The Democrats Living in Alice's World

Read the latest absurd world the dems live in. A world where up is down and their skewed view of the world is right. IBD describes this upside down world we currently live in.

The latest media kerfuffle over the supposedly secret "plan" to kidnap or kill al-Qaida leaders shows just how pathetic our Congress has become. Gee, aren't we supposed to kidnap or kill the enemy?

The Democrats, still stinging from the stunning revelation that Rep. Nancy Pelosi lied about being briefed by the CIA about waterboarding, have whipped up a new spy scandal to even the score against the CIA.

To make it even more damaging, they've thrown in former Vice President Dick Cheney for good measure, charging that he pushed a covert program to kill or capture al-Qaida's leaders through the CIA. The plan began after 9/11, when President Bush authorized a secret program to capture or kill al-Qaida terrorists.

This is a rare two-fer for the Democrats: They protect one of their own (Pelosi) while going after the now departed bogeyman (Cheney), whom they've tried to build up as an archvillain who tricked Americans into deposing Iraq's lovable Saddam Hussein. (READ HERE)

Something Rotten in the State of Massachussets-Let's Not Do It!

Regarding Government run HealthCare why isn't Washington looking at the fiasco that is now occurring in Massachusetts thanks to former Governor Mitt Romney? There's a Law in that state that mandates every individual to buy health insurance or face a penalty. Surprise of surprises, the young people have found out a way to circumvent the obligatory purchase of a product they DON"T WANT! The Wall Street Journal article's subtitle is "Massachusetts shows how ObamaCare would really work". So having this example of "something's rotten in the state of Massachusetts" why aren't our politicians gleaming some insights and lessons from this? The only thing that occurs to me is POWER AND MONEY. What else could it be? Read this editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

...Yet these mandates allow people to wait until they're sick, or just before they're about to incur major medical expenses, to buy insurance. This drives up costs for everyone else, which helps explain why small-group coverage in Massachusetts is so much more expensive than in most of the country. Mr. Romney argued -- as Democrats are arguing now -- that the individual mandate would make that problem disappear, since everyone is always supposed to be covered.

Well, the returns are rolling in, and a useful case study comes from the community-based health plan Harvard-Pilgrim. CEO Charlie Baker reports that his company has seen an "astonishing" uptick in people buying coverage for a few months at a time, running up high medical bills, and then dumping the policy after treatment is completed and paid for. Harvard-Pilgrim estimates that between April 2008 and March 2009, about 40% of its new enrollees stayed with it for fewer than five months and on average incurred about $2,400 per person in monthly medical expenses. That's about 600% higher than Harvard-Pilgrim would have otherwise expected. (READ AT WSJ).

The Greatest Economic Calamity of Our Lifetime Caused by Politicians

"Rep. Darrell Issa of California, ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has released a report that every American should read." So writes an editorial in Investor's Business Daily of July 10th. I have copied the first two paragraphs directly from Mr. Issa's report and links to IBD and the report itself. Read this if you're interested in knowing just how corrupt and insane our politicians are.

The housing bubble that burst in 2007 and led to a financial crisis can be traced back to federal government intervention in the U.S. housing market intended to help provide homeownership opportunities for more Americans. This intervention began with two government-backed corporations, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which privatized their profits but socialized their risks, creating powerful incentives for them to act recklessly and exposing taxpayers to tremendous losses. Government intervention also created “affordable” but dangerous lending policies which encouraged lower down payments, looser underwriting standards and higher leverage. Finally, government intervention created a nexus of vested interests – politicians, lenders and lobbyists – who profited from the “affordable” housing market and acted to kill reforms. In the short run, this government intervention was successful in its stated goal – raising the national homeownership rate. However, the ultimate effect was to create a mortgage tsunami that wrought devastation on the American people and economy. While government intervention was not the sole cause of the financial crisis, its role was significant and has received too little attention.

In recent months it has been impossible to watch a television news program without seeing a Member of Congress or an Administration official put forward a new recovery proposal or engage in the public flogging of a financial company official whose poor decisions, and perhaps greed, resulted in huge losses and great suffering. Ironically, some of these same Washington officials were, all too recently, advocates of the very mortgage lending policies that led to economic turmoil. In a number of cases, political officials even engaged in unethical conduct, helping their political allies, family members and even themselves obtain lucrative positions in the mortgage lending industry and other benefits. At a time when government intervention in private markets has become alarmingly common, government “affordable housing” initiatives offer important lessons about the dangers of government efforts to manipulate or conjure outcomes in the market. (Read Issa's report here and IBD's summary here).

Our Real Freedom May Turn Into a Fake Freedom

Our democracy and freedom is an idea and as such has to be defended at every instance or we will lose it. Types like Chavez and Putin are claiming that they have a democracy but we all should understand that these are fake democracies and the goal of these types of leaders is to confuse the issue between a real democracy of real freedom and one of fake freedom. Daniel Henninger at the Wall Street Journal discusses this important difference that Americans and Obama must understand if we are to remain a free nation - after all as our Founding Fathers were all too aware of - we could lose it if we don't nurture and protect it.

Today's Government Takeover of Our Lives Was Foretold 50 years Ago in Atlas Shrugged

"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed?" said Dr. Ferris. "We want them broken. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. When there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted--and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon; that's the game and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand: quote is from the conversation between Dr. Ferris of the State Science Institute and businessman Hank Reardon.

Obama Will Go Down in History As The Destroyer

Investor's Business Daily lays out Obama's plan for wrecking our country. Who needs enemies? His administration will cause more destruction and wrecked human lives than any warmongering country or two-bit dictator from the middle east. What are we as Americans doing about all this anti-business, anti-American values, big government and power grab coming out of Washington? Where are the Conservatives? Who will defend us from this destruction?

...At this point in a normal downturn lasting 11 months, the economy should be booming — with big jumps in GDP and 300,000 new jobs each month coming mostly from the private sector.

But 18 months into this downturn, we're still losing jobs — with 2.7 million gone in the private sector just since January, when the Democrats took full control of the government.

Shrinking GDP has crushed investment. First quarter gross private domestic investment — a proxy for business investment — plunged 20%, or nearly $450 billion, annually. The outlook is grim.

Worse, the June jobs data mark a milestone of sorts: Our unemployment rate equals that of the no-growth Eurozone nations.

Why is this job decline happening? The private sector — the real engine of economic and job growth — won't hire because it's scared of what it sees coming out of Washington.

On the horizon, as far as the eye can see, are higher taxes, uncontrolled spending and layers upon layers of new regulations.

Who would hire new workers faced with that?

Also, the federal government is meddling in the private sector as never before — in essence, nationalizing two of the three major carmakers ...

• Health insurance reform: Estimates for reforming our medical care range from $1 trillion to $3.6 trillion, with much of the bill footed by businesses. All to take care of 46 million uninsured.
But 10 million of those aren't citizens. And according to former CBO chief June O'Neill, 43% of the total could afford to buy coverage but don't. So the problem is much smaller than people think.

As for current plans to take over our health care system, they'll barely help. According to Congress' own think tank, spending $1 trillion will only remove 16 million from the 46 million uninsured.

• Cap and trade: A major reshaping of our nation's energy policy will include massive new taxes, mostly on businesses, and cause our economy to crater. Most depressingly, despite taxing businesses and consumers to the hilt, the Waxman-Markey climate stabilization act will not remove one ounce of carbon from our atmosphere over the next decade.

It's nothing but a huge scam that will bankrupt any business that relies heavily on energy...,

Taken together, all these new programs would mean sky-high new taxes, more regulations and the biggest expansion of government since FDR's New Deal.

That's not a good thing. Unemployment during the New Deal averaged 17%, and government meddling turned what should have been a garden-variety downturn into a 27% collapse in GDP — the Great Depression.

Washington seems desperate to duplicate that failure. (READ the whole article here)

Jon Stewart's Shameful Ignorance About The Japanese in WWII

You would think that a satirist such as Jon Stewart would at minimum know history before offering an opinion about Harry Truman and the dropping of the Atom Bombs, dubbed Fat Man and Little Boy, on Japan during World War II. But this is how many Americans, woefully ignorant of history, speak - in generalizations and cliches. Stewart righteously claims that the US should have "dropped the first atomic bomb 15 miles off the shore of Japan as a warning" to the Japanese military. He totally ignores the fanaticism of the Japanese Imperial Army and the Imperial Family. Death and total annihilation of Japan if necessary was their end game in order to defeat the enemy.

Listen to this fascinating presentation by Bill Whittle on Pajamas TV for a history lesson all Americans need and to understand the morality of what we did.

http://www.pjtv.com/video/Afterburner_with_Bill_Whittle/Jon_Stewart%2C_War_Criminals_%26_The_True_Story_of_the_Atomic_Bombs/1808/

Putin and Obama - Kindred Spirits?

Instead of keeping our enemies at bay Obama feels the need to rush forth and extend a hand to all kinds of dictators and power lusters. Take the example of what the leader of the free is doing in Honduras. Demanding that elections be honored for man that is a Chavez puppet! Now Obama travels to Russia to meet with another thug - Putin - calling for a "reset" in U.S. - Russian relations. What does that mean? That we should embrace any strongman out there? The way to fight FOR FREEDOM is to deter AGAINST power lusters and the foes of freedom. Or does Obama feel he is meeting with a kindred spirit? Hmmm - after what this President has done to our free market economy one wonders what side of the coin this man is on?

President Barack Obama arrives here today facing a dilemma of his own making. Having called for a "reset" in U.S.-Russian relations, the U.S. side is virtually obliged to make some new overtures. But Russia does not need to be engaged. It needs to be deterred.

The expectations that Mr. Obama has inspired are substantial. Both officials and ordinary citizens in Russia interpret the call for a reset as an admission of U.S. guilt for ignoring Russia's interests. Sergei Rybakov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, said that mutual trust was "lacking over the last several years." It was the task of the U.S. to show its good intentions with "concrete actions" because in Russia, the U.S. is "deeply distrusted."

Accepting the Russian view of reality on the issues that divide the U.S. and Russia, however, would be a grave mistake. Russia aspires to resurrect a version of the Soviet Union in which it projects power and dominates its neighbors. To encourage its ambitions in any way would be to undermine not only U.S. security but, in the long run, the security of Russia as well.

There are three important areas of conflict between the U.S. and Russia: NATO expansion, the U.S. missile shield in Eastern Europe and the Russian human rights situation. In each case, any reset should be on the Russian side.

The most urgent issue may be NATO expansion. There are serious indications that Russia is preparing for a second invasion of Georgia. The first Georgian war was accompanied by a burst of patriotism in Russia but didn't achieve its strategic objectives. Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili remains in power and Georgia remains a supply corridor to the West for energy from Central Asia and the Caspian Sea. Many Russian leaders want to finish the job. At a televised forum in December, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was asked about press reports that he had told French president Nicolas Sarkozy that Mr. Saakashvili should be "hung by his ba**s." He replied, "Why only by one part?" (The President's Mission to Moscow by David Satter).