On the Fox News program “Hannity & Colmes” in December, analyst Dick Morris made the absolutely critical point that President Bush has taken the country so far to the left, in terms of his socialist-style Wall Street bailout program and his integration of the U.S. economy into a new emerging international financial order, that anything Barack Obama does in this area seems almost mainstream. This is because what we were expecting from Obama we are now getting from Bush. So Obama doesn’t look so radical anymore.
This point must be understood in order to have an appreciation of the “moderation” of the new Obama Administration.
Interestingly, some of Obama’s strongest “progressive” supporters are being brutally honest about what is happening. On the Rag Blog website, former Weather Underground terrorist Mark Rudd defended the “conservative appointments” of the President-elect and said that they are part of a deliberate strategy to “feint to the right” and “move left.” He explained, “Any other strategy invites sure defeat.”
The Hyde Amendment, originally enacted in 1976, is a pro-life limitation amendment in the annual appropriations bill that restricts the direct federal funding of abortion through Medicaid.
Without the Hyde Amendment, women eligible for Medicaid would have their abortions paid for by the Federal Government – in other words, OUR tax dollars. If abortions are free to the individual, you can bet on abortion rates increasing.
As the nation braces for Democrats to take unbridled control of the federal government, some lessons about how big a mistake that really is are already coming to light. Just as no non-union manufacturer is asking for a government bailout, only Democrat run states are begging for federal funds to avoid the inevitable bankruptcy of the states they have run into the ground.
Last August I wrote a column critical of Rick Warren's decision to host a presidential candidate forum at his Saddleback Church. My reasoning then was that America's crisis is moral ambiguity.
I argued that Pastor Warren would only contribute to this ambiguity by hosting candidates with opposing views on issues such as abortion and homosexuality and presenting himself as a neutral moderator.
Republicans will filibuster any attempt to seat Minnesota Democrat Al Franken when Congress convenes next week, Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn warned his Democratic colleagues Friday.
It was the latest salvo in the war of words touched off this week when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., suggested Franken was drawing near to clinching a victory — despite the fact that as many as 2,000 votes are uncounted and numerous legal challenges loom.
Relying on government help (to financially support newspapers) raises ethical questions for the press, whose traditional role has been to operate free from government influence as it tries to hold politicians accountable to the people who elected them. Even some publishers desperate for help are wary of this route.
Providing government support can muddy that mission, said Paul Janensch, a journalism professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, and a former reporter and editor.
"You can't expect a watchdog to bite the hand that feeds it," he said.
The intervention comes at what may prove to be a steep price. Future investment may be allocated less efficiently as risk-averse politicians make business decisions. Whenever banks decide to lend again, they are likely to find new capital requirements that will curb how freely they can do it. Interest rates may be pushed up by government borrowing to finance trillions of dollars of bailouts.
“We’re seeing a more statist world economy,” says Ken Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and now a professor at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “That’s not good for growth in the longer run.
When Candidate Barack Obama declared himself a ''citizen of the world'' before thousands of cheering German socialists, and later pledged to ''rejoin the World Community,'' those weren't just his usual platitudes about ''change.'' (Snip) Obama plans to use his presidential power to get the Democratic-majority Senate to ratify a series of treaties that would take us a long way toward global rule over our money, our laws, our military, our courts
It's bad enough that the Republican Party can't prevent Democrats from voting in its primaries and saddling us with The New York Times' favorite Republican as our presidential nominee. If the Republican Party can't protect an election won by the incumbent U.S. senator in Minnesota, there is no point in donating to the Republican Party.
The day after the November election, Republican Sen. Norm Coleman had won his re-election to the U.S. Senate, beating challenger Al Franken by 725 votes.
Then one heavily Democratic town miraculously discovered 100 missing ballots. And, in another marvel, they were all for Al Franken! It was like a completely evil version of a Christmas miracle.
From the article: The Canvassing Board overseeing the vote recount for Minnesota’s tightly contested U.S. Senate race isn’t quite done examining disputed ballots, but using their numbers the Minnesota Star Tribune issued a projection Saturday night that Al Franken will pick up 270 votes when the board is finished. Currently the board is determining voter intent in disputed ballots. If the projection proves correct, Franken will beat incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman by 78 votes.
Vote totals have changed a lot since Nov. 4, when Coleman led Franken by 725 votes. Correcting typos cut Coleman’s margin to 215, and a recount by all the counties reduced it further to 192. Yet, the additional 270 votes picked up by Franken from the Canvassing Board’s decisions have been among the most controversial.
The vote pickup has occurred through two actions by the board — divining voter intent and determining what votes should be counted. While decisions to include missing or overlooked ballots have gotten the most attention, the process of determining intent has also been important in determining the outcome here.
The U.S. Senate is scheduled to meet on Jan. 6 to seat its members, but the court cases associated with the Minnesota recount are likely to extend well beyond that date. If Coleman wins by a narrow margin, sources say, the Democratic-controlled Senate may not accept the Minnesota results.
Infowars.net: “The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials,” reported the Washington Post last month.
In a September 8 Army Times article, Northcom announced that the first wave of the troop deployment, which was put in place on October 1st at Fort Stewart and at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, would be aimed at tackling “civil unrest and crowd control”.
After a controversy arose surrounding the admissions made in the Army Times article, Northcom retracted the claim but conceded that both lethal and non-lethal weaponry traditionally used in crowd control and riot situations would still be used in the field.
The increasing militarization of America is part of a long term agenda to abolish Constitutional rule and establish a "military form of government," following a large scale terror attack or similar disaster, as Tommy Franks, the former commander of the military’s Central Command, alluded to in a November 2003 Cigar Aficionado piece.
Franks outlined the scenario by which martial law would be put in place, saying, “It means the potential of a weapon of mass destruction and a terrorist, massive, casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western world – it may be in the United States of America – that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass, casualty-producing event. Which in fact, then begins to unravel the fabric of our Constitution. Two steps, very, very important.
In the short term, the domestic deployment of troops is likely aimed at combating likely civil unrest that will ensue after a complete economic collapse followed by a devastating period of hyperinflation.
The Supreme Court has turned down another challenge to Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as president because of his citizenship.
The appeal by Cort Wrotnowski of Greenwich, Conn., was denied Monday without comment.
Wrotnowski argued that Obama was a British subject at birth and therefore cannot meet the requirement for becoming president.
He wanted the high court to halt presidential electors from meeting to formally elect Obama as president.
Echoing an appeal that was rejected by justices last week, Wrotnowski said that since Obama had dual nationality at birth — his mother was American, his Kenyan father was a British subject — he cannot possibly be a "natural born citizen."
After decades of leftist efforts to convert America’s representative republic into a pure democracy, where 51% can take away the rights of the other 49% for the greater common good, we find our nation on the verge of political and economic collapse.
It was the dream of men like Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx, not Thomas Jefferson or John Adams, that one day the proletariat would control the nation’s productivity in the United States, replacing evil capitalism with secular socialism and individual rights with a greater good of communal interests.
In 2008, the left gained full control of all three branches of the federal government and America may never again live in freedom. This column takes a look at how it happened and why average red-blooded Americans are no match for the collective power of the proletariat movement.
As Reichert said, "There are human errors that are made on Election Day." According to an article in the Dec. 2, 2008, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Reichert was "confident that that's what happened" and that "we have all the ballot envelopes here."
But after relentless badgering by the Franken campaign, now Reichert isn't so sure anymore. So the new plan is for Minneapolis to submit both the election night total from Dinkytown -- which gives Franken an extra 46 votes -- and the meticulous hand recount total, which does not, and allow the canvassing board to decide which to use.
Either the post-election tally is better than the election night tally or it isn't. Cherry-picking only those election night results Ritchie likes isn't an attempt to get an accurate vote-count; it's an attempt to get a Democrat in the U.S. Senate.
Henry Waxman's House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform met Tuesday to examine "The Role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the Financial Crisis." Alas, Mr. Waxman didn't come to bury Fan and Fred, but to bury the truth
Video: The Supreme Court has turned down an emergency appeal from a New Jersey man who says President-elect Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because he was a British subject at birth. The court did not comment on its order Monday rejecting the call by Leo Donofrio of East Brunswick, N.J., to intervene in the presidential election...Donofrio also contends that two other candidates, Republican John McCain and Socialist Workers candidate Roger Calero, also are not natural-born citizens and thus ineligible to be president.
The form demands that licensees give police a mass of detail, including the names, aliases, private addresses and phone numbers of all musicians and other performers appearing at their venue, and the ethnic background of the likely audience. Failure to comply could mean the loss of a licence or even a fine and imprisonment.
The police say they need the information demanded on Form 696, which runs to eight pages, so they can pinpoint which acts and venues attract troublemakers, and make sure venues are safe.
(Incremental governmental intrusion into free speech/expression in our daily lives...coming soon to our shores? -Roland)
Section 1385 of the Posse Comitatus Act states, “Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.”
Under the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Bush on October 17, 2006, the law was changed to state, “The President may employ the armed forces to restore public order in any State of the United States the President determines hinders the execution of laws or deprives people of a right, privilege, immunity, or protection named in the Constitution and secured by law or opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”
However, these changes were repealed in their entirety by HR 4986: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, reverting back to the original state of the Insurrection Act of 1807. Despite this repeal, President Bush attached a signing statement saying that he did not feel bound by the repeal. It remains to be seen whether President elect Obama will reverse Bush’s signing statement.
"We just won an election. It's no secret." By "we," Andy Stern means "American workers." He also means Big Labor. Speaking on behalf of... the Service Employees International Union -- and as one of labor's most powerful figures today -- Mr. Stern sets this simple bar for the Obama presidency: "I expect nothing less than what he said he was going to do, and we should hold him accountable."...Mr. Stern wants an "an updating of our regulatory framework" at the National Labor Relations Board and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to better "enforce its laws." That kind of talk fast gets the business community's hackles up.
Universal health care, widespread unionization, stronger regulations on business, profit-sharing for employees, higher taxes -- all that sounds like Western Europe. Mr. Stern considers that a worthy model. "I think Western Europe as much as we used to make fun of it has made different trade-offs which may have ended up with a little more unemployment but a lot more equality."
Socialized Medicine: "Consensus" has become one of the scariest words in America. It means officials have reached agreement on how to fleece the public. And it's being used in the same breath as "universal health care."(Snip)The alleged accord, says the Times, has been reached by "leading" business groups, medical facilities, physicians, unions, insurance companies, "senior lawmakers" and "members of the new Obama administration."
“That’s Henry Paulson,” responded Inhofe, “We had a conference call early on, it was on a Friday I think – a week and half before the vote on Oct. 1. So it would have been the middle … what was it – the 19th of September, we had a conference call. In this conference call – and I guess there’s no reason for me not to repeat what he said, but he said – he painted this picture you just described. He said, ‘This is serious. This is the most serious thing that we faced.’”
Inhofe said that Paulson told members of Congress the crisis would be “far worse than the great depression” if Congress didn’t authorize the bill to buy out toxic debt, a proposal “which he abandoned the day after he got the money,” added Inhofe.
Controversy continues to surround President-elect Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as president, and a case involving his birth certificate waits for its day before the U.S. Supreme Court. A constitutional lawyer said were it to be discovered that Mr. Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen, it would have grave consequences for the nation.
When you’re the attorney general, you’re the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. You should be above and beyond politics...Although the dramatic lapses in judgment and ethics demonstrated in the Rich and FALN pardons are enough to oppose Mr. Holder’s confirmation as attorney general, there is a larger case against him. HE: What are your thoughts about the Elian Gonzales case and Holder’s role in it?
Liberals -- now controlling both the White House and Congress -- are ready to revive the so-called “Fairness” Doctrine to destroy conservative talk radio. The Media Research Center has formed a new “Free Speech Alliance” to defend conservatives’ most effective political weapon against the return of what should be called the “Censorship Doctrine.”...The conservative movement grasps the vital need to rally together to defend free speech and preserve talk radio
Oil and gas companies appeared to score a victory when congressional Democrats let the offshore drilling moratorium expire after President Bush lifted an executive ban. But those who think nothing stands in the way of offshore drilling are dead wrong
Businesses that politicians deem vital to the national interest aren't being allowed to fail in America today, and the bigger they are, the more help they get from the government. So it's not much of a surprise that the fine points of yet another bailout package are being worked out behind closed doors, this time for Citigroup.
Again, not surprisingly, the latest recipient of government largess is a big donor to political candidates and parties. It's the 15th largest corporate giver, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, donating $25.1 million since 1989 in roughly even portions to the two parties. When Citigroup begged for taxpayer help, the Bush administration and congressional leaders took the call. Don't expect a policy change from President-elect Obama's incoming Secretary of Bailouts, Tim Geithner, and Larry Summers, soon to be head of the National Corporate Welfare Council.
It's just the latest in a never-ending series of bailouts that Chicken Little commentators and status quo fetishists say we simply must have -- or else. Companies aren't even being asked to submit to the minor indignity of a bankruptcy proceeding before lawmakers rush in with 18-wheelers full of cash. It's easier just to fork over taxpayer money.
Bipartisan hope springs eternal, even among Washington lawyers. That was the message at the Federalist Society's annual convention last week. After years of obstruction by Senate Democrats, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered President-elect Obama a roadmap for ending the political war over judicial nominations. What Mr. Obama does in his early days in office will reveal a lot about the next four years.
The key, Mr. McConnell explained, is for the new President to govern as he campaigned -- with an eye toward moderation. In 2004, he reminded the audience, the Illinois Senator criticized President Bush's effort to "push a very aggressive agenda that wasn't the way he campaigned." Now we'll see if that was more than political posturing.
A woman who volunteered to help count ballots in the U.S. Senate recount in Wilkin County probably would not have been allowed to do so if the county auditor had known that she had also worked for a Senate candidate in Otter Tail County. ''Had I known that, she probably wouldn't have been part of the team,'' Wilkin County Auditor Wayne Bezenek, told The Forum of Fargo, N.D. ''That would have been the right thing to do.''
Advocates for a United Nations treaty on children’s rights blamed American arrogance for it not being ratified by the United States, but critics charge signing onto the Convention on the Rights of the Child could mean international law trumping U.S. state and federal laws and the rights of parents to make decisions about raising and educating their children...Smith said that if Congress ratifies the treaty, it would give the United Nations authority to object to federal and state laws that it thinks violate the treaty and give Congress the power to pass laws to make the country comply with its tenants – a fact advocates do not deny.
“It’s a power grab, pure and simple, by radicals like him (Harold Cook, a non-governmental organization representative at the U.N. and a fellow with the American Psychological Association),” Ruse said.
Smith said the most dangerous thing about the convention is that rather than building stronger families, it could damage relationships by giving children “rights” to question their parents’ decisions on a range of issues, including discipline, religious training and education.
“It pits children against their parents,” Smith said
Congratulations, tolerance mau-mauers: Your shakedown of a Christian-targeted dating website worked. Homosexuals will no longer be denied the inalienable “right” to hook up with same-sex partners on eHarmony. What a landmark triumph for social progress, eh?
New Jersey plaintiff Eric McKinley can now crown himself the new Rosa Parks — heroically breaking down inhumane barriers to Internet matchmaking by forcing a law-abiding private company to provide services it was never created to provide. “Men seeking men” has now been enshrined with “I have a dream” as a civil rights rallying cry of the 21st century.
Last June in Boumediene v. Bush, the Supreme Court ruled for the first time in our history that aliens captured and held as enemy combatants abroad (in this case, at the Guantanamo Bay military base) had a constitutional right to challenge their detentions by filing petitions for habeas corpus in federal court. The Court recognized that its holding was unprecedented. Yet it said that it was not deciding how such proceedings should be conducted, or even what the government must show to prevail.
Yesterday, the federal district court in Washington concluded the first such habeas proceeding for six detainees. It held that the government had established a basis for holding only one of them as an enemy combatant. The court acknowledged that the evidence the detainees were planning to travel to Afghanistan to join the fight was perfectly appropriate for use as intelligence (the purpose for which it was collected) -- but that such evidence was not sufficient to carry the government's burden of proving in court that the detainees were enemy combatants.
As the nation’s capitol, Washington DC is often looked to for various approaches on how to handle a number of growing issues around the country. Usually government eggheads like to formulate their grandiose schemes from their comfortable halls of power and impose them upon areas of the heartland so far from scrutinizing eyes that very few end up seeing what is actually going on. However, there are now a number of policies being implemented within the city that will soon be at the forefront of efforts to undermine life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
One signal is yesterday's news that Barack Obama has selected Tom Daschle, the very liberal former Senate warhorse, to head the Health and Human Services Department. But an even clearer sign was last week's release by Montana Senator Max Baucus of a policy blueprint that closely resembles the one Mr. Obama campaigned on for 17 months. The plan is significant not only because its author is Chairman of the powerful Finance Committee, which oversees taxes and about half of all government spending. Mr. Baucus is also one of the more moderate, and cautious, senior Democrats.
If the Obama White House decides that reorganizing the 17.1% of the economy that the U.S. is likely to spend on health care in 2010 is a first-year priority, then Mr. Baucus's bill will be the place they start. Americans need to learn what they'd be paying for.
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