Pravda Provides Real Truth

In the 1980s, I requested a box of pamphlets from the embassy of the Soviet Union in support of a college project. One of the pamphlets I recieved was entitled "Pravda Provides REAL Truth", supporting the honest reporting of the Communist Party's mouthpiece newspaper. I wish I still had the pamphlet.

Here, 25-odd years later, I am looking at the pravda.ru website, post-Soviet Union, and today at least, Pravda is providing real truth. I quote from the article:

"[T]he 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."

"First, the population was dumbed down through a politicized and substandard education system based on pop culture, rather then the classics."

"Then their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" ... were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks ... were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power."

"The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more then another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe."

Frankly, and sadly, I could not agree more with Pravda's guest editorialist. Read it yourself.

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-0/

Roared In Like a Lion, Leaves With a Whimper

Time-Warner announced today that it will spin off AOL, dumping the company that purchased Time Warner nine years ago in what was to be the first of the megadeals where Internet companies would buy up all the old media.

AOL failed as a media giant for the same reason movies make more money than the theatres do - content is more valuable than access.

The other piece hitting old media now is that multiple-source access is more valuable than single source access. Newspapers are dead, they just don't know it yet.

More Thoughts on Sotomayor

We know that Republican appointments to the Supreme Court have been hit and miss - for every Scalia there is a Souter, for every Rehnquist there is an Earl Warren, for every Thomas there is a Stevens.

The Democrats, no disappointments -- all liberal appointments are liberals, through and through. Often, they reflect the liberal nuance of the liberal appointing them.

Enter former Constitutional Law instructor B. Hussein Obama. In 2001, the Marxist Obama held forth the following about the Supreme Court and obsession number one for him -- redistribution of wealth.

"If you look at the victories and failures of the civil rights movement and its litigation strategy in the court, I think where it succeeded was to invest formal rights in previously dispossessed people, so that now I would have the right to vote. But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in society. One of the, I think, tragedies of the civil rights movement was because the civil rights movement became so court-focused I think there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing and activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalition of powers through which you bring about redistributive change. In some ways we still suffer from that."

Now, we know the Anointed One wants a Supreme Court Justice that has "empathy" with the suffering from not enough Supreme Court redistribution of wealth. His perfect SCOTUS candidate was described as follows: "I will seek someone who understands that justice ... is about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives, whether they can make a living and care for their families ... and welcome in their own nation. I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles, as an essential ingredient for arriving at just decisions and outcomes."

The concept of justice being blind is a fundamental requirement of justice, because it is not justice when the cards are stacked in favor of one party over another. A judge is not a judge if she applies empathy towards a party to strive for a "just outcome." At that point, the judge takes off the blind and becomes an unelected policy maker.

It is precisely in this judge as policymaker position which Sonia Sotomayor feels comfortable, if you look at her own words. One point of Sotomayor's now-famous La Raza speech was that the life experiences of women and minorities in the law often inform - nay, dictate - the ultimate outcome of a case, leading to some greater overall, racially- economically- or gender-sensitive "justice." In her speech, she rejects neutral application of the law to the facts, but instead supports some idea that a minority or female judge's"richness of life experiences" will ensure that they necessarily will not reach the same conclusion as a white male judge. In fact, she seems to indicate that female Hispanic judges would be the wisest of all. I assume she draws this conclusion from our rich history of famous and oft-quoted Latina judges.

Sotomayor also said that appeals courts are there to "make policy." Not judge the cases presented to them on the record -- make policy.

Sonia Sotomayor was hand-picked by Barak Obama to do on the Supreme Court what Barak Obama was disappointed that the Civil Rights movements of the 50s and 60s did not do -- press for equal outcomes instead of equal opportunity. They are both anti-Constitutionalist radicals cut from the same cloth.

If the GOP cannot muster a solid opposition to this anti-Equal Protection radical, there is little use left for the GOP.

How's That "Smart Power" Working Out?

Jan 13, 2009 - Hillary Clinton vowed to restore American leadership through "smart power" diplomacy.

May 27, 2009 - After detonating a nuclear weapon and firing ground to sea missiles, North Korea announced it would no longer abide by the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War and threatened a military response to any South Korean participation in a U.S.-led program to interdict and seize weapons of mass destruction headed to North Korea.

“The Korean People’s Army will not be bound to the Armistice Agreement any longer,” the official Korean Central News Agency announced. Attempts to stop and inspect North Korean vessels will be countered with “prompt and strong military strikes.” South Korea’s military said it will “deal sternly with any provocation” from North Korea.

Japan’s Cabinet Secretary, Takeo Kawamura, called on North Korea to “refrain from taking actions that would elevate tensions in Asia.” He must have studied at Hillary's knee.

“This rapid-fire provocation indicates a more aggressive shift in the Kim Jong Il regime,” said Ryoo Kihl Jae, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. “Kim is obviously using a strategy of maximum force.”

I guess Kim Jong Il is NOT using "smart power". Of course, he has been smarter than the last three administrations.

More On North Korea

On the left is a picture of the Smartest Woman in the World watching yet another North Korean missile test as she exercises "smart power" (her words, not mine) to contain Kim Jong Il.

I wonder if Hillary is too smart to read the Wall Street Journal. If she had bothered to read John Bolton's op ed Wednesday, May 20th, she would have been aware that North Korea was going to test another nuclear weapon, which they did on May 24th. Read his op-ed at the link below.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124277648950937029.html

Bolton's words contrast sharply with the inability of the past three administrations (2 of which included Hillary) to effectively counter Kim Jong Il's nuclear threat to global security.

Of course, the left shrilly denounced Bolton on May 20th. They owe him an apology, although being liberal means you never have to say your are sorry -- because you have no conscience.

Just a Reminder

We're still broke.

Obama Chooses La Raza for a SCOTUS Seat

In picking Sonia Sotomayor to be his nominee for the vacancy on the supreme Court of the United States, B. Hussein Obama has revealed himself as a racist and sexist, because the race and sex of the nominee were the first two “qualifications” Obama sought in his nominee. Sotomayor brings nothing else to the table, having a reputation among Democrats as a middling, often ill-tempered judge best known for nagging her colleges and writing in an extreme left wing law journal, the Berkley La Raza Law Journal.

La Raza is “the [Hispanic] Race”, and proponents of La Raza believe that Hispanics and Hispanic politicians should favor other Hispanics over any other race. The fact that Sotomayor would allow herself to be openly associated with La Raza indicates that she herself did not think of herself as SCOTUS quality. Her racists statements and writings should be reason enough to reject the nomination.

Obama’s selection smacks of racial identity politics, which Obama has milked all the way to the White House. Whatever hope or change Obama voters thought was to come from the Anointed One, it is clear that post-racial thinking is not part of it.

Naturally, the national GOP leadership will be cowed by this pick, and it will again be up to the conservative grassroots to organize against this pick, if it is in the best interest to oppose the pick. I say this because I am not sure that Obama’s “plan B pick” will be a more beneficial pick than Sotomayor. In fact, Obama may have sent Sotomayor up as a false flag knowing she was unqualified in order to pave the way for a more qualified but more radical pick he would rather have on the court. I believe if Sotomayor is indeed seated, she will be marginalized by most other judges as they come to understand her lack of judicial intellect.

Follow-up: The press is using the White House "fact sheet" in labelling Sotomayor as the first Hispanic nominated to the Supreme Court. More evidence that journalists are incapable of thinking or researching facts for themselves. The first Hispanic nominated and seated on the supreme Court is Benjamin Cardozo, a jurist of Portugese heritage. The definition of Hispanic includes Portugal as well as Spain. Cardozo was nominated by Herbert Hoover in 1932 to replace Oliver Wendell Holmes upon Holmes' retirement.

Hope? Change? Nope, Korean Nukes

Just in time for Memorial Day, North Korea detonated an underground nuclear weapons test.

Now, I thought the Anointed One would fix all of our international security problems. After all, he was so popular overseas. He was going to engage with Iran and China and fix the Korea issue and bring peace to the Middle East.

However, in a single week, Iran has test fired a ballistic missile that places Europe, Israel, and US bases well within the range of a nuclear weapon, North Korea has conducted a nuclear weapons test, and Benyamin Netanyahu told Obama that Israel will not be dictated to by the White House.

Iranian dictator and hostage taker Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went so far as to challenge B. Hussein Obama at the UN on “world problems and collective cooperation.” Frankly, that is a debate I'd like to see, since it believe it would reveal that there is not a dime's bit of difference between these two America haters.

Meanwhile, we will see if "Obama" is Korean for "doormat."

Keep Guantanamo Jihadis Out of US Prisons

Here are a few really good reasons to NOT send al-Qaeda into our prisons:

Richard Reid - attempted to detonate a shoe bomb on a trans-Atlantic flight

Jose Padilla - attempted to obtain and detonate a dirty bomb on US soil

James Cromitie, David Williams Laguerre Payen and Onta Williams - attempted to bomb synagogues around New York

Kevin James, Levar Washington, Gregory Patterson - conducted armed robberies to fund terrorist bombings in California

Aqil Collins - Afghanistan terror camp trained jihadi captured by the FBI

What do all these people have in common? Prison conversions to Islam which lead to conducting Jihad against the United States.

Throw in Jihad-enabling attorney Lynne Stewart who was using her privileged access to prison-bound terrorists to exchange correspondence between terrorists inside and outside of prison.
It is already well demonstrated that US prisons have become a breeding ground for Islam, Jihad, and terrorism.

Why on earth would the Obama administration wish to add hardened Islamic jihadis from Guantanamo into the recruitment of US prisoners?

If you infer intent from the most likely result of a behavior, Obama intends to increase the incidence of terrorists being recruited in US prisons. Naturally, leftist intelligentsia has no problem with this. To date, the U.S. Senate has not had the stomach to go along with this. Let's see how long that holds up.

Obama Admits: We're Broke

In an interview with C-SPAN broadcast timed for the news blackout that that is Memorial Day weekend, B. Hussein Obama said “We are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits.”

Obama has thus admitting that the Tea Party protestors are absolutely right. He has spent more than the Treasury can or will take in.

Naturally, he will use this crisis to further erode free markets and impose Statism. One thing about Communists, they know how to make the same mistakes over and over and over and over.

One Fed President Has Keen Sense of the Obvious

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Charles Plosser said inflation may rise at a rate much higher than the central bankers’ desired range. He notes that the Federal Reserve only has one tool in their control to fight inflation – increased interest rates.

“The economy may be at greater risk of inflation than the conventional wisdom indicates,” Plosser said May 21. However, Plosser cautioned that “the economy is probably not strong enough and not ready for increasing” interest rates.

Charles Plosser has indeed identified the Catch 22 in the liberal’s method to address a down economy by spending far more than budgets allow. Printing money we don’t have devalues the dollar, which means more dollars will be required to purchase the same item (inflation). Meanwhile, in a down economy with high unemployment, household disposable income drops, lowering a family’s standard of living as they have fewer dollars to spend on more expensive goods. As a result, the households tend to cut back on spending money on non-essentials, which worsens the economy as a whole. It becomes a death spiral such as we saw during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.

But Charles Plosser also knows that the Obama administration plans to continue to overspend as no two presidents combined have ever overspent before. This will be a further inflationary pressure. Add to this the economic disaster that would be the twin Statist plans of Obamacare and the Obama/Waxman/Markey Mandate, Cap, and Tax bill, and we have a perfect storm of negative economic actions.

There is no way to sugar-coat the economic results of the Obama plan. They are as foreseeable and predictable as the moon and the tides. As night follows day, economic disaster follows Obama’s Statism.

Undeniable Economic Truths and Waxman/Markley

The “cap” in B. Hussein Obama's Mandate, Cap, and Tax scheme is a cap on American economic growth.

The fact is that burning carbon-laden fuel sources feeds our economy. It is the very lifeblood of the American way of life. It is the lifeblood, capital is the food, transportation is the circulatory system, the free market is the brain, and labor is the hands and feet.

You can rail against carbon-based energy, spit on it, regret it, curse it -- it still remains a fact. It is also a fact that the same eco-Orwellians opposed to carbon-based energy also march on down the street to the No Nukes protest. Later, a fair number of them bust out the windows as the Starbucks and McDonalds to protest "globalism." What they oppose is human achievement and success. But I digress (only a little).

The Obama/Waxman/Markey Mandate, Cap, and Tax scheme will destroy our economy, and a reasonable understanding of economic truths will bear out my analysis.

The first undeniable economic truth is if you want to have less of something, tax it. Cap and tax will cause energy production will drop, because energy production in this country is primarily carbon-based. If you liked the “energy crises” of the 1970s, you will love Cap and Tax. Welcome back, Carter! Let’s keep an eye on the misery index.

The second undeniable economic truth is that corporations do not pay taxes – people do. To corporations, a tax is merely a cost to be passed along to its consumers. Want proof? Look at your phone bill or cable bill. They don’t even bury the various taxes in their rates; they just add tax line items. The full cost of these carbon “credits” will be passed on to consumers. The average family will see their power and natural gas bills skyrocket (between 45 to 90%, depending on the production mix in your area). Add to that the 70% or so increase in cost for your gas or diesel fuel. American families start losing real money to an ever-growing federal government far faster than their wages will ever match. Domestic consumption will sink like a stone.

Which leads me to my first undeniable law of government; government lies to you. There is not going to be an carbon tax rebate to consumers, in the same way there is not going to be a payback of the recent automobile industry “loans” or a return on the bank rescue “investments” made on the behalf of taxpayers. The LAST thing this government wants to do is put money back in the hands of taxpaying consumers because we are too stupid to spend it correctly.

The third undeniable economic truth is that increases in basic costs compound down the supply chain. Put another way, not only will your power bill increase, but so will everything else you buy, because the costs to the producers of everything else you buy are going up, and those costs will be passed on to you, the consumer. This is the indirect taxation effect, and

The fourth undeniable economic truth is that the more money the federal government takes from the economy, the less capital exists to fund jobs. The Cap and Tax will deprive consumers of disposable income, causing massive decline in demand (and job losses related to) in the manufacturing and luxury services sectors, particularly durable goods. Declines in demand for durable goods ripples through the markets for basic materials, mining, milling, and transportation. Conservatively speaking, our Gross Domestic Production (GDP) will drop between 13-19%. Unemployment skyrockets, and hello, Great Depression II.

The dramatic costs increases (both direct and indirect) will lower the standard of living for every American. Let that sink in. The Tax and Cap Plan will lower our standard of living. In what Alice Goes to Wonderland world is Congress living in when they intentionally hobble the economy and lower our standard of living even more than the $1,900,000,000,000,000.00 budget deficit they just hung on the nation?

Those are the costs of the federal government plan. What are the benefits? Even if you fully accepting the argument that CO2 emissions related to energy product contribute to “global warming”, the best tree-hugger estimated net result would be a difference of less than 0.01°C over the next century.

So, the Obama Waxman Markey Mandate, Cap, and Tax plan will cripple our economy, reduce our standard of living, put millions out of work, and cause a decades-long depression to change the air temperature less than a human can differentiate with his natural senses.

That is one horrible cost/benefit analysis, unless you wish to tear the United States asunder.

GM to be Socialized; Taxpayers to be Fleeced

According to Obama administration sources today, B. Hussein Obama intends to use the bankruptcy courts and taxpayer money to buy GM for the UAW and GM bondholders.

Is this the Hope and Change the nation was waiting for? Naked socialism, fleecing taxpayers, and paying off political cronies like the unions? Really? Is this what that nation wanted?

If Obama is allowed to steal the taxpayer's money like this, we owe Richard Nixon an apology.

If you support Obama’s administration, you are a Socialist. Period. A red, a commie, a pinko.

Some Memorial Day this will be. Obama and his supporters are completely devaluing the lives of all who fought and died to protect the world from the slavery of Socialism. Obama is urinating on the graves of tens of thousands of servicemen who gave their last and final measure of devotion to their country to stop the onslaught of Fascistic Socialism.

Obama is foisting it on the United States with a big, red bow.

Celebrating Human Achievement

Today, NASA released the upgraded Hubble Space Telescope back into orbit above the earth. Enjoy some past images of Hubble while we look forward to NASA's renewed interest in the universe we cannot easily see with the naked eye.













PS - NASA, please fire that hack James Hansen and close his lab.

Nevada Governor Places a Bullseye on His Back

Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons is representing his state, and in doing so, is criticizing the Anointed One.

"I am disappointed at the hypocrisy shown by this Administration," Gibbons said, "President Obama is coming to Las Vegas later this month for a political fundraiser, but he will not help the struggling families in Las Vegas and Nevada who are out of work because of his reckless comments."

Governor Gibbons noted, "President Obama is coming to Las Vegas to raise campaign cash for Senator Harry Reid, apparently our money is good enough for the President, but our tourism, jobs, and economic future are not."

Gibbons added, "This is politics, pure and simple, President Obama stood for change, but all he has done is brought negative economic change to Nevada."

"Sometimes Washington politicians forget that the people of Nevada are Americans," Governor Gibbons said, "This President needs to repair the damage he has done."

We will see an all out effort on the part of Democrat partisans and the Obama Enchanted to drum Gibbons out of office. If they cannot do it at the polls, they'll do it with the IRS or a Nevada Gaming Commission investigation. Here it comes.

The Destruction of American Education

Further proof that Schools of Education are educational fraud. In the very smart, very elite, very progressive state of Massachusetts, only 27% of aspiring elementary school teachers could pass the mathematics portion of the certification exam.

A state official claims this result places a shining light on a deficiency of the state's teacher prep program.

What is actually does is shines a light on the whole construct of a "teacher prep" program. There should be no degree in "education". A teacher prep program should be four courses in teaching theory and practice. Otherwise, if you want to teach math, you should have a math degree. If you want to teach science, you should have a science degree. Only in that way will our students be taught by persons who have the intellectual basis to actually teach the subject.

This, of course, is a parallel with Schools of Journalism. Unlike elementary school, which is mandatory, the poor products being turned our with journalism degrees are killing newspapers because the entirely lack an understanding of the material about which they write.

The dumbing down of America continues unabated. Wait until B. Hussein Obama and his appointees dictate the end of homeschooling. You read it here first.

Today's Stalinist Ukase

Cars shall be made less safe now because of an inference of an unproven speculation about the future made by my Luddite supporters. -- Barak Hussein Obama, May 18th, 2009

Big Brother has spoken. So it is written, and so it shall pass.

UPDATE: Actually, the decree turns out to be Hitleresque. Hitler was the last glorious leader to dictate the creation of a car with greater than 30 m.p.g. You might remember the VW Bug, a car deemed too unsafe to stay on American roads.

Guatemala Bears Watching

"Unfortunately if you are watching this message it means that I, Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano, have been assassinated by President Alvaro Colom."

Thus begins the message of a slain attorney in Guatemala, and in the wake of the assassination, perhaps the people of Guatemala will stand up for their inalienable rights of life, liberty, and possession of the fruits of their labor.

Corruptocrats have ruled Guatemala for too long. A grass-roots movement in Guatemala, the ProReforma project, has supported classical liberal (that is, Conservative) government reforms for two years, and is not getting real traction among the populace.

Guatemalan leftists have tried to keep the ProRemforma platform from being debated in the legislature. Perhaps now is the time Guatemalans stand up for themselves and their own rights.

Watch the video, and pray that this is not a foretaste of what will happen in the United States with a Chicago thug as President.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC_ODpxMA10

Inconvenient Truths That Are Actually True

Barak Obama’s budget deficit for this year alone will turn out to be greater than any of Bill Clinton’s entire budgets.

WWF’s panicked television commercials notwithstanding, Polar Bears are not an endangered species. Not even the eco-lunies in Barak Obama’s administration will stop Eskimos from hunting some of the estimated 25,000 polar bears.

RINO Rep. Pete King (R-NY) introduced the Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act of 2009, H.R. 2159, which gives the attorney general the power to deny a person the right to buy a gun if the AG "determines that the transferee is known (or appropriately suspected) to be or have been engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism, or providing material support thereof, and the Attorney General has a reasonable belief that the prospective transferee may use a firearm in connection with terrorism." This horribly vague language is clearly an infringement on the American citizens’ 2nd Amendment Rights and doubly worrisome since Homeland Security’s Janet Napolitano recently issued a report stating that all persons who believe in a limited federal government or oppose abortion are likely terrorists.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is lying about the content of her briefings on enhanced interrogation techniques. Democrats are starting to protect their own interests in this affair, at the expense of Speaker Nannystate.

College is not for everyone. The States would do well to start issuing certifications of competency based on objective testing in specific areas instead of making more and more students bear the expense of a university education.

In this, the coldest spring in recent memory, three eco-warriors intended to sail from Plymouth, England to Greenland in a carbon-emission-free yacht – followed by schools all over England to raise awareness of “global warming”. Can you guess where this is going? Only 400 miles along in their journey, they had to be rescued by the crew of the Overseas Yellowstone – an oil tanker.

"Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world." --U.S. Senator Daniel Webster (1782-1852)

Hattip to patriotpost.us

In Further Bad News

While Barak Obama believes his ability as a coked-up street agitator to talk Michelle out of her panties will allow him to talk Iran out of its nuclear program, already nuclear armed Pakistan heads closer and closer to the abyss and, according to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, it continues to expand its nuclear arsenal.

How does a nuclear-armed Taliban sound to you?

It sounds to me like Barak Obama's slashing of our anti ballistic missile defense capability is a really, really bad idea. Of course, coming from the administration of bad ideas, it cannot be unexpected.

Some Fair-Minded Words for Barak Obama

How dare this man step onto a Roman Catholic institution and lecture Catholics about abortion!

What fair-minded word defines the pre-meditated termination of innocent human life?

There is no room for a debate over whether murder is acceptable or not. No amount of fair-minded words will convince a follower of God that a human baby, whether in the womb or out, is an innocent human life. Termination of an innocent human life is wrong; it is wrong in the womb, it is wrong outside the womb, and continues to be wrong until natural death.

There is no excuse for killing your innocent child.

Insurance Companies to Avoid

The Treasury Department has agreed to extend billions in TARP funds to at least six life insurance companies. Unlike the banks, these companies were not forced to take the TARP money, and therefore, are corrupted by management too stupid to be trusted with your money.

The six companies are: Hartford Financial Services Group, Lincoln National Corporation (the Lincoln Financial Group), Allstate (you are no longer in good hands), the Principal Financial Group, Prudential, and Ameriprise Financial.

These companies have clearly learned nothing from the trials and tribulations of the banks.

To paraphrase H. L. Menken - Requesting government aid is the belief that financial companies know what they want, and they deserve to get it -- good and hard.

UPDATE: Someone reads this blog -- Ameriprise said "No Thanks" to the TARP offer today. Word is Prudential will decline the "help" as well. We'll see what Timmah! and B.O. have to say about this.

Government-Run Universal Health Care Fails

Last October, Hawaii is dropped the only state universal child health care program in the US just seven months after it launched. All children were eligible for the program (it truly was universal). The reason it dropped the program is because it was too expensive, costing the state about $26 per child per month.

The sad truth is that the State was paying less than half the actual expense – the remainder came from corporate “donors” that taxed their paying customers by increasing fees. The universal health care system was free to the end users except for copays of $7 per office visit.

Why did this service fail? The plan undercut the market prices for children’s insurance. As a result, families dropped their commercial insurance for their children and enrolled in the lower cost universal program. Put another way, the parents in Hawaii acted rationally.

State health officials complained that most of the children enrolled in the universal child care program previously had private health insurance, indicating that it was helping those who didn't “need” it. "People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free," said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. "I don't believe that was the intent of the program."

This is the very definition of an unintended consequence of liberal lawmaking, and reason number one why it should be avoided. Universal Health Care is by definition universal. It is not needs-based, and its creators sowed the seeds of its own destruction by attempting comprehensive reform. They achieved comprehensive failure.

Two good things came out of this experiment. First, the State acted in the best interest of the children and the State taxpayers when they realized it was a failure – cancelling the plan was the right thing to do.

Second, and most important, this experiment is demonstrates that low cost high quality Universal Health Care with doctor choice and no rationing – what Barak Obama claims he wants – is not achievable through government efforts. Increasing the scale of the exercise will only increase the scale of the failure.

You cannot legislate past the laws of economics.

"Compassionate" Cannibalism

Previously, this blog reported that after the bank grab, B. Hussein Obama would set his sights on taking over the health care industry -- here is the link.

http://redwarning.blogspot.com/2009/04/capitalisms-destruction-imminent.html

Yesterday, several medical associations tried to throw a virgin into the volcano and stave off their destruction. They promised to reduce the rate of growth of health care costs by 1.5% a year. Their pathetic attempt to co-opt a committed Socialist Statist like Obama reflects their complete underestimation of B.O. and his ilk. These medical industry "leaders" will soon find themselves tied up over a cooking fire while the cannibals sharpen their eating utensils.

Even today, the Senate Finance Committee will be holding hearings on how it can increase taxes to pay for Obama's "health care" plan. The Statists have not detailed their legislative proposals yet, but they know already they need to raise taxes!

You can bet the nanny state Nazis will be out in full force to propose adding punitive taxes to anything they consider unhealthy -- sodas and beverages, fast food, meat, cheese, milk, etc. Naturally, all these proposals would violate B.O.'s promise to not raise taxes on those making less than $250k per year, but what is a promise to a Democrat other than something to be broken?

The continued "compassionate cannibalism" of the economy proposed by the Obama administration will have the same result as any other form of cannibalism -- the unwary are cooked, killed, and eaten.

Obama's Budget Blowout -- Epic Fail

B.O. is really stinking it up on the Federal budget deficit.

The White House today estimates that this year's budget deficit will be 400% larger than ever before -- nearly $2,000,000,000,000,000.00. Almost Two Thousand Billion Dollars.

Put another way, for budget passed by the Democrats this year, we will have to borrow 46 cents for every dollar the government spends.

Obama further admits his long-term spending plan would push the total US deficit to $7,100,000,000,000,000.00 - 7.1 Trillion dollars. More than two budget years in arrears.

Adults should ask this petulant child if he thinks money grows on trees!

For the love of all that is good about this Country, for the sake of its very survival, and through the intercession of this nation's Founding Fathers, this man must be stopped before he destroys us.

Obama's First Nakedly Stalinist Act

It strikes me that the Chrysler bankruptcy matter is B. Hussein Obama’s first nakedly Stalinist action. Not only does Obama wish to redistribute taxpayer wealth and direct it to his cronies, but he is also threatening those with legitimate claims in opposition to his position with unleashing the fury of the Executive branch of the U S Government against them. These are the actions of a Chicago gangster – it is markedly un-Presidential behavior.

Let us not forget the Stalin was one of the most organized criminals in history. Why should we be surprised by the thuggish actions of a street “organizer”? When you elect an organizer to the White House, you get organized crime.

An $8,000,000,000+ Fleecing of Taxpayers

Candidate Barak Obama said in his convention speech "Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us." He was lying when he said this, and he knew it.

President B. Hussein Obama now says that the $8 Billion in loans provided by American taxpayers to Chrysler should be discharged in bankruptcy, effectively becoming a gift to the UAW and Italy's Fiat Group.

Candidate Barak Obama also said "Our government should ... ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American..."

Apparently, the UAW's money and influence over Barak Obama was a temptation too great for the "messiah" to resist.

The Obama Presidency is a continuing disaster to American taxpayers. It cannot end soon enough.

Obama Proposes Out of Control Spending - Again

“We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits don't matter and waste is not our problem. We can no longer afford to leave the hard choices for the next budget, the next administration -- or the next generation" B. Hussein Obama said as he proposed a wasteful $3,400,000,000,000.00 budget that explodes the deficit, makes no hard choices, and puts the debt burden squarely on the next generation.

But Obama wants credit as a budget trimmer for proposing cuts to certain programs that amount to one half of one percent (0.5%) of his budget. By comparison, if you were buying a $34,000 car, you would be asking the dealer for $170 off to “seal the deal.” What a joke!

By comparison, George Bush’s last budget proposed twice the amount for savings, and still kept the F-22 and a new fleet of Marine One helicopters in the budget.

The mainstream media will tell you that this budget costs “every American” $11,500. NOT! Not every American pays taxes. This budget will cost the average taxpayer about $24,000.00 in direct and indirect taxes, with “the rich” being hit for the top 85% of the revenue generation.

While more than half of all Americans pay no income tax at all, each of them still get hit with the indirect tax portion of about $10,000.00 a year.

The Tea Parties must continue to push the message that this Obama Administration wants a government that is too big, too socialist, and unconstitutional in scope.

Obama’s Bank Grab is ON!

As predicted by this Blog, as a result of heretofore unheard of “stress tests” described as “asinine” by super-banker and Wells Fargo Chairman Richard Kovacevich and “unnecessary” by Obama-lover Warren Buffet, sources at the Federal Reserve have made it known that Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and GMAC (among others) will have about a month to develop plans to increase their capital reserves. BoA appears to have the highest hurdle to overcome, in the neighborhood of $34 Billion dollars.

What is part of a disturbing trend, as it became clear that the Federal Reserve “stress tests” back in April would reveal that the banks were actually recovering, liquid, solvent, and in reasonably good shape, the Fed moved the standard on the stress tests so more banks would face a takeover by the US Government. For instance, the tangible common equity target was raised by 33% to snare Morgan Stanley, among 4 other banks that initially passed the stress test.

And if the banks are forced to convert the government-held preferred shares into common stock, the US Government does not intend to be a passive “investor”.

On May 5, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said that it will take steps to oversee the “effective” management of banks. Later, White House mouthpiece Robert Gibbs said Obama would sack bank management just as he forced the resignation of GM Chairman Rick Wagoner.

God help these banks and their management. Hopefully there is enough sidelined private investment capital out there to keep the government out of an ownership position.

My prediction, when these banks reach out to foreign sovereign investment funds for a a non-FDIC guaranteed cash infusion, the Fed and Obama will object to the foreign takeover of US banks, and block the deal, thus insuring that the affected banks will be socialized.

Obama and the Fed are quick to point out the stock conversion will be a quick way out of the stress test. What they have not said is precisely how the government will get OUT of the ownership position. That is because they NEVER want the government out of the bank ownership business. Ownership is control, ownership is power, and governments NEVER give up power without a fight.

UPDATE: I have paid off my Bank of America - issued credit card and asked them to lower my spending limit. Every little bit will help BoA. I'm trying to do my part.

BOOM! Coulter Smokes Behar

Behar: "I wanna know if you want to be waterboarded..."

Coulter: "Do you want to be aborted?"

What a fantastic comeback!

Behar's attempt to draw some moral equivalence between waterboarding (which has harmed no one) and abortion (which kills innocent babies) is groundless. Coulter smoked her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdmMgBa_RMM

Photo Courtesy Anncoulter.com

Democrats Want Federal Protection for Pedophiles

In yet another story NOT covered by the mainstream media, yesterday, in Nancy Pelosi's House Judiciary Committee, a bill defining new federal "hate crimes" (how many crimes are motivated by love?) included the "sexual orientation" pedophilia as a new federally protected class.

The Republicans on the committee oppose the measure, but do not have the votes to kill it in Committee. Instead, they are seeking to narrow the scope of the bill in committee, and will fight against passage on the floor of the House.

Yesterday, the Republicans wanted to make sure not just any "sexual orientation" is protected. While it is one thing to protect homosexuals and cross-dressers, the GOP offered an amendment specifically excluding pedophiles from a protected class for hate crimes. Pedophiles. Monsters who sexually abuse children who cannot by definition consent to sexual relations with any adult of either sex.

The Democrats, to a committee member, all of them, voted "no" and defeated the amendment.

And, for good measure, the Democrats also defeated an amendment including US military veterans as a protected class.

The Democrats are clearly protecting their base by allowing them to spit on returning Vets without fear of federal prosecution.

Here Comes Cap and Tax

Over the weekend, the fruits, nuts, watermelons, Socialists, and good old fashioned Statists masquerading as the “environmental” movement issued a new lexicon of marketing words to try to convince a wary American public that their plans will not destroy the economy in the midst of a recession. They need these new marketing works because the existing marketing words were not adequate to convince the American public to drink the toxic plans the Statists have for driving the American economy back to the pre-industrial revolution.

Believing the current terms like “global warming” and “cap and trade” engender honest images of shaggy tree-huggers, bad science, and high societal costs on flimsy evidence, the eco-Statists believe they need a marketing makeover, beginning with new buzz words.

The new Orwellian eco-terms for the economy crushing cap and trade scheme are “cap and cash back” or “pollution reduction refund.” These terms are so entirely laughable that I hope these eco-communists proceed with this farce.

The correct revised term for cap and trade is “cap and tax.” The cap and trade legislation before Congress now will increase costs dramatically for power producers, and this will generate a tax on all consumers of power, not only at the power meter, but also increased consumer prices due to increased power costs to manufacturers and food producers. The fact that the proposal includes tax credits to low income persons (who don’t pay taxes anyway) indicates that they know for a fact that they know it will increase prices nationwide on everything.

However, these scheming eco-Orewellians have a powerful friend in the radical leftist Barak Obama, and what Obama wants, Obama will demand he gets. In Obama’s effort to destroy and “remake” the United States, all vestiges of free markets must be destroyed via government control. In the midst of the bank and car industry crises, Obama even sent Timothy “Timmah!” Geithner up to Congress with a budget document proposing their Cap and Tax scheme.

Beware America. The anti-success, anti-wealth eco-campaigners have a bevy of proposals to lower your standard of living and increase the expense of everything you need.

Photos Too Secret to Release!

Last week the Obama administration has released photos of enhanced interrogation techniques used to effective purpose to save American lives. This release was part of a media blitz by the Obama administration to whip up the news media over torture claims (along with a mild flu outbreak that caused 0 American deaths) so that the news would ignore the Administration's plans to Socialize several major US banks and the car industry. But I digress.

These "torture" photos and memos were not secret enough to keep from the public, but a new set of photos have been deemed by Obama to be too "sensitive" for public consumption.

These new, super secret photos are: Obama's Air Force One joyride low over the New York skyline.

While it cost American taxpayers nearly $400k to execute, and was for the expressed purpose of creating new publicity shots of Air Force One flying by the Statue of Liberty, the White House this week said that the photos will NOT be released.

So, allegedly for the sake of secretly creating new beauty shots of Air Force One at taxpayer expense, the White House caused a panic in NYC, and now will not release the photos to taxpayers.

Exactly who was on Air Force One? This sounds like a joyride for Obama supporters with a F-16 escort instead of a photo op. This whole deal stinks to the high heaven, as does Obama's administration.

Update May 6: The Obama mouthpiece Robert Gibbs says that one - ONE - photo of the event will be released sometime within the next week. I wonder if a FOIA request will produce more photos...

Time to Leave the Bushes Behind

The latest incarnation of attempted elitist eastern political establishment takeover of the GOP has formed as the National Council for a New America (NCNA). A group composed of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and House Republican Whip Eric Cantor and former Gov. Jeb Bush. Advisers include establishment guy former Gov. and former GOP chair Haley Barbour, RINO Sen. John McCain, and the Brown and Oxford educated Gov. Bobby Jindal.

While claiming they are not interested in “recasting” the GOP, former Gov. Bush labeled the GOP rank-and-file’s belief in the Conservative principles as enunciated by Ronald Reagan as “nostalgic” and “irrelevant.” He further said that Ronald Reagan’s message “will not draw people” to his cause. He presumes incorrectly that his cause and the Conservative cause is the same thing.

I would argue after two Bush presidents that spent like drunken sailors and could not grasp the meaning of a small federal government, the "Bush League" is irrelevant, and nobody is nostalgic for it at all.

I hope the NCNA manages to come to my town on their “listening” tour. I would like the opportunity to let them hear me. Ronald Reagan is the last wildly popular Republican President folks can remember watching on TV. Reagan is real to most voters. Last time he stood for election, he won a 49 state landslide.

Compare this to RINO John McCain (multiple presidential campaign loser), RINO Mitt Romney (couldn’t get past the primaries, but he’s changed, really!), Jeb Bush (bravely did not run for the open Fla. Senate seat) and this other bunch of neophytes. These guys are SMART and Reagan was dumb, remember?

B. Hussein Obama will be the easiest sitting President to run against since Jimmy Carter – who, by the way, was vanquished by Ronald Reagan – and any Republican who can form complete sentences and campaign on bedrock Conservative principles will win.

However, if a candidate can’t find the good in Ronald Reagan, why do they want to seek a GOP leadership role if not to purge the GOP of the Conservative rank-and-file?

At its root, I think for starters both liberals and Conservatives can agree on one thing -- no more Bushes in the White House.

Just Another Chicago Thug

Word has leaked that the Street Hustler/Community Organizer B. Hussein Obama is threatening/strong arming/blackmailing the non-TARP investors in the Chrysler bankruptcy proceedings.

This is typical Chicago political thuggery. Why should anyone be surprised? You should be outraged that the boss of the chief law enforcement officer of the United States wants to abrogate the law so blithely, but you should not be surprised.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpqKNZ3km3c

Only the Good Die Young

Arlen "The Rat" Specter this weekend wanted to take a poke at fiscal conservatives by hinting that if only the Republicans would be willing to spend more money on undefined medical research, Jack Kemp "would be alive today".

What unmitigated gall! This is the attitude of a man who wishes to represent the people of Pennsylvania.

This man sickens me more every day. Too bad Jack did not survive his cancer, and worse for the nation that Arlen did.

The Taleban and the Naiveté of the Liberal

One overriding principle of the American liberal is that when it comes to foreign policy, a liberal cannot see the world for what it is. Blinded by their own self-righteousness and feelings of moral superiority, they surrender our best weapons, jettison our imperfect friends, and condemn millions to slavery under dictatorial regimes.

The latest demonstration of this as it related to the Obama administration comes, not unexpectedly, in relation to our Islamist enemies. Juxtapose these two news stories:

The Taleban Takes Human Shields In Fight With Pakistani Troops; reportedly holding 2,000 villagers as human shields to stop the Pakistani military from retaking a Northwestern Pakistan District.

and

Obama Administration releases secret interrogation memos: says the United States will not use coercive interrogation techniques in the future. The “reasoning” goes that if we treat Islamist fighters gently, they will treat American prisoners gently as well.


Of course, there are no living American prisoners of Islamists, and those taken prisoner by Islamists don’t live very long. Let alone tortured for year. Most are beheaded on video tape for showing via Aljazeera or Live Leak.

The Taleban’s mentality is a throwback to the 14th century. They didn’t sign the Geneva Conventions, nor did Islamists, and adherence to Western notions of kind treatment for prisoners is viewed as weakness.

Furthermore, the actions described in the memos were not torture. It is hard for liberals --who spend years on a head shrink’s couch being medicated by anti-depressants to deal with most modern inconveniences of living like showing up for work, raising their offspring, and dealing with their parents’ aging process -- to understand that stress is not torture.

Stress is not torture. Stress positions are not torture.

Basic training is not torture. Sleep deprivation is not torture. Extreme physical activity is not torture.

Being dunked in a swimming pool by your older brother is not torture.

Spook house frights are not torture.

Anything that costs a person $300 an hour in Vegas is not torture.

Listening to liberals pontificate about how we should treat Islamists – that’s torture.

RIP -- Jack Kemp

It is noted with sadness that yesterday former Cabinet Secretary and Congressman Jack Kemp died of cancer.

Jack Kemp epitomized the true concept of "Compassionate Conservatism". Jack Kemp understood that conservatism was the real philosophy of hope, because conservatism provided opportunity for everyone to keep what they earn, spend as they see fit, and attempt growth and success without burdensome government diktats.

Jack Kemp was a conservative lion of the Reagan Revolution. His voice and optimism will be sorely missed.

Government Moving to Socialize Banks Now

The U. S. Federal government is now in it's final efforts to nationalize up to ten of the nation's largest banks, including Citigroup and Bank of America. This comes as a result of unprecedented “regulatory oversight” of the bank results arising from the Obama Administration’s highly theoretical stress testing.

This theoretical stress testing involved no testing at all, but in fact is a “what if” scenario applied against a heretofore unrecognized equity ratio never before used to take over an ongoing financial institution.

The stress test scenario is as follows: if the bank ceased operations today, what would the shareholders have left in a company if the company were liquidated. The new Federal standard for what the Feds are terming “tangible common equity” is a value of 4% of the institution’s assets, and such assets are arbitrarily assigned a lower value associated with the Fed’s expectation of risk of the asset.

Without saying so, the Feds want to take ownership interests in the banks by saying the preferred shares issued by the banks to the government as a result of TARP funds are held as liabilities, which weigh down the value of a bank’s assets. If the bank would merely convert these preferred shares into voting common shares, it will convert the TARP loans from a debt liability into shareholder equity, raising the asset value of the bank on the books, but not actually improving the bank’s operating position by even $1, since no actual new money is flowing into the bank either via loan or investment.

It is said that certain of the 20-odd banks suffering this unprecedented Federal scrutiny will not be permitted to increase the value of their assets in the normal ways, such as selling shares to private investors or issuing bonds or other debentures, but MUST convert the government preferred shares into common stock.

The Federal government, over this weekend, during the slow news cycle, is trying to socialize these banks by negotiation with weak willed bank officers. These idiots are finding out what happens to the unwary that lie down in the bed of vipers that is the Federal government.

The socialization of the capitalist system is well underway. The government is using as an excuse a what if, worse case scenario that is purely theoretical -- it is not responding to an actual bank failure.

Let’s see if the American public has been zombiefied enough to take it.

Today's Most Laughable Headline

From the L.A. Times website:

"Souter's decisions were across the spectrum"

Yep, they sure were -- from left wing to radical left wing. All the way across that spectrum.

The article could not cite one case where Souter issued or joined one meaningful conservative, Constitution-upholding opinion. Not one. 18 years, not one. Not even by mistake.