Change! At What Price?

I am not a native Virginian, but as I was in the process of moving to Virginia, I thought that it would be great to live under a state flag which read, "sic semper tyrannis' (thus always to tyrants). Of course, I did know that a motto alone does not insulate a people from the tyrannical designs of evil men, or from those who do their bidding. On Aug. 25 Jim Moran (D-VA) held a town hall meeting at a public school in Reston, VA. Opponents of nationalized health care organized a protest in which they exercised their constitutional rights to peacefully assemble and to demand redress of grievances. Many were carrying signs. One protester was carrying the sign shown at the right of this page. Officer Wesley Cheeks Jr., who was assigned to crowd control duty at that location, apparently was offended by the sign.

Watch the video of the incident, which seems to have been taken by the individual with the sign. Pay particular attention to the exchange at the end of the clip.



"This use to be America", the protester says. "It ain't no more", responds the officer.

As I write this, the President has just finished his speech on health care reform to a joint session of Congress. The speech was his typical Obaminable mixture of platitudes, distortions, lies, and damn lies. Amid cheers and boos coming from the right and the left side of the chamber, the President showed once again, that he is the great 'polarizer in chief'. The purpose of this speech was to motivate and embolden the Democrats in Congress to ram this 'national socialist measure' down America's throat.

Back in 1996, as election day approached, some conservatives were saying that "America needed four more years of Bill Clinton" in order to push Americans further to the right. They of course could not have foreseen the 'Lewinsky scandal' which shifted attention from what Clinton was doing from his office, to what he was doing in his office. Now, I am hearing murmurs from some conservatives suggesting that we need the Democrats to shove this health care bill through on their own, and thereby destroy themselves. The future, as always, is unforeseeable. Even if events unfold as expected, playing politics with dangerous pieces of legislation is morally repugnant. Yes, the Democrats may pay for it in the short term, but the American people will be those who suffer in the long term. The price is far too great. God, forbid it.

Kool-Aid Drinkers Beg Forgiveness

A new Zogby poll conducted from Aug. 28-31 puts Obama's job approval number at 42% and his disapproval number at 48%. The poll indicates that declining support among likely Democrat voters is a leading factor. In this most recent poll, approval of the job Obama is doing among Republicans (8%) and Independents (37%) were only slightly down from the previous poll taken on July24. However, the approval of Obama's job performance among Democrats is down 13% from the previous poll.

The poll also found;

17% give Obama an excellent job rating, 25% rate him good, 16% fair and 41% poor. Combining the two highest and lowest rankings shows 42% rating Obama positively and 57% negatively. (This is the standard Zogby International has used for many years in measuring job performance.)

Likely voters are closely split on whether they have a favorable opinion of Obama, with 50% favorable and 48% unfavorable. Democrats are more positive about Obama personally than they are of his job performance, with 85% rating him favorably.

52% of all likely voters are proud to have Obama as President, and 35% are ashamed. The percentage of those proud is unchanged from six weeks ago.

A majority of likely voters (53%) believe the U.S. headed in the wrong direction, with 38% saying right direction.

Voter remorse syndrome is really beginning to take hold. There is even a web site, a kind of former Kool-aid drinkers support group. I am sorry I voted for Obama was begun at the beginning of August and now has more than 2000 remorseful signers. Here is a sample lament from someone in Camden, New Jersey which was posted today;

"I voted for Obama, even though I am a staunch conservative. Why? Because McCain was the worst possible Republican candidate they could have chosen. I wanted the GOP to get a wake-up call. Instead, I got a wake-up call. The message? No matter how bad a Republican candidate might be, he/she would at least be in favor of the USA and it's freedoms. Instead we got a radical, racist, Marxist who is intent on destroying the principles on which this great nation was founded. I am so sorry I voted for Barry. Even Hillary would have been better."

Hind sight is always 20/20! I suppose for some, there may be additional pain that they may have to endure beyond the remorse.

In reality, those who voted for Obama need not don sackcloth and ashes. It is not entirely their fault. The socialist wing of the Democratic party has been in the leadership thereof for more than a quarter of a century. America should have had this debate a long time ago, long before we found ourselves on the very brink of losing our republic. If America truly learns from this experience, the Democratic party is finished as a political power. If not, America may be in for a very long and painful struggle.

A Stark Look at Obama's Plan

This article from Star Parker is a must read. I will not bother commenting on it. It speaks for itself.




We're Moving Back To Uncle Sam's Plantation

By Star Parker
February 9, 2009

Six years ago, I wrote a book called "Uncle Sam's Plantation." I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of it.

I said in that book that indeed there are two Americas. A poor America on socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism.

I talked about government programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training(JOBS), Emergency Assistance to Needy Families with Children (EANF), Section 8 Housing and Food Stamps.

A vast sea of perhaps well-intentioned government programs, all initially set into motion in the 1960s, that were going to lift the nation's poor out of poverty. A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched mindsets from "How do I take care of myself?" to "What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?"

Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous moral and spiritual problems -- the kind of problems that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others. The legacy of American socialism is our blighted inner cities, dysfunctional inner city schools and broken black families.

Through God's grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood what freedom meant and how great this country is.

I had the privilege of working on welfare reform in 1996, passed by a Republican Congress and signed into law by a Democrat president. A few years after enactment, welfare roles were down 50 percent. I thought we were on the road to moving socialism out of our poor black communities and replacing it with wealth-producing American capitalism. But, incredibly, we are going in the opposite direction.

Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich American on capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like poor America on socialism.

Uncle Sam has welcomed our banks onto the plantation and they have said, "Thank you, Suh."
Now, instead of thinking about what creative things need to be done to serve customers, they are thinking about what they have to tell Massah in order to get their cash.

There is some kind of irony that this is all happening under our first black president on the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln. Worse, socialism seems to be the element of our new young president. And maybe even more troubling, our corporate executives seem happy to move onto the plantation.

In an op-ed on the opinion page of the Washington Post, Mr. Obama is clear that the goal of his trillion dollar spending plan is much more than short-term economic stimulus.

"This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending -- it's a strategy for America's long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care and education."

Perhaps more incredibly, Mr. Obama seems to think that government taking over an economy is a new idea. Or that massive growth in government can take place "with unprecedented transparency and accountability."

Yes, sir, we heard it from Jimmy Carter when he created the Department of Energy, the Synfuels Corporation and the Department of Education.

Or how about the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 -- The War on Poverty -- which, President Johnson said, "... does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already being done. It charts a new course. It strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty."

Trillions of dollars later, black poverty is the same. But black families are not, with triple the incidence of single-parent homes and out of wedlock births.

It's not complicated. Americans can accept Barack Obama's invitation to move onto the plantation. Or they can choose personal responsibility and freedom.

Does anyone really need to think about what the choice should be?

Comrade Obama Hot Over Biden Grilling

On Thursday Obama's VP candidate Joe Biden was asked some very tough questions by Florida WFTV anchor Barbara West.







The Obama campaign is livid over this interview. They immediately cancelled a scheduled WFTV -9 interview with Jill Biden and made it clear that further interviews with members of the Obama campaign by the Florida TV station were very unlikely.

Again, the Obama exhibits his tendency toward being thin skinned when it comes to tough questions and close scrutiny of his socialist policies and radical associations. When Samuel 'Joe the Plumber' Wurzelbacher dared to ask his 'Excellency' a question regarding the socialistic nature of his tax plan, the left leaning media went out of it's way to try to discredit an average Joe. Now it seems that government resources have been misappropriated in the effort to discredit Joe according to the Columbus Dispatch.

"Public records requested by The Dispatch disclose that information on Wurzelbacher’s driver’s license or his sport-utility vehicle was pulled from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles database three times shortly after the debate. Information on Wurzelbacher was accessed by accounts assigned to the office of Ohio Attorney General Nancy H. Rogers, the Cuyahoga County Child Support Enforcement Agency and the Toledo Police Department. It has not been determined who checked on Wurzelbacher, or why. Direct access to driver’s license and vehicle registration information from BMV computers is restricted to legitimate law enforcement and government business."

Denying interviews is one thing, illegally invading the privacy of a private citizen for political purposes is quite another. When Obama's passport information was illegally breached people lost their jobs over it. Those individuals who looked at and released the illegally obtained information on Wurzelbacher should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Heil Obama

Senator Obama's recent overseas tour is being viewed by Democrats as a huge success and by Republicans as completely irrelevant. In my opinion, it was way over the line. As a candidate for President it is appropriate for him to visit the theaters of military operations in order to obtain a first hand impression of the situation. However, for Obama, or any candidate, to arrange meetings with foreign leaders and to make political speeches on foreign soil is both arrogant and presumptuous. Obama is not in a position as, as yet, to make U. S. policy or to represent America's interests abroad. He is a U. S. Senator and his powers of representation ends at the border.

I am particularly offended by Obama's visit to Germany. The privilege of speaking at the Brandenburg Gate is one that is earned, not granted. Obama has done nothing to warrant being given that opportunity. In addition, he chose to speak to thousands of German citizens, but chose not to visit wounded U. S. troops in the hospital at Landstuhl. This speaks volumes about where his loyalties lie. To date, the Obama campaign has offered seven separate and distinct excuses as to why he did not go to Landstuhl. The DOD has said that he was both expected and welcome as long as his visit was in his capacity as a U. S. Senator. In other words, he could not bring his campaign staff and hangers-on along with him. It seems clear that this is the reason that Obama chose not to go.

That Barack Obama was able to draw thousands to hear him speak in Germany has certainly reinforced his 'rock star' persona. The thought of Obama standing before and ocean of people chanting his name is filling the hearts of liberals with such joy that they can hardly contain their glee. There have been many leaders, some quite evil, who have had the charisma to draw thousands to hear them speak. Hitler is a good example. Undoubtedly, the most charismatic chancellor that Germany has ever known, but when he finally ended his political career (by putting a bullet in his head), Germany was a heap of smoldering rubble.

What has Obama done to deserve all of this nearly messianic adoration? His campaign slogans are rather generic. On his campaign posters we read things like, "Yes we can", "Change", and "Progress". 'Yes we can' do what? Nationalize one seventh of the U. S. economy with universal health care. How is that a good idea? What has the government ever been able to do better and cheaper than the private sector? Most government social programs swallow up seventy percent of every tax dollar coming into them just to run the bureaucracy. Think about it. Seventy percent of one seventh of the U.S. economy disappearing into a huge bureaucratic black hole. I am not going to try to do the math, the figure would be in the trillions of dollars. The Europeans know this. They have had government run health care for some time. Perhaps that is why they came out in such huge numbers to hear Obama speak. Misery loves company.

When Obama speaks about change, in large part he is talking about changing the way things are done in Washington. This is certainly appealing to most people, myself included. The most corrupting practice in

Washington today is legislative earmarks. Many in Congress, on both sides of the aisle, have used earmarks to enrich themselves and their family members. It is a practice with needs to end if we are going to really change the way Washington does things. But, Barack Obama has not come out strongly in favor of ending the earmarks, only the public disclosure of them. Obama has not given full disclosure himself as to his earmarks. However, those which have been disclosed reveals that one of his earmarks benefited the hospital which employed his wife. How can we believe that he will clean up Washington when he has clearly been part of the problem.

Obama speaks of 'progress'. Conservatives know exactly what he means by progress. One would have to be more than a hundred years old to be able to recall a time when a political progressive was something other than a socialist. When Obama was being criticized recently by McCain on his flip flopping, Obama said this; "I am someone who is no doubt progressive." Since he has said it himself, all of America should have no doubt as well.

The ability of a leader, or potential leader, to draw thousands of people to hear him speak is no indication that said leader will lead well. The popularity of a message is no guarantee that the message is sound and will bring the expected results. Barack Obama's notions of governance are not new, they are the same old socialist ideas, dusted off and polished up to look new. They have all been tried with disastrous results.

America's answer to Barack Obama on election day should be a simple one.