|
|
August 24, 2010
Posted by Carla René in: Accountability, Advice, African-American, Attitude, Biography & Memoir, Book Marketing Online, Book Review, Books, Business, Business Management, Cancer, Cap and Trade, Children, China, Climate Change, Commentary, Comments & Discussion, Communications, Communism, Community, Computers, Congress, Contributor's Audio/Video, Creative Writing, Current Events, Democracy, Democrat, Diet, Economic Crisis, Economics, Education, Energy, Entertainment, Environment, Environmental Issues, Faith, Family, Fiction, Finance, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, Freedom, Freelance Author, General Topics, Geopolitical Events, Global Warming, Governance, Habit Change, Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Heroes, History, Homeland Security, Humor, Inspiration & Motivation, Internet, Internet Advice, Interview, Islam, Journalism, Latino & Hispanic, Legal, Life Experiences, Lifestyle, Literature, Marketing, Marriage, Medical, Men's Issues, Mental Health, Mexico, Military, Minorities, Morality, Motivation, Music, Native American, Nature/Wildlife, Non-Fiction, Nutrition, Opinion, Personal Experiences, Philosophical Genres, Poetry, Politics, Publishing, Question of the Day, Recovery, Relationships, Religion, Republican, Rhyme, Satire, Self-Help, Sex, Short Stories, Social Aspects, Social Classes, Social Issues, Sociology, Spirituality, Sports, Technology, Television, Terrorism, The Economy, The Media, The Pundit's Corner, The Writer's Corner, Travel, Uncategorized, Website Instructions, Weight loss, Wellness, Women's Perspective, Women's Rights, Working Women, Workplace, World Issues, Writing Essentials
 Begun back sometime in 2001, this book was originally a fluke of an idea… [...]
May 14, 2010
Posted by seamus in: Accountability, Advice, African-American, Commentary, Comments & Discussion, Communications, Congress, Creative Writing, Current Events, Democracy, Democrat, Economics, Entertainment, Freedom, Governance, Homeland Security, Inspiration & Motivation, Islam, Journalism, Life Experiences, Minorities, Morality, Motivation, Opinion, Personal Experiences, Politics, Republican, Social Aspects, Social Classes, Social Issues, Terrorism, The Economy, The Media, The Pundit's Corner, World Issues
Amazing how many high government officals (including the Attorney General), political pundits, politicians, school officials and religious leaders comment so harshly on the immigration law in Arizona and publicly admit they haven’t read the ten page document.
The document basically states that when being stopped for a traffic violation or questioned concerning a crime that [...]
May 14, 2010
Posted by seamus in: Accountability, Advice, Attitude, Business, Cap and Trade, Commentary, Communications, Congress, Creative Writing, Current Events, Democrat, Economics, Entertainment, Finance, Freedom, General Topics, Geopolitical Events, Governance, Homeland Security, Humor, Journalism, Life Experiences, Lifestyle, Literature, Minorities, Morality, Motivation, Opinion, Personal Experiences, Politics, Recovery, Republican, Satire, Self-Help, Social Aspects, Social Issues, Sociology, Terrorism, The Economy, The Media, The Pundit's Corner, Women's Rights, Working Women, World Issues
Pick Your Reason 10. I voted Democrat because I believe oil companies’ profits of 4% on a gallon of gas are obscene but the government taxing the same gallon of gas at 15% isn’t.
9. I voted Democrat because I believe the government will do a better job of spending the [...]
April 7, 2010
Posted by Muhammad Cohen in: Accountability, Cap and Trade, Commentary, Communications, Congress, Current Events, Democrat, Healthcare, Marketing, Medical, Republican, Travel
Republicans were for healthcare insurance mandates before they were against them – and the Obama White House missed it. [...]
March 3, 2010
Posted by Muhammad Cohen in: Business, Business Management, Cancer, Congress, Current Events, Economic Crisis, Health & Fitness, Healthcare, Interview, Medical, Wellness, World Issues
While politicians fiddle and patients get burned, Americans’ best bet for affordable, quality medical care right now is in Bangkok. [...]
January 24, 2010
By Alan Caruba
“The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.” — Margaret Thatcher, former British Prime Minister
It began as a beautiful cruise to a land of “hope and change”, but it has become a nightmare in which the ship of state is being deliberately steered toward a whirlpool of debt from which, if Obama is successful, the nation cannot escape.
One of the primary reasons the U.S. economy has grown over the years has been the confidence in its innovation and productivity. It has generated investment from around the world from those who wanted to profit from our success story. There was a time when U.S. securities were the safest in the world, but that is no longer the case.
On December 24, 2009, the U.S. Senate voted to raise the ceiling of the government debt to $12.4 trillion, described by an Associated Press reporter as “a massive increase over the current limit and a political problem that President Barack Obama has promised to address next year.”
On January 20, 2010, barely a month later, Senate Democrats “proposed allowing the federal government to borrow an additional $1.9 trillion to pay bills, a record increase that would permit the national debt to reach $14.3 trillion.” Continue reading The Bill Comes Due for Socialism in America
December 17, 2009
By Alan Caruba
While it is incontestably true that a lot of people took out mortgage loans they could not afford to replay, it is just as true that they were encouraged to do so because banks were required by federal law to make these bad loans. Bankers even gave them an acronym, “Ninja” loans as in “No Income, No Job, No Assets.”
The result was the government created “housing bubble” that was coupled with the Federal Reserves’ policy of keeping interest rates so low that many were tempted to borrow beyond their means. When the financial crisis struck, these loans were called “toxic assets” requiring billions in taxpayer money to bail out the same banks forced to make them. Mortgage loan companies were not so fortunate.
Consistent with that government inspired economic disaster, however, has been the many ways federal and state governments have found to tax Americans directly and indirectly. A new book, “Bankrupting Joe the Taxpayer”, by D.J. Golio ($24.95/$16.95, Authorhouse, hard and softcover) reveals how taxation and irrational government spending has reached the present point and offers suggestions how to correct it.
A classic example of hidden taxes can be found in your telephone bill. This month mine was $63.00, but $14.00 of it was taxes, so my actual cost was less than $50. This occurs again every time I fill up my gas tank or pay my utility bill. For example, in 2007 the estimated take by states alone in gasoline taxes exceeded $50 billion. Continue reading Why You’re Broke
November 8, 2009
Nancy Counts on Corruption
by John Armor
Nancy D’Alesandro Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, has regularly accused the Republicans in the House of displaying “a culture of corruption.” Yet the critical vote to get the House version of the health bill out of the House, demonstrates that Speaker Pelosi not only likes corruption, she counts on it. Remember her middle name because it figures in the proof.
On 7 November at 11:15 pm House bill 3962 passed by a vote of 220-215. Votes in favor of that bill included the following: Norm Dicks (D-Wash), Jane Harman (D-Cal), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Alan Mollohan (D-WVa). Jim Moran (D-Va), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Laura Richardson (D-Cal) and Peter Visclosky (D-Ind). If just three had voted against the bill, or had not been in the House to vote for it, the bill would almost certainly have failed.
Why that curious comment about not being in the House? A staffer for the House Ethics Committee put an internal document on a home computer with file sharing capacities. As a result, the complete list of Members of Congress under ethics investigations escaped into the press. These yes votes on the health bill were provided by Members who might have been expelled, had their possible ethics violations had been promptly and adequately examined, decided and acted upon. Continue reading Nancy Counts on Corruption
October 24, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
I am always amazed at the variety of choice that exists in my local supermarket. There are other supermarkets in the area, but the one I frequent most has lower prices on most items and almost anything you want to purchase allows one to select among several brands available.
We Americans may not think much about choice when it comes to what we buy because we have so many choices. It is the mark of a free marketplace where competition determines winners and losers. It says a lot about a society that puts a high premium on freedom.
Your government, however, has decided that, in 2012, you can no longer choose to purchase and use Thomas Edison’s iconic invention, the 100 watt incandescent light bulb. By 2014, all such bulbs will be banned from sale. That’s right, they will vanish from the shelves of supermarkets and other outlets.
As this is being written, your government is debating taking away your choice to purchase health insurance. Or not. If it gets its way, everyone, old and young, healthy or ill, everyone will have to buy health insurance—most likely the brand issued by the government because it will drive most present insurance companies out of business. That is so un-American as to defy belief. Continue reading Taking Away Your Choice
September 30, 2009
 By Alan Caruba Here’s a look at the introduction of a draft bill co-sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), co-sponsored by John Kerry (D-MA). It is the Senate alternative to the horrid “Cap-and-Trade” bill authored by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA). Call it “Cap-and-Switch.”
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
A BILL
To create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence,
reduce global warming pollution, and transition to a
clean energy economy.
All those who believe Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Jolly Green Giant are real should stop reading now.
Let’s look at the objectives of the Senate version of a huge tax on all energy use by every American. As I will note later, the bulk of the cost will fall on low-and-middle income households.
“To create clean energy jobs.” This is pure bunk. Such jobs would be primarily in the production of solar and wind energy. Other such jobs involve biofuels such as ethanol. Combined, solar and wind represent barely one percent of all the electricity generated daily in the nation. If solar and wind were profitable, you can be sure that American entrepreneurs would have long ago become more active, but if it were not for taxpayer dollars subsidizing solar and wind, neither would likely exist.
The only thing ethanol has done has been to raise the cost of the corn from which it is made and reduce the mileage of every gallon of gasoline to which it is added. Continue reading Cap-and-Switch: Hello Sucker!
September 26, 2009
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Cap and Trade, Congress, Current Events, Democrat, Energy, Environment, Global Warming, Governance, Healthcare, Opinion, Politics
By Alan Caruba
It is not a new observation, but it is one that needs review and repeating every so often. Why do liberals always seem to get on the side of any issue concerning America’s future? Its sovereignty? Its financial security? Its defense?
I think this question is particularly timely given the public discussion of Obamacare that included a huge peaceful protest march on Washington September 12th. The President’s non-stop campaign to get “reform” passed and the heated exchanges in Congress do not represent actual healthcare reform, but are testimony to a liberal obsession with a very bad idea.
You know something is desperately wrong when Democrats will not permit the proposed bill to enjoy a grace period of 72 hours during which both the public and members of Congress can actually read it before a vote is taken.
The irony of the current battle is that the bill will significantly change Medicare, a program advocated by liberals and, like Social Security, established by Democrats in Congress. It will destroy a free market for insurance programs individuals may choose to purchase. Or not.
There is no dispute that both programs, safety nets for Americans, have been helpful. Neither is voluntary There is no doubt that both are insolvent because they are unsustainable. This has been exacerbated by the way Congress has dipped into the funds intended to be set aside for them.
Obamacare will end up killing a lot of the people that Medicare was intended to save from the diseases and accidents that afflict the elderly. Continue reading Liberals are Killing America
September 26, 2009
The facts about the Bird Flu, 911 and beyond reprinted in this article, which was in ConspiraZine magazine, and read on their radio show. are very relevant to the Swine Flu Vaccine scheme of today. The official plans currently are for vaccines to be ready Oct. 15th or sometime in December, depending on what they are going to do about adjuvant ingredients in the vaccines. Who knows what the future holds. Baxter’s Bird Flu vaccines contaminated with the Live Virus were discovered before they set off a pandemic with their vaccines. Now, they’re about to do it again, without needing to test normally, be transparent, or be liable. States are taking up the forced vaccine laws Read some of the history leading up to this here related to 911 and martial law and more.
from ConspiraZine Magazine–posted below:
911 and Avian Flu Legislation Were For the Sake of Martial Law: Just Say No to Mandatory Vaccines
In America, we may be on the verge of martial law, the current excuse being the threat of Avian Flu. While remaining calm, we do need to address this potential while we still have the freedom to do so. Perhaps we can stave it off if we look squarely at what is happening, and why. We have to look more deeply into the reality of vaccines, and why they are really being imposed upon us. We can look at 911 to realize that the government will use any deception to control us more. 911 didn’t work to bring total martial law, which is what it was intended to do, so bird flu is now being used to accomplish that state. Martial law is not being used as a last resort because of disaster out of our control. Martial law is the goal, and the disasters are hoisted on the public for the express purpose of making them give up their freedoms. Let’s not. Continue reading 911 and Avian Flu Legislation Were For the Sake of Martial Law: Just Say No to Mandatory Vaccines
September 16, 2009
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Accountability, African-American, Business, Cap and Trade, Congress, Current Events, Democracy, Economic Crisis, Energy, Environmental Issues, Global Warming, Governance, Healthcare, Opinion, The Economy
 By Alan Caruba
I cannot tell you how relieved I was to hear Ben Bernake, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, announce that the United States is “technically” out of the recession. I spent much of the day waiting for my phone to ring with offers of work.
Chairman Bernake did add that jobs would lag, but all the experts say that jobs always lag and, if that’s the case, I am thinking this time around jobs are not only going to lag, they are going to disappear, run away, and leave much of the work force unable to live the “American dream.”
There was a time when the American dream included the opportunity for everyone to own their own home. That dream was based on having a steady job and a decent wage. It was dependent on people saving some of their income for a down payment. It was not dependent on federal government programs that put pressure on banks and mortgage lenders to make loans to people that ACORN had dragged in off the street.
I would feel a lot better about Bernake’s announcement if Congress wasn’t right now getting ready to pass a piece of legislation that every single poll says the MAJORITY of Americans do not like and do not want.
I speak of course of Obamacare. The same polls also suggest that the more Obama shows up on television giving speeches, being interviewed, and otherwise sucking all the air out of the room, the more a MAJORITY of Americans distrust and dislike him. Continue reading “Technically” We’re Out of a Recession
September 14, 2009
A Million People Prove NPR Doesn’t Count
by John Armor
How many people still listen to NPR (National “People’s” Radio) and take it seriously? Apparently that list doesn’t include the editors and reporters for NPR. Two cases in point, both having to do with numbers.
As I was driving up to D.C. for the Rally on the Mall on Saturday, I heard NPR gushing over (excuse me, reporting on) the President Obama’s speech to a Joint Meeting of Congress. In that speech, the President said that “there are 30 million uninsured Americans.” Notice that the number dropped from 45 million because that part of the uninsured are not Americans. They are mostly citizens of Mexico.
The polling of the American people on health care reform has made it crystal clear they do not want American tax dollars paying premiums for foreign citizens. Remember that Cong. Joe Wilson called out, “You lie,” when President Obama was claiming that health care “reform” did not include the illegal aliens. Joe should certainly apologize for interrupting the President, with a true statement. Continue reading A Million People Prove NPR Doesn’t Count
September 13, 2009
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Congress, Current Events, Democracy, Economic Crisis, Energy, Freedom, Global Warming, Governance, Heroes, Opinion, Politics
 By Alan Caruba
There have been many mass marches on Washington, D.C., so the locals know how to make plans to anticipate the congestion and the police are polite and skillful in the science of crowd control. They can afford to be polite because the crowds, no matter how large, are too.
Oh, sure, they shout a lot, but that’s what a protest march is all about. Back in April 1894 unemployed workers known as “Coxey’s Army” showed up to demand that Congress do something. It was the second year of an economic depression that would last another two years, but it was the worst that had hit the nation barely three decades since the end of the Civil War.
Americans know where to head when they are at odds with their government and most know or suspect that the source of their problems can be found in Washington, D.C. and they are always right.
Bloodshed has been extremely rare at such events. On June 17, 1932 a “Bonus Army”, some 20,000 World War One veterans and their families massed in the Capitol seeking advance payment of bonuses from the Hoover administration. The year is significant. It was four years passed the beginning of the Great Depression that began in 1929. Continue reading The Fine Art of American Protest
September 11, 2009
By Alan Caruba
I think President Obama and the Democrats have found a way to move hated legislation through the houses of Congress. They intend to bore us to death.
Following his prime time speech to the joint session of Congress on Wednesday evening, on Sunday Obama will be featured in a segment on CBS’ “Sixty Minutes” and on Monday he will give a speech on the nation’s financial crisis.
The President has given over a hundred speeches regarding his still totally undefined “healthcare reform”, ceaselessly repeating the same vague notions of why a long established system cannot be fixed in its bad parts, but must be thrown overboard and recreated virtually from scratch.
The other element is to produce bills that are all a thousand pages or longer, ensuring that no Senator or Representative is ever going to read them. Their legislative aides are assigned that task and many can be seen wandering the streets of Washington in the late hours mumbling incoherently to themselves about Sub-Section B of Part A referencing Paragraph D. Continue reading Boring Us to Death
September 11, 2009
On September 9, President Barack Obama addressed Congress to discuss health care. The news media has focused on that speech, giving scant attention to his address to the nation’s school children one day earlier. Despite the dire predictions of the right-wing, the republic is, regardless of that speech, somehow still standing. No doubt the Rush Limbaughs of the world will explain how that is possible. But there is no need to wait! This writer has seen through Mr. Obama’s words. He was crafty: we must read between the lines to understand how he fostered his socialist agenda in his remarks to the United State’s students this week.
Space does not permit a line-by-line translation of the speech, so only some of the most salient points will be covered here.
What Mr. Obama said:
“When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.” Continue reading Education, Health Care and Hypocrisy
September 10, 2009
 Someone let a craker in the house
by Bill Hazelgrove
C’mon Mr. South Carolina lets cut to the chase here.  You can do better than YOU LIE. You wouldn’t do that to a white man now would you boy? I’m from Virginia Wilson…I know the score. My people fought in the Civil War on the side of the Confederacy…you can be straight with me. You wanted to say it didn’t you boy? You just got a little tangled up with them issues and figured you’d’ call him a liar first. Well thats a good first step.
Now I know you wouldn’t have said it to President Bush. Course not. You’re a good old boy. I know. See in Virginia we had these crackers my father wouldn’t let in the back door. Poor white trash we called em. In my fathers day blacks had to walk in the curb when a white man approached and he wasn’t allowed to play with Jews or Catholics. Now those were the days.
Course. You can’t build Rome in one day. So I think your outburst was a good first step. You kind of let the world know what a cracker can do in the United States of America. We elect just about anybody don’t we? Hell, what’s the big deal? So you called a black man a liar. Yeah, he’s the President and all and he was giving a speech to Congress, but you can’t pick your places either. I think you timed it just right. Let the whole world know what a cracker can do. Continue reading Someone let a cracker in the house
September 8, 2009
Posted by Prentiss Gray in: Accountability, Attitude, Congress, Current Events, Democracy, Democrat, Economics, Geopolitical Events, Politics, Republican, Women's Rights
 That’s it. I’m done. This once staunch Republican, is out of the party. Frankly, I’m just too embarrassed to stay associated with what has swiftly become a party of low life, low brow, say anything to get votes, jerks.
We lost the election. Aren’t we supposed to be at our noblest in loss? Aren’t we supposed to be good losers? I liked John McCain, I really did. In fact, I still do. But even I ended up voting for Barach Obama. Sorry, my fellow Republicans, just too many nuts came to the party.
I just can’t count myself with Jerry Falwell, Russ Limbaugh and Ann Coulter (even her name gives me the creeps). I don’t think marriage is about “a man and a woman”, it’s about love and commitment. I just don’t think a woman’s right to choose has anything to do with church doctrine, further, I can’t think of anything that does. Religeon can be a nice, and a possibly uplifting practice/belief, but when it starts telling other people how to live their lives, count me out. It definitely doesn’t go with politics.
It used to be such a nice party, Republicans won elections because they knew how to work together; be a team. The Democrats were always the “all-other” party, and spent so much time fighting over 10,000 individual agendas, I was always amazed to see them win any office.
We had some great Presidents, great Congressmen and great Governors. It was not an embarrassing thing to be a Republican. Continue reading The Embarrassed Republican.
September 7, 2009
Posted by Alan Caruba in: Accountability, Congress, Current Events, Democracy, Democrat, Economic Crisis, Governance, Healthcare, Opinion, Politics, Republican
 By Alan Caruba
Barack Obama has crashed headlong into a wall of distrust. If he had any understanding of American history he would know why, but his sole interest is himself and he proved that by writing not one, but two memoirs.
The men who waged the American Revolution and then met in secret to write the U.S. Constitution all shared a distrust of government. They understood government was necessary, but they wanted to keep a federal government small and ensure that most powers resided in the individual states and in “the people.”
For most of American history, the federal government was small. Its main function was to maintain armies and navies to protect its sovereignty and its commercial interests. Early presidents encouraged the exploration of the continent and its populating by the many discontents who arrived seeking a better life than the Old World could or would provide.
America promised the intoxicating opportunity to be free to make a life for oneself that had few restraints so long as one did not break the law, honored one’s contracts, and took part in the process of debating issues and electing representatives. This necessity to rise above family bonds and other allegiances to participate in the affairs of one’s community, one’s state, and one’s nation has been the glue that has kept generations of old and new Americans connected. Continue reading A Very American Distrust
September 4, 2009
 Birth of a New Political Party
by John Armor
The last time a new American political party came into being, one strong enough to elect a President, was in 1854. As you have guessed, that was the Republican Party. Its first elected President was Abraham Lincoln in 1860.
Many third party and independent campaigns have been mounted since then. The Progressive Party around 1900 managed to elect Governors and majorities in the legislature of several states. Their high water mark was in 1912, when former President Teddy Roosevelt chose that Party as his vehicle to run again when the Republicans declined to nominate him, again. (No, there never was a “Bull Moose Party.” Don’t send letters and postcards claiming that there was.)
What’s the relevance of this ancient history to the off-year, congressional election in 2010? Well, take a look at that history and see what seems familiar. Continue reading Birth of a New Political Party
September 4, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
Every despotic regime in the last century favored gun control laws. Today, the gun-grabbers are on the move again and are being led by the Obama regime.
During last year’s campaign both Hillary Clinton and John McCain tore into Barack Obama for saying that residents of small-town America “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them out of bitterness over lost jobs.”
Obama quickly retreated from that statement, but it revealed his real thinking and real feelings about people who own guns for any reason, as well as his contempt for people whose religious values are an important part of their lives. In both cases he was condemning large segments of the nation’s population.
In America today, the figure I hear most often is an estimated ninety million people who own guns. No matter the source one cites, there is no question that most Americans have no qualms about owning guns for hunting, sport shooting, or for protection. It is no coincidence that, since Obama’s election last year, gun and ammo sales have been off the chart. Continue reading The Gun-Grabbers are on the Move Again
September 3, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
I, for one, am looking forward to President Obama’s address to both houses of Congress. I thought I would have to wait for a State of the Union speech before that happened or, God forbid, that the nation would be attacked as was the case of 9/11.
I am looking forward to his televised talk to all of the nation’s school children, too. What gems of wisdom will he share with them? How many potential community organizers will be sitting at their desks, paying attention, and maybe even taking notes?
I like it, too, when he sits down for a completely unscripted, informal chat with some network anchor. It would be really neat if he could do things like when, with Zen-like serenity, he swatted a fly.
Now, I know there are many who are crying out, “No! No! No!”
It has been my observation that the more President Obama speaks, the more his popularity and approval scores drop. By golly, I believe there is a connection!
It began when everyone noticed that he never spoke anywhere about anything without his TelePrompters. People began to snicker. Continue reading Speak Up, Mr. President, Speak Up!
September 3, 2009
Pfizer has just been fined for the FOURTH time since 2002 for various violations, some of which have left people dead from their drugs. What do they get? A fine, a slap on the wrist. I want to know how much Pfizer made on Bextra. I’ll bet it was more than the fines. And [...]
September 2, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
“Tailgunner” Joe McCarthy, a 1950s U.S. Senator who lent his name to any effort to expose America’s enemies, was right. At the height of his fame, he said the U.S. government was shot through with communists, many of whom were participating in a vast espionage effort orchestrated by the Soviets.
Though McCarthy was singularly unsuccessful in uncovering communists within the government during Eisenhower’s first term, the “Army-McCarthy” hearings, April 22 to June 17, 1954, were televised for all to see and he became one of the best known anti-communists of his day. Were there Communists and spies for the Soviet Union? Yes, but we would not learn more until a young Senator from California, Richard M. Nixon identified Alger Hiss, a high-ranking State Department official as one.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the records that became available to historians and other scholars confirmed McCarthy’s worst fears.
During the 1930s and 1940s, communism appealed to many Americans. Some had soured on capitalism because of the Great Depression. Others saw communism at work in the Soviet Union and, believing the propaganda, concluded it was a viable alternative to capitalism. It would take a speech by Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Krushchev to draw back the curtain and reveal the horrors of living under Stalin. Continue reading Obama’s Communists
September 2, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
On Sunday, I managed to “throw my back out”, something I do every few years; a muscle spasm that had nothing to do with lifing something heavy. Just whammo! I took some pain pills I had in the cabinet from a previous problem and on Monday morning I called my physician. By Noon I was in her office and receiving new prescriptions for pain pills and muscle relaxants. An hour later I had the pills in hand,
By this morning, Wednesday, I am thoroughly on the mend, though it will probably take until Friday before I am back to normal again. Thanks to Medicare, my pills cost me just over $10.00. My visit to the doctor will be covered as well.
So, tell me, what is it that needs to be “reformed” in the current system? And how long would it have taken to see my doctor under Obama’s socialized healthcare?
The current Medicare/Medicaid system is running out of money, but “reforming” it to a point where I would likely have had to wait a very long time to see my doctor is absurd. Continue reading Does Medicare Need Reform?
August 31, 2009
Posted by Bob Grant - Editor in: Accountability, Business, Congress, Current Events, Democracy, Economics, Foreign Affairs, Governance, Marriage, Medical, Opinion, Politics, Relationships, Religion, Social Issues
Whether it is in personal, or business matters, I have always tried to conduct myself where “My Word” matters. If I say something – promise something – commit to something – I give “My Word” and try to follow through with my commitments. I bothers me tremendously, when for one reason or another, I [...]
August 30, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
Here’s a question that has been nagging me for months. Are Obama’s ever-growing number of “czars” constitutional? I am not a constitutional scholar, but I have read the document.
“Article II. Section 2. “He (the President) shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consults, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein provided for, and which shall be established by law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.”
As I read it, the Constitution is very specific about whom the President may appoint and he can do so only within parameters “established by law” and this applies specifically to the “heads of departments.” I interpret this to mean Cabinet Secretaries, all of whom must be vetted and approved for their positions by the Senate.
The Republican National Committee’s conservative caucus recently passed a resolution expressing their concern noting that “The U.S. Constitution explicitly states government officers with significant authority (called ‘principal officers’) must be nominated by the President and are subject to a vote of the U.S. Senate.” Continue reading Obama’s Unconstitutional “Czars”
August 28, 2009
Ted Kennedy led the left while the country overwhelmingly turned to the right. [...]
August 27, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
The only thing that is “shovel ready” in America today is Teddy Kennedy’s corpse and casket. Fortunately for his mortician, Kennedy had already embalmed himself.
One can only pray that his brand of insane, unrealistic, and very expensive liberalism will be buried with him, but that is not likely so long as our Marxist President draws breath.
With considerable schadenfreude I watched as William Kristol, founder and editor of The Weekly Standard, choked back his utter disdain for Teddy Kennedy during a panel discussion on the Fox News. Columnist Charles Krauthammer had nothing good to say of Kennedy either and it was to both their credit they did not feign any regret over his passing beyond the standard expression of sympathy for his family. Continue reading Shovel Ready in America
August 25, 2009
By Alan Caruba
If you had purchased a stock in January of this year that had lost as much of its value as Barack Obama, you would be desperate to sell it by now. The problem is, the only buyers would be the mainstream media and their stock has been falling too.
I cannot think of a single President in our 233 year history that was so disliked by so many Americans in so short a time. His polling numbers drop daily and he is poised to make history by losing the confidence and support vital to the ability to lead, let alone to administer the federal government.
It is his judgment that is the issue and, concurrent with that, his actions. If anyone would have predicted that he would impose so much debt on the nation in so short a time they would have been called mad. Barely seven months into his administration the estimated national deficit will be reset at nine trillion dollars between now and 2019. Continue reading Time to Resign, Mr. President
August 20, 2009
 By Alan Caruba I have this theory that nations go crazy from time to time. Collectively they lose their wits or, as is often the case, the people either elect or have imposed on them a complete lunatic, discovering it in slow stages as reports of various horrors make their way to the countryside.
These days, those stages are greatly speeded up by the mass media that swiftly spread the word. Unlike the United States, in many nations the news is what the government says is news, but it must also be said that the mainstream media has utterly disgraced itself over the course of the recent campaign and the first months of the Obama administration. There are signs, however, some have rediscovered their role in our society.
The most vigorous signs of sanity among the general populace of America have been the recent town hall meetings. The tea parties, too. And just wait for the big march in Washington, D.C. on September 12!
That will surely put the fear of the people into the hearts of Congress men and women. It is far better that they fear us than the other way around. Continue reading Signs of Sanity
August 18, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
To understand how insane the Cap-and-Trade bill really is you need to know that it based on the belief that carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced to avoid a global warming that is NOT happening.
The American Clean Energy and Security Act is a giant scam involving “carbon credits” to be sold and traded. It is also about billions in taxpayer’s dollars being wasted on wind and solar generation of electricity. If this was a sensible way to produce energy, it would be a dominant producer, but it isn’t. Short of producing electricity by peddling bicycles, it is as inefficient and impractical as possible.
So-called “clean energy” accounts for just over one percent of all the electricity Americans use every day and it exists only because the government subsidizes it by taking your tax dollars and giving them to wind and solar energy producers. Some States require utilities to buy electricity from them.
As for “security”, how much energy security does the United States enjoy if it must import 60% of the oil it uses for transportation and a wide range of products, not the least of which is anything made from plastic?
Real security means drilling and mining right here, right now. There’s plenty of oil in ANWR and offshore. The government forbids access to it. And, where’s there’s oil there’s natural gas as well. As for coal, the U.S. has enough for centuries of affordable electricity, but the environmental organizations have in recent years stopped the building of a hundred coal-fired plants and they brag about it. Continue reading Cap-and-Trade Insanity
August 17, 2009
Posted by seamus in: Accountability, Attitude, Congress, Current Events, Democracy, Economics, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Relations, General Topics, Geopolitical Events, Homeland Security, Military, Morality, Opinion, Social Aspects, Social Classes, Social Issues, The Writer's Corner
With double navy crosses, a distinguished flying cross, a bronze star and three purple hearts, I was singled out by a long haired professor my first week back in college as a baby killer. Welcome home, right? [...]
August 13, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
Not long ago I published a list of elements of the original Obamacare bill that upset a lot of people who accused me of publishing lies about it, but the original bill—now something in the area of five different versions that the Senate and House will consider on their return—was every bit an abomination as the new ones.
Since then, a lot more people have undertaken the trial of reading the more than 1,000 pages intended, we’re told, to “reform” healthcare in America. One of them is Dr. Stephen Fraser. He recently wrote his Senator Evan Bayh (D) citing page by page why the current version of Obamacare is not a reform, but a total corruption of our current system.
Here are just a few of four pages of citations that will doom healthcare in America while putting the federal government in charge of the most intimate aspects of everyone’s lives.
Page 22 of the HC Bill: Mandates that the government will audit books of all employers that self insure!!
Page 30 Sec 123 of HC bill: THERE WILL BE A GOVERNMENT COMMITTEE that decides what treatments/benefits you get.
Page 29 lines 4-16 in the HC bill: YOUR HEALTH CARE IS RATIONED!!! Continue reading The Obamacare Abomination
August 11, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
The mainstream media is focused, as always, on the more dramatic aspects of the “town hall” meetings during which astonished members of Congress discover how total the disconnect between the machinations of Washington, D.C. and the rest of America is.
If the Democrat politicians could recall anything from the past they might draw some lessons from it, but they are fixated on expanding the federal government’s control over our lives while, at the same time, abandoning anything that passes for common sense.
In the July issue of Healthcare News, a publication of The Heartland Institute, a non-profit, free market think tank headquartered in Chicago, Greg Scandlen, Heartland’s Director of Consumer Care Choices, recalled the reaction of Americans in 1988 when Congress passed the Medicare Catastrophic law. Like Obamacare, it was supported by the AARP, essentially a large insurance company, was passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress, and signed into law by Ronald Reagan.
“Except when the elderly found out they were about to be required to buy something they didn’t need, they were furious,” said Scandlen. “In a famous scene, a group of elderly people chased House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski down the streets of Chicago and beat on his car with their canes and picket signs when he tried to escape. Eighteen months after it was passed, the law was repealed.” Continue reading A Very American Protest
August 8, 2009
 By Alan Caruba In 1898, an article by the great French novelist, Emile Zola was published in L’Aurore. It was addressed to the President of France. Zola accused the military of having wrongly convicted Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish artillery officer, of treason, incarcerating him for years on Devil’s Island. The title of the article was “J’Accuse!” Zola’s courage has been an inspiration for writers ever since.
It is in this spirit that I issue my own version of “I Accuse.”
I accuse the United Nations environmental program in general and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in particular of creating a huge hoax, “global warming”, in order to reduce energy use and to create a phony market for so-called “carbon credits,” based on the lie that carbon dioxide plays a role in the alleged warming process.
The Earth is not warming. It is cooling. Meteorologists, climatologists, and solar physicists agree that it has been cooling for at least a decade and predict the cooling will continue for several decades to come.
I accuse the President of the United States and politicians from both political parties for engaging in this deception for their own purposes, while ignoring the peril to the nation’s economy and future. Billions have been and continue to be misallocated to bogus “solutions” such as solar and wind power, the mandate for an ethanol mixture with gasoline, and the construction of a vast regulatory and grant-making apparatus based on the global warming hoax. Continue reading I Accuse!
August 7, 2009
Column 666, about President Obama
by John Armor
This is the 666th column in this weekly series. It had to be spent on an overarching subject. So it is.
President Barack Obama is the most accomplished liar I have ever encountered, and that includes several pathological liars I faced in court. The best of those I could not rattle even with a well-prepared and vigorous cross-examination. Only the weight of solid facts from other sources served to expose and defeat those people.
Pathological liars can give the impression that they are telling the truth because they are smooth, accomplished, and effective. But the most important reason is that they have learned to lie to themselves. When they tell a bald-faced lie, right to your face, they actually believe what they are saying.
I’ll use exactly one example. On the campaign trail, Obama repeatedly said that “no one earning less than $250,000 a year will pay any additional taxes.” This was his definition of the middle class, in his universal mantra of no new taxes for the bulk of Americans.
Now, two members of his Cabinet on Sunday talk shows, plus tax cheat Charlie Rangel, who yet remains as Chairman of the House Committee that writes the tax laws, have all made the same remark on television in front of God and everybody. That statement was that “tax iucreases on the middle class might be necessary to pay for the President’s health care plan.” Continue reading Column 666, about President Obama
August 6, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
We sometimes forget that the primary reason we live in the United States of America and not some British Commonwealth nation is that the people who fought our Revolution got fed up with all the taxes that King George and Parliament kept imposing on them. No taxation without representation was the rallying cry.
Now all we seem to have, whether at the federal, state or local level is endless taxation on virtually everything we purchase, use or own. In many cases those taxes have risen obscenely in recent days.
The new tax on tobacco products is, we’re told, intended for our own good, making them so expensive we will give up smoking. Other proposed taxes on “fast food” and even soda are passed off as being an incentive to eat in a more healthy fashion. Our personal health is our business, not the government’s and surely not an excuse to tax us!
There have always been “sin” taxes on things like tobacco and alcoholic beverages, but thanks to the profligate spending of all legislatures everywhere, these taxes are rising to obscene levels, unrelated to anything than a desperate effort to fill gaps in the budget.
Neither the states, nor the federal government seem to understand the need to STOP SPENDING. Every new “entitlement” program, like the proposed healthcare “reform” just imposes more and more taxation, and creates larger debt.
Here’s a list of just some of the taxes we pay: Continue reading Lots of Taxes, Lots of Spending
August 1, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
The term, ‘”the perfect storm”, has come to mean how circumstances and bad judgments come together to create havoc and death.
I have begun to conclude that America is caught in a perfect storm. It didn’t occur overnight, but it has rapidly reached a point wherein the very life of the nation is at stake.
The tipping point, if I may be permitted another cliché, was the election of Barack Hussein Obama as President. Though efforts, including several books, attempted to flesh out what little was actually known about Obama, it was the skillful packaging that turned him into a rock star whose theme “hope and change” could and did mean anything the voter imagined.
Obama arrived in the Oval Office with virtually no paper trail. He had not ever managed a business, never made a payroll, and had not worked in the private sector. He had been “a community organizer” and had taught constitutional law as a lecturer at the University of Chicago. In this regard, he was spectacularly ill-prepared to make decisions regarding the greatest economy in the history of civilization.
He had been preceded by a Congress controlled by the Democrat Party as of the 2006 midterm elections as voters wearied of the long war in Iraq and, typically, the second term of then-President Bush. Leading the new Congress was, by any standard one could apply, two of the most stupid politicians to hold high office. Sen. Harry Reid (NV) was Senate Majority Leader and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA) was Speaker of the House. Continue reading The Perfect Storm
July 29, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
Americans are seriously worried over the rising number of their fellow citizens without jobs.
Americans watch the daily cost of a gallon of gasoline as closely as sports scores.
America has so much untapped oil that it boggles the imagination. Much of it is located offshore of the nation’s coastline.
Some states benefit greatly from the oil and natural gas extracted from the Gulf of Mexico. Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas receive revenues collected by the federal government for offshore production and of course there are lots of jobs involved.
July marked a year since the lifting of an 18-year-old presidential moratorium (ban) on offshore exploration and drilling for oil and natural gas, but a de facto ban continues for states from Maine to Florida, Washington to California. In Alaska, a federal ban on extracting oil in ANWR makes a joke out of politicians who call for “energy independence.”
Nine out of ten wells in America’s interior are produced by small, independent producers, not the so-called Big Oil companies. They increase the nation’s energy security and expand domestic energy production. They reduce U.S. dependence on imported oil. Continue reading Congress Says NO to Energy
July 28, 2009
 By Alan Caruba
There’s an ancient Scandinavian legend that says, “A long time ago, the universe was made of ice. Then one day the ice began to melt and a mist rose into the sky. Out of the mist came a giant made of frost and the earth and the heavens were made from his body. This is how the world began and this is how the world will end, not by fire, but by ice. The seas will freeze and winters will never end.”
Thus begins “Not by Fire, but by Ice”, a book by my friend, Robert W. Felix, published initially in 2005. You can pick up a copy from www.iceagenow.com. While you’re there, pick up “Magnetic Reversals and Evolutionary Leaps” as well. Taken together, both books explain why the Earth, now at the end of an interglacial cycle, is heading into its next ice age and why Darwin got it wrong with his theory of slow, evolutionary mutations accounting for various species being different from one another.
The Earth is some 4.5 billion years old. Homo sapiens, the human race as we know it, have been around for about 40,000 years. We date our modern ancestry back to the Cro-Magnon man who superseded the Neanderthals. The development of agriculture, growing food rather than hunting it, dates back some 7,000 years and civilization in the form of city-states and nations is relatively new; only about 5,000 years. Continue reading It’s Getting Colder Everywhere
|
Books by SWI Contributors
|
The Town Hall Revolt, One Year Later
Can Washington Meet the Demand to Cut Spending?
The Gaslight Journal is Done
Begun back sometime in 2001, this book was originally a fluke of an idea… [...]