High Plains Blogger's Linkblog

Senator introduces Constitutional amendment requiring term limits

2009-11-10T23:24:38Z

A Republican senator on Tuesday introduced a Constitutional amendment that would mandate term limits for all federal lawmakers.

Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) amendment would limit House members to three terms and senators to two terms. Every lawmaker then could serve no longer than six years in Congress. DeMint said term limits are a reaction to the influence of special interest groups on Capitol Hill, corruption, high federal deficits, and a Democratic agenda he says will increase the size of government.

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com …

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The Berlin Wall, 20 years gone

2009-11-10T16:56:46Z

Twenty years ago, on the night of November 9, 1989, following weeks of pro-democracy protests, East German authorities suddenly opened their border to West Germany. After 28 years as prisoners of their own country, euphoric East Germans streamed to checkpoints and rushed past bewildered guards, many falling tearfully into the arms of West Germans welcoming them on the other side. Thousands of Germans and world leaders gathered in Berlin yesterday to celebrate the "Mauerfall" - the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and German reunification - and to remember the approximately 100-200 who died attempting to cross the border over the years. Collected here are photographs both historic and recent, from the fall of the Berlin Wall. Be sure to pause on photos 12 - 15, and click them to see a fade effect from before to after. (38 photos total)

Smoke from fireworks surrounds the Brandenburg Gate quadriga in Berlin at the end of the official ceremony to mark the anniversary of the reunificiation of Germany, on November 9, 2009. (LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images)

John Hawkins : 4 Reasons The American Dream Will Be Over Unless We Act

2009-11-11T05:26:51Z

"Make no mistake about it, this generation is a generation of thieves and the people who stole their parents and their children’s money to make their own lives cushier are at it again. This time the target is their grandchildren." -- Evan Sayet

Throughout American history, generations of our countrymen took pride in leaving the country better than the one they grew up in. Their attitude about sacrifice was summed up by this classic quotation from Tom Paine:

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."

That is no longer the spirit that animates our leaders or much of our country. Today, it's,

"If there must be trouble, let our children and grandchildren handle it, so that I am not inconvenienced."

History is full of great nations that have fallen from their lofty perches back into the ranks and the United States is likely to be among them unless we change our attitude about the following issues:

1) Takers Vs. Producers: "In 1985, just 16.5% of filers paid no income tax." Today, "roughly 120 million Americans – 40 percent of the U.S. population – are outside of the federal income tax system."

Meanwhile, the top 50% of income earners pay 97% percent of the income taxes. "In 1945, 41.9 workers supported each (Social Security recipient), while today only 3.3 workers support each retiree." That number will continue to shrink.

In other words, we're developing into a two-tiered society. Some people like to think of it as the "haves" and "have nots." However, it would be more apt to describe it as the people who pay the bills and the people who live off of the fruits of their labor.

This is an extraordinarily dangerous development for our country. It makes us overly dependent on workers and entrepreneurs who may flee the country or simply stop working as the burden on them grows. It also leads to class warfare, with the producers becoming increasingly resentful of an ever more demanding class of sows dining at the government trough.

Of course, it's easy to be demanding when you don't have to pay the full value of the services you receive. It's also easy to be resentful when you don't get your money's worth in government services and are treated as selfish for wanting to keep more of the money you earned for yourself. This is not a recipe either for societal stability or for long-term prosperity.

2) A degenerating society: America's success has been because of our people, not because of our government. It is almost impossible to overestimate the value our country has gotten out of having a hard working, honest, charitable, patriotic, culturally homogenous population.

Yet, the cultural elements that have made this a great nation are under attack on every level. The stigma for taking government assistance is fading, government is taking over the role of charity, many liberals mock the idea of patriotism, divorce rates have grown perilously high, support for gay marriage has increased, the percentage of the population that's Christian is dropping, and multi-culturalism and even dislike of America is replacing the idea of the Melting Pot.

The culture of a nation often tends to be more resilient than people realize, but that doesn't mean it can be taken for granted. If the bonds that hold us together disintegrate or the fundamental decency of the American people is no longer a given, our nation will no longer be great. As Samuel Adams said back in 1779:

"A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader."

3) Mounting debt: There's no peril greater to this country's future than our rapidly increasing debt. We have no idea how to pay for our Social Security and Medicare obligations, we seem to be running larger and larger deficits every year, and neither political party has the guts to make significant cuts in spending. Meanwhile, the politicians in DC are so irresponsible that they're obsessed with adding yet another cripplingly expensive entitlement program on top of the others we already have now, despite the objections of the American people.

Could this lead to hyperinflation that dramatically lessens the worth of a dollar? Could it, over the long haul, give nations like China so much economic leverage over us that it would be difficult to refuse them? Could the amount of money we have to pay in interest on the debt become so odious that it could dramatically reduce economic growth? Sadly, all of these scenarios are becoming more plausible by the day.

4) Nuclear proliferation: If we don't have the will to stop a "death to America" chanting terrorist regime run by religious fanatics from getting nuclear weapons, then we don't have the will to stop any nation. That's how it will be read across the Middle-East and across the world as well if Iran gets nukes. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and company wouldn't be alone either. If they get nukes, we should expect at a minimum Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia to also build nuclear weapons. Once that genie is out of the bottle, it'll never be put back in and the United States will suffer horribly as a result.

That's not just because of the much greater potential for nuclear war and nuclear blackmail, but because the strongest of all nations will always have a target on its back. Imagine terrorists smuggling nuclear bombs into Los Angeles, DC, Chicago, and Houston and then, after the explosion, not even being able to determine which rogue nation produced the weapons that killed millions of Americans. That's the future we're headed towards unless Iran is stopped and the consequences will be more devastating than most Americans can imagine.

from Day by Day Cartoon 11/11/2009

2009-11-11T05:18:21Z

Diverse it gets.

from Day by Day Cartoon 11/11/2009

2009-11-11T05:18:21Z

Diverse it gets.

10 Percent of U.S. Mosques Preach Jihad, FBI Estimates

2009-11-10T23:16:04Z

Shared by hpb
Well isn't that comforting news.

Alarming news about the Religion of Peace in America. The 10 percent is a "conservative" estimate. Thought to ponder: 10 percent? Does that mean American Muslims "tithe" terrorism?

Liberals Finally Manage To Make America More Like Europe…In Terms Of Unemployment Rates

2009-11-10T21:12:16Z

Hope for change:

Unemployment is now higher in the U.S. than in Europe, reports the Washington Post. “The official U.S. unemployment rate, reported last Friday, now stands at 10.2 percent,” compared to “9.7 percent” in Europe. This is the highest rate in more than 26 years, and marks a huge change from the recent past, in which unemployment was double the American rate in much of Europe. ...

A “broader measure of U.S. unemployment,” including discouraged workers, puts U.S. unemployment at 17.5 percent, reports the New York Times.

As the Post notes, “For many on the left, the lament for years has been: Why can’t America be more like Europe? Why can’t rustic Americans be more like sophisticated Europeans? The sentiment has resurfaced in recent months as the health-care debate has raged on — why can’t the American health-care system be more like Europe’s?”

Well, America is now more like Europe when it comes to unemployment.

And how did we get there? Well, emulating Europe with things like lavish minimum wage and unemployment entitlements helped.

Connecting the Dots -- By: Jonah Goldberg

2009-11-10T16:00:16Z

Does anyone remember the days when “connecting the dots” was considered vital to national security?

After the September 11 attacks, we had the 9/11 Commission and countless knock-off studies, committees, investigations, hearings, journalistic exposés, and outings of fact-finders. The lesson from all of them was that in order to make sure “this never happens again,” we must get better at connecting the dots.

No more Johnell Bryants!

You don’t remember poor her?

She was the hapless Department of Agriculture official who interviewed a loan applicant by the name of Mohamed Atta (the leader of the 9/11 hijackers). At the time of their meeting, he wanted a $650,000 loan to buy a crop duster with an abnormally large tank. Guess why?

When Bryant told Atta he couldn’t have the loan, Atta responded by asking, in the words of the New York Times, “what was to keep him from slitting her throat and stealing money from the safe behind the desk in her Florida office.”

Bryant didn’t think much of the comment and continued to chat with the eager loan applicant, perhaps in part to assure him that he wasn’t being discriminated against as he claimed.

Again the Times: “Later in their meeting#...#[Atta] told her he wanted to buy an aerial picture of Washington that hung in her office. He pulled out a wad of cash and threw money on her desk, even after she said she would not sell it. He asked about the White House and Pentagon, and she pointed them out.”

Atta then went on to praise “the world’s greatest leader,” Osama bin Laden, and peppered her with questions about the security at various D.C. landmarks.

“Should I have picked up the telephone and called someone?” Bryant mused to the Times. “I don’t know how I could possibly expect myself to have recognized what the man was. And yet sometimes I haven’t forgiven myself.”

But Bryant gets a pass. This all happened before 9/11. Before everything changed.

Flash forward to Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the man who last week shot over 40 people at Fort Hood, killing 13, while shouting “Allahu Akbar!”

“As a senior-year psychiatric resident at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Maj. Nidal M. Hasan was supposed to make a presentation on a medical topic of his choosing as a culminating exercise of the residency program,” reports the Washington Post.

Hasan went a different way. He opted to give a bizarre PowerPoint presentation in which he defended suicide bombing, explaining that non-believers should be beheaded, be burned alive, and have boiling oil poured down their throats (presumably not in that order). He argued that all Muslims should be discharged from the military.

One slide concluded: “We love death more then [sic] you love life!”

According to the Post, the medical staff in attendance was deeply disturbed by the incident. But there’s apparently no record of anyone’s reporting it to authorities. That would be insensitive and discriminatory.

The following year, intelligence officials discovered that Hasan had been sending e-mails to Anwar al-Aulaqi, a prominent American-born radical cleric now based in Yemen with ties to al-Qaeda.

The FBI concluded it was no big deal and dropped the matter. “Investigators,” reports the Post, “said Hasan’s e-mails were consistent with the topic of his academic research and involved some social chatter and religious discourse.”

Ah yes, his “academic research,” which was laid out so rigorously in his PowerPoint presentation.

Hasan also reportedly expressed joy over the murder of an Army recruiter in Arkansas. His views were not a secret to his colleagues, nor apparently to his patients, whom he tried to proselytize.

Maybe the e-mails seemed innocuous enough. Maybe.

But you know, I’ve been interviewed by the FBI a few times as part of routine background checks for friends and colleagues seeking government jobs. The G-Men ask all sorts of probing questions. If a friend of mine supported suicide bombings and attacks on American soil, I think it would have come up.

When my wife was up for a job at the Justice Department, her background-checker grilled her relentlessly over the fact she once had a reduction in her rent by $100 a month. It was as if this proved she had a gambling problem, or credit issues, or was a sleeper agent for the Bulgarian KGB or something.

Apparently, the FBI’s investigation of Hasan was not that thorough. When the FBI “investigated,” it seems they went looking for a reason not to investigate -- and they found it.

No dots there. Johnell Bryants everywhere.

A Liberal Explains Obamacare: It’s About Dependence On Government

2009-11-10T14:59:27Z

I love it when liberals speak plainly about their goals and motivation, though they don’t often for obvious reasons.

The typical argument for ObamaCare is that it will offer better medical care for everyone and cost less to do it, but occasionally a supporter lets the mask slip and reveals the real political motivation. So let’s give credit to John Cassidy, part of the left-wing stable at the New Yorker, who wrote last week on its Web site that “it’s important to be clear about what the reform amounts to.”

Mr. Cassidy is more honest than the politicians whose dishonesty he supports. “The U.S. government is making a costly and open-ended commitment,” he writes. “Let’s not pretend that it isn’t a big deal, or that it will be self-financing, or that it will work out exactly as planned. It won’t. What is really unfolding, I suspect, is the scenario that many conservatives feared. The Obama Administration . . . is creating a new entitlement program, which, once established, will be virtually impossible to rescind.”

Why are they doing it? Because, according to Mr. Cassidy, ObamaCare serves the twin goals of “making the United States a more equitable country” and furthering the Democrats’ “political calculus.” In other words, the purpose is to further redistribute income by putting health care further under government control, and in the process making the middle class more dependent on government. As the party of government, Democrats will benefit over the long run.

Put another way, it’s not about helping you. It’s about making you dependent on big government for the profit and benefit of the politicians.

November 10 1775

2009-11-10T13:00:25Z

Protecting your sorry ass for 234 years. Buy a marine a drink today. Or donate to Project Valour.

The country’s first military, and the oldest Freedom fighters.
Happy Birthday Marines.

Obama Priorities

2009-11-10T21:24:43Z

Compliments of the excellent iOwnTheWorld.com.

Ft Hood Memorial

2009-11-10T21:19:53Z

Photo Cribbed from Ace

Military people, cops and firefighters know how to honor their dead, and the Ft. Hood memorial service was excellently done, from start to finish. Gen. Casey’s speech, stirring. President Obama was, if typically remote, eloquent, and today eloquence mattered. As I twittered, the CIC, payed very proper, appropriate and overdue tribute to his troops. And maybe to his country.

I wonder if all of this will mature and deepen the president’s appreciation for his troops. I don’t see how not. I don’t know how you stand amid the fallen and their comrades, and their body-and-soul commitment to honor, and not be touched and changed.

I do not know how you remember the fallen by name, and dream, and not be changed. Or how you listen to the empty, terrible silence that follows, as they are called-out for the roll, but do not respond, an remain unchanged.

Horrible events sometimes bear very fine fruit. It is my earnest prayer that this horrific massacre, and this necessary, heart-wrenching memorial, bears the fruit we need.

Right now, I’m watching the Ft. Hood soldiers walk past each empty-booted memorial stand, stand before the picture of each of the slain, and make their salutes, over and over again. One mourner is having real difficulty, touching the picture of Pvt. Frederica Perez, who was looking forward to being a mother.

Very moving. It all helpfully brings home to the nation that we have lost exceptional people, that we are defended, daily, by exceptional people. What makes them exceptional is not their education, their background, their ethnicity; it’s their willingness to stand a watch, and if need be, to die for nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

UPDATE:
In the comments, dry valleys remarks from over in England,

I think Obama is a bit like me, he feels uncomfortable around the sort of hard, assertive, no-nonsense types you find in the military. We are neither of us very “manly” in that regard, so he might feel a bit uneasy, suspect that they are better men than him, he couldn’t do that…

Well, as to thinking of what one could or couldn’t do, I think humans are always surprised at what they can handle when they have to, but as I responded to dv, I think there comes a moment during every president’s tenure when he realizes with a centering certainty that he is commanding men and women who are “better than he.” For those presidents who can manage to then rise to the challenge of being worthy of their command, that is a positive thing, all-around. I pray this is true for Obama. I want him to be a great CIC, for the sake of our troops, and our nation.

Challenge Coins
Significance of the Military Memorial stand

American Thinker Blog: Graph of the Day for November 10, 2009

2009-11-10T21:17:28Z

"As fears of a backlash are going high among US Muslims, President Barack Obama urged Americans Saturday, November 7, not to jump into conclusions over a deadly attack on a military base in Texas, stressing the diversity of the US army." At least 13 dead. IslamOnline.

"Arab-Americans and Muslims fear backlash" after 911- 2,976 dead. USA Today.

"Muslim Leaders Fear Backlash" after London bombing, 56 dead. The Guardian.

"The Muslim Public Affairs Council today sent a letter to the Bush administration and the Obama transition team expressing concern about a potential backlash that could be triggered in the wake of terrorist attacks in Mumbai." At least 195 dead. MPAC.

Source: Michelle Malkin reposting chart from Investors Business Daily, based on FBI statistics.

Hoven's Index for November 10, 2009

Hate-crime incidents in the US in 2007: 7,624.

Anti-Islamic incidents: 115.

Anti-Jewish incidents: 969.

Anti-Other religion: 130.

Anti-white: 749.

Happy 234th Birthday, Marines!

2009-11-10T01:57:13Z

November 10 marks the 234th birthday of the United States Marines. The Marines themselves have produced an excellent video celebrating their own history and the brave men and women who serve:

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s fitting, somehow, that the birthday of the Marine Corps, which has given so much to our nation, falls one day ahead of Veterans’ Day.

Death by PowerPoint

2009-11-10T18:10:21Z

- the phrase sounds even less funny now.

The Washington Post has obtained the slideshow presented by Nidal Hasan.

Maj. Nidal M. Hasan was supposed to make a presentation on a medical topic of his choosing as a culminating exercise of the residency program.

Instead, in late June 2007, he stood before his supervisors and about 25 other mental health staff members and lectured on Islam, suicide bombers and threats the military could encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting in the Muslim countries of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a copy of the presentation obtained by The Washington Post.

You can't draw too many conclusions based only on these bullet-points (sorry - that's what they're called) without hearing the presentation itself, but here are the final two of 50 slides.

The rest of the presentation is here.

2009-11-10 Lisa Benson

2009-11-10T08:00:00Z

2009-11-09 Michael Ramirez

2009-11-09T00:00:00Z

2009-11-09 Eric Allie

2009-11-09T00:00:00Z

2009-11-10 Glenn McCoy

2009-11-10T08:00:00Z

WARDEN PELOSI

2009-11-10T20:13:00Z

Failure to buy health insurance in the just-passed health care bill could get you five years in jail with a $250,000 fine. How can violating a law that's unconstitutional be a felony, asks Investor's Business Daily (IBD)?

The passage last Saturday night of the House health care measure by a fragile 220-215 margin may well prove to be a Pyrrhic victory. In polls, townhall meetings and tea parties, Americans have shown they don't want a "reform" that costs a staggering $1.2 trillion yet fails to meet the left's desire of insuring all the uninsured. And they certainly don't want a bill that threatens them with incarceration if they don't comply, says IBD.

This monstrosity would raise insurance premiums and taxes to prohibitive levels and add unconscionably to the national debt.
It will force physicians to leave the medical profession in droves, exacerbating an already perilous doctor shortage; this and so-called cost controls will lead to rationing.
The mechanisms for deciding who gets what, if any, care -- and even what care will be available -- are already in place; some, like a cost-effectiveness board, slipped into the failed stimulus bill.
Under sections 7201 and 7203 of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's bill, Americans who don't maintain acceptable health insurance coverage and who choose not to pay a fine/tax of up to 2.5 percent of income are subject to fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

As Dave Camp (R-Mich.), ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee, observed, "This is the ultimate example of the Democrats' command-and-control style of governing -- buy what we tell you or go to jail."

Evading the income tax is punishable by jail time. But the income tax required a constitutional amendment; it was not imposed by judicial fiat, notes IBD.

Source: Editorial, "Warden Pelosi," Investor's Business Daily, November 10, 2009.

For text:

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=511806

For more on Health Issues:

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=16

Investors.com - Power To Spare [Digg]

2009-11-05T19:37:15-08:00

As Palin jousts with Biden on energy independence, the government reports that we lead the world in energy reserves. From oil to gas to coal, we are sitting on prosperity. So why are we importing anything?

Arguing With -Liberals- Idiots [Digg]

2009-10-31T11:46:25-07:00

I've argued with tons of Lefties. Trust me: they don't listen, try to understand, or care. Everyone who disagrees with them is an evil racist, sexist, homophobe driven by intolerance. And that's why it's okay for them to go on narrow-minded rants: teabaggers, evil white males, racists, etc., without even trying to understand the arguments of ...

The Straw Men of the Left [Digg]

2009-10-30T15:08:06-07:00

Republicans would like to see governmental obstacles — excessive taxation, mindless regulations, and an anti-business climate — removed, which would allow the wonder of economic growth to finally win the war on poverty.Alas, all of these facts are inconvenient for the left, who can neither answer them nor explain how raising taxes and inflating

From one that lived under Communism [Digg]

2009-10-28T19:01:58-07:00

I came from where we are heading, I grew up in a Communist country. Unfortunately I see a lot of parallels between the then and there, and the here and now.

Obama's War on Fox Is Liberalism's War on Dissent [Digg]

2009-10-27T09:29:59-07:00

Liberal politicians have been spoiled with mainstream media favoritism for so long that they believe anything other than sycophancy is mistreatment. Their selective outrage is as hollow as it is risible.

YouTube - Congressman Mike Rogers' statement on Health Care [Digg]

2009-10-25T13:42:53-07:00

Congressman Rogers' makes his opening statement on Health Care reform legislation that is under debate in Congress.

American Thinker: It's Time for Obama to Get a Clue [Digg]

2009-10-24T11:45:47-07:00

If the Obama administration took as much time to focus on the issues of the day as it does to attack its critics, this country might actually be headed in a different direction - the right direction.

Bare-Fisted Chicago Pol At Home, Pantywaist [Digg]

2009-10-23T18:39:39-07:00

The Chicago way? Don't bring a knife to a gunfight. In Iran, this administration won't bring a knife to a nuke fight. In Eastern Europe, it won't bring missile defense to a nuke fight. In Sudan, it won't bring a knife to a machete fight. But, if you're doing the overnight show on WZZZ-AM, Mr. Tough Guy's got your number.