On Sunday, a group of Tennessee preachers will step into the pulpit and say the only words they’re forbidden by law from speaking in a church.

This Sunday, seven Pastors in Tennessee, 4 of which are in the Nashville area, will endorse a number of candidates for office in this district (TN-05). Among the candidates endorsed will be former Mayor Bill Haslam who is currently running for Governor of the state and David Hall, a businessman who is aiming to oust Rep. Jim Cooper from his Congressional seat.

The article linked above calls it IRS baiting. I call it reasserting our civil rights. The article author looks at this from a one sided view citing “a line between church and state.”

But many mainstream churches recoil from the idea of erasing the line between church and state.[...]

Other ministers and organizations have weighed in on the subject, including Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

Land said the church endorses many of the ADF’s initiatives, but “we think the mixing of the sacred nature of the church with the exceedingly worldly nature of politics is … unseemly.”[...]

Lewis Lavine, president of the Center for Nonprofit Management in Nashville, is familiar with the balancing act churches and other nonprofit groups must maintain when they stray near the political arena.

“We have separation of church and state in this country for a reason,” Lavine said. “There should be parameters, and there should be common sense.”[...]

The ADF’s polar opposites, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, issued a statement this week calling pulpit-based lawbreaking “the worst idea ever.”

“Clergy serve as spiritual advisers, not political bosses. Pulpit politicking violates federal tax law and offends the vast majority of church-goers,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the group’s executive director.

“The nation is already bitterly divided over politics this year. … Now, Religious Right political hacks want to haul that divisiveness into America’s houses of worship.

Of course, calling political opposition, Religious Right political hacks isn’t the least bit divisive, is it? Oh no, not divisive at all.

There’s a problem with their opinions on this. The line they’re talking about, separation of church and state via the first amendment, was erased long ago. According to the ADF, it was erased in 1954 when Senator Lyndon B. Johnson offered an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code to restrict speech by nonprofits. And that it was done without debate or analysis, likely similar to what we are experiencing now with a government passing legislation that the majority of people don’t want (TARP, Health care deform, Cap and Tax…).

Historically, churches had frequently and fervently spoken for and against candidates for government office. Such sermons date from the founding of America, including sermons against Thomas Jefferson for being a deist; sermons opposing William Howard Taft as a Unitarian; and sermons opposing Al Smith in the 1928 presidential election. Churches have also been at the forefront of most of the significant societal and governmental changes in our history including ending segregation and child labor and advancing civil rights.

For 66 years now, churches can’t, obliterating the separation of church and state, that nonexistent for 66 years line they tout so highly in the above article. When government can restrict what a church can and can’t say, there is no line between church and state though other nonprofits, both on the left and right, engage in political speech and actively seek the elections of endorsed candidates without fear of the taxman. Well, unless they support someone other than a Democrat. If you do support Democrats, even to committing fraud, well, you get federal funding.

Oh, Free Speech! Wherefore art thou???

Gone, gone, gone; a long time gone.

Remember McCain-Feingold?

Prayer has been forbidden in public schools citing separation of church and state. So has the Bible. But churches are forbidden to engage in political speech or they will lose nonprofit status. What profit is being taxed, anyway? What does a church produce that makes a profit? They get donations. To even have to justify their existence as a non-profit is a mockery of the separation between church and state.

I suppose if health inspectors can shut down a 7 year old’s lemonade stand they can shut down a church bake sale, too. Of course, licensing isn’t a tax, though it’s money the government confiscates in order to allow such fund raising goes for the same things that our taxes do. If a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, a tax by any other name is still a tax.

Any entity that is affected by politics, regardless of profit status, should have the right to safeguard its interests. That includes churches because to do otherwise means accepting a nonexistent line that was wiped out of existence decades ago. It’s time for this civil disobedience. Support their right to safeguard their interests as much as we are entitled to safeguard our own, individually, with our votes. If it were not for the churches in colonial America, we would not have this nation.

Crossposted.

Even as we “politicos” wrangle over policies and issues, we are still losing the debate on conservatism. This article brought that home.

Partisan politics is a deadly weapon that is destroying the fabric of one of the greatest societies in history. It’s frustrating to watch Americans slowly losing their grip on true freedom. It seems that we’re either free to be liberal or free to be conservative. How does choosing between these two failed ideologies give us real freedom at all? (emphasis mine)

The bolded words is where the writer went wrong. He has confused conservative with Republican. I can understand his mistake. Most people make the same mistake. However, the reason most conservatives vote Republican is that fact that we lose less freedom and at a slower pace than if we were to vote for the Democrat instead.

He doesn’t understand that conservatism isn’t a political ideology but a way of living in that freedom he is in such fear of losing. Conservatives are individuals and believe in individual freedom and come at our decisions in individual ways knowing there is no “one size fits all” solution to any problem whether it’s on a personal or national level. Not even state to state.

Read More →

There have been a lot of knee jerk reactions to the Ground Zero Mosque/Cultural Center. I’ve had my own, which was troubling as I generally don’t care about others’ religion except in the general sense of wanting everyone to go to Heaven. Why we’ve had such visceral reactions is not easy to put into words and most will fail at putting it into words, though I’ll give it a try.

Our understanding of Islam is that it is not “just a religion” but a whole system of government and economics as well as religion. This runs counter to the main argument being used by both sides. To date, the framers of the debate on the Ground Zero Mosque, have designated freedom of religion as the hill to die on. The problem with this approach is that it allows those debating to avoid the big issues lurking underneath.

Just as we Christians have different doctrinal flavors (Lutheran, Baptist, Episcopal, Catholic, and so on) so does Islam. The particular “flavor” of Islam that is being promoted with the construction of the Ground Zero Mosque is that of Wahhabism and Sharia Law.

The would-be builders are seeking money from Saudi Arabia and Iran among other nations that practice the above described religion, which isn’t just a religion. In addition, those builders/backers refuse to give any assurances that this new “cultural center” won’t be a repeat of this one (emphasis mine).

All signs point to a repeat of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center debacle, in which Mayor Thomas Menino practically gave away city-owned land worth $2 million to the Islamic Society of Boston, whose founder Abdurrahman Alamoudi currently sweats out a 23-year prison term for terrorist crimes. Mayor Menino donated the public’s land for the construction of the ISB mosque — excuse me, “Cultural Center” — with the standard pleas for diversity, healing, peace, and frolicking unicorns. Of course, he didn’t bother to investigate the peaceful healing record of the Middle Eastern men he was donating to: ISB Trustee Yusuf Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who’s been banned from the U.S. and dubbed “the theologian of terror” by the ADL; ISB Trust President Osama Kandil, director of an Islamic charity designated as terrorist by the U.S. government; and ISB Trustee Jamal Badawi, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial. But the mayor’s speeches sure sounded pretty, and that’s what counts.

When the Boston Herald and local Fox Network affiliate began exposing the ISB’s nasty connections, the ISB responded with the typical relish of democracy’s free speech hurly-burly we’ve come to expect from these types: They sued every single one of their public critics, including a refugee Muslim scholar who had translated some of their anti-Semitic, anti-American literature to enlighten the citizenry. Their brass-knuckles intimidation worked beautifully: the media went silent on reporting anything negative about the ISB, while the private citizens they sued were ordered by lawyers to keep daintily quiet. The ISB bigwigs sashayed to their opening ceremony in June 2009, where they were fulsomely feted by top politicians, Harvard scholars, and Christian and Jewish clergy.

For more on the Boston Mosque read here: A Mosque Grows in Boston and the full article as quoted above can be found here: A Sneak Preview of the Ground Zero Mega-Mosque

At what point does the doctrine of tolerance become the doctrine of oppression? The short answer is when tolerance demands something that runs counter to our culture, our values, and, most especially, Our Laws.

The biggest of these is our constitutional form of government, the very thing being used to beat about the heads of those opposing the mosque, with that very clause that is being debated on both sides of the issue. Again, this is not just a religion, it’s a whole system of government. Plainly and simply, Sharia is incompatible with our Constitution and with that clause used as a weapon of intolerance by the left because of the inextricable intertwining as also an economic and legal system.

To wholesale adopt the position of the Cultural Center builders/backers is to create and sanction a government within a government; a government that runs counter to our own. The builders/backers are not being open about their intentions and have refused to be open about their intentions. In fact, they are now “whitewashing” their websites to hide their intentions (emphasis mine).

After two years of work, the Sharia Index Project’s working team of Sunni and Shi’a legal scholars from Morocco to Indonesia achieved consensus on a final structure on philosophy, methodology, and approach to providing the general public, opinion leaders, and state officials in both the Muslim and Western worlds with an Islamic legal benchmark for measuring “Islamicity” of a state.

Tolerance is a two way street. Those exhorting tolerance return none. At some point when it flows only one way, it stops. We do not need a repeat of the Boston Cultural Center debacle or any other similar setup. Does tolerance demand that we allow terrorist and terrorist organizations to set up shop within our own country?

In the U.K. the Archbishop said Sharia was unavoidable and the U.K. allowed that government within a government, the effects of which are just becoming apparent. In France, the burqua has been banned. Here in the states, there have been instances of honor killings.

Until these builders/backers are open and forthright about their full intentions, I cannot support the building of this “Cultural Center.” If those who want this thing want to yell intolerance, I really don’t care. They offer no tolerance of our laws or culture while demanding tolerance of theirs. If they find our laws and culture too open for their liking, I really don’t care. They have the freedom to leave any time they wish. Otherwise, they just need to deal with it. No exceptions.

Crossposted

Whether you agree with her conservatism or not, this was a well done video; uplifting in an activist sort of way. It’s not big on policy issues because it was never meant to be about policy issues but a renewal of the American voices that seem to be fading away in the cacophony of liberal angst. If those who shout loudest are the only ones heard, the next video fails miserably.

I can think of only one word to describe this one: Infantilism. There’s the nurse, the teacher, the therapist, and the entertainment lawyer. It’s scary to think these people are in charge of anything in any one of those fields. It’s even scarier to realize that at least one of them is in charge of someone’s children somewhere.

The last video reminds me of the old saying: “Babies raising babies.” If not their own, yours.

Crossposted

On July 22, 2010, hearings began on Charlie Rangel’s ethics(D-NY) woesRangel was charged with ethics violations. Throughout the following week, Rangel worked to make a deal that culminated in formal charges on July 29 as first he had reached a deal and then hadn’t.

On the heels of the Rangel scandal, comes Maxine Waters (D-CA) who is brought up on ethics charges.

The action against Rep. Waters comes at a sensitive time for the Democratic Party, which is hoping to retain control of the House in the midterm elections in November. Last week, the House ethics committee formally charged Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York with 13 counts of violating congressional rules, mostly related to his efforts to raise donations from companies for an educational institution that bears his name. Rep. Rangel has denied any intentional wrongdoing.

On July 22,2010, the same day as the Rangel hearings began, while addressing the GOP Youth Convention in Washington, Bachmann stated

“all we should do is issue subpoenas and have one hearing after another.”

Someone taped the audio so you can hear it in her own words:

Within days of the Waters decision and as the Bachmann audio made the rounds on the internet, Pelosi insists the swamp is drained.Democratic congressional leaders say they’ve emptied the swamp of congressional corruption. Never mind the ethics trials to come for two longtime party members.

“Drain the swamp we did, because this was a terrible place,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week of the Republican rule in the House that ended in January 2007.

Are Rangel and Waters to be rabbit-holed? Is it as the Congressional Black Caucus complains, that it is motivated by race?

Not only are the ethics charges a big problem for the Democratic majority, they also appear to be firing up a race debate. The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) has levied allegations that the charges against Rangel and Waters (both black) are motivated by their race.

While Pelosi’s claim alone is enough to support Bachmann’s idea of subpoenas and hearings, there are a few others one would like to bring into the mix. The Democrats are facing huge upsets this November, some in unlikely states and districts within those states; and a few Senators, too. Though Bachmann was speaking more about the Obama administration, the idea is applicable to Congress as well.

The first, the swamp is not drained, in any way, shape, or form. How about Pelosi herself? The Senate is no better.

Second, whether it’s incompetence or sheer bravado, the Democrats are incapable of cleaning their own house, while quite adept at forcing others to clean theirs.

Thirdly, we don’t need a Clinton Redux.

Mr. Emanuel argued that this generation of liberal political figures won’t repeat their predecessors’ mistakes in not reaching deals on health care. The late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy said his greatest regret was not cutting a deal with Richard Nixon on universal health care. Former President Bill Clinton has lamented that he didn’t take up moderate Republican Sen. John Chafee on a compromise that could have secured a health-care bill early in his presidency, Mr. Emanuel said.

“Every time they’ve gotten close to the deal, they’ve passed up the opportunity and chosen to walk away from a particular chance where they’ve lost the forest for the trees,” Mr. Emanuel said.

Given Obama’s propensity for deal making to pass his legislative agenda, let’s not do that again. Let the message be hearings and restoration of our inalienable rights endowed by our Creator, not more deal making and compromise, whether the slow creep or crisis.

Obama said Rangel should resign with dignity. Should he? One believes Congresswoman Waters can answer that better than I (embed malfunction, sorry).

Update: On the other hand, perhaps there is something to the accusations made by the Congressional Black Caucus. One really doesn’t pay much attention to race over character. But apparently there were once 8 Congressional members under investigation; all black, with one member of the caucus anonymously quoted as saying:

There’s a “dual standard, one for most members and one for African-Americans,” said one member of the Congressional Black Caucus, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Anonymous or not, welcome to the conservatives’ world Congressmen. We know well that “dual standard.”

And then there’s this, which popped up on the front page after I published mine.

A lot of seats considered safe are flying under the radar. TN-05 is one of them. Cooper is beatable.

According to this poll, any Republican can beat Jim Cooper.

The article does talk about some drawbacks, one of which is the poll is coming from the Hartline camp, whom I come have as close to endorsing as anybody, in spite of Huckabee not because of him. However, Cooper has done nothing but the same in the intervening months.

It’s always the quiet ones, eh? They try to keep quiet and not draw attention to what they’re doing in the shadows, while being rode roughshod by the likes of Pelosi, not to mention buying into the whole “common good” myth.

And for those of you too lazy to click through to the poll findings, the key findings are:

• Voters in the 5th District are actively seeking an alternative to Jim Cooper.
• Cooper can’t even manage a majority of the vote against a virtually-unknown Republican.
• The more voters learn about Jim Cooper, the less they like him.

Considering this is Cooper’s second gig, one does wonder where he’ll crop up next. Likely nowhere if he and the rest of the Democratic majority Congress continue with their threats of a lame duck session.

While many are concentrating and working actively on some critical campaigns, we often overlook some chances of making a real change because it’s never been done before. TN-05 has been Democrat held since 1875 (much as I hate to link to Wikipedia). That’s a goal worth attaining, wouldn’t you think?

Crossposted to Hillbilly Politics.

Sometimes you have to step back, away, and into the silence to hear what is going on. If you listen closely, everything is still Bush’s fault.

Yesterday, a Democrat saw fit to spam my site with his campaign against Jim Cooper. He left no link to any site but there is this. The reason I say he spammed is because he’s pretty much done the same thing on a number of sites.

One thing, I’ve figured out in the silence is there will be no Obama’s Katrina. Pundits have declared that BP is Obama’s Katrina, or the Nashville flood, any number of other occurrences (read: crises) that have happened during his first two years. No, instead we’ll hear things like Communication Gulf, wherein the author states that Obama forgot to show his emotions (and assuming he has them to show). Or this, Obama, the Oil Spill and the Chaos Perception, where the author begins by lauding Obama as a rare politician and gifted writer, before talking about the dangers to that politician’s presidency. It doesn’t seem to occur to either writer that Obama has a one track mind focused only on his agenda and nothing else matters. People do not matter unless they are of use in pushing that agenda forward. Neither do the long term effects of that agenda seem to bother anyone, though it has been tried many times in the past and is still being tried in Europe.There are lessons from Greece, Spain, and yes even France and Germany, that should be learned but denial is the best defense because there is always some joker who thinks he can make it work.

One wonders when everything will stop being Bush’s fault per the Communication Gulf article complaining about previous presidents’ messes. We were not 13 trillion dollars into debt when Obama took office but we’re there now. We were somewhere around the 9 trillion mark on January 20, 2009, but how can one explain the 4 trillion more when Obama campaigned on hope and change? He did say, “Change we can believe in” but one doesn’t believe the change he meant is the change people wanted. Bush was crucified for less deeds, but Obama is more of a teflon presiden than Clinton ever thought about being (the last linked article is from 1 year ago and truer today than then). For Obama this is called bashing, mixed of course with a healthy pinch of Bush bashing. Wouldn’t be a complete article without inserting Bush’s name in there somewhere, now would it?

There seems to be a frenetic quality to the “bashing,” as if they can’t fathom how to pin some of the deeds on Bush, causing great leaps in logic to accomplish the “fact.”

Bush had no part in nationalizing auto companies.

Bush had no part in the nationalizing health care.

Bush had no part in the breakdown of ties with Israel.

Bush had no part in the stimulus bill that did nothing.

In only a few short months (about 18), Obama has done all that claiming that he has to because of what Bush did the previous eight years. Meanwhile, real crises are going to waste, though Rahm Emmanuel doesn’t seem to mind. When there is a real one such as the BP spill or the flood or even the storms and tornadoes today, Obama runs away:

• Christmas terror attempt
• BP Oil Spill
• Storms rip through the midwest killing at least 7
• Credit Rating Cut for the U.S. wealthiest state
• Fort Hood
• Flooding and storms of AR, TN, AL, MS (Yes I meant to link to the same one as the flood was superceded by BP)

One might think that Obama’s favorite movie is Runaway Bride because when the going gets tough, he sure knows how to runaway. After all, blaming Bush for everything is just another form of running away.

Perhaps a female version of a Richard Gere will convince him that running away isn’t the answer. Apparently, that isn’t Michelle O or she would have done it already.

Crossposted

Add this to the annals on the myth of the Blue Dog Democrat:

This isn’t the first time. To get them out of the “undecided” column in last December’s House vote, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership promised $500 million for a new University of California-Merced Medical School. Costa and Cardoza then voted “aye.”

During the 109th Congress, Cardoza was co-chairman of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate and conservative Democrats who allegedly had the Constitution, limited government and their constituents’ best interests at heart. Lately, many have just rolled over and played dead. Cardoza and Costa were among 28 Blue Dog Democrats who voted for the first House bill.

From September last year for background on the issue:

A little CA background: The population of CA was about 10 million in pre-WWII. From 1950 to 2000, people flocked to the southern half of the state as all kinds of businesses and industries based themselves in that “sunny, mild climate.” The estimated 2009 population is about 38 million people with almost half, 17 million, in Los Angeles and surrounding areas.

While the vote buying has been documented before there’s a problem.

Ever heard the expression ” a lick and a promise”? It’s what I say when I’m cleaning but am behind on other work, too, meaning I get the worst of it and promise to get back to it later.

There is no water, only the schmucks, Congressmen Costa and Cardoza who sold their health care deform votes for water in a newly created, but preventable, dust bowl in California all in the name of protecting a little fish no one but environmentalists and their government lackeys care about. They sold their votes for a “a lick and a promise”. Water was released early just in time for the health care vote but did little to ease the long term suffering of their constituents.

Way to go, Congressmen! Is it time to go so soon?

California’s 20th district: The battle for water in 2010

Cardoza faces opposition in House re-election

Rep. Jim Cooper sold his vote while playing coy with district TN-05′s voters when after the fact facts tell a different story.

TN-05 and other districts nearby recently experienced a historic natural disaster. Cooper’s answer is to find a scapegoat and publicize it.

I had started a series to highlight five candidates for this district Out of the five planned two are done and only two will be done because the remaining candidates have either declined or ignored the series of questions I asked for article content. Hartline’s profile is here.

Both had good answers to the series of questions, but Hartline has the advantage: Activity and raising money, both of which are going to be necessary to challenging an incumbent in a district that isn’t on the radar with political pundits.

NASHVILLE – Congressional candidate Jeff Hartline of Mount Juliet is raising record contributions for his campaign to unseat incumbent Congressman Jim Cooper. First quarter financial disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission show that, of the several candidates for the Fifth District Republican nomination, only Hartline raised
significant sums of money from individual contributors.

Hartline raised almost $45,000 during the first quarter – more than any Republican has ever raised to run against Cooper in the 5th district – with all of his contributions coming from individual donors. None came from political action committees and none came from Hartline’s personal funds. Hartline is the only candidate for the Republican nomination who raised a significant amount of money from individual donors.

In addition to his money raising fetes with individual donors, Mr. Hartline has Nashville business owners pledging $500,000+ to his campaign. In politics, November is a lifetime away but one believes Hartline has what it takes to send the message to the beltway that Washington, D.C. works for us, not the other way around.

E Pluribus Unum once predicted an 80 seat pickup for Congress. Given the anti-incumbent sentiment in the country with a deaf Congress that passes massive spending bills under the guise of reform and against the will of the people, it is possible that districts once considered safe are endangered. WV’s Alan Mollohan, a 28 year incumbent was defeated in primary, as was Arlen Specter and other incumbents such as Barbara Boxer find themselves in tough primary fights.

It’s time for some unexpected upsets. There are sites focusing on some crucial races including RedState and 73wire. Let’s not forget those districts that aren’t being considered in the push for conservative candidates. Cooper is entrenched and has a long political career with district hopping representing TN-04 from 1982-1994 before moving to Nashville and becoming a Congressional Representative once again since 2002.

Hartline is conservative. He is also a man after my own heart with his love and faith in the people of Tennessee. I don’t believe we can ask for a better representative for Tennessee’s 5th district.

He deserves our support and TN-05 deserves better than Cooper. Check him out and donate if you feel so inclined.

Crossposted to Hillbilly Politics

If you don’t know who the other Cooper is, go here: Attack of the Coopers.

On the heels of the Arizona immigration bill uproar, Tennessee has passed a voter registration bill requiring potential voters to provide proof they have the right to register.

TN Attorney General Robert Cooper says it’s unConstitutional:

Legislation that requires new voters to show proof of citizenship when they register would violate a federal law meant to get more people to vote, the state attorney general said in an opinion released Wednesday.

A voter-registration bill that has cleared the Senate would break the so-called Motor Voter Act, a 17-year-old law that requires states to let people register to vote at state agencies and by mail, Attorney General Robert Cooper said.

Then contradicts that opinion:

But the bill does not necessarily violate the U.S. Constitution or the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the bedrock federal law aimed at eliminating discrimination at the polls, Cooper’s office said.

The hoopla seems to be concern about a “deterrent effect” with the obligatory “mean spirited” argument.

One keeps asking for some equality in this immigration debate but no one seems to listen. If anybody can register to vote regardless of citizenship status or get a drivers license since their birth certificates are apparently not used as proof of anything for them, can my husband stop having to prove he’s a citizen every time he has to renew his drivers license because his birth certificate says he was born in Ashia, Japan? He has two of them, one of which was issued by the State Department, that he must guard as if it’s the lost treasure of King Solomon’s mines.

If the government wants to talk equality, well, let’s talk equality and how actual citizens are being left out of the equation.

Note: Shorter than my normal diaries but the money argument and drain on the system isn’t getting us anywhere so let’s talk about equality and equal rights under the law, using real world examples.

According to my insurance company it is. That was the news I received this morning from them. Despite the fact that it wasn’t rising streams and rivers that caused my problem, a flood is, well, a flood.

Many of us have discussed this on Susannah’s diary about giving but to recap, I’ve gone through all the steps that I was told to take including registering with FEMA, which you will see if you follow that link isn’t very useful in my situation. For others in the same situation, be prepared to receive the same treatment.

Now, it could be that FEMA is rather indifferent because they’re almost broke.

Last month, FEMA Director W. Craig Fugate wrote a letter to Congress warning that its relief fund had fallen to $693 million as of April 7 but the agency owed $645 million to 47 states for past disasters. That doesn’t include the $1.7 billion settlement the agency owes to the Gulf Coast state and city governments for Hurricane Katrina.

It seems that FEMA is having trouble meeting it’s obligations or pledges, if you will, for some time as $1.7 billion is earmarked for Hurricane Katrina and has yet to be paid.

I told myself and others we shouldn’t make this Obama’s Katrina.

I’ve heard that this or the oil spill should be Obama’s Katrina. Truth to tell, Bush should have never had a Katrina in that meaning. Yes, Obama is absent except for signing a document declaring TN a disaster area, but so what? So what if he doesn’t care?

When Katrina happened, everything was hunky-dorry, nothing to say really until the levees broke. The levees broke AFTER the hurricane had passed. Mississippi was devastated along it’s entire coast and further inland. It survived and rebuilt without Bush having to hold the Governor’s or Mayors’ hands. Nobody paid much attention to MS and still don’t. Still less was paid to Mobile AL which also suffered some damage. All eyes were on N.O. and a lot of nasty and completely false things were said about Bush and the HHS response to the disaster.

There is no looting going on here like there was there. Of course, you’re always going to have some, few or many, who will complain that everything isn’t being handed to them. That’s one of the drawbacks of the response to N.O. It now sets the standard to disaster response and it shouldn’t. People have the expectation of everything being handed to them, no questions asked, because that is what was done in N.O.

But we will get through this and we will rebuild, regardless of whether Obama utters a statement or hops on a plane to make some toadying campaign speech in a dry spot of downtown, which is all he can really do without a hundred other toadies to do the heavy lifting of his agenda, and we’ll be better and stronger for it.

If anyone really wants to use this against Obama, use it in campaigns not as a “he doesn’t care” but as a measure of the resilience and fortitude of a people who don’t need a government overseeing every little step of our lives. Why do we always look to Washington, D.C. for the answers when the answers are truly inside each and every one of us who makes a decision to be independent and self reliant? Use as proof that Obama’s claim that we are needy and stupid is simply wrong for the majority of Americans and use this as proof of that. Use as well all the other states which suffered this disastrous weather and other disasters before this.

I’ve lost everything in my life before. It is only sticks, bricks, and mortar, after all. I could lose everything again but if I lose my freedom and and the right to exercise my own free will, there’s no coming back from that.

It would be so easy to engage in the same kind of rhetoric used against Bush. Too easy, in fact. But it wouldn’t stick to Obama like it did to Bush anyway, not just because Bush is a Republican but because Democrats never accept responsibility for anything and never will. They can make all the decisions and control all the power but when what they do utterly fails, it will still be someone else’s fault. They have been that way for decades… or a century. Tough to tell these days, they’ve gotten so good at it.

So, let’s try to use this in a positive way for conservatives and the American people and whatever negatives fall on Obama as a result, well, they will be well earned.

I would stand by that but there are some lessons to be learned and we’d best learn them quickly. We can still make it a positive message.

This administration which is in charge of DHS under which FEMA falls, has pledged to contribute a part of multi-billion dollar bailout for Greece, but not much for disaster relief when it is our tax dollars that fund both. We are on the hook for auto bailouts, Wall Street bailouts, union bailouts, ACORN, and stimulus bills that don’t stimulate much of anything but bigger bureaucracies, but when the American people need it’s, “eh, not so much.”

It’s not that we should believe Obama doesn’t care. I think he doesn’t but it’s more than not caring. It feels like being hated for simply being an American as I watch this government take from us the means to take care of ourselves while denying us care that is so readily available to others. Plus there seems to be  a willingness on the part of this administration to never think about a “rainy day” as it passes massive bills such as the health care reform bill, with cap and tax and immigration on the horizon, all of which are massive spending bills with little to no benefit to the citizens who fund them.

The article linked above citing FEMA’s budget crunch talks about a number of issues, outlined by a Heritage Foundation report, such as the fact that Obama has signed 108 disaster declarations for the year 2009 and 128 for this year. Including Katrina and 9/11, Bush signed a total of 130 for his entire 8 years. Clinton signed 89 and Bush I signed 43. Obama has tripled those numbers of the other three combined in less than two years.

Read the entire report. Being largely in agreement with the Heritage Foundation’s conclusion that FEMA should not be the first responder, there are still problems. The first responder has largely taken the control of disasters out of state and local government hands and it is not likely to give back that control, or the funds, willingly. Or FEMA can continue pledging money it doesn’t have, rather like Cash for Clunkers.

For those who have a spare dime: Give. Not for me but for those who have lost so much more. My losses are minuscule in comparison and I can recoup or fix them over time. With or without the aid, or lack thereof,  from the federal government, we can rebuild and be strong again. The government needs us more than we need it, at least in its present form. Without us builders, doers, and thinkers there would be nothing. The government knows that. It just thinks you don’t.

There have been a lot of assumptions made about the Road Rage incident in Nashville TN, beginning with the headline of the linked article:

Road rage, accident centers on Obama bumper sticker

The headline comes largely from an assumption the victim made; that it had something to do with his Obama/Biden sticker rather than a simple case (although terrifying) of road rage due to the suspect’s inebriated state and some underlying circumstances that no one seems to have bothered to check on before coming to their conclusions. For instance, Mr. Weisiger lost his wife last month on February 26. The main assumption in this case is that the hit and run was politically motivated yet background facts don’t support that assumption considering that Mr. Weisiger’s last activism recorded has been a campaign donation to a Republican in 1980.

In Harry’s own words about the incident, the bumper sticker wasn’t mentioned at all.

“He slammed on his brakes, and I hit him in the bumper when I tried to go around him.”

I’ve got something to say about a man who is more concerned over an Obama/Biden bumper sticker than concerned about any injuries his daughter might have sustained but we’ll leave that personal opinion out of this.

Whether the incident was politically motivated, we cannot say. For the moment all we can say is that may have been. But there are some who have already declared themselves judge and jury and Mr. Weisiger is guilty of a political hit and run.

What’s more is they also blaming Sarah Palin.

The second hit and run centers around aformer middle school track coach.

Robert Mucha, 79, of Oxford, was injured in the crash that trapped him in his car for 45 minutes. He was flown to University Hospital in Cincinnati, where he was listed in stable condition Wednesday morning.

Mucha was driving his 2009 Toyota east on Ohio 73 near Retreat Lane when he was struck by a westbound 1996 Dodge pickup driven by Laurie Picadio of Trenton, who swerved to avoid a pickup that “continued on and never stopped,” according to Oxford Twp. police Chief Michael Goins.

The police’s lead to find the black 1990′s Ford Ranger which caused the accident and left the scene: Obama bumper stickers on the back window. How many such vehicles can be found in Oxford, OH anyway?

Shall we jump to conclusions about the second hit and run accident as the left did about the first? There is no conclusive evidence that points to it being politically motivated by either or both the bumper stickers or the fact that Mucha was driving a Toyota, a company which has come under heavy fire from the government.

Would the left react to such assumptions as did some on the right? Or will they howl about being painted with the same brush they used to color Mr. Weisiger?

This is one time when one wouldn’t want to emulate the leftist tactics and wind up with egg on one’s face. Maybe neither, one, or both were politically motivated. Given that facts are stubborn things, one would believe it’s best to leave the conclusions up to real judges and juries, rather than go off on a rant and make everything in one’s life a political battle of one sort or another.

Not everything in life is a political battle. Hits and runs are bad enough news on their own. Let’s leave the politics on the political stage, shall we?

Crossposted: The Minority Report

I have some questions for you. Now, I know I didn’t vote for you but you are still my congressman in spite of that. You don’t get to ignore those who disagree with you when you take that oath to become a public servant.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Let me work on some of this for you, okay? I know by your august standards I’m an “ig-nernt” hillbilly but, well, sir, I can read a map and this one looks quite a bit lopsided. I mean in ways other than being scrunched in this blog post, that is.

See that area where all those pretty symbols are? You claim this is where Tennessee’s Recovery Dollars are being spent. So let’s get down to business, shall we? If one does a “stroll” through they could mistake it for the health care deform you just committed upon the American people, but I digress.

Almost all those symbols seemed to be placed in a very small geographical area known as Vanderbilt University. Can I assume that you have told everyone in your district that you are an adjunct professor at said university? Of course you have. You just didn’t expect anyone to understand what they’re seeing, right?

So, I’d like to know, sir, how many jobs did these items create from their share of the recovery money?

1) $5,239,099 to Vanderbilt University for which the funds will be used to support the Beta Cell Biology Consortium, which develops cell-based therapies for insulin delivery.2) $5,184,612 to Vanderbilt University for which the funds will be used to combine a DNA repository with electronic medical systems, in order to provide analysis of disease susceptibility and therapeutic outcomes across patient populations. These funds will be go towards the VESPA: Vanderbilt Electronic Systems for Pharmacogenomic Assessment project.

3) $4,721,145 to Vanderbilt University for which the funds will be used to enhance the Southern Community Cohort Study, which investigates cancer disparities.

4) $3,948,000 to Vanderbilt University for which the funds will be used to acquire a 900 MHz nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer. The spectrometer will study the structures and interactions of biomacromolecules.

5) $3,000,000 to Vanderbilt University for which the funds will be used to supplement the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows Support Center.

There are more of them. 175 in all for Vanderbilt University totaling $74,230,739. I’d just like to know where the jobs are in those earmarks? Tennessee’s unemployment rate is a tad higher than the national rate. And people have given up looking for work in construction because the unemployment rate in that field is even worse.

So, can you explain to me why there are all those earmarks for medical research in a jobs bill? That’s what the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was touted as a jobs bill. While some might consider them laudable causes, they hardly belong in a jobs bill.

Bill Frist, at one time, was crucified for having shares in his family owned HCA when he was divesting himself of his holdings for a possible presidential run. We wouldn’t want a congressional leader to have the appearance of a conflict of interest, would we?

So, Congressman Cooper. What about Vanderbilt University? Frist was later exonerated. You probably won’t be hauled into a court of law but your constituents would like to know why a small but rather affluent area around Vanderbilt University has gotten the lion’s share of Tennessee’s Recovery Act money.

Look at that map again, Congressman. You see that blank area near the bottom southeast just under the cute little airplane? That’s where I live. There is nothing, not one dime, spent there. Want to know something about that area? It’s the area to which most of the illegal aliens have gravitated. You really care about them, don’t you? How about east Nashville? North? That’s where most of the minorities are concentrated. I live among them, mostly peacefully except for the illegal immigrant gang shootings, etc. There’s nothing there, either.

I won’t hold my breath for your explanation but I’d really love to know: Do you represent all of TN-05 or just that little patch around Vanderbilt University?

Crossposted to Hillbilly Politics.

In the past few months, we here on RedState and other diverse locations on the internet have made references to pulling back the curtain as a reference to the magician in the mythical land of Oz. The curtain hangs in tatters, not just pulled back and those working behind it would like nothing more than to have us turn our backs so they can mend all the gaping tears.

If Neil’s fight with net neutrality fails, they will do so.

Obama once said there is a coarsening of national debate.

While the discourse on the internet can be quite coarse and there is little civility between opposition groups, at least there is discourse. With political correctness and victimology reigning supreme, before the internet there was silence when it came to things that mattered most to us because of fear of offending and being sued. With the false sense of anonymity, communication has opened up quite a bit; rarely pleasant communication but it’s better than none. None allows for a passive acceptance of ever heavier yokes placed upon us by the government which often cites some mandate or other for their policy positions.

We conservatives may not have been among the first to discover the enormous power in utilizing the internet but I believe we are taking it further than the leftists thought possible and they are becoming the ones “behind the times” as a result. Where the opposition pushes ever more power towards those who already hold it, we conservatives work to pull power back to the people using the very tools the leftists thought we were incapable of using.

This is one of the reasons why the feds want to ram through net neutrality (see links above). Oh, they try to put a pretty face on it by saying it’s all about opening it up to even the poorest of the poor, but it’s all about control and if we’re controlled we’re once again isolated and everything will be filtered to fit their agenda.

You know the old saying: Once on the internet, it’s forever? Everything the feds do in this area will be about shutting down all but what they want open. If it happens, embarrassments such as this one committed by David Plouffe will disappear quickly rather than disseminated:

U.S. Democratic Party campaign strategy manager David Plouffe says now is not the time for “bed-wetting” after the party lost a Massachusetts Senate election.

Let us work that they don’t succeed and are unable to sew up the gaping holes in the curtains the leftists drew over the process by which they will continue to advance their progressive (regressive and repressive) agenda.

“Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” Thomas Jefferson

The leftists are in panic mode. Let’s keep them that way.

The author of the article likens it to a Tennesee Williams play. Mary Landrieu sold out the country for $300 million, not $100 million as previously reported. Dana Milbank is right. It is a play but nothing really like those from Williams.

The script has become old and worn from overuse and the lines have been memorized by those who hear them, more so than those who act the parts for our benefit. The patrons are mutinous demanding better for their money but the actors seemed locked into this one play unable to step out of it to engage in another.

“My vote today,” she [Landrieu] said in a soft Southern accent that masked the hard politics at play, “should in no way be construed by the supporters of this current framework as an indication of how I might vote as this debate comes to an end.”

How many times have we heard this same claim, yet, 97% of all bills that are approved in cloture become law. The actor indicates he hears the mutinous crowd, promising something different, but as the final act ensues we hear once again the same tired lines that echo in our memory like a too real nightmare proving to the patrons they were not heard at all.

Note: This is quite likely one of the shortest posts I’ve ever written but does anything more really need to be said?

Crossposted to Hillbilly Politics.

It’s often quite difficult to talk about once having been an abused spouse because it elicits expressions of sympathy and overshadows the point of the posts or articles. It’s not about sympathy for me but looking out for my country. I’m okay. We are not okay.

There have been a few times when I’ve said that Obama reminds me of my ex-husband. My ex-husband is not a black man. You see, I lived with a narcissist for 23 years. That experience is why I recognize the same in President Barack Obama.

Narcissistic personality disorder symptoms may include (Source: Mayo Clinic):

Believing that you’re better than others
Fantasizing about power, success and attractiveness
Exaggerating your achievements or talents
Expecting constant praise and admiration
Believing that you’re special and acting accordingly
Failing to recognize other people’s emotions and feelings
Expecting others to go along with your ideas and plans
Taking advantage of others
Expressing disdain for those you feel are inferior
Being jealous of others
Believing that others are jealous of you
Trouble keeping healthy relationships
Setting unrealistic goals
Being easily hurt and rejected
Having a fragile self-esteem
Appearing as tough-minded or unemotional

You can look at that list all day long and not understand what you’re seeing in Obama without some examples.

During the last months/weeks of finalizing my divorce from the narcissist in my life, one of my friends confessed something to me one day. She lived on a hill in a wooded area that had been discovered to have old Indian burial grounds. I seemed to have a knack for finding things like that. One time when my husband and I were visiting I had gone off looking for something. She and he struck up a conversation about me, her telling him things about me he apparently didn’t know but should have after 23 years of marriage. The problem was, he didn’t recognize those qualities in himself and I was not a separate person from him in his world. It was when he asked her who she was talking about when it dawned on her that he didn’t even know me.

The narcissist sees everyone in his life as extensions of himself (or herself, although clinical narcissism is more common in men). They are not recognized as separate entities with individual strengths and weaknesses. This country as a whole, is now an extension of Obama. We are not separate beings with our own thoughts and failings or strengths and weaknesses.

The matter of the terrorist trials being held in New York give us an example via Politico.com:

“I don’t think it will be offensive at all when he’s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him,” Obama told NBC’s Chuck Todd.

When Todd asked Obama if he was interfering in the trial process by declaring that Mohammed will be executed, Obama, a former constitutional law professor, insisted that he wasn’t trying to dictate the result.

In Obama’s mind he’s setting right a wrong, according to the view of his world. It’s inconceivable that his right thing would be very wrong for those whom it most concerns, namely those who experienced deep loss from the attack on the World Trade Center. 9/11/2001. And he exhibits no understanding they would feel any different about the issue.

“What I said was, people will not be offended if that’s the outcome. I’m not pre-judging, I’m not going to be in that courtroom, that’s the job of prosecutors, the judge and the jury,” Obama said. “What I’m absolutely clear about is that I have complete confidence in the American people and our legal traditions and the prosecutors, the tough prosecutors from New York who specialize in terrorism.”

Read More →

Remember the day it became an epithet and Geoge W. Bush was labeled such with his “cowboy” diplomacy? Now, I’m a hillbilly, not a cowgirl, but recently I during a conversation with a friend she suddenly asked me who was my favorite famous cowboy. She chuckled at my answer. When I asked her why, she said that a person’s favorite cowboy tells a lot about a person.

She then explained that every cowboy has a code he follows and that code is what it says about the cowboy and the person who chose him. I laughed at her but there is some psychological research (psych-marketing research) to back her up.

So, I asked her what my choice meant about me. She wouldn’t tell me but told me to Google it. I did and here’s what I found:

1. A cowboy does not judge color of skin, but by character within.
2. A cowboy always respects a lady and tips his hat to all that pass him by
3. A cowboy stands strong for what the American frontier is all about: Freedom, Truth, Justice and the American way.
4. A cowboy will not be wronged, nor wrongs another. The justice he deems out depends on that.
5. A cowboy is loyal, and hard working and maintains a high ethic.
6. A cowboy loves his country, and will fight for it’s principles and sovereignty.
7. A cowboy respects his animals and the earth they roam upon.
8. A cowboy is faithful to what is entrusted to him.
9. A cowboy is bound by duty, honor, and gratitude for what God has given him, which includes his friends and family.
10. A cowboy maintains a hidden code in his heart, for all to see.

Now, I don’t know if I come close to living up to that code but I’m sure going to give it a try. I believe our veterans embody this code in our modern day versions of the cowboy. Cowboys aren’t gone. They just changed riding clothes for uniforms and tanks, tracks, ships, submarines, planes, and humvees for horses. They embody the best of America just as the cowboy represented the best of the old West. They live that code every day of their lives from the first moment they take the armed services oath and don that uniform.

God bless our veterans, our modern day cowboys.

My favorite cowboy? John Wayne.

Individual freedom is being assaulted from so many different directions the sheer weight of the assaults can cause the hardiest of us to buckle. Yet, there are still some who believe the government has only our best interests at heart. I find that sentiment mind-blowing in the face of what the government is doing.

Accessing records without consent of the individual.

… This study should include incentives such as “higher rates of reimbursement or other incentives for such health care providers to use electronic health records” and “promoting low-cost electronic health record software packages that are available for use by such health care providers.”

Read it all. Apparently, our ever so magnanimous government doesn’t care about the assault on our private records or the sharing of such records across agencies as their new health care legislation will require it.

As one friend put it:

“Our best
practice dictates that if you want to keep something private, don’t
share it. If data is shared by more than one entity, none of the
parties knows who leaked it. Eventually, anything shared becomes
public knowledge. This is one more case of the unwary opening
Pandora’s box.” (Thanks, Loren.)

But that’s not possible, is it? The government is supposed to take care of us, right? Right?

Then there’s net neutrality.

Their website is full of blatant lies. They claim that Net Neutrality would not be a new regulation, when in fact the whole point of the push is to get new regulations in place backed by the so-called Internet Freedom Preservation Act currently in the House. Obama’s FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski also made that much plain in a recent speech, that he wants the FCC to be an active, aggressive force on the Internet, picking winners and losers in private network policy disputes.

Again, read the whole article.

It’s okay if a Democrat does it.

Every student who brings someone to the polls to vote in the city council elections in Athens, OH gets $5.00.

Nice. But is that illegal?

Of course, it’s illegal. When did legality ever stop a liberal from doing what a liberal wants to do? They have a “cause” and this is merely the means to the end. Never mind that most of us don’t want the end they want.

How do you compete with government owned?

A new union contract would have lowered Ford’s labor costs in line with General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC. It also included a no-strike provision. Workers are barred from striking Ford’s domestic rivals for several years as a condition of their bankruptcy restructurings.

“The UAW contract is up in 2011, and I think there could be a strike,” said John Wolkonowicz, an analyst with IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Mass.

Isn’t that bit like union workers sabotaging a competitor because they now have a stake in the other two companies? Nah, the government owns the union workers, too, now doesn’t it?

Wouldn’t that make union bosses the overseers of the government owners’ plantations? I thought slavery was dead in this country. Apparently, the Democrats want to go back to the future.

It’s not illegal so get used to it.

A San Francisco cosmetics company has ignited an outcry among pro-lifers for including an unexpected ingredient in its anti-aging creams: skin-cell proteins from an aborted fetus. [...]

In a statement released Friday, in response to a wave of condemnation from pro-life and religious blogs, Neocutis defended the use of its trademarked ingredient, Processed Skin Cell Proteins, or PSP, arguing that the fetal cell line was harvested in a responsible, ethical manner for use in treating severe dermatological injuries.

The company compared its situation to that of researchers who used fetal kidney cells to develop the polio vaccine.

It’s not as if they’re human, after all. That would be murder wouldn’t it? Murder for hire, if you want to put a fine point on it considering abortionists are paid to do the dirty work. And then they sell the bodies of the slain innocents to others for a bit more?

It’s not as if you’re not pro-choice. Oh no, we wouldn’t want to interfere with the government ruling that killing innocents is legal as long as it isn’t civilian casualties in the midst of fighting wars against terrorists who find safe havens among those civilians.

It’s for the children, after all, isn’t it? To make beauty products so others don’t have to age gracefully.

If the government can’t manage vaccinations with any level of competency, how do we expect them to manage health care? By creating more government agencies (read: bureaucracies), of course.

For a comparison to other welfare programs spending, let’s take a look shall we?

Over the next decade, welfare spending will amount to $30,000 per person per year — $120,000 for a family of 4 per year — 56% of which (or $67,200) goes to the recipients.

Moreover, these direct costs do not cover the concomitant costs for enterprises. That is, many organizations apply to whole populations, although their justification is the needs of the “poor.” For example, most people can afford education, but to guarantee it for the poor, there is public education for most, as well as subsidies. The same holds for establishing Social Security, Medicare, housing, health insurance, and industrial policy. There are then huge additional costs to the taxpayers and to the recipients of services who are not “poor.”

How much more than the 36% already being spent will these new bureaucracies cost? I wouldn’t put it past the government to flip those numbers. We can do without, of course. We might starve, freeze to death, or have a heat stroke but we’ll have health care if we do, right?

You can continue to believe in government’s goodwill if you choose. But don’t expect me to “jump off the Brooklyn Bridge” with you. If you keep trusting a government that has proven untrustworthy, this is what you get. You can make excuses all you want or say you didn’t sign onto this but if you support any part of it, you support the whole.

One person critiquing said this post seems disjointed but it’s not really. They are widely varying topics but are all these things are being perpetrated by the government simultaneously.

What the government is doing is assaulting us with a dozen skirmishes at once all taking place in the same general location but with different foci; the individual’s right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and the right to make our own decisions based on our individual circumstances as to what is best for us. When we focus on one point of attack we risk losing sight of the other battles taking place around us. These battles are orchestrated to keep us off balance in the hopes that one of them will gain them an opening and their desire of government for the government in spite of the people.

Crossposted to Hillbilly Politics

The United States has for decades been known as the leader of the free world. Not anymore.

Obama with his speech brought rousing applause from those present at the United Nations to hear it. I’m unsure whether the applause was for promises of appeasement or his New World Order.

Responsibility and leadership in the 21st century demand more. In an era when our destiny is shared, power is no longer a zero sum game. No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed. No balance of power among nations will hold. The traditional division between nations of the south and north makes no sense in an interconnected world. Nor do alignments of nations rooted in the cleavages of a long gone Cold War.

The time has come to realize that the old habits and arguments are irrelevant to the challenges faced by our people. They lead nations to act in opposition to the very goals that they claim to pursue, and to vote – often in this body – against the interests of their own people. They build up walls between us and the future that our people seek, and the time has come for those walls to come down. Together, we must build new coalitions that bridge old divides – coalitions of different faiths and creeds; of north and south, east and west; black, white, and brown.

The choice is ours. We can be remembered as a generation that chose to drag the arguments of the 20th century into the 21st; that put off hard choices, refused to look ahead, and failed to keep pace because we defined ourselves by what we were against instead of what we were for. Or, we can be a generation that chooses to see the shoreline beyond the rough waters ahead; that comes together to serve the common interests of human beings, and finally gives meaning to the promise embedded in the name given to this institution: the United Nations.

That is the future America wants – a future of peace and prosperity that we can only reach if we recognize that all nations have rights, but all nations have responsibilities as well. That is the bargain that makes this work. That must be the guiding principle of international cooperation.

And so we are no longer the leader of the free world. We have ceded that position to a global conglomerate of nations that have stood by while atrocities are committed against those who yearn for freedom, from the genocide in Darfur to the Taliban and Al Queda in Afghanistan.

I don’t believe the full import of what Obama was saying has occurred to all those who applauded him so loudly. Yes, he is now one with them and has ceded all power to the United Nations as the governing body. The in positions of power inside the United Nations see the path to amassing more power and their desired one world government and little else.

Netanyahu, on the other hand, gave the speech Obama should have given. It was at once, an admonition and a declaration. Of course, reactions on the web are mixed along partisan political lines.

For a partial transcript of the video you can access it here: Have you no shame.

During his speech, Netanyahu showed some documents; documents given to him just a short time ago. Nations must realize that there is no peace for the world as long as dictators like Ahmedinejad have the opportunity to spread hate and contempt toward other nations. And today, we find Iran is not only going ahead with plans for nuclear armament but has doubled its efforts. When confronted, Iran’s president shrugged it off.

He dismissed the idea that “we must inform Mr. Obama’s administration of every facility that we have” and said the uproar over the plant “simply adds to the list of issues [over] which the United States owes the Iranian nation an apology.”

And our so-called leaders call for sanctions.

“We will not let this matter rest,” Brown said. “And we are prepared to implement further and more stringent sanctions. . . . Iran must abandon any military ambitions for its nuclear program.” [...]
Asked if Israel had been kept apprised of the unfolding intelligence, an intelligence official said that “we have regular international exchanges with our partners” and that “Iranian nuclear activity is a topic that is regularly discussed.”

Obama has flung down the mantle of the leader of the free world most heartily. Mr. Netanyahu has picked it up unafraid.

Well… Sarkozy tried:

“How, before the eyes of the world, could we justify meeting without tackling them?” Sarkozy said. “We live in the real world, not a virtual world. And the real world expects us to take decisions.”

Unfortunately, those who came before him squandered any chance of leadership for France; at least in the short term. But then, he followed up that statement with this:

Referring to an upcoming meeting in Geneva between representatives of Iran and six world powers, Sarkozy said, “Everything, everything, must be put on the table now. We cannot let the Iranian leaders gain time while the motors are running.” If there is no “in-depth change” on Iran’s part by December, “sanctions will have to be taken,” he said.

I thought he wanted to live in the real world. All eyes will be on Israel in the coming months and no matter which way it acts, many will be swift to condemn, even while those criticizing opt for impotence instead of courage. Or perhaps, they won’t look too closely while Israel does what needs to be done but what those “in charge” refuse to take the responsibility for doing.

Remember, the Jews promised themselves: “Never Again.”

Crossposted to Hillbilly Politics.

And we’ll never be able to call them liars for it again. And more reason not to support the health bill.

Buried deep in the bill, pages 837-845 with a small segment in between dealing with Native Americans, are sections about HOME VISITATION PROGRAMS FOR FAMILIES which will be handled under the Department of Human Resources and CPS (DFCS for some).

models of home visitation that have demonstrated positive effects on important program-determined child and parenting outcomes, such as reducing abuse and neglect and improving child health and development;

‘‘(ii) employ well-trained and competent staff, maintain high quality supervision, provide for ongoing training and professional development, and show strong organizational capacity to implement such a program;

‘‘(iii) establish appropriate linkages and referrals to other community resources

‘‘(iv) monitor fidelity of program implementation to ensure that services are

delivered according to the specified model; and

‘‘(v) provide parents with— ‘‘(I) knowledge of age-appropriate childdevelopment in cognitive, language, social, emotional, and motor domains (including knowledge of second language acquisition, in the case of English language learners);

‘‘(II) knowledge of realistic expectations of age-appropriate child behaviors;

‘‘(III) knowledge of health and wellness issues for children and parents;

‘‘(IV) modeling, consulting, and coaching on parenting practices;

‘‘(V) skills to interact with their child to enhance age-appropriate development;

‘‘(VI) skills to recognize and seek help for issues related to health, developmental delays, and social, emotional, and behavioral skills; and

‘‘(VII) activities designed to help parents become full partners in the education of their children;

Now add to that, this: Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA, Public Law 105-89)

Moreover, ASFA marked a fundamental change to child welfare thinking, shifting the emphasis towards children’s health and safety concerns and away from a policy of reuniting children with their birth parents without regard to prior abusiveness. As such, ASFA was considered the most sweeping change to the U.S. adoption and foster care system in some two decades. One of ASFA’s lead sponsors, Republican Senator John H. Chafee of Rhode Island, said, “We will not continue the current system of always putting the needs and rights of the biological parents first. … It’s time we recognize that some families simply cannot and should not be kept together.”

The results of the 1997 bill has massive corruption in CPS and a setup of quotas to bring in as many federal dollars as possible, including outright theft from the fund along with a rise in children being placed foster homes and shorter times before parental rights are terminated. There are reports of children being wrongfully taken from their homes, intimidation tactics, and more. Some have bitterly posted the prices of their children such as: Under 5, blonde-haired, blue-eyed: $6000.

Following up on that claim, I came across some statistics that sort of corroborate the statement when you find that black children are more likely to spend a year or more as wards of the state before being placed whereas white children are placed much sooner, sometimes immediately depending on age.

Now, if the 1997 bill gave CPS such powers as it has employed since, how much more power will they gain with the expansion of their mandate via the health care bill? What they want, they get?

Should we say: Welcome to Eugenics? Along with rationing for old people we have CPS at the forefront in home visitations to young families. Parents mean nothing when there’s money at stake. And these are the people who will be in charge of the HOME VISITATION PROGRAMS FOR FAMILIES. Nice huh? I have said before that the health care bill is more about control than the title of the bill implies.

Crossposted to Hillbilly Politics.