Cap-and-Tax 8 Watch: Follow the money

The Sound and Fury of Cap and Trade

"If the vote in the House on this bill had been calculated like the vote for President in the case of no majority winner in the Electoral College - where each state gets one vote - the climate bill would not have passed. Twenty-two state caucuses voted in favor of it while twenty-eight voted against. The bill passed in large part because of strong support from California and New York, which accounted for more than 26% of the total votes in favor of the bill." [Patterico's Pontifications]

Alice in Medical Care

"There are more than four times as many Magnetic Resonance Imaging units (MRIs) per capita in the United States as in Britain or Canada, where there are government-run medical systems. There are more than twice as many CT scanners per capita in the United States as in Canada and more than four times as many per capita as in Britain." [Thomas Sowell]

Pelosi Won't Give Public a Week to Review Text of Health-Care Bill Before House Votes on It

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) will not give the public a week to review the final text of a health-care reform bill before it is voted on later this year." [CNS News]

Sen. Inhofe Calls for Inquiry Into 'Suppressed' Climate Change Report

"A top Republican senator has ordered an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency's alleged suppression of a report that questioned the science behind global warming.

The 98-page report, co-authored by EPA analyst Alan Carlin, pushed back on the prospect of regulating gases like carbon dioxide as a way to reduce global warming. Carlin's report argued that the information the EPA was using was out of date, and that even as atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased, global temperatures have declined. " [Fox News]

All of this suppression of the opposing climate report occured the day before the House's vote on Cap & Trade !!!!! Follow this up ..... read about the internal EPA e-mails telling the report author to SHUT UP !!!!

Supreme Court Overules Sotomayor

"The Supreme Court today narrowly ruled in favor of white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., who said they were denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision by Judge Sonia Sotomayor and others that had come to play a large role in the consideration of her nomination for the high court." [Washington Post]

Is she qualified?

A Debt The Founders Wouldn't Believe

"Since the president's budget does not propose to ask Americans today to pay for that additional spending through taxes, the only way for the U.S. government to get that money is to borrow it, which means adding to, not reducing, the debt. By the end of the budget period as proposed by the president, the debt will have skyrocketed to 82% of GDP, which is simply not sustainable." [Investors Business Daily]

Declaring War on the American Economy

"The Cap-and-Trade bill that passed the House yesterday will be a declaration of war on the American economy if it ever is enacted into law. It is ostensibly supposed to help the American economy transition from the old, carbon-based industrial economy to the broad, sunlit (and presumably unpolluted) uplands of a post-industrial one." [Commentary Magazine]

Just one small, but close to your pocketbook example:
Did you know that one of the bill's provisions will require you, before being ALLOWED to sell your house, to have a federal energy inspector certify that your house meets federal energy efficiency requirements?

The Pitfalls of the Public [Health Care] Option

Government run health insurance will drive all private competitors out of business, It is unavoidable.

"Consumer choice and honest competition are indeed the foundation of a successful market system, but they are usually achieved without a public provider. We don’t need government-run grocery stores or government-run gas stations to ensure that Americans can buy food and fuel at reasonable prices." [NY Times]

Eight Republicans make Pelosi's job easier

Here are the eight Republicans who ditched their Conservative values and supported this Cap & Tax bill.....

Mary Bono (CA)
Mike Castle (DE)
Mark Kirk (IL)
Leonard Lance (NJ)
Frank LoBiondo (NJ)
Chris Smith (NJ)
John McHugh (NY)
David Reichert (WA)

If ANY of these are your Representatives, let them know what you think. You can use THIS WEB SITE to find and contact your Congressional Representative.

Obama's EPA Quashes Climate Change Science

"The Competitive Enterprise Institute has obtained an EPA study of the "endangerment" to human well-being ostensibly caused by carbon dioxide emissions, together with a set of EPA emails indicating that the study, which concludes that carbon dioxide is not a significant cause of climate change, was suppressed by the EPA for political reasons. ....... This is a scandal of which too few people are aware. As science, the U.N. report is a bad joke." [Power Line]

and there is THIS related report ........
Media Ignore EPA Suppressing Skeptical Global Warming Report

A Gangster Government ?

Michelle Backman (R. Minnesota) on House floor describing what her auto dealer constituents are seeing happen. A You-Tube video.

Watch OUT Grand'Pa !!!!

"At a healthcare town hall, he says stopping futile procedures for the terminally ill can lower costs." [Power Line ]

HERE"S THE STONE THAT THE HOUSE JUST TIED TO YOUR NECK

( click to enlarge )

R U Unhappy with Our Country's Direction ? READ ON

Activists unhappy with what is happening to our country.... here are several key points to consider and perhaps feel better about. I copied these from another group with which I am associated. Read the Saul Alinsky Rules for Radicals ....... this is how the opposition is operating. We need to co-opt some of their tactics. Read especially Rule #8

1. Recall the short term vs the long(er) term outlook. Right now we need short term actions. The "tool" I created for contacting Congress (attached here as a .PDF file) is one of the only levers we have right now. I have attached the tool again to this message. You should, right now, print out the pdf, sit down with your phone, and make a minimum of 20 calls today. One or two minute calls. Put columns in the margin (I will revise the form but that is not the point). Make each column an "issue" column. Public Health Care, Cap and Trade, Immigration Reform---these are three biggies right now, more to come.

You have to go through the list once for each column. Do not attempt to deliver two issue messages in one phone call. It will not work. One issue per phone call. That is (we think) the way the systems work in each office.) Check mark the person you phone in the column of the issue. Identify the issue when they answer. State your opposition and move on. Wait a day or two then go through the list again for the next column/issue. This is something you can and should do now.

2. "Break it down". A task that is overwhelming will immobilize you. It is too big to comprehend a plan to address it all. Break it down into more manageable tasks. Help us break all the tasks down. Then work hard on one or two of the tasks/areas. If we set up a plan (even among our little group) to coordinate the tasks, then each can make progress. The net is that more gets done more quickly. You can see the whole moving forward even as you accomplish your part. You feel better.

3. Read (once again) Alinsky's Rules. (** below) Understand that these rules are the playbook for the administration and democratic leaders. Do not look for logic or clarity or neatness or ethical actions. Alinsky spells it all out. I spent yesterday reading up on this. (see some below) It is unbelieveable. It is against everything you have learned. It is against your basic value structure.

You have two choices. You can reject the operating principles they are using....and lose. You can understand the principles and feel better about what you are seeing in front of your eyes. You may also be able to suggest counter strategies. I searched for terms like "counter alinksy's rules" and "counter-act alinksy's rules" and did not find neat prescriptions, probably because they do not exist. But understanding what is happening will help. Do not turn away from this stuff.

Here are some links I found yesterday. I have read most. They will increase understanding. There are no answers. Counter strategies have to be built. The local Alliance(912Project and TeaParty) groups seem to understand this and are acting accordingly. There are parts of the strategy document I passed out earlier which, if you read in detail, and then compare to your learnings from these alinsky pages, you will better appreciate that the local groups are trying to build in some counter strategies.

Best one page summary of the rules you will find: (**)

(**) http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/8925/alinsky.htm

Other articles to increase understanding.

http://www.unbossed.com/index.php?itemid=155

http://sntjohnny.com/front/a-christian-checks-out-saul-alinskys-rules-for-radicals/580.html

http://www.ryanholiday.net/archives/what_is_community_organizing.phtml

http://www.ryanholiday.net/archives/rules_for_radicals_working_wit.phtml

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/obamas_alinsky_jujitsu.html

(Alinsky's juijitsu is an interesting and somewhat intuitive concept--applied to politics and poltical battling)

http://www.hyscience.com/archives/2008/11/localism_and_ob.php

I have made no attempt to rank or really critique these pages. We can build a list of better pages and even some summaries but that is another task.

4. Pick and choose. Because they are following the above rules, too much is happening all at once (by design). It is part of overwhelming the opposition. Read Rule 8. Therefore, knowing it is happening, you have to pick your battles and let some go by for another day. For example, foreign policy stuff is, for me, left for another day. Or maybe events will force it to the front. Maybe events will help sink obama. But for me, the short term issues on the votes right now are center front for priority.

Please add to this or post you own message (by clicking on "COMMENTS" below) in which you share your experience with trying some or all of the above.

He Thinks You're Stupid

"In his press conference today, President Obama talked about the cap-and-trade energy tax that the Democrats are trying to ram through Congress. ..... Obama isn't dumb enough to believe that the many billions of dollars in costs that his proposal will impose on energy companies, etc., will somehow disappear thereafter. But he thinks you are." [Power Line]

Paying Income Tax in America is Voluntary????

Watch this video and see that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid thinks we have a "Voluntary" income tax !!!

ANCIENT INDIAN WISDOM

Tribal Wisdom of the Dakota Indian.

The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, "When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount."

However, in corporate America, and especially in government agencies, more advanced strategies are often employed, such as:

1. Buying a stronger whip.

2. Changing riders.

3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.

4. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride horses.

5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.

6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.

7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.

8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.

9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead horse's performance.

10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve the dead horse's performance.

11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is less costly, carries lower overhead and therefore contributes substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other horses.

12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.

ACORN to change name

" ACORN's global entity, ACORN International, announced June 17 that it has changed its name to "Community Organizations International." ACORN's entanglements with vote-fraud allegations have grown so radioactive that the organization may jettison the ACORN name altogether." [Newsmax]

Ecologists’ own goal: ozone saver is global warmer

"THE green movement’s greatest triumph – the abolition of ozone-destroying CFC gases in the 1980s – may become its biggest embarrassment because of research showing that their replacements are sharply accelerating global warming." [Times On-Line]

Government Won't Allow Fair Competition

"Proponents of socialized medicine learned an important lesson from the 1993 failure of Clinton Care, and recognize that they must hide their agenda in the rhetoric of market competition. Government is not going to take over insurance, they say; it merely wants to compete" [American Thinker]

Who Really Inspires Violence, the Right or Left?

"Is the right responsible for inspiring murder, such as that of late-term abortionist George Tiller by Kansas native Scott Roeder? Some certainly seem to think so. For instance, the Friday before last Bill O'Reilly had as a guest on his show Joan Walsh, the editor of leftist news site Salon.com. She appeared because she had criticized O'Reilly for engaging in what she called a "jihad" against Tiller. Her thesis is that O'Reilly and, presumably, the rest of us who are passionately pro-life are culpable in Tiller's death." [American Thinker]

Obama Goes Negative

For the first time in his administration, those who strongly disapprove of President Obama's performance exceed those who strongly approve in the Rasmussen survey.

Obama Closes Doors on Openness

And you thought HE was going to CHANGE things in Washington?

EXCLUSIVE: Minn. lawmaker vows not to complete Census

"Outspoken Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann says she's so worried that information from next year's national census will be abused that she will refuse to fill out anything more than the number of people in her household. .... Mrs. Bachmann, Minnesota Republican, said the questions have become "very intricate, very personal" and she also fears ACORN, the community organizing group that came under fire for its voter registration efforts last year, will be part of the Census Bureau's door-to-door information collection efforts." [Washington Times]

Understanding the House Democrats’ health care bill

"Here is a three-page outline of “Key Features of the Tri-Committee Health Reform Draft Proposal in the House of Representatives,” [KeithHennessey.com]

The GOP Can Stop ObamaCare

"Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Richard Burr of North Carolina, and Reps. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Devin Nunes of California have devised a plan that will likely appeal to anyone interested in making health insurance more affordable and portable.

Their proposal -- called the Patients' Choice Act -- is to leave in place the tax deduction companies receive for providing employees with health insurance and to create a "Medi-Choice" tax rebate that will give individuals $2,200 and families $5,700 to spend on health insurance." [Wall Street Journal]

Obama administration criticised over failure to disclose coal dump locations

"The administration turned down a request from a powerful Democratic senator [Barbara Boxer] to make public the list of 44 dumps, which contain a toxic soup of arsenic and heavy metals from coal-fired electricity plants, citing terrorism fears [??????]." [Wall Street Journal]

Barbara Boxer: Please Call Me 'Senator'

This is the behavior of arrogant imperialists.
Watch video

Senator questions firing of 3 inspectors general

Obama Administration arranges dismissal of two additional Inspectors General who disagree with him.. This is what dictators do to consolidate their hold.

Walpin: The Plot Thickens

"Republican Senator Charles Grassley has written to Alan Solomont, head of the Corporation for National and Community Service, asking for information about the controversial firing of Inspector General Gerald Walpin. ....... [including] "Contacts with officials in the Office of the First Lady"? The Walpin story grows more interesting every day." [Power Line]

Pawlenty at the Bridge

RESISTANCE to the Spendocrats IS NOT FUTILE !!!

!934 Cartoon Fits Today's Gov't

(click for larger view)

OBAMA IS A RANK AMATEUR IN WORLD POLITICS

Obama's screw-ups in endorsing this "election" resulting from "robust debate" has left him holding the bag for having endorsed a fraudulent regime...... no matter how it turns out.

Obama Violates His Own Law !

PUBLIC LAW 110-409 [H.R. 928]

OCT. 14, 2008

INSPECTOR GENERAL REFORM ACT OF 2008

"If an Inspector General is removed from office or is transferred to another position or location within an establishment, the President shall communicate in writing the reasons for any such removal or transfer to both Houses of Congress, not later than 30 days before the removal or transfer. Nothing in this subsection shall prohibit a personnel action otherwise authorized by law, other than transfer or removal.".

Senator Obama was a sponsor of this law !!!!!!

So far, June's chill is one for the records

GLOBAL WARMING STRIKES AGAIN !!!!!

Government Bond Fiasco — What to Do ...

"And no matter what your investment persuasion, there can be no question that, with nearly $14 trillion spent, lent and guaranteed to bail out troubled companies and to stimulate the economy, Washington’s spending spree has spun out of control.

Nor is there any question that the U.S. Treasury is now engaged in the greatest borrowing binge in history." [Money & Markets]

OBAMA FIRES AN INSPECTOR GENERAL

"Apparently in retaliation for having put the heat on an Obama supporter, the President had Norman Eisen, a Special Counsel to the President, telephone [AmeriCorps Inspector General] Walpin and demand that he resign within an hour. Walpin, pointing out that he is not a political appointee and does not serve at the President's pleasure, declined to do so. So Obama fired him. By statute, Obama is required to give Congress 30 days' written notice of his intention to fire an inspector general and set forth his reasons for doing so. Obama failed to comply with that aspect of the statute, merely saying that Walpin no longer has the President's "fullest confidence." That would be sufficient reason to replace a political appointee, but not to fire an inspector general" [Power Line]

Apparently Obama is above the law. The Brown Shirts are at work!

A New Public Health Plan: How Congressional Details Will Impact Doctors and Patients

"While many claim that a public plan would merely represent an alternative choice to private health plans operating on "a level playing field," the reality is that Congress will use the government's power to artificially deflate the cost of the public plan by lowering provider reimbursement rates.

It has been suggested repeatedly that if Americans like their health plan they can keep it and that nothing would change except that they would pay less. But the creation of a new public plan modeled on Medicare could result in the loss of the private coverage that millions have today by undermining the current system of employer-sponsored insurance. Those who are actually able to keeping their private insurance will likely be forced to pay more--not less--to cross-subsidize the public plan." [Heritage Foundation]

$50M in stimulus will help fish farmers buy feed

Your tax money at work ! ..... and the other 15,000 "stimulus" projects are no better. Of course, for those of you who pay no taxes...... don't think you escape paying for this. You will get to pay this through the HORRIBLE inflation that is about to descend upon us. That loaf of bread you bought on sale for $1.50 this week will be "ON-SALE" for $4.00 in a few years.

Recently Michelle Obama went to serve food to the homeless at a government funded soup kitchen .

Cost of a bowl of soup at homeless shelter $0.00 dollars Having Michelle Obama Serve you your soup $0.00 dollars Snapping a picture of a homeless person who is receiving government funded meal while taking a picture of the first lady using his $500 Black Berry cell phone $$$$ Priceless

House Health-Care Proposal Adds $600 Billion in Taxes

Bill before Congress now likely to cost $1.5 TRILLION over the next ten years !!!!
Thats 1,500,000,000,000 dollars !!

Get Ready for Inflation and Higher Interest Rates

"The unprecedented expansion of the money supply could make the '70s look benign." [Wall Street Journal]

Has Anyone Checked to See if the Holocaust Museum Shooter had a DailyKos Account?

"...a deranged man named James W. von Brunn shot and fatally wounded a security guard at the American Holocaust Museum. American leftists, still giddy after the murder of George Tiller, are at this moment attempting to chalk von Brunn’s actions up to “right-wing extremism”; apparently, von Brunn was a white supremacist, and typical leftist projection, they have assumed that anyone who is a racist must also be a right-winger.

Unfortunately for these leftists, von Brunn left a lengthy trail of writings behind on the internet that spell out his beliefs pretty clearly.

• Hated Christians.
• Despised Bush and McCain.
• Posted lengthy rants about “Neocons” involved in Jewish conspiracies to alter U.S. foreign policy in favor of Israel.
• He placed credence in 9/11 “truther” theories."

[Red State Politics]

Bush Deficit vs. Obama Deficit in Pictures

• President Bush expanded the federal budget by a historic $700 billion through 2008. President Obama would add another $1 trillion.
• President Bush began a string of expensive finan­cial bailouts. President Obama is accelerating that course.
• President Bush created a Medicare drug entitle­ment that will cost an estimated $800 billion in its first decade. President Obama has proposed a $634 billion down payment on a new govern­ment health care fund.
• President Bush increased federal education spending 58 percent faster than inflation. Presi­dent Obama would double it.
• President Bush became the first President to spend 3 percent of GDP on federal antipoverty programs. President Obama has already in­creased this spending by 20 percent.
• President Bush tilted the income tax burden more toward upper-income taxpayers. President Obama would continue that trend.
• President Bush presided over a $2.5 trillion increase in the public debt through 2008. Setting aside 2009 (for which Presidents Bush and Obama share responsibility for an additional $2.6 trillion in public debt), President Obama’s budget would add $4.9 trillion in public debt from the beginning of 2010 through 2016.

Tax Man's Target: The Mobile Phone

"The use of company-issued mobile phones could trigger new federal income taxes on millions of Americans as a "fringe benefit."" [Wall Street Journal]

Understanding the Kennedy-Dodd and House Democrats’ health care bills

"Here are two dozen things you should know about the Kennedy-Dodd bill and the House bill online" [KeithJennesset.com]

Business groups dare Obama to limit pay for union bosses

"Business groups are daring President Barack Obama to impose pay caps on labor union bosses in light of indications the White House will limit how much corporate executives can be paid.

President Obama has argued “corporate greed” has contributed to the economic crisis and appointed a “compensation czar” to review executive pay for several companies receiving taxpayer bailout money Wednesday. Now White House officials have told the press legislation should be enacted to limit executive pay in private companies through nonbinding shareholders votes.

The Workforce Fairness Institute, which has lobbied heavily for the defeat of the Employee Free Choice Act to ease organization rules for labor unions, points to a 2008 Hudson Institute study that suggests unions have short-changed benefits for their rank and file in favor or generous executive compensation packages and to pad the coffers of their political allies, who are mostly Democrats." [Washington Times]

Administration, Congress seek to rein in exec pay

"The Obama administration struck a delicate balance on executive pay Thursday, blaming flawed compensation packages for encouraging disastrous risk-taking but insisting it doesn't want to dictate how corporations reward their top people." [Associated Press]

THAT MAY BE WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ..... BUT WATCH OUT FOR WHAT THEY DO !!!

Obama Ready to Announce His Surrender to Big Business Lobby and Gut Workplace Verification?

"Under an Executive Order issued by Pres. Bush last year, all federal contractors would have to verify their workforce through E-Verify. DHS Chief Janet Napolitano has several times delayed the execution of that order, claiming she was still studying it.

Informed sources are telling our Capitol Hill Team that the Obama Administration plans to announce today or tomorrow new executive orders that will gut most of the improvements in fighting illegal immigration at the end of the Bush Administration.

GUTTING PROPOSED RULE THAT WOULD HAVE KEPT ILLEGAL ALIENS OUT OF MOST STIMULUS JOBS

One big result of the new orders will be to ensure that taxpayer-funded jobs under the Economic Stimulus Act can continue to go to illegal foreign workers." [ NumbersUSA ]

No Energy from this Executive

Watch what Obama does, not what he says.

ALL THE PRESIDENTS CZARS

Obama has appointed almost two dozen "Czars" to head up various functions he has deemed important. Here are a few and the amount of money they control.

• Car Czar ($42B),
• Drug Czar ($15B),
• Border Czar ($17B),
• Urban Affairs Czar ($44B),
• Intelligence Czar ($48B),
• Health Czar ($759B),
• Stimulus Czar ($787B),
• Cyber Czar ($30B),

These are but a few. These Czars are appointed by the President, but unlike Cabinet Secretaries, Czars do not have to undergo any pesky Senate confirmation or even a hearing! They are not obligated to testify before the Senate.

Listen to this exchange broadcast on Fox News.

Met Police accused of waterboarding suspects

"Metropolitan [London] Police officers subjected suspects to waterboarding, according to allegations at the centre of an anti-corruption inquiry." [TimesOn-line]

Material Support on the Ropes?

"There was so much jaw-slacking stuff in Obama’s Cairo stemwinder that this fleeting bombshell dropped unnoticed:

Freedom of religion is central to the ability of peoples to live together. We must always examine the ways in which we protect it. For instance, in the United States, rules on charitable giving have made it harder for Muslims to fulfill their religious obligation. That’s why I’m committed to working with American Muslims to ensure that they can fulfill zakat.

Zakat is the obligation of giving alms. It occupies a central place in Islam (one of the religion’s five “pillars”), just as it does in religious traditions more familiar to the West — you know, the charitable giving that Obama wants to saddle with less favorable tax treatment.

Do we really have “rules on charitable giving” that, as the president claims, make it especially difficult for Muslims — as opposed to others — to give? No. What we have are federal laws against material support for terrorism. These were enacted by Congress in 1996. They have been the bedrock of the DOJ’s anti-terrorism enforcement ever since." [National Review]

The Media Fall for Phony 'Jobs' Claims

""Saved or created" has become the signature phrase for Barack Obama as he describes what his stimulus is doing for American jobs. His latest invocation came yesterday, when the president declared that the stimulus had already saved or created at least 150,000 American jobs -- and announced he was ramping up some of the stimulus spending so he could "save or create" an additional 600,000 jobs this summer. These numbers come in the context of an earlier Obama promise that his recovery plan will "save or create three to four million jobs over the next two years."

Of course, the inability to measure Mr. Obama's jobs formula is part of its attraction. Never mind that no one -- not the Labor Department, not the Treasury, not the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- actually measures "jobs saved." As the New York Times delicately reports, Mr. Obama's jobs claims are "based on macroeconomic estimates, not an actual counting of jobs." Nice work if you can get away with it.

And get away with it he has. However dubious it may be as an economic measure, as a political formula "save or create" allows the president to invoke numbers that convey an illusion of precision. Harvard economist and former Bush economic adviser Greg Mankiw calls it a "non-measurable metric." [Wall Street Journal]

Obama Tells American Businesses to Drop Dead: Kevin Hassett

"I’ve finally figured out the Obama economic strategy. President Barack Obama and his team have been having so much fun wielding dictatorial power while rescuing “failed” firms, that they have developed a scheme to gain the same power over every business. The plan is to enact policies that are so anticompetitive that every firm needs a bailout.

Once that happens, their new pay czar Kenneth Feinberg can set the wage for everybody and Rahm Emanuel can stack the boards of all of our companies with his political cronies." [Bloomberg]

Congress Donates Your Money To Themselves!

"

Despite a ban on gifts to lawmakers and limits on campaign contributions, lobbyists and groups that employ them can spend unlimited money to honor members of Congress or donate to non-profits connected to them or their relatives. The public — until now — had little insight into the scope of this largely hidden world of special-interest influence.

Under ethics rules passed in 2007, lobbyists for the first time last year had to report any payment made for an event or to a group connected to a lawmaker and other top federal officials." [Newsmax.com]

GPS shoes for Alzheimer's patients

"A shoe-maker and a technology company are teaming up to develop footwear with a built-in GPS device that could help track down "wandering" seniors suffering from Alzheimer's Disease." [News.com Australia]

Barack Obama's 10 mistakes in Cairo

"Barack Obama's speech in Cairo was quite a moment. I say moment, but it lasted some 56 minutes and contained more than 6,000 words. Too long. Yes, he said a lot, ensuring to some extent that it could be all things to all people - almost everyone can take something away from it to feel good about.

That doesn't mean, however, that it was an effective speech. It was, of course, very well-delivered and contained many fine phrases. But we know that Obama can do this and he's subject to the law of diminishing returns. The more I think about it, the more potentially problematic I find the speech. Here, for starters, are 10 mistakes he made>...." [Telegraph UK]

Bernanke's Warning

"There is obviously no desire in the Democratic Congress to control spending, so extraordinary tax increases are no doubt in the offing. Still, there is no way the Democrats will raise taxes broadly or steeply enough to address the medium-term fiscal crisis. So it seems safe to predict that Bernanke's warning will go unheeded." [Power Line]

Moses

Over five thousand years ago, Moses said to the children of Israel " pick up your shovel, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the promised land".

Nearly 75 years ago, Roosevelt said, " Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, and light up a camel, this is the promised land".

Now Obama has stolen your shovel, taxed your asses, raised the price of camels, and mortgaged the promised land.

Palin: Government Wants To "Control The People"

Palin warned that the government is planning to "bail out debt ridden states" so it can "get in there and control the people." [Real Clear Politics]

Geithner Goes Begging in China; What It Means to You …

"So this is what it’s come to: Our Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, has to jet off to Beijing to beg for mercy from our biggest global creditor.

The bottom line? The balance of world financial power is shifting and not in a good way for America. Worse, I see no evidence that we’re doing anything about it! Instead, we get a bunch of happy talk and spin, with little or no action." [Money and Markets]

Power and the people

A letter to the Editor, Naples (FL) Daily News:

"Editor, Daily News:

Tyrannical governments are not defined by the harshness of their laws. They are primarily defined by the complete absence of respect for law.

The absence of law does not mean, however, the absence of control. Control mechanisms are simply “made up” by those in power and will vary from situation to situation as “need” changes.

All prior laws are pushed aside as nothing more than an unnecessary burden from a dysfunctional past, thus creating terror from the unknown. America is now experiencing this state of near anarchy.

Tyranny is also not defined by the overtly evil intent of those in power. Most dictators actually think that they are serving their countries well and those who resist must be pushed aside while laws that delimit the tyrant’s actions must be ignored. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Mao, all would have espoused that they were just trying to help their respective countries. America is now dominated by this attitude.

Tyrannies are also not defined by their unpopularity. Most people yield to the threat of the state and accept their diminished level of freedom and personal choice. The vast majority of dictators have enjoyed wide, fanatical public support. Most citizens become dependent on the dictator for their well-being and don’t experience any sense of their restricted lives. Too many Americans are now here.

I presume you’re wise enough to understand the inferences from the above as it pertains to current America. The greatest power for good in the history of this planet is being destroyed."

White House 'dialogue' site scrubbed of eligibility posts

Our Government CENSORS inquiry into the TRUTH .......

"

With more than 200 individual threads and thousands of comments on the eligibility issue alone, moderators of the White House website on "open government dialogue" have been working tirelessly to edit the dialogue about Barack Obama's elusive "long-form" birth certificate.

Many of the top-rated threads are from citizens calling on Obama to release his birth certificate. The postings in the "top rated" category have received the most "looks promising" votes from users. New threads on the topic of Obama's constitutional eligibility to serve as president are appearing by the minute.

WND observed the "Making Data More Accessible" section for several hours as more suggestions appeared and at least 60 were subsequently deleted on the first page alone – all requests for the president to submit proof of citizenship." [WND]

Got Your Permit To Study the Bible?

"On April 10 (Good Friday), a county code enforcement officer visited the home of David and Mary Jones after receiving a complaint about their Christian gatherings. The Jones' attorney, Dean Broyles, president of The Western Center for Law & Policy, conveyed in disbelief, "The county asked (Mrs. Jones), 'Do you have a regular meeting in your home?' She said, 'Yes.' 'Do you say "amen"?' 'Yes.' 'Do you pray?' 'Yes.' 'Do you say "praise the Lord"?' 'Yes.'"

The officer then warned the family to "cease and desist" the "religious gathering" or they would face weekly fines. A few days later, the county delivered a citation claiming that the Joneses were guilty of "unlawful use of land" and mandating them to "stop religious assembly or apply for a major use permit." " [ Human Events ]

Obama quotes verse 5:32, omits 5:33

"President Obama in his speech said " The Holy Koran teaches that whoever kills an innocent, it is as if he has killed all mankind; and whoever saves a person, it is as if he has saved all mankind."
I really find it odd that neither President Obama nor any of his advisors did not realize that the meaning of verse 5:32 is not clear until it is quoted together with verse 5:33 which follows it:

005.032

YUSUFALI: On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if any one slew a person - unless it be for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people. Then although there came to them Our messengers with clear signs, yet, even after that, many of them continued to commit excesses in the land

005.033

YUSUFALI: The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter;

Obama's Attack on Achievers and Individual Rights

"Obama wants to reward failure, laziness and bad behavior, while punishing achievers. Outrageously, he fired the CEO of General Motors. Now, he wants to 'cap' salaries. This is TOTALLY un-American. When did we vote to change the Constitution giving government control over private sector business? King Obama's massive "power grab" is a devastating intrusion on our freedom." [American Thinker]

Obama In Cairo

"...... if Obama really told the truth to his international Muslim audience, his popularity with that group would plummet. Hence his preference for the same sort of triangulating, on-the-one-hand-on-the-other-hand political speech that he gives so often in the U.S. It's easy to understand why Obama panders to American audiences--it got him elected President. It is not so clear why presenting overseas Muslims with a sugar-coated view of reality serves the national interests of the United States." [Power Line]

Microsoft to move jobs Offshore If Obama Tax Plan Goes Ahead

" Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steven Ballmer said the world’s largest software company would move some employees offshore if Congress enacts President Barack Obama’s plans to impose higher taxes on U.S. companies’ foreign profits." [Bloomberg]

Supreme Court Nominee Sotomayor: You Read, You Decide

"The fundamental issue at stake in the Sotomayor discussion or nomination is not her background or her gender but an issue that has implications far beyond this judge and this nomination: Is judicial impartiality no longer a quality we can and should demand from our Supreme Court Justices?" [Newt Gingrich]

Obama condemns Muslim attack on Arkansas Army recruiters…not

Not one word, zero, zip, nada from Obama, Dept. Defense, or the Pentagon about the murder of a military recruiter in Arkansas by a Muslim terrorist!!!!!

How Hillsdale beats Harvard

Yale Law School begrudgingly allowed military recruiters on campus in order to not lose their $350 million in federal funding. Military recruiters on Yale are poorly treated. Hillsdale college, on the other hand, who receives not one penny of federal funds in any form, and who could therefore, keep the military off campus, actually welcomes them. [Power Line]

The Obama Infatuation

"The Obama infatuation is a great unreported story of our time. Has any recent president basked in so much favorable media coverage? Well, maybe John Kennedy for a moment; but no president since. On the whole, this is not healthy for America.

The press has become Obama's silent ally and seems in a state of denial. But the story goes untold: Unsurprisingly, the study of all the favorable coverage received little coverage." [Real Clear Politics]

Having it both ways

[Sotomayor] led an effort at Princeton to impose hiring goals and timetables for Hispanic faculty members, but was insulted when a law firm interviewer asked her at Yale, "Would I have been admitted to the law school if I were not a Puerto Rican?"

And one of the many costs of this discrimination is that its so-called "beneficiaries" will have their credentials questioned -- if not out loud, then silently and even unconsciously. So those like Judge Sotomayor who support goals, timetables, and the like really have no one to blame but themselves when others question the qualifications of those who belong to the groups receiving the preferential treatment." [Power Line]