THE FREEDOM POST

The Price of 'Free' Health Care: Freedom

2012-02-18T03:35:00.000-08:00

GOLDBERG: The price of free health care - Washington Times: "When we empower bureaucrats and politicians to make such huge personal decisions for us, it becomes impossible to avoid trampling on liberty. The Roman Catholic Church was simply the first in the leviathan’s path.

If you look at the genetic and neuroscience revolutions waiting just offstage, the future holds enormous promise for personalized health care, including individualized genetic therapies. Yet the government is marching faster and faster toward wholesale approaches that prioritize the health of the system over the health of patients. It is impossible to imagine the myriad arbitrary abuses and petty tyrannies that could result."

Over-regulated America

2012-02-18T03:22:00.000-08:00

Overregulation is strangling the U.S. economy and restricting individual freedom

United States' economy: Over-regulated America | The Economist: "But red tape in America is no laughing matter. The problem is not the rules that are self-evidently absurd. It is the ones that sound reasonable on their own but impose a huge burden collectively. America is meant to be the home of laissez-faire. Unlike Europeans, whose lives have long been circumscribed by meddling governments and diktats from Brussels, Americans are supposed to be free to choose, for better or for worse. Yet for some time America has been straying from this ideal.

Consider the Dodd-Frank law of 2010. Its aim was noble: to prevent another financial crisis. Its strategy was sensible, too: improve transparency, stop banks from taking excessive risks, prevent abusive financial practices and end “too big to fail” by authorizing regulators to seize any big, tottering financial firm and wind it down. This newspaper supported these goals at the time, and we still do. But Dodd-Frank is far too complex, and becoming more so. At 848 pages, it is 23 times longer than Glass-Steagall, the reform that followed the Wall Street crash of 1929. Worse, every other page demands that regulators fill in further detail. Some of these clarifications are hundreds of pages long. Just one bit, the “Volcker rule”, which aims to curb risky proprietary trading by banks, includes 383 questions that break down into 1,420 subquestions."

Democratic National Cronyism

2012-02-18T03:05:00.000-08:00

DEM CONVENTION CO-CHAIR’S COMPANY RECEIVED $230.4M IN STIMULUS MONEY, HIRED PODESTA GROUP TO LOBBY

Democratic National Cronyism | Washington Free Beacon: "Just as Rogers has helped fund Democratic politicians, they, in turn, have helped steer massive amounts of federal funding to Duke Energy. The 2009 stimulus package, for instance, was a boon for the company: Duke received federal grants totaling $230.4 million for a number of “green” energy projects including “smart grid” development and wind energy storage.

According to Recovery.gov, Duke created 196.6 jobs as a result of the grants.

The company also received a $350,000 grant to assist General Motors in the development of the Chevrolet Volt, the poorly selling electric vehicle that the Obama administration has recently proposed subsidizing at a rate of $10,000 per car.

Rogers’ support for the president’s “green” agenda earned him a spot on the short list to become President Obama’s Energy Secretary.

Though headquartered in Charlotte, Duke maintains an active presence in Washington, D.C., having spent more than $26 million lobbying the federal government on energy-related issues since 2007."

PICTURE OF THE DAY

2012-02-18T02:57:00.000-08:00

QUOTE OF THE DAY

2012-02-18T02:50:00.000-08:00

"Of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious* court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants."

-- Alexander Hamilton

*Definition of "obsequious":
1. obedient or attentive in an ingratiating or servile manner
2. Now rare submissive or compliant

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

2012-02-17T20:46:00.000-08:00

"The media, the American left, they want to try to convince you that the party of Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin and Liz Cheney hates women. The party of Bachmann and Palin hates women and the party of the Kennedys and Bill Clinton and Chris Dodd loves women. How does that work?"

-- Rush Limbaugh, 2/17/12

Marxist Food Police Chief Michelle Obama Dictates Nation's Candy Bar Size for Common Good

2012-02-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

The king-size candy bar will be a thing of the past thanks to Marxist Food Police Chief, wide-bodied, Michelle Obama.

Looks like something else needs to be "downsized"

Mars, the candy giant with brand names like Twix, Snickers, and M&M's, has announced that by 2013 it will no longer sell its king-sized candy bars, including any offers discontinuing any offering over 250 calories.

This is just another example this week of Obama's out-of-control, anti-choice, tyrannical police-state government.

Where Did All The Obama Stimulus Money Go?

2012-02-17T16:07:00.000-08:00

Where Did All The Money Go? | RNC: Republican National Committee | GOP: For the three year anniversary of the Obama Stimulus Plan (Porkulus), the RNC put together this list of some of the more ludicrous projects that your tax dollars was spent on. Prepared to be angered:

How The $825 Billion Stimulus Was Spent

In Your State Over The Past Three Years

ALABAMA

$400,000 For Highway “Beautification Project.” “The city of Hoover will get $400,000 in federal stimulus money for a landscaping and beautification project at the Interstate 65 and U.S. 31 interchange, city officials learned this week. The project will be paid completely with federal funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to the Alabama Department of Transportation. The city will not be required to provide any matching funds for the project.” (Staci B. Brooks, “Hoover To Get $400,000 In Federal Stimulus Money For Landscaping,” The Birmingham News, 7/8/09)

ALASKA

$15 Million To Construct Airport In Village Of Ouzinkie With 165 Residents. “The village of Ouzinkie is one of the remotest outposts in the United States—home to a mere 165 people on an island off another island off the coast of Alaska. There are no stores, no gas stations and no stoplights. Yet the village will soon be home to a new $15 million airport paid for by taxpayers under the federal stimulus package.” (Michael Grabell, “Tiny Airports Take Off With Stimulus,” Pro Publica, 7/13/09)

$13.9 Million To Replace Airport In Akiachak With 660 Residents. “The second calls for spending $13.9 million to replace the airport in Akiachak, a remote Yup’ik Eskimo village in western Alaska with a population of around 660.” (Michael Cooper, “Inspector General Questions Value Of Some Airport Stimulus Projects,” The New York Times, 8/11/09)

ARIZONA

$950,000 To Study The Genetic Makeup Of Ants. "Half a million dollars went to Arizona State University to study the genetic makeup of ants to determine distinctive roles in ant colonies; $450,000 went to the University Of Arizona to study the division of labor in ant colonies." ("Senate GOP Point Out 'Pure Waste' Found In Stimulus Package," The Hill, 12/8/09)

Stimulus Funds Spent To Build “Bat-Friendly Cupolas And Desert Tortoise Fencing…” “By the administration's calculations, recovery act money created or saved almost 400 jobs in the county while providing money for projects ranging from bat-friendly cupolas and desert tortoise fencing ...” (Mark Duncan, “Stimulus Report Card: Where Did All The Mohave County Money Go?” Kingman Daily Miner, 1/23/12)

ARKANSAS

$2.5 Million For The Clinton Presidential Library. “A historic bridge at Bill Clinton's presidential center in Little Rock is slated to get $2.5 million of federal stimulus money from Arkansas's share of the funds. … Members of the Arkansas congressional delegation sought an $8 million legislative earmark for the bridge this year, without success. But after Congress authorized the $787 billion stimulus package in February, representatives of the William J. Clinton Foundation contacted Mr. Beebe's office, according to Matt DeCample, the governor's spokesman, and spoke with Mr. Beebe's recovery director and ombudsman to suggest the bridge project receive funds from Arkansas's share.” (Louis Radnofsky, “Clinton Site Gets A Taste Of The Stimulus Pie,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/30/09)

$13,000 For A Sculpture To Decorate Fort Smith High School. “A large piece of art amidst the extensive renovation at Southside High School in Fort Smith is part of an effort to change the appearance of the ‘factory-like’ main building at the high school. The cost of the sculpture and surrounding area, which was designed by Fort Smith architect Tim Risley, is $13,000, according to information from the school district. The cost of the renovation of the high school — which includes new sidewalks, landscaping, lighting, parking lots — is around $2.6 million. The school district says 80% of the funds are federal stimulus dollars.” (“Large Art Structure Part Of High School Renovation,” The City Wire, 8/5/09)

CALIFORNIA

$4.3 Billion To Build High Speed Rail Between Two Sparsely Populated Rural Towns. “Instead, the recommended route doesn't connect those population centers. One end stops in Borden, which was derided in an editorial in the Merced Sun-Star as a ‘mythical 'town’ that ‘Gertrude Stein wouldn't even have acknowledged.’ The San Jose Mercury News described the other end of the route, Corcoran, as ‘perhaps best known for the state prison where Charles Manson is locked up.’ … Federal officials said last month they wanted the $4.3 billion to go toward a project that can be completed and operational by 2017.” (Daisy Nguyen, “Critics Pan Proposed High-Speed Rail Segment,” The Associated Press, 12/1/10)

$535 Million For Loan Guarantee To Now-Bankrupt Solyndra. (Solyndra, “Solyndra Offered $535 Million Loan Guarantee By The U.S. Department Of Energy,” Press Release, 3/20/09; Joe Stephens And Carol Leonnig, “House Republicans Step Up Solyndra Investigation,” The Washington Post, 9/1/11; George Avalos, “Fremont Solar Tech Firm Solyndra To Shut Down, Lay Off 1,100 Workers,” The San Jose Mercury News, 8/31/11)

$54 Million To Construct A Napa Valley Wine Train. “But the main action today is in Napa, where, without competitive bidding, this unusual construction company won a $54 million federal contract to build a new railroad bridge and other structures for the famed Napa Valley Wine Train tourist attraction. … But in December, U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., issued a report listing the Wine Train among 100 stimulus projects that they derided as ‘silly and shortsighted’ and a waste of money. The lawmakers also suggested the project wasn’t doing much for the economy.” (ABC News’ “Good Morning America,” 2/2/10)

$16.1 Million To Save The San Francisco Bay Area Habitat Of The Endangered Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse. “The tiny mouse that became a hotly disputed symbol of wasteful spending in the congressional debate over the $787 billion economic stimulus bill has returned to pester House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Obama administration quietly announced last week that as much as $16.1 million from the stimulus program is going to save the San Francisco Bay area habitat of, among other things, the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse.” (S.A. Miller, “GOP Slams Stimulus Mouse Money,” The Washington Times, 7/9/09)

$6.4 Million To Company Under Criminal Investigation For Questionable Billing To The City Of San Diego. “Watsonville-based Granite Construction received $6.4 million in stimulus contracts to work on airport runways in Salinas and Monterey and repair roads in San Bernardino, Riverside and Butte counties. Yet the company faces three federal probes, including a criminal investigation launched after The San Diego Union-Tribune exposed questionable billing of the city for wildfire cleanup.” (Will Evans, “Questionable Firms Getting Stimulus Cash,” The San-Diego Union Tribune, 1/10/10)

$3 Million To Study Video Games. “$3 million in taxpayer money that went to researchers at the University of California at Irvine so they can play video games such as World Of Warcraft.” (Catalina Camia, “Grateful Dead, Zoo Poetry Top 2010 Wasteful Spending,” USA Today, 12/20/10)

$1.5 Million To Renovate Eight Modesto Homes, Which Were Resold At A Value Lower Than The Cost Spent Renovating The Homes. “In an effort to stabilize the city's real estate market, a federal stimulus program has spent nearly $1.5 million on eight Modesto homes that ended up being worth less than $1 million.” (J.N. Sbrantijnsbranti, “Modesto Renovates Homes Expensively, Doesn't Recoup Money In Sales,” Modesto Bee, 1/15/12)

$489,000 To Retrofit Los Angeles’ Luxury Yacht, The “Angelena.” “The port is using $489,000 in federal taxpayer stimulus money that is supposed to go create jobs, plus another $200,000 coming from the port — totaling $689,000 for new engines. … The port bought it in 1988. It is used for public relations tours of the harbor, which run about two hours long. They are free of charge for just about any group, like one we observed for students of Banning High. We obtained the ship’s logs for the past two years, which show cruises with as many as 48 passengers at a time. We also obtained the names of thousands of people who have been on-board. More than 4,000 took the cruise just last year. Some of the people do business with the port, but many have nothing to do with it.” (David Goldstein, “Taxpayer Money Used To Maintain Million-Dollar Yacht,” KCAL-TV [Los Angeles, CA], 2/6/12)

$233,825 To Study African Election Exit Poll Data. “UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Grant: $233,825 - National Science Foundation … Project Description: The primary objective of this project is, thus, to identify the micro-foundations of vote choice in sub-Saharan Africa through extensive analysis of individual-level exit poll data. Our project requires gathering sociodemographic, census, and political data to help us to design our poll well, writing and testing our exit poll in the field, training and supervising staff in the field, collecting and entering exit poll data into databases, analyzing and testing those data, and publishing the results of our analyses. We will disseminate our research results widely to academic and policy audiences as well as develop a comprehensive dataset that will be accessible to the public. These efforts will result in a robust understanding of how Africans vote, which will in turn allow for a better targeting our external aid funds aimed at promoting democracy on the continent.” (Stimulus Watch, 9/19/09)

$50,000 For Art House Showing Pornographic Horror Film. “The National Endowment for the Arts may be spending some of the money it received from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund nude simulated-sex dances, Saturday night ‘pervert’ revues and the airing of pornographic horror films at art houses in San Francisco. … A few of their more risque choices have some taxpayer advocates hot under the collar, including a $50,000 infusion for the Frameline film house, which recently screened Thundercrack, ‘the world's only underground kinky art porno horror film, complete with four men, three women and a gorilla.’” (Joseph Abrams, “Stimulus Bill Funds Go To Art Houses Showing ‘Pervert’ Revues, Underground Pornography,” Fox News, 7/30/09)

$25,000 For Art House Showing “Long-Running Pansexual Performance Series.” “The National Endowment for the Arts may be spending some of the money it received from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act to fund nude simulated-sex dances, Saturday night ‘pervert’ revues and the airing of pornographic horror films at art houses in San Francisco. … CounterPULSE, whose ‘long-running pansexual performance series’ invites guests to ‘join your fellow pervs for some explicit, twisted fun.’ CounterPULSE received a $25,000 grant in the ‘Dance’ category; a staffer there said they were pleased to receive the grant, ‘which over the next year will be used to preserve jobs at our small non-profit.’” (Joseph Abrams, “Stimulus Bill Funds Go To Art Houses Showing ‘Pervert’ Revues, Underground Pornography,” Fox News, 7/30/09)

For the remaining states,GO HERE

FBI Terrorist Alert: Beware of Those Who 'Reference the Constitution or Bible'

2012-02-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

Obama's FBI Categorizes Constitution and Bible adherents as potential terrorists

FBI Terrorist Alert: Beware of Those Who 'Reference the Constitution or Bible' - Alexander's Essays - PatriotPost.US: "The FBI counterterrorism division report concluded that those who believe that our government has exceeded its constitutional limits or are protesting for restoration of constitutional integrity might pose a threat. By that definition, anyone associated with the "Tea Party movement" is suspect, and that's the problem with this sweeping and politically motivated "bureaucrap.""

A Syllabus for the 'Occupy' Movement

2012-02-17T10:26:00.000-08:00

Glenn Reynolds: A Syllabus for the 'Occupy' Movement - WSJ.com: "Schools from New York's Columbia to Chicago's Roosevelt University are offering courses on the "Occupy" movement. This has inspired some derision from the right, but I think that derision is misplaced. There is much that a course on the Occupy movement might profitably cover. Here are some possible lessons:

1) The Higher Education Bubble and Debt Slavery Throughout History. Since ancient times, debt has been a tool used by rulers to enslave the ruled, which is why the Bible explains that the borrower is the slave to the lender. One complaint of many Occupy protesters involves their pursuit of expensive degrees that has left them burdened by student loans but unable to find suitable employment. This unit would compare the marketing of higher education and student debt to today's students with the techniques used to lure sharecroppers and coal miners into irredeemable indebtedness. Music to be provided by Tennessee Ernie Ford." More

Could ObamaCare Force You to Buy a Car?

2012-02-17T02:33:00.000-08:00

If the gov't can force you to buy health care insurance, they can force you to buy anything.

Could ObamaCare Force You to Buy a Car? - Reuters:

"If the government can make people get insurance, he said that Congress instead of adopting the cash-for-clunkers auto buyback program could have required that everyone who exceeds a certain income level must buy a car to help the struggling U.S. auto industry.

"You just can't have the shortcut of the individual mandate," Clement said, referring to the provision the requires Americans buy medical insurance or pay a penalty by 2014.

He said there were other ways that would have been constitutional for Congress to make sure that uninsured Americans got coverage."

Mark Levin's Landmark Legal Attacks ObamaCare's 'Individual Mandate' in U.S. Supreme Court Brief

2012-02-17T02:02:00.000-08:00

Talk show host, best-selling author, and constitutional scholar, Mark Levin

Here's the Landmark Legal Foundation's (headed by Mark Levin) Supreme Court brief filed a few days ago in the Obamacare case. Below is an excerpt (emphasis added) from the document. You can view the entire brief in PDF form here.

"This case is about individual liberty, state sovereignty and federalism. Indeed, whether there remain any limits on the power and reach of the federal government is the fundamental question before this Court. The federal government’s defense of the individual insurance mandate, if accepted, requires the Court to disregard more than 220 years of Commerce Clause application and Supreme Court precedents, fundamentally misapply the Necessary and Proper Clause and disregard the Constitution’s requirements for the laying and collection of taxes.

The heavy-handed demands of temporary politicians seeking to fundamentally and permanently change the relationship between the citizen and government – in a manner that no past Congress or Executive have undertaken and which the Constitution does not allow – must not be given this Court’s imprimatur.

The Commerce Clause, Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, provides that: “The Congress shall have Power . . . To regulate Commerce with Foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.” Congress can tax interstate commerce, regulate interstate commerce, and even prohibit certain types of interstate commerce. The federal government portrays the individual insurance mandate as a run-of-the-mill exercise of an enumerated power. There is nothing in the history of the Constitution and the Commerce Clause empowering the federal government to compel an individual to enter into a legally binding private contract against the individual’s will and interests simply because the individual is living and breathing. Such a sweeping departure from precedent, law, and logic has never been contemplated, let alone imposed upon, the American people.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

2012-02-17T00:43:00.000-08:00

“There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by the gradual and silent encroachment of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpation.”

-- James Madison

We Are on the Road to Bankruptcy

2012-02-17T00:29:00.000-08:00

We Are on the Road to Bankruptcy by John Stossel: But what the president was talking about is not even a cut. The politicians just agreed that over the next 10 years, instead of increasing spending by $9.48 trillion, they'd increase it by "just" $7.3 trillion. Calling that a "cut" is nonsense.

Mitchell gave an analogy: "What if I came to you and said, 'I've been on a diet for the last month, and I've gained 10 pounds. Isn't that great?' You would say: 'Wait, what are you talking about? That's insane.' And I said: 'I was going to gain 15 pounds. I've only gained 10 pounds, therefore my diet is successful.'"

Democrats use this deceit when they want more social spending. Republicans use it for military spending. And the press buys it. The Washington Post has been writing about "draconian cuts.""The politicians know this game," Mitchell said. "The special interests know this game. Everyone gets a bigger budget every year. ... And we wind up, sooner or later, being Greece."

We are definitely on the road to bankruptcy.

Ben Bernanke: Supreme Socialist - Steve Forbes

2012-02-17T00:10:00.000-08:00

Ben Bernanke: Supreme Socialist - Forbes: "You thought socialism was dead, other than in miserable countries such as North Korea and Cuba? Think again. It’s alive and well at the Federal Reserve, and we and the world are paying a price for it.

Our central bank tries to manipulate our economy in ways befitting a Soviet commissar. Take interest rates. Fixing the price of money is a form of price control, pure and simple. Until Ben Bernanke our central bank was content to fix short-term interest rates, which he announced would be kept at virtually zero through 2014. But in the aftermath of the financial crisis Bernanke is, in effect, dictating the price of all money, regardless of duration.

By owning so many long-term government bonds, Bernanke has created an artificial shortage of these financial instruments. Like a good central planner, Bernanke is using his policies to subsidize the still rapidly growing, gargantuan debt of the U.S. government."

Colorado Student Quits High School Choir Over Islamic Song Praising 'Allah'

2012-02-16T18:35:00.000-08:00

OUTRAGE: Where is the outrage from the Left screaming, "separation of church and state!"? Interesting that Obama's "War on Religion" is against all religions except Islam. This has got to be the Mother of all double standards:

Colorado Student Quits High School Choir Over Islamic Song Praising 'Allah' | Fox News: "A Colorado high school student says he quit the school choir after an Islamic song containing the lyric "there is no truth except Allah" made it into the repertoire.

James Harper, a senior at Grand Junction High School in Grand Junction, put his objection to singing "Zikr," a song written by Indian composer A.R. Rahman, in an email to Mesa County School District 51 officials. When the school stood by choir director Marcia Wieland's selection, Harper said, he quit.

"I don’t want to come across as a bigot or a racist, but I really don’t feel it is appropriate for students in a public high school to be singing an Islamic worship song,” Harper told KREX-TV. "This is worshipping another God, and even worshipping another prophet ... I think there would be a lot of outrage if we made a Muslim choir say Jesus Christ is the only truth.""

Allen West's Speech on Black History Month

2012-02-16T18:01:00.000-08:00

Congressman Allen West (R-FL): "It's been the Republican Party that has fought to prevent African-Americans from being trapped in a permanent underclass through dependence on government handouts. Republicans have been on the front lines for equal rights and individual manifest destiny since our party's founding under Lincoln."

"With a core belief in the supremacy and the sovereignty of the individual, and the unconditional dignity of every human life, the Republican party is, always has been and forever shall be, the party of equality, of opportunity. Happy Black History month!"

Sen. Ron Johnson: Obama Administration Is 'a Lawless Administration'

2012-02-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

Republican Senator Ron Johnson: Obama Administration Is 'a Lawless Administration' | CNSNews.com: "CNSNews.com asked: “Does the Constitution grant the federal government the authority to force private companies to offer products for free?”

“Absolutely not,” he said.

“No, I mean these are huge issues of constitutionality of what this president is doing,” Johnson said. “This administration has become a lawless administration. It is flouting the Constitution, it’s flouting existing law. It’s bypassing Congress when it shouldn’t be. It really is a travesty.

He added: “Americans should be outraged about what’s happening in this country right now,” he said.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg that the health care law represents in terms of the assault on our freedom,” Johnson told CNSNews.com.

“Now they’re assaulting religious freedom, but preventing Americans from getting the kind of health care they actually want, having the freedom to choose what they want is not far behind,” he added.

Johnson said he would support legislation to repeal the rule, adding that opposition to the HHS mandate is about liberty and not women’s health."

The U.S. is experiencing “longest stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression” says CBO

2012-02-16T16:53:00.000-08:00

CBO: The U.S. is experiencing “longest stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression” « The Enterprise Blog: "The rate of unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, making the past three years the longest stretch of high unemployment in this country since the Great Depression. Moreover, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that the unemployment rate will remain above 8 percent until 2014. The official unemployment rate excludes those individuals who would like to work but have not searched for a job in the past four weeks as well as those who are working part-time but would prefer full-time work; if those people were counted among the unemployed, the unemployment rate in January 2012 would have been about 15 percent. Compounding the problem of high unemployment, the share of unemployed people looking for work for more than six months—referred to as the long-term unemployed—topped 40 percent in December 2009 for the first time since 1948, when such data began to be collected; it has remained above that level ever since."

Perverted Planned Parenthood Urges Mandatory Teaching of 'Pleasures of Sex' to 10 Year Olds

2012-02-16T11:15:00.000-08:00

The Left's Evil Strategy to Create 'Unlimited' Government

2012-02-16T05:45:00.000-08:00

Creating the unbounded State - HUMAN EVENTS: "How can the centralized State accumulate unlimited power, while still retaining the outward form of a democracy? This question has been the obsession of the American Left for over a century. The answer lies in subduing the middle class, which is always the deadly enemy of statism. Middle class voters have the numbers to secure electoral victory, coupled with an appreciation for the value of capital. They are sensitive to collapsing stock values, rising consumer prices, high unemployment, and the other typical consequences of decayed economic freedom.

To subdue the middle class, it must be made dependent upon the State. Middle class voters must, at some critical juncture, voluntarily relinquish a terminal amount of their economic freedom. The trick is keeping them quiet while the State passes the event horizon of growth.

Three crucial techniques are needed to get the State past the point of no return. First, an open-ended mission is needed. It must be possible for the State to define the terms of this mission, so that no one can ever say it has been completed, or that the State has failed. Every totalitarian government in modern history has adopted the same mission Barack Obama now openly declares: the quest for “fairness.”

Fairness is the perfect goal for an open-ended mission, because no one can ever firmly define what “fairness” would mean. At what point are the Evil Rich “paying their fair share?” Can it be expressed as a percentage of their income, a ratio of the total national income they command, or a share of the nation’s total tax burden? None of the above. No formula will ever be presented. The number of people who receive benefits in excess of the taxes they pay, or who 7pay no income tax at all, will never be factored in."

READ THE REST

Gallup Shows U.S. Underemployment at Whopping 19.2%!

2012-02-16T04:08:00.000-08:00

PICKET: Gallup shows U.S. unemployment at 9% - Washington Times: "Gallup released new information on Monday showing that the unemployment rate has managed to creep back up to 9.0 percent. Gallup gathers daily unemployment information of U.S. adults in the workforce, ages 18 and older, who are underemployed, unemployed, and employed full-time for an employer.

However, unlike the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report that the administration cites, Gallup's data are raw numbers numbers and not packaged with seasonal adjustments. With seasonal adjustments, BLS shows the unemployment rate at 8.3 percent.

Gallup also shows the underemployment rate is at 19.2%. Those who are underemployed, according to Gallup, are individuals who "are employed part time, but want to work full time, or they are unemployed.""

First They Came for Rush and Lou Dobbs

2012-02-16T03:04:00.000-08:00

MUST READ: The American Spectator : First They Came for Rush and Lou Dobbs: "What was So We Might See? It was presented by one of its prime sponsors, the United Church of Christ (alas my own denomination, of which more in a bit) as a group of the lofty like-minded religious simply concerned with violence in the media. Specifically, seven major denominations were involved. They were listed by the group as the United Church of Christ, U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, the Islamic Society of North America, United Methodist Communications, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and "several other faith groups."

In fact, under the guise of stamping out "hate speech," this instantly emerged as an effort -- partially funded by a $40,000 grant from the George Soros funded Media Democracy Fund -- to intimidate conservatives in the media through the Federal Communications Commission, when not getting them off the air completely. It turned out then-FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, previously a longtime Senate Democratic staffer, had even traveled to New York to meet privately on September 30, 2009, with the members of So We Might See before delivering a speech to an event sponsored by the liberal leadership of the UCC. A mere 16 days later the UCC had a petition going, in the name of So We Might See and its seven denominational members, which was to be sent to the Federal Communications Commission. It was a petition that featured one name and one name only.

Guesses please? Anyone? Anyone?

Very good! Yes! It was Rush Limbaugh, of course."

Mr. Obama, We Don't Have A Tax Problem, We Have A Spending Problem

2012-02-16T02:56:00.000-08:00

Mr. Obama, We Don't Have A Tax Problem, We Have A Spending Problem | Fox News: "Did you see President Obama's new 2013 budget? It's filled with $1.5 trillion in tax increases for the rich.

It appears that the president and his leftist cabal believe we are all stupid. They believe if you tell enough lies, the lies become fact. They spend all day, every day, trying to convince Americans that taxes on the rich are too low.

The reality is taxes are not low at all. If you think they are, you've either been brainwashed, or you aren't paying taxes. The truth is: The taxes are too damn high.

We do have a serious problem in this country. But it's not a tax problem. It is a spending problem.

Our government is addicted to spending. It doesn’t matter what the tax rate is. It doesn’t matter how high the tax revenues. We could raise tax rates to 90% and government would still spend $1.40 for every dollar it takes in. So why are we blaming the victim (taxpayers) for the national debt?"

TSA Help Wanted - hilarious satire animation about TSA perverts, Janet Napolitano and the Bill of Rights

2012-02-16T02:00:00.000-08:00

TSA Help Wanted - hilarious satire animation about TSA perverts, Janet Napolitano and the Bill of Rights - NaturalNews.tv: