The Totalitarians Among Us

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This is a month in which the president of the United States has co-sponsored a UN resolution with the police state of Egypt to ban speech that defames religion; a month in which the Democratic Party has placed an amendment on a defense appropriations bill to make anti-gay speech a thought crime, and in which the White House has launched an all-out attack on the Fox News Channel because it didn’t like what Fox commentators were saying.

And instead of reacting with appropriate horror at an assault on the free press not seen since the days of Joseph McCarthy, a TIME columnist has called Fox’s behavior “seditious” and thus helped to set the stage for making criticism of government a “hate crime”... [snip]

How quickly hate speech is redefined as standing up for the freedoms your country has, which Islamic totalitarianism denies (and which thus makes your country better.) And this in the city of Philadelphia, the birthplace of American liberty.

America’s first and most fundamental freedom is under concerted attack.

The attack originates with Islamic jihadists and their liberal collaborators, but it is being supported by useful fools and the seriously confused. This series of events should be a wake-up call to all Americans. The hour is already late.

[Recommended > ]

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Most Disagree with Obama on issues

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For the first time since he took over in the White House, Americans don't see eye to eye with President Barack Obama on the important issues, according to a new national CNN poll.

According to the poll, which was released Tuesday, 48 percent of people questioned say that they agree with Obama on the issues that matter most to them, with 51 percent saying no...

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Crushing the media

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The Obama administration's un-American attempt to vilify Fox News only increased the network's popularity. But this White House debacle can't be judged in isolation: There's a global leftwing assault on the freedom of information. Intense leftist sentiment in most of the international media isn't enough. Extremists seek total control. The one thing leftists just can't bear is criticism...

[I disagree. They dislike criticism, but it's competition in a free market place of ideas they can't stand...

Highly Recommended > ]

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Palin Around

From ABC's John Berman, who's up in NY-23 covering the Hoffman-Owens showdown:

@abcdude: Covering NY-23 race. This is the bumper-sticker on the car that candidate Doug Hoffman just arrived in

-end 091103 post-

image toon - 1st fnn msm libs = Dems holloween costume = Glenn Beck

California to withhold a bigger chunk of paychecks

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Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners -- holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear.

Technically, it's not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives.

Just think of it as a forced, interest-free loan..

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image toon - cali mny = CA spending bear eating all revenue stream

Scozzafava Drops Out Of NY-23 Race

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The Base Barks: Republican Establishment in Washington, D.C. spent over $900,000.00 to elect Dede Scozzafava, who [Saturday] abandons the race.



NY-23: Scozzafava Photo-Op Goes Horribly Wrong

Third party challenges in NJ, NY are warning sign

Third party candidates are shaking up two major races in elections Tuesday, and the success of those candidacies is a warning shot fired at both major parties by voters angry at government and disillusioned by politics as usual. In New York's 23rd Congressional district (Snip) Dede Scozzafava, the candidate chosen by state GOP leaders to replace him, was forced out of the race by a surging Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman.

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Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich: The Visionary and the Hack

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Two weeks after Sarah Palin's unique exit from public office, Newt Gingrich offered up some unsolicited counsel for the former governor in an interview with POLITICO. Exactly why he felt she needed his help remains a bit of a mystery, except that Gingrich seems absolutely certain that the world is always on edge awaiting his next tactical stroke of genius.

Now that an intense internecine battle is raging over how Republicans should react to Doug Hoffman's Conservative Party bid for New York's 23rd , one thing is certain: it is Newt whose reputation is in shambles, and it is he who should seek political advice from Palin as to how he might regain his lost stature. And this will remain true whether Mr. Hoffman wins or loses.

By unconditionally supporting the Republican machine candidate Dede Scozzafava -- one of the most liberal candidates ever offered by the party in any race -- Newt has forfeited any remnant of respect he might have retained as the standard-bearer of the conservative congressional revolution of 1994... [snip]

While pundit after pundit argues that we should throw Reagan over the side in pursuit of Obama-lite, Palin is bringing us back to the principled, universal roots that Reagan shared with the Founders. While many columnists anguish over immoderate candidates, Palin warns against "blurring the lines" and writes a Facebook birthday tribute to Margaret Thatcher.

A recent Gallup poll [again, as always] shows that in America, conservatives outnumber liberals by two to one. We know from history that conservatives can win landslide elections. But conservatives need to be confident to be resurgent. None of us knows what Sarah Palin has in mind for 2012 and beyond. But if she is a force that helps us regain the confidence of our convictions, then she will have given us a gift beyond repayment...

[Recommended > ]

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In Key New York Race, Barracuda Chews Up Mitt

Subject: txt 2010 gdd fnn -
Mitt Romney, who hopes to be the GOP's next presidential nominee, couldn't bring himself to endorse anyone in New York state's contentious 23rd congressional district special election.

Sarah Palin, using her unique sense of timing, one week ago became the biggest name of in-prime party leaders to endorse Hoffman.

What do you find most often in the middle of the road?

Road kill.

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Meanwhile, in the Professional media...

.

"The battle for upstate New York confirms just how swiftly the right has devolved into a wacky, paranoid cult that is as eager to eat its own as it is to destroy Obama. The movement’s undisputed leaders, Palin and Beck, neither of whom have what Palin once called the 'actual responsibilities' of public office, would gladly see the Republican Party die on the cross of right-wing ideological purity."

So wrote a New York Times columnist...

[I.e., yet another liberal 'advising' the GOP move left - ever left - as its only hope of salvation. Funny, Reagan didn't run on that premise. He was crucified for his conservatism it by the press [and there was no People's Press new-media to counter the deluge], but Americans responded. If the Republican party is no longer capable of representing true conservatism, it will be replaced with one that is - precisely as we're seeing in NY.]

This is the same unbiased journalist that, in his "The G.O.P. Stalinists Invade Upstate New York," unapologetically said no matter who wins in Tuesday's election for a House representative from New York's 23rd district, "the Republicans are the sure losers":

[But they've all the party's best interest at heart when offering their advice for 'success'.]

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CNN:Dems Might Be Better Off If They Lose NJ & VA

Subject: txt msm 2010 - fnn -
On Friday’s Situation Room, CNN forwarded an idea proposed by The New Republic’s Peter Beinart- that Democratic losses in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey this year would result in the reelection of President Obama in 2012. An on-screen graphic during a discussion of Beinart’s hypothesis read,

“If The Dems Lose Next Week: How it might help them in the long run.”

‘Let’s imagine,’ he writes, ‘that Democrats lose next week because the GOP’s conservative base flocks to the polls while liberals stay home. For Obama, that wouldn’t be so terrible. The more confident right-wing Republicans become, the more likely they will nominate a Palin-like zealot in 2012.’”

[They just can't help themselves. And about those 'zealots'...]

[When it comes to Liberty, I am one.]

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In 568 words, what's wrong with 1,990 pages

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[You're probably sick of the 24/7 coverage of alternative ideas to socialized medicine from the MSM, but just in case you somehow missed it...]


House Republican Leader John Boehner gave the Republican radio address today, and in 568 words made a simple and compelling case for what is wrong with the Democrats' 1,990-page health care proposal -- and for what should be done instead.

Here is the full text of Boehner's radio address:

I’m House Republican Leader John Boehner. At the beginning of this year, I told President Obama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi that Republicans would be ready to work with them whenever possible to address the nation’s biggest challenges.

I also said that where there are differences, it was our obligation as a party to explain to the American people how we would do things better. And on the "stimulus," the budget, the energy bill, and health care, we have done exactly that.

As a matter of fact, only Republicans have offered solutions to lower health care costs and make it easier to obtain quality, affordable coverage without imposing a massive burden on the American people.

We first released our health care plan in June, and over the last six months, we have introduced at least eight bills that, taken together, would implement this blueprint. You can go right now to healthcare.gop.gov and get all the details, but for now, I just want to share with you four ideas Republicans have proposed:

Number one: let families and businesses buy health insurance across state lines;

Number two: allow individuals, small businesses, and trade associations to pool together and acquire health insurance at lower prices, the same way large corporations and labor unions do today;

Number three: give states the tools to create their own innovative reforms that lower health care costs; and

Number four: end junk lawsuits that contribute to higher health care costs by increasing the number of tests and procedures that physicians sometimes order not because they think it's good medicine, but because they are afraid of being sued.

These are four smart, fiscally-responsible reforms that we can implement today to lower costs and expand access at a price our nation can afford. Again, you can learn more about these and all the health care initiatives Republicans have supported by visiting healthcare.gop.gov.

The best way to get a sense of what Speaker Pelosi’s takeover of health care looks like is to actually look at it. Just shy of 2,000 pages, it runs more than 620 pages longer than the government-run plan Hillary Clinton proposed in 1993.

This 1,990 pages of bureaucracy will centralize health care decision making in Washington, DC. It’ll require thousands of new federal employees. It’ll put unelected boards, bureaus, and commissions in charge of who gets access to what drug and what potentially life-saving treatment.

And it won’t come cheap. Speaker Pelosi’s health care bill will raise the cost of Americans’ health insurance premiums; it will kill jobs with tax hikes and new mandates; and it will cut seniors’ Medicare benefits.

We now have a choice: we can come together to implement smart, fiscally responsible reforms to improve Americans’ health care or we can recklessly pursue this government takeover that creates far more problems than it solves.

It’s clear where the American people stand on this issue. They‘re frustrated and fed up. The ‘stimulus’ bill isn’t working. Unemployment is rising. The debt to be paid by our kids and grandkids is exploding. And now, Speaker Pelosi’s 1,990-page government takeover of health care.

Enough is enough. Breaking the bank and taking away the freedoms Americans cherish is not the answer to the challenges we face.

This coming week, Republicans will continue to stand on principle, defend freedom, and fight for our better solutions to make health care more affordable and accessible for American families.

Thanks for listening.

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Annual Medicare Fraud:$60 Billion; Annual Profits of Top Ten Insurance Companies:$8 billion

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[HT:LDot;

"The heart of the scam in simple numbers that will fit on the back of a business card."

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Dems don't need the public option to take over health care

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John Hinderaker of Powerline lays out a brutally clear case for why even without the public option, Democrats will succeed in federalizing health care:

What strikes me as I read the House bill, however, is how closely it approximates socialized medicine even without the public option. The bill is classic national socialist legislation, in that it takes ostensibly private entities, the health insurance companies, and perverts them into instruments of the state, run top-down and barred from competing among themselves.

I think Hinderaker nails it by saying that paying our premiums under Obamacare is the same as paying a tax:

In the world that the House bill would create, the money we will pay to insurance companies won't really be insurance premiums. Insurance premiums are contractual payments which the parties voluntarily agree upon and which are based on a mutual assessment of risk. Rather, the checks we write to insurance companies will be taxes--compelled, at rates set by the federal government that are designed to punish some and subsidize others.

Obama has said that it will take a decade to get rid of private insurance companies. That's nonsense. They will already be gone the moment he signs this bill...

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Newsweek Despairs 'Checks and Balances' Impede ObamaCare

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Penning the lead story for the “Yes He Can (But He Sure Hasn't Yet)” Newsweek cover, “A Liberal's Survival Guide,” Anna Quindlen defended President Obama from liberal complaints he's not enacting liberal policies fast enough as she explained that he's “saddled” by the “incremental” constitutional structure.

Framing her piece in the November 2 edition of the magazine, “Hope Springs Eternal: Assessing a Young Presidency,” Quindlen proposed:

"Checks and balances: that's how we learn about it in social-studies class, and in theory [?] it is meant to guard against a despotic executive, a wild-eyed legislature, an overweening judiciary. And it's also meant to safeguard the rights of the individual...But what our system has meant during the poisonous partisan civil war that has paralyzed Washington in recent years is that very little of the big stuff gets done. It simply can't."

[Unbelievable - I think she literally doesn't realize that the 'big stuff' being attempted is exactly the type of 'despotic executive, wild-eyed legislature' the checks and balances were designed to guard us from.

I.e., yet another example of the brilliance our founders bequeathed to us {and the liberal ideological teamism that blinds this woman from recognizing it.}]

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MSNBC Guestr: Democrats Could Close Groton Sub Base to Punish Lieberman

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[Liberal 'debate'.]

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image toon - 1st hcare = Lates plan = removable parts

The Enemy Within

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"The ‘Status Quo' is not an option. We face large and growing structural deficits largely due to known demographic trends and rising health care costs. GAO's simulations show that balancing the budget in 2040 could require actions as large as cutting total federal spending by 60% or more, or raising federal taxes to two times today's level."

David Walker,
Comptroller General of the United States,
April 4, 2007.

Source: 2007 Government Accounting Office report, Saving Our Future Requires Tough Choices Today.

[And this before the age of Obama.]

CBO's estimate of additional deficits over 2010-2019 from the House's health reform bill: $1.042 trillion. (Source: CBO, see Table at end.)

CBO's estimate of the increase in the 2010-2019 cumulative deficit of President Obama's budget over a "baseline" (current-law) budget: $4.698 trillion. (Source: CBO, see Table 1-1.)
.

We Need Both

Subject: txt nsec =

The F-22 can outrun, outclimb, and outmaneuver any fighter, but the F-35 is the first ever designed to replace four existing aircraft.

Test pilot Jon Beesley -- one of only two men on the planet to have flown both the F-35 Lightning II and the F-22 Raptor -- says aerial combat is not two gunfighters facing each other in the middle of the street, drawing pistols, and shooting it out.

"That's High Noon, that's Gary Cooper," says Beesley, 59, a grandfather of 16 and a former Air Force fighter pilot who now test flies experimental and prototype fighter-aircraft for Lockheed Martin. "

Air combat has always been about stealth; about being able to get into position to kill the other guy -- preferably unobserved -- and if you are observed, being able to outmaneuver him.

"Ever heard of fighter pilots wanting to come out of the sun or the clouds? That's why they want to do it. They don't want their opponent to see them. That's stealth."

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Losing Israel

Subject: txt israel -
When America entered the war in Vietnam, Ho Chi Min said that it would be a long war and that the communists would win by using propaganda in the media and the universities. He was correct.

It is time to take stock in the war between Israelis and the Palestinians and deal with some forbidden subjects. Israel is losing the propaganda war, hasbarah, and for a very good reason.... [snip]

Now, which one of the two maintains a stronger position -- peace or victory? Today Israel desires peace and the Palestinians insist on victory. Guess who wins?

Peace is for losers. Regrettably, Israelis and American Jews are choosing to be the losers. The consequences however are too dire; ultimately, Israel may get their peace, but it may be the peace after jihad's victory.

Ironically, Israelis and Jews abroad are not the only ones in a state of denial about Islamic politics; they just happen to be at the frontline. President Bush demonstrated after 9/11 that he too had no clue how to fight this Islamic ideological war. Instead of using military force against our enemies, he and his successor- President Obama should have declared ideological war against our true enemy-political Islam.

They seem to lose their war and so will Israel unless some tough questions are faced and actions are taken.

[Recommended > ]

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Campus Critics on Trial

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Two venomously anti-Israel professors at the University of California have joined forces to attack those who would criticize them, or their like-minded colleagues, for injecting their hatred of the Jewish State into their teaching and research.

David Theo Goldberg is director of the system-wide University of California Humanities Research Institute and Saree Makdisi is Professor of English Literature specializing in British Romanticism at UCLA. Together, Goldberg and Makdisi have published an article "The Trial of Israel's Campus Critics," in which they assert that there is an insidious Israel Campus Lobby comprising raving right-wing Zionists.

In order to understand just how spurious these charges are, one need only consider the two professors making them. Here are some important and relevant facts about the authors, which they have conveniently forgotten to share with their readers:

David Theo Goldberg:

signed a January 2009 letter to President Obama which describes Israel as "an Apartheid regime" that is committing "one of the most massive, ethnocidal atrocities of modern times"; [many more - snip]

Saree Makdisi:

claimed in a talk he delivered at a conference at UCLA in January 2009 that it was Israel's "'premeditated state policy' to kill Gazans and stunt the growth of their children." [many more - snip]

Goldberg's and Makdisi's "scholarly" criticism of Israel is motivated by a deep animus of the Jewish State and a desire to see its elimination. These criticisms are arguably neither scholarly nor legitimate. By wrapping themselves in the mantle of academic freedom, Goldberg and Makdisi have egregiously abused the freedom that comes from such an action.

And by falsely accusing anyone who would criticize them of committing the very offenses they themselves have committed, they take intellectual thuggery to vile new depths...

[I.e., they've bright futures in our current academic system.]

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[But we can act...]

http://www.cicweb.ca/

.

Taiwan warns of China 'threat'

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Taiwan's defence ministry has said China's military strength is far more than it needs for self-defence and it is a threat to the Asia-Pacific region.

It warned unless 1,500 missiles aimed at Taiwan were removed, both nations would find it hard to trust each other.

Relations had been improving since the Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, took office last year.

China, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory, has not yet responded to the Taiwanese defence report.

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, when the defeated Nationalist government fled to the island as the Communists, under Mao Zedong, swept to power.

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US drone strikes may break international law: UN

Subject: txt gwot nsec owg -

United Nations - US drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan could be breaking international laws against summary executions, the UN's top investigator of such crimes said. (Snip) ''My concern is that drones/Predators are being operated in a framework which may well violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law,''

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[Enter Here]

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Power Derives from Lawful Authority

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The President of the United States has no more legal right to sign a treaty that turns legislative, executive, and judicial functions of our national government over to the United Nations than he has to declare the United States an Islamic Republic and its people henceforward subject to Sharia.

Nevertheless, that would be the effect of the proposed United Nations Climate Change Treaty awaiting Mr. Obama's signature in Copenhagen this coming December.

The proposed treaty authorizes the establishment of a "government" to transfer wealth from industrial nations to non-industrial nations in payment of a "climate debt" which, the treaty 'declares', the industrial nations owe on account of burning carbon-based fuels.

The newly created international government is to have the authority to decide issues relating to carbon emissions in signatory nations, the power to levy what amounts to carbon taxes on signatory nations, and the power to enforce its levies without reference to the will of the people who live in the signatory nations.

Thus, the proposed Climate Change Treaty demands that: [specifics, all a transfer of sovereignty - snip]

So, given what the treaty portends, the obvious question is, does it pass constitutional muster?

The answer is rooted in American constitutional history, which is that no President, even with the advice and consent of the Senate, has the power to transfer legislative, executive, or judicial authority to any body in derogation of the manner in which such authority is granted by the United States Constitution.

A presidential signature and senatorial ratification is merely the process by which a treaty takes on the outward garments of lawfulness. The substance of the treaty must also be lawful. as defined by the tenants of our Constitution.

• "The ... powers of the national government are limited by the constitutional grants. Those who act under these grants are not at liberty to transcend the imposed limits because they believe that more or different power is necessary."
• "The Constitution provides that 'All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States' (and the) ... Congress is not permitted to abdicate or to transfer to others the essential legislative functions with which it is thus vested [3]."

To be lawful under our Constitution, a treaty may not impinge on the constitutional grant of powers to the President, to Congress, or to the Judiciary... [snip]

In the end, the question is whether the 200+ page Climate Change Treaty oversteps the constitutional limitations on the delegation of powers that are allocated to the various branches of our federal government. We can find out for certain only by a vote of five or more members of the United States Supreme Court - which history has shown to be an unreliable safety net for the preservation of America's constitutional democracy.

That's why it's critical we hold our Senators' feet to the fire on this issue.

We don't need another national trauma, and we can avoid one by making sure our Senators withhold their consent to the proposed Climate Change Treaty when Mr. Obama signs and submits it...

[Read the above skipped 'specifics' to know what we're in for should we fail >

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Then >


"DENY SENATE CONSENT of CLIMATE CHANGE 'TREATY' "


Senate-Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...

and as always, pass it on...

contact-template

Subject: txt lbrty gdd extra other -
The Founding Founders established a Republic under a written Constitution with the clear intent of protecting individual freedom. However, the role of our government has been grossly perverted over the last century to the point where politicians now violate individual rights routinely and without batting an eye. Most violations occur under the banner of providing for the public good, and they call upon the virtues of charity and sacrifice to garner support.

Fortunately, charity and sacrifice in a free society are individual and personal undertakings. As a rule, they cannot be subject to coercion if liberty is to be maintained. The current President and various members of both political parties do not abide by this rule, and as such, they are positioning themselves as tyrants. Servitude will be the price we pay unless we stand up today and boldly defend our rights. It is time to educate the broader public on the proper role of charity and sacrifice in a free society... [snip]

In his authoritative work on freedom, The Constitution of Liberty1, F.A. Hayek explained the role charity plays in a free society:

"By common opinion our chief concern...[is] the welfare of our family. But we also show our appreciation and approval of others by making them our friends and their aims ours. To choose our associates and generally those whose needs we make our concern is an essential part of freedom and of the moral conceptions of a free society. General altruism, however, is a meaningless conception..."

Ayn Rand was less loquacious in her explanation:

"Only individual men have the right to decide when or whether they wish to help others; society -- as an organized political system -- has no rights in the matter at all."

Now ask yourself: regarding how your tax money is collected and spent for public services, do you get to decide what and whose needs appear most important to you or do politicians? It's a rhetorical question, but it emphasizes an important point -- that when politicians position themselves as the purveyors of charity, the values with respect to each member of society are disregarded as the values of one group or special interest win over those of others...

Many individuals will still ask, What of the poor and those who can't provide certain necessities for themselves? The answer in a free society is clear: you will not be stopped from helping them.

Therein lies the essence of charity - and its distinction from tyranny...

[Highly Recommended > ]

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AFP California Tours State with Tea Party Express

Subject: txt lbrty gdd mny =

Dear friends of AFP California,

This week I had the great pleasure of participating in the Tea Party Express tour that launched in San Diego, followed by stops in Los Angeles, Bakersfield and Fresno. At each of our stops, there were great crowds of patriots deeply concerned about the direction our country is taking. I was encouraged to see so many Californians actively working to take back our government from tax-and-spend politicians.

In each city I met AFP supporters—many of whom heard about these events through our emails! This was evidence that AFP California is building a network of grassroots activists throughout our state. Together, we can hold our elected officials accountable.

I shared with the Tea Party participants that California was once the land of great opportunity and prosperity. The only thing that has changed since then is an increasingly irresponsible legislature. The people of this great state haven’t changed. It’s up to you and me to ensure our future is as bright as our golden past. I’m confident that we can continue to spread the message of prosperity and freedom, and in doing so, reclaim California.

Please take a moment to visit our Facebook and Flickr pages to see photos of the Tea Party Express rallies.

State Chairman, Americans for Prosperity of California

P.S. The Tea Party Express continues its tour of the country. Please forward this email to your friends and family and encourage them to attend a local Tea Party Express event in their area.

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USSR Humor and the Jobless Recovery

A story from the old Soviet Union helps us understand claims that a jobless recovery is underway.

Once upon a time four of the historic leaders of the old Soviet Union were on a train going across the Siberian wilderness: Lenin, Stalin, Kruschev and Brezhnev. (Suspend your understanding of time.)

Midway across the wilderness, the train reached the end of the tracks. Construction works were huddled around fires trying to stay warm. They said track supplies were short.

Lenin said he’d take care of it. He climbed down the steps of the plush private care the leaders were traveling in, had workers build a simple platform, mounted it, and started giving a rousing speech. He exhorted the crowd to revolutionary effort to advance the cause of the people. They all shouted and went back to work.

In a couple of hours the train moved down the track about a quarter mile. Then it stopped.

The leaders looked at each other. Stalin said he’d take care of it.

He climbed down from the private railcar and ordered that all the track foremen be shot and new ones appointed.

Work resumed. The train started up again. Went another quarter mile and stopped.

This time Kruschev said it was his turn. He descended from the railcar and ordered that the track behind the train be pulled up and laid in front of the train. He pounded his shoe on Lenin’s platform for emphasis.

Later the train began to roll again. This time it went further than before. But then it stopped again.

Brezhnev said he’s fix things. He scrambled down the ladder, gathered the new foremen around him, and said, “Comrades, divide your workers into two groups. Line one half along one side of the train, and the other along the opposite. Rock the train from side-to-side so that it feels like we’re moving.”

And they did. Inside the railcar Lenin, Stalin and Kruschev marveled at how Brezhnev had been able to get so much track laid in so little time, and at all the distance they were moving across the wilderness.

Outside, Joe Bidenchev, a new foreman, encouraged the workers saying, “Look, Comrades, at how many foremens’ jobs we’ve saved.”

Okay, the last part wasn’t part of the original telling.

-end 091102 post-

Pelosi Health Bill Sets Stage for Contentious Negotiations with Senate

.
Speaking on the West Front of the Capitol surrounded by Democratic lawmakers, Pelosi, D-Calif., said the House's version of a health care reform bill will include a government-run insurance option and extend coverage to 36 million uninsured Americans.

She said the bill will lower patient costs and reduce the national deficit. [Today's insult]

The bill would require everyone by 2013 to sign up through their employer, a government program or a new kind of purchasing pool called an exchange. The plan also calls for a significant expansion of Medicaid, the federal-state health program for low-income people. And it would impose a requirement on employers to offer insurance to their workers or face penalties.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office on Thursday released a report saying that the House bill will have a net cost of $894 billion over the next decade. [Not counting the 1/4 Trillion "doctor fix" price tag that has been removed to pay separately, or the fact it calls for increased taxation for years before any benefit is paid out. It's the course accounting deceit they've employed to force CBO to conclude the {utterly false} numbers claimed in the bill result in deficit 'reduction'. ][snip]

"Americans' health care is too important to risk on one gigantic bill that was negotiated behind closed doors,"

said Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich.

"Not only will the Democrats' government takeover of health care lead to increased costs, higher taxes, and cuts to Medicare, it also feeds into the emerging narrative that Nancy Pelosi and her puppets are more interested in creating government even if it comes at the expense of creating jobs,"

said NRCC communications director Ken Spain.

"The lasting image coming out of today's press conference is one of dozens of House Democrats standing proudly behind an incredibly unpopular Nancy Pelosi as she prepares to lead them off a political cliff."

[Only if the American people hold them accountable for the maleficence. Meanwhile...]

Pelosi wants to have the legislation on the floor next week -- with a final vote before Veterans Day, Nov. 11 -- which would give President Obama a bill to sign by year's end.

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[Then >


"OPPOSE ANY/ALL GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE"


Senate-Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
House-Pelosi: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
YOUR Congressman: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...

and as always, pass it on...

contact-template

image toon - 1st hcare = Pelosi Ried pilots way off on health care

POLL: Most don't see insurance companies as 'villians'

Subject: txt hcare crpt libs -
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared last week that health insurance companies are “villains,” and 25% of U.S. voters agree with her.

However, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 37% disagree with the speaker and don’t believe health insurers are “villains.” Virtually the same number (38%), are not sure, a finding which should give insurers pause as the health care reform debate intensifies.

Fifty percent (50%) of Republicans disagree with Pelosi, as do the plurality (45%) of voters not affiliated with either major political party. Thirty-seven percent (37%) of Democrats share her view, with only 19% not.

Still, 80% of those with health insurance rate their own coverage as good or excellent. That’s up 10 points from May.

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POLL: 48% Say It’s Too Easy To Sue Doctors, 44% Favor Caps on Jury Awards

Subject: txt hcare
Just 19% say it is too hard to sue for medical malpractice, while 18% believe the current legal situation is about right. Sixteen percent (16%) are undecided.

Perhaps one explanation for the plurality support for caps is that 56% of voters think most money won in medical malpractice lawsuits goes to lawyers rather than the defendants. Only 19% say the defendants get most of the money won in such lawsuits. Nearly one-out-of-four voters (24%) aren’t sure.

Seventy-five percent (75%) say medical malpractice lawsuits are an important factor in the rising cost of health care. Thirty-three percent (33%) say they are very important. Just 16% say malpractice lawsuits are not very important in terms of increasing the cost of health care, and only one percent (1%) says they are not important at all.

[Yet none of the bills before either chamber of Congress address this aspect at all.]

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POLL: Competition Wanted: 65% Favor Removing Anti-Trust Exemption for Health Insurance Companies

Subject: txt 1st hcare -
Sixty-five percent (65%) of voters nationwide say laws should be changed so that health insurance companies are subject to anti-trust regulations. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 12% disagree, while 23% are not sure.

Anti-trust laws are intended to prevent companies and other business entities from working together in ways that limit competition.

Support for putting the health insurance companies under the anti-trust umbrella is consistent with another survey finding: 66% say free market competition between insurance companies will do more than government regulation to reduce health care costs. Just 23% believe more government regulation is the way to reduce costs, and 10% are not sure.

Seventy-three percent (73%) also favor another measure designed to spur free-market competition by allowing people buy health insurance across state lines. Just 20% are opposed to that measure.

[Yet none of these aspects are addressed by any of the 'plans' currently under congressional consideration.]

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Hazardous to Your Health

Subject: txt 1st hcare -
As U.S. lawmakers mull over whether to restructure the nation’s health-care system via a “public option,” even the biggest advocates of government intervention should be careful what they wish for.

Just look at Europe — not only the widespread health-care rationing, but also the European Union’s new chemicals policy, which was first enacted in 2005.

It promised public health benefits at a reasonable price, but is likely to produce the opposite...

[Recommended > ]

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[Again, the time is now, and silence will be interpreted as consent:


"OPPOSE ANY/ALL GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE"


Senate-Reid: http://reid.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm
House-Pelosi: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
YOUR Senator: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
YOUR Congressman: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...

and as always, pass it on...

.

LET THE MARKETS REGULATE

The uneven playing field, created by Washington, distorts the economy and handicaps a healthy recovery

• The targeted "pay czar" approach gives select financial firms even more insulation from market discipline.
• The marketplace understands that the more intricately entwined the government becomes with these firms, the more the government will support the same firms in the future.
• Lenders, then, will continue to offer firms like Citigroup and A.I.G. money at artificially low interest rates, as they did in the years leading up to the credit crunch, when "too big to fail" was already part of the landscape.
• The firms will continue to have an advantage over other companies and industries, and government-guaranteed failures will crowd out entrepreneurial start-ups.

Washington should be working to make large or complex financial firms more accountable to market discipline by creating a way in which big, complex financial institutions can fail in an orderly fashion...

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image toon - 1st fnn sclm bbro mny = Brother in DC lobbying for lemonaid mandate

His propaganda has seeped into everything

Subject: txt sclm bbro lbrty msm -
Remember that time President Bush interrupted the Emmy telecast to tell people we should support reform of Social Security before it bankrupted the country?

Neither do I.

Yet when I tuned in to watch "Monday Night Football" this week to check out the Miami Dolphins’ Wildcat offense, I didn’t expect to see President Obama taking the direct snap and trying to pound his political message into the end zone.

Where’s the flag for illegal procedure?

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Not socialism; Gangsterism

.
Arguments go back and forth about whether or not the Obama administration is really "socialist" in the sense that they wish to control the means of production, takeover all businesses, and put the "people" (unions) in charge.

Wherever you come down on this issue, there is no denying the straight line from Obama's Chicago roots and ways of getting things done to the White House. I wrote about it a while back when Chrysler dealers were being closed down, in a post I called "Not Socialism: Gangsterism:"

Since I wrote that, the Obama Mob has come down like a ton of bricks on numerous other targets, using tactics not seen since the Nixon administration - and some that Nixon would never have dared to try.

I think a big problem about countering this administration is that most of us are in a state of shock that an American president would use such tactics - and as Strassel says - use them so openly, so brazenly...

Kim Strassel at the Wall Street Journal channels the now familiar dialogue from The Untouchables to explain what the administration is doing...

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image toon - lbrty reps libs bdd = Rham Oby's ganster government rules

HuffPo's New Obsession: Take Down the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Subject: txt msm bias libs bdd - mny -
Every time the White House has a new enemy, left-wing Web-based media outlets take up the cause to defend the Obama administration.

Earlier this year when CNBC personalities criticized the Obama administration, the Huffington Post and other components of the left-wing noise machine watched every word said on the financial network - an effort that has since petered out. The Huffington Post also asked readers to supply reports to undermine the credibility of the tea party protests that were critical of the Obama administration.

So it should come as no surprise that the Huffington Post is making a call for all hands on deck to aid the White House with its latest feud with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The Huffington Post now wants to know who gives money to the Chamber of Commerce.

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CNBC, Reuters fall for climate hoax

Subject: txt grn msm -
In a dramatic shift, the Chamber of Commerce announced Monday that it is throwing its support behind climate change legislation making its way through the U.S. Senate.

Only it didn’t.

An email press release announcing the change is a hoax, say Chamber officials.

Several media organizations fell for it.

A CNBC anchor interrupted herself mid-sentence Monday morning to announce that the network had “breaking news,” then cut away to reporter Hampton Pearson, who read from the fake press release....

[They believe what they want to believe.]

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The Nation's Climate Change Solution: 'Make the Recession Worse'

A lefty magazine editor has come up with a list of brilliant solutions to the planet's purported climate change problem: make the recession worse, make goods more expensive, and restrict all intercontinental travel to blimps.

So said Emily Douglas, web editor for The Nation, who, when asked Wednesday how we could "reverse our culture of consumerism," replied immediately "make the recession worse."

She later claimed that her response was a bit "tongue-in-cheek," according to CNS News, but admitted that her magazine "never shies away from doomsday scenarios."

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POLL: Most Americans Doubt Catastrophic Global Warming, Consider Economy More Important

Subject: txt grn -
65% of Americans say creating jobs is more important than taking steps to stop global warming. Fifty-six percent (56%) aren’t willing to pay more in taxes and utility costs to generate cleaner energy and fight global warming.

The partisan divide is predictable. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Democrats say the U.N. must act to avoid catastrophe, while the identical number (57%) of Republicans reject that view. Unaffiliated adults are narrowly divided.

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China's push for oil in US waters

Subject: txt engry -

Reporting from Beijing - A Chinese company's gambit to drill for oil in U.S. territory demonstrates China's determination to lock up the raw materials it needs to sustain its rapid growth, wherever those resources lie.


The state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp., or CNOOC, reportedly is negotiating the purchase of leases owned by the Norwegian StatoilHydro in U.S. waters in the Gulf of Mexico, the source of about a quarter of U.S. crude oil production.

[Everyone but U.S.]

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Unscientific American

Subject: txt engry - msm bias -
Scientific American used to be a great magazine but like any publishing venture headquartered in New York, it has gradually drifted into liberal never-never-land.

Over the years the magazine has run several lead stories encouraging complete nuclear disarmament. At one point it had O.J. Simpson's attorney explaining why DNA technology would never be accurate.

Now it's become a shameless, uncritical cheerleader for a world run on renewable energy, all scientific (mathematic, economic) evidence be damned...

[Too true; former subscriber.]

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Burning the home fires is a crime on bad air nights in Bay Area

CALIFORNIA
Light a fire at home, pay a $400 fine. Burning wood fires in home fireplaces and stoves on bad air nights in the Bay Area becomes illegal again as of Sunday, when the region enters its second cold-weather season with lighting up banned during Spare the Air alerts. The crackdown, aimed at protecting public health from smoke, has two significant changes this year, the Bay Area Air Quality Management announced Wednesday:

• The district will slap a fixed fine of $400 on second-time violators, who received a written warning the first time they burned on a dirty-air night. Violators last year were subject to an indeterminate fine that could have been in the thousands of dollars. In the end, only person in the region — a Santa Rosa resident — ended up with a $400 fine.

"We don't want to stomp on people's Norman Rockwell experience, but one neighbor's smoke can end up causing another neighbor's visit to the hospital. Smoke can trigger an asthma or heart attack," said Mark Ross, a Martinez city council member on the nine-county air pollution board. "Wood smoke is a public health threat."

The air district also will give the public more advance notice this year of no-burn alerts — 10 hours instead of two hours. [So we should all be grateful.]

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CALIFORNIA'S ENERGY POLICY NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR REDUCED CONSUMPTION

More than 75 percent of the touted benefits of California's costly energy policies are actually attributable to factors other than the policies

A study from Stanford University analyzes factors that lead to California's lower per-capita electricity consumption. Proponents of regulation and cap and trade often point to the "success" California has had reducing per-capita electricity consumption. The study finds that the vast majority of the difference in electricity use is explained by factors other than policy:

• For instance, the mild weather and California's relatively higher use of natural gas for space heating, led to a 15.8 percent reduction in per-capita residential electricity use.
• Differences in household size (more people per household = lower per-capita use) and its higher urban/rural ratio (urban households live in smaller dwellings that use less energy) reduce per-capita residential electricity consumption another 21.4 percent.
• California's different mix of industrial users, by itself, accounts for a 38 percent drop in per-capita industrial electricity use.
• Less commercial floor space per capita reduces per-capita commercial electricity consumption by 27 percent.

When it is all added up, the authors conclude that California's policies account for no more than 23 percent of the difference in per-capita electricity consumption.

Since they haven't even looked at the direct impact of California's 50 percent higher electricity prices, that 23 percent could be grossly overestimating even this reduced policy impact.

The basket-case economy that California has woven for itself is further confirmation that the effectiveness of its energy policies is almost certainly the exact opposite than the dogma being spouted by the political elites that run the state...

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POLL: AMNESTY WILL INCREASE ILLEGAL IMMIGRATIONhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Subject: txt immig -
Over half of Mexican nationals polled in a recent survey by Zogby International say that amnesty would create a massive influx of illegal immigrants from Mexico. With Mexico being the major source nation for illegal immigrants, this should serve as a wake up call to those in Congress calling for amnesty. Yet, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and others continue to claim that legalization measures within comprehensive immigration reform are the answer to the illegal immigration problems of the United States. Apparently, the pro-amnesty camp is not worried about letting history repeat itself. For example:

• After the last amnesty bill in 1986, the United States did indeed see a flood of illegal immigrants crossing the border.
• Numbers soared from an estimated 3 million illegal immigrants in the country to 20 million today.

It should come as no surprise that upon seeing those already in the country being handed legal status and a path to citizenship, others sought to come to the United States and simply wait out their chance.

By granting another amnesty, we will not solve the illegal immigration problem, but simply put the country in the same place in another twenty years...

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S.F. to ease up on unlicensed drivers

Subject: txt cali immig -
Call it sanctuary on wheels: San Francisco is about to give a big break to people, many of them illegal immigrants, who are caught driving without a license. Beginning Sunday, cops will no longer impound cars the first time drivers are pulled over without a license. The reason: Many such drivers are in the United States illegally - and thus unable to get a license - and impounding their cars is an unfair hardship...

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Woman acts like dog to scare off potential burglar in Athens, Georgia

Subject: txt gdd fnn -
Athens, Ga. - Athens-Clarke police are investigating after an Athens woman scared off a would-be burglar by acting like a dog. The Athens Banner-Herald reports Monday that the woman scared off the suspect around 11 p.m. Saturday. According to police, the woman got on the floor and began scratching at the door and acting like a large dog when the suspicious man tried turning the woman's door knob.

[Smart dog.]

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MSNBC: Joe Biden is the 'Greatest Vice President of Our Time'

Subject: txt msm bias fnn -

[You can't make this stuff up.]

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