GOP For Liberty!

Yep. The Economy is Definitely In "Recovery"

2009-05-12T16:37:00.001-07:00

There is a big headline today on the Gallup site, that reads "Smaller Majority Calls Economy “Most Important Problem”".

HA!

Sixty nine percent of Americans now view the economy as the biggest problem our country faces. The same amount of people that saw the economy as a big problem when the stock market crashed in September. It's laughable because economists and bureacrats are seriously saying that we are entering recovery. What logical person thinks that when 69% of a population sees something as a huge problem, that things are getting better?

The second biggest issue concerning Americans is the issue of the conflicts in the Middle East, the Iraq war included. Eleven percent of total responders found this to be the biggest problem. That number is up from 6% two months ago. Also laughable because the Middle East conflict the second biggest issue that got Barack Obama elected and peopel are actually becoming more concerned as his presidency goes on.

Funny.

Shocking Video From 2001 Showing Arlen Specter's Thoughts on Party Switching.

2009-05-09T08:58:00.000-07:00

Oh how things change. Arlen Specter is a liar and a hypocrite with no principles. When you are finished watching this video, make a donation to Pat Toomey for PA Senate

Louisiana Man Detained Over "Extremist" Bumper Sticker

2009-05-08T11:13:00.000-07:00

As pointed out by my frequent reader and commenter Bint Alshamsa, this story seems a bit incomplete. There is very little factual evidence to back it up at the moment. Considering the source of this info is WND, the notoriously nutty neo-con daily news rag, I feel I have to err on the side of caution and say that right now this is hearsay and could very well possibly be an embellishment or straight up unfounded. If I get any more evidence in the meantime that this is for real, I will keep you updated. But for right now, we will just say this article is an interesting read and may not be entirely factual.

From WND.com:

A Louisiana driver was stopped and detained for having a "Don't Tread on Me" bumper sticker on his vehicle and warned by a police officer about the "subversive" message it sent, according to the driver's relative.

The situation developed in the small town of Ball, La., where a receptionist at the police department told WND she knew nothing about the traffic stop, during which the "suspect" was investigated for "extremist" activities, the relative said.

According to the relative, it happened this way: Her brother-in-law was driving home from work through the town, which has a local reputation for enhancing its budget by ticketing speeders. He was pulled over by police officers who told him "he had a subversive survivalist bumper sticker on his car."

"They proceeded to keep him there on the side of the road while they ran whatever they do to see if you have a record, keeping him standing by the side of the road for 30 minutes," she told WND.

Finding no record and no reason to keep him, they warned him and eventually let him go, she said.

The company that sells the bumper sticker is The Patriot Depot, where Chief Operating Officer Jay Taylor told WND the woman had told his staff about the situation while ordering more bumper stickers.

"It's rather shocking," he said. "We supposedly have freedom of speech in our country.

Jay Taylor wrote, "The bumper sticker is based on the famous flag designed by American Revolution era general and statesman Christopher Gadsden. The yellow flag featured a coiled diamondback rattlesnake ready to strike, with the slogan 'Don't Tread on Me!' underneath it. Benjamin Franklin helped make the rattlesnake a symbol of Americans' reluctance to quarrel but vigilance and resolve in defense of their rights. By 1775 when Gadsden presented his flag to the commander-in-chief of the Navy, the rattlesnake was a symbol of the colonies and of their need to unite in defense of threats to their God-given and inherited rights. The flag and the bumper sticker symbolize American patriotism, the need to defend Americans' rights, and resistance to tyranny's threats to American liberty. Those threats included-and include-illegal taxation, profanation of Americans' rights, and violation of the fundamental principles of American law."

Why Are The Feds Collecting GPS Coordinates of Every House In America?

2009-04-30T15:08:00.000-07:00

This story was first broken by Eric Dondero over at the Libertarian Republican blog.

Now there is video proof that, yes indeed, the Census Bureau is getting the GPS coordinates of every American home.

What could this information possibly be needed for? The purpose of the Census Bureau is to tally the number of people living in a congressional district for redistricting purposes. This practice of GPS marking homes is a gross violation of privacy in the very least. At the very most it is something that could be used to easily categorize and track any possible "type" of American as the Government sees fit. GPS coordinates can also be used for military purposes but that is something too horrible to even think about.

Obama Administration Refusing To Close Borders In Midst of Pandemic

2009-04-29T17:31:00.000-07:00

During tonight's Presidential press conference, which is probably still airing now I just got too irritated to watch any more of it, President Obama addressed the issue of closing the Mexican border with the intentions of slowing the spread of the swine flu virus.

“I have consulted with our public health officials extensively…. At this point they have not recommended a border closing.... It would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out because we already have cases here in the United States.”

The key to keeping Americans safe, he says, is “great vigilance” and that “everybody responds appropriately when cases do come up, and individual families start taking precautions that make a difference.” He repeats what he said at the beginning: “It sounds trivial, but it makes a huge difference.” That is: wash hands, cover mouth, stay home if sick.

I find it funny that American families are being urged to use common sense and precautions when it comes to staying healthy, but our government is refusing to do so for our safety. Americans are told to "stay home if sick" but Mexicans are allowed to come and go across our borders as they please.

Common sense would tell me that if I wanted to stay healthy, and keep my family healthy, and a sick person came knocking at my door, I would think twice before I would let them run around my house coughing.

No Mr. President, this situation is not akin to "closing the barn door after the horses are already out". Closing the borders would be akin to closing the barn door before MORE horses get out. I don't know how common sense eludes Obama so. If you want to fix a flooded basement, you have to fix the leaky pipe before you pump out the water and re-do the walls.

Obama's Latest Teleprompter Gaffe

2009-04-29T17:21:00.001-07:00

This guy can't even form a coherent thought without the words right in front of him. This was an address to the scientific community about the swine flu outbreak.

Pat Toomey's Response to Specter's Defection

2009-04-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

APRIL 28, 2009: “Senator Specter’s decision is in keeping with his record. He is more at home in the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. That has been true for decades, not just true today.

In recent weeks, Senator Specter has made numerous statements about how important it is to deny Democrats the 60th seat in the U.S. Senate and how he categorically intended to remain a Republican to prevent one-party dominance in Washington.

What Pennsylvanians must now ask themselves is whether Senator Specter is in fact devoted to any principle other than his own reelection.”

Donations can be made to Pat Toomey's 2010 Senatorial campaign here

The Best Pelosi Parody Ever...

2009-04-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

...seriously. The best ever. Like in the history of the world.

Arlen Specter Officially Switching to Democrat Party. Peace Out Specter! Don't Let The Door Hit You

2009-04-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

Finally! Considering that he was a Republican only on paper for the last 15 years at least, this surprises no one. In fact, many in the Republican party are glad to see him go. Real Republicans are looking to purge the party of official leaders who are nothing more than big spending, money sucking quasi Republicans. Thank you Mr. Specter for making our job a bit easier!

There is already speculation that Specter made the switch so that he would actually stand a chance of getting re-elected as Pennsylvania senator in 2010. Specter's performance in very preliminary polls for the GOP primary were consistantly down against Libertarian Republican Pat Toomey, for CEO of The Club For Growth. According to The Washington Post, Pennsylvania has only one Democrat officially in the running for the 2010 senate opening so far. That would be Joe Torsella, former head of The National Constitution Center.

Polls closed Monday April 27 indicated that Toomey was leading Specter in the primary by 21 points

Andrew Lloyd Webber Going Conservative?

2009-04-27T15:53:00.000-07:00

The renowned braodway composer Andrew Lloyd Webber spoke out against Britian's socialism today in what could be construed as a word of warning to the U.S:

I am 61 years old. I have lived and worked in Britain all my life. Not even in the dark days of penal Labour taxation in the Seventies did I have any intention of leaving the country of my birth.

Despite a rumour put around some years back, I have never contemplated leaving Britain for tax reasons. But in the 40-plus years I have been lucky enough to work here, I’ve seen a bit. So I must draw your attention to what is really proposed in this Budget.

Here’s the truth. The proposed top rate of income tax is not 50 per cent. It is 50 per cent plus 1.5 per cent national insurance paid by employees plus 13.3 per cent paid by employers. That’s not 50 per cent. Two years from now, Britain will have the highest tax rate on earned income of any developed country.

I write this article because I fear the inevitable exodus of the talent that can dig us out of the hole we find ourselves in. It is inevitable, given that other countries are bidding for entrepreneurs. The Government must modify its proposals

Biggest Liberal Tool Ever Attacks Moderates and Demands Liberal Students To Stifle Free Speech

2009-04-23T15:04:00.001-07:00

Gawd! I almost have no words to describe how infuriated this video makes me.

Who does this dude think he is to attack not only right wingers, but modderates. Then to demand that people that don't agree with him must be shut down unless they "chart the liberal course". "Solidarity yes"? Really? Solidarity means anyone not agreeing with you be shut down? This dude is a tool!

What A Surprise! Henrietta Hughes Is Still Jobless Despite Begging Obama For Help

2009-04-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

CNN is reporting that Henrietta Hughes, the woman the pleaded for help because she and her son have been living out of a car at a Obama speech in Fort Meyers, Florida in February, still has not found a job and may soon be kicked out of her free house.

"Now Hughes says time is running out. The home she lives in was donated by the wife of a Florida lawmaker. Once the house sells, Hughes will have to leave.

Hughes worries that she could end up living in her car again"

But as Michelle Malkin had reported in February, and the MSM never seemed to have touched on, Henrietta Hughes has been on the Government dole and begging for freebies since 2004 when Henrietta's son took advantage of a doctor's hospitality and got himself some free medical care.

And according to the blog Riehlworld, the Hughes' have been living in public housing since 1983!

Maybe what this revelation of Hughes still not being able to pull herself up by her boot straps shows us, is that Government assistance does not help! 37 years of having someone else provide for Henrietta has gotten her nothing. Of course this revelation will become the face of "we aren't doing enough" in the MSM. But they wouldn't dare tell you the whole story.

CNN Condemns Perez Hilton's Remarks. No Mention Of Garafalo Though

2009-04-22T16:22:00.000-07:00

CNN may have finally gotten something right. They have strongly condemned blogger Perez Hilton for making sexist, nasty comments towards Miss California.

Now if only we can get a condemnation of Janeane Garafalo's classist rant against teapartiers. Rome wasn't built in a day though.

Young Americans Losing Support For Democrats

2009-04-21T05:56:00.000-07:00

According to a new survey by CNN, Americans are slowly losing support for the Democrat party.

"Forty-nine percent of people questioned this month in a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. national survey say the country is better off with the Democrats controlling Congress. That's down 7 points from January, but it's 15 points higher than the 34 percent who say the nation would be better with the Republicans running Capitol Hill."

It's only 3 months into the new administration and support is already dropping quickly. What's even more surprising, and encouraging, is that Congress is losing support very quickly in the under 35 demographic.

"Most of the Democrats' loss of support has come among younger Americans," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "In January, two-thirds of those under the age of 35 said Democratic control of Congress was good for the country. Now that figure is down to 48 percent."

Democrats are still drastically beating Republicans in the field of bi-partisan cooperation. Sixty two percent of those surveyed feel that Democrats are cooperating with Republicans, while only 37% feel the same way about Republicans.

CNN"s Susan Roesgen Gets Schooled About The Teaparties

2009-04-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

CNN has been working feverishly to get this video removed from YouTube so hopefully by the time you click the play button, they have not succeeded in getting this one removed yet. Remember Susan Roesgen at the Chicago Teaparty? Well here is some unaired footage of her getting taken to school by an angry protester. The protester name is Kathy Barkulus and she was very polite and rational and really drove her point home.

Kathy Barkulus 0-12!

Welcome To Recession. Population: Everyone

2009-04-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

This is a very simplistic, but very true, explanation of how taxation during a recession hurts everyone. This video was made by a Ron Paul supporter and Campaign For Liberty member. Check it out and forward it to your obama-bot friends (we know they aren't the brightest bulbs in the box)

Check Out Macho Sauce's New Video: Get Outta The Way

2009-04-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

Oh it's good!

CNN "Reporter" All Bent Out Of Shape Over Obama Protest, Called Bush Hitler in 2006

2009-04-15T14:49:00.001-07:00

Watch this video. You can clearly see this supposed "journalist" has her panties all twisted up over the fact the HER president is not loved by everyone.

She actually says "Do you realize how offensive that is", because a man has a picture of Obama with a Hitler mustache. Really Susan Roesgen? Do you remember what you said about President Bush back in January of 2006? When you called a protester who was wearing a Bush mask with a Hitler mustache and Satan horns a George Bush look alike?

From the original Newsbusters article dated January 13, 2006:
Does President Bush resemble Adolf Hitler and Satan? That seemed to be the implication during the 9am half hour of CNN's American Morning. A protester wearing a George W. Bush mask, complete with a colored in Hitler-esque mustache and red horns attached to the forehead was deemed a Bush "look-alike" by reporter Susan Roesgen.

I remember that clearly. And now with Susan Roesgen making her liberal bias known to the world and embarrassing CNN in the process, CNN can no longer wonder why their ratings keep falling.

Libertarian Republican Pat Toomey Officially Announces PA Senate Bid

2009-04-15T08:40:00.000-07:00

Well, the rumors can now come to an end. They started out with the rumblings that Pat Toomey, former Club For Growth CEO, would make a run for PA governor in 2010. Then when Arlen Spector delivered that kick in the face to conservatives everywhere by voting yes to the stimulus, rumors started flying that Toomey would challenge him for his Senate seat.

Today Pat Toomey officially announced his bid for Senator. He has launched an official campaign website toomeyforsenate.com and is taking donations and volunteer information to start his fight against the closet liberal Arlen Spector.

In a video on his site he explains exactly why we need him as a Senator. ""We can stop the bailouts and the spending stampede; we can reduce the burdens on taxpayers; and we can unlock the ingenuity and job creation potential of our great nation once again," Toomey said in his remarks. "I am running for the U.S. Senate because I believe the economic stakes for our country have never been higher. The people of Pennsylvania deserve the very best from their leaders in Washington – but that's not what they are receiving."

I agree Pat. We need you.

Will the Left Try and Incite Violence At The Teaparties?

2009-04-14T15:17:00.000-07:00

So we have all seen the report that came out today from The Department of Homeland Security categorizing the immediate threat of "the radical right". The report comes out very timely, the eve of the planned tea party protests.

As I'm sure you're all well aware the left has feverishly been trying to talk down the tea parties and chastise their participants. We've seen all kinds of things pop up over the weekend. Rachel Maddow laughing at us on MSNBC, reporting that the tea parties are funded by Fox news or, better yet, Exxon. How did they come up with Exxon anyway?

But now we are seeing the left quickly trying to organize counter-protests at the same locations where tea parties are scheduled. Code Pink is highlighting their Santa Monica counter protest on their website:
The Santa Monica Tea Party of 2009 and Tea Parties all across America are being organized by friends of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, all about getting less funding for government. Let's show up with a better message: STOP funding wars and Wall Street, and start funding the needs of the people-- health care, education, and a green economy. Join us as we crash their party.

Location:
Santa Monica Pier
100 Colorado Ave.
Santa Monica, CA
90401

Then we see the plan for sabotage at The Daily Kos:
Tomorrow, my husband and I will be venturing into the wilds disguised as a news crew to do some in person interviewers with teabaggers here in [State Redacted] (if we can find any). We've got some questions lined up to ask, but I'd love to get suggestions!

tedshubris's diary :: ::
The great thing about owning professional video equipment is that armed with it, you can pass yourself off as being a professional news crew pretty easily.

So tomorrow, [Fake Station Name Redacted] is going to send a cameraman and on air news personality out into the field to cover this "teabagging" phenomenon.

We're going to ask open ended questions that seem to have a slight conservative bent to (hopefully) get them to open up and just start ranting. Then, we take any examples of racism, hatred, ignorance, and stupidity that we catch on camera and make a little movie out of it. Probably a YouTube special.

Here's the list we have so far

* What are you celebrating (The Boston Tea Party), and can you explain its historical relevance? [We're hoping to get some hilarious flubs from this one]

* Is this your first time teabagging? [OK, so, a juvenile one, but worth it] (apparently, we're the only ones who have connected tea parties to teabagging. Or, for that matter, the sociological study "Tearoom trade". Removed for the sake of keeping covert)

* Do you approve of Michael Steele's plan to expand the GOP through a "hip-hop urban-suburban marketing strategy"? [hoping to get some juicy racist stuff from this question]

* (as an intentional misunderstanding/follow up, presuming that someone complains about wasteful government spending) "So you disapprove of your tax dollars going to the Iraq War?" [should elicit some confusion]

* Do you approve of the direction in which this country is headed? [With thanks to Bob Love]

Anyways, it's a start... but I'd love to have some suggestions for questions that sound fine, but should prompt an outpouring of crazy.

Thanks in advance, and I'll be sure to post a link to the finished video when it's available!

Makes me wonder for a second just what else the lefties may have up their sleeve. If they want to incite people to be racist, what's stopping them from inciting violence?

Anyone attending a tea party tomorrow be careful. I would put nothing past those lefty loons.

Rachel Maddow Thinks A Conservative Citizen's Right To Organize Is Mockable

2009-04-11T15:08:00.000-07:00

So according to Maddow a group of citizens who wish to organize and protest against what they say is bad judgement by the government is worthy of being mocked? Yes Rachel, conservatives get the pun. In fact, WE PLANNED IT THAT WAY! It's catchy isn't it? So Maddow, thanks for getting the word out about our planned rallies and maybe clueing a few people in that, yes, conservatives do have a sense of humor.

However, I think Maddow misses the point. The tax day protest is not the doing of the Republican party. It is the doing of concerned Conservative minded citizens (Republican, Libertarian and even some moderate Democrats) who want to send a message to our ENTIRE government that we are no longer going to put up with it. Everyone in Washington needs to pay attention no matter what letter is after their name. That's probably why Michael Steele was told not to speak at the event. It's not a political party's rally. It is OUR rally.

I'm thinking of designing a "Tea bag Maddow" shirt. Who's interested?

Tax Facts That Will Make Your Head Explode!

2009-04-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

This is a great video put out by Reason.tv:

Hey California! The Government Is Coming For Your New Big Screen TV!

2009-04-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

The Orange County Register reports that in an attempt to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, the California Energy Commission is considering banning the sale of big-screen TV sets that don't meet new, higher energy efficiency standards. Critics say the news standards could take 25 percent of televisions, most 40 inches or larger sets, off the market.

By 2011, the commission wants all large-screen TVs to use 33 percent less power. By 2013, sets must consume 49 percent less power. The Sacramento bureaucrats say the regulations will reduce global warming and save consumers $18 to $30 a year.

Considering that most manufacturers already work to meet voluntary Energy Star standards, it is questionable how much more state agencies can demand from manufacturers without forcing them to pass on these added costs to consumers, which means more expensive TVs.

And as Steve Titch at Reason points out:
There is also a huge question about how such a law would be enforced. Many California consumers would simply choose to purchase non-compliant TVs on the Internet, or drive to stores in nearby Nevada, Arizona or Oregon. As a result, local California-based retailers, who provide jobs and income to state residents, stand to lose the most from the ban.

Obama Adminstration.. Looking Into Climate Engineering?!?!

2009-04-08T19:23:00.000-07:00

From The AP:
The president's new science adviser said Wednesday that global warming is so dire, the Obama administration is discussing radical technologies to cool Earth's air.

John Holdren told The Associated Press in his first interview since being confirmed last month that the idea of geoengineering the climate is being discussed. One such extreme option includes shooting pollution particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun's rays. Holdren said such an experimental measure would only be used as a last resort.

"It's got to be looked at," he said. "We don't have the luxury of taking any approach off the table."

Holdren outlined several "tipping points" involving global warming that could be fast approaching. Once such milestones are reached, such as complete loss of summer sea ice in the Arctic, it increases chances of "really intolerable consequences," he said.

Twice in a half-hour interview, Holdren compared global warming to being "in a car with bad brakes driving toward a cliff in the fog."

At first, Holdren characterized the potential need to technologically tinker with the climate as just his personal view. However, he went on to say he has raised it in administration discussions.

Holdren, a 65-year-old physicist, is far from alone in taking geoengineering more seriously. The National Academy of Science is making climate tinkering the subject of its first workshop in its new multidiscipline climate challenges program. The British parliament has also discussed the idea.

The American Meteorological Society is crafting a policy statement on geoengineering that says "it is prudent to consider geoengineering's potential, to understand its limits and to avoid rash deployment."

Last week, Princeton scientist Robert Socolow told the National Academy that geoengineering should be an available option in case climate worsens dramatically.

But Holdren noted that shooting particles into the air — making an artificial volcano as one Nobel laureate has suggested — could have grave side effects and would not completely solve all the problems from soaring greenhouse gas emissions. So such actions could not be taken lightly, he said.

Still, "we might get desperate enough to want to use it," he added.

Another geoengineering option he mentioned was the use of so-called artificial trees to suck carbon dioxide — the chief human-caused greenhouse gas — out of the air and store it. At first that seemed prohibitively expensive, but a re-examination of the approach shows it might be less costly, he said.

Please tell me that I'm not the only one scratching my head at this ridiculousness? So basically what Mr. Holdren is telling us is that the only way too correct something that supposedly men destroyed by taking it for granted, is too take it even more for granted and think that we can control it? This makes just about as much sense as thinking you can triple the budget deficit but reduce the national debt. Or that when a nation is broke, they should spend their way back to prosperity.

Barney Frank Goes Ape On a Harvard Student Asking a Tough Question

2009-04-07T16:05:00.000-07:00

Wow. Barney Frank proves that a democrat's only effective strategy when being asked a question they don't want to answer is to attack the questioner and accuse them of being unfair. Go cry some more Barney.

If you are having trouble viewing the video on my site, you can go to Sevenload to see it.

Campaign For Liberty Member Detained In St. Louis Gets It All On Tape

2009-04-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Campaign For Liberty member Steve Bierfeldt was detained by the TSA after supposedly "acting suspiciously" and carrying too much cash on him in a St. Louis airport. He was carrying $4700 in checks and some cash all meant to be contributed to the Campaign For Liberty. Luckily, Steve caught it all on audio.

The Left Trying To Steal Our Teaparty Thunder

2009-04-07T10:56:00.001-07:00

From Michelle Malkin:

So, in addition to preemptive smears and sabotage efforts, the Left’s nutroots — feeling, well, left out of the spotlight after putting the Obamessiah in office — are organizing their own anti-Tea Party demonstrations.

Liberal guru Joe Trippi and government-subsidized Bill Moyers are pushing the new initiative, titled “A New Way Forward.” Hey, wasn’t Obama supposed to be your New Way Forward? Way to go!

The lefties have chosen April 11 to try and usurp media attention from the nationwide Tax Day Tea Party event on April 15. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I should note: If even one of those protesters is truly sincere about opposing government bailouts of private industries and truly sincere about ending government support for crony pesudo-capitalists at Fannie/Freddie and truly sincere about letting failing banks fail, I say: Welcome to the club.

The rest is all nutroots Kabuki theater.

You can already guess how the national media will treat the two competing demonstrations. Tens of thousands of tax revolters = radio silence. A few dozen ACORN/ANSWER stragglers in from of any given bank = front page news.

No matter.

Get out there. Mobilize. Put your local and state officials and your members of Congress on notice.
They’re your true audience. Not the MSM.

Senate Introduces Another Bill That Would Permanently Ban Offshore Drilling

2009-04-04T10:10:00.001-07:00

In just another nail in the coffin of American's hopes to someday become energy dependent, Senator Robert Menedez (D-NJ) has just introduced a bill to the senate that would permanently ban offshore drilling on almost all of the Atlantic continental shelf.

The bill specifically states that drilling should be banned in the mid and north atlantic areas of the continental shelf. That would bann drilling from anywhere between Georgia and Maine.

With the cap and trade of fossil fuels coming, and the lack of insight into the benefits of nuclear power, American citizens are having their energy choices taken away one by one.

Nanny State At Work: A Record Number Of American's Are Now Collecting Food Stamps

2009-04-03T06:01:00.000-07:00

In a piece that shows just how well the nanny state mentality is working in America, Caroline Hedley of The Telegraph showcases just how dependent Americans have become on the government.

Ten percent of Americans are now collecting food stamps and that number is expected to keep rising in the upcoming months as unemployment is also slated to rise.

As part of the massive stimulus package that was passed in February there will also be a rise in food stamp funding by 13%.

One has to wonder if that 13%, would have been better used being sunk into tax cuts or job creation that would actually lead people back to work and being able to provide for themselves. I can not comprehend how "stimulating" it is to provide more people with free food, when what they really want is jobs.

You Might Be A Democrat...

2009-04-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

First off, I would like to apologize for the following corny joke. I try to keep my blog above the fray but I am in a particularly good mood today, saw this joke and thought it was funny. So now I am using my "oh so serious" news blog, to share it with you! Enjoy!

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude."

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican."

"I am," replied the man.

"How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me."

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat."

"I am," replied the balloonist.

"How did you know?"

"Well," said the man, "you don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, now it's my fault."

Check Out The Tax Day Tea Party Google Map

2009-04-01T15:39:00.001-07:00

This April 15th Tea party thing looks like it is going to be HUGE! I can't see any feasible way that the media will be able to ignore this nationwide protest! Check out the interactive map on here, and don't forget to find your local event, wherever you are located, and attend! Bring your friends, some signs and your outdoor voice.

And for my fellow Pennsylvanians, our protests will be held in Erie, Harrisburg, Lancaster, Matamoras (Pike County), Wilkes Barre, Scranton, West Chester and of course Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The exact locations and times are:

City: Erie
When: April 15, 5:15 pm - 7:00 pm
Where: Griswold Park, 123 West 14th Street, Erie
————-

City: Harrisburg
When: April 15, Noon
Where: West steps of the Capitol building
————-

City: Lancaster
When: April 15, 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Where: Musser Park
————-

City: Matamoras (Pike County)
When: April 15, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Where: Mid-Delaware Bridge (Port Jervis-Matamoras Bridge), Pennsylvania Avenue
————-

City: Meadville
When: April 15, 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm
Where: Arch Street US Post Office
————-

City: Philadelphia
When: April 15, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Where: Downtown Philadelphia, LOVE Park located between 15th and 16th and JFK Blvd.
————-

City: Pittsburgh
When: April 15, 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Where: Market Square
————-

City: Sharon
When: April 15, 12:00pm - 2:30pm
Where: Downtown Sharon, On the Bridge overlooking the River on State St.
————-

City: Wilkes-Barre
When: April 15, 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Where: Market Street Bridge

We'd Like To Know Why You Haven't Read All The Bills You've Filed

2009-03-31T15:30:00.000-07:00

This wonderful little diddy was brought to my attention via Michelle Malkin'sblog. This is good! Truly visionary

Obama Is Paying Back The Union Thugs That Got Him Elected

2009-03-31T15:15:00.000-07:00

Original story at Freedom@Work Blog:
Freedom@Work readers will remember our extensive coverage of Barack Obama's numerous executive orders (during the first month of his Presidency) paying back union bosses for their efforts getting him into the White House.

Yesterday, a provision in Obama's January 30 executive order took effect -- revoking former-President Bush's February 2001 executive order which required federal contractors to post notices in the workplace simply informing employees of their right to refrain from formal, dues paying union membership and withhold forced dues for everything but the documented cost of collective bargaining.

The Obama directive is intended to ensure millions of workers do not learn of their right, won in the National Right to Work Foundation's precedent-setting U.S. Supreme Court victory Communication Workers v. Beck, to withhold forced union dues earmarked for union politics, lobbying, and other non-bargaining activities.

This is just the first of many steps by Barack Obama and his Big Labor cronies (for example, his Labor Secretary Hilda Solis) are already taking

Bank CEOs Treated To Lunch While GM CEO Wagoner is Forced To Resign

2009-03-30T15:55:00.000-07:00

Something is rotten in the state of America. Watch this clip and all is revealed:

Al Gore Leaves His Lights On For Earth Hour

2009-03-29T13:22:00.000-07:00

You probably saw all the TV commercials and articles about how important Earth Hour, which was held yesterday, was to the environmentalists.

Turns out the King environmentalist wasn't persuaded to partake in the activities. According to Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center For Policy Research:
"I pulled up to Al’s house, located in the posh Belle Meade section of Nashville, at 8:48pm – right in the middle of Earth Hour. I found that the main spotlights that usually illuminate his 9,000 square foot mansion were dark, but several of the lights inside the house were on.

In fact, most of the windows were lit by the familiar blue-ish hue indicating that floor lamps and ceiling fixtures were off, but TV screens and computer monitors were hard at work. (In other words, his house looked the way most houses look about 1:45am when their inhabitants are distractedly watching “Cheaters” or “Chelsea Lately” reruns.)

The kicker, though, were the dozen or so floodlights grandly highlighting several trees and illuminating the driveway entrance of Gore’s mansion.

I [kid] you not, my friends, the savior of the environment couldn’t be bothered to turn off the gaudy lights that show off his goofy trees."

Washington's Green Nanny State Is Making Everyone Wanting Clean Dishes A Criminal

2009-03-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

From Yahoo News:

SPOKANE, Wash. – The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding people in Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under Washington state law don't work as well. Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation's strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states.

But it's not easy to get sparkling dishes when you go green.

Many people were shocked to find that products like Seventh Generation, Ecover and Trader Joe's left their dishes encrusted with food, smeared with grease and too gross to use without rewashing them by hand. The culprit was hard water, which is mineral-rich and resistant to soap.

As a result, there has been a quiet rush of Spokane-area shoppers heading east on Interstate 90 into Idaho in search of old-school suds.

Real estate agent Patti Marcotte of Spokane stocks up on detergent at a Costco in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and doesn't care who knows it.

"Yes, I am a smuggler," she said. "I'm taking my chances because dirty dishes I cannot live with."

(In truth, the ban applies to the sale of phosphate detergent — not its use or possession — so Marcotte is not in any legal trouble.)

Marcotte said she tried every green brand in her dishwasher and found none would remove grease and pieces of food. Everybody she knows buys dishwasher detergent in Idaho, she said.

Supporters of the ban acknowledge it is not very popular.

"I'm not hearing a lot of positive feedback," conceded Shannon Brattebo of the Washington Lake Protection Association, a prime mover of the ban. "I think people are driving to Idaho."

Steve Marcy, manager of the Costco in Coeur d'Alene, about 10 miles east of the Washington state line, estimated that sales of dishwasher detergent in his store have increased 10 percent. He knows where the customers are coming from.

"I'll joke with them and ask if they are from Spokane," Marcy said. "They say, `Oh yeah.'"

Shoppers can still buy phosphate detergents in Washington state by venturing outside Spokane County, but Idaho is more convenient to many Spokane residents.

Phosphates — the main cleaning agent in many detergents and household cleaners — break down grease and remove stains. However, the chemicals are difficult to remove in waste water treatment plants and often wind up in rivers and lakes, where they promote the growth of algae. And algae gobble up oxygen in the water that fish need to survive.

While traditional detergents are up to 9 percent phosphate, those sold in Spokane County can contain no more than 0.5 percent.

The Washington Lake Protection Association has launched a campaign to encourage people to give the environmentally friendly brands a fair chance. The group suggests consumers experiment with different brands or install water softeners to help the green detergents work better.

"Clean lakes and clean dishes do not have to be mutually exclusive," said association president-elect Jacob McCann.

Phosphates have been banned in laundry detergent nationally since 1993. Washington was the first state where the Legislature passed a similar ban against dishwasher detergents, in 2006. The ban is being phased in, starting with Spokane County.

"It's nice to be on the cutting edge," Spokane resident Ken Beck, an opponent of the ban, said sarcastically.

Among other states that have banned or are banning phosphates in dishwasher detergent are Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, Vermont, Minnesota, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York. A bill on Capitol Hill would impose a nationwide ban.

The Soap and Detergent Association, which represents manufacturers, initially fought the bans. But as the movement gained strength across the country, the association asked legislatures to delay bans until July 2010 to allow for a uniform roll out of products.

The industry has been working to develop better low-phosphate detergents, said Dennis Griesing, vice president of the manufacturers group.

"This is an irrevocable, nationwide commitment on the industry's part," he said.

For his part, Beck has taken to washing his dishes on his machine's pots-and-pans cycle, which takes longer and uses five gallons more water. Beck wonders if that isn't as tough on the environment as phosphates.

"How much is this really costing us?" Beck said. "Aren't we transferring the environmental consequences to something else?"

Rep Michelle Bachmann Questions Geithner & Bernanke About A Global Currency

2009-03-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

Bill Introduced In The House To Establish New National Green Bank

2009-03-26T08:38:00.000-07:00

A bill was introduced in The House of Representatives on March 23rd 2009, that would establish a new national "green bank". This bill is sponsored by Democrat Rep. Christopher Van Hollen of Maryland and co-sponsored by four other democrats.

This bank would essentially be run by Tim Geithner and the treasury department and wholly owned by the United States of America. The purpose of this bank is to establish guaranteed funding for research and development of renewable energy. You can see the full text of the bill at opencongress.org.

Sounds like just the thing we need. It has been proven to the American people time and time again in recent months that the treasury department can do nothing right. But now we want to take "green energy" out of the private sector and fund it through bloated bureaucratic agencies.

This bill has not yet been voted on. Contact your representative and let them know your opinion.

Jilted AIG Employee Resigns After Bonus Debacle

2009-03-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

The follwing is a resignation letter from former AIG employee Jake DeSantis. The NY Times ran this letter as an op-ed piece.

It really showcases the utter ineptitude of the financial bailout. Successful employees of profitable divisions of companies that made bad decisions are being victimized. All because congress passed a bad and totally unpopular bill. Mr. DeSantis had a contract with AIG, he worked for a $1/year salary. His bonuses were contracted to him. They were his primary means of income. The government acts in haste and passes an abomination of a bill and now Mr. DeSantis is paying the price. On the upside, Mr. DeSantis is donating 100% of his retention payment to charity.

Dear Mr. Liddy,

It is with deep regret that I submit my notice of resignation from A.I.G. Financial Products. I hope you take the time to read this entire letter. Before describing the details of my decision, I want to offer some context:

I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.

I take this action after 11 years of dedicated, honorable service to A.I.G. I can no longer effectively perform my duties in this dysfunctional environment, nor am I being paid to do so. Like you, I was asked to work for an annual salary of $1, and I agreed out of a sense of duty to the company and to the public officials who have come to its aid. Having now been let down by both, I can no longer justify spending 10, 12, 14 hours a day away from my family for the benefit of those who have let me down.

You and I have never met or spoken to each other, so I’d like to tell you about myself. I was raised by schoolteachers working multiple jobs in a world of closing steel mills. My hard work earned me acceptance to M.I.T., and the institute’s generous financial aid enabled me to attend. I had fulfilled my American dream.

I started at this company in 1998 as an equity trader, became the head of equity and commodity trading and, a couple of years before A.I.G.’s meltdown last September, was named the head of business development for commodities. Over this period the equity and commodity units were consistently profitable — in most years generating net profits of well over $100 million. Most recently, during the dismantling of A.I.G.-F.P., I was an integral player in the pending sale of its well-regarded commodity index business to UBS. As you know, business unit sales like this are crucial to A.I.G.’s effort to repay the American taxpayer.

The profitability of the businesses with which I was associated clearly supported my compensation. I never received any pay resulting from the credit default swaps that are now losing so much money. I did, however, like many others here, lose a significant portion of my life savings in the form of deferred compensation invested in the capital of A.I.G.-F.P. because of those losses. In this way I have personally suffered from this controversial activity — directly as well as indirectly with the rest of the taxpayers.

I have the utmost respect for the civic duty that you are now performing at A.I.G. You are as blameless for these credit default swap losses as I am. You answered your country’s call and you are taking a tremendous beating for it.

But you also are aware that most of the employees of your financial products unit had nothing to do with the large losses. And I am disappointed and frustrated over your lack of support for us. I and many others in the unit feel betrayed that you failed to stand up for us in the face of untrue and unfair accusations from certain members of Congress last Wednesday and from the press over our retention payments, and that you didn’t defend us against the baseless and reckless comments made by the attorneys general of New York and Connecticut.

My guess is that in October, when you learned of these retention contracts, you realized that the employees of the financial products unit needed some incentive to stay and that the contracts, being both ethical and useful, should be left to stand. That’s probably why A.I.G. management assured us on three occasions during that month that the company would “live up to its commitment” to honor the contract guarantees.

That may be why you decided to accelerate by three months more than a quarter of the amounts due under the contracts. That action signified to us your support, and was hardly something that one would do if he truly found the contracts “distasteful.”

That may also be why you authorized the balance of the payments on March 13.

At no time during the past six months that you have been leading A.I.G. did you ask us to revise, renegotiate or break these contracts — until several hours before your appearance last week before Congress.

I think your initial decision to honor the contracts was both ethical and financially astute, but it seems to have been politically unwise. It’s now apparent that you either misunderstood the agreements that you had made — tacit or otherwise — with the Federal Reserve, the Treasury, various members of Congress and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York, or were not strong enough to withstand the shifting political winds.

You’ve now asked the current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. to repay these earnings. As you can imagine, there has been a tremendous amount of serious thought and heated discussion about how we should respond to this breach of trust.

As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.

Many of the employees have, in the past six months, turned down job offers from more stable employers, based on A.I.G.’s assurances that the contracts would be honored. They are now angry about having been misled by A.I.G.’s promises and are not inclined to return the money as a favor to you.

The only real motivation that anyone at A.I.G.-F.P. now has is fear. Mr. Cuomo has threatened to “name and shame,” and his counterpart in Connecticut, Richard Blumenthal, has made similar threats — even though attorneys general are supposed to stand for due process, to conduct trials in courts and not the press.

So what am I to do? There’s no easy answer. I know that because of hard work I have benefited more than most during the economic boom and have saved enough that my family is unlikely to suffer devastating losses during the current bust. Some might argue that members of my profession have been overpaid, and I wouldn’t disagree.

That is why I have decided to donate 100 percent of the effective after-tax proceeds of my retention payment directly to organizations that are helping people who are suffering from the global downturn. This is not a tax-deduction gimmick; I simply believe that I at least deserve to dictate how my earnings are spent, and do not want to see them disappear back into the obscurity of A.I.G.’s or the federal government’s budget. Our earnings have caused such a distraction for so many from the more pressing issues our country faces, and I would like to see my share of it benefit those truly in need.

On March 16 I received a payment from A.I.G. amounting to $742,006.40, after taxes. In light of the uncertainty over the ultimate taxation and legal status of this payment, the actual amount I donate may be less — in fact, it may end up being far less if the recent House bill raising the tax on the retention payments to 90 percent stands. Once all the money is donated, you will immediately receive a list of all recipients.

This choice is right for me. I wish others at A.I.G.-F.P. luck finding peace with their difficult decision, and only hope their judgment is not clouded by fear.

Mr. Liddy, I wish you success in your commitment to return the money extended by the American government, and luck with the continued unwinding of the company’s diverse businesses — especially those remaining credit default swaps. I’ll continue over the short term to help make sure no balls are dropped, but after what’s happened this past week I can’t remain much longer — there is too much bad blood. I’m not sure how you will greet my resignation, but at least Attorney General Blumenthal should be relieved that I’ll leave under my own power and will not need to be “shoved out the door.”

Sincerely,

Jake DeSantis

Why wasn't the press informed of Obama and Biden Meeting Gorbachev??

2009-03-23T15:14:00.000-07:00

The very unlikeable Robert Gibbs offers an "explanation" why no one knew about the secret meeting:

PA Democrat Acting Labor Secretary Sandi Vito Arrested After Being Too Drunk To Sign Her Own Name

2009-03-21T09:40:00.000-07:00

You will notice how the article below doesn't reference a political affiliation of Vito. Well I will. She is a Democrat. With numerous ties to the unions.

From Penn Live:
Acting Labor and Industry Secretary Sandi Vito was too drunk to sign the citation issued to her for public drunkenness, according to documents that were filed Wednesday in court.

The citation against Vito, which carries a $200 fine, was filed in District Judge Joseph Solomon's office Wednesday, a week after Vito was picked up for public drunkenness at the Harrisburg Hilton.

Vito was found "extremely intoxicated" in the hotel bar, according to city police Officer Amy Bright, who issued the citation. The document also said Vito was shouting an obscenity at Bright and others.

Vito, 43, entered a rehab facility a day after The Patriot-News reported the incident. She is expected to return to her $136,120-a-year post after a leave that will last about two weeks, authorities said.

Vito has been recommended for confirmation by the Senate's Labor and Industry Committee, and a vote is expected by the Senate within a few weeks.

Gov. Ed Rendell is expected to continue to support her, administration officials said.

In a statement she issued after the incident, Vito said she was arrested after she declined to take a cab instead of walking to her home in Shipoke.

Sources familiar with the incident said police were summoned by hotel employees after Vito either fell out or jumped out of a cab that was summoned for her and refused to get back in.

Hannity Connects The Dots: Proof of Lies

2009-03-20T20:59:00.000-07:00

Although I am not the biggest fan of Sean Hannity, ocassionaly he does make a valid point and is never short on the video proof to back up his words. On tonight's, March 20th, 2009 episode of "Hannity's America", he connected the dots very well as to what exactly happened with the AIG bonus situation and who hasn't been telling the entire truth.

Watch and learn

Obama Secretly Ends Program That Allows Pilots To Carry Guns On Planes

2009-03-20T18:49:00.000-07:00

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, commercial airline pilots were granted the ability to carry a concealed weapon with them in the cockpit after their succesful completion of a federal firearms safety course.

Now President Obama is silently and he is hoping for secretly, trying to end that program that allows pilots to defend not only themselves but the passengers they are responsible for.

President Obama is diverting money away from the pilot training program. He is instead using that money to hire more government supervisory staff that will engage in field inspections of the pilots.

An editorial in The Washington Post brings to light just how unnecessary this change of practice and diversion of funds is.
"This looks like completely unnecessary harassment of the pilots. The 12,000 Federal Flight Deck Officers, the pilots who have been approved to carry guns, are reported to have the best behavior of any federal law enforcement agency. There are no cases where any of them has improperly brandished or used a gun. There are just a few cases where officers have improperly used their IDs.

Fewer than one percent of the officers have any administrative actions brought against them and, we are told, virtually all of those cases “are trumped up.”

Take a case against one flight officer who had visited the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles within the last few weeks. While there, the pilot noticed that federal law enforcement officers can, with the approval of a superior, obtain a license plate that cannot be traced, a key safety feature for law enforcement personnel. So the pilot asked if, as a member of the federal program, he was eligible. The DMV staffer checked and said “no.” The next day administrative actions were brought against the pilot for “misrepresenting himself.” These are the kinds of cases that President Obama wants to investigate."

I, for one, cannot understand for one second what this diversion of funds is to accomplish. No American of sound mind would have a problem with a properly trained pilot being able to carry a gun in the cockpit. The only people I can see that would have a problem with this practice are terrorists or anti-gun whackjobs who are no better than terrorists.

Political Hypocrisy: Libs V. Conservatives

2009-03-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

I just found this wonderful article written by Doug Tennapal of Big Hollywood. I wanted to share with all of you. My favorite part: "Conservatives think hate is an action, Liberals think hate is a position.". Frickin Genius!!

Now for your reading enjoyment...

Hypocrite Hunt
by Doug TenNapel

If you just got nailed for doing something stupid or immoral, just find out how your accuser also did something stupid or immoral and you’re off the hook! It doesn’t even have to be for the same indiscretion, just throw everything you’ve got at em’ and hope something sticks. If they did something wrong, then they’re a hypocrite! Hypocrite! Hypocrite!

This is a common tactic I see in modern debate, and it’s closely related to the “who are you to judge” fallout from our post-modern generation. The implication is that if you look for a fault and find it, we collectively lose the ability to call it wrong if we also practice it. If I claim your candidate is a liar, you just Google a quote where my candidate told a lie and suddenly telling a lie is off the table. Stupid, I know. But that’s where we’re at.

Given this standard, nobody can really preach about anything because none of us have perfectly acted out our values. I don’t believe in lying, but I’ve obviously lied before. Perhaps even today. But that doesn’t mean I can’t speak against lying. I’m selfish, and I teach my kids to try not to be selfish as much as possible. Even when I know our nature makes us selfish. We fight because it’s right, not because our record is perfect.

I was at a men’s Bible study where half of us were conservatives and half were libs. They asked how I could support a disingenuous guy like McCain and I said that I thought he would be best about expanding the rights of the unborn. The libs came up with quote after quote, even emailing me YouTube links where McCain was soft on abortion, plus he was a hypocrite because he would expand the Iraq war for 100 years and kill many innocent people.

Liberals love the hypocrite game more than conservatives because liberals learned that by promoting no standards of personal behavior, they can never be caught fighting against them. Liberals judge positions not standards of personal behavior. If you hold the wrong position on Global Warming, you’re not a hypocrite, you’re evil. It doesn’t even matter how you act, as we see when the leaders of their movement ride in jets that aren’t made of organic hemp. You can actually act with hate, as long as you don’t come down on the side of “h8te” on certain issues.

Conservatives think hate is an action, Liberals think hate is a position. Likewise, if a conservative takes a certain view on Embryonic Stem Cell Research we’re called anti-science, never mind that it’s anti-science to pretend the lab is empirically clear on the philosophical value of an unborn human.

The Republicans of the last eight years did act as fiscal hypocrites and deserved to lose their credibility on the subject. I hope our guys reform and see the real fallout that will only happen to Republicans when we’re caught saying we’re for small government while actively expanding it. President Obama can claim to be against big government while tripling down on his massive expansion and it will never occur to Libs that he’s a hypocrite. His intent is in the right place after all.

Philosophically, it’s easier to be a liberal than a conservative. We don’t hold liberals to a high standard because only conservative standard claims are taken seriously. So you can only have conservative hypocrites, which is why we so rarely hear about liberal hypocrites though most of us know better.

I don’t think our Republicans look better because the Obama administration fails. If that’s what we’re counting on then we’re screwed. I hope we don’t have a bunch of Republicans running on “The failed policies of the last four years.” When Obama did that I smelled a fraud and to not use the same standard on Republicans would be hypocritical.

Republicans need to make a positive case for a conservative view of politics. Our liberty is God-given and doesn’t need a government to make it so. Our government should be restrained, limited and pushed out of our lives unless our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness is at stake.

MSM Picks Up 100 Person Bush Protest But Still Failing To Report On Thousands Who Have Attended Tea Party Protests

2009-03-17T14:57:00.000-07:00

What do you mean the media doesn't have a liberal agenda?

Google news is abuzz with stories about the 100 protesters that showed up in Calgary Canada to protest George W. Bush who was making an appearance at a $400 plate dinner today. CBS, Reuters, Bloomberg and a slew of other major media outlets are reporting on the protest.

Strangely there are still very few stories illustrating the massive turnouts at the tea party protests that have been springing up since February 27th. No major media is reporting the story. The actual reporter work has been left up to a slew of local newspapers and TV stations.

Roughly 5,000 people showed up at Cincinnati's protest on Sunday to speak out against the way our President and democratically controlled congress is spending our tax dollars like a bunch of drunken monkeys. No national news agencies covered it.

Last week the tea party in St. Louis drew an estimated crowd of 10,000 protesters. No major mention of that from any big news outlet.

There was however a story run by The Examiner mocking the tea party that was held in Boise Idaho as under attended with only 100 protesters. That is funny, because 100 is the number of protesters that showed up to scream at W. today.

Seems like 100 is only substantial when it's 100 liberals. 100 conservatives mean shit.

Yes indeed, there is no liberal media bias.

Obama's List Of Guns To Be Banned

2009-03-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

This list has been brought to us by Alex Korwin at infowars.com

Gun-ban list proposed. Slipping below the radar (or under the short-term memory cap), the Democrats have already leaked a gun-ban list, even under the Bush administration when they knew full well it had no chance of passage (HR 1022, 110th Congress). It serves as a framework for the new list the Brady’s plan to introduce shortly. I have an outline of the Brady’s current plans and targets of opportunity. It’s horrific. They’re going after the courts, regulatory agencies, firearms dealers and statutes in an all out effort to restrict we the people. They’ve made little mention of criminals. Now more than ever, attention to the entire Bill of Rights is critical. Gun bans will impact our freedoms under search and seizure, due process, confiscated property, states’ rights, free speech, right to assemble and more, in addition to the Second Amendment. The Democrats current gun-ban-list proposal (final list will be worse):

Rifles (or copies or duplicates):
M1 Carbine,
Sturm Ruger Mini-14,
AR-15,
Bushmaster XM15,
Armalite M15,
AR-10,
Thompson 1927,
Thompson M1;
AK,
AKM,
AKS,
AK-47,
AK-74,
ARM,
MAK90,
NHM 90,
NHM 91,
SA 85,
SA 93,
VEPR;
Olympic Arms PCR;
AR70,
Calico Liberty ,
Dragunov SVD Sniper Rifle or Dragunov SVU,
Fabrique National FN/FAL,
FN/LAR, or FNC,
Hi-Point20Carbine,
HK-91,
HK-93,
HK-94,
HK-PSG-1,
Thompson 1927 Commando,
Kel-Tec Sub Rifle;
Saiga,
SAR-8,
SAR-4800,
SKS with detachable magazine,
SLG 95,
SLR 95 or 96,
Steyr AU,
Tavor,
Uzi,
Galil and Uzi Sporter,
Galil Sporter, or Galil Sniper Rifle ( Galatz ).

Pistols (or copies or duplicates):
Calico M-110,
MAC-10,
MAC-11, or MPA3,
Olympic Arms OA,
TEC-9,
TEC-DC9,
TEC-22 Scorpion, or AB-10,
Uzi.

Shotguns (or copies or duplicates):
Armscor 30 BG,
SPAS 12 or LAW 12,
Striker 12,

Streetsweeper. Catch-all category (for anything missed or new designs):
A semiautomatic rifle that accepts a detachable magazine and has:
(i) a folding or telescoping stock,
(ii) a threaded barrel,
(iii) a pistol grip (which includes ANYTHING that can serve as a grip, see
below),
(iv) a forward grip; or a barrel shroud.
Any semiautomatic rifle with a fixed magazine that can accept more than
10 rounds (except tubular magazine .22 rim fire rifles).
A semiautomatic pistol that has the ability to accept a
detachable magazine, and has:
(i) a second pistol grip,
(ii) a threaded barrel,
(iii) a barrel shroud or
(iv) can accept a detachable magazine outside of the pistol grip, and
(v) a semiautomatic pistol with a fixed magazine that can accept more than 10
rounds.
A semiautomatic shotgun with:
(i) a folding or telescoping stock,
(ii) a pistol grip (see definition below),
(iii) the ability to accept a detachable magazine or a fixed magazine capacity
of more than 5 rounds, and
(iv) a shotgun with a revolving cylinder.

And there it is folks. The USA is beginning to look like communist Cuba. The democrats couldn't be more proud.

American Legion "Deeply Disappointed and Concerned" With President's Wounded Soldiers Healthcare Plan

2009-03-16T18:33:00.001-07:00

"It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan," said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. "He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it."

The plan that Commander Rehbein is speaking of is President Obama's new idea that in order to save federal money to bailout big labor and provide medical treatment to the poorest of the poor, soldiers wounded with service related injuries would now have to have their injuries treated with private insurance as opposed to treated on the government's dime. The government whom these brave men are serving.

The Commander, clearly angered as he emerged from the session said, "This reimbursement plan would be inconsistent with the mandate ' to care for him who shall have borne the battle' given that the United States government sent members of the armed forces into harm's way, and not private insurance companies. I say again that The American Legion does not and will not support any plan that seeks to bill a veteran for treatment of a service connected disability at the very agency that was created to treat the unique need of America's veterans!"

I do believe that Commander Rehbein will have plenty of support behind him on this. I don't think many Americans will stand behind a concept that says we would rather make sure welfare junkie ne'er-do-wells are more taken care of then men that stand on the front line. We may not all agree on what wars should be fought, be we all should agree that it is not the fault of the men serving our country in times of war. These men are sent by our government to fight these wars. Our government should take care of the injuries that they sent these men and women to get.

Barack Obama and Administration "Open" To Taxing Health Benefits

2009-03-15T17:53:00.000-07:00

Remember back to the October 8th Presidential debate. The one where Barack Obama chided John McCain's health care plan by saying what John McCain "doesn't tell you he's going to tax your employer-based health-care benefits for the first time ever." Obama argued that this would lead to "“the largest middle-class tax increase in history.”

Today, March 15th, four months after Barack Obama won the election and almost two months after taking the oath of office, the administration seems to be considering that idea themselves.

Jackie Calmes and Robert Pear of the NY Times tells us,

"At a recent Congressional hearing, Senator Ron Wyden [that's the pretentious looking fellow pictured in the upper left], an Oregon Democrat whose own health plan would make benefits taxable, asked Peter R. Orszag, the president’s budget director, about the issue. Mr. Orszag replied that it “most firmly should remain on the table.”

Mr. Orszag, an economist who has served as director of the Congressional Budget Office, has written favorably of taxing some employer-provided health benefits and using the revenue savings for other health-related incentives. So has another Obama adviser, Jason Furman, the deputy director of the White House National Economic Council."...

...When Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, advocated taxing benefits at a recent hearing of the Finance Committee, which he leads, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner assured him that the administration was open to all ideas from Congress. Mr. Geithner did, however, allude to the position that Mr. Obama had taken as a candidate.

The Congressional Budget Office says that including health benefits in taxable income could mean $246 billion in additional revenue for a single year. Stopping short of full taxation, as Mr. Baucus and others suggest, would mean less new revenue.

At this point I am at a lose for words as to what we can expect next from our lawmakers and this new administration. The "change" that was promised to us, the 'change" that many were so skeptical that would actually come, is just rearing its head as more of the same. More double speak and rhetoric from a shady administration with nothing more important to them than paying back the special interest groups that helped elect them. Change my "A".

Skepticism About Global Warming Is On The Rise In The U.S

2009-03-12T14:58:00.000-07:00

According to a new Gallup poll just released, an all time high number of Americans are no longer buying into the global warming alarmism being perpetuated by environmentalists and liberal politicians and media.

An all time high, 41% of Americans now believe that the media is exaggerating global warming to the general public. The previous high was 38% in 2004.

When broken down by political affiliation, it is easy to see that the party with the biggest upswing in skepticism are independents, whose skepticism has risen from 33% in 2008 to 44% this year.

Along with the trending showing skepticism by the American people, there is also a distinct down trending in the percentage of Americans who believe that the effects of climate change are already starting to manifest.

Only 53% of people find that the effects of global warming have started, down remarkably from 61% of people surveyed last year. The last time the percentage was that low was in 2004 when only 51% of people believed that.

60% of Americans also believe that global warming will not show any major affects in their lifetime.

It is nice to see that people are finally beginning to view the world around them with their own minds instead of what the media decides the drones should be hearing. Maybe free-thinking will become the new trend in 2009? One can only dream.

Citigroup dupes the taxpayers again.

2009-03-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

Once again taxpayers of America, you have been duped. Just 11 days after reaching a deal with the United States Government to receive $25 billion dollars to stay afloat, on top of the $40B and $20B they have previously received, released a report today saying that they are so far having a very profitable 2009.

They somehow remain profitable even while donating huge wads to Obama's inauguration and building that new stadium of theirs, oh it must be the $85B of taxpayer money that gives them that extra bounce.

I think Becky C. from Just A Girl In Short Shorts says it best:

Maybe some smarty pants MBA can help me out? But preferably not one of those guys who pretends to understand those gee whiz Weapons of Financial Destruction known as derivatives.

Last week that day finally arrived when you could buy a share of Citigroup at the Dollar Store. And in the pattern that has become familiar, the bank gave a call to the Treasury and Ben Bernake?with the message dreaded by all parents who have a squirt in one of our over priced institutions of higher learning?SEND MONEY.

And of course, the enablers took Citigroup's dire warning to heart,and agreed to a preferred stock swap deal that would infuse an additional twenty-five billion into the bank.

Today, astonishingly, investors are going nuts bulling up the market?all on news that Citigroup claims to have had the most profitable two months since 2007.

I am afraid I am one of those cheeky girls who is not afraid to ask a dumb question?just like I never cared about looking stupid when I asked my financial guru how all the novel exotic financial instruments of the derivative class really worked. Of course, I no longer feel stupid, since it turns out that no one, with the possible exception of Diane Garnick, has a clue.

Call be a dumb blond or a cynical bitch, but this Citigroup is one slippery character.

Back in October, when Wachovia bit the dust, the FDIC brokered a sweetheart deal with Wells Fargo to take possession.

Next thing we know Citibank makes a very generous competing offer?and is even threatening a hostile takeover?with lawsuits and everything. In the end they were persuaded to quit acting like a brat.

But then something happened, that as far as I know, only astounded me.

Four weeks later the hotshot Citibank raiders went crying to the Fed for a bailout to the tune of approximately$300 billion--all depending on how you do the math.

Just yesterday federal regulators reported that Citi, along with B of A, JP Morgan, HSBC, and Wells Fargo face huge losses.

But who wants to believe that?after all its been over a week since Citi was nosing up to the public trough.

The chairman of Citi today issued the patently absurd report on their recent profits. Perhaps he was huffing glue, but the investors on Wall Street responded like they just snorted a pile of righteous blow.

Today the bad boy of the financial world is soaring high. But why shouldn't they be? Bernanke finally said it?none of the big banks are going to be allowed to fail?no matter how much money the Fed has to print.

What could be finer than being a shareholder in that scam?

That is until the world finally wakes up, and discovers that just like Citi, Ben's dollars ain't worth shit.

Video: Night Of The Living Democrats

2009-03-09T17:10:00.000-07:00

Funniest video on Youtube I have seen in a very long time!!

Palin Hacker Gets Hit With Three New Charges

2009-03-09T13:03:00.000-07:00

From CNN:
(CNN) – The University of Tennessee student who allegedly hacked the e-mail account of then-Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin has been served with three new charges.

David Kernell(pictured left) was arraigned Monday morning on a new four-count indictment as a federal grand jury added charges of destroying evidence and identity theft to his case. The son of longtime Democratic State Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis was initially arraigned only with a single charge of accessing a protected computer.

Kernell was arrested during Palin’s 2008 campaign season after allegedly posting screenshots of e-mail messages, a contact list, and photos of the Alaska governor’s family on Wikileaks.org, a Web site known for anonymously publishing leaked government, corporate, and religious documents.

Professor Calls Police On Connecticut Student After A Pro 2nd Amendment Class Presentation

2009-03-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

From Central Connecticut State University's newspaper The Recorder:
For CCSU student John Wahlberg, a class presentation on campus violence turned into a confrontation with the campus police due to a complaint by the professor.

On October 3, 2008, Wahlberg and two other classmates prepared to give an oral presentation for a Communication 140 class that was required to discuss a “relevant issue in the media”. Wahlberg and his group chose to discuss school violence due to recent events such as the Virginia Tech shootings that occurred in 2007.

Shortly after his professor, Paula Anderson, filed a complaint with the CCSU Police against her student. During the presentation Wahlberg made the point that if students were permitted to conceal carry guns on campus, the violence could have been stopped earlier in many of these cases. He also touched on the controversial idea of free gun zones on college campuses.

That night at work, Wahlberg received a message stating that the campus police “requested his presence”. Upon entering the police station, the officers began to list off firearms that were registered under his name, and questioned him about where he kept them.

They told Wahlberg that they had received a complaint from his professor that his presentation was making students feel “scared and uncomfortable”.

“I was a bit nervous when I walked into the police station,” Wahlberg said, “but I felt a general sense of disbelief once the officer actually began to list the firearms registered in my name. I was never worried however, because as a law-abiding gun owner, I have a thorough understanding of state gun laws as well as unwavering safety practices.”

Professor Anderson refused to comment directly on the situation and deferred further comment.

“It is also my responsibility as a teacher to protect the well being of our students, and the campus community at all times,” she wrote in a statement submitted to The Recorder. “As such, when deemed necessary because of any perceived risks, I seek guidance and consultation from the Chair of my Department, the Dean and any relevant University officials.”

Wahlberg believes that her complaint was filed without good reason.

“I don’t think that Professor Anderson was justified in calling the CCSU police over a clearly nonthreatening matter. Although the topic of discussion may have made a few individuals uncomfortable, there was no need to label me as a threat,” Wahlberg said in response. “The actions of Professor Anderson made me so uncomfortable, that I didn’t attend several classes. The only appropriate action taken by the Professor was to excuse my absences.”

The university police were unavailable for comment.

“If you can’t talk about the Second Amendment, what happened to the First Amendment?” asked Sara Adler, president of the Riflery and Marksmanship club on campus. “After all, a university campus is a place for the free and open exchange of ideas.”

Founder Of Prison-based Terrorist Group Sentenced To 16 years

2009-03-07T14:21:00.000-08:00

Story from National Terror Alert:
The founder of a prison-based terrorist group that targeted the U.S. government and supporters of Israel was sentenced Friday to 16 years in federal prison.

Kevin James, 32, who founded Jam’iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS, pleaded guilty in 2007 of plotting “to levy war against the United States through terrorism.”

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney described James as “the mastermind and architect of a terrorist conspiracy” to attack LAX, Army recruiting centers and the Israeli Consulate. Still, Carney said he believed James felt genuine remorse and had written him “the most powerful letter I’ve ever received” as a judge.

In the letter, portions of which the judge read aloud, James described his violent upbringing in Inglewood, harsh conditions he endured at the California Youth Authority and the horrors of prison, where James has spent much of his adult life.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory W. Staples, arguing for an 18-year prison term for James, said that when authorities stopped the conspirators, “they were gearing up and accelerating.” He said James’ group planned to stage attacks on political targets with the proceeds of gas station robberies, and the group’s writings contained calls to acquire remote-controlled bombs and silencer-equipped guns.

At New Folsom prison in 2004, James recruited fellow inmate Levar Washington, who was released that year and in turn recruited Gregory Patterson. When Torrance police focused on Washington and Patterson as suspects in a series of 2005 robberies, a search of their South Los Angeles apartment turned up the JIS manifesto and a list of potential targets of attack.

In James’ prison cell, authorities found a statement he had written to be distributed to the media in the aftermath of such an attack. It warned “sincere Muslims” to avoid supporters of Israel and promised more attacks intended “to defend and propagate traditional Islam in its purity.”

Proposed Texas Legislation To Fine Cashiers For Not Suggesting Reusable Bags?

2009-03-04T06:23:00.000-08:00

What WHAT?!?!

This is 100% totally for real. Rep. Rafael Anchia(pictured left), a Democrat from Dallas, of The Texas House of Representatives, is attempting to enter the race for Most Unreasonable Nanny State Politician with his HB 1867. The bill would require check-out clerks to "ask the customer if the customer would like to purchase a reusable bag... at reasonable price." Failure to ask this question would be labeled a crime. Yes you heard me right, a crime.

There is also a fine imposed if the clerk fails to ask the question. A $200-$600 fine for the individual who failed to ask. And the business that employs this poor sucker also gets hit with a fine - $200-$500.

According to Daniel Greer of Empower Texans had this to say about Rep. Rafael Anchia:
"In case you are wondering, Mr. Anchia's official biography helping notes that he has a "genuine passion for helping people and true empathy for their struggles and aspirations." He's also a trial lawyer. How the two are reconciled is an issue left unexplored...

If Mr. Anchia truly wanted to help people, he wouldn't offer mind-numbing regulations such as this. This legislation will only serve to stifle commerce in the poorest of neighborhoods, and force check-out clerks and small business owners to fret over insane rules of conduct.

On the other hand, it will mean more employment for lawyers struggling with their aspirations to sue."

I agree Mr. Greer, this Anchia guy sounds like a whacko.

Romney Wins CPAC Straw Poll For 2012 Race

2009-02-28T14:39:00.000-08:00

At the annual CPAC convention this weekend, an event which host conservatives from all over the nation in Washington DC, the annual straw poll of which Republican would garnish the most support in the next presidential election foudn Mitt Romney to be the winner with 20 percent of the vote.

Following Romney was Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal with 14 percent, Texas Rep. Ron Paul with 13 percent, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with 10 percent, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with 10 percent and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 7 percent. Others on the ballot included South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Florida Gov. Charlie Crist.

I have to say I am pleasantly surprised by these results. I was always a fan of Romney. I do like Sarah Palin but even I have my doubts if she will be able to effectively convince the unconvinced that she can do the job.

I think these results also illustrate that the Republican party may be stepping back a bit from the personal and social issues of the country and taking a stand on the more economic issues facing us. That is something that I am thrilled about.

The Tea Party Festivities

2009-02-28T13:11:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple of select videos from yesterday's strings of "Tea Party" Protests across the nation:

First off we have Atlanta:

Next we have Chicago:

St. Louis:

Tulsa:

Boston:

Santa Monica:

Houston:

And Finally... DC!

Wisconsin Teenager Arrested For Texting During Class

2009-02-26T08:06:00.000-08:00

From JBS.org:
The disorderly conduct charge is seeing a lot of use these days, as it seems to be the catch-all charge filed against those whose behavior may technically be legal, but is found upsetting by some.

At Wauwatosa East High School, near Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a 14-year-old girl was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct — for texting messages during math class.

According to the police report, the teacher demanded the female student stop texting in class and asked for the phone — the student refused. Two other students said the girl did indeed have the phone out, hiding it under her desk as she used it.

The school’s liaison officer was called and he escorted the student to the principal’s office. Officer Jeffrey Griffin observed the student sliding an object up the sleeve of her sweatshirt as they walked through the halls. Upon questioning, the girl denied having any phone and says she was only looking down, not texting on a phone. The sweatshirt was removed — no phone.

Officer Griffin placed the girl under arrest, telling her, “disruption in class with the phone out, the refusal to obey the teacher, and her not telling us the truth is what got her arrested.” A female officer was called in and a full body search revealed the phone was down the girl’s pants.

The result: a disorderly conduct charge against a juvenile based on lying, disobedience, and disrupting a class by using a phone.

Are lying, disobedience, and disruption worthy of criminal charges?

I do not condone the bad behavior. I wouldn’t tolerate it in my classroom. Students are in school ostensibly to pay attention and learn — at great cost to taxpayers. But I probably would have had little trouble in ending such behavior — without calling in the police and having the girl arrested.

Behavioral problems, acting out, disobedience, and even rude and offensive behavior are surely commonplace in today’s government school system. Walk through one at any given time — it’s a real eye-opener.

Surely there has to be a huge difference between an infraction being seriously disruptive — one that causes harm, or threatens harm or physical violence — and one that is just plain bad behavior. Not every violation of school rules or policy gives cause for criminal prosecution.

Some common sense is needed here. We shouldn’t allow police involvement as a method of dealing with a disobedient, deceitful 14-year-old. There should be detention, demerits, extra assignments, removal of privileges, or temporary expulsion — this one works wonders because mom and dad have to be available to be supervisor for little junior for the length of the expulsion, and with most parents working these days, just the inconvenience is enough to straighten weak backbones in parents.

We continue to see the stretching of the disorderly conduct charge to cover a multitude of bad behaviors — and legal behavior that is often politically incorrect — that aren’t serious disturbances by definition. Using it as a punishment for school behavioral problems is just plain crazy — unless the object is a total police state.

Note from author of GOPForLiberty:
What What?!?!?! This kind of authoritarian approach to normal teenage behavior is ludicrious! The system has taken this way too far. Since when has disobeying your teacher gone from a couple of days detention to a misdemeanor??

I have obtained the address and phone number for the Wauwatosa Police Department. Contact them by phone, letter or Contact Form and let them know that the charges should be dropped against this young woman. She has rights and we will not let them forget that.

Wauwatosa Police Department
7725 W. North Avenue
Wauwatosa, WI 53213

Phone: (414) 479-8900

Fact Checking Obama's Address To Congress

2009-02-25T09:51:00.000-08:00

Originally published by AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama knows Americans are unhappy that their taxes will be used to rescue people who bought mansions beyond their means.

But his assurance Tuesday night that only the deserving will get help rang hollow.

Even officials in his administration, many supporters of the plan in Congress and the Federal Reserve chairman expect some of that money will go to people who used lousy judgment.

The president skipped over several complex economic circumstances in his speech to Congress — and may have started an international debate among trivia lovers and auto buffs over what country invented the car.

A look at some of his assertions:

OBAMA: "We have launched a housing plan that will help responsible families facing the threat of foreclosure lower their monthly payments and refinance their mortgages. It's a plan that won't help speculators or that neighbor down the street who bought a house he could never hope to afford, but it will help millions of Americans who are struggling with declining home values."

THE FACTS: If the administration has come up with a way to ensure money only goes to those who got in honest trouble, it hasn't said so.

Defending the program Tuesday at a Senate hearing, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it's important to save those who made bad calls, for the greater good. He likened it to calling the fire department to put out a blaze caused by someone smoking in bed.

"I think the smart way to deal with a situation like that is to put out the fire, save him from his own consequences of his own action but then, going forward, enact penalties and set tougher rules about smoking in bed."

Similarly, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. suggested this month it's not likely aid will be denied to all homeowners who overstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn't afford.

"I think it's just simply impractical to try to do a forensic analysis of each and every one of these delinquent loans," Sheila Bair told National Public Radio.

___

OBAMA: "And I believe the nation that invented the automobile cannot walk away from it."

THE FACTS: Depends what your definition of automobiles, is. According to the Library of Congress, the inventor of the first true automobile was probably Germany's Karl Benz, who created the first auto powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine, in 1885 or 1886. In the U.S., Charles Duryea tested what library researchers called the first successful gas-powered car in 1893. Nobody disputes that Henry Ford created the first assembly line that made cars affordable.

___

OBAMA: "We have known for decades that our survival depends on finding new sources of energy. Yet we import more oil today than ever before."

THE FACTS: Oil imports peaked in 2005 at just over 5 billion barrels, and have been declining slightly since. The figure in 2007 was 4.9 billion barrels, or about 58 percent of total consumption. The nation is on pace this year to import 4.7 billion barrels, and government projections are for imports to hold steady or decrease a bit over the next two decades.

___

OBAMA: "We have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next decade."

THE FACTS: Although 10-year projections are common in government, they don't mean much. And at times, they are a way for a president to pass on the most painful steps to his successor, by putting off big tax increases or spending cuts until someone else is in the White House.

Obama only has a real say on spending during the four years of his term. He may not be president after that and he certainly won't be 10 years from now.

___

OBAMA: "Regulations were gutted for the sake of a quick profit at the expense of a healthy market. People bought homes they knew they couldn't afford from banks and lenders who pushed those bad loans anyway. And all the while, critical debates and difficult decisions were put off for some other time on some other day."

THE FACTS: This may be so, but it isn't only Republicans who pushed for deregulation of the financial industries. The Clinton administration championed an easing of banking regulations, including legislation that ended the barrier between regular banks and Wall Street banks. That led to a deregulation that kept regular banks under tight federal regulation but extended lax regulation of Wall Street banks. Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, later an economic adviser to candidate Obama, was in the forefront in pushing for this deregulation.

___

OBAMA: "In this budget, we will end education programs that don't work and end direct payments to large agribusinesses that don't need them. We'll eliminate the no-bid contracts that have wasted billions in Iraq, and reform our defense budget so that we're not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don't use. We will root out the waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare program that doesn't make our seniors any healthier, and we will restore a sense of fairness and balance to our tax code by finally ending the tax breaks for corporations that ship our jobs overseas."

THE FACTS: First, his budget does not accomplish any of that. It only proposes those steps. That's all a president can do, because control over spending rests with Congress. Obama's proposals here are a wish list and some items, including corporate tax increases and cuts in agricultural aid, will be a tough sale in Congress.

Second, waste, fraud and abuse are routinely targeted by presidents who later find that the savings realized seldom amount to significant sums. Programs that a president might consider wasteful have staunch defenders in Congress who have fought off similar efforts in the past.

___

OBAMA: "Thanks to our recovery plan, we will double this nation's supply of renewable energy in the next three years."

THE FACTS: While the president's stimulus package includes billions in aid for renewable energy and conservation, his goal is unlikely to be achieved through the recovery plan alone.

In 2007, the U.S. produced 8.4 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, including hydroelectric dams, solar panels and windmills. Under the status quo, the Energy Department says, it will take more than two decades to boost that figure to 12.5 percent.

If Obama is to achieve his much more ambitious goal, Congress would need to mandate it. That is the thrust of an energy bill that is expected to be introduced in coming weeks.

___

OBAMA: "Over the next two years, this plan will save or create 3.5 million jobs."

THE FACTS: This is a recurrent Obama formulation. But job creation projections are uncertain even in stable times, and some of the economists relied on by Obama in making his forecast acknowledge a great deal of uncertainty in their numbers.

The president's own economists, in a report prepared last month, stated, "It should be understood that all of the estimates presented in this memo are subject to significant margins of error."

Beyond that, it's unlikely the nation will ever know how many jobs are saved as a result of the stimulus. While it's clear when jobs are abolished, there's no economic gauge that tracks job preservation. The estimates are based on economic assumptions of how many jobs would be lost without the stimulus.

The Philadelphia Tea Party Is On!!

2009-02-24T17:16:00.000-08:00

I'm getting details on the Philadelphia location for the nationwide tea party protest on Friday.

The event in Philly will start at 12pm at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. We are expecting a big crowd. We have been getting a lot of interest so far. Please visit our Facebook event page to RSVP or just show up on Friday. Although an RSVP would be appreciated.

Make sure to bring signs and your enthusiasm!

If you have any questions at all, e-mail me at gopforliberty@gmail.com

The Official Nationwide Tea Party Has Been Organized

2009-02-24T13:10:00.000-08:00

Looks like these protests are turning into more than just a couple organized in a few cities. They are going to be popping up all over the place. here is the official webpage for the nation-wide Chicago Tea Party. Visit the website and find what is being organized closest to you. And then get your butt there on the 27th.

Thanks to Rick Santelli for motivating so many people to get up and get out.

Fellow Pennsylvanian's, be on the lookout for the organization of the Philadelphia Tea Party Protest also. I am currently working withDevon Generally, A Philadelphia Republican who is hoping to make a run for the U.S senate in 2010, to organize the Philadelphia event.

I will bring you details of the Philadelphia protest as they emerge.

Another Tax Protest Popping up. This time in Atlanta

2009-02-24T12:30:00.000-08:00

YES!! I love seeing conservatives getting so involved in the political process! On top of the Washington Monumnet protest, scheduled for this Friday the 27th in DC, there is another protest popping up on the same day.

This one is in Atlanta.

This one with 376 confirmed guests.

This is getting big people. Real big.

For more information visit The Atlanta Protest Blog

Washington Tea Party Scheduled in D.C Friday February 27th!

2009-02-23T15:44:00.000-08:00

There seems to be a huge protest being formed at the Washington Monument in Washington D.C to oppose the stimulus this Friday February 27, 2009. This protest is just the latest in a string of protests that seem to be springing up across the country about the stimulus package that President Obama signed into law last Monday.

The protest should have a good turnout as many conservatives will be in D.C for the annual CPAC convention. The protest seems to be organizing on Facebook and so far there are 193 confirmed attendees. To get more details and confirm your attendance if at all possible visit the Facebook group page.

And remember that this blogger would love some pictures and descriptions of the event to post on the 28th.

"Media Malpractice: How Obama Got Elected And Palin Was Targeted" Released

2009-02-23T15:00:00.000-08:00

A chiding documentary by John Ziegler that targets the media about it's blatant biasedness during the 2008 election cycle.

I've seen parts of it, and let me tell you. It's good!!

Here is one of my favorite scenes so far that I have seen

My favorite part is Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC and her obvious disdain for having to hear the truth and potentially embarrass the golden boys.3

You can visit Zeigler's website and purchase your copy of the documentary here

ACORN Breaking Into Foreclosed Homes

2009-02-20T18:19:00.000-08:00

From WJZ TV in Baltimore:

A community organization breaks into a foreclosed home in what they are calling an act of civil disobedience.

The group wants to train homeowners facing eviction on peaceful ways they can remain in their homes.

Derek Valcourt reports their actions are not without controversy.

Near Patterson Park, the padlock on the door and the sign in the window tell part of Donna Hanks foreclosure story.

"The mortgage went up $300 in one month," said Hanks, former homeowner.

She says the bank refused to modify her loan and foreclosed, kicking her out of the house in September.

The community group ACORN calls Hanks a victim of predatory lending.

"This is our house now," said Louis Beverly, ACORN.

And on Thursday afternoon, they literally broke the foreclosure padlock right off the front door and then broke into the house, letting Hanks back in for the first time in months.

"We are actually trespassing, and so this is a way of civil disobedience to try to stay in the house," said Beverly. "Legally it's wrong, but homesteading is the only means that she has left to stay in her house. And we feel as though this is the right thing to do at this particular time to save this family."

Inside, there's spray paint on the walls and evidence that someone has possibly been remodeling.

The group says it was staging similar demonstrations in six other cities nationwide while urging a moratorium on foreclosures. They want that until President Obama's stimulus plan begins on March 4. The plan is designed to help threatened homeowners.

"As you all can see, Donna is reclaiming her home, and she's putting a lock on her door at this time," said Beverly.

But that padlock won't stay there for long.

The current property managers told Eyewitness News they were unaware of ACORN's actions Thursday and were contacting the police and their lawyers.

Three Democrat Pennsylvania Judges Plead Guilty In Kickback Scheme

2009-02-19T06:52:00.001-08:00

Three judges have plead guilty on corruption charges in PA.

Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella, Michael Conahan and William Sharkey, all democrats, pleaded guilty last week to fraud charges after prosecutors accused them of taking kickbacks to send juvenile offenders to private detention centers.

All three men face up to 10 years in prison.

From The ABA Journal:
"Prosecutors said the kickback scheme began in December 2002, when the judges shut down the county juvenile detention center on the ground it was in bad shape and said juveniles should be housed at two private centers, according to the Times account.

Ciavarella says he only sentenced juveniles to detention centers if they deserved it, but his record is tougher than the norm, the Times story says. He sent one-fourth of juvenile defendants to detention from 2002 to 2006, compared with a state average of 1 out of 10, the story says.

Juveniles have a constitutional right to counsel, but about half the juveniles appearing before Ciavarella had waived that right, the Times says. Only Illinois, New Mexico and North Carolina require representation for juveniles.

The case has spurred the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to review all juvenile cases decided in Luzerne County in the last five years and all appointments by the judges in the last seven years.

Former Luzerne County Judge Ann Lokuta attended the hearing. She has said she reported improper conduct by the judges to the FBI, according to the Legal Intelligencer article. The state’s judicial discipline body banned Lokuta from the bench in December based on findings that she belittled her staff, used court personnel to clean her home and created a warlike atmosphere with other judges."

What you will find missing from the ABA Article along with just about every other news source that is running this story is the political affiliations of the judges. All of which are Democrats.

Putin Warns The US About The Dangers Of Socialism

2009-02-18T18:24:00.000-08:00

During a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Vladimir Putin, in what could be a direct poke at the new administration and congress, gave the US warning about the dangers of socialism.

Putin warned about “excessive intervention in economic activity and blind faith in the state’s omnipotence”.

“In the 20th century, the Soviet Union made the state’s role absolute,” Putin said during a speech at the opening ceremony of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “In the long run, this made the Soviet economy totally uncompetitive. This lesson cost us dearly. I am sure nobody wants to see it repeated.”

Sounding more like Barry Goldwater than the former head of the KGB, Putin said, “Nor should we turn a blind eye to the fact that the spirit of free enterprise, including the principle of personal responsibility of businesspeople, investors, and shareholders for their decisions, is being eroded in the last few months. There is no reason to believe that we can achieve better results by shifting responsibility onto the state.”

Putin also cautioned the US against using military Keynesianism to lift its economy out of recession, saying, “in the longer run, militarization won’t solve the problem but will rather quell it temporarily. What it will do is squeeze huge financial and other resources from the economy instead of finding better and wiser uses for them.”

Putin also echoed the words of conservative maverick Ron Paul when he said, “we must assess the real situation and write off all hopeless debts and ‘bad’ assets. True, this will be an extremely painful and unpleasant process. Far from everyone can accept such measures, fearing for their capitalization, bonuses, or reputation. However, we would ‘conserve’ and prolong the crisis, unless we clean up our balance sheets.”

“The time for enlightenment has come. We must calmly, and without gloating, assess the root causes of this situation and try to peek into the future.”

Mesa Arizona's Stimulus Protest

2009-02-18T17:02:00.000-08:00

Check out Michelle Makin's write up for more information and pictures about this wonderful protest!

Rahm Emmanuel's Rent Is Only Part Of His Ethical Debacle

2009-02-18T15:32:00.000-08:00

Yet another chink in the armor of the democratic party's integrity. This is just another scandal piled on to the heap of Democratic scandals that have abounded lately.

NEWS broke last week that White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel lived rent- free for years in the home of Rep. Rosa De Lauro (D-Conn.). Emmanuel failed to disclose the gift, as congressional ethics rules mandate.

According to Dick Morris and Eileen McGann at The New York Post:
Emanuel is a multimillionaire, but lived for the last five years for free in the tony Capitol Hill townhouse owned by De Lauro and her husband, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg.

During that time, he also served as chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - which gave Greenberg huge polling contracts. It paid Greenberg's firm $239,996 in 2006 and $317,775 in 2008. (Emanuel's own campaign committee has also paid Greenberg more than $50,000 since 2004.)

Emmanuel never disclosed his gift of a living space on his financial disclosure reports. He and De Lauro claim that it was just allowable "hospitality" between colleagues. Many argue that this housing should count as taxable income. The estimated worth of his housing was $100,000.

Then there is also the question of Rahm Emmanuel's service on the board of Freddie Mac. Emanuel served on the Freddie Mac board of directors during the time that the government-backed lender lied about its earnings, a leading contributor to the current economic meltdown.

The Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight Agency later singled out the Freddie Mac board as contributing to the fraud in 2000 and 2001 for "failing in its duty to follow up on matters brought to its attention." In other words, board members ignored the red flags waving in their faces.

The SEC later fined Freddie $50 million for its deliberate fraud in 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Seattle's President's Day Pork Protest

2009-02-17T06:28:00.001-08:00

Pics from the protest:

Thanks to blogger Liberty Belle, Republicans, Libertarians and maybe even a few opposing Democrats gathered in Seattle yesterday to protest Obama's impending signature of the nearly trillion dollar stimulus bill.

This is the latest in a rash of public outcries about the bill that is deemed to be wasteful and full of pork by just about 50% of the American public.

Organizers are also planning a protest in Denver today at noon. GOP For Liberty will be updating you on that event tomorrow.

Roland Burris Changes His Story. More Democrat Culture of Corruption and Lies

2009-02-16T10:49:00.000-08:00

From Associated Content
Senator Roland Burris conceded Saturday that former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's brother, Rodney Blagojevich, tried to shake him down three times for campaign contributions. This was during the time that Burris was among candidates for appointment to the Illinois Senate seat that became vacant when Barack Obama was elected president.

The Roland Burris revelation adds evidence to allegations that Rod Blagojevich pursued a fraudulent and illegal pay-to-play strategy for the Senate seat. U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald says he already has evidence on tape, regarding not only the Senate seat but regarding state funds for everything from toll booths to a children's hospital.

Roland Burris also suffers a credibility lapse, because he previously had testified that there were no pay-to-play offers made by Rod Blagojevich or his political team.

A twist of this story is that while Senate Democrats initially tried to fight Rod Blagojevich's appointment of Roland Burris, they needed Burris' vote to pass the $789billion economic stimulus package with a filibuster-proof minimum threshhold of 60 votes. As it was, the Democrats needed to call Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown back to Washington from Brown's home state, where he was attending his mother's wake, of all things. The next option would have been to try to pull Teddy Kennedy from his sick bed.

In other words, Rod Blagojevich apparently was one of the key actors for passage of the economic stimulus package. Is that ironic, or what?

Roland Burris gave testimony in January to a Blagojevich impeachment hearing in the Illinois Senate. Burris testified that he never had pay-to-play conversations, which would have regarded an effort to raise money for Blagojevich in exchange for the U.S. Senate appointment. Patrick Fitzgerald has asserted that Rod Blagojevich, on a taped wiretap, mentioned a desire of sums of $500,000 and $1 million, although Blagojevich did not mention Burris by name.

Honoring Abraham Lincoln On His Birthday

2009-02-12T19:06:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be an excellent idea if today we remember Abraham Lincoln as the great president that history has known him to be. There really isn't much more I can say about that, so today I leave you with some of my favorite Lincoln quotes. I feel that these quotes speak to me about what The United States of America is and about the rights and freedoms that we deserve and should never think twice about giving up.

"Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume III, "Letter To Henry L. Pierce and Others" (April 6, 1859), p. 376.

"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume I, "Speech on the Sub-Treasury" (in the Illinois House of Representatives, December 26, 1839), p. 178.

"The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity." Lincoln's Temperance Address, Springfield, Illinois, February 22, 1842.

"We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VII, "Address at Sanitary Fair, Baltimore, Maryland" (April 18, 1864), p. 301-302.

"Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume II, "Speech at Peoria, Illinois" (October 16, 1854), p. 273.

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world."

A Capitulation, Not a Compromise: Thanks To Three Senators, Republicans Have Lost An Opportunity.

2009-02-11T18:22:00.000-08:00

By Pat Toomey.

Note from author of Gop For Liberty:
Pat Toomey, a Republican with libertarian leanings, is currently seeking the nomination of the Republican Party for the Pennsylvania Governor's Race In 2010.

The three Republican senators who struck a deal with the Democrats are touting the Senate’s stimulus bill as a bipartisan compromise. In yesterday’s Washington Post, Sen. Arlen Specter even labeled the $838 billion package cobbled together late last week the “moderates’ compromise.”

But the surrender of three liberal Republicans does not make a bill a compromise. Dig into the details of the Senate bill, and it’s obvious that this isn’t a compromise but a capitulation.

Sens. Specter, Collins, and Snowe tout the spending cuts they were able to wrangle from the Democrats, but they neglect to mention all the additional spending that has been added over the past week through amendments. The ink on the House bill was not yet dry when Senator Specter himself introduced an amendment to add $6 billion in spending for the National Institutes of Health. The bill is stuffed with pork projects and spending programs that don’t even pretend to be about economic growth. One has to wonder how the “moderates” can defend $1.5 billion for carbon-capture projects, $1.3 billion for NASA, and $75 million for the Smithsonian Institution, among many other earmarks, as “stimulus.” In the end, the so-called compromise bill actually costs $18.7 billion more than the bill passed by the House.

And while the moderates croon about the bill’s tax cuts, very few of those cuts are pro-growth measures that will encourage Americans to invest and produce. In fact, some are only refundable tax credits—meaning checks issued to people who don’t pay federal income taxes. There is a more accurate term for this kind of tax cut: spending.

Thanks to Specter, Collins, and Snowe, the Republican party lost the opportunity to pass a true compromise bill that would have encouraged economic growth. By unanimously voting against the stimulus bill, House Republicans empowered Senate Republicans to demand substantive, pro-growth amendments. After all, without 60 votes in the Senate, President Obama would not have been able to pass any bill, good or bad.

If Senate Republicans had united as their counterparts in the House did, President Obama would have had no choice but to include Republican proposals to cut income-tax rates, along with taxes on businesses and investment. These measures would have encouraged workers to be more productive, freed American businesses currently laboring under one of the highest corporate-tax rates in the world, and encouraged investors to support our ailing financial markets.

To be sure, Republicans would have been forced to accept a large dose of spending, but Democrats would have been similarly forced to accept tax cuts they refused to include in the current bill. That is what a real bipartisan compromise would have looked like—not this $800 billion–plus spending spree that tosses a couple of crumbs to Specter, Collins, and Snowe.

The Senate’s compromise bill is as fundamentally flawed as the original version. While its supporters claim it will create millions of jobs, they neglect to mention all the jobs it will destroy. The money for the bill has to come from somewhere—and that will be straight out of the private sector, where it could have been invested far more efficiently and productively, creating jobs in the process. The subsidies for “green jobs” will, perversely, end up destroying jobs as the country is forced to waste money producing overpriced, inefficient energy.

Whether we are talking about the original House bill, the original Senate bill, or the so-called compromise bill, the stimulus is based on the backward and discredited idea that the country can spend itself out of a recession. It didn’t work for the United States during the Great Depression, it didn’t work for Japan during the 1990s, and it won’t work now.

President Obama’s own economists admit that many of the programs in the bill will do little to stimulate the economy, and his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, confessed that Democrats are using the stimulus to check off their Christmas shopping list. “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste,” Emanuel said. “And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” Even the Democrat-controlled Congressional Budget Office predicts the stimulus bill will actually hurt the U.S. economy in the long run. According to the CBO, the massive amount of new debt will crowd out private investment in the future and hamper economic growth.

Senator Specter cites John F. Kennedy, who said: “In politics, nobody gets everything, nobody gets nothing, and everybody gets something.” In this case, the Democrats get almost everything, and the American taxpayers get to look forward to generations of debt. We have three “moderate” Republicans to thank for that crowning achievement. Let’s remember who they are.

—Pat Toomey is the president of the Club for Growth.

Arizona Rancher Who Stopped Illegal Immigrants Trespassing On His Own Ranch Now Fighting $32 Million Lawsuit

2009-02-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

From The Washington Times:
An Arizona man who has waged a 10-year campaign to stop a flood of illegal immigrants from crossing his property is being sued by 16 Mexican nationals who accuse him of conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Roger Barnett, 64, began rounding up illegal immigrants in 1998 and turning them over to the U.S. Border Patrol, he said, after they destroyed his property, killed his calves and broke into his home.

His Cross Rail Ranch near Douglas, Ariz., is known by federal and county law enforcement authorities as "the avenue of choice" for immigrants seeking to enter the United States illegally.

Trial continues Monday in the federal lawsuit, which seeks $32 million in actual and punitive damages for civil rights violations, the infliction of emotional distress and other crimes. Also named are Mr. Barnett's wife, Barbara, his brother, Donald, and Larry Dever, sheriff in Cochise County, Ariz., where the Barnetts live. The civil trial is expected to continue until Friday.

The lawsuit is based on a March 7, 2004, incident in a dry wash on the 22,000-acre ranch, when he approached a group of illegal immigrants while carrying a gun and accompanied by a large dog.

Attorneys for the immigrants - five women and 11 men who were trying to cross illegally into the United States - have accused Mr. Barnett of holding the group captive at gunpoint, threatening to turn his dog loose on them and saying he would shoot anyone who tried to escape.

The immigrants are represented at trial by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), which also charged that Sheriff Dever did nothing to prevent Mr. Barnett from holding their clients at "gunpoint, yelling obscenities at them and kicking one of the women."

In the lawsuit, MALDEF said Mr. Barnett approached the group as the immigrants moved through his property, and that he was carrying a pistol and threatening them in English and Spanish. At one point, it said, Mr. Barnett's dog barked at several of the women and he yelled at them in Spanish, "My dog is hungry and he's hungry for buttocks."

The lawsuit said he then called his wife and two Border Patrol agents arrived at the site. It also said Mr. Barnett acknowledged that he had turned over 12,000 illegal immigrants to the Border Patrol since 1998.

In March, U.S. District Judge John Roll rejected a motion by Mr. Barnett to have the charges dropped, ruling there was sufficient evidence to allow the matter to be presented to a jury. Mr. Barnett's attorney, David Hardy, had argued that illegal immigrants did not have the same rights as U.S. citizens.

Mr. Barnett told The Washington Times in a 2002 interview that he began rounding up illegal immigrants after they started to vandalize his property, northeast of Douglas along Arizona Highway 80. He said the immigrants tore up water pumps, killed calves, destroyed fences and gates, stole trucks and broke into his home.

Some of his cattle died from ingesting the plastic bottles left behind by the immigrants, he said, adding that he installed a faucet on an 8,000-gallon water tank so the immigrants would stop damaging the tank to get water.

Mr. Barnett said some of the ranch´s established immigrant trails were littered with trash 10 inches deep, including human waste, used toilet paper, soiled diapers, cigarette packs, clothes, backpacks, empty 1-gallon water bottles, chewing-gum wrappers and aluminum foil - which supposedly is used to pack the drugs the immigrant smugglers give their "clients" to keep them running.

He said he carried a pistol during his searches for the immigrants and had a rifle in his truck "for protection" against immigrant and drug smugglers, who often are armed.

ASSOCIATED PRESS DEFENDANT: Roger Barnett said he had turned over 12,000 illegal immigrants to the Border Patrol since 1998.

A former Cochise County sheriff´s deputy who later was successful in the towing and propane business, Mr. Barnett spent $30,000 on electronic sensors, which he has hidden along established trails on his ranch. He searches the ranch for illegal immigrants in a pickup truck, dressed in a green shirt and camouflage hat, with his handgun and rifle, high-powered binoculars and a walkie-talkie.

His sprawling ranch became an illegal-immigration highway when the Border Patrol diverted its attention to several border towns in an effort to take control of the established ports of entry. That effort moved the illegal immigrants to the remote areas of the border, including the Cross Rail Ranch.

"This is my land. I´m the victim here," Mr. Barnett said. "When someone´s home and loved ones are in jeopardy and the government seemingly can´t do anything about it, I feel justified in taking matters into my own hands. And I always watch my back."

Not From GOP For Liberty Author:
We have obtained the mailing addresses and phone numbers for both the Defending Attorney and the Judge presiding over this lawsuit. Please contact them and let them know how you feel about American's rights to protect their own property:
The Lawyer:

David T. Hardy
8987 E. Tanque Verde
PMB 265
Tucson AZ 85749
(520) 749-0241
dthardy@mindspring.com
SBN: 4288
Attorney for Defendants

The Judge:

Roll, John M.
520-205-4520
United States District Court
Evo A. DeConcini U.S. Courthouse
405 West Congress Street, Suite 5190
Tucson, AZ 85701-5053
Clerk's Office
520-205-4235

Scary Big Brotherish Health Care Provisions Slipped Into Stimulus Package Unnoticed By Public.

2009-02-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

From bloomberg:
Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department. Daschle has sinced dropped out of cotention for questions about his failure to pay some taxes.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.

New Penalties

Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541)

What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.

The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.

Elderly Hardest Hit

Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).

The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.

In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.

Hidden Provisions

If the Obama administration’s economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.

The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).

Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration’s health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. “If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it,” he said. “The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol.”

More Scrutiny Needed

On Friday, President Obama called it “inexcusable and irresponsible” for senators to delay passing the stimulus bill. In truth, this bill needs more scrutiny.

The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It produces almost 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Yet the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn. This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.

Libertarian Republican Meg Whitman Starts Run For Governor Of California

2009-02-09T14:58:00.000-08:00

Self described "Libertarian" and registered Republican, Meg Whitman former CEO and President of eBay Inc, announced today February 9, that she has formed an exploratory committee for a campaign to win the Republican nomination for California governor in 2010.

Former California Gov. Pete Wilson, who lead California through an eight year economic recovery through his terms, will be campaign chairman. The co-chairs of the exploratory committee are Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield), chief deputy Republican whip, and fellow Republican representative Mary Bono Mack (R-Palm Springs), along with state Sen. Tony Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks), state Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher (R-San Diego), Republican whip, and former State Assemblywoman Sharon Runner of Lancaster.

“After careful consideration and with tremendous loyalty to our Golden State, I have formed an exploratory committee, the first step in the process of running for governor in 2010,” Whitman said. “California faces challenges unlike any other time in its history — a weak and faltering economy, massive job losses, and an exploding state budget deficit. California is better than this, and I refuse to stand by and watch it fail. Now is the time for people across the state to join in a cause for change, excellence and a new California.”

Whitman, 52, retired from eBay, which has grown to be a cultural free market phenomenon, in March 2008 after a decade with the company. During Meg's time with eBay the company grew from a start up with 30 employees, 300,000 users and $4.7 million in revenue, to a global behemoth with operations in 38 countries, more than 15,000 employees, almost $8 billion in revenue and more than 300 million registered users, including more than 12 million eBay users in California alone.

Whitman, in the coming weeks, through speeches in Silicon Valley, Orange County and at the California Republican Party Convention in Sacramento, will offer a vision for the Golden State, she said.

Americans Should Learn A Lesson From Britain's Mistakes

2009-02-08T17:27:00.001-08:00

This video was forwarded to me from Steve MacIntosh of St. Ives Cornwall.

It depicts what has happened to Britain since the rise and control of Britain's Labour Party. The Labour Party in Britain is pretty much Britains version of the Democrat party skewed more left than us Americans are accustomed to, but nonetheless a political ideology that is not very far off if the USA continues down the path it is headed on. Wikipedia outlines the platforms of the Labour Party, also known as the Democratic Socialist as public ownership of key industries, government intervention in the economy, redistribution of wealth, increased rights for workers and trade unions, and a belief in the welfare state as well as publicly funded health care and education.

Please watch this video and take heed to what path we may be headed on

Essay The Meaning Of Sarah Palin Hits The Nail On The Head

2009-02-08T14:37:00.000-08:00

In an essay written by Yuval Levin of the ring-wing Commentary Magazine, he describes Sarah Palin in the terms of the cultural phenomenon she has become. He also explains a bit why the left fears her so. There is also some very good insight as to how the media and lefties twisted Palin's image into that of a monster on social issues when her Governing style in Alaska has never even shown the slightest inking of the social tyranny we were led to believe existed.

I find the essay to be very insightful and Levin has, once again, hit the nail directly on the head.

Here is the essay in it's entirety:
Two political figures dominated the final months of the 2008 presidential campaign. One was the Democratic nominee, Barack Obama. The other had been unknown to all but 670,000 Americans only a few minutes before she was first introduced by the Republican nominee, John McCain, at a rally in Ohio on the Friday before the Republican National Convention, only 66 days before the November election.

By the close of that first weekend, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska had become a national sensation. Two days after that, she delivered her debut address at the Republican National Convention as the party’s vice-presidential nominee—a dazzling stemwinder, it was all but universally acknowledged. McCain’s dramatic and unexpected bet appeared to have paid off in spades.

But by November 4, the day of the election, Sarah Palin had been transformed into one of the most divisive figures in recent American history. There was almost no middle ground between those who had come to adore her and those who believed she represented just about every dark and dangerous element of contemporary American politics. In choosing Palin, McCain had hoped to shake up the race; but the fault lines exposed by the Palin earthquake were not the ones he had thought they might be. He had wanted to run against the Washington status quo as a reformer with an independent streak. He believed he was picking a fellow reformist politician with a history of taking on the leadership of her own party, and that Palin would prove acceptable to the Republican base because of her social conservatism. Instead, Palin became an instant cultural and political magnet, attracting some and repelling others and dragging a helpless McCain into a culture war for which he had little stomach. Indeed, the overheated response to Palin’s presence on the national stage, from both friend and foe, was oddly disconnected from Palin’s actual actions, statements, and record. It was a turn of events no one could have anticipated, and one that has much to teach us about American political life in our day.

_____________

Before her elevation, Palin had not been known as a combatant in the cultural battles of recent years. She had been serving as the popular chief executive of a geographically vast, sparsely populated, and economically vital state. She held conventionally conservative Republican views—pro-gun, anti-tax, and pro-life. She had risen to prominence by taking on Alaska’s corrupt and profligate Republican establishment. In running for and winning the governorship in 2006, she had promised (and had begun to deliver) reforms of the state’s relationship with Washington and with the oil companies that dominated its economy.

In all these respects, Palin was an uncanny match for John McCain. Her political style and priorities resembled McCain’s in a way that no other senior Republican elected official’s did. Her conservatism, like McCain’s, was more an attitude than an ideology: it was a kind of moralistic anti-corruptionism, obsessed with honest dealing and powerfully allergic to excess and waste. Palin did not, of course, share McCain’s foreign-policy expertise or his heroic biography, but she shared what he often stressed most about himself, and what he most wanted to run on: she was, as the public would soon be informed ad nauseam, a reforming maverick.

Palin’s social conservatism had never been the core of her political identity in Alaska. She always expressed general support for traditionalist views in interviews and debates, and it was widely known that she had also chosen to proceed with her fifth pregnancy after discovering the child had Down syndrome—a discovery that in about nine of ten cases leads parents to opt for abortion. But Palin never went out of her way to raise abortion or other social or cultural issues, and in her first two years as governor had not sought to change state policies in these areas. She was a good-government reformer with social conservative leanings, not the other way around.

_____________

But this was not how Palin was received on the national scene. Instead, her views on matters of cultural and social controversy very quickly became the chief focus of media attention, liberal criticism, and pundit analysis. Palin was assigned every view and position the Left considered unenlightened, and the response to her brought into the light all manner of implicit liberal assumptions about cultural conservatives. We were told that Palin was opposed to contraception, advocated teaching creationism in schools, and was inclined to ban books she disagreed with. She was described as a religious zealot, an anti-abortion extremist, a blind champion of abstinence-only sex education. She was said to have sought to make rape victims pay for their own medical exams, to have Alaska secede from the Union, and to get Pat Buchanan elected President. She was reported to believe that the Iraq war was mandated by God, that the end-times prophesied in the Book of Revelation were nearing and only Alaska would survive, and that global warming was purely a myth. None of this was true.

Her personal life came under withering assault as well. Palin’s capacity to function as a senior elected official while raising five children was repeatedly questioned by liberal pundits who would never dare to express such views about a female candidate whose opinions were more congenial to them. Her teenage daughter’s pregnancy was splattered all over the front pages (garnering three New York Times stories in a single day on September 2). Some bloggers even suggested her youngest child had not issued from her, but from her daughter instead, and that she had participated in a bizarre cover-up. I attended a gathering in Washington at which a prominent columnist wondered aloud how Palin could pursue her career when her religious beliefs denied women the right to work outside the home.

Palin became the embodiment of every dark fantasy the Left had ever held about the views of evangelical Christians and women who do not associate themselves with contemporary feminism, and all concern for clarity and truthfulness was left at the door.

To be sure, some criticisms of Palin were entirely appropriate. She had no experience in foreign or defense policy and very little expertise in or command of either. In a time of war, with a seventy-two-year-old presidential candidate who had already survived one bout with cancer, this was a cause for very real concern. And Palin did perform dreadfully in some early interviews. Some of her more level-headed critics did make their case on these grounds. But the more common visceral hostility toward her seemed to have little to do with these objections. Rather, the entire episode had the feel of a kind of manic outburst; it was triggered by a false understanding of who Palin was, and once it began, there was no stopping or controlling it.

The reaction to Palin revealed a deep and intense cultural paranoia on the Left: an inclination to see retrograde reaction around every corner, and to respond to it with vile anger. A confident, happy, and politically effective woman who was also a social conservative was evidently too much to bear. The response of liberal feminists was in this respect particularly telling, and especially unpleasant.

“Her greatest hypocrisy is her pretense that she is a woman,” wrote Wendy Doniger, a professor at the University of Chicago. “Having someone who looks like you and behaves like them,” said Gloria Steinem, “who looks like a friend but behaves like an adversary, is worse than having no one.”

This preposterous effort to excommunicate Palin from her gender suggests that the kind of new-order feminism she represents—a feminism that embraces cultural traditionalism and workplace egalitarianism at the same time—is especially frightening to those on the feminist Left because they recognize its power and appeal. The attempt to destroy Sarah Palin by rushing to paint her as a backwoods extremist was not a show of strength, but rather a sign of desperation.

_____________

Meanwhile, on the Right, Palin was the cause of a manic episode of a different sort. The governor’s touching life story, her folksy way of speaking, and her gut-level appeal to the culture of the lower middle class exercised tremendous power over many conservatives, which inclined them to fill the sizable blanks in Palin’s political profile with their own wishful assumptions, and to make flustered excuses for her shortcomings.

There was a strong case to be made in her defense. Palin had as much foreign-policy experience as most governors do, and Americans have been willing time and again to overlook such inexperience in their hunger for proven executive acumen in Washington. (Four of the last five Presidents had been governors, after all, and Palin was running for Vice President with a foreign-policy expert at the top of the ticket.) And while Palin seemed out of her depth in several television interviews, she was extraordinarily effective on the stump, was a quick study, and proved to be at least an even match for Joe Biden, a six-term senator, in the vice-presidential debate.

Yet, for all these defenses, there could be no denying Palin’s real deficiencies. Nonetheless, Palin was embraced practically without reservation in many conservative circles. The very heat of the Left’s campaign against her made her all the more a darling of the Right. She became the 2008 poster child for the longstanding conservative grudge against the mainstream media. And, of course, having warmly accepted her unborn child with Down syndrome and having supported and encouraged her teenage daughter’s decision to bring to term an unplanned pregnancy and to marry the baby’s father, Palin instantly became an icon of the pro-life cause.

It seemed to matter not a whit that Palin had never taken any action on abortion in her time as governor, and rarely had much to say on the subject. Indeed, even as she campaigned before captivated audiences, drawing tens of thousands of proud conservatives to rallies in a display of rock-star popularity no vice-presidential candidate had ever earned, Palin barely spoke about abortion or social issues.
Palin did not merit her instantaneous conversion into the Joan of Arc of the American Right, just as she did not deserve the opprobrium that was heaped upon her by the Left.

So why did it happen? What was the Palin episode really about? The answer has much to do with the age-old tension between populism and elitism in our public life, which is to say, between the notion that we are best governed by the views, needs, and interests of the many and the conviction that power can only be managed wisely by a select few.

_____________

In American politics, the distinction between populism and elitism is further subdivided into cultural and economic populism and elitism. And for at least the last forty years, the two parties have broken down distinctly along this double axis. The Republican party has been the party of cultural populism and economic elitism, and the Democrats have been the party of cultural elitism and economic populism. Republicans tend to identify with the traditional values, unabashedly patriotic, anti-cosmopolitan, non-nuanced Joe Sixpack, even as they pursue an economic policy that aims at elite investor-driven growth. Democrats identify with the mistreated, underpaid, overworked, crushed-by-the-corporation “people against the powerful,” but tend to look down on those people’s religion, education, and way of life. Republicans tend to believe the dynamism of the market is for the best but that cultural change can be dangerously disruptive; Democrats tend to believe dynamic social change stretches the boundaries of inclusion for the better but that economic dynamism is often ruinous and unjust.

Both economic and cultural populism are politically potent, but in America, unlike in Europe, cultural populism has always been much more powerful. Americans do not resent the success of others, but they do resent arrogance, and especially intellectual arrogance. Even the poor in our country tend to be moved more by cultural than by economic appeals. It was this sense, this feeling, that Sarah Palin channeled so effectively. Her appearance on the scene unleashed populist energies that McCain had not tapped, and she both fed them and fed off them. She spent the bulk of her time at Republican rallies assailing the cultural radicalism of Barack Obama and his latte-sipping followers, who, she occasionally suggested, were not part of the “the real America” she saw in the adoring throngs standing before her. Palin channeled these cultural energies more by what she was than by what she said or did, which contributed mightily to the odd disjunction between her professional resume and her campaign presence and impact.

_____________

Palin’s cultural populism put her at odds with the foe that did her the most serious damage: the nation’s intellectual elite, whose initial suspicion of her deepened into outright loathing as the campaign progressed. Her inability in interviews to offer coherent answers about the Bush Doctrine, regulatory reform, and the Supreme Court’s case history, together with her unexceptional academic record and the fact that she had spent almost no time abroad, were offered as evidence that Palin represented a dangerous strain of anti-intellectualism on the Right.

She was, the Left-leaning Christopher Hitchens insisted, “a religious fanatic and a proud, boastful ignoramus.” The Right-leaning David Brooks called Palin “a fatal cancer to the Republican party” because her inclination “is not only to scorn liberal ideas but to scorn ideas entirely.”

Palin never actually boasted of ignorance or explicitly scorned learning or ideas. Rather, the implicit charge was that Palin’s failure to speak the language and to share the common points of reference of the educated upper tier of American society essentially rendered her unfit for high office.

This form of intellectual elitism is actually fairly new in America, though it has been a dominant feature of European society since World War II. It is not as exclusive or as anti-democratic as cultural elitism is in other countries, because entry to the American intellectual elite is, in principle, open to all who pursue it. And pursuing it is not as difficult as it once was, at least for the middle class. Indeed, most of this elite’s prominent members hail from middle-class origins and not from traditional bastions of American privilege and wealth. They can speak of growing up in Scranton, even as they raise their noses at dirty coal and hunting season.

Nor is membership in the intellectual upper class determined by diplomas hanging on the wall. Palin could have gained entrance easily, despite the fact that she holds a mere degree in journalism from the University of Idaho. Although the intellectual elite is deeply shaped by our leading institutions of higher learning, belonging to it is more the result of shared assumptions and attitudes. It is more cultural than academic, more NPR than PhD. In Washington, many politicians who have not risen through the best of universities work hard for years to master the language and the suppositions of this upper tier, and to live carefully within the bounds prescribed by its view of the world.

Applied to politics, the worldview of the intellectual elite begins from an unstated assumption that governing is fundamentally an exercise of the mind: an application of the proper mix of theory, expertise, and intellectual distance that calls for knowledge and verbal fluency more than for prudence born of life’s hard lessons.

Sarah Palin embodied a very different notion of politics, in which sound instincts and valuable life experiences are considered sources of knowledge at least the equal of book learning. She is the product of an America in which explicit displays of pride in intellect are considered unseemly, and where physical prowess and moral constancy are given a higher place than intellectual achievement. She was in the habit of stressing these faculties instead—a habit that struck many in Washington as brutishness.

This is why Palin was seen as anti-intellectual when, properly speaking, she was simply non-intellectual. What she lacked was not intelligence—she is, clearly, highly intelligent—but rather the particular set of assumptions, references, and attitudes inculcated by America’s top twenty universities and transmitted by the nation’s elite cultural organs.

Many of those (including especially those on the Right) who reacted badly to Palin on intellectual grounds understand themselves to be advancing the interests of lower-middle-class families similar to Palin’s own family and to many of those in attendance at her rallies who greeted her arrival on the scene as a kind of deliverance. But it is hard to escape the conclusion that while these members of the intellectual elite want the government to serve the interests of such people first and foremost, they do not want those people to hold the levers of power. They see lower-middle-class populists like Palin and their supporters as profoundly ill-suited for governance, because they lack the accoutrements required for its employment—especially in foreign policy, which, even more than domestic affairs, is thought to be an intellectual exercise. It is for this reason that Barack Obama, who actually has far less experience in executive governance than Palin, was not dismissed as unprepared for the presidency. Palin may have been elected governor of Alaska, but his peers in Cambridge had elected Obama editor of the Harvard Law Review. He is thoroughly fluent in the parlance of the college town, and in the eyes of the new American elite, Washington is the ultimate college town.

_____________

The reaction of the intellectual elite to Sarah Palin was far more provincial than Palin herself ever has been, and those who reacted so viscerally against her evinced little or no appreciation for an essential premise of democracy: that practical wisdom matters at least as much as formal education, and that leadership can emerge from utterly unexpected places. The presumption that the only road to power passes through the Ivy League and its tributaries is neither democratic nor sensible, and is, moreover, a sharp and wrongheaded break from the American tradition of citizen governance.

_____________

And yet one must acknowledge that Palin was a problematic candidate. Charismatic and thrilling though she was at first glance, and impressive and dogged though she was throughout her 66-day run, she ended up at the center of a political and cultural vacuum of her own creation. She began by opening up a huge space for herself, and then was unable to fill it.

The sense of potential that accompanied Palin’s introduction, and the feeling that she might really reverse the momentum of the campaign, were not illusory. For two weeks or so, the polls moved markedly in McCain’s direction, as it seemed that his running mate was something genuinely new in American politics: a lower-middle-class woman who spoke the language of the country’s ordinary voters and had a profound personal understanding of the hopes and worries of a vast swath of the public. She really did seize the attention of swing voters, as McCain’s team had hoped she might. Her convention speech, her interviews, and her debate performance drew unprecedented audiences.

But having finally gotten voters to listen, neither Palin nor McCain could think of anything to say to them. Palin’s reformism, like McCain’s, was essentially an attitude devoid of substance. Both Republican candidates told us they hated corruption and would cut excess and waste. But separately and together, they offered no overarching vision of America, no consistent view of the role of government, no clear description of what a free society should look like, and no coherent policy ideas that might actually address the concerns of American families and offer solutions to the serious problems of the moment. Palin’s populism was not her weakness, but her strength. Her weakness was that she failed to tie her populism to anything deeper. A successful conservative reformism has to draw on cultural populism, but it has also to draw on a worldview, on ideas about society and government, and on a policy agenda. This would make it more intellectual, but not necessarily less populist.

McCain’s advisers were right about Palin: she was a mirror image of John McCain. She was not a visionary politician, or a programmatic politician, but an attitude politician with an appealing biography. In the end, she was no more able than McCain to offer a coherent rationale for his presidency.

That was not her job, though; it was his. The striking thing about the last two months of the 2008 presidential race was not Palin’s inability to turn things around decisively for McCain, but her success in giving McCain a lead for even a short while. She seized the imagination of the public in a way that scared the Left, and rightly so. It is not Palin’s fault that McCain was incapable of harnessing the phenomenal response to his running mate to his own advantage.

In the end, Palin had a modest impact on the race. About 60 percent of those interviewed in the exit polls said McCain’s choice of Palin had been a factor in their vote. Of these, 56 percent voted for McCain while only 43 percent voted for Obama. In other words, she appears to have helped McCain more than she hurt him, but not by much, which is as it should be; we were voting for a President, after all. In the face of unprecedented attack, Palin succeeded where almost no vice-presidential candidate ever has before in winning sustained support for the ticket.

This suggests Palin’s potent combination of cultural populism and social conservatism might provide the roadmap a Republican politician will need in the future to make headway against the Democratic tide. But that roadmap will only take that Republican politician so far. The rest of the journey requires the articulation of a broader vision for American families, American prosperity and freedom, and American security; a vision of conservatism, not only a nimbus of populism.

There is every reason to believe Palin will try to accomplish just this in a future national election. It may be, however, that other ambitious Republicans will be better suited to the task of perfecting the formula for electoral success she introduced last fall.

Either way, the Palin moment shed a powerful light on the power, the potential, and the ultimate inadequacy of a conservatism grounded solely in cultural populism. It also exposed the vulnerability of the Left to a challenge to its most cherished claims—as the sole representative of the interests of the working class and the only legitimate path to political power for an ambitious woman.

And, perhaps even more telling, it revealed the unfortunate and unattractive propensity of the American cultural elite to treat those who are not deemed part of the elect with condescension and contumely.

Small Free Market Banks In Texas Making Profits Without TARP Funds

2009-02-08T09:26:00.001-08:00

Originally broken by Texas newspaper chron.com.

In what should be the primary argument against Barack Obama's second allocation of TARP funds and all future bailouts to come, we find that smaller operating banks are not hit by the financial crisis and are instead turning some very good profits.

Some smaller, bailout-free banks boosted lending, sometimes dramatically, during the fourth quarter of 2008, in part of a marketing plan that works by drawing business away from larger institutions and it has paid off well for them.

“People are coming to us because they’re not able to finance what they want to do at their bank,” said Jim Sturgeon, chief executive of Founders Bank in Sugar Land Texas, which reported loan growth of 31 percent from the third quarter to the fourth.

Twelve Texas banks have accepted money under the Troubled Asset Relief Program so far, but none showed the double-digit loan growth of many smaller institutions like Founders, which has one location.

“The small community banks may be the ones that save the day,” said Dan Bass, managing director of Carson Medlin, a Houston investment bank. “Right now they’re seeing the best loans they’ve seen in years.”

While government officials have called on banks to lend more, many larger institutions are reporting declines in their loan business. Dallas-based Comerica, for example, received $2.3 billion in TARP money in late October, yet its outstanding loans fell by more than 2 percent in the fourth quarter. Other large bailout recipients, such as Bank of America, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase, also reported declines in their latest financial statements.

So while the government may cram their scare tactics down our throats on how the world is going to end if we do not give them all of our paychecks to "stimulate" lending, we can clearly see that under free market principles, the fall of the bigger banks leaves the playing field wide open for smaller banks to become more competitive. This growth for the smaller banks will lead stimulate the economy itself if given the time it needs. Instead the government would rather bail out the big guys and leave the little guys all alone out in right field, all the while screwing the consumer out of doing business with a competent and sound smaller company.

TARP's Compensation Caps Could Extended To All Businesses

2009-02-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

Congress will consider legislation to extend some of the curbs on executive pay that now apply only to those banks receiving federal assistance, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said.

“There’s deeply rooted anger on the part of the average American,” the Massachusetts Democrat said at a Washington news conference on Tuesday, February 3.

Neil Roland of Financial Week writes:

"He also said the compensation restrictions would apply to all financial institutions and might be extended to include all U.S. companies.

The provision will be part of a broader package that would likely give the Federal Reserve the authority to monitor systemic risk in the economy and to shut down financial institutions that face too much exposure, Mr. Frank said."

The bill, which the committee is working on in consultation with the Obama administration, also will require financial institutions that bundle mortgages into securities to share in potential losses. This would give banks and mortgage-specialists an incentive not to make bad loans, he said. Institutions that securitize loans improperly will incur tougher penalties.

“There have been too few constraints on major financial institutions incurring far more liability than they could handle,” Mr. Frank said.

Obama's Celebrity Zombies Are Out In Full Force

2009-02-05T10:55:00.000-08:00

Translation:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States of Obama, and to the monarchy for which it stands, one nation, under Obama, divisble without Obama, with liberty and justice for those that support Obama."

If this is really how the majority of the country feels, we are in for a frightening time ahead. To think that people should only be responsible for themselves and others when they are getting their own way is ridiculous. Why couldn't these celebrities speak out about "pitching in" when GWB was president? The celebrities in these videos look and sound like a bunch of disillusioned cultists.

It's nice to see that most of the commenters on Youtube also find this video to be highly ridiculous and borderline offensive.

Jim Cramer Calls Obama's Communist Policies Out

2009-02-04T13:19:00.000-08:00

I saw this story first on The Libertarian Republican Blog.

Kudos to media personalities for finally speaking their minds!

Another Obama Cabinet Nominee Faces Tax Troubles. This Time Its Health and Human Services' Tom Daschle

2009-01-31T19:12:00.000-08:00

Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, A democrat from South Dakota nominated to be President Obama's secretary of health and human services, has hit a huge snag on his way to confirmation through the Senate Finance Committee.

The controversy deals with a car and driver gifted to Daschle by a wealthy Democratic friend. Daschle used the chauffeur service for years without declaring it on his taxes.

After being defeated in his 2004 re-election campaign to the Senate, Daschle became a consultant and chairman of the executive advisory board at InterMedia Advisors in 2005.

Based in New York City, InterMedia Advisors is a private equity firm founded in part by longtime Daschle friend and Democratic fundraiser Leo Hindery, the former president of the YES network (the New York Yankees' and New Jersey Devils' cable television channel). That very same year he began his professional relationship with InterMedia, Daschle began using the services of Hindery's car and driver.

The Cadillac and driver were never part of Daschle's official compensation package at InterMedia, but Daschle -- who as Senate majority leader enjoyed the use of a car and driver at taxpayer expense -- didn't declare their services on his income taxes, as tax laws specifically require.

During the vetting process to become HHS secretary, Daschle corrected the tax violation, voluntarily paying $101,943 in back taxes plus interest, working with his accountant to amend his tax returns for 2005 through 2007.

(Daschle reimbursed the IRS $31,462 in taxes and interest for tax year 2005; $35,546 for 2006; and $34,935 for 2007, a Daschle spokesperson said, adding that Daschle had asked his accountant to look into the tax implications of the car and driver five months before Obama won the presidency.)

The Daschle spokesperson told ABC News that the senator, facing questions from the committee, has said "he deeply regretted his mistake. When he realized it was a mistake he corrected it rapidly."

His spokesman also added "In June 2008, Sen. Daschle mentioned the use of the car to his personal accountant and asked him if there were any potential tax consequences," the spokesperson said. "His accountant said that there could be tax consequences and said he was going to fix them as part of Daschle's 2008 filing. So when he got down to vetting, Sen. Daschle decided to amend his returns for 2005, 2006 and 2007, and he paid all the taxes. At the urging of Daschle, the accountant was very conservative in his estimates."

Really Tom Daschle?? You have not been paying your taxes since 2005, and 5 months before it looks likely that you will have a new boss and position where your taxes will be looked into, in 2008, you finally ask someone to look into that matter? Tom Daschle, how stupid do you think the American people are?

In the meantime, the White House and Democratic allies are coming to Daschle's defense.

"The president has confidence that Sen. Daschle is the right person to lead the fight for health care reform," White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said. "In preparation for his nomination, Sen. Daschle and his accountant identified some tax issues and fixed them. They filed amended return with the IRS and made payments with interest. Sen. Daschle brought these issues to the Finance Committee’s attention when he submitted his nomination forms and we are confident the committee is going to schedule a hearing for him very soon and he will be confirmed."

Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., added: "Sen. Daschle will be confirmed as secretary of health and human services. He has a long and distinguished career and record in public service and is the best person to help reform health care in this country."

But Republicans have different feelings about the issues.

In a speech to his fellow Republican House members, Rep. Eric Cantor from Virginia, compared Daschle's issue with the tax problems that hindered the confirmation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and those of Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., who is embroiled in a controversy over payment of taxes on a beachfront villa in the Dominican Republic.

"A pattern is developing," Cantor said. "The pattern is solidified. ... It's easy for the other side to sit here and advocate higher taxes because -- you know what? -- they don't pay them."

Should Daschle have difficulty being confirmed he doesn't have to worry about finding another job in the administration, since President Obama has also appointed him to serve as director of the new White House Office on Health Reform.

"Fast Eddie" Rendell Ponying Up $10 Million For Philadelphia Inquirer Bailout

2009-01-31T09:04:00.000-08:00

It's sad to see that Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell is still so desperately out of touch with his PA constituents. After it was announced this week that Pennsylvania is facing a $1.9 BILLIONdeficit, and the strong negative public reaction to Rendell's $35 million Bailout of Boscov's Department Store, Rendell is looking to secure a $10 Million bailout for blatantly left-wing biased news rag The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Chris Friend from the Philadelphia Bulletin, recently sat down with Chuck Ardo, the Governor's press secretary for clarification.
"The Bulletin: It has been reported that Inquirer publisher Brian Tierney has approached Gov. Rendell for a $10 million bailout for the newspaper.

Did that conversation take place?

Chuck Ardo: The governor and Brian Tierney have had a number of conversations over the course of the last several months. The governor has made no commitment as a result of those conversations.

TB: Is the bailout something that is still on the table?

CA: He would certainly be open to discussions with Brian, but we need to look at the situation that we are in economically and financially, and I think any discussions have to be seen through that prism.

TB: If the governor were to say, “Sure, we’ll do it,” from where would the money come?

CA: If the governor was persuaded to the wisdom of helping Philadelphia Media Holdings, the money could come from a number of revenue streams. It’s hard to say, and would depend on what kind of help they would need.

TB: Would that require legislative approval, or would it come from the executive branch?

CA: There are ways that the executive branch can do this without need for legislative action.

TB: Would the money be a grant or a loan?

CA: It would depend on what the discussions might lead to. But as of now, no commitment has been made at this point.

TB: It’s one thing when the government becomes involved in car companies and banks, but how do you think the public would react to a media company seeking and receiving government bailout money from Gov. Rendell? Can it truly be viewed as objective and unbiased in its political reporting?

CA: The entire concept of a democracy depends on an informed public. Newspapers are a critical source of information, so there is a fundamental need for newspapers to continue to provide that information to the public. Now whether that information rises to the level of triggering help from the commonwealth, is something we’ll have to wait for the future to unfold.“

Reactions all over Pennsylvania to this situation have been negative. “I guess my first reaction would have to be, ‘Are you kidding me?,’” said state Rep. Doug Reichley, R-134th, of Lehigh County. “Mack Trucks in Allentown could use a bailout, but I haven’t seen the governor’s office soliciting them to see how much aid they need. Maybe the governor’s office could make the best out of two bad situations by placing slot machines in all the Boscov’s stores,” he said. “That would be a way of drawing shoppers into the failing retail chain he is trying to prop up, and would assist the declining slots revenue until the two Philadelphia slots locations are done with litigation.”

“If the Inquirer didn’t alienate 50 percent of its potential customer base with left-wing nonsense masquerading as news, it wouldn’t be in Harrisburg with a cup in its hand. If I cut my customer base in half, I’d be out of business in a week,” said Kevin Kelly, founder of The Loyal Opposition in Philadelphia.

“Thomas Jefferson understood the importance of a free press in a free society when he said, ‘Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter,’” said Matthew Brouillette who is the president of the Harrisburg-based Commonwealth Foundation.

This whole bailout boondoggle, has this blogger wondering just how long The Inquirer was looking to slip their hands in the state's pockets, it might explain this slobbery little knob-job that was somehow granted front and center print distinction back in September of 2008. With tough investigative and unbiased reporting like that, it's hard to see why this paper is going under.

Michael Steele Elected RNC Chairman

2009-01-30T19:59:00.000-08:00

From The Washington Post:
The Republican National Committee elected Michael Steele as its first African American chairman today in Washington, a decision that came after an excruciating series of ballots that displayed a level of drama rarely seen in national politics.

On the sixth and final ballot Steele bested South Carolina Republican party Chairman Katon Dawson 91 to 77.

In picking Steele, who had previously served as the chairman of the Maryland Republican Party, the state's lieutenant governor, and the GOP nominee in the Maryland Senate race in 2006, the party regulars seem to be acknowledging the need for new -- and different -- faces at the top of its food chain.

"The winds of change are blowing at the RNC," said current chair Mike Duncan who stepped aside after losing votes on each of the first three ballots.

After five ballots, the race came down to Steele and Dawson. Republican party strategists in attendance at the meeting openly fretted about the possibility of electing Dawson, who had acknowledged his membership in a whites-only club, and the signal it would send to a country that had just elected Obama as the nation's first black president.

Of Obama, Steele offered the president congratulations for his victory but also sought to send a message to the Democratic chief executive; "How do you like me now," Steele asked.

It was -- interestingly -- former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell who ultimately swung the race to Steele when he dropped out before the fifth ballot and endorsed the former lieutenant governor. The move was somewhat unexpected as Blackwell had staked out the turf as the most socially conservative candidate in the field while Steele had had to beat back rumors that he was not sufficiently conservative.

Steele faces a massive challenge to rebuild a party that faces significant organizational, financial and messaging hurdles.

The Democratic National Committee is up and running and will have the benefit of the 13 million person strong email list that Obama built during the primary. Democrats also have the luxury of controlling the White House and both chambers of Congress.

Steele will provide a charismatic face at the top of the GOP but will be tested to show an ability to raise the money necessary to compete with the DNC in 2009 races (governors contests in Virginia and New Jersey) as well as the critical 2010 midterm elections.

Blagojevich is out!

2009-01-29T15:35:00.000-08:00

Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich has been convicted at his impeachment trial by Illinois state senate and thrown out of office. He now becomes the first U.S. governor in more than 20 years to be removed from office by impeachment.

Blagojevich insisted Thursday he had done nothing wrong and should not be removed from office over criminal charges and complaints about his decisions that could not be proven.

"You haven't proved a crime, and you can't because it didn't happen," Blagojevich said at his Senate impeachment trial. "How can you throw a governor out of office with insufficient and incomplete evidence?"

"The whole world is watching Illinois today, and you know what? I'm tired of it," said Democratic Sen. Terry Link of the Chicago suburb of Waukegan. "You don't know whether to get angry or cry because we've been duped again. You were with the last governor, and we were with this governor," he said, pointing first to Republicans and then to his fellow Democrats.

The two-term Democratic governor spoke for 47 minutes, then smiled and winked at reporters as he passed the press box on his way out of the Senate.

Each senator was given five minutes to speak before the final vote on Blagojevich's fate. Republican Sen. Dale Righter of Mattoon called him "a devious, cynical, crass and corrupt politician."

Senators then voted unanimously to convict Blago, 59-0 and shortly thereafter, Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn was sworn in as Illinois' new governor.

Army Backsteps to Provide Retirement Retribution to Alaska WWII Militia

2009-01-29T09:13:00.000-08:00

This story is an update on my previously postedArmy Cuts Retirement Pay For Alaskan National Guard

From Foxnews.com:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Secretary of the Army has authorized emergency funds to supplement a reduction in retirement pay for veterans of a largely Native militia formed to guard the territory of Alaska during World War II, Alaska's congressional delegation said Wednesday.

The reduction was a result of misinterpretation of a federal law that recognized the Alaska Territorial Guard's service as federal active duty, Army officials said last week. A new interpretation of the law says service in the five-year guard no longer counts toward the military's 20-year minimum for retirement pay.

According to the congressional delegation, Army Secretary Pete Geren will use an emergency fund to cover the retirement benefits for 26 former members of the largely Native guard. The monthly pay amounts to as much as $557.

The funds will cover two months' pay while Congress works to fix the law to allow service in the unit to count as active duty for calculating retirement benefits.

Alaska's congressional delegation applauded Geren's move, saying that cutting off the pay would be detrimental to those veterans.

"In this era of high fuel and food costs, it would be tragic to reduce the retirement checks of these elders who have done so much for our nation," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

An estimated 300 members are still living from the original 6,600-member unit formed in 1942 to protect the territory of Alaska from the threat of Japanese attack. Only a fraction had enough other military service to reach the 20-year requirement for retirement pay.

The territorial guards — nicknamed Uncle Sam's Men and Eskimo Scouts — received no pay or benefits for the job. Many took jobs as scouting patrols or did construction work on military airstrips.

The unit was disbanded in 1947, nearly two years after the war ended.

Congress passed a law in 2000 qualifying time served in the guard as active federal service. The Army agreed in 2004 to grant official military discharge certificates to members or their survivors. Those who qualified for military retirement benefits began receiving increased pay for service in the militia starting last June, when the former members also received retroactive payments to the law's passage in 2000.

SarahPAC Launches! Sarah Palin's Official Political Action Committee

2009-01-28T16:06:00.001-08:00

Visit Sarah Palin's official Political Action Committee at SarahPAC.com.

From the website:
Dedicated to building America's future, supporting fresh ideas and candidates who share our vision for reform and innovation.

SarahPAC believes America's best days are ahead. Our country, founded on conservative principles and the fight for freedom, must confront the challenges of the 21st century with integrity, innovation, and determination.

SarahPAC believes energy independence is a cornerstone of the economic security and progress that every American family wants and deserves.

SarahPAC believes the Republican Party is at the threshold of an historic renaissance that will build a better future for all. Health care, education, and reform of government are among our key goals. Join us today!

Note from the author of GOP4Liberty:
The picture of Sarah on the site's homepage seems to be taken the same day that I actually got to meet Sarah in Bethlehem PA. She's wearing the same ensemble! Here's the proof from my personal collection!:

That makes this blogger excited. haha.

ACORN Slated To Get 4.2 Billion From Proposed Stimulus Package

2009-01-27T09:03:00.000-08:00

From Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner's website:
Washington, Jan 23 - The House Democrats’ trillion dollar spending bill, approved on January 21 by the Appropriations Committee and headed to the House floor next week for a vote, could open billions of taxpayer dollars to left-wing groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). ACORN has been accused of perpetrating voter registration fraud numerous times in the last several elections; is reportedly under federal investigation; and played a key role in the irresponsible schemes that caused a financial meltdown that has cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars since last fall.

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and other Republicans are asking a simple question: what does this have to do with job creation? Are Congressional Democrats really going to borrow money from our children and grandchildren to give handouts to ACORN in the name of economic “stimulus?”

Incredibly, the Democrats’ bill makes groups like ACORN eligible for a $4.19 billion pot of money for “neighborhood stabilization activities.” Funds for this purpose were authorized in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act, signed into law in 2008. However, these funds were limited to state and local governments. Now House Democrats are taking the unprecedented step of making ACORN and other groups eligible for these funds:
“For a further additional amount for ‘Community Development Fund,’ $4,190,000,000, to be used for neighborhood stabilization activities related to emergency assistance for the redevelopment of abandoned and foreclosed homes as authorized under division B, title III of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (Public Law 110–289), of which—

“(1) not less than $3,440,000,000 shall be allocated by a competition for which eligible entities shall be States, units of general local government, and nonprofit entities or consortia of nonprofit entities[.]”

“(2) up to $750,000,000 shall be awarded by competition to nonprofit entities or consortia of nonprofit entities to provide community stabilization assistance […]”

The House Democrats’ trillion dollar spending bill also includes $1 billion for the
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. CDBG funds are given by the federal government to state and local governments which often contract with nonprofits for services related to the purpose of the grant.

ACORN knows how to secure CDBG funds. Audit reports filed by ACORN’s headquarters with the Office of Management and Budget show that ACORN spent $1,588,599 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program funds from FY 2003 through FY 2007. It is not clear from these records when or from what source the funds were awarded to ACORN. It is also not clear whether ACORN chapters or affiliates have received CDBG grants on their own.

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) repeatedly urged President George W. Bush and other federal officials to withhold taxpayer funds from ACORN, including $17.2 million in federal grants awarded in December 2008 after numerous allegations of wrongdoing in connection with ACORN’s election activities were reported by the news media.

Leader Boehner also released a study of federal records in October 2008 listing tens of millions in federal grants received by ACORN. A new updated and more expansive study reveals that ACORN has actually received millions more than first thought. A review of the Federal Register and news releases issued by federal agencies showed that ACORN was awarded more than $53 million in taxpayer dollars. This amount does not reflect the millions more ACORN has received in federal block grant funds awarded to state and local agencies which passed them on to ACORN.

Pelosi Calls For a Eugenic Approach to the Economic Crisis

2009-01-27T07:14:00.000-08:00

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on birth-control funding as part of the $825 billion stimulus package: "Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those - one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."

Eugenics was a social policy pushed heavily by the academic and political elite prior to the end of World War II. The practice was used to categorize some people as unfit for reproduction based on their poverty status, IQ, or skin color, among other speculative traits.

For Nancy Pelosi to suggest that part of a package meant for stimulation of our economy, kill off the "undesirables" of society is absurd and ridiculous. Exactly who gets government help in contraceptive and abortion funding? The poor do. Planned Parenthood buildings are primarily constructed in poor inner-city neighborhoods.

To be pushing an agenda of government funded death and prevention on procreation in order to restore the sociological and productive order of things, seems to be a bit of a throwback to an uglier time in Germany. To be duping women into doing it by telling them it is their "choice" and they deserve to not contribute to the gene pool is even worse.

Pop Singer Adele's Truly Progressive Partisan Ignorance

2009-01-26T16:56:00.000-08:00

British pop singer Adele has been blessed by Sarah Palin.

Adele, who had much success in the U.K with her album 19, was virtually an unknown in the U.S until guesting on Saturday Night Live with Sarah Palin guesting and the monster audience that tuned in to see her.

"She wasn't even meant to be on the week I was on, so the whole thing was totally unexpected. When I woke up the morning after the show, '19' was No. 15 on iTunes. By the time I got on the plane it was No. 8, and when we landed at home it was No. 1.", Adele told The Seattle Times in a phone interview.

Despite all that 20 year old Adele also admits "I did meet Palin, but I didn't want to,I was avoiding it. But she did come up and say hello, and she was perfectly nice. I had a big Obama pin on."

Now I am perfectly fine with Adele having supported Obama. What really gets me is how a young girl of 20 years old would not want to meet someone simply because she likes her opponent better. What is going on with the, so called "liberal", young people of the world, that respect can barely be feigned for someone not always seen eye to eye with? To think that a young woman would pass up a chance to meet someone who will become a part of history, is absolutely ridiculous. It is this ignorance, on both sides of the party lines, that causes such resentment and hate. My mind can barely fathom how the so called "progressives" can dismiss a kind of behavior like this. It is immature and disrespectful and so closed minded it actually makes me want to induce vomiting to think that people can be so ignorant. And it actually makes me kind of happy that when I tried to buy Adele's album from iTunes, the program froze up and the transaction didn't go through. I think my money could be better spent elsewhere.

Libertarian Leaning Republican Pat Toomey Running for PA Governor in 2010?

2009-01-24T13:01:00.001-08:00

There are strong rumblings in the state of Pennsylvania that Libertarian Republican Pat Toomey, president of the anti-tax group Club For Growth, is accessing his viability as a candidate for the 2010 governors race in PA.

According to Keystone Politics, "He has also put calls out statewide to supporters this week with the aim of raising money to do some preliminary polling."

I also was pleasantly surprised this morning when I checked my facebook account and saw a invite to support Toomey in his run for Governor.

This is news all Pennsylvania Republicans can be excited about. Toomey is a candidate that supports individual rights and personal responsibility, a much deserved break from the big nanny state government policies of "Fast Eddie" Rendell.

Army Cuts Retirement Pay for Alaskan National Guard WWII Militia

2009-01-24T12:38:00.000-08:00

From Foxnews.com:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Army has decided to cut off retirement pay for veterans of a largely Native militia formed to guard the territory of Alaska from the threat of Japanese attack during World War II.

The change means 26 surviving members of the Alaska Territorial Guard — most in their 80s and long retired — will lose as much as $557 in monthly retirement pay, a state veterans officer said Thursday. The payments end Feb. 1.

Applications for retirement pay from 37 others have been suspended.

The state is pursuing a remedy for "these brave Alaskans, who did so much for the cause of freedom during a time of great national peril," Gov. Sarah Palin said.

The action comes almost a decade after Congress passed a law qualifying time served in the unpaid guard as active federal service. The Army agreed in 2004 to grant official military discharge certificates to members or their survivors.

An Army official said the law was misinterpreted. The law applies to military benefits, including medical benefits, but not retirement pay, said Lt. Col. Richard McNorton, the Army's human resources command in Alexandria, Va.

"The focus is to follow the law," he said. "We can't choose whether to follow the law."

The Army doesn't intend to seek to recoup past pay, he said.

About 300 members are still living from the original 6,600-member unit called up from 1942 to 1947 to scout patrols, build military airstrips and perform other duties. But only a fraction had enough other military service to reach the 20-year requirement for retirement pay.

Among those who did is 88-year-old Paul Kiunya in the western Alaska village of Kipnuk. Kiunya was 16 when he joined the territorial guard and worked in communications, reporting by radio any unusual noises or the direction of aircraft, including some Japanese planes he spotted.

"We did not get one cent being in the territorial guard," he said. "And we worked hard."

Kiunya — who later put in 22 years in the National Guard and another decade in the Guard reserves — will lose more than $358 a month in his retirement package because of the Army's decision. With gasoline in his village at almost $10 a gallon, that's a huge amount to lose.

"I don't know why they trying to cut the pay. It's not good for us right now," he said in a phone interview. "It's not right."

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she and fellow Alaska Sen. Mark Begich are preparing legislation clarifying that service in the territorial guard counts as active duty for calculating retirement pay.

Murkowski said Alaska's congressional delegation has sent a letter to President Barack Obama, asking him to intervene so that those affected by "this tragic, tragic series of events do not lose the safety net."

Note for the author of Gop4liberty:
I think this is something that all American citizens should be very vigilant of. These brave men worked hard to be on the front lines of intelligence in a war that, at a certain point, could have gone either way. We owe a great deal of our freedom to these very men. For them to lose a chunk of their lifeblood, when they are at such a late point in their lives, and our economy is in the tank is dispicable. To think of all the federal money being used to bail out companies that have made bad decisions, this is chump change and these vets deserve all that they have gotten. I will keep you posted on the situation and any legislation the Senators Murkowski and Begich from Alaska draw up, so that you may contact your state's senators and show your support for the legislation.

Tim Geithner Blames Turbo Tax For His Tax Problem

2009-01-22T06:35:00.001-08:00

From Michael McAuliff at theNYDaily News:

Let’s hope the economy is easier to figure out than TurboTax.

That’s the software that Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner used when he failed to pay about $34,000 in taxes, he admitted this morning in a confirmation hearing that was delayed because of his tax flubs.

“I used TurboTax to prepare my returns,” Geithner told the Senate Finance Committee, looking just a little embarrassed, and prompting laughs in the hearing room.

He wouldn’t blame the software for his errors, but he didn’t say it helped him spot them, either.

Asked if the program prompted him to report income and pay self-employment taxes on his work for the International Monetary Fund, he said, “Not to my recollection.”

Geithner is the departing New York Fed chairman who gets the most credit for crafting the opaque $700 billion bank bailout, and many think he’s the only one who understands it. Once confirmed, he’ll have the job of spending the $350 billion left in the fund.

And, oh yeah, he’ll head up the IRS.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa)appreciated the honest answers, but seemed concerned.

“While I understand that the tax code is complex and sometimes even tax preparers get it wrong,” he said, “it would seem that minor due diligence on your part may have prevented the oversight.”

“It is deeply problematic if a U.S. citizen with your financial knowledge and expertise doesn’t consider whether he should be making a contribution to the Social Security Trust Fund,” Grassley said.

Black Republican Macho Sauce Releases Fiesty Video About Obama Inauguration

2009-01-20T19:02:00.000-08:00

Prominent Young Black Republican Macho Sauce, has jsut released a new video with his thoughts on the Obama inauguration and the reaction by the black community:

Be warned. This video contains very graphic language which may be offensive to some. But once again, Macho Sauce makes his point. And he does it well.

Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski Asks Bush For Pardon Of Ted Stevens

2009-01-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

What the frick!?!! And to think I had high hopes for Miss Murkowski, the 1st term Republican senator from Alaska.

According to KTUU Alaska
"Murkowski's spokesperson, Mike Brumas, confirmed the request in an e-mail to Channel 2 News, writing, "In answer to you question, yes Sen. Murkowski has requested that President Bush pardon former Sen. Stevens. I can't provide any further details at this time due to the sensitive nature of the issue."

Outside of this statement from her office, Murkowski declined to comment.

It's unclear when the application may have been made. The Department of Justice says as of Friday no one had made an application for a pardon on the Senator's behalf with the Office of Pardon Attorney, according to Laura Sweeney in the department's Office of Public Affairs."

Bush has until the time President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in at approximately noon Tuesday to grant any last minute pardons. But according to CBS Correspondent Mark Knoller no more acts of executive clemency are expected from President Bush. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino has also said that Bush's pardons spoken of earlier today would be Bush's last act of clemency.

Hopefully so.

As Republican red as my blood flows, Ted Stevens deserves no pardon. He is a liar and a corrupt bastard. As for Senator Murkowski? She has just dropped to the "barely above pond scum" level of respect in my book. I also think this is just about the most boneheaded of bonehead moves for Murkowski to make, when there are the footsteps of a Sarah Palin challenge for the Alaska Senate seat in 2010. Maybe Murkowski doesn't want her job too badly.

Bush Finally Pardons Border Agents Ramos and Compean

2009-01-19T12:39:00.000-08:00

In what could be his final act of clemency, President Bush commuted the prison sentences of two former U.S. Border Patrol agents who were convicted of shooting a Mexican drug dealer. The failure to pardon the agents previously, sparked much debate among both Republicans and Democrats.

The two agents were convicted in 2006 of shooting admitted drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Davila in the buttocks as he fled across the Rio Grande, away from an abandoned van load of marijuana. The border agents argued during their trials that they believed the smuggler was armed and that they shot him in self defense. The prosecutor in the case said there was no evidence linking the smuggler to the van of marijuana. The prosecutor also said the border agents didn't report the shooting and tampered with evidence by picking up several spent shell casings.

Although the two men have not recieved a full fledged pardon from Bush, their sentence has been commuted because Bush aruges that the 10 year sentence both men have recieved may be too much. Both men are expected to be released from prision within the next two months, both having served about two years of their respective sentences.

Obama Supporters Desecrate The American Flag in Baltimore

2009-01-19T06:39:00.000-08:00

Inside Charm City posted this on the US Flag Code: “The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.”

Not Everyone Is Catching the Frenzied Obama Inauguration Fever

2009-01-18T17:51:00.000-08:00

From Politico:

With Barack Obama's approval ratings in the 70s and his visage plastered on every shop window and Metro card in Washington, it's hard to remember that 58 million Americans voted for the other guy.

Even President Bush — who presumably counts himself among that group — said last week that Obama's inauguration is "a moment of hope and pride."

That's not exactly how Michelle Malkin describes it.

"Jan. 20 has turned into a schlock inauguration, (where) every last moocher has come to cash in on Obama," says the conservative blogger and pundit. "There are some of us who want to bang our heads against the wall."

While most Republicans now in office are saying all the right things about Tuesday's proceedings — roll tape on "peaceful transfer of power" and "historic moment for the country" sound bites — some conservatives can't quite get themselves in the "We Are One" mood.

Not even for a day.

On his radio show last week, Rush Limbaugh railed against "people on our side of the aisle who have caved and who say, 'Well, I hope he succeeds. We have to give him a chance.'"

"Why?" Limbaugh demanded. "They didn't give Bush a chance in 2000. Before he was inaugurated, the search-and-destroy mission had begun. I'm not talking about search-and-destroy, but I've been listening to Barack Obama for a year and a half. I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don't want them to succeed."

In the wake of the disputed 2000 election, only 47 percent of the public predicted that Bush would be an "above average" or "outstanding" president. In a new Associated Press-GfK poll, 65 percent of the public attaches those words to Obama.

Asked about Obama's inauguration last week, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay hammered on the cost.

If Obama were "serious" about changing Washington, DeLay said, "He would announce to the world: 'We are in crisis, we are at war, people are losing jobs; we are not going to have this party. Instead, I'm going to get sworn in at the White House. I'm going to have a nice little chicken dinner, and we'll save the $125 million.'"

DeLay said he understands why Republicans in Congress aren't complaining about this publicly: "Those in elected office are looking at Obama's popularity numbers and don't want to be perceived as anti-American by being anti-Obama."

He didn't name names, but the normally outspoken Rep. Michele Bachmann might fit the bill.

Just before the election, the Minnesota Republican told Chris Matthews that she thought Obama might have "anti-American views."

Last week, she told The Hill: "I look forward to working with him and I would expect to be as friendly as I would be to [any president]."

In March, Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King predicted that an Obama victory would have "the al Qaeda and the radical Islamists and their supporters ... dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11th."

Last week, King was still grumbling about Obama's middle name — Hussein — but he told Politico that he's "very respectful and appreciative of the historic moment" and counts it "among life's privileges" that he'll have a seat in Congress when Obama puts his hand on the Bible.

Malkin conceded that it's appropriate to show some deference to the occasion, but she complained that Republican lawmakers aren't standing their ground.

"Especially in the Beltway," she said, "they are more wrapped up in who got invited to what dinner and who didn't. And my criticism of the GOP establishment, as they've rolled on every [Obama Cabinet] nomination, is they are completely out of touch with how fly-over America feels about this spectacle."

Or, as Bob Anderson put it: "Pffffffffffffffffft."

Anderson, a retired chief master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, is the founder of the conservative grass-roots organization "What are we fighting for?"

Asked to elaborate on his onomatopoeia, Anderson said that "Obama-mania" is leading the country into bad times.

"The only positive thing I can see is hopefully it will be bad enough quick enough that the people will stop drinking the Kool-Aid and see what we're about to lose," he said. "I think we have a very short launch window."

RedState's Erick Erickson is blasting off.

"I think we're going to be treated to.hagiography for weeks if not months," Erickson complained. "The first time Obama uses the bathroom, Newsweek will do a five-page spread."

Tom Hoefling, the political director for Alan Keyes' group America's Revival, has had it with all the talk about the "historic" nature of Obama's inauguration.

"What's historic about it?" he asked. "So it's historical because of his skin tone? Isn't that a racist idea in the first place? ... I could care less what color his skin tone is. What matters is his philosophy -- his political philosophy and his ideology."

Anderson suggested that squeamishness about race is silencing the dissent.

"We're so focused with political correctness people are uncomfortable in saying your baby is ugly and stuff is broken," he said. "While we're sitting around the campfire and trying to sing Kumbaya, our country is slipping away from us."

Anderson won't be watching the inauguration. DeLay will be out in California to rally conservatives. And Richard Viguerie, the king of right-wing direct mail, said Tuesday will be "just another day at the office."

"Yeah, sure, we can be happy that we've taken another step in the racial progress, but I just am not about race, quite frankly," Viguerie said.

He doesn't necessarily begrudge those who will celebrate this week, so long as they keep it short. "You can take a sip of Kool-Aid. It's OK to smell it, stick your finger in it. But on Jan. 21, let's get back to business."

Note from the gop4liberty author:
Thank god there are still some sane people out there!

Californian Sarah Palin Effigy Is Now For Sale On Ebay. Noose Included.

2009-01-17T16:08:00.000-08:00

The effigy hung in California by homosexual artists as a Halloween decoration that made headlines around the nation, is now for sale on eBay. You can see the listing here.

Milo Aviles and ChadMichael Morissete, who have made their home at Fountain Avenue and Orange Grove in West Hollywood a revolving progressive political art installation, are selling the mannequin - the spitting image of the former GOP Vice Presidential candidate complete with the hemp necktie (yes, the noose is free) - along with a large poster of her running mate Arizona Senator John McCain, in order to raise funds to fight Proposition 8 in the courts.

Having checked out the listing myself, the opening bid is $1000. So far there is only 1 bidder. I guess the item isn't as hot as the guys thought it would be. What I do find strangely surprising though, is that E-bay would let the listing stick. They do have a strict policy on what can be sold on the site and anything promoting violence or hate is not prohibited. I think an effigy is a pretty straight forward promotion of hate and violence, but that's just me. I wonder if E-bay would have the same reaction to a Klan member trying to sell an Obama mannequin in a noose. Something tells me they would not.

UPDATE!
As of Monday January 19th, the noosed Sarah Palin mannequin has been removed from eBay. ChadMichael Morissete has relisted the item and has updated the picture to a noose-less Palin. It is no longer being sold as an "effigy" but is now just listed as a mannequin. In the item description, Morissete confirms that all original items will be included when shipped. You can view the listing here.