The great, great, great, great, great-grandchild of an American Revolutionary War vet won't be silent. A prayer attributed to the Scotch-Irish: "Lord grant that I may always be right, for Thou knowest I am hard to turn."

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Wrong Side of History

The following is a list of members of Congress who will go down as being on the WRONG side of history by voting “Aye” on H.R. 3962 – “Affordable” Health Care for America Act. 

(File at bottom of post can be opened in Excel for easy sorting.)

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 887

  • Abercrombie, Neil, 1st HI …………..
  • Ackerman, Gary L., 5th NY …………..
  • Andrews, Robert E., 1st NJ ………….
  • Arcuri, Michael A., 24th NY …………
  • Baca, Joe, 43d CA ………………….
  • Baldwin, Tammy, 2d WI ………………
  • Bean, Melissa L., 8th IL ……………
  • Becerra, Xavier, 31st CA ……………
  • Berkley, Shelley, 1st NV ……………
  • Berman, Howard L., 28th CA ………….
  • Berry, Marion, 1st AR ………………
  • Bishop, Sanford D., Jr., 2d GA ………
  • Bishop, Timothy H., 1st NY ………….
  • Blumenauer, Earl, 3d OR …………….
  • Boswell, Leonard L., 3d IA ………….
  • Brady, Robert A., 1st PA ……………
  • Braley, Bruce L., 1st IA ……………
  • Brown, Corrine, 3d FL ………………
  • Butterfield, G. K., 1st NC ………….
  • Cao, Anh “Joseph”, 2d LA ……………
  • Capps, Lois, 23d CA ………………..
  • Capuano, Michael E., 8th MA …………
  • Cardoza, Dennis A., 18th CA …………
  • Carnahan, Russ, 3d MO ………………
  • Carney, Christopher P., 10th PA ……..
  • Carson, André, 7th IN ………………
  • Castor, Kathy, 11th FL ……………..
  • Chu, Judy, 32d CA ………………….
  • Clarke, Yvette D., 11th NY ………….
  • Clay, Wm. Lacy, 1st MO ……………..
  • Cleaver, Emanuel, 5th MO ……………
  • Clyburn, James E., 6th SC …………..
  • Cohen, Steve, 9th TN ……………….
  • Connolly, Gerald E., 11th VA ………..
  • Conyers, John, Jr., 14th MI …………
  • Cooper, Jim, 5th TN ………………..
  • Costa, Jim, 20th CA ………………..
  • Costello, Jerry F., 12th IL …………
  • Courtney, Joe, 2d CT ……………….
  • Crowley, Joseph, 7th NY …………….
  • Cuellar, Henry, 28th TX …………….
  • Cummings, Elijah E., 7th MD …………
  • Dahlkemper, Kathleen A., 3d PA ………
  • Davis, Danny K., 7th IL …………….
  • Davis, Susan A., 53d CA …………….
  • DeFazio, Peter A., 4th OR …………..
  • DeGette, Diana, 1st CO ……………..
  • Delahunt, Bill, 10th MA …………….
  • DeLauro, Rosa L., 3d CT …………….
  • Dicks, Norman D., 6th WA ……………
  • Dingell, John D., 15th MI …………..
  • Doggett, Lloyd, 25th TX …………….
  • Donnelly, Joe, 2d IN ……………….
  • Doyle, Michael F., 14th PA ………….
  • Driehaus, Steve, 1st OH …………….
  • Edwards, Donna F., 4th MD …………..
  • Ellison, Keith, 5th MN ……………..
  • Ellsworth, Brad, 8th IN …………….
  • Engel, Eliot L., 17th NY ……………
  • Eshoo, Anna G., 14th CA …………….
  • Etheridge, Bob, 2d NC ………………
  • Farr, Sam, 17th CA …………………
  • Fattah, Chaka, 2d PA ……………….
  • Filner, Bob, 51st CA ……………….
  • Foster, Bill, 14th IL ………………
  • Frank, Barney, 4th MA ………………
  • Fudge, Marcia L., 11th OH …………..
  • Garamendi, John, 10th CA ……………
  • Giffords, Gabrielle, 8th AZ …………
  • Gonzalez, Charles A., 20th TX ……….
  • Grayson, Alan, 8th FL ………………
  • Green, Al, 9th TX ………………….
  • Green, Gene, 29th TX ……………….
  • Grijalva, Raúl M., 7th AZ …………..
  • Gutierrez, Luis V., 4th IL ………….
  • Hall, John J., 19th NY ……………..
  • Halvorson, Deborah L., 11th IL ………
  • Hare, Phil, 17th IL ………………..
  • Harman, Jane, 36th CA ………………
  • Hastings, Alcee L., 23d FL ………….
  • Heinrich, Martin, 1st NM ……………
  • Higgins, Brian, 27th NY …………….
  • Hill, Baron P., 9th IN ……………..
  • Himes, James A., 4th CT …………….
  • Hinchey, Maurice D., 22d NY …………
  • Hinojosa, Rubén, 15th TX ……………
  • Hirono, Mazie K., 2d HI …………….
  • Hodes, Paul W., 2d NH ………………
  • Holt, Rush D., 12th NJ ……………..
  • Honda, Michael M., 15th CA ………….
  • Hoyer, Steny H., 5th MD …………….
  • Inslee, Jay, 1st WA ………………..
  • Israel, Steve, 2d NY ……………….
  • Jackson, Jesse L., Jr., 2d IL ……….
  • Jackson-Lee, Sheila, 18th TX ………..
  • Johnson, Eddie Bernice, 30th TX ……..
  • Johnson, Henry C. “Hank”, Jr., 4th GA ..
  • Kagen, Steve, 8th WI ……………….
  • Kanjorski, Paul E., 11th PA …………
  • Kaptur, Marcy, 9th OH ………………
  • Kennedy, Patrick J., 1st RI …………
  • Kildee, Dale E., 5th MI …………….
  • Kilpatrick, Carolyn C., 13th MI ……..
  • Kilroy, Mary Jo, 15th OH ……………
  • Kind, Ron, 3d WI …………………..
  • Kirkpatrick, Ann, 1st AZ ……………
  • Klein, Ron, 22d FL …………………
  • Langevin, James R., 2d RI …………..
  • Larsen, Rick, 2d WA ………………..
  • Larson, John B., 1st CT …………….
  • Lee, Barbara, 9th CA ……………….
  • Levin, Sander M., 12th MI …………..
  • Lewis, John, 5th GA ………………..
  • Lipinski, Daniel, 3d IL …………….
  • Loebsack, David, 2d IA ……………..
  • Lofgren, Zoe, 16th CA ………………
  • Lowey, Nita M., 18th NY …………….
  • Luján, Ben Ray, 3d NM ………………
  • Lynch, Stephen F., 9th MA …………..
  • Maffei, Daniel B., 25th NY ………….
  • Maloney, Carolyn B., 14th NY ………..
  • Markey, Edward J., 7th MA …………..
  • Matsui, Doris O., 5th CA ……………
  • McCarthy, Carolyn, 4th NY …………..
  • McCollum, Betty, 4th MN …………….
  • McDermott, Jim, 7th WA ……………..
  • McGovern, James P., 3d MA …………..
  • McNerney, Jerry, 11th CA ……………
  • Meek, Kendrick B., 17th FL ………….
  • Meeks, Gregory W., 6th NY …………..
  • Michaud, Michael H., 2d ME ………….
  • Miller, Brad, 13th NC ………………
  • Miller, George, 7th CA ……………..
  • Mitchell, Harry E., 5th AZ ………….
  • Mollohan, Alan B., 1st WV …………..
  • Moore, Dennis, 3d KS ……………….
  • Moore, Gwen, 4th WI ………………..
  • Moran, James P., 8th VA …………….
  • Murphy, Christopher S., 5th CT ………
  • Murphy, Patrick J., 8th PA ………….
  • Murtha, John P., 12th PA ……………
  • Nadler, Jerrold, 8th NY …………….
  • Napolitano, Grace F., 38th CA ……….
  • Neal, Richard E., 2d MA …………….
  • Oberstar, James L., 8th MN ………….
  • Obey, David R., 7th WI ……………..
  • Olver, John W., 1st MA ……………..
  • Ortiz, Solomon P., 27th TX ………….
  • Owens, William L., 23d NY …………..
  • Pallone, Frank, Jr., 6th NJ …………
  • Pascrell, Bill, Jr., 8th NJ …………
  • Pastor, Ed, 4th AZ …………………
  • Payne, Donald M., 10th NJ …………..
  • Pelosi, Nancy, 8th CA ………………
  • Perlmutter, Ed, 7th CO ……………..
  • Perriello, Thomas S. P., 5th VA ……..
  • Peters, Gary C., 9th MI …………….
  • Pingree, Chellie, 1st ME ……………
  • Polis, Jared, 2d CO ………………..
  • Pomeroy, Earl, At Large, ND …………
  • Price, David E., 4th NC …………….
  • Quigley, Mike, 5th IL ………………
  • Rahall, Nick J., II, 3d WV ………….
  • Rangel, Charles B., 15th NY …………
  • Reyes, Silvestre, 16th TX …………..
  • Richardson, Laura, 37th CA ………….
  • Rodriguez, Ciro D., 23d TX ………….
  • Rothman, Steven R., 9th NJ ………….
  • Roybal-Allard, Lucille, 34th CA ……..
  • Ruppersberger, C. A. Dutch, 2d MD ……
  • Rush, Bobby L., 1st IL ……………..
  • Ryan, Tim, 17th OH …………………
  • Salazar, John T., 3d CO …………….
  • Sánchez, Linda T., 39th CA ………….
  • Sanchez, Loretta, 47th CA …………..
  • Sarbanes, John P., 3d MD ……………
  • Schakowsky, Janice D., 9th IL ……….
  • Schauer, Mark H., 7th MI ……………
  • Schiff, Adam B., 29th CA ……………
  • Schrader, Kurt, 5th OR ……………..
  • Schwartz, Allyson Y., 13th PA ……….
  • Scott, David, 13th GA ………………
  • Scott, Robert C. “Bobby”, 3d VA ……..
  • Serrano, José E., 16th NY …………..
  • Sestak, Joe, 7th PA ………………..
  • Shea-Porter, Carol, 1st NH ………….
  • Sherman, Brad, 27th CA ……………..
  • Sires, Albio, 13th NJ ………………
  • Slaughter, Louise McIntosh, 28th NY ….
  • Smith, Adam, 9th WA ………………..
  • Snyder, Vic, 2d AR …………………
  • Space, Zachary T., 18th OH ………….
  • Speier, Jackie, 12th CA …………….
  • Spratt, John M., Jr., 5th SC ………..
  • Stark, Fortney Pete, 13th CA ………..
  • Stupak, Bart, 1st MI ……………….
  • Sutton, Betty, 13th OH ……………..
  • Thompson, Bennie G., 2d MS ………….
  • Thompson, Mike, 1st CA ……………..
  • Tierney, John F., 6th MA ……………
  • Titus, Dina, 3d NV …………………
  • Tonko, Paul, 21st NY ……………….
  • Towns, Edolphus, 10th NY ……………
  • Tsongas, Niki, 5th MA ………………
  • Van Hollen, Chris, 8th MD …………..
  • Velázquez, Nydia M., 12th NY ………..
  • Visclosky, Peter J., 1st IN …………
  • Walz, Timothy J., 1st MN ……………
  • Wasserman Schultz, Debbie, 20th FL …..
  • Waters, Maxine, 35th CA …………….
  • Watson, Diane E., 33d CA ……………
  • Watt, Melvin L., 12th NC ……………
  • Waxman, Henry A., 30th CA …………..
  • Weiner, Anthony D., 9th NY ………….
  • Welch, Peter, At Large, VT ………….
  • Wexler, Robert, 19th FL …………….
  • Wilson, Charles A., 6th OH ………….
  • Woolsey, Lynn C., 6th CA ……………
  • Wu, David, 1st OR ………………….
  • Yarmuth, John A., 3d KY …………….

 


Wrong Side of History

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White House Visitors Log released 10/30/09

The list of 431 names of people who visited the White House between January 20 and July 31 includes only the names of those visitors who were specifically requested for release by outside organizations and watchdog groups. (Source)

Steve Elmendorf of Elmendorf Strategies (five times)

Tony Podesta of the Podesta Group, the fourth highest earning lobbying firm so far in 2009 (five times) and his wife Heather Podesta of Heather Podesta and Partners (three times)

John Podesta of the Center for American Progress, who ran the Obama transition, visited an astounding 17 times

George Clooney

Denzel Washington and Brad Pitt

Serena Williams

Oprah Winfrey

From politicsdaily.com: (Apparently watchdog groups aren’t all that interested in celebrities because missing from this are this year’s other famous White House visitors, including Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Smits, Mary Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, Alicia Keys, Tiger Woods, Eva Longoria, Gloria Estefan, Usher, Forest Whitaker and the Jonas Brothers.)

Goldman Sachs’s Lloyd Blankfein

Citigroup’s Vikram Pandit

AIG’s Maurice Greenberg

JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon

Alan Greenspan visited the White House six times this year

Alan Greenspan, who is getting a lot of flak for his role in the economic recession, neverthless visited the White House six times this year. Some, such as Michael Jordan and R. Kelly, probably don’t mind sharing a name with someone more famous. But it’s likely to be tough doing business in Washington for “false positives” Williams Ayers and Jeremiah Wright.(Source)

Billy Clinton

John Edwards

“HHS Sec. nominee Tom Daschle visited nine times in January before withdrawing his nomination for unpaid taxes. Daschle must still be in good stead with the White House because he also visited twice this past summer.” (Source)

Sen. Ted Kennedy made seven visits to the White House in 2009, twice in late JulyTed Kennedy in bathing suit

Former Vice President Al Gore

Jesse Jackson, Sr. visited six times

Billionaire Democratic donor George Soros (four times)

Al Sharpton (twice)

Andrew Stern (22 times!!!!) Stern is president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi once, in March

Former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich

Conservative religious leader Gary Bauer

Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson

Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson

Chevron CEO David O’Reilly

Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis

John Stumpf of Wells Fargo

State Street bank’s Ron Logue

Morgan Stanley’s John Mack

State Street bank’s Ron Logue

BNY Mellon’s Robert Kelly

American Bankers Association CEO Ed Yingling

Community bankers president Camden Fine

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer

General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC. One of NBC’s parents is GE.)

National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy

Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which is interested in health policy

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley

Former Gov. Howard Dean

Sen. Al Franken

Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf

Tennis star Serena Williams

Journalist Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize winner in economics

The White House warns that many names that may appear familiar — and controversial — do not in fact refer to the most famous people to carry those names. Jeremiah Wright is on the list, but it’s not the president’s former pastor. This Michael Jordan is not the basketball player. This Michael Moore is not a filmmaker. The William Ayers who took a group tour of the White House isn’t the former radical from Chicago who figured so prominently in the 2008 campaign. And the Angela Davis on the list has a different middle initial than the activist and former fugitive.

The White House could have avoided some of that sort of confusion by providing more information on the visitors, such as an employer name and the city they hail from. For example, is the Shawn Carter who attended a poetry reading the same one who goes by Jay-Z and had campaigned for Obama?

“This unprecedented level of transparency can sometimes be confusing rather than providing clear information,” a White House special counsel, Norm Eisen, wrote on the White House blog.

Despite the accompanying White House claim of “transparency like you’ve never seen before,” the Obama White House continues to take the same legal position as the Bush White House, arguing that the records are not public records subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Only limited “voluntary releases” are being made to settle a lawsuit filed by an advocacy group, though a federal judge has twice ruled that all the visitor logs are public.
(Source)


White House visitors log 10/30/09

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Dark Magic

Harry Potter

J.K. Rowling had:

Department of Magical Law Enforcement

Department of Magical Games and Sports

Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes

Department of Magical Transportation

Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures

Department of International Magical Cooperation

Department of Mysteries

Office of the Minister for Magic

Office of the Adviser to Minister

Office of the Senior Undersecretary to Minister for Magic

Office of the Junior Assistant to the Minister for Magic

Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office

Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects

Nancy Pelosi has:

Health Benefits Advisory Committee

Health Insurance Exchange

Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services

Assistant Secretary for Health

Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Evaluation and Assessment

Board of Trustees of the CLASS Independence Fund

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation

Office of Women’s Health

Director of Healthcare and Research Quality

Health Choices Administration (”an independent agency in the executive branch of the Government”)

Health Choices Commissioner

Office of the Ombudsman for the Public Health Insurance Option

Telehealth Advisory Committee

Medical Home Pilot Program

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research

Office of Inspector General for the Health Choices Administration

IMG_9473

Commissioner of the Health Choices Administration

Office of Inspector General for the Health Choices Administration

Frontline Health Providers Loan Repayment Program

Public Health Workforce Corps

Public Health Workforce Scholarship Program

Public Health Workforce Loan Repayment Program

Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Evaluation and Assessment

Task Force on Clinical Preventive Services

Task Force on Community Preventive Services

Center for Quality Improvement

School-Based Health Clinic Program (SBHC)

University Centers for Excel1lence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research, and Service

Emergency Care Coordination Center

Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee

National Pain Care Education Outreach and Awareness Campaign

National Voluntary Insurance Program For Purchasing Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS)

CLASS Independence Advisory Council

SOURCE: Affordable Health Care for America Act

IMG_9474

Looks like Dark Magic to me!

Call your Congressman TODAY!  Pelosi and Reid are on the move!:  http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

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Here it is: The New House Health Care Bill

new and improved

House Dems unveil health bill, cheered on by Obama

Health care businesses at risk in House overhaul

House Leader Calls Health Bill “1,990 Pages Of Bureaucracy”

Pence: Pelosi Bill The “Freight Train of Big Government”

So, what does it say?  Let’s read it and find out!

It has become H.R. 3962, and it was introduced yesterday:

 

On box.net:

 

On docstoc.com:


HR 3962 New House Healthcare bill

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What’s Not Quite Right in the World?

In my last post, I finished with the question, “Who is John Galt?” For those of you who have had the life-changing experience of reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, you know the question is a rhetorical one that is used in the book to express a sense that something is not quite right with the world.

From Ayn Rand: Capitalism’s enduring crusader

Born Alissa Zinovievna Rosenbaum in 1905 in St Petersburg, Russia, she was the daughter of an entrepreneur whose business was seized by the Bolsheviks. In 1925 she fled to America, changed her name to Rand, and began working for Cecil B. DeMille in Hollywood, before moving to New York to become a writer. She wrote two short novels before gaining popularity in 1943 with The Fountainhead.

I think we are living in a time and place that resembles the land from which Ayn fled. A glimpse of that time and place can be found in Ayn Rand’s fiction. To make it easier for my stalker, George, who can’t read 40 pages or more, I’ve just taken a few quotes out of my 1,168-page copy of Atlas Shrugged, and my hope is that it will help you put your finger on the thing that doesn’t seem quite right in the world, and hopefully put George’s finger on the thing which is so unsettling to him. In one scene of Atlas Shrugged, Dagny is confronted with a lack of copper wire to repair a broken telephone line, and as a result of resources being diverted through government intervention, she has no train on which to deliver it. So, while her father’s Taggert Transcontinental keeps “registering losses”, she examines her options:

IMG_0076

Six weeks ago, Train Number 193 had been sent with a load of steel, not to Faulkton, Nebraska, where the Spencer Machine Tool Company, the best machine tool concern still in existence, had been idle for two weeks, waiting for the shipment-but to Sand Creek, Illinois, where Confederated Machines had been wallowing in debt for over a year, producing unreliable goods at unpredictable times. The steel had been allocated by a directive which explained that the Spencer Machine Tool Company was a rich concern, able to wait, while Confederated Machines was bankrupt and could not be allowed to collapse, being the sole source of livelihood of the community of Sand Creek, Illinois. The Spencer Machine Tool Company had closed a month ago. Confederated Machines had closed two weeks later.

The people of Sand Creek, Illinois, had been placed on national relief, but no food could be found for them in the empty granaries of the nation at the frantic call of the moment-so the seed grain of the farmers of Nebraska had been seized by order of the Unification Board-and Train Number 194 had carried the unplanted harvest and the future of the people of Nebraska to be consumed by the people of Illinois. “In this enlightened age,” Eugene Lawson had said in a radio broadcast, “we have come, at last, to realize that each one of us is his brother’s keeper.”

me and dottie

Over time, the main characters in Atlas realize what was wrong was:

…they were serving need as their highest ruler, need as first claim upon them, need as their standard of value, as the coin of their realm, as more sacred than right and life. Men had been pushed into a pit where, shouting that man is his brother’s keeper, each was devouring his neighbor and was being devoured by his neighbor’s brother, each was proclaiming the righteousness of the unearned and wondering who was stripping the skin off his back, each was devouring himself, while screaming in terror that some unknowable evil was destroying the earth.

Dagny, contemplates her position:

What were they counting on? Those who had once simpered: “I don’t want to destroy the rich, I only want to seize a little of their surplus to help the poor, just a little, they’ll never miss it!”-then, later, had snapped: “The tycoons can stand being squeezed, they’ve amassed enough to last them for three generations”-and then, later, had yelled: “Why should the people suffer while businessmen have reserves to last a year?”-now were screaming: “Why should we starve while some people have reserves to last a week?” What were they counting on?-she wondered.

What Is Not Quite Right With The World??

Bail outs:

Bear Stearns

Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac

American International Group (A.I.G.)

Auto Industry

Troubled Asset Relief Program (T.A.R.P.)

Citigroup

Bank of America

Are newspapers next? This article from The Hill says Obama is open to newspaper bail out bill for struggling newspapers.

The president said he is “happy to look at” bills before Congress that would give struggling news organizations tax breaks if they were to restructure as nonprofit businesses. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) has introduced S. 673, the so-called “Newspaper Revitalization Act,” that would give outlets tax deals if they were to restructure as 501(c)(3) corporations.

As a side note: Non-profit status is usually only given to associations or organizations that have some charitable or philanthropic purpose. The irs.gov website gives them this description in Publication 557:

An organization may qualify for exemption from federal income tax if it is organized and operated exclusively for one or more of the following purposes: Religious. Charitable. Scientific. Testing for public safety. Literary. Educational. Fostering national or international amateur sports competition. The prevention of cruelty to children or animals.

Hard to see where newspaper fits into that definition, isn’t it? And here’s the real sweet spot for a 501(c)(3): Contributions to 501(c)(3) organizations “are deductible as charitable contributions on the donor’s federal income tax return.”

Where is my bail out? handouts

As in the story, when one segment of the economy is squeezed by bureaucrats, there is a ripple effect, and another segment blows out the other side. Like loopholes in the tax code, legislators are continually trying to “plug holes” in the distortions of the market that THEY create with their on-going attempts to “protect the people”, or to gain the support of one class or group of people or another, or for the good of the country or world.

Take for example Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Premise: Poor people can’t work and save up to buy houses like the rest of us. (Throw in something about race too, to incite white guilt.)

Proposed solution: The government backs mortgages for people who are financially unable to make the monthly payments.

They see a problem, they write legislation to appease voters, and then are never accountable for the results.

Results: Financial crises, banks that are “too big to fail”, a huge tax burden for taxpayers and their children (who are on the line for the interest on this debt), government’s endless printing of the dollar, and, oh yeah, “poor” people losing their homes. Oh, but don’t worry if you become homeless, there is always Grove Park Plaza Apartments in Chicago.

The wads of worthless paper money were growing heavier in the pockets of the nation, but there was less and less for that money to buy. In September, a bushel of wheat had cost eleven dollars; it had cost thirty dollars in November; it had cost one hundred in December; it was now approaching the price of two hundred-while the printing presses of the government treasury were running a race with starvation, and losing. (Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, 1957)

What Else is Not Quite Right With the World?

Now we’re back to problem and proposed solution. Would you believe it is **more regulation**?? Can anyone guess what the result of this will be? Oh, I don’t know, any or all of the following:

“Lack of faith,” a beefy speaker was snarling on the platform, in the tone of a street brawl, “lack of faith is the only thing we got to fear! If we have faith in the plans of our leaders, why, the plans will work and we’ll all have prosperity and ease and plenty. It’s the fellows who go around doubting and destroying our morale, it’s they who are keeping us in shortages and misery. But we’re not going to let them do it much longer, we’re here to protect the people-and if any of those doubting smarties come around, believe you me, we’ll take care of them!” -(One of the moochers in government, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, 1957)

“We can’t theorize about the future,” cried Wesley Mouch, when there’s an immediate national collapse to avoid! We’ve got to save the country’s economy! We’ve go to do something!  (Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, 1957)

“So it’s only a matter of giving him a chance to recover, a helping hand to bridge the gap, a bit of temporary assistance, nothing more. All we have to do is just equalize the sacrifice-then everybody will recover and prosper.”  (Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, 1957)

alientravelguide.com

“From the rites of the jungle witch-doctors, which distorted reality into grotesque absurdities, stunted the minds of their victims and kept them in terror of the supernatural for stagnant stretches of centuries-to the supernatural doctrines of the Middle Ages, which kept men huddling on the mud floors of their hovels, in terror that the evil might steal the soup they had worked eighteen hours to earn-to the seedy little smiling professor who assures you that you brain has no capacity to think, that you have no means of perception and must blindly obey the omnipotent will of that supernatural force: Society-all of it is the same performance for the same and only purpose: to reduce you to the kind of pulp that has surrendered the validity of its consciousness. But is cannot be done to you without your consent. If you permit it to be done, you deserve it.” (John Galt, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, 1957)

The Nature of the Beast is Beastly

I was recently confronted by someone I’ll call Facebook Leftie Friend #2, who suggested Socialism was the way to go because Capitalism was Survival of the Fittest and was, in his words, “beastly”. A friend who teaches high school Biology, upon my showing her what he said, paused for a moment, reflecting, then replied, “But he’s talking about changing the nature of something that is. It is the nature of the beast. It is just the way it is.

I probably should have suggested Facebook Leftie Friend #2 try doing as Saul Alinsky suggests for community organizers and operate within the system.

“As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. That we accept the world as it is does not in any sense weaken our desire to change it into what we believe it should be-it is necessary to begin where the world is if we are going to change it to what we think it should be. That means working in the system.”  (Saul D. Alinsky, Rules for Radicals, Author’s Prologue) 

As I tried to explain to Facebook Leftie Friend #2, it is the nature of both beasts – Capitalism and Socialism. People, essential to both systems, are beastly. The difference is, Socialism puts more hands between you and your choices and consequences, and thus increases the likelihood that decisions will be made to benefit each set of hands in the transfer, rather than just yours.

In our system, the government’s role has become to collect taxes through the barrel of a gun-or at least through levies-and redistribute it to those “too big to fail”, or the “poor”. The government transfers wealth from the workers to the people in government, for them to give to their friends (as in the case of the Freddie and Fannie bonuses), to throw parties or fly to New York for dinner, and then give back to you, wasted and ineffective – and all for “the good of the people”.

For the good of what people?

“If you search your code for guidance, for an answer to the question, ‘What is the good?’ – the only answer you will find is ‘The good of others.’ The good is whatever others wish, whatever you feel they feel they wish, or whatever you feel they ought to feel. ‘The good of others’ is a magic formula that transforms anything into gold, a formula to be recited as a guarantee of moral glory and as a fumigator for any action, even the slaughter of a continent. Your standard of virtue is not an object, not an act, not a principle, but an intention. You need no proof, no reasons, no success, you need not achieve in fact the good of others – all you need to know is that your motive was the good of others, not your own. Your only definition of the good is a negation: the good is the ‘non-good for me.’ (Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, 1957)

praying mantis eats mate you tube videos

To operate within the system as it is, one is best served when there are as few as possible pairs of hands between you and your choices and consequences. That is called freedom. A bad choice for you and you fall. You don’t collectively bring everyone else down with you. Bringing everyone down would not promote the survival of the species. Is that beastly?

Should it not simply be the choice of the shareholders of a corporation to make decisions that affect the consequences – including the possible risk of loss of investment? Does not the investment represent the labor of the shareholder? Are not his dollars to do with as he wishes? Does not his labor belong to him? Shouldn’t the risk be his own?

Are you your brother’s keeper?

It is our nature to seek our own self-interest and that of our families and friends. Our reaction to the one of slow, steady “progressive” policies, which limit our choices and our pursuit of self-interest, is toleration. As noted by the writers of the Declaration of Independence:

…mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

But you will naturally meet with resistance any quick and massive efforts to remove our choices and thus, remove our freedom. That is why up to 2 million people marched on D.C. on 9/12.

Does this mean we shouldn’t help others if we wish? 

“Such is the secret core of your creed, the other half of your double standard: it is immoral to live by your own effort, but moral to live by the effort of others-it is immoral to consume your own product, but moral to consume the products of others-it is immoral to earn, but moral to mooch-it is the parasites who are the moral justification for the existence of the producers, but the existence of the parasites is an end in itself-it is evil to profit by achievement, but good to profit by sacrifice-it is evil to create your own happiness, but good to enjoy it at the price of the blood of others.  Your code divides mankind into two castes and commands them to live by opposite rules: those who may desire anything and those who may desire nothing, the chosen and the damned, the riders and the carriers, the eaters and the eaten.” (John Galt, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, 1957)

“The answer you evade, the monstrous answer is: No, the takers are not evil, provided they did not earn the value you gave them. It is not immoral for them to accept it, provided they are unable to produce it, unable to deserve it, unable to give you any value in return. It is not immoral for them to enjoy it, provided they do not obtain it by right.” (John Galt, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand, 1957)

No, we can continue to be the most generous people in the world.   The choice of whom to give our support should be ours, not some bureaucrat’s. My hands, my labor, my choices, my consequences, my failures, my achievements. The essence of what’s RIGHT in the world. The essence of Freedom. 

With the disastrous effects of government intervention, economic failures, fear-mongering “for the good of the people”, and massive debt we and our prosperity will have to repay, you have to ask the question, “Are government shackles about to close around my wrists forever binding me to my brother? ”

 Do you know what is not right in the world now?

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Wonder Why You Can’t Find A Job?

barney frank there will be death panels

Barney Frank

We will be providing a mechanism for putting non-bank financial institutions out of everybody’s misery. There will be death panels enacted by this congress. But they will be for non-bank financial institutions that will not be considered too big to die.

- Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, September 23, 2009

commissioner hall

AP Photo

Payroll employment has fallen for 21 consecutive months, with declines totaling 7.2 million. In September, notable job losses occurred in construction, manufacturing, government, and retail trade.

-Keith Hall, Commissioner of Bureau of Labor Statistics Statement on the Employment Situation before the Joint Economic Committee, UNITED STATES CONGRESS, Friday, October 2, 2009

barney frank we are talking about making it unplesant for the entities

Barney Frank

And I say that because we have the euphemism that we are going to be resolving these institutions. It has not been my experience that when someone says they are going to resolve something, they kill it. We are talking about dissolution, not resolution. We are talking about making it unpleasant for the entities…

-Barney Frank, Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, September 23, 2009

geitner sly smile while bfrank talks about death panels for bix from GB

Timothy Geitner, United States Secretary of the Treasury, enjoying Barmey Frank's attack on business plans

 

commissioner hall2

Keith Hall, Commissioner of Bureau of Labor Statistics, AP Photo

A total of 15.1 million persons were unemployed in September, twice the number at the start of the recession. The number of long-term unemployed rose to 5.4 million in September. This group has grown more than four-fold since the start of the recession.

-Keith Hall, Commissioner of Bureau of Labor Statistics Statement on the Employment Situation before the Joint Economic Committee, UNITED STATES CONGRESS, Friday, October 2, 2009


Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand

Hall, Comm. of Bureau of Labor Statistics, Oct 2, 2009

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How to Shut Down Your Political Opposition

Step one: Claim there is a lack of diversity in radio outlet ownership.


Center for America Progress report on talk radio

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Stupid Liberal Arguments to make for Dummies on the web

 OK, this is the most freekin’ hilarious thing I’ve seen in…well, since last night when I saw the latest BO approval rating poll. This website actually provides left-wing ideologue know-it-all commies with “ready-made responses to counter conservative misinformation”. I kid you not. It’s Stupid Liberal Arguments for Dummies on the web. The website claims:

Media Matters Action Network’s “Email Checker” will provide ready-made responses to counter conservative misinformation contained in the most common and most egregious chain and viral emails. This tool will allow you to swiftly respond to emails with fact-based replies.

Damn, that’s going to suck when they get stuck with one of the less common and egregious chain and viral emails.   (By the way, “viral” – sounds bad like H1N1, doesn’t it? Or maybe herpes. Why am I now thinking about Kathleen Sebeluis and David Letterman? I don’t think that was the desired effect of those words.)  

So just what is a left-wing ideologue, know-it-all commie to do if he or she is blind sided (victim!) with a well-thought out, sound, valid argument from the right (and they usually are if they are coming from the right), and he can’t find a stupid liberal argument to make at the Media Matters action network? What then? Geez, it’s like these people can’t think for themselves or something.

ACORN red shirts

ACORN red shirts

ACORN blue shirts

ACORN blue shirts

ACORN orange hats with scripted prayers to BO in hand

ACORN orange hats (with scripted prayers to BO in hand)

  

Among some of the more roll on the floor laughing arguments Media Matters makes is the one in their response to Rep. Mike Rogers brilliant opening statement on Health Care reform in Washington, D.C., in which he said,

According to… the National Cancer Intelligence Centre for the United Kingdom and the Canadian Cancer Registry…If you get prostate cancer, you have a less chance of survivability than you do in the United States. And that’s the same for skin cancer, breast cancer, bladder cancer, cervical cancer, kidney cancer, ovarian cancer, leukemia, and the list goes on and on and on.

MM sites the same study that Rogers does and says to include this in your stupid liberal response:

In fact, Cuba’s system even showed a higher survival rate for breast cancer, although researchers admit that may have been due to poor record-keeping.

 BAAAHAAAA! Really? They have such good health care in Cuba that they don’t have time to keep up with all the paperwork? Is that it?

Then MM suggests you say:

The Washington Post fact-checked a similar claim by former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani on prostate cancer. The newspaper noted that a key reason for the difference in survival rates was that the United States has an emphasis on early screening, while Britain is several years behind. Those early screenings catch the disease earlier and increase the chance of survival, so it’s reasonable to think that Britain’s rate will improve.

Will improve? Really? You mean after they have achieved their goal of decreasing the wait time to just a few short 18 weeks they might actually be able to increase the chance of survival? [See also earlier post.]

Media Matters then goes for the jugular (snicker!) with this:

According to OpenSecrets.org, the top contributors to Congressman Rogers’s campaign for 2009-2010 are the National Association of Retail Druggists ($6,000), the Pharmaceuticals and Health Products Industry ($35,800), Insurance companies ($28,500) and Health Professionals ($19,550).

Really? People donate to Rogers campaign? That’s bad right? Because I’m sure Rogers is the only politician who gets money from any evil profiteers. Do we even need to waste our time with that one?

Ah, what the hell. You know that guy George Soros? The guy who’s all tangled up with ACORN and the rest of BO&Co? From Discover The Networks.org:

Media Matters has not always been forthcoming about its high-profile backers. In particular, the group has long labored to obscure any financial ties to George Soros. But in March 2003, the Cybercast News Service (CNS) detailed the copious links between Media Matters and several Soros “affiliates”—among them MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress, and Peter Lewis. Confronted with this story, a spokesman for the organization explained that “Media Matters for America has never received funding directly from George Soros” (emphasis added), a transparent evasion.

Nor were groups cited by CNS the only connection between Media Matters and Soros. As investigative journalist Byron York has noted, another Soros affiliate that bankrolled Media Matters was the New Democratic Network. In addition, Soros is reported to be involved in the newly formed Democracy Alliance, a partnership of some 80 affluent financiers who each have vowed to contribute $1 million or more in order to build up an ideological infrastructure of leftist thinks tanks and advocacy groups. News reports list Media Matters as a main beneficiary of the Alliance’s funding. By August of 2004, Media Matters’ operating budget had already doubled to $4 million.

To summarize, Soros and his Open Society Institute pour millions of dollars into the coffers of MoveOn, the Center for American Progress, and Democracy Alliance. In turn, these organizations funnel some of that money to Media Matters.

Then, don’t forget to sign your letters:

So now that you know the truth, what will you do with it? Let’s stop forwarding this video and start forwarding the facts.

Voila! Now you’ve made your Stupid Liberal Arguments and you can quickly return your head to the sand.

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Medicare Denies More Claims

Well lookie here.  Damned if it isn’t the government itself that is the biggest denier of health insurance claims according to a report by the American Medical Association.

Hat tip to StateHouseCall.org  and Hands Off My Health on Facebook.

denied claims

2008 Health Insurance Report Card --

Think about it folks, you don’t want the government to be the SINGLE PAYER. You want CHOICES in health insurance!!

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Reading the Bills

In July, 2009, John Conyers, Democratic Congressman from Michigan on what good is reading the healthcare bill:

Democratic Senator Thomas Carper (whose website states that he is “Working for Delaware”) on why he won’t be reading legislative language of health care bill:


Salaries of members of Congress --

Over $170,000 + perks to do WTF????

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Awwwww……

I’m so flattered, Leo, that you would consider me a fierce defender of freedom! Ya’ll check out tagfoot.com and Leo’s blog.

Where does Michelle O. Get Her Fashion Sense?

That said, I do know when something looks really bad, and Michelle Obama’s clothes on a few occasions have been…well…OMG! What the hell is she thinking? I mean, not even I would be this far off! I am reminded of a story of a woman who wore a slutty red dress to make a certain statement at her relative’s wedding once, so I know clothing can make a not-nice statement. Is MO trying to make a statement? You decide.

New Order: Everything’s Gone Green

The idea behind BO’s B.S. is that fat, capitalist Americans are to blame for global warming climate change, that it’s not fair they use so much energy, and anyway, there’s too many damn many of them.

Family Planning for Climate Change

Here it is. Population growth driving climate change, poverty

 

Confirms everything I and all the Patriots were up in arms about regarding the Science Czar, John Holdren:

America’s radicals are taking over

Paul Ehrlich and John Holdren, the elite

Utopia

Malthusian Theory and my feeble mind

Elitism is “The Bomb”

China warns of future workforce shortage

Lovesick

More stories about the government-run healthcare that the people in the UK supposedly love.

More favorites 9/12 March on D.C. photos (Page 13)

photos and videos 9/12, March on D.C., Washington, D.C., liberty, freedom, tea party, tax protest,

More favorites 9/12 March on D.C. photos (Page 12)

photos and videos 9/12, March on D.C., Washington, D.C., liberty, freedom, tea party, tax protest,

Great signs from 9/12 March on D.C. photos (Page 11)

great signs from 9/12, March on D.C., Washington, D.C., liberty, freedom, tea party, tax protest,

My favorite 9/12 March on D.C. photos (Page 10)

photos and videos 9/12, March on D.C., Washington, D.C., liberty, freedom, tea party, tax protest,

9/12 March on D.C. photo & video gallery (Page 9)

photos and videos 9/12, March on D.C., Washington, D.C., liberty, freedom, tea party, tax protest,

9/12 March on D.C. photo & video gallery (Page 8)

9/12, March on D.C., Washington, D.C., liberty, freedom, tea party, tax protest,

9/12 March on D.C. photo & video gallery (Page 7)

9/12, March on D.C., Washington, D.C., liberty, freedom, tea party, tax protest,

9/12 March on D.C. photo & video gallery (Page 6)

photo gallery and videos 9/12, March on D.C., Washington, D.C., liberty, freedom, tea party, tax protest,

9/12 March on D.C. photo & video gallery (Page 5)

photo gallery and video of 9/12, March on D.C., Washington, D.C., liberty, freedom, tea party, tax protest,

9/12 March on D.C. photo & video gallery (Page 4)

9/12, March on D.C., Washington, D.C., liberty, freedom, tea party, tax protest,

9/12 March on D.C. photo & video gallery (Page 3)

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Continued

Trash from 9/12 March on D.C. vs. Trash at inauguration!!(pics Page 2)

Thanks for hosting us, D.C. We treated you with respect, stimulated your economy. We made a huge presentation, begged you to hear our voices. We left no evidence we were there in your yards. We did not ask you to clean up our mess.

9/12 March on D.C. photo & video gallery & my story (Page 1)

Finally, the march started and I made it a block or two before I stopped at a “No Left Turn” sign (appropriately) in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue and turned back towards the march to video as it came towards me. Also stopped at the sign were three strapping young men from Texas, who ended up being a lot of fun and helping me goad on the crowd. One of them was a math teacher, and after 2+ hours of counting using a conservative formula, he figured 450,000 people had passed us. The people were spread all the way across six lanes of traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue, and we guessed they were moving at a pace of about 50 per second past us. I never saw the end of the march – people were still walking towards me after 2+ hours.

March on Washington, D.C. on 9/12 (Intro)

Parrotpatriot (granddaughter of “Hellnation Neely”) is marching on Washington, D.C. on September 12, 2009. I will have pictures and videos out the wazoo for your entertainment! Be sure to check back!!!

Fatherland, Socialism or Death, and the Text of Obama’s Speech to Kids

Tomorrow BO will give his speech to the children. The teleprompter is ready to go, and it will tell the president to say what I have copied below. I’ve highlighted the things that should concern you as parents. I believe what I’ve highlighted is the message BO wishes most to send to young, impressionable children, and I write why I think so at the end of this post.

The Statists in Massachusetts Live On

True to form, the Statists in Massachusetts government are looking to change the law back and forth as it suits them. Ted Kennedy’s last public act here on Earth was to write a letter to Gov. Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray and House Speaker Robert DeLeo “to ask lawmakers to change state law to [...]

Tens of thousands protest indoctrination in schools

“…in the early years of Mr Chávez’s presidency, and helped provoke the coup that briefly ousted him from power in 2002. Back then, the government denied that it was seeking to indoctrinate youngsters. But both Chávez brothers now say that the aim of the new education plan is “the formation of the new man”.” They like it! They want to bring it to you! They’re calling it…CHANGE.

BO’s Favorite Professor of Education, Bill Ayers

BO did education “work” with Bill Ayers, member of the 60’s radical terrorist group, the Weather Undergound.  After being on the run for 10 years and then turning himself in for some 12 bombings in America, Bill Ayers became “a distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois“.  He also worked with BO on a project called the Chicago [...]

America’s radicals are taking over

The radicals are in charge. Team Obama includes criminals, socialists, commies, Marxists. Read about some of the connections here.

Blogger Fodder

It was easy work for Hitler’s brown-shirt Gestapo to confiscate the firearms of German citizens because years earlier, well-meaning liberals had forced all guns to be registered with the government … all in the name of safety.

CBO document dump

Why, pray tell, does the DOE need to study the “social and behavioral factors that affect energy consumption” unless they wish to control you and your energy use?

Kennedy & Byrd should be glad I’m not the judge

I’m sorry, but I’m not going to play kissie-face with reality here. Kennedy has finally met his maker. That should be a time for celebration, not remorse. He drowned a woman who was pregnant with his baby and could ruin his chances for a run for president. Period. End of story.

Escape from Victimhood

And come on, you have to admit, we are really a fat group of people. We eat like we’re rich. Can’t be good for your health. I’m thinking we spend more and are doing good to live as long as we do for as unhealthy as we are.

12,000 turn out in ATL to protest government-run healthcare

Protest of Obamacare in Atlanta Aug. 15 2009: America’s Health Care Townhall. Speakers included Herman Cain, Dick Armey, Joel Aaron and John Berry

Americans spend more on health care

We are some of the richest people in the world so of course we would spend more. Thank God I have the choice to spend money on a dying relative if I want to. God forbid that choice be taken from me and given to the government to make.