Who Do You Trust More, Obama, or the CIA?

Who Do You Trust More, Obama, or the CIA?
A commentary by J. D. Longstreet

It is beginning to look as if those who warned the Obama Administration would be nothing more than a Chicago mob were correct in their assessment.

Frankly, I thought, at the time, that was stretching a little, but I have to say, their actions of late, especially their decision to go after the CIA for doing a superb job against terrorists after 9/11, speaks more of Obama’s insecurity than it does anything else.

Obama’s attack on the CIA is reminiscent of the actions of Caligula, the nutty, paranoid, Roman emperor who went after his own Praetorian Guard. Obama might do well to remember that Caligula brought about his own destruction, at the hands of that elite group of Roman security specialists, by making charges and threats against them.

When one steps back and takes the broad view of Obama’s actions and the actions of those within his cadre of “Czars” and “Secretaries” one can see a pattern emerging in which Obama is wrapping himself in his own security blanket because he does not trust anyone in a position of power not beholden to him, and to him alone, for that position and the power they wield.

These are the actions, dear reader, of a man deeply troubled, deeply flawed.

We, the American electorate, cannot say we were not warned for we most certainly were. Before the election we were warned that Obama presented as a narcissist. And the actions he is taking now are certainly those of a narcissist. His attack on the CUA will desfroy the American intelligence community while this nation is at war. For make no mistake about it, America is at war, and we will be at war, whether we want to be or not, for many decades into the future.

Intelligence is the way wars are won. Yes, our combat forces put their lives on the line in the heat of combat but the intelligence services provide the information upon which the war plans are based. Without intelligence our combat forces would not know where the enemy is and what the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses are, where his supplies and war making material is coming from, etc., etc. Intelligence is vital to winning any war. Plus, intelligence agencies are vital to the security of the homeland. According to published reports this is the agency that “produced life-saving intelligence that disrupted numerous terrorist plots.” In other published reports it was CIA that aborted terrorists attacks in the US that included al-Qaida “plots to fly airliners into buildings on the West Coast, setting off bombs in U.S. cities and planning to employ a network of Pakistanis to target gas stations, railroad tracks and even the Brooklyn Bridge.”

The bottom line is – now is definitely not the time to hamper the CIA and their brother and sister agencies as the toil to keep the American public safe. There are Americans alive today who otherwise would be dead had not the CIA been successful in their operations against al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations in the War on Terror.

There is only one reason I can see for Obama allowing the Attorney General to go forward with his investigation and that is raw fear on the part of Obama. It certainly appears as though he fears the CIA, personally, and is out to hamstring them in order to protect himself for some reason yet unknown to the American public. In doing so, it also demonstrates his lack of interest in the safety of his fellow Americans just as long as he, himself, can feel safe.

The Left’s vendetta against former President Bush and Vice President Dick Chaney smacks of a gang vendetta, as well. Their constant attempts to have the two former leaders of the US branded as “war criminals” will backfire on them, big time.

Look, the US is as divided as I have ever seen it - and that includes during the Vietnam War. If Obama and the socialist left in power in Congress want to tear the country to pieces and bring the ire of the American people down on their heads for decades to come then the course they have chosen will certainly accomplish that.

Slowly, but surely Obama’s true colors are beginning to show and the American people do not like what they are seeing. That explains his huge drop in the polls. It is unfortunate that it has taken this long and is very troubling that the American electorate ignored all the warnings from those of us who saw through the smokescreen so carefully laid by the mainstream media in the US, and even worldwide, that was meant to shield Obama from the prying eyes of those, like myself, who saw him for what he was and what he is.

The bill is coming due. It will take America generations to pay for the harm and the damage to this country caused by the Obama regime and the socialists in the Congress and those Obama brought with him into the Administration.

It didn’t have to happen.

J. D. Longstreet

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Liberal+Obama+CIA" rel="tag">Liberal+Obama+CIA

National Healthcare. A Socialist, Commie, Dream! A Free Man’s Nightmare!

National Healthcare. A Socialist, Commie, Dream! A Free Man’s Nightmare!

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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Editor’s note: Back in July, of 2007, I wrote the following missive. Of course, at the time none of us knew just how deeply into our private lives ObamaCare would eventually reach. Now that we have had a glimpse of the bill, it turns out I was far too conservative in my predictions.

What follows is the article I wrote in 2007. A ways down the page you will see a list of some of the freedoms we Americans will lose if ObamaCare actually passes into law in it’s current configuration. Notice how deeply into your personal life ObamaCare will reach. Your life, and that of every member of your family, will be an open book to the government.
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We are continuing to lose our privacy, here in America, at an ever-increasing speed. There is hardly a place in America one can go, these days, without being seen by someone’s security cameras. I recently stood in a parking lot of one of the Big Box stores and counted 22 cameras zeroed in on the parking area, and entrances, and exits, to the store. And that was just on the OUTSIDE, at the front, of the store!

And those red-light cameras? Don’t get me started on that!!!

If you think Big Brother’s snooping is bad now… just wait… it will get worse, a LOT worse, if we allow it.

If you think it’s bad now, wait until we have national health insurance. Our every move will be monitored, and we will be directed, by the government, in every facet of our lives.

Weigh too much? Lose weight… or the government won’t pay for your medical bills.

Drive too fast? Slow down or the government won’t pay for your medical bills if you’re in an accident.

Smoke? The government won’t pay for your medical bills, period.

Have more than (two) kids? Your medical bills will not be paid if you exceed the allowable limit on babies.

Pregnant with a third child and the government insists that you have an abortion, but you really want this third child? Well, either have an abortion, or that third child will have no medical coverage and the cost of the pregnancy, and delivery, will not be covered, either.

Didn’t finish High School? Your medical bills will not be covered if you do not get a High School Diploma.

Take the wrong courses in college? Well, if you didn’t check before you signed up for a course, and you signed-up for a course the government thinks is uncalled for, or that you do not need for your chosen occupation… then your medical bills will not be picked up by the National Healthcare.

Own a gun? Why, everyone knows there is an epidemic of deaths due to handguns in America. So it is a health issue. National Healthcare will not pay for your medical bills until you turn in your guns to the government!

Choose the wrong career, and you are on your own! No medical help from the government.
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As promised, listed immediately below are just a few of the freedoms we now enjoy - the loss of which I did not envisage when I wrote this piece back in 2007. Alongside each one is the page number of the bill where the actual reference to each particular item can be found - if you choose to look them up. Here goes:

• Page 22: Mandates audits of all employers that self-insure!
• Page 29: Admission: your health care will be rationed!
• Page 30: A government committee will decide what treatments and benefits you get (and, unlike an insurer, there will be no appeals process)
• Page 42: The “Health Choices Commissioner” will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. None.
• Page 50: All non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services.
• Page 58: Every person will be issued a National ID Healthcard.
• Page 59: The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer.• Page 65: Taxpayers will subsidize all union retiree and community organizer health plans (read: SEIU, UAW and ACORN)
• Page 72: All private healthcare plans must conform to government rules to participate in a Healthcare Exchange.
• Page 84: All private healthcare plans must participate in the Healthcare Exchange (i.e., total government control of private plans)
• Page 91: Government mandates linguistic infrastructure for services; translation: illegal aliens
• Page 95: The Government will pay ACORN and Americorps to sign up individuals for Government-run Health Care plan.
• Page 102: Those eligible for Medicaid will be automatically enrolled: you have no choice in the matter.
• Page 124: No company can sue the government for price-fixing. No “judicial review” is permitted against the government monopoly. Put simply, private insurers will be crushed.
• Page 127: The AMA sold doctors out: the government will set wages thereby reducing competition and quality of providers.
• Page 145: An employer MUST auto-enroll employees into the government-run public plan. No alternatives.
• Page 126: Employers MUST pay healthcare bills for part-time employees AND their families.
• Page 149: Any employer with a payroll of $400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays an 8% tax on payroll
• Page 150: Any employer with a payroll of $250K-400K or more, who does not offer the public option, pays a 2 to 6% tax on payroll
• Page 167: Any individual who doesn’t’ have acceptable healthcare (according to the government) will be taxed 2.5% of income.
• Page 170: Any NON-RESIDENT alien is exempt from individual taxes (Americans will pay for them).
• Page 195: Officers and employees of Government Healthcare Bureaucracy will have access to ALL American financial and personal records.
• Page 203: “The tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as tax.” Yes, it really says that.
• Page 239: Bill will reduce physician services for Medicaid. Seniors and the poor most affected.”
• Page 241: Doctors: no matter what specialty you have, you’ll all be paid the same.
• Page 253: Government sets value of doctors’ time, their professional judgment, etc.
• Page 265: Government mandates and controls productivity for private healthcare industries.
• Page 268: Government regulates rental and purchase of power-driven wheelchairs.

• Page 272: Cancer patients: welcome to the wonderful world of rationing!
• Page 280: Hospitals will be penalized for what the government deems preventable re-admissions.• Page 298: Doctors: if you treat a patient during an initial admission that results in a readmission, you will be penalized by the government.
• Page 317: Doctors: you are now prohibited for owning and investing in healthcare companies!
• Page 318: Prohibition on hospital expansion. Hospitals cannot expand without government approval.
• Page 321: Hospital expansion hinges on “community” input.
• Page 335: Government mandates establishment of outcome-based measures: i.e., rationing.
• Page 341: Government has authority to disqualify Medicare Advantage Plans, HMOs, etc.
• Page 354: Government will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals.
• Page 379: More bureaucracy: Telehealth Advisory Committee (healthcare by phone).
• Page 425: More bureaucracy: Advance Care Planning Consult: Senior Citizens, assisted suicide, euthanasia?
• Page 425: Government will instruct and consult regarding living wills, durable powers of attorney, etc. Mandatory. Appears to lock in estate taxes ahead of time.
• Page 425: Government provides approved list of end-of-life resources, guiding you in death.
• Page 427: Government mandates program that orders end-of-life treatment; government dictates how your life ends.• Page 429: Advance Care Planning Consult will be used to dictate treatment as patient’s health deteriorates. This can include an ORDER for end-of-life plans. An ORDER from the GOVERNMENT.
• Page 430: Government will decide what level of treatments you may have at end-of-life.
• Page 469: Community-based Home Medical Services: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 472: Payments to Community-based organizations: more payoffs for ACORN.
• Page 489: Government will cover marriage and family therapy. Government intervenes in your marriage.
• Page 494: Government will cover mental health services: defining, creating and rationing those services.

(Read additional comments on this at Texas Fred's site HERE.)

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Get the picture? Almost total control. And you, and I, will have given that power to the government! (Or your employer) After a while, there won’t be much difference, anyway.

So, next time you hear someone calling for National Healthcare, remind them of all the freedom they will give up for that cradle to the grave care.

The founders of this country wanted us to live free - healthy, if we can manage it, but free, in any event. Today, it seems we are prepared to give our freedom up for a form of modern day Marxism - Socialized Medicine.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, “Socialized Medicine by any other name, would still stink!”

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative+Socialism+Healthcare+Abortion+ObamaCare

America's Empire of Trust ... By Alan Caruba

America’s Empire of Trust
By Alan Caruba
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Though most Americans are unaware of it, the rest of the world is taking an active interest in the sometimes heated debate we are having regarding the alleged healthcare “reform” that is, in fact, yet another effort to push the nation further into the same socialist tentacles that have been embraced elsewhere.


Unlike Las Vegas, what happens in America doesn’t stay in America. As the world’s sole superpower, the man we select to be our president becomes the de facto president of the world insofar as his decisions reach into dusty villages in Afghanistan, affect global stock and commodity markets, and can determine the success or failure of movements toward freedom everywhere.


There would be no “Pax Americana” if we were seen to abandon our allies.


The similarities between the Roman Empire and the young American Empire are examined in an excellent book by Thomas F. Madden, “Empires of Trust.”


When I was born in the late 1930s America was a resolutely isolationist nation. We didn’t want to get involved in European wars. We had gotten into World War I because our ships were attacked by German submarines. When it was over, we pulled out our troops.


Not so for World War II, yet another conflict we resisted joining until the attack on Pearl Harbor. At the end of that war, we left troops in Europe to fend off the threat of the Soviet Union. We left troops in Japan to occupy it until democracy could be introduced to replace the emperor. In both cases, we spent billions to rebuild these shattered nations.


American troops are still in Europe and still in Japan. Though asked to withdraw from Iraq, a contingent of American troops will remain there long into the future and it is likely too that they shall be in Afghanistan as well. Americans were twice forced to invade Iraq; initially to force them out of Kuwait and, after 9/11, to remove Saddam Hussein, a threat to the entire region, but most particularly to Saudi Arabia, a major source of oil to the West.


While America always invades as part of a “coalition”, that is a charade because no other nation has the military strength and power to swiftly bring an offending nation to heel. It is not the conquest that is difficult. It is the clean up afterwards.


In point of fact, America maintains military units all over the world and they are there by invitation. Another element of America’s Empire of Trust is that the wars in which we have engaged since the end of World War II have all been in distant places. That pattern began with the Korean conflict in the 1950s. That was followed by the distress when America took over the conflict in Vietnam from France.


After initial enthusiasm for revenge following 9/11, our current participation in the Iraq and Afghan conflicts in Iraq has long since cooled. Americans, as did the citizens of Rome, do not like extended military engagements.


There are any number of similarities between the citizens of Rome who sought their own security by slowly having to conquer neighboring enemies in Italy, subdue the Carthaginian threat from North Africa, and disturbances in Greece.


The growth of the Roman Empire took place over centuries, but the reluctant Romans did not seek conquest; only peace for themselves. They did this by turning conquered enemies into friends and, since they were so successful in war, they were continually entreated to extend their protection further and further from Rome. The result was an Empire of Trust.


The Romans created the first republic in which power resided in its citizens. The American republic was, in many ways, patterned after the Roman republic, but the Founders also sought to avoid the errors of Rome, dividing power within government and ensuring that our military’s allegiance was to the Constitution, not a particular leader. Our wars must be approved by congressional resolutions.


Even in Rome there were early predictions that their empire would end. By 146 BC the Romans were the most powerful nation of those bordering the Mediterranean from Spain to Egypt and they would remain so for some sixteen centuries.


Most Americans draw their “knowledge” of ancient Rome from Hollywood films, but the scenes of decadence and apparent tyranny are wrong in many ways. A pious people, the famed decline in morality and the necessity to subdue religious chaos in the Middle East actually occurred by the time the empire had largely converted to Christianity as the state religion. They occurred late in its long history of having imposed the “Pax Romana” on the known world. The last elements of the empire would disappear in 1453.


A world at peace was always the Roman goal and, following World War II, it has been America’s goal. However, as Madden points out, “War—not peace—is the normal state of affairs in human history.” What is called peace “is an intermission, a time to prepare for more war.”


America was forced to enter two wars in Europe in the last century because, as Madden, notes, “The countries and leaders of Europe waged nearly constant warfare for more than fifteen centuries.”


This is why, too, that American soldiers and marines, assisted by troops contributed by a relatively few and greatly reluctant allies, are now fighting a “hot” war in Afghanistan after a lengthy engagement in an Iraq. Americans do not like long wars, but Madden bluntly says that “Americans need to accept that the War on Terror is going to be a long one.


Liberals always claim that “war never solves anything”, but history demonstrates that war always solves something. We have a United States of America because we fought a long, bloody Civil War. We are not subject to the dictates of a Nazi Germany in control of Europe or an Empire of Japan controlling Asia because we fought and won World War II. Our proxy wars weakened the former Soviet Union.


Former President Bush was right when, in 2002, he said, “We cannot defend America and our friends by hoping for the best. We cannot put our faith in the word of tyrants, who solemnly sign nonproliferation treaties, and then systematically break them. If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long…we must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans, and confront the worst threats before they emerge.”


That is the definition of “Pax Americana” and it is the mission of the American Empire.


Alan Caruba
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Alan Caruba writes a daily post at http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/. A business and science writer, he is the founder of The National Anxiety Center.

© Alan Caruba, August 2009
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Conservative+America+Peace

“ … I Come Not to Praise Kennedy, But To Bury Him”

“ … I Come Not to Praise Kennedy, But To Bury Him”

A commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Up to now, I have maintained my silence about the late Senator Ted Kennedy. I have been torn between my “sainted” mother’s advice that if you cannot say something nice about someone, say nothing at all.

I also remember a quote from Abraham Lincoln who reportedly said, “The wise man speaks because he has something to say. The fool speaks because he has to say something.”

So, you see my quandary.

But, as I listened to the praises being sung about some senator I have never heard of - and do not know, it has become impossible to maintain my silence.

Count me among the fools, if you will, but down here, in the south land of America, the senator from Massachusetts was not well thought of - except by a handful of ultra-leftists and those transplanted northeasterners who have recently invaded our holy land, Dixie.

I was, and remain, a great fan of the late Senator Jesse Helms. Many years ago, when we were both broadcasters, I knew the senator and grew to admire him as someone who, when asked a question, told you the truth as he believed the truth to be, and never wavered. You might not like the answer he gave to your question, but it was an honest answer, nevertheless. I grew to admire Senator Helms long before he became the senator from my state of North Carolina.

The Kennedy family, on the other hand, was an altogether different animal, if you will. I began to investigate that family when Jack was a candidate for President. I did not like what I learned. After Chappaquiddick and the absolute mess Ted made of that incident, and the efforts his family made to save his behind, told me everything I ever needed to know about Ted, himself, and the family.

True, I hail from a long line of proud southern bootleggers, but I never ran for Congress, either.

To this scribe, Ted Kennedy never got past the drunken, slovenly, not very bright, court jester image that he seemed to polish continually. Frankly, I never trusted him to do, well, anything, very well, at all. Except one thing, that is. That one thing was to push his favorite socialist program, as best he could, through the Senate. That he seemed to do with great gusto.

Ted Kennedy had as much to do with Jesse Helms going back to the Senate for all those years as the voters in North Carolina had. Jesse was our answer to Ted. Jesse was the counter-weight, if you please.

So, forgive me if I do not join in the left’s deifying of Ted Kennedy. For unlike my friends on the left, I am unable to suspend my disbelief for the few days it will take for the left to bury the man.

As I predicted, it only took hours for the Democratic Party to take advantage of his death and attach his name to the ObamaCare bill before Congress. As we have come to know, such tasteless behavior is certainly not beneath the left when their power is being challenged by the conservative movement in this country.

ObamaCare began “for the children.” It will end “for Teddy.”

If one really wanted to remember someone at this funereal time, I would suggest we all take a few moments to remember a young lady named Mary Jo Kopechne and the date July 18th, 1969.

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative+Liberal+Kennedy+Kopechne

Butt Out, Already! ... J. D. Longstreet

Butt Out, Already!

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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I have great admiration for the British, but… I wish they would butt out of our national conversation (debate, argument…etc.) about socialized medicine in America. I DON’T GIVE A D**N HOW WELL THEY LOVE THEIR NHS (National Health Service). It is THEIR NHS… not ours.

Understand, my British friends, this is America. We are not Brits. Our ancestors came here (to escape your island) in vast numbers - including my own. If you love your NHS, then, by all means keep it. We don’t want it here and we are going to fight it all the way to the finish line and beyond!

Oh, and one other thing, if you British folks are so enamored of President Obama, then you can certainly have him. He is quickly becoming the most unpopular president in the history of our republic. His popularity is dropping like a stone and picking up speed as it falls.

Look, you don’t understand us, you never have. America is, in fact, two countries that have agreed to try to live together under one government. Well, that is not absolutely accurate, either. Allow me to explain:

You should understand the southern half of the country is a part of the US only because it was forced to return to the fold at the point of a Federal Government bayonet! We have never forgotten that and we still chafe under the burden of that memory. We have great difficulty in trusting the federal government at anytime. But, especially when we are being openly lied to and we perceive that even more of our freedom will be taken away if Socialized Medicine is installed in this country.

You Brits are used to a socialized society. We Americans are not. I find it interesting that about the only part of this country leaning toward socialism is that portion we call “NEW ENGLAND,” and, of course, the west coast states, which are slightly left of Joe Stalin, and really ought to be another country unto themselves, anyway.

Recently I had someone leave a comment on my blogsite ranting that I did not like “FREE” healthcare. Can you believe that? The level of ignorance that it takes for ANYONE to believe that socialized medicine is FREE! Nothing is free - and certainly not socialized medicine. We will pay for it - that is - the taxpayers of America will pay for it - and, oh, brother, how we will pay for it.

If it were just the money it will take to finance this cradle to the grave socialized healthcare - that would be one thing - and indeed, that would be bad enough. But, when you read the bill before Congress you quickly see the government has taken unto themselves, under the provisions of the act, powers they have never had before and those power take away many, many, freedoms of the American citizens.

My regional paper printed an article this morning by Ara Darzi and Tom Kibasi titled: “ Britain’s Health System Nothing to Fear.” This same article ran in the Washington Post on August 17th. You will find the entire article HERE.

In late July and early August we told you the Obama Regime would pour on the coal during the month of August to try and pass their Socialized Medicine act into law in America. And they have. Now we know they have even enlisted assistance from offshore… from the British Isles, to be exact.

What this means to those of us opposed to the loss of our freedom is simply that we must step up our game as well.

We know Obama has the democrat votes to pass the bill without a single republican vote. The pressure is now being applied to Obama to do just that. And, frankly, that is exactly what I expect him to do. He won’t like it, but he WILL do it. Obama knows it will hand the GOP a campaigning tool for the 2010 elections and 2012 elections no amount of money could purchase for the republicans.

Finally, we have another hurdle to overcome. I refer, of course, to the added ammunition (for the Left) of the death of Senator Edward Kennedy. I fully expect the Left in America to use Kennedy's death as a rallying cry for Leftists across America to band together to "RAM" socialized medicine through the Congress and into law by proclaiming they must do it "for Teddy!" Watch and wait for it. I do not expect we will have to wait very long.

In the meantime we must keep the pressure on our Senators and Congresspersons to vote against ObamaCare. And above all, we must prepare to clean the house of as many democrats as we possibly can in November of next year.

J. D. Longstreet

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Democrats+Healthcare-reform+MsM+Obama+British+NHS

Taxpayer Cash for Clunker Ideas

Taxpayer Cash for Clunker Ideas
First cars, next power plants. Wasting natural resources to promote eco ideologies.
Paul Driessen
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It’s finally been euthanized (or so they say). But in the minds of politicians and rent-seekers, the cash-for-clunkers program was so successful that it deserved billions in taxpayer money.


Pols got to strut their green credentials. Car makers got to sell cars, via yet another subsidy. Consumers got free cash from hapless taxpayers, for new cars many otherwise wouldn’t have bought.


It was all so socially responsible and win-win – except for those poor taxpayers, who got saddled with still more debt. The other big loser of course is the antiquated notion that public policies should be based on sound science and economics.


An ice-cold bucket of reality is in order – before the next clunker idea comes along. Here are a few of the more obvious problems with pulling the plug on grandma cars.


The “high-polluting” cars that taxpayers are paying to get off the road already have 95% fewer emissions than 1970-era models. So the pollution reductions are almost nonexistent.


The gas savings are modest at best, across the US automotive fleet – and will be more than offset by the latest round of oil and gas lock-ups that Congress and the White House are already engineering. So more oil imports are on the way, regardless.


Far worse, every “clunker” has to be rendered totally inoperable. Sodium silicate gets poured into engines to freeze their components, then they’re crushed into bundles of scrap.


That means some 750,000 perfectly good cars never make it to used car lots. People who can’t afford the average $24,000 new car price have to buy a new car anyway. Used car dealers and buyers have dwindling numbers of cars to bargain for. Repair shops lose business.


Even worse, trashing all these cars is a monumental waste of precious resources – and all the energy and effort it took to extract metallic ores, hydrocarbons and other raw materials from the Earth, process and refine them, create alloys and plastics, and turn them into engines, chasses, windows, tires and interiors.


Every step in that process took enormous amounts of energy – and emitted vast quantities of carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gases and real pollutants. There is absolutely no way that these emissions and energy will ever be recouped by any savings the replacement cars might conceivably generate.


It’s like spending $720,000 for photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of the Denver Nature and Science Museum. The panels would certainly reduce conventional electricity bills. But it would take 110 years to save enough on those bills to pay for the panels – and the panels would only last 25 years.


Denver installed the panels for one reason, observes Independence Institute investigative journalist Todd Shepherd. Federal taxpayers provided a fat subsidy – enabling President Obama to have a great photo-op on the museum roof and shill for solar power, with the Rocky Mountains resplendent in the distance.


So much for that win-win scenario. The next clunker boondoggle is already on the launch pad, courtesy of T. Boone Pickens and Ted Turner. As they opined in the Wall Street Journal recently, they want to repeat the automotive “success” on a massive scale – replacing “clunker” electrical generating plants with government-mandated gas-fired versions.


The existing plants burn coal, which America has in great abundance, and which keeps electricity reliable and affordable – so that people can heat and cool their homes, industries can manufacture and transport products, companies can employ workers, hospitals can treat patients, schools can train future innovators, and America can ensure continued opportunity and prosperity.


Modern coal-fired power plants already scrub out the vast majority of real pollutants that their aged predecessors emitted, notes air quality expert Joel Schwartz. What they don’t remove is carbon dioxide.


Pickens, Turner, Gore, Hansen and Obama insist that CO2 is causing “potentially devastating climate changes.” Thousands of scientists disagree, and satellite data clearly demonstrate that global temperatures have been stable or even decreasing since 1998, even as carbon dioxide levels have risen steadily. Storms, droughts, floods and other events are in accord with historic variations, and show no statistically significant upswings, note climate experts William Gray, David Legates and Richard Keen.


But inconvenient facts and observations are irrelevant to climate alarmists. They apparently believe that assuming, asserting, decreeing and modeling climate disasters proves a crisis is nigh – and we must make painful energy, economic and lifestyle sacrifices to prevent it.


In other words, force America to eliminate existing generators and switch to power plants running on natural gas that Boone Pickens, Chesapeake Energy and a few others own in abundance – and to wind and solar power that General Electric, Vesta and other “ethical” companies will happily provide, if taxpayers fork over billions more in subsidies.


Making money by selling natural gas, building turbines and panels, and trading carbon credits on new commodities, hedge fund and derivatives markets is an irrelevant coincidence, we’re supposed to believe.


These “socially responsible” rent seekers and their friends in Congress and the White House are masters at increasing and mandating demand for natural gas – for transportation, homes, industries and power generation. Unfortunately, the friends aren’t so attentive to the supply side of the equation. They excel at locking up America’s onshore and offshore energy prospects, and imposing burdensome new regulations on lands that aren’t off limits – making it increasingly difficult to find and produce gas.


This increases demand, shrinks supplies, drives up prices, and increases profits for the lucky few who do own abundant gas supplies. Once again, consumers and taxpayers get taken for a ride.


Once again, it’s even worse from an economic, ecological and resource conservation perspective. We are being asked to destroy dozens or hundreds of perfectly good coal-fired power plants – or retrofit them under expensive carbon capture and storage mandates – simply because some special interests assume, assert, decree and model global warming disasters.


Tearing the plants down would be a monumental waste of the resources, energy, effort and emissions it took to build them. CCS technology would require billions of dollars, 25% of a power plant’s generating capacity, major increases in fuel consumption and electricity prices, thousands of miles of CO2 pipelines and massive underground storage chambers, to reduce global CO2 by an imperceptible amount.


What America has today is government by lawyers, ideologues, social engineers and rent seekers. Congress has nary a real engineer, and precious few members with any business background or ability to figure out basic cradle-to-grave energy, resource, economic and pollution equations. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thinks natural gas is an “alternative to fossil fuels.”


With these folks at the helm, it may be time for wise investors to look toward China and India, where reducing poverty and improving living standards guide public policy – not Hollywood movies about Climate Armageddon. Wise voters and taxpayers will join the Tea Party movement, and elect some honest brainpower, before Congress wreaks more havoc on energy, jobs and civil rights.

Paul Driessen

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Paul Driessen is a senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow and Congress of Racial Equality, and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green Power • Black Death.

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Conservative+Global-warming+Hoax+Climate

Time to Resign, Mr. President ... Alan Caruba

Time to Resign, Mr. President

By Alan Caruba
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If you had purchased a stock in January of this year that had lost as much of its value as Barack Obama, you would be desperate to sell it by now. The problem is, the only buyers would be the mainstream media and their stock has been falling too.

I cannot think of a single President in our 233 year history that was so disliked by so many Americans in so short a time. His polling numbers drop daily and he is poised to make history by losing the confidence and support vital to the ability to lead, let alone to administer the federal government.

It is his judgment that is the issue and, concurrent with that, his actions. If anyone would have predicted that he would impose so much debt on the nation in so short a time they would have been called mad. Barely seven months into his administration the estimated national deficit will be reset at nine trillion dollars between now and 2019.

The federal government now owns General Motors after advancing $60 billion to avoid bankruptcy and then standing by as it went into bankruptcy. We own a huge insurance company, AIG. The recent “Cash for Clunkers” program swiftly ran out of cash and may end up bankrupting participating auto dealers. It has already severely impacted the sale of used cars, a major part of the auto market.

Under Obama, an ever-increasing shadow government of “czars” has been established; people who are presumably not encumbered by the laws that govern appointed Cabinet secretaries. Most have not been vetted, nor approved by Congress and too many have unsavory backgrounds and beliefs.

The current attempt to take over one-sixth of the nation’s economy by socializing the healthcare system is being resisted by millions of Americans, some of whom are showing up at town hall meetings and creating “tea parties” to air their grievances. As many as a million will likely fill the streets of Washington to protest on September 12.

With the exception of liberalism’s “true believers”, some 28 percent of whom will always think Obama is doing a great job, people are wondering if there is some way to remove him from holding the office for the remainder of his term, doing even more damage.

Can a President resign? Yes, Richard Nixon did; the first in the history of the nation, undone by his own paranoia and over-zealous White House henchmen. That scenario is beginning to loom large in the minds of Americans when they give thought to those “czars” and White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, the man who never wants to “waste” a crisis.

Americans want to clean house. Congressmen returning from a stormy recess are going to assess the value of supporting the President, the Senate Majority Leader, or the Speaker of the House. The Democrats have near total political power in Congress, but there is a limit to party loyalty and it’s called getting re-elected.

Congress has tried the “bread and circuses” approach to calming the masses. It hasn’t worked. It has tried demonizing protesters as “un-American”. It hasn’t worked. It is running out of options and those that remain include internment camps.

America has demonstrated the ability to right itself after making bad decisions such as Prohibition and previous poor leadership. It is being put to the test again by Barack Obama.It’s time to resign, Mr. President.

Alan Caruba

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Congress+Democrats+economy+President Barack Obama
" rel="tag">Conservative Conservative+Congress+Democrats+ economy+President Barack Obama

How Is Obama Doing So Far?

So… How’s Obama Doing??? HUH???
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet***********************************

Awful! Just awful! That’s how he is doing!

In a few short months, just over half a year in office, Obama has managed to wreck the economy, and lay an unspeakable tax burden on our children, our grandchildren, and quite possibly - our great-grandchildren, as well.

Obama, in league with Pelosi and Reid and their fellow socialists in the US Congress, have sure as heck brought change, all right! Boy, have they EVER!

As we look back over the past seven months, now, we can see the devastation left in the wake of the liberal/socialist/”progressive” battlestar as it smashed its way through an unsuspecting America looting the treasury as it went.

Why, just look at the money the Obama government has spent! Worse even than the squandered money is the power they have accrued unto themselves. As they repealed welfare reform and scared the American people half to death with their manic drive to chain America’s sick and elderly to a socialized form of healthcare we Americans don’t want and forcing worried American citizens to take to the streets of the capital city in a mass protest scheduled for September 12th.

Oh, but that is just a part of the sorry story of America’s worse president - ever! There is the Cap and Trade bill, which, if passed through the US Senate, will drive every American’s gas, fuel oil, and electricity costs through the roof. At the same time, industry will be dealt a lethal blow forcing many industries to close plants and lay off workers thus driving up unemployment and demoralizing some of the most productive workers on the planet.

And look what he has done for America overseas. He has managed to tick-off the UK and India and is doing a major “suck-up” job on our enemies such as Russia, Iran, Syria, and Venezuela to our south, just to name a few.

Over at the Federal Communications Commission, the stage is being set to institute a stealth Fairness Doctrine to clear the radio airwaves of conservative talk shows. Of course, they will deny it, but when you fan away enough of the smoke, you can see it quite clearly.

What we are seeing develop, dear reader, is a country far different from the America with a representative republican form of government the forefathers of this once great land envisioned when they founded it. What we are seeing is a socialist state aborning! Socialism is the incurable cancer of nations. It rots the soul, the spirit, and the heart out of all nations so hapless as to allow it to get a foothold within its government. You have heard it said that the very foundations of America are under attack. And it is true.
As we survey the wreckage of this beloved land we would suggest that those of you who believe in the power of prayer, should begin fervently to pray to God to intervene and save this last great hope of mankind on this planet. America has never, I repeat, never been in the peril she finds herself today, not even during the Great War for Southern Independence, nor the Second World War, nor the 40-year-long Cold War when soviet missiles were pointed down our throats from only ninety miles away.

It is becoming clearer as the days of the Obama Administration increase that the American electorate has made a monumental blunder - a historic mistake – and, as a result, we have an anomaly in the oval office. It is beginning to appear that the only recourse we have is to plead with the Republican senators to shut the US Senate down and allow no legislation to pass until after the next election in 2010. It can be done procedurally and as an American citizen concerned over what I see as a socialist takeover of this nation, I personally plead with the Republican minority leader in the Senate to do just that.

In the meantime I will resort to that age-old practice of calling on Providence, in His mercy, to intervene and save America from herself.

J. D. Longstreet.

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cap-and-trade+ Democrats+ healthcare reform+ mainstream media+ President Obama+ public relations" rel="tag">Conservative+cap-and-trade+ Democrats+ healthcare reform+ mainstream media+ President Obama+ public relations

The September 12th March on Washington

The September 12th March on Washington

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On Saturday, September 12th, 2009, thousands of grassroots patriotic Americans will march on Washington, D.C. for the largest "tea party" in history -- the 09.12.09 March on Washington.

What’s happening in America? Well, it looks to this scribe as if Americans are fed-up with the worse government we have had in the history of this nation and they’re going to Washington to tell them so!

The folks over at www.gather.com/ say the following: “The politicians in Washington, D.C. take our hard-earned money with taxes and inflation. Then they bail out their buddies in the banks with $700 Billion of our money. Then they bail out their buddies in the auto industry... before taking over the biggest ones. Then they pass a so-called "stimulus bill" that is nothing more than a HUGE piece of pork. Then they try to pass the largest tax increase in history with their fake-environmental "cap and tax" bill.

THEN... they try to take over the American healthcare system, and try to ram socialized medicine down our throats. We've had enough, and we're NOT taking it any more. The "sleeping giant" is waking up." Read the article HERE.

Let’s take a look at a press release from FreedomWorks:

FreedomWorks Taxpayer March on Washington Scheduled for September 12, 2009

“WASHINGTON - (Business Wire) Over the last six months the national debt skyrocketed by nearly $3 trillion. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, our national debt will more than double by 2019. Americans will have to pay for this stratospheric spending spree first by begging foreign nations to buy our bonds, and later through higher taxes and inflation.

Grassroots anger at the inability of Washington to live within a budget has been building for some time, and began to boil over in late 2007 as the Bush Administration and Treasury Secretary Paulson abandoned their claimed free market principles to bail out automakers and Wall Street banks through TARP.

When newly elected President Obama and his allies in Congress passed the $780 billion debt stimulus plan in February 2009, activists took to the streets.

On tax day, the tea party movement began in earnest. Until now the movement has remained at the local levels. No longer will that be the case. The movement is coming to Washington on September 12, 2009 for a march and rally at the US Capitol.

From autos to banking, the government is crowding out the private sector of our economy. Where Bush bailed out the private sector, Obama is making hostile government takeovers. Ignoring our multi trillion-dollar deficit, Washington is considering a massive new energy tax and a takeover of health care.

On Saturday, September 12th FreedomWorks will be joined by over ten thousands of liberty-loving activists to take a stand against politicians who are bankrupting our future. National co-sponsors include Tea Party Patriots, ResistNet, National Taxpayers Union, Americans For Tax Reform, Young Americans for Liberty, Ayn Rand Center, Campaign for Liberty, Free Republic, Young America’s Foundation, Smart Girl Politics, and The Club for Growth.

The event will kick-off on September 10th and 11th with various events throughout Washington including grassroots leadership training and Capitol Hill visits. The three-day event culminates on September 12th as taxpayers march on the Capitol building.

For more information, including media inquiries, registration, contacting event coordinators, and the schedule of events, please visit our event website at http://www.912dc.org/.” You can check this site out for yourself HERE.

Over at http://www.912dc.org/ the folks say this: “It’s time to take the tea party movement directly to Washington, D.C. Please join thousands of local organizers and grassroots Americans from across the country as we gather in our nation’s capital to deliver a message to the politicians: Enough!

We’ve had enough of the out of control spending, the bailouts, the growth of big government, and the soaring deficits. And we reject the future tax increases to pay for all of this spending and debt down the road. We are gathering on 9-12-2009 to deliver our message in person that we’ve had enough!”

Sounds as if these folks are determined to be heard - and to get their point across by taking their protest directly to the nation’s front yard. It is about time! When Moses won’t come to the mountain, then the mountain must go to Moses!

I have been on this earth a long time and I don’t recall ever experiencing a US government as disconnected from the people of the nation as is this government.

Now the fun begins! By the “fun” I mean watching the Mainstream Media trying their very best to ignore this building crescendo of citizen protest. Oh, make no mistake about it. The MsM will make every effort to ignore or “play down” this March on Washington. For if people turn up in vast numbers it will make the media look extremely bad!

It was a Tea Party in Boston that helped get this experiment we call America off and running. Now it is a Tea Party in the capitol of the nation the original tea party helped spawn that may, very well, play a part in saving that experiment!

I have only a couple, or three, questions: Whose got the tar? And whose got the feathers? And, oh yeah, the rails! Whose got the rails? Huh?

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative+Democrats+Healthcare-reform+MsM+Obama

Obama and the Dems Plan to RAM Socialized Medicine Through the Congress!

Obama & Dems/Socialists Plan to RAM Healthcare Reform Through Congress Even Against the Will of the American People!

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Obama, and his fellow socialists in Washington, have apparently decided to go it alone on so-called healthcare reform and RAM their ObamaCare, socialized medicine, through the Congress without any GOP support and without the support of the American people. The narcissism of our President and the lust for power by his lapdogs, the Democrats/Socialists in Congress, is such that they are completely convinced that they know better than you what you want and need and they are going to take action to force American citizens to bend to their will on their plans for healthcare reform. There is a name for this. Actually there are several names for this sort of behavior. A couple leap to mind. Dictatorship is one, the other is SOCIALISM, and still another is Fascism!

What we Americans are observing in our nation's capital is a governing body in the throes of neo-fascism, neo-marxism, and neo-socialism! We have a run-away, out-ofcontrol, rogue legislature bent on the subjugation of te american citizenry to their every whim. Right now, that whinm is total power over the lives of allAmericans through an overhaul of the American healthcare system otherwise known as ObamaCare!

The American people don't want it, don't want anything to do with it, and yet - the Congress, eager to please their own socialist Presidential Administration is hell bent on forcing the American people to accept THEIR dictates on healthcare - and we are told in the President's own words to "sit down and shut up!"

There is an article at MercuryNews.com you must read. In that piece, Robert Gibbs, Obama's spokesman (referencing some GOP lawmakers standing firm against ObamaCare) is quoted as having said: "Only a handful seem interested in the type of comprehensive reform that so many people believe is necessary to ensure the principles and the goals that the president has laid out." I would remind Mr. Gibbs that it is precisely those comprehensive principles and goals of President Obama the American people have rejected and those Republican lawmakers are doing what they should do - and that is - to vote the way their constituents, back home, strongly suggest they SHOULD vote! You'll find this entire story HERE.

In the past few days, we, here at IoF, have warned that THIS was exactly what could be expected of the Obama Admonistration.

While we are in the "warning posture" allow us to warn you of something else. The President is hell-bent on establishing a "single-payer" type of socialized medicine in America. I know he SAYS he isn't in favor of that... but we are convinced that he is - and ObamaCare, as it is now consituted, will lead directly to "single-payer". You can count on it.

And you folks enamored of the Canadian socialized healthcare system... I hope you have noticed the news out of Vancouver over the past couple of days. It seems some 6,000 surgeries may have to be delayed! The story can be found on the site at vancouversun.com. The reports, supposedly from leaked documents, claim that a portion of the Canadian healthcare system will be delaying some 6,000 surgeries as they look to close nearly a quarter of its operating rooms starting in September and to cut 6,250 surgeries, including 24 per cent of cases scheduled from September to March and 10 per cent of all medically necessary elective procedures this fiscal year. You should read this article. You'll find the story HERE.

Over in the Mother Country, things are not looking so good, either. The Daily Mail, reporting from the UK, has the following story: "Woman gives birth on pavement 'after being refused ambulance." I'm not sure even I understand this story. You should read it for yourself HERE.

Look, a part of the reasoning for Obama having his spokesman out in public stating Obama hasn’t given up on the Public Option portion of his healthcare reform package is simple. Without the Public Option, enthusiasm for Health Care Reform, especially among the Democrat/Socialists, collapses. The Democrat/Socialist will not support ObamaCare without it. So, if Obama wants their support, and he does, he absolutely has to leave the Public Option in the plan. (Public Option translated simply means a government-run health insurance company.) The plain truth is, and we all know it, if the government sets up a government-run health insurance company, it will put the private, for profit, companies out if business - and soon there will be only one option and that is “single-payer,” “government-run," socialized healthcare, or - as we like to call it - ObamaCare.

Step back a moment and consider our public education system in America. It is now the laughing stock of the world. It is government-run education. Now turn your objective gaze upon the healthcare system in America. It is a healthcare system that currently delivers the most advanced healthcare in the world. It is difficult to imagine that we would entertain, even for one moment, the thought of destroying such a system by turning it over to the government to run as we have our education system. I mean, what we are actually saying is - the government has done such a swell job running our schools that we ought to let them run our healthcare system, too. Does that not chill your blood?

We continue to hear the figure of 47 million uninsured people in america bandied aboiut. Did that figure ever bother you? It did a lot of us. It bothered the folks over at Freedomworks.org. They decided to study it and, as a result, they say this: "The study looks in detail at the often touted 45.7 million uninsured Americans and concludes that a much smaller number—16 million Americans—is the number that should be informing the debate. Given the millions of people who qualify for existing government insurance programs but do not take the benefits, the population making more than $50,000 a year who are uninsured, and the many non-residents who are ineligible for insurance, the more informative number of Americans for the health care reform debate is 5 percent of the population or 16 million." That, dear reader, is a far cry from 47 million! You'll find this excellent article HERE.

So what's next for Obama to use against those of us who will not lie down and allow the socialism bus run us over? Why RELIGION, OF COURSE!

Babara Sowell of Faultine USA, a friend and fellow blogger, has this to say:

"Yesterday’s teleconference with President Obama, "40 Minutes for Health Reform," was organized by a network of religiously progressive faith-based organizations that support Obama’s plan to change our nation’s health-care system.

The 40 minute teleconference was the launch pad for a 40-day push to guilt-trip religiously naive Americans into accepting a public option for health care reform."

Ms. Sowell goes on to say: "Now Obama is going on the offensive. He is again reaching out to the very churches that got him elected. Can the religiously left turn the tide?"

You will find Ms. Sowell's article and a list of the 40 churches that came out in support of ObamaCare by sponsoring the "40 Minutes for Health Reform, HERE.

Again we urge you to keep the pressure on. The battle to save the American healthcare system is only just joined. We must stop socialized medicine in it's tracks. Contact your Senators and your Congressperson and let them know, in no uncertain terms, that you will NOT vote for them if they support ObamaCare in any way shape or form.

Former Texas Congressman Dick Armey once said: "To diagnose our problems, we must understand the full anatomy of the political economy -- especially the invisible foot of the government."

J. D. Longstreet

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Conservative+Democrats+Healthcare-reform+MsM+Obama

Watch For The Signs! ... Alan Caruba

Watch for the Signs
By:Alan Caruba

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There are some lessons one learns from a life spent first as a journalist and then for many decades as a public relations professional. You cannot succeed in PR if you cannot spot the early signs that the media herd is heading in one direction or the other.

It was obvious from the beginning that the mainstream media (MSM) fell in love with Barack Obama. Like Chris Matthews, it was a complete crush. Obama was the anti-Hillary, come to save America from her shrill voice and to redeem our sad history of racism.

At this point, however, it is just as obvious that he has managed to say and do any number of things that have aroused the distrust of the all but the 28% of those convinced he is a dandy President. The rest no longer feel that way.

The MSM is presently sticking its finger in the wind to find out which way it is blowing. They are checking Rasmussen and Gallup polls. Once they conclude that Obama is unpopular to a point beyond which they can no longer obscure or influence, they will do what all fearless MSM do; they will begin to gang up on him.

By the time Jimmy Carter left office, even the Peanut Farmer’s Gazette was glad to see him go.
Watch the signs. The week that either (or both) Time Magazine and Newsweek publish a cover story asking, “What Went Wrong?” or “Healthcare Reform is Very Sick” or anything similar that suggests—gasp!—Obama has suffered a major political setback, you can be confident that, in their editorial board offices amidst leather chairs and a huge polished mahogany table, someone will have intoned, “It’s not going well for Obama.”

The other beacon to watch is, of course, The New York Times. When Maureen Dowd can tear herself away from berating Sarah Palin to say an unkind word about Barack Obama, you know the beginning of the end will have arrived. When Paul Krugman thinks out loud that maybe a three trillion dollar debt is probably not a good idea, the banana peel will have been thrown into the Rose Garden.When the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson can no longer find an excuse for Barack Obama’s blunders and inability to sell a very bad healthcare reform and even worse Cap-and-Trade tax on energy, you might as well break out your GOP lapel pin and start to wear it in public.

There’s a reason for the rapid demise of the Obama Dream. It’s called reality.

Americans are not great fans of those who spend all of their time “apologizing” for the U.S.A. and blaming others for why the job they wanted has turned out to be a real stinker. It is now Obama’s foreign policy, Obama’s economy, and Obama’s gay rights agenda. Despite all the “green shoots” and other alleged signs that the economy is getting better, real people know it’s not.
Coming to a town near you or maybe your street, will be more mortgage foreclosures. Banks are being closed and their assets sold to other banks, but while that is a palliative measure to protect customers, it doesn’t change the fact that credit flow is still a trickle. A credit card meltdown is likely on the way. Job losses? Yes, that too.

Plainly speaking, the federal government is running out of monetary tricks to make the Recession go away. It will never dawn on them to actually cut spending. It is only now just dawning on them that the public hates the billion-dollar “bailouts” and “stimulus” bills.

The MSM is shedding jobs as if a plague has struck their newsrooms. And it has. First they shed their credibility as objective and reliable sources of news and now they are shedding consumers of news who prefer Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

We are all just weeks from the first significant cracks in the MSM herd mentality regarding Barack Obama, his ever growing circle of “czars”, and those wacky Congress critters like Pelosi and Reid. By the end of the year, the MSM will desert him.

As a PR Counselor, I would advise Obama to say something critical about al Qaeda’s perpetrators of 9/11 and not blame the victims when that anniversary comes around. Otherwise, he’ll be able to watch the slow drift of the MSM turn into a stampede.

Alan Caruba

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Conservative+Democrats+Healthcare-reform+MsM+Obama