Where does our federal government get the right to put the chains of hopeless debt on our grandchildren to buy a better hammock for those who won’t work?  The 10^th Amendment says, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”  If we never delegated the power to create a National Debt, how did the government get it?  The power to encumber is the power to destroy.   This habit of charging the Visa to the MasterCard is selling us out to the rising red star in the East, and if we don’t pull the brake we’re heading for a cliff.

East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet passed for wisdom in the days when information took more than a nanosecond passing between continents.  Today they not only meet; they compete, and the Red Emperors of the East exploit the red ink of the West.  Today our Progressive leaders embrace the suffocating sameness of socialist conformity and collectivist confiscation while communist mandarins release the long pent up energies of their people.

Living behind the veil of a high-tech Forbidden City unseen by the outside world, Red Emperors abandoned the unattainable ideal of equality of outcome for the more economically successful model of indigenous industries and monetary policies designed to ensure a favorable balance of trade.  Alexander Hamilton once recommended these policies, and the early United States followed them.  The unseen hand of Chinese leaders transforms Mao’s Stalinist nightmare into the poster child for an economic miracle.

Transforming a cult of personality into an oligarchy holding local elections monitored by the Carter Center and judged by them to be open and competitive top leadership faces intraparty elections and peacefully transfer power from one leader to the next.  They’ve jettisoned Communist economic policies, which inevitably lead to ruin transforming themselves into a corporate-style authoritarianism resembling the Five Families of New York, or the Outfit and Machine of Chicago.  An efficient arrangement that provides ample benefits for those who shut-up and go along to get along and ruthless whacks for any mole silly enough to poke its head up.

The tale of two civilizations: America slides into the decay of collectivism with oppressive regulations and confiscatory taxes discouraging the innovation and enterprise, which made us great.  China turns away from these tools of re-distribution and embraces capitalism without naming it.  Today, business opportunities found in the shadow of Tiananmen Square are discouraged and penalized in the shadow of the Liberty Bell.

Today Union Bosses no longer break your legs if you oppose them; instead they sell your stock short. Likewise the leaders of the People’s Liberation Army openly urge that China dump American bonds to influence American policies, a naked example of Chinese power and American weakness.  China knows they can’t face America militarily.  However, due to crippling collectivist policies the American economy is on life support propped up through massive borrowing from China making us vulnerable to extortion.  In addition to the $798.9 billion in U.S. Treasuries China holds its accumulated $2.4 trillion in foreign reserves mainly in American dollars.  How are they using this economic arsenal?  China buys American natural resources, major stakes in American Icon companies, and control of vital natural resources around the world.

As the economies and social systems of Western Europe stumble and America lurches in the same direction, what type of system will rise from the abyss?   Will dazed survivors of the coming crash shuffle off into a shabby future replicating the collectivist mistakes that drove us off the cliff adding totalitarian terror tactics to the mix, or will the re-booted West re-embrace the inspirational thinking of the Enlightenment?   Though it’s the excesses of casino capitalism protected and bailed-out by cronies in government inflating the bubbles of our drowning civilization economic freedom and republican principles are blamed for the crime.  The true engine of our decline is the collectivism of the Progressives slipping in one entitlement and one tax at a time regulating opportunity and predetermining outcomes.  This undermined the economic and social forces of Western exceptionalism.  As bewildered citizens become aware of what’s happened to their countries they’ll gravitate to whoever promises the best example of success.  It’s an inescapable conclusion China is well situated to provide that example.

Confucius said, “To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.”  The debtor is slave to the lender, and he who pays the piper calls the tune.  Whether it comes from the East or the West, wisdom tells us spending yourself into oblivion isn’t such a good deal when it comes time to pay the bill, and payday’s coming some day.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College and History for the American Public University System.  http://drrobertowens.com © 2010 Robert R. Owens dr.owens@comcast.net

By DAVID JOHN EDEN

What could be more fun than playing a game better than all of the boring, provincial, traditional, failed games of the past?  Nothing if you’re leading the March to Madness.

DAVID JOHN EDEN makes art that is controversial, sometimes confrontational, but always  conversational as Dave invites readers to respond with their opinions at EdenPoliticalCartoons.com

As the economy constricted from the latest bubble, what have we done?  On an individual basis, unless we have an economic death, wish we cut back spending, increase saving and pray we don’t get downsized, rightsized or thrown under the bus to free up capital for someone else’s bonus.   As a business owner we follow the same pattern.  People wonder why banks aren’t loaning money to small businesses.  Don’t mistake a symptom for the disease.  Banks aren’t loaning because businesses aren’t borrowing.

Businesses aren’t expanding; they’re trying to survive.  With the re-making of America still an enigma wrapped in a riddle on the horizon, no one knows how to make an educated guess as to what the future holds.  Without a clear vision of what will be required tomorrow, it’s impossible to plan today.  From Main Street to Wall Street people are keeping their heads down hoping if we click our heels enough times we’ll end up back in the America we know and love hoping we won’t have to admit this transparent collectivist shell game is the New Normal.

According to a Gallup poll in October of 2009 only 20 % of the country describes themselves as liberals.  It’s only through deception and manipulation this minority has the power to re-make America.  They don’t campaign as what they are because they know they’d lose.  They always campaign as middle-of-the-road and rule as left-wing ideologues while continuing to deny that’s what they are.  Although the President and the other Progressive leaders consistently blame the Republicans for the stall in their efforts to re-make America everyone can see that it’s in-fighting among the government party that’s holding up the change.  The Democrats have more than enough votes to pass anything they want if they could just agree as to what they want. These so-called public servants elbow their way to the trough with everyone against everyone else grabbing for a bigger cut of the swag, a Louisiana Purchase here and a Cornhusker Kickback there.  It isn’t the legacy of George II.  It’s this disgusting battle of greed and avarice is what’s restraining the enlightened from imposing the unwanted on the unsuspecting.

It’s just this uncertainty that is clouding the vision of business leaders from Mom and Pop to those at the top.  While the threat of more progressive do-gooderism whether by legislation, regulation or executive order prohibits anyone from knowing which way to jump, the Obama administration’s recent budget proposal proves that any talk of deficit reduction is just talk.  According to President Obama and his teleprompter, he never faces a single challenge that isn’t someone else’s fault, and the only reason he’s mortgaging our great-great-great grandchildren to the Communist Chinese is because George made him do it.  Does he really believe if he talks deficit reduction while proposing the biggest budget with the biggest deficit in history anyone is going to fall for it?  The question comes to mind, how dumb does he think we are?

This budget says the answer to this question must be he thinks we’re really dumb.  The proposed smoke-and-mirrors freeze on discretionary spending, something he opposed during his campaign, is like someone who’s seriously overweight saying they’re going to stop putting ketchup on their fries as if that will solve the problem.  We can see this kind of logic everyday at Mickey D’s as we watch the morbidly obese order double this and extra that along with a diet soda.  It may make them feel as if they’re doing something about their weight while actually moving in the wrong direction.  The proposed savings of 250 billion over 10 years amounts to a rounding error in a budget of 3.5 trillion with a one year deficit of  1.35 Trillion.   During the same 10 year period the National Debt is projected to grow by 9 trillion.  The Congressional Budget Office Report projects yearly deficits of over one trillion dollars every year for the next decade. So in other words at best this “freeze’ merely slows the rate of growth in the future destroying national debt.  Maybe we should try that with MasterCard or Visa.  “Hi, I over spent by 1.5 trillion last month and now I’m cutting back, I’ll only over spend by 1.499 trillion next month that should solve the problem.”  I’m guessing that wouldn’t work too well.  Who would even propose such an outrageous solution?  Only someone who thinks the credit card company is as dumb as a bag of hammers.

While barnstorming the country campaigning as a deficit hawk President Obama proposes the biggest budget in history consuming the largest percentage of the economy since World War II.  A budget that’s clearly re-distributive in nature with huge tax hikes on the demonized rich to fund vote-buying benefits for the preferred classes.  This re-making of America budget is the culmination of generations of Progressive class warfare taught in schools, promoted by unions and enshrined through legislation.   The capstone of their arrogance and a statement which shows just how dumb they think we are was shamelessly shared by the third ranking Democrat in the House, majority whip James Clyburn, “We’ve got to spend our way out of this recession.”  So when Visa calls and says your over your limit just tell them, “I’m going to spend my way out of this” and see if that works.  Then again, nobody’s that dumb.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College and History for the American Public University System.  http://drrobertowens.com © 2010 Robert R. Owens dr.owens@comcast.net

In the recent Massachusetts election Republican Scott Brown confounded the purveyors of conventional wisdom and caused a magnitude 10 earthquake in the political world by liberating the Kennedy Senate Fiefdom from the grip of the Democrat machine.  To the 24 hour talking-heads this changes everything since the Democrats can no longer cut-off debate in the Senate though they can still stifle debate in the House and hold the Executive Department in their iron fist.  But did the Party of Power really experience anything besides a bump in the road?

In President Obama’s estimation, “we lost some of that sense of speaking directly to the American people.”  In reality Mr. Obama has made 52 addresses or statements specifically on his health care proposals, holding 42 news conferences, participating in 158 interviews, hosting 23 town hall meetings, making 46 out-of-town trips to 58 cities and towns in 30 states.  If he hasn’t been speaking directly to the American people what has he been doing?  He’s on TV more than Vinny from Sham Wow.  Considering that after the seismic electoral event in Massachusetts Mr. Obama’s political Svengali David Axelrod said, “We’ll have to think through this next year from the standpoint of tactics but in substance the mission can’t change.”  It isn’t that the President hasn’t talked enough the problem is he isn’t listening.  Communication is a two-way exchange and what we have here is a failure to communicate.

The day after the Massachusetts megaphone shouted loud and clear, “We don’t want your big government pork-barrel ways!!!” The party of power signaled their shopping spree wasn’t over yet when they proposed raising the debt limit farther and faster than ever before.  Raising the debt limit is nothing new. What’s new is that in our RE-Made America instead of billions now it’s trillions. The Democrat Senate proposed raising the limit by $1.9 trillion in one fell swoop.  This is a record increase which raises the official national debt to reach $14.3 trillion.

Although this level of debt is wildly unpopular the legislation is needed to prevent the default of the United States.  Maybe if we charge the Visa on the MasterCard and the MasterCard on Discover and Discover on American Express and American Express on the Visa it will all work out?   We can’t spend our way back to prosperity and we can’t borrow our way to solvency.  The fiscal insanity in Washington is one of the things the American people are protesting against in Tea Parties, town halls and elections.

In the 1890s a movement grew out International Socialism.  It manifested itself in many ways in the United States.  In religion it became the Social Gospel, in education the Dewey Method and in politics Progressivism.  In the first half of the 20th century America had three Progressive Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and FDR controlling both major parties.   These three leaders and the movement they represented attempted to change America from a country of limited government to a country of massive government.  Once people realized that progressivism meant government intrusion into the smallest parts of their life and the redistribution of wealth through oppressive taxation they repudiated them and sought other leaders.

As people rejected Progressivism the Big Government cadre in both parties perverted an old label and became Liberals.  As people realized modern Liberalism is nothing more than a scheme to redistribute wealth and buy votes with entitlements they morphed back into Modern Progressives.  As people begin to realize that modern Progressivism is nothing more than a scheme to redistribute wealth and buy votes with entitlements watch as the shape-shifters turn into Populists.  It should be interesting to watch as the captured media transform a Harvard lawyer who rails against people clinging to guns and Bibles and makes fun of people driving pick-up trucks into a man of the people.   Running out of the besieged Tower of Doom shouting “Down with the Banks!” pretending to lead the crowd marching on his agenda isn’t going to fool anyone.

The defeat of Democrats in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts will cause pragmatists to split off from Progressives.  Those who’re merely professional politicians especially those in competitive districts will scramble to the middle trying to keep their jobs while those entrenched in gerrymandered districts and the committed Progressives will try to push through their collectivist agenda by any means possible.  They’ll get something they can call Medical Insurance Reform through Congress that will metastasize into one-size fits all universal coverage.  If they can’t pass Cap-N-Trade the EPA will impose it through regulations.   If they can’t pass Import-a-Voter Immigration Reform they’ll continue to tear down what’s left of the Southern Border while winking at the lack of enforcement everywhere else and if they can’t pass Universal Registration extending the vote to every name on a government form they’ve always got ACORN.  If they can’t pass Regulatory Reform the Regulatory Czar Cass Sunstein will impose it.

Everyone else may see the Massachusetts vote as breaking new ground all the Administration heard was the bell for the second round.

Dr. Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion for Southside Virginia Community College and History for the American Public University System.  http://drrobertowens.com © 2009 Robert R. Owens dr.owens@comcast.net

The continual compost that has been coming from Obama and his cadre of communists in Washington has the nation in need of at least hip waders. Always on the alert to slither between the cracks and as predicted in “Making Government Run” (NLTZ 10/23/09) the liberals want to surreptitiously raise their debt ceiling to $1.8 TRILLION. The goal is to make the whole deficit talk disappear as they attempt to once again hoodwink the American public, this time in 2010. It should be our goal then to talk continually of Obama’s deficit.

This leftist three card Monte was called “bold but risky” in Politico’s “Dems to lift debt ceiling by $1.8 trillion, fear 2010 backlash.” You will note that this chicanery wasn’t called “brilliant and effective.” What is the reasoning for the sleight of hand? They want it raised “before New Year’s rather than have to face the issue again prior to the 2010 elections.” It should have been called “transparent” as it exposes the liberals’ concern for holding office alone, not curing the problem that the Demokrats themselves have manufactured.

Suddenly the liberals are all feeling that their insincere public confessions and the cathartic cleansing of their consciences will make the problem go away. “We’ve incurred this debt. We have to pay our bills.” This came from Steny Hoyer, the liberal House Majority Leader. Just for giggles, why don’t the liberals trot out a few of their other mendacious mantras while they are at it. “We support the troops.” “The most honest, the most open, the most ethical Congress in history.” “I did not have sex with that woman.”

To Steny, there appears to be one overriding question in response to his soliloquy. “WHEN are YOU going to pay YOUR bills”? When the liberals start throwing around “we,” be prepared for another round of tax increases targeting the middle class. Then it is on to, “Why are your bills so high”? Stop making progressive promises to the nation’s unproductive liberal leeches. Put money INTO the hands of the middle class and small businesses, not take money OUT of their hands.

This NEW debt is “nearly twice what had been assumed in last spring’s budget resolution for the 2010 fiscal year.” Turbo Tim and the gang apparently can’t add and subtract, but they sure can multiply. It is safe to say that we can classify this as yet another “broken promise” from the Obama administration, and it is up to us to talk about it up until 2010.

“The leadership is betting that it’s better for the party to take it’s lumps now rather than risk further votes over the coming year.” The liberals correctly believe that this idiotic nation of ADD patients will forget about the dastardly liberals and their socialist subterfuge. All they have to do is find another set of “party crashers” or another goofy golfer and his Clintonesque harem of whores. Maybe they can get the American Idol and Dancing with the Stars to ramp up the excitement. We are just one more “boy in the balloon” away from another election being stolen by those who want to destroy the United States. As I have said, America’s enemy isn’t the liberals, it’s apathy.

Here is the brilliant answer from the liberals, “the creation of a bipartisan task force empowered to force expedited votes in the next Congress on deficit reduction steps.” “Bipartisan”? This is just another Marxist maneuver to not only “share the blame” for the inevitable failure of this useless “task force” but then to “share the blame” for the fact that the burgeoning deficit isn’t being addressed in a timely manner. It is a stall tactic on top of a stall tactic. Do you need further proof? “As introduced Wednesday, the legislation sets no specific targets for deficit reduction.” Here is a progressive poltroon who is addicted to the idea of “timetables” and “immediate action” and he can’t seem to get moving when it comes to a deficit that will crush generations to come.

This “18 member task force is promised immense leverage to force change (See Obama, Barack: FARCE Change.) if they can first come together behind a plan.” There you have it, my friends. Throw a few token Republicans into the mix, have the liberals make their typically outlandish and preposterous “promises,” which will be met with derision by the Republicans who will then be classified as “hate mongers.” The liberals will then stand about gleefully watching the time continue to run off of the clock with their patented disingenuous looks of concern on their faces because the Republicans refuse to “come together.”

This is also another extension of Obama’s “we inherited this mess” puling. We know that the liberals are an inbred bunch, but the proof lies (literally) in the fact that they have “inherited this mess” due to the fact that they have been sleeping with themselves in Congress since 2006.

Yet another liberal David Obey said, “It is December. We don’t really have a choice. The bill’s already run up, the credit card has already been used. When you get the bill in the mail you need to pay it.” Again, the primary focus has to remain on who this “you” is. This “you” is you as any monies charitably handed out by the leftist government to the perpetually unproductive and the intolerably useless is extracted from YOU.

Obama wanted America to suffer inordinately until the beginning of 2010. He intentionally caused millions to lose their jobs while demanding months ago that a bill be passed to “immediately” address the problem. It’s all about 2010 with the liberals. “The picture in 2010 is different. The administration is predicting the stimulus (which one, the first one or the second one that Obama was crowing about the day before.) will hit its stride with much more spending.” It’s “transparent,” Obama’s indifference to the suffering that he and the liberals have implemented is almost as galling as the fact that the stimulus was designed to allegedly “pay off” in the mid term election year, many months after their damage is done.

“The White House has vowed to be more deficit conscious.” They have been “conscious” of their deficit for months now, as proven by the Santa Claus aspect of the alleged stimulus. They are also “conscious” of the need to appear to be heroes in 2010. I wish that they would vow to actually do something constructive about their deficits as opposed to torturing hundreds of millions of Americans until 2010.

Obey later added, “the debt issue is a leadership call alone.” When it comes to a “leadership call” from this alarming administration, I would advise you to unplug your phone. It is also time for the loyal opposition to make a few “leadership calls” of their own.

LARRY WILKE is a part-time cynic and full-time curmudgeon residing in St. Louis. Read more at www.noleftturnz.com.

As Obama tours the Pacific Rim, good ole Joe is left to hold down the fort.  But not to worry, he and “man of the people” skills are up to the challenge as he tours the Asian-American population.

DALE is a cartoonist on a mission hailing from northern Virginia, within sniffing distance of Congress. Following in the footsteps of Ronald Reagan, he believes that “If you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.”  His work can be seen at http://daletoons.blogspot.com/.

By FAIRFIELD “PINPOINT” EDWARDS

Imagine a man whose claim to fame, launching him into politics, was organizing a community that, judging by the videotaped violence, is still utterly without an iota of organization.  Imagine a man who was a run-of-the-mill, dime-a-dozen state senator who then found himself running for higher office against a man who dropped out after his “private life” dirty laundry began blowing in the breeze of political discourse.  Imagine a man who then gave a single speech, read from screen, that launched him into national notoriety.

Imagine a man who ran for President after having been in major office for a year.  Imagine a man who wrote his own autobiography before any major accomplishment.  Imagine a man whose Presidential primary opponent chose to emphasize experience, of which she had not so much, in a year when the party’s die-hard core wanted “change.”  Imagine a man whose opponent in the general election was ahead in the polls until a financial crisis, along with a few bad sound bites, made his candidacy obsolete.  And finally, imagine a man for all intents and purposes winning a Nobel Peace Prize after less than two weeks on the job.

No one has ever received more for doing less.  The disconnection from reality has never been more palpable.  Fiction can no longer even pretend to compete with truth.  Our current situation is its own parody.  The American nation clearly has problems at this moment in time, and Obama, this imaginary figure in whom people only saw what they wanted to see, has the solutions, each of which cost a trillion dollars.  The only problem is that we don’t have a trillion dollars, let alone 9 trillion or 11 trillion.  And this is merely the tip of the iceberg of Titanic economic peril.

When the Congressional Budget Office says a particular plan will cost just under a trillion dollars, there’s no thought of the true cost, because these programs are all designed for perpetuity.  They are designed to be woven into the social fabric as irrevocable and unalienable entitlements for citizens and anyone who can manage to crawl across the border as psudo-citizens.  Not the least attention is paid to the sum total of 10 trillion dollars over the coming century, not accounting for inflation or the classic underestimation of government spending.  The President, lacking any sense of real world experience with budgets outside of an occasional vote and who is as chained to the ideology of collective societal solutions as Prometheus was to his mythological rock, will eagerly sign each and every such bill that can manage to grease its way through the porky passages of Capitol Hill.

Then there’s the gigantic red number at the bottom of the ledger, the number that no one dares face or even acknowledge except in some glowing tribute to the Clinton years.  If Obama escapes the repercussions of tiptoeing through the current debt minefield, count it as one of the many miracles of his future biography.  It’s as if Obama and the Congressionals are a heavy metal band interested in nothing beyond the current after- show party, all the while trashing the room which does not belong to them.

The Nobel Prize committee must certainly have noticed Obama’s foreign policy agenda, even before he was able to implement any of it.  Everyone knows that he didn’t vote for the Iraq War – because he did not have the opportunity to do so.  Had he been in office longer than the extended version of Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida, he would have.  Every other serious Democratic contender did as it was after all a mere year and a half removed from the dastardly events of September 11, 2001.  Everyone knows that he acted hawkish on Afghanistan because it was a safe political bet – when the war was in its better days.  But not even the most strident Obama supporter could have seen the revocation of the missile shield deal in Eastern Europe, leaving them exposed to a resurgent Soviet Union, unless the same people paid attention to his weak stance on the invasion of Georgia. (Can anyone say Sudetenland?)

So maybe we should consider the questionable Nobel Prize an incentive in an international cash for clunkers program.  The Western European elite obviously intend for Obama to trade in his powerful, roomy, frankly superior, ride for a new model that has no horsepower, an excess of mandated safety features, and a lot less get up and go.

FAIRFIELD EDWARDS  is a traditionalist by day and traditionalist by night who believes in the institutions and noble history of our nation.  He is but a single champion of the righteous against the self-righteous and a champion of the wronged against those who seek to do wrong.    He is the editor of www.allrightmagazine.com.

By LARRY WILKE

The group who once used to scream and holler about “keep your laws off my body” haven’t the least comprehension of what “keep your laws out of my bank account” means. As the fascists flog their dead health scare horse ad infinitum, the media cheerleaders continue to use such phrases as “Obama moves to seize momentum” and that the liberals need to “reclaim the initiative.” It’s good to see that someone finally recognizes that the liberals have “lost” this one.

Obama, whose id, ego and super-ego are about as immense as his ears, was in Minnesota while tens of thousands gathered in Washington to protest his continued collectivism. In “Obama Vows to Fight Health-Care Overhaul Opponents” (Bloomberg.com) he said, “I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan than to improve it.” Using my communist decoder ring, what that means to the rest of us is: “waste time” means that there is no debating or disagreement allowed with the liberals. This is not “better politics,” it is better logic and better economics when it comes to aborting (great liberal action word) this plan. The “calculation” of the Obama oligarchs who, like each and every liberal, is driven by politics and nothing more, is as faulty and fictitious as an Obama cabinet member’s tax returns.

“If you misrepresent what’s in the plan, we will call you out.” Isn’t progressive projection the cutest thing? WE have been the ones doing the calling out of the misrepresentation of the latest liberal lunacy. Obama’s typical, predictable telepromted response to this “calling out” is that “they are trying to scare you.” Obama and his health scare heresy are the only entities who are using “scaring” as the fulcrum for their fiction.

“This is when they spread all kinds of rumors to scare and intimidate the American people.” The “American people” aren’t the ones who have been “scared,” it is the Demokratic draft animals. The fellow travelers, the unwashed asses and the bottom feeders are the ones who slavishly succumb to the Obama scare tactics. “Obama warned Americans on Saturday not to be tricked by ‘scare tactics’” (”Obama warns against scare tactics over health care” Reuters) “We’ve heard scare tactics instead of honest debate.” “He urged Americans not to pay attention to “scary stories.” The endless recitation of this moronic Marxist mantra is simply for the benefit of the liberal lemmings. Disagreement of any kind with the prevailing progressives will always elicit this infantile accusation from the Demokrats.

Senator John Cornyn said, “When you start counting in 2013, the first full year of implementation, the cost of the House bill comes to about 2.4 trillion dollars over two years.” The “first full year of implementation”? Lets think about this. Leading up to 2012, Obama can just say that he “fulfilled his promise to the American people” knowing full well that the carcinogenic aftershocks won’t be fully apparent until he is well into his lame duck second term, not unlike the “stimulus” stupidity that won’t begin paying out until early 2010, the year of the mid term election. This interesting snippet of the health scare plan certainly sounds like it has been crafted by someone who has “made the calculation that it’s better politics.”

“The time for games has past. Now is the time for action. Now is the time to deliver on health care.” “Deliver”? The Obama obstetrics (or should that read “obstet-tricks”?) will “deliver” yet another stillborn Demokratic experiment destined to burden the American taxpayer for decades. With the liberals, it’s all about “action” based upon hysterics, the “results” of their “actions” can be blamed away at a later time.

“A report released today by the Treasury Department says that about half of Americans under age 65 will lose health insurance coverage over the next 10 years.” In the Obama tradition, Treasury didn’t explain as to why this phenomenon will occur, but I will step in for Turbo Tim and I will explain it to you for him. These are the workers whose employers will prefer to be penalized (taxed) as opposed to being blackmailed by the Obama insurance scammers. These unfortunates will be dumped into this socialized medicine pogrom otherwise known as the “Soylent Greening of America.” Those employers who succumb to the socialist thumb squeezing will pass on their higher costs to the consumers, the middle class, who will also be penalized by the liberal reflexive and repetitive raising of their taxes.

“A Census Bureau report this week said about 46.3 million people in the U.S., including undocumented immigrants (illegals) didn’t have insurance last year.” There is the proof that Obama will be using illegally obtained American tax dollars to provide illegal aliens with “health care.” On July 22, 2009, Obama said that there were 47 million uninsured “Americans.” ILLEGALS are NOT Americans, but they have made their way into his progressive polluted mathematics utilized to “scare” the mentally weak. This will be on top of all of the other “charitable contributions” that the leftist government makes on your behalf to those who have feloniously entered this once sovereign nation.

In “Obama moves to seize momentum in health debate,” (Yahoo news) Obama wants to “seize control of the health care debate.” Too many words. He wants to “seize control of health care.” If it isn’t health care, it’s the banks, it’s the mortgage companies, it’s the auto manufacturers. It’s control and power and nothing more. “Obama is now throwing his full political weight behind the push to reshape the 2.5 trillion health care industry.” “Reshape”? TAKEOVER. This all about power and control as well as the acquisition and redistribution of as many tax dollars as possible.

“Obama estimates reform (takeover) would cost $900 billion over ten years without increasing the (Obama) budget deficit.” The absolute insanity of the claim aside, is Obama accounting for the “Obama whiplash inflation” that will soon be further punishing the tax paying citizens of this country? Who remembers just how livid the liberal lickspittles used to get over the Bush deficits that were at least ten times smaller?

“I am not going to back down from the basic principle that if Americans can’t find affordable coverage, we’re going to provide you a choice.” Obama discussing “principle” is as humorous as Howard Dean discussing sanity. The word is drained of all meaning when it is used by a liberal and especially when it is uttered by Obama. When the liberals begin discussing “choice,” it always involves the ending of a life, not the extension of one.

“They can’t stop us, let’s get this done” was the last thing Obama said before exiting stage leftist. To use the silly socialists own words in this context, “yes we can” stop you, because we are “fired up and ready to go.”

LARRY WILKE is a part-time cynic and full-time curmudgeon residing in St. Louis. Read more at www.noleftturnz.com.

Barack Obama decided to stop by the C-SPAN station to tell the world what we already knew. “We are out of money.” He forgot to mention that he and his dream of making the Washington of today look more like St. Petersburg of 1917 is the overwhelming reason why. More on that particular topic a little later on.

C-Span’s Steve Scully decided to ask the logical questions of Obama that very few others have had the decency to ask.

Primer for understanding liberalism: Starting with a question about the “no men allowed” seat on the Supreme Court, Obama said, “I thought empathy wasn’t important and I continue to believe that.” Nearly 600 pandering puffy words later, he finally shut down. Scully then said, “And that’s what empathy is?” Obama then began sputtering again and finished up with, “It’s very important.” Words have no meaning to the liberals. They try to use as many of them as possible in order to dodge and deflect. Their goal is to keep you on a lexical Lazy Susan.

Example number two: Obama wants a Justice “who has a sense of how American society works and how the American people live.” Is he looking for a “Supreme Sociologist”? Where does the “law” fit into this Oprah Winfrey style of jurisprudence? As pointed out by Scully nearly 600 words later, this sounds to be a textbook definition of “empathy.” Obama not twelve words later says, “I thought empathy wasn’t important, and I continue to believe that.”

“One of the things I would prefer not see happen is that these confirmation hearings drag on and somebody has to hit the ground running. Without the time to wrap their mind around the fact that they are going to be a Supreme Court justice. So they can get prepared.” Liberal irrationality doesn’t like the “acrimonious” image of someone questioning the liberal bias of a liberal candidate who is asking for a job for LIFE. (Any liberal with a job let alone one for life, is confusing enough.) Obama himself “understood” that Alito and Roberts took about seventy days to withstand the liberal “dragging on” that was once acceptable. If a nominee can’t “wrap their mind around the fact that they are going to be a Supreme Court justice in seventy days,” then they shouldn’t be considered for the job.

Suddenly, our Justice needs to “get prepared.” When the loyal opposition as well as the outraged citizens of this nation wanted to “prepare” relative to the Obama multiple trillion dollar socialist soiree, “getting prepared” was cast as being “acrimonious.” Unlike our President, this Justice will (hopefully) have “experience” as a judge so their only “preparation” will involve a quick brushing up on the Communist Manifesto or the Democratic Party Platform, whichever is handier.

Where will he be going with this pick? It seems silly to ask. According to Obama, Justice Scalia is just a “terrific writer.” Yet uber-liberally biased and agenda driven marionettes like “Brennan and Marshall really focused on the broader sweep of history (who) broke the political logjam that had locked out too many people in the political process.” Never mind that that “logjam” was put in place and exacerbated by Democratic beavers. The people locking “too many people out in the political process” were the Democrats who didn’t really give up on the idea; they just altered their game plan and their tactics a bit.

Obama idolizes two of the most destructive liberal deconstruction-ists as his template for a Supreme Court justice. The good news is that they will have to look long and hard to find another Justice as sufficiently basted in liberalism as Ginsburg. The bad news is that they won’t stop looking until they do.

Soon thereafter, Obama again referred to what it was that he either does or doesn’t believe in when it comes to Supreme Court Justices saying, “Compassion and empathy for ordinary Americans so that everybody is heard.” The “everybody is heard” element is what is particularly fascinating. The new liberalism involves taking the majority and portraying them as “an extremist minority” while simultaneously taking one “proper thinking” liberal and casting them as “the will of the overwhelming majority.” Just be sure to use as your marinate, a Bolshevik with a black robe and a gavel and suddenly “everybody is heard.”

The final question relative to this topic was “would you have any interest in being on the Supreme Court?” Probably the only honest answer that he has given in the last year then appeared, “I am not sure that I could get through Senate confirmation.” I am not sure as to why he believes this, he managed to duck and dodge all of these typical “Democrat’s discrepancies” while hoodwinking the electorate in 2008.

Then it was on to his “health care hysteria.” Obama believes that we are “operating at a competitive disadvantage with other countries.” I suppose that he can explain the latest “medical breakthroughs” coming from Togo or possibly Trinidad and Tobago. The socialized medicine that he is forwarding is all about putting us at a “competitive disadvantage.”

“The single biggest component driving down (down?) our deficits and long term debt is getting control of Medicare and Medicaid costs.” Were this nonsense to actually be true, why did he send so much real and imaginary money to the banks, the insurance conglomerates and the automakers? Does he have any idea what is actually driving UP our deficits? Doesn’t he understand that HE is “driving” the “deficit express” right into the embankment?

All we need to cure this “problem” is “everybody comes at it with a spirit not of ideological rigidity.” Once old Barack becomes a “flaccid fascist” we can consider his progressive perspective to be anything other than “ideological rigidity.” “We are going to manage how treatments are provided more effectively.” Note the word “manage.” “Manage” means demand. It also means, “ration.” That sentence sounds like the shortest description of socialized medicine that I’ve ever heard. “We are going to initiate things like electronic medical records.” “Initiate,” same as “manage.”

“Every provider, every small community hospital has these things in place and that’s part of the role that the government can play.” This “role” with their “electronic” records systems, sounds like the “government” will be “overseeing” the process. Maybe if the Obama caliphate read the Constitution, the “role of government” might be a little clearer to them. By the way, there is nothing in the Constitution about the government “providing, demanding, managing or initiating” a socialized medicine pogrom.

Then came the big one from Scully. “$1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion, at what point do we run out of money?” Obama’s answer, “We are out of money now.” He followed up with, “We are operating in deep deficits, (his word, “operating,” my word: “drowning”) not caused by any decisions we’ve made on health care so far.” Please note: “so far.” This is called foreshadowing.

The problem again is “health care inflation” according to the confused communist. He then stumbles into “investments. Even if they don’t reduce them (costs) this year or next, but ten years from now or twenty years from now we end up saving two trillion dollars.” Over twenty years that breaks down to two billion dollars a year even if the possibility existed that the “big spender” would consider slowing down his personal trillion dollar a month habit.

Continuing with the comic relief we were again told that if we “preserve our values and uphold our ideals” we will be safer. I wish that he would explain how OUR “values and ideals” influence the Muslim terrorists? We had better be prepared to defend “our values and ideals” with ballistic missiles as opposed to awaiting our “report card” from the ticking turban crowd.

Yes, our little President has his totalitarian toolbox in hand (with his journeyman union card as well, I might add.) and he can’t wait to tinker with the Supreme Court, his special “health care hysteria” and our “interrogation techniques.” That is, after he has done such a bang-up job with the banks and mortgage companies and the automakers. He says we are “broke,” broke in more ways than one. If I may play off of the old saying, “If it’s broke, will someone else PLEASE fix it?”

LARRY WILKE is a part-time cynic and full-time curmudgeon residing in St. Louis. Read more at www.noleftturnz.com.

By Rev. MICHAEL BRESCIANI

Even if every word about global warming were the immutable gospel truth and even if we never cut down another tree the trail America is leaving behind is conspicuously a brilliant red.

Is green mania hypocrisy, hyperbole or just political correctness gone wild? Perhaps it is none of the above but only a failure to prioritize what is and is not so very important.

Whether global warming proponents like it or not; everyone is not buying the global warming hype including some of the most qualified scientist in the world. The computer models used by the United Nations IPCC (Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change) after the global warming conference in Japan are holding every citizen in the world responsible for the problem. In essence these questionable models have become judge, jury and according to green doomsayers our very executioner.

For those who have poured through all of the best information including but not limited to the core samples taken from our ice sheets that defy almost all other findings, there is a body of evidence and an ever enlarging contingent with millions of people who have only one word to describe the hype…baloney!

Anyone who contends with the status quo version or the acceptable global warming hype can expect anything from being ostracized to getting fired. They may be labeled a kook or conspiracy theorist. What is largely ignored is the fact that anyone with the most fundamental knowledge of political science knows that socialism always leans toward the pushing up the state and bringing down both the individual and private enterprise.

Global warming extravagance doesn’t come with a warning, but it should. It should be labeled ‘no conspiracy needed.” Those who think the panic over global warming is a reuse leading to global governance are not theorizing but are only referring themselves to history’s most obvious but long forgotten lessons.

National problems require national unity to be resolved. Now we have a global threat that requires global action, and in the absence of a common enemy you can always generate one. People are not willing to blame communism, the Jews, terrorism, racism or any of the usual common enemies; that is far too socially messy. Global warming has a far more inane but universal appeal in an age when the new high priests of society is without doubt modern scientists.

In a busy world where raising the kids, making a living or getting a degree eats up most of everyone’s time, very few people are sitting down with the pros on one side and the cons on the other and making a rational decision. It isn’t a matter of whether it is true or false but more of ‘whose got the time to really find out?’ For the few who have taken the time their answer comes up as false more often than not and exaggerated at the very least.

Even as the alleged dangers of global disaster encroaches according to climate warming devotees there are two massive rivers converging together to stain this country and indeed the entire world with a crimson stain and an accompanying odor that is a stench in the nostrils of anyone with an ounce of morality left in their hearts.

Global warming is the giant distraction that keeps us from seeing two blood red rivers that threaten the next generation fiscally and physically. One river has the name ‘Fiscal Irresponsibility’ and it is our national debt. It is nine trillion dollars strong after the tinkering of the Obama administration, and it will be laid on the next generation to pay in full.

The other great red river is named ‘The Genocide of the Innocents’ and is nearly inundating its banks with up to 4000 abortions per day. This river is the most hideous and is haunted as it flows with the voices of a generation who have been passed by for what all of the rest of us have taken for granted; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Why hasn’t it occurred to the green enthusiasts that the one who is capable of solving the whole greenhouse effect or who may discover the next new clean energy source may have been aborted this morning? Not altogether that unbelievable!

Together these rivers are creating a veritable ocean of red that to millions of Americans who are not distracted by the climate, the new socialism or the worship of the new savior of the governed it is an ocean we will all certainly be drowned in together unless we make changes.

This is still the kind of world that gives Oscars to actors who glorify filth and violence and Peace prizes to inventors of dynamite and producers of films guaranteed to put the world in a panic about the weather. No you don’t need a conspiracy, but only a brain to discern that global panic can and will produce global governance if not checked.

As we approach the brink of national amorality these two rivers are unseen but cresting just behind us as we chase the pop culture diversions of the day and the latest word on saving the planet from ourselves.

I was told the story of a soldier who was stationed in the Jackson Barracks, a military installation in New Orleans that was flooded when the levees there on the industrial canal were breached. He said he looked down at the water that had risen up to his ankles but ignored it. He was distracted by something perhaps a call on his cell phone but only about thirty seconds later he was scrambling for safety because the waters had reached the middle of his chest. This is exactly the kind of speed which water rises as it seeks to find its own level.

Ignoring the blood red rivers encroaching on this nation is only part and parcel to our national penchant for making excuses. We have excused fiscal irresponsibility and rampant immorality and there doesn’t seem to be rhyme or reason to any of it.

One explanation that is more than fitting comes from Christ in the gospel of Matthew. Speaking of rising immorality in the last days he warned of all sorts of catastrophes and difficulties. He also described the social atmosphere that would foster the slaughter of innocents and disregard the welfare of our future generations. He said “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” (Mt 24:12)

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and now has millions of readers throughout the world.