Day-By-Day Cartoon by Chris Muir

H/T Chris Muir at Day-by-Day Cartoon

(click cartoon to enlarge)

Astroturfing: Obama Plans To Flood Conservative Talk Radio With Liberal Talking Points | Washington Examiner

Mark Hemmingway at The Washington Examiner:     Astroturfing: Obama plans to flood conservative talk radio with liberal talking points

Organizing for America, the powerful activist organization with some 13 million email addresses that grew out of the Obama campaign, has launched a new website -- http://radio.barackobama.com. The website provides users with the name of a talk show that's going on right at that moment and what is being discussed. Users can listen live to the radio program directly from the website.

The purpose of the website is to supply the President's supporters with liberal talking points on health care reform. Supporters are then encouraged to call in to conservative talk radio shows armed with the talking points provided and "report your call."

It's not exactly the fairness doctrine, but it doesn't seem transparent either. If you can't beat 'em, astroturf 'em.

There are "Calling Tips" and "Discussion Points" on the site, plus a scrollable list of talk shows with a clickable link to listen to the show plus the contact phone number, all there on the RadioBarackObama webpage.  There is an e-mail link for the caller to report their call after making it.  This is the exhortation at the top of the page:

"The fate of health reform has been a focus of debate in living rooms and offices, on TV and online -- and on talk radio. And since millions of folks turn to talk radio as a trusted source of news and opinions, we need to make sure OFA (Organizing For America) supporters are calling in with a pro-reform message."

Let's use our collective imagination and try to envision what the DownStream Media would do if George W. Bush had done this instead of Barack H. Obama.

We are in the middle of a Bloodless Coup for control of the USA.  The enemy is not only here within the USA but is legally ensconced with the reins of government and is fully protected by the Constitution that it seeks to render moot and destroy.

ZOMBIE: NEW GLOBAL WARMING DATA REVEALS ACCURATE "HOCKEY STICK" GRAPH

H/T ZOMBLOG

The data underlying the famous “hockey stick” global warming graph has finally been found after having earlier been misplaced by leading climate researchers. The newly recovered data confirms the accuracy of the abrupt upward turn in readings characteristic of the “hockey stick” shape found in many global warming projections.


Up until now, however, the data on which the controversial graph had been based was presumed to be lost, so it was not known exactly which aspects of global warming the chart illustrated. Now that the data has been recovered, scientists can state with complete certainty that this updated chart accurately chronicles the past and future trajectory of the global warming crisis.

View the full-size graph by clicking HERE or on the small version shown below:

/SARC

Obamacare: Taxing Your Savings and Investments in the Name of Fairness

H/T Greg Knapp at Big Government

Obamacare Taxing Your Savings and Investments in the Name of Fairness

Congress can raise taxes because it can persuade a sizable fraction of the populace that somebody else will pay.
– Milton Friedman

This new ObamaCare bargain would for the first time apply the 2.9% Medicare payroll tax to “interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents,” so-called passive income that we are told includes capital gains, though the latter wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the proposal. This antigrowth investment tax would apply to singles earning more than $200,000 and joint filers over $250,000 and comes on top of the Senate’s 0.9-percentage-point increase in the payroll tax, which would bring the combined employee-employer share to 3.8%

READ THE REST HERE.

There are a lot of details in the Bloodless Coup that some call ObamaCare.  There are also many gray areas that are under the whim of the Health and Human Services Secretary, which essentially means that they are under the whim of the Executive Branch.  The IRS will be involved with enforcement of some of the provisions of this Power Grab.  What are the IRS enforcement powers limited to?  There is almost no limit to the powers of the IRS.

The USA is on the edge of possible massive CHANGE.  That's what we were  promised, was it not? 

If ObamaCare Is So Great, Why Do You Need An Infomercial? Media Gives Their Hero Obama a Big Fat Pass on Health Control

H/T Ron Futrell at Big Journalism: Lambikin Media Gives Their Hero Obama a Big Fat Pass

Isn’t this special? The leftist activist media boobs (LAMBS) are talking about how transparent President Barack Obama is by televising today’s “Made for TV HealthCare Event.” The media has doubled down on the charade by saying that Obama was fulfilling a “campaign promise of transparency.” What? Have the LAMBS not been paying attention for the last year? Transparency is happening now only because Democrats got their trash handed to ‘em.

Let’s provide a little help to my friends in the media. I’ll make it simple. Obama and the Democrats have worked for the last year at shutting out Republicans. Closed-door meetings, only Democrats, only Democrats. Republicans weren’t invited and weren’t even told when and where the meetings would be held. There were no cameras in the meetings and we were not told much of what happened.

Republicans proposed three bills last year and none of them even got out of Committee. They were never considered. The LAMBS ignore this fact and still smile as they call Republicans the party of no. They were told no by the Democrats three times.

 Is that what the LAMBS mean, by the party of no? Republicans kept hearing no. Said Obama of today’s meeting:

 
"I don’t want to see this meeting turn into political theater."

 That’s like the Executive Producer of the play on Broadway telling the actors to leave their scripts home and forget what they had learned for the last year and make up their own impromptu performance. Anybody think that’s going to happen?

 

As part of the President’s plan (oh—he finally has a plan of his own. For the past 13 months the President has been able to conveniently distance himself from the House and Senate versions whenever he wanted to because, you see, he didn’t actually have a plan) American citizens would still be forced to buy health insurance. If I’m a Republican in that meeting I cut through all the crap that we will see and tell the President that forcing Americans to buy anything is unconstitutional. Having taken the Oath of Office, I would not vote for an unconstitutional bill. You can talk all the details you want about what this “healthcare” plan is—-I would just say it’s unconstitutional, and that would be more than enough. Oh, along that vein, I would bring in a large “Made for TV” copy of the tenth amendment. You know the tenth amendment, dontcha?

 

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Right, that’s the one that says that if it ain't specifically written in the Constitution you leave it to the states. That’s what Massachusetts did, they decided to come up with their own healthcare plan. States can do that. Feds cannot. Unconstitutional Strike Two.

One more word of advice to Republicans going to this meeting today, if Democrats want to change America to this degree, and make no doubt, this will change the entire fabric of our nation, tell them to propose a constitutional amendment. It’s been done before, try it again. We have 27 amendments to the U.S. constitution (counting the ten Bill of Rights), try to make it 28. See how America reacts to this as part of the Constitution itself and widen this debate. You wanna see transparency, we’ve got your transparency right here, take this 2,000 page bill (or whatever it is now) and take it to the people and see what they think of it. The Constitution itself is written on four pages of parchment. See what Americans think of adding 2,000 pages that nobody can understand to our Constitution.

Come on, Mr. President, if your bill is that great, America will be swooning over it, voting for it, and thanking you for it every step of the way. This is the hero moment you’ve been waiting for! Propose a change to the Constitution. You remember the Constitution, don’t you?

A Constitutional Ammendment would be appropriate for something that the government wants to do that is outside of the Constitutional Powers.

That would be the course that a government body that obeys its oath to the Constitution would follow.

 

That this proposal is both Un-Constitutional and illegal is clear in the light of settled law and the 10th Ammendment.  So who will challenge this in court?  I don't expect that anyone in Washington DC of either party will do that. 

 

If this shackle on our freedom closes in place, at what point after that do we consider The American Experiment to be a failure?

Oh, if you watch the 6-hour infomercial on ObamaCare Health Control today, ask yourself who ever bought anything legitimate and/or worthwhile from an infomercial? 

Day-By-Day by Chris Muir: Rules Of Engagement For "Health Care" Summit Meeting A.K.A. HEALTH CONTROL

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H/T Chris Muir:  Day-By-Day Cartoon

Breitbart.tv » The B-Cast Interview: Rick Santorum Explains ‘Nuclear Option’ & Reconciliation

Breitbart.tv » The B-Cast Interview: Rick Santorum Explains ‘Nuclear Option’ & Reconciliation

The former Pennsylvania Senator joins us to compare the contentious issues of 2005 and how that debate reflects on the current legislative situation.

Health Control Parallel - The Nuclear Option In 2005: Hypocrisy On Video...That Was Then, This Is Now

H/T Rick Moore at HolyCoast:  Political Video Of The Day



"Majoritarian, absolute power" said Senator Obama? (he must have been using George W. Bush's teleprompter back then, eh?)

"The Checks and Balances which are at the core of this Republic are about to be evaporated" said Senator Schumer?

"The Nuclear Option, if successful, would turn the Senate into a body which could have it's rules broken at any time" said Senator Feinstein?

"This Nuclear Option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power" said Senator Biden?

"Why have a bicameral legislative body, why have two chambers? What were The Framers thinking about 218 years ago? They understood, Mr. President, the Tyranny Of The Majority" said Senator Dodd?

There is much more hypocrisy on record here on this short video from 2005.  All of it is delivered by faces and names with which we are familiar.  Check it out. 

HEALTH CONTROL: Democrats Can't Figure Out If The House Or The Senate Goes First

H/T RED STATE: Dems Can’t Figure Out if the House or Senate Goes First

 The ObamaCare roll out has run right into, well, itself. From the true-believer-ObamaCare-cheerleader-a-go-go, Jonathan Cohn:

“Apparently unresolved, still, is the question of which House votes first. And that’s no small thing.

“But the bigger question, really, is the broader one: Will Democrats, particularly in the House, get past their fear and vote for the bill? Really that’s what the summit is all about–convincing nervous Democrats that the Republicans really aren’t interested in compromise and that health care reform, despite the poll numbers, is still a good idea.”

The above is a classic example of irrational thought defined. They have no legislative language. (This is another way of saying they do not know what is going to be in the bill, or what it will say once they decide what to put in it.) They know House Dems are freaking out because ObamaCare is hated by the public, the seniors and the independent voters. They do not have a clear reconciliation strategy, despite their chest beating and big bet making while holding a pair of twos. They do not even know if they will start in the House or the Senate.

The Left is totally unconcerned about Constitutional Law or even Congressional Protocol in regard to HEALTH CONTROL.  They just want to get this done and take the USA from a Constitutional Republic to a Socialist State. 

This is a defining moment in the history of the USA.  Pray that God has mercy on us and sees fit to preserve our Republic.  Contact your Senators and your Representative over and over and over and over again. 

Acronyms Have Meaning: MSM, Consider Yourselves LAMBS, Shilling for HEALTH CONTROL

Ron Futrell at BigJournalism:Acronyms Have Meaning: MSM, Consider Yourselves LAMBS

Acronyms seem to be more popular than ever. The President is the POTUS, his teleprompter is the TOTUS, and the Supreme Court is the SCOTUS. The media should have its own acronym, so I have the perfect plan.

There are many ways to describe the media in America in its current state, most seem to fit pretty well. Most common is the Mainstream Media. The MSM acronym fits. I like it, it works and most people know what it means. I know the reference here is that they are mainstream with their own leftist ideas, but, there is nothing “mainstream” about the current state of the media in this country. In fact, it is far from the mainstream. The American media hates the mainstream when they protest against excessive federal spending and a loss of Constitutional values. The media ignores the mainstream when it figured out that global warming is nothing more than fraud. The media has long since left the mainstream in this country (Fox News being the exception) and they have become a radical arm of liberal politics.

I have used the phrase, Activist Old Media at times just because it fits with their agenda, but witness the children at MSNBC. You don’t have to be old to be wrong. That’s the kid network. At just 14 years old it is young and pubescent and likes it that way. Someday it may grow up, but until then we will watch and laugh and be amused at its adolescent behavior.

“Drive-by media” is also popular, and it fits. Rush Limbaugh gets credit for this one. They pull up to a scene, fire their misguided shots, still do plenty of damage, then drive off to the next scene as if the first one never happened, then wake up the next day to do it all over again. Rush has since moved on to “State-Controlled Media,” which is also a propos.

I’m going with a new one. Not sure if it’ll stick, but I like it still the same. Leftist Activist Media Boobs, or LAMBS. I would call them sheep, but sheep are more mature and tend to be independent. “Lambs” seems much more appropriate.

READ THE REST OF THE POST.

Since the start of 2009 the DownStream Media (my favorite term to correspond to Mr. Futrell's acronym) has been in the camp of Barack H. Obama on HEALTH CONTROL.  Ever since ABC set up camp in The White House to shill for ObamaCare, it has been one blast of propaganda after another from them, trying to follow up on a public gullible enough to elect Barack H. Obama in order to get them to voluntarily surrender their Constitutional Rights with the Health Control Scam. 

Here's another example of the above, illustrated by a cartoon:

HEALTH CONTROL: Democrats’ Attempts to Coordinate "Health-Care" Message Leave Listeners Scratching Their Heads.

Democrats’ attempts to coordinate health-care message leave Republicans scratching their heads The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

“I hate to use a football analogy,” said Representative Heath Shuler (D-NC), a former Washington Redskins quarterback, “but first downs are a lot better than throwing the bomb route or the Hail Mary.”


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, gave a sharp rebuttal to Shuler’s remark.


“You know what? With all due respect to everyone, we just saw the president’s proposal today. I don’t know that anybody in our caucus is saying we’re not going to pass a bill,” she told The Daily Caller as she left the caucus meeting.


“We will pass a bill. We will pass a bill,” she said.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Maryland Democrat, knocked down the idea that the president’s proposal represented a product that all Democrats were supporting unquestionably, undermining the White House argument that Republicans must unite behind one proposal before Thursday’s meeting at the White House.

“I’m not sure there is a ‘this bill.’ We have a bill. The Senate’s got a bill. The president has put a proposal on the floor. We’re going to talk on Thursday,” Hoyer said in an interview on his way out of the meeting.

Hoyer said Obama’s proposal “represents certainly a lot of things that we wanted to see changed in the Senate bill” but said he was “still concerned about affordability.”

They are concerned about "affordability" which sounds laudable until you consider that the only budget constraints that this government recognizes are based on how much money the taxpayers have and how can we get it out of their pockets.

No one is concerned about if this whole thing is CONSTITUTIONAL.   The provisions in the HEALTH CONTROL bill are illegal and Un-Constitutional and are a power grab and have nothing to do with actual health care.

This is a "Crossing The Rubicon" moment for the USA and The Left knows this.  They will attempt to do this thing by whatever means possible.

White House Will Not Rule Out Using The Nuclear Option to Pass Health Control Bill. They Call It Health Care But It Is Health Control.

H/T Breitbart TV 

Trent Lott coined the term "nuclear option" when there was a Republican majority and the Democrats were set to filibuster the judicial appointments of George W. Bush.  At that time, The Nuclear Option was an object of scorn and derision in the DownStream Media. 

Now it is anything goes in the rush to destroy the US Constitution and install a Socialist USA.  Putting Government Health Control into place is such a large and important part of that goal that our enemies from within will do anything necessary to make it happen.

Yes, I wrote the phrase "Enemies From Within".  This is an attack on the USA as dangerous as any that has ever occurred, and it is coming from people who were elected as representatives to do the will of We The People.  We The People have told these Elected Enemies that we want them to kill this bill, and have told them so in majority numbers.  More importantly, The US Constitution gives no authority, either written or implied, that the US Government has any business at all in taking control of the health, and daily lives, of its citizens.  If this happens, this country will no longer be the USA that was started by our Founding Fathers.

"HealthCare Reform" Is Alive And Is About To Be Passed: Brian Darling with Crane Durham On Nothing But Truth

Brian Darling from The Heritage Foundation being interviewed by Crane Durham on Nothing But Truth on AFR Talk.

Meanwhile, The Left is organizing a "Virtual Million Person March" to support Health Control. (H/T Rick Moore at Holy Coast)

What MSM Won't Tell You: Doctors Are Challenging Government Health Care-and the AMA

IF YOU ARE READING THIS BETWEEN MONDAY FEBRUARY 22, 2010 AND WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 24, 2010, PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVE AND ALSO PRAY FOR THE USA: 
H/T Breitbart: Obama version of HEALTH REFORM CONTROL is expected Monday.

H/T Matt Latimer at Big Government  What MSM Won't Tell You: Doctors Are Challenging Government Health Care-and the AMA

Attempting to enact his big-government health care scheme, President Obama and his supporters frequently claimed that a “majority” of doctors supported his health-care plans. When the American Medical Association – which had opposed HillaryCare – signed onto Obama’s plan last year, the organization seemed to make the President’s case. Most people assumed that the AMA represented most of the doctors in the country. But in fact, the AMA represents less than 20 percent of all physicians in the United States. And yet as the organization’s leadership moved more to the left, it held a near monopoly on media attention on issues pertaining to public health. No longer.

As the AMA has become increasingly politicized in recent years – issuing a statement in support of climate change, for example, in 2008 – a new group of doctors has risen to challenge them. Like other anti-statist groups that have risen in opposition to the Obama-Reid-Pelosi agenda, Docs4PatientCare are challenging the AMA’s stranglehold on health care matters, just as other groups once challenged the right of the left-leaning American Bar Association to determine what judges are and are not qualified for the United States Supreme Court. How Docs4PatientCare managed to barge its way into the closed-door meetings of Washington offers a lesson to other groups seeking to have a voice in their federal government.

Founded by Dr. Hal Scherz, a prominent Atlanta physician, the group of doctors expressed concern that like so many other professional groups, the AMA’s leadership have been thoroughly “Washingtonized” – caring more about the pleadings of other lobbyists on K Street, White House invitations and Capitol Hill committee appearances than the professions they are supposed to represent. As doctors have taken a battering over several decades from insurance companies, HMOS, and government agencies, Scherz says the AMA was a bystander.

“As the insurance companies become more and more impossible and government intrusion keeps growing, we’ve seen our delivery of care to our patients compromised and our incomes decrease,” he said.

But it was the AMA’s support for ObamaCare that really troubled Scherz and others in his field.

Many doctors run small businesses and by nature are entrepreneurial. Why then, he wondered, would the AMA favor ObamaCare’s regulatory and taxation burden? Why would they want a multitude of government panels interfering with the decisions doctors usually make with their patients about care and treatment? Recognizing that the AMA was compromised, Scherz decided to organize his own group in opposition to the Obama plan.

He recalled how effective talk radio had been the year before in stopping the seemingly unstoppable immigration amnesty bill, and wondered if there was a way for him to get his voice heard on the air. In fact, Scherz was driving home one night when he heard talk show host Hugh Hewitt ask on the air, “Where are the doctors?” opposing ObamaCare in the health care fight. Scherz wanted to give him an answer. So when Salem radio brought a “road show” on Obama’s first 100 days to Atlanta last May, he decided to attend. Listening to Hewitt and other Salem talk show stars like Bill Bennett and Dennis Praeger again ask, “Where are the doctors?” Scherz waited patiently in a long line of people to give them his answer. But just as he reached the head of the line, the master of ceremonies shut down the mikes for the evening.

Undeterred Scherz called a fellow physician, Congressman Tom Price, and asked the Congressman if he would come address a group of doctors if Scherz could assemble them. Price agreed and when Scherz got 40 doctors in the waiting room of his office to discuss ObamaCare, the meeting ended with the doctors deciding to form an organization to it. They christened themselves Docs 4 Patient Care that night and put together enough money to hire an attorney, set up a business structure, and establish a website.

Growing past this initial cadre of supporters proved difficult, however. Scherz spent as much time as he could emailing and phone calling more doctors to join the effort, but the response rate was slow. So coming home one night from the operating room, he called the Hewitt show and got in on the call-in queue. Waiting on hold for two hours, he finally got on the air in the show’s third hour. Delighted to have his missing-doctor question finally answered, Hewitt spoke with Scherz for a lengthy period.

“Then Hewitt blogged about us and put us the website and that made all the difference,” said Scherz.

Having heard the doctor on Hewitt’s program, Salem Radio’s vice president of content, Lee Habeeb, a legendary talk show producer, booked him on other Salem shows including a co-hosting gig with Mike Gallagher in Dallas, Atlanta, and New York. “Mike and his show were coming on strong. So it was just the right moment. He made our group a focal point of listener interest and it really helped,” says Scherz. This led to television interviews, involving Scherz and other members of the group to get their message out, such as Fred Shessel, one of Scherz’s partners and vice president, Scott Barbour, a prominent orthopedic and sports medicine surgeon, and Todd Rubin, a local anesthesiologist who started making something of the website (http://www.docs4patientcare.org/). One talk show listener and activist, Felicia Horton, asked to be brought on as volunteer executive director.

With their newfound growth and publicity, Docs 4 Patient Care made getting heard in Washington their next objective. Wearing their scrubs and white jackets, the doctors drew attention as they walked the halls of congress and spoke at rallies on Capitol Hill. Often just showing up in the offices of members of the House and Senate, they would manage to get appointments with the members themselves or key staff members.

One particular meeting that stuck out in memories was with the staff of Senator Olympia Snowe, the Maine Republican senator who was being heavily courted by Democrats in the hope of getting some bipartisan window dressing for the Democratic bill. The meeting was a long one by Capitol Hill standards and the Snowe staff kept bringing up the arguments made by Democrats on behalf of ObamaCare. But in the face of the doctor’s facts and experience the arguments didn’t stand up long. Schertz believes Docs 4 Patient Care may have helped make a difference in Snowe’s ultimate, and fateful, decision not to sign on to ObamaCare.

Another memorable incident cited by members of the group occurred when one of their members, Joyce Lovett MD, an African American female pediatrician, got the doctors into a meeting of the Congressional Black Caucus. A debate opened up over the health care plan and soon the doctors were text-messaging their colleagues visiting other offices around the capitol for reinforcements. As the room began filling up, the doctors, doing well in the back and forth of debate, seemed to be changing some minds. At that point, a worried Black Caucus leader and diehard partisan, John Conyers, broke up the meeting, saying the doctors were more interested in embarrassing the first black president than in achieving real reform. Unused to this sort of political attack, the astonished doctors told other caucus members how they felt after taking time from their practices and patients to come all the way to Washington only to hear a member of Congress insinuate they were racists. One caucus member privately dismissed Conyers’ “old ways of thinking,” suggesting that the CBC might be ready for fresh, and more innovative, leadership.

In addition to return trips to Washington over the next 4 months, Docs4PatientCare also helped organize physician led-rallies around the country with hundreds of doctors participating in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Indianapolis and Portland. The rallies proved crucial as the largely Atlanta-based group made new connections in taking on a national character. Jaime Ronderos MD, a prominent Texas anesthesiologist, who had already organized many of the doctors in his own state, folded his group in with D4PC. Also coming on board was Marc Neerhof, a perinatologist who is also on the faculty of the University of Chicago and a skillful op-ed writer. In addition, Reed Wilson, a well-known Los Angeles cardiologist with a business and political background became a board member. And finally, as the group showed its interest in working with all health care professionals, Joel Strom, a Los Angeles dentist and experienced coalition organizer agreed to head up an outreach program.

Only last month, the group had its inaugural board meeting in Atlanta where, in addition to making plans to increase their public and media presence, they inaugurated a fund raising program that would let them run a full-blown field operation in the elections this Fall. “We want to be out there in the states and let voters know which members of Congress put patient care second and voted for this power grab by Washington politicians,” said Scherz.

But, beyond this, Scherz and the other board members want Docs 4 patient Care to grow into what the AMA should have been. This means more than defeating ObamaCare. The group is non-partisan and anxious to work with all those who want to hear from Docs 4 Patient Care on the dangers of state-run medicine. With chapters recently up and running in several states, he sees growth ahead. That is likely discouraging news for the status quo world of Washington, D.C., but an inspiration for other Americans who see what their government is doing and want to offer an alternative.

Day by Day: Mitt Romney and the ‘Vulcan Grip’

H/T Chris Muir at Big Hollywood  Day by Day: Mitt Romney and the Vulcan Grip

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Obama Nation: The Baracker!

H/T Big Hollywood:  Obama Nation: The Baracker!  by Hudnall and Lash

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Jerry Bowyer On Nothing But Truth With Crane Durham: The Inner Circle Of The White House And The Stimulus

H/T Nothing But Truth with Crane Durham on Rightly Concerned VLOG



“I used to work on oil and gas tax returns. The idea here is that you pump the oil out of the ground and that patch of ground is not worth as much, so the tax code allows depreciation on the land. This is really a tax increase (when that depreciation allowance is eliminated). The president calls things ‘spending’ that are really savings and call things 'saving' that are really spending."

Mr. Bowyer also talks about government job security versus private sector jobs and also addressed the “bending the cost curve” argument for “Health Control” i.e. National Health Care. He also gives some fascinating insight from the point of view of someone who has been a White House consultant:

“When you’re around the President you want to tell the President what he wants you to tell him, and it takes guts to do otherwise.”

The video is about 12 minutes in length, and it is worth listening to the whole thing.

Fed Chief: Hyperinflation IS Coming Unless We Change Course

H/T:Fed Chief: Hyperinflation is Coming Unelected.org

Thomas Hoenig, chief of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, relayed a warning today in a speech at the Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform Policy in Washington DC. During the first few minutes of his speech, Hoenig explained what steps the Federal Reserve Bank may take in order to reduce the monumental nation debt:

"We can knock on the central bank’s door and request or demand that it “print” money to buy the swelling amounts of government debt. Second, perhaps more tolerable politically, although damaging to our economy: We can do nothing so long as domestic and foreign markets are willing to fund our borrowing needs at inevitably higher interest rates. Or third, the most difficult and probably the least palatable politically: We can act now to implement programs that reduce spending and increase revenues to a more sustainable level."

Hoenig warned that the Federal Reserve may try to inflate the currency in order to lower the national debt. The speed at which trillions of dollars are being printed would have to surpass the speed at which the national debt is increasing if the Fed attempts to lower the national debt by means of inflation. To many who have been following the actions of the Federal Reserve, it is obvious that this isn’t a path that the Federal Reserve is currently considering, but instead, it is the path the the Federal Reserve has been on for years.

The Federal Reserve chief also mentioned a story of a German neighbor of his who gave him a 500,000 mark note as a reminder of the hyperinflation that destroyed Germany in the 1920s. Anyone who thinks hyperinflation cannot infiltrate the economy of the United States is extremely misinformed, Hoenig implied, when he spoke about the rapid growth in entitlement spending, war appropriations, and the unsustainable GDP. The corrective action that the economy needs, according to Hoenig, is a spike in interest rates in order to combat the inflation created by extremely low interest rates. This would obviously cause short term pain, but would prevent a hyper-inflationary crisis in the future.

(The speech can be found in it’s entirety HERE.)

It is known as "Monetizing The Debt".  Increasing the number of Dollars in circulation makes each Dollar in ciculation worth less, so when the US government has to pay off notes that another nation, China for example, has purchased then the US government will not owe as much in "Real Dollars" i.e. the National Debt becomes cheaper for the US government to pay off. 

If enough Dollars are printed, all the Dollars essentially become worthless.  At that point, the economy collapses and the government steps in and declares martial law to restore order. 

This sort of situation developed in Germany in the time period after World War I. At the height of the currency crisis an interested spectator commented:

"The government calmly goes on printing these scraps of paper because, if it stopped, that would be the end of the government. Because once the printing presses stopped - and that is the prerequisite for the stabilization of the mark - the swindle would at once be brought to light. Believe me, our misery will increase. The scoundrel will get by. The reason: because the State itself has become the biggest swindler and crook. A robbers' state!?If the horrified people notice that they can starve on billions, they must arrive at this conclusion: we will no longer submit to a State which is built on the swindling idea of the majority. We want a dictatorship."

(Thus spoke Adolf Hitler. )

I'm not one to run around screaming about how "The Sky Is Falling" and I'm not going to swallow the first panic theory that seems to fit.  However, if the scenario of hyperinflation occuring in the USA seems impossible to you then you need a reality check.  Hyperinflation is certainly possible here, as it is anywhere. 

I pray that God will grant us mercy and that hyperinflation will not happen here, but as a prudent friend of mine told me recently, "put your trust in God; but mind to keep your powder dry".

VIDEO Mount Vernon Statement: Conservatives Revive The Movement

Mount Vernon Statement: Conservatives Revive The Movement ( H/T: Big Government)

The details of The Mount Vernon Statement are in my post from earlier today.

Action speaks louder than words.  Having said that, if you agree with the principles contained in the Mount Vernon Statement and want to add your name, go HERE. 

Dianna Furtchtgott-Roth And Crane Durham Discuss The First Year Of "The Stimulus"

H/T Crane Durham on AFR with Dianna Furtchtgott-Roth, former Chief Economist for the US Department Of Labor and currently with The Hudson Institute: 

Ms. Furtchtgott-Roth says: "I'm open to debate President Obama on these points.  The stimulus is not working and the economy continues to lose jobs. The stimulus would not have passed if we knew we would be where we are currently with the economy. Why not make a tax cut instead of spending and adding to entitlements programs. Tax cuts cause more economic growth as people have an incentive to save and to invest. 96% of federal income tax is paid by the top 50% of taxpayers. 40% of unemployed have been unemployed for six months or longer. This is the highest since 1940 when records first started to be kept. "

One year ago the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed, with the selling point of "economic recovery".  As part of the promised recovery, it was stated that if this nearly $800,000,000,000.00 spending bill was passed, unemployment would not ever go above 8% as a national average, and Americans would be put to work all across the country in "shovel ready projects" that would stimulate growth in the economy.  If we didn't pass this bill, popularly termed "The Stimulus", then the USA would sink into the depths of depression, the likes of which had never been seen since The Great Depression. The amount of money necessary to be spent would guarantee that at least the next three generations of Americans would be in debt to a level unprecendented in the history of the USA, but no matter, because we all voted for HOPE and CHANGE didn't we?

Now there are 15,000,000 Americans who are unemployed which translates to a rate of over 10% unemployment.

What exactly did we get for spending all that money?

The Mt. Vernon Statement on Constitutional Conservatism: A Statement for the 21st Century

Conservative Leaders sign Mount Vernon Statement: Washington Examiner

Eighteen leaders representing the three major branches of Washington conservative political and public policy activism met earlier today (Wednesday February 17th, 2010) near Mount Vernon to sign and issue a new statement of common principles intended to provide a rallying point for the wider movement, much as did the Sharon Statement of 1960 and National Review founder William F. Buckley, Jr.'s Credenda of 1955.

 

The Mount Vernon Statement was unveiled before a large crowd of the signers' colleagues and co-conspirators, and attracted many more additional signers within a few hours of being posted on the Internet.

(To sign the Mount Vernon Statement go HERE.)

"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 self-evident 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 Original 18 signers are:

* Edwin Meese, former U.S. Attorney General under President Reagan

 

* Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America

 

* Edwin Feulner, Jr., president of the Heritage Foundation

 

* Lee Edwards, Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at the Heritage Foundation, was present at the Sharon Statement signing.

 

* Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council

 

* Becky Norton Dunlop, president of the Council for National Policy

 

* Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center

 

* Alfred Regnery, publisher of the American Spectator

 

* David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union

 

* David McIntosh, co-founder of the Federalist Society

 

* T. Kenneth Cribb, former domestic policy adviser to President Reagan

 

* Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform

 

* William Wilson, President, Americans for Limited Government

 

* Elaine Donnelly, Center for Military Readiness

 

* Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com

 

* Kenneth Blackwell, Coalition for a Conservative Majority

 

* Colin Hanna, President, Let Freedom Ring

 

* Kathryn J. Lopez, National Review

(Read more at the Washington Examiner )

I know Ken Blackwell is a solid Reagan Conservative who should have been elected Governor of Ohio, and also should have become chairman of the RNC.  I believe that the rest of the Original 18 all stand soundly and firmly for Conservative Principles as well. 

That this was signed at Mount Vernon is quite fitting and is symbolic to me personally as Mount Vernon is one of my favorite places.  Mount Vernon is not government-owned.

I agree with the statement and I have signed it.

Census 2010: Up to 800 Canvassers With Criminal Records

H/T Bob McCarty at Big Government: Census 2010: Up to 800 Canvassers With Criminal Records

Despite reports last fall that the Census Bureau had severed ties with community-organizing group known as ACORN, Americans might want to think twice before opening their doors to canvassers for the 2010 Census after reading what I discovered this morning.

According to a report issued by the Government Accountability Office Oct. 7, approximately 785 employees with disqualifying criminal records could still end up working for the Census Bureau this year. Excerpts (below) show the exact wording of the agency’s frightening information about the people who go door to door conducting interviews and collecting information for the 2010 Census:

The Bureau’s efforts to fingerprint employees, which was required as part of a criminal background check, did not proceed smoothly, in part because of training issues. As a result, over 35,000 temporary census workers — over a fifth of the address canvassing workforce — were hired despite the fact that their fingerprints could not be processed and they were not fully screened for employment eligibility.

…of the prints that could be processed, fingerprint results identified 1,800 temporary workers (1.1 percent of total hires) with criminal records that name check alone failed to identify. Of the 1,800 workers with criminal records, approximately 750 (42 percent) were terminated or were further reviewed because the Bureau determined their criminal records — which included crimes such as rape, manslaughter, and child abuse — disqualified them from census employment.

…we estimate that approximately 785 employees with unclassifiable prints could have disqualifying criminal records but still end up working for the Bureau

In addition to the news about the criminal element aspect of the 2010 Census, the 2009 report contained an estimate of the total cost of the 2010 Census being some $3.4 billion higher than the estimate in a 2006 GAO report. Compared to ex-cons knocking at my door, I guess I can live with cost overruns. But I digress.

The full story, with links, is HERE.

There is a lot riding on this census.  That is all. 

Frances Fox Piven: ACORN-style Mass Movement May Deepen Foreclosure Crisis, Forcing Government & Banks to Address Homeownership Rights

Frances Fox Piven: ACORN-style Mass Movement May Deepen Foreclosure Crisis, Forcing Government & Banks to Address Homeownership Rights

The original Cloward-Piven Strategy, born in a 1966 article in The Nation magazine, was to overwhelm the welfare system by flooding the rolls with new recipients. The government would not be able to keep up (this was a time when a government could actually go bankrupt), the system would crash and a Democratic presidential administration would be “forced” to implement a “guaranteed annual income” for Americans.

Fast forward to the 21st Century. America’s in the midst of a home foreclosure crisis.

Piven’s new strategy? Force the government and banks to deal with the problem by convincing approximately two million people to refuse to leave their homes. ACORN has been implementing this strategy with its Home Defenders program.

Is it possible ACORN sting man James O’Keefe could have spoiled the implementation of this new strategy? The O’Keefe-Giles videos surfaced at precisely the right time to disrupt the Home Defenders scheme.

The organization was rocked by the major scandal and knocked on its heels politically and financially.

Will Piven’s new strategy work? Will another group fill in where ACORN left off? Will ACORN be able to regather to still take advantage of the on-going crisis? Time will tell. Hopefully Americans will recognize and reject her plan so another 1970s New York City story will be averted.

This is what I term as Hard-Core Socialism, dedicated to the principles to the point of civil disobedience.  These folks have the all-out level of committment necessary to get something accomplished.  In addition, they have the patience and perseverance to continue chipping away at the structure of society until the situation is set up for a big score.  At the very least,  many new cases of home forclosures are expected in 2010.

One thing that Kyle Olson writes in this article at Big Government is the implication that the time where government could go bankrupt has passed.  I submit that with the Chinese and others who buy our government paper deciding that they want an International Currency instead of The US Dollar, we could still be in the realm of potential bankruptcy.  I guess that would not technically be a Second Depression but I still would rather not sort out the nuances of any sort of major economic crisis in a modern-day version of a bread line.