A “Changed” America Not As Good As The Old America.

(This article was first posted in August of 2009)

A “Changed” America Not As Good As The Old America.
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
****************

Change is not always good. This “changed” America is definitely not as good as the America we had before we decided to exchange freedom for socialism.

Today, Americans are just beginning to awaken and learn the nightmare they are experiencing is not a nightmare one experiences during REM sleep. In fact, they learn, to their utter surprise, they are NOT sleeping. This nightmare is NO DREAM. It is REAL. And, it was brought on by Americans who THOUGHT they wanted, and yes, even NEEDED change.

Many of the votes that were cast last November for “change” were votes from young people who had no idea what they were trading and what they were getting for the trade. They are the product of a public education system in America now almost totally ruled over by the political left, which still seeks the Nirvana of Utopia through Socialism. After 12, or more, years in the public education system, then 2 to 4 more years in those bastions of liberalism/socialism we refer to as colleges and universities, is it any wonder their Pavlovian response in the voting booth was to pull all the levers by the names of the candidates who were decidedly left-wing candidates? Hardly! They were simply reacting to the stimuli implanted in their malleable minds as they made their way through an education system designed to do just that.

And now, some six months after the deed is done, we are just on the cusp of the avalanche of hurt coming our way as our country is about to collapse around us.

Those of us who knew socialism’s sad story of lies, deceit, and destruction are not surprised at America’s precarious position today. We knew it would happen. We have watched socialism from its birth. We watched socialism’s struggle to grow while it murdered its host country all the while. Like a physician trying to heal a patient, by draining the patient’s body of all its blood, socialism drains a nation of it’s life-giving force and leaves it a broken shell of its former self. Even as robust a nation as Russia required assistance from former enemies, just to survive, after throwing off the bonds of socialism a few short years ago.

Pope Pius XI once said: “It is wrong to withdraw from the individual and commit to the community at large what private enterprise and industry can accomplish. So, too, it is an injustice, a grave evil, and a disturbance of right order for a larger and higher organization to arrogate to itself functions which can be performed efficiently by smaller and lower bodies.”

Now we are observing this “wrong,” and this “injustice,” Pope Pius XI warned of, play out right before our eyes here in America.

The “old” America was truly “something else!” She was a dream. She was a land of unlimited opportunities and horizons that went on forever. She was the envy of the world!

Americans were optimistic people who threw themselves into the task of firing the furnace of the engine of democracy and delighting in the rewards of their own labor. The “American Dream” was so big and so multi-faceted that no one could describe it!

One British author, John Keegan, described America this way:

“Left to themselves, Americans build, cultivate, bridge, dam, canalize, invent, teach, manufacture, think, write, lock themselves in struggle with the eternal challenges that man has chosen to confront, and with an intensity not known elsewhere on the globe.

Bidden to make “War” their work, Americans shoulder the burden with intimidating purpose. If I were obliged to define the American mystery, I would say it is the ethos - masculine, pervasive, unrelenting - of work as an end in itself. War is a form of work, and America makes war in a particularly workmanlike way. I do not love war; but I love America!” - John Keegan, author of “Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America” is a British military historian, lecturer, and journalist.

Mr. Keegan had it right This is what America used to be like. And for those of us who STILL remember her, as she was, today’s “changed” America is a bitter pill to swallow!

J. D. Longstreet

Accelerating the Speed of Lies ... by Alan Caruba

Accelerating the Speed of Lies
By Alan Caruba

********************

“In the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie…”

Who wrote that? The answer is Adolf Hitler in “Mein Kampf”, published in his1925 autobiography. During World War Two the U.S. government’s Office of Strategic Services, which later would evolve into the Central Intelligence Agency, assessed Hitler’s methods:

“His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people would sooner or later believe it.”

I have been reading David Kupelian’s new book, “How Evil Works” and thinking a lot lately about lies, lying, and liars. At the heart of great frauds is the lie and it seems to me that Americans have lately been subjected to a surfeit of lies that began with the 2008 election campaign in which a virtually unknown, first term Illinois Senator announced he was running for President.

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes” is attributed to Mark Twain and the truth of that is more evident than ever because technology has increased the speed with which lies travel. It has, fortunately, also given speed to those who debunk the lies and the result is a dizzying avalanche of conflicting claims.

Being ignorant of the intent of our nation’s Founding Fathers, of the limitations on the federal government found in the U.S. Constitution, of the deliberate separation of powers in our government’s executive, judicial, and legislative branches, and of history in general puts people at a disadvantage to recognize a threat to the nation and their freedom.

Edgar Watson Howe, (1853-1937) a newspaper and magazine editor in the early years of the last century said, “Americans detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies.”

I think he was reflecting on the influence of the broadcast and print media of his day, but it is no less true today. Most certainly, the presidency is an enormous platform for the person holding the office to advance policy by telling lies.

A President, however, who is perceived to be a serial liar, soon begins to lose credibility and popularity. President Obama’s credibility and popularity has fallen at an astonishing rate in just over a year in office.

It is worth noting, too, that the credibility of newspapers as a source of objective reporting has been in decline as the Internet has grown, offering an enormous number of news and opinion websites from which anyone can determine the truth or falsehood of public debate.

The English publisher and writer, Ernest Benn (1875-1954) said, “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedy.”

We are seeing this play out in the effort to “reform” Medicare by President Obama and the Democrat Party. Even Republicans know that Medicare is in need of some changes to improve the program. Tort reform and the ability to purchase health insurance across state lines are but two improvements that make perfectly good sense to most people.

However, the reform being proffered by the White House is nothing more than a socialist expansion of a government that is already too large and too unwieldy to serve the interests of Americans. It would, as is often pointed out, destroy the best health system in the world and put one sixth of the nation’s economy under the control of government.

In the process of putting forth Medicare “reform” President Obama has told so many lies that it is only with great difficulty that one can keep track of them.

Little wonder that the great historian, Edward Gibbon, wrote that “History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.”

No greater modern example of this is found in the global warming fraud. Since the 1980s the deliberate distorting of “science” has been the basis for the Big Lie that the Earth’s overall temperature is rising rapidly and that mankind is responsible for it through the use of coal, oil, and natural gas as fuels for industry use and the production of electrical power.

The greatest lies of the modern era, however, have been communism and its baby sister, socialism. The deaths of millions are attributed to Communism as practiced in the former Soviet Union and in the early years of the Peoples Republic of China. Nazism, a form of socialism, led to the deaths of millions in World War Two.

Nations that have embraced socialism are experiencing serious financial crisises these days. These political systems have proven to be failures wherever they have been introduced and imposed.

The greatest domestic challenge to Americans today is the combination of socialism, a system that has been slowly introduced into the governance of the nation since the 1930s, and the recent election of a “messiah” promising “hope and change.”

Beyond and within our shores, the other Big Lie, Islam, threatens our freedoms and it too must be resisted and defeated.

Today, however, Americans need to embrace the U.S. Constitution as never before. It is our shield against despotism and the lies that advance it.

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

© Alan Caruba, 2010

Is the Obama Regime About to Confiscate Your Savings?

Is the Obama Regime About to Confiscate Your Savings?
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
********************

There is no question but that The Obama Regime has plans for your savings. Obama’s Treasury Department and even the Labor Department are already investigating "the conversion of 401(k) savings and Individual Retirement Accounts into annuities or other steady payment streams."

Ok, let me see if I can break it down for you. What Obama is planning to do is: Take you savings, the money you have squirreled away for your retirement in 401-K’s and IRA’s, and hand you an IOU with which they will promise to pay you a small annuity each month of your retirement.

Got your attention yet?

I am not making this up! Businessweek magazine is reporting on it.

Don’t think they can do it? Does the government raiding the social security trust fund ring any bells? They took every dime of that money and left an IOU in its place.

Oh, they’re going a take your money. Make no mistake about that -- and they intend to spend it, almost immediately, to try to offset the trillion dollar plus deficits, which will, of course, leave the government coffers empty again. So, then, YOU and I will be broke right along with our pathetic, hapless, government.

Now, they are not going to tell you that. In fact, they will probably tell you they will be investing your money in Treasury bonds, or some such.

There is some thought that the process will begin by the Treasury Department making it optional for you to purchase Treasury bonds with your retirement money. (Aren’t we free to buy Treasury bonds any time we want today?)

As I said above, I am not making this up! The House Education and Labor Committee met last fall and they focused on "redirecting (IRA and 401k) tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute,"

It surely appears the Obama Regime is going to war against seniors in America. Why do I say THAT? Well, seniors have accumulated the most wealth in America, when you average it out, simply because they have been around the longest. When the left speaks of their attacks on the rich, they really mean attacks on the seniors of America.

What we are seeing, dear reader, is socialism in action. We have been telling you for months now that the current US Government IS a socialist government. Maybe you’ll believe it when your 401k and/or your IRA account is wiped out by the socialist Obama Regime.

Look, the democrat/socialist/Marxist/Progressive government of the US is looking for money anywhere they can find it. They know there are, very likely, multi-billions of dollars in 401k and IRA accounts owned by the citizens of the US. Do not kid yourself for one moment. They are going to seize that money.

"Oh, but they can’t do that," you say. "That’s MY money. It is private property!" Well, normally, you would be right. That is to say, IF we had a government that recognized the US Constitution as anything but an outdated bunch of suggestions, you’d be right. Unfortunately, that is not the reality we live in today in America.

The democrats’ inspiration for this theft (call it anything you like, but it IS THEFT!) comes from the South American nation of Argentina. You see, back in 2008 Argentina nationalized the private retirement funds of their citizens on the grounds that "the private system never achieved what was needed."

Rep. Jim McDermott, a Democrat from Washington and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support, is reported to have said the following: " … the savings rate isn't going up for the investment of $80 billion [in 401(k) tax breaks], we have to start to think about whether or not we want to continue to invest that $80 billion for a policy that's not generating what we now say it should."

Again, simply put – the US government is going to take our retirement money and make us a worthless promise to pay us some sort of monthly payment during our retirement years.

"House Democrats recently invited Teresa Ghilarducci, a professor at the New School of Social Research, to testify before a subcommittee on her idea to eliminate the preferential tax treatment of the popular retirement plans. In place of 401(k) plans, she would have workers transfer their dough into government-created "guaranteed retirement accounts" for every worker. The government would deposit $600 (inflation indexed) every year into the GRAs. Each worker would also have to save 5 percent of pay into the accounts, to which the government would pay a measly 3 percent return." You may read the entire article HERE.

There are some among us, even conservatives, who believe that confiscating the retirement money of America’s seniors is beyond the pale -- even for the Obama Regime. I am not among them. I’d have to ask, if they were not considering it -- then why do what they have already done? I refer you to a paragraph above in which we reported the following: "The House Education and Labor Committee met last fall and they focused on "redirecting (IRA and 401k) tax breaks to a new system of guaranteed retirement accounts to which all workers would be obliged to contribute," See what I mean? The Obama Regime is certainly exploring the possibility of doing just what we are warning you about today.

How serious is this possibility. Well, it is serious enough that we are hearing unconfirmed reports that some Americans have already stopped acquiring money in their 401k's and IRA's and are buying, instead, precious metals such as gold and silver. You see, precious metals are tangibles. You can touch them, and see them, and feel them -- and, better yet, they are untraceable by the Obama Regime.

Kim Priestap writes, at wizbangblog.com, the following: “Ever since Barack Obama was elected, we've seen larger and larger chunks of American life being gobbled up by government. Today's Democrats are nothing more than thug socialists who can't stand that there are still large swaths of the American people still living independently from government largesse and control. Now they are using what remaining power they have in Congress to change that. If the government takes over health care, college student loans, and retirement savings then no one, no matter how wealthy, can escape the thumb of big government.”(You may read the entire article HERE.)

In a little over a year, the Obama Regime has taken America from a glorious constitutional “representative” republic, to a “Banana Republic.” This is socialism, dear reader.

As we have warned until we are blue in the face, socialism rots a nation’s soul. In the past few months under the Obama Regime America has become a hollowed-out husk of its former self.

As the Mid Term Election approaches Americans need to “suck it up” and go to the polls determined to save America from the socialist/Marxist/Progressive/democrats now transforming our precious country into a socialist dung heap.

J. D. Longstreet

Obama Threatening to Pass Anti-gun Health Care by Cheating

Our good friend, and fellow blogger, Texas Fred, has a red hot article on his site at http://texasfred.net/archives/6171 concerning Obama's plans to use reconciliation to pass the ObamaCare Bill through the Senate. Hidden deep inside the bill is "gun control." Gun owners should be greatly upset by this thinly disguised atempt at circumventing the 2nd amendment rights of all citizens of the USA. We proudly present this article by Texas Fred -- which we STOLE from his site!

J. D. Longstreet
*************************
Obama Threatening to Pass Anti-gun Health Care by Cheating
February 25th, 2010 .
by TexasFred


*************************************


He’s like a playground bully — on steroids!


According to a recent poll, only 23% of the American people want Congress to pass the anti-gun ObamaCare bill.


And the President’s response to this? He believes Americans are just too stupid to understand what geniuses like him, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid are trying to do for us.
So what is Obama’s current plan?


Cheat.


ObamaCare is already the product of fraud, secrecy, bribery, and corruption. But Obama is preparing to ratchet up this corruption to a whole new level.


In 1974, Congress created a special process for balancing the budget. Senators could reduce the deficit with a simple 51 votes in the Senate, rather than getting the 60 needed votes to stop a filibuster. Under the rules, this process — called “reconciliation” — can ONLY be used for balancing the budget.


To repeat, it cannot be used for anything other than reducing the deficit. By contrast, ObamaCare would INCREASE the deficit by at least $500 BILLION.


So what does Obama do (with the help of crooked accountants at the Congressional Budget Office)?


He lies.


He fraudulently pretends the anti-gun ObamaCare legislation would reduce the deficit. And he does this by hiding costs and pretending he’s going to make cuts he never intends to fully implement ($465 billion in Medicare cuts).


And he intends to use this fraud scheme to cram ObamaCare down the throats of the American people against their will.


Americans don’t want the increased taxes and gun control that have been injected into the bill. Remember, Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to claim his legislation fixed the problems that Gun Owners of America had with this legislation.


But in reality, the bill still allows the ATF to troll a health/gun database in order to take away firearms from tens of millions of Americans.


ACTION: Please contact your two senators and your representative. Tell them that using the budget-balancing “reconciliation” process to pass ObamaCare is nothing but cheating.


You can use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center to send a pre-written message to your legislators.

—– Pre-written letter —–

Dear:__________



ObamaCare is already the product of fraud, secrecy, bribery, and corruption. But Obama is preparing to ratchet up this corruption to a whole new level.


In 1974, Congress created a special process for balancing the budget — with a simple 51 votes in the Senate, rather than the 60 needed to stop a filibuster. Under the rules, this process — called “reconciliation” — can ONLY be used for reducing the deficit.


To repeat, it cannot be used for anything other than reducing the deficit. By contrast, ObamaCare would INCREASE the deficit by at least $500 BILLION.


So what does Obama do (with the help of crooked congressional accountants at the Congressional Budget Office)? He lies. He fraudulently pretends ObamaCare would reduce the deficit. And he does this by hiding costs (the $247 billion “doc fix”) and pretending he’s going to make cuts he never intends to fully implement ($465 billion in Medicare cuts).


This “reconciliation” scheme is nothing more than a fraud on the American people, who, according to every recent poll, oppose ObamaCare by overwhelming majorities.


Understand this: I strongly object to this “cheat scheme.”


Majority Leader Harry Reid has tried to claim his legislation fixed the anti-gun problems in ObamaCare. But in reality, it will still allow the ATF to troll a health/gun database in order to take away firearms from tens of millions of Americans.



Please oppose the use of “reconciliation” to pass ObamaCare.

Sincerely,___________________



Full Story Here: Obama Threatening to Pass Anti-gun Health Care by Cheating

States Amend Constitutions To Ban Government Health Insurance Mandates

States Amend Constitutions To Ban Government Health Insurance Mandates.
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

*****************

It was bound to happen. We warned about the sovereignty movement, early on in the Obama Regime’s reign, that the states were serious about preserving their sovereignty. When over half the fifty states reassert their sovereignty any NORMAL person would say “WHOA! Wait A Minute! What’s happening?” Not so, the Obama Regime. They have foraged ahead with their “Czarist”, “Imperial” manner of governing and, guess what? The people, through their state governments, are rebelling.

OK, so the pitchforks and torches are not out YET, but, by golly, they are ready and waiting. Reports are becoming more persistent that conservative lawmakers, in about half the states, are forging ahead with constitutional amendments to ban government health insurance mandates.

Here’s the thing. We folks out here in the hinterlands (In my case, the swamp!) are not buying into the current conventional wisdom, which says that ObamaCare is dead. In fact, we are convinced that it is as alive today as it was before Brown won Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts. The Progressives/socialists are going to pass it into law. So, be prepared for it.

Incrementalism is the key. They will pass Obamacare one tiny bit at a time as parts of, or attached to, other bills moving through the US House of Representatives and the US Senate. It may take months, even years, but ObamaCare will become a reality in the United States.

Vigilance is now more important than ever. We must watch the Congress as we would a chicken hawk over the chicken coop! If we turn our backs, even for a moment, they will swoop and we will have ObamaCare. We must keep the pressure on our Congresspersons and on our Senators. In my case I only have one Senator I can, sometimes, count on. One is a progressive Obama acolyte and a supporter of ObamaCare, and the other is a moderate Republican. So, one cancels the other out.

As you can see conservative folks here in North Carolina have to depend upon themselves when in conflict with the Congress. We "boondocks lobbyists" have become fairly accomplished at applying pressure to our Representatives and Senators -- especially those of us with conservative blogs. We take our arguments, not just public; we take them to the world!

I learned as a young broadcast journalist many, many, years ago the best way to bring pressure to bear on a politician was through public ridicule and public embarrassment. It will get to them when nothing else will.

For those of you reading this in countries other than the US, understand this: the states of the United States actually created the Federal Government to act as an agent of the several states. It was supposed to have very limited power over the states. (Check out The Bill of Rights – the first ten amendments to the US Constitution) It was supposed to act on behalf of the people of the states -- never against them -- as it is doing today. THAT is why the sovereignty movement amongst the states literally took off with state after state reasserting its sovereignty from the Federal Government. It is one step short of seceding from the US.

You are not hearing much about this in the mainstream media because they do not want to admit that it is happening, and, even more important, they do not want YOU to know that the people of the United States DO NOT LOVE THE CURRENT PRESIDENT of the United States! Understand this – the Mainstream Media in the United States is deeply in the pocket of the Obama Regime. The people of the several states ARE NOT!

The various state legislatures are taking steps to protect their citizen’s from the socialist/Marxist of the Federal Government. That is why many state legislatures are amending the constitutions of those states to ban health insurance mandates on the people of their states.

I remain convinced that the economic situation of America is much worse than Americans are being lead to believe. This is one of those times when I hope I am wrong, but fear I am right.

Recent polls show the 71% of the American people feel their national legislature is doing a poor job of governing. That is an incredible number of Americans to have agreed on ANYTHING! It is an extremely important number.

We must "box-in" the Obama Regime, at least until the Mid-Term Election in November. That will be the most important election in the history of the country. It will decide whether Americans live as a free people or become slaves to a socialist/Marxist government. Believe me: PURGE is NOT too strong a word to use to describe what must be done -- at the ballot box -- on that most critical of days in American history.

J. D. Longstreet

CALL THESE SWING CONGRESSMEN ON HEALTH CARE

CALL THESE SWING CONGRESSMEN ON HEALTH CARE

It seems there are thirty Congresspersons that voted for ObamaCare the first time it passed the US House of Representatives. However, they are not solid. Their votes cannot be counted upon THIS TIME! Obama can probably get the bill through the Senate by using the reconciliation process but the House is a whole ‘nother problem for ObamaCare.

The thirty Congresspersons we are referring to are all susceptible to being voted out of office this coming November. They know it. They have caught the dickens from their constituents for voting for ObamaCare the first time around.

We suggest you phone each of the congresspersons on the list and voice your opposition to ObamaCare and suggest they should vote NO on ObamaCare when it next comes before the US House of representatives.

There is a list of these congresspersons and their phone numbers HERE.

Please take the time to phone them ASAP!

The Multi-Billion Dollar Global Warming Fraud ... by Alan Caruba

The Multi-Billion Dollar Global Warming Fraud
By Alan Caruba

***********************

As the massive global warming fraud implodes, the one aspect of it that has not been explored in depth is the equally massive waste of billions of dollars spent by the United States and nations around the world, we were told, to avoid global warming.

Whole industries such as automobile manufacture had demands and limits put on them. Some states required utilities to buy “carbon credits” to offset their use of “fossil fuels.” The list of things attributed to global warming expanded to the point of total absurdity.

The codification of the fraud into law began with the Kyoto Protocol, an element of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change whose purpose was to fight a global warming that we now know was not happening.

The data to support the fraud came out of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that specialized in distorting climate data in every way possible to emphasize a normal warming cycle and then to minimize any indication of a new cooling cycle dating to around 1998 or earlier.

The IPCC data, released periodically in reports purporting to be the work of some 2,500 scientists from around the world, were actually based the handiwork of a few academic centers such as the Climate Research Center (CRU) at East Anglia University in England, Penn State University, the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and climate modeling from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California.

Other participants in the fraud were NASA’s Goddard Institute and NOAA, both of whom produced claims, predictions, and questionable data to support “global warming.”

In the U.S. alone, I have heard figures in the area of $50 billion that have been spent on “climate change” over the course of administrations dating back to Clinton. In England, between 2006 and 2008, the government spent the equivalent of nearly $14 million (U.S.) on publicity stunts to convince Brits that global warming was real.

It is legitimate to ask if global warming has not in effect been a criminal enterprise.

The Kyoto Protocol required the nation states that signed onto it to commit to a reduction of four “greenhouse” gas, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride, and two groups of gases, hydrofluorocarbons and perflourocarbons. These gases occur in minimal amounts in the Earth’s atmosphere which is composed primarily of 95% to 97% water vapor!

The cost of accepting this commitment is measured in several ways, not the least of which was the sale of “carbon credits” to utilities and to industrial enterprises that would permit them to function outside the limits imposed. The exchanges created for this purpose prospered but it increased the cost of providing electrical energy and the manufacture of all manner of products.

The limitations, however, did not apply to either China or India, both of which were exempted, as were undeveloped Third World nations.

The climate change fraud also affected major U.S. corporations, none of whom wanted to appear to be opposed to it. However, on Tuesday, February 16th, BP America, Conoco Phillips, and Caterpillar all announced they were dropping out of the Climate Action Partnership that advocated energy-rationing. Some of the millions squandered on various global warming and “environmental” projects and groups came from the bottom line of corporations across the nation.

At this point, any corporation that speaks of “climate change” in its advertising and other public statements is part of the global fraud that originated in the United Nations Environmental Program.

The carbon emissions limitations also served to justify huge public subsidies for U.S. producers of wind and solar energy, called “clean” energy. Several nations, such as Spain, Germany and Great Britain, invested heavily in these alternative energy sources only to discover that they were massively inefficient and unreliable.

At the same time, the global warming fraud in the United States limited the building of coal-fired plants to generate electricity when, in fact, coal provides 50% of the nation’s electricity needs. Combined with fears of nuclear energy dating back to the 1970s, the United States has essentially starved itself of the energy it needs.

According to a recently released study by the National Association of Utility Regulatory Commissioners, the U.S. gross domestic product would lose $2.36 trillion and American consumers will pay an additional $2.35 trillion for energy if the oil and gas on federal lands remain off-limits through 2030. This constitutes a form of energy and economic suicide!

A British newspaper, the Daily Mail in a recent interview with CRU Prof. Phil Jones, revealed he knew there had been no “statistically significant” warming for the past fifteen years. Little wonder Prof. Jones and the CRU refused to honor UK Freedom of Information requests for the data on which the IPCC claims were based. He and others who provided IPCC data are under investigation.

In essence, the IPCC reports were all fraudulent and all were used to advance the global warming fraud. That is why President Obama’s claim of “overwhelming evidence” of climate change, i.e., global warming is particularly troubling.It is essential to understand that the “Cap-and-Trade” legislation passed by the House and waiting for a vote in the Senate is based on the IPCC reports and the threat by the Environmental Protection Agency to begin regulating carbon dioxide emissions throughout the nation have no legitimate basis in science.

There are still billions at stake if global warming-related laws, projects such as wind farms or the requirement that ethanol be added to every gallon of gas purchased are permitted to proceed or continue. Global warming as an issue or basis for any law or expenditure of public funding no longer exists.

It’s long passed the time when the nation’s news media should stop referring to it as anything other than a fraud perpetrated on the people of the world.

**************************

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

“Nullification Laws” Passed By the States to Fight ObamaCare

“Nullification Laws” Passed By the States to Fight ObamaCare
Arrogant Federal Government Lights Fuse on Explosive Citizen Anger!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
********************
In the upcoming “summit” between Obama and the Republicans on his ObamaCare proposal… you know, the one the American people have flatly rejected… you can forget the democrats tossing out anything in the current proposal. Ain’t gonna happen. The dems, with the added weight of Obama, hope to overwhelm the Republicans and force them into folding and agreeing to reluctantly support ObamaCare so they, the democrats, can save face for Obama and themselves.

WE appeal to the GOP to hold fast. Don’t give an inch. This sorry piece of legislation deserves to be flatly, and completely, defeated, with a stake driven through its heart, and committed to the trash bin of history for all time.

It is nothing more than a power grab by the Progressives in the Congress. It is power they will use to ram their remaining socialist agenda through the Congress and into law. It is a sure and certain formula for the utter destruction of our constitutional republic. And that, dear reader is exactly what they want and what they are working tirelessly to accomplish.

If they win, it will spell the doom of the United States of America -- at least, what is left of the US today.

They must be stopped at the ballot box!

We warned they would try this. They have -- and they are.

Already, the White House is admitting that the “NEW” ObamaCare Proposal is only a “Starting Point” for healthcare legislation. We have warned many, many, times that the current Congress believes the American people are basically stupid. We have warned, just as many times, that they will pass ObamaCare by “Incrementalism,” one small piece of the plan, at a time, until they get the whole “hell spawned plan” in place and the government will have total control of the lives of every American.

It now appears the Obama Regime is readying itself to use the reconciliation process, which requires only 51 votes instead of the usual 60 votes for passage of a budget bill, to pass their abomination of a healthcare bill through the Senate. It appears to this scribe the democrats are still pressing to gain at least one republican vote for political cover in case their plan fails. Woe be unto any republican dumb enough to side with the dems in favor of what is now being referred to as ObamaCare 2.0.

Many conservatives, including “yours truly,” have been fighting ObamaCare for over two years. We began alerting our readers and listeners in the early days of the Presidential campaign and as far back, in some cases, as 2007. Why are we so dead set against government run healthcare? To put is as clearly and concisely, yes, as bluntly as I know h -- ObamaCare is socialized medicine, it is socialism, and socialism is the final step a nation takes before becoming a communist nation.

The American people HATE ObamaCare. The American people have told the government we do not want ObamaCare in any form. As evidence of this, look at the number of states that have already amended their state constitutions to ban any kind of government healthcare mandates handed down by the federal government. If you know your American history then you already know this has happened before in the US. Just before the American Civil War broke out into a shooting war, the southern states began passing “nullification” laws, within the states, which nullified federal laws and mandates placed on those states by the federal government of that day. Simply put a nullification law means those states will NOT adhere to, or abide by, those federal laws and mandates. Need I remind you of the next step taken by those states?

The American Civil War did not have to happen. It DID happen because the arrogant US Congress of that day refused to listen to the people of the southern states telling them, flat out, they would leave the Union if the Congress continued to govern against the will of the southern people.

Today the current US Congress is making the exact same mistake the Congresses of the 1840s and 1850s made -- and this time, it is not just the southern states warning Congress to take heed. This time, states all over the nation are frantically attempting to get the attention of the federal government by passing modern day nullification laws.

The signs are all there. A blind fool can read them. And yet, the federal government cannot hear them or, worse, it is ignoring them.

This way lies destruction. The peoples of the states have issued the clarion call. Just as the election of 1860 was the turning point, the day the nation split into two nations, the election of 2010 will decide if the US remains one country or shatters into two or more separate nations or confederations of states. One thing is certain: America cannot continue as a single entity of 50 states ruled over by a socialist government.

The 2010 election is the safety valve. If the pressure is released by a purge of the incumbents in the Congress then the US will survive. It the valve remains closed, and no pressure is released, the explosion of the US tearing itself apart will be heard, and felt, around the globe and will spell the end of the Great American Experiment.

J. D. Longstreet

Republicans SHOULD NOT ATTEND Obama’s Healthcare Summit! (Updated)

Republicans SHOULD NOT ATTEND Obama’s Healthcare Summit!
Nothing more than Political Theatre starring Obama!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

******************

If there are any Republicans left in Congress with “common sense” they will not show up to receive their browbeating by Obama.

This whole theatrical production is designed to belittle Republicans and make them look as bad as possible and apply another layer of blame on them.

I have alerted my senators as to my feelings on this strong arm tactic by the Obama Regime. I have asked them not to attend. I also assured them I am still flat out opposed to ANY program of socialized medicine for the American people.

If you are one who believes the democrats will agree to trash their original Obamacare plans you need to seriously reconsider -- because they won’t. Oh, they will make the offer publicly, but they have no intention of giving one inch, and neither should the balking republicans.

I say again, the majority of Americans do not want government-run socialized medicine. The Progressives/Socialist/Marxists/Democrats are dead set on ramming it down our throats despite that fact. This so-called healthcare summit with the Obama Regime is just another way to do that ramming.

This is “strong arm” politics at its worst. As of this writing Obama’s plan, the one he intends to present to the republicans at the “summit” has no republican backers. Obama’s plan still mandates that Americans have healthcare. It would force insurance companies to accept applicants with preexisting conditions. Of COURSE, that SOUNDS good, until you remember that if insurance companies are forced to accept bad risks, YOUR insurance premiums will shoot through the roof to compensate those insurance companies for the losses they will incur as a result of signing up people who are already sick. Plus, taxes will skyrocket, and the cost of Obamacare will come very close to one trillion dollars!

Obama’s plan will cut Medicare payments to doctors to such a degree that a huge portion of America’s doctors will simply stop seeing Medicare patients. And, frankly, I don’t blame them one bit.

(To learn more about Obama's proposed healthcare plan go HERE.)

In other words it is the same ObamaCare that recently stalled in the Congress for lack of support by the American people. Why? Because the American people do not want it! How much plainer can we be?

Here's the thing: Democrats are planning to bypass the GOP completely in the Senate by using a process known as reconciliation, which is normally reserved for passing the federal budget. This reconcilliation process requires only 51 votes for passage rather than the usual 60 votes. As we have predicted all along, the Democrat/Socialist/Marxists/Progressives in the US Congress and White House are going to saddle America with their brand of socialism no matter what YOU and I want.

A warning to the Congress is in order. If the Congress passes Obamacare, the political blood letting of incumbents in the Mid Term Election, this coming November, will be even greater than it is expected to be today.

Congresspersons and Senators who vote for ObamaCare should begin looking for the nearest exit! As someone said the other day: You can “stick a fork in them ‘cause they’re DONE!”

America must neuter Obama in November 2010. We can do that by voting out those incumbents supporting ObamaCare. We must also begin the process to repeal ObamaCare as the first order of business in the new Congress!

WE can do it -- and we must -- if we have any hope, at all, of remaining a free capitalist nation instead of the socialist dung heap the Democrats/Progressives/Socialists and Marxists, in our government today, are trying so hard to make us. America must rid itself of the socialist oligarchy ruling America today through executive orders issued from the Oval Office.

We can do it -- and we must begin right now.

J. D. Longstreet

US Has More Oil Than The Entire Middle East

US Has More Oil Than The Entire Middle East

Did “Environuts” censor this Information?

*********************

(Received this by e-mail. Checked the link and it is legitimate. The author is unknown to me.)

************************

Enough is enough. Americans are tired of being lied to about the availability of crude oil.



So – how much oil DOES America actually have, I mean, within the borders of the US -- not counting that off shore along our coastal shelf? Read on!

J. D. Longstreet

****************************

Here's an interesting read. This is important and verifiable information: About 6 months ago, the writer was watching a news program on oil andOne of the Forbes Bros. Was the guest. The host said to Forbes, "I am going toAsk you a direct question and I would like a direct answer; how much oil does the U.S. have in the ground?" Forbes did not miss a beat, he said, "moreThan all the Middle East put together." Please read below.

The U. S. Geological Service issued a report in April 2008 that only scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big! It was a revised report (hadn't been updated since 1995) on how much oil was in this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota , western South Dakota , and extreme eastern Montana .....



Check THIS out:The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska's Prudhoe Bay, and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable... at $107 a barrel, we're looking at a resource base worth more than $5.3 trillion.

"When I first briefed legislators on this, you could practically see their jaws hit the floor. They had no idea.." says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature's financial analyst.

"This sizable find is now the highest-producing onshore oil field found in the past 56 years," reports The Pittsburgh Post Gazette. It's a formation known as the Williston Basin , but is more commonly referred to as the'Bakken.' It stretches from Northern Montana, through North Dakota and into Canada . For years, U. S. Oil exploration has been considered a dead end. Even the 'Big Oil' companies gave up searching for major oil wells decades ago. However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up The Bakken's massive reserves.... and we now have access of up to 500 billion barrels.... and because this is light, sweet oil, those billions of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL! That's enough crude to fully fuel the American economy for 2,041 years straight.

If THAT didn't throw you on the floor, then this next one should - because it's from 2006!

U. S. Oil Discovery- Largest Reserve in the World Stansberry Report Online - 4/20/2006. Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted.

With this motherload of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:

- 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia

- 18-times as much oil as Iraq



- 21-times as much oil as Kuwait

- 22-times as much oil as Iran

- 500-times as much oil as Yemen

- and it's all right here in the Western United States .

HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the Environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America become independent of foreign oil! Again, we are letting a small group of people dictate our lives and our economy.....WHY?

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That's more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.

Don't think 'OPEC' will drop its price - even with this find? Think again! It's all about the competitive marketplace, - it has to. Think OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?

Got your attention yet?

Now, while you're thinking about it, do this: Tell your friends about this. If you don't take a little time to do this, then you should stifle yourself the next time you complain about gas prices!

By doing NOTHING, you forfeit your right to complain.

Check it out at the link below!!! GOOGLE it, or follow this link. It will blow your mind.

http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911<http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911>

*************************

The Yucca Mountain Blues ... Alan Caruba

The Yucca Mountain Blues

By Alan Caruba

*********************

Are you worried about your “carbon footprint”?

Still think “global warming” is real despite the fact that one of its leading advocates, a climatologist, recently said that there’s no significant data to demonstrate any warming since 1995?

Can’t figure out why the White House is still trying desperately to pass the “Cap-and-Trade” bill based on the totally discredited claim that carbon dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere are “causing” the non-existent “global warming”?

Do you increasingly think that you are Alice in Wonderland and now living in a nation where the White House and Congress keep telling you things that are totally absurd?

Let’s put aside the claim that we have to borrow and borrow in order to keep on spending and spending to save the economy when common sense says that is the worst way to end the economic death spiral they have created.

The latest ploy by the White House was a move in the direction of nuclear power to generate the electricity the nation needs for its current and future needs. Since the 1970s, for reasons that defy understanding, several administrations, Democrat and Republican, have done little to encourage nuclear power despite the fact that a nation like France derives most of its electricity from it.

Even so, nuclear provides about twenty percent of the electricity we use while coal provides just over fifty percent. In both cases, neither has anything to do with “greenhouse gases” because the gases play no role in climate change. Indeed, more carbon dioxide, being plant food, would greatly enhance the growth of crops and forests.

“Cap-and-Trade” is nothing more than a tax on energy use. Simply put, it has been cheap, abundant energy that has fueled the economy of the United States since it was founded. The discovery of oil in 1859 also played a major role and, despite the lies, the U.S. has an abundance of oil.

Like nuclear power, however, successive administrations since the 1970s have ensured that U.S. oil companies were kept from exploring for it, extracting it, refining it and selling it to us at affordable prices.

This is in sharp contrast to the endless babble about the need to be “energy independent.”

The talk about support for the nuclear energy industry is welcome, but what the White House is not saying is that his proposed budget has no funding for the nuclear waste facility in Nevada’s Yucca Mountain.

Congress passed a Nuclear Waste Policy Act in 1982 and amended it in 1987. Yucca Mountain is the only permanent nuclear waste repository in the nation. I repeat, the only one. Why isn’t it in operation? Glad you asked. Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, has blocked its completion and use.

So we could build two or a dozen new nuclear plants—a very good idea—but there would still be no place to put the waste despite the fact that the U.S. has spent $9 billion on the first phase to build the Yucca Mountain site. A $13 million tunnel boring machine sits idle at the site.

That has not stopped the White House from wanting to put U.S. taxpayers on the hook for $8 billion in loan guarantees for two new reactors in Georgia.

The purpose of all this is to get a few senators to sign on to the passage of Cap-and-Trade, a bill based on a non-existent threat from “greenhouse gases” in order to avoid a non-existent “global warming.” There are two fears; one that the Senate might pass the bill and, two, that the White House might impose it by executive order.

What we are witnessing is yet another really big, really bad idea out of the White House that continues to lie to everyone and anyone who thinks the problem is “global warming” when the problem really is a mad desire to destroy of the nation’s economy.

This has always been the single goal of the environmental movement when the global warming fraud began in the late 1980s. It accelerated with the UN Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The U.S. has never accepted the Protocol and those nations that did have since discovered that it’s been a very costly fraud.

Cap-and-Trade is a fraud. Let your senators know you oppose their vote for it. Any senator that does vote for it should be replaced if they are running for reelection in the November midterm elections.

Alan Caruba

America’s Tough Times Haven’t Arrived Yet!

America’s Tough Times Haven’t Arrived Yet!
Much worse to come for America
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

****************

I have the uneasiest feeling that the American citizenry is being led down the “Primrose Path” -- a path, I’m afraid, that leads to destruction. I am beginning to think it may very well be time for all of us to ask ourselves if we are prepared to survive in a post apocalyptic America?

I have mentioned before that I foresee a complete collapse of the American economic system. Something, I feel, that will be much, much, worse than the Dot-Com Crash back in 2000, or even the Sub Prime Credit Crash in 2008. No, what I feel is coming will be worse than both these two former crashes added together. In fact, it has, I believe, already begun.

We Americans, indeed, all the citizens of the world, may well be facing a period of lawlessness the likes of which, the world has never experienced before. We are talking worldwide anarchy.

Look at what is happening in Washington, DC, today. There is a breakdown of our form of democracy – a constitutional republic. Our leaders in Congress have chosen to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the constituents they are sworn to represent. Our US government has never in its history been as separated from the people as this congress is. Not only that, but the Congress has become expendable. It is no longer necessary.

Laws are being made and enforced from the Oval Office of the White House completely by-passing Congress. The President’s use of Executive Orders and Czars, answerable only to him, is, effectively, a dictatorship. The US Constitution is viewed by those in power in America today as “an outdated list of suggestions” that needs to be trashed.

That American Dream, we Americans grew up hearing about, is no longer a dream but a nightmare. America’s capitalism is being tossed aside in favor of nation killing socialism. Our children and grandchildren are now carrying a debt load, imposed on them by the government, which they will never be able to pay off. We are headed toward, some say, to a global debt bomb which, when it explodes, will bring worldwide anarchy. Our civilized infrastructure will simply collapse. Here in America the dreaded Great Depression of the last century will be replayed in this century. Some are referring to it as “The Great Depression II.”

Once again, American will be forced to look to themselves for answers on survival. As did our famous Pilgrims and Frontiersmen ancestors we will be called upon to provide for our families as best we can. Preparation is called for. Those preparations should be made NOW!

Each of us should be stockpiling food and necessities for many months of anarchy. If you do not have a firearm, get one, learn how to use it, and be sure to stockpile plenty of ammunition. We are talking self-defense here. If you have food and others do not, you may be called upon to defend your family and your family’s foodstuff.

Hide your guns! The current US Presidential administration has made known its desire to join with the United Nations in an effort to strip you of your constitutional right to own and bear arms. (The 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution.) Remember, we warned that many in our current government view the constitution as outdated suggestions? They WILL come after our guns, so hide them. You may need them later.

When the collapse comes you will be forced to act in your own self-interest and that of your family FIRST – IF you intend to survive.

Americans have been asleep for the past few generations. We have allowed our government to be overtaken by socialist, and Marxists, and Progressives and today we are reaping what we have sown. We find ourselves on the brink of total collapse. And all this while -- we thought it couldn’t happen here. But it can – it has!

Will there be a Second American Revolution as some are predicting? Frankly, I do not know. I sincerely hope it does not come to that. Many American voices are calling out that if we wish to reestablish a new capitalist society after the collapse, we must consider every avenue. One can only prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Rest assured, there will be no renewal as long as our government remains in the hands of the socialists and Marxists. We can begin the process of removing them from office in the Mid-Term Election in November of 2010.

As Thomas Paine said in “The American Crisis” these are, indeed, “the times which try men’s souls.” These times will also try our determination to survive and our determination to ensure the survival of our country. But FIRST – WE MUST SURVIVE.

J. D. Longstreet

The Mount Vernon Statement

The Mount Vernon Statement
*************************

The Mount Vernon Statement is a MUST READ for Conservatives. Below is the text of the statement:

******************

Constitutional Conservatism: A Statement for the 21st Century

We recommit ourselves to the ideas of the American Founding. Through the Constitution, the Founders created an enduring framework of limited government based on the rule of law. They sought to secure national independence, provide for economic opportunity, establish true religious liberty and maintain a flourishing society of republican self-government.

These principles define us as a country and inspire us as a people. They are responsible for a prosperous, just nation unlike any other in the world. They are our highest achievements, serving not only as powerful beacons to all who strive for freedom and seek self-government, but as warnings to tyrants and despots everywhere.

Each one of these founding ideas is presently under sustained attack. In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics. The selfevident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant.

Some insist that America must change, cast off the old and put on the new. But where would this lead — forward or backward, up or down? Isn’t this idea of change an empty promise or even a dangerous deception?

The change we urgently need, a change consistent with the American ideal, is not movement away from but toward our founding principles. At this important time, we need a restatement of Constitutional conservatism grounded in the priceless principle of ordered liberty articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

The conservatism of the Declaration asserts self-evident truths based on the laws of nature and nature’s God. It defends life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It traces authority to the consent of the governed. It recognizes man’s self-interest but also his capacity for virtue.

The conservatism of the Constitution limits government’s powers but ensures that government performs its proper job effectively. It refines popular will through the filter of representation. It provides checks and balances through the several branches of government and a federal republic.

A Constitutional conservatism unites all conservatives through the natural fusion provided by American principles. It reminds economic conservatives that morality is essential to limited government, social conservatives that unlimited government is a threat to moral self-government, and national security conservatives that energetic but responsible government is the key to America’s safety and leadership role in the world.

A Constitutional conservatism based on first principles provides the framework for a consistent and meaningful policy agenda.

It applies the principle of limited government based on the rule of law to every proposal.

It honors the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life.

It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and economic reforms grounded in market solutions.

It supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that end.

It informs conservatism’s firm defense of family, neighborhood, community, and faith.

If we are to succeed in the critical political and policy battles ahead, we must be certain of our purpose.

We must begin by retaking and resolutely defending the high ground of America’s founding principles.

*******************************
The link to the website is below. You may also sign the statement if you so desire.

http://www.themountvernonstatement.com/

Obama’s Invisible Homeless and Hungry

Obama’s Invisible Homeless and Hungry
By Alan Caruba

*******************

The most enduring images of the Great Depression from 1929 through to the beginning of World War II for America in 1941 were those of homeless people, hobo camps, and of soup kitchens to feed the hungry.

During the Reagan years, the media was filled with stories of the homeless as if to refute any improvement in the economy under a conservative president. These days, however, as America’s national debt and deficit continues to spiral out of control, the poor and the hungry remain largely unseen and, most significantly, largely unreported.

About the only thing one can find on the White House website with regard to homelessness are statements about the way “green jobs” will solve the problem. The first stimulus package, however, increased the amount of money that the nation’s food banks received in 2009 so someone involved understood America has a problem.

The New York Times reported “a $100 million windfall of extra food…” Also reported was that “requests for emergency food assistance were up by 30 percent in 2008 over the previous year”, but the financial crisis did not occur until late into the last year of the second Bush term.

As the recession took hold one food pantry organizer noted that “the next layer of people” were showing up; “a rapidly expanding group of child-care workers, nurse’s aides, real estate agents and secretaries who are facing a financial crisis for the first time.”

A recent study by Mathematica Policy Research revealed that in 2009 more than 37 million low-income people were receiving emergency food assistance through a network of pantries, kitchens, and shelters. Recipients represented “a broad cross-section of America, including 14 million children and three million elderly.”

“Approximately 40 percent white, 34 percent were Afro-American, and 20 percent were Hispanic.” Though 36 percent of recipient households had one working adult, ten percent were homeless.”

“Most of the organizations providing assistance in the network were faith-based” and I can recall the outcry when the Bush administration undertook to provide funding to these organizations.

While the media reporting seems limited to official government statistics, currently citing unemployment at 9.4 percent, most observers believe that it is far closer to 17 percent and that figure would actually exceed the Depression era.

There were no safety nets in the 1930s. Ironically, the programs put in place, Social Security, and later Medicare, are now all but bankrupt or soon will be. At the time they were instituted there were approximately sixteen workers paying into the system for every recipient, but now it is down to two workers per recipient and these programs represent both a high level of taxation and an increasing drain on the nation’s economy as demographic changes increase the numbers eligible for them.

Entitlement programs, along with defense, represent half of the nation’s annual budget. The proposed Obama budget is widely regarded as bizarre for the amount of spending it proposes.

In its first year, the Obama administration largely ignored joblessness in order to pursue a vastly expanded Medicare “reform” whose details, whenever they became known, generated a massive backlash from Americans who rightly saw the program as an effort to take over one sixth of the nation’s economy, putting it under federal control.

Political observers all say that the Obama administration will now “pivot” and concentrate on jobs as the major issue this year. The Democrat controlled Congress, however, is doing little to adopt the factors that contribute to job creation.

Virtually all economists recommend a reduction in the tax on U.S. corporations, currently among the highest in the world, rendering them less competitive and unable to expand their workforce.

Beyond that, the great economic engine of small businesses have seen minimum wage requirements increase and a host of other regulations that punish all businesses when they are forced to lay off or fire employees; both discourage hiring. Meanwhile, huge pension and other benefits for unionized government related jobs are bankrupting the states.

The “solutions” of the FDR years did nothing to relieve the Great Depression and are widely seen as having extended it. These same “solutions” are being pushed by the Obama administration, particularly in regard to increased taxation at the worst possible time.

For now the homeless and hungry will remain invisible to most Americans, but the media will be able to ignore it for only so long and then it will have to be addressed.

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

Why I Did Not Celebrate President's Day

Why I Did Not Celebrate President's Day
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
***********************************

First, my regular readers must have noticed that yesterday on INSIGHT on Freedom the so-called holiday referred to as President's Day was not mentioned. Rest assured -- there was a reason.

First of all, President's Day is an invention of the commercial community. Congress made it plain, when they instituted President's Day; the holiday was to memorialize President George Washington, our first President. But Washington WAS NOT OUR FIRST President! He was, in fact, or fifteenth President!

There were fourteen presidents BEFORE George Washington! Washington actually led the county's seventeenth administration. George Washington was the first President of the US under the current US Constitution.

Below is a list of the Presidents of this country serving before George Washington:

Peyton Randolph of Virginia (1723-1775)

Henry Middleton (1717-1784)

John Hancock (1737-1793)

Henry Laurens (1724-1792)

John Jay (1745-1829)

Samuel Huntington (1732-1796)

Thomas McKean (1734-1817)

John Hanson (1715-1783)

Elias Boudinot (1741-1802)

Thomas Mifflin (1744-1800)

Richard Henry Lee (1732-1794)

Nathaniel Gorham (1738-1796)

Arthur St. Clair (1734-1818)

Cyrus Griffin (1736-1796)

If you'd like a bit of a synopsis on each of these men then we suggest you go HERE .

President Cyrus Griffin was a reluctant supporter of the Constitutional ratifying process. It was during Griffin's term in the office of the Presidency—the last before the new national compact (the current US Constitution) went into effect—that ratification was formalized and finalized. Griffin served as the nation's chief executive from January 22, 1788 until George Washington's inauguration on April 30, 1789.

Now, I'm OK with celebrating George Washington's birthday. No problem at all. Washington was a Southern gentleman. It was under Washington's guidance that this country had its first economic boom.

But, when they dragged Lincoln into President's Day, I lost interest in the holiday.

Look, I am a Southerner. I am no lover of Abraham Lincoln. I dare say that if Americans knew the real story of Abraham Lincoln they'd have no more love for the man than I do.

Lincoln was a duplicitous politician... at BEST! He said the following on the floor of the Congress on January 13th, 1848: "Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and to form one that suits them better. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people that can, may make their own of such territory as they inhabit. More than this, a majority of any portion of such people may revolutionize, putting down a minority intermingling with or near them who oppose their movement."

I didn't make that up. It is a matter of official record. Lincoln said it. Yet when a portion of the people of the US decided they wanted to do exactly what Lincoln said they could do, he sent an army of aggression into their new country to kill and destroy and drag them back into the very government they had just rejected -- and he did it at the point of a government bayonet.

We ALL know that Lincoln was anti-slavery, right? After all he was The Great Emancipator, right? Well, read the following statement Lincoln made in a speech in Peoria Illinois and then decide: "We know that some Southern men do free their slaves, go north and become tip-top abolitionists, while some Northern Men go south and become most cruel masters.When Southern people tell us that they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said the institution exists, and it is very difficult to get rid of in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know what to do as to the existing institution. My first impulse would possibly be to free all slaves and send them to Liberia to their own native land. But a moment's reflection would convince me that this would not be best for them. If they were all landed there in a day they would all perish in the next ten days, and there is not surplus money enough to carry them there in many times ten days. What then? Free them all and keep them among us as underlings. Is it quite certain that this would alter their conditions? Free them and make them politically and socially our equals? My own feelings will not admit of this, and if mine would, we well know that those of the great mass of whites will not. We cannot make them our equals. A system of gradual emancipation might well be adopted, and I will not undertake to judge our Southern friends for tardiness in this matter."

Lincoln also said: "I acknowledge the constitutional rights of the States — not grudgingly, but fairly and fully, and I will give them any legislation for reclaiming their fugitive slaves."

In his Inaugural Address Lincoln said: "I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so."

In a letter to Alexander H. Stephens, Lincoln said the following: "Do the people of the South really entertain fear that a Republican administration would directly or indirectly interfere with their slaves, or with them about their slaves? If they do, I wish to assure you as once a friend, and still, I hope, not an enemy, that there is no cause for such fears. The South would be in no more danger in this respect than it was in the days of Washington." You'll find it on page 150 of "Public and Private Letters of Alexander Stephens." (By the way Alexander Stephens was Vice-President of the Confederate States of America.)

In a letter to Horace Greeley (editor of the New York Tribune at the time) dated August 22nd, 1862, Lincoln said this: “My paramount object, is to save the Union, and not either destroy or save slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing the slaves, I would do it. If I could save the Union by freeing some and leaving others in slavery, I would do it. If I could save it by freeing all, I would do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because it helps save the Union.”

Do you begin to understand why I cannot celebrate the birth of a man who found it necessary to drag the American people into the bloodiest war this nation has ever seen, or is likely to see? Of all the nations involved in the slave trade, the US was the only one to decide to end that horrible traffic with a war between brothers resulting in a patched-up a nation scarred for all eternity.

If you want to celebrate the birthday of George Washington, I’m all for it. But celebrate the birth of Abraham Lincoln? NEVER!

J. D. Longstreet