That’s a reference to Ms. Streisand’s classic mistake of using a cool-sounding Shakespeare ‘quote’ that she apparently found on the Internet without checking it to see whether it was, in fact, correct.  Which it wasn’t; and that particular example is probably a major reason why Ms. Streisand has done us all the favor of not airing out her political opinions lately.  Personally, I’m grateful.

But I digress.

At any rate, President Obama, while making what was apparently a rather lackluster rally speech* for his health care debacle, used this ‘Lincoln’ quote:

I have the great pleasure of having a really nice library at the White House. And I was tooling through some of the writings of some previous Presidents and I came upon this quote by Abraham Lincoln: “I am not bound to win, but I’m bound to be true. I’m not bound to succeed, but I’m bound to live up to what light I have.”

…which, as NRO Corner notes, is actually listed here as being incorrect.

Of course, this should be easy to check: all the President has to do is tell us what book he got it out of. Although I should note that Brainy Quote won’t count…

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

*H/T Instapundit.

Democrats, do you really want this guy to campaign for you?

From The Hill:

Obama likes Kansas to win March Madness
By Michael O’Brien - 03/17/10 12:51 PM ET
President Barack Obama is predicting the University of Kansas Jayhawks defeat the University of Kentucky Wildcats for college basketball’s championship.

According to presidential brackets released to ESPN, the president picked Kentucky and Kansas in his Final Four, in addition to the Kansas State and Villanova University teams, both nicknamed the Wildcats.

From ESPN:

(9) Northern Iowa 69
(1) Kansas 67

I might be missing something, but there are:

1. Chicago Olympic bid (lost in first round)
2. USA Olympic hockey team (lost to Canada)
3. Governor of Virginia
4. Governor of New Jersey
5. Senator from Massachusetts
6, NCAA March Madness

Quite a streak.

There is the question, of course, of why the president gives half an hour to ESPN to pick NCAA basketball men’s and women’s tournament results. President Obama gave a mere 11 minutes to Fox News for an interview where he tried to run out the clock with long answers.

As patriots from across America prepare to descend on Washington, DC to protest the government takeover of health care, the Obama administration is touting the impending vote in the House of Representatives as “historic.” Progressive organizations have been preparing for the moment for decades and not even the outcry of millions of Americans will stop them from pushing their radical agenda through.

Ironically, the past week has been filled with numerous stories of how ACORN is disbanding across the country. News outlets from Politico to the New York Times run stories detailing the demise of ACORN. Of course, some are skeptical about whether ACORN is truly going away:

“In an age of lawlessness, rules for some out of government favor, and special privileges for special classes, racketeers and criminals need only change their suit and their hat and live another day to rob, steal, cheat, and engage in human trafficking… “

Conveniently for the Obama administration the “demise” of ACORN could not have come at a better time. As pictures of empty ACORN offices fill the news, Obama pushes forward with an ACORN planned and approved agenda.

In July of last year ACORN honored the work of Senator Charles Schumer, Rep. Luis Gutierrez and Rep. Maxine Waters at their 39^th Anniversary celebration. The invitation email stated:

“P.S. ACORN’s grassroots leadership believes we are experiencing a once-in-a-generation opportunity and must not squander this moment. Your generosity is needed now more than ever. Thanks.”

ACORN’s socialist agenda has always included some form of universal health care and like many of its “campaigns” this is not the first time ACORN has pushed for national change. The group, which was founded in Arkansas 40 years ago, maintained friendly relations with Bill Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas and then President. The result of this relationship was HillaryCare. Americans fought back and ACORN was forced to back down. However, ACORN was not defeated and began to put a set of conditions in place that in the right political climate, would ensure victory. Michelle Malkin explains a 2008 ACORN memo on why Obamacare is so important:

“Why do they want Obamacare? An internal ACORN memo I obtained from August 2008 makes the motives clear. ‘Over our 38 years, health care organizing has never been a major focus either nationally or locally for ACORN,’ wrote ACORN Philadelphia region director Craig Robbins. ‘But increasingly, ACORN offices around the country are doing work on health care.’ The goal: ‘Building ACORN Power.’ The memo outlines the ACORN/HCAN partnership and strategy of opposing any programs that rely on “unregulated private insurance” – and then parlaying political victory on government-run health care ‘to move our ACORN agenda (or at least part of it) with key electeds that we might otherwise not be able to pull off.’

The objective, in other words, is to piggyback and exploit Obamacare to improve and protect their political health.”

ACORN’s famous liberal experiments were never outwardly dubbed as socialist action items but within the ranks of employees we knew that what made ACORN great was “fighting capitalism.” By never using certain words with members and outsiders, ACORN painted a picture of the poor rising out of poverty and demanding their fair share. In 2006 ACORN partnered with SEIU on several healthcare campaigns across the country.

In California, home of Maxine Waters, ACORN’s healthcare campaign in San Francisco mirrors the same tactics used by Obama to pass Obamacare.

“Health: Last year (’05) we saved health clinics. This year we provided the field experience to win a form of universal healthcare. David Sharples staffed the leadership on the campaign with leader Gisselle Quesada. Using the tax program to survey people on health needs, we were able to build a quick base, identify members who could put a face on the problem, and move numerous members on multiple fronts to move the key supervisor and win the campaign.”

According to the 2006 report, ACORN has been working with hospitals to introduce “universal healthcare” at the local levels and that success was the precursor to Obamacare.

The excerpts above are from a 2006 report available here.

The report goes on to state that even ACORN’s non-profit affiliate Project Vote was somehow involved in healthcare

“Our issue-based GOTV program targeted some 686,796 people for an average of three contacts each. For example, Project Vote’s GOTV workers knocked on 396,273 doors in Ohio alone. Similar to our Voter Registration work, canvassers relate participation in the elections to salient issues in low- and moderate-income communities, such as healthcare…”

Critics on the left will state that it is a coincidence that ACORN and Obama’s old employer Project Vote are both advocating for government run healthcare, but all of the evidence suggests that Obama and Congress are settling debts with their old friends.

Before the ACORN embezzlement scandal and the prostitution videos ACORN was more open about its influence on Capitol Hill. The aforementioned 2006 report has another tidbit about the ACORN political machine:

Immediately after the 2006 mid-term elections when the Democrats took control of Congress members were made aware of who put them there. ACORN used its organizing and voter registration arms to set the stage for Obamacare. Newbies like Democrats Sherrod Brown and Claire Mccaskill were just as beholden to ACORN as long standing members of Congress from ACORN districts. The excerpt and screen shot can also be found in the 2006 report:

“Furthermore, we are working to make sure that key leaders in Congress fully understand the role that ACORN played in the 2006 elections: we are working collaboratively with the political department to ensure that the impact of our political work is widely known and appreciated.”

According to insiders, before the 2008 election ACORN and SEIU were so confident that Obama would win that a meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico had an agenda that included a session entitled: Emerging Strategies III: Healthcare – Regime Change Priority with Richard Kirsch, Executive Director HCAN: Health Care for America Now

Regime Change?  A quick look at Wikipedia gives us an inkling as to what ACORN and SEIU are up to:

“In politics, a regime is the form of government: the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of government and its interactions with society. For instance, the United States has one of the oldest regimes still active in the world, dating to the ratification of its Constitution in 1789.

The term is also used to distinguish what is actually being enforced from what is considered legitimate. Enforcement of an unconstitutional statute would be a regime but not a law.“

IIf one follows the money, one name (not surprisingly) emerges: George Soros. The Soros backed Democracy Alliance has pumped untold millions into groups that include ACORN and the architect of Obama’s permanent campaign (Organizing for America), Harold Ickes’s Catalist. The Democracy Alliance vision includes changing America through initiatives like health care.

With leftist billionaires lining up to ensure a permanent majority, the march towards socialism has been a well funded one.

“…George Soros and other wealthy liberals formed a loose-knit group to consider how to fund a political comeback. Their answer: Create a permanent political infrastructure of nonprofits, think tanks, media outlets, leadership schools, and activist groups—a kind of ‘vast left-wing conspiracy’ to compete with the conservative movement. The group they created –called the Democracy Alliance (DA)…”

Though the fall of ACORN was not anticipated, ACORN like the DA is a taxable nonprofit and its structure allows for such restructuring. Taxable nonprofit?  Matthew Vadum explains:

“Rob Stein explained the group’s legal structure to the Hudson panel:

‘It is a taxable nonprofit. Think of it as a corporation that does not make a profit and doesn’t aspire to make a profit. We’re an association of individuals….’

“In other words, the DA has no interest in asking the IRS to register it as tax-exempt or to allow contributions to it to be tax-deductible. Were the DA to request tax-exemption as a 501(c)(4) lobby group or as a 527 political group, it would have to abide by a dizzying array of legal constraints. Members of the Democracy Alliance may want to impose Big Government bureaucracy and red tape on Americans, but the friends of George Soros are too rich to be bothered.”

Was ACORN willing to go underground to save Obamacare? Is the Pope Catholic? ACORN’s own 5 Year Political Plan describes a structure that is local in nature and prides itself on being that way.

ACORN’s temporary fall from grace will allow it to go underground with the tacit support of the White House and use Obamacare to rally its base for a 2012 victory unless the ACORN roots of Obama’s socialist agenda are exposed.

Barack Obama is telling Democrats that to ensure the success of his presidency, they must vote to pass health care deform. It is, after all, all about him despite his protests to the contrary.

This argument persuaded Dennis Kucinich — well that and there are allegations about a job for his wife though I’m not sure if that’s true. But given the pattern it is easy to believe.

In any event, Obama is telling the Democrats that if health care deform passes his presidency is successful and if it does not, his presidency fails.

What he means is that in order for Barack Obama to be successful, the Democrats in Congress must fail. All politicians are survivalists. Obama has convinced the Democrats in Congress that they’ll all survive if health care deform passes. But in reality, Obama knows if health care deform passes, the Republicans will take back Congress.

If the Republicans take back Congress, Obama will have someone to actually run against. It is very hard to run against the opposition when the opposition controls nothing. So Democrats will pass health care deform. They will be crushed at the polls. This will give Barack Obama a second term — at least that is his calculus.

It’s pretty smart of him. It is also amazing to watch the entire Democratic caucus lay day willingly in front of Obama’s unsatiated bus to ensure Obama a second term at their own expense — not that he’ll actually get one, mind you. But that is his plan. It worked for Clinton afterall.*

*Of course, Clinton then tacked to the right, going along with welfare reform and a host of other centrist to right of center ideas. How’d that work out for progressives?

Whether we win or lose our battle with President Obama and the Democrat Congress, I hope we never lose sight of the man who lit the fire under our feet.

image courtesy of storyballoon.org

Poor Jimmy Carter, bless his bitter, old, anti-semitic heart. President Barack Obama has totally stolen his thunder. First, Obama had to horn in on Carter’s “I received a completely unwarranted Nobel Peace Prize” mantle. Now, this! What does Carter have left now? A few rancid cases of Billy Beer?

From Story Balloon:

It looks like we have another winning billboard making fun of the current administration. This time they an ad to point out how people have compared Obama to Carter’s horrible presidency. The billboard reads: They Can’t Call Me The Worst President Anymore!

Obama might be a tad confused. The sign was put up by an organization of small business owners. Having never worked in the private sector, it’s quite clear that Obama does not even realize that small business owners, you know, exist. All he knows is government work and he even stinks at that. That’s two Teachable Moments in one!

Read More →

CNN’s proofreading staff might need an upgrade.

Then again, maybe this is the kind of punishment you face when you’ve sinned against the chosen one, the Messiah…

The following post originally appeared on my Examiner.com page. You can access the original posting by clicking here.

Shakespeare once posed the question “to be or not to be” in his famous tragedy Hamlet. In today’s political culture New Jersey residents are treated to the contrasting economic policies of “to spend or not to spend.”

Locally in our state capitol of Trenton, we have our new governor boldly proclaiming:

“Today, we are fulfilling the promise of a smaller government that lives within its means. Today, we begin doing what we promised we would do. The defenders of the status quo have already begun to yell and scream. They will try to demonize me. They will seek to divide us rather than unite us. But even they know in their hearts, if not yet in their minds – it is time for a change. “

Nationally in Washington we have Vice President Biden, when he isn’t busy mumbling “God rest her soul” about an Irish leader’s mom who is still alive in a moment eerily similar to his 2008 campaign appearance calling upon a man in a wheelchair to “Stand up!” repeatedly, telling us we need to spend more to get out of debt and that higher taxes are patriotic.

While Governor Christie cuts over $10 billion dollars from the state budget in Trenton in hopes of bringing back fiscal solvency to our bankrupt state government, President Obama is attempting to “fundamentally transform” America by outspending all previous forty-three presidents in his first year alone.

Governor Christie promises that “today, we stop sweeping problems under the rug. We will not hide our problems until another day. And we are certainly not increasing the tax burden we place upon our people,” as he brings common sense back into the tabulation of the state budget. By contrast, President Obama’s folks intentionally structure their radical socialist government ursurpation of the healthcare industry so that we begin paying extra taxes this year (2010) to fund the project that won’t begin running until 2014 just so that it can look like it is fiscally stable on paper (by comparing 10 years of taxing and paying for it with in actuality only 6 years of paying out and even then it barely breaks even.)

By the time the American people realize that they have been bamboozled, Obama will be long gone, no doubt canoodling with Anita Dunn and Bill Ayers in the world of academia while they admire the glorious revolution of genocidal madman/human rights violator and harbinger of Communism, Chairman Mao.

Obama and his allies in congress plot to use taxpayer money to fund abortion because as unnamed democratic operatives have reportedly told Representative Bart Stupak, “If you pass the Stupak amendment, more children will be born, and therefore it will cost us millions more.” As Stupak laments, “Money is their hang-up. Is this how we now value life in America? If money is the issue — come on, we can find room in the budget. This is life we’re talking about.”

In New Jersey, however, Governor Christie has cut all $7.6 million dollars dedicated from the state to Planned Parenthood. All of it. In New Jersey, the state with the second highest teenage abortion rate in the country.

Since taking office in January, Governor Christie has already saved the state $13 billion in spending, which amounts to $9 million dollars per hour since taking office. By contrast, President Obama’s budget deficit has reached record heights, and this is before factoring in the ridiculous amounts of money that will be necessary to keep the Obamacare behemoth financially solvent.

Governor Christie has proposed not only line by line spending cuts, but a spending cut in every department of the state. Meanwhile, President Obama has increased spending across the board–except in defense spending, which he decreased–we don’t want the peaceful and misunderstood Jihadists or the president’s new best friends in Iran, Venezuela or Cuba to get offended by our arsenal.

New Jersey’s budget is being negatively impacted by the Obama stimulus money. The money which was supposed to be spend little by little over a period of years was spent in one lump sum by the Wizard of Wall Street Jon Corzine and then added as an additional expense in this fiscal year without any idea of how to fund it.

In other words, the stimulus worked just as Governor Palin and Governor Perry warned us that it would. It created new “jobs” or “programs” that the state then had to pick up the tab on the following year. Obama’s stimulus is having the same effect across the country where states are begging for more table scraps from our glorious leader as they face even worse budget deficits thanks to Obama’s goodies.

By contrast, Governor Christie is putting into place strict guidelines that will help force local municipalities and school districts to tighten their own financial belts as well or risk losing all state support. In so doing, Christie is ensuring that his frugality at the state level is not merely passed on to the taxpayer by drunker sailor themed spending binges by local government. This was the reason that Christie Whitman’s economic policies did nothing to help New Jersey’s taxpayers and actually made the situation we are currently in much worse.

In his budget address, Governor Christie cited the example made by Massachusetts when it faced a similar budget crisis. By placing a mandatory cap on the growth of government the state was able to go from 3rd place to 33rd place in terms of its property tax burden.

Christie builds a model for success, by making bold moves supported by the will of the people designed to bring about common sense. His approach to governing thus far is one of a tough, no-nonsense reformer.

Should we expect anything less from the man who was a successful prosecutor who took down corruption throughout the state and in both parties prior to his election?

On the other hand, “change” agent President Obama looks not to other successful models of economic growth or healthcare reform, but to failed dictatorships and the failed ideology of Marxism to find inspiration. Although even Communist China is becoming more free market oriented in order to grow its economy, President Obama still enamored with Marx’s idea of utopia, seems hellbent on abandoning capitalism completely. His healthcare plan is but a “first step” to “fundamentally change” the system from market-based to government-based. (A goal admitted by Rep. Rob Andrews as reported in a previous column.) Socialism has failed everywhere it has been tried, and yet the greatest, most prosperous nation in the history of the world is abandoning its union with free market capitalism in pursuit of the harlot of socialism.

Should we expect anything less from a man who was raised by communist wolves at every turn of his life?

The people of New Jersey have front row seats to the epic battle of dueling ideologies in the era of hope and change. Perhaps little New Jersey, who played such an important role in America’s first struggle for freedom, will once again lead the way for America.

Predictions are inherently difficult. Attempting to take today’s knowledge and apply it five, ten, or fifty years in the future can often get you into trouble. For instance, British physicist Lord Kelvin predicted that “heavier than air flying machines are impossible.” Or, the president of a Bank who advised Henry Ford’s attorney that “the horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty, a fad, a passing, fancy.” As a sports fan my personal favorite is by baseball hall of famer Tris Speaker who said of Babe Ruth, “taking the best left-handed pitcher in baseball and converting him into a right fielder is one of the dumbest things I ever heard.”

In other words, predictions, even by those who should know what they’re talking about, often fall flat. After saying all that, I’m now going to try and peer into the near future if health care reform passes.

The demand for health care reform (which has since turned into insurance reform) began because the costs of health care are skyrocketing. Barack Obama’s campaign website says ,

“Health insurance premiums have doubled in the last 8 years, rising 3.7 times faster than wages in the past 8 years, and increasing co-pays and deductibles threaten access to care. . . Over half of all personal bankruptcies today are caused by medical bills . .  . And given current trends, this problem will only get worse as health care spending is expected to double within the next decade.”

There is an undisputed need for reform. At this point, there are very few things people from across both sides of the aisle agree on, but they do agree that the current system is broken. Of course, the knives come out when you begin to discuss how to reform it.

Now, assume that Nancy Pelosi cobbles together the necessary votes to pass health care reform. Will the cost problem be fixed to the point where Americans are once again content? Will costs go down, or at least remain stagnant, so that health care fades back into the mist as a campaign issue?

Simply put. No. At least not for the people that health care reform is directed to – those in the non-group market who do not receive health care through an employer. In fact, the cost of insurance for people shopping in the individual marketplace would skyrocket faster than if nothing was done. As the CBO wrote in its assessment ,

“CBO and JCT estimate that the average premium per person covered (including dependents) for new nongroup policies would be about 10 percent to 13 percent higher in 2016 than the average premium for nongroup coverage in that same year under current law.”

In other words, the legislation as written provides very little financial incentive for people to let the issue fade. So then what happens? My guess is that people once again begin demanding reform. Democrats, assuming they are able to weather the brutal storm of November 2010, can attempt to do one of two things. First, they can preach patience. At this point, I think it is clear the public doesn’t really want to hear that. People either want this bill killed or passed. And they want it done yesterday. Second, Democrats can say that while the insurance exchanges were a fun idea, what this country really needs is what we wanted from the beginning – a public option.

Democrats will be back on the stump. Nancy Pelosi can be more forceful when she says , “If someone has a better idea for promoting competition and reducing health care costs, they should put it on the table.” Anthony Weiner can go back to saying , “any real change requires the inclusion of a strong public option to promote competition and bring down costs.” Dennis Kucinich and the rest of the Progressive Caucus can reiterate their view that we need a “robust public option…to protect consumers from these rampant premium increases.”

After years of constantly increasing premiums under the current version of health care the public may be more apt to listen to the Democrats idea.  Rather than skewer this bill for what it is – bad on cost control – Democrats can use it as an opportunity to take another step toward single payer.  Obviously, political prognostication is a tricky and often inaccurate tool (who could have predicted a year ago that we’d have a Republican Senator in Kennedy’s Massachusetts seat). Nevertheless, the fact that it is a possibly underscores the serious flaw in the current Senate bill. This is not the health care reform we, or even candidate Obama, envisioned. The very people it said it would protect, those in the individual market, it hurts the most.

I may be the next Lord Kelvin or Tris Speaker. I may be giving short shrift the next airplane, automobile, or Babe Ruth. But then again, maybe not.

by Brandon Greife, Political Director of the College Republican National Committee

Read more: www.collegerepublicans.org

FYI, I received this ‘Final March” email an hour ago:

Barry –

“I’m here for Natoma.”

That’s what President Obama wrote us yesterday about Natoma Canfield, an Ohio woman whose story helped inspire the President and the nation to keep fighting for reform.

As we speak, each member of Congress is preparing to cast their last vote on health reform, while insurance-company lobbyists bombard D.C. with a million-dollar-a-day campaign of distortions and threats. To break through in these final moments, we must show Congress why we’ll never forget the choice they make: Because we’re fighting for the people who matter most in our lives.

So today, we’ve launched a new tool to help OFA supporters show Congress the names of the people who drive us to support reform. It might be a sick father. Maybe it’s a friend who lost her job. Or maybe it’s a daughter who simply deserves to grow up knowing that affordable care is always within reach. Whoever you know that’s inspired you to fight for reform, the time to act is now.

Our voice is strongest when we speak out together, so we’re aiming to send 2487 messages from Austin to Representative Smith today. Submitting your letter takes just a moment — please click here to join in.

Representative Smith has not supported health reform efforts so far, but a message about why you’re fighting could help provide the resolve to rise above partisan divides and do what’s right for your district and the country.

As the President reminded us, reform is not only about helping those who struggle today — it’s about making sure that no American is ever just one job loss, accident, or illness away from going without the care they require. That’s why we’re committed to reform that ends insurance-company abuses, guarantees affordable choices, and brings down costs.

But it all depends on the upcoming vote in the House of Representatives — and with just a day or two left, it’s still too close to call.

Our new online tool makes it easy to tell Rep. Smith who you’re fighting for, and you can even submit a quick photo to drive the message home. Your words and images will be sent straight to your representative, and they’ll be visible to every member of Congress before the final vote is cast.

Together, we can send a unique message, powerful enough to break through when it matters the most.

http://my.barackobama.com/DayNine

Thanks for making it possible,

Natalie

Natalie Foster
New Media Director

Natoma Canfield is the face for socializing one-sixth of our economy.

My Red State post on Natoma Canfield is here. (Sorry for the typing mistakes–I’ve got two kids under two in this household.) Here’s a recently added comment there about Natoma:

A spokesman for the Cleveland Clinic
mikerazar Thursday, March 18th at 11:39AM EDT (link)
said that Ms. Canfield would continue to receive the best care available. She might qualify for some government or private aid, but under no circumstances would the Clininc put a lien on her home.
Imagine that! The Cleveland Clinic, one of the finest medical facilities in the entire world, is actually behaving ethically and compassionately. Another leftwing lie bites the dust.

My prayers are with Natoma Canfield. I hope she makes a full recovery. What Obama can’t understand is that achieving that outcome means more to her medical team than all the material luxuries in the world. How sad fior him. How sad for us.