Tyranny in America

Taxation without representation is tyranny.

Q: The average American worked 113 days to pay their federal, state and local taxes in 2008.  Is that not excessive? 

A: Well, uh, maybe.  But it's not tyranny.  You have elected representation.  Local officials, state officials, a representative and two senators in Washington, and a president in the White House.

Q: Yes...but who do these people really represent?  Do they represent you and me, or do they represent special interest groups?

A: Well, of course special interest groups have some influence, and that is sanctioned by the constitution, but your elected officials represent you, and you have the power to hold them accountable at the polls.

Q: Right now we have a huge spending bill winding its way through Congress.  When we are done paying interest charges, the total cost could easily exceed $1 trillion.  Understandably, this bill is NOT supported by most voters.  Congressional leaders are ignoring the will of the people, are they not?

A: Sometimes our elected officials are forced to take action that is very unpopular.  That's how our system works—this is a democratic republic, not a democracy.  In a democratic republic, the elected officials help to moderate the shifting whims of public opinion.

Q: But what if Congress looses touch with the voters?  What if our elected officials develop a herd mentality and begin making irrational decisions?  What if they begin making unpopular decisions that are, in fact, not in the best interests of their constituents?

A: That's where the Constitution comes into play.  The Constitution (particularly the Tenth Amendment) places limits on what the government can legally do.  The constitution is the supreme law of the land and protects citizens from abuses from the government.

Q: You think the constitution places limits on the government?  

A: Yes, the Tenth Amendment says that the Federal Government does not have powers that are not explicitly delegated by the constitution.

Q: Does the Constitution explicitly grant the Federal Government the power to spend billions of dollars on university building projects?  To spend tens of millions of dollars on the arts?  To spend tens of billions of dollars to feed fat people?  To spend hundreds of millions of dollars on train systems?  To spend hundreds of millions of dollars on hybrid cars?

A: Well, those are all very important things.  If we don't make those investments, it will cost our society much more in the long run.  (By the way, not everyone who receives food stamps is fat.)

Q: You're getting us off track.  Does the Constitution grant the Federal Government the authority to spend money on art, food, cars, trains and university buildings?

A: Well, not exactly.  But this spending is for the greater good.

Q: So the Constitution, the one thing that stands between us and the insidious abuses of a derelict government, isn't working very well for us, is it?

A: Well...

Q: Next question.  When Congress ignores the Constitution and ignores the voters; when you have a President who has lamented the fact that the Supreme Court did not "break free from the essential constraints placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution"; when your Commander In Chief spends an inordinate amount of time voicing the concerns of the nation's critics, rivals and enemies, what kind of government do you have?

A: [blank stare]

This bears repeating: taxation without representation is tyranny.

More

The change you can believe in is the change missing from your pocket.

Why is it that Obama, his economic advisers, and the liberal Congressmen strong-arming the legislature into passing the “stimulus” package, all ignore the lessons of history?  Here is the answer: not one of those individuals, entrusted with the welfare of America, cares about the lessons of history, the economy, or the country. They care about power.

Britain to America: 'What have you done?'

Given Obama's radical roots in the neo-Marxist, nihilist politics of Saul Alinsky, it is the undermining of America's fundamental values that is likely to be this President's most strategically important goal. 

Murphy's Law, the Peter Principle and Barack Obama

The perfect collision of Murphy's Law with the Peter Principle has arrived to explode in our faces.

Sometimes a President Is Just a President

If one wants a hawks-eye view into the minds of Obama voters, all one need do is read this piece published by the New York Times last week, detailing the fantasies, dreams and drooling-envy delusions of his followers.  Their celebrity is now their President. h/t, American Thinker

62% Want Stimulus Plan to Have More Tax Cuts, Less Spending

Audio: Hannity grills Specter on his support for the spendulus package.

The Sordid Story of The Stimulus

Arlen $pecter has written an article for the Washington Post, trying to convince us that he is acting responsibly in supporting the $timulus Package.  Here are some of his asinine points:

• I am supporting the economic stimulus package for one simple reason: The country cannot afford not to take action.

• Failure to act would be devastating not just for Wall Street and Main Street but for much of the rest of the world, which is looking to our country for leadership in this crisis.

• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the proposed cuts "do violence to what we are trying to do for the future," especially on education. 

• This proverbial half a loaf beats no loaf by a mile.
  

My response:

Dearest Arlen,

Your argument for the "stimulus" is incoherent.  Let me help.  This bill is 88% pork and 12% stimulus. If you were being perfectly honest you would tell us that you simply do not know what impact this bill will have—no one does. If you were being perfectly reasonable, you would admit that a trillion dollar spending spree will likely do more harm than good. 

Because of the tremendous impact their decisions have, physicians take the following oath: "...first do no harm." I know that Senators aren't held to the same high standard, but maybe you should think about these words as you go forward.  You say we "cannot afford not to take action."  Fine.  But here's my question...can we afford to make things even worse?

Perhaps your thinking is being shaped by considerations regarding your chances of being re-elected next year. You don't want to be labeled as a "do nothing", do you?  I can sympathize, but please put your concern for the future of this country ahead of your political ambitions.

I think you're digging your own grave.  Conservatives in your state are going to be sorely disappointed with you. Liberals will know that they can get more of what they want from a real Democrat.  Let's frame the discussion this way: why should Pennsylvanians vote for you when they could have someone who is more honest about his political and ideological affiliations?

Audio Update: Hannity interviews Republican Arlen Specter on his support for the spendulus package.  h/t: M

Other Thoughts

• Pork = stimulus?  Obama is having a hard time selling his stimulus package, not for lack of communication skills, but because his stimulus package is a lie.  Sweet little lies are easy to sell.  This lie is neither sweet nor little.  

• Obama espouses all of the worst political ideas of the last 100 years.  How could he not fail?  If he is re-elected in 2012, it will be because he will have been successful in one single thing: shifting the blame.
  

More

We have nothing to hope for but hope itself.

Jesus took a handful of loaves and two fish and fed 5,000 people. Barack wants to take a trillion pieces of pork and feed it to a handful of Democratic Party interest groups. 

The New Great Communicator … Isn't

Somehow this week, unbelievably, Obama and the Democrats seem to be losing the spin war. There are the worrying poll numbers.

50 De-Stimulating Facts

The great French economist Frédéric Bastiat called politics “the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” But who pays for the state bailout? Savers will pay to bail out spenders, and future generations will pay to bail out the undisciplined present.

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan

Health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

Obama's Remarks at Press Conference

"The strongest democracies flourish from frequent and lively debate, but they endure when people of every background and belief find a way to set aside smaller differences in service of a greater purpose."  Translation: Sign the bill or I will trump you.

10 questions for Obama

Mark Sanford clearly explains why the stimulus is a very bad idea: 

h/t: American Thinker

Obama's Popularity Plummets

Good news from Rasmussen:

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval Index for Sunday shows that 36% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing as President. Twenty-five percent (25%) Strongly Disapprove to give Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +11.

The Presidential Approval Index is calculated by subtracting the number who Strongly Disapprove from the number who Strongly Approve.  One week ago today, 44% Strongly Approved and 23% Strongly Disapproved to give Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +21.  In the first set of interviews conducted after inauguration day, 45% Strongly Approved of his performance while 16% Strongly Disapproved for a Presidential Approval Index rating of +29.

Overall, 59% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President’s performance so far while 39% disapprove. Today’s results mark the first time that Obama’s overall rating has fallen below 60% as either President-elect or President. 

Obama's ratings will continue to drop. It won't be surprising to see his approval rating drop well below 50%. We're headed for tough times in America, and no spineless political amateur can reasonably expect to lead this country back to peace and prosperity.

More

Highly Recommended: The Meaning of Sarah Palin

Daily Presidential Approval Index

Unemployment and Stimulus

Milton Friedman, telling it like it is...old school:

h/t: wizbangblog

The Collaborators

Senators have reached a tentative deal on a version of President Obama's economic stimulus plan, including about $811 billion in spending and tax cuts, that will win enough Republican votes to move forward. Sens. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and Susan Collins of Maine appeared to be the critical Republicans to sign onto the bill, giving Democrats the 60 votes needed to advance to a final vote. Democrats also voiced confidence that Republican Sen. Olympia Snow of Maine also would vote for the plan.

"It represents an effective, targeted approach to the economic crisis facing our country," Collins said Friday.  "And even more important, it demonstrates to the American people that at a time of crisis we can work together" [to make things worse].

Don't be discouraged, conservatives. Keep pounding away. This one should be a no-brainer for every Republican—liberal, moderate or conservative. The spendulus bill is neither popular nor prudent. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that only 37% of voters favor the legislation; and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has determined that the "stimulus" package will actually lead to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years.


FYI:

Collins (202) 224-2523; ME office (207) 622-8414
Snowe (202) 224-5344; ME office (207) 622-8292
Specter (202) 224-4254; PA office (717) 782-3951


More

You must read this! This is a spectacular article about the economy.

Tyra Banks: Is Gay the New Black?

Crisis, Catastrophe: Are These Words of Hope?

Sorry, O: 'I Won' Won't Cover This

CBO: Obama stimulus harmful over long haul

Support for the Porkulus Bill has droped to 37%

Obama's Foolish Salary Caps

Obama announced strict limits on pay to executives of bailed-out financial firms Wednesday, slamming Wall Street top dogs as "shameful" for accepting billions in bonuses last year. The new restrictions will cap pay for government-aided Wall Street executives at $500,000.

Obama's hypocritical salary cap for corporate executives is shameful and disgusting. And it won't help.

It is impossible for me to believe that Obama's has not been made aware of the fact that salary caps will hurt these corporations in their efforts to attract talented executives who can save their companies. (Unless they can lobby for loopholes—loopholes that Obama can open for them—if they will scratch his back—essentially putting Obama in control.)

Does arrogant Obama really think he should be running the economy, interfering with the free market, micromanaging the private sector, and setting minimum and maximum wages by pulling numbers out of thin air? Obama and his big government cronies clearly have delusions of grandeur, but they cannot summon the intellectual power to outperform the collective intellect of all the minds of the free-market. It's just not possible.

How do we explain what Obama is doing? Is he pandering to populist sentiment? Is this simply a power play? Is Obama trying to destroy the corporations so that he can nationalize the industry? Is he doing this because he is an incurable Marxist? Is it because Obama is ignorant?

Obama, if you can't control your compulsion to meddle, why don't you sublimate? Why don't you push for a law limiting the amount of money that can be spent on inaugural celebrations? Or put an end to earmarks once and for all? Better yet, show us how much you care about your country by leading by example. Forgo half of your salary! The median household income is $45,000, but you make $400,000 per year, not including handsome benefits. You should be ashamed of yourself.

More

Losers Take All: How strong is envy? Research from a top economist provides a startling answer.

Big bank execs: What they take home

Observers say President Obama's new rules to limit executive compensation won't put a stop to corporate excess.

Will Obama Resign?

I'll be the first to admit that Obama had a bad day yesterday. The Iranians and the North Koreans were rattling their sabers, and Obama's conciliatory "unclench your fist" line has only been making things worse. The message of hope and change hasn't been quite as contagious as expected.

Moreover, Obama lost his Health Care Czar nominee, and his Performance Officer nominee—both for the same reason: more tax embarrassing tax scandals. Apparently Joe Biden is Obama's only friend who takes his patriotic duties seriously.

To make matters worse, as the economy continues to circle the drain, the highly partisan stimulus plan is becoming increasingly unpopular with the public and is running out of steam in the Senate. To get bipartisan support, it will need a radical makeover.

The clock is ticking. Reporters are asking annoying questions. Obama apologists are working overtime to smooth things over, but things look awful right now. Irrational exuberance is giving way to the grim reality of running the world's most important country during tough times.

So on Tuesday, under the cumulative pressure of two weeks on the job, Obama left the White House on short notice to chill out with second-graders. It's apparently a great way for presidents to decompress, but if we learned only one thing from 9/11, it's that world leaders can't sit around reading storybooks with grade schoolers when there's important work to be done.

Obama is cracking under the pressure, and Ahmadinejad and the North Koreans are lovin' it. If Obama can't handle the heat, he needs to make way for someone who can do the job.

More

Obama escapes

"We were just tired of being in the White House," the president candidly told the gleeful second-graders at Capital City Public Charter School.

Withdrawal Syndrome

There's no question that the seemingly well-oiled machine of the transition has not hummed quite as smoothly in the first weeks of the Obama administration. The three appointees ought to have been thoroughly vetted and considered during the transition to avoid a conflagration at a time when President Obama has a government to run.

Why Daschle Withdrew His Nomination (according to George Stephanopoulos)

Already depressed by the recent discovery that his younger brother is stricken with brain cancer, Daschle wasn't prepared for another week of Senate hazing and damaging headlines. Stephanopoulos, your credibility is no good here.

North Korea Rattling Sabers

North Korea appears to be preparing to test-launch its longest range ballistic missile, media reports said on Tuesday, stoking tensions just days after the reclusive state warned that the Korean peninsula was on the brink of war. North Korea last week scrapped all agreements with South Korea, a move analysts said was in response to Seoul's tough policies toward Pyongyang as well as designed to grab the attention of U.S. President Barack Obama.

Iran launches satellite

Iran says it has launched its first domestically made satellite into orbit. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the launch had been successful and that with it Iran had "officially achieved a presence in space". A US state department official said the launch was of "great concern" and could lead to ballistic missile development.

Only 38 percent of Americans favor the existing stimulus proposal.

Democrats are hypocrites when it comes to paying taxes

'Good' Tyrants Impoverish the People

Obama Should Channel Harding, Not FDR

Obama's Outreach To Muslims Won't Achieve Goal.

Creepy Obama worship from the Detroit Free Press: See Obama in yourself—and take a photo for our gallery.

Warning: facts are often mixed with parody on this blog, read at your own risk.

Democrats Fighting Dirty For Your Money

Democrats are launching an ad campaign to turn Americans against the Republicans who voted against the Democrats' pork bill.  Apparently the era of postpartisan hope, change and brotherly love is officially over.  Here are some of their loathsome statements:

House Republicans just don't get it.  They celebrate being the party of no and status quo, while more than 2.6 million Americans have lost their jobs, the stock market has plummeted wiping out nearly $7 trillion [in] stock market wealth and endangering thousands of investors' nest eggs, and one in 10 homeowners was delinquent on mortgage payments or in foreclosure this fall. 

Republicans' champagne wishes and caviar dreams simply don't connect with middle class families struggling to make ends meet and furious that their tax dollars are going to bail out banks, build schools in Iraq, or send American jobs overseas.  [emphasis mine]

Here's the message I left on their website:

Your ad campaign is partisan and deceptive and your rhetoric is asinine. 

You talk about connecting with the middle class. Is Obama trying to connect with the middle class with his cocktail and wagyu steak soirées?  Is he trying to connect with the middle class with $170 million dollar celebrations and posh superbowl parties?  Americans are freezing to death while Obama luxuriates in a White House that is now hot enough to grow orchids.

Spending a trillion dollars two years from now isn't the way to help the middle class to get out of this recession. The middle class understands that.  And that's why support for Obama's highly partisan plan is eroding.  If Democrats want to get serious about a quick stimulus, they'd get behind a two-month tax holiday for all Americans. That would "cost" the government about one third as much as Obama's plan, and would have an immediate stimulative effect.  But there is one big downside to that plan: it doesn't give politicians any power.  They don't get to choose winners and losers. They don't get to reward special interest groups.

You aren't really serious about helping the middle class, are you?

P.S.  Regarding the $700 billion bank bailout package, most of the house democrats voted in favor, most of the Republicans voted against.  Don't try to trick Americans into believing that House Republicans are responsible for that bill.  It's a lie. 

More

Iran sends first home-built satellite into orbit.

In the first foreign reaction, France expressed concern because the technology used was "very similar" to that employed in ballistic missiles.  "We can't but link this to the very serious concerns about the development of military nuclear capacity," foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said in Paris.  In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the satellite programme could "possibly lead to the development of ballistic missiles...that's of great concern to us," he said.

Tax issues prompt Obama nominees to withdraw!

Iran says Obama's offer to talk shows US failure

After nearly three decades of severed ties, Obama said shortly after taking office this month that he is willing to extend a diplomatic hand to Tehran if the Islamic republic is ready to "unclench its fist".  In response, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a fresh tirade against the United States, demanding an apology for its "crimes" against Iran...

Obama voices concern about freed Guantanamo inmates

"Can we guarantee that they're not going to try to participate in another attack? No," Obama said. "But what I can guarantee is that if we don't uphold our Constitution and our values, that over time that will make us less safe. And that will be a recruitment tool for organizations like al-Qaeda."  

Being president is not community organizing. Being president means you have real responsibilities. A primary responsibility is protecting the citizens.  Those citizens killed in a terrorist attack because of freed terrorists are then rendered totally incapable of "upholding U.S. values and law;" instead they have been sacrificed for the unAmerican value of debasing its citizens to appease enemies.

Earth Shaking News: Iran Launches Satellite

Iran sends first home-built satellite into orbit.

In the first foreign reaction, France expressed concern because the technology used was "very similar" to that employed in ballistic missiles.  "We can't but link this to the very serious concerns about the development of military nuclear capacity," foreign ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said in Paris.  In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the satellite programme could "possibly lead to the development of ballistic missiles...that's of great concern to us," he said.

If Obama doesn't understand that our national security is vastly more important than his fantasies of international brotherly love...he needs to go, pronto.  Make way for someone who has a grip on reality.

Shout out to GCA!

The Stimulus: A Picture is Worth a Trillion Words

Eye-popping illustrations of the stimulus from Suitably Flip via Midnight Blue:

It's difficult to visualize a million dollars, much less a million million dollars.  But that's the true threshold cracked by the "$825" billion "stimulus" bill, when you include $347 billion in estimated interest costs associated with the incremental borrowing required.

So how big is the resulting $1.2 trillion spending package?  Big enough to dwarf any government program in history, even after adjusting for inflation.  It's bigger than the New Deal and the Iraq War combined.  The interest alone will be costlier than the Louisiana Purchase or going to the moon.  The $18 billion in bonuses paid legally by private Wall Street firms in 2008 - decried by the President as "shameful" - is vanishingly small in comparison (smaller even than the bill's incremental food stamps expenditures).

More

Why Obama is so scary...he refuses to learn from history. We're doomed to repeat the mistakes of history, only in a bigger way this time.  Obama Explains FDR's Folly? 

‘Jimmy Carter’ tag has Obama wincing.

The GOP Should Go Upscale.  If the GOP abandons "downscale" voters, guess who will be there to scoop them up?

Money for nothing won't grow the economy.

Rendition Suddenly Back In Vogue

Shout out to GCA!

Americans Don't Want The Porkulus Plan

Some interesting and encouraging analysis and commentary regarding the stimulus package:

Democrats say the tax cuts in the economic recovery plan are evidence of their outreach to Republicans. The problem with that logic is that President Obama understood the importance of tax cuts during his successful campaign for the White House. That’s one reason the Democratic presidential candidate promised to cut taxes for 95% of all Americans. The latest polling data confirms that tax cuts remain the most popular part of the economic recovery plan. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of voters nationwide say tax cuts generally help the economy, and only 17% disagree.

Forty-three percent (43%) of Americans would support an economic recovery plan that included only tax cuts and no new government spending. Just 15% would support a plan with only new government spending and no tax cuts.

So the inclusion of tax cuts are both a way for the president to honor his campaign pledge and a bipartisan solution that Americans naturally view as part of an economic recovery plan.

Many pundits have tried to make the case that Obama has a mandate to ignore the right.  I don't believe this is true.  After the primaries, Obama moved to the center. But the stimulus package, in its current form, is not a centrist piece of legislation.  Centrist America wants to see a stimulus strategy that includes tax cuts and restrained spending.  If Obama really is the political genius that his worhipers say he is, he will insist on legislation that reflects America's commonsense values.

More

Obama administration co-opting media analysts

Politico warns TV news viewers to take political analysis in the Age of Obama with a five-pound bag of Morton’s Salt.  Barack Obama’s right-hand man, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, holds daily conference calls with three prominent analysts who appear regularly as independent voices in the media’s political coverage.  

Bush hatred and Obama euphoria 

In fact, Bush hatred and Obama euphoria -- which tend to reveal more about those who feel them than the men at which they are directed -- are opposite sides of the same coin. Both represent the triumph of passion over reason. Both are intolerant of dissent. Those wallowing in Bush hatred and those reveling in Obama euphoria frequently regard those who do not share their passion as contemptible and beyond the reach of civilized discussion.

Big Government Stimulus

In the Western world, countries that were once the crucible of freedom are slipping remorselessly into a thinly disguised serfdom in which an ever higher proportion of your assets are annexed by the state as superlandlord. Big government is where nations go to die – not in Keynes' "long run," but sooner than you think.

Obama's Global Interest Imperialism

On Nov. 4, 2008, Americans elected their first international president. They elected a man who does not seek to preserve American values. Leftists perceived George W. Bush as an imperialist for American interests; by the same token, Obama is an imperialist for "global interests." In a war to save America from implacable foes, Obama's Global Interest Imperialism dooms American exceptionalism to the ash heap of history. With it may go the last, best hope of Earth.

Netanyahu says Iran will not get hands on nukes

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's leading candidate for prime minister, said Saturday that Iran "will not be armed with a nuclear weapon."  In an interview with Israel's Channel 2 TV, Netanyahu said if elected prime minister his first mission will be to thwart the Iranian nuclear threat. 

New Obama tax-evasion scandal: Tom Daschle

Daschle’s team claims that the former Senator deserves the credit for revealing the problem himself.  Daschle did report this — but only after getting picked as HHS Secretary.  If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s when Geithner suddenly discovered that he owed Uncle Sam money too, only Daschle paid back a lot more: over $100,000.

Hackers Crack Into Texas Road Sign, Warn of Zombies Ahead