Obama, Tea Party Core Group On The Fringe?

Commenting about tea partiers and what has become a spontaneous tea party movement, President Obama is of the opinion that the tea party movement stems from a core group that is on the fringe. That’s his story and he’s sticking to it.

Actually, if he were speaking about the Progressives and that movement that helped get him elected, he would be more correct. The Moveon.org’ers, the KOS’acks. Those are the ones who lay claim to Obama’s election, and they are anything but mainstream democrats, let alone mainstream Americans.

Obama calls them an outgrowth of a core fringe. The AP calls them a  leaderless coalition, born in communities from coast to coast shortly after Obama’s inauguration last year. One that seems to have some staying power. And Progressive talk radio calls them a product of big business, the Republican party, and the Chamber of Commerce. What? There’s your fringe.

Granted that there are fringers at both ends of the political spectrum. But the tea party movement was not born from them. The phenomenon now known as ‘the tea party movement’ was born out of the love of this country by Americans of both parties and their desire to thwart Obama’s desire to fundamentally change it. That, and the desire to not burden future generations of Americans with insurmountable debt in the process.  Fundamental change like government control of one private sector industry after another is also high on the tea partiers’ disapproval list.

The tea partiers reject the notion that President Obama is America’s new founding father, and believe that he is taking the country in the wrong direction. If Democrats are looking for a way to effectively deal with the tea party movement, they might consider turning this ship around.

Links: Obama takes care in sizing up ‘tea party’ movement – Yahoo! News. | Papantonio Explodes on MSNBC

Is Obamacare Constitutional?

That is the question that will hopefully soon be answered by the Supreme Court. But the conventional wisdom for those who think that Obamacare  is just dandy with the Constitution, like Pennsylvania Governor Ed (Fast Eddie) Rendell, seems to be calling the health care system put in place in Massachusetts as precedent.

Biggest problem with this, and this is the fallacy of Rendell’s argument, is that the states can make whatever law they want, within their state, and the federal government has no similar autonomy. The federal government is restrained by the 10th Amendment of the Constitution thusly . . .

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Gov. Rendell and the Obama administration are making the giant leap that the federal government is the same as a state. Dictators view those as being the same, but this is not the case in the United States.

If the people of Massachusetts don’t like the health care system there (which they’ve found out is way more expensive then they figured), they can change it, or they are free to move to another state to get out from under it. Our freedom and liberty allow us to do that. If you like to smoke pot, you may want to move to California. If you like to not have your income taxed by the state, you may want to move to Florida. If you like to pay taxes on anything and everything, you may want to move to New York.

The massive centralization of control and power that Obamacare projects is simply antithetical to the original intent of the founding fathers and the documents they created.

Under Obamacare, there is no provision in the constitution that gives the federal government the power to require citizens to purchase anything else they be fined. Under Obamacare, there is no where to go to get out from under it.

Frank Rich At New York Times Wins M.R.I.O.T.D. Award

In order to excuse himself from responding to what it is that is so wrong with Obamacare, New York Times opinion editor continues the Left’s template. If you oppose Obamacare, you must be a racist, sexist, homophobe, and/or a bigot.

His ‘justification’ is simple. Obama is black, the Speaker of the House is a woman, the head of the Banking & Finance Committee is gay, and there’s a Latina woman on the Supreme Court.

Oh really? Does Frank Rich, like Jimmy Carter, really mean that . . .

  • We would be more than willing to welcome cap-and-trade with open arms, even if we paid a thousand dollars or more extra every year for our energy use, if Barack Obama were only white?
  • We would be dancing in the streets celebrating the dawning of government control of our health care if only Barack Obama were white?
  • It would be just dandy if government bureaucrats rationed health care for our parents, as long as the president is white?
  • We would jump at the chance of the government owning ALL of the auto manufacturing companies .. not just General Motors … if the president just didn’t have dark skin?
  • We would applaud those ACORN workers giving tax avoidance advice to a pimp and his prostitute if the workers hadn’t been black?
  • Most Americans – even ones that don’t pay income taxes now – would be more than willing to give 70% of everything they earn to the federal government when asked … so long as they are asked by a white president?
  • We would have been thrilled, I tell you … THRILLED to have all of those Islamic goons being held at Guantanamo be not only released, but sent to be school resource officers at our local government schools, if only a white president put that plan in motion?
  • It would be OK if a white president stood back and allowed Iran to build its coveted nukes … we’re only unhappy about that because a black president is doing it?
  • Deficits? We don’t care about deficits! Make our children and grand children and great grand children pay through the nose for our president’s spending habits … just so long as the president isn’t black.
  • Government pork? Like we actually care? Look … you folks in Washington can spend all the money you want – how about more studies of the mating habits of Polish Zlotnika pigs? – just make sure it’s not a black president who signs the spending bill into law.
  • We wouldn’t care if all illegal aliens were counted twice in the next Census … just so long as the president isn’t black?
  • Those Black Panther thugs who threatened voters in Philly? The ONLY reason we’re upset that they were given a pass is because Barack Obama is black.
  • Every single member of the president’s cabinet could be a tax cheat as far as we’re concerned … just so long as the president is white.
  • Forced unionization? Bring it on! We love card check! We love the idea of union goons threatening and intimidating workers to sign a card saying they want to belong to a union! What we don’t like is that a black president is pushing this idea.
  • Single-party talks with that Gargoyle that runs North Korea? It’s about time we legitimized that little pipsqueak. We’re only mildly upset here because the person who is doing that happens to be black.
  • More regulation of the finance sector? We could care less! For all we care you can nationalize the banks and decree that only the government can make home loans .. .and you can even apportion those home loans on the basis of race if you want to … just so long as the president is white!
  • Minimum wage? Like we care about that? Raise it to $15 an hour if you want! Just give us our white president back.

The Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day (M.R.I.O.T.D) award goes to Frank Rich for his colossal display of ignorance.

Links: Is Jimmy Carter Right? | Op-Ed Columnist – The Rage Is Not About Health Care – NYTimes.com.

One Year Anniversary for BM, Barack Motors

A year after President Obama came out of the closet, not everyone is unhappy with him. Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez feel he’s doing a fine job of taking control of the people and industry. Taking control of people and industry is not making things better, but worse.

What else could one expect to happen when freedom and liberty get stomped on by an over-reaching and expanding government? The auto industry cabal was more to buttress labor unions’ benefits than to make the company financially solvent. The actions of what he orchestrated for Chrysler Corporation and GM, and the health care legislation prove that out.

For GM, rather than capitulate to President Obama, what GM’s CEO Rick Wagoner should have said was, ‘with all due respect Mr. President I don’t work for you. And your advisers are not welcome to ‘help’ us change our company. We, with the help of a free market and a timely bankruptcy, will get out of this. You will have to bring the National Guard to occupy our company while we stand to protect our rights. Thank you very much.’

Next, expect the President to complete his payback with a plan to increase labor union membership through Card Check legislation. About which, I hope he fails. His ‘focusing like a laser beam on job creation’ is empty rhetoric for the dumb masses. Just pay attention to what he does rather than what he says.

The Obama we are seeing today is the real Barack Obama. If you want to see what this means, force yourself to read about what his campaign and his willing accomplices in the media did not want you to know. Because if you did, Hillary might have been the President instead of Barack. It is a ‘must read’ in order to make any sense to what we are seeing going on in Washington today.

The job of the President of the United States consists of only two tasks. To protect and defend its people, and to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. After you listen to this radio interview that Obama gave in 2001 to an NPR interviewer, you’ll have to ask yourself how this man could even put his and on the bible and take the oath. It is obvious that he feels the founding fathers erred in the creation of this country and its Constitution. And in this interview, he explores ways to fundamentally change it. Not protect it. And to become America’s new founding father.

Links: President Obama Comes Out Of The Closet | General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner out, replaced by COO Fritz Henderson.

Khavari Economic Plan For Florida

Khavari Economic Plan would improve medical care quality and availability, reduce costs in Florida

Miami, FL Mar. 22 — Noted economist and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Farid Khavari congratulated President Obama and Congressional Democrats for passing the Health Care Reform bill, but cautioned that states must take action on health costs now, or face bankruptcy by 2020. “No health care plan of any kind can succeed until we reduce costs dramatically. Florida must prepare for over a million new Medicaid enrollees. The federal government is supposed to pay for the extra cost, but only until 2016. Then Florida can look forward to billions per year in additional Medicaid costs even if Washington chips in the usual 54%.

Rising unemployment will increase Medicaid enrollment even higher,” Khavari said. “All states face similar problems.”

Khavari continued, “Bill McCollum’s response to Health Care Reform is to threaten suit on Constitutional grounds. Alex Sink has said nothing at all on the subject—but she just found out a week ago that there is huge unemployment and a lot of foreclosures happening in Florida. Neither of them has offered a plan to fix our health care before it bankrupts our state and our people.” McCollum is Florida’s Attorney-General, and a Republican candidate for governor. Sink is Chief Financial Officer and a Democratic candidate for governor.

“My detailed plan to improve efficiency in health care delivery is on my website for everyone to see. You can read my newest book there for free. We can make quality health care available 24 hours a day to everyone, for much less than we are paying now. Stop and think about the fact that Florida right now spends about $5,000 per year per Medicaid recipient. That’s what many so-called Cadillac health plans cost. Does anyone believe that Medicaid patients have the same quality and availability of care that executives get? We can do better for half the cost,” Khavari said. “Taxpayers are paying for waste and fraud that has grown under Republican administrations. For this kind of money, we could send every Medicaid patient to Switzerland for health care and save 30%. Now imagine what we could do if we got good value for our money.”

Khavari has also gained national acclaim for his plan to establish a state-owned bank, which would save state and local governments billions per year in interest expense, while offering 2% fixed-rate mortgages and other programs to save Floridians more billions per year. Since announcement of the Khavari Economic Plan, gubernatorial candidates in California, Oregon, Vermont, Michigan and Illinois have declared state-owned banks as part of their platforms. “Our Bank of the State of Florida will balance state and local budgets without higher taxes. We can finance the reforms we need to make the best quality health care in the world available to every Floridian, 24 hours per day, and reduce costs for everyone, including private insurers ,” Khavari said.

Farid A. Khavari, Ph.D. is an economist and author of nine books, including Environomics. His latest book, Toward a Zero-Cost Economy, is available in stores or for free download at his website, www.khavariforgovernor.com.

Khavari labels Alex Sink’s business plan “empty rhetoric”

Press release from the Khavari for governor campaign follows.

Miami, FL Mar. 18 — Noted economist and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Farid Khavari dismissed Alex Sink’s new “Business Plan for Florida” as “nicely written but completely lacking substance.” Sink, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer and another Democratic candidate for governor, unveiled her plan Wednesday.

“Last week, Alex Sink finally recognized that we have a lot of unemployment and foreclosures in Florida. That’s a big step for her,” Khavari said. “We have over a million people out of work here, 800,000 homes in foreclosure, and more job losses and foreclosures to come unless we do something. Apparently it takes three years for a multimillionaire ex-banker to catch on.

“Alex Sink has held one of the most powerful jobs in Florida for three years now. She is in an ideal position to fix Florida’s economy and she is counting paper clips and canceling Blackberries while the State Board of Administration has lost tens of billions of dollars on her watch. If she had any idea how to create even one job or stop even one foreclosure, why didn’t she do anything about it?

“Let me offer Ms. Sink a little lesson in economics,” Khavari smiled. “You can’t create jobs with subsidies and tax cuts. Businesses will not hire people unless there are customers for their products and services. With rising unemployment and escalating foreclosures, high interest rates and reduced credit, insurance and health care costs out of control, how many people can afford to buy anything? No customers, no jobs, it’s really not so difficult to understand.

“Here’s another lesson in Econ 001: when you create one good job, the economy naturally creates two more jobs within a year, and those jobs create more. When you lose one good job, you lose two more within a year, and more after that.

“My economic plan for Florida was released nine months ago. It explains step-by-step, with specific examples, how to create 1,000,000 new private-sector jobs in Florida, without subsidies. All you need is leadership. You have to focus on the demand side. When there is demand, businesses will hire people regardless of subsidies and taxes.”

Khavari has also gained national acclaim for his plan to establish a state-owned bank, which would save state and local governments billions per year in interest expense, while offering 2% fixed-rate mortgages and other programs to save Floridians more billions per year. Since his announcement, gubernatorial candidates in California, Oregon and Illinois have declared state-owned banks as part of their platforms. “Our Bank of the State of Florida will balance state and local budgets without higher taxes, and make Florida recession-proof forever,” Khavari said.

Farid A. Khavari, Ph.D. is an economist and author of nine books, including Environomics. His latest book, Toward a Zero-Cost Economy, is available in stores or for free download at his website, www.khavariforgovernor.com.

Pensacola News Journal links to articles, press releases, and editorials on Dr. Farid Khavari, democratic candidate for governor of the state of Florida, HERE.

Pensacola News Journal links to articles, press releases, and editorials on Alex Sink, democratic candidate for governor of the state of Florida, HERE.

Wind Energy? N.I.M.B.Y.

Cape Wind, is  a dynamic green energy company specializing in wind energy. Their slogan is ‘Energy For Life.’ That’s because energy generated by wind, not to be confused with ‘hot air’, is free and in infinite supply. Oh wait, that might not be the best comparison when you  consider the spin-meisters in politics. Especially where the environment is concerned.

Let me be clear. I’m all for tapping energy resources wherever they may be. And I’m all for doing it responsibly. Emphasis on ‘doing it.’ The ‘responsibly’ part goes without saying. Seems to me that’s where the conventional environmentalists, like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and I disagree.

Cape Wind is proposing America’s first offshore wind farm on Horseshoe Shoal in Nantucket Sound. Miles from the nearest shore, 130 wind turbines will gracefully harness the wind to produce up to 420 megawatts of clean, renewable energy. In average winds, Cape Wind will provide three quarters of the Cape and Islands electricity needs.

You see, I’m totally on board with the proposed 130 turbine wind farm that Cape Wind has been trying to do for the last eight years. RFK, Jr. is not. Through all the hard work and devotion to environmental lawsuits Kennedy has toiled on over the years, when it comes to the Cape Wind project, it’s Not In My Back Yard.

He want’s them further from shore. Where he can’t see them. And where they would be in deeper water putting the turbines and ships at risk.  From Cape Wind . . .

By placing the turbines in the shallow water of Horseshoe Shoal, we ensure that they will not interfere with large ships. With each turbine about o­ne third of a mile apart, the wind park will be easily navigated by recreational boaters and fisherman.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Jason Jones 180 – Nantucket
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Reform

Looks like  ‘dithering‘ is President Obama’s strong suit. Unlike sending in reinforcements to Afghanistan, this is not a life and death decision for American troops. This is a decision for clean energy and green American jobs.

related links:

Obama’s Diplomatic Message


President Obama and not Benjamin Netanyahu

President Obama made the most of the opportunity to dis Israel at The White House today. Obama had a sit-down with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, marking the first meeting with a head of state with no pictures.

Obama and Netanyahu conferred for about 90 minutes in the Oval Office, but in a break with custom reporters were not allowed to see the close allies shake hands and begin their discussions.

Still, it is highly unusual for a visiting ally not to be seen with the president, either for photographs or statements, and the treatment seemed linked to a crisis marring relations between the two countries.

That’s what it seemed. But it was a message of solidarity to the militant Arab / Muslim world of the Middle East and beyond. What it was, was the president dissing our ally in the Middle East. Congress, on the other hand, wasn’t so smug. They played the part of good cop.

On Capitol Hill, Netanyahu received a warm public reception from Congress on Tuesday, with a top Democrat and Republican joining to praise a leader who has refused to back down in a disagreement the White House says threatens new peace talks.

“We in Congress stand by Israel,” the leader of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., assured Netanyahu at an all-smiles appearance before the cameras. “In Congress we speak with one voice on the subject of Israel.”

AP: Obama and Israeli PM meet amid dispute

Uncle Sam’s Plantation, by Star Parker

Six years ago I wrote a book called “Uncle Sam’s Plantation.” I wrote the book to tell my own story of what I saw living inside the welfare state and my own transformation out of it.

I said in that book that indeed there are two Americas. A poor America on socialism and a wealthy America on capitalism.

I talked about government programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS), Emergency Assistance to Needy Families with Children (EANF), Section 8 Housing, and Food Stamps.

A vast sea of perhaps well intentioned government programs, all initially set into motion in the 1960’s, that were going to lift the nation’s poor out of poverty.

A benevolent Uncle Sam welcomed mostly poor black Americans onto the government plantation. Those who accepted the invitation switched mindsets from “How do I take care of myself?” to “What do I have to do to stay on the plantation?”

Instead of solving economic problems, government welfare socialism created monstrous moral and spiritual problems. The kind of problems that are inevitable when individuals turn responsibility for their lives over to others.

The legacy of American socialism is our blighted inner cities, dysfunctional inner city schools, and broken black families.

Through God’s grace, I found my way out. It was then that I understood what freedom meant and how great this country is.

I had the privilege of working on welfare reform in 1996, passed by a Republican congress and signed into law by a Democrat president. A few years after enactment, welfare roles were down fifty percent.

I thought we were on the road to moving socialism out of our poor black communities and replacing it with wealth producing American capitalism.

But, incredibly, we are going in the opposite direction.

Instead of poor America on socialism becoming more like rich American on capitalism, rich America on capitalism is becoming like poor America on socialism.

Uncle Sam has welcomed our banks onto the plantation and they have said, “Thank you, Suh.”

Now, instead of thinking about what creative things need to be done to serve customers, they are thinking about what they have to tell Massah in order to get their cash.

There is some kind of irony that this is all happening under our first black president on the 200th anniversary of the birthday of Abraham Lincoln.

Worse, socialism seems to be the element of our new young president. And maybe even more troubling, our corporate executives seem happy to move onto the plantation.

In an op-ed on the opinion page of the Washington Post, Mr. Obama is clear that the goal of his trillion dollar spending plan is much more than short term economic stimulus.

“This plan is more than a prescription for short-term spending-it’s a strategy for America’s long-term growth and opportunity in areas such as renewable energy, health care, and education.”

Perhaps more incredibly, Obama seems to think that government taking over an economy is a new idea. Or that massive growth in government can take place “with unprecedented transparency and accountability.”

Yes, sir, we heard it from Jimmy Carter when he created the Department of Energy, the Synfuels Corporation, and the Department of Education.

Or how about the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 — The War on Poverty — which President Johnson said “…does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already being done. It charts a new course. It strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty.”

Trillions of dollars later, black poverty is the same. But black families are not, with triple the incidence of single parent homes and out of wedlock births.

It’s not complicated. Americans can accept Barack Obama’s invitation to move onto the plantation. Or they can choose personal responsibility and freedom.

Does anyone really need to think about what the choice should be?

Star Parker is president of the Coalition for Urban Renewal & Education and author of the new book White Ghetto: How Middle Class America Reflects Inner City Decay.

Liberals And Free Speech, Part 2

The political tsunami that swept our country yesterday, paving the road for the socialization of health care and the end of the private health insurance industry, is one for the history books. It’s an issue that has been brewing for the last 60 or 70 years that seemed to be coming to a head last week. And so it was that I set out to see what the Left had to say about it.

I thought I would find something on the Ring of Fire. But I was wrong.

So I asked a couple questions to a post entitled ‘This Week on Ring of Fire’ . . .

All that, and no mention about ‘deeming’ major legislation to be passed without a vote? No whisper about the constitutional issues with it all?

Don’t have 60 votes? Eh, no big deal. Well, don’t have 51 votes? No problem. Let’s just skip the voting part, let the RINO’s (Representatives In Name Only) take care of substituting that process with another one.

No mention about the process at all? Like President Obama as much as said to Bret Baier when he dodged his question about the ‘process.’ The end justifies the means.

Is the ROF ducking the most important issue facing America today?

Background Note: For those not familiar with the Ring of Fire, it was an Air America Radio program, hosted by a local (Pensacola, FL) attorney named Mike Papantonio. It still is, only Air America went bankrupt for the last time a few months ago. And at its outset, Papantonio boldly claimed (paraphrasing here) that his show and network was going to be the answer to Rush Limbaugh. He mentioned Rush by name, and then some. And being a fan of Rush, my interest in this show was piqued.

What followed that was a real gem. Follow the comment thread, if you can stand it, to see what the ‘process’ was to getting an answer from the show’s producer, Farron Cousins.

Continue reading Liberals And Free Speech, Part 2