The Nerve

OBAMA KEEPS HIS BIG APPLE PLEDGE
WOWS FIRST LADY WITH DINNER & B'WAY SHOW

Taxpayers footed the bill for the big night on the town, which included a total of at least $24,000 for the three aircraft used to ferry the Obamas, aides and reporters to New York and back. Dinner costs and orchestra seat tickets -- at $96.50 apiece -- were paid by the Obamas.

Obama's jet, a Gulfstream 500, served as a more modest Air Force One for the day in place of the customary presidential Boeing 747.

The White House declined to say how much the trip was costing taxpayers.

There's a recession. GM is in bankruptcy. People are losing their jobs. The dollar is plummeting. And this guy has the AUDACITY to fly to NYC and take in dinner and a play on taxpayer money? There are people who would love to have a JOB that PAYS 24,000 a YEAR. I guess taking a junket will help you think?

I also want to know why, aside from security, why AIDES and Reporters get to fly along as well. Let the news services pay. Oh... wait... they can't. They're going broke because the populace is tired of hearing their bias and distortions so circulation is way way way down. Mark my words, they'll get the next bail out... Obama needs someone to hide the truth.

I also seem to remember OUTRAGE from the Dem Congress scolding the Big-Three Auto makers for flying their personal jets to Washington for hearings. And that was THEIR OWN MONEY. The hypocricy is unbelievable in this administration. Hey Obama! Gasoline is up 50 cents in 2 weeks! What are you going to do about that? It was Bush's fault last year, isn't it yours now? What's the carbon footprint of flying 3 jets from Washington to NYC and back within a 6 hour period? It's OK for you, though. Sorry, buddy... when you accept the mantle of the presidency you really have to cut back on the frivolity. Broadway will still be there in 4 years. And I mean 4 years.

Complete, sickly-sweet reporting of the date here.

The Russians know Communism when they see it

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

True, the situation has been well prepared on and off for the past century, especially the past twenty years. The initial testing grounds was conducted upon our Holy Russia and a bloody test it was. But we Russians would not just roll over and give up our freedoms and our souls, no matter how much money Wall Street poured into the fists of the Marxists.

Those lessons were taken and used to properly prepare the American populace for the surrender of their freedoms and souls, to the whims of their elites and betters.

--From Pravda.

Our Russian friend has hit the nail on the head here.

Sotomayor: "Empathy" in Action

Nothing demonstrates the fatal dangers from judicial "empathy" more than Judge Sotomayor's decision in a 2008 case involving firemen who took an exam for promotion. After the racial mix of those who passed that test turned out to be predominantly white, with only a few blacks and Hispanics, the results werethrown out.

All things being equal, who knew she could do it better than say...me...or you...just b/c she's a Latina woman and I'm a white man. I always thought the better person for the job should get the job regardless of skin color or background but what do I know, I'm just a conservative that thinks you should earn what you get out of life.
More from Thomas Sowell here

Dick's Terrorism Top 10!

Former Vice President Dick Cheney spoke Thursday on national security at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank. Here are the top ten lines in the speech, as compiled by the editors of FOX Nation:

No. 10: The administration has found that it’s easy to receive applause in Europe for closing Guantanamo. But it’s tricky to come up with an alternative that will serve the interests of justice and America’s national security.

No. 9: In the category of euphemism, the prizewinning entry would be a recent editorial in a familiar newspaper that referred to terrorists we’ve captured as, quote, “abducted.” Here we have ruthless enemies of this country, stopped in their tracks by brave operatives in the service of America, and a major editorial page makes them sound like they were kidnap victims, picked up at random on their way to the movies.

No. 8: If fine speech-making, appeals to reason, or pleas for compassion had the power to move them, the terrorists would long ago have abandoned the field. And when they see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don’t stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for – our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity.

No. 7: Yet having reserved for himself the authority to order enhanced interrogation after an emergency, you would think that President Obama would be less disdainful of what his predecessor authorized after 9/11. It’s almost gone unnoticed that the president has retained the power to order the same methods in the same circumstances. When they talk about interrogations, he and his administration speak as if they have resolved some great moral dilemma in how to extract critical information from terrorists. Instead they have put the decision off, while assigning a presumption of moral superiority to any decision they make in the future.

No. 6: To completely rule out enhanced interrogation methods in the future is unwise in the extreme. It is recklessness cloaked in righteousness, and would make the American people less safe.

No. 5: This recruitment-tool theory has become something of a mantra lately, including from the President himself. And after a familiar fashion, it excuses the violent and blames America for the evil that others do. It’s another version of that same old refrain from the Left, “We brought it on ourselves.” It is much closer to the truth that terrorists hate this country precisely because of the values we profess and seek to live by, not by some alleged failure to do so. Nor are terrorists or those who see them as victims exactly the best judges of America’s moral standards, one way or the other.

No. 4: Intelligence officers of the United States were not trying to rough up some terrorists simply to avenge the dead of 9/11. We know the difference in this country between justice and vengeance.

No. 3: To the very end of our administration, we kept al-Qaeda terrorists busy with other problems. We focused on getting their secrets, instead of sharing ours with them. And on our watch, they never hit this country again. After the most lethal and devastating terrorist attack ever, seven and a half years without a repeat is not a record to be rebuked and scorned, much less criminalized. It is a record to be continued until the danger has passed.

No. 2: In the fight against terrorism, there is no middle ground, and half-measures keep you half exposed. You cannot keep just some nuclear-armed terrorists out of the United States, you must keep every nuclear-armed terrorist out of the United States. Triangulation is a political strategy, not a national security strategy.

No. 1: Critics of our policies are given to lecturing on the theme of being consistent with American values. But no moral value held dear by the American people obliges public servants to sacrifice innocent lives to spare a captured terrorist from unpleasant things. And when an entire population is targeted by a terror network, nothing is more consistent with American values than to stop them.

Go, Dick, Go! I like #5 and #1 particularly

Original link here.

Pelosi loves Big Brother

Interesting she chose China as the locale to talk about it.

In answering a question from a student about how Pelosi was going to get Americans to cut back on their carbon emissions, the leading Democratic lawmaker said it was important to educate children on how to conserve energy and for citizens to build more environmentally friendly homes.

"We have so much room for improvement," she said. "Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory ... of how we are taking responsibility."

Can there be anymore obvious statement displaying the progressive statist mindset bent on controlling your life? They're coming for you. You have been warned. The rest of the article also shows how the Global Warming Hoax is being perpetrated and perpetuated by the progressive statists. There is no proof. There is no scientific consensus. Yet they use it to control your life.

Full AP Article here

Did Chrysler play politics with dealer closings?

Doug Ross has done a little digging and discovered a disturbing pattern in the choices Chrysler (and the Obama administration) made in closing dealerships.

It appears there is a real possibility that if you contributed to Republican candidates or the RNC, your number came up and your dealership was yanked.

A must read.
Pathetic.

Time to Legalize Counterfeiting

Universal counterfeiting could be the entitlement program that ends all other entitlement programs and sets us free. It is time to stand up and tell our legislators we want universal counterfeiting. If they protest, "You cannot just print money," then promptly respond in kind, "Why not? It works for you."

Sadly, this satire is exactly what our government is doing. Read more from American Thinker here. Don't forget to check out the comments!

Obama's Choice

"I'm not promoting it, I'm not advocating it, I'm y'know... hahahaha!!"

Yes.. >wink< Let's all have a good laugh as she runs roughshod over the Constitution. She obviously knows what it really says about her beliefs or she wouldn't have tried to retract what she said. Lets see if the mamby-pamby repubs have the balls to show this tape in hearings.

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” -- Judge Sotomayor

No racism there. Imagine if Justice Roberts had ever said:

“I would hope that a wise white male with the richness of his experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a Latina woman who hasn’t lived that life,”

The double standard being applied is so glaringly obvious. White male = oppressive majority. So she's such a strict constitutionalist that she's not going to apply this to her decisions? Please. We need justices that follow at the law and do not try to legislate from the bench.
Also... Obama wouldn't be "Hispandering" here, would he?
More in the NYTimes

Another Promise Broken

...and an important one.

"When there's a bill that ends up on my desk as president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what's in it before I sign it, so that you know what your government's doing," Mr. Obama said in a major campaign speech laying out his goals for transparency.

Guess what? Not happening.
Article here.

Supreme Court Nominee Should Equal an NFL Referee

The Pittsburgh Steelers have won six Super Bowl titles, seven AFC championships and hosted 10 conference games. No other AFC or NFC team can match this record. By contrast, the Arizona Cardinals' last championship victory was in 1947 when they were based in Chicago. In anyone's book, this is a gross disparity. Should the referees have the empathy to understand what it's like to be a perennial loser and what would you think of a referee whose decisions were guided by his empathy? Suppose a referee, in the name of compensatory justice, stringently applied pass interference or roughing the passer violations against the Steelers and less stringently against the Cardinals. Or, would you support a referee who refused to make offensive pass interference calls because he thought it was a silly rule? You'd probably remind him that the league makes the rules, not referees.

I'm betting that most people would agree that football justice requires that referees apply the rules blindly and independent of the records or any other characteristic of the two teams. Moreover, I believe that most people would agree that referees should evenly apply the rules of the games even if they personally disagreed with some of the rules.

The relationship between Supreme Court justices and the U.S. Constitution should be identical to that of referees and football rules.

Obama said he wants to nominate a justice with empathy for certain causes. Considering how he's rocked the boat as of late with his fellow liberals, who knows, maybe he'll shock us all and do the right thing and pick a justice with the best credentials for the job.

More from Walter E. Willams here

Liberals frustrated on gun, Guantanamo issues

Reality is like kryptonite to the liberal mind.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Frustrated liberals are asking why a Democratic-controlled Congress and White House can't manage to close the Guantanamo prison or keep new gun-rights laws from passing.

After all, President Barack Obama pledged to shut down the military detention center on Cuba for suspected terrorists. And Democratic control of the government would suggest that any gun legislation leads to tighter controls on weapons, not expanded use.

ha ha... he fooled you too, peaceniks. Sucks when they lie to ya, doesn't it. "But he promised..." ha ha ha haaa!!!

"We'll probably end up passing more gun bills" that expand owners' rights "than we did during the Republican administration," said Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, D-N.Y., a leading gun control advocate. "That is what surprises me."She placed less blame on the White House than on ordinary Americans and advocacy groups that are consistently outflanked by gun owners' groups, especially the National Rifle Association.
"Until the American people say enough is enough, and get active in it," Democratic control of Congress and the White House will not be enough to turn the tide, said McCarthy, whose husband was killed by a gunman in 1993.

Maybe people are getiing wise to the fact that people's rights are more important than personal crusades. The gun didn't kill your husband, Mrs. McCarthy. A deranged lunatic did. If he had stabbed your husband to death, Mrs. McCarthy... would you push to ban Knives?

The Senate voted 90-6 to join the House in blocking the transfer of any prisoners from Guantanamo. Harsh treatment and indefinite detention of suspects there have sparked worldwide criticisms of the U.S. government and helped al-Qaida recruit volunteers, said Obama, who pledges to close the prison early next year. Lawmakers say they want more details on where detainees will be sent.

Somebody realized that these cupcakes really are a danger. Duh! How about we keep them in Gitmo! They say keeping Gitmo open only serves as a recruiting tool for al-Q. Nonsense. Letting our enemy know that they will be treated with kid gloves and showered with legal rights, they'll be more than ready to sign up. It's easy! Go blow something up, they'll ask you a few questions... they can't touch you, your ACLU lawyer shouts racism, and they let you go! Perfect! What a recruitment tool!!!

Also Wednesday, the House voted overwhelmingly to join the Senate in letting people carry loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges. More than 100 House Democrats and 174 Republicans voted for the gun measure, which was attached to an Obama-backed bill imposing new restrictions on credit card companies.

Now maybe an armed, law-abiding citizen can stop a deranged lunatic like the one who killed Mrs McCarthy's husband. I still find it amazing how they can tack a gun bill on a credit card bill. Although funnier still, There's nothing in the Constitution that gives the government any power to a) regulate Credit Card companies and b) abridge the rights of all americans to keep and bear arms.

Full AP Article. Great quotes from idiot liberals mad at their own party.

Memorial Day 2009

It is the VETERAN, not the preacher,
who has given us freedom of religion.

It is the VETERAN, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.

It is the VETERAN, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.

It is the VETERAN, not the community organizer,
who has given us freedom to assemble.

It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.

It is the VETERAN, not the politician,
who has given us the right to vote.

It is the VETERAN who salutes the Flag,
It is the VETERAN who serves under the Flag.

GRANT THEM ETERNAL REST, O LORD,
AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.

Amen.

Flip-Flops and Governance

Barack Obama inherited a set of national-security policies that he rejected during the campaign but now embraces as president. This is a stunning and welcome about-face.

At least he's doing something right.
More from Karl Rove here

Photographic Fraud

Some might argue that, in the absence of the cameras, many people might not know what is going on in Congress or in the courts. But being uninformed is not nearly as bad as being misled.

In the words of former follower of the Chosen One 10yrs. from now..."So this is how we got here."
Read more from Thomas Sowell here

The Blame Game

What changed that was not the market but politicians like Barney Frank and his Senate counterpart Christopher Dodd, pushing the "affordable housing" crusade through government intervention, in disregard of the risks that they were repeatedly warned about by people inside and outside of government.

I think more rhetoric can fix this problem, we just need to talk about it and throw money at it and it should all go away in no time.
More from Thomas Sowell here

Talking Points

When we look back at history, it is amazing what foolish and even childish things people said and did on the eve of a catastrophe about to consume them. In 1938, with Hitler preparing to unleash a war in which tens of millions of men, women and children would be slaughtered, the play that was the biggest hit on the Paris stage was a play about French and German reconciliation, and a French pacifist that year dedicated his book to Adolf Hitler. When historians of the future look back on our era, what will they think of our time? Our media too squeamish to call murderous and sadistic terrorists anything worse than "militants" or "insurgents"? Our president going abroad to denigrate the country that elected him, pandering to feckless allies and outright enemies, and literally bowing to a foreign tyrant ruling a country from which most of the 9/11 terrorists came?

Better yet, when future historians look back at the rubble that was once America, will they see January 20, 2009 as the tipping point of American history?
Read all about it from Thomas Sowell here

Soak the Rich, Lose the Rich

More recently, Barry W. Poulson of the University of Colorado last year examined many factors that explain why some states grew richer than others from 1964 to 2004 and found "a significant negative impact of higher marginal tax rates on state economic growth." In other words, soaking the rich doesn't work. To the contrary, middle-class workers end up taking the hit. Finally, there is the issue of whether high-income people move away from states that have high income-tax rates. Examining IRS tax return data by state, E.J. McMahon, a fiscal expert at the Manhattan Institute, measured the impact of large income-tax rate increases on the rich ($200,000 income or more) in Connecticut, which raised its tax rate in 2003 to 5% from 4.5%; in New Jersey, which raised its rate in 2004 to 8.97% from 6.35%; and in New York, which raised its tax rate in 2003 to 7.7% from 6.85%. Over the period 2002- 2005, in each of these states the "soak the rich" tax hike was followed by a significant reduction in the number of rich people paying taxes in these states relative to the national average. Amazingly, these three states ranked 46th, 49th and 50th among all states in the percentage increase in wealthy tax filers in the years after they tried to soak the rich.

Hopefully this will open the eyes of the Obama administration that they need to spend a few hours to create a law prohibiting rich people from leaving high income tax states.
Read more here

The Great Ethanol Scam

More than one major transportation -based industry in America besides Detroit is on the ropes. For the fourth time in our history the ethanol industry has come undone and is quickly failing nationally. Of course it's one thing when Detroit collapsed with the economy; after all, that is a truly free-market enterprise and the economy hasn't been good. But the fact that the ethanol industry is going bankrupt, when the only reason we use this additive is a massive government
mandate, is outrageous at best.

Eerie parallel here...if it doesn't work, mandate more of it. Does this sound familiar?
Read more about the road aheadfor your poor fuel pump here

"Empathy" Versus Law: Part IV

While President Barack Obama has, in one sense, tipped his hand by saying that he wants judges with "empathy" for certain groups, he has in a more fundamental sense concealed the real goal -- getting judges who will ratify an ever-expanding scope ofthe power of the federal government and an ever-declining restraint by the Constitution of the United States. This is consistent with everything else that Obama has done in office and is consistent with his decades-long track record of alliances with people who reject the fundamentals of American society. What is at stake in Supreme Court nominations is the power of the federal government. "Empathy" is just camouflage, a soothing word for those who do not look beyond nice-sounding rhetoric.

... And unfortunately, those who don't look beyond the nice sounding rhetoric number in the millions upon millions.
Click here for the truth from Thomas Sowell

"Empathy" Versus Law: Part III

Since Justice David Souter is likely to be replaced by another liberal, it is all too easy to say that it is no big deal. But with all the indications already as to how the Obama administration is trying to remake America on many fronts, the time to begin alerting the public to the dangers is now.

Maybe with enough trumpet sounding, squeaky gates and and some educating of the American public, we can avert disaster when the next justice calls it a career.

An absolute must read by Thomas Sowell  here

"Empathy" Versus Law: Part II

Some have tried to depict Justice Holmes as someone who saw no need for morality in the law. On the contrary,he said: "The law is the witness and external deposit of our moral life." But a society's need to put moral content into its laws did not mean that it was the judge's job to second-guess the moral choices made by others who were authorized to make such choices.

By the looks of the potential appointees, I wonder if any of them even know what morals are...seriously.
More from Thomas Sowell here

"Empathy" Versus Law Part I

That we are discussing the next Supreme Court justice in terms of group "representation" is a sign of how far we have already strayed from the purpose of law and the weighty responsibility of appointing someone to sit for life on the highest court in the land.

So long as we meet our quota, who cares which justice will make a better...well...justice. Right?

More on the subject from Thomas Sowell here

600 Steelers out of Work

Take, for instance, Duferco Farrell Corp., a Swiss-Russian partnership that took over a previously bankrupt U.S. steel plant near Pittsburgh in the 1990s and employed 600 people there.

The new buy American provisions, the company said, are being so broadly interpreted that Duferco Farrell is on the verge of shutting down. Part of an increasingly global supply chain that seeks efficiencies by spreading production among multiple nations, it manufactures coils at its Pennsylvania plant using imported steel slabs that are generally not sold commercially in the United States. The partially foreign production process means the company’s coils do not fit the current definition of made in the USA — a designation that the stimulus law requires for thousands of public works projects across the nation.

In recent weeks, its largest client — a steel pipemaker located one mile down the road — notified Duferco Farrell that it would be canceling orders. Instead, the client is buying from companies with 100 percent U.S. production to meet the new stimulus regulations. Duferco has had to furlough 80 percent of its workforce.

“You need to tell me how inhibiting business between two companies located one mile apart is going to save American jobs,” said Bob Miller, Duferco Farrell’s executive vice president. “I’ve got 600 United Steel Workers out there who are going to lose their jobs because of this. And you tell me this is good for America?“

From PAWaterCooler.com

Obama and the Alternative Energy Fiasco

by Jon Basil Utley

It's only a matter of time before President Barack Obama's vast popularity runs aground on his energy policies. In the name of saving the planet from global warming, he has delayed new oil drilling, an action that will have major political repercussions once the world economy recovers. Instead of using some the stimulus billions to produce more gas and oil, Obama's wild-eyed supporters dream of "renewable" energy derived from corn, wind, sunshine, and even grass.

With the appointment of extremists like climate czar Carol Browner and science adviser John Holdren, Obama has placed his administration's environmental policy in the hands of radicals. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar proposes replacing oil and coal with windmills. Yet Barron's recently reported that America would need to build 500,000 giant offshore windmills and transmission lines to produce Salazar's specified 1,900 gigawatts of electricity. In contrast, oil and gas drilling could provide hundreds of thousands of solid, well-paying blue-collar jobs. Washington Post economics columnist Robert Samuelson explains this in "The Bias Against Oil & Gas," describing how alternative energy job creation is miniscule compared to what an expansion of oil production would create. Meanwhile, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) have proposed legislation giving legal standing to allow Americans to sue any company that produces "greenhouse" gasses.

All of these things are happening at a time when natural gas is abundant and cheap. The new technology of horizontal fraccing has made it economically feasible to drill into vast shale deposits in many states, even famously difficult ones like Michigan and New York. Many cars could run on natural gas, much like many buses do already. On a recent trip to Peru, I learned that most taxicabs have been converted to natural gas for a cost of about $1,000 each. New technologies continually revive old oil and gas fields and make new ones economically viable. So it's little more than socialist Malthusianism to argue that the world is running out of cheap energy. Science will always find and harness new sources. Even the liberal New Republic recently admitted that, "Utopian environmentalism has, to some extent, always promised to heal the alienation wrought by modernity... it is a form of escapism and disengagement from reality." The extremists scoff at science and would apparently prefer scarcity so that bureaucratic rationing will enforce a change in American lifestyles.

Instead of producing more of the cheap, abundant energy that fueled America's dynamic growth, the extremists who support and surround Obama dream of drastically cutting American consumption. Many of them would like to see the government force General Motors to make flimsy little cars that run on electricity (or alternative energy) at the cost of billions. Meanwhile, the Sierra Club magazine recently boasted of helping to block construction of 96 coal-fired power plants and helping to impose a de facto moratorium on all new plants.

Currently, half of the drilling rigs in America are shutdown because of low oil and gas prices. Most smaller oil companies have suffered severe damage or even gone bankrupt by their inability to renew loans or gain credit. Likewise, the majors have few safe options in foreign countries but would invest heavily in offshore American exploration, if it were permitted.

So what about the so-called green alternatives? Forbes recently detailed the problems with windmills. First, they depend upon a two-cent-per-kilowatt taxpayer subsidy to remain competitive. They also require backup gas generators (in case the wind isn't blowing when needed) and new transmission lines running from windy places to population centers. And while new technologies to store wind-generated electricity are in the works, they have so far proven uneconomical. Nor does this even begin to consider the years of legal delays that would likely result from litigious neighbors opposed to new transmission towers. Solar power is even more expensive and would also require additional billions for backup generators and new transmission lines. Compare those unseen costs to the clear benefits of coal and gas plants where transmission lines are already built.

New oil and gas technologies could also help the U.S. from importing so much oil. But the Obama administration is stalling and trying to stop the offshore drilling approved by the previous Congress. The White House has also shut down previously permitted onshore drilling and burdened drillers with costly new restrictions. Meanwhile, $80 billion in stimulus spending has been earmarked for "renewable" energy. The plan is to give a 30 percent tax credit for the associated costs.

Americans will soon again feel the sting of gasoline costing $3.00 or $4.00 per gallon and then come to recognize how we've wasted years of opportunity to produce more energy domestically. For instance, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that there are 85 billion barrels of offshore oil. (And that is an old number. It is almost certain to increase once new exploration and testing are permitted.) New supplies in continental America, not to mention the billions of barrels now accessible in Alaska, could transform our trade deficit by cutting hundreds of billions of dollars in imports. This would help rescue the value of the dollar, alleviate the cost of maintaining armies and navies in the Middle East, and help save free trade from the latest round of restrictions.

It's also essential to remember that so-called renewable energy cannot replace oil and natural gas in any significant way. For example, corn-based ethanol production "costs" nearly as much to produce as it saves in oil and can only exist with the help of costly and unending subsidies. Government, in other words, gets what it pays for. If it offers subsidies to alleviate global warming or make gasoline from grass, it will find promoters who will gladly accept that money and deliver scant results.

With the Republicans no longer handicapped by leaders like George W. Bush and John McCain, both of who caved before environmental extremists, Obama's energy policies might be a strong issue for conservatives and libertarians to rally around, and perhaps change their political fortunes. Remember that McCain famously opposed drilling in ANWR, while Bush promised the country that a gasoline substitute could be produced from switch grass.

One day the alternative energy fiasco will be studied as a vast example of waste and fraud that contributed to the collapse of the dollar and to lower living standards for most Americans. Let's hope that day comes sooner rather than later.

Jon Basil Utley is associate publisher of The American Conservative. He is a former insurance executive with AIG and a former South American correspondent for Knight Ridder.
Article here.

Socialism and Secularism Suck Vitality Out of Society

By Dennis Prager
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Outside of politics, sports, and popular entertainment, how many living Germans, or French, or Austrians, or even Brits can you name?

Even well-informed people who love art and literature and who follow developments in science and medicine would be hard pressed to come up with many, more often any, names. In terms of greatness in literature, art, music, the sciences, philosophy, and medical breakthroughs, Europe has virtually fallen off the radar screen.


This is particularly meaningful given how different the answer would have been had you asked anyone the same question between just 80 and 120 years ago -- and certainly before that. A plethora of world-renowned names would have flowed.

Obvious examples would include (in alphabetical order): Brecht, Buber, Cezanne, Chekhov, Curie, Debussy, Eiffel, Einstein, Freud, Hesse, Kafka, Mahler, Mann, Marconi, Pasteur, Porsche, Proust, Somerset Maugham, Strauss, Stravinsky, Tolstoy, Zeppelin, Zola.

Not to mention the European immortals who lived within the century before them: Mozart, Beethoven, Dostoevsky, Darwin, Kierkegaard, Manet, Monet, Hugo and Van Gogh, to name only a few.

What has happened?

What has happened is that Europe, with a few exceptions, has lost its creativity, intellectual excitement, industrial innovation, and risk taking. Europe’s creative energy has been sapped. There are many lovely Europeans; but there aren’t many creative, dynamic, or entrepreneurial ones.

The issues that preoccupy most Europeans are overwhelmingly material ones: How many hours per week will I have to work? How much annual vacation time will I have? How many social benefits can I preserve (or increase)? How can my country avoid fighting against anyone or for anyone?

Why has this happened?

There are two reasons: secularism and socialism (aka the welfare state).

Either one alone sucks much of the life out of society. Together they are likely to be lethal.

Even if one holds that religion is false, only a dogmatic and irrational secularist can deny that it was religion in the Western world that provided the impetus or backdrop for nearly all the uniquely great art, literature, economic and even scientific advances of the West. Even the irreligious were forced to deal with religious themes -- if only in expressing rebellion against them.

Religion in the West raised all the great questions of life: Why are we here? Is there purpose to existence? Were we deliberately made? Is there something after death? Are morals objective or only a matter of personal preference? Do rights come from the state or from the Creator?

And religion gave positive responses: We are here because a benevolent God made us. There is, therefore, ultimate purpose to life. Good and evil are real. Death is not the end. Human rights are inherent since they come from God. And so on.

Secularism drains all this out of life. No one made us. Death is the end. We are no more significant than any other creatures. We are all the results of mere coincidence. Make up your own meaning (existentialism) because life has none. Good and evil are merely euphemisms for “I like” and “I dislike.”

Thus, when religion dies in a country, creativity wanes. For example, while Christian Russia was backward in many ways, it still gave the world Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Tchaikovsky. Once Christianity was suppressed, if not killed, in Russia, that country became a cultural wasteland (with a few exceptions like Shostakovich and Solzhenitsyn, the latter a devout Christian). It is true that this was largely the result of Lenin, Stalin and Communism; but even where Communism did not take over, the decline of religion in Europe meant a decline in human creativity -- except for nihilistic and/or absurd isms, which have greatly increased. As G. K. Chesterton noted at the end of the 19th century, when people stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing, they believe in anything. One not only thinks of the violent isms: Marxism, Marxism-Leninism, Fascism, Maoism, and Nazism, but of all the non-violent isms that have become substitute religions – e.g., feminism, environmentalism, and socialism.

The state sucks out creativity and dynamism just as much as secularism does. Why do anything for yourself when the state will do it for you? Why take care of others when the state will do it for you? Why have ambition when the state is there to ensure that few or no individuals are rewarded more than others?

America has been the center of energy and creativity in almost every area of life because it has remained far more religious than any other industrialized Western democracy and because it has rejected the welfare state social model.

Which is why so many are so worried about President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party’s desire to transform -- in their apt wording -- America into a secular welfare state. The greatest engine of moral, religious, economic, scientific, and industrial dynamism is being starved of its fuel. The bigger the state, the smaller its people.

Original article here at Townhall.com

North Hills Toyota

Remind me to never, EVER buy a car from North Hills Toyota. You would 'think' with everything going on in the auto industry you might not see this... but then again...
Click here to find out why.

Capitalism Goes Out Of Tune

In "Democracy in America," Alexis de Tocqueville anticipated people being governed by "an immense, tutelary power" determined to take "sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate." It would be a power "absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident and gentle,"aiming for our happiness but wanting "to be the only agent and the sole arbiter of that happiness." It would, Tocqueville said, provide people security, anticipate their needs, direct their industries and divide their inheritances. It would envelop society in "a network of petty regulations — complicated, minute and uniform." But softly: "It does not break wills; it softens them, bends them, and directs them" until people resemble "a herd of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

We're being led to the slaughter-house and, with the exception of the tea parties, no one seems to care. Wake up people!
More from George Will's essay here

White House mum on Sykes’ GOP jokes

"You know you might want to look into this, sir, because I think Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker but he was just so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight."

What's funny here is yet another mis-informed celebrity in a long line of mis-informed celebrities. Note to Sykes, read the newspapers!
For more on this hysterical circus act, click here

Miss Calif. to learn whether she'll keep crown

The pageant has been investigating whether the 21-year-old San Diego native violated her contract by making public appearances with groups opposed to same-sex marriage.

If you're going to DQ her for posing in her underwear as a teenager, fine...but not for this crap.
More here

The Hamas 'Peace' Gambit

The Hamas peace plan, as explained by the New York Times: "Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?" by Tom Lehrer, satirist

Perhaps a hearty handshake between The Chosen One and Meshal will do the trick?
Read more from Charles Krauthamerhere

WHY WON'T OBAMA RELEASE THE PHOTOS?

After the taxpayers spent $328,000 on pictures of Air Force One over Manhattan, and after hundreds of New Yorkers marked their shorts, Obama has decided that the photos will not be released to the public. Sort of odd, isn't it? After all, this White House has been eager to release other photos! How about pictures of American troops "torturing" Islamic radicals? How about pictures of the coffins of dead American soldiers returning from the Middle East? Those pictures are just fine, thank you very much. But those pictures of Air Force One? No way. And why not? Well ... here are two possibilities:

1. The Obama White House knows that those photos will be a constant reminder to the people of his free spending policies.

2. If the pictures are released someone will immediately duplicate them using Photoshop .. and dare you to tell the difference.

Just a bit embarrassing. Hard to blame him, isn't it? Release of those photos only leads to additional embarrassment.

From Neal Boortz

Study: Declining Great Lakes Levels Entirely Natural

Detroit, Mich. — Like polar bears, hurricanes, and arctic ice caps, recent drops in Great Lake water levels have been a poster child for green activists’ claims that the global warming crisis is upon us. A sampling:

April, 2003, Detroit News: “A group of scientists predicted that global warming will wreak havoc on the Great Lakes region . . . the largest single concentration of fresh water in the world.”

October, 2003, Detroit Free Press: “The idea that warming has benefits may be a particularly tough sell to Michiganders already disturbed by what happens when the Great Lakes drop near historic lows.”

April, 2007, Detroit News: “Data from a new United Nations report on climate change . . . strengthens scientific opinion that Michigan will see other dramatic effects in the coming decades: lower Great Lakes water levels, a dramatically receding Lake St. Clair. . . . ”

May, 2008, Detroit News: “A report released by an environmental group warns that unless Congress acts to curb global warming, Great Lakes water levels will drop up to 3 feet; beaches will close more often, and fish and animal populations will decline.”

Never mind.

In a comprehensive, two-year study of Great Lakes water levels, Canadian and American researchers working for the International Joint Commission this week found Mother Nature was to blame. “It’s not ongoing. It has definitely stabilized,” said Ted Yuzyk, the Canadian co-chair of the study, who added the changes have reversed in the last two years anyway. “And it’s not human driven. This is more natural.”

“Record high levels were seen in the early 1950s, in 1973, and again in 1985-1986,” reads The International Upper Great Lakes Study. “In the late 1990s, a nearly 30-year period of above-average water level conditions in the upper Great Lakes ended. Since then, Lake Michigan-Huron and Lake Superior have experienced lower than average lake level conditions.”

Among the natural factors that explain the lakes cyclical rise and fall, reported the Detroit News, “were changing climate patterns, including greater rain and snow” and “shifts in the ’s crust, called glacial isostatic adjustment, that are the result of the planet's rebound from the melting of glaciers 10,000 years ago.”

Green groups were not amused. Facts are such inconvenient things.

Lovingly taken from Henry Payne's Blog Planet Gore at NRO.

Can You Believe This?

I don't believe in UFOs, but that has to be the only viable explanation behind this nonsense. Someone please call the MIB!

Extremist Lexicon

Published, but pulled back by Homeland Security. I wonder why? Could it be that it basically outlines everything wrong with the government today? Which one fits you? I fit into quite a few!

(U) alternative media
(U//FOUO) A term used to describe various information sources that provide a forum for interpretations of events and
issues that differ radically from those presented in mass media products and outlets.

You are now looking at and extremist site. I guess that makes you one too!

(U) anti-immigration extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of groups or individuals who are vehemently opposed to illegal immigration, particularly along
the U.S. southwest border with Mexico, and who have been known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts
of violence and terrorism to advance their extremist goals. They are highly critical of the U.S. Government’s response to
illegal immigration and oppose government programs that are designed to extend “rights” to illegal aliens, such as issuing
driver’s licenses or national identification cards and providing in-state tuition, medical benefits, or public education.

Now, I don't advocate violence but I do advocate following this nation's laws. Lord knows that I should not be "highly critical of the U.S. Government’s response to illegal immigration and oppose government programs that are designed to extend “rights” to illegal aliens, such as issuing driver’s licenses or national identification cards and providing in-state tuition, medical benefits, or public education." It might lower an illegal alien's self esteem. Notice how they don't title it anti-illegal immigration. It only says "illegal" further in.

(U) patriot movement
(U//FOUO) A term used by rightwing extremists to link their beliefs to those commonly associated with the American
Revolution. The patriot movement primarily comprises violent antigovernment groups such as militias and sovereign
citizens. (also: Christian patriots, patriot group, Constitutionalists, Constitutionist)

God forbid we follow the Constitution! i just love the way they throw "violent" in there. Has one Tea Party erupted in violence?

(U) rightwing extremism
(U//FOUO) A movement of rightwing groups or individuals who can be broadly divided into those who are primarily hate-oriented, and those who are mainly antigovernment and reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority. This term also may refer to rightwing extremist movements that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration. (also known as far right, extreme right)

Hate-oriented? What does that mean? I hate liver and onions. Does that make me a danger to cattlemen and meat producers. This is just a pretext to labeling "alternative media" as hate speech. It's coming. You just watch. As for rejecting Federal for State Government, what's wrong with that? All states have the right to secede from the "union." I just love the way they lump in immigration (note: not "illegal" immigration) and abortion as right wing causes.

(U) tax resistance movement
(U//FOUO) Groups or individuals who vehemently believe taxes violate their constitutional rights. Among their beliefs are that wages are not income, that paying income taxes is voluntary, and that the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allowed Congress to levy taxes on income, was not properly ratified. Members have been known to advocate or engage in criminal activity and plot acts of violence and terrorism in an attempt to advance their extremist goals. They often target government entities such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
(also: tax protest movement, tax freedom movement, antitax movement)

This one is patently ridiculous! Do you know one american who smiles as he licks closed the envelope to send his check to the government on April 15th? Do you see one worker look at his diminished paycheck and bask in the warmth of his withholdings? Btw... when's the last time someone blew up an IRS facility?

And of course... the one everybody is trying...

(U) racial Nordic mysticism
(U//FOUO) An ideology adopted by many white supremacist
prison gangs who embrace a Norse mythological religion,
such as Odinism or Asatru.
(also: Odinism, Asatru)

Read the story and download the lexicon here. I hope they can keep the pdf link open. let's watch and see.

The things you don’t read about Barack Obama

The Portuguese water dog and Alaskan "hillbillies" news beats apparently leave little time for anything remotely skeptical of the president of the United States. And they wonder why folks aren’t buying the papers like they used to.

So here is a small selection of news on the most powerful man on Earth which has been deemed unfit to print:

•Obama’s first two major bills alone, the "stimulus" and "omnibus," cost nearly twice as much as was spent on Iraq over six years – $1.2 trillion vs. $650 billion.

•Obama abandoned his campaign promise of "a net spending cut," his first annual deficit – not counting bailouts – being three times the worst deficit under President George W. Bush.

•Obama’s objective in his first G20 summit – commitments to spend our way to prosperity with massive stimulus boondoggles across the G20 – was rejected out of hand.

•Obama’s objective in his first NATO summit – commitments to combat troops for Afghanistan from "our European allies," which Obama and his party imagined were ready and willing to fight if only someone "enlightened" like him were running things – was predictably refused, with some more European non-combat contingents offered as a token.

•Obama’s Defence Department announced cuts of $1.4 billion to missile defence, the day after North Korea test-fired its long-range, multi-stage ballistic missile.

•Obama’s economics were criticized by Warren Buffet, whose endorsement had been candidate Obama’s highest economic credential.

•Obama reversed the free trade Bush policy that had allowed about 100 Mexican tractor-trailers into the United States, which the Mexican government immediately used as an excuse to levy tariffs on 90 American goods amounting to $2.4 billion in U.S. exports.

•Obama’s "tax cuts for 95 per cent" turned out to mean $13 a week from June to December, to be clawed back to $8 a week in January – as compared with President Bush’s 2008 tax rebates of $600 to $1,200 plus $300 per child, which were notably scoffed at during the election campaign by Michelle Obama.

•Obama’s campaign promise of a $3,000-per-employee tax credit for businesses that hired new workers – repeated ad nauseam for weeks before the election – was discreetly retired even before inauguration day.

•Obama abandoned his campaign promise that "lobbyists won’t work in my White House," waiving his no-lobbyist executive order or conveniently re-

defining his appointees’ past lobbying work to allow 30 lobbyists into his administration.

•Obama abandoned his campaign promise to reform earmarks, signing the omnibus bill which contained 8,816 of them.

•Obama took more money from AIG than any other politician in 2008 – over $100,000 – and signed into law the provision guaranteeing the AIG bonuses which later had him in front of the cameras "shaking with outrage" and siccing the pitchfork crowd on law-abiding citizens who had fulfilled their end of a contract and had their payment upheld by Obama’s own legislation.

You'd have to be blind to see how much in the tank the media is for Obama. He can do no wrong. Just watch them leap like the good dogs they are!

Full op-ed article by Andrew Smith here. A must read.

Torture? No. Except . . .

Judging by Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress who were informed at the time, the answer seems to be yes. In December 2007, after a report in The Post that she had knowledge of these procedures and did not object, she admitted that she'd been "briefed on interrogation techniques the administration was considering using in the future." Today Pelosi protests "we were not -- I repeat -- were not told that waterboarding or any other of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used." She imagines that this distinction between past and present, Clintonian in its parsing, is exonerating.

If it walks like a coward, talks like a coward, looks and acts like a coward, it must be a coward.
Must read here

NOW THIS IS NEWS!!!

Obamas take a walk, holding hands in the evening
May 3, 3:40 PM (ET)
By CHRISTINE SIMMONS
WASHINGTON (AP) - The first couple took full advantage of the cool spring night. After a date night out on Saturday evening, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama decided to take a stroll when their motorcade arrived back at the White House.

So they began walking on the driveway of the White House South Lawn while holding hands. First they passed the West Wing, then their children's swing set. They kept walking, swinging their hands together.
There were no Secret Service agents right behind them - the agents stood off, in one of the rare moments that the Obamas had private space outside the White House walls.

As the Obamas walked behind shrubbery and out of sight, the unscripted moment left reporters guessing where they were going. To the vegetable garden? The basketball court? No final word, but they eventually came back the same way from where they started, rounding out their 8-minute walk.

The walk wrapped up one of their first date nights in the District since they've lived at the White House. Before arriving home and taking the stroll, the president and first lady dined out for nearly two hours at a posh Georgetown restaurant.

The stroll was a quiet contrast to their dinner outing. The Obamas' visit to Georgetown attracted thick crowds of onlookers who were held back by police tape, while sirens occasionally wailed and a protester chanted outside the restaurant.

Unbelievable. Don't the media have anything better to do?

I cant wait to see the next headline:
COLOSSAL GAFFE! Michelle meets French Ambassador with large zit on forehead and improper footwear.

WTF?

Actual fluff article here.

Now I know it's a hoax...

ecoAmerica has been conducting research for the last several years to find new ways to frame environmental issues and so build public support for climate change legislation and other initiatives. A summary of the group’s latest findings and recommendations was accidentally sent by e-mail to a number of news organizations by someone who sat in this week on a briefing intended for government officials and environmental leaders.

Oops! But wait... There's more!

The answer, Mr. Perkowitz said in his presentation at the briefing, is to reframe the issue using different language. “Energy efficiency” makes people think of shivering in the dark. Instead, it is more effective to speak of “saving money for a more prosperous future.” In fact, the group’s surveys and focus groups found, it is time to drop the term “the environment” and talk about “the air we breathe, the water our children drink.”

“Another key finding: remember to speak in TALKING POINTS aspirational language about shared American ideals, like freedom, prosperity, independence and self-sufficiency while avoiding jargon and details about policy, science, economics or technology,” said the e-mail account of the group’s study.

Mr. Perkowitz and allies in the environmental movement have been briefing officials in Congress and the administration in the hope of using the findings to change the terms of the debate now under way in Washington.

You're right, ecoAmerica! Don't bog us down with facts or science... just TALKING POINTS!!!!

Article from the NY Times, no less.

Obama hopes to replace Souter by October

The joke of the century:

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama said Friday he will replace retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter with someone who shares the president's respect for "constitutional values" and hopes to have "him or her" seated on the highest U.S. court by the start of its next term in October.

I take that back, THIS is the joke of the century:

Obama's first pick is likely to be a liberal-leaning nominee.

Really? Thanks, Mr. Obvious. How convenient that he waited until just after the 'Chosen One's' inauguration to make this announcement.
For more, click here