. The confession, dismissed by reform leaders as a reflection of the views of Mr. Hajjarian's jailers, provided a lengthy criticism of human sciences, especially sociology and political science. It lamented the negative influence of theories like "post-structuralism, post-Marxism and feminism."...The confession also addressed Mr. Hajjarian's application of certain political theories to his own work, saying, "For these unworthy interpretations which became the cause of many immoral acts, I ask forgiveness of the Iranian people." Wife of another "confessor" emphasizes it's forced. HT @YaleFreePress
Obama's Summer of Discontent; the Politics of Charisma Is So Third World...
Fouad Ajami says Americans were never going to buy into it for too long. Read about the disparate groups Obama's voters belong to...
Will States Kill Recovery?
Brian Riedl, Senior Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation provides a clear answer.
Thomas Paine, Warts and All
WSJ and the National Portrait Gallery honor Thomas Paine's 200th birthyear -- for more Common Sense information, click here.
Calls to Tax Junk Food Gain Ground
The LA Times reports on this subjective money and control grab. HT @YaleFreePress
Steelworker's Union Part of Global Union Effort
A new global union tries to gain power and influence policy..."challenging growing exploitation of global capital." Not exactly free market advocates!
Three Reasons Why Government Can't Run Health Care
"...the Obama Administration...announced late Friday that the amount of money they don't have, but are nonetheless planning on spending over the next ten years isn't the astonishing $7 trillion they estimated in May, but is instead an astounding $9 trillion." "...last week, cash-for-clunkers ended in a bureaucratic morass of red tape, false promises and unanticipated costs." "...home health care after hospitalization ...saves Medicare billions of dollars...so naturally bureaucrats... cut $34 billion from this compassion, efficient program...if the House health care reform bill becomes law, an additional $56.8 billion will be cut from the program." "Facta, non verba...deeds, not words."
Fiscal Conservative and Soul of the GOP
The Wall Street Journal talks with Texas Governor Rick Perry about Arnold, Sarah, ObamaCare, and the future of the GOP.
If only there were money (not IOUs) in the SS trust fund.
Forget the Fairness Doctrine; We have (other) ways...
Mark Lloyd, the new Federal Communications Commission's Diversity Officer, knows many ways to force "fair" airwaves. Sen. Grassley responds to this appointment.
Dems Demand Records from Health Insurance Companies
"...Waxman and Stupak also sought documents relating to premiums paid by policy holders, claims payments, sales expenses, administrative expenses and profits, broken down by categories such as employer-provided coverage; individual coverage, Medicare and Medicaid."
Sarah Palin Responds to Pres. re. Death Panel
"My original comments concerned statements made by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, a health policy advisor to President Obama and the brother of the President's chief of staff. Dr. Emanuel has written that some medical services should not be guaranteed to those "who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens....An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia." [10] Dr. Emanuel has also advocated basing medical decisions on a system which "produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated." [11]"
The Alinsky Way versus the American Way
"Now, if the first thought you parried, dear reader, while reading this account, was why on earth some guy in the 'hood didn't see the rotted step, get himself a hammer, some nails, a new step board, and fix the darned step himself before one of his own children was injured, then you are an American through and through."
What's in the July Unemployment number? Part Two
To recap: Stock market "better"--everything else worse. "...if you take the July number of unemployed, 14.5 million, and add that 796,000 of discouraged workers [taken out by the Budget of Labor and Statistics (BLS)] you get a total of 15,296,000...In a work force of July's number of 154,504,000, that's an unemployment rate of 9.9 percent." See Campaign Spots 8/7/09 entry.
There's no limit to the free market pie, but there is a limit to credit; either gov't gets it or the private sector does. Small business step aside!
People are staying on unemployment longer than ever.
What's in the July Unemployment number? Part One
@PoliticalMath explains with an update adjusting the current number for the season. Nonetheless, the stock market goes up, while the real unemployment rate is 16%+, planned layoffs increase, commercial real estate's future is murky, our freedoms are diminishing, banks continue to fail (and the FDIC is likely bankrupt), consumer spending is down, taxes at every level are rising and headed higher, and (NEW) Timmy G wants Congress to raise our debt limit above $12.1 Trillion. What's wrong with this picture?
See immigration statistics. Interesting graphic.
Overlay of Great Depression versus today.
Econ 101. Peter Schiff "leads" good discussion at OntheBorderline
Commentary (8/3/09) about our supposed economic recovery: "Our entire economy was [is] phony; ... the bulk of it, was built on this financial pyramid." No time? Start 6 minutes in. In the meantime, watch for weakness in the dollar. Keynes vs. allocation of resources.
Great Updated and Revised Health Care Bill Overview
Liberty Council provides us with an excellent list of What Americans Need to Know about the Healthcare Takeover. Health Care Facts
Sherlock Holmes & the Mystery of the Green Shoots
"...Going further into his research, Holmes uncovered a quote from the Chairman of one of the largest banks in American in a New York Times story with the headline '...Bank Head Sees Credit Restoration and Recovery Nearing'...Intrigued by this missive exploring the light at the end of the tunnel, Holmes stopped reading and reached for his ever present smoking pipe when he realized that it was a quote from Albert H. Wiggin, retiring chief of the Chase National Bank in an interview published on January 9th, 1933. Not only was this a historical precedent for a bank executive calling a bottom way too early, but it turns out that Wiggin was a scoundrel. The Pecora Commission investigation into the Wall Street crash uncovered that Wiggin had been shorting his own company's stock even as his firm and others were supporting the market via investment pools..." Michael A. J. Farrell of Annaly Capital Management, Inc. writes a riveting tale. HT ZeroHedge (emphasis ours)
State Governments in Peril. (Annaly Capital Mgt. Inc.)
The Democrats Want Your Kids HT Schlafly
"Democrats Walter Mondale and John Brademas wrote to constituents in 1970. "A day care program that ministers to a child from six months to six years of age has over 8,000 hours to teach him values, fears, beliefs, and behaviors." Link to "Summer School..." mentioned in Herzog's article.
National Disservice: Pres. Obama's Feel Good Draft
Americorps "was tainted from the get-go. In its early years, members were routinely used as backdrops for photo opportunities when President Clinton arrived on tarmacs around the nation. And AmeriCorps "volunteers" were repeatedly involved in political advocacy and petitioning. The program gave over $1 million to ACORN....AmeriCorps claims that its members "mobilize" 1.7 million other Americans to volunteer each year. At best, this is the Tom Sawyer model of virtue—some people getting paid to sway other people to work for free...The GIVE Act views military-style regimentation as a model for the nation. Its National Civil Community Corps would seek to "combine the best practices of civilian service with the best aspects of military service." This reminds some critics of Obama's declaration last July: "We've got to have a civilian national security force that is just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded as the military."
The Terrible Truth about Walter Cronkite
Lack of competition, a personable and authoritative presence ... thank goodness for free market expansion of outlets since those days.
Interesting 6'x6' poster of gov't spending. Interactive on web.
Obama's team overshoots their predictions. Where are we headed?
Health Care Articles Worth the Read
All the great videos and articles written by various people discussing health care are now on our Health Care Facts page. See what's new!
The Barackracy Booms
Czars, government workers, media adoration and manipulation, threats....
Muslim w/ Radical Ties Appointed to Dept. Homeland Security
Read more about this Obama appointee at Atlas Shrugs. The Am-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) describes the other appointee.
Walgreen's Already Has a Health Care Alternative
Yes. The private sector leads the way (watch gov't step all over it). Fast Company reports on this near-house/in-company clinic approach.
Marginalizing Sarah Palin [destructive propaganda]
"... In order to accomplish this [income redistribution and 'social justice,' leftwing media are marginalizing people like Palin who oppose the strategy. Under the guise of hard news reporting, the media are pushing rank propaganda on the citizenry. Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, successfully developed this tactic in the 1930s...Americans need to wake up and smell the corruption. If crazy ideologues have infiltrated the news business, we need to know about it. And now you do."
Clear Reasons NOT to Confirm Sotomayor
"Identity politics involves a sense of grievance against the majority, a feeling that racism permeates American society and its institutions, and the belief that members of one's own group are victims in a perpetual power struggle with the majority... In her senior thesis, she refused to identify the U.S. Congress by its proper name, instead referring to it as the 'North American Congress' or the 'Mainland Congress.'" Linda Chavez says more, too.
House Dems' health care 'plan.'
See article New York Post | News | 7/16/09
California's IOUs: The Shape of Things to Come
The Market Ticker provides a good overview of what's happening with the California IOUs. "...If you deposit one of these things it is a recourse deposit - that is, not only is it subject to holds, but in addition if the state defaults on it the bank will come back at you for the full face value..." Perhaps, these should be called no-recourse scams.
None Dare Call It Marxism
Read about Marxist belief in "class struggle," business owners' exploitation of workers and overcharging for "surplus value." Bunk.
Banksters Love Cap and Trade [companies learn they gain by focusing on political self-interest, rather than competing in the free market]
"In this case, the rush to pass this new bill was an attempt to stop any scrutiny of a plan that is going to utterlytransform the American economy, further centralize control of citizens' lives in the hands of unaccountable federal bureaucrats and complete the transfer of the American economy from Main Street to Wall Street. And all of this in the name of fighting a threat which itself is a demonstrable fraud. ... For an historical precedent of what is being proposed under this cap-and-trade scam one can look to Enron, which immediately found ways to plunder billions of dollars from new energy market legislation passed by the Clinton Administration in 2000." Here's a link to the Rolling Stone article by Matt Taibbi mentioned: "The Great American Bubble Machine -- How Goldman Sachs has manipulated every major market manipulation since the Great Depression." Follow the links. EPA suppresses evidence (video).
United in Hate, Part II
Ashley Herzog asks the question, "...How could the left possibly defend cultures like these? Because they hate their own culture. They hate Western civilization and believe Western countries, especially the U.S., are racist, sexist colonialist oppressors. (Or as leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky calls America, "a leading terrorist state.") They desperately want to believe woman-hating Third World cultures are morally superior to our own..." Atlas Shrugs provides a graphic representation of power in Iran.
A Real Bi-Partisan Economic Stimulus Plan
"...Keynesian economists believe government spending on "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects -- schools, roads, bridges -- is the best way to stimulate our staggering economy. Supply-side economists make an equally persuasive case that tax cuts are the surest and quickest way to create permanent jobs and cause an economy to rebound. That happened under JFK, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush..."
Acorn Chasing Runaway Slave
Kevin Jackson (Black Sphere) writes..."What was Anita MonCrief's crime? She exposed how ACORN is using blacks to do the bidding of wealthy whites, only to get fed pig feet, while ACORN's elite enjoy pork tenderloin. She exposed the inner workings of the highly partisan Democrat (actually communist) organization and its ties to His Lowness, one Barack "Insane" Obama. And for her actions, the racist Democrat machine released the hounds of hell on her. ACORN will not have other blacks trying to escape the prison that is the plantation..." Read Acorn's Preamble: "...Corporations shall have their role; producing jobs, providing products, paying taxes. No more, no less. They shall obey our wishes, respond to our needs, serve our communities..."
Behold What Madison Hath Wrought
The MacIver Institute tells us how WI is sticking it to us (both the Fed & State pile on the redundancy! Double-taxation takes on new meaning.)
Smoot Hawley Lysenko Cocktail.
Peter Theron, candidate for WI 2nd Congressional district, responds to recent Cap and Tax act passed by WI. "If signed into law, Cap and Tax, based on politically-correct science, will increase the price of fuel, increase the price of electricity, and increase unemployment. It will not "promote the general welfare" and so should be scrapped as quickly as possible." Read it all.
Cap & Tax Passes House 219 Yes 212 No
Find out who voted how. Hint: 8 RINOs voted YES (Bono Mack, Castle, Kirk, Lance, LoBiondo, Reichert, Smith, McHug) Thanks to WFRW & WI Sen. Grothman's office for keeping us up to speed.
House Passes Climate Change Bill
1200 pages total...300 added at 3 am. Do ya' think they know what they are signing on our behalf?
Cap and Tax, A Man-Made Disaster
"Fiscal Policy: The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on an anti-stimulus package that in the name of saving the earth will destroy the American economy..." by blogger JT Harris
Click here for larger image. See Hotlines page for contact info.
The fiscal stimulus is puny compared with the actions the Fed has been taking behind closed doors. By Timothy Lavin
Click for info/larger image. Recession unemployment and recovery (no sign for us yet).
Great Texan RNC advice: Stop whining about the Bush admin!
"...It seems every time a Republican is given a microphone they act like they're taking the higher ground or being noble by pointing out something they think the Bush Administration did wrong. Please advise on what page that is to be found in Rules for Radicals." Remember "...the George W. Bush presidency lasted eight years, and that during the first six years the economy of the U. S. was a dynamic engine of prosperity, in spite of paying for two wars. The economy only faltered during the last two Bush years, spinning into real difficulty during the latter months of the last year. What changed? The Democrats gained control of both houses of Congress in 2006. As a direct result, it became increasingly apparent to most Americans through 2007 and 2008 that the Bush tax cuts would not be made permanent, and would instead expire at the end of their legislated ten-year life span. Included in the provisions set to expire was, and is, favorable treatment of the capital gain resulting from the sale of a residence. That was the triggering mechanism for the explosion." More great stuff. EZ to read and important, too.
Questions to ask about the Health Care proposals
Prominent conservatives and free market supporters offer pertinent questions that Obama and his administration should answer.
Rep. Bachmann: Sign petition to stop funding Acorn
See Rep. Bachmann make her case.
Rep. Bachmann refuses to complete census
I want to follow this story. How about a massive T.E.A. party sending them back? Check out the 2009 census: Nosy busy-bodies gather bait for a fishing trip.
For the Nation's Medicine, A HICA Moment
"...But the president isn't saying that. In his remarks to the American Medical Association, he told the nation's doctors, "The public option is not your enemy; it is your friend." ... Sort of like, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help you. Thoreau had it right when he wrote, 'If I knew for a certainty that a man were coming to my door with the conscious purpose of doing me good, I would run for my life.'" Read more.
It's Always Been about the Mullahs
"...It was always a ruse. Mousavi is as establishment as they come. He was Prime Minister of Iran from 1981 to 1989, and editor in chief of the official newspaper of the Islamic Republic party. Further, he's cut from the same Nazi cloth as Ahmadinejad: he was one of the founders of Hezb'allah, and also helped construct Iran's murderous intelligence services. Mousavi was a favorite of the Ayatollah Khomeini. He said he was running for President because he could 'no longer stand to see... [Iran] moving toward dictatorship.' Nothing about ending Iran's jihad against Israel, or against America...The mullahs are going to show the world what Obama really is...The President is naked at the feast, baby." Pam Gellar of Atlas Shrugs keeps us grounded...Patrick Buchanan does as well. As hard as it may seem...saying somethingn is debatable. See her pop-up of the Hierarchy of Power in Iran: One Man Above All Others.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Letter to the Editor--Please write one, too!
*** GOVERNMENT SPENDING Voters get what they wanted 6/14/2009
I can't help commenting on many recent Journal Sentinel editorials and letters to the editor. With regard to the state budget, many say that, while it is painful, we must increase taxes and fees, especially on higher-income individuals who are presumably able and willing to pay because Wisconsin is such a wonderful place to live.
With regard to health care reform, many are enthusiastic about universal coverage with a public plan option, presumably at a lower cost with the quality of care and access to care for all remaining as it is now.
My personal observation of even moderately well-to-do individuals is that at retirement, nearly all leave Wisconsin to become residents of more tax-friendly states. They may maintain a summer residence in Wisconsin, but their taxable dollars go elsewhere. This is a process that leads to Wisconsin gradually becoming a poorer state. Add to this the Doyle administration's public policy that is anti-business and pro-trial attorney, and one can see clearly the future of Wisconsin.
If one wants to see the end result of public health care financing, just look to Canada. No one disputes that the quality of care there is high. It is excellent, but it is unavailable to anyone not willing to wait in a lengthy queue. That is how costs are controlled for the masses. Of course, politicians always have immediate access to care, so what do they care?
The delusion of the masses is that policies can be changed with no unintended consequences. President Barack Obama and Gov. Jim Doyle were elected with significant majorities in Wisconsin, and the people likely will get what they think they want.
James E. Greenlee, M.D. Fox Point ***
The Party of "Know,"...not "No"
Ted Nugent rocks on what we know.
Sarah Palin, the 21st Century "It" Girl
Jay Valentine cheers us up with a description of common sense charisma at the American Thinker. HT JTHarris
Beating Back Obamanomics
"...the right wing is getting its act together. It has suddenly discovered that economics matters. You can cheer on the hot wars, fight the culture wars, and crack down on political dissidents all you want. But in the end, what makes for the good society is a sound economy. Without it, all the rest falls apart..."
Just Make Stuff Up
Victor Hanson describes why we need to keep the calls going in to our legislators. It seems overwhelming, but there is reason to resist this change and redirect it!!
Ruin Your Health [and pocketbook] with Obama Stimulus Plan
Getting older? Watch out! "...Daschle says health-care reform "will not be pain free." Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt."
Obama tells American Businesses to Drop Dead
"...last week, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer came to Washington to announce what Microsoft would do if Obama's multinational tax policy is enacted. 'It makes U.S. jobs more expensive," Ballmer said, 'We're better off taking lots of people and moving them out of the U.S.' If Microsoft, perhaps our most competitive company, has to abandon the U.S. in order to continue to thrive, who exactly is going to stay?...At issue is Obama's policy to end the deferral of multinational taxation."
Obama's Speech in Cairo, Egypt (AP's version)
Charles Krauthammer sums up his reaction to the speech.
It's really all about having freedom as an individual -- the smallest minority. On an individual level, we all know how difficult it can be to pursue our dreams when we worry too much about what others might think. At least that's just a mind game! When government officials pass laws and regulations to control our behavior, our freedom to choose truly does goes away. Short-term link.
International Forecaster Explains Doomsday Scenario
"...We certainly don't want to have to tell you this, but the way things are shaping up it doesn't look good. As we write this the dollar is breaking 80 on the USDX. Interest rates are climbing, and have broken out to the upside. Gold and silver are poised to break into new high territory and the stock market is preparing to retest 6,600 on the Dow. You have been warned, act accordingly..." Interesting perspective. What do you think? Do you act, or do you wait and see?
Are you kidding? No one's planning on stopping the increases and additions and...
Zero Hedge blogs about the market's movements
"As for today's [5/29/09] market close, with a literally parabolic jump in the last minute of trading, if anyone still thinks this market trades based on anything resembling normal behavior..., I have some BBB+ rated CMBS to sell to you at par...So as essentially no institutional or retail clients are trading any more, it is just a few desperate computers trying to front run each other...Is there ever going to be any transparency in this market again?"
American capitalism gone with a whimper
"First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics..." Stanislav Mishin does a good job summarizing our situation on his blog and as printed in the Russian Pravda.
MacIver Institute Reveals Wisconsin's Secretly Cut Budget Deal
WI's own MacIver Institute for Public Policy posts "the 65-plus page secretly-negotiated new new budget deal...70 percent of the entire GPR budget in one, sweeping, secretly negotiated omnibus motion, on which no public hearing was held." New, higher everything!
Who Wrote Dreams and Why It Matters
Jack Cashill at the American Thinker shares his "literary detective work" comparing Ayers' Fugitive Days w/ "Obama's" Dreams of My Father.
It Has Begun. Stocks Drop and Interest Rates Rise Anyway
"It has begun. Today equities fell significantly and the "safe haven" bid was not large enough to overcome a deluge of selling. Yields rose. Again. This is not likely to be an isolated incident..." Many more observations about the current economic and market situation.
Understanding the Black Experience?
Kevin Jackson (of The Black Sphere) responds to someone accusing him that "though I am completely black, I have no experience growing up black in America."
dshort and Heritage chart it for us...
Follow the Bears (markets, that is)...click for larger image.
Spending increases are WAY larger than inflation. Click for larger image.
I say Cap and Tax. You say Clean Energy and Security Act. Call the whole thing off!!
Read MyronEbell's April 22, 2009, testimony before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Or read why Schlafly says not to fall for Cap and Tax. Or read Herman Cain's comprehensive overview.
Institute For WI's Future calls for taxing 100% of Capital Gains
Read the ugly truth of what's being touted. Doyle will increase the amount from 40% to 60%--Oh, yes, there's more....
Republicans need Washingtons, not Specters
Star Parker reminds us that President George Washington respected term limits. "He knew that America fought to throw off the yoke of kings and the capricious use of power."
On Wall Street: Beware of the Sucker's Rally
"The granddaddy of all bear markets, 1929 –1932, had six false alarms with an average gain of 47 per cent..."
Heritage.org provides perspective on budget numbers
Atheist, Pro-Abortion, Anti-Marriage Libertarians Want Control of Repubican Party
North Carolina warns of non-conservatives wresting control of Republican party. Considering conservatism works every time it's tried...
Dept. of Homeland Security Report
Click title to read entire text. For summarizing commentary: Michelle Malkin, Diane West, Jonah Goldberg
Glenn Beck Reports that "You're an Extremist!"
The Department of Homeland Security describes terrorists that sound a lot like us! Really!?!
Study Finds Millions in Waste at Milwaukee Public Schools
$100,000,000+ of "...waste in every area - inefficient payroll processing, overqualified maintenance teams, even pencil sharpeners that cost more than $100. The report also found more than five dozen [60+] central office jobs with six-figure salaries [$100,000+]."
Rockin' Ted Nugent's Great Read on Gun Control and Mexico
"...Reminds me of when Mayor Daley decreed to the National Guard and law enforcement "shoot to kill" all looters caught out after curfew during the 1968 Chicago riots. No one shot and no one killed and no one dared be on the streets of the Windy City, because everyone knew old Dick meant it..."
Thomas Sowell's Random Thoughts
"Socialists believe in government ownership of the means of production. Fascists believed in government control of privately owned businesses, which is much more the style of this government. That way, politicians can intervene whenever they feel like it and then, when their interventions turn out badly, summon executives from the private sector before Congress and denounce them on nationwide television."
Ryan Explains Republican's Alternative Budget
There sure is a better way!
Our Problem is Immorality
"Do you believe that it is moral and just for one person to be forcibly used to serve the purposes of another?" Answer that and read on!!
Sell the Roads!
Are you ready to trust the free market? Take a moment to think about what that really means and the benefits behind this leap of faith
Lost in an Energy Wilderness (when there's Abundance all around us!)
Created in 1977, our own Department of Energy purposely leads us farther and farther away from energy abundance.
How to Cure Your Daughter's STD Syndrome
Mike Adams, Townhall columnist and UNC professor, offers a cure to the rampant Socialist Teaching Disorder (STD) on our colleges today.
The Bad, The Ugly, and the Good
Victor Davis Hanson writes a thought-provoking three-part series about what he sees happening in the USA. Read more here.
Headed toward extinction?
Haven't we already "discussed" this topic? Read how world DE-population is the more likely trend these days.
On the Wrong Side of History
Investor's Business Daily sounds yet another warning signal.
Change vs. Classics in Education
"While 57.8 percent of professors want to encourage students to be "agents of social change," only 34.7 percent said teaching the classics is very important, notes Chronicle of Higher Education"..."The classics are works about social change, in one way or another. That's true of Greek tragedy, of Chaucer, of Shakespeare, of Milton, of Defoe, of enlightenment philosophers, of romantic poets, of Victorian novelists, of modernist writers. Some register upheaval in their form, some in their content, some do both. Some try to provoke change, some try to register and reflect on it, some try to resist it. But great literature is always hooked into the great tensions of its time — even as it is also hooked into a longer tradition." Thanks to Joanne Jacobs for highlighting this for us on March 6.
Sweden's Government Health System
Walter Williams outlines why we do NOT want more government in our health system. See related video on the Canadian system, too.
Community Organizing Goes to D.C.
"President Obama's staff has created a group, headquartered in the offices of the Democratic National Committee, called "Organizing for America." Its mission is to "redirect the campaign machinery into the service of broad changes in health care, environmental and fiscal policy. They envision an army of supporters talking, sending e-mail messages and texting to friends and neighbors as they try to mold public opinion." Three days after Obama was sworn in as President, an announcement video was sent to 13 million people." article
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