Worst of All

Obama is returning us to the bygone days of "guns and butter", punishing initiative and entrepreneurship in the flagging economy, appeasing our enemies, and betraying US allies. We have had leaders in the Oval Office who grew our government, notably Franklin Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, but we have never had a leader so hostile to the free market. Obama invokes "Wall Street"and "bankers"as calumny. This invective is unprecedented as previous leaders have always recognized that without a thriving financial sector, you can't have a thriving country. Raising taxes has never eased recession, only exacerbated them. Russia has been thrilled with Obama because they see him as an easy mark. North Korea and Iran are rattling sabers;Obama is showing weakness that invites aggression. Even the Iraq drawdown will feed Tehran's adventurism. The Czech Republic and Poland had agreed to host US missile defense against rogue states (i.e. North Korea and Iran again), even though Russia claimed this was provacative. Now, Obama will leave the US exposed to a first strike and our allies in the former Eastern Bloc at Russia's mercy. Another great American ally Israel is being sold out not by Secretary of State Clinton who is not calling the shots after all, but Obama. Carter seems to have won his second term.

The Obama Depression

The current economic turmoil may not have started under Obama, but he has done nothing to improve the situation and everything to capitalize on it. Obama bears heavy responsibility for the GSE (government-sponsored entity) mess of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac being the second largest recipient of their lobbying money when he sat in the Senate. Only Christopher Dodd received more and he was in the Senate much longer to get it. Obama thwarted more regulation of these bad loan mills and fought to extend credit to the uncreditworthy from the time he was a community organizer on-his mindset and manipulations put us in this sinking ship. From the beginning of the Presidential campaign, McCain should have pounded Obama and the Democrats on their attempts to prevent more regulation which sadly succeeded and their readiness to overlook outrages such as Franklin Raines more than one hundred million dollars in compensation when he chaired Fannie Mae. In the event, this misfeasance was barely mentioned, and when it was, McCain's attempts at educating the public about this issue were half-hearted. He never really tried to close the sale out of fear that if he hammered Obama too hard or focused too much attention on Raines, he might be perceived as or called a racist as both these scoundrels happen to be black. It is a shame McCain was feckless, because the country he could have led is now in the worst crisis her economy has faced since the Great Depression, repeating and magnifying many of FDR's mistakes. Dear pater, who is old enough to remember, says this is worse because even before 1929's Black Tuesday, Americans lived in lean times and could navigate leaner ones. Today's Americans are, in Dad's opinion, soft-in many cases, fat and spoiled to boot-and in his perception, are falling into the abyss of the new travail from higher heights and are not well-equipped to deal with vicissitudes the way the largely agrarian Americans who had recently turned back the Kaiser and defeated the Huns were. If you can't be without video-games for a few days or cable, try to survive a week on stale bread and beans. Your grandfathers did, and you may have to with our young Marxist leader determined to change us into his just socialist utopia.

Barrage Against Freedom

Eric Holder launched his trial balloon about an assault weapons ban today. No one should be shocked considering his anti-gun mania throughout his career but lovers of liberty should worry that Democrats and this administration are at war with the Second Amendment and with the First as well, with talk of re-imposition of the Fairness Doctrine, local content requirements, or strictly enforced minority ownership requisites. Taken together, this assault on our most basic rights should be chilling.

Designed to Fail

Today a stress test is being imposed on major banks by Obama's government. It is purportedly meant to test the viability of these institutions in a worst case scenario. This is actually going to be the rationale the government will use to nationalize these major players even if they call it something else. The banks simply won't be deemed survivable without the strong hand of government behind them (controlling them). Cut-backs in Federal payments to medical providers and hospitals were also included in the Obama's plan. Care rationing is on the way. The "Great Leveler" is on the march again.

Spine Will Show | T A L K B A C K

Spine Will Show T A L K B A C K Note: This talkback appears in The Jerusalem Post in response to an op-ed by Charles Krauthammer which described Obama's evident timidity at dealing with America's adversaries in these early days of the new administration.

Cuomo Chastises Cantor

The son of the former Democratic governor of New York and ABC morning show flack Cuomo interrogated US Representative Eric Cantor this morning about Obama's speech-not interviewed-interrogated. His hostility was palpable. The dinosaur media has scored some remarkable victories in their war on Republicans-I well recall the tremendous GOP stalwarts, Al D'Amato, Rick Santorum, and George Allen (whose wound was somewhat self-inflicted but who I would still vote for in a heartbeat) who the media helped knock down and take out. Sarah Palin and Eric Cantor are in their sights now because of their evident appeal. Bobby Jindal will join them on the target list. The Democrats stick together and rally around their own; Republicans have a tendency to cut loose their own over the least perceived transgression. But Republicans have always behaved more like a political party and less like a gang than their opponents. Let's not let these gangsters, who wish to punish initiative and throttle enterprise, win.

Capitalism Under Siege

Obama was worshipped last night, not only by his Democrats but by the old-line media who have become his confederates in his effort to destroy free market capitalism and transform the nation we have known. Obama continued to rage against success-he can not wait to punish achievers-and railed against the banks and Wall Street. This rancor did not start with this President but sadly and surprisingly with his predecessor Bush who at the start of the plummet said we should not bail out "speculators". Many of the so-called speculators who began their suffering then were buy-and-hold investors-some of whom lived on dividend income, some who used dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs). Bush was lumping investors in with derivative-players. Obama also fails to make any such distinction-his inclination is to find wealth and take it from those who produced it and give it to parasites, the homeless, welfare recipients with the end of welfare reform he and his Democrats have ushered in with the aid of Collins, Snowe, and Specter. Obama will now use this crisis to his advantage to advance his national health plan. Will enough citizens raise enough of a stink with enough politicians to stop socialized medicine?

The Great Leveler

Barack Obama will address Congress and the nation tonight. He will not spout Marx or give a Castro lecture but less overtly, his aims are virtually the same. He is a classic redistributionist at a time when our country nears an unrecoverable tipping point. The opposite of what was passed in the non-stimulus bill and his proposed higher taxes-this is what letting the Bush tax cuts expire means after all-was what was needed to restore confidence and start to reverse the decline. The only questions are: Are Obama's actions to force our descent into the hell of central planning and a command economy deliberate or is he so ill-equipped for the job that he knows no better? Never has a street agitator risen so fast and taken a nation down so far. Fred Hampton wins.

Spectacle and Substance

Barack Obama appeared in Denver to accept the Democratic nomination before columns perhaps meant to signify that like Rome, he would return us to our glory. After a month to evaluate his performance and guage his intentions, it seems he does indeed intend to take us the way of the ancient Romans, down the path to ruin.

Nation Betrays God

One of Obama's first actions was to overturn a Bush-era policy and fund international family-planning-a soft euphemism for abortion. It is not enough that my nation has murdered more than forty million of her own since Roe v Wade, now she will subsidize foeticide worldwide. America has remained silent or placated terrorists and dictators since Obama's ascension, but now Obama flacks are expressing concern that our ally Israel has chosen Netanyahu in her own democratic process. The Holy Land given to the Jews by the Lord needs to be subdivided wholesale in Obama's worldview. The little Jewish state is the impediment to peace in their view, not the genocidal nations that surround her and their Jihadist proxies. Iran which under its current leadership is dedicated to "removing Israel from the map" is about to be engaged in dialogue by Obama, the wanton murderers of Hamas are about to brought into the Palestinian leadership with America's blessing, and unprecedented pressure is about to be brought to bear on Israel by Obama and the rest of the world. Our culture of permissiveness was on full display tonight at our Oscar ceremony. Placing pleasure first and worshipping the dollar is serving us well(hell). Nations at war with the Lord do not long survive.

Oscar Slams God

The little golden idol made his annual appearance and for one of the rarest of occasions, this year I actually watched. Obnoxious micro-man Bill Maher came out in the middle of the show to introduce the documentary category and used the forum to promote his own documentary which mocks religious belief. The nadir of the show had to be the acceptance speech by Sean Penn who went out of his way to attack morality and sardonically proclaim the Academy's composition of "commies and homos". I would say quite contrary to Penn's sarcasm- he is about dead on with that appraisal. Over the last century, the God-denying Communists merely have murdered one hundred million or so around the world with Lenin's blood-soaked revolution, the rise of barbarous Stalinism, the Maoist surge in China that brought the Cultural Revolution, Ho Chi Minh who bled Vietnam, the vicious rise of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and sundry other Communist killing sprees across the world. Why wouldn't Hollywood want to tie itself to the Red brand? And homosexuality- why here in flyover country nothing says America like AIDS-spreading sodomy to shorten lives and make the remaining time miserable. These Hollywood folks by in large despise you, your values, and the traditions that helped make us a decent, self-sacrificing nation that proclaimed God and willingly shed American blood to protect innocent life and spread liberty. Please God, do not judge us on the hedonistic bacchanal that happened tonight in the Gomorrah of California.

Pretend to Care

Arnold Schwarzenegger displayed his lack of conviction as a virtue on ABC Sunday Morning. He castigated with Stephanopoulos' assistance those who possess principles and stick to them as the new "Hoovers" of the Republican party. In Arnold world, which emerged from the let's pretend world of acting and the let's create artificial body mass with steroids of Arnold's shortcut method of body building, government must provide "everything" to the "people". This was attempted in Marxist revolutions and socialist takeovers many times in many places and has never worked. These systems are excellent at shoving the rich down the hill but can not pull the poor and middle class up it. Believing free market capitalism works built the most prosperous nation there has ever been. When government interfered with markets that naturally would have found their own equilibrium, the economic situation only became worse. The more government manipulation, the harder the markets have to work to try to correct this distortion. Obama is warping the markets where they can no longer work and depression will be the outcome. There was no dearth of regulation or law that permitted the decline to begin. There was laxity among the regulators (or in some cases perhaps complicity-it is hard to imagine in cases like Madoff and Stanford with a decade or so of warning to the SEC that there wasn't). There were the government-sponsored entities Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae that distorted the markets. There were restrictions passed against the almost non-existent practice of redlining. Activist organizations lobbied politicians and used race-baiting pressure tactics, particularly ACORN and Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH, to basically extort positions for themselves and their supporters and managed with their media lackeys to create the impression that minority members were being denied loans because of their race or ethnic origin. This was almost universally not the case. The way the law was originally crafted to prevent redlining sounded reasonable enough-that a particular area could not be excluded from receiving credit and that potential borrowers had to be evaluated on a case by case basis on their own merit and not judged by the area where they lived and were applying for a loan from or where the business was going to be located that they were applying for credit to start or operate with if they were launching or running a commercial endeavor. In practice, this meant banks were giving money away to avoid public relations damage, government sanction, and litigation and if enough people receive enough money from enough financial institutions that they simply don't intend or have the ability to pay back, you end up where we are now. Of course, the bets on bets of the derivative markets pulled these sub-primes down further and faster, and regulators twiddling their thumbs when they should have been working allowed this to happen. Add in the raw criminality, unprecedented in scope, of your Madoff and Stanford and whoever has not been caught yet and a corporate structure with inter-locking boards of directors and shameless executives who green lighted every harebrained scheme and demanded and received from the board- that did nothing to protect their shareholders-golden parachute compensation packages and you end up with this-a bunch of leftists (including Snowe, Collins, Specter, and the schlock movie actor destroying California) taking away the only chance the nation has for recovery and dooming us to the endless misery of socialism.

Deliberate Sabotage Continues

Just when White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs said that the Obama administration had neither the desire nor intention of nationalizing the banks to ease the jitters (that Obama has consistently and repeatedly characterized as a crisis which further compounds matters), Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd makes a statement endorsing nationalization of said banks-with other Democrats demanding it. Just when the markets seem to have found a bottom and a little gain is taking place based on Gibb's effort to restore some confidence, Dodd seems to deliberately undermine it and throw more gas on the nationalization fire. There may be a plan afoot to virtually destroy our economy and the nation it supports so Obama and his minions can remake it in their image. Nationalizing the banks goes a long way toward advancing socialism.

Drugs' Pernicious Reach

Allen Stanford did not seem to be as elusive as some on the lamb have been. He was served civil papers in Virginia and criminal indictment may be coming. ABC news reported that Stanford's enterprise may have ties to the Gulf drug cartel which the network reported was based in Mexico and is the world's most violent. I can not vouch for the reliability of any ABC reportage, but it is not remarkable that a narcotic trafficking organization could be involved in other impropriety. Mexico is currently ablaze with drug violence and officials of Mexican government have been presented with the choice of taking cartel money not to interfere in drug operations and live a rich life or decline bribes, attempt to enforce laws, and quite possibly face murder for acting vigilantly and in good faith. This is a stark equation, but one that has left parts of our southern neighbor in anarchy. Across the globe, Afghanistan faces a similar circumstance with the opium trade undermining government control and financing the Taliban and al-Qeada terrorists. One area where I demur from many conservatives is on narcotic laws. I am in complete accord with the late conservative icon William F. Buckley and former liberal Democrat mayor of Baltimore Kurt Schmoke that drugs should be legalized. Prohibitions simply drive up the profit motive to import or synthesize illegal narcotics. Just as alcohol became the impetus for the growth of organized crime in America when its legal consumption was banned, so too have laws making drugs illegal incentivized organized crime, the growth of mafias and the corruption of governments all over the world. Certainly people act the fool under the influence of certain drugs, but people behave irresponsibly under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs that are legal and readily available. If drugs are made legal such as marijuana and even heroin, their price would plummet-they are no more difficult to grow than a carrot and governments would not be compromised by the lure of bribes or the threat of death if a joint cost no more than a beer, but then if nothing was illegal, then bribes and kickbacks would dry up and politicians will never let that happen.

Really Disturbing Notion

Rush Limbaugh is advancing the premise that Obama is leading the economy exactly where the young socialist wants it. Obama may desire this meltdown where he can do a lot of score-settling against those he deemed formerly enjoyed privilege in this nation. The natural assumption is that a President would want to create a climate conducive to enhanced prosperity, but what if Obama intends to be the great social leveler by bringing down the formerly affluent and forcing many formerly self-reliant into dependency on government. "Work or starve"-the notion from colonial times that those who do not work do not eat-may soon become "dole or die".

Billionaire Turns Fugitive

Allen Stanford has done a Judge Crater. Absconding with perhaps eight(8) billion dollars or as much as fifty(50) billion dollars of his clients' money, the tall Texan seems to have vanished. Perhaps, a new underground railroad has been constructed and Stanford is in hiding in Madoff's china press. Authorities are learning new methods of dealing with these wealthy fraudsters. They are buying Hermes handcuffs and outfitting cell beds with hand-loomed 800-thread count Egyptian long-staple cotton sheets. Whatever the actual figure of the fund diversion, the fact that it can occur can only further erode already damaged confidence with no evidence of either fiduciary responsibility or enforcement of existing regulation. Eight billion or fifty-that must be one hell of a carpetbag.

Stem to Stern

Roland Burris seems to be implicated in the corruption of Illinois politics. Sad but typical in a state where Governors of both parties have faced indictment or conviction in criminal proceedings of late. Chicago is of course notorious for Daley Machine shenanigans and the rot has crept into Springfield-a town Honest Abe would not recognize (though Lincoln had similar ethical clouds in his day). The Chicago Tribune has called on Burris to resign. If he did, no doubt, his replacement would soon be found to have a skeleton in his closet as well. The remarkable aspect of all this is that every politician in Illinois seems stained-even former Congressman and now White House Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel seems to have received the benefit of free housing without reporting it as income when he served in the US House of Representatives. Everyone in Illinois had a little dirt under the nails expect Obama who we are supposed to believe never got a whiff of the impropriety that is endemic to Illinois politics and was all around him. Did we elect a willful ostrich President or did BO save all his get out of jail free cards when he played board games as a kid? Barack simply soared above the fray not noticing that his peers and close confidants had their hands in the cookie jar. Maybe Obama was just a little smarter and didn't get caught...yet.

More Fixed Games

Some years back, my family was close to a builder named A.J. He was educated to an extent, but had been a jock, a college baseball player to be precise. He was also a coach, umpire, and referee. We would talk economy with A.J. and he would declare, "the game is rigged." Of course, at the time under the end of Carter's mismanagement and the start of Reagan's resurgence, we dismissed his sport's analogy as we knew so much more and explained the complex degree of regulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Federal rules, and even IRS intrusiveness that would naturally preclude market-manipulation and keep stock-trades and other investments fair, indeed beyond reproach. After Madoff and now with Stanford and his alleged eight(8) billion dollar manipulation, my hat is off to A.J., Mr. Johnson, you are correct, time has acquitted your suspicions, the dealers dealt from the bottom of the deck and unwary buy-and-hold investors were victims of one of the most corrupt casinos in the world. Stanford was evidently a cricket enthusiast, not a crime by any means but unusual for someone from Texas, the heart of the land for baseball, apple pie, and as the old commercial says, Chevrolet. What kind of confidence can anyone have in anything when it seems that the aforementioned national past time has become nothing but a rogues' gallery of steroid-enhanced record breakers? Even arguably the game's best, Alex Rodriguez is tainted. You used to hear "Go to school, listen to your parents, take your vitamins, and play by the rules and you will be a major-leaguer." Now, you might hear "skip school, shoot 'roids, and make forty mil", but that figure seems like chump change when contrasted with what honest, play by the book investors have recently had stolen. Wall Street seems to have been awash with sharks, and we were the guppies they devoured by the thousands as they had their blood-in-the-water feeding frenzy.

Ship Keeps Sinking

The markets demonstrated their great confidence in the Obama recovery plan and the just-signed non-stimulus package by selling-off to levels not seen in about ten(10) years. Since the November election, the markets have been remarkably consistent-consistently down. No country has ever thrived with the imposition of socialism and Obama's stewardship under cover of flacks like Paul Krugman will prove to be no different. Socialism wrecks enterprise and crushes the spirit of freedom. Patriots and entrepreneurs built the nation; parasites and bureaucrats can destroy it.

Accommodation of Terror

Pakistan has once again succumbed to Taliban atrocities and this time abandoned the Swat Valley to the draconian provisions of Sharia law. Pakistan already has proven to be an unreliable ally in the war on terror with one foot in each camp. The ISI, Pakistan's version of the CIA, was allegedly an early supporter of Osama bin Laden and instrumental in the creation of al-Qaeda. Pakistan has admitted harboring Kashmiri separatists and has recently acknowledged that the Mumbai massacre was planned on her soil with Pakistani extremists participating in the bloody attacks. Pakistan recently released the father of the Islamic-bomb and alleged mass-proliferator A.Q. Khan from custody. He is generally deemed responsible not only for Pakistan's acquisition of nuclear capability but of advancing both North Korea's and Iran's ambition toward atomic armament. Logic would dictate that when terrorists commit atrocity after atrocity and thwart good order in a region that government devote every resource to reversing terrorist gains. Pakistan has chosen to do the opposite and appease the Islamist menace in her midst. The West, indeed the civilized world, must make it clear to Pakistan that she can not enjoy status as a member of the community of nations and behave like a failed state, saying that government forces simply can not impose order in the Northwest territories near Afghanistan, can not control what is happening near Kashmir, and tolerate a terrorist haven under the guise of Sharia in Swat.

President for Life

Hugo Chavez has just won again with a manipulated election ending limitations on how many terms he may serve and allowing him to stand for election (with contrived result) every three years. He has murdered his critics, closed the opposition press, and exported his brand of Marxism to Bolivia and Ecuador and helped Ortega and his Sandinistas regain power in Nicaragua. Yet, former US President Carter monitors elections in Venezuela and sees all of Chavez's conduct as above board, proving Carter is nothing but a friend of America's enemies and not an honest broker about anything. Some years back Pat Robertson saw the danger of Chavez dictatorship and suggested that Chavez should be eliminated. Reverend Robertson was denounced and mocked. If someone had listened to Robertson then, life and liberty would have been preserved in Latin America.

Obama Wrecks Economy

Bradley Schiller contributed to the dialogue about Obama's hyperbolic rhetoric talking down the economy in the Wall Street Journal. Obama utilized this tactic to great effect in the campaign and is continuing to bemoan what he falsely terms "the worst economy since the Great Depression" to advance his agenda through Congress. What Schiller fails to note is that Obama is using the bully pulpit to create self-fulfilling prophecy. The non-stimulus plan just passed will prolong the recession and create conditions that defy the normal economic cycle-Obama's manipulation will preclude the normal course of recovery. His very actions may create the depression that he is warning us about.

Camel's Nose Enters

The recently-passed so-called stimulus bill (which fails to stimulate) contains provisions restricting not only the compensation of CEOs but of other executives as well if their companies accept Federal assistance. This is the camel's nose under the tent-Democrats will have no compunction passing similar measures in the future to determine what salaries are appropriate for executives who win bids to fulfill Federal contracts. Perhaps they will institute a scheme similar to Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream where no one can make more than sixteen times more than the lowest paid worker. Whatever the case, Democrats will probably attempt to enact legislation to equalize outcomes which is a tactic of socialists the world over. They will probably specifically exempt their supporters in the creative community and athletes who often make vastly more than executives who employ thousands while the actors and sportsmen may support an agent and a personal assistant. These Democrats reek of class-envy with the caveat that they will protect those Michael Moore types who helped them gain power.

Obama Subdues Economy

The premise of American exceptionalism was built on liberty, of course, but also on industry and thrift. Supporting one's family was regarded as a necessity and building the family nest egg, as a virtue. All this is being altered dramatically and quickly by the boy socialist who is living up to his promise to be the agent of change. Germany changed dramatically and quickly once from the decadence of Wiemar to the brutal totalitarianism of Hitler. Throughout history, change has often proven to be for the worse. Obama will be a transformative figure-he will take us from the most prosperous, freest nation there has ever been, to march in lockstep with the crumbling socialist countries of Europe. There is no prospect whatsoever that the just-passed stimulus bill will end the recession so Obama will demand more expensive, more intrusive measures to bring the economy back from the brink. While causing a depression and/or inflation the likes of which the country has never seen, Obama and his minions backed by his propagandists in the old-line press will say we are moving too slow and trying to grow the economy out of trouble "on the cheap". They will succeed in whatever demented leftist proposition they want including socialized medicine but this will not stem the tide of worsening recession, only exacerbate it. God help us.

Deed Is Done

Sherrod Brown had to wait to bury his mother, but he couldn't wait to bury his country.

Negligence Beyond Measure

How could any member of the US House of Representatives or Senate vote for a bill over one thousand pages long that spends at least seven hundred billion tax-payer dollars after receiving it at eleven(11) pm last night? No one on earth could have read the entire text of the bill. This is the height of irresponsibility. How can these politicians have any idea on the details of what they are voting for-the only responsible action since no one knows the contents is to vote against it. Is this the openness that Obama promised? There is no chance for voters to read much less digest the legislation and that is precisely how the Democrats want it. If the American public learned the nuances of this catastrophe, such a hue and cry would ring forth across this land that only those politicians from the most leftist constituencies would dare support it. It would garner virtually no Democratic support from the South with the so-called Blue-Dog Democrats who pretend to be fiscally responsible being forced to vote en masse against this anti-capitalist, inflation-producing, union-boosting monstrosity.

Kudos to Gregg

Nothing so pleases the shepherd as the wayward sheep returning to the fold. Senator Gregg announced he would not accept the position of Commerce Secretary, evidently realizing just how radical Obama is and how far left he intends to take the country. Gregg will never be a conservative stalwart but even this liberal Northeastern Republican can not embrace the Marxist agenda and power-grab Obama and his Democrats are advancing. It is a shame the three Republican quislings have not come to their senses and are going to help usher in the era of Marxism or modified Marxism. Abandon hope if the plan passes for we are not going to be able to reverse the damage even if by some miracle, Republicans take back both houses of Congress despite gerrymandering sure to take place if Rahm Emanuel gains control of the US Census and the expansive cheating sure to take place if ACORN is the recipient of new-found booty hidden in the massive so-called stimulus bill.

Plan to Fail

As any first year law student will tell you, all language is subject to construction. The language of this legislation remains nebulous, but Congressional Democrats seem to be advancing their agenda to kill free market capitalism shamelessly using the class-envy card. The bailout bill that evidently no House Republicans have even seen, is going to reputedly provide each tax filer with a low enough income to be eligible with an additional thirteen(13) dollars a week at a cost estimated by an economist at $9700 for every living American-a not unsubstantial sum and one that will undoubtedly be passed on to future generations, our grandchildren, as insurmountable national debt. This becomes, at minimum, the consequential implementation of socialism and alters the social contract of a robust growth-producing capitalism which gave America her singularity, and transforms her almost overnight into a pale imitation of the socialism that has kept much of Europe down since it was implemented seriatim by nation after nation and generally hinged on the passage of a national health plan. These pan-European schemes have rationed care and stifled productivity, ironically leading many Europeans with resources to seek medical treatment here in the US without the constraint of government. Why would America want to mimic what those who can afford, escape by coming here? All this with the background of Congressional hearings where Barney Frank who thwarted additional oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and in so doing, started our economy in its death spiral, having the chutzpah to rake bankers over the coals for their banks being placed in peril by the madness of redlining restrictions in which the government essentially forced sub prime loans on to their books, and now harangues them over the only logical result of government interference and manipulation. It was government and activists groups who force-fed financial institutions the poison stew of toxic assets in the first place. Democrats termed the 1994 Gingrich initiative to bring America back to the right the "Contract on America"; the petty commissars of this party which controls Congress today with the acquiescence of two harridans from Maine and a nothing-to-lose but his nation cancer patient from Pennsylvania have authored a first true "Contract on America" in this non-stimulus bill that could destroy us.

Last Full Measure

Dare not betray dear native soil/ Nor diminish their sacred toil/ Though the tension starts to roil/ Hostility remains on slow boil/ With fools declaring, "No blood for oil"/ Stand strong amongst the brave/ Though this may lead to the grave/ This is how patriots behave/ Those who would not be a slave/ The sacrifice they gladly gave/ For liberty that they save

Culture of Dependency

When America was a pre-national colonial enterprise, experiments in socialism were attempted but were abandoned when the early colonists saw they had no prospect of success, disincentivized hard work, and were in fact, destructive of society. "Those who do not work, do not eat" became the edict on which our prosperity has been built (earned). I am certain that Henrietta Hughes has a sob story as to why she is in the lamentable condition she finds herself and her family and that she described to our President and some charity might well deliver her from her desperate straits, but why should the responsible suffer for obviously poor decisions? Why should those who have never missed a payment in their lives, who have lived within their means (or well-below their means to accumulate some wealth), be forced at the point of government guns-that is after all what the Federal income tax boils down to-to empty their accounts to subsidize the irresponsible? Obama is the first President who wants to equalize outcomes. The only way he can do this is to sap the productive. This is called Marxism.

The Dangerous Game

In Obama's remarks last night, VO/BO (Vainglorious One/Barack Obama) stressed the need and his desire to engage the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Iranians will welcome the opportunity to forestall consequential action against their nuclear program. They will be glad to lecture the United States about our "crimes". They will demand America remove her support from the Zionist entity. In the end, the time Iran gains from this delay for negotiation may be just enough to give the fanatical regime in Tehran the ability to fire the nuclear-tipped missile that destroys Tel Aviv. The US President is convinced his personal magnetism will overcome the challenge from Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs. Obama is a Utopian in the respect that he believes in the power of intention. He has stated that all people have more in common than the things that separate them. One wonders what Americans have in common with the Iranians who have slaughtered the peaceful practitioners of the Bahai faith, have suppressed their own Arab (Iranians are mostly Persian) and Sunni minorities, have detained, arrested, and tortured dissenters including university students, professors, and even a pair of brother physicians who are that nation's leading HIV researchers for supposed efforts to lead a velvet revolution. The Iranian authorities have held their tiny Jewish minority hostage, forcing them to constantly denounce every Israeli action of self-defense as the most monstrous of crimes against humanity and have disappeared fourteen(14) Jews and executed several alleged Israeli agents. Iran has arrested several US citizens who were there on academic exchanges or to visit their families. A retired FBI agent investigating tobacco smuggling also vanished in Iran. The Shia clerics and the prime minister who run the country are end-timers who fervently believe they must initiate world chaos in order to bring about the return of the Mehdi, their messiah. Law enforcement in Iran routinely tortures to obtain confessions (their legal system turns on coercion), has until the last couple of years publicly hanged and mass-executed people whose guilt could not be established in any Western court proceeding, and to top it all off, the Iranian atavists stone people to death including the public stoning with active community participation of women accused of adultery. I'm sure the former community organizer will have plenty to talk about with the end-time fanatic whose highest aspiration and declared mission is to "wipe Israel off the map".

Bull President Hokum

The vainglorious one spoke to the nation tonight and answered a few questions which once again seemed crafted to Obama's purpose and almost appeared to be part of the prepared text. Just as students might excel on a test where the proctor provides all the questions in advance, the President seemed to have a ready mastery (of course, this is all sophistry and contrived somber appearance). The President is a man who on the issues which really concern him has no interest in the suggestions of those he is not already in agreement with and he certainly has no desire to be bipartisan on his core issues which will overturn capitalism and inextricably alter the country. Obama is not even attempting to cure our economic crisis but using it as an excuse to monopolize power and reward his loyal labor constituency (not to mention his community-organizing chums in ACORN). Even the Republican turncoats, Collins, Snowe, and Spector are betraying the nation by rushing to pass something now rather than pass something right.

Tax and Spend

"Tax and spend" was a characterization usually reserved for Democrats by their opponents. The non-stimulus bill contains a "spend" component that is larger than most previous government budgets. It dwarfs Bush's obviously failed first 750 billion dollar bill in as much as Bush only spent half, reserving the other half to give Obama flexibility when he entered office. The numbers involved should be staggering but do not seem to be awakening much protest in the general public as all too many are either uninformed, union members and others who feed at government's ever growing trough, or support the plan because they lack even the most basic education in economics. The "tax" part of the bill is not sufficient to stimulate recovery either. The most disgusting aspect of this fiasco to me was Maine's nasal schoolmarm Susan Collins lecturing us on how "the American people want to see the parties working together". The American people do not want massive inflation and a prolonged recession or depression which this badly crafted bill is bound to produce.

Our Country Crumbles

A so-called "stimulus" plan will pass that even Joe Biden acknowledges may not work but the Vice President somewhat generously places the scheme's odds for success at seventy/thirty. Obviously, Joe couldn't make it setting the line. It looks like we have a second-in-command who is not quite as bright as the neighborhood bookie. This bill is actually an impediment to recovery and an invitation to unprecedented inflation. We perhaps should not be heartened by the fact that the ancient Paul Volcker is one of Obama's close economic advisers because although the former Fed head clearly recognizes the dangers of inflation, his cures of twenty percent interest rates under Carter were about as bad as the disease. The recession would ultimately have been ended as a function of the markets had they been given a chance to work, but the intervention that is taking place poses a great hazard, prolongs the misery, creates more institutional obstacles to normal market function, and ultimately pushes the nation away from free market capitalism and into the camp of command economy socialism which has never worked anywhere on earth that it has been implemented. Capitalism rewards risk, work, and initiative, socialism punishes these attributes. I will lay odds with old Joe and parlous Paul (Volcker) that the plan emerging from Congress to save the economy has zero percent chance of success unless that is defined as forever altering the nation as we know it.

The Evil Triumvirate

Barack Hussein Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid are ruling virtually unchecked. They will pass the stimulus bill that even the Congressional Budget Office which is nominally non-partisan but which typically is dominated by the party in power, in this case the Democrats, says has no prospect of reversing the recession but will saddle future generations with unprecedented and unmanageable national debt. There will be just enough Republican support to prevent filibuster but not enough for any credible claim of bipartisanship. The bill is a liberal wish list and in spite of slight reductions from the bloat that took place in the Senate, a behemoth disaster. One cause celebre of the left has been to abolish the death penalty but as was just manifested by the execution of an inmate in Tennessee whose culpability could have been in question, the Obama regime which has broad Constitutional powers of pardon, clemency, and commutation did nothing to stop the state-sanctioned killing. That this President wants to retain the apparatus of death to direct against American citizens should be terrifying particularly since Obama emerged from Illinois which instituted its own moratorium on state killing after it emerged that so many who were innocent were on death row and that police investigators had used physical coercion (some would say torture) to elicit confessions that led innocents to receive death sentences. Obama obviously wants to keep the ultimate tool of power to use against fellow Americans while having a fetish for the rights of foreign terrorists who have murdered or would with no restraint or scruples. Jihadists will have legal protections never before accorded to illegal enemy combatants but American-born dissenters could find themselves in one of Alcee Hasting six concentration camps established on US military bases to detain unruly US civilians and who knows, with the death penalty still in the toolbox, stir the pot too much and you might earn yourself a lethal injection. The Democrats leading both houses of Congress and holding the Presidency will prove to be the worst of all worlds.

More Legal Limbo

The alleged mastermind of the USS Cole bombing is off the hook, at least for the moment, as the presiding judge at his military commission trial has dropped charges, evidently at the behest of the Obama administration. The Cole bombing killed seventeen(17) US sailors and wounded many others. I am certain these victims' families are sickened by Obama's great concern for due process rights of bloody-handed terrorists. Somehow, I doubt al Qaeda will reciprocate, preferring to decapitate their American captives instead. Don't you feel better, safer, and so morally superior now that our Commander-in-chief has decided that unrepentant foreign murderers have more rights and access to the courts than poor US citizens like the one my home state of Tennessee executed this week despite lack of adequate counsel and a co-defendant who quite possibly was the actual trigger man in the double murder serving only five(5) years after being given the perverse incentive of being allowed, indeed encouraged for self-preservation to create someone to pass the blame to? Obama is no champion of justice or great defender of the homeland, but a naive showman trying to impress America-haters in the international left.

I Am Darfur

In sweltering Sub-Saharan heat/ Without the tiniest morsel for me to eat/ As the dictator in Khartoum/ Plots for my family and me doom/ My sisters ravaged and my brothers in their tomb/ With more janjaweed coming/ Will they be here soon?

Toyota Tanks Too

Toyota announced a one point eight billion dollar loss in the last quarter. After finally vanquishing the American automakers to become the largest car seller in the world, Toyota has fallen on the same hard times afflicting most other auto producers but bargain-brand Hyundai and a few other foreign manufacturers. Unlike the US makers notorious for prolonged quality problems, Toyota has had an outstanding track record. No exploding Pintos or unsafe at any speeds Corvairs have rolled off of Toyota's assembly lines. Toyota does not face the massive institutional legacy costs of their flagging American competitors. Yet, Toyota is facing its own troubles. Even without the impediment of high union wages and restrictive work rules, the Japanese megalith is suffering. Traditionally, Toyotas have held their values better than most other brands, but in these hard times, Toyota has been forced to discount its new models more than it typically has had to and sooner, consequently devaluing its used cars which hurts owners who previously could be relatively assured of high resale value. The recession is essentially worldwide and even stalwarts will be falling.

Who Has Power

A tribute to my Kentucky neighbors, now on their knees in supplication midst the fallen trees. The magneto is spinning as I cogitate/ With a furrow on my brow/ As the dynamo sends power, across the wires here and now/ I spy the broken power pole and what is there a-scratchin' but a liberated cow/ I'm glad my light bulb is buzzing as blue grass hides under the white/ I'm thankful I'm not there freezing in the wee hours of the night

Our Natural Rights

They dismiss both Holy Ordinance and natural law/ Striving to take over, like nothing you ever saw/ The ill-fame growing till it bursts the heart of man/ And their Red rejoinder is the mindless mantra "Yes we can"/ So some few patriots that remain/ Will strive to fight this spreading stain/ And build the bastion and prepare to take a stand/ As the murderous Marxist ideology creeps forth across the land/ Only cowards and Communists can be quiet at this time/ As Obama and his minions plot their monstrous crime/ You may deprive us of our freedoms and steal our very lives/ But like a phoenix rising, free men are sharpening their knives/ You may take our rifles/ But we will craft a bow/ The fuse of liberty will burn long and slow/ One evening when the tyrant rests/ We'll strike the mighty blow/ And those who robbed our God-given rights/ Will have no place left to go.

Obama Plays Piper

An elementary school on Long Island was rededicated today as the "Barack Obama School". The news reader on CBS who reported the story gives great pleasure, no doubt, to the man who runs the network and also hosts an entertainment show which could be why she can bellow nonsense uncritically. She reported that the "students initiated the name change" because of Obama's historic accomplishments. I could quibble with what exactly the President has actually accomplished other than winning stacked deck elections, but that isn't my point. Since when do communities, taxpayers, administrators, educators, or for that matter, any adult listen to and follow the directions of preteens. Will other area schools be renamed after Mickey Mouse because Disney is popular with the nine year old demographic? Will we soon see the Barbie Academy because the students initiated it? How about the Polly Pocket Library? Will the students initiate a change in the cafeteria and have gummies and Pop-tarts for lunch everyday? Will chocolate fountains replace the water fountains in the school if the students demand it? Will the instruction day be changed to water-slides in warm weather and Nintendo inside when its cold? Children can not dictate to adults, and it would be no surprise if teachers and their union orchestrated the name switch, manipulating their wards and then giving the tots the credit(blame). We are turning out a generation which is barely literate, if that, in schools that have had former Presidents' names removed because they owned slaves or fought Indians. Were Washington, Jefferson, or Jackson alive today, they wouldn't want to be associated with those teachers' union institutions of mass indoctrination anyway.

Ba'al's Bloody Butchers

The foemen came but once/ Nigh on eight years/ Trying to kindle all our fears/ Soiling September with treachery/ Trying to bring down this land of the free/ The Jihadist considers himself brave/ But the wretched throat-cutter is a knave/ Our ancient sages sheathed the sword/ Preferring to follow the word of the Lord/ Then Mohammad arose with fury and fire/ With world domination as Islam's desire/ Cloaked in whole cloth of righteousness/ Slaying even those with petty differences/ They believe seventy and two virgins do await/ But I presume a grimmer fate/ "Allahu Akbar" won't cleanse their crimes/ We must dispatch this menace that haunts our times/ We can leave the millstone and the plow/ To turn back Islamo-fascism here and now/ They've done murder in stain and sin/ But our faith and goodness will prevail-we will win.

Stopping An Avalanche

A flood of bad news is plaguing the world from aggressive Islamism to a hubris-filled American administration which is showing even in its early Cabinet appointments that it has an utter disregard for law, and through its worldwide abortion subsidy, an unwavering opposition to both natural rights and natural law. There is no resolve to stop the Islamist expansionist enterprise or any effort by Republicans to show the will to stop Obama's creeping socialism. Today, Judd Gregg accepted the Commerce Secretary position, evidently with sub rosa assurances that the Democrat New Hampshire governor would appoint a nominal Republican to replace Gregg in the US Senate. Hence Gregg has allowed easy cloture, removing the filibuster arrow from the Republican quiver and torpedoing our ship of state. The only way evil can triumph is if good men let it, but that is precisely what has and is happening. Obama can rule by fiat if not by decree and Arabic may become a staple language as Koranic studies may become compulsory when the red, white, and blue of freedom is stricken and the white flag of surrender raised.

Iran Threatens World

Iran launched a satellite today. This achievement could be heralded by some as the triumph of technology and indigenous industry by a developing nation. Those who don't wear rose-colored glasses will leave Pollyannaville long enough to see the menace in Iran's actions. Iran, a nation gripped by economic dislocation, is devoting huge amounts of resources on the science of war. The Mullahs and Ahmadinejad are spending like there is no tomorrow-apropos of end-timers, on weapons programs or dual-use (both civil and military uses are possible) technologies. Iran has had the ready-assistance of North Korea, of Pakistan, of Red China, of Russia, and disturbingly of France and Germany to develop various aspects of these systems that don't merely threaten Israel and Iran's Arab neighbors but extend Iran's offensive capabilities to threaten Europe itself. Can a nation with the declared intention of wiping Israel off the map have many qualms about lobbing a WMD-tipped missile at a city in a NATO nation because that nation stood in solidarity with the Jews? Iran will not be deterred by words or sanctions. She is developing wonder weapons with the intention of using them to fulfill the belligerent rhetoric that has emanated from Tehran since the Shah fell, but it is not too late to stop the theocrats and the bearded mad man.

The World Stage

They shudder as the Muslims rage/ Apologists, appeasers, cowards/ They silence themselves/ Cloaked in stealth/ You would not want to end up like Theo van Gogh, would you?/ Craven, crouching, tomorrow's slaves/ Will their timidness spare them from their graves?/ The ostrich is flightless/ Too many are sightless/ With their million idols and god is a tree/ Not one of them would die to be free/ After Pearl Harbor, they lined up like lemmings, unafraid of giving their all/ Because they knew there was heaven/ Now they worship at the altar of money/ Though their lucre has fled them-I find this funny

The Fundamental Mistake

Those world leaders such as Tony Blair who are enchanted with the peace process, make a gross error in judgement by thinking any Israeli concessions will bring about peace. Hamas does not care about being included in negotiations, nor will they be swayed from their desire to eradicate Israel. They do not merely want East Jerusalem and al-Aksa; they are determined to extinguish Jewish self-determination in the region at a minimum. Most Islamist would love to advance a Hitlerian genocide and none would assert that Jews could ever exist as anything more that dhimmi-a chattel status where Jews would hold no standing in Sharia courts and could be robbed, dispossessed, or killed at will. God bless Tony Blair-he simply refuses to see that those lobbing rockets at Israel are uncompromising and evil.

Gregg Sinks America

The Republican moderates or liberals if truth be told, have done enormous damage to the party and more importantly, to the nation. If Judd Gregg pretends a nobility at his nation's beck and call and accepts the position of Commerce Secretary, he will be sealing the fate of America as a socialist enterprise and betraying all the sacrifice that made us. Gregg is not the indispensable man in the Cabinet nor will Obama heed any of his advice. Those possessed of certitude never sincerely seek counsel. Obama will deliver change that the US will never recover from, and preening peacocks like Gregg whose vote with Republicans was never assured anyway, will grease the wheels for the Obama train wreck.