Saturday, June 9, 2012

Democrats inadvertenly open the door to Obama's past

In the recent kerfluffle over gay marriage two things have happened: 1) Barack Obama officially declared his support and 2) the Washington Post published a hit piece on Mitt Romney implying that he engaged in gay bashing while in high school (factually incorrect but I digress). It's obvious to anyone with a brain that these two events were coordinated. What's not obvious is the door that has been opened by them.
The Democrats, in their zeal to destroy Mitt Romney by any means necessary have opened the door to the candidates' histories. There's only one problem. Barack Obama, as his first official act as President, sealed his records.
The media is investigating every single pimple that Mitt Romney ever had simply because they can; because the records are available for all to see. Where are Barack Obama's records? Where are the high school friends of Barack Obama? Where are the college friends of Barack Obama? Where are the records? So, every single time the media decides that Mitt Romney's high school and college years are fair game, he needs to fire back that Barack Obama's high school and college years are also fair game. But, oops, we can't look at them because they have been hidden. And then ask "Why?"
Most people don't know about BO's records being sealed. They might think differently about him if they did. Because, as everyone knows, the only people that hide things are the ones that have something to hide.

Which Is More Dangerous: Obama's Head or Obama's Heart?

Two of the more fascinating reads published recently are Mark Levin's Ameritopia and Dennis Prager's Still the Best Hope. Both provide penetrating analysis on why a century of progressivism has propelled the USA to the brink of a national catastrophe. And both offer a compelling vision of a return to bedrock conservatism as the only and obvious solution to the economic and cultural calamities that barely checked liberalism has bestowed upon the nation. Each author writes with great passion, and both arrive at very similar conclusions.

However, there is a major difference in the approaches of the two works. Levin emphasizes the flawed political and economic theories that animate the progressive agenda. He explains how four fundamentally utopian fantasies (Plato's Republic, Thomas More's Utopia, Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, and Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto) have provided the political playbook from which liberals over the last century have drawn their inspiration and hatched their strategies. Prager, on the other hand, attributes much of the motivation for liberal initiatives to a reaction to the innate feelings that progressives have about the issues that confront the nation. Rather than follow a specific blueprint for "hope and change," progressives are inclined, according to Prager, to follow their feelings about how things should be, why they are not that way, and how to bring them about.

Of course, whether they heed their heads or their hearts, liberals advance their progressive agenda in the face of overwhelming evidence that their statism results in such things as high unemployment, decreased productivity, diminished freedom, cultural decay, inadequate defense capabilities, entrenched poverty, and the erosion of family, community, and the pillars of civil society.

Now, the most important progressive operating in the U.S. today is President Obama. Any self-respecting conservative -- and, one would hope, any objective American not hypnotized by leftist propaganda -- is appalled at the economic and cultural carnage thrust upon the country by the Obama administration. Obama's removal from office is mandatory if the country is to be rescued from the pit toward which he is driving us with reckless abandon. Therefore, to maximize the chances of that happening, it would be helpful to know: what exactly motivates the president -- his head or his heart?

Levin and Prager are in apparent agreement that the progressive portion of America comes in two flavors -- intellectuals and, for lack of a better term, ordinary foot soldiers. The former consists of professors, lawyers, school administrators, Hollywood glitterati, liberal think-tank leaders, librarians, journalists, most media types, certain philanthropists, many clergy, and even some corporate moguls. These are people who are true believers in Levin's four utopian (actually dystopian) fantasies; people who are convinced that America's founding was based on flawed principles and that the country must be remodeled according to a more progressive image. The insidious nature of their venture is that they pursue their revolutionary goals using the language and tools of the Founding (the Constitution, the invocation of freedom, appeals to rights), but at every turn, they subvert founding principles to serve their revolutionary purpose. The danger they pose to the Republic springs from the transformational plans in their heads.

Progressives who lead with their hearts, on the other hand, tend to be "ordinary" Americans -- government employees, union laborers, schoolteachers and secretaries, cops and cab drivers, farmers, firemen and factory workers -- who feel that rich people have too much and that more of their wealth should be spread around. They've never read Levin's four utopian fantasies, and they rarely, if ever, think about the philosophical characteristics of progressivism or conservatism. Throughout their entire lives, they have been subjected to a progressive programming (really a brainwashing) carried out by their teachers, public officials, union leaders, media sources, liberal clergy, and even their parents. They are clueless as to the radical alteration that American society has already undergone. What they do know is: they are uncomfortable with perceived inequities in American society, and the government has had success in the past at alleviating the discrepancies, but much more needs to be done in that vein. They have been told, and they believe, that America's economic system -- i.e., free-market capitalism -- while it offers the opportunity for a few to amass great wealth, keeps most citizens -- like themselves -- in a perpetual state of stress trying to meet monthly bills, perform satisfactorily on the job, provide adequate sustenance for one's family, and find some time to enjoy life.

Moreover, such thinking infects the substantial portion of the population that does not consider itself progressive. As Prager relates, the pervasive liberal brainwashing to which all of America is subject explains how, despite the fact that only 20% of the people self-identify as liberal -- whereas 40% self-identify as conservative, and another 40% as moderate -- a hardcore, unabashed liberal like Barack Obama could be elected president.

Obama is clearly from the intellectual class, not a foot soldier. So the answer to the question posed in the title is presumably that his head is more dangerous than his heart. Ah, but here is a point that is mentioned, but not emphasized, in both books. Namely, the heart of an intellectual progressive is every bit as devoted to the progressive cause as is his head. Progressives are absolutely convinced of the correctness of their philosophy and the justice of their cause. Therefore, the legitimacy and necessity of the remaking of society that the intellectuals seek to engineer -- and at which they have been remarkably successful -- is so deeply ingrained in the fiber of their being that it is inevitable that their feelings about the cause are as strong as, if not stronger than, those among the foot soldiers. In principle, one can argue with and try to persuade a progressive of the error of his philosophy if his motivation is solely intellectual. But if the impetus is internalized and abetted by powerful feelings, then -- as anyone who has tried knows -- arguing with a progressive is a futile exercise.

So a final word to conservatives. When criticizing Obama, it is pointless to attack his feelings, preferences, or motivations. The feelings are ingrained and will not change. Moreover, attacks on his personality or character are likely to be a turn-off for "moderate" or undecided voters. Instead, it is Obama's progressive philosophy that should be squarely in the cross hairs. At this point, at least half the voting public recognizes progressive policies for the disaster they represent. Conservatives need only to convince a few more undecided voters of the danger posed by Obama's head -- and his heart -- should he gain a second term. By attacking progressive principles, and by providing beneficial conservative alternatives, Mitt and the GOP should be able to chase Obama from the White House without breaking a sweat.

Left-Wing Terrorist Brett Kimberlin Gets Conservative Blogger Jailed

Something is rotten in the State of Maryland.

Convicted terrorist bomber and perjurer Brett Kimberlin is free while one of his many harassment victims remains under a judicial gag order for the crime of writing about Kimberlin’s violent criminal history. It’s a bizarre situation, as I reported on “The Source” TV show with Ezra Levant.



Kimberlin and his cadre of cyber-stalkers try to bully conservative bloggers into silence. They post personal information and home addresses of their targets to send the message that “we know where you live.”

The extraordinarily litigious former federal prisoner does not tolerate being discussed unfavorably on the Internet. He typically files lawsuits against bloggers who dare to bring up his lengthy criminal record and antisocial behavior and seeks injunctions to shut them up. He is a ruthless, relentless bully.

But help is on the way.

As various Kimberlin detractors including CNN contributor Erick Erickson have found themselves “SWAT-ted” after writing blog posts about the infamous “Speedway Bomber,” ABC News reports that Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) is now demanding that the U.S. Department of Justice investigate. SWAT-ting consists of tricking 911 operators into dispatching emergency response teams to a targeted person’s home. It’s a nasty prank that could easily get a victim killed.

“Any potentially criminal action that incites fear, seeks to silence a dissenting opinion, and collaterally wastes the resources of law enforcement should be given close scrutiny at all levels,” Chambliss said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. “Regardless of any potential political differences that may exist, threats and intimidation have no place in our national political discourse. Those who choose to enter into that political discourse should not have to worry about potential threats to their or their family’s safety.”

The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), a public interest law firm, has agreed to represent Ali A. Akbar, head of the National Bloggers Club. Both Akbar and the club have been targeted by the “Breitbart Unmasked” website which appears to be linked to Kimberlin and his associates.

The National Bloggers Club separately yesterday announced it plans to raise funds for the appeal of Aaron Walker who was recently jailed for daring to blog about Kimberlin. Ignoring the First Amendment and binding legal precedents, Montgomery County, Maryland Judge Cornelius Vaughey made permanent a temporary injunction stopping Walker from blogging about Kimberlin. Walker didn’t write anything untrue about Kimberlin but Judge Vaughey didn’t care.

Forget about the Brandenburg standard articulated by the Supreme Court and “let’s go by Vaughey right now, and common sense out in the world. But you know, where I grew up in Brooklyn, when that stuff was pulled, it was settled real quickly,” the superannuated judge said, according to a transcript.

Rambling, Vaughey continued, “Very quickly. And I’m not going to talk about those ways, but boy, it ended fast. I even can tell you, when I grew up in my community, you wanted to date an Italian girl, you had to get the Italian boy’s permission. But that was the old neighborhoods back in the city. And it was really fair. When someone did something up there to you, your sister, your girlfriend, you got some friends to take them for a ride in the back of the truck. […] That ended it. You guys have got this new mechanical stuff out here, the electronic stuff, that you can just ruin somebody without doing anything. But you started it.”

You get the drift. Vaughey’s ruling against Walker is an outrage that cannot be allowed to stand. Walker’s cause is the cause of everyone in America who has a vested interest in free speech – in other words, everyone. If Walker had been a liberal you know the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights would have tripped over each other in the race to represent him in court and there would be no need to seek donations for his legal fund.

But how did Walker get into the situation in the first place? He wrote blog posts critical of Kimberlin, a practitioner of “lawfare.” Lawfare, a portmanteau of the words law and warfare, in Kimberlin’s case consists of abusing the legal system in order to financially cripple an enemy or monopolize his time so he cannot advance a cause he supports. Walker, himself a lawyer, wrote nothing about Kimberlin that was false or even remotely defamatory.

Kimberlin doesn’t care. He brags about filing more than 100 lawsuits. He enjoys intimidating people on the other side of the political spectrum. It’s what he does.

The reportedly brilliant and well-connected Kimberlin co-founded the Justice Through Music Project, a shady 501c3 nonprofit in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. and a shrill watchdog group called Velvet Revolution. Both groups buy into the radical environmentalist agenda and support the goals of the Occupy Wall Street movement. They have received funding from the George Soros-financed Tides Foundation and to a lesser extent from the philanthropies of Teresa Heinz Kerry and Barbra Streisand.

His wealthy left-wing aunt, Harriet Crosby, may also have steered money to the groups. She’s one of the original activist-donors involved in the Threshold Foundation which has given money to both of Kimberlin’s groups.

Kimberlin is a political trailblazer of sorts. He is a tactical innovator whose “lawfare” methods would have impressed the father of modern community organizing, Saul Alinsky. The late conservative Internet entrepreneur Andrew Breitbart recognized Kimberlin’s unique talents last fall, tweeting that the convicted terrorist and his confederates needed “exposure.”

The Left has long supported using terror to cow its opponents.

As I reported in my book Subversion Inc.: How Obama’s ACORN Red Shirts are Still Terrorizing and Ripping Off American Taxpayers, ACORN founder Wade Rathke supports cyber-terrorism.

Rathke, who now runs ACORN International (also known as Community Organizations International), is in favor of computer hacking as long as it helps the labor movement.

Crazy, computer viruses are started by young kids around the world or hackers bored out of their skulls that live right down the street. As union organizers we are still doing 8 point difficulty dumpster dives for alpha lists of employees, when theoretically some good geeks could tap in, load up, and download the whole thing and throw it over our transom window. What a waste of talent when such a huge contribution could be made to the labor movement.

“Simply put, why isn’t there more ‘monkey wrenching’ in our world? Where is our Earth First!” he wrote in an infamous column. Monkey-wrenching is a form of eco-terrorism or ecotage (eco-sabotage) that consists of harming the economic interests of those who are perceived threats to the environment.

Was Kimberlin inspired by Rathke and the in-your-face tactics of ACORN?

Maybe.

Texas Gun Range to Hold Birthday Parties fro Children



Instead of bowling alley or laser tag birthdays, Texas parents will soon be able to host parties at a less traditional venue, a family-friendly gun range set to open this summer.

REPORT: White House Worked With Big Pharma To Promote ObamaCare

Elizabeth Warren Staffer Attacks Conservative Blogger Anne Sorock!

This video is gold! No wonder the Daily Kos thugs are out to destroy Anne!

State Department Report Purges Religious Freedom

Sections covering religious freedom have been purged from the State Department's latest Country Reports on Human Rights released May 24, CNS News reports. ...

South America: Chipping away at human rights

Chipping at the foundations

The regional justice system comes under attack from the countries whose citizens need it most

Is Barack Obama blocking conservatives on Twitter?

By now, you’re very familiar with the stories of conservatives getting trapped in the #TwitterGulag after being blocked and reported for spam. But it seems that the official @BarackObama Twitter account has also taken to blocking critics of the president.

Private Jobs Down 4.6 Million From January 2008; Federal Jobs Up 11.4%

President Obama’s statement Friday that the private sector is “doing fine” drew so much ridicule that he was forced to backtrack hours later. But it’s clear that Obama and many other Democrats see job problems — and solutions — starting and stopping with government employment.

A quick look at payroll stats shows that’s not the case.

He who lives in glass houses................

Re: Ali A. Akbar

From TRP: I’ve been having a bit of a row with this guy here on Twitter … I mean, really … Southern Baptist from Texas?!? That’s what he claims … back out quiet … oh, by the way, I know Breitbartunmasked are a bunch of haters, but this Ali A. Akbar guy … well … you be the judge … we’re fair & balanced here at TRP … *snicker* … so, without further adieu … the files of Ali A. Akbar … president of the National Bloggers Club … and FELON … enjoy …

Report: Smokin’ Joe Biden Spends $1 Million Annually for Golf Outings and Other Weekend Adventures

Report: 70 House Members to Call on DOJ to Investigate SWATting of Conservative Bloggers

Kimberlin-Tied 'Breitbart Unmasked' Targets Jeff Dunetz at 'Yid With Lid'

Jeff Dunetz reports, "Kimberlin's Cronies Go After The Lid" (via Memeorandum):
As I mentioned earlier this week today has been declared a national day of blogger silence/action to protect blogger freedom of speech. Since Ace suggested we use today to urge congress protect free speech the day has taken on more significance to me personally, yesterday...

Cheaper to have kids on welfare, says Tony Abbott

Welfare families can afford more children - Abbott
"Leads to higher birth rate among poor"
Abbott talks up Coalition's parental leave scheme

Liberty Values

When you expect the government or society to take care of your needs, then you no longer act deserving of adult liberty, but are infantilized

I’ve been a little too preoccupied this week to pay much attention to the Brett Kimberlin/ National Blogger Day of Silence story…

…so instead of trying to do a post of my own (it’d take too long to read up), I thought I’d go through my blogroll and link some other bloggers blogging it today – silently – MRQ-style*.

People don't seem to like my new headlight treatments

Everyone's pointing and laughing at me, but I think these new headlights look good.

President Obama: The conscience of the king

"Well, you can lead a leftist to reality, BUT…" twitters Darleen Click this afternoon, and our reply:

But you can't make him think.

Lanny Davis – special counsel to President Bill Clinton calls Obama team ‘vicious people’ (Video)

Oops. Another Clitonian stabbing Obama in the back. Watching the Democrats eat themselves (with or without bath salts) is great entertainment. It’s obvious by now that Bill Clinton and his collection of lackeys are getting their revenge on Obama for his nasty 2008 campaign against Hillary Clinton. Now you have Clinton’s special counsel while president Lanny Davis bashing Obama and his regime, calling his team “vicious people.” Welcome to reality Lanny. You are still a Fox News hack regardless

#DOH: Liberals set up alert hashtag, conservatives take it over

Lefties set up #DOH for when their hashtags are taken over by the right...and it's already been taken over.

DOH!!!!

@AceOfSpadesHQ BREAKS SILENCE: #BrettKimberlin’s Escalating Threat

FROM AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

Being sanguine by nature, as I told Nice Deb in an interview a couple weeks ago, I don’t scare easy, and sometimes am accused of recklessness, as well as disregard for the feelings of others who are of a more cautious temperament.

“No discretion,” as one critic recently said in a conversation that was rather less private than she believed. Selah.

To live your life constantly deferring to the opinions of others is to forfeit your independence and become a slave to peer pressure.

Nevertheless, in the matter of Brett Kimberlin, there are matters of operational security to be kept in mind, information which cannot be revealed, lest we give The Pipsqueak Monster some clue as to what measures are being taken to guard against his nefarious schemes and the actions of his evil accomplices. Exercising discretion is therefore vital, and I’ve had to judge carefully what to discuss in public.

Let me repeat what I’ve said before: If Brett Kimberlin and Neal Rauhauser are not under FBI surveillance, why the hell not?

This is merely a surmise, which any reasonable person would make, based upon well-known facts, and I do not doubt that both Kimberlin and Rauhauser are aware of this. Their phones, e-mails and other communications are almost certainly being monitored, and they cannot make a move that the feds don’t know about.

My surmise in this matter — what you might call an educated hunch — probably accounts for the increasingly frantic and desperate activity of the various Web presences that comprise what Ken at Popehat calls “Team Kimberlin.” They’re acting scared, and looking very guilty, trying to re-direct suspicion away from themselves by pointing the accusatory finger at others.

Vicious dishonest cowards don’t scare me one bit.

Fear a man who is honest and brave, but never fear a lying coward, because such sadistic monsters delight in inspiring fear.

If you want to be frightened about something, think about this: Neal Rauhauser has boasted about having contacts in the FBI. What sort of disinformation has Rauhauser given the feds? Could it be that federal agents are actually assisting his smear machine? We know that Attorney General Eric Holder is either incompetent or corrupt — perhaps both — but the possibility that the taint of political corruption has spread to the FBI should be a concern to every honest American citizen.

Meanwhile, Ace of Spades has broken his daylong silence to warn against my sanguine confidence, urging Congress to act swiftly to thwart Kimberlin’s familiar pattern of escalation:

Brett Kimberlin will not be stopped by scrutiny. Even when he was a suspect in the Speedway Bombings, and being followed by agents of the FBI — and he knewhe was being followed — he continued to conduct his large-scale drug smuggling operation. While being investigated for the Speedway Bombings, he was arrested independently for procuring false military ID. And then, having been arrested (and released) for procuring false military ID, he was arrested for smuggling tons of marijuana into America.
The fact that the FBI was watching him didn’t seem to matter. He considers them stupid; he always thinks he’s one step ahead of them. The fact that he has frequently been arrested and caught does not seem to enter into his reasoning.

It’s brilliant work — he ain’t the Jack of Spades, y’know — and I share Ace’s belief that congressional action is imperative. But my educated hunch is that honest law enforcement officials will slap the cuffs on Kimberlin before Congress can enact legislation, and I can only pray that they act before someone gets hurt even worse than Kimberlin’s previous victims have been hurt.

Like Cicero said: “Hic tamen vivit.”

– Robert Stacy McCain, Whereabouts Unknown

Obamacare II Coming to the USA

The Return of the Reagan Democrats

Real Clear Politics:

Scott Walker beat the spread.

Sometime politics is like betting on football. It's not just about whether your team wins. It's about whether you beat the spread. The rough calculation going into Tuesday's recall election in Wisconsin was that if Governor Scott Walker won by less than five percentage points, the race would not have any clear national-level implications, but if he won by five points or more, it would. The final result, 53.2% to 46.3%, is a margin of 6.9 percentage points. He beat the spread.

It's not that simple, of course. There are an awful lot of folks on the left who are suddenly trying to tell us that the election wasn't really important and that it says nothing about the presidential race.

They have a few points on their side. They complain, for example, that Walker outspent his opponent by a good margin, something that is not likely to happen on the national level, where Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are likely to be pretty evenly matched in fund-raising. The left's point on this is insidious, of course, because they are claiming that Walker "bought" the election and that the private donations of his supporters somehow constitutes the "death of democracy." Let me translate: when unions spend money to support politicians, that's democracy; when businessmen spend money to support politicians, that's an attack on democracy. It is clear who is really attacking political freedom and representative government: the side that thinks political activity is only legitimate when it puts them in power. It's no wonder they tend to admire Hugo Chavez.

But back to the national implications. The fact that one candidate raised more money than the other is not just a fact of nature. You have to ask why Walker raised more. After all, there are plenty of rich and upper-middle-class Democrats, not just in Wisconsin but around the country, and this race got lots of national attention. The unions still have millions in dues money to spend—though they're getting a lot less, now that workers actually have a choice in the matter. They also have the benefit of an extensive network of grass-roots advocates and volunteers, which can do a lot to make up for a gap in spending. Then, of course, there is the national Democratic Party.

Ah, but there's the rub. In the weeks leading up to the recall, the national party pretty much abandoned Wisconsin. Money and organization didn't flow into the state, and President Obama's contribution amounted to exactly one "tweet" the day before the vote.

Why? The national party declined to give its support because it started to become clear that Walker was going to win. Why throw good money into a lost cause, when you're going to need every penny for November? The same calculation is behind Obama's distance from this race. Why put the president's full support into this race, making it seem even more like a referendum on his presidency, if that referendum is likely to go against him? So Walker's funding advantage is not a cause but an effect. He was able to raise money because he was already winning the battle to convince the voters, and his opponent couldn't raise money because he was already losing.

A more compelling case against the national significance of Tuesday's vote is the fact that exit polls still show Obama with a strong lead among the state's voters. In other words, there were many people who voted for Walker on Tuesday who said they planned to vote for Obama in November. So support for Walker doesn't necessarily translate into support for Mitt Romney.

And yet, this seems over-optimistic on the part of Obama's supporters and too narrowly focused on the concretes of one dubious poll. To begin with, Obama's lead in the Wisconsin exit poll was seven percentage points, which sounds formidable until you realize that this is about half his 2008 margin of victory in that state. Then consider that it is still early in the general election, with Mitt Romney just starting to make his case to swing voters—and people who voted for Walker but plan to vote for Obama are the very definition of "swing voters." So you can see that Obama's current lead in Wisconsin is up for grabs.

More broadly, the issue in the Wisconsin recall was not about Walker personally. He was not recalled because he was guilty of corruption, nor was his personality or competence the central issue of the campaign. The central issue was whether the government should limit the power of unions and rein in the state's budget. Some on the left have pointed to the fact that this was not widely debated during the campaign. Instead, the big battles were over a corruption case involving some of Walker's associates, or a case in which his opponent took credit for falling crime in Milwaukee, but it turned out that the crime statistics had been fudged. So the left concludes that the battle over the unions was really irrelevant to the recall.

But this actually makes it worse for the left. Walker's limitation of union power was not bitterly contested, because it is popular. It is popular because it has been a success, moving the state government from a deficit to a surplus and helping many local governments and school boards avoid mass layoffs.

That is the wider significance that the left is trying to avoid. The Wisconsin vote reflects a national shift in favor of controlling government spending.

Jay Cost has an interesting piece in which he points out that the slowdown in growth during the Great Recession has led to a "politics of loss." The idea is that for most of the post-World-War-II era, economic growth allowed politicians to avoid difficult choices. The level of taxation stayed relatively stable as a proportion of the economy, but because the economy grew so quickly and so steadily, those taxes could keep paying for an ever more generous welfare state. So we could have an economy in which everyone seemed to gain, in which Republicans could promise to reduce taxes without slashing welfare benefits, and Democrats could keep expanding the welfare state without jacking up taxes very much.

Now that the economy has essentially stopped growing, that has been exposed as unsustainable. Every dollar paid out to public employees or to middle-class entitlements has to be taken out of the hide of taxpayers, one way or another—or if the taxpayers aren't fleeced, then the unions are going to be forced to scale back their benefits and entitlements are going to have to be reduced. It is now a zero-sum game.

I think there's something to this, except I would say that Cost is missing the bigger picture. There was always a trade-off between financing a giant welfare state and letting producers keep their money—and low growth is the product of that trade-off. I have argued elsewhere that the crisis in Europe shows that the fiscal half-life of the welfare state is about 30 years. In America, where the economy is more dynamic and the welfare state isn't as big, it took a little longer. But we are finally reaching the Thatcher Line: the point at which the government runs out of other people's money. Europe has gone over that line already—Greece maxed out Germany's credit card—and now we are approaching it.

But we still have time to turn back, and the result in Wisconsin indicates that we also have the will to turn back. Bear in mind that despite the reticence of the national party, Wisconsin Democrats put everything they had into knocking Walker out of office. Turnout on Tuesday night was exceptionally heavy, including in left-leaning strongholds like Dane County, the area surrounding the university-town enclave of Madison. Yet even with the left at full strength, the people of Wisconsin turned out to support Walker by a decisive margin. It is clear that a large segment of the political center has decided that runaway government spending and debt is the crucial problem of the day and that it has to be reined in, and they are willing to support any political leader who attempts to do so.

Wisconsin is the bellwether for that cultural-political shift, but it is not the only example. Two less-heralded votes on Tuesday were held in California, where voters in San Diego and San Jose—hardly bastions of conservatism—approved referendums cutting back on benefits for government employees. In San Jose, the measure was approved by a 70%-30% margin.

Back when Democrats took control of the House of Representative in 2006, as the public turned against President Bush, I predicted that the Democrats were nonetheless facing an eventual day of reckoning. They had won their majorities in the House and Senate largely by recruiting scores of conservative "blue dog" Democrats. But these conservative Democrats were merely used as cannon fodder to support far-left legislation like Obamacare. As we faced a crisis of mounting government debt, these congressmen had to go back to their constituents and explain why they were still in favor of fiscal restraint, even as they support a president who keeps running trillion-dollar deficits. The result is that the Blue Dog Caucus in the House has been reduced from 54 members after the 2008 election to 26 after the 2010 election, and after November, it may be winnowed down to as few as 10 congressmen.

Paul Ryan summed up the trend after the 2010 election, and events are bearing him out: "Reagan Democrats are becoming Reagan Democrats again." Democrats who are not adherents of the socialist hard left are becoming appalled at the out-of-control growth of government, and they will support any politician who has the will and the courage to rein it in.

You tell me if Barack Obama qualifies. And since he doesn't, that is why the result in Wisconsin is very bad news for his re-election prospects.

NBC's Snyderman: It's 'Pro-Science' to Abort Children With Genetic Defects

On Friday's NBC Today, chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman explained to viewers that it's just good science to abort an unborn child that may have a genetic disorder, explaining that testing for such conditions, "gives parents a chance to decide whether they're going to continue that pregnancy or not. This is the science of today."

Continued at NewsBusters

The Ongoing Disgrace That Is Obamanomics

President Obama has led America into an accelerating downward spiral. Destination: Argentina. Last Friday’s calamitous jobs report was just a signpost on the way.

Argentina enjoyed the world’s fourth highest per capita GDP in 1929, on par with the U.S. at the time. But then the nation lost its way through its embrace of a leftist, union allied government, which took control of the economy and imposed wildly irresponsible taxes, spending, deficits and debt. After World War II, the hugely popular Juan Peron came to power and institutionalized the madness. It has been all downhill for Argentina ever since. Sound familiar?

Today, Argentina ranks 53rd in the world in per capita GDP according to the International Monetary Fund, 57th in the CIA World Factbook, at a level less than one third that of the U.S. But its national debt at 51% of GDP is actually less than that of the United States under the Obama Administration, where we are rocketing towards 70% of GDP by the end of this year, and 200% in 25 years, according to CBO.

Friday’s jobs report shows Obama’s Juan Peron trend. While a measly 69,000 jobs were created in May, the report adjusted downward the jobs created in March and April by 49,000, leaving actually only 20,000 new jobs on net. The number of jobs created has declined every month this year.

While Obama and his propagandists claim 27 consecutive months of job growth, employment growth is the norm and not the exception for the American economy. In the 62 years from the end of World War II in 1945 until 2008, jobs grew in 86% of the months, or 640 out of 744. But Obama and his propagandists think you are too stupid to know the country you live in. They know at least their MSNBC base will believe them.

Reagan’s recovery produced job growth in 81 out of its first 82 months, with 20 million new jobs created in those first 7 years alone, increasing the civilian work force at the time by 20%. That grew into 50 million new jobs over the entire Reagan 25-year boom from 1982 to 2007. Compare that to the disgrace of Obamanomics. While Obama likes to claim 4.3 million new jobs created, total jobs by May, 2012 were still over half a million less than in January, 2009 when he entered office. Even George Bush oversaw 52 consecutive months of job growth, including 8 million new jobs created after his 2003 capital gains and dividends tax rate cuts became effective (which Obama is dedicated to reversing).

Besides the 12.7 million Americans still unemployed last month, another 8.1 million were employed part-time for economic reasons. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says, “These individuals were working part-time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.” The BLS further reports that another 2.4 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, up from 2.2 million a year earlier.” (Further downward spiral). The BLS explains, “These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the prior 4 weeks….” (emphasis added).

That makes over 23 million Americans still in the army of the unemployed or underemployed. Consequently, not only did the headline unemployment rate rise last month to 8.2%, the total U6 unemployment rate including the unemployed and underemployed jumped to nearly 15%.

All this 53 months after the last recession started, and 35 months after the recession supposedly ended in June, 2009. By contrast, since the Great Depression, and before this last recession, recessions in America have lasted an average of 10 months, with the longest previously lasting 16 months. Obama continues to barnstorm the country telling us “Right now, this country is still fighting our way back from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.” But the historical record is the deeper the recession, the stronger the recovery. Based on that American experience, we should be in the third year of a booming recovery by now. But Obama thinks you have no idea of the American experience.

What Obama has instead delivered is way too little, way too late. The unemployment picture is so bad because the economy is still not really growing, 3 years after the recession supposedly ended, and 4 ½ years after it began. Real economic growth for all of last year was a measly 1.7%. The first quarter of this year was just revised back downward to 1.9%. By contrast, by just the second full year of the Reagan recovery, the economy boomed with real economic growth of nearly 7%, the highest in 50 years.

Because of Obama’s continued stagnation, the number of long term unemployed for more than 6 months also rose in May from 5.1 million to 5.4 million. They now represent 42% of the unemployed, the highest since the Great Depression. Obama barnstorming the nation continues to mislead audiences by saying, “manufacturing is hiring at its fastest pace since the 1990s.” But the BLS reported last Friday that manufacturing jobs increased by all of 12,000 in May, after increasing by all of 9,000 in April, none of which is even worth mentioning. The truth is you can’t believe a word of what the man says, because he thinks you are as disconnected from the real world as he is, and so can be easily deceived.

Job growth under Obama has been the slowest of any recovery since the Great Depression. As a result, only 58% of the civilian working age population is working, the lowest since the late 1970s. Investors Business Daily reports that the rate of new business start-ups, historically the source of most new jobs, has plunged to an all time low of 7.87% of all businesses. These are the reasons why over half of recent college graduates under 25 are jobless or underemployed, and 3 in 10 young adults can’t find jobs and live with their parents, the highest since the 1950s. Obama’s campaign slogan is “Forward,” but under his misleadership America is hurtling backward to the past, like Argentina under Peron.

Unemployment for African Americans under Obama has been well into depression level double digits for his entire term, remaining today still at 13.6%. Black teenagers continue to suffer depression unemployment at 37%. Hispanics too have suffered long term double digit unemployment under Obama, still stuck at 11% in May.

But we know Obama loves the poor, because his policies are creating so many of them. Census reports that almost 1 in 6 Americans is poor, higher than when the War on Poverty started in 1965, with 49.1 million Americans suffering poverty, the highest in the 51 years that Census has been tracking poverty. The 45 million Americans on food stamps is also an all-time record. Hispanic poverty at 28.2% is higher than African-American poverty at 25.4% for the first time ever. Yet with this poverty and unemployment record, Obama tells Hispanics they should be voting for 4 more years of him.

An all time record of 47% of Americans are now government dependents receiving some form of government benefits. Yet virtually half of all Americans (49.5%) pay no income tax. Census reports the national home ownership rate at 65.4% is the lowest in 15 years. African American home-ownership under Obama has fallen 30 percentage points below white home ownership, the biggest difference in 20 years, and one of the biggest on record.

This sorry record is the disgrace of Obamanomics. But the greater disgrace is that Obama came into office pretending not to know anything about the spectacular success of the new supply side economics since Reagan adopted it in 1981. Instead he went all the way back to the failed Keynesian economics of the 1970s that Reagan and all other thinking people left for dead when it managed to create both double digit unemployment and double digit inflation at the same time.

Keynesian economics is the doctrine invented in the 1930s, holding that what drives economic recovery and growth is increased government spending, deficits and debt. If you have been listening to Obama the past 3 ½ years this will sound familiar. And if it sounds nuts, that’s because it is. Borrowing a trillion dollars out of the economy, as Obama did with his stimulus, to spend a trillion dollars back into the economy, does nothing to advance the economy on net.

This is why there has been no real recovery from the recession under Obama. He should have known that would be the result, since Keynesian economics is not only illogical, but has never worked, in the US during the depression and since, or anywhere else in the world. But Obama’s foolish pursuit of Keynesian policies is why federal spending under his Administration has been the highest since World War II, as documented by CBO and Obama’s own budgets. It is why, asInvestors Business Daily also reports, federal spending excluding defense and interest is the highest in American history at 17.6% of the economy. And it is why federal deficits and debt have hit all time records under Obama as well. These have been Obama’s deliberate policies, a community organizer’s vision of how to create economic recovery, growth and prosperity.

But what drives economic recovery and growth is not government spending, deficits and debt, but incentives for productive activities, like savings, investment, expanding businesses, starting new businesses, job creation and entrepreneurship. Those incentives come from reduced tax rates (not tax credits and deductions), reduced regulatory costs and barriers, and stable, sound money. These are the policies of the new supply side economics of Reaganomics, which achieved the supposed impossible in solving double digit inflation and double digit unemployment at the same time.

Obama should have known that as well. But instead he has play acted the role of Rip Van Winkle, going back to the Keynesian economics of 1970s as if nothing has happened since. This is why he should not even be running for reelection, let alone drawing any support after this gross public policy malpractice.

But he is the beneficiary of the rise of the New Irrationalism vibrant in the New Left Democrat Party, as featured on MSNBC. That New Irrationalism empowers its followers to deny established facts, to accuse anyone who professes the facts of lying for money, and to denounce anyone who disagrees with them as immoral and corrupt.

Fortunately, that New Irrationalism infects only a modest minority of the American people. America is not Argentina. The American people are not going to follow Obama’s American version of Juan Peron, and vote for the decline and fall of America. What is happening instead is the revival of the real America, which this year will vote for vast Reagan Republican majorities, and a new age of American politics, which will complete the Reagan revolution.

SOURCE: Forbes

CAVE: Florida Halts Its Search for Violations of Voter Law

Florida’s attempt to purge ineligible voters from its rolls has been halted, at least for now.

County election officials say they have stopped searching for illegally registered voters because the state’s list of 2,700 voters suspected of being noncitizens is outdated and inaccurate.

“We felt the information wasn’t credible and reliable,” said Vicki Davis, president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections. “Too many voters on the state’s list turned out to actually be citizens.”

That decision dealt a major setback to state leaders, including Gov. Rick Scott, who have pledged to identify ineligible voters before state primary elections in August.

The United States Department of Justice has ordered Florida to stop the purge, saying states cannot remove voters from their rolls within 90 days of an election.

Also, on Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against Florida over the purge. The group is representing two immigrants who are citizens, but were told they needed to prove their citizenship in order to vote.

State officials acknowledge flaws in their list. Using driver’s license data, they identified 180,000 voters who may not be citizens. They narrowed that list and sent almost 2,700 names to county election supervisors asking them to investigate.

The counties are legally required to give the voters 90 days to prove their citizenship before removing them from their rolls. Voting without being a citizen is a third-degree felony.

But counties say most people on that list have turned out to be legal voters. Many people named on the list have become citizens but have not updated their driver’s licenses.

In Miami-Dade County, for instance, more than 500 of the people on the list have been identified as lawful voters. Only 40 people statewide have been identified as noncitizens, according to the county election supervisors’ association.

State leaders have vowed to find another way to identify and remove ineligible voters. The secretary of state, Ken Detzner, has accused the Department of Homeland Security of illegally denying Florida access to a federal immigration database that could provide more accurate information.

“We’re going to continue to seek out information that will help us identify noncitizens,” said Chris Cate, a spokesman for Mr. Detzner. “Even just one ineligible voter can diminish the vote of someone who should rightfully be able to cast a ballot.”

SOURCE: New York Times

WEIRDO ALERT! Communistic Aussie Edition

Australian Olympic swimmers in hot water after gun photo



(CNN) -- Two Australian Olympic swimmers who posted pictures on Facebook of themselves brandishing weapons have been ordered to take them down by the country's swimming authorities.

The image, taken in a gun shop in Santa Clara, California, showed Nick D'Arcy with two pistols standing next to Kenrick Monk who is holding two shotguns across his chest, according to a Friday report in Australia's Herald Sun. The swimmers were training in the U.S. ahead of the Olympic Games in London later this year.

Swimming Australia said in a statement that it does not condone "the posting of inappropriate content on Facebook, Twitter or any social media platform."

As of Friday morning, neither of the swimmers' Facebook pages or Twitter accounts contained the photo.

"It was all just meant to be a bit of fun, the photos were just a bit of fun," D'Arcy told local media after returning to Australia. "If anyone's been offended I deeply apologize. It was never the intent; it was never supposed to be offensive."

Dozens of fans have posted on Monk's public Facebook page saying they support the athletes and that Swimming Australia had blown the photo out of proportion.

Swimming Australia said they will be speaking with both athletes regarding the incident.

While the pair faces possible Olympic sanctions, D'Arcy has been embroiled in controversy in the past.

In 2008, he was dropped from the Beijing Olympic team following an assault charge for hitting teammate Simon Cowley and breaking his jaw, the Australian Daily Telegraph reported at the time.

Both swimmers were named in Australia's team in March.

Jerusalem to become Egypt’s capital under Mursi’s rule, says Muslim cleric

If Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Mursi became president, Egypt’s new capital will no more be Cairo, but the new capital will be Jerusalem, a prominent Egyptian cleric said at a presidential campaign rally, which was aired by an Egyptian private TV channel.

“Our capital shall not be Cairo, Mecca or Medina. It shall be Jerusalem with God’s will. Our chants shall be: ‘millions of martyrs will march towards Jerusalem’,” prominent cleric Safwat Hagazy said, according to the video aired by Egypt’s religious Annas TV on Tuesday.

The video went viral after being posted on YouTube – accompanied by English subtitles by Memri TV –, with 61,691 views until Thursday night.

“The United States of the Arabs will be restored on the hands of that man [Mursi] and his supporters. The capital of the [Muslim] Caliphate will be Jerusalem with God’s will,” Hegazy said, as the crowds cheered, waving the Egyptian flags along with the flags of the Islamist Hamas group, which rules the Gaza Strip.

“Tomorrow Mursi will liberate Gaza,” the crowds chanted.

“Yes, we will either pray in Jerusalem or we will be martyred there,” Hegazy said.

Hegazy’s speech came during a presidential campaign rally at the Egyptian Delta city of Mahalla, where Mursi attended along with the Muslim Brotherhood Supreme Guide Mohammed Badei and members of the group and its political wing the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP).

Mursi will challenge Egypt’s former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq in the election run-off, scheduled on June 16 and 17. Shafiq, an air force general, was the country’s last prime minister before former president Hosni Mubarak was forced to step down by a popular uprising in February 2011.

A court on Saturday sentenced the former ruler and his interior minister to life imprisonment for their role in the killings of up to 850 protesters in the January 25 uprising that ended Mubarak’s 30-year rule. Six senior police officers were acquitted for lack of evidence.

The verdicts were met by angry street protests by Egyptians who considered them too lenient and demanded a purge of the judiciary.

Members of the Islamist-dominated parliament attacked the verdicts, accusing the court of ignoring the rights of peaceful protesters killed in the uprising.

Hegazy led thousands of protesters at Cairo’s iconic Tarir Square against the verdicts. Protesters also called for the endorsing of the ‘Political Isolation Law’ that could bar political figures from Mubarak era, including Shafiq, from joining political life in the country for some years.

Endorsing the law, which will be decided by Cairo Supreme Constitutional Court on June 14, two days before the election run-off, could push Shafiq out of the presidential race.

For activists, choosing Shafiq would symbolize a return to the old regime and an end to the revolution. Voting for Mursi, on the other hand, would mean handing Egypt to an Islamic movement they say has monopolized power since the uprising.

SOURCE: Al Arabia News

President Says Private Sector Is Doing Fine

In the midst of a sluggish economy and stubbornly high unemployment, President Barack Obama insists that while the private sector is doing fine, the public sector is still hurting.

“Look, most privately-owned businesses are making a profit,” Obama argued. “The same can’t be said for publicly-owned operations. For example, all across the country publicly-owned transit systems and stadiums are hemorrhaging red ink. Then there’s the publicly-aided businesses like Solyndra and EnerDell that have had to file for bankruptcy despite our efforts to subsidize them. The contrast couldn’t be more stark.”

The president blamed the divergent fates of the private and public sectors on “selfish Americans and their political enablers in the GOP. I mean, profits are a surplus over-and-above what is needed to keep a business going. Instead of sharing this surplus with an obviously struggling public sector, though, the GOP is siding with greedy owners and refuses to cooperate with us to boost taxes and spread this wealth around more equitably.”

As an illustration of the GOP’s lack of cooperation, the president cited its tepid response to his proposal to give every American $3,000 of government money so they can go buy “thingamajigs.” “Right now people are hoarding their money,” Obama said. “They’re afraid they’ll lose their jobs and their homes if they don’t conserve their cash. This caution is killing us. But if we tax away surplus profits and put $3,000 in the pockets of consumers they can go on a spending binge that will rescue the economy.”

President Obama’s contention that the public sector has had it harder during the recession doesn’t seem to be borne out by the data. While the number of persons employed in both the public and private sectors is currently lower than it was prior to the onset of the recession, the decline in the private sector has been steeper. In fact, there are now fewer persons employed in the private sector than there were in 2001. Public sector employment is currently 5% higher than it was in 2001.

In related news, Cory Booker, the Democratic Mayor of Newark, NJ who expressed his discomfort with attacks on the right of businesses to pursue profits was declared “dead to us” by a ranking Obama Administration official. “He’s out-of-step with the president’s thinking,” the official said. “And his refusal to recant is only making it worse. Booker’s ambition to rise within the ranks of the Democratic Party will never be fulfilled as long as Barack has any say. He should consider himself lucky if something really bad doesn’t happen to him.”

Reid Promises New Senate Rules If Dems Win in November

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) says he will be introducing new rules for how the Senate conducts business if Democrats control both Houses and the Presidency after the November elections. Reid’s target is the cloture vote required to cut off debate. Under current rules it takes only 41 senators to block cloture.

“Right now it’s kind of a moot point because even if we could silence GOP obstructionists in the Senate whatever we pass can still be thwarted by the GOP-controlled House,” Reid pointed out. “But if Democrats controlled both Houses and the Presidency eliminating a senate minority’s ability to impede legislation would be a much more important tool for pressing ahead with a progressive agenda.”

Reid acknowledged that he would oppose the reforms he has in mind from being made if Republicans were to regain a majority in the Senate in the upcoming elections. “Republicans are anti-progressive,” Reid argued. “Their policies are bad for America. We will use every tool in our kit, including the filibuster, to prevent them from enacting legislation we deem harmful to this nation’s well-being.”

Veep Urges End to Traditional Farming

Vice-President Joe Biden told the graduating seniors of Cypress Bay High School (Fla.) that “it’s long past the time when Americans should be shifting away from traditional farming as a means of supplying food.”

“Let’s face it, farming is unnatural,” Biden pointed out. “Using sharp tools to cut into the earth, planting seeds in neat rows for efficient reaping (also done with sharp tools, I might add), piping in water from far away—these are all artificial methods that rape the land.”

Biden argued that “in a more primitive era such methods may have been unavoidable. But do we really need them today? Why can’t everyone just get their food from the supermarket? Jill and I have been doing that for as long as I can remember. Most of the stuff comes in boxes and cans. It’s all very clean. You don’t have to poke tools into the soil stirring up dust and polluting the air. If we can only convince more people to follow our example the environmental degradation being caused by farmers could be greatly reduced.”

The vice-president also hailed the doubling of the amount the government has spent on food stamps since 2008 as “further proof that there are other ways to feed our population without destroying the land.”

In support of Biden’s vision, the Environmental Protection Agency is deploying aerial drones to fly over agricultural areas “to gather evidence on those raping the land with these primitive farming techniques.” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson declined to specify whether this evidence would be used to support prosecution of violators or whether the President would use it to select targets for drone-launched missile strikes. “I believe the President will choose the most appropriate enforcement mechanism on a case-by-case basis,” Jackson said.

First Lady Denies Photo ID Hypocrisy

The Obama Administration may be going all-out to prevent states from requiring photo IDs from those voting, but Michelle Obama is fine with imposing a photo ID requirement on those attending her book signings. Those wishing to attend book-signing events featuring the First Lady must buy her book—American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America—and present a valid photo ID.

“There’s no hypocrisy,” Press Secretary Jay Carney maintained. “Comparing voting and visiting with the First Lady is like comparing apples and oranges. Voting is a right that may not be infringed. Meeting the First Lady is a privilege that can be withheld from anyone for any reason.”

Carney characterized requiring photo IDs for voting as “clearly unwarranted. Voting is a basic human right. No human should be barred from it based on trivial concerns over identity or place of residence. The only thing a poll worker should be asked to ascertain is whether he is giving a ballot to a human being. This standard is simple and straightforward. Anyone can make it and it assures that everyone’s human right to vote is preserved.”

Attorney General Explains “Fast & Furious” Memos

Attorney General Eric Holder rejected contentions that internal Department of Justice memos in which the phrase “Fast and Furious” appears mean that the Mexican gun-running scandal was known to Department of Justice (DOJ) higher-ups at an early date. The phrase, Holder insisted referred to the movie series.

“Everyone at the DOJ is a big fan of the ‘Fast and Furious’ movies,” Holder said in a House Judiciary Committee hearing this past week. “The fast cars, the sexy babes, the wonton violence—are hypnotic in their effects on me and my staff. Vin Diesel’s screen presence is just awesome. So, it’s only natural that a good deal of the agency’s internal correspondence would include mentions of these films.”

Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) did not find Holder’s contention believable or reassuring. “Holder and his crew are ‘big fans’ of these movies?” Chaffetz disdainfully asked. “How likely is that? Besides, even if it is true, how do they justify spending time on their shared Vin Diesel love-fest while hundreds of people are being murdered with guns they helped Mexican gangsters obtain? Either way, it’s a new low for the Administration.”

In related news, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) confirmed that he will not be supporting Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Darryl Issa’s (R-CA) efforts to cite Holder for contempt for stonewalling on the “Fast and Furious” memos. “Holder’s explanation sheds a whole new light on this controversy,” Boehner said. “Those movies are way cool. I can see why they’d be a hot topic in the DOJ.”

France Cuts Retirement Age

Newly elected Socialist President Francois Hollande fulfilled a campaign promise by lowering the age for retiring with full benefits from 62 to 60. In the United States full Social Security benefits don’t kick in until age 65, later for those born after 1940.

Hollande explained that “if people have to wait until they’re 62 the money could all be gone before they draw a cent of their retirement benefits. This way at least some of them will get something before the system crashes.”

The French president plans to fund these more generous benefits “by raising taxes on businesses and individuals wherever we can. Many of our citizens have more income and wealth than they need. Sharing that surplus with those less fortunate is a moral obligation we intend to enforce.”

In case there isn’t enough that can be extracted from French taxpayers, Hollande says he is confident that Germany will ultimately shoulder France’s debts. “They have prospered the most since World War II,” he contended. “Considering they started that war this is unfair. Redistributing Germany’s gains to their former victims would redress this and advance social justice throughout the continent.”

SOURCE: Arizona Conservative

Illegal alien dies in desert, widow (also illegal) to sue Border Patrol

Juana Garcia, the widow of Idelfonso Martinez Sanchez, who died crossing the Arizona desert in April after being deported, claims the U.S. Border Patrol is responsible for her husband’s death and now wants “justice to be done.”

Sanchez was reported to federal authorities on March 1 by local police and deported back to Mexico, after living in Vista, just outside of San Diego for 20 years, according to Garcia.

After a failed attempt at crossing back into the country from Tijuana, Sanchez employed the help of a ‘coyote’ (human smuggler) and began the arduous trek through the Arizona desert on April 20, Garcia recently told EFE.

However, after only one day in the desert Sanchez became ill and the coyote along with the rest of the party left him behind.

One of those making the illegal journey, Isaac Jimenez Hernandez, eventually called 911 and was arrested when Border Patrol agents arrived.

When Hernandez was released in Mexicali two days later, he contacted his traveling companion’s family, who called the Border Patrol and insisted they look for Sanchez.

On April 26, Border Patrol agents discovered the man’s badly decomposed body on the Tohono O'odham Indian reservation, a commonly used smuggling route for both drugs and human cargo.

Garcia said: “They could have saved him. They let him die worse than an animal - because we're Mexicans and we have no documents they treat us the worst way.”

Garcia, who admitted to EFE that she is also in the country illegally, has five children between the ages of five and 19.

She continued: “We'll see what happens with the lawsuit. What they did is not right. I don't work and they left me and my kids without our source of income. What we want is for justice to be done.”

While it may be surprising to some to learn that someone here illegally can file a lawsuit in U.S. courtroom, it has actually become quite commonplace.

When Alfredo Garcia, 41, was arrested in April 2011 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, the Mexican national was in the midst of suing yet another business under the auspices of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Garcia is a wheelchair-bound paraplegic who has been making a living filing lawsuits against businesses in Southern California.

In fact, the illegal alien has filed more than 500 such lawsuits, collecting $165,000 in settlement money.

Garcia’s most rfecent suit is against the Yogurt Stop in West Hollywood. His suit alleges that the height of a coat hook and mirror in the bathroom of the store are too high for someone in a wheelchair.

The illegal alien is seeking $5,000 in damages.

Attorney Gail Cooper-Folb, who represents the Yogurt Stop, told KABC-TV: “I think it's an extraordinary abuse of the law. The law has a good purpose, and its abuse is outrageous. They are in it to threaten business owners with, ‘If you fight, you're going to spend more on an attorney then you are if you just pay us, so just pay us.’ And most people do it.”

In addition to being a professional plaintiff, Garcia is also a four-time convicted felon.
However, the aforementioned case is hardly the most egregious example of an illegal alien exploiting our legal system.

On April 17, 2009, the Orange County Board of Supervisors agreed to pay $3.75 million, plus an additional $900,000 in medical expenses to an illegal alien who was severely beaten by other inmates in the Orange County Central Jail. The Mexican national filed a lawsuit shortly after the incident.

Fernando Ramirez, 24, was in jail after being charged with molesting a 6-year-old girl at a local park. He eventually pled guilty to the lesser charge of battery against a child.

According to his attorney, Ramirez suffered brain damage and consequently needed help walking.
Attorney Mark Eisenberg also claimed that his client was left with the intellect of a 4-year-old child.

Despite the dire financial crisis facing Orange County, Ramirez received the largest settlement ever awarded by the county for an in-custody incident. The Board of Supervisors made their decision in a closed-door session and have since, refused any comment on the matter.

Except for one story carried by the Orange County Register, there has been no press coverage of this matter. One would think that an illegal alien child molester becoming a millionaire through taxpayer funding would be big news.

Then again, such a story would be likely to make citizens angry, not only at those who come here illegally but at those who enable and excuse their presence in this country as well.

Of course, there are many more examples to make one’s blood boil…

A 2008 New York Times article told the incredible story of a1999 Florida car crash which left Guatemalan national Luis Alberto Jimenez with severe and permanent physical and mental injuries. After spending more than $1 million on Jimenez’s treatment, and several failed attempts to secure assistance from the government of Guatemala, the Florida hospital eventually paid to fly Jimenez back to his own country.

The incredible part of the story…Jimenez sued the Florida hospital, which he claimed “falsely imprisoned” him and deported him against his will, to avoid anymore unpaid medical bills.
In 2009, a jury sided with the hospital and Jimenez's lawsuit was dismissed.

Perhaps, the most outrageous example of the abuse of the U.S. legal system came from convicted Mexican drug smuggler Osvalda Aldrete-Davila who was shot by Border Patrol Agent Jose Compean in 2005.

After receiving more than $30,000 worth of medical treatment at a U.S. Army facility for the bullet wound in his rear end, he sued the Border Patrol for $5 million, claiming that Agents Ramos and Compean violated his civil rights.

Davila is now serving a nine year prison sentence for bringing more than 100 kilos of marijuana across the border.

The U.S. government has been very tight-lipped about the lawsuit, but it appears that the suit was actually settled for an undisclosed amount, and the case has been sealed.

SOURCE: Examiner.com

High school teacher tells graduating students: you’re not special

Commencement speech aims to deflate self-important kids



He gets points for being blunt, at least.

A straight-talking English teacher at Wellesley High School set out to take students down a notch in his speech to the class of 2012, by telling them they’re nothing special.

“You are not special. You are not exceptional,” David McCullough Jr. told graduating seniors from the affluent Massachusetts town last weekend.

The teacher's controversial advice caught the nation's eye, in an age where many believe today's youth suffer from a sense of self-importance.

"Yes, you've been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped," McCullough said in his speech. “Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, taught you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again. You've been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored. You've been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie. ... But do not get the idea you're anything special. Because you're not."

Driving the point home, he added, "Think about this: even if you're one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means there are nearly 7,000 people just like you."

The teacher warned students that Americans have come to appreciate accolades more than genuine achievement, and will compromise standards in order to secure a higher spot on the social totem pole.

"As a consequence, we cheapen worthy endeavors, and building a Guatemalan medical clinic becomes more about the application to Bowdoin than the well-being of the Guatemalans," he said.

In the quest for accomplishment, everything gets watered down. A 'B' is the new 'C.' Midlevel courses are the new advanced placement, the teacher said.

The reaction to the teacher's blunt advice was overwhelmingly positive, both from students at the receiving end of the reality check and people who saw the speech as it circulated the Internet this week.

"For once someone told us what we need to hear and not necessarily what we wanted to hear," said one commenter on The Swellesley Report.

"Undoing all 'they've' done in on 10-minute speech. My faith in the world may have been restored," another commenter said.

McCullough, the son of the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough, explained his provocative words on Fox News Wednesday, saying kids need to struggle and stumble to make it in today's difficult, competitive world, but too often parents are there to throw the pillows on the floor.

"So many of the adults around them — the behavior of the adults around them — gives them this sort of inflated sense of themselves. And I thought they needed a little context, a little perspective," McCullough told Fox News. "To send them off into the world with an inflated sense of themselves is doing them no favors."



Source: New York Daily News

Mom Speaks Out After Being Told Not To Breastfeed In Public

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – A Minneapolis mom is speaking out after a security guard told her to leave the library because she was breastfeeding in public.

It happened recently at the Minneapolis Central Library. But Minnesota law says a mother may breastfeed in any location, public or private. Hennepin County Security says it’s turning this example into a teachable moment for its employees.

Mother Hadley Barrows said she considers nursing a privilege. Although she does admit that isn’t always easy.

“There are enough obstacles to nursing as it is, without having people make you feel like a criminal for doing it,” she said. Article Continues>>

U.N. could tax U.S.-based Web sites, leaked docs show

Global Internet tax suggested by European network operators, who want Apple, Google, and other Web companies to pay to deliver content, is proposed for debate at a U.N. agency in December.

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Metro State College of Denver OKs tuition cut for illegal immigrants


Yolanda Ortega, right, who has been with Metropolitan State College of Denver for 40 years, hugs aspiring student Fanny Garcia, 25, on Thursday after the school's board of trustees voted 7-1 to pass a tuition break for illegal-immigrant students. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

REPORT: High school cancels Hollywood producer's grad speech over 'right-wing' views

UPDATED: A high-school principal told Oscar-winner Gerald Molen he could not deliver his speech because he is a "right-wing conservative;" on Friday, a district official apologized.

READ MORE

DOMINATE: COMCAST Mulling Bid for BSkyB



Comcast is exploring whether the British Sky Broadcasting Group, Britain’s largest satellite broadcaster and a lucrative pay TV asset 39 percent owned by News Corporation, could become available for purchase, according to several people briefed on the company’s strategic thinking.

FULL STORY

Quran found in Miami cannibal's car

Friday, June 8, 2012

Who Will Protect the Freedom to Blog?

Free speech is under fire. Online thugs are targeting bloggers (mostly conservative, but not all) who have dared to expose a convicted bomber and perjuring vexatious litigant who is now enjoying a comfy life as a liberally subsidized social justice operative. Where do your elected representatives stand on this threat to our founding principles?

On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-GA, bravely stepped forward to press this vital issue. In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Chambliss decried the "harassing and frightening actions" of Internet menaces who recently have gone after several conservative new media citizen journalists and activists.

GOP Rep. Kenny Marchant of Texas added his voice, telling Holder in a statement that he is "very afraid of the potential chilling effects that these reported actions may have in silencing individuals who would otherwise be inclined to exercise their Constitutional right to free speech." And the American Center for Law and Justice, a leading conservative free speech public interest law firm, announced it was providing legal representation to the National Bloggers Club -- a new media association that has provided support and raised funds for targets of this coordinated harassment. (Full disclosure: I volunteer on the National Bloggers Club board of directors.)

The ACLJ described the importance of the case very simply: "Free speech is under attack."

Chambliss and Marchant called specific attention to one terrifying tactic against these bloggers: SWAT-ting. These hoaxes occur "when a perpetrator contacts local police to report a violent incident at a target's home." Callers disguise their true identities and locations in order to provoke a potentially deadly SWAT/police response descending upon the targets' homes.

As online conservatives -- and now ABC News -- have reported, recent SWAT-ting victims include New Jersey-based Mike Stack, a blogger and Twitter user targeted last summer after helping to expose disgraced former N.Y. Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner's shady social media activities; California blogger Patrick Frey, a deputy district attorney at Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office who recently posted a bone-chilling account and audio of his summer 2011 SWAT-ting on his blog, Patterico.com; and CNN contributor and RedState.com managing editor Erick Erickson, whose Georgia home was targeted by a faker claiming an "accidental shooting" there late last month.

PAGE TWO>>

How to spot a sociopath - 10 red flags that could save you from being swept under the influence of a charismatic nut job

(NaturalNews) One of the more offensive duties of being an investigative journalist is taking out the trash -- exposing liars, fraudsters, con artists and scammers for the people they truly are. Each time we investigate a sociopath, we find that they always have a little cult group following of spellbound worshippers who consider that particular sociopath to be a "guru" or "prophet."

Sociopaths are masters at influence and deception. Very little of what they say actually checks out in terms of facts or reality, but they're extremely skillful at making the things they say sound believable, even if they're just making them up out of thin air. Here, I'm going to present quotes and videos of some legendary sociopaths who convinced everyday people to participate in mass suicides. And then I'm going to demonstrate how and why similar sociopaths are operating right now... today....

IRONIC: White House rejects calls for special counsel for national security leaks

THE HILL:

The White House on Thursday rejected congressional calls for a special counsel to investigate a spate of recent national-security leaks described as among the worst lawmakers have ever seen.............

Left pushes for $10 minimum wage, but House Democratic leadership balks

The House Democrats pushing for a steep hike in the minimum wage could face an unlikely foe: their own leadership.

Behind Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (Ill.), almost two dozen liberal Democrats endorsed legislation this week to raise the federal minimum wage immediately from $7.25 to $10 per hour, the first such increase in three years.

The lawmakers think they’ve found a winning issue in an election cycle that’s featured the rise of the Occupy movement, criticism of Mitt Romney’s path to wealth and a class-centered fight over the Bush-era tax rates.

Continued at The Hill>>

Former ACORN Director Gets $445 Mil From U.S. Treasury

The Obama Administration has given a former director at the scandal-plagued Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) nearly half a billion dollars to offer “struggling” Illinois homeowners mortgage assistance, a Judicial Watch investigation has found.

Judicial Watch has the FULL STORY>>

Alabama Bans U.N. Agenda 21 Sovereignty Surrender

Property Rights: Few have heard of Agenda 21, the U.N. plan for sustainable development that tosses property rights aside. But Alabama has, and it recently secured a victory as important as that over union power in Wisconsin.

After Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's stunning triumph over the excesses and abuses of public-sector unions, the London Telegraph's James Delingpole, an indefatigable opponent of global warming fraud, opined in a piece titled, "How Wisconsin And Alabama Helped Save The World," that we should take note of "an equally important but perhaps less well-publicized victory won in the Alabama House and Senate over the U.N.'s malign and insidious Agenda 21."

Agenda 21 is one of those compacts, like Law of the Sea, Kyoto and New START, that are supported by an apologetic administration with a fondness for the redistribution of American power and wealth on a local and global scale.

It fits in perfectly with President Obama's pledge to "fundamentally transform" America, its institutions and its heritage of capitalist freedom.

Agenda 21 has not been ratified by the U.S. Senate, but it may not have to be if in a second Obama term the Environmental Protection Agency pursues it by stealth, as it has other environmental agendas that make war on the free enterprise system and rights we hold dear.

One of those is property rights. "Land ... cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market," Agenda 21 says.

"Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice; if unchecked, it may become a major obstacle in the planning and implementation of development schemes."

Not liking the sound of that, Alabama recently passed Senate Bill 477 unanimously in both of its houses. The legislation bars the taking of private property in Alabama without due process and says that "Alabama and all political subdivisions may not adopt or implement policy recommendations that deliberately or inadvertently infringe or restrict private property rights without due process, as may be required by policy recommendations originating in or traceable to Agenda 21."

Agenda 21 is intended to foster what environmentalists call "sustainable development" in the belief that man since the Industrial Revolution has been a plague on the planet, plundering its resources while destroying nature and putting the world at risk of disastrous climate change, poverty and disease.

PAGE TWO>>

A Biblical Perspective and Book Review of Michael Savage’s Trickle Down Tyranny

My dear friends I just finished Michael Savage’s new book “Trickle Down Tyranny: Crushing Obama's Dream of the Socialist States of America” and you will NOT be disappointed with this read. First of all let me state that I love Dr. Savage’s energy and passion for speaking out against the secular progressive Marxist movement of our day. No one is more blunt and honest in his evaluation of our nation and our day. Michael is a great light for freedom and a voice of reason in a day when our nation is in its very death throes. Dr. Savage’s insight, critique and perspective looks deeper into the state of our nation then any other of the conservative talk show hosts out there and is absolutely committed and fearless in his critique of the ills and threats that seek to destroy this nation.

Dr. Savage’s insight, critique and perspective looks deeper into the state of our nation then any other of the conservative talk show hosts out there and is absolutely committed and fearless in his critique of the ills and threats that seek to destroy this nation.

Secondly let me state that this book review is not a suck up to Dr. Savage but an objective “biblical” evaluation of his new book. I greatly respect Dr. Savage but have some disagreements with him and his lack of an ETERNAL perspective on earthly matters.

Book Review

Dr. Savage’s book starts out with Michael’s “solutions” on how to fix the nation and suggestions for America’s next President, who most likely will be a compromising social liberal and a moderate fiscal conservative. Dr. Savage’s solutions are excellent but in the light of the reality of our hour they fall short since there are no resources left here in America (socially, fiscally and morally) to implement and radically change our nation back to the time of our founding fathers let alone to a pre 50’s world. This is not a defeatist attitude that many would like to label me with. It is an objective perspective in light of the social trends and cultural devastation of our day. It gives me absolutely no pleasure in predicting only social implosion, anarchy, blood shed and civil war and finally 666 for America’s future (Rev. 13:16-18).

Dr. Savage’s solutions are excellent but in the light of the reality of our hour they fall short since there are no resources left here in America (socially, fiscally and morally) to implement and radically change our nation back to the time of our founding fathers let alone to a pre 50’s world.

We as a nation and people are far past the point of no return and that is a reality that we must face. That does not mean that we do not stop fighting but we are at the Alamo. Dr. Savage as well as all the other “earthly minded” subjective conservative radio talking heads forsake and abandon Almighty God’s Word and Heavenly ETERNAL perspective for a limited sighted earthly perspective which offers no lasting remedies in light of ETERNITY'S sobering realities and demands. Dr. Savage only offers his viewers and reader an optimistic and futile solution that again can NEVER provide any true solutions for now and the ETERNAL future (John 3:3-7, Rom. 8:5-8, 1 Cor. 2:11-14). The key to evaluating the course of this world is from Almighty God’s ETERNAL perspective and if one rejects that REALITY and ASSESSMENT one is only left to come up with finite, limited and temporal solutions for a fallen world that do not stand the test of time let alone ETERNITY (1 John. 2:16-17). There is a sense in this book that Dr. Savage is at his wits end and knows in his heart of hearts that the jig is up for this world and America. What we find in this read is Michael's Hail Mary pass into the end zone of delusional hope, which has no wide receivers (Eccl.).

One thing that saddened me in this book was that Michael professes his relativistic deistic view of Almighty God, Who is the Creator of Heaven and Earth and all the beyond extraordinary wonders and genius that is therein (Rom. 1:18-22). This in itself is ETERNALLY tragic for it is this deistic subjective perspective that keep Dr. Savage in his continual bondage to the god of this world - who is the Master Politician and tyrant of humanity (Eph. 2:1-2,6:12, Heb. 2:14-15) – and has given him NO true shalom.

The Meat of the Book

In this book Michael gives the deepest political insight into Obama's presidency, his Marxist background, his Anti- Israel policies, Obama’s cabinet members, associates and the Obama agenda of the last 3 ½ years. There is so much in this book that you will find yourself stating, “I forgot about that!” You will not be able to put this read down and it will remind you just who and what this man Obama and his cronies have done and are seeking to do to our nation, his genuine hatred for it and our constitution and the betraying of the nation Israel. If you have been living under a rock or visiting this planet from Mars or have finally have been able to put down the progressive kool-aid glass and pull yourself away and from watching MSNBC, Michael’s insight, evaluation and in depth documented analysis will get you up to date on the Obama agenda and just how dire our American state truly is all in just one read. Dr. Savage’s research and analysis in this book is very deep which provides excellent insight to the reader about whom and what President Obama and his goal and agenda for transforming America and betraying Israel truly is.

If you have been living under a rock or visiting this planet from Mars or have finally have been able to put down the progressive kool-aid glass and pull yourself away and from watching MSNBC Michael’s insight, evaluation and in depth documented analysis will get you up to date on the Obama agenda and just how dire America state truly is just one read.

From a subjective world perspective we here at the IFB give Michael’s book 5 out of 5 stars for it is a solid and totally in depth analysis of the Obama agenda over these last 3 ½ years. There is none other out there that can be compared to Trickle Down Tyranny.


From an objective ETERNAL perspective this book is a zero. There is nothing here that will get you to God’s saving grace or the reality of what is at our world’s doorstep (Isa. 24:5-6, 2 Thess. 2:3-12, Rev. 6-19). This is the point of this book review that I get to sound like a rabid “Christian” zealot bigot… but my dear friends what would I be if I was not to warn you about the ETERNAL weight of all matters earthly? I would be no different then those who preach a delusional optimistic appraisal of a dying rebellious world’s suicide march against Almighty God to Armageddon (Rev. 16:13-16, 19:11-21).

From an objective ETERNAL perspective this book is a zero. There is nothing here that will get you to God’s saving grace or the reality of what is at our world’s door step.

The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Elijah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, John the Baptist, Paul the Apostle and Dr. J. Vernon McGee is my God, the God of ETERNITY, the God of TRUTH and REALITY. Almighty God and His Son Jesus Messiah is what this fallen world is all about. My dear friend, leave Them out and insanity, pessimism, hopelessness and ETERNAL ruin and destruction will FOREVER be before you (John 3:36, Rev. 20:11-15).

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand my dear friends! Let no one tell you other wise!

It is our sincere desire that Dr. Savage and all his listeners would abandon their subjective world perspective and come to know and believe in the God of Israel, the God of all ETERNITY and cast aside his “spiritual” relativism for REALITY, TRUTH and a ETERNAL HEAVENLY PERSPECTIVE that would set him free in this world and prepare him for the next (Isa. 53, Zech. 12:8-12, 13:1-2, John 3:16-17, Rom. 10:2-4).

The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand my dear friends! Let no one tell you otherwise!

Even so Come Lord Jesus Messiah

DJP I.F.

Posted by The Ignorant Fishermen at 12:25 PM

For 25th, Pelosi gets a hug from Boehner



MORE FROM POLITICO

Links to Obama campaign show fashion industry’s political clout is growing



On Tuesday, Anna Wintour, the Vogue editor who holds sway over much of the U.S fashion industry, is expected in Chicago, where she and supermodel Iman will join President Obama’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, for a night of stumping. For $1,000, donors can schmooze, shop and pose for photos with the storied editor.

Two days later, Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker are planning to host a $40,000-a-plate fundraising dinner with the Obamas at Parker’s New York home.

The two high-priced, high-profile events put the spotlight on a symbiotic relationship developing between the Obama campaign, with its style-conscious first lady who dons a wide variety of American designers, and a deep-pocketed, largely Democratic fashion industry, which has been increasingly coordinating its support of Obama.

In February in New York, right before Fashion Week, Wintour and actress Scarlett Johansson hosted a fundraiser for the launch of the campaign’s Runway to Win online store and “project by fashion designers in support of Obama 2012,” which sells scarves, T-shirts and wristlets created by 22 designers to raise money for the reelection effort. After the success of the 2008’s Runway to Change site, which raised more than $1 million, the campaign is putting stock in fashion-forward initiatives.

NEXT: Deep-pocketed assistance