Monthly Archives: July 2012

2012 Primary, Communications Theory, Culture War

12 TOP REASONS WHY ALL USEFUL IDIOTS VOTED DEMOCRAT

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12 TOP REASONS WHY ALL USEFUL IDIOTS VOTED DEMOCRAT

1. I voted Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry whatever I want. I’ve decided to marry my German Shepherd.

2. I voted Democrat because I believe oil companies’ profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene, but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn’t.

3. I voted Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the money I earn than I would.

4. I voted Democrat because Freedom of Speech is fine as long as nobody is offended by it.

5. I voted Democrat because I’m way too irresponsible to own a gun, and I know that my local police are all I need to protect me from murderers and thieves.

6. I voted Democrat because I believe that people who can’t tell us if it will rain on Friday can tell us that the polar ice caps will melt away in ten years if I don’t start driving a Prius.

7. I voted Democrat because I’m not concerned about millions of babies being aborted so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.

8. I voted Democrat because I think illegal aliens have a right to free health care, education, and Social Security benefits, and we should take away the social security from those who paid into it.

9. I voted Democrat because I believe that businesses should not be allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give the rest away to the government for redistribution as the Democrats see fit.

10. I voted Democrat because I believe liberal judges need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit some fringe kooks who would never get their agendas past the voters.

11. I voted Democrat because I think that it’s better to pay billions for their oil to people who hate us, but not drill our own because it might upset some endangered beetle, gopher or fish.

12. I voted Democrat because my head is so firmly planted up my a** it’s unlikely that I’ll ever have another point of view.

Thank you: Andrea Plescia

2012 Primary, Civility, Dirty Tricks, Mitt Romney, Obama, True Talking Points, Unhinged

Pelosi trashes Romney for offshore investments; has offshore investments of her own!

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Nancy Pelosi
House Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi

Of course there is nothing wrong with investing in businesses and other ventures in other countries. The whole idea is to demonize Mitt Romney because he is wealthy. The Kennedy’s, Feinstien’s and Kerry’s are loaded too, but they are Democrats so we don’t talk about that…..

Godfather Politics and the Daily Caller:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi who has also been actively criticizing Romney’s business dealings has herself made millions from foreign investments.  For instance, her 2011 financial disclosures listed an income up to $5 million from an international capital group that specializes in Asian investments.

Even more hypocritical of Pelosi is the fact that she invested in Moduslink Global which just so happens to be one of the outsourcing companies linked to Bain Capital and Mitt Romney.  Oh, Nancy, can we say pot calling the kettle black?

The DC:

On the heels of The Weekly Standard’s report yesterday that DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz — a vocal critic of Mitt Romney‘s investing practices, had herself dabbled in the foreign markets — we can add Nancy Pelosi to the list of prominent Democrats to profit from overseas investments.

According to Pelosi’s 2011 financial disclosure statement, the Democratic House Minority Leader received between $1 million and $5 million in partnership income from ”Matthews International Capital Management LLC,” a group that emphasizes that it has a “A Singular Focus on Investing in Asia.” A quick trip to the company website reveals a featured post extolling the virtues of outsourcing.

“Designed in California, Made in Manila” sounds like an excellent title for a smear ad to be run the by the Barack Obama campaign. Instead, it appears to be Nancy Pelosi’s investment strategy.

Pelosi is also a small investor in the embattled “Moduslink Global,” one of the “outsourcing pioneers” that Mitt Romney has been criticized for associating with while at Bain Capital.

2012 Primary, Econ, Jobs, Obama, Stuck on Stupid, True Talking Points

More information on Obama stimulus outsourcing…

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Go to this website for some good information on the jobs the Obama Administration outsourced with billions of your stimulus money.

http://www.obamanomicsoutsourced.com/

Related:

Gov. Sununu destroys Andrea Mitchell while she struggles to defend Obama’s stimulus outsourcing (video) – LINK

ABC’s Jake Tapper Blasts Obama’s Double Standard on Jobs and Outsourcing – LINK

2012 Primary, Dirty Tricks, Econ, Health Law, Obama, True Talking Points

ObamaCare promises access to “coverage” for those with existing conditions, but over time limits health care access…

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And the cost of that coverage will go up exponentially even in the first decade after full implementation, so ObamaCare leaves you with not just limited access and even bureaucrats who can deny you access to healthcare, but over time it prices the coverage itself out of reach, so all you are left with is paying the penalty tax (which is one of the primary goals of ObamaCare to begin with).

Read every last word….

Dr. Susan Berry:

The truth is that, while a definite problem has prevailed for those with pre-existing medical conditions who have attempted to obtain health insurance coverage, that problem is small and manageable and can be adequately addressed with common-sense free market solutions. Most people, regardless of political ideology, want all Americans to be able to purchase health insurance coverage and gain access to care. The difference is not in the desire but in the policies that will get the job done. Neither Republicans nor Democrats have been successful in this endeavor to date.

With ObamaTax, the left has chosen a big government policy that will offer a very brief period of health care access to individuals with pre-existing conditions, followed by little or no access to care as Americans cope with long lines to see doctors. They will soon face an Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), a group of unelected government bureaucrats, who, as their name says, will be more concerned with payment than health care.

The “pre-existing condition” feature of ObamaTax is, indeed, a hoax, because it assumes that, once the law is fully implemented, those with pre-existing conditions will still be able to schedule an appointment with their doctors and specialists within a reasonable period of time. The law assumes this despite the fact that, at full implementation, all the currently uninsured will be added to the rolls as patients to the health care system.

Consider that a recent survey, released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association, found that 83% of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Obama’s health care reform law, and 72% say the individual insurance mandate will not result in improved access to care. In addition, 74% of the physicians surveyed say they will stop accepting Medicare patients or leave Medicare panels completely, while 49% indicate they will stop accepting Medicaid patients.

What this means is that the number of doctors available–the supply of physicians–will likely decrease as the demand for services increases. Sure, you might be able to see a nurse practitioner for a cold or cough, but the wait to see a specialist for those “pre-existing conditions” will seem like an eternity.

In addition, those with serious pre-existing conditions who require a substantial amount of medical care will need to keep in mind that, once the IPAB is activated, their ability to obtain the access to care they need will be determined by this board of government bureaucrats. To be blunt, the IPAB will decide if it’s worth it for funds to be spent on care for someone who requires much of it yet may never get well, as opposed to someone who is likely to recover and be “useful to society.”

Let’s look at the situation of parents who have a child with special needs. Though supporters of ObamaTax will say that a child with a pre-existing condition is automatically entitled to health insurance coverage, the fact is that, when the law is fully implemented, limitations will be imposed on Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Since the demand for the services of specialists will increase dramatically, gaining access to the supply of care needed will grow difficult.

Academic Misconduct, Culture War, Education, School Indoctrination, Stuck on Stupid, True Talking Points

Book: How Imperial Academia Dismantled Our Culture and Ushered In the Obamacrats

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Washington Free Beacon:

Prolific author David Gelernter has covered subjects ranging from technology to Judaism, but America-Lite: How Imperial Academia Dismantled Our Culture (and Ushered In the Obamacrats) is his first unabashedly political book.

Gelernter opposes Barack Obama primarily because Obama is one of the “Airheads” produced by the U.S. educational system.

“Obama is an Airhead and no ordinary ideologue,” writes Gelernter in America-Lite, “but he is certainly a left-liberal; he repeats the doctrine he learned from left-liberal intellectuals.”

Gelernter, a professor of computer science at Yale, said his teaching experience has contributed enormously to his pessimistic assessment of American culture. “Every year I see a new class of smart kids, motivated kids, who are just ignorant,” said Gelernter.

“We educators have a responsibility,” said Gelernter, “and we’re failing.”

America-Lite shows “how we lost control of our own culture,” and how the “sullen, seething contempt for Western culture” that characterizes many educators is producing generations of ignorant citizens (dubbed “Airheads” by Gelernter) who accept liberal ideology because it is all they’ve ever known.

Gelernter called out conservatives, saying Republicans are focusing on secondary issues and avoiding the “deeper problems” in American culture.

“Conservatives are letting the country down,” said Gelernter.

From the book description:

America-Lite (where we all live) is just like America, only turned into an amusement park or a video game or a supersized Pinkberry, where the past and future are blank and there is only a big NOW. How did we come to expect no virtue and so much cynicism from our culture, our leaders—and each other?

In this refreshingly judgmental book, David Gelernter connects the historical dots to reveal a stealth revolution carried out by post-religious globalist intellectuals who, by and large, “can’t run their own universities or scholarly fields, but are very sure they can run you.” These imperial academics have deployed their students into the top echelon of professions once monopolized by staid and steady WASPs. In this simple way, they have installed themselves as the new designated drivers of American culture.

Imperial academics live in a world of theory; they preach disdain for mere facts and for old-fashioned fact-based judgments like true or false. Schoolchildren are routinely taught theories about history instead of actual history—they learn, for example, that all nations are equally nice except for America, which is nearly always nasty.

With academic experts to do our thinking for us, we’ve politely shut up and let second-raters take the wheel. In fact, we have handed the keys to the star pupil and teacher’s pet of the post-religious globalist intellectuals, whose election to the presidency of the United States constituted the ultimate global group hug.

How do we finally face the truth and get back into the driver’s seat? America-Lite ends with a one-point plan.

Academic Misconduct, Alarmism, Culture War, Education, School Indoctrination, True Talking Points

Penn State Administrators “forged an agreement to conceal Sandusky’s sexual attacks”. Pattern of Coverup.

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Before we get on to the child abuse scandal, this writer has been paying attention to what has been going on at Penn State for some time. The administration at Penn State has a long history of unethical, radical, and other bad behavior including coverups of other scandals. Here are some examples:

Penn State makes a video painting returning veterans as dumb, mentally unstable, and violent – LINK

Professor at Penn State explains how to teach anti-Israel propaganda to students (video) – LINK

Until the Sandusky Scandal, the most recent internationally covered scandal at Penn State was with their premier climate Scientist Michael Mann. Prof. Mann is one of the infamous “ClimateGate” scientists, who’s own emails revealed that Mann, along with other leftist climate scientists, manipulated data, destroyed data that concerned them, used ridicule and pressure tactics to manipulate the peer review process, etc all in an effort to push global warming alarmism. According to their own emails they had agreed that if ever caught they would destroy much of their raw data, which they did.

Understand that billions of dollars (including billions of your tax dollars) has been spent on the global warming question and as a result Prof. Mann brought in millions for himself and Penn State University. So when the emails were leaked and they were as caught as caught could be, and when other climate scientists started to back away from the claims of Dr. Mann and others at the IPCC, Penn State was pressured to have an investigation of Prof. Mann and their investigation said that Prof. Mann did nothing wrong and totally cleared him, even though the evidence was plain as could be and in the public domain – LINK –  LINK –  LINK.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education has cataloged a list of cases of illegal censorship, retaliation, and discrimination at Penn State as long as your desk – LINK.

While such a child abuse scandal may be unusual on our college campuses, the pattern of abuse of power, illegal actions and the effort to cover them up is typical of university administrations and is a huge problem.

CNN:

State College, Pennsylvania (CNN) — The most powerful leaders at Penn State University showed “total and consistent disregard” for child sex abuse victims while covering up the attacks of a longtime sexual predator, according to an internal review into how the school handled a scandal involving its former assistant football coach.

Investigators conducted more than 400 interviews and found that several officials had “empowered” Jerry Sandusky to continue his abuse, while Joe Paterno, the school’s legendary head football coach, could have stopped the attacks had he done more, investigators said Thursday.

Read the report here (PDF)

In a scandal that has shaken Pennsylvania residents and gripped the nation, leading to Paterno’s dismissal and the ouster of longtime president Graham Spanier, Louis Freeh, the former FBI director who led the review, said top university officials forged an agreement to conceal Sandusky’s sexual attacks more than a decade ago.

“There are more red flags here than you can count,” said Freeh, emphasizing the abuse occurred just “steps away” from where Paterno worked in the university’s Lasch Building.

Freeh’s 267-page report is the product of a Penn State-funded investigation, which is separate from a government investigation into charges of perjury and failure to report abuse pinned against the school’s former Athletic Director Tim Curley and ex-Vice President Gary Schultz.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office is investigating what Penn State knew about a 2001 incident of child sex abuse by Sandusky, reported by then-graduate assistant Mike McQueary, and how it was handled.

Neither McQueary, Sandusky nor Paterno — who died in January — were interviewed by Freeh’s team and no trial date has been set for Curley and Schultz, though proceedings are expected to begin later in July.

The prosecution of Curley and Schultz comes on the heels of the widely watched Sandusky trial, in which the former defensive coordinator was convicted of sexually abusing young boys over 15 years.

“Our most saddening and sobering finding is the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State,” Freeh wrote. “The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.”

The Wall Street Journal also covered the Freeh Report on Penn State HERE.

2012 Primary, Health Law, Obama, Taxes, True Talking Points

Taxmageddon: A slew of new taxes to hit in 2013

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Heritage:

http://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/2012/pdf/ib3558.pdf

Starting January 1, 2013, Americans will face a $494 billion tax increase, the highest ever in one year. According to The Washington Post, congressional aides started calling it “Taxmageddon“—a chilling reference fit for an apocalyptic nightmare. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has warned that it will be a “massive fiscal cliff” for the economy.

This impending tax increase is mostly the result of the expiration of many long-standing policies that all expire at the end of 2012. President Obama and Congress should start working together now to prevent this massive tax increase rather than waiting until the end of the year. That would assure families, businesses, and investors that their taxes will not rise sharply as the economy is still staggering to its feet and show the voters that Washington really can get important things done—even in an election year.

Taxmageddon Is Huge

Taxmageddon is a $494 billion tax increase that strikes at the beginning of 2013. Under current law, tax policies in seven different categories will expire, and five of the 18 new tax hikes from Obamacare will begin.

These tax hikes will raise $494 billion in 2013 but will remain in place unless President Obama and Congress stop them. Taxpayers would see even bigger tax hikes in succeeding years as the tax increases raise more revenue as the economy grows. [And this is only a partial list folks. See the rest in the PDF link above – Political Arena Editor]

2012 Primary, Econ, Health Law, Lies, Obama, True Talking Points

Broken Promises in Obamacare. More New Taxes.

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Via the Heritage Foundation:

Yesterday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) almost called Obamacare’s individual mandate a tax, stopping mid-word to call it a “penalty”. White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew and other spokespersons echoed this talking point. This is in spite of last week’s Supreme Court ruling that deemed the mandate unconstitutional under both the Commerce Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause, but ruled that it could stand as part of Congress’s authority to “lay and collect taxes.”

Dubbing the individual mandate a tax saved the President’s health care law, but it’s a concept that President Obama himself has strongly denied. In a 2009 interview, President Obama argued that his individual mandate was not a tax increase, stating, “I absolutely reject that notion.”

But after last week, President Obama must now admit it’s a tax or admit the mandate is unconstitutional. It’s can only be one or the other.

The mandate is in fact a tax, and it’s just one of many new taxes that hit the middle class in Obamacare. Lo and behold, another broken promise. President Obama claims that the mandate is holding people responsible, keeping with that spirit, here’s a reminder of the other promises the President and his health care law are responsible for breaking:

Promise #1: “Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.”

Reality: The individual mandate is far from alone on Heritage’s lengthy list of Obamacare’s new taxes and penalties, many of which will heavily impact the middle class. Altogether, Obamacare’s taxes and penalties will accumulate an additional $500 billion in new revenue over a 10-year period. Yesterday, a senior economist for The Wall Street Journal revealed that 75 percent of Obamacare’s new taxes will be paid for by American families making under $120,000 a year. Among the taxes that will hit the middle class are the individual mandate, a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices, a 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning, and an increase of the floor on medical deductions from 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income to 10 percent.

Promise #2: “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period.”

Reality: Research continues to show that as many as 30 percent of employers will dump their employees from their existing health care coverage. The Administration itself has admitted that “as a practical matter, a majority of group health plans will lose their grandfather status by 2013.”

Promise #3: “I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits—either now or in the future.”

Reality: As Heritage analysts explain, “A close examination of what [the Congressional Budget Office] said, as well as other evidence, makes it clear that the deficit reduction associated with [Obamacare] is based on budget gimmicks, sleights of hand, accounting tricks, and completely implausible assumptions. A more honest accounting reveals the new law as a trillion-dollar budget buster.”

Promise #4: “I will protect Medicare.”

Reality: A Heritage Factsheet shows the various ways Obamacare ends Medicare as we know it, including severe physician reimbursement cuts that threaten seniors’ access to care and putting an unelected board of bureaucrats in charge of meeting Medicare’s new spending cap.

Promise #5: “I will sign a universal health care bill into law by the end of my first term as president that will cover every American and cut the cost of a typical family’s premium by up to $2,500 a year.”

Reality: Obamacare does not accomplish universal coverage; it leaves 26 million Americans without insurance. Moreover, Heritage research outlines 12 ways that Obamacare will increase premiums instead of reducing health care costs. Requirements that plans allow young adults to stay on their parents’ coverage and offer preventive services with no cost sharing are already leading to higher growth in premiums.

When polled, 70 percent of Americans held an unfavorable view of the individual mandate. It’s doubtful that calling it a “tax” will dramatically change their opinion. Now that Obamacare and its broken promises remain the law of the land, it’s up to the American people to see to it that the law is ultimately repealed by Congress. Then, they can move forward with real reform that puts patients’ needs first.

Quick Hits:

2012 Primary, Health Law, Obama, SCOTUS, True Talking Points

27% Less Likely to Vote for Obama After Supreme Court Ruling

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Chief Roberts got his wish, he got involved in the election.

TownHall and Quinnipiac University:

Now that ObamaCare has been upheld as a massive new tax, the Supreme Court decision not the scrap the legislation is bleeding into the political arena in a very big way. According to a new Quinnipiac Poll, 27 percent of voters are now less likely to vote for Obama. Independent voters are in the same boat.

A total of 55 percent of American voters say a presidential candidate’s position on health care is “extremely important” or “very important” to their vote in November, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll finds. While 59 percent say the Supreme Court decision will not affect their vote, 27 percent say it will make them less likely to vote for President Barack Obama, while 12 percent say more likely. Independent voters say less likely 27 – 9 percent. [Meaning 27% of Independents less likely to vote for Obama after the SCOTUS ruling and 9% more likely – Political Arena Editor]

2012 Primary, Culture War, Jihad, Obama, Stuck on Stupid, True Talking Points

Obama Administration: Murdering 1,000 Christians Is Not Terrorism

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You just can’t make this stuff up folks…

Via Godfather Blog and Jewish World Review:

In the past three years, over 1,000 Christians in Nigeria have been brutally murdered by an extremist Islamic group known as Boko Haram and the United States has refused to classify the group as being a terrorist organization.

Nigeria’s Christian leaders had asked the United States government to place Boko Haram on the list of terrorist organizations.  The radical Islamic group has vowed to eradicate all Christians from Nigerian soil and will continue to murder men, women and children in the process unless something is done to stop them.

Instead of declaring Boko Haram a terrorist organization, the U.S. government only placed three of the group’s leaders on a terrorist blacklist and then said that it was more important to address social inequalities in the country first.  Christian leaders in Nigeria said the actions or perhaps lack of action by the United States has only served to make the group bolder and more aggressive in their pursuit to exterminate the remaining Christians.

Appearing before House Foreign Affairs Committee, Christian Association of Nigeria President Ayo Oritsejafor said the decision was:

“The equivalent of designating (Osama) bin Laden a terrorist but failing to designate Al-Qaeda a terrorist organization.”

“By refusing to designate Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization, the United States is sending a very clear message, not just to the federal government of Nigeria, but to the world that the murder of innocent Christians and Muslims who reject Islamism — and I make a clear distinction here between Islam and Islamism — are acceptable losses.”

“It is hypocritical for the United States and the international community to say that they believe in freedom and equality when their actions do not support those who are being persecuted.”

2012 Primary, Mitt Romney, Obama, True Talking Points

Gov. Sununu: Obama is dumb enough to inject the word “felony” in the discourse when he is from Chicago and surrounded by felons (video)

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Tony Rezco, Bill Ayers, Bernadine Dorhn, and Obama was a campaign chairman for Rod Blagoyevich and this is just the surface. Eric Holder with the his illegal gun running to Mexican drug cartels….

…and Mitt Romney is the felon? Gimme a break.

Obama’s list of felonious associations can be found HERE.

2012 Primary, Energy Policy, Obama, Pay to Play, True Talking Points

Political Ad: This is how Obama defines “a fair shot” (video)

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With so many of thee green energy boondoggles it looks like this: Obama gives big taxpayer money to a fund raiser who is an owner in a “green energy company”. Said owners pay themselves in a big way, give big money to Democrats and go out of business – 15th Green Energy Company Funded By Obama Goes Under (video).

Communications Theory, Editorial, Stuck on Stupid, True Talking Points

An example of how TEA Party people should NOT behave (VIDEO)

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The Congressman is right. Listen to what he said – he said that you have to have a plan to get back to it (constitutional limited government) and you just can’t say “I stand for the Constitution” and expect to win. He never said or implied, to set the Constitution aside like he was accused. Immediately the TEA Party activists took what he said and converted it into something he never came close to saying in the video.

The Congressman is right when he said half the people do not believe in the Constitution – largely because they are clueless to what it says. Just the other day I had to sit down and talk with a 59 year old women who was furious and decided that she would never vote again. Why? Because she had just heard about the Electoral College and so she thought that no ones vote counted any more.

I LOVE TEA Party people, but the kind of knee jerk over reaction to what he said, without actually LISTENING to what he said, is the kind of stupidity that will render them irrelevant. No one wants to talk to you when talking to you is like talking to a Klingon. Knee-jerk over reaction rampage is not how to win people to your side.

With that said there is a lot of truth to what the TEA Party activist at the end said about the erosion of the Bill of Rights.

No one is going to win an election by campaigning on going back to 1787 overnight. Campaigning on going back to 1787 is not electorally possible when half the people are more familiar with Justin Bieber’s love life than they are with Separation of Powers.

Much like the abortion battle, we are winning more and more people to the pro-life cause and there are fewer and fewer abortions because we are educating people and winning hearts and minds. This is why pro-life people did a whole lot more than block the doors to abortion mills.

The Founders repeatedly and ad nauseum went to King George and appealed to him and others and yes they even offered compromises, and while it did not influence the king it did influence others and brought allies to our cause when shots were fired.

If in 1743 When Sam Adams started bring people onto his “radical” cause had gone around saying “War with England tomorrow if we do not get all of our demands tonight” he would have gotten no where. It is the journey to get there that brought him allies that he could never had gotten if he tried to go from 1743 to 1787 overnight.

I am not saying that we should sell out, what I am saying is that getting back to limited government is a path that will take time, it is not just something one can do overnight.

I would like to remind our TEA Party friends of my initial point: the group of activists in that video basically applied a point of view to the Congressman that he never said or advocated in the video. They took what he said, converted it to something MUCH worse, and applied that to him. Those are the tactics of Saul Alinsky.

2012 Primary, History, Mitt Romney, True Talking Points

George Romney – A Republic No More (video)

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Wow, what a guy. I would like to see Mitt live up to that. Do you see how the language of conservatism comes to him so easily? It does so because that is who George Romney was. What a difference.

George Romney explains how America has transmogrified from a republic to special interest democracy. He also explains how social problems are the first major crisis that caused the federal government to expand.

2012 Primary, Communications Theory, Culture War, Obama, True Talking Points

Forbes: Capitalists Need To Learn How To Use Words

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This is one of the most important columns you may ever see. Read every last word. It is good to see the message I have preached for years get some backup – Editor.

“When government surveillance and intimidation is called ‘freedom from terrorism’ or ‘liberation from crime’, freedom and liberty have become words without meanings. The rhetoric in Washington has done more to defeat liberty than all the armies and police forces in the world. This war all around us is being fought over the very meanings of words.” – Chad Dumier

Harry Binswanger at Forbes Magazine:

It’s the concepts, stupid.

A wag in my high school said “Words are the tools of the English language.”

It was supposed to be a parody of deep-sounding but vacuous pronouncements. But the joke turns out to be on him: since words *are* the tools of language, they are the tools of thought. That means you must resist unto death using the terminology of your enemy. The side that controls language controls thought.

Anti-capitalists are onto this fact. Pro-capitalists need to catch up–especially since the mainstream media are dominated by anti-capitalists, who insinuate their distorted terms into what would otherwise seem to be open debate.

Notice I said “anti-capitalists.” That’s a case in point. I did not say “progressives”–that’s how they wish to be known. But capitalism, not government dictation, is the system of progress, replacing primordial collectivism with the radical concept of individual rights, including property rights. And embracing technology not environmentalism is required of anyone who favors actual progress. The self-styled “progressives” are regressives.

“Liberal” is another word that is booby-trapped. Joe Lieberman is the last living liberal–a museum piece, really. Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Paul Krugman, and the rest are not liberals but Leftists, if you want a shorter term than “anti-capitalists.” Today’s Leftists have nothing of substance in common with those we used to know as “liberals”–JFK, Hubert Humphrey, Scoop Jackson.

The word “liberal” derives from “liberty.” Liberty is the last thing on the mind of today’s Leftists. They seek to stamp out not only economic freedom but freedom of speech and freedom of thought. Just make a visit to your local university. The term “liberal” should never be used for people whose driving ideology is, to use a proper term, statism.

Words matter because words stand for concepts–abstract ideas that join certain things and separate others. Your ideological enemy is your ideological enemy in part because he divides the world up differently from you. He works with different concepts, different classifications. Where you see the opposition of freedom vs. government force, he sees the opposition of “exploitation” vs. “equality.” Where you see earning vs. freeloading, he sees “luck” vs. “compassion.”

Even little, innocuous concepts are game-changers. Take “access.” Is there some national, collective problem in the fact that some people don’t have “access” to quality medical care? What if we rephrase the question to be: do some people have the right to force other people to pay for their medical care? Sounds a little different, doesn’t it? I don’t have “access” to your car, your home, and your bank account. That’s a disgrace!

Politicians know, or at least sense, the power of language. President Obama speaks of government “investment,” a term properly applied only to the private sector, not to the government’s expropriation of capital from the private sector to finance boondoggles that men’s free financial decisions would not allow.

The Antitrust Division of the Justice Department defines “monopoly” in terms of earned market-share–i.e., success in competition–which it proceeds to penalize. The term “monopoly” should be applied to coercively imposed barriers to competition, and coercion is what is wielded by the government, not by business.

You see the theme running throughout the ideological distortion of language: evading the fundamental distinction: freedom vs. force. The free market is the scene of voluntary, uncoerced cooperation. Government is the agency with the exclusive power to compel obedience by law–i.e., at gunpoint.

It’s the dollar or the gun. As a hero in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged puts it:

When money ceases to be the tool by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of men. Blood, whips and guns–or dollars. Take your choice–there is no other.

There is no other choice regarding the concepts we use, either. Our concepts either recognize or obliterate the distinction between freedom and force.

Harry Binswanger is a member of the Ayn Rand Institute’s Board of Directors and has taught philosophy at Hunter College (City University of New York), The New School for Social Research, and the University of Texas, Austin. His forthcoming book is “How We Know”.

History, Mortgage Crisis, Obama, Pay to Play, True Talking Points

House Oversight Committee: Members of Congress Received Special Favors from Mortgage Lenders

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Including the Democrat Chair of the Senate Banking Committee Chris Dodd who was in a position to block mortgage reform legislation, either in Committee or through filibuster and so he did. Republican Senators and the Bush Administration tried repeatedly since 2001 to get such legislation passed Chris Dodd and were unable to do so.

Here’s a quote from the House Oversight Committee’s staff report on Countrywide Mortgage influence-peddling:

http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Countrywide-112th-Report-7.3.12-1207-PM.pdf

“Considering the cost to taxpayers of the failure to reform the GSEs, Congress should consider legislation prohibiting companies from offering discounts and other forms of preferential treatment to Members of Congress and congressional staff. In addition to mortgage lenders like Countrywide, such legislation should cover banks, auto dealerships, jewelry stores, and any other company that offers financing to customers.To foreclose the possibility that a lender might apply a discount to a loan without their knowledge, Members of Congress and congressional staff should consider notifying all parties to complex financial transactions that they must not receive discounts due to congressional ethics rules, as Congressman Sessions did.”

2012 Primary, Econ, Obama, True Talking Points

Indiana Small Businessman: I have to get political with customers because Democrats will destroy my business. I am desperate.

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Monica Boyer:

We went through 1000 “Say NO to Joe” Vote Richard Mourdock balloons at the Kos County fair already so I went to our local bulk candy store to get candy to pass out. When I told the guy who I was he stopped loading the candy and said, “Do you have stickers?” I was a bit confused. I said, Well, we have Mourdock and Pence stickers at our booth. He said. THATS WHAT I WANT. He then said, “I don’t have a choice.” I was confused and asked him to explain. He said, with a crack in his voice, For years, I have tried to keep my politics to myself because I want all business at this store, I don’t want to chase customers away.

He said, I don’t have a choice anymore. I am scared. I am going to lose my business, and I don’t care anymore if I turn customers away. He said, what else can I do? I am desperate. I walked away sad, angry and energized. People can feel it in the air. We are at a crossroads. They want to be on the right side of history.

2012 Primary, Econ, Health Law, Obama, True Talking Points

46,159 had to flee Canada to get health care in 2011

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Read it!
http://www.fraserinstitute.org/uploadedFiles/fraser-ca/Content/research-news/research/articles/leaving-canada-for-medical-care-2011-ff0712.pdf

Among the consequences of poor access to health care in Canada is the reality that some Canadians will ultimately receive the care they require outside of the country. Some of these patients will have been sent out of country by the public health care system due to a lack of available resources or the fact that some procedures or equipment are not provided in their home jurisdiction. Others will have chosen to leave Canada in response to concerns about quality (Walker et al.,2009); to avoid some of the adverse medical consequences of waiting for care such as worsening of their condition, poorer outcomes following treatment, disability, or death (Esmail, 2009); or simply to avoid delay.

2012 Primary, Communications Theory, Econ, Obama, True Talking Points

Devastating new ad: Obama’s “war on women” (video)

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When there is a war on wealth and growth and on small business as this administration has engaged in, only the “most employable” keep their jobs. Women who take time off for babies and such become expendable in such an economy. By the way, the statistics in the ad are directly from the Obama Administration.

Our pals Michelle Fields and Sandra Smith respond:

2012 Primary, Budget, Econ, Europe, Obama

Spain raises national sales tax to 21%

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Spain now has a 21% national sales tax. This is what happens when socialist governments spend like crazy.

It is worse, in Spain their sales tax is in the form of a value added tax. This means that the tax is applied at every stage of production – The sugar, the flour, the water, the making of the dough, the baking, the packaging and finally the selling. That adds up to one expensive loaf of bread. This is who elite Democrats and academics say we should emulate.

CNBC:

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced a swathe of new taxes and spending cuts on Wednesday designed to slash 65 billion euros from the budget deficit by 2014 as recession-plagued Spain struggles to meet tough targets agreed with Europe.

Rajoy, of the center-right People’s Party, proposed a 3-point hike in the main rate of Value Added Tax on goods and services to 21 percent, and outlined cuts in unemployment benefit and civil service pay and perks in a parliamentary speech interrupted by jeers and boos from the opposition.

“These measures are not pleasant, but they are necessary. Our public spending exceeds our income by tens of billions of euros,” Rajoy told parliament.

He also announced new indirect taxes on energy, plans to privatize ports, airports and rail assets, and a reversal of property tax breaks that his party had restored last December.

2012 Primary, Budget, Econ, Jobs, Obama, True Talking Points

Gov. Sununu destroys Andrea Mitchell while she struggles to defend Obama’s stimulus outsourcing (video)

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We all knew that NBC was in the tank, but wow this is a sight to see. This interview was so factually lopsided he just ends laughing at her.

At the end, what Sununu says about small business is true. Most small businesses exist as labors of love that don’t make profits and/or just exist on paper. The small percentage of small businesses that actually have employees do 70% of the hiring in this country.

As far as outsourcing, Bain was able to help almost 80% of the companies it invested in and only a small number of them engaged in heavy outsourcing. NBC and the Democrat media complex thinks that the American people will be more interested in what Mitt Romney does with his own money, than what Barack Obama does with yours. Some estimates show that $29 BILLION of your “Obama” stimulus dollars went overseas almost directly. That dwarfs anything that Mitt Romney did with his money or Bain’s.

The RNC has a website called Obamanamics Outsourced that lists how many jobs Obama outsourced to other countries using your tax dollars.

 

President Obama said that stimulus jobs could not be outsourced but…