image toon = 1st reps crpt libs fnn = Town Hall in phone booth w/o phone

Will Media Notice ObamaCare Advocates Teaching Town Hall Attendees to Block Opposing Views?

Last month, one of the nation's leading advocates for ObamaCare published a playbook containing detailed instructions for members to counter "the 'tea-bagger' protesters and right-wing activists" showing up at town hall meetings.

On Monday, a representative of Health Care for America Now was caught on tape actually coaching people on how to block opposing viewpoints at Rep. Jan Schakowsky's (D-Ill.) town hall meeting in Skokie, Illinois.

Given all the attention that's been given to such gatherings the past four weeks, one would think an honest media would be interested in this video

As the media members spent the last month claiming conservative town hall meeting protesters were organized by right-wing organizations, it would be nice if they reported what left-wing organizations are doing.

Or would that be too much like journalism?

READ MORE

Media Ignore Reid, Baucus' Co-op Comparisons to Public Option, Exclude Conservative Critics

The threat of a government-run public option plan in health care legislation was frightening enough to spur thousands of people to attend town hall meetings across the country and voice their dissent, sometimes angrily.

Now legislators and the national media are talking about a possible "compromise" that could replace the public option with health care co-ops. Conservatives are concerned that such an attempt will just be "government health care in yet another set of clothes," but national broadcast or print media have practically omitted that perspective.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., stirred up those concerns July 9 when he said,

"We're going to have some type of public option, call it 'co-op,' call it what you want."

According to Nexis, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN, as well as the five major newspapers, all ignored this admission from Reid. In fact, on the three broadcast networks Reid wasn't even mentioned in any of the 21 health care co-op stories, most of which used the word "compromise" to discuss the co-ops - and only 2 conservatives critical of co-ops were included among all 21 stories.

READ MORE

Who Owns Your Body?

We are berated, ad nauseam, with imprecations that America is the only advanced nation that fails to have universal health care. This statement is often followed by the rueful remark that the debate over government controlled health care has been going on without progress for 60 years and, ipso facto, it is time to settle it.

All right, let's do that. Let's look a little deeper. Why is there no settlement of the issue, and why is America unique in its obstinate reluctance to follow the example of our older cultural brothers in Europe?

When a debate continues for decades without resolution, it is prudent to consider the deeper underlying assumptions. Principles which underpin the arguments are likely being ignored and marginalized rather than addressed in a forthright manner.

America is the only advanced country whose founding assumption is popular sovereignty. This is a proposition that stands with hardly a seconding voice throughout the contemporary international community. Yet it is the taproot of American exceptionalism.

Even here, however, the principle of government subordination to the people is by no means universally accepted. It has never been firmly ratified by our political class, those spiritual descendants of Europe's nobility. Our self-styled elite appear to view with dismay their countrymen's continuing preference for self-rule.

Thus arises the question of corporal ownership. For Americans, the answer has been settled. Since the terrible bloodletting of the Civil War, and now excepting military service, ownership of one's body is a matter between the individual and God, with no intermediation by government.

Yet assertions are now being made that government should have responsibility for, and thus authority over, the maintenance of our bodies. Be aware that support for such a view is opting for veterinary medicine, for you are now accepting the moral status of a domestic animal... [snip]

The wisdom expressed in the Federalist Papers began with the insight that men are not angels. The system that the authors designed placed liberty at the head of other considerations. The Founders were determined that concentrations of power should be confounded.

The view of human nature recognized by the Founders is now in grave peril. Whither goes America? Was liberty merely an 18th-century fad, or is there still something exceptional about our country?

[If we cede this most intimate and irresistible level of control to the mush heads in Washington we could literally lose the ability to ever get it back. Consider, Canada has had its government run system for 40 years now, and every election cycle the poor status of that system is the #1 issue. They create panels and study groups and inquiries again and again, to no avail - it's government. If we're foolish enough to start down that path we deserve what awaits where it will inevitably, inexorably lead.]

[Highly Recommended > ]

READ MORE

image toon hcare = Oby offers to shove hcare down throat

India's first stealth fighter to fly in 4 months

[HT:MG]
In less than four months from now, India's first stealth fighter will fly for the first time. It is called the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft or FGFA being developed in Russia by Sukhoi.


The FGFA is designed to have a top speed of approximately Mach 2, or twice the speed of sound. It has the ability to supercruise or operate at speeds beyond the speed of sound without engaging systems such as afterburners which consume huge amounts of fuel...

[Just like the F-22


Which we've canceled.]

READ MORE

image toon - nsec gwot = government bailouts incl. F22

Sarkozy Slams Iran, Threatens Stronger Sanctions

French President Nicolas Sarkozy threatened on Wednesday to press for tougher sanctions on Iran if the Islamic Republic refuses to halt its illicit nuclear work, Reuters reported.

"It is the same leaders in Iran who say that the nuclear program is peaceful and that the elections were honest. Who can believe them?"

The French president's warnings echoed those of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who earlier this week said world powers are discussing sanctions targeting Iran's energy sector.

President Obama has given Iran until mid-September to take up his offer of engagement.

READ MORE

PA Leader: Jews Have No History in Jerusalem

[HT:DT]

The Palestinian Authority's (PA) chief Islamic judge said Wednesday that there was no evidence that Jews had ever lived in Jerusalem or that the Temple had ever existed there, The Jerusalem Post reported.

"Jerusalem is an Arab and Islamic city and it always has been so,"

Sheikh Tayseer Rajab Tamimi declaration came in response to statements made earlier this week by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said that Jerusalem

"is not a settlement," ... "the Jews built it 3,000 years ago."

The PA has consistently denied the Jewish connection to Jerusalem. The city is home to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest sites. There are more than 800 mentions of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible, and literally thousands of references to the city throughout more than 2,000 years of rabbinic literature.

READ MORE

The Nuclear Blackmail of Israel -- and of the World

Consider this: for the full eight months that the dream of dreams became a reality and the blessed O occupies the Oval office, Iran keeps spinning its uranium-enrichment centrifuges as if nothing happened.

It does so, because indeed nothing happened vis-à-vis Iran. The talk about sanctions remains just talk, as is a talk about talks with Iran. A thought of an A-bomb in the hands of the mullahs should have urged action in any leader, let alone the savior of the world, and one expected that Obama would have worked from day one to unite the world against nuclear threat from Iran, and at least slapped debilitating sanctions on it if not from day two, than from day three of his administration. But, contrary to expectations, he has not.

Obama's bullying Israel into unconscionable concessions to the Arabs that are unlikely to solve the conflict anyway as precondition for US' involvement in resolving Iran's nuclear issue should be plainly called "nuclear blackmail of Israel", as is the finding of analyses by both Britain's Guardian and Israel's Haaretz. [Hardly typical collaborators - snip]

In using nuclear blackmail in a vain hope of solving Middle East conflict, Obama engages in political brinksmanship that is so risky that it just can not fail; he puts not only Israel, but the entire Western civilization on the brink.

READ MORE

image toon - gwot israel = Iran nuke = Oby needs another talk

Just 4 Percent of Israelis Think Obama is Pro-Israel

Only 4 percent of Jewish Israelis believe President Barack Obama's policies are pro-Israel, and 50 percent oppose a temporary freeze of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, a poll out on Friday showed.

The survey showed 51 percent considered Obama's administration more pro-Palestinian than pro-Israeli, and the percentage of Jewish Israelis who consider Obama as pro-Israel was down to four percent.

By comparison, 88 percent of those interviewed for the June survey thought former U.S. President George W. Bush was pro-Israel.

[Yet >4 in 5 American Jews voted for Obama.]

READ MORE

Dhimmiheart

If only there were a conspiracy to blame, but there isn’t. It would be comforting, in a perverse way, to discover a home video showing Scottish Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill, CIA Director Leon Panetta and the bosses of Yale University Press smoking cigars and playing cards with Muammar Gaddafi.

But there is no conspiracy, only a rampant loss of will to defend freedom in the West.

Today’s release of the long-awaited CIA Inspector General’s report on terrorist interrogations rides close upon the heels of Scotland’s “compassionate” release of a terrorist mass-murderer and an act of self-censorship by Yale Press that are, each in its turn, acts of surrender to the terrorist nations that war against us. [snip]

But -- as pointed out in an August 19 letter to Attorney General Holder signed by nine Republican senators --

“The CIA’s Inspector General report on interrogations, which reportedly would be a basis upon which you would seek to justify a special prosecutor, has been available to the Department of Justice for more than five years.

Three former Attorneys General and numerous career prosecutors have examined the findings of that report and other evidence and determined that the facts do not support criminal prosecutions.”

Holder will ignore that letter, as he has so many others from Republican senators, and appoint a special prosecutor to go after CIA interrogators, breaking the promise he made in a pre-confirmation interview to Sen. Christopher Bond (R-Mo).

His goal -- and the president’s -- is not the security of this nation but to keep a political issue alive and thus keep the George Bush albatross hanging around Republicans’ necks... [snip]

Do not look for Obama or Holder or Panetta to object to Yale’s action. They are too busy following their own path to American dhimmitude.

READ MORE

Weapons Seizure Turns Spotlight Onto Two Rogue States

The Australian government is investigating the seizure of weapons being shipped from North Korea to Iran that were found on an Australian cargo vessel in the Persian Gulf.

Iranian officials are denying the incident, calling the reports a “Zionist” plot aimed at increasing international pressure over its nuclear activities....

READ MORE

image toon gwot nsec = Oby's sand castles v Iran NKorea's rockets

Merkel, Sarkozy Urge G-20 to Limit Bank Size, Bonuses

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will press fellow Group of 20 leaders to limit the size of banks, regulate the bonuses they pay out and tighten capital requirements....

READ MORE

The U.N.'s Shocking Sexuality Guidelines

During the summer slump, two United Nations agencies -- United Nations Economic, Social and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) -- issued highly controversial new guidelines for sexuality education of children around the world.

These groups have a long history of pushing "reproductive health care," and the new report, International Guidelines on Sexuality Education, builds on an earlier report released by the International Planned Parenthood Federation to promote the "need and entitlement" for sexuality education for children beginning at age five.

In the view of the United Nations, sexuality education is the responsibility of "education and health authorities" not parents.

Teachers and doctors, so the liberal line goes, understand the big picture and have the conceptual understanding necessary -- the "rights based approach" that excludes parents and incorporates appropriate "practitioner experience and expert opinion." Excluding parents from the process keeps them from being aware of how frequently "sexuality education" indoctrinates against traditional values, especially "discrimination based on sexual orientation."

At the outset, the report makes it clear that "good" sexuality education should "take priority over personal opinion" -- which, being translated, means trample all over traditional morality.

The report states as fact that "teachers remain the best qualified and most trusted providers of information and support for most children and young people." [Last I checked, virtually all of those were government administered positions... - snip]

• Five- to eight-year-olds are told that "touching and rubbing one's genitals ... ‘can feel pleasurable.'" They learn about "gender stereotypes" and that anybody (regardless of sexual status) can "raise a child and give it the love it deserves."
• Nine- to twelve-year-olds learn how to get and use condoms, emergency contraception, the "signs and symptoms" of pregnancy, and all about sexual pleasure and orgasm. They learn that abortion is safe and discuss "homophobia, transphobia and abuse of power." They learn about their rights - to decide for themselves about whether to become a parent and to have access to anti-retroviral therapy (ART).
• Twelve- to fifteen-year-olds are told about their right to safe abortions and post abortion care, how to use emergency contraception, and that the size and shape of the penis or breasts does not affect sexual pleasure.

All this information must be conveyed, of course, in the "school setting" as part of a "formal curriculum" for maximum impact and effectiveness. After all (get ready for high-powered scare tactics) ignorance and misinformation can be life threatening... [snip]

You've got to love the way the left spins their craziness - just cloak all the controversial stuff in lofty goals and protective rhetoric. Over half of the new STDs every year occur among young people, but don't promote abstinence.

Instead lament that more than half have never been taught how to use a condom or where the local sexual health office is located, and rejoice that there is greater access to anti-retroviral therapy (ART).

More than four million girls will seek abortions every year, but don't promote abstinence.

Instead, "introduce and strengthen sexuality education." Remove the stigma against sexual activity, and then introduce worldwide programs to remove the stigma against STDs, and establish a bureaucracy to teach masturbation and contraception.

[There's more, it's worse - you should read it to be aware of how our 'world government' is bent on stripping parents of their right to set their children's education - Recommended > ]

READ MORE

Welcome to the Unionized States of America

The growing government labor force will add to organized labor's clout.

The stranglehold unions have over politicians (and more importantly, us) will get that much worse as more of the unionized labor force consists of government workers.

From a piece by William Voegeli on the Claremont Institute:

In 2008, a mere 7.6% of all private-sector workers belonged to labor unions, while 26.9% of utility companies' employees were unionized - utilities being, in most cases, regulated monopolies retaining considerable power to set their own rates. And, of course, the only "industry" where unions have flourished in the past 40 years has been government, the ultimate monopoly.

The same Bureau of Labor Statistics report shows that 36.8% of public-sector employees were union members last year. (To put the point another way, while private-sector workers were more than five times as numerous as public-sector ones in 2008 - 108 million compared to 21 million - the number of private-sector unionized employees was only 6% larger than the number of public-sector ones; 8.3 million versus 7.8 million.)

Unless the trends that have held for decades are reversed, the majority of American union members will soon be government employees.

This figure does not even include quasi-government workers such as the United Auto Workers.

Unions have already been amply rewarded through taxpayer bailouts of industries they dominate. Democrats are working on card check and mandatory arbitration legislation to help strengthen the power of unions. Obama has placed key union leaders in pivotal spots in our government - among them, the Federal Election Commission, and as head of the key Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

A devoted union supporter now heads the Department of Labor.

Unions, especially 'public sector' government employee unions, may very well become the 4th branch of government...

[Think that through; the ranks of those who take our money by force swelling to the point that they outnumber their victims... i.e., a permanent ruling class of government employees because they have the votes to sustain it.

We need repeal the ability of public sector, i.e. taxpayer funded and so void of the mitigation effect of market competition, workers to unionize - period. It will soon become a matter of economic survival {if not already: California anyone?}]

READ MORE

image toon c-art - crpt - EYEBALL on Card Check card

AFL-CIO, Dems push new Wall Street tax

The nation’s largest labor union and some allied Democrats are pushing a new tax that would hit big investment firms such as Goldman Sachs reaping billions of dollars in profits.

The AFL-CIO, one of the Democratic Party’s most powerful allies, would like to assess a small tax — about a tenth of a percent — on every stock transaction...

[And principle be damned...]

READ MORE

AP Coverage of Ford-UAW Negotiations Ignores Union's Ownership Interests In Competitors

Ford and the United Auto Workers are set to begin new contract talks under a set of circumstances radically different from any previously faced by either party.

There is the "minor" matter of the union's ownership stakes in General Motors and Chrysler.

But you wouldn't learn about any of this, let alone its potential effect on negotiations, from reading coverage of the situation by the Associated Press's Kimberly Johnson. Additionally, there's quite a bit of emphasis on the idea that Ford can supposedly afford to be more generous with pay and benefits than its two major Detroit rivals.

How convenient -- for the union and the the other two companies.

Here are key paragraphs from Johnson's very incomplete report:

READ MORE

CNN Reports Car Price Spike Coming Due to 'Success' of Clunkers

[HT:SE].

CNN "Newsroom" admitted Aug. 27 that new car prices are "expected" to go up as a result of the government Cash for Clunkers giveaway.

Heidi Collins told viewers,

"The success of the Cash for Clunkers program may be pushing new car prices higher. Dealerships are expected to have lower inventory over the next few months, meaning higher prices for consumers. Around 700,000 people took advantage of the Cash for Clunkers program."

Collins' use of the word "success" to describe the program was consistent with the media's advocacy of the program. All three broadcast networks called it a "victim of its own success," after the initial $1 billion in funding ran out after just a week - instead of the 14 weeks projected.

READ MORE

FLASHBACK >

Clunky Economics

The unseen, however, is the investment that doesn't occur so that windows can be fixed...

image toon - mny sclm bbro auto = Clunkers pogram a clunker

Probability and Global Warming

(1) The planet is getting exponentially warmer. This is only a possibility. So we are talking about a percentage of warming in a possible world -- not necessarily our real world. (No one knows the exact temperature of the real world. In fact, there is no such thing as an exact world temperature. Temperatures vary throughout the planet.)

(2) This warming is caused by man-made releases of CO2. This is also only a possibility. So, we are talking about an approximate amount of CO2 in a possible world -- not the actual amount in our real world. (No one knows the exact amount of CO2 being released in the real world.)

The exact same logic is true for steps 3, 4, and 5. All of the logic is inductive; all of the arguments are based on probability. If the conclusion (#5) is true, all of the previous arguments must also be true.

And, as anyone who studies induction knows: the longer the string of conditionals (steps), the lower the probability that the entire set of conditionals is true... [snip]

(1) The world is getting exponentially warmer. The key word here is exponentially. I didn't say it and I don't believe it -- but proponents of global warming do. Here is their very famous "hockey stick" graph.

But, oops, here is a NASA graph that shows that nothing remotely resembling exponential warming has been going on in at least the last ten years.

Lastly, what is the chance that all of the governments of the world will unite to significantly lower emissions of CO2? A rational person would have to put the probability at close to zero.

If I ran America, I would not bet the future of our economy on the successful outcome the proposed cap and trade legislation. The odds are against it.

[Or, as I've been know to say, we're not just being told that we've 'caught' this problem in the eleventh hour, but the eleventh hour and 59th minute -- BUT, if we spend enough money now-right-now we've still enough time to fix it {four months to be exact, according to UN President Moonbat [sic]}.

It must be divine intervention to have caught this at the last possible instant - I mean, what the odds?

By ANY measure, scientific evidence [historical record vs. 'models'], human behaviors [refuse debate, prosecute 'deniers'], vested interests [100 Trillion $ and the power to control all activity - sweet], or probabilities ['READ MORE'], this is the largest scam, for the largest reward in wealth and power, ever perpetrated in our solar system.

Given these huge payoffs those attempting it will risk much constituent ire to achieve it as, once in place, their energy tyranny will be virtually irreversible {and bear in mind, Waxman-Markey has already passed the House}.

Consequently it's up to us little people to convince our 'representatives' before the die is cast that they will be replaced should they continue to pursue this scam.

Silence will be interpreted as consent, and it will be we little folk who pay most dearly for this insanity should it come to pass.]

READ MORE

Publisher Accuses Reid of Bullying' Nevada Newspaper

The publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sunday accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, of "bullying" his newspaper by telling an employee he wants the Review-Journal shut down.

Sherman Frederick alleged in a column in his newspaper that the "full-on threat" was made during a brief exchange between Reid and the newspaper's advertising director Wednesday at a luncheon for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce...

[Gangster government: it's spreading.]

READ MORE

Enough is enough, Harry Stop the childish bullying

This newspaper traces its roots to before Las Vegas was Las Vegas. We've seen cattle ranches give way to railroads. We chronicled the construction of Hoover Dam. We survived the mob, Howard Hughes, the Great Depression, several recessions and two world wars.

So, let me assure you, if we weathered all of that, we can damn sure outlast the bully threats of Sen. Harry Reid...

READ MORE

How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America

With his new book, "Secular Sabotage: How Liberals are Destroying Religion and Culture in America." Bill Donohue could be expected to be stricken from all manner of Christmas card lists -- except the people he exposes don’t believe in Christmas.

"Secular Sabotage" is serious business. Donohue insists the United States should be considered unequivocally a Christian country. Eight out of ten Americans consider themselves as such. Indeed – and I didn’t realize this – the United States is the most Christian country, in quantitative terms, in the world.

"In fact," states the author, "the U.S. is more Christian than Israel is Jewish." And yet if this is so, why can’t we celebrate Christmas? Why can’t our children pray in school? How did we just elect a president who insisted the United States ought not to be considered a Christian nation?

The 'popular culture’s' [media] hesitation to acknowledge the truth of this country’s Christian identity is a direct measure of the success a tiny minority of Americans has enjoyed in thoroughly intimidating the majority. While Donohue discusses secular sabotage, he is clear that these ought not to be considered simple secularists existing alongside the faithful. They are nihilists out to expel Christianity not just from the public square but from the public conversation entirely.

And they are powerful enough to be succeeding...

READ MORE

Does someone have answers to the questions?

I am perplexed about so many issues in the news that I can only ask questions today. Maybe someone else has the answers.

* Why is the issue of health care being decided by government and not by the consumers, health professionals and insurance companies? Isn't government the one that can't defend our borders, win the war on poverty or control the cost of stamps? And if Medicare and Medicaid are rampant with corruption and cost overruns, what will government do to a much broader program?

* Why are the 10 poorest cities in America the ones that always elect Democrats to public office? Is it because their solutions to problems is welfare, not work?

* Why is it considered desirable to register every uninformed voter to cancel out the votes of informed, well-educated people?

* What does it mean when cities with strict gun control laws, like Chicago and Washington, D.C., can't control gangs, drugs and shootings?

* Why is global warming even an issue when the increase in worldwide temperatures during the past 100 years has been only one degree Celsius and, for the past three years, has declined?

* Why does President Obama prefer to house terrorists in the United States rather than at Gitmo?

* With Cash for Clunkers and $8,000 bribes to first-time home buyers, what will happen to car and home sales when these "incentives" end? (I'm waiting for my 10 grand for grandpas.)

* Should I buy a car from a company owned by unions that caused their own bankruptcies and by a government stupid enough to invest taxpayer money to prop them up?

* Whatever happened to the great all-American principle that when a business fails, it provides opportunity for others to step in and do a better job? Has our government become the No. 1 enabler of inefficiency?

* Why is the stimulus package loaded with funding that obviously will not stimulate the economy, but will stimulate people to vote a certain way?

* Why is it that public schools that spend $10,000 per pupil can't do any better educating children than private, religious schools spending $4,000 per pupil? Shouldn't more resources go to those who succeed and less to those who are proven failures?

READ MORE

Newspapers their own worst enemy

Newspapers, who have spoon fed the progressive movement to the United States for the last several decades will now have to do with $2.8 BILLION DOLLARS less than they took in at this time last year. That's a quarterly result.

Newspapers will blame the Internet but if there were any value in the product advertisers would be there. The people have spoken and if newspapers don't want to ask the hard questions we don't want the product. Online or off.

READ MORE

image toon - msm bias - MSM = OB Abe Lincoln while McCain voters crazy

G.B.F...

.
Texas rally at Texas Capitol sparks talks of secession

The Texas State Sovereignty or Secessions movement is backed by those who think the federal government is getting too involved in state and local government affairs...

READ MORE


Resolve

A secret report predicts the Freedom Tower - billed as America's defiant answer to terrorism - won't be finished until 17 years after the 9/11 attacks

READ MORE


Reuters Implores AP to 'Stop Whining'

Huzzah: A president at newswire operator Thomson Reuters says traditional journalism is not actually being strangled by Google, blogs and the rest of the internet.

And that anyone who thinks so — *cough* AP *cough* — should get a grip..

READ MORE
.