Socrates' Academy

Illinois Leads Nation in Jobs ... Lost.

2012-01-26T13:32:00.001-06:00

From the Illinois Policy Institute comes this stunning statistic: while most of the rest of the nation saw its unemployment rate fall, Illinois saw its rate go up, with by far the nation's worst performance. To make matters worse, not only did Illinois taxpayers see their rates go up, but the budget deficit used to justify it is still there.
The unemployment increase follows the election of Democrat Governor Pat Quinn and a draconian 66% tax hike pushed by Quinn's public employee union backers.

Almost a year after Illinois’ record income tax increase, the state’s unemployment woes contrast starkly with the slow but positive national economic recovery. Unemployment rates in 46 states dropped since January 2011, and some dramatically. Illinois’ unemployment rate, on the other hand, was 9.8 percent in December, up from 9 percent in January 2011. Simply put, in 2011 Illinois placed more people on the unemployment rolls than any other state in the country.

While surrounding states like Wisconsin, Indiana, and Missouri create pro-employment climates, Illinois is stuck in the same pattern of big government cronyism and tax increases to fund lavish state employee pensions.

Another Reason Lugar Must Go #INSen

2011-12-19T17:01:00.001-06:00

Dick Lugar (R-IN) has been a Senator for so long, he's lost touch with the way things work outside the Senate cloakroom.

Lugar called for the House to pass the Senate's bill that extends the current payroll tax rate by two months because it was "best for the country".

Yet as The Right Sphere reports, that will cause huge problems for the businesses who have to implement it.

A little common sense would show why. Businesses that calculate payroll taxes do so with accounting payroll software. It takes time for these non-trivial changes to software and business practices to be implemented. A payroll tax switchover is already cooked in to most accounting packages, so that the planned payroll tax changes will happen automatically when current law would have them change (Jauary 1). Because payroll software needs accuracy, any significant alteration will take weeks to plan and execute, passing the window for the extension.

As Rep Renee Ellmers (R,NC02) said in her press release:

Last week we passed a bill here in the House that extends the payroll tax cut for a full year. But instead of passing the House bill, or another bill which extended the payroll credit for a year, the Democrats in the Senate opted for a meager two month extension…that's the definition of uncertainty!

The Senate refuses to do the job they were elected to do and is being irresponsible. They have not even passed a budget in over 950 days and now are kicking the can down the road again by only extending the payroll tax for a mere two months. A two month payroll tax extension is a disgrace. Americans have enough uncertainty with their jobs and homes. Senator Reid is kicking them while they're down with this proposal.

Senator Lugar has ceased to understand the needs of Indiana, and should yield the floor to a new generation.

Amplify’d from thehill.com

GOP's Lugar: House should pass tax bill for the good of the country

By Daniel Strauss
-

12/19/11 01:22 PM ET

Sen. Dick Lugar (R-Ind.) on Monday said House Republicans need to pass the Senate's two-month extension of the payroll tax cut for the good of the country.
"I'm hopeful there are a majority of Republicans and Democrats today who will proceed, because it seems to me this is best for the country, as well as for all the individuals who are affected," Lugar said Monday on MSNBC.
Read more at thehill.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/rK4r6p

HHS ObamaCare Targets Insurance Companies Again

2011-12-16T12:32:00.001-06:00

The Department of Health and Human Services is sprinting like mad to get ObamaCare implemented ahead of the 2013 inauguration of President Obama's successor, trying to cement as much of the law as possible state and federal bureaucracy. Today they promulgate more in their ever-expanding set of regulations about what is and is not insurance. The result will limit consumer choice and force more and more onto Medicaid.

HHS says state governments should pick one of the health plans available in their state as a "benchmark", but by that they mean "baseline": plans offered after the determination is made could only be more generous than the selected plan.

This approach, like the rest of ObamaCare, can only serve to narrow the number of choices consumers have, forcing more and more insurance companies out of the marketplace altogether.

The end result will be more and more people who are forced to choose Medicaid as their health insurance, while many others are unable to afford insurance altogether.

Amplify’d from www.hhs.gov

HHS to give states more flexibility to implement health reform

Under the Department’s intended approach announced today, states would have the flexibility to select an existing health plan to set the “benchmark” for the items and services included in the essential health benefits package. States would choose one of the following health insurance plans as a benchmark:
One of the three largest small group plans in the state;
One of the three largest state employee health plans;
One of the three largest federal employee health plan options;
The largest HMO plan offered in the state’s commercial market.
The benefits and services included in the health insurance plan selected by the state would be the essential health benefits package. Plans could modify coverage within a benefit category so long as they do not reduce the value of coverage. Consistent with the law, states must ensure the essential health benefits package covers items and services in at least ten categories of care, including preventive care, emergency services, maternity care, hospital and physician services, and prescription drugs. If a state selects a plan that does not cover all ten categories of care, the state will have the option to examine other benchmark insurance plans, including the Federal Employee Health Benefits Plan, to determine the type of benefits that will be included in the essential health benefits package.
Read more at www.hhs.gov

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/sQsxuv

NTSB Power Grab

2011-12-14T12:30:00.001-06:00

In a move well outside its charter, the National Transportatation Safety Board on December 13 called for the 50 states to ban the use of texting and other electronic communications in moving vehicles.

http://www.ntsb.gov/news/2011/111213.html

NTSB couches its outrageous power grab in terms few would dispute, that "No call, no text, no update, is worth a human life."

But the bargain the texter faces is not to trade his life for a single call, text, or update, but rather an increased risk that he will be insufficiently attentive to the driving task while engaged with the portable device.

According to the NTSB's press release itself, there are more cell phones in use in the U.S. than there are people. So (taking the NTSB's causality statistics arguendo) if there are 3,100 deaths per year due to cell phone use while driving, then less than 1 in 100,000 cell phones "causes" a traffic death every year.

More precisely, suppose, given the statistics here:

http://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/cell-phone/statistics.html

that roughly 20% of drivers are regular texters. That would mean that of the 930 billion vehicle miles driven by Americans every year,

(http://www.calculatedriskblog.com)

about 180 billion miles are driven by regular texters.

Over the course of 180 billion miles, 3,100 deaths yield one death for every 58 million miles.

Yes, talking on the phone is risky, as is texting, updating Facebook, or changing radio stations.

But every time we allow the government to restrict our ability to take risks, we take one more incremental step toward a soft, pillowy totalitarian world in which we exist endlessly and live not at all.

Amplify’d from techliberation.com

NTSB and Electronic Devices: Regulation by Anecdote

But the National Transportation Safety Board’s recommendation is a classic example of regulatory overreach based on anecdote. The NTSB wants to use one tired driver’s indefensible and extreme texting (which led to horrific results) as an excuse to ban all use of portable electronic devices while driving – including hands-free phone conversations. Before states act on this recommendation, they should carefully examine systematic evidence – not just anecdotes — to determine whether different uses of handheld devices pose different risks. They should also consider whether bans on some uses would expose drivers to risks greater than the risk the ban would prevent.
Read more at techliberation.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/rxfUTU

The Incomparable @SarahPalinUSA

2011-08-09T10:21:00.001-05:00

As a writer, I am continually impressed by Sarah Palin's ability to do the writer's job: convey meaning as efficiently as possible. By efficiently, I mean so that the words we use do not get in the way of understanding. The reader neither has to struggle with a definition or sentence construct, nor wonder why she didn't use some polysyllabic parallelism.

Some highbrow types might think that's a left-handed compliment, but it isn't. It's a full on tip of the hat from an aspiring wordsmith to his better.

But the test of a pundit is not just the ability to convey meaning, but the ability to grasp it, divine the important parts, and write about them.

Read the linked essay on the downgrade of the US credit rating, and what's important for us now.

Amplify’d from www.facebook.com

I know none of this will be easy, but, “thick” or not, the average American outside the D.C. politico bubble knows that we no longer have a choice! We will have entitlement reform and a balanced budget; it’s just a matter of how. We can do it ourselves in a calm, methodical, and responsible manner, or we can wait for the world’s capital markets to ram it down on us. Let’s be responsible and do it ourselves.
Read more at www.facebook.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/oVhOqC

Sen. Rand Paul endorses @TedCruz for #TXSen

2011-07-26T10:29:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure this is news, but Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) endorses Ted Cruz for US Senate from Texas:

I’ve watched Ted Cruz take a stand against the tax and spend crowd, and I’m convinced that he is the constitutional conservative candidate who can help solve our problems in Washington.

Having met Ted and heard him speak on multiple occasions, I believe him to be driven by his ideals, and not by the desire for personal power. Paul continues:

Ted Cruz is a great candidate for Tea Party conservatives - and for all Republicans concerned about stopping the exploding federal spending.

It's time for constitutional conservatives (especially but not only) in Texas to rally around Cruz to beat the establishment candidate.

It's not clueless flipflopping, though. (h/t @mkhammer)

2011-07-25T07:01:00.001-05:00

Even though the president says stuff he has no reasonable anticipation of being able to back up, he's the reasonable, one according to Associate Depressed,

Amplify’d from hosted.ap.org

White House shifts in unpredictable debt debate

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The roller-coaster debate over raising the nation's debt limit has forced the White House to explain away, brush aside or even ignore declarations by President Barack Obama and aides that no longer served much purpose in the unpredictable negotiations.

The White House shifts have been less a matter of flip-flops and more a case of unforeseen twists forcing the administration to reposition as the Aug. 2 deadline to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its financial obligations draws closer.

The White House's willingness to change course underscores efforts to cast Obama as a reasonable and flexible compromiser in the face of Republican intransigence.
Read more at hosted.ap.org

See this Amp at http://apne.ws/neugVL

Uh, @ewerickson? Check your sources.

2011-07-20T11:06:00.001-05:00

I know it's hard to pass up the admission against interest aspect of the Democratic Underground calling Eric Holder an international criminal and terrorist supporter.

But considering the other bat-guano crazy material in their post (http://gadaf.fi/anw) you linked to from Redstate (http://gadaf.fi/anx), their reliability as a source takes something of a hit.

I mean, they thought Obama was one of them all along.

Amplify’d from www.democraticunderground.com

Chiquita death squad attorney Eric Holder floated for U.S. Attorney General!

Obama might as well appoint Albert Gonzales as A.G. That's what Holder and Gonzales do for a living--they get big powerful, multi-millionaire white men immunity for mass murder of the poor and the brown.

I was willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt on the appointment of Rahm Emmanuel as WH chief of staff--at least until we see who he wants as DNC chair (if Dean is leaving that position). Emmanuel is the DLC politico who went round dropping cash on pro-war Democrats, to defeat anti-war Democrats and real leftists (majorityists) in the '06 primaries. He is as responsible as Pelosi and Reid for Congress' 10% approval rating (worse than Bush!). This is to be Obama's "gatekeeper"--a powerful DLCer who hates the grass roots and the 70% majority of Americans opposed to the Iraq War, and likely would have done anything in his power to prevent Obama from getting the nomination? Yup! Him. Chief of staff.
Read more at www.democraticunderground.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/qqk1xD

Iran Captures Bases in Iraq. Will Obama Respond?

2011-07-18T07:13:00.001-05:00

The Obama Administration has something of a decision to make. Will it respond to Iranian aggression and enforce Iraq's internationally recognized borders, or will it allow the Iranian thugs to use military force against an American ally with impunity?

Obama for years declared the Iraq war to be A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.. Indeed, in many ways that statement got him elected to the office he now occupies.

So, will he capitulate, showing our Iraqi allies that they are alone in their fight to remain free from Iranian domination, or will he respond with decisive military action? In all likelihood he will do the former, protesting diplomatically with words that will be ignored by the mullahs.

Amplify’d from ap.stripes.com

AP Newswire

Report: Iranians seize Kurdish bases in Iraq

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's official news agency says Revolutionary Guard forces have taken control of three bases of an Iranian Kurdish opposition group in neighboring Iraq.

Iran has sporadically bombed PEJAK bases deep inside Iraqi Kurdistan.
Read more at ap.stripes.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/pjvds6

2011-07-11T22:15:00.001-05:00

If you are a conservative in Wisconsin, you have a great opportunity Tuesday to nudge the Wisconsin Democratic Party toward more rational, pro-Wisconsin ideas

I know it's crazy, but the Dems actually pushed through an open primary system when they were in power, so that anyone can vote in any party's primary.

The Republicans are running unopposed, so there is no reason for you to vote in the Republican primary.

But on the Democratic side, the following candidates could use your vote:

Senate District Pro-Wisconsin candidate

2 Otto Junkerman

8 Gladys Huber

10 Isaac Weix

14 Rol Church

18 John Buckstaff

32 James Smi http://bit.ly/pknZzm

HHS Press Release on Insurance Exchanges

2011-07-11T12:56:00.001-05:00

HHS and states move to establish Affordable Insurance Exchanges, give Americans the same insurance choices as members of Congress

Proposed rules offer states flexibility, choices, competition and clout for

consumers and small businesses

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a framework to assist states in building Affordable Insurance Exchanges, state-based competitive marketplaces where individuals and small businesses will be able to purchase affordable private health insurance and have the same insurance choices as members of Congress. Starting in 2014, Exchanges will make it easy for individuals and small businesses to compare health plans, get answers to questions, find out if they are eligible for tax credits for private insurance or health programs like the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and enroll in a health plan that meets their needs.

“Exchanges offer Americans competition, choice, and clout,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “Insurance companies will compete for business on a transparent, level playing field, driving down costs; and Exchanges will give individuals and small businesses the same purchasing power as big businesses and a choice of plans to fit their needs.”

Today’s announcement is designed to help support and guide states in their efforts to implement Exchanges. HHS proposed new rules offering states guidance and options on how to structure their Exchanges in two key areas:

Setting standards for establishing Exchanges, setting up a Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP), performing the basic functions of an Exchange, and certifying health plans for participation in the Exchange, and;

Ensuring premium stability for plans and enrollees in the Exchange, especially in the early years as new people come in to Exchanges to shop for health insurance.

These proposed rules set minimum standards for Exchanges, give states the flexibility they need to design Exchanges that best fit their unique insurance markets, and are consistent with steps states have already taken to move forward with Exchanges.

Forty-nine states, the District of Columbia and four territories accepted grants to help plan and operate Exchanges. In addition, over half of all states are taking additional action beyond receiving a planning grant such as passing legislation or taking Administrative action to begin building exchanges. States will continue to implement exchanges on different schedules through 2014.

“States are leading the way in implementing health reform, and today’s announcement builds on that momentum by giving states flexibility to design the Exchange that works for them,” said Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight Director Steve Larsen. “This regulation allows us to meet states where they are.”

Today’s proposals build on over a year’s worth of work with states, small businesses, consumers and health insurance plans and offer states substantial flexibility. For example, it allows states to decide whether their Exchanges should be local, regional, or operated by a non-profit organization, how to select plans to participate, and whether to partner with HHS to split up the work.

In drafting these proposals, the administration examined models of Exchanges, held numerous meetings with stakeholders and consulted closely with state leaders, consumer advocates, employers and insurers. To continue that conversation, HHS is accepting public comment on the proposed rules over the next 75 days to learn from states, consumers, and other stakeholders how the rules can be improved and HHS will modify these proposals based on feedback from the American people. To facilitate that public comment process, HHS will convene a series of regional listening sessions and meetings.

To reduce duplication of effort and the administrative burden on the states, HHS also announced that the federal government will partner with states to make Exchange development and operations more efficient. States can choose to develop an Exchange in partnership with the federal government or develop these systems themselves. This provides states more flexibility to focus their resources on designing the right Exchanges for their local insurance markets.

For more information on Exchanges, including fact sheets, visit http://www.healthcare.gov/exchanges.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/p7FMHK

#TXSen - Ted Cruz gets key endorsement

2011-05-16T14:57:00.001-05:00

Former Texas Solicitor General and US Senate candidate Ted Cruz received the endorsement of Project Madison, a national PAC that supports proven conservative candidates.

In the race for US Senator from Texas, the Republican primary is the whole ball game, as it isn't likely that a Democrat will do well.

In 2010, Project Madison endorsed Pat Toomey and Marco Rubio.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/jR7Vjx

Ted Cruz doesn't pander #TXSen #tcot

2011-04-28T11:43:00.001-05:00

I can't stand silly politicians, who will spout silliness because they believe it.

I also can't stand politicians who will agree with silliness just to get elected.

Far, far better are politicians who will make a case for their principles -- whatever those principles are. Ted Cruz, candidate on the Republican side for US Senator from Texas, is one who will do that.

Give me a campaigning politician who will make a principled argument, and I'll show you an elected official who will lead.

Amplify’d from www.bigjollypolitics.com

Ted Cruz highlights RNHA meeting

Gotta love retail politics because it separates the wanna be politicians from the ones that are willing to work hard to get elected. I mean, seriously, would you want to speak at three or four meetings a day to groups that average 20 people? That is what it takes to win a primary race in Texas and U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz appears to understand this because his schedule is full of these types of meetings. Last night’s meeting of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly-Harris County was a perfect example of retail politics.

Then it was time for the featured speaker of the evening, Ted Cruz. Some people think that speaking in front of large crowds is hard but the truth is that it is much, much harder to address a very small group like the one assembled last night. Counting Mr. Cruz and his assistant, there were 16 people in the room. Mr. Cruz did an excellent job of outlining his campaign, from the “why I’m running” all the way to the “what you can do to help me”.

The highlight of the evening for me was when he took questions from the audience. One of the questions was about free trade – the questioner obviously didn’t believe in free trade, claiming that we were sending all of our jobs overseas and would never get them back. It was refreshing to hear a politician not suck up to a potential voter – instead, Mr. Cruz gave a quick lesson in free market economics that really showed the depth and breadth of his knowledge of economics. When was the last time you heard a politician talk off the cuff, accurately, about public choice theory and the economics of taxation? Very, very impressive.
Read more at www.bigjollypolitics.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/iTfNFc

A Clean Solution for California Energy

2011-04-20T16:34:00.001-05:00

To meet Jerry Brown's demand that a third of electrical power must be generated with renewable sources, California energy companies should:

Purchase large fans, such as are used to create wind effects in Hollywood movies.

Power the wind machines with coal-fired power plants.

Use the fans to drive wind turbines

Granted, some energy is lost in the transfer, but this plan has the advantage that, if enough fans are bought and enough coal is burned, the demand for clean, renewable energy can at least be met.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/f6YzBe

The World's Stupidest Post #birthers

2011-04-18T15:29:00.001-05:00

So someone at Canada Free Press posted about Trump being so great and the One True Conservative because he's going after Obama on the birth certificate. Never mind that the birth certificate issue was first brought up by Hillary supporters.

In a comment to the linked post, I wrote the following:

Obama's eligibility is not the most important issue.

Yes, the Constitution is at the center of our country's government, and adherence to it is important and fundamental. I swore an oath to defend it "from all enemies, foreign and domestic", and have never considered myself released from that oath. I believe it should be interpreted by the meaning of the words as the founders meant them when they wrote them.

I am as conservative as anyone, perhaps more than anyone.

Further, I am curious about Obama's history, his ties to communists, and where he picked up these unAmerican ideas of his.

But if the President is found ineligible, it does not immediately mean that anything he did in office is illegal. That you would suggest otherwise makes you sound like a crackpot.

Obama's mother was an American. A stinking commie, but an American. Passing though the birth canal of an American woman is not good enough, but a piece of paper is? I would not have the President declared ineligible merely because of a paperwork issue.

There are other Constitutional issues on which to attack Obama, so your contention that this is the most important one is a matter of interpretation.

Finally, Donald Trump has a record of saying whatever he thinks is popular at the time. He called for universal health care in his book in 2000. He called George Bush the worst president in history, and wondered why Nancy Pelosi hadn't done more to impeach him for "lying us into Iraq".

Trump is an idiot, and anyone who buys his crap is a worse idiot.

And by "idiot", I mean not a conservative.

Amplify’d from canadafreepress.com

Flushing Out RINOs, Neo-cons, Faux Conservatives, Controlled Opposition, and the Clueless

Make no mistake, the question of Obama’s eligibility to be POTUS is of vital importance, and seeing as Donald Trump is the ONLY figure of national stature to address the issue, it is incumbent on every constitutional conservative (read that as “patriotic American”) to support Trump, until something better comes down the pike—and I don’t see anyone else coming down the road at the moment.
Read more at canadafreepress.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/ePgXvu

Let's have the Big Budget Fight now.

2011-04-12T23:29:00.001-05:00

Why wait?

Shut the government down.

Reauthorize agencies and departments, one at a time, at 2006 or 2008 spending levels for the rest of the year. Reset the baseline for the FY12 budget.

Do that, Mr. Boehner, and I will personally come to your district in Ohio and knock on doors asking for votes for you. And I won't be alone.

Amplify’d from www.businessinsider.com

HOLD EVERYTHING: There's No Budget Deal, And The Government May Still Shut Down

On Friday, The White House and the GOP came to a budget agreement to fund the government for the rest of Fiscal Year 2011, averting a government shutdown.

But they didn't actually vote on the deal. They voted on a 1-week continuing resolution so they could wrangle up the details for an official vote this week. And that might not work out.

The buzz out of DC is that the number of GOPers who will vote "no" is growing.

Even if this isn't the case, it's pretty ominous for the bigger debates -- the debt ceiling, the 2012 budget -- that are due to begin in just weeks. As we noted this weekend, the whole reason the GOP caved on certain issues, was because they knew the much bigger fights were right around the corner.
Read more at www.businessinsider.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/fQeTvT

The Budget Deal: All Phony

2011-04-12T12:48:00.001-05:00

So Speaker Boehner and the Democrats came to an agreement to spend this year essentially what the Democrats proposed.

All of his figures are "less than what the President wanted to spend."

So there are no cuts at all, only a little quibbling over whether Obama is to get all of what he asked for, or more than he expected.

Amplify’d from www.nationalreview.com

So What’s Left?

So the budget deal is supposed to deliver $38 billion in spending cuts, including $20 billion in cuts to domestic discretionary spending. (House Republicans originally passed $61 billion of cuts in that category of spending.) Based on news accounts, quite a lot of that $20 billion could be phony: $6.2 billion in unspent money for the Census; $2.5 billion of highway funds that couldn’t be spent; $3.5 billion of unused spending authority in a children’s health-care program. Is it possible that Republicans have gone from $61 billion in domestic discretionary savings all the way down to $8 billion?

Read more at www.nationalreview.com

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Rasmussen: Obama Approval New Low #tcot

2011-04-11T11:59:00.001-05:00

President Obama is managing to irritate his base while simultaneously failing to appeal to opponents.

The new low came among those who Strongly Approve of the President's performance, mostly hard-left progressives.

Obama's inability or aversion to making decisions is not helping his standing with voters.

Amplify’d from www.rasmussenreports.com

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 19% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as president. Thirty-nine percent (39%) Strongly Disapprove, giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -20 (see trends).

Today’s numbers reflect the lowest level of Strong Approval yet recorded for this president. There has been a sharp decline in enthusiasm among liberal voters.

Sixty-one percent (61%) believe that enforcing immigration laws would reduce poverty.

Most voters continue to favor repeal of last year’s new health care law.
Read more at www.rasmussenreports.com

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Health Care News - @HeartlandInst

2011-04-11T10:33:00.001-05:00

Tea Party groups need to keep their legislators and governors from implementing Obamacare. Here is one state that did it.

Amplify’d from www.heartland.org

Georgia Health Exchange Bill Withdrawn After Tea Party Pushback

Responding to a backlash led by Georgia Tea Party activists against implementation of President Obama’s health care law, Republican Governor Nathan Deal decided to reconsider legislation that would have mandated the creation of a Georgia health insurance exchange.

Proponents said the bill would allow them to plan for an exchange while continuing to fight Obamacare in court. Activists claimed the law would have jeopardized those court challenges and undercut their arguments against the policy.
Read more at www.heartland.org

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/ffdHJ5

Vetting Candidates #teaparty #tcot

2011-04-05T15:44:00.001-05:00

I have written a first stab at something that has been missing in the public web, as far as I can tell from bingoogling around, and that is an outline on how to systematically vet a candidate for office.

The piece, available at precinctproject.us and concordproject.org, is written primarily from the point of view of a Precinct Committeeman. But it is general enough to serve as both the jumping off point for activists interviewing candidates and as a set of principles the average well-informed voter can use when deciding among candidates for higher office.

At least, that was the intent.

Amplify’d from precinctproject.us

Vetting Candidates

Most of us have done a very limited amount of vetting candidates, though of course we size them up all the time. But there is a difference between choosing among a group of candidates from their media presentation and actually vetting them. Vetting is a systematic process for discovering the strengths and weaknesses of individual candidates before offering them assistance.

The process of vetting is especially important to Precinct Committemen, who are the ultimate grassroots activists. As members of political parties, committeemen (or precinct captains, delegates, or whatever they are called in your state) are the first line of defense in keeping the bad actors out of politics — and in identifying good public servants, as well.

Commitment

Issues

Retail Politics
Read more at precinctproject.us

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Dear Hill: You lie. And bring it on.

2011-04-02T22:38:00.001-06:00

The linked article from The Hill has two fundamental problems. The experts they quote don't say that momentum is shifting, only that the Democrats would like the momentum to shift. And they assume that the blaming the Republicans for a government shutdown would be positive for Democrats.

To the second point, since Americans favor a government shutdown over increased spending 2:1. the proper word is not "blame", but "credit".

Amplify’d from thehill.com

Momentum shifts toward Democrats in PR battle over shutdown

Momentum in the partisan messaging battle over who’s to blame if the government shuts down has shifted in recent weeks to favor Democrats, according to political experts.
Read more at thehill.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/gXsFqf

Oh, dear. Andy Martin 2012.

2011-04-01T10:03:00.001-06:00

The same Andy Martin who ran against Mark Kirk (R-IL) for the US Senate. By taking out ads explicitly calling Kirk a homosexual, Martin thought to help his own chances. The ads (unsurprisingly) backfired. Martin didn't get double digits, coming in a distant fifth in the Republican primary.

Via the FEC.

Amplify’d from andymartinforpresident.com

Andy Martin,
having received his undergraduate and law degrees from the
University of Illinois, is a trusted Midwesterner; with
genuine conservative values and a practical, creative
approach to solving America's economic problems.

Jobs come first; working families are his priority. He will
Stand Up for Main
Street and Stand Up to Wall
Street.
Read more at andymartinforpresident.com

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/goP6Yc

#Dems in lockstep on budget spin

2011-03-29T13:04:00.001-06:00

Not trusting even a high-ranking Democrat Senator like Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to get the message right, Democrat staffers have given him the words to mouth as he talks to reporters.

These people are like the Borg. Any original thoughts they may have once had are now subsumed by the collective.

Amplify’d from washingtonexaminer.com

Schumer coordinates Dem budget attack on GOP

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., a member of the Democratic Senate leadership, got on a conference call with reporters Tuesday morning without realizing the reporters were already listening in. Schumer thought he was on a private line with four Democratic senators who were to talk with reporters about the current budget stalemate.

He told the group to make sure they label the GOP spending cuts as "extreme."

"I always use extreme, Schumer said. "That is what the caucus instructed me to use."

"The main thrust is basically that we want to negotiate and we want to come up with a compromise but the Tea Party is pulling Boehner too far over to the right and so far over that there is no more fruitful negotiations," Schumer said on the call. "The only way we can avoid a shutdown is for Boehner to come up with a reasonable compromise and not just listen to what the Tea Party wants. "

The four senators came on the call after Schumer abruptly went silent and followed Schumer's script closely.
Read more at washingtonexaminer.com

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Effingham #TeaParty April 15

2011-03-28T22:33:00.001-06:00

From the Effingham Tea Party Steering Committee

Effingham, Illinois

Hello patriots!

It's that time of the year again, when we hand over to the government part of our paychecks to spend, spend, and spend even more so they can keep putting us into debt, debt, and more debt! It's also that time of the year again for our Effingham Tea Party rally!!

When: April 15th, 6pm - ?

Where: Old Effingham Courthouse, N Rt. 45, downtown Effingham, IL

Who?? GOOD QUESTION!!

Featured speakers: Adam Andrzejewski, Carlyle Rhodes, and back by popular demand......Dr. Joe Hartmann!

We will also be announcing an exciting opportunity for our children this summer - Vacation Patriot Camp - June 6th - 10th!!

We will have informational tables at the event to keep you informed on the issues that face us, including a candidate school for those of you who wish to throw your hat into the ring of politics!

Also, there will be bus riders coming down on their return from the Springfield rally earlier in the day. This could become the largest event we have held to this date!

And last, but definitely not least.....ATLAS SHRUGGED: THE MOVIE!!! You've read the book, now see it on the big screen! Effingham will be one of a few select cities across the nation who will be showing this movie on April 15th.

There will be show times at 8pm and 10pm on April 15th. More times may follow, and will be announced at the Tea Party!! RMC Cinemas at the Village Square Mall will be showing the film, so after the Tea Party, let's all go see ATLAS SHRUGGED!!!!

Spread the word! Forward this on to everyone you know! Tell your friends, tell your neighbors! Our work is not done! We will be victorious!!!

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/gWOKrA

Obomba still uncomfortable with victory

2011-03-28T10:40:00.001-06:00

If he's uncomfortable with victory, it should not surprise us that he's unwilling to call a war a war.

Equally unsurprising is that he refuses the mantle of leadership required for the legitimate exercise of the power he abuses.

Amplify’d from www.politico.com

Obama ditches Oval for speech

An address from the Oval Office has at least three problems for President Obama. Among other things, it implies the nation is at war -- and if there is one thing the administration is rather emphatic about, it's that we are involved in a limited military action in Libya, not a war.

"The Oval Office calls to mind too many other images," said Stephen Hess, a presidential scholar at the Brookings Institution. "When you are going to war, you do the Oval -- if you claim it's not a war, you don't."
Read more at www.politico.com

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#Dems demonize Kochs, drunk with Gallo.

2011-03-27T14:24:00.001-06:00

Just sayin'.

Amplify’d from www.opensecrets.org

Politics on Tap: Alcohol Producers Pour Out Campaign Cash for Parties

The Democratic Party has received a windfall from major wine producers during recent years, including some notable brands in California.

Among the top five alcohol-related political contributors during the 2010 election cycle, no one donated a greater percentage of cash to Democrats than E. & J. Gallo Winery, the Center finds. Individuals connected to the massive Sonoma County winery, famous for such brands as Gallo and Turning Leaf, uncorked more than $256,700 in the 2010 election cycle, a full 93 percent of which went to Democratic candidates or party committees.

Gallo winery employees are also notably the top donor to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) over her career.
Read more at www.opensecrets.org

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Obama "Searching for clarity" on Libya

2011-03-23T13:58:00.001-06:00

Amplify’d from www.chicagotribune.com

Home

> News

> columnists

While Obama searches for clarity, we're plunged into another war

President Barack Obama unmasked himself Tuesday.

He was in El Salvador, standing with Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes, when reporters asked him about his war in Libya.

It is indeed his war. He started it. He gave the order to launch the missiles over the weekend. And now the man who ran for president as an anti-war candidate owns his very own war.

But there has been confusion over which member of his coalition will command the war. Will Obama ask a foreign general to direct American troops? Will President Nicolas Sarkozy of France take the coalition lead?

On Tuesday, Obama was asked about these command issues. It wasn't a trick. It should have been expected. He stood there, and he opened his mouth.

"I would expect that over the next several days you will have clarity and a meeting of the minds of all those who are participating in the process," Obama said.

Read more at www.chicagotribune.com

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Dear FLOTUS: Shut up. Signed, your kids.

2011-03-23T13:32:00.001-06:00

It's clear that Michelle Obama has issues.

I mean, selling a national weight-guilt program on the basis that your skinny daughters are fat, when you buy your dresses at Milan's and Paris' most trendy tent and awning shoppes?

So, on behalf of your children and kids everywhere, please shut up.

Thanks.

Amplify’d from www.txtrendychick.com

Who Needs A Therapist?

In that awkward stage in between being a little kid and a teenager, that space of years we’ve come to call “tween”, I can tell you that girls already have taken notice of their body shape and type and started comparing it to the celebrities they see on TV, girls often older than they are. This comparison influences the way they dress, what they eat, how they carry themselves, and most importantly how they view themselves when they look in the mirror. In a culture that dictates girls should be stick thin and flawless, dress provocatively and above their age group, and intimacy is expected lest you be considered a “prude”, it is harder for girls today than ever before to be comfortable in their own skin.

Michelle Obama has, on more than one occasion, drawn attention to her daughters’ weight and BMI (body mass index) in an attempt to justify her Food Police agenda. Rather than coming out and saying, “Gee, I really want to control what people eat and drink because I think it’d be fun”, the First Lady is poking her finger at her own kids and telling parents, “See, I relate to you. Your kids aren’t the only ones with a little paunch – look at my girls!” (The Obama girls are NOT fat or even close to it; in fact, they are beautiful, healthy girls that don’t deserve any of this, in my opinion.)
Read more at www.txtrendychick.com

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War? There is no war. #israel

2011-03-23T13:21:00.001-06:00

Those rockets landing in the South of Israel? That's just teaching people how to be good targets.

Amplify’d from israelsurvivalupdates.wordpress.com

IDF Homefront Command – Colonel Eitan Yitzchak: “We are not in a time of war.”

‘Scuse me ?

“We are in an unstable period that requires special preparations on the home front in order to maintain routine life.”

Um……

As rocket fire and mortar shells slam into Israel’s southern communities at an increasing pace, the IDF insists Israelis should pretend there is no war.
Read more at israelsurvivalupdates.wordpress.com

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Judge Orders NJ to Dump $1.6B down hole

2011-03-22T21:40:00.001-06:00

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

SaveJersey: Court Orders State to Spend $1.6 Billion

Today Judge Doyne, the special master appointed by the Supreme Court to consider the impact of the education cuts made to the budget, found against the state, ordering them to pay $1.6 billion to Abbott school districts.

In this astounding display of judicial supremacy, the judge ACKNOWLEDGED that even though we’ve spent more money than any other state on our urban school districts, their performance is still declining. He said:

“Despite spending levels that meet or exceed virtually every state in the country, and that saw a significant increase in spending levels from 2000 to 2008, our ‘at risk’ children are now moving further from proficiency.”

So obviously the solution is to spend more money, that makes perfect sense, right?
Read more at www.redstate.com

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Brown: I kinda like funding abortion.

2011-03-22T20:18:00.001-06:00

Hot Air says Scott Brown is just a little ambiguous, Well, sure. He's responding to the Massachusetts general election environment, playing for what he sees as the independent vote, because Scott Brown has never done this before. Yes, he knows the Massachusetts electorate very well, but he is forgetting the energy and vitality that an energized base can bring. In his reelection campaign he will not have national support if he is weak on this issue.

So it's a tradeoff between grabbing at moderate independents and energizing your base. Good luck, Scott.

But Allahpundit makes an interesting prediction: if Speaker Boehner bulls the Planned Parenthood defunding out into its own bill for Harry Reid to quash, I don't think Republican voters will blame Harry. I think they'll blame our wimpy House Crier.

Amplify’d from hotair.com

Scott Brown: I oppose defunding Planned Parenthood

We all understand that primarying him would be a kamikaze mission since at this point he may well be the only Republican in Massachusetts capable of getting elected to the Senate. That knowledge has bought him a wide, wide berth among the base. But I keep thinking — at some point, he’s going to cross a line and they’re going to go full RINO-stomp on him. Not even because they want to. Because they have to.

There’s a lot of deliberate ambiguity here, obviously. He’s open to cutting PP’s budget … just not the whole thing. And he’s open to voting for the House GOP’s budget resolutions even when they completely defund PPP … although he’s not happy about it. In fact, the ambiguity goes back to the aftermath of last year’s special election, when he told Barbara Walters that yes, he’s pro-choice, but “I’m against federal funding of abortions.” If federal money went towards PP’s abortion practice, he’d have to vote no, but since it’s earmarked for contraception and unrelated services (which of course frees up other money at PP to apply towards abortions), well, that’s A-OK. Behold the dilemma of a Massachusetts Republican, forever inching his way along a political tightrope.

He’s the third Senate Republican, along with Collins and Murkowski, to come out against defunding PP. Which leaves Boehner … where? If he attaches the PP rider to the next House budget bill and any of these three end up voting against it for that reason, the Democrats will crow about “bipartisan opposition” to the “renegade” House Republicans or whatever. Boehner’s going to have to yank it, right? Or at least split it off into a separate bill and let the Senate shoot it down, which will preserve the viability of the overarching budget bill while giving the base a new reason to be angry at Harry Reid.
Read more at hotair.com

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Trutherism Spreading at UN

2011-03-22T07:02:00.001-06:00

What people say in public is usually a filtered water version of their real opinion, reserved for release only with the like-minded. I'm the rare exception, since I'm a blogger. We just yap.

But here is the UN High Whatever for Palestine babbling on about how it's not a conspiracy theory just because you can't prove it.

Amplify’d from yidwithlid.blogspot.com

AUDIO PROOF! UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Richard Falk LIED About Not Being a "Truther"

As I pointed out when he was appointed to his position, as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights (the official Israel basher) Falk is a believer of all kinds of conspiracy theories including "trutherism."

FALK: Well, of course very speculative, I think that Griffin’s book is a devastating critique of the Sunstein position. The Sunstein position seems to reflect either an implicit or explicit anxiety in the power elite that is running this country that they have to do everything they can to discredit those that are questioning the official version of what took place on 9/11. That they do this in part by pretending that by calling something a conspiracy theory, you’ve eliminated the need to investigate the factual reality of what took place. The liberal press has gone along with that to a frightening degree because they seem to feel that their reputation depends on not endorsing any kind conspiracy notion or anything that is labeled a conspiracy, unless of course it comes from a progressive source, in which case they jump to establish a conspiracy theory. [The liberal press] are very ready ever since the Cold War, to call any sympathy with progressive causes as the basis for criminal accountability. You see that in the pursuit of some Muslim religious figures, not only here, but in Western Europe and elsewhere.
Read more at yidwithlid.blogspot.com

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Tying Shoes Won't Fix the Car

2011-03-16T15:17:00.001-06:00

But to get to the service station, you have to wear shoes. It won't help the car one bit, until you complete a long series of complicated and difficult tasks, most of which depend upon having tied shoes.

Similarly, in order to reign in soaring costs for state employee medical and pension plans, states must first get away from collective bargaining on those issues. It is simply not possible to persuade union leadership to agree to sane benefit packages.

Perhaps I'll give this article full treatment at some other time. It's so full of fallacious argument that it will be a difficult slog, but maybe someone will be enlightened by it.

Amplify’d from www.ctunet.com

Busting Unions Won’t Fix Schools or the Economy

The current attack on public workers in Wisconsin is not happening in isolation. In a press statement, President Lewis explains, “Yesterday Republican Wisconsin Senators voted for their cronies -- banks and the billionaires -- and against the middle class.” Unions gave us the 8 hour workday, employer-based healthcare, and an end to child labor. Without unions leading the charge for better working conditions, employers hold all of the cards and will cut costs with more work for less pay.

Not only do unions fight to work for better working conditions, unions give workers voice to advocate for the people they serve. In a Tribune letter-to-the-editor, former teacher Jessica Havens writes, “… the purpose of having a teachers union is to protect the rights of children and adults in that system who do not have administrative power.” However, pundits and politicians are forcing stand-offs between labor and management. Maybe it’s because cooperation may be a step in the right direction in narrowing the income gap between the richest and the poorest Americans. Currently, the richest 10% controls 2/3 of American’s net worth.
Read more at www.ctunet.com

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Obama and thug politics #wiunion #p2

2011-03-16T09:55:00.001-06:00

The public sector unions are out to destroy America and remake it in a socialist image.

And Barack Obama is at the heart of it.

Amplify’d from onenewsnow.com

'Organizing for America' goes Hamas
Sandy Rios - Guest Columnist - 3/16/2011 7:40:00 AM

"This is what democracy looks like!" the people are chanting and clapping with a pretty awesome beat. This is very real and it's happening now. Friends, allies, workers, we're all here at the capitol in Madison in the fight for our rights. The spirit inside and out of the packed building are filled with faces showing all ranges of emotions...."

There was no mention of that "range of emotion" that included hate.

Death threats to Wisconsin Republican Governor, Scott Walker, and his party's 18 senators have been direct and unambiguous. They are numerous and specific and they are coming from protestors in sympathy with union protestors connected to the President of the United States. But the President is silent...Organizing for America is silent and so have been NBC, CBS, ABC, NPR, CNN, the New York Times, and most major media.

These are excerpts from an e-mail sent March 9 to Republican senators:

"Read below for...possible scenarios in which you will die...I hope you have a good time in hell...we have planned...to put...a nice little bullet in your head....I as well as many others know where you and your family live...we wouldn't leave it there....we have also built several bombs...placed in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent...that includes your house, your car, the state capitol, and well, I won't tell you all of them because that's just no fun...we will "get rid of" (in which I mean kill) you....Please make your peace with God as soon as possible and say goodbye to your loved ones....YOU WILL DIE!!!"
Read more at onenewsnow.com

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Hmmm, Ace on Palin and Rush

2011-03-16T09:45:00.001-06:00

Is dislike of Sarah Palin all just a hand stamp to enter the club of elitism, or should we take those who don't like her at their word?

I think Ace and Rush draw a false dichotomy here. People who don't like Palin don't like her for real. They also don't like her because they want to be cool, and picking on Sarah Palin is in some quarters considered cool.

But while some may find a way to express their true reasons, there may be others who can't explain their reaction to her. They search for reasons, and adopt what the in crowd has come up with for themselves.

Similarly, there is a lot of enforcement of in-group cohesion-. If you want to call yourself a liberal or even a public intellectual, you have to find something wrong with Sarah Palin.

Politico quoted George will as saying:

“This is a problem for the movement,” said Will about what Palin represents. “For conservatism, because it is a creedal movement, this is a disease to which it is susceptible.”

The line of modern conservatism that can be traced back to National Review founder William F. Buckley would be broken by Palin, Will said.

“There’s no Reagan without Goldwater, no Goldwater without National Review and no National Review without Buckley — and the contrast between he and Ms. Palin is obvious.”

Asked if the GOP would remain the party of ideas if Palin captures the nomination, Will said: “The answer is emphatically no.” (Related: Liberals like Palin candidacy)

The sneering condemnation is most unappealing. Like all such snobbery, it finally detracts from the snob, not the -- pardon me -- victim of the snobbery.

When George Will says that Palin is placing far too much emphasis on a "creedal" appeal, well, I think that's a fair criticism. I've made that argument myself, that a successful politics must be evangelistic and convert-hungry like Christianity, instead of rooted in born-to cultural belonging-by-birth mode like Judaism.

Palin's primary thesis is that most Americans believe, at heart, the same things we do, and that they will buy our creed if it's presented in unapologetic terms. So to Palin, and to me, presenting our creed is evangelistic.

Read the whole thing, though.

Amplify’d from minx.cc

Rush Limbaugh: I Don't Get the Criticism of Palin; It Must Be a Shibboleth of the Educated Class

You know, I've lived my whole life not knowing the actual meaning of shibboleth. I could sort of understand it in context -- sort of -- as a blip-word, a word you sort of blip over. I knew it was used in the context of liberal shibboleths and conservative shibboleths but I just sort of read that as "bromides" or "dogma."

Rush explains what it means in this clip about Sarah Palin.

One of the biggest sources of frustration in arguing with a liberal is that the liberal refuses to take your stated reasons for your beliefs as your real reasons for the belief. If you say "I don't support quota or racial-plus-factor-based affirmative action, because I think it's unfair to discriminate against white people, too, just as it's wrong to discriminate against anyone based on their race" they almost reflexively offer up the secret motivation they assign to you: "You don't like black people, that's what your problem is."

If you state you want to keep taxes low because the private sector flourishes under a low-tax regime, and it's the private sector that creates wealth while the government merely transfers it (and destroys part of it in the process), they of course ignore that stated rationale, and decide, in the twinkling of an eye: "You hate poor people. Also, you probably hate black people too. In fact, you probably hate poor people in the first place because you hate black people and many of them are poor."

I do this myself a lot. Hell, everyone does. It doesn't work out well, at least not if you're attempting to persuade a would-be ally. It's really a technique to be used only against those you've decided are unreachable opponents, because once that card is played, that's it as far as a genuine exchange of points of view.

When George Will says that Palin is placing far too much emphasis on a "creedal" appeal, well, I think that's a fair criticism. I've made that argument myself, that a successful politics must be evangelistic and convert-hungry like Christianity, instead of rooted in born-to cultural belonging-by-birth mode like Judaism. (I realize I am pigeonholing Judaism and not acknowledging there is a conversion/evangelical component to it-- but for purposes of this analogy, please allow me my simplification.) An evangelistic faith which requires only that converts believe in a series of plausible claims can gain many converts, whereas a faith based largely in born-to culture will tend to have a sharply, sharply limited upper bound of possible growth. And to many (myself included), Palin seems to frequently be attempting a politics based upon the latter mode -- self-identification in particular born-to cultural traditions.
Read more at minx.cc

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Captain Disingenuous Strikes Again

2011-03-12T10:59:00.001-06:00

As the latest demonstration of his lack of economic depth, President Obama put forth a series of falsehoods in the form of a press conference. The indispensible Jeff Dunetz pointed out the tsunami of falsehoods, so Go Read That.

But the president also used his typically bad logic to push his green agenda.

Because even if we were to grant his false claim that the US has only 2% of the world's oil and uses 25% of it, there would be nothing wrong with that. We are the world's biggest economy, and there is a world market for oil. We are just as much at the mercy of that market as anyone else.

The unspoken premise is that there is some fair amount of oil to which we are entitled. The implication is that our oil ration bears some relation to the amount we produce. But if that were so, then countries that produce little or no oil at all, such as Japan or the Koreas, would not be entitled to any.

The fact that President Obama believes this argument to be persuasive, even dispositive, demonstrates further his socialist mindset. We do not have a ration, and there would nothing wrong with the United States using up every last drop of oil the rest of the world produces, as long as we're willing topay for it.

And if there is some ration of oil to which we are entitled, whether based on our production or not, who determines that ration? Should the United States unilaterally disawow any more oil, or should some outside body such as the United Nations alot us our proper share?

Barack Obama has opted for the former. It is the clear policy of this administration that the United States should not use as much of the world's oil as its people would like to use.Yet in his disingenuity, he claims only to be trying to wean us from foreign oil.

But weaning us from foreign oil contraindicates the death grip by which the administrative state holds the domestic oil industry. While this president speaks of ending our dependence on foreign oil, his every policy move has the opposite effect.

Why should the United States not use every last drop of oil it can find, whether from domestic supplies or purchased on the world market?

There are only three possible reasons. To allow it for the use of others, to preserve oil for future use, or to keep it from being used at all.

In the Obama socialist mindset, fairness and sharing are values above almost everything. If two people prosper unequally, the suffering of the one who doesn't prosper as highly is measured not by the physical state of their existence, but by their situation relative to the one who is better off. Likewise, if two nations prosper unequally, the actual level of development and well-being of the cultures doesn't matter, only that by some measure there is disparity. So oil use must be equalized, or clearly someone is doing better than someone else and a grave injustice is done.

Future generations, either at home or abroad, may not need oil at all. To them, internal combustion and the attendant need for lubrication, as well as direct burning of petroleum for heat, may be as unnecessary as most of us today find wood or whale oil. With advances in robotics and other technology, future generations may be able to extract oil from places and in ways we currently cannot. It is as likely that they have more abundant energy supplies as less abundant, whether they get their energy from oil or not.

But the real goal of keeping the US from using oil is not to dis-empower the oil-rich nations of Southwest Asia who have such enmity for us, but to keep it in the ground. There is a confluence of Global Warming hysteria (still affixed in the leftist hymnal), the religious desire for clean air and water (as if ours were unbreathable and undrinkable), and a sneaking suspicion that the Earth somehow needs the oil. How the Earth will use the oil if we don't is unclear.

The President also notes that drilling for oil won't solve our whole problem. Accepting that arguendo, just because something isn't the entire answer doesn't mean it should not be done. The teleprompter makes regular use of the strawman argument, and so its reader gets a lot of mileage from it. Drilling and exploring for more oil would be helpful, and not doing those things is most certainly unhelpful to anything but the green, socialist agenda.

In granting that the US produces 2% of the world's oil, we are forced to note the incredible array of constraints placed on oil production and the reasons for it. With his boot still firmly on the neck of the oil industry, Obama need not remind Americans how little we actually produce

Also at The Minority Report.

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Fund everything, wait, repeat.

2011-03-11T09:19:00.001-06:00

To a liberal, everything good should receive government funding. But since nothing is inherently good or evil, that means everything is good to someone. so everything should receive government funding.

Because you wouldn't want to send the message that something is bad, would you?

Amplify’d from theothermccain.com

I Don’t Hate Trains

Few things — not even the threat of a coffee shortage — bother me quite so much as what I call the Existential Theory of Liberalism:

Everything that exists must be subsidized by the federal government; ergo, to argue against government subsidies for something is to advocate the abolition of that thing.

The Existential Theory of Liberalism can be seen in action whenever any conservative proposes reducing federal expenditures for, say, the National Endowment for the Arts, and is therefore accused by liberals of being “anti-art.” By the same token, if you criticize the federal Department of Education, you are “anti-education,” and if you oppose using taxpayer dollars to fund embryonic stem-cell research, you are “anti-science.”
Read more at theothermccain.com

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This, from @AoSHQ: Want to know where Obama was born? Ask the one guy we know was there. #tcot #teaparty

2011-03-03T15:47:00.001-06:00

I am 100% in accord with the linked story.

Either President Obama has documentation to show where he was born, or he doesn't. It's appropriate to show it if it exists or to say that it doesn't exist.

And I can accept that it doesn't exist. Did Washington, Jefferson, or Lincoln have birth certificates? Kinda doubt it. Jimmy Carter, after all, was the first president to be born in a hospital.

I've always said I don't care where he was born. His mom was from Kansas, and that satisfies the natural-born requirement well enough for me. The rest is a technicality, and I don't want to see him removed from office for that.

OK, so maybe that's not quite accurate. I'd rather see him removed from office for being an incompetent Marxist.

So I'm more concerned with the 52% of voters who bought his socialist snake oil, and the educational system that produced them.

Amplify’d from minx.cc

Mike Huckabee Alludes To Obama Growing Up In Kenya; Media Pounces; I Hereby Declare This Is Obama's Problem, Not Huckabee's

Allah's been following this for the last couple of days. In an interview, Huckabee alluded to Obama growing up in Kenya; he apparently mixed up Obama's ~~complicated~~ richly textured tapestry of nuanced diversity lineage and background, and misspoke.

He immediately clarified that he had misspoke.

I have a weird take on the Birth Certificate Conspiracy Theory. Few share it. On one hand, I do not believe in it, at all. I disbelieve it for cosmological reasons, for one thing -- that Obama could be evicted from office due to this strikes me as such a Magic Button Happy Ending that I would almost be forced to confess the active hand of an Intelligent Designer in our political disputes, which I strongly doubt -- and for more specific reasons, there is evidence of his Hawaiian birth (notices in newspapers) that seems so fortuitous to seem just too unlikely to be credited.

This is Obama's choice and Obama's problem. Some have speculated that he keeps it secret precisely in order to make the opposition start inventing explanations about the secret. Well, fine then -- but you can hardly blame people then for doing what Obama intended they would do.

I, personally, am sick to death of hearing media sycophants demand that John Boehner affirm that Obama was born in Hawaii while not asking that Obama do the same.

Boehner doesn't know. Wasn't there. Doesn't have the bleeding records. Obama does, and yet the media refuses to ask the one guy in a position to settle this a damn thing.

We're all just supposed to vouch for facts not within our competency in order to spare President Douchetool the duty to answer questions himself.
Read more at minx.cc

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Oh, let them die. In fact, let's borrow money from the survivors to pay for it. #tcot #prolife

2011-03-02T16:40:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.redstate.com/mikehammond/2011/03/02/the-pass...

Republicans in Congress are showing what I think is an inadequate sense of care when spending my money on things I don't want.

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bshp7

Recall this: NEA leader would rather have bad schools and keep union power. #tcot #p2 #WIUnion

2011-03-02T10:59:00.001-06:00

Watch Bob Chanin tell his NEA union that the most important thing about the union is political power. Actual teaching goals are well and good, but the power that comes from union dues is the main thing.

The crowd is clearly moved on an emotional level by his words.

What kind of group gives a standing ovation to someone who brags about raw political power?

The kind who have to chant "Peaceful Protest" to remind themselves not to show who they are.

Thank you for revealing yourselves, public sector unions.

h/t LaborUnionReport

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bsfie

2011-02-22T15:25:00.001-06:00

The Faces of Meth (link fixed) http://bit.ly/etjz1j http://bit.ly/gsbVao

The Faces of Meth - KDVR

2011-02-22T14:55:00.001-06:00

http://www.kdvr.com/news/kswb-pg-faces-of-meth,0,3049043.photo...

If you've never seen the before and after pictures of meth users, you owe it to yourself to take a look.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/ie3CoP,0,3049043.photogallery

#wiunion is about more than money. It's about who controls the future: Marxists or Americans. #tcot #p2

2011-02-21T20:35:00.001-06:00

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

The Wisconsin Union Battle is About America’s Future Generations

Posted by LaborUnionReport (Profile)

Monday, February 21st at 1:00PM EST

15 Comments

“Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.” - Lenin

In Wisconsin, and elsewhere, union bosses are fighting to maintain control over more than just their having a say in wages and benefits. With the SEIU ramping up rallies nationwide, the protests in Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio are the beginning of a much larger battle that America is facing—whether America’s children will be saddled with generational indebtedness and conditioned to serving the collective, or whether they will live a free life.

For a long time, unions have known that grooming good, little collectivists begins at a young age. In Wisconsin, however, unions have even gone so far as to enact their progressive brainwashing into Wisconsin state law, as a few of us union watchers tried to draw attention to more than a year ago.
Read more at www.redstate.com

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The #WIUnion ragefest was a fait accompli. And @GovWalker, #tcot, and #teaparty were destined to win. #p2

2011-02-20T22:27:00.001-06:00

This linked Redstate member post gives the details.

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

This Can Only End One Way

By backing the governor into a corner, they have left him no choice but to refuse to stay the course. He could not compromise at this point even if he wanted to do so. More accurately, he could, but if he did so, he might as well resign, because he would get nothing of any substance accomplished for the remainder of his term. Giving in on this now would establish the precedent that he can be coerced into giving in on anything at any time. The next time a controversial proposal came about, the protesters would be twice as loud, and the people on the governor’s side would be hesitant to rally around, lest they be left holding the bag again. Presumably, the governor is no fool and knows this, and so will continue to stand firm.

The unions also seem to have expected public opinion to come to their aid without having good reason to do so. The election itself should have been an indication that the public was no longer on the side of the unions. It’s not that the public is anti-union, per se, but they no longer see unions as representing oppressed workers who are fighting The Man. What they see now is a group that is well-paid and well-perked and yet demands more. At a time of nine-to-ten percent unemployment, with many taking jobs they don’t particularly want because they can find nothing better, most of the public has little use for people who already have good jobs protesting and bemoaning their fate.
Read more at www.redstate.com

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From @jstrevino: Is government 'to secure these liberties' or to pay #WIunion employees? #teaparty #tcot

2011-02-20T09:04:00.001-06:00

We find these truths to be self-evident: that all men were created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men.

The consensus among the hodgepodge of socialist agitators, Obama For America organizers, and their drones and taggers along is that government exists to take from those who have and give to those who haven't, or more exactly, to those who can claim some membership in a group that at some point in the recent past has not had.

Read Treviño.

Amplify’d from www.guardian.co.uk

Who governs Wisconsin?

Our democracy is at stake as these featherbedded public sector unions try to bully Madison's elected officials into submission

The fight for America's future now centres upon Wisconsin. On one side are Governor Scott Walker, the Wisconsin Republican majorities in the legislature, and the majority of Wisconsinites who voted them into office. On the other side are the public sector unions for whom governance is, at bottom, a racket – and their Democratic allies.

For public sector unions, it's a declaration of war.

What's at stake in Wisconsin is whether American governance will continue to serve the purpose set forth in the declaration of independence – to secure our liberties – or whether government as its own surpassing special interest is an unassailable fact of our time. It is perhaps the single most important political fight in the country now.
Read more at www.guardian.co.uk

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Why teach lessons when you can teach corruption? #WIunion #tcot

2011-02-17T22:57:00.001-06:00

So it seems the public school teachers in an around Madison, Wisconsin are calling in sick in order to attend protests at the state capital.

Redstate.com's noted RepairManJack lays out some of the problems with this dereliction of duty.

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

We Don’t Need No Education! We Just Need Our Benefits.

Madison School Board policy states “teachers shall refrain from exploiting the institutional privileges of their professional positions to promote candidates or parties and activities,” which includes protests.

- (HT: Madison.com)

I’ve scanned the Internet manfully for any reports of the resurgent Black Death striking anywhere in the vicinity. None have been filed as of 9:42 CST. I think it’s a case of Swine Flu. The fakers calling in sick to protest the benefits cuts are a bunch of swine.

And just think what it teaches the children. The work agreements of most school districts require the provision of advanced notice before a teacher takes personal leave. They are generally required to produce a sick note or Doctor’s notice if they go on medical leave. Children at schools frequently sign these quaint, old-fashioned things called honor codes. “I will not lie, cheat, or steal; nor will I tolerate those around me who do these things.”
Read more at www.redstate.com

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Bill Whittle: "We didn't get the example of the Magna Carta from Ecuador."

2011-02-17T11:34:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WK_6dzE7bxs&feature=yout...

In this video, Bill Whittle explains why Obama's foreign policy can no longer be explained by incompetence. It must be ideology.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/hC9r8d

Obama takes tweezers to budget, finds nothing.

2011-02-13T10:35:00.001-06:00

And doesn't find anything.

Freezing discretionary spending at the obscene current level is an outragre against fiscal sanity.

If the spending is discretionary, we need not spend it.

And the utter insanity of putting spending on auto-pilot in the first place shows the need for drastic changes in the way Washington conducts business.

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

edeldoug

Sunday, February 13th at 10:43AM EST

(link)

Americans must learn to understand Big Numbers!!

A MILLION dollars fits in a briefcase.

A BILLION is 1000 Million. It is 12 Shipping pallets stacked 7 feet high with $100 bills.

A TRILLION is 1000 BILLION!!! Or, a Million MILLION!! Imagine one million briefcases stuffed with a million dollars each! Imagine 12,000 shipping pallets stacked 7 feet high with $100 bills.

Now, when they talk about cutting 100 Million here, or a couple Billion there, when you realize our DEFICIT is 1.5 Trillion and our BUDGET is 3.5 Trillion… those cuts don’t seem so “draconian” do they?

Our DEFICIT is 1.5 Trillion. ALL our discretionary spending, combined, comes to around 1.3 Trillion. If we eliminated it ALL we’d be in the hole 200 Billion!!!

We have NO CHOICE but to cut entitlement spending. It’s Fiscal Armageddon unless we do.

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I hope #CPAC refocuses on activism, not on political correctness

2011-02-11T14:43:00.001-06:00

I didn't go to CPAC this year because I didn't have the time or money for what I saw as a three-day party.

It would have been good to collect all of the business cards, but I couldn't justify the expense (even if tax deductible).

Now if next year they return to their roots, I hope to go. Otherwise, I'm sure someone else will fill the void, and I'll go there.

Streiff at Redstate lays out the detailed case.

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

CPAC’s Failure

The ongoing kerfluffle over the high profile participation of GOProud in CPAC raises an interesting question for any advocacy coalition or movement: just how large do you make your tent before your movement is diluted and distorted to the point of fatal weakness?

The takeaway, in my view, is that broad coalitions only work when the areas of agreement are not offset by areas of opposition or by the odor some of the groups bring. For instance, many of us are in favor of border security and a rigorous enforcement of our immigration laws. That does not mean that we will associate ourselves with any of the “we-hate-brown-people” types which festoon the anti-immigration landscape. Similarly, it would be ludicrous for a conservative group focusing on urban blight to ally itself with Nation of Islam or the New Black Panter Party. In these cases the other things these various groups espouse offset any areas of possible cooperation.
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Dear Fred Barnes -- Kyl is retiring, not dead. No need to canonize him yet. #tcot #teaparty

2011-02-10T12:09:00.001-06:00

Fred Barnes lauds nonsensically Jon Kyl, who is retiring rather than facing a primary battle he might lose.

But then, Kyl is an insider, and so Barnes loves him.

Amplify’d from www.weeklystandard.com

Jon Kyl’s Retirement: Major Loss for Senate Republicans

For Republicans, losing Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona is a bit like the Chicago Bulls when Michael Jordan retired. Not only is Kyl the MVP among Republican senators, but he also makes the other senators look good and perform better. I can’t think of a member of Congress who will be missed more than Kyl when he retires in 2012.

No senator is indispensible, though Kyl comes close. It’s fortunate for Republicans to have McConnell as number one. Just think if Republicans were stuck with someone like Majority Leader Harry Reid at the top. In that event, losing Kyl would be downright catastrophic.
Read more at www.weeklystandard.com

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#TX Joe Strauss FTW: Replaces Dem with #teaparty rep as Speaker Pro Tem #tcot @ewerickson @melissatweets

2011-02-10T10:46:00.001-06:00

Well, what do you know. So, is Joe Strauss

Covering his right flank to keep from being Mubarak'ed?

Keeping his friends close and his enemies closer?
Actually sharing power because that's who he is?

Moving to the right himself?

OK, so that last one was kind of stupid.

Amplify’d from www.fontcraft.com

TEXAS: Speaker Straus replaces moderate Dem with hardline Tea Partyer as Speaker Pro-Tem

From Eric Dondero:

With less of a majority in the last legislative session, House Speaker Joe Straus sought consensus and a good working relationship with moderate Democrats. Now, with a supermajority, the Speaker has made a move to the hard-right.

State Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, two years ago was picked by new Speaker of the House Joe Straus to be speaker pro tempore of the Texas House of Representatives because — in part — of his ability to work across party lines on crucial issues.
With a shift in the political climate and an even stronger Republican majority at the state capital, Eiland was replaced by a Harris County Republican.

Straus, in his second term as speaker, picked Rep. Beverly Woolley, R-Harris County, as speaker pro tem. Woolley, a tea party favorite and co-chair of the Tea Party Caucus in the state house, won major points with Straus last year when she announced she backed him in his bid to be re-elected speaker.

See more at www.fontcraft.com

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2011-02-10T07:30:00.001-06:00

If the spending is discretionary, then since we don’t have it we don’t have to spend it -- any of it. #teaparty http://bit.ly/e5xHby

It will be funny in 20 years when liberals are shaking their fists at the liberal establishment.

2011-02-08T11:31:00.001-06:00

http://minx.cc/?post=311814

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The Obama recovery plan: business will spread the wealth, or be sued out of existence. #tcot #teaparty #unions

2011-02-08T10:40:00.001-06:00

Ever work in an office, shop, or restaurant and there's this one person who is perpetually unhappy? The tiniest perceived slight and they're shaking their fists and stating their case to anyone who will listen.

Mostly they're drama queens, but sometimes they are rabble rousers who would rather organize the down-trodden to achieve social justice than do any actual work. And they're also drama queens.

President Obama wants to give these people a hand at destroying the businesses that hire them.

The result will be fewer people getting hired, but at least they won't have to listen to drama queens complaining about how horrible it is to have to sweep a floor or clean up Aisle 6.

Amplify’d from www.foxbusiness.com

Hate Your Boss? Call the Government

In an unprecedented and controversial move, the White House has launched a new program at the Department of Labor which will refer workers who have complaints about their bosses to a toll free number at the American Bar Association, where they can get a lawyer to work on their case on a contingency fee basis.

But will this create more lawsuits against companies? Will it stymie job creation at the very companies the President says he needs to help lower the high unemployment rate, including small businesses? Will this new program simply make it easier for lawyers to get business they may have garnered anyway?

The White House has also enlisted the ABA to launch a toll-free hotline number at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help homeowners with foreclosure issues, as well as a separate ABA toll free number to help veterans at the Department of Veterans Affairs, too. An ABA release notes that its new toll-free line at the Labor Dept. will help workers who may be part-time or independent contractors in the agricultural, construction, or hotel industries.

Already, the Department of Labor has more attorneys than any other department besides the Department of Justice, sources note.
Read more at www.foxbusiness.com

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Via @AceofSpadesHQ, @RandPaulSenate wants to cut $500B. I say that's not enough. #tcot #teaparty

2011-02-07T13:10:00.001-06:00

We're $14 trillion in debt. The current spending and revenue levels (you can't call it a budget, since the Democrats failed to pass one) mean adding another $1.5 trillion to that debt this year and every year thereafter, even though we can't borrow enough to pay it.

Already we must bow and scrape before the Chinese. Already our once-stable currency is losing its status as the international unit of exchange.

We are not free.

Rand Paul proposes only adding $1 trillion to that debt. While that's significant progress, it's nothing like enough.

We should instead be aiming actually to begin paying back what we owe. To that end, we should cut $2 trillion from the federal budget.

That's right: we must cut not $30 billion nor $100 billion nor even $500 billion, but $2 trillion to create a surplus of $500 billion per year.

Democrats will scream and shout, they will call us names like "callous" and "mean to the poor". But who is meaner, the one who says "I'd better not" today, or the one who says "I said I could yesterday, but I cannot" tomorrow?

The surplus it should not be treated as a surplus, which scum-sucking politicians could fritter away on pet projects designed to buy votes, but a real expense of the government. We must make repaying our debt an obligation, as we undertake to become debt free.

To do so we will have to cut entire federal departments -- Education, Energy, Transportation, and Labor come to mind. We'll have to scale back our defense of Europe and the Middle East, perhaps. Maybe we can sell a couple of car companies.

The socialists will scream.

We'll need drastic cuts in other areas, as well.

And the socialists will holler.

But thought they holler, it will not be enough.

We must raise the Social Security, Medicare, and federal civil service retirement ages by something like a half year per year.

The Democrats and socialists (but I repeat myself) will demagogue the issue. We're balancing the budget and "sending grandma the bill", they will say.

But these are things that must be done if we are to become a free country.

Amplify’d from minx.cc

Rand Paul Pushes "Modest Proposal" of $500 Billion in Cuts In One Year
Update: You Know What's Wildly Popular With the Public? Not Raising the Debt Ceiling

Other Republicans need to begin pushing this, or else the idea is dismissed as "fringe" and one man's fantasy.

It really isn't. It's doable. Even if someone were to object and say it's too much -- well then how about we split the difference and aim for $250 billion?

Comments

1

Anything less than $500B in cuts is a joke.

Rand is at the minimum, but it's a start, I guess.

3

We should be aiming for cutting a Trillion dollars. If the Democrats and Obama can meet us halfway (a compromise), that would be sooo-per dooper.

Read more at minx.cc

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Illinois Review: Durbin's health care numbers are wrong

2011-02-07T10:10:00.001-06:00

URL: http://illinoisreview.typepad.com/illinoisreview/2011/0...

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/g2Ljnt

And we'll tell you who to marry, too. female soldiers in headscarves. To avoid hurt feelings. #tcot

2011-02-05T15:45:00.001-06:00

Amplify’d from www.fontcraft.com

“Cultural Sensitivities” triumph over Safety

From Eric Dondero:

The DoD “abaya” policy was defended under the guise of “cultural sensitivities”…
Most important, a headscarf is no protection against a sniper or IED. A helmet is standard protective gear for the most important part of the human body: the brain. A female soldier in a headscarf limits her peripheral vision, a problem when operating in a hostile or potentially hostile environment. With the bizarre hybrid of a camouflage uniform topped by a headscarf, a female service member is identifying herself as an American soldier but simultaneously making a concession to Islam (in uniform, as a representative of the American government) – hardly an image to inspire confidence, and one that will provoke derision from a religiously motivated enemy that views such acts as weakness.

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Via @NessaTMR: Patton, WWII, and the #teaparty

2011-02-04T13:06:00.001-06:00

If a prayer can win a war, can it not fix our tiny troubles now?

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

Our situation certainly mirrors Patton's when he asked for the prayer...

nessa

Thursday, February 3rd at 6:52PM EST

(link)

Msgr. James H. O’Neill, Patton’s Third Army Chaplain, wrote about the prayer in the 50s. Interesting and quite moving.

The incident of the now famous Patton Prayer commenced with a telephone call to the Third Army Chaplain on the morning of December 8, 1944, when the Third Army Headquarters were located in the Caserne Molifor in Nancy, France: “This is General Patton; do you have a good prayer for weather? We must do something about those rains if we are to win the war.” My reply was that I know where to look for such a prayer, that I would locate, and report within the hour. As I hung up the telephone receiver, about eleven in the morning, I looked out on the steadily falling rain, “immoderate” I would call it — the same rain that had plagued Patton’s Army throughout the Moselle and Saar Campaigns from September until now, December 8. The few prayer books at hand contained no formal prayer on weather that might prove acceptable to the Army Commander. Keeping his immediate objective in mind, I typed an original and an improved copy on a 5″ x 3″ filing card:

“Almighty and most merciful Father, we humbly beseech Thee, of Thy great goodness, to restrain these immoderate rains with which we have had to contend. Grant us fair weather for Battle. Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.

I pondered the question, What use would General Patton make of the prayer? Surely not for private devotion. If he intended it for circulation to chaplains or others, with Christmas not far removed, it might he proper to type the Army Commander’s Christmas Greetings on the reverse side. This would please the recipient, and anything that pleased the men I knew would please him:

To each officer and soldier in the Third United States Army, I Wish a Merry Christmas. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We march in our might to complete victory. May God’s blessings rest upon each of you on this Christmas Day. G.S. Patton, Jr, Lieutenant General, Commanding, Third United States Army.

After reviewing and approving the prayer and it’s Christmas missive, General Patton and the Chaplain discussed prayer at some length. That discussion resulted in “Training Letter #5″ issued by the Third Army Chaplain to all the Chaplains as well as Regimental Commanders and above in the 26 Divisions comprising Third Army. It was distributed on December 14, 1944.

Chaplains of the Third Army

At this stage of the operations I would call upon the chaplains and the men of the Third United States Army to focus their attention on the importance of prayer.

Our glorious march from the Normandy Beach across France to where we stand, before and beyond the Siegfried Line, with the wreckage of the German Army behind us should convince the most skeptical soldier that God has ridden with our banner. Pestilence and famine have not touched us. We have continued in unity of purpose. We have had no quitters; and our leadership has been masterful. The Third Army has no roster of Retreats. None of Defeats. We have no memory of a lost battle to hand on to our children from this great campaign.

But we are not stopping at the Siegfried Line. Tough days may be ahead of us before we eat our rations in the Chancellery of the Deutsches Reich.

As chaplains it is our business to pray. We preach its importance. We urge its practice. But the time is now to intensify our faith in prayer, not alone with ourselves, but with every believing man, Protestant, Catholic, Jew, or Christian in the ranks of the Third United States Army.

Those who pray do more for the world than those who fight; and if the world goes from bad to worse, it is because there are more battles than prayers. ‘Hands lifted up,’ said Bosuet, ’smash more battalions than hands that strike.’ Gideon of Bible fame was least in his father’s house. He came from Israel’s smallest tribe. But he was a mighty man of valor. His strength lay not in his military might, but in his recognition of God’s proper claims upon his life. He reduced his Army from thirty-two thousand to three hundred men lest the people of Israel would think that their valor had saved them. We have no intention to reduce our vast striking force. But we must urge, instruct, and indoctrinate every fighting man to pray as well as fight. In Gideon’s day, and in our own, spiritually alert minorities carry the burdens and bring the victories.

Urge all of your men to pray, not alone in church, but everywhere. Pray when driving. Pray when fighting. Pray alone. Pray with others. Pray by night and pray by day. Pray for the cessation of immoderate rains, for good weather for Battle. Pray for the defeat of our wicked enemy whose banner is injustice and whose good is oppression. Pray for victory. Pray for our Army, and Pray for Peace.

We must march together, all out for God. The soldier who ‘cracks up’ does not need sympathy or comfort as much as he needs strength. We are not trying to make the best of these days. It is our job to make the most of them. Now is not the time to follow God from ‘afar off.’ This Army needs the assurance and the faith that God is with us. With prayer, we cannot fail.

Be assured that this message on prayer has the approval, the encouragement, and the enthusiastic support of the Third United States Army Commander.

The most striking part of this story comes with consideration of the dates. The prayer was written on December 8th, 1944, Training Letter #5 was distro’d on December 14th. The German breakthrough, which came to be known as “The Battle of the Bulge” began on December 16th. By the 21st the Germans had surrounded the 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne. On the 22nd the weather cleared and on the 26th the 4th Armored Division, part of Third Army, opened a corridor into Bastogne. By 7 January 1945, after abandoning most of their equipment, the German Panzer Divisions withdrew and the Battle was over.

For the last two years the Tea Parties have been growing, more and more Americans join the fight to wrest our Nation from the grip of Obama, the now thoroughly socialist Democrat Party and their Union cohorts. These fine Americans do whatever they can to aid the fight, writing, meeting, calling, voting, becoming Republican Precinct Committeemen… How ever they decide to join the fight, lets hope they don’t forget to pray. We need some clear weather.

“Graciously hearken to us as soldiers who call upon Thee that, armed with Thy power, we may advance from victory to victory, and crush the oppression and wickedness of our enemies and establish Thy justice among men and nations.”

“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams

Contributor to The Minority Report

teh twitter
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Christie Vetoes Planned Parenthood Funding, Calls for Investigation | And @amclimer posts at RedState

2011-02-04T01:23:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.redstate.com/amclimer/2011/02/04/christie-ve...

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John McCain was so wrong he was right on Iraq, so bashes Rumsfeld for being so right he was wrong.

2011-02-03T12:58:00.001-06:00

Neither John McCain nor Donald Rumsfeld called Iraq correctly.

John McCain wanted a larger force sent to Iraq, and to be able to say the United States would quit doing things it never did in the first place, giving our enemies foreign and domestic fuel for their rage. It's not clear to me that he thought anything other than more troops and guns and tanks would be required.

Rumsfeld believed (as far as I can tell) that using technology and providing non-threatening stability would be enough to democratize Iraq.

I don't recall either man put David Petraeus' theory of asymmetric warfare together. Had they done so, there would have been to need for any of us to learn to spell Petraeus.

So for John McCain to bash Rummy now is typical of the attention-whoring style we've come to expect from the fellow who suspended running for President to not say no to TARP.

So for John McCain to claim the mantle of wise sage now, and

Amplify’d from hotair.com

McCain Hits Rummy Over Memoir

Former Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld is coming out with a new memoir on February 8. Early reports note he takes some shots at former colleagues, and expresses no regrets for the war in Iraq.

“I respect Secretary Rumsfeld. He and I had a very, very strong difference of opinion about the strategy that he was employing in Iraq which I predicted was doomed to failure,” the Arizona Republican said on “GMA.”

McCain and Rumsfeld had clashed over troop levels.

“And thank God he was relieved of his duties and we put the surge in otherwise we would have had a disastrous defeat in Iraq,” McCain told me.
Read more at hotair.com

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Tinkering to fix a bad design, 2: the stupidity of nibbling around the edges of Obamacare. #hcr #teaparty #tcot

2011-02-03T10:29:00.001-06:00

Nibbling around the edges is the surest way for Obamacare to become ingrained in the federal administrative machine. Once the hordes of medical clerks in insurance companies and hospitals become versed in the unconstitutional law's provisions, there will be great inertia to retain it. Better the abominable hydra we know, you might say.

And if you take away the 1099 requirement, soften the mandates, and provide waivers and workarounds, it becomes a pill people can swallow.

If the government were to control every aspect of the medical insurance industry, and mandate that everyone have medical insurance, then the government would control, on a basic level, everyone in the country. Not only is the very thought of that repulsive, but the danger of abuse, by local functionaries and federal power brokers, is real.

Tinkering only adds to uncertainty. If one onerous provision is axed, will the others be? The quest will then be to lobby the government for the best position.

Because apart from personal indignities and the threat of corrupt leverage of medical information and access to health care by those government, the effect on business is at least as bad. Rather than businesses making decisions based on their attempts to please their customers, all business interests would be subordinated to the attempt to ameliorate the effects of a bad health insurance situation. In the alternative, Obamacare amounts to an ever-increasing fee put upon American businesses who elect not to pay their employees via a health insurance plan.

And the tinkering we're seeing the Republicans take part in now is just the start.

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

How The Stupid Party Gets Its Name

Senator Dick Durbin hinted two days ago that the Senate Democrats would be unified in their opposition to repeal Obamacare except for one or two. In other words, the GOP had the opportunity to get Democrats to jump ship.

But Democrats have signaled that they want to “fix” Obamacare, not repeal it. So the GOP gladly obliged. Without any obstruction, the GOP went along with the Democrats’ changes to the onerous 1099 provision.

No Democrat had to vote for repeal because they knew they’d get a chance to say they were “fixing” Obamacare. And the headline will now be that the GOP and Democrats in the Senate are cooperating on a “fix” instead of repeal.

On top of that, however, is the stupidity — sheer stupidity — of certain Republicans now trying to undermine the litigation against Obamacare. I’m looking at you Senators Lindsey Graham and John Barasso.

Tinkering with Obamacare undermines both the lawsuit against Obamacare and the effort for full repeal. It doesn’t take a genius to know that, but it does take the stupid party to ignore it.
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Tinkering to fix a bad design: the stupidity of nibbling around the edges of Obamacare. #hcr #teaparty #tcot

2011-02-03T10:25:00.001-06:00

Nibbling around the edges is the surest way for Obamacare to become ingrained in the federal administrative machine. Once the hordes of medical clerks in insurance companies and hospitals become versed in the unconstitutional law's provisions,

And if you take away the 1099 requirement, soften the mandates, and provide waivers and workarounds, it becomes a pill people can swallow.

Tinkering only adds to uncertainty. If one onerous provision is axed, will the others be? The quest will then be to lobby the government for the best position.

If the government were to control every aspect of the medical insurance industry, and mandate that everyone have medical insurance, then the government would control, on a basic level, everyone in the country. Not only is the very thought of that repulsive, but the danger of abuse, by local functionaries and federal power brokers, is real.

Apart from personal indignities and the threat of corrupt leverage of medical information and access to health care by those government, the effect on business is at least as bad. Rather than businesses making decisions based on their attempts to please their customers, all business interests would be subordinated to the attempt to ameliorate the effects of a bad health insurance situation. In the alternative, Obamacare amounts to an ever-increasing fee put upon American businesses who elect not to pay their employees via a health insurance plan.

And the tinkering we're seeing the Republicans take part in now is just the start.

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

How The Stupid Party Gets Its Name

Senator Dick Durbin hinted two days ago that the Senate Democrats would be unified in their opposition to repeal Obamacare except for one or two. In other words, the GOP had the opportunity to get Democrats to jump ship.

But Democrats have signaled that they want to “fix” Obamacare, not repeal it. So the GOP gladly obliged. Without any obstruction, the GOP went along with the Democrats’ changes to the onerous 1099 provision.

No Democrat had to vote for repeal because they knew they’d get a chance to say they were “fixing” Obamacare. And the headline will now be that the GOP and Democrats in the Senate are cooperating on a “fix” instead of repeal.

On top of that, however, is the stupidity — sheer stupidity — of certain Republicans now trying to undermine the litigation against Obamacare. I’m looking at you Senators Lindsey Graham and John Barasso.

Tinkering with Obamacare undermines both the lawsuit against Obamacare and the effort for full repeal. It doesn’t take a genius to know that, but it does take the stupid party to ignore it.
Read more at www.redstate.com

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Halfway There: The Fight of Our Life

2011-01-31T22:29:00.001-06:00

http://pamelavonfreezy.blogspot.com/2011/01/fight-of-our-life....

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Heartland Institute Experts React to Ruling That Obamacare Is Unconstitutional

2011-01-31T22:04:00.001-06:00

U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson ruled Monday from Florida that the Obama administration’s health care overhaul is unconstitutional, siding with 26 states that sued to block it. The Florida-based judge accepted without trial the states’ argument that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – commonly called Obamacare – violates people’s constitutional rights by forcing them to buy health insurance by 2014 or face penalties. (A PDF of the ruling can be found by clicking here.)

The following statements from health care policy experts at The Heartland Institute may be used for attribution.

Peter Ferrara, senior fellow at the Heartland Institute for health care policy, general counsel of the American Civil Rights Union, and author of The Obamacare Disaster: An Appraisal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act:

“With the powerful decision of the Florida Federal District Court today joining the earlier Virginia Federal District Court holding central aspects of Obamacare unconstitutional, the handwriting is now on the wall. A minimum of four U.S. Supreme Court Justices are going to agree that central aspects of Obamacare are unconstitutional as well. I predict a fifth will join them.”

For more comment, contact Peter Ferrara at peterferrara@msn.com or 703/582-8466.

Ben Domenech, research fellow for health care policy at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Health Care News:

“There is little question that the constitutionality of President Obama’s nationalized health insurance regime will ultimately end up at the U.S. Supreme Court. Given that the cases involved are focused on questions of law rather than ascertaining or investigating facts, that the law in question has been challenged now by a majority of states, and that the law’s enforcement holds massive ramifications for the American economy, I hope the Supreme Court will consider fast-tracking these cases to be considered as soon as possible.

“Until this question is resolved one way or the other, health policy in the United States must engage in a schizophrenic period which pits states against the federal bureaucracy. This is not a healthy expression of federalism, and this extraordinary degree of uncertainty ultimately does a disservice to every citizen. The fault here lies with the policymakers who rushed this mishmash of legislation through the Congress for political reasons, sacrificing coherent policy for the sake of hoped-for political gain.

“The American people now bear the pain of this monumental mistake of leadership, and as they are all individual stakeholders in the current debate, they deserve to know, and know soon, whether the Constitution allows their government to command them to purchase a product under its Commerce Clause authority or not. Not since Bush v. Gore has there been a case which so justly merits expedited consideration.”

Domenech can be reached for additional comment at bdomenech@heartland.org or 703/509-1741.

The Heartland Institute is a 27-year-old national nonprofit organization based in Chicago. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site at http://www.heartland.org or call 312/377-4000.

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Why ObamaCare is Unconsitutional: The Money Quote #tcot #teaprty

2011-01-31T16:13:00.001-06:00

Federal Judge Roger Vinson of the Northern District of Florida has declared Obamacare unconstitutional.

The money quote: (decision pdf, p 42)

It is difficult to imagine that a nation which began, at least in part, as the result of opposition to a British mandate givingthe East India Company a monopoly and imposing a nominal tax on all tea sold in America would have set out to create a government with the power to force people to buy tea in the first place.

The judge ruled that not only is the individual mandate unconstitutional, but the lack of a severability clause and the decision on the part of the government to argue that the individual mandate was vital and essential to the functioning of the Act meant that the whole thing must be struck down.

I hold out hope for the Republic.

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HHS Lying Propaganda over Obamascare waivers #hcr #tcot #teaparty

2011-01-27T16:03:00.001-06:00

The Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the arm of the federal bureaucracy most charged with implementing the monstrous, 2,700 page law.

The Affordable Care Act is designed to provide Americans with affordable, high-quality coverage options – while ensuring that those who like their current coverage can keep it.

So if the law is designed to ensure that people can keep their coverage, why do so many need waivers to prevent them from losing it?

Unfortunately, today, limited benefit plans, or “mini-med” plans are often the only type of insurance offered to some workers.

That's the only type offered to some workers by their employers. And the reason the mini-med plans are offered is that neither employers nor insurance companies can afford to pick up the tab for someone who gets sick off the job, when that person may require care for half a century. So of course they want an annual limit. And a limit of $750,000 is enough to cover all but the most expensive medical problems.

But sense when did American citizens become "workers"? That must have been about the time they started voting for socialists.

In the meantime, the law requires insurers to phase out the use of annual dollar limits on benefits. In 2011, most plans can impose an annual limit of no less than $750,000.

So, HHS, when you said it was designed to let them keep their plans, you lied.

Amplify’d from www.hhs.gov

Helping Americans Keep the Coverage They Have and Promoting Transparency

Helping Consumers Keep their Coverage
The Affordable Care Act is designed to provide Americans with affordable, high-quality coverage options – while ensuring that those who like their current coverage can keep it. Unfortunately, today, limited benefit plans, or “mini-med” plans are often the only type of insurance offered to some workers. In 2014, the Affordable Care Act will end mini-med plans when Americans will have better access to affordable, comprehensive health insurance plans that cannot use high deductibles or annual limits to limit benefits. In the meantime, the law requires insurers to phase out the use of annual dollar limits on benefits. In 2011, most plans can impose an annual limit of no less than $750,000.
Mini-med plans have lower limits than allowed under the Affordable Care Act. While mini-med plans do not provide security in the event of serious illness or accident, they are unfortunately the only option that some employers offer. In order to protect coverage for these workers, the Affordable Care Act allows these plans to apply for temporary waivers from rules restricting the size of annual limits to some group health plans and health insurance issuers.
Waivers only last for one year and are only available if the plan certifies that a waiver is necessary to prevent either a large increase in premiums or a significant decrease in access to coverage. In addition, enrollees must be informed that their plan does not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. No other provision of the Affordable Care Act is affected by these waivers: they only apply to the annual limit policy.
As of today, a total of 733 waivers have been granted for 2011.
Read more at www.hhs.gov

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Noted Jew hunter George Soros pays rabbis to attack Glenn Beck. @YidWithLid has the details #tcot #p2

2011-01-27T14:21:00.001-06:00

I'm not a huge Glenn Beck Show fan. Oh, I believe he's sincere and mostly agree with his policy preferences. But something in his style on TV is just not for me. I do love his radio show, though.

But now noted Jew hunter George Soros has funded some social justice group to go after Beck.

And to what end? Glenn Beck is, as far as I can tell, a friend of Jews and also of Israel.

This is all about Soros' current socialism, not his youthful collaboration with defeated nationalist socialist regimes per se.

Amplify’d from yidwithlid.blogspot.com

Latest Attack on Glenn Beck Shames The Rabbinical Profession and Desecrates God's Name

As the Torah says Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people (Lev. 19:16). The ancient Jewish Sages took that passage and said that there are three transgressions that would cause a man to lose his place in the world to come: murder, adultery, and idol worship, and that loshon hora (evil speech) is equivalent to all three (Bab. Erchin 15b). Jews believe that the harm done by telling tales about people is worse than the harm done by something like theft because one can repay stolen money, but harm done by speech can never be repaired.

In today's Wall Street Journal, four-hundred Rabbis joined with a socialist Jewish organization called Jewish Funds for Justice (JFJ) to bring shame upon themselves, their holy profession and the entire Jewish people, and even worse have committed a Chillul Hashem (desecration of God's name) with an open letter to Fox News against Glenn Beck (the full ad is embedded below).

Read more at yidwithlid.blogspot.com

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Why wealthy conservatives should give to the grassroots, instead of wasting it. #tcot #teaparty

2011-01-24T20:23:00.001-06:00

The argument, laid out in Vassar's colloquial prose, goes something like this:

Conservatives earn their money.

They also respect the value of a dollar.

To further conservative values, both energy and money are needed.

Rely on the sweat equity of the grassroots.

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

Sweat Equity, Why Conservatives are Misdirecting Their Politican Spending

The soul of conservatism is defined by sweat equity.

…for conservatism’s greatest strengths (we work for our livelihoods and generally think the best of each other) have been turned against us, while the Left’s greatest weaknesses (they bitch and whine, doth party and sloth a lot and are filled with hate) have been turned into assets.

And we also know it’s very difficult to keep the ideal of sweat equity in the family once a certain amount of wealth is obtained. So of equal importance to the Constitutional blueprint is that the wealthy man must pass on “his legacy” of success by extending his hand back down the hill to those coming up behind. This handshake is a bond, not unlike the Eucharist, that links him to every generation of builder who came before him and to every would-be builder he can touch who will come after him. It is an acknowledgment that once upon a time he’d been there, too. It is a quiet prayer of thanksgiving in one direction while a “Follow me, boys” in the other.

The loss of this handshake, and its meaning, has been the failed legacy of conservative wealth in America in the last forty years.

Read more at www.redstate.com

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Court: Emanuel off Mayoral Ballot. It turns out "reside" means "reside". #tcot #teaparty

2011-01-24T12:39:00.001-06:00

Full decision at link.

Amplify’d from www.chicagonewscoop.org

Appellate Court: Emanuel Off Ballot

Rahm Emanuel has been knocked off the mayoral ballot after an Appellate Court overturned a ruling in his residency case.

The court ruled that Emanuel did not meet the residency requirement for eligible candidates.

“We conclude that the candidate neither meets the the municipal code’s requirement that he have ‘resided’ in Chicago for the year preceding the election in which he seeks to participate nor falls within any exception to the requirement,” the court wrote in its decision.
Read more at www.chicagonewscoop.org

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Counting Coup: The Invisible Victories | RedState

2011-01-18T20:16:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.redstate.com/elronaldo/2011/01/18/counting-c...

Ron Robinson shows why knowledge and the willingness to show up can be the difference.

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We Are Yet To See Our Finest Hour | RedState

2011-01-18T14:27:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2011/01/18/we-are-yet-...

Chin up, tea parties. We're just getting started.

See why at Redstate.

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Reason #342 why public sector unions should be banned. #tcot #teaparty

2011-01-17T18:41:00.001-06:00

If it should happen to snow in Duluth, Minnesota this January, don't expect city crews to plow it. They might be on strike.

Now, not all of them, mind you. Just Teamsters Local 320 members in the Virginia station -- for now.

So should you need to use a road for, say, taking an ambulance ride, make sure to arrange other means of transport.

The criminal element in Duluth should find it easier to evade the police, who may not be able to respond, what with the roads full of snow.

And if you don't happen to live in a fireproof building, perhaps you should take special care to have a few buckets around. There should be plenty of snow around in Duluth this time of year with which to extinguish the blaze.

Maybe you can just use what's in the street.

Amplify’d from www.ksfy.com

St. Louis County snowplow driver stage job action

DULUTH, Minn. (AP) - Some three-fourths of the St. Louis County snowplow drivers in the Virginia district didn't respond to an emergency call-out on Saturday morning.

The drivers belong to Teamsters Local 320, which has filed a strike notice for early Wednesday. The union says the main issues are the county's proposals for duties and pay for long-time employees.
Read more at www.ksfy.com

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Dear @ReincePriebus -- Deliver Unity. Reach out to the #teaparty grass roots to save the GOP

2011-01-17T14:45:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2011/01/12/how-to-save...

Can Reince Priebus, newly minted Republican National Committee chair, save the party?

"Save it from what", you ask? There are several giant threats to the GOP, but none greater than the perception of a rift between the grassroots and the donor class.

I say "perception of a rift" because there not only is not a real rift, there are not even two distinct groups. While it is true that the size of the donation people are willing to give varies indirectly with the number willing to give at that level, and I don't have access to the RNC donor list, it's my experience that ideology and political philosophy among Republicans are not closely tied to personal wealth.

People from all walks of life share the Republican vision of a virtuous people operating in liberty to produce peace, security and prosperity. They do not identify themselves as rich or poor, white or black or latino, though we are all certainly aware of the categories into which we vall.

So while wealthy Republicans may wonder what drives the tea party movement, there are also many poor or middle class conservatives wondering the same thing. Inertia and the interests of daily lives keep people from finding out about the movement.

Conversely, there are in the tea party movement people struggling to pay their monthly bills and people who have no such struggles.

What drives the tea party movement is the understanding that the America in which we grew up may not exist for our children. The things in which we believe -- virtue, equality before the law, liberty, hard work, limited government, and the very concept of nationhood -- these things are under attack.

For what can be done to bring the fervor of the tea partiers into the Republican Party, read on at the Redstate link.

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How To Save the GOP | RedState @SpeakerBoehner @Ann4RNC #teaparty #tcot

2011-01-12T20:10:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.redstate.com/socrates/2011/01/12/how-to-save...

Hint: it doesn't involve Maria Cino, Reince Priebus, or Michael Steele.

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No Response from #ILGov Quinn, Speaker Madigan on video of backroom tax negotiations.

2011-01-11T12:25:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.redstate.com/socrates/

See more at the Redstate link.

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Thanks, 47. #ILGov Quinn's Job-Killing Tax Increase a mere 66% now. #ILPolitics #teaparty

2011-01-10T23:23:00.001-06:00

The 47% of Illinois voters who thought Pat Quinn was fit for the office to which he was sworn in today did the more sensible of us no favors.

Illinois needs to cut spending. There are lots of ways to do this, but none of these ways are politically viable for a Democrat. Democrats are owned by the public sector labor unions and those kept in poverty by the seduction of government and its stranglehold on our state's economy.

But it's clear Quinn's has a plan to keep people in Illinois: send property values though the floor so no one can afford to leave.

Read more at Marathon Pundit.

Amplify’d from marathonpundit.blogspot.com

ILLinois now looking only at a 66 percent income tax increase

Governor Pat Quinn and the Democrats in the ILLinois General Assembly are now only looking at a relatively paltry 66 percent increase in the personal state income tax. Last week they proposed upping the rate from 3 percent to 5.25 percent--a 75 percent hike. The corporate income tax goes up too--from 4.8 percent to 7 percent, according to their latest plan. The spenders in the legislature were seeking an 8 percent rate. After four years the income tax goes down to a still undetermined amount.

This will cost me a lot of money--that cash is headed for the sinkhole known as Illinois state government. The state has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

Last year a Quinn aide suggested a 2 percent increase in the personal state income tax, which the governor disavowed--he said he would veto a hike that big. But it appears that was Quinn's plan all along. He's a liar.
Read more at marathonpundit.blogspot.com

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Quinn A-Tax Illinois | 75% tax hike, Spending,Borrowing. All plotted behind closed doors. #ILGOP #teaparty

2011-01-08T23:23:00.001-06:00

Sneaking around in the lame duck session to rob the taxpayers blind, all because he can't say know to his public sector union puppetmasters.

Read the whole thing at Redstate

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

Quinn A-Tax Illinois

Democrats kept their grip on power in the Illinois Legislature and won the governorship by the slimmest of margins, and they are going to make voters pay for it. Emboldened by his reelection, Governor Quinn and legislative allies are seizing on the lame duck session to sneak through a radical tax and spending plan the voters did not expect and would not have accepted.

Campaigning in 2010, Gov. Pat Quinn declared his intention to raise income taxes from 3% to 4%. So after winning the election by a razor-thin margin over Bill Brady, Quinn had some claim to a mandate, since the people who voted for him knew that was his plan.

Visit http://www.ilga.gov, find your representatives, and express your interest in this matter.
Read more at www.redstate.com

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Dear #union members: you must decide if you are Americans or communists #tcot

2011-01-06T08:55:00.001-06:00

It is now clear that the communist agenda of Stern, Trumka, and Obama is not compatible with American values.

They want wealth to be redistributed, to be taken from those who earn it and given to those who do not, in the name of "social justice", their twisted idea of fairness.

But Americans believe that fairness is when the rules apply equally to all, not when the power of government is used to help or hurt one person more than another.

And the communists believe that we are part of a group, not individuals with our own thoughts, our own beliefs, our own dreams. Americans believe that an individual should stand on his own, holding his hand out in friendship to others, but not holding it out to beg from them.

And now Stern, Trumka, and Obama want to push this social justice by taking down America. They want to send our jobs overseas, and are working hard, with their taxes and regulations, to make sure companies and their factories can't locate in America, but cheap foreign labor can.

They follow the model of Marx, Stalin, Hitler, and Mao: speak glowingly of fairness and the wonders that will happen if they can only rob those who have to give to those who do not. And if you speak out against them, if you dare open your mouth in opposition, you know what will become of you, your family, and your friends. You know what they will do to you.

They reward laziness and sloth, in order to gain dependents. They want power for themselves. They live for it.

So decide. Are you a follower of thugs or of freedom?

Read more at Redstate.

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

AFL-CIO Top Boss: Union Movement is Creating Permanent Progressive Structure

You’ve known for a while now that today’s union bosses are no longer about just “helping the workers.” They are, as we’ve shown you in the past, about transforming America into a semi-socialist state, that includes the taking over of public businesses.

Note to union members: After you view this video, if you cannot yet figure out that the union you are paying dues to is only using you to Europeanize America, there is no hope for you.
Read more at www.redstate.com

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Even #p2 is starting to notice that government is getting out of hand, #tcot.

2011-01-05T22:25:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.punditleague.us/editorials/progressivism-unm...

What could go wrong?

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Averting disaster: clean house at the RNC. #teaparty #tcot

2011-01-02T15:23:00.001-06:00

It's clear that the RNC chairman, treasurer / CFO and chief counsel need to step out of leadership.

Both Michael Steele and Reince Priebus are relatively young to have gotten into leadership positions at the RNC. They can take these changes as learning opportunities, improve their political and administrative acumen, and move on.

But they aren't the right people to run the RNC right now.

Amplify’d from www.riehlworldview.com

Is it a Reince Priebus for RNC Chair, or the precipice of disaster?

An interesting post up on the RNC Chair race over at Redstate. It follows up on a Politico item.

It has recently come to my attention that the things I have seen about Reince have been observed by others in the RNC. Politico is reporting a RNC Chairman out of CT has the same concerns I Do Not Believe This Is The Man For Our Party.
Read more at www.riehlworldview.com

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Any Average Idiot Could Fix The Economy. Unfortunately we didn't elect an average idiot. #tcot #teaparty

2010-12-31T11:20:00.001-06:00

How hard is it to say:

I'm going to let people drill for oil.

I'm going to order California's water back on.

I'm going to drop this Cap and Trade nonsense.

I'm going to leave taxes where they are.

Apparently that stuff is pretty hard for this president.

Amplify’d from hotair.com

The Valley That Jobs Forgot

If one had to guess where unemployment is highest in the US, most would probably suggest Detroit or Michigan as a whole. Others who paid attention to the midterm elections would know that Nevada surpassed Michigan as the state with the highest unemployment rate about mid-year. Others might guess Florida. However, in terms of metropolitan areas with the highest levels of joblessness, a new survey by the Birmingham Business Journal shows that California’s Central Valley is the epicenter for unemployment.

El Centro, CA – 29.3% (east of San Diego near border with Mexico)

Yuma, AZ – 26.7%

Yuba City, CA – 17.8%

Merced, CA – 16.3%

Stockton, CA – 16.3%

Modesto, CA – 16.2%

Visalia-Porterville, CA – 15.9%

Fresno, CA – 15.7%

Palm Coast, FL – 15.5%

Hanford – Corcoran, CA – 15.0%

Why has California become the epicenter of unemployment? While Michigan and Florida have a mix of problems, including (in Michigan’s case) a history of bad management decisions on labor contracts, California’s Central Valley woes are entirely a government creation. As I wrote yesterday, the decision by a federal judge to cut off water supplies to an area that literally fed the world turned the Central Valley from an agricultural export powerhouse to a center of starvation within two years. Congress has refused to act to reverse this decision, and as a result, almost a quarter of the families in the area now need government assistance to feed themselves while living on some of the most productive land in the world.
Read more at hotair.com

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Reince Priebus -- Foe of Tea Party Movement? #teaparty #tcot #rnc

2010-12-30T13:25:00.001-06:00

It seems that Reince Priebus, candidate for National RNC Chairman, wants credit for electoral gains in Wisconsin in 2010. But he may have had little to do with it, and in fact may have been actively working to defeat the Tea Party movement.

More investigation is clearly needed, but now is not the time to have someone at RNC who cannot work with the Tea Parties.

Amplify’d from wi.rlc.org

Wisconsin RLC: Reince Priebus Should Not Be National Chairman of the Republican Party

As a grassroots network of concerned citizens dedicated to upholding of individual liberty, limited government, and free enterprise within the Republican Party, the Republican Liberty Caucus questions Mr. Priebus’s commitment to core constitutional principles as well as the rule changes that disenfranchised Wisconsin GOP primary voters under his watch.

The Republican Liberty Caucus has been a vocal critic of the 2010 Wisconsin GOP’s rule change, which made it easier to endorse by lowering the percentage of delegate votes that a candidate must receive for endorsement, removing the possibility of voting for “no endorsement”, and give the state executive committee the power to decide which candidates are “viable” and limit the possible choices of the delegates to these approved candidates. “Giving candidates the official GOP endorsement and large sums of party donor money prior to Wisconsin’s primary disenfranchises Wisconsin’s conservative grassroots voters – including the Tea Party,” said Murphy. This is exactly what happened while Mr. Priebus was state chair.

“Not only was donor money collected by the Wisconsin GOP directed to defeating other non-establishment Republican candidates without donor consent, but the Wisconsin GOP also paid for polls that excluded these non-establishment GOP primary candidates as ballot options while mentioning front-runner endorsed GOP candidates and their Democrat opponents” (source: http://wi.rlc.org/2010/07/rlcwi-candidates-excluded-from-poll/).
Read more at wi.rlc.org

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Hey Mitch Daniels -- Want to be President? Better support the right to work. #tcot #teaparty

2010-12-29T05:57:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.redstate.com/fmaidment/2010/12/29/will-india...

Compelling people to join a union, which will take their money and give it to Marxist politicians, is not right.

If Mitch wants to have a further career, he should lead, not worry about political capital.

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/emKgzJ

A fuller response to "if gay marriage hurts yours..." #tcot @CorieWhalen @stackiii @peterflom @dmataconis

2010-12-28T13:07:00.001-06:00

See the rest at Redstate.

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

In Defense of Marriage and Logic

I despise illogical argument, and I love my wife. But just as much, I love my culture, that sum of received practice, belief, and wisdom I have come to share, or to believe I share, with those around me.

So my hair stands on end when libertarian Doug Mataconis of Outside the Beltway (and dozens of others, apparently) retweet self-described liberal statistician Peter Flom:

If gay marriage threatens your marriage, you haven’t got much of a marriage.

That little line, destined to become a liberal talking point, encapsulates at least two logical fallacies.

First, no one I’m aware of is arguing that their own marriage will be harmed by allowing people who are unqualified to marry to do so. Straw man arguments are often appealing to those already convinced, but merely draw ire from those who disagree.

Second, it exhibits the Fallacy of Division, in which the parts of a thing are conflated with the whole. It is not the case that two unqualified individuals marrying harms my marriage in any appreciable way, nor do they even harm marriage itself. But in the aggregate, the change to the structure of the institution is profound.
Read more at www.redstate.com

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The Great American Drive In is January 5. Will you be there? #teaparty #tcot

2010-12-27T07:02:00.001-06:00

The 112th Congress needs to know that we have our eyes on them. They won't be allowed to slide into bad habits, at least not without some publicity.

So some folks are planning to show up to let them know just that.

There are even guidelines for good behavior posted at the site set up for the event (see below).

I have another suggestion to keep traffic moving at the optimal speed. If a car should happen to break down or run out of fuel, make sure to merge one car at a time. There is to be none of this stopping to let the entire lane go at once.

Oh, and make sure to advance just as far as you can before merging. Someone will be nice and let you in.

If you follow these guidelines, you will be sure to have an eventful stay in the District.

Amplify’d from theamericandrivein.com

Guidelines

Remember we are not here to break traffic laws by deliberately blocking intersections or roads.

If you do, you WILL become a revenue source.

Remember DC is crawling with red light cameras.

We suggest stopping as soon as the light turns yellow to avoid traffic fines. Don’t become a revenue source.

After the light turns green it is important to wait a second or two to allow any drunken congressmen time to run the light as they race to be sworn in. Remember Safety First!!!

Right on Red may be legal but it is not required.

Read more at theamericandrivein.com

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Happy Christmas

2010-12-24T06:13:00.001-06:00

Is Christmas about Christ, or is it about reindeer?

Why, yes.

Christmas is a celebration of the virgin birth of Jesus the Christ, Y'shua the Messiah, in a manger in Bethlehem. It's a tale of wise men (who weren't there) and shepherds (who were).

It's also a celebration of the dead of Winter, a memory of the cold days of the Little Ice Age in Europe -- and perhaps some dim memory of even colder days past in a real Ice Age. The last warmth of Summer is gone by the time of the solstice, and we have time to gather together in our little hovels and share the fruits of our year's labor with those we love.

So while some consider the holiday's origins pagan, it's ours now. Merry Christmas!

And to those who find a dichotomy in the dualism, who see a conflict between magical reindeer and frankincense, I say: quit being humbugs. Sing about Rudolph, enjoy your stocking stuffers, blow your wad at Wal-Mart, and give shelter to needy travelers.

Because Christmas is Christmas, and there's no need to pin it down more than that.

(Expanded from an old post at the Academy. Thanks to LayoutSparks.com for the pic.)

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ObamaCare Was Not Enough Power for Sebelius #tcot #teaparty #hcr

2010-12-23T11:24:00.001-06:00

As Secretary of HHS, Kathleen Sebelius was given tremendous power under the PPACA (ObamaCare). The hailstorm of "the Secretary may" in the Act is rivaled only by that of "the Secretary shall".

For instance, the Act gives her the responsibility for setting the price points of the "Gold", "Silver", and "Bronze" insurance plans available under the various state exchanges. That there should be one price for all plans of the same type across the country is bad enough, but that you can only buy insurance from inside your state is in some ways worse.

But now Sebelius has decided that she can set insurance prices at will.

ObamaCare must be repealed. And Secretary Sebelius must be hauled in front of Congress to explain why she claims power that not even the Pelosi Congress ever gave her.

And after that, she should resign.

Read more from Jeffrey H. Anderson at TWS:

Amplify’d from www.weeklystandard.com

Sebelius Seizes Even More Power

Not satisfied with the colossal amounts of power that she would acquire under Obamacare if it isn't repealed, Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Kathleen Sebelius has issued a 136-page "rule" that will now give her (and her subordinates) largely unchecked power to pass judgment on the prices of health insurance throughout the United States. Notwithstanding the fact that 43 states already regulate and approve health insurance premiums, Sebelius claims that we need an additional, more centralized, protection against insurers' unseemly 'profit motive.' But a far greater threat to the future of American republicanism is posed by the impulse that animates Sebelius and the bulk of the Obama administration: the power motive.
Read more at www.weeklystandard.com

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Obama reaches out to business -- to grab their loot #tcot #ATR #teaparty

2010-12-23T06:43:00.001-06:00

Barack Obama, like the rest of the socialist left, hates business. He believes that anyone who has money either is a thief or inherited it from a long line of thieves, and in either case ought to seriously consider how much is enough.

So it comes as no surprise that he thinks business is just sitting on $2T because the right yacht hasn't come up for sale yet.

In fact, it is his very policies that are keeping businesses on the sidelines.

Read more over at Americans for Tax Reform.

Amplify’d from www.atr.org

Obama Offers Poisoned Olive Branch to Businesses

Last Wednesday, President Obama met with 20 leaders of major corporations to discuss cooperation on job growth and economic recovery. This bridge-building is a departure from the current administration’s typically contentious attitude toward Big Business.

Indeed, Obama’s newfound solicitousness seems to be based more on his old thinly veiled redistributionist rhetoric than a substantial change in attitude toward American business. In his own words, he wanted his guests to provide “ideas that will help businesses to invest in America and American jobs, at a time when they are holding nearly $2 trillion on their books.” Increased employment and investment is a grand thing, but the President’s emphasis on company holdings shows the true foundation of his thinking: Wall Street and corporate America are keeping money from the public, money to which they have little or no right.

The truth, of course, is that both companies and investors will only throw their money around to the public’s benefit when it is economically safer to do so. That this hasn’t happened yet shouldn’t be an indication of Gekko-esque greed, as the Obama administration and their Democrat allies would have us believe, but rather an indication that business leaders have seen through Obama’s half-hearted overtures and perceived his ingrained enmity against private American businesses.
Read more at www.atr.org

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‘Twas The Lame Duck Before Christmas | RedState

2010-12-16T21:49:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.redstate.com/absentee/2010/12/16/twas-the-la...

Nice.

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Thou Shalt Not Covet #teaparty #tcot #p2

2010-12-16T18:34:00.001-06:00

Nestled smack between the evil twins of Greed and Envy there is a sniveling, perpetually tortured coward named Covetousness.

Those who covet what belongs to others will never be happy, boiled as they are in the bubbling couldron of comparison.

Leftists love to label conservatives greedy, but the conservatives I know are simply motivated to do well in whatever they do. They toil not for the spoils of wealth but for the satisfying thrill of accomplishment.

Jennifer Booth of Modern Conservative delves into this topic.

Amplify’d from www.modernconservative.com

Thou Shalt Not Covet

Jennifer Booth
December 13, 2010

My name is Jennifer, and I am not a Covetist. I do not constantly harp over what my neighbor has. I do not care about his car, I do not want a plastic surgery enhanced spouse. I do not envy his situation, I do not hate him for his job. I do not want his income. I am not a Covetist, because I want my own things which I earn in my own life. It is the job of the liberal progressive to train me into thinking that I should want what my neighbor has, particularly if he is better off financially. Covetism surrounds the belief that my evil rich neighbor isn’t entitled to what he has in his bank account because he could only have done that off my back, i.e. the little guy (gal). Anyone who wants to vilify the rich because they are rich are Covetists, a name to describe the hateful discrimination that surrounds the state of class warfare in our country, by means of nothing but jealousy, insecurity, and sheer laziness.
Read more at www.modernconservative.com

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Perils of automatic translation, pliant blackamoor edition

2010-12-15T19:04:00.001-06:00

I wondered what was all of the fuss about Vladamir Putin's alleged romance of a Russian gymnast. Then I learned the horrible truth: the girl is "the most pliant blackamoor" you'll ever hope to meet.

Except she's not a blackamoor, a word I have never before to my knowledge used.

Amplify’d from www.astantin.com

Alina Kabaeva is famous as the most pliant blackamoor in Russia as well as is allegedly Vladimir Putin's mistress. Now she's on the counterbalance of Russian Vogue. Alina is the saucy Russian who won Olympic metallic rhythmic gymnasts in Athens 2000, gained a centre in the Duma as well as – maybe, meet probably – unsmooth Vladimir Putin… Alina Maratovna Kabayeva (Russian: Али́на Мара́товна Каба́ева; Tatar: Älinä Marat qızı Qabayeva; dropped May. 12, 1983) is a Russian sportsmaster as well as leader .

Alina Kabayeva: Alina Kabaeva: Putin's Mistress On Vogue (photo)
Read more at www.astantin.com

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The Comcast-NBCUniversal deal: let companies decide how to serve their customers. #tcot #tech @HeartlandInst

2010-12-14T12:27:00.001-06:00

The opposition to the merger of NBC's Universal content production unit with cable company Comcast comes from two general sources: those predisposed to worry about what big companies are doing, and big companies predisposed to worrying about what their competitors are doing.

Companies merge, spin off subsidiaries, and grow internally based on how they can best organize themselves to efficiently fit their markets. If they fail in that attempt, even if it's because their motives are nefarious in some way, the market will punish them.

It ultimately harms everyone for competitors to try to use the power of government to interfere with that process.

It is no less harmful when those pushing for regulation are mere busy-bodies, or those out to maximize their own power.

In the attached article there are some really great lines from Bruce Owen of Stanford, James Gattuso of Heritage, and Bartlett Cleland of IPI.

Amplify’d from www.heartland.org

Policy Analysts: ‘Industry, Not Government, Should Determine Extent of Vertical Integration’

Consumers lose when the government tries to decide what amount of vertical integration is best, according to Bruce Owen, Stanford University senior fellow and Public Policy Program director.

Owen spoke on the proposed merger between Comcast and NBC and other issues confronting the information technology and telecommunications industries at the Technology Policy Institute forum, Antitrust and the Dynamics of Competition in High-Tech Industries, last October,

In his paper entitled “Antitrust and Vertical Integration in ‘New Economy’ Industries.” Owen said: “There is no difference in principle between General Motors buying a parts maker and Comcast buying a program supplier. In each, there is a very strong presumption that the purchase will be good for consumers, and a small chance that it won’t.”

One necessary condition for a bad outcome is whether GM or Comcast possesses monopoly power, said Owen, addressing one of the concerns expressed by opponents of the proposed merger. “If there is competition in car manufacturing or in video distribution, the chances of a bad outcome are very remote,” said Owen. “That tells me that the FCC’s suspicions about vertical integration are not well-grounded. Acting on those suspicions by banning or penalizing vertical integration is the wrong policy.”
Read more at www.heartland.org

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Solving the Mexican Problem, One Way or Another - Redstate #tcot #p2 #immigration #prohibition

2010-12-12T13:35:00.001-06:00

LaborUnionReport at Redstate (see excerpt link below) makes the case that the instability of Mexico can be dealt with in a variety of ways, but deal with it we must.

Amplify’d from www.redstate.com

Like it or Not: Mexico is America’s Next Afghanistan

It's time to 'man up' and face a fact that most politicians know, but few care to admit.

With the exception of, perhaps, Texas governor Rick Perry, no public official wants to publicly admit an obvious fact: The United States of America will likely be forced to invade Mexico. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when. The question then becomes: What to do with Mexico after we invade it and wipe out the drug cartels (as much as can be). Does the United States merely return Mexico to a nation state of corrupt politicians, failed economic policies, and lawlessness, or do we annex Mexico and turn it into the 51st state?

Rather than nation building, which would be much more costly to the U.S. treasury (which can ill afford it), a case can be made for statehood (albeit, not without controversy), given the amount of Mexico’s citizenry that is already residing in the U.S., as well as Mexico’s historically mis-managed economy and resources (i.e., oil, farmland, beaches, ports, etc.). Moreoever, as so many illegal immigrants work already in the U.S., but send their earnings back to Mexico, by having Mexico become the 51st state, the money exported would not leave the U.S. but would stay in “our economy” and could offset the costs of an invasion/humanitarian mission. Most importantly, by assimilating Mexico into the U.S., with the Constitution it would solve the the issue of immigration reform in one fell swoop.
Read more at www.redstate.com

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New Committee Chair can do away with Card Check for good #unions #tcot #teaparty

2010-12-10T14:54:00.001-06:00

Union bosses have spent the last several years in a deceitful effort to enrich themselves and destroy our economy and individual freedom with something called "card check".

Under card check, union bosses wanting to add to their client base would pass around cards at a given company. On each card would be written an employee's name and a box to check whether the employee wanted a union or not. If over half the employees wanted a union, then they all would be forced to join and pay dues.

As with all such elections, anyone not voting or voting against the union would be subject to reprisal. Given the brutal history of union organizers, threats of violence would not even need to be expressed.

Union organizers always cry about management intimidating workers into staying out of unions, but the truth is nothing like that. Unions make it harder for a person's hard work to pay off, since they reward sloth. Ambitious, hard-working people know they should stay away from unions if they want to get ahead.

No one should be forced to pay a union boss for exercising his right to trade his labor for pay. And no one should be made to fear wanting to do so on his own.

Amplify’d from www.laborunionreport.com

Rep. John Kline & the Secret Ballot Protection Act

Congressman John Kline [R-MN] has been one of the House of Representatives’ most vocal opponents of SEIU’s labor board appointee, Craig Becker, as well as a vocal defender of workers’ right to choose by secret-ballot whether or not to become unionized. In that role, he has stood strong against union bosses as they have worked to strip workers right to a secret-ballot through passage of the job-destroying (and delusionally dubbed) Employee ~~Free~~ Anti-Choice Act.

“Job creation and American competitiveness are vital national priorities. As Chairman, I will ensure they are at the forefront of the Education and Labor Committee agenda.”

Given the five year push by union bosses to rid employees of their right to vote by secret-ballot, as well as this week’s NLRB decision institutionalizing card-check by collusion, Kline and his fellow Republicans are well suited to re-introduce the Secret Ballot Protection Act.
Read more at www.laborunionreport.com

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Heartland's Walker: #NetNeutrality still a "solution in search of a problem" #tcot

2010-12-09T19:59:00.001-06:00

Commenting on FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s December 1 (pdf) announcement on network neutrality. Bruce E. Walker of The Heartland Institute’s InfoTech & Telecom News says:

“It has been said before but bears repeating: Network neutrality is yet another government regulatory solution in search of a problem.

“Internet service providers have performed admirably by self-managing their networks without intrusive government meddling. Public polls indicate the majority of U.S. citizens are quite happy with the broadband service they receive. Yet, under the guise of protecting ‘Internet freedom and openness,’ the Federal Communications Commission is proceeding with a widely unpopular and ultimately unnecessary agenda with the potential for a devastating impact on technical innovation and job creation.

“True, Chairman Genachowski has backed away from his previous proposal to reclassify the Internet as a Title II communications entity and has stated his commitment to allow ISPs ‘reasonable network management’ capabilities. He has compromised further by allowing ISPs to implement tiered pricing.

“Still, however watered-down this net neutrality proposal may be, it introduces the camel’s regulatory nose under the tent of one of the world’s heretofore most successful industries.

“Additionally, as noted by FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker, the FCC simply doesn’t possess the authority to act on this maneuver, timed for December 21 when most lawmakers and bureaucrats will have deserted Washington.

“In short, Genachowski’s new and improved version of net neutrality is a punt, but one it is hoped Congress will effectively block.”

The Heartland Institute, based in Chicago, is a 26-year-old national nonprofit research and education organization dedicated to advancing free markets.

19 South LaSalle Street #903 * Chicago, IL 60603

312/377-4000 phone * 312/377-5000 fax * http://www.heartland.org

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Highways and bridges are exactly the earmarks we don't need. #tcot #teaparty

2010-12-09T15:02:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.redstate.com/

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/aGdfcO

YID With LID: May Have To Close Soon--Please Hit The Tip Jar!!

2010-12-08T17:03:00.001-06:00

http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2010/12/lid-may-have-to-close-s...

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/g0h3kI

2010-12-07T13:43:00.001-06:00

F Chuck Todd is making no pretense of impartiality now. Strategizing openly with against Republicans. http://bit.ly/fEKgVb

2010-12-07T13:41:00.001-06:00

Republicans are "hostage takers"? You jerk. You stinking jerk. http://bit.ly/ifDEtm

Julianna Goldman, Bloomberg White House correspondent is really quite pretty.

2010-12-07T13:40:00.001-06:00

URL: http://www.bloomberg.com/personalities/julianna_goldman/

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/iknlT0

Socrates' Academy

Illinois Leads Nation in Jobs ... Lost.

Another Reason Lugar Must Go #INSen

GOP's Lugar: House should pass tax bill for the good of the country

HHS ObamaCare Targets Insurance Companies Again

HHS to give states more flexibility to implement health reform

NTSB Power Grab

NTSB and Electronic Devices: Regulation by Anecdote

The Incomparable @SarahPalinUSA

Sen. Rand Paul endorses @TedCruz for #TXSen

It's not clueless flipflopping, though. (h/t @mkhammer)

Uh, @ewerickson? Check your sources.

Iran Captures Bases in Iraq. Will Obama Respond?

AP Newswire

HHS Press Release on Insurance Exchanges

#TXSen - Ted Cruz gets key endorsement

Ted Cruz doesn't pander #TXSen #tcot

Ted Cruz highlights RNHA meeting

A Clean Solution for California Energy

The World's Stupidest Post #birthers

Flushing Out RINOs, Neo-cons, Faux Conservatives, Controlled Opposition, and the Clueless

Let's have the Big Budget Fight now.

HOLD EVERYTHING: There's No Budget Deal, And The Government May Still Shut Down

The Budget Deal: All Phony

Rasmussen: Obama Approval New Low #tcot

Health Care News - @HeartlandInst

Georgia Health Exchange Bill Withdrawn After Tea Party Pushback

Vetting Candidates #teaparty #tcot

Dear Hill: You lie. And bring it on.

Momentum shifts toward Democrats in PR battle over shutdown

Oh, dear. Andy Martin 2012.

#Dems in lockstep on budget spin

Schumer coordinates Dem budget attack on GOP

Effingham #TeaParty April 15

Obomba still uncomfortable with victory

Obama ditches Oval for speech

#Dems demonize Kochs, drunk with Gallo.

Politics on Tap: Alcohol Producers Pour Out Campaign Cash for Parties

Obama "Searching for clarity" on Libya

While Obama searches for clarity, we're plunged into another war

Dear FLOTUS: Shut up. Signed, your kids.

War? There is no war. #israel

Judge Orders NJ to Dump $1.6B down hole

Brown: I kinda like funding abortion.

Scott Brown: I oppose defunding Planned Parenthood

Trutherism Spreading at UN

Tying Shoes Won't Fix the Car

Busting Unions Won’t Fix Schools or the Economy

Obama and thug politics #wiunion #p2

Hmmm, Ace on Palin and Rush

Rush Limbaugh: I Don't Get the Criticism of Palin; It Must Be a Shibboleth of the Educated Class

Captain Disingenuous Strikes Again

Fund everything, wait, repeat.

This, from @AoSHQ: Want to know where Obama was born? Ask the one guy we know was there. #tcot #teaparty

Mike Huckabee Alludes To Obama Growing Up In Kenya; Media Pounces; I Hereby Declare This Is Obama's Problem, Not Huckabee's

Oh, let them die. In fact, let's borrow money from the survivors to pay for it. #tcot #prolife

Recall this: NEA leader would rather have bad schools and keep union power. #tcot #p2 #WIUnion

The Faces of Meth - KDVR

#wiunion is about more than money. It's about who controls the future: Marxists or Americans. #tcot #p2

The #WIUnion ragefest was a fait accompli. And @GovWalker, #tcot, and #teaparty were destined to win. #p2

From @jstrevino: Is government 'to secure these liberties' or to pay #WIunion employees? #teaparty #tcot

Who governs Wisconsin?

Why teach lessons when you can teach corruption? #WIunion #tcot

Bill Whittle: "We didn't get the example of the Magna Carta from Ecuador."

Obama takes tweezers to budget, finds nothing.

I hope #CPAC refocuses on activism, not on political correctness

Dear Fred Barnes -- Kyl is retiring, not dead. No need to canonize him yet. #tcot #teaparty

Jon Kyl’s Retirement: Major Loss for Senate Republicans

#TX Joe Strauss FTW: Replaces Dem with #teaparty rep as Speaker Pro Tem #tcot @ewerickson @melissatweets

TEXAS: Speaker Straus replaces moderate Dem with hardline Tea Partyer as Speaker Pro-Tem

It will be funny in 20 years when liberals are shaking their fists at the liberal establishment.

The Obama recovery plan: business will spread the wealth, or be sued out of existence. #tcot #teaparty #unions

Hate Your Boss? Call the Government

Via @AceofSpadesHQ, @RandPaulSenate wants to cut $500B. I say that's not enough. #tcot #teaparty

Rand Paul Pushes "Modest Proposal" of $500 Billion in Cuts In One YearUpdate: You Know What's Wildly Popular With the Public? Not Raising the Debt Ceiling

Comments

Illinois Review: Durbin's health care numbers are wrong

And we'll tell you who to marry, too. female soldiers in headscarves. To avoid hurt feelings. #tcot

Via @NessaTMR: Patton, WWII, and the #teaparty

Our situation certainly mirrors Patton's when he asked for the prayer...

Rand Paul Pushes "Modest Proposal" of $500 Billion in Cuts In One Year
Update: You Know What's Wildly Popular With the Public? Not Raising the Debt Ceiling