First Amendment About To Be Shredded By Obama And Dems ... J. D. Longstreet

First Amendment About To Be Shredded By Obama And Dems
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Actually, it has taken a bit longer than I had expected, but Obama and his "Marxocrats" are finally getting around to us, you know, conservative broadcasters, commentators,  and bloggers.
Yep, they are finally going to  make an all out effort to shut us down -- and up!  We will officially be "Haters."  Then they'll accuse us of hate crimes because we don't follow the "party line" and slap our behinds in jail, or reeducation camps,  much like the old Maoist reeducation camps of a few decades ago.

So far the MsM hasn't made much of this because they are controlled from the Obama's West Wing or directly from the Oval Office. 

( I wonder how "amazed" the Leftist press will be when Obama's henchmen march into their press rooms and begin smashing computers and ripping out hard drives with incriminating evidence on them to send those poor Leftists -- now "useless idiots" to Obama's gulags for crimes against Obama -- or the state.

It always happens that way.  The Left just never accepts that THEY will be the very first one's "detained" by the tyrants when round-up time comes.  I'd laugh were it not for the tears.)

So, what the heck am I talking about?

I am alluding specifically to: "The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014."

Never heard of it, huh?  It figures.

The bill comes from Democrats Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.  (So far no surprise.)

The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014 “would create an updated comprehensive report examining the role of the Internet and other telecommunications in encouraging hate crimes based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation and create recommendations to address such crimes,” stated a news release from Markey’s office."

The Bill  "... calls for the Justice Department and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to “analyze information on the use of telecommunications, including the Internet, broadcast television and radio, cable television, public access television, commercial mobile services, and other electronic media, to advocate and encourage violent acts and the commission of crimes of hate.”

The bill does not define which actions by broadcasters would be considered to have encouraged violence, seemingly leaving that open to interpretation." - SOURCE:   http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_301_35361.php#sthash.eyEsU99s.dpuf

I find it astounding that a MsM newspaper, the Boston Herald, referred to the bill as: “frankly chilling."  In fact, the paper said they found it: “frankly chilling” that Markey is seeking to “empower an obscure federal agency to begin scouring the Internet, TV and radio for speech it finds threatening.

“Perhaps he could crack a briefing book on the crisis in Ukraine rather than looking for his own extra-constitutional methods of punishing speech he finds unacceptable,” added the Herald editorial." - SOURCE: http://www.libertynewsonline.com/article_301_35361.php#sthash.eyEsU99s.dpuf

The fact that a Leftist news organization finds this bill chilling and frightening, REALLY gets my attention.

As a commentator, I have been offering opinion pieces for many decades.  There can be no doubt that from time to time any commentator worth his mike or keyboard will offend someone, and inspire others.  It is the nature of what we do.  We give voice to those who have something to say but for various reasons haven't the wherewithal to make their feelings public and thence are shut out of the public debate.  We are their  voices.   It has been said that we afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.

But the plain fact is that we make those we oppose very uncomfortable drawing attention to their grand mistakes, their foibles, their machinations in the shadows - out of the public's sight, and -- inevitably -- to their lies.  We make their lives miserable.  We are the burr under their saddles, the thorn in their flesh, and -- all too often -- we become the only conscience they have.

You bet -- they want to shut us up.  The Hate Crime Reporting Act of 2014  will go a very long way in muzzling critics of the Left whether behind a microphone, a keyboard, or in front of a camera. 

Students of history will tell you this is nothing new.  It dates back to the Spanish Inquisition and in more modern times, the Nazi regime of Hitler, the old Soviet Union, and Maoist China. ... and now it is here ... in America.
It is just more of the American Police State.

Any day now, I expect the announcement to go out to those in the executive branch of the US legislature that they should drop by the West Wing and be measured for their tailor-made brown shirts to be worn at all times for the duration of the Obama Regime.

I am very afraid, dear reader, that we have allowed America to become so corrupt that no tweaking will suffice to restore our old constitutional, representative,  republic.  America has gone the way of all democracies -- suicide.

J. D. Longstreet

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Much Ado about the Ukraine ... by Alan Caruba

Much Ado about the Ukraine

Hundreds of Unkrainians took part in an April 28 march in Llov to mark the anniversary of the formation of the Ukrainian SS division which fought for the Nazis against the Soviet Union in WWII

By Alan Caruba

Events in the Ukraine are now big headlines and the topic of a torrent of commentaries by experts on Russia, the European Union, NATO and related subjects. The whole thing began after protests forced its president to flee to Russia, followed by the Russian Federation’s annexation of Crimea as disputes between Eastern and Western Ukraine broke out.

At the time and still now I thought it was a predictable action and one that did not involve “invading” the Crimea since Russia has for many years had several thousand troops already stationed there to service and protect its military and naval facilities. Rather than wait around for the Ukrainians to resolve their conflict, the Russians took the reasonable, rational action of annexation. Crimea had been a part of Russia for hundreds of years and the Ukraine was as well. The national language there is Russian.

The problems the Ukraine has encountered began with public rejection of its president, Victor Yanukovycha, a fellow who preferred alignment with Russia than the West. Many Ukrainians thought this was a bad idea, but it seems now that many others had no objections. The main objections appear to have been the dismal governance of the nation, replete with major corruption.

The problem Vladimir Putin poses today is the problem that Russia has always posed for any nation on its borders. From the czars to the commissars, it has a long history of imposing control on its neighbors. They were regarded as a buffer zone. Russia had been unsuccessfully invaded by Napoleon and, after being betrayed by the Nazis with whom they signed a deal to split Poland, they wanted territory between them and Europe. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, those satellite nations declared their sovereignty once again, happy to be free and to embrace Western Europe.

NATO, a European mutual defense organization, was created to respond to what was seen as the potential for Russian aggression. As a member, the U.S. is committed to join in their defense. World War Two was followed by over forty years of “containment” by the West. When in 1992 the U.S. Senate ratified NATO expansion to include nations that bordered the former Soviet Union, it set up the present tense situation. Ukraine, however, is not a member of NATO.

Interviewed in 1998, George Kennan, the U.S. diplomat who was ambassador to Moscow in 1952 and who authored the “containment” policy adopted by the U.S., said the expansion of NATO was a very bad decision.

Presciently, he said, “I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies,” adding “It shows so little understanding of Russian history and Soviet history. Of course there is going to be a bad reaction from Russia and then (the NATO expanders) will say that we always told you that is how the Russians are—but this is just wrong.”

On April 28, the Associated Press reported that President Obama said of increased sanctions on Russia, “We don’t yet know whether it’s going to work.” 

Nothing else in the Obama foreign policy regarding Russia has worked since the famed “reset” in his first term so he’s probably right. On a personal level, not just Putin, but most leaders of foreign nations have concluded Obama is too weak and too incompetent to be treated with anything other than the courtesy his office requires.

Thomas Graham, a former senior director for Russia on the U.S. National Security Council staff from 2004 to 2007, recently expressed his view of the current situation in the April 28 edition of the Financial Times. He dismissed a new version of “containment” saying “It will not work. Nor will it advance U.S. interests. Economically, Russian is impossible to isolate.”

That’s true, but its economy is primarily dependent on oil and natural gas sales. If the prices of either were to fall, its economy would go with it. As it is, money is fleeing Russia, investment has halted, and its present threatening posture toward Ukraine may make Putin a hometown hero, but in the rest of the world, he is trouble with a capital T. As for Ukraine, its economy it’s even worse. But Russian pipelines runs through it to Europe. That is reason enough for Russia to show some concern for events there.

Whatever Russia does, the West can be counted upon to wimp out, doing little or nothing. In this case, staying out of the internal dispute in Ukraine may be the wisest course of action.

At home we have watched the influence of the United States decline from the day Obama took office. He has made matters worse by engaging in the reduction of our military capabilities. Until Obama leaves office, there is little that can be done to reverse this lamentable trend.

As the White House and the rest of us watch from the sidelines, we will hear a lot of empty rhetoric. Putin will be called a war monger, but he just wanted to protect Crimea. If he can covertly subvert Ukraine enough to gain more influence over its eastern half, he will try. 

I cannot weep much for a nation with historic ties to the Nazis and one in which anti-Semitism is still virulent. This is hardly a nation to which the U.S. should be lending millions with loan guarantees for billions.

What happens to the Ukraine is a matter for the Ukrainians to address, not us.

© Alan Caruba, 2014 

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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 3.2 million page views. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.

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GOP Working Overtime To Lose In November ... J. D. Longstreet

GOP Working Overtime To Lose In November
Sick Of The Whole Lot Of Them!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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I am on the cusp of arriving at a conclusion that makes me physically ill.  Please.  Allow me to explain.

I am an observer of American politics.  I am also involved as, some say, an activist, though I don't think of myself as such.  I just observe and then I write my observations and my opinions, my analysis,  and occasionally I exercise a little punditry and predict a few things that seem obvious to me.

Nothing much surprises me in American politics.  It is rotten to the core.

If prostitution is the oldest profession, then politics is certainly the second oldest and these days it has become awfully difficult to tell them apart.

So what has pushed my buttons today?

The Republican Party seems hell bent on losing the mid term election this November despite the Democrats virtually handing it to them tied up in ribbons.  (We've been warning that this was coming for several months now.)

In the past few days, GOP leaders are making public statements that would lead a close observer to conclude that they've been lying all along about their much publicized desire to repeal Obamacare.  On top of that they are now actually boasting that they will pass an immigration bill by August -- and inside that bill will be amnesty for illegal aliens. They also intend to lie to their constituents about amnesty in the bill!

Consider this:  "With the news this week that more than 600,000 Washington residents have acquired new health care plans through the state exchange, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said it’s unlikely the Affordable Care Act will be repealed.

“We need to look at reforming the exchanges,” the Eastern Washington Republican said Thursday."  -- SOURCE:  http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/apr/25/mcmorris-rodgers-says-aca-likely-to-stay/

Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers is among the leaders of the establishment Republicans in the US House of Representatives.

I ask you -- does that sound like dedication to repealing Obamacare?

Now, read this second clip -- carefully -- and allow yourself to see the DECEIT the GOP is going to use to get amnesty for illegal aliens passed through the house and into law:  "Cited as a priority issue by many members of Congress and Obama, 2013 came and went without an immigration package, to the chagrin of many advocacy groups.

McMorris Rodgers said she still thinks a deal could be struck before the election. “I believe there is a path that we get a bill on the floor by August,” she said.

A bipartisan plan was passed in the Senate last spring but made no headway in the Republican-controlled House. McMorris Rodgers echoed the concern brought up by many in the chamber, saying she wants to see stronger border security. But she said she’d support a bill that grants legal status to those undocumented immigrants working toward citizenship, allowing them to remain in the country to work and go to school while they wait their turn in the current system.

“We’re going to have to push that this is a legal status, not amnesty,” she said."  -- SOURCE:  http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/apr/25/mcmorris-rodgers-says-aca-likely-to-stay/

Please read the last paragraph above.  Do you see how the GOP is planning on "CONNING" it's supporters, it's voters, it's base?  They are preparing to lie to us, dear reader!

Now.  Here's my conclusion -- you know, the one that has made me want to puke:  The GOP DOES NOT WANT TO WIN IN NOVEMBER!

See, if they won, then they'd have the responsibility to get off their collective derrieres and get to work and return this country to a constitutional, representative, republic.

But, as I have now concluded, they don't want that.  Heck no!  They actually LIKE where America is right now.  They LIKE that the onus seems always to be on the Marxocrats (sometimes referred to as Democrats.)  The GOP can sit on it's big, fat, er, armchair and take pot shots at the Dems, and attend the cocktail and dinner parties in the evenings and enjoy all the perks our tax dollars provide for them.

Down here in the Southland, what the GOP is doing is called "BETRAYAL!"

I'm sick of the whole damn lot of them!

As an Independent voter now, I'm being slammed by both sides in their propaganda war to win my vote.  Well, they can save their postage, printing, and phone bills.  Nothing either side says will convince me they give a damn about the country.

America is lost, dear reader.  They ONLY chance I see, as of this writing, is for like-minded people to take control of their state legislatures -- and secede -- as my Confederate ancestors did and create a new nation.  This one is done for.

J. D. Longstreet
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Adding Age AND Gaining Insight ... J. D. Longstreet

Adding Age AND Gaining Insight
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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Recently, I have noticed something a bit different in my work, that is to say -- my writing, my commentaries, if you please.

I have noticed that my faith has much more influence on my thinking than I had thought.  I'm told that is a sign of aging and wisdom.  I can readily agree with the aging part.  However, the wisdom part, is something else  entirely.  That, dear reader, is decided by you.

That's is a little out of character for me. I have always felt a man's faith was between him and his chosen deity -- and nobody else. As my family will unhesitatingly tell you "Papa" is subject to go off on a tear over a subject having to do with religion quicker than any other subject.

I have found, now that I am well into the eighth decade of my lifespan,  that I am far more able to cope with the vexing problems that living life as a human being tends to deliver to our doorstep.  That does not mean that I don't stumble and fall every once in a while,  nor does it mean that I am mistake free.  Look.  ALL the erasers on my pencils are well worn.

Often, I have been extremely lucky, having the ability to learn (usually) from my mistakes.  That is learned behavior, behavior taught me -- along with many other things --  by my father.  Thus armed, I have been able to inform those who follow behind me of my personal flawed processes that led to my latest embarrassment -- whatever that might be. 

One of life's lessons I have learned (the hard way) is that a man who does not acknowledge and learn from his mistakes and then pass that invaluable information along to the younger generation -- is a FOOL.

It is said that a man can count his real friends on the fingers of his hands.  Some say the fingers of ONE of his hands.  When I was younger I thought that was nonsensical.  As I have grown older I have learned that a man is blessed, indeed, if he has ONE real friend.

When I refer, to and use, the word "friend," please understand that I am not using that word in any context in which it can be associated with today's social media on the Internet.  Those friends exist only in zeros and ones.  They are purely binary language.

I have made a number of acquaintances by way of the Internet that I most likely would not have made without the web.  I treasure these connections.  

It is said that a friend will help you hide.  It is also said that a TRUE friend will help you hide the body! Sometimes, these "hard sayings" have a bit more truth to them than we are comfortable with.

I have become convinced that once the "finish line" of one's life is peeking over the horizon, it tends to help one focus on that which is really important.

For a little over fifty years I have been walking my life's pathway with death ever beside me.  We have become "comfortable" companions.  I know that sounds impossible, but like anything else in life, constant contact with a person, place, or thing, will result in a certain level of comfort in the presence of that companion.

Back in my mid-twenties, the family was summoned to my bedside and told that I would not live 'til morning.   Obviously, I did survive. 

My doctor recently told me that he has been constantly surprised that I have survived  episode after episode of vicious attacks that should have taken my life and that he had expected me to die a number of times in the past fifty-three years only to have me still around making others uncomfortable, as is my wont.

So what keeps me going?  I wish I knew.  I have blamed it on pure stubbornness and persistence, something I believe I may have inherited from my Celtic ancestry. 

More than anything, though, I believe it was my father.  He taught, he instructed, he indoctrinated persistence in ALL things.  You don't quit, you don't give up, you never give in, you never, ever, admit defeat -- for a man is never conquered until he surrenders. 

My father also taught self reliance.  A man should depend upon no one -- or nothing -- but himself ... period.  A young man during the depression, my father was determined that his children would be able to fend for themselves if, and when, the time came.

He taught me to hunt and trap.  He taught me to build traps, bait, and set traps and those secrets that disguise the human scent on a trap.  He had me running the traps before school on icy Carolina mornings.

I thought of my Dad when the story on Cliven Bundy broke.  See, I have been there -- with my Dad, too, many decades ago.

Our confrontation was over the state taking a portion of our land to change the path of a roadway. It seems the state engineers had built in a huge, unnecessary, curve in their plans for the new roadway and that curve would take a huge, unnecessary, bite out of our land, which sat in the corner of the planned new road and the existing highway with which it would intersect. 

Dad went to the state capital and met with the state engineers and explained that their survey was wrong, and that it was unnecessary to take that chunk of land when  the old path of the roadway was a much better roadway than the newly planned one.

The state listened -- and refused to change their plans.  So the morning they work crew showed up to begin bulldozing our land, my father and I met them -- with our guns.  Dad, careful to remain on our property at all times, stepped up where he could be clearly seen and heard and announced that he intended to shoot the first man to climb aboard the bulldozer. 

After a hurried conference, the work crew left.  A few days later we were visited by representatives of the state engineer's office.  Dad had had me sketch out a route for the proposed roadway that would eliminate that godawful curve and not take a foot of our land.

Survey stakes were removed, a new survey was run, and the proposed roadway was moved, the curve was taken out, and wonder of wonders, we didn't lose any land, at all.

At no time was law enforcement involved, period.

Would my father have opened fire?  Look. There was no political correctness in those days.  A man said what he meant and meant what he said.  I never doubted he would fire on those men.  More importantly, THEY never doubted it, either.

America was a better country then. We were tough, we had honor and more importantly, we understood how important honor was.  Back then we still understood that a man's home, his land, his livestock, belonged to him.  He had a right, indeed, a duty to defend them from all threats, no matter the quarter from which those threats came.
Individual rights, personal freedom and liberty, were the foundation of the constitution and the constitution the foundation of the country.

I mentioned earlier that my faith has become a mainstay, a source of support and stability for me as the years pile up.

I think all my life I have been training for the end of my life.  I think we are are granted that opportunity.  Some of us take advantage and prepare while others, well, just let it slide.

Remember the old Negro spiritual:  "I MUST WALK MY LONESOME VALLEY?"   Read the words:

"I must walk my lonesome valley

I got to walk it for myself,

Nobody else can walk it for me,

I got to walk it for myself

I must go and stand my trial,

I got to stand it for myself,

Nobody else can stand it for me,

I got to stand it for myself.

Jesus walked his lonesome valley,

He had to walk it for himself,

Nobody else could walk it for him,

He had to walk it for himself."

There is a wonderful pearl of a lesson in those words.

"I" have to do it.  Nobody will do it for me.   "I" have to do it myself. 

It's the lesson my father instilled in me as a lad.  "You are responsible, son.  Only you."

When it becomes my turn to walk that valley, God willing, I intend to walk it with my back straight, my head held high,  leaning slightly forward in expectation of the wondrous things awaiting my arrival at the end of the valley.

But, I've not entered the valley yet.  So, my pen shall not rest in my hand.  There is yet much to do, much to be said,  places to go, people to see, ideas to share, thoughts to formulate, ... much to do.

Yes, I'm bent.  But I'm not bowed.  I'm bloodied, but I'm not slain. So I'll lay me down and rest a bit -- then, I'll rise to fight again.

Deo Vindici!

J. D. Longstreet
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False Charges Against Conservatives?

ALERT: IRS, Lerner and DOJ collaborated to bring false charges/evidence against conservatives

By Sher Zieve
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It's getting harder and harder to ignore the unprecedented corruption, perversions and all around criminal mob behavior inherent within virtually each and every member of the ObamaGov. However, the wholly-owned-by-Obama media will have no difficulty in doping so. Having no ethics, it's easy. Today, Judicial Watch released information contained within emails from Lerner to the DOPJ and its members responses back to her. To say they are startling and shocking is a huge understatement. They are chilling and – in some circles (probably many Republicans in Congress) – potentially terrifying.

It confirms – with no doubt for anyone who can read and has the IQ to determine that which he or she is reading. First, there's this gem:

May 8, 2013: Lerner to Flax:

'I got a call today from Richard Pilger Director Elections Crimes Branch at DOJ ... He wanted to know who at IRS the DOJ folk s [sic] could talk to about Sen. Whitehouse idea at the hearing that DOJ could piece together false statement cases about applicants who "lied" on their 1024s – saying they weren't planning on doing political activity, and then turning around and making large visible political expenditures. DOJ is feeling like it needs to respond, but want to talk to the right folks at IRS to see whether there are impediments from our side and what, if any damage this might do to IRS programs.

I told him that sounded like we might need several folks from IRS...' In other words, she's asking "How can we fake evidence to arrest, prosecute and send conservatives to prison?"

The response is equally telling, with Flax is equally chilling:

May 9, 2013: Flax to Lerner

"I think we should do it – also need to include CI [Criminal Investigation Division], which we can help coordinate. Also, we need to reach out to FEC. Does it make sense to consider including them in this or keep it separate?"

Folks, we ARE now living in a Marxist totalitarian State. This only serves to underline that truth!

2Th 2:9 (NKJ) "The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders."

JW Obtains IRS Documents Showing Lerner in Contact With DOJ about Potential Prosecution of Tax-Exempt Groups: http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/jw-obtains-irs-documents-showing-lerner-contact-doj-potential-prosecution-tax-exempt-groups/

© Sher Zieve

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Sher Zieve is an author and political commentator. Zieve’s op-ed columns are widely carried by multiple internet journals and sites, and she also writes hard news. Her columns have also appeared in The Oregon Herald, Dallas Times, Sacramento Sun, in international news publications, and on multiple university websites. Sher is also a guest on multiple national radio shows.

Sher can be reached at sherzieve@bajabb.com

 

Should California dictate US energy policies? ... Paul Driessen

Should California dictate US energy policies?

Can the rest of America afford its Alice in Wonderland energy policies for? (Can California afford them?)

Paul Driessen 

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California loves to be seen as the trendsetter on energy and environmental policies. But can we really afford to adopt their laws and regulations in the rest of America? Heck, can the once Golden State afford them itself? The path to hell is paved with good intentions, counter-productive policies – and hypocrisy. 

The official national unemployment rate is stuck at 6.7% – but with much higher rates for blacks and Hispanics and a labor p labor participation rate that remains the lowest in 35 years. Measured by gross national product, our economy is growing at an abysmal 1.5% or even 1.0% annual rate. 

Meanwhile, California’s jobless rate is higher than in all but three other states: 8.1% – and with far worse rates as high as 15% for blacks, Hispanics and inland communities. First the good news, then the insanity. 

Citigroup’s Energy 2020: North America report estimates that the United States, Canada and Mexico could make North America almost energy independent in six years, simply by tapping their vast recoverable oil and natural gas reserves. Doing so would help lower energy and consumer prices, insulate the three nations from volatile or blackmailing foreign suppliers, and spur job creation based on reliable, affordable energy, says the U.S. Energy Information Administration. 

Driving this revolution is horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing. According to Citigroup, IHS Global Insights, the EIA and other analysts, “fracking” technology contributed 2.1 million jobs and $285 billion to the US economy in 2013, while adding $62 billion to local, state and federal treasuries! Compare that to mandates and subsidies required for expensive, unreliable, job-killing wind, solar and biofuel energy. 

Fracking also slashed America’s oil imports from 60% of its total needs in 2005 to just 28% in 2013. It slashed our import bill by some $100 billion annually.

By 2020 the government share of this boom is expected to rise to $111 billion. By 2035, U.S. oil and natural gas operations could inject over $5 trillion in cumulative capital expenditures into the economy, while contributing $300 billion a year to GDP and generating over $2.5 trillion in cumulative additional government revenues. What incredible benefits! But there’s more. 

A Yale University study calculates that the drop in natural gas prices (from $8 per thousand cubic feet of million Btu in 2008, and much more on the spot market, to $4.00 or so now) is saving businesses and families over $125 billion a year in heating, electricity, fertilizer and raw material feed stock costs. 

The only thing standing in the way of a US employment boom and economic and industrial renaissance, says Citigroup, is politics: continued or even more oppressive anti-hydrocarbon policies and regulations. 

Here’s the insanity. Fully 96% of this nation’s oil and gas production increase took place on state and private lands. Production fell significantly on federal lands under President Obama’s watch, with the Interior Department leasing only 2% of federal offshore lands and 6% of its onshore domain for petroleum, then slow-walking drilling permits, according to the Institute for Energy Research. 

The President continues to stall on the Keystone pipeline, while threatening layers of expensive carbon dioxide and other regulations, to prevent what he insists is “dangerous manmade climate change.” His EPA just adopted California’s expensive all-pain-no-gain rules for sulfur in gasoline, and the Administration and environmentalists constantly look to the West Coast for policy guidance. 

Governor Jerry Brown says 30 million vehicles in California translate into “a lot of oil” and “the time for no more oil drilling” will be when its residents “can get around without using any gasoline.” However, that rational message has not reached the state’s legislators, environmental activists or urban elites.

California’s ruling classes strongly oppose drilling and fracking – and leading Democrats are campaigning hard to impose at least a long temporary ban, based on ludicrous claims that fracking causes groundwater contamination and even earthquakes and birth defects. 

Meanwhile, California’s oil production represents just 38% of its needs – and is falling steadily, even though the state has enormous onshore and offshore natural gas deposits, accessible via conventional and hydraulic fracturing technologies. The state imports 12% of its oil from Alaska and 50% more from foreign nations, much of it from Canada, notes Sacramento area energy consultant Tom Tanton. 

The record is far worse when it comes to electricity. The Do-As-I-Say state imports about 29% of its total electricity from out of state: via the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Phoenix, coal-fired generators in the Four Corners area, and hydroelectric dams in the Southwest and Pacific Northwest, Tanton explains. 

Another 50% of its electricity is generated using natural gas that is also imported from sources outside California. Instead, the Greener-Than-Thou State relies heavily on gas imported via pipelines from Canada, the Rockies and the American Southwest, to power its gas-fired turbines. Those turbines and out-of-state sources also back up its numerous unreliable bird-killing wind turbines. 

It adds up to a great way to preen and strut about their environmental consciousness. They simply leach off their neighbors for 62% of their gasoline and 79% of their electricity, and let other states do the hard work and emit the CO2. 

These foreign fuels power the state’s profitable and liberal Silicon Valley and entertainment industries – as well as the heavily subsidized electric and hybrid vehicles that wealthy elites so love for their pseudo-ecological benefits, $7,500 tax credits, and automatic entry into fast-moving HOV lanes. 

Meanwhile, California’s poor white, black, Hispanic and other families get to pay $4.23 per gallon for regular gasoline, the second highest price in America – and 16.2 cents per kWh for residential electricity, double that in most states, and behind only New York, New England, Alaska and Hawaii. 

However, the state’s eco-centric ruling classes are not yet satisfied. Having already hammered large industrial facilities with costly carbon dioxide cap-and-trade regulations, thereby driving more jobs out of the state, on January 1, 2015 they will impose cap-and-trade rules on gasoline and diesel fuels. That will instantly add at least 12 cents more per gallon, with the price escalating over the coming years. 

Regulators are also ginning up tough new “low-carbon fuel standards,” requiring that California’s transportation fuels reduce their “carbon intensity” or “life-cycle” CO2 emissions by 10% below 2010 levels. This will be accomplished by forcing refiners and retailers to provide more corn-based ethanol, biodiesel and still-nonexistent cellulosic biofuel. 

These fuels are much more expensive than even cap-tax-and-trade gasoline – which means the poor families that liberals care so deeply about will be forced to pay still more to drive their cars and trucks. 

In fact, Charles River Associates estimates that the LCFS will raise the cost of gasoline and diesel by up to 170% (!) over the next ten years, on top of all the other price hikes.

In the meantime, China, India, Brazil, Indonesia, Germany and a hundred other countries are burning more coal, driving more cars and emitting vastly more carbon dioxide. So the alleged benefits to global atmospheric CO2 levels range from illusory and fabricated to fraudulent. 

Of course, commuters who cannot afford these soaring prices can always park their cars and add a few hours to their daily treks, by taking multiple buses to work, school and other activities. 

There’s more, naturally. Much more. But I’m out of space and floundering amid all the lunacy. 

Can we really afford to inflict California’s insane policies on the rest of America? In fact, how long can the Left Coast afford to let its ruling classes inflict those policies on its own citizens? 

Paul Driessen

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Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power - Black death.

The American Public School System Gets an “F” ... J. D. Longstreet

 The American Public School System Gets an “F” 

America Should Be Ashamed Of Its Education System  

A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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The Public Schools system of the US has crashed and burned!  No longer are our children the best educated in the world.  Now our scholars rank among the less well educated even among a few of the third world countries.  This is a shame we have brought upon ourselves by inviting the Federal Government and the Unions into our schools.

One-room schoolhouses turned out scholars of unequaled accomplishment when compared to today’s graduates.  A high school education, just 50 years ago, is the equivalent of a college degree today.   Our Public School teachers are barely qualified to teach.  But, they have a Union to see that they are paid well, whether the can teach or not!  Oh, you thought teachers unions were for the welfare of the students???  Surely you jest!

Our local school boards have gorged themselves from the federal trough at the expense of local control of the curriculum and the rules and regulations. 

Pupils are not challenged by the courses they study and fall short of goals set by the federal Government.  So, the schools are now “teaching the tests”.  Indoctrinate the students in the questions and answers on the test in hopes of attaining the sought after number of students passing the tests.  A well-rounded education is lost to the efforts to make a good showing on the tests.

Students are forced to remain in school even though they have no interest in what is being taught and are a distraction to that handful of youngsters who really do want to learn.

Self-esteem is the number one course of study.  Our students are dumb as fence posts but, by golly, they think highly of themselves!  They can’t read their diplomas but they sure do feel good about it!

So what do we do about it?

 

Take back our schools for a start.  Refuse federal money and all the strings that go with it.  If we have to teach school, again, in one-room school buildings, then so be it.

 Test the teachers.  If they have no business in a classroom, see to it that they are removed.

 Make school voluntary.  If a student does not want to be there, then don’t make them.  This will allow those students who do wish an education to get one without the continuous interruptions by the bored kids who’d rather be someplace else.

Discipline?  Yes.  Expulsion.  Period.  Expel troublemakers for a few days, a few weeks, and full school year, or forever, depending on the infraction.  Make school a serious business again.  We owe an environment, suitable for learning, to those students who are there for the purpose of learning and making a better life for themselves.

We can take our schools back.  We have to want to do so and we have to be ready to make the sacrifices necessary to insure our children a good education, not the pitiful excuse for an education they are getting now.

(Spend a few minutes in the comments section of any blog on the Internet and take special notice of the sentence structure, the composition, the horrible grammar, the god awful spelling, and the obliviousness to it all by the writer.  You have just taken the measure of the product of the American public education system.  It is beyond horrible.)

 

One of a parent’s primary obligations, as a parent, is to see that their children have a shot at the brass ring in life.  The first, and most fundamental, step in that process is a solid education. 

Government vouchers were killed by the teachers unions because they rightly understood that the public school system would crumble, and collapse, as parents pulled their children out of those useless institutions and placed them in private schools where they had some say, and some control, over the quality of education their kids were getting.

The public school system is near collapse right now.  I don’t think it would be a bad thing, actually.  When an institution is so badly damaged, and no longer serves it’s primary purpose, it SHOULD be trashed and a new institution begun in its place. Create an Institution to educate our kids.  They're not getting an eduction today.  They're getting an indoctrination.

Parents, we owe our kids that!  We owe them a chance to make the best of their talents.  We owe them a shot at a good, solid, education.  Get them out of the public schools and into a private, or parochial, school where there are qualified teachers who still have an incentive to teach our kids, the will to teach our kids, and the desire to teach our kids.

The public school system is America is a failure.  It should be put out of its misery.

J. D. Longstreet

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A Time of Reckoning Approaches ... J. D. Longstreet

A Time of Reckoning Approaches
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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As Americans draw ever closer to a time of reckoning, many have begun to take notice of that freedom we have remaining.

Some of us old, grizzled, scarred-up, graybeard veterans of multiple past skirmishes with power hungry Leftist zealots in our government are actually gratified today. 

Why, you ask?

We have finally begun to make inroads into the nearly closed minds of younger Americans who have now lived long enough to allow some of the Marxist indoctrination from their days in the government school system to wear thin.  Plus, their own personal experience with REAL LIFE,  as opposed to the communist Utopia sold by the Leftists, has, too, worn thin and it is beginning to be seen as the ethereal mirage that it really is. Their perception is changing.

We can thank Obamacare for so many Americans coming to realize that the cheese really ain't free! 

How many times did we warn that if you thought healthcare was expensive before Obamacare, just wait until Obamacare gave it to you -- free!?

But, Obamacare is just a part of the story of the deconstruction of the Obama/Marxist dream.

There are the lies.  SOOOO many lies.  Americans believe NOTHING coming out of the Obama Administration.  They will lie even when telling the truth is easier.  That says to me they really DO think you and I are stupid, ignorant, and unable to think for, and care for, ourselves.  Of course, that DOES describe so much of the voter base of the Democratic (Marxocratic) Party these days that I suppose that explains why the Dems think of all of us in the same way.

Fortunately for America we are not all dumb, stupid, and ignorant.

As far as I am able to ascertain, the Obama Regime is the second American presidential administration to suspend the constitution.  The first, of course, was the Lincoln Administration. 

Lincoln's abuse of the constitution wasn't so bad, after all.  It only cost the lives of 700,000 Americans, tore a country apart, forced it back together at the point of a federal bayonet, and today the country suffers the stress of a nation with two distinct cultures and strong regional distrust between Americans  -- to this very day.

As if the lingering suspicions from the "recent unpleasantness" of the War of Northern Aggression was not enough, our failed President has driven a wedge deeper between the black and white races in America. 

Look.  Obama won the Presidency precisely BECAUSE he is black. (Well, at least HALF black, anyway.)  In 2008 it was as though nothing Obama said was of any importance.  The only important thing was the color of his skin. America had decided it was time to elect a black President and, come hell or high water, they would -- and did.  Blacks voting for Obama came in in the high 90's percentile.  Even so, it was white voters who put Obama over the top and into the Oval Office.

Yes, it was an historical "feel good" moment for the country.   But as everyone (save for the Leftists) knows -- those "feel good" moments are totally worthless in the real world.

Obama is a failed President.  Oh, the history books will not record that.  It's too embarrassing, too, uh, truthful.  Today's history is mostly fable written by the revisionists of the Marxist persuasion, in any event.  Any Obama short comings that cannot be left out of the official record will be blamed upon Obama's opposition, the Republicans.

Obama has done his race no favors.  All black politicians will be judged, henceforth, using Obama as the rule. The ethics of ALL black politicians will now be called into question.  As a result, it will be a cold day in the warmer climes when another black man resides in the Oval Office of the United States.  And that is sad, really, because there are some extremely well qualified conservative black politicians out there who would, in my estimation, make an excellent Commanders - in - Chief and President of the US.  Former Congressman, Colonel Allen West, leaps to mind.

There is a school of thought that Obama is a failure because of overexposure.  Oh, I agree that he was -- and is -- overexposed!  It is so bad that when the man shows up on my TV to make another of his boring speeches, the channel is changed instantly, or the TV is switched off immediately.  He has nothing to say, I care to hear -- other than: "I resign, effective immediately."

No.  It was not overexposure that ruined Obama's Presidency, it was Obama's un-American political philosophy and his Marxist agenda for America.  THAT'S what ruined him!  He is surrounded by so many Communists, Marxists, and Socialists, that the West Wing is referred to (by some) now as the Kremlin West.

Around the world Obama -- and America under his leadership -- have become laughingstocks.  He has proved, unquestionably, that he is unable to go toe to toe with America's enemies, and that means America's friends are now on their own for the first time since before the Second World War.  Now, instead of America's enemies being frightened, it's America's friends who are frightened -- and with good reason.

Meanwhile, back in the USA, the natives are growing more restless as each day passes.   See, Americans have an option most people do not enjoy.  We have the option, in fact, the duty, to take our government from the hands of those who prove detrimental to the constitution and return her to constitutional rule.

The title of this piece mentions a time of reckoning approaching.  Many feel that a calendar date can actually be set -- for November 2014.  Americans are gong to  make every effort to take the entire legislative branch of the government over and bring a screeching halt to the Marxist agenda of Obama and his henchmen. That is the peaceful -- and preferable -- way to begin the process of returning America to her rightful condition as a constitutional representative government.  

Look.  America is a product of revolution.  Is it so difficult to imagine a continuing revolution to guarantee the survival of our freedom and liberty? 

Victor Hugo a French poet, novelist, and dramatist once said: "When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right."

I'll close with this brief reminder from the American Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. "— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

The men who penned those few lines changed the world.  They did not do it lightly. 

When next revolution comes to these shores if will be for the same reason.  It will be men doing what they are convinced they MUST do. 

America is far too precious to let her go without a fight.

J. D. Longstreet
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Common Core and Communism ... Alan Caruba

Common Core and Communism

By Alan Caruba

“A lie told often enough becomes the truth,” said Vladimir Lenin who led the revolution that imposed Communism on Russia.

When he wrote, ‘Mein Kampf’, Adolf Hitler said “whoever has the youth has the future.” In his vision for the Nazi Party, education would be the key that ensured that he had ‘the youth’ of Germany fully indoctrinated.

All dictators and authoritarian regimes know that what is taught in their schools offers the greatest opportunity to maintain control over their societies.

That is what has been occurring since the introduction of the Common Core standards that the Obama regime has imposed on our national education system and the good news is that protests against it from concerned parents and others are beginning to increase and gain momentum.

Teachers will tell you that “one size fits all” does not apply in the classroom and never has. Children learn at a different pace with some doing so rapidly while others need extra help and attention. Learning that is entirely dependent on ceaseless testing puts stress on every child and that is the most common complaint about Common Core.

Education in America has been in decline since the 1960s when the teachers unions gained control over the process, putting themselves between the local boards of education and parents. Would it surprise anyone to learn that the Department of Education was established by President Jimmy Carter who signed it into law in 1979? It began operation on May 4, 1980. You will find no reference, no mention of education in the U.S. Constitution and it should not be a function of the federal government.

In a recent commentary by Joy Pullmann in The Daily Caller, she said, “The latest scheme is the field testing of Common Core assessments. This spring more than four million kids will be required to spend hours on tests that have little connection to what they learned in class this year and will provide their teachers and schools no information about what the kids know.”

“Parents who object to this scheme,” said Pullman, “face bullying and harassment from public officials. From New York to Denver to California, some schools are responding by forcing kids who opt out to sit at their desks and do nothing during the several-hour tests. Normal people call that a ‘time out’ and it is a punishment.”

Wyoming has become the first State to block a new set of national science standards that address climate change. In Michigan last year a group of protesters stopped the State from adopting the science standards.

Here are some excerpts of what the science standards teach as “The Essential Principles of Climate Science.”

# “The impacts of climate change may affect the security of nations. Reduced availability of water, food, and land can lead to competition and conflict among humans, potentially resulting in large groups of climate refugees.”

# “Humans may be able to mitigate climate change or lessens its severity by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations through processes that move carbon out of the atmosphere or reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

# “The most immediate strategy is conservation of oil, gas, and coal, which we rely on as fuels for most of our transportation, heating, cooling, agriculture, and electricity. Short-term strategies involve switching from carbon-intensive to renewable energy sources, which also requires building new infrastructure for alternative energy sources.”

From “A Framework for K-12 Science Education” children are to be taught that “If Earth’s global mean temperature continues to rise, the lives of humans and other organisms will be affected in many different ways.” Only the Earth’s mean temperature is not rising! The planet is in a natural cooling cycle that is now seventeen years old, meaning that none of the students in today’s schools have ever experienced a single day of “global warming.”

By the end of grade 8, the Framework teaches that “Human activities have significantly altered the biosphere, sometimes damaging or destroying natural habitats and causing the extinction of many other species.”  This, too, is untrue. The U.S. Endangered Species Act, despite listing thousands of species, has not officially “saved” more than a handful at best and this assertion is questionable.

By the end of grade 12, students are expected to believe that “Changes in the atmosphere due to human activity have increased carbon dioxide concentrations and thus affect climate.” While it is true that there has been an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide this is a good thing because it is an essential factor in the increase of all vegetation that includes food crops and healthier forests. Moreover, this increase does not play any role in the Earth’s climate.

The central theme of these “science standards” is to teach that we should be reducing our use of fossil fuels, the primary energy sources our nation and the world requires. What these standards do in reality is repeat and reinforce federal government laws and regulations to justify its CO2 emissions regulations based on the current method of computing the Social Cost of Carbon, but these "costs" are pure fiction. 

None of the computer models that have predicted global warming over the past four decades have been accurate. None are capable of representing the state of the Earth’s vastly complex climate.

The sooner Common Core is removed from the nation’s education system, the better.

Editor's Note: To learn more or follow the debate on Common Core, visit
The Heartland Institute's "Education Weekly" newsletter that provides data via Common Core Watch.

© Alan Caruba, 2014

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Alan Caruba's commentaries are posted daily at "Warning Signs" and shared on dozens of news and opinion websites. His blog recently passed more than 3.2 million page views. If you love to read, visit his monthly report on new books at Bookviews. For information on his professional skills, Caruba Editorial Services is the place to go! You can find Alan Caruba on both Facebook and Twitter as well.