Obviously the “Congress” has transferred most of their power to the “Executive Branch” thus making themselves essentially irrelevant.
Anybody with a brain knows the current Demercrat Congress is clueless, but relinquishing their power to the Executive branch is an exhibition of “blind stupidity”.
Between Obamacare and the ObamaFinancialBigBrother Bill Obama became “Supreme Leader Commissar El Duce Fuhrer Barack Doublespeak Obama”.
President Obama or his “minions” can now at a whim “put their boot on the neck” of anyone deemed as worthy of the effort.
The Supreme Leader Commissar El Duce Fuhrer Barack Doublespeak Obama Regime can now “legally” poke into our bank and credit accounts and destroy those determined to be “counter-revolutionary” or not appropriately “subservient” to the agenda of Supreme Leader Commissar El Duce Fuhrer Barack Doublespeak Obama.
Since the Obama Regime has been granted access to most everything in our “recorded” daily activities Obama is now effectively Dictator!
Historical Notes:
Hitler the “Fuhrer” committed suicide to escape retribution for his crimes against Germany.
Benito Mussolini “El Duce” was summarily executed by Italian partisans.
The Supreme Leader Commissar El Duce Fuhrer Barack Doublespeak Obama and his “thugs” will determine the destiny of most Americans.
I anticipate that I will be found and identified as a “subversive” and my Social Security payments will be terminated by Supreme Leader Commissar El Duce Fuhrer Barack Doublespeak Obama’s team..
I have an owned car to “live in” - my “financial obligations” will crumble and be destined for “repossession” or bankruptcy.
Perhaps I can then get “welfare” and/or “food stamps” to preclude death by starvation? But will I be excluded from that system by Supreme Leader Commissar El Duce Fuhrer Barack Doublespeak Obama’s team?
This future is not my best scenario.
Malcolm T. Hedges
]]>According to conservative ratings, Inglis has been good on legislative votes. So you’d think, instead of insulting his base, he’d be saying this White House has raised demagoguery and misinformation to new levels. He’d say the left spews hate.
Legislative vote ratings, however, don’t measure leadership - or humility. Full Piece
]]>Thus, while not recanting predictions of disastrous climate change, environmental activists and the United Nations are already launching a new campaign. The real threat to the planet, they now assert, is the impact of modern energy technologies and civilization on biodiversity. The case for saving species, they insist, is even “more powerful” than the need to address climate change.
They seek to preserve biodiversity by controlling people’s energy use, economic activities and population – through new regulations and taxes under the auspices of the United Nations and global treaties. These efforts, they claim, will generate benefits “worth $4-5 trillion per year” (based on questionable studies and computer models that underscore the intrinsic value of species and biodiversity).
To accept these claims, one would have to ignore the sordid history of Climategate and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – and believe a larger, more powerful United Nations will somehow ensure honesty, transparency, and accountability for misfeasance, misrepresentation, intimidation, and adverse impacts on people and economic growth. One would also have to ignore a growing body of evidence that:
The greatest threats to the world’s species are misguided environmental and anti-technology policies.
Among the policies adversely impacting biodiversity are the following.
* Intense opposition to coal, gas, nuclear and hydroelectric plants for generating the electricity that two billion people worldwide so desperately need. Not only does this force people to rely on open fires for heating and cooking – perpetuating poverty, lung disease and premature death. It also destroys mountain gorilla and other wildlife habitats, as people cut trees for fires and charcoal.
China and India are self-financing hundreds of power projects, to avoid conditions placed by wealthy countries on World Bank and other international loans. But poor countries must still rely on such loans – and thus must run gauntlets laid down by regulators and environmental activists who oppose critically needed power plants and the economic growth and middle class living standards the plants generate.
* Steadfast promotion of expensive, unreliable wind and solar power. Wind turbines slice up birds and collapse bat lungs. Turbines and solar arrays would have to cover millions of acres to provide power for cities. They require ultra-long transmission lines and backup gas generators, and consume millions of tons of concrete, steel, copper, fiberglass, polymers and rare earth (lanthanide) minerals – all of which have to extracted from the Earth and processed into finished products, burning fossil fuels and generating mining wastes and air and water pollution.
Con Ed had to generate some 13,500 megawatts to meet New York City’s air conditioning and other electricity needs during the recent July heat wave. The 600-turbine Roscoe wind farm blankets 100,000 Texas acres to generate 780 MW at full capacity. That means NYC would need a wind farm 1.6 times the size of Connecticut (5 million acres or 2 million hectares), if the turbines are running at an average 30% of capacity. But during the heat wave, there’s barely a breeze.
Now multiply that habitat demand times the world’s biggest cities, and calculate the biodiversity impact. No wonder the wind industry wants exemptions from endangered species rules and environmental impact studies that hyper-regulate fossil fuel and nuclear companies. No wonder Senator Diane Feinstein has introduced legislation to prohibit solar panel installations in the super-sunny Mojave Desert.
* Equally passionate advocacy for biofuels, especially ethanol. Every 7 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol requires crops grown on an area the size of Indiana (23 million acres) – and Congress now wants the USA to produce 20 billion gallons of EtOH annually by 2020. In addition to expropriating vast crop land and wildlife habitat, ethanol production requires billions of gallons of water, millions of tons of fertilizer and insecticides, and enormous quantities of natural gas and diesel fuel to power tractors, tanker trucks and conversion plants – to distill a fuel that gets 20% fewer mpg than gasoline.
And yet, President Obama told a Ghanaian audience in July 2009 that malnourished Africa should forego even gas-fired electricity generators in favor of wind, solar and biofuel power. The continent and its arid, nutrient-depleted soils already cannot feed their populations adequately, and the President wants them to divert cropland and wildlife habitats to biofuels. Meanwhile, environmental activists continue to …
* Oppose biotechnology, genetically engineered crops and even hybrid seeds. These specialized crops survive better during droughts, increase farm family incomes, improve nutrition, and reduce the need for insecticides. They offer the best hope for growing more biofuel crops on less acreage.
The New York Times says we can ill afford “not to make the best use of genetic engineering.” If we “allow propaganda to trump science, then the potential for global agriculture to be productive, diverse and sustainable will go unfulfilled.” The late Dr. Norman Borlaug warned that forcing the world to rely on organic and traditional farming to feed even current populations would require plowing under nearly every remaining acre of forest and grassland habitat.
That’s without factoring in biofuels.
And yet, environmentalists and EU bureaucrats threaten African nations with punitive boycotts if they plant biotech crops. Radical greens want Third World farmers to rely on “traditional” seeds and agricultural methods, and oppose the use of seeds that have been “touched by corporations.”
* Environmentalists also oppose timber cutting and even tree thinning and mechanized fire suppression on vast acreage of US national forests. Too often the result is fiery conflagrations that incinerate trees, wildlife, soil and streams, causing extensive erosion and long-term habitat loss.
* Topping it off, the Environmental Protection Agency’s recent endangerment decision, low-carbon fuel standards, and power plant emission rules will force even greater expansion of wind, solar and biofuel use, further impacting habitats and biodiversity.
It is bad enough that “biodiversity stabilization” is a reprise of past government-environmentalist eco-scares. Like its predecessors, the new program offers horrifying predictions of a dying planet – backed by little more than dubious theories, assumptions, assertions and statistics, fed into fancy computer models that generate ominous scenarios and graphics. It also proposes the same tired “solutions” – more taxes, regulations, and government control over lives, energy development and economic growth.
The far greater problem is that the UN, EPA, “mainstream media” and political establishment are ignoring the real threats to habitats, species and biodiversity: the anti-energy, anti-technology, anti-people agenda of radical green ideology.
We now have an opportunity to make Earth a better place for people and the natural world. We need to reject this agenda, demand sound science and solid evidence that a treat exists, and recognize that modern technology actually offers the best hope for protecting the diversity of species.
Paul Driessen
http://www.CFACT.org/
Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (http://www.CFACT.org) and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power – Black death.
]]>The book, “The Manchurian President: Barack Obama’s Ties to Communists, Socialists and Other Anti-American Extremists,” also documents how key leaders of the socialist New Party helped to craft recent White House legislation, including Obama’s “stimulus” bill. Full Piece
]]>Innocuously titled “Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2009,” the report won’t say it’s about the demise of tenure. But that’s what it will show. Full Piece
]]>Obama put Berwick in the job today using a recess appointment, a procedure that lets the president fill positions without Senate confirmation when Congress isn’t meeting. Lawmakers are on a week-long break for the Independence Day holiday. Full Piece
]]>Growing up, I can recall that repeatedly my parents and grandparents would caution me that people always judged an individual by how well he or she kept their promises. I was warned not to make pledges I didn’t intend to keep and to always honor my word.
To be completely realistic, we all make pledges or promises that are sincere when uttered, but fade away like the wind with the passage of time. It matters not if it is a promise to be home by dinnertime or to lose ten pounds by summer, obstacles form in front of us…and we fail. However, this should be the rare exception and not the rule of our lives. Since nobody wants to be viewed harshly by others, we should always remember the world judges a person by how well they keep their word.
We all like to associate with people we can trust. We want to do business with those companies that say what they mean…and mean what they say. We do not form close friendships with liars. In the case of most intimate relationships, we seek out individuals who are true to their word.
So, why is it that when it comes to our interaction with the political community we accept politician’s promises and pledges time after time, knowing deep inside ourselves we are hearing nothing but lies?
The newspapers and television reports have daily articles crammed with false political promises that we accept or reject depending upon our own political philosophy. He or she is “our” candidate or elected official…so what is being said is the truth. It remains the truth until it is modified, compromised or just broken. And we usually debate about when that modification or compromise will take place.
I recently read an article that stated Barack Obama had made a total of 516 promises to the American people. At the time it was written in January 2009, he had only broken a total of 19, placed another 82 on the back burner to think about later, had compromised on 37 and completely ignored 3. Those numbers cover 141 of the political promises he made to the people. I guess that means he is still working on 375 things he has assured us will happen…and all at the same time.
According to http://Politifact.com/ , Bush made the public a total of 177 promises and Clinton gave his word on 204. It does not numerate how many of their pledges became reality. Obama already more than doubles and triples his predecessors in uttering political payoff pledges…and he is not yet through the first half of his elected term of office. Nevada bookmakers could come up with a very interesting money pool on what Obama’s final tally false hope and dreams will total.
None of this should be a shock to the American public. There is a fifty-year-old joke that asks the question “How can you tell if a politician is lying?” It answers that question stating, “His lips are moving!”. If we knew this fifty years ago, why should we think any differently today?
Semper Fidelis
Thomas D. Segel
http://thomasdsegel.com/
In a 3-3 deadlock vote on Harrington’s last day as a high school senior this month, the committee banned the leading of students in the Pledge. Committee member Leba Heigham’s rationale as one of the three no votes was: “patriotism is a very personal thing for all of us, but I do not think it is in the school committee’s best interest to mandate that any of our employees recite the Pledge.” Full Piece
]]>There’s one major flaw with this philosophy. It doesn’t reflect reality. No matter what anyone wants to believe, hopes to encourage or pretends to see people are not equal. There are the physical differences of size, shape, appearance, intelligence and temperament. There are also differences in family environment, economic situation, education, and location. There’s no natural way to eradicate these inherent differences. This is where the progressive philosophy kings seek to insert the coercive actions of government to level the playing field creating what they believe is a perfect environment for human activity.
However, perfect equality is impossible to create, for in the artificial hothouse of government enforced equality there are still those who decide what equal is, and as the privileged commissars of the USSR taught us everyone is equal but some are more equal than others.
Founded in the fires of revolution against the tyranny of hereditary monarchs and privilege, the people of the United States sought to establish a nation unique in the world where everyone could work their way to the highest positions in a free society. Today the richest people in the country, the most celebrated in media and the most powerful in politics, bare witness that this system works. However, beginning at the end of the nineteenth century the Progressives began their Long March to power building upon the idea that government intervention, as opposed to the withdrawal of government control, was necessary to create, as opposed to allow, the equality of opportunity which has always been the key to America’s greatness.
To gain control, the Progressives changed the definition of equality from the opportunity to achieve to the absence of failure advocating governmental action to create a safety net. Unfortunately, while their plan isn’t based on the reality of human nature it must deal with the results of human nature. Many people, when they’re given a safety net turn it into a hammock and decide life isn’t a challenge it’s a vacation with the bill sent to someone else.
The first step the progressives identified as necessary to impose an unreal vision upon reality was education. The goal: expel God and positive views of American History to turn a nation founded upon inalienable rights endowed by a Creator into a secular Humanist commonwealth where government is the arbiter of all, and change our iron-clad Constitution into a Living Document. The press came next growing into a media monster ridiculing traditional values and extolling deviance as the new normal. To protect people from the predatory practices of rapacious capitalism government regulation became the Progressives’ tool of choice.
The federal regulators led step-by-step to massive government distortion of the marketplace. Federally-funded Fannie and Freddie inflated a housing bubble. Casino capitalism run by government cronies invented bazaar financial instruments convincing people that buying funds backed by bad loans made sense. Central planners were picking winners and losers instead of the self-directed interests of consumers, thus making this economic shell game unsustainable. The Progressive’s answer was more government intervention, which successfully transformed a recession into the Great Recession.
After serial bail-outs, which haven’t bailed out anyone except politically-connected interest groups, we have career politician Sen. Christopher Dodd’s going away present. Another magical mystery bill: crisis-driven financial reform, which even he admits, “No one will know until this is actually in place how it works.” One more multi-thousand-page document redrawing how our society works all in the name of promoting equality, fairness and security by extending government control instead of freedom.
Political and social philosophy cannot change human nature, and no matter how people wish for another reality all we have is the real one. It’s time people admit that once government acts to equalize the lives of all it must act unequally towards some. Equality of opportunity is based upon the idea of treating everyone the same. Equality of outcome is based upon the idea of redistribution. To prevent economic inequality take from those who produce and give to those who don’t. To prevent racial inequality make judgments based on race using racial quotas. In this drive to create an unreal reality the Progressives have manufactured an endless supply of special classes of people, giving some extra rights and privileges while encumbering others with added burdens and barriers. The goal of perfect equality always ends in rearranged inequality. Perfection is not attainable in this life. The utopian dream that humanity can create a government funded heaven on earth has led to more carnage and human suffering than any other delusion known to man.
© 2010 Robert R. Owens
http://robertrowens.com/
What are Haley’s conservative credentials? Nikki has a background in the real world of business, unlike so many other politicians in America. She has been deeply involved in the chamber of commerce and the National Association of Business Women Owners. Her public policy positions, which she describes as Libertarian, reflect the viewpoint of someone who has seen what government can do to business. Nikki has been recognized, during her term in the South Carolina Legislature, as someone who is a friend of taxpayers and of business.
Nikki is a pro-Life social conservative. Sarah Palin, as well as Mark Sanford’s estranged wife, Jenny, have endorsed Nikki. She is the child of legal immigrants and her stand on illegal immigration is much tougher than one of South Carolina’s senators, Lindsey Graham. Nikki, like Bobby Jindal, is the child of parents who came to America from India and who followed the immigration laws of America.
What, then, are her political opponents saying about Nikki Haley? Sadly, some appear to have dipped into poison of true racism, calling her a “raghead.” Bobby Jindal was attacked in a similar fashion by Louisiana Democrats when he ran for office. We can only hope that no Americans take a bite of this noxious fruit. Surely this slime will cost her no Republican votes.
Now attacks on Haley are settling around a more subtle line of bigotry: Nikki Haley, these attacks say, is not a “true” Christian. The proof? Nikki, out of respect for her parents, who are Sikh, attends Sikh religious services with them. (All that proves, of course, is that she loves and respects her parents, which is what we should fondly hope.)
The evidence of Haley’s genuine faith seems clear. Nikki says: ‘My faith in Christ has a profound impact on my daily life and I look to Him for guidance with every decision I make. God has blessed my family in so many ways and my faith in the Lord gives me great strength on a daily basis. Being a Christian is not about words, but about living for Christ every day.’ She has attended Mt. Horeb United Methodist Church for fourteen years.
Those suspicions which swirl around her respectful attendance in Sikh holidays with her parents must be rejected emphatically by conservatives. If Nikki had been a Jewish convert to Christianity, who would it trouble if she attended a relative’s Bar Mitzvah? Who would be aghast if she celebrated Passover with members of her family? No true conservative: Christ celebrated Passover with his family.
Do some folks assume that all religions besides Christianity and Judaism have the same unpleasant calls to jihad that we have come to see in Islam? If so, they are wrong: Sikhs like Baha’i and Zoroastrians, embrace tolerant ethical monotheism. These religions have traditionally produced authentically good citizens, which in politics is what should matter to us. There is nothing wrong with considering a person’s belief system before voting for them – if a member of the Assassin sect of Islam or a thug who worshipped Kali ran for office that should trouble us just like if the person was a Communist or a Nazi.
But we are obliged to actually look at the particular belief system and grasp the impact of that belief on civic fitness. We should know that Eric Cantor, a religiously serious Orthodox Jew, is more conservative than, say, someone who attended services with Jeremiah Wright. Devout Baptists, Catholics, and Jews disagree on theology but converge powerfully on what is good in government or in society – in their company are Sikhs, Baha’i, and Zoroastrians.
If Nikki’s parents ran for public office, their faith should not trouble us. We ought, instead to review their political beliefs and the conduct of their lives. All evidence suggests that Nikki’s parents have led honorable and productive lives and that they have helped make South Carolina a better place to live.
America is great precisely because of its tolerant acceptance of those who do not worship God exactly like us: Lord Baltimore established in Maryland a colony in which Catholics were welcome, William Penn created in Pennsylvania a place in which Quakers could live unmolested, and all the Founding Fathers, led very explicitly by George Washington, welcomed with open arms Jew who wished to live here.
Nikki’s parents came to America because it was a nation that welcomed Sikhs and gave them a chance to succeed, though they were Indians and Sikhs. This is an America which is still overwhelming Christian, a faith which embraces the Parable of the Good Samaritan – which could just as easily have been the Parable of the Good Sikh – and a faith enjoined in the words of St Paul to view each other thus: “There is not Jew or Greek…you are all one in Christ” which could have been “There is not Jew or Sikh.” Those who would question the sincerity of Nikki Haley’s faith because of her love for her parents or her race or the faith into which she was born betray the very faith they pretend to embrace. It is not only a wrong-headed and bad-hearted attitude. It is a profoundly un-Christian attitude.
Bruce Walker
]]>First off, Sacramento, nobody asked you! Do you honestly believe the rest of the country cares about your opinion? California is the Cousin Oliver of the U.S. , yet you held a meeting and decided 6-1 to boycott Arizona. In case you forgot, you don’t have money to spend there anyway. I’m sure Arizona won’t miss your business. Shouldn’t your time be spent on Sacramento issues? Heaven knows you have plenty of them. Or are you so consumed with arrogance that you think your city is without problems? You can’t take two steps in that town without being harassed by a bum for a “coffee with two sugars and a bagel sandwich.” And they actually complain if you get their order wrong. I guess they never heard the phrase “beggars can’t be choosers.” Bottom line, Sacramento: Your homeless population outnumbers Starbucks 10-to-1. So get yourself together before you point fingers at anyone. Full Piece
]]>Knight names names, saying that Erick Erickson’s Red State, which describes itself as the leading conservative news blog for right of center online activists, has been AWOL in the battle. I’ll name another - Hotair.com, which is owned by a Christian company, Salem Communications, is actually supporting repeal of the homosexual exclusion policy. Full Piece
]]>...As we see the Obama administration unraveling before our eyes, we know one thing for sure: Obama isn’t an FDR. And he isn’t a JFK or even a Reagan, after whom he said he would model his “transformative” change presidency.
He may, sadly, turn out to be worse than Jimmy Carter. It is sad because, when the American people need a president to assert strong, positive leadership at home and abroad, Obama is failing us. Full Piece
]]>The numerous flaws of the bill add up to one basic problem: The bill’s omission of reform for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, combined with the overly broad expansion of cumbersome regulation of legitimate investors and entrepreneurs, is exactly the wrong prescription for an economy struggling to climb back from the brink. Full Piece
For example, Harlingen, Texas is celebrating its centennial anniversary this year. Reviewing the history of 100 years ago we find the newly created town was very worried about cross-border raids and the criminal element moving into the Rio Grande Valley from Mexico. As is the case today, ten decades ago the federal government did next to nothing about protecting the border and, again…as is the case today, the Lone Star State had to bring in special teams of Texas Rangers to protect the citizens.
While the Presidents of Mexico and the United States have been very busy singing a duet about how bad the Arizona immigration is and how much it harms relations between the two countries, we are still being forced to contend with anywhere from 10 to 50 million illegal aliens in this country. Our government is so bad at doing math that it can’t even come up with a meaningful illegal immigration count.
Now we hear the cry once again for “comprehensive immigration reform”. The translation into real English of those words is “amnesty” for everyone who broke the law by violating our national border. The argument from our politicos has always been, “We can’t locate and send 12 or 15 million people back to their native countries.”
The reality is we can solve the entire illegal immigration with a single law that does just two things…severely punishes employers who hire illegal workers and makes it a federal requirement that every American citizen and legal immigrant carry a tamper proof identification card.
California Congressman David Dreier, a Republican from the 26th Congressional District, is attempting to obtain passage of such a law with his H.R. 98, The Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act.
This bipartisan legislation has been strongly advocated by T.J. Bonner, President of the National Border Patrol Council. He claims such a bill, if passed, would reduce illegal immigration from Mexico and other countries south of our border by 90%.
The bill is far from complex. It would never require 2,000 pages of Congressional double speak to explain the contents. H.R. 98 calls for improving the integrity of Social Security cards by including a digitalized photo as well as an electronic signature strip that will be used by employers to instantly assure that the person presenting that card is legally in the United States and is eligible to seek employment.
For those who cry out this makes it a National ID Card, he says that can be resolved by printing “Not For Identification Purposes” on the front of the card.
The second element of the bill would increase employer penalties to $50,000 fines and up to 5 years in prison for each illegal alien hired. The employer would also be required to pay all deportation costs.
Finally, 10,000 new Department of Homeland Security employees would be hired whose sole responsibility would be to enforce the new regulations, inspect employment records and prosecute those employers and illegal aliens who violate the law.
Dreier attempted to get such a law passed in 1996 and almost lost his reelection bid because of both Democrat and Republican attacks against his plan. He attempted to win passage of the legislation again in 2007, offering the bill along with 56 co-sponsors. It never left committee.
That same year, 2007, individual states started to become concerned about the lack of attention Congress was giving to our out-of-control border situation. Since that time more than 30 states have entertained various forms of immigration legislation, but to date it has been only Arizona and its citizens who have had enough backbone to stand up to the immigration lobby and amnesty groups by passing tough legislation. However, a number of states are looking closely at the Arizona law and seriously reviewing their own immigration concerns.
So, Congress, instead of parroting the Obama Administration and its lackey media cohorts, how about paying attention to the American people and do the right thing…Use the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) formula and pass this three part, minimum page law to solve our immigration nightmare.
Semper Fidelis
Thomas D. Segel
http://thomasdsegel.com/