NEW YORK - THE LAND OF TAXES - RAISES TAXES BY THE LARGEST AMOUNT EVER!

NYTIMES:

Gov. David A. Paterson and leaders of the Legislature have reached a deal to temporarily raise taxes on New York’s highest earners in order to close the state’s yawning budget deficit, lawmakers and officials involved in the talks said on Saturday.

The new plan, which would expire after three years, would represent the largest income tax increase in recent state history, significantly larger than the surcharges imposed from 2003 to 2005, when the state last faced a major recession.

The plan would raise $4 billion a year by creating two new tax brackets, the highest one affecting those who earn $500,000 or more. If approved by rank-and-file lawmakers in the Assembly and State Senate, the tax increases would be a major victory for unions and liberal advocacy groups and a signal of the new balance of power in Albany, where Democrats won control of both houses of the Legislature and the governor’s office in last year’s election.

Although the proposed tax has been called a “millionaires’ tax,” it would affect those with incomes starting at $300,000, who would be taxed at a rate of 7.85 percent. The highest bracket would carry a tax rate of 8.97 percent — the same as New Jersey’s current highest rate.

THESE RICH PEOPLE EARN THIS MONEY. IT'S THEIRS. THE STATE DOESN'T HAVE A RIGHT TO MORE OF IT BECAUSE THEY SPEND TOO DAMN MUCH, AND ARE OWNED BY THE UNIONS.

AND DON'T YOU JUST LOVE HOW THEY CALL IT A "MILLIONAIRE'S TAX" BUT START IT AT $300,000!?!?

WE REALLY NEED A FLAT TAX. FOR STATES, TOO.

• RICH PEOPLE CREATE ALL THE JOBS IN NY AND IN THE USA AND THE WORLD.

• YOU CANNOT KEEP TAKING MONEY AWAY FROM THEM AN EXPECT THE ECONOMY TO PROSPER.

• AS MARGARET THATCHER SAID,

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."

UPDATED: JOE BIDEN'S DAUGHTER IN COCAINE SCANDAL

UPDATED AT THE BOTTOM!

IT'S ALL OVER THE PLACE. DRUDGE:

PAPER: FRIEND OF BIDEN'S DAUGHTER SHOPPING TAPE OF HER ALLEGEDLY DOING COCAINE...

SHOCK CLAIM: Vice President's Daughter Caught Up In Scandal?

HERE'S A STORY ABOUT HER WILD COLLEGE DAYS IN NEW ORLEANS.

EXCERPT:

I believe the year was 1999. It was either September or October. I was a junior at Tulane University ready to start yet another fantastic year of college. I, being in a fraternity that sat right across from an all girls dorm, was very excited at the prospect of a new crop of freshman girls. One of those girls? None other than Ashley Biden.

I never paid it any mind. And I would imagine most people at the school didn’t. I just remember meeting her and someone telling me she was the daughter of Senator Joe Biden. I can even recall that first meeting. She was extremely attractive and definitely dressed to “party.” I’ll never forget the short shorts she always used to wear. And boy could she party. She just had a way about her. A cute face, sick body, and a charm that people were definitely attracted to.

Every single time I saw this girl out she was hammered. I’m not quite sure as to her sexual history at Tulane, but rumors have it that threesomes were common and that drug use was rampant.

RTWT.

IF THIS WAS CHENEY'S DAUGHTER OR PALIN'S DAUGHTER OR BUSH'S DAUGHTER IT WOULD BE HUGE NEWS.

ROUND-UP HERE.

UPDATE:::::::

ACCORDING TO RADAR, THE VEEP SAYS IT WAS A SET-UP!

• YEAH SURE: SHE WAS FORCED TO SNORT COCAINE.

• THIS IS LOWER THAN THE MARION BARRY DEFENSE!

• NEXT UP: "THE DEVIL MADE HER DO IT!" AND NO, I DON'T MEAN OBAMA!
  

• SHEESH.

IF THIS WAS ONE OF MCCAIN'S OR ROMNEY'S DAUGHTERS THE WORLD WOULD BE GOING APESHIT!

HIZBALLAH MP WELCOMED IN BRITAIN

YNET/AP:

A Hizbullah member of Lebanon's Parliament will hold a rare meeting with British parliamentarians in London this week, the group announced Saturday.

The visit follows an announcement by Britain's Foreign Office last month that it has contacted Hizbullah's political wing in an attempt to reach out to its legislators.

It said its ultimate aim is to encourage the group to abandon violence and play a constructive political role in the deeply divided country.

A Hizbullah statement issued Saturday says Hussein Hajj Hassan was invited by a number of British legislators to take part in a political meeting of parliamentarians to discuss "regional issues."

It said he would be traveling to London on Sunday.

THEY WOULDN'T LET DUTCH MP GEERT WILDERS IN, BUT THEY LET THIS SCUM IN.

AS RECENTLY AS 2 WEEKS AGO, NASRALLAH - WHO RUNS HIZBALLAH - REAFFIRMED THAT HIS "PARTY" WILL NEVER RECOGNIZE ISRAEL.

LIKE THE LEFT HERE, THE LEFT IN BRITAIN WOULD RATHER APPEASE THE WEST'S JIHADIST ENEMIES THEN TALK TO CONSERVATIVES.

THIS SAYS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE LEFT.

AND IT'S WHY I HAVE LONG ARGUED THAT WE NEED TO DEFEAT THE LEFT AT HOME IN ORDER TO DEFEAT THE JIHADISTABROAD.

MORE PROOF GLOBAL WARMING IS BULLSHIT: BLIZZARDS IN SPRING

NYTIMES/AP:

A major spring blizzard shut down major highways and paralyzed the Southern Plains as residents of Oklahoma and Texas prepared for up to a foot of snow, freezing 45-mile-an-hour winds and huge snowdrifts. Schools and government offices were closed, and hundreds of travelers were stranded by the storm, which left some areas under a coat of ice.

The snowfall was expected to be unprecedented for this time of year in Oklahoma, and the National Guard was called out in the Texas Panhandle, where snowdrifts as high as 11 feet and up to a foot of snowfall were predicted before the storm moves on Saturday.

REPEAT: "The snowfall was expected to be unprecedented for this time of year ..."


CNN:

a blizzard dumped more than 2 feet of snow in parts of the Plains on Saturday.

Crews with snowplows struggled to clear roads in Oklahoma, where a foot of snow fell.

The blizzard cut power, stranding drivers and prompted governors in Kansas and Oklahoma to issue disaster declarations.

AP:

Blizzard warnings in effect until this afternoon for parts of the Texas Panhandle have stranded people indoors and left highways closed. Forecasts predict the northeastern part of the Panhandle to be the most affected Saturday morning, with spots of blowing snow and winds of up to 30 mph.

BLIZZARDS IN AMERICA'S HEARTLAND IN SPRING. (MORE HERE.)

THIS IS HARDLY THE STUFF GLOBAL WARMING IS MADE OF...

• AGW = BS; A TROJAN HORSE DESIGNED TO SCARE US INTO AGREEING TO MORE SOCIALISM.

• DON'T BE DUPED.

• CARBON TAXES, SWAPS AND CAPS ARE A TOTAL WASTE.

• THE ONLY THING THEY'LL ACCOMPLISH IS DESTROYING OUR ECONOMY.
• MORE PROOF OF THE DISASTROUS ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF OBAMA'S PLAN HERE.
  

DISPATCHES FROM THE GLOBAL WAR AGAINST ISLAMOFASCISM

IT AIN'T ABOUT ISRAEL, THE JOOZE, BUSHITLER, THE GOP, OR COLONIALISM - IT NEVER WAS:

BBC:

The Philippines have relaxed a security cordon around Abu Sayyaf rebels who have threatened to behead one of three Red Cross hostages seized in January.

At least 800 soldiers have pulled back on the southern island of Jolo. "We are giving them a breathing space where they feel they're safe to negotiate," said Philippine Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno.

The rebels said they would kill one of the hostages if the cordon around them was not fully removed by 31 March.

In rare public appeal, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross Jakob Kellenberger asked Philippine officials to consider the demands made by the Islamist militants. He also called on the kidnappers not to harm the hostages - Swiss national Andreas Notter, Italian Eugenio Vagni and Filipina Mary Jean Lacaba - who were seized on 15 January. Mr Kellenberger said Red Cross staff were in the Philippines to do humanitarian work, and that nothing whatsoever could be achieved by hurting them.

The Abu Sayyaf has a history of beheading captives.

BBC:

Yemeni security forces have clashed with militants linked to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network. Four policemen are reported to have died during an operation against the militants in Jaar, in Abyan province in the south of the country. Officials said it was launched in response to attacks by the insurgents on government forces. Correspondents say the town is a stronghold of militants who return to Yemen after fighting abroad.

BBC:

Pakistan's army says troops backed by artillery and helicopter gunships have killed 26 militants in an attack near the Afghan border.

The army said the battle took place in Mohmand, North-West Frontier Province, said to be a hub for Taleban militants. Earlier, Pakistan's president said his country would not allow use of its soil for terrorist activity. It came after the US said elements in Pakistan's ISI military intelligence were still supporting the Taleban.

Adm Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a CNN interview on Friday night the ISI had links with militants on both Pakistan's borders with Afghanistan and India.

Earlier on Saturday, the Taleban destroyed 12 parked trucks laden with supplies for Nato personnel in Afghanistan - the latest in a series of similar attacks - near Peshawar, capital of North-West Frontier Province.

WHAT DO ALL OF THESE CONFLICTS HAVE IN COMMON?

THE KORAN.

WANNA DRAIN THE SWAMP?

DEAL WITH IT.

UN'S COPENHAGEN CONFERENCE PROVES THAT AGW IS A TROJAN HORSE FOR COMMUNISM

IBD EDITORIAL: Copenhagen: Environmental Munich

Climate: Czech President Vaclav Klaus once called global warming a new religion, a Trojan horse for imposing a global tyranny worse than communism. Details about the Copenhagen Conference prove how right he was.

The first of three marathon negotiating sessions designed to hammer out the details of the Copenhagen Accord on climate change to be signed in December began on Sunday, March 29, in Bonn, Germany. From what we know, it will be a surrender to tyranny as significant as another negotiated 71 years ago.

A 16-page informational note obtained by Fox News outlines the goals and agenda of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a body paving the way to Copenhagen with good intentions. Behind this alphabet soup is a list of ideas and talking points for what the U.N. calls an "ambitious and effective international response to climate change."

We're not sure how effective it will be, but it's certainly ambitious as it seeks to reorder the world economy in a de facto repeal of the Industrial Revolution. Under the supervision of the U.N., free trade would die, industries that survived could be relocated across borders, and we would have mandatory carbon offsets and cap-and-trade imposed on a global scale.

... Writing in the Financial Times recently, Czech President Vaclav Klaus said: "As someone who lived under communism for most of his life, I feel obliged to say that I see the biggest threat to freedom, democracy, the market economy and prosperity now in ambitious environmentalism, not communism."

Klaus told the Cato Institute recently that "environmentalism is a religion" that accepts global warming on faith and seeks to exploit it to reshape the world and economic social order.

Its commandments are now being written. The U.N. will be its temple and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon its high priest.

THE POSTMODERN LEFT WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE THAT INDUSTRIALIZATION IS BAD - AND AGW IS JUST THEIR LATEST REASON WHY.

BUT BOTH PROPOSITIONS - THAT INDUSTRIALIZATION IS BAD FOR HUMANITY AND THAT HUMANS ARE CAUSING GLOBAL WARMING - ARE DEMONSTRABLY FALSE.

• SINCE THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, HUMAN POPULATION HAS GONE UP ONE-HUNDREDFOLD - AND SO HAVE LIVING STANDARDS AND LIFE-SPANS FOR PEOPLE IN THE INDUSTRIAL WORLD.

• THE PEOPLE WITH THE SHORTEST LIFE-SPANS AND LOWEST LIVING STANDARDS ARE PEOPLE IN THE LEAST INDUSTRIALIZED NATIONS - OR ONES WITH A LEGACY OF COMMUNISM.

• THE ANTIDOTE FOR THEIR POVERTY ISN'T MAKING THE INDUSTRIALIZED WORLD LESS INDUSTRIALIZED OR MORE "SUSTAINABLE", BUT MAKING THE THIRD WORLD MORE INDUSTRIALIZED - AND EXPANDING FREE ENTERPRISE AND FREE TRADE.
  

• AFRICA NEEDS NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS, SWEAT SHOPS AND HIGHWAYS AND CARS & TRUCKS AND REFRIGERATORS AND ELECTRIC STOVES, NOT CARBON CREDITS.

THE ENEMIES OF PROGRESS IN THE THIRD WORLD ARE FIRST WORLD "PROGRESSIVES".

THEY ARE NOTHING MORE THAN INDUSTIOPHOBIC, SELF-HATING MODERNITES.

TO IMPROVE THEIR LIVES, POOR PEOPLE WITH SHORT LIFE-SPANS NEEDS TO BECOME GREATER CONSUMERS - OF ENERGY AND EVERYTHING ELSE.

LOOK AT THESE MAPS (RIGHT):

THE LESS CARBON PEOPLE PRODUCE THE POORER THEY ARE.

SHEESH: AFRICA DOESN'T EVEN SHOW UP ON THE CARBON MAP!

AND IT'S THE POOREST POPULATED PLACE ON EARTH.

THERE IS A CONNECTION THERE...

AND THE LEFT IS THE "CONNECTOR".

THIS IS WHY - TO LIFT THE REST OF HUMANITY OUT OF POVERTY - WE NEED TO DESTROY LEFTISM.

Stand against Bill Ayers!

Bubba writes:

Beverly Person (Band of Mothers) has been keeping me up to date on the campaign against Bill Ayers. Today it's about Naperville High School's invitation to this terrorist nutcase to speak at an assembly of their students.

A confessed and unrepentant domestic terrorist, and accused cop killer has been invited to speak to high school students about social justice.

Did you catch that? I'll repeat: A confessed and unrepentant domestic terrorist, and accused cop killer has been invited to speak to high school students about social justice.

Beverly's (and many others) campaign against this event is showing signs of success. I have already made my calls, it's your turn.

Superintendant Leis 630-420-6311
Mayor Piatell 630-420-6018

Here's the story: Terrorist visits Naperville:

NAPERVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICT 203
Message sent - 3/27/2009
Statement regarding proposed Ayers visit to NNHS

We have received numerous emails and phone calls regarding the proposed visit of UIC professor Dr. Bill Ayers to speak with Naperville North High School students next month, with permission from their parents.

While we firmly believe in exposing students to a wide variety of speakers and opinions, offering them the chance to experience different viewpoints and the opportunity to hone their critical thinking skills (one of the tenants of our mission), please know that we would never invite anyone who advocates violence. Our understanding is that Bill Ayers does not, although this point is being actively debated by several who have contacted us. In addition, administrators from other school districts who have heard his presentation to students, have indicated that Ayers focuses on students being involved in social justice.

Given the interest this has stirred in the community, and the strong emotion and anger that is being expressed, we are currently reviewing this decision and are also exploring options for changing the venue. For those who have expressed concern over funding this, it should be noted that Dr. Ayers was never being paid for this visit.

Once a decision has been made, we plan to update parents of Naperville North students on this issue via Talk203.

Alan Leis, Superintendent of Schools
Naperville School District 203

It is our responsibility and duty to hound-dog treasonous ingrates like Bill Ayers - to their graves.

UPDATE/(RELIAPUNDIT): WE WON ONE! AYERS DISINVITED FROM BOSTON COLLEGE!

OBAMA AND THE LEFT ARE WRONG: MORE GOVERNMENT IS NEVER THE ANSWER

If you liked how the federal government managed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, then you're gonna love how they manage healthcare and energy.

Special interests - like Countrywide and Fannie Mae - got extra influence from Congress, AND BILLIONS OF OUR TAX-DOLLARS - by donating relatively small amounts of money to their PAC's and campaigns.

The same thing will happen in the health and energy industries if we let the POLITICIANS take these industries over.

DON'T BE A DUPE!

FIGHT OBAMA AND THE LATEST ATTEMPT AT EXPANSION OF THE GOVERNMENT BY POLITICIANS.

BIBI/LIKUD/LABOR VERSUS LIVNI/KADIMA PROVES ISRAELI POLITICS IS STRUCTURALLY DYSFUNCTIONAL

Kadima grew out of both Likud and Labor. When he decided it was time for a strategic retreat from Gaza, Ariel Sharon left Likud and took with him many other Likudniks. They joined up with many Labour politicians. Kadima became the biggest party, and Likud and Labor struggled.

Now - after Sharon's disabling illness, and Olmert's inept and corrupt term in office - Likud has become the biggest party - but not big enough to lead without a coalition.

Likud tried to get Kadima to agree to join a national unity government, but Livni refused to become a second in command to Netanyahu. So Bibi made deals with other right of center parties - AND WITH BARAK AND LABOUR!

This means Bibi of Ol' Likud will have a majority which depends on a coalition with Barak and Ol' Labour - AND THEIR MAIN OPPOSITION WILL BE KADIMA - WHICH IS MADE UP OF FORMER LIKUD AND FORMER LABOUR!?

IOW: it's Labour & Likud versus Labour & Likud.

This is weird. And dysfunctional.

Israel needs to junk their parliamentary and proportional Knesset for a bicameral district-based and non-proportional representative democracy based on the US Congress. This will give their administrations more stability.

And sanity.

OBAMA ON THE RED RIVER FLOOD: STUPID OR LYING OR BOTH

UNBEFREAKINGLIEVABLE:

OBAMA BLAMES GLOBAL WARMING FOR THE FLOODING - DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE REGION IS HAVING IT'S 19TH COLDEST YEAR EVER.

LYING IS AN S.O.P. FOR THE LEFT: THEY TELL THE BIG LIE OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN IN THE HOPE THAT PEOPLE SEE IT AS CONVENTIONAL WISDOM AND THEN START TO BELIEVE IT AND THINK THOSE OF US WHO OBJECT ARE NUTS.

THE LEFT DOES USES THIS TACTIC - THE BIG LIE - ON A WHOLE HOST OF TOPICS:

• THE LEFT FAVORS GUN CONTROL EVEN THOUGH THERE'S ZERO EVIDENCE THAT IT LOWERS CRIME;
  
• IN FACT, IT INCREASES CRIME RATES.

• THE LEFT FAVORS CONDOM DISTRIBUTION EVEN THOUGH IT DOESN'T LOWER HIV;
  
• IN FACT, IT INCREASES HIV RATES.

• THE LEFT FAVORS INCREASING CAPITAL GAINS TAXES EVEN THOUGH THERE'S NO EVIDENCE IT INCREASES REVENUE;
  
• IN FACT, IT LOWERS REVENUE.

• THE LEFT FAVORS APPEASEMENT EVEN THOUGH THERE'S NO EVIDENCE IT LEADS TO PEACE;
  
• IN FACT, IT LEADS TO WAR.

• THE LEFT FAVORS CO2 RESTRICTIONS EVEN THOUGH THERE'S NO EVIDENCE IT CAUSES GLOBAL WARMING;
  
• IN FACT, CO2 HAS INCREASED EVERY YEAR THIS PAST DECADE BUT TEMPS HAVE NOT.

THE LEFT NEVER LETS THE TRUTH GET IN THE WAY OF THEIR LOUSY POLICIES.

BTW: When will Obama visit?

TODAY'S "MAINSTREAM LEFT" IS LEFTIER AND LOONIER THAN EVER

TODAY'S PROGRESSIVES - LIKE OBAMA, AND THE PELOSI-REID FOLKS WHO RUN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY - ARE NUTS WHO ARE PRONE TO STALINIST TACTICS.

CASE IN POINT:

Why Will No One Defend Marty Peretz? [Jonah Goldberg]

One of the more interesting aspects of that JournoList thing is that none of the Heathers will really come to his defense.

Jonathan Chait, who comes across as the most grown-up, mostly just points to the bad form of trash talking in the man's absence. But you can at least tell his heart's in the right place.

Anyway, here's the "money quote" from Peretz that nearly all of the Heathers feel is "f***ing racist" and proof that he's a "Crazy-A** Racist":

"Well, I am extremely pessimistic about Mexican-American relations, not because the U.S. had done anything specifically wrong to our southern neighbor but because a (now not quite so) wealthy country has as its abutter a Latin society with all of its characteristic deficiencies: congenital corruption, authoritarian government, anarchic politics, near-tropical work habits, stifling social mores, Catholic dogma with the usual unacknowledged compromises, an anarchic counter-culture and increasingly violent modes of conflict. Then, there is the Mexican diaspora in America, hard-working and patriotic but mired in its untold numbers of illegals, about whom no one can talk with candor."

The "near-tropical work habits" line is unfortunate. But is this whole thing really so beyond the pale? If it is, no wonder it's hard to have that long-overdue conversation about race people keep talking about.

But it's pretty clear that racism — real or alleged — isn't the real issue.

These guys hate Marty, hate TNR (no doubt in part because some of them couldn't get jobs there), and are willing to use racism against their own the same way they use it against conservatives: as a branding tool against heretics.

Personally, I don't feel the need to carry a lot of water for Martin Peretz (nor The New Republic, which has hardly been kind to me recently). I don't think we've ever met, though we did talk on the phone once over a decade ago. I've zinged him quite a bit about his over-the-top support for Al Gore over the years, too. But I'm really quite surprised no one will defend the man from the charge that he's a "f***ing racist." Not just a racist, mind you but a f***ing one.

The man has devoted decades of his life to keeping the flagship liberal publication afloat. He's at the center of the liberal-academic-journalistic establishment. And yet where are his defenders?

I mean, doesn't this silence amount to shocking ingratitude from lots and lots of people who owe their careers to the man?

Shouldn't the alumni of TNR — and they are not lacking for outlets to express themselves — mount something of a defense?

Fascinating stuff.

03/27 01:54 PM

Yep, these "progressives" are ready to burn any of their own who is even slightly heretical.

SO... WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY'LL DO TO US CONSERVATIVES - AND THE BANKERS - IF WE GIVE THEM THE CHANCE!?!?!

Elliot Ness, where are thou? Rahm Emanuel's Freddie Mac "Bonus"

In many ways, Chicago is still the city that Al Capone built; in today's Chicago, the "mafia" is still raping the taxpayer and still paying off corrupt officials to look the other way, from top to bottom. For at least the last 50+ years, that "mafia" has been the exclusive domain of the Democrat "bosses".

Not so long ago, Rahm Emanuel went to "work" for Freddie Mac--you remember them; they were one of the two organizations which almost single-handedly destroyed our economy by forcing banks to make loans to people who could not possibly pay them back. That is not "free markets". That is abuse of power.

What the media goes out of its way NOT to tell you is that both Fannie and Freddie were run by Democrats who were being payed obscene salaries (funny, no outrage was being expressed in the Congressional witch hunts then...). Then these figurehead "regulators" in turn dutifully contributed heavily to Democrat candidates. In the mob they call this splitting up the loot.

In fact, paying Obama's Chief of Staff $320,000 to do pretty much nothing is a perfect example of the kind of oversight the Democrats had over those agencies, try as the Republicans did to change that dynamic. Remember the name Franklin Raines?

I could go on, but you get the point; it kind of reminds me of the old days when college football players got paid hundreds of dollars by wealthy almuni for a summer job, for example maybe to water one bush in front of the stadium once per week (wink, wink...).

The Democrats are living The Godfather: destroying the economy is nothing personal; it's just "business". After all, if the economy had been allowed to prosper, the Democrats might never have gotten Obama (and Rahm) elected. Their core constituencies (the poor inner city welfare mother, for example) would not need them anymore were those constituencies to suddenly find wealth via initiative and hard work. In other words it can be said that--like Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton--Democrats have a Vested Interest in keeping their core constituencies down. Because the minute these people become taxpayers, there would be many reasons to jump ship. The so called governmental "War on Poverty" has been going on since 1965 and LBJ's "Great Society". Don't you think it is time that we bring the troops home; it has been 43 years now and from what I can see, the faster the government grows, the more the "insurgency" is winning.

But I digress. Here is the story of Mr. Emanuel's excellent adventure at Freddie Mac, via the Chicago Tribune:

(Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak / March 5, 2009)

Before its portfolio of bad loans helped trigger the current housing crisis, mortgage giant Freddie Mac was the focus of a major accounting scandal that led to a management shake-up, huge fines and scalding condemnation of passive directors by a top federal regulator.

One of those allegedly asleep-at-the-switch board members was Chicago's Rahm Emanuel—now chief of staff to President Barack Obama—who made at least $320,000 for a 14-month stint at Freddie Mac that required little effort.

As gatekeeper to Obama, Emanuel now plays a critical role in addressing the nation's mortgage woes and fulfilling the administration's pledge to impose responsibility on the financial world.

Emanuel's Freddie Mac involvement has been a prominent point on his political résumé, and his healthy payday from the firm has been no secret either. What is less known, however, is how little he apparently did for his money and how he benefited from the kind of cozy ties between Washington and Wall Street that have fueled the nation's current economic mess.

These are the people we have given the keys to the kingdom; these are the people who are attempting a Presidential power grab unprecedented in American history.

Read the whole thing.

Funny, I don't see Barney Frank giving out Emanuel's home address so that ACORN can protest and raise hell in his front yard... (Go figure.) But never fear, Rahm: thanks to you and your boss, ACORN will be soon be busy applying its expertise in fraud and "raising the dead", and will soon be applying that expertise to...our upcoming census!

Seriously, these Democrats remind one of LBJ and his cliffhanger Senate election being decided by dead people voting in alphabetical order in Duvall county. Only now they are taking it to a national level.

Speaking of "bonus", Barney Frank is not exactly clean in the meltdown of our economy--his own involvement in the Fannie/Freddie collapse ought to have him in jail instead of lying through his lisping teeth on a daily basis. An example? Well this from the Boston Globe--not exactly a conservative rag.

Unfortunately there do not seem to be many Elliot Nesses in Obama's "Justice" Department; that isn't the "Chicago way"... Meanwhile the mobsters are diligently working to acquire the power to nationalize ANY company which would "adversely impact the economy" (who gets to decide that one?), before they "are about to go broke" (and who would decide when that applies?).

If I am Exxon or any other large conglomerate (especially any who happen to be on the "bad" side of the Democrats' special interests like: trial lawyers, the enviro-Nazis and unions...), I would be seriously be thinking about re-incorporating my business to some nice business-friendly environment like the Bahamas.... which of course will only serve to bring our economy to a terminal point even sooner...

But after all, isn't that what the Democrat mobsters want? Absolute power and for every single American to become dependent on it--instead of on themselves? Personal responsibility in anathema to all that is Democrat.

Consider: if everyone were to become wealthy and abundant, what need would there be for any Democrats to make things "fair" by stealing some people's property and giving it to others? There would be no need. On the other hand, if they can ensure that as many Americans as possible become addicted to the government crack pipe, they ensure their place at the table. Is this what Thomas Jefferson had in mind?

No wonder Barack was laughing at the economy on 60 Minutes while calling it "gallows humor"...

Let us hope that enough of the rest of us wake up to what is being done to our country very, very soon. We need Elliot Ness right now. Desperately. If you recall the scene in the movie where all the mobsters were laughing around the big round table, the American way of life as we have known (and as Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton and Jay envisioned it) is represented by the fat guy in the scene about to light up his cigar; meanwhile the Statist, power Democrats are represented Al Capone (Robert DeNiro)... and they've just picked up the baseball bat. We may all be that close to being history.

This "plan" by Obama and Geithner to nationalize every enterprise they "deem" to be critical is no different from the goals of a Chavez or a Castro or any other dictator. In fact it is their raison d' etre. (That's right: I said "dictator". So you had better to put one of those ugly O stickers on your vehicle before they come for you.)

Other than that, everything is just hunky-dory.

Seriously Don't you think it is time we got organized and decided to do something about our plight other than watching Oprah and The View or pretending that it could never happen here. That didn't work out too well for Europe.

During the holocaust, Europe's Jews meekly and patiently waited in line as they were herded onto the cattle cars. In a sense there is great power--e.g. a psychological moral superiority--in being "the victim". I am not trying to say that the 6 million murdered caused their own fate, that is obviously not the case; but what I am saying is that it is human nature to be complacent and believe things like "oh, that could never happen to us". But it can.

Not all were complacent; many did take action: many Jews fled Germany before it was too late--THEY were the ones who took responsibility for their own safety and security, rather than to believe in the innate "goodness" of their government or to leave their fate to chance. One of them was Albert Einstein. These people did not sit back meekly and await their fate as determined by another narcissist. No, they saw the signs and they acted on them. The tendency to resignation; to do or say nothing; to go along to get along; to think there is nothing they could do to change their outcomes--and to believe a megalomaniac and his propaganda machine about "unity" (One Reich, one Furher...) or that their country will rise from the ashes and become some sort of utopia--if only we all stand in unity, shoulder to shoulder with our charismatic dear leader--is spreading through our country like the Andromeda Strain. Or at least it was. Fortunately, a lot more of us are starting to wake up.

I'll tell you this: those men freezing their asses off Christmas Eve 1776 on the Delaware River weren't quitting or giving up. The defenders of Bastogne weren't about to give in. The examples of overcoming astounding odds are endless. It is never over until it is over. But sometimes to perservered, it takes people willing to stand up, to speak up, and to fight. Our forefathers struggled, they fought, they gave everything they had and more; they did whatever they had to do to prevail. Why? Because they determined that to continue to allow tyranny was not an option. And the rest is history.

Is it any less of an option now? Haven't we had enough of playing the helpless victims in our country? Notice I did not say their country, I said OUR country. They think it is theirs. They are pulling out all the stops to make it theirs. But--if we decide to stop them from stealing our country out from under our collectively spoiled rotten feet--we can prevail too.

We are not helpless, but we will be victims if we don't get up off our butts and work to defeat the Marxists. This is our time--or else it is the time when American dream ceases to exist. Because if we don't stand up now we may never get another chance at it. If we succeed, WE will be the "Greatest Generation".

Another movie scene comes to mind. Red (Morgan Freeman) in The Shawshank Redemption, as he considers whether or not to end it all at the halfway house: His words in that film struck a chord in me, and they have never been as appropriate as they are today: "get busy living, or get busy dying..."

So what's it gonna be? This is not a drill.

Wealthy Abortion Provider's Family Dies In Mysterious Plane Crash in Catholic Cemetery Next to Memorial to Unborn

From Gateway Pundit:

More on the tragic Montana plane crash-

Picture provided by the Montana Standard shows a small, single-engine plane bursting into flames in Holy Cross Cemetery on the outskirts of Butte, Montana. US investigators are searching for clues after a small plane taking children to a ski trip crashed in a cemetery in the state of Montana, killing 14 people on board.
(AFP/The Montana Standard/Martha Guidoni) 

Family of Irving 'Bud' Feldkamp, Owner of the Nation's Largest Privately Owned Abortion Chain, Dies in Montana Plane Crash.
Christian News Wire reported:

Some of you may have seen the major news story of the private plane that crashed into a Montana cemetery, killing 7 children and 7 adults. 

But what the news sources fail to mention is that the Catholic Holy Cross Cemetery owned by Resurrection Cemetery Association in Butte - contains a memorial for local residents to pray the rosary, at the 'Tomb of the Unborn'. This memorial, located a short distance west of the church, was erected as a dedication to all babies who have died because of abortion.

What else is the mainstream news not telling you? The family who died in the crash near the location of the abortion victim's memorial, is the family of Irving 'Bud' Feldkamp, owner of the largest for-profit abortion chain in the nation. 

The plane went down on Sunday, killing two of Feldkamp's daughters, two sons-in-law and five grandchildren along with the pilot and four family friends. The plane, a single-engine turboprop flown by Bud Summerfield of Highland, crashed into the Catholic cemetery and burst into flames, only 500 ft. from its landing destination. All aboard were killed.

What a tragedy.
May they rest in peace.

NOW, THE LANCET IS LYING ABOUT THE POPE AND CONDOMS

THE LANCET GOT CAUGHT LYING ABOUT IRAQ WAR CASUALTIES.

NOW, THEY'RE LYING ABOUT THE POPE'S CONDOM COMMENTS.

• THE LANCET CLAIMS THE POPE WAS WRONG. (BBC ARTICLE HERE.)
  

• BUT HARVARD'S EXPERT ON AIDS SAYS THE POPE WAS RIGHT.

• THE LANCET ISN'T JUST "MISTAKEN" - THEY'RE ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN LEFTIST DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA.

• THE FACT THAT BOTH OF LANCET'S BIG LIES HURT THE DEFENSE OF JUDEO-CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION PROVES THAT THEIR LEFTIST AGENDA HAS DESTROYED ANY COMMITMENT THEY MIGHT HAVE ONCE HAD TO THE TRUTH.

LIKE MOST LEFTISTS.

AND. LIKE MOST LEFTISTS THEY'RE TOTALLY WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING AND ADVOCATE TOTALLY USELESS IF NOT HARMFUL POLICIES:

• THE LEFT FAVORS GUN CONTROL EVEN THOUGH THERE'S ZERO EVIDENCE THAT IT LOWERS CRIME; IN FACT, IT INCREASES CRIME RATES.

• THE LEFT FAVORS CONDOM DISTRIBUTION EVEN THOUGH IT DOESN'T LOWER HIV; IN FACT, IT INCREASES HIV RATES.

• THE LEFT FAVORS INCREASING CAPITAL GAINS TAXES EVEN THOUGH THERE'S NO EVIDENCE IT INCREASES REVENUE; IN FACT, IT LOWERS REVENUE.

• THE LEFT FAVORS APPEASEMENT EVEN THOUGH THERE'S NO EVIDENCE IT LEADS TO PEACE - IN FACT, IT LEADS TO WAR.

• THE LEFT FAVORS CO2 RESTRICTIONS EVEN THOUGH THERE'S NO EVIDENCE IT CAUSES GLOBAL WARMING; IN FACT, CO2 HAS INCREASED EVERY YEAR THIS PAST DECADE BUT TEMPS HAVE NOT.

IN FACT CO2 IS NON-TOXIC.

WHAT IS TOXIC?

LEFTISM.

ISRAEL, IRAN, SUDAN: AN OMEN OF THINGS TO COME

Iran-Sudan-Hamas chain exposed

The latest reports of an alleged IAF strike on a Hamas arms convoy in Sudan draw attention to an arms network running from Iran, via the Persian Gulf and Yemen to Sudan, Egypt, and Hamas-ruled Gaza. The existence of this network has been noted by analysts in the past. It forms part of a larger, overt, close relationship maintained by both Iran and Hamas with the regime of Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum.

Sudanese minister: US carried out raid

The bombing of a convoy of trucks that was reportedly carrying weapons bound for the Gaza Strip through Sudan during Operation Cast Lead was carried out by American aircraft, according to Sudanese State Minister for Highways Mabrouk Mubarak Saleem.

Saleem, who spoke to Al Jazeera on Thursday, was quoted by Israel Radio as having said that the death toll in the bombing was much higher than initial reports, and stood at 800 people. He also claimed that the trucks were filled with people, and did not contain weapons.

According to a CBS News report, 39 people were killed when IAF warplanes bombed the convoy and all 17 trucks were destroyed.

Olmert hints at Sudan strike: 'No place Israel can't reach'

In what could be interpreted as a veiled threat to Iran and a hint at an alleged far-reaching IAF air strike on a convoy of weapons bound for the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday asserted that "Israel has never had stronger deterrence than it has gained in the last few years. Those who need to know are aware that there is no place that Israel can't reach."

ISRAEL WILL ATTACK IRAN - SOONER THAN YOU THINK...

I HAVE PREVIOUSLY PREDICTED THE NEW MOON OF MAY...

THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS OF THE DECADE

THE TWO BIGGEST POLITICAL BOOKS OF THE LAST TWO YEARS ARE BOOKS BY CONSERVATIVES WHICH EXPOSE LEFTISM FOR WHAT IT IS: A STATIST AND COLLECTIVIST ANTI-LIBERTARIAN SCAM.

• IT'S TIME THESE TWO BOOKS WERE MADE MANDATORY READING FOR EVERY LIBERAL.
• IT'S TIME THEY WOKE UP.
• THESE BOOKS WILL DO JUST THAT.
• BUY THEM FOR ALL THE LIBS YOU KNOW.
• IF THEY WON'T READ THEM, THEN HIT THEM OVER THE HEAD WITH IT!

THE FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM: IT AIN'T UTOPIAN,BUT IT SURE WORKS BETTER THAN ANYTHING ELSE!

WORK? “More than three decades of research shows that a focus on effort—not on intelligence or ability—is key to success in school and in life.” Hey, I’ve got an idea — why don’t we organize society so that it rewards hard work! We could even see that people who work harder and do better make more money! And then their efforts would pay off in more general societal prosperity, making life better for everyone! And we could . . . Naaaah.

Posted at 4:39 pm by Glenn Reynolds

THE FREE MARKET IS ALSO THE BEST WAY TO CREATE AND DISTRIBUTE WEALTH FAIRLY.

THOSE WHO CREATE IT, GET IT.

AN AWARD PRESENTED TO ISLAMISTS WITHOUT TELLING WHAT IT'S FOR

The AP Wire has this brief clip about what the pro-palestinian crowd in Sweden is up to:

STOCKHOLM (AP) - The Swedish Arts Council says it has named a Palestinian organization that promotes children's reading as the 2009 winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature.

The annual award is the world's largest children's book award and includes a cash prize of 5 million kronor ($620,000). It is named after late Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren.

The Palestinian Tamer Institute For Community Education was awarded for its work to promote reading on the West Bank and in Gaza. Tuesday's citation honored its "unusual breadth and versatility."

Each year it organizes a national reading campaign, including discussions about literature, drama and writing activities.

The prize will be handed out by Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria in a ceremony on June 2.

They don't even say what they published! Okay, I'm sure there's something, but then one can only wonder what it really is that they're giving a prize for. Lies are certainly one of those things. Politicized storytelling is another.

And I'm guessing that Israeli groups for promotion of children's reading would never win the award, right?

THIS WEEK ON BLOG TALK RADIO'S THE GATHERING STORM

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, which WC and I cohost. The show broadcasts live every Friday beginning at noon, Pacific Time.

The call-in number is (646) 915-9870.

Callers welcome!

Our guests this week are two authors: I.Q. Al Rassoli and Steven Clark Bradley.

I.Q. Al Rassoli, our guest for the first half hour, is the author of Lifting the Veil: The True Faces of Muhammad and Islam. He also has two web sites: In The Name Of Allah and the YouTube site Idiot's Guide To Islam. Sample from the latter:



Our guest for the second half hour is Steven Clark Bradley, author of the novel Patriot Acts. From the novel's description at Amazon:

America finds itself under covert nuclear attack from the Islamic Republic of Iran which has linked up with radical American Militia groups. They have set aside their political and religious differences to carry out the widest attack to America in the nation 's history. Colonel Fisher Harrison, the best trained Special Ops killer the military has, is the only one person who can effectively retaliate against their aggression. The only problem is that Colonel Fisher is in a federal prison, framed for a murder he did not commit by his former boss who is now the President of the United States of America....

Listen to the March 27, 2009 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

UPCOMING SHOWS:
April 3: Mohammed Abdul and Sabir debate aspects of the Koran
April 10: Raymond Ibrahim

OBAMA'S TALIBAN FRIENDS

Hat Tip: Bare Naked Islam

Another demonstration of B. Hussein Obama's "moderate" Taliban buddies, carrying out the legal code of the "Religion of Peace" !!!

ISRAELI AIR FORCE ATTACKS CONVOY IN SUDAN

From Haaretz:

Two senior Sudanese politicians confirmed Thursday that unidentified aircraft attacked a convoy of suspected arms smugglers as it drove through Sudan toward Egypt in January, killing almost everyone in the convoy. An American news network said that the attack was carried out by the Israel Air Force. 

CBS reported that the IAF carried out the attack on a convoy of trucks in Sudan carrying arms for Hamas in the Gaza Strip. 

According to the report, 39 people riding in the 17-truck convoy were killed, while a number of civilians in the area were injured. 

Israeli officials declined to confirm or deny whether Israel had been involved in an air strike in Sudan.

If America won't take care of the problems, Israel will. And, thank God for that.

My own Manifesto: Time to Put up or Shut Up

It’s not only EMP attacks or rogue terrorists that can bring down our grid and put us in a world of hurt. Check out this from New Scientist: It has happened before…

The cover story in this week's Popular Mechanics had another lovely scenario …

These items do not even begin to delineate the existential threats to our country, from Islamist zealots who would behead not only us, but their own women and children; from rogue states, from former enemies and long-time enemies. And from ourselves--most of all the danger to our way of life comes from our own complacency.

But wait, have not we finally found The One who has filled the entire nation with abundant and overflowing Hope? Is this now the "change" so many of you voted for?

For instance--the evil specter of "climate change" (they used to call it Global Warming, but the thought police have sort of nixed that one because, well, we all seem to be freezing our asses off..) But never fear, The One has now "assured" us that this is the time when the seas will begin to recede (right?).

Now what He didn't say was that we might not be able to afford gas or electricity to heat our home or to drive our car to work anymore--but at we now have the satisfaction now of knowing that the Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building won’t be underwater in about 1000 years...Right?

Of course, WE will all be broke in our lifetimes (except for those lucky non-taxpaying elected bastards who we bought this bill of goods from...); yes, there will be more death, disease, malaria, etc., a shorter life span in general; but at least we’ll have the satisfaction of knowing our great great great grandchildren and all those spotted owls and salamanders will still have a place to hang out. And we will all finally be equal--equally mediocre. Welcome to the brain-dead philosophy of the fixed pie and a Least Common Denominator, regardless of intelligence, skill, talent, ambition, persistence, ethics, and vision--they will all be "equal" with the slovenly, lazy, blood-sucking leeches who would rather wallow in their collective victimhood than to better their situations from their own initiative (some recent Southeast Asian immigrants to the contrary). There can be no more winners and losers. Only the maintenance of our collective self-esteem.

We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men, women, animals, plants, and sea creatures are ENTITLED to an equal RESULT.

Good luck with that one.

Yesterday I sat and listened to a President of the United States actually argue for the power to nationalize ANY private company (the property and labor of creative, smart, hard working men and women) that Obama THINKS might be about to go broke. This statement was so shocking to me; that I could only draw one of several conclusions (take your pick):

1. He has no CLUE about human nature, and how markets work to create wealth and prosperity to all; or
2. He may have some CLUE but in is inexperience, arrogance, deer-in-the-headlights moment, he is allowing himself to be led around by the nose by the most corrupt, destructive Congress in US history; or
   
3. He does understand all of this--but in the name of consolidating power, or his legacy, or even to become something more akin to a Putin or a Mussolini or a Hitler or like his buddy Chavez--grandiose, all powerful, narcissistic--he actually wants to tear DOWN the wealth of this country to create some sort of Weimar Republic II, out of which he can rise up to seize power, become a supreme leader--and then to crush anyone who gets in his way.
   

I like to think it is more of the first two possibilities combined--but I would be lying if I did not see signs of #3 in this Administration--and some very disturbing ones.

Remember that little "show" in Berlin? Or the "stadium nomination" with the Roman columns. Even the ubiquitous "O" logo which has sort of become the American version of the swastika lately? The "Obama Seal"... when he was just a candidate?

Albert Speer would have been SO proud.

In truth, it doesn't matter which of these factors are the primary drivers here; write it all off to hyperbole if you will. But there ARE parallels, even if inexact: when I see Geithner I see Speer. When I seen Emmanuel I see Himmler. And Axelrod? Goering? Beria? Who knows. I am not saying they ARE exactly like these historical monsters from the past--I am just saying that I see many parallels; the whole vibe of this Administration reminds me of all those books I've read as a history minor about the rise of the Nazis and the Fascists--and the Bolsheviks. Party rallies. Narcissism. Supression of dissent.

And many people seem just as hypnotized by these pretenders as the Germans were by Hitler. Mesmerized is a better word. (no, I am not speaking of anyone who dared watch that atrocious presser last night...). But some of this "swarm" of worker bees seem to have such blinders on that they WANT to believe he is The One, despite any and all evidence to the contrary. So they just ignore all of the obvious incompetence playing out daily before their eyes. And there is much to ignore.

This is mass hypnosis on a Hitlerian scale; although fortunately it is only about half of the country (and dropping rapidly) who seem to have bought into the Big Lie. Swallowing all of that empty, vacant campaign rhetoric that meant absolutely nothing--except whatever the mesmerized cultists listening to it wanted it to mean. They had seen the light: HOPE! CHANGE! Finally a candidate who talks and looks so GOOD, so eloquent with those teleprompter-driven slogans; he will TALK to our enemies (that worked so well for Chamberlain, after all); and he is so completely above politics and petty things--like using a slim 52% plurality to blow up the whole social contract that has been in place between We the People and our government since 1789. To smithereens!

What did those guys know? The One wants Change and Hope! He knows what is right for us! And he is creating Jobs!

OR…. Just maybe--he really does know exactly what he’s doing--but not in the way his zombie followers think. For example there are Obama's friends:have you noticed that they ALL seem to be getting rich? And they are not even having to pay taxes. Where to begin

Al "I'm making out those Carbon Credit checks out to my own Company" Gore

Barney (the "Heterophobe") Frank

Chris "Where did those houses and bonuses come from" Dodd

Tim Geithner the rocket scientist/tax cheat, who is just so indispensable!

And then there is Barack himself (that little book deal 10 days before he took the oath for instance... that sweetheart housing deal... his wife's big earmark and raise...)

And yes, even “the Benefactor” himself. Who knew that the very billionaire architect of this whole Democrat revivalfor the last 10 years (MoveOn, CAP, MediaMatters, ACORN funding, etc) has somehow managed to fix it so that he got filthy rich at the very moment of our country's greatest misery. (But I am sure that is only "coincidence"...)

So am I off base; am I missing something? After all, they tell me. Obama means well, right? I'm just thinking back to Joe the Plumber: 95% of us are going to get a stimulus and tax cuts--all but the "rich".... Right?

And I saw that debate with McCain: we're going to drill for oil AND explore new alternatives...right?

And most importantly, we just want to be loved by all those wonderful people in Pakistan and Syria and Iran and Russia and China...and Europe. Just like the "good old days"... Right? We can all be Sally Fields: "they like us, they really like us..." Right?

Hmm, funny thing happened to the coronation of Obama as the Savior of the World (and the empathy and cooperation of our European allies): today the President of the EU--a Czech who really has lived under State Socialism and knows first hand what happens when that failed theory is tried--stated the following, and I quote (via the Financial Times):

European Union hopes for a new era in relations with the US were thrown into chaos on Wednesday when the holder of the EU presidency condemned American remedies for the global recession as “the road to hell”.

Barely a week before Barack Obama is due to arrive in Europe on his first official visit as US president, Mirek Topolanek, the Czech Republic’s prime minister, put the 27-nation EU on a collision course with Washington.

His attack compounded the confusion that has engulfed EU policy after the Czech leader lost a no-confidence vote in the country’s parliament on Tuesday, forcing him to offer his government’s resignation midway through its six-month EU presidency.

Mr Topolanek said EU leaders had been disturbed at a summit in Brussels last week to hear calls from Tim Geithner, the US Treasury secretary, for more aggressive policies to fight the global downturn.

“The US Treasury secretary talks about permanent action and we, at our spring council, were quite alarmed at that . . . The US is repeating mistakes from the 1930s, such as wide-ranging stimuluses, protectionist tendencies and appeals, the Buy American campaign, and so on,” he told a European parliament session in Strasbourg. “All these steps, their combination and their permanency, are the road to hell.”

Not exactly diplomatic-niceties from a European leader who suddenly has a new found love for America since The One's coronation. And Putin and Ahmadinejad and Putin seem to be so enamored of The One too, don't they?

Finally, our staunchest allies have been insulted: handing Gordon Brown the DVD's that play in American DVD players only was a real home run. Offering to abandon our allies in Eastern Europe: the Poles, Czechs, Romanians, and Ukrainians. I'm sure they are ready to fall down at The One's feet right about now.

And then we have Israel. I have to say, I am still stunned that ANY Jew in his or her right mind voted for this Farrakhan-loving, Iran and Syria-coddling, guy who is spending American tax dollars giving money to Hamas! I am sure Bibi is feeling the love too right now.

I think that given a choice, most of our traditional allies in Europe and the Middle East would LOVE to have George W. Bush back right now.

So here we are, about 60 days into the Era of Hope, and Change, and the End of the Old Politics. All Americans working together (that is if you follow a Marxist in lockstep off of the cliff...).

Meanwhile we on the right are deemed "lunatics" and "full of hate" who dare to question ANYTHING about this...icon of intellect, panache and experience.

You know, people sure seem to have pretty short memories as to the kinds of vile venom and hate that the Left has been hurling at Bush for over 8 years now (but as I recall that was just "dissent" from your intellectual superiors...right? I believe they even spent several years calling that dissent "patriotism". Welcome to your own nightmare, hypocrites.)

I have some very dear friends who really came into this thinking that Obama was "the answer". Maybe they still do for all I know. I don't know, because I don't even bring it up whenever I can help it (because I am so "obsessed", don't you know...). They can talk about His Holiness when no one is around to dispute their viewpoint. But the really disheartening thing is that these are highly intelligent people who seem to have completely closed themselves off to any other point of view--the very thing they accuse me of. So be it.

But I'll tell you this--if someone brings up Obama or the cabal in Congress around me, I am through just sitting there and biting my tongue while everyone else in the "in crowd" get to run down everything this country has always stood for--as their man appears to be in a frenzied gotta-have-it-now hurry to blow up the whole thing--and quickly, before anybody catches on to the very far-reaching ramifications to just what it is that they are doing.

Fortunately, I think Obama cannot move quickly enough, because the anger and mistrust is rising faster. These Tea Parties. Protests the media refuses to cover, but which we all know are happening. It is tangible; I can FEEL it out there. Frustration like I have never seen. And every bit of that anger is justified.

If we are going to prevail, it is time we stopped being such cowards and find it within ourselves to speak up for what is right. Yes, we conservatives seem to be the ones who are supposed to fill the role of being more "civil and polite" in mixed company. In a sense that is a good example to set in periods where there is not so much at stake.

But the MoveOn Democrat Underground ideologues on the Left--the kinds that throw molotov cocktails at the Governors mansion or at buses of Senior Citizens on their way to the RNC convention--could care less about civility.

If it is possible to have reasonable dialogue? Well thought out discourse? Fine. Where it is possible I am all for it. But in such cases there has to be some agreement or stipulation on SOME shared core principles or else there is no hope that discourse will go anywhere but south. And it seems to me that the principle of principles in this argument comes down to what Lincoln said in 1864. He was talking about slavery, but he was also talking about those men who risked their lives and families "forescore and seven years" prior. He was talking about what they stood for and what all those souls at Gettysburg died for. For those did not catch my post yesterday, here is the quote once again:

"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."

--Abraham Lincoln, 1864

My friends, It is long past time that we got organized, got ACTIVE, and start working NOW to save this thing before it is too late. And if that means a fight--if people can't sit and converse and try to find common ground without getting personal--well I am prepared for that too.

As we have seen for the last 8 years, our "civility" has gotten us precisely nowhere with the partisan Dems in Congress, nor to those who spend their entire lives finding things that are "unfair" and "unequal". But I am beginning to believe that to have reasoned, non-inflammatory discourse with people whose only focus is how much power over your life which they or their central planners want to grab from you; power to confiscate your property (of which YOUR money is certainly part) for their "holier than thou" purposes; the concept that they, not you should have the power over your labor, your sweat, and your moral priorities. In 1864 that was called slavery. But it didn't end there.

• 1Lenin and (later) Stalin. The purges of the 20's-40's
• Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo 13 million dead.
• Mao and the "Cultural Revolution" -- tens of millions killed by the 'Mobs'
• The Iron Curtain: The Berlin Wall--killing anyone who dares to leave "the State". The Stasi and "The Lives of Others".
  
• The KGB. Their funding of Palestinian terrorism, beginning with the PFLP and Red Brigades.
• Ho Chi Minh's purges and Cambodia's Killing fields
• The millions crying from Cuba's graves (many thanks to Che himself)
• Nicaragua. Venezuela. Iran, and yes even China.
  

Wherever the Statist tyrants feel threatened, it always ends the same way. And it is inevitable that they eventually do feel threatened, because Statism: whether you call it Fascism, Communism, Socialism, or National Socialism--all ends this way because IT. DOESN'T. WORK.
It never has, because it runs contrary to human nature. It always leads to corruption, loss of productivity, servitude, totalitarianism, corruption, inefficiency, losing ground to those who are not burdened with this pestilence--and then to the Gulags and Concentration Camps for those who can't or refuse to adjust.

We've been here before, and there are well over 100 million souls who have died to date because they called this lie for what it was, and because the Statists could not allow the TRUTH about human freedom to shine through. But eventually it always did.

Now it is in danger of happening here. It IS happening here. And we must expose the lie. Here. Now. Wake up for God's sake!

To defeat this enemy we must be educated in our core beliefs.

Read Shcharansky and Solzhenitsyn, writing from the Labor Camps; read Ayn Rand; read current authors like Mark Levin; read Bill Whittle and Mark Steyn...

But don't stop there--do your homework. Go back even further: to the products of the Enlightenment who gave us this great gift. READ Adam Smith, and Edmund Burke, and Jefferson, Lincoln, and Reagan, and. READ the Federalist Papers and Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics and former Communists David Horowitz tall of their journey from Radical Communist to patriot. READ the magnificant, brilliant Opinions and Dissents of Scalia and Clarence Thomas; Read De Toqueville, read of his sheer wonder --this product of the French Revolution and their own mob "terror"--of how amazed he was at our experiment. Other great minds like Milton Friedman. Freidrich Hayek. Ludwig von Mises. Broaden and deepen your mind. Cleanse your mind from the drivel that your Leftist/Unionist teachers have been trying to force feed you and your children since you were very young. Open your minds. The truth WILL set you free.

This is not just our history--this is inspiring, thought provoking, mind expanding. These are some of the greatest thinkers and communicators who ever lived. Some of them are still living.

The key is that we must prepare ourselves and our mettle and to know the rightness of our cause. Levin's new book is a great place to start.

But here is the thing: we have to FIGHT this time, we have to WORK this time, and we have to be able to articulate the rightness of our defense of Liberty just as those men did so long ago in that Philadelphia hall. Because if we cannot articulate it (with as much civility as our angry opponents will allow) and if we are not willing to fight for it-if we merely are content to sit by and watch it play out like some movie plot without getting ACTIVE, we WILL lose our country to these Statist, totalitarian, tyrants. I know my history, I minored in history--and I have seen all I need to see to know what this is.

If you are feeling me on this; if you are hearing me. Let's email. Let's get orgainized. Let's do everything in our power to stop the rape of the United States and all it stands for.

We have not chosen to be painted into a corner by greedy, corrupt, overzealous power-hungry politicians. We didn't choose this fate, but it is the hand we have been dealt.

It is time to take our country back.

THE OBAMA PRESSER: OBAMA REITERATES THAT HE WANTS GOVERNMENT TO TAKE OVER THE THREE BEST SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY

OBAMA LAST NIGHT / LATIMES:

The budget I submitted to Congress will build our economic recovery on a stronger foundation so that we don't face another crisis like this 10 or 20 years from now. We invest in the renewable sources of energy that will lead to new jobs, new businesses, and less dependence on foreign oil. We invest in our schools and our teachers, so that our children have the skills they need to compete with any workers in the world.

We invest in reform that will bring down the cost of healthcare for families, businesses and our government.the best way to bring our deficit down in the long run is not with a budget that continues the very same policies that have led us to a narrow prosperity and massive debt. It's with a budget that leads to broad economic growth by moving from an era of borrow and spend to one where we save and invest.

... And that's why clean energy jobs and businesses will do all across America. That's what a highly skilled workforce can do all across America. That's what an efficient healthcare system that controls costs and entitlements like Medicare and Medicaid will do.

THIS HAS BECOME AN OBAMA MANTRA, OF LATE: "TO REALLY HELP THE ECONOMY, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO TAKE OVER ENERGY, HEALTHCARE AND EDUCATION SECTORS."

THIS IS A STINKING LOAD OF LEFTIST CRAP.

• OUT OF ALL THE SECTORS OF OUR ECONOMY, THESE THREE ARE THE ONES WHICH ARE FUNCTIONING BEST. THEY NEED THE LEAST "HELP" OR INTERFERENCE.
  

• AND OBAMA IS BEING DISINGENUOUS AT BEST WHEN HE ARGUES THAT A FEDERAL TAKEOVER OF THESE SECTORS WILL HELP THE BUDGET OR THE ECONOMY.

• AS A MATTER OF FACT, HE ADVOCATED A FEDERAL TAKEOVER OF THESE SECTORS BEFORE THE BUBBLE BURST AND THE STOCK MARKETS CRASHED.

• HE AND HIS LEFTIST COMRADES HAVE LONG FAVORED A FEDERAL TAKEOVER OF THESE SECTORS.

DON'T BE A DUPE; DON'T BE FOOLED; DON'T FALL FOR IT.