POLIBLOG

THE USEFUL IDIOT accuses a fellow Dem of the same!

2011-12-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

Paul Krugman, THE USEFUL IDIOT of the left, writes a column on the the Wyden-Ryan Plan to fix Medicare, calling Wyden a useful idiot. You can read it here. His ignorance astounds!

I'll just explain one of the many misconceptions in the column and let you figure out the rest.

He has become THE USEFUL IDIOT of the left by buying into the deamonizing of big business, in this case insurance, and having no conception of how they work, only feeling the jealousy of the ignorant of the money the executives make!

Take a deep breath and follow my logic: if I am a big insurance company I do not want to insure only healthy people to maximize profits - if you give it 1/2 a minutes thought you would see that my goal would be to insure as many sick people as possible which would cause rates to go up and increase sales and maximize profits! 5% profit on a million dollars is $50,000. 5% profit on five million dollars is $250,000. Which scenario would you want?

Now in fact insurance companies do not go to either extreme but try to service a random base of people to allow them to run a successful and profitable company.

What doesn't work is to get the Government involved with their inefficiences and corruption thereby forcing the insurance companies to effectively take more of our money from the Government coffers because of the ease of doing so. And the Government is much too involved, even .without Obamacare.

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES is the result of all leftist thinking. The FREE MARKET minimizes unintended consequences!

OBAMA'S REAL PROBLEM

2011-11-29T15:36:00.001-08:00

"In other words, the economic group that is most pro-Obama consists of those who make their living, directly or indirectly, off government. To some extent, this group's interests are at odds with those of Republican-leaning private-sector workers. But only to some extent. When government gets so big and intrusive that it suppresses economic growth, it hurts the public sector too. The worst thing a parasite can do is to kill its host." (my emphasis)

James Taranto in WSJ Best of the Web Today reacts to Thomas Edsall's analysis of Obama's supporters. The last sentence is what Obama and his followers do not realize - unintended consequences! They will soon!

On Capital Punishment

2011-11-29T14:52:00.001-08:00

Dennis Prager analyzes the comments of Oregon's Govenor as he stops capital punishment.

A "logical" read, unlike the Governor's reasoning.

Understanding Poverty in America

2011-11-16T07:58:00.001-08:00

Walter E. Williams explains how the "poverty" numbers are biased to help the pandering Pols in Washington D.C.

How much poverty is there in America? A lot less than your Government would like you to think!

Steve Kelly has a great sense of humor!

2011-11-11T08:24:00.001-08:00

1 in 5 Oregonians Receive Food Stamps!

2011-09-30T07:51:00.001-07:00

And the State gets a $5 million award for their ability to add to the rolls!

Hard to believe where this administration is taking our country!

Read about it here.

THE WAKE UP!

2011-09-21T15:27:00.000-07:00

One of my greatest disappointments with the success of Obama's Presidential election was the support he received with two pundits I respect: Peggy Noonan and David Brooks.

Ms. Noonan realized her mistake about a year ago. David Brooks took a little longer but finally admitted being an "Obama sap" this week!

Time and observation cured them!

Our Disastrous Education System

2011-09-17T07:43:00.001-07:00

If it were there for the students instead of the Teachers Unions the trend would be the other way. Rebel, Teachers! You are killing your own Golden Goose!

http://www.theunion.com/article/20110916/NEWS/110919834/1001&parentprofile=10533
Read the latest SAT results - and weep for our future!

Ponzi! Ponzi! Ponzi!

2011-09-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

John Stossel tells it like it is: Social Security is a ponzi scheme! Read this article to understand why.

OBAMASTAN II

2011-06-24T14:05:00.000-07:00

Patraeus is not listened to by Obama, just as Admiral Mullen explained in yesterdays post. This is really hard to believe. Read the comments of Patraeus in the NYT.

In this case we already know what "the offer he couldn't refuse" is - can you say "CIA".

Chicago style works with the military and that saddens and actually scares me. Resignation would be the honorable thing to do, but we must be without honor in the military!

OBAMASTAN

2011-06-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

Gives you a warm feeling when Obama makes a military decision against the recommendation of his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with no apology or explanation. Read Admiral Mike Mullen's comments quoted by the NYT. Afghanistan is definitely his now!

But Admiral Mullen fully supports Obama now. OF COURSE - THEY ARE ALL MILITARY IN THIS PROCESS AND HE CAN DO NOTHING ELSE!!!

Resignation would be a good response, but I doubt that will happen due to Obama's Chicago style control. The Admiral probably got "an offer he couldn't refuse." We'll watch over the next few months to see what that was.

Personal Responsibility

2011-06-20T08:46:00.000-07:00

E. J. Dionne distorts the rights efforts to put back personal responsibility on the voters of this country. Don't we want that as a society? Or do you want every person voting, even if they have no interest in the issues?

VOTERS should display a level of personal responsibility to contribute to the guidance of this country.

The left, like E. J. Dionne want to make it a race and age issue, hiding their true intent.

VDH asks a good question of the left!

2011-06-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

Can you answer it? Read his column "Europe is Warning Us" here!

$61.6 Trillion or $534,000 per household!

2011-06-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

This USA Today article explains our "true" debt. This includes all unfunded future obligations - Social Security, Medicare, etc - and is "FACT".

You Dems still want to keep spending?

Thomas Sowell explains our problem!

2011-06-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

Read this column by Thomas Sowell and you'll understand what's happening in our society!

We must get our government to operate like a business.

COMMON SENSE

2011-05-25T14:02:00.000-07:00

Found this Thomas Sowell column from April 14, 2009, pinned to my wall today. Reread it and there is so much "common sense" in it - a commodity that is becoming non existent in our society, that I thought I would share it again!

Titled "Magic Words in Politics", it skewers the lefts of terms having the opposite effect of what they claim - and the base just keeps believing it is true! Amazing!

This paragraph pretty much summarizes it:

"Abraham Lincoln once asked an audience how many legs a dog has if you count the tail as a leg. When they answered "five," Lincoln told them that the answer was four. the fact that you called the tail a leg did not make it a let."

Can you say "investment", when they mean "taxes"?

IN A NUTSHELL

2011-04-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Peggy Noonan explains our cultural problems and the view of the rest of the world. This paragraph is the best analysis of our "warriors" I have seen.

"I saw it last month, when we met with a tough American general. How is the war [Afghanistan]going? we asked. "Great," he said. "We just opened a new hospital!" This was perhaps different from what George Patton would have said. He was allowed to be a warrior in a warrior army. His answer would have been more like, "Great, we're putting more of them in the hospital!"

That - in a nutshell - is our problem in wars since Vietnam. Read the whole thing commenting on more important cultural matters.

The Lefts "Economic Lunacy"

2011-03-23T08:52:00.001-07:00

Walter E. Williams exposes the lunacy of the lefts economists belief that society benefits from destruction - some suggestion that the earthquake in Japan will help the world economy. He explains clearly the short sightedness of this view.

He recalls Paul Krugman commenting in 2001 that 9-11 "could do some economic good". His question is thought provoking: "Would the 9-11 terrorists have done us an even bigger economic favor had they destroyed buildings in other cities?"

Think about the ignorance of Krugmans comment!

MSM Double Standard

2011-03-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

Hot Air explains how disgusting the double standard of the MSM - particularly the NYT - is regarding Der Spiegal's release of pictures and information on American troops murdering Afghan civilians and bragging about it! Is it worse than Abu Graib? Seems to me it is!

But Obama will never be mentioned by the MSM as Commander in Chief of these actions because he is THEIR lefty ideologue, unlike the attack on W - their righty nemisis - when Abu Graib happened!

"Obama: Drill, Brazil, Drill!"

2011-03-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

IBD points out a bit of a problem with Obama's energy strategy:

"His "What, me worry?" presidency has given both Americans and our allies plenty to worry about. But in the process of making nice with Brazil, Obama made a ming-boggling announcement that should make even his most loyal supporter cringe:

We will help Brazil develop its offshore oil so we can one day import it."

While we don't drill? Give Brazil the jobs instead of the U.S.? Is he kidding?

Sadly, he is not. More of his "One World" ideology. If you agree with him, you have a BIG problem!

But, I kind of like the phrase: ""What, me worry?" presidency""! Alfred E. Neuman has returned!

The BIG Problem !

2011-03-16T08:36:00.000-07:00

In Fiscal 2011 mandatory federal government spending will exceed total revenues for the first time - 50 YEARS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE!

Read this article from the Weekly Standard and weep for the United Stated as we know it! Our dithering Republican politicians are wasting their mandate. Why? Fear of losing the next election? Ignorance? Who knows!

THE TRUTH ABOUT OBAMA'S GREEN JOBS!

2011-03-09T13:12:00.000-08:00

John Stossel explains what expanding green jobs will do to our economy. It is not pretty!

"Why Social Security Qualifies as Welfare"

2011-03-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

Robert Samuelson explains the truth of Soial Security which most of you and our Politicians do not grasp. When W was pushing for privitization I tried to explain this to, but to no avail with most on the left of the aisle - and many on the right!

Read this and see if you can get through all the obfuscation the Politicians use!

"Who's to Blame for Union Woes?"

2011-03-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

Michael Barone explains the source of our current Union problems. It is something you have probably not thought about and is very inciteful and interesting.

And you will learn who Frederick W. Taylor is!

SECULARISM

2011-03-08T08:08:00.000-08:00

For you secularists, David Warren explains your religion in "We Have an Upside Down Religion".

So you're not so different than the rest of us, you simply perceive yourselves as advanced, when in fact you are retro.

An interesting analysis of a very interesting subject!

Judicial Activism

2011-02-09T12:56:00.001-08:00

James Taranto in WSJ's Best of the Web Today explains the history of this term and the distortion of it by Obama and his minions. Interesting read and conclusion!

Peggy Noonan on Reagan

2011-02-04T09:19:00.000-08:00

Read this tribute to Ronald Reagan. It is on point explaining this great man.

NYT Hypocrisy

2011-02-03T14:07:00.000-08:00

Read this NYT blog on President Obama's praying for peace in the middle east, then think back 2 1/2 years and imagine the headline and blog if George Bush had made the same statements!

OBAMAFARE

2011-02-01T14:05:00.000-08:00

I use the above term for the MSM's term OBAMACARE because "insuring" pre existing conditions is not "insurance", it is WELFARE! This is quite obvious; and no politician will touch this "third rail" of healthcare - a commentary on both Democrats and Republicans and a root cause of my cynicism on the future of our country if our political class does not change.

Two articles appeared today regarding Judge C. Roger Vinson's ruling in Florida that the individual mandate was unconstitutional and that the 2010 healathcare low should be overturned in its entirety. The justification for this mandate was the welfare aspect of OBAMAFARE!

Avik Roy on NRO's domestic policy blog The Agenda writes a clear analysis of the decision which everyone should read. This should be necessary reading for all.

The White House, through an assistant to President Obama, rebuts the decision here. Again, this should be necessary reading for all.

What makes sense to you?

READ IT AND WEEP FOR OUR CHILDREN.....

2011-01-28T08:23:00.000-08:00

who are of no interest to the school systems administration - only their personal thievery from the public. This is only a single example of the administrations attitude but it is very prevalent in all public school systems in the U.S.

And they want MORE money!!! Wake up!

UPDATE: Wayne Township is west of Indianapolis in Marion County - one of 9 townships in Marion County - I wonder if all 9 Superintendents cut a deal this good! - with a population of 135,000 and 15,700 students in their school system. Multiply that by the entire United States and you see why we are broke!

Skewering the "OLD GRAY LADY" - How does anyone read this fish wrapper?

2011-01-17T09:24:00.000-08:00

P. J. O'Rourke tells it like it is with the New York Times. Read it and weep for our MSM!

CRAZY PAUL KRUGMAN

2011-01-10T09:44:00.000-08:00

John Hayward in : "The Climate of Krugman" does a good job of describing the craziness - my words, not his - of Paul Krugman.

Someone please explain to me how he has any standing in the left of this country? While your at it, explain why the NYT allows him to publish in their paper! I can understand the Nobel Committee honoring him - those Europeans had to find a way to rub something in W's face - but for the American left to accept him is inconceivable to me!

An interesting read!

The Obama Administration's "Bipartisanship"

2010-12-27T08:05:00.001-08:00

Watch out! Their modus operandi is to convince you of their "bipartisanship" while undermining our system from the White House. The Heritage Foundation eplains this here.

Read the short column to understand their tactics!

Did Rangle expose BIGOTS or the COLOR block of votes in our Country?

2010-12-03T14:09:00.000-08:00

WSJ's Best of the Web Today has this to say about the Rangel censure:

"The Rangel Split

The House has imposed its harshest merely symbolic penalty on Rep. Charles Rangel, voting 333-79 yesterday to “censure” the New York Democrat who begins his 21st term next month. Back in March, when the ethics proceedings against Rangel were getting under way, we noted a fascinating essay by the historian Walter Russell Mead, who argued that the Rangel case underscored a split in the Democratic Party between “the old time pols of the urban machines” and “the grim and determined brigades of morally uplifting upper middle class reform.”

The Rangel vote underscores Mead’s point. While Rangel’s fellow Democrats supported censure, 170-77, the increasingly minority “urban machine” mostly opposed it. The vote among members of the Congressional Black Caucus was 36-1 against censure; the Congressional Hispanic Caucus also opposed the resolution, 11-6. Rangel also had the support of every representative from New York City except Michael McMahon of Staten Island, soon to relinquish his seat to the city’s only GOP congressman."

Interesting!!

Vote among NON- Black and Hispanic Caucus member was 326 - 32 (91% for censure)

Vote among Black and Hispanic Caucus members was 7 - 47 (13% for censure)

THEY DID LISTEN TO THE SAME EVIDENCE DIDN'T THEY???

Since I don't believe either group is stupid - although sometimes I wonder - I have to believe that the COLOR of Rangel had a lot to do with the meager 13% of COLOR representatives voting for censure.

Of course, I am sure they believe that COLOR was the reason that 91% of the other representatives was they reason they censured Rangel. But I really don't believe that there are 326 BIGOTS in our House of Representatives.

Do you?

TRUTH: It's hard to come by from BHO!

2010-11-10T08:12:00.000-08:00

Patriot Post Chronicle explains the lack of veracity from our President. Why can't he admit what really happened?

"Blaming voters for not getting the message: "I think that, over the course of two years we were so busy and so focused on getting a bunch of stuff done that, we stopped paying attention to the fact that leadership isn't just legislation. That it's a matter of persuading people. And giving them confidence and bringing them together. And setting a tone. And making an argument that people can understand. And I think that we haven't always been successful at that. And I take personal responsibility for that. And it's something that I've got to examine closely as I go forward." --Barack Obama.

Editor's Note: Obama gave 42 news conferences during his first year in office, which is twice as many as George W. Bush did in the same period. On top of that, he visited 58 cities in 30 states, held 21 town hall meetings and read 52 speeches off the teleprompter telling us the virtues of ObamaCare. The problem is not a failure to communicate -- the problem is that he did communicate.

Steve Kelly

2010-11-05T10:28:00.001-07:00

Don't need to say much more about Tuesday's election!

MEDIA BIAS AT ITS WORST! OR "Why Obama is a joke and going down"!

2010-10-29T10:03:00.000-07:00

Read this summary of the WikiLeaks situation from Kathleen McKinley and if you do not get upset with our President and the MSM check your pulse. The opening paragraphs:

"I have had a lefty Brit friend for years named Dave Bones. We don't agree on anything, but we respect each other's opinion. He has been e-mailing me lately on why our media and lefty bloggers are not screeching about the Wikileaks documents that show severe abuse of Iraqi detainees by Iraqi Army officers that may have been ignored by the American military.

As I read his e-mail, I started wondering about that as well. If these documents had been leaked while Bush was President, it would be the 24/7 news loop that the Abu Ghraib story was. After all, these documents tell an even more gruesome tale than Abu Ghraib. Torture, cutting off of fingers, death, and burning are just a part of these documents, yet we aren't seeing the vast amount of coverage we did with Abu Graib. We are only seeing a story or two in the New York Times.

I suppose you know why? Pres. Bush is no longer president. This is now President Obama's war."

It is important to note that much of the reported abuses by Iraqi's has happened during Obama's term. Read the entire blog entry if you want to understand him and his policies.

Or keep your head in the sand!

Boxer in PANIC mode: Ethics mean nothing!

2010-10-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

Barbara Boxer has an ethics complaint coming. Do you really want her as your Senator? She, as most Dems, will do ANYTHING for power? She will go!!

Read the article.

DISGUST in Pelosis Backyard

2010-10-22T12:01:00.000-07:00

Michael Moritz in today's WSJ writes "San Francisco's Public Pension Revolt" explaining the "stealing" [my word, not his! The subject upsets me!] of the public employees from the city.

The city has 28.665 employees and 26,000 retirees! Do they retire 40???

"In 2009, San Francisco's deputy police chief earned $516,000 in cash compensation and retired with a $230,000 a year pension...." Don't dare ask what deal the police chief has!!!

Many pensions of city employees is 90% of their annual income - and they pay nothing for medical care!

If you don't believe this is "stealing" from the public, you are naive.

ALL cities, counties, states and the fed's have done this to us over the last 50 or so years. It must stop. And they will continue to kill the golden goose (us) so guess who must stand up?

Note: you must subscribe to the WSJ to get the full article.

Two Fine Summations of BHO and Anti Tea Party Liberals

2010-10-16T08:38:00.000-07:00

Jonah Goldberg in "A Shovel-Unready President" critiques BHO's arrogance, tactics and results over the last 21 months. His summary is to the point:

"And then, of course, there's the stimulus that paid for all of those "shovel-ready jobs" that Obama now admits never existed. Los Angeles County deployed $111 million in stimulus money to "save" 55 jobs at the cost of $2 million apiece. The White House has spent $192 million on road signs that brag about how the construction delays ahead were paid for by the stimulus. Meanwhile, unemployment is a full three percentage points higher during Obama's "recovery" than it was during the "worst recession since the Great Depression."

Maybe it's unfair for people to think Obama is just another tax-and-spend Democrat. After all, some tax-and-spend Democrats are actually competent at it."

Peter Berkowitz in "Why Liberals Don't Get the Tea Party Movement" explains the shallowness of our liberal elite, the result of their education at our "universities", in their analysis of the Tea Party movement. His conclusion is:

"They [universities] certainly do not teach about the virtues, or qualities of mind and character, that enable citizens to shoulder their political responsibilities and prosper amidst the opportunities and uncertainties that freedom brings. Nor do they teach the beliefs, practices and associations that foster such virtues and those that endanger them.

Those who doubt that the failings of higher education in America have political consequences need only reflect on the quality of progressive commentary on the tea party movement. Our universities have produced two generations of highly educated people who seem unable to recognize the spirited defense of fundamental American principles, even when it takes place for more than a year and a half right in front of their noses."

Read both columns to understand the "progressives" problems!

Our White House

2010-10-15T14:29:00.000-07:00

Peter Wehner in Commentary reviews an article written by Peter Baker for the New York Times Magazine showing the arrogance of this White House. It is an explanation that fits all the symptoms we are seeing of a collapsing administration.

An excerpt:

"The White House, then, is characterized by habitual vanity, rising cynicism, collapsing morale, and increasing resentment toward politics and governing, itself. Having worked in the White House for most of two terms, I understand that life there can present an array of challenges. Still, those working in the Obama White House seem utterly devoid of any enchantment and joy rooted in an appreciation of history — the kind of that that makes working in the White House, even on the worst days, an honor beyond measure."

Fits perfectly what we are seeing! Read the entire blog entry - it is worth it for perspective.

"Pot, Meet Kettle"

2010-10-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

Read James Taranto's analysis in WSJ's Best of the Web Today of Obama's comments on race relations and weep for your country with this leader!

Words Worth Pondering

2010-10-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

Patriot Post today has an article by Mark Alexander - "Poverty Pimps" - which includes the following paragraph and quotation from 1916:

"With less than a month until the midterm referendum on the most menacing socialist agenda in U.S. history, I'm reminded of a pamphlet published in 1916 by an outspoken advocate for Liberty, William J. H. Boetcker. He entitled his tract "The Ten Cannots," and it fittingly contrasts the competing political and economic agendas of the right and left in this era: "You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot build character and courage by taking away man's initiative and independence. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot lift the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they will not do for themselves.""

Our country is actively pursuing all of "The Ten Cannots". We better change our ways!

Read the entire column - it is worthwhile!

"The War on the Young": if you are under 30 pay close attention!

2010-10-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

Yuval Levin's column clearly explains how the young should be leaving BHO and his agenda as a clear matter of survival.

The closing paragraphs summarizes well:

"But if such gradual reforms [minor tweaks to entitlements] are to be possible, they must begin soon. That means taking the blindfolds off of our eyes and acknowledging the plain reality that the century-old liberal dream of a social-democratic welfare state—the dream at the heart of the Obama administration’s agenda—is neither attainable nor desirable.

Instead, we should pursue a free economy with a robust safety net—a society that values young workers and parents no less than retirees, and that helps the poor become more independent rather than making the middle class less so.

Everyone should want that, and especially the young."

Now that makes sense!

Watch the MSM over the next 33 days!

2010-09-30T10:48:00.000-07:00

George Will in "Without a defendable record, Democrats try pounding the table" explains the Democrats current actions and reminds us of the 1964 lies propagated against Barry Goldwater - who Mr. Will believes is whom the Tea Party is echoing - that may have stopped his effort in the short term.

Get ready!

Dems: Do You Want to Understand Your Problem?

2010-09-30T10:23:00.000-07:00

Read "Clinging to Arrogance", another insightful column from VDH.

Your leaders are running you off the cliff. It will take decades to recover!

The opening two paragraphs:

"The bookish, twice-unsuccessful Democratic presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson once sighed that if most thinking people supported him, it still wouldn't be enough in America because "I need a majority."

For some reason, Democrats have chosen to follow the disastrous model of Stevenson and not that of feisty man-of-the-people Missourian Harry Truman -- though the former nearly wrecked the party and the latter got elected."

THE NEW STRATEGY

2010-09-29T08:16:00.001-07:00

Do you think this will work?

First Good Thing a Kennedy Has Done For Our Country Since John F.!

2010-09-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

Bill Ayers denied emeritus status at University of Illinois. The fact he was allowed to teach there and retire is disgusting enough!

Where BHO is today

2010-09-23T13:51:00.000-07:00

James Taranto does an excellent job of summarizing BHO's efforts to date in today's WSJ Best of the Web Today:

"By now it should be clear that the only new idea Obama introduced into American politics was the idea of Obama: Obama the voice of a new generation, Obama the brilliant technocrat, Obama the postracial leader.

The reality of Obama has been quite the opposite. The fresh-faced young leader has governed according to stale old ideas. The dazzling intellect has proved inadequate to basic managerial challenges. We haven't even been able to enjoy the achievement of having elected a black president, because so many of Obama's supporters (though not Obama himself, to his credit) won't shut up about how every criticism of the president and his policies is "racist."

Yet in America's current predicament, there is ample reason for optimism. We'd like to think that the failure of Obama's policies will discredit the bad economic ideas on which they're based, that his incompetence will discredit the notion that the cognitive elite should run the lives of everyone else, and that the phony charges of racism will discredit the long-outdated assumption of white guilt, at last bringing America closet to the ideal of a colorblind society.

This is not to deny that the Obama presidency has been ruinous. But sometimes the costliest mistakes are those from which we learn the most."

Let us hope Mr. Taranto's optimism is well founded. We will know after the November 2 midterm election!

The Road to HELL

2010-09-21T08:59:00.000-07:00

Thomas Sowell in "The Politics of Resentment" shares his analysis of the recent Washington D.C. election replacing the current mayor. The end of the column:

"How did we reach the point where a city is so polarized that an overwhelming majority of the white vote goes to one candidate and the overwhelming majority of the black vote goes to the opposing candidate? [Both candidates were black]

How did we reach the point where black voters put racial patronage and racial symbolism above the education of their children and the safety of everyone?

There are many reasons but the trend is ominous. One key factor was the creation, back in the 1960s, of a whole government-supported industry of race hustling.

President Lyndon Johnson's "war on poverty"-- a war that we have lost, by the way-- bankrolled all kinds of local "leaders" and organizations with the taxpayers' money, in the name of community "participation" in shaping the policies of government.

These "leaders" and community activists have had every reason to hype racial resentments and to make issues "us" against "them."

One of the largely untold stories of our time has been the story of how ACORN, Jesse Jackson and other community activists have been able to transfer billions of dollars from banks to their own organizations' causes, with the aid of the federal government, exemplified by the Community Reinvestment Act and its sequels.

Racial anger and racial resentments are the fuel that keeps this lucrative racket going. How surprised should anyone be that community activist groups have used mau-mau disruptions in banks and harassed both business and government officials in their homes?

Lyndon Johnson once said that it is not hard to do the right thing. What is hard is knowing what is right. We can give him credit for good intentions, so long as we remember what road is paved with good intentions."

Read the entire column - it is important. Republicans/Tea Partyers need to make the disassembly of this scam a priority - bringing blacks to the side of the aisle where they belong.

DEATH PANELS

2010-09-15T15:20:00.001-07:00

Remember Sarah Palin's comments on "death panels" in Obamacare, and the denials? Bill Gates - a billionaire who will never have to worry about a "death panel" - explains the reason and need for this in the video that is linked.

Be careful - you may get what you wish for!!

ANIMAL FARM?

2010-09-15T09:21:00.000-07:00

VDH in "Obama's Washington Animal Farm" explains BHO's odd policies and why we may be experiencing at some level : "Animal Farm."

If you have forgotten, here is Wikipedia on "Animal Farm".

The Wisdom of George Will

2010-09-14T13:30:00.000-07:00

George Will presents the thoughts of Robert B. Laughlin, co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics, who wrote an article in The american Scholar titled "What the Earth Knows" and supports his hypothesis:

"What humans do to, and ostensibly for, the earth does not matter in the long run, and the long run is what matters to the earth. We must, Laughlin says, think about the earth’s past in terms of geologic time."

The closing paragraph:

"Six million years ago the Mediterranean dried up. Ninety million years ago there were alligators in the Arctic. Three hundred million years ago Northern Europe was a desert and coal formed in Antarctica. “One thing we know for sure,” Laughlin says about these convulsions, “is that people weren’t involved.”"

An interesting read for all my green friends!

The Wisdom of Thomas Sowell

2010-09-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

Thomas Sowell explains that words can be "the money of fools", explaining the quotation from Thomas Hobbes.

"Seventeenth century philosopher Thomas Hobbes said that words are wise men's counters, but they are the money of fools."

Read the column here. Don't be a fool!

A Basic Economic Review

2010-09-08T08:11:00.000-07:00

Jeff Harding at Minyanville.com gives a clear explanation of why "consumer spending" - say "stimulus" - doesn't lead to recovery, and saving does. A good review of basic economics to help you through this administrations actions.

The Wisdom of Thomas Sowell

2010-09-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

"No President of the United States can create either a budget deficit or a budget surplus. All spending bills originate in the House of Representatives and all taxes are voted into law by Congress.

Democrats controlled both houses of Congress before Barack Obama became president. The deficit he inherited was created by the Congressional Democrats, including Senator Barack Obama, who did absolutely nothing to oppose the runaway spending. He was one of the biggest of the big spenders.

The last time the federal government had a budget surplus, Bill Clinton was president, so it was called "the Clinton surplus." But Republicans controlled the House of Representatives, where all spending bills originate, for the first time in 40 years. It was also the first budget surplus in more than a quarter of a century.

The only direct power that any president has that can affect deficits and surpluses is the power to veto spending bills. President Bush did not veto enough spending bills but Senator Obama and his fellow Democrats in control of Congress were the ones who passed the spending bills."

The above is a sample of the wisdom shared by Mr. Sowell. Read the whole thing here.

Remember, you can kid yourself and not understand the past, listening to the recreation of history by your idealogues, but it will cost you dearly!

This Administration is Hard to Believe!

2010-08-31T14:13:00.000-07:00

"Department of Re-Education"

ABC News tells us of the Obama administration's latest triumph of political oratory:

'With a number of polls showing a sustained level of opposition to the Democrats' health care reform efforts more than five months after passage, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the Obama administration has "a lot of reeducation to do" heading into the midterms.'

Great, so we'll get death panels and re-education camps! Meanwhile, the Washington Examiner reports that Education Secretary Arne Duncan "urged government employees to attend a rally that the Rev. Al Sharpton organized to counter a larger conservative event on the Mall":

"ED staff are invited to join Secretary Arne Duncan, the Reverend Al Sharpton, and other leaders on Saturday, Aug. 28, for the 'Reclaim the Dream' rally and march," began an internal e-mail sent to more than 4,000 employees of the Department of Education on Wednesday. . . .
Although the e-mail does not violate the Hatch Act, which forbids federal employees from participating in political campaigns, Education Department workers should feel uneasy, said David Boaz, executive vice president of the libertarian Cato Institute. . . .

Education Department spokeswoman Sandra Abrevaya defended Duncan's decision. "This was a back-to-school event," she said.

At least "a back-to-school event" doesn't sound as creepy as "re-education.""

UNBELIEVABLE!!!

H/T: WSJ Best of the Web Today, 8/31/2010

THE PROBLEM CLEARLY STATED!

2010-08-30T09:26:00.000-07:00

Hugh Hewitt explains the meaning of the Beck rally last Saturday in Washington D.C. and the problem Obama and his cohorts are facing: a November disaster!

He references Arthur Brooks description of the American population and the current problem:

"The American Enterprise Institute's Arthur Brooks has quite accurately described America as a 70/30 nation, with the 70 percent presently massively underrepresented the federal government, the Manhattan-Beltway media elite and academia."

That is clearly the problem! The left cannot see it - so their efforts will end for decades! The paragraph below describes perfectly the near two years under Obama:

"Two years into what had been sold as a new politics and a new approach, the 70 percent are fully aware that they have been conned, suckered, and taken to the cleaners by a hyper-ideological amalgam of leftist public intellectuals, snarling bloggers, career politicians with limited abilities who are often corrupt, and a president wholly inexperienced in the management of complex problems who is in way over his head and prisoner to slogans and schemes that make for great campus debates -- but for disaster in the real world."

Couldn't have said it better myself!

An Interesting Perspective on the U.S.

2010-08-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

Conrad Black, the wealthy and controversial newspaper mogul recently released from jail, is a fine writer who summarizes his thoughts on the present state of the U.S. in a National Review Online column titled "Decline, but Not Inevitable Decline" - "The U.S. is in deep but not irreversible trouble."

His optimism for our country - based on what I feel is an accurate analysis of the true meaning of what we have done to ourselves over the last 60+ years - is one that effects positively my view of where we are.

I recommend reading the article for another perspective, whether you agree or not. The first two paragraphs are worth sharing below, just in case you don't use the above link:

"For decades, I have been a militant anti-declinist in terms of America’s place in the world. The United States is a proud, determined, hard-working, talented, patriotic nation and people, and it is not over-extended in the manner of empires of the past that took over the lands of others and eventually collapsed under the weight of the over-ambitious hegemon. Thus came the twilight of all previous empires, from the Persian to the Russian, including several versions of the Chinese, and even the astounding nautical and commercial empire of Holland, built on the acumen and enterprise in the 17th century of scarcely a million avaricious and seafaring Dutch.

But the United States merely uprooted the native Americans (to make way for imported slaves, initially) and then swamped, thinned, or drove them into Canada before the riptide of settlers moving west. It had no interest in hanging on to Cuba, unfortunately for the Cubans, or the Philippines; President Cleveland was opposed even to accepting Hawaii as a territory; and the acquisition of Alaska by Pres. Andrew Johnson was seen as a “folly” for decades. There is no immutable or irresistible force of history ringing down the curtain on America. Yet the country is in decline. It is not logical and is certainly not irreversible, but that is not entirely relevant, because it is happening anyway."

Any Day You Learn Something Is A Good Day! Do You Know This Word: OIKOPHOBIA

2010-08-27T13:59:00.001-07:00

James Taranto of the WSJ Best of the Web Today addresses the pro-mosque crowd:

"The Ground Zero mosque is an affront to the sensibilities of ordinary Americans. "The center's association with 9/11 is intentional and its location is no geographic coincidence," as the Associated Press has reported. That Americans would find this offensive is a matter of simple common sense. The liberal elites cannot comprehend common sense, and, incredibly, they think that's a virtue. After all, common sense is so common.

The British philosopher Roger Scruton has coined a term to describe this attitude: oikophobia. Xenophobia is fear of the alien; oikophobia is fear of the familiar: "the disposition, in any conflict, to side with 'them' against 'us', and the felt need to denigrate the customs, culture and institutions that are identifiably 'ours.' " What a perfect description of the pro-mosque left"

OK all you lefty OIKOPHOBICS out there - change your ways! You should not fear this great country or its systems. Learn to appreciate what they have accomplished in 200+ years! Everything has faults - the alternative you are pursuing has MANY MORE!

It has been a good day!

Any Day You Learn Something Is A Good Day! Do You Know This Word:

2010-08-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Public Pensions: We should all be ashamed!!

2010-08-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

Arnold Schwarzenegger explains the DISASTER we have all allowed in California by letting the legislature pander to the public employees while thepublic employees simply let it happen and enjoy the "egg" while they are "killing the golden goose."

This "egg" will be a lot worse than the current salmonella scare - it will destroy our State for our children! All Government should be proud!!!

Note that in the current downturn NO California State Government jobs have been lost while over 1 million private sector jobs have been lost. That means they can't pay taxes to support the working state employees! Don't you think they should automatically cut back in the same ratio? Or is that too rational for Government.

Disgusting!

WISDOM FROM CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: The Last Refuge of a Liberal

2010-08-27T08:27:00.000-07:00

Mr. Krauthammer summarizes the Dems silliness in opposing the majority of the population in most all arenas. What happened to our republican system that requires the consent of the majority?

I am pleased that their inability to understand this will send them to the hinterlands for two or three decades again, but the damage they have done this time will be difficult to correct!

Read the column: it is important - particularly for my lefty friends!

A sample on the swirl of current issues the Dems insist on promoting:

"Note what connects these issues. In every one, liberals have lost the argument in the court of public opinion. Majorities -- often lopsided majorities -- oppose President Obama's social-democratic agenda (e.g., the stimulus, Obamacare), support the Arizona law, oppose gay marriage and reject a mosque near Ground Zero.

What's a liberal to do? Pull out the bigotry charge, the trump that preempts debate and gives no credit to the seriousness and substance of the contrary argument. The most venerable of these trumps is, of course, the race card."

He nails the problem and confirms November electoral revolution!

The Administrations Waste on Education

2010-08-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

Read the Heritage Foundations Morning Bell on Arnie Duncan's RttT - Race to the Top - program and the comments of New Jersey's Governor Christie's comments on the blind implementation - wasting all of our dollars!

"Citizen United aftershocks" - more lefty/WaPo Silliness!

2010-08-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

Katrina vanden Heuvel - editor and publisher of The Nation - writes a column today in the WaPo bashing the Citizens United SCOTUS decision.

The problem is she is "blind" to the monies spent on political campaigns by UNIONS - industrial, service, public employee and teacher - that have for decades given the left a great advantage. She doesn't mention this at all - a nice "neutral" analysis!

I suggest the following: read her column and substitute the word UNIONS wherever she mentions CORPORATIONS. It reads just the same and is just as true!

So my analysis says Citizens United is the perfect balance to an imbalance that the left has enjoyed for a long time!

THE MOSQUE

2010-08-24T12:25:00.000-07:00

James Taranto in WSJ's Best of the Web Today points out the real problem showing itself with the mosque controversy:

"For a project that is supposed to encourage reconciliation, though, the Ground Zero mosque is certainly stirring up a lot of hatred--among its supporters. Here's Richard Cohen in today's Washington Post:

Appearing on ABC's "This Week with Christiane Amanpour," Daisy Khan, a founder of the mosque (and the wife of the imam), rejected any compromise. She was right to do so because to compromise is to accede, even a bit, to the arguments of bigots, demagogues or the merely uninformed. This is no longer her fight. The fight is now all of ours.

And here's a passage from an NPR "Morning Edition" report today, titled "Rancor Over Mosque Could Fuel Islamic Extremists":

"This, unfortunately, is playing right into their hands," said Evan F. Kohlmann, who tracks these kinds of websites and chat rooms for Flashpoint Global partners, a New York-based security firm. "Extremists are encouraging all this, with glee.

"It is their sense that by doing this that Americans are going to alienate American Muslims to the point where even relatively moderate Muslims are going to be pushed into joining extremist movements like al-Qaida. They couldn't be happier."

To Cohen, two-thirds of Americans are "bigots, demagogues or the merely uninformed." To Kohlmann, even moderate Muslims are inclined toward mass murder if they don't get their way. Both these statements are not merely bigoted but downright unhinged.

Something about this mosque project is causing--or bringing to the surface--the utter derangement of its supporters. It is ugly and disturbing to watch, and all the more reason to think the idea is a bad one."

OBAMA AND ISRAEL

2010-08-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

George Will - again in the WaPo (what's happening to the MSM: could it be they can't take it either!) - puts a little sanity into Hillary and Baracks SILLINESS with the Israeli's and Palestinians.

Please explain how you can "negotiate" with an opponent who will not allow you to exist?

OBAMA AND IRAQ

2010-08-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

Later this week speculation is that Obama will take credit for ending the Iraq War. Before you listen to that you should read Kenneth M. Pollack in the WaPo - a paper I don't see insightful articles in very often - and his analysis of the real situation in Iraq at this time.

Name changing is not removal of all combat soldiers! Only if you're Obama!

AN INTERESTING PIECE OF HISTORY FROM DER SPIEGAL

2010-08-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

Churchill and Hitler never met - but they almost did a couple of times! If you're interested in History - particularly World War II - this is a very good description of one of the great men of the last century - Churchill! Read it here.

Enjoy!

MORE MAMET

2010-08-17T14:14:00.000-07:00

I am re-reading "Theatre" - it is a very short book - and will share some of it:

Chapter: HUNTING INSTINCTS

"Man is never happier than when he is going hunting." - Jose Ortega y Gasset

Man is a predator. We know this because our eyes are in the front of our heads. The same conclusion may be reached by reading the newspapers.

A bit cynical, but so true!

BHO's Friday Nights....

2010-08-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

are sure busy announcing his decisions that go directly against the will of the American people. He obviously reads the polls in some detail or we might get a decision of his on some other day!

What is he and his administration thinking?

David Mamet

2010-08-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

I am reading a new book by David Mamet - "Theatre" - in which he shares his knowledge and opinion of the problems with our elite theatre arts and what he feels is important to propogate the theatre as it was and should be.

You might guess he includes some politial thought to make his points, and I thought this excerpt from the chapter titled "Politically Correct" was dead on and stated the problem as clearly as possible. Read this and think about it - then buy the book!

"The essence of democracy is this: that the individual is free to embrace or reject, praise or abominate, any political position - that in this he is accountable to no one and need never, in fact, articulate his reasons or defend his choice.

That any political act could possibly be termed correct posits a universal, incontrovertible, superdemocratic authority - that is, a dictatorship.

Political correctness can exist only in (as it is the particular tool of) totalitarian oppression. The actual meaning of the phrase is "ideological orthodoxy."

Many of us have "good ideas," but those with a day job - in contradistinction to the idealogues - are impeded from inflicting them upon our fellow human beings."

I can't find any faults in his logic! And he does apply this to problems in the "Theatre."

RACISM: we can't seem to get away from it!!

2010-08-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

James Taranto at WSJ's Best of the Web Today takes on Joe Conason and the set of race consumed lefties who ssstttretcccchhhh the comments of conservative righties to keep the racist pot boiling.

Why don't some of you lefties contact Conason and ask him to shape up?

Read the analysis and you'll better understand our being consumed with racism, when we have serious problems!

More analysis of "racism" - and I thought BHO was the end of it!!

2010-08-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

Jonah Goldberg skewers Rangel, Waters, the Congressional Black Caucus and all the "racial hucksters" who are creating and then living off of the weak in our society!

Rangel and Waters are going to take down the Dems and BHO's ability to legislate if they are not "let off the hook". A position between "a rock and a hard place" for the Dems!!

WISDOM FROM THOMAS SOWELL

2010-08-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

Thomas Sowell sheds light on "racism" with a logical explanation of differences in groups that even the silly left should get! An interesting read.

"Summer of Bailouts"

2010-08-11T07:29:00.000-07:00

The Heritage Foundation gets it right about yesterdays $26 billion bailout of teachers unions and others.

"Under OBAMANOMICS, Government Workers Win, You Lose"

2010-08-10T07:29:00.001-07:00

The Heritage Foundation documents what BHO is doing to our economy. A column worth reading to put this weeks bailout in perspective. The last sentence:

"At 9.5% unemployment, every private sector worker must be worried about their job under the Obama regime. But not government workers. President Obama will always have a bailout ready to protect their jobs."

Obama's world is upside down!!

VDH Explains who our next President will be. No kidding!

2010-08-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

Victor Davis Hanson critiques BHO and sets the criteria for the 2012 election. His closing paragraph:

"In the end, if we are lucky, we will end up with a workmanlike candidate similar to the Ernest of Hawthorne’s short story, someone nondescript from the community, someone like the rest of America, who through humility and competence avoids the vanity of high office, balances budgets, wins wars, cuts spending, restores American confidence, finesses the partisan rancor, and restores our global stature and competitiveness — and slowly grows to resemble the visage on the side of the mountain."

Read the column and imagine who that person might be. I don't see him now. Do you?

THIS IS THE PROBLEM!!!

2010-08-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

I just heard on John Gibson's radio show the following:

1/3 of the Los Angeles City Operating Budget goes to public employee's PENSIONS!

1/3!!!!!

WAKE UP! They buy the politicians with their dues! Time to eliminate PUBLIC UNIONS!

NEWSWEEK AND OBAMA

2010-08-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

Mark Alexander at The Patriot Post comments on the fate of news magazine Newsweek and what may be the fate of our country under BHO's policies. An interesting read!

"At stake: Teaching vs. teachers unions"

2010-08-03T08:21:00.000-07:00

Leonard Pitts writes the best column I have read on the problem of teaching in this country. I am not familiar with Mr. Pitts, but will become so with this display of wisdom on a critical problem in our society

Chris Christie on Teachers

2010-08-02T14:36:00.000-07:00

The Governor of New Jersey, who has just finished balancing their budget with no tax increases, explains the problem with teachers and their exorbitant union contracts:

"On public schools: Teachers complain when they’re getting “4% and 5% salary increases a year in a 0% inflation world. They get free health benefits from the day they’re hired for their entire family until the day they die. They believe they are entitled to this shelter from the recession when the people who are paying for that shelter are the people who have been laid off, who’ve lost their homes, had their hours cut back. And all we ask them to do is freeze their salary for one year and pay 1.5% of their salary for their health benefits. . . . As much as I love teachers, everyone’s got to be a part of the sacrifice.”

California had better learn soon!

H/T: Peggy Noonan

MORE SILLINESS FROM THE LEFT!

2010-07-30T08:10:00.000-07:00

Judge Susan Bolton displays a total inability to follow the law or precedence in her decision to put an injunction on Arizona's attempt to slow ILLEGAL immigration.

Rich Lowry at National Review Online explains her "cheekiness."

Andy McCarthy at The Corner explains the speciousness of the argument.

Both worth the read to try and understand BHO's, DOJ's and the judges logic!

I will bet even the Ninth Circuit will reverse her, if the assigned judges have any self respect. If they don't, they will be reversed by the Supreme's without a doubt.

Trouble is it takes TIME, and that is all BHO and his cohorts want. Can you say "Chicago".

A Description of Current Washington Politics

2010-07-25T19:48:00.001-07:00

Steve Chapman summarizes the "Chicago" style of politics and it is a sad commentary on what the country has brought to Washington.

Read it and weep for your country!

THE ROOT CAUSE?

2010-07-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

Powerline reports on a Rasmussen poll giving economic opinions from the "political class" versus "likely voters". Results of their preference for a free market economy:

75% of likely voters prefer it over a government managed economy.

37% of political class voters prefer it, while 44% perfer a government managed economy.

MIND BOGGLING! Aren't we supposed to govern in the United States with the consent of the governed?

"The New Racial Mess"

2010-07-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

Victor Davis Hanson explains the origin of the racial discord rising up in our country. BHO is the problem as he clearly explains.

Why BHO will lead us into war with Iran!

2010-07-19T15:11:00.000-07:00

Walter Russell Mead explains BHO's philosophies and why they will lead him to war with Iran. A good read to understand where this administration is coming from!

Mr. Mead, along with Victor Davis Hanson, is becoming my reference point to understanding the motivations of our President.

RATIONALITY

2010-07-19T08:41:00.000-07:00

Neil Reynolds in a Globe and Mail column explains the facts presented in The American Scholar Magazine this summer by Professor Robert Laughlin, a physicist at Stanford.

Calm and factual, which is what we need! Please read if you are concerned about global warming.

It reminds me of an exercise I did a few years ago that relieved my concern. It is not scientific, but I think adds a little wisdom to the discussion.

The world population is 6 billion. I thought that is a lot of people, no doubt, and it will be double that in not that many years, so maybe there is need for concern.

To effect the climate of the earth these 6 billion - heading for 12 billion - must have a significant impact, so I could get a feel for this by calculating how much of the surface of the earth man touches directly - 6 or 12 billion is a BIG number!

So I said let's allow 1 square yard - 3' x 3' - for each person, and have them stand shoulder to shoulder just to see the physical size of this "direct human footprint" on the earth.

The result: the entire population of the earth would fit in 1/2 of San Diego County, California, where this is being written. When it doubles to 12 billion, they will still all comfortably fit in the county!

Think what a small area this is in relation to the earths entire surface!

I know, this is not our entire "footprint", but let's assume each person effects the atmosphere 100 times his "personal footprint". Correlating with area this would still fit inside the four Southwestern states - California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

Still a minute part of the earths surface, and I find it difficult to believe we could have any effect on climate with all of the other forces in the universe.

Food for thought!

A BRITISH CRITIQUE OF OBAMA

2010-07-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

Janet Daley writes in the London Daily Telegraph about the class resentment that BHO promotes.

I agree with her. Not only is the column thought provoking, but the comments following are very enlightening - both those in agreement and disagreement. Read the column and the comments and see where you stand!

Here is one comment that caught my eye - harsh - but I am totally in agreement with most of HostileLogic's thoughts - note my exception below:

"The idea that there is no access to medical care in the U.S. for 11 million people is a pernicious lie. Some may not like the idea of getting medical care at an Emergency Room, but it’s there and people with no insurance and/or no money have a guaranteed right to get medical care. And they do. As well, there is an almost endless variety of programs that deliver heath care to the needy.

The realities of poverty should be understood by everyone. If you are poor, you won’t be driving a Mercedes. You won’t have a yacht, you won’t live in a mansion and you won’t be wearing designer clothing. [Or receive equivalent medical care, but you won't die! - poliblog]

That’s life.

The constant whining of “progressives” (Marxists) about the travails of the poor is like listening to the tortured howls of straitjacketed lunatics emanating from the padded cells of an insane asylum.

Progressives are the world champions in the promotion of class warfare. And in their efforts to promote class warfare, there always exists their necessary victims. Of course, the poor are typically the first casualties.

Telling the truth is something that progressives are totally unfamiliar with. If you listen you them closely, you will also notice they all say pretty my much the same things. Even at the top of their pecking order, do you ever notice how they parrot each other?

Further, none of us with a modicum of common sense and self respect should ever be afraid to say what is on our minds. Political correctness is nothing more than an attempt to by the left to herd people like sheep into slavery. Nobody should ever expect anything resembling freedom of thought and action from the left. They talk about social and economic justice, but what they deliver is slavery, misery and premature death.

How can you tell when the left is lying? Answer: when they open their mouths. [This last sentence is unnecessary and out of place, but the other sentiments are right on! - poliblog]

Not every progressive is concious of their "goals" as listed above, but the "road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Another less controversial comment from Snowman who believes human avarice is the root cause of the left's goals:

"It all boils down to human avarice.

Over roughly the last century, the UK has seen the virtual demise of class division. Working class lads now wear ermine and sit fidgeting in the House of Lords. The monarchy is an institution that is no longer venerated, but tolerated- nobody would be surprised to see it dismantled within our lifetime.

The vast majority of adults own cars, large wardrobes of clothes, luxury items, even houses. They grumble if they can't take a foreign holiday each year. They grumble because they have to wait in line for free medical attention. They grumble because the politicians they've freely elected had better educations than they had.

Per capita income is the highest it's been in the history of the world. Nobody need suffer from tooth ache any more, let alone die of tuberculosis or plague. Unions have ensured that workers (mostly) no longer have to work unreasonable hours, or suffer danger in the workplace.

If we break the law, we no longer have to endure being whipped, or starved, or mutilated, or having to perform hard labour. We can even murder one another with the sure knowledge that we will not be executed or transported to some malaria-ridden swamp in another hemisphere.

Our children all enjoy free education, can (if they choose) all read and all share in the vast pool of knowledge that is available to them. If they are unable, or simply unwilling, to work, the state will pay them a stipend, perhaps even provide them with accommodation.

We can worship, or refrain from worshipping, just as we please, without fear of being burned at the stake or suffering eternal damnation. I could go on and on.

But it's never enough, is it?"

That all sounds like a lot of progress to me!! But it is never enough. I would suggest the progressives sit back and contemplate this progress and how it has happened, rather than demanding more until it all comes crumbling down!

Note: this entry is for a good friend KK who is wrestling with my attitudes and the right. Hope this helps explain my positions.

More Berwick; an interesting sidelight!

2010-07-15T14:12:00.000-07:00

The Washington Times discovers Donald Berwick's "arrangements" with the "charitable" organization he works for.

I don't know about you, but I would rather have a "non-elite" - that is, one who has not received total medical coverage for he and his wife for the rest of their lives (and from a "charity"!) - running Medicaid and Medicare!

And his salaries - $2.3 million in 2008! - seem generous, also!

Read the column and understand what is being done to us by BHO and his cronies.

Daniel Henninger Explains Berwick Problem; It Is A BIG one!

2010-07-15T09:01:00.000-07:00

In "Berwick: Bigger than Kagan" Mr. Henninger explains with disgust the maneuver of BHO to get this British National Health Service fan as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). His last three paragraphs summarize the problem clearly:

"Barack Obama, Donald Berwick and the rest may fancy themselves philosopher kings who know what we need without the need to inform or persuade us first. That's not how it works here. That is Sen. Baucus's point."[The Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Max Baucus, was taken aback at the end-around: "Senate confirmation of presidential appointees is an essential process prescribed by the Constitution that serves as a check on executive power.]

It should be clear why Berwick is bigger than Kagan. We need a large public debate over these views, over what Mr. Obama has said his health plan would and would not do. We need to find out if every Democrat in Congress and every Democrat writing newspaper columns and blogs agrees with Dr. Berwick about clinical and individual autonomy and about leaders with plans.

Then we need to build an election around whether we want to go down the road Dr. Berwick has planned for us, or start dismantling the one that President Obama paved through Congress on a partisan vote."

Read Mr. Berwick's comments in Mr. Henninger column and make your own decision. It is truly disgusting!

We All Reach Our Limits!!

2010-07-15T07:56:00.000-07:00

H/T: Steve Kelley, a great cartoonist!

Kagan Watch #7

2010-07-14T11:44:00.001-07:00

Tony Blankley writes about Elena Kagan's testimony versus President Lincoln's beliefs. Interesting comparison - and scary! Excerpt below:

The very reason for the American experiment was -- and is -- to establish the principle and the reality that no man or government may alienate a person's life, liberty or pursuit of happiness.

Anyone who has experienced the expectation of the imminent loss of any of those conditions knows profoundly their value -- and thus the value of our form of government, which exists to protect those rights.

It does not take a legal scholar to know that. But it could be said that no one can rightly be called an American legal scholar who does not understand that the unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are the animating purposes of all our laws -- of the law. They are the soul of our Constitution. Without those rights, the body of law is a corpse -- a soulless, purposeless, manipulable, disposable, dead, material thing. If Ms. Kagan does not know that, then she knows nothing of our law.

Even more to the point, the right to remove those conditions from a man must always lie exclusively in the power of Him who gave them. The judge or politician who does not understand the source of those rights is ever likely to presume -- at some useful moment -- that a mere man or woman or government may act to deny such rights. Indeed, they are not rights if they are not so created -- but mere temporary grants of privilege from an all-powerful state."

Seems clear to me!!

"THE BIG GREEN LIE EXPOSED" - 2

2010-07-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

Walter Russell Mead writes on the problems with the green movement. An earlier post quoted one historical analogy - prohibition - and below is another quite appropriate analogy:

"The green movement’s strategic failure is also reminiscent of the Peace Movement of the 1920s. Chuckleheaded do-gooders correctly recognized the problem of war. In the conditions of the twentieth century, great power wars like World War One were radically unacceptable. Unless war could be stopped, scores of millions might brutally die. Whole nations would be devastated; millions of children would starve. Given the rise of aircraft, great cultural monuments would be destroyed as the world’s greatest cities were razed to the ground. New and more terrible weapons would be developed under wartime conditions, weapons that potentially could lead to the destruction of all human civilization or even of life on earth.

Again, the Peace Movement of the 1920s was completely right about this — we know to our sorrow today just how right they were. Yet the strategies they proposed — a treaty to ‘outlaw war’ in the 1920s, and appeasement of dictators and revisionist powers in the 193os — were utter disasters and made World War Two inevitable. The Nuclear Freeze movement in the 1980s repeated the mistake: confusing the identification of a problem (nuclear weapons) with a workable policy solution (a unilateral western freeze on nuclear weapons deployment that would have given the Soviets superiority in Europe). There are fewer nuclear weapons today than would have existed had the Nuclear Freeze people had their way; there almost certainly would have been fewer wars and fewer war deaths if the policy recommendations of the pre-World War Two peace movements had been greeted with the obloquy and contempt they deserved.

You can diagnose a disease but have no clue how to treat it. You can be an excellent climate scientist and a wretched social engineer. You can want to do good and end up furthering exactly the evils you most deplore.

That is where most of the organized green groups stand today."

Those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it! (Wish I had said that first!!)

MORE ON GREEN: MICHAEL CRICHTON EXPLAINS WHAT IS GOING ON IN SCIENCE

2010-07-13T14:30:00.000-07:00

"Aliens Cause Global Warming: A Caltech Lecture by Michael Crichton" is a great summary and a must read for believers and skeptics of global warming. 12 printed pages and worth the time if you want to understand what is going on! (The lecture is from January 17, 2003, and nothing has changed!)

"THE BIG GREEN LIE EXPOSED"

2010-07-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

Walter Russell Mead writes the best explanation I have read of the problem with today's green movement. An excerpt follows, summarizing his analysis of their activities by comparison with Prohibition:

"In sum, the mainstream press seems to be swinging around toward the views expressed on this blog: that the scandals may not discredit or even really affect the underlying scientific arguments about climate change but they do cast doubt on the perspicacity of the movement’s leadership — and that a fundamental rethink is called for.

Greens who feared and climate skeptics who hoped that the rash of investigations following Climategate and Glaciergate and all the other problems would reveal some gaping obvious flaws in the science of climate change were watching the wrong thing. The Big Green Lie (or Delusion, to be charitable) isn’t so much that climate change is happening and that it is very likely caused or at least exacerbated by human activity. The Big Lie is that the green movement is a source of coherent or responsible counsel about what to do.

The greens claim to be diagnosticians and therapists: that they can both name the disease and heal it. They are wrong. The attitudes and political vision of a group of NGO pressure groups may work when it comes to harassing Japanese whale ships in the Antarctic; this vision and these people come up short when set against the challenge of moderating the impact of human industrial activity on the earth’s climate system. Many leaders of today’s environmental movement are like the anti-alcohol activists before Prohibition who convinced Americans that the problem of alcohol abuse was real, destructive, and likely to get worse unless addressed. These farsighted activists were absolutely correct: with the introduction of the motorcar alcohol was more destructive than ever; with more than 500,000 alcohol related highway deaths between 1982 and 2008, more Americans have been killed on our roads as a result of drunk driving since 1915 than have died in our wars.

The problem is that the remedy proposed, Prohibition, not only failed to solve the problem — it made the problem of alcohol abuse worse, and it also reduced respect for the law and led to the rise of organized crime in the United States on an unprecedented scale.

The Prohibitionists were brilliantly, scientifically correct about the problem: they were foolishly and destructively blind about how to deal with it."

If you have time read his rather lengthy post. If not, I will be posting some interesting parts of it over the next day or two!

Kagan Watch #6

2010-07-12T13:00:00.000-07:00

Orrin Hatch clearly explains his decision to vote against the confirmation of Elena Kagan to SCOTUS. A good summary of his concerns and the problems with her.

Obamacare: Sarah Palin was prescient on "Death Panel"

2010-07-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

As a follow up to yesterday's post on the recess appointment of Donald Berwick to head Medicare and Medicaid, I find this IBD column titled "The President's One-Man Death Panel" and documenting some of his beliefs, a great summary of the problem.

It is amazing! The last three paragraphs of the column:

"The push for ObamaCare involved writing legislation behind closed doors by an imperial Democratic majority. Only through outright bribes to key senators and congressmen did it pass, voted on by politicians who didn't even read it. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said we had to pass the bill to find out what's in it."

With the recess appointment of Donald Berwick we find more secrecy and gimmicks from an administration as transparent as a concrete wall.

The American people deserve better. They also deserve a healthy democracy."

Obamacare: Obama makes repeal a real possibility!

2010-07-08T15:21:00.000-07:00

John Podhoretz explains the suspect politics behind the recess appointment of Donald Berwick as head of Medicare and Medicaid - he is a promoter of the British style single payer Government healthcare.

The final paragraph:

"By running away from this fight, Obama is signaling that the possibility of repealing the health-care monstrosity before it really begins to sink its teeth into the American system by 2014 is very real indeed."

Let's hope his conclusion is true and we can repeal Obamacare and avoid a disaster!

Kagan Watch #4

2010-07-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

The Washington Times analyzes some of the dodges Elena Kagan used during her hearing. It is amazing to me. Can you spell:

T O T A L I T A R I A N I S M!

That is what her attitude sounds like to me. Am I wrong?