The Discerning Texan

So when do the storm troopers arrive here?

More on the attempt by the Obamunists to silence any criticism from Captain Ed Morrissey (bold emphasis is my own):

Mark Tapscott notices an interesting blog post by Norman Eisen, who works for Barack Obama as Special Counsel to the President on Ethics and Government Reform. Anticipating a deluge of criticism over the thus-far ineffectual spending plan, Eisen has a straightforward plan to deal with criticism. He’ll simply use the power of the federal government to silence it. Problem solved!

“First, we will expand the restriction on oral communications to cover all persons, not just federally registered lobbyists. For the first time, we will reach contacts not only by registered lobbyists but also by unregistered ones, as well as anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program. [emphasis mine -- Ed]

“Second, we will focus the restriction on oral communications to target the scenario where concerns about merit-based decision-making are greatest –after competitive grant applications are submitted and before awards are made. Once such applications are on file, the competition should be strictly on the merits. To that end, comments (unless initiated by an agency official) must be in writing and will be posted on the Internet for every American to see.

“Third, we will continue to require immediate internet disclosure of all other communications with registered lobbyists. If registered lobbyists have conversations or meetings before an application is filed, a form must be completed and posted to each agency’s website documenting the contact.”

Silencing dissent and criticism is “necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program”? Gee, what “unique circumstances” might those be? Perhaps the fact that it costs more than the Moon shot, and has yet to halt the economic skid. Maybe it’s the fact that most of the stimulus package doesn’t actually stimulate anything except doctrinaire liberal dreams and the pens that check off the items from the Democratic wish list.

Remember when the Left took to the streets to declare dissent “patriotic” during wartime? I didn’t have a problem with dissent then, but apparently the Left has a curious definition of “patriotism”. Now, suddenly, the federal government can silence their critics at will, not to protect critical national-security programs or keep from undermining a war effort, but to protect a Democratic president intent on seizing control of private industry across a wide swath of the nation. Suddenly, that kind of dissent threatens America.

Check out what the White House is trying to sneak under the radar (via Mark Tapscott, emphasis mine):

A new White House policy on permissible lobbying on economic recovery and stimulus projects has taken a decidedly anti-First Amendment turn. It's a classic illustration of Big Government trying to control every aspect of a particular activity and in the process running up against civil liberty.

Check out this passage from a post on the White House blog by Norm Eisen, Special Counsel to the President on Ethics and Government Reform (emphasis added):

"First, we will expand the restriction on oral communications to cover all persons, not just federally registered lobbyists. For the first time, we will reach contacts not only by registered lobbyists but also by unregistered ones, as well as anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program.

"Second, we will focus the restriction on oral communications to target the scenario where concerns about merit-based decision-making are greatest –after competitive grant applications are submitted and before awards are made. Once such applications are on file, the competition should be strictly on the merits. To that end, comments (unless initiated by an agency official) must be in writing and will be posted on the Internet for every American to see.

"Third, we will continue to require immediate internet disclosure of all other communications with registered lobbyists. If registered lobbyists have conversations or meetings before an application is filed, a form must be completed and posted to each agency’s website documenting the contact."

For the full blog post by Eisen, go here.

The key passage is the reference to expanding regulation from registered lobbyists to "anyone else exerting influence on the process. We concluded this was necessary under the unique circumstances of the stimulus program."

This is the Camel's nose under the tent, being poked because of special circumstances. Let government restrict political expression - i.e. lobbying of government officials regarding policy - in one small, supposedly specialized area and not long after the specialized area starts expanding. Eventually, all political expression regarding all policy will become subject to government regulation.

More on this as it develops. And trust me, it will develop.

Astounding.

Take it from those who know what they are talking about.

UPDATE: Jay Nordlinger:

Have you read this article in Pravda? It avers that “the American descent into Marxism is happening with breathtaking speed.” You know what I really appreciate about that statement? The word “descent.”

Exactly. Even the Russians know which was is up and which way is down.

Obama and the Democrats' have made a colossal error in judgment in quadrupling our deficit; and the markets are reacting accordingly.

The Obama Administration continues to BLATANTLY violate Federal Law, while the Democrats in Congress get away with unheard-of corruption with nary a discouraging word from the Dem-run "show trial" kangaroo courts (aka "Congressional Investigations").

They are running this country like Mayor Daley runs Chicago. Only on a more massively corrupt scale.

Where is the #@$%!*%#! outrage??? This President is trampling on the Constitution and our laws. I find myself agreeing with Mark Levin that Barack Obama is the closest thing to a dictator (or at least a dictator wannabe) that America has ever had.

Meanwhile, the media, led by General Electric-owned NBC/MSNBC, continues to march to Obama's beat, and (other than Fox) has pretty much ignored or else laughed at every single violation of American law to date, as evidenced by this bit via Michelle Malkin:

As I’ve stated from the beginning, there is still much to be researched on this issue. Given Obama’s Chicago gangland propensities, anything corrupt is possible.

Some professional journalists, however, have shown obstinate unwilligness to get to the bottom of the decision-making process.

The Washington Post’s business columnist Steven Pearlstein was asked about the story yesterday in an online Q&A. He scoffed:

Boonsboro, Md.: A bit off the topic, but have you or anyone at the Post investigated this? Chrysler dealers shut down in Obama bankruptcy are mostly Republican? It seems a crosscheck of dealerships to be closed versus donations shows almost all the dealers to be closed donated to Republicans. http://hotair.com/

Steven Pearlstein: Oh, please. What percent of all auto dealers are Republican? I bet its (sic) pretty high.

Well, why don’t you use all your professional journalism training and find out the answer, Mr. Pearlstein? And why don’t you look at the flip side of the question — as “amateur” bloggers have been doing — and investigate the circumstances of the protected dealers?

From Google News:

In answering a question from a student about how Pelosi was going to get Americans to cut back on their carbon emissions, the leading Democratic lawmaker said it was important to educate children on how to conserve energy and for citizens to build more environmentally friendly homes.

"We have so much room for improvement," she said. "Every aspect of our lives must be subjected to an inventory ... of how we are taking responsibility."

This from a partisan Lizzie Borden who is busy trying to deflect the coverage of her own serial lying about the CIA briefings; for Pelosi to lecture anyone about "taking responsibility" is so replete with sickening irony that she ought to be quarantined from opening that botox-streched mouth of hers.

Have we had enough yet?

She'll get confirmed. Probably. But it will likely come at a high price to Team Obama in the long run... that is if the sleepwalking Republicans play this one right.

If you think of the term "progressive", its root meaning suggests progress. As opposed to its synonyms "Marxist" and "Socialist", both which connotate misery and failure.

With this in mind, Jay Nordlinger's words today rang particularly true, lending much more irony to the notion that the ideology of the so-called "progressives" can lead to anything other than regression--and ultimately, chaos and anarchy:

If I had my way, they would all say, “I don’t care what her sex is or where her parents or ancestors came from. I care about what she thinks.” We have had a lot of talk recently about what the differences between the parties should be. Should we be Tweedledum and Tweedledee (or Tweedledumber)? Or should the parties offer distinct, contrasting views?

One of the reasons I became a Republican, long ago — and that was an unlikely conversion — is that I was appalled by the racialism of the Democrats. In my time and place, the Republicans were the party of One America: E pluribus unum. And the Democrats were the party of constant, obnoxious race-consciousness — running around with clipboards, putting everyone in a box. Race is destiny, they said (in effect).

Baloney.

It’s not very fashionable now to quote Condoleezza Rice — was it ever? — but I remember well what she said at the 2000 convention. She said that she was glad to belong to a party that “sees me as an individual, not as part of a group.” That, ladies and gentlemen, is what Republican music should be — at least in my opinion.

UPDATE: Also from The Corner, Veronique de Rugy contrasts what should be to what actually is:

David is right. Surely, the anti-tax-shelter rhetoric of the Obama administration provides the final incentive for former U.S. companies incorporated abroad to never return to the U.S.

But it will get worse. Obama's international tax policy will not only stop foreign companies from incorporating in America, but it will also force some U.S. companies to leave the U.S., following the steps of Accenture and many others. The "loopholes" that righteous Obama is targeting are what corporate executives consider to be life-saving features of an otherwise punishing U.S. corporate tax code: permission to indefinitely defer paying U.S. taxes on income earned overseas and the "check-the-box" rules which give companies some latitude in deciding where exactly their subsidiaries should be taxed.

Those rules are here for a reason. For years, rather than do the right thing and reform the corporate income tax, lawmakers put these rules in place so U.S. companies could compete with foreign companies. In other words, they reduce tremendously the cost of doing business abroad. There is no doubt that they have encouraged companies to place their offshore subsidiaries in low-tax haven countries, but that’s because companies can’t afford not to do it.

The corporate tax is a nightmare. First, the rate is too high. Today, the rate (federal plus state) of 40 percent is the second highest in the 30-country Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Second, the United States taxes corporations on their worldwide income. That means, for example, that the profits of a U.S.-owned computer plant are subject to U.S. tax whether the plant is located in Texas or Ireland. Most other major countries do not tax foreign business income as aggressively as does the United States. In fact, about half of the OECD nations have “territorial” tax systems that tax firms on domestic income only. The combination of high rate and a worldwide system makes the U.S. corporate tax system extremely punishing.

I never understood why the Bush administration didn’t reform it. Conservative economists have long been asking for it (check out their work on the subject here). But at least the Bush administration never threatened to make it unbearable for U.S. firms to do business abroad.

Finally, years ago I wrote this short paper explaining corporate inversion. It's only going to get worse.

Wow. The average Constitutional IQ level on the court just dropped by 25 points--and that is saying a lot considering she would be replacing Souter. For Obama it is a good strategic pick though--doubtful there are enough Republicans and Blue Dogs out there who would dare oppose a female hispanic, qualifications be damned.

Cartoon by Glenn Foden (click to enlarge)

Glenn Reynolds notes perhaps the biggest story of the weekend; not that our financial black hole is really news to the informed... but the fact that Obama openly admitted "we are out of money"--and this one month after his "emergency" bill effectively quadrupled our budget over the next 8 years, and to put the rest of us in the hole for at least $10 Trillion (that was Obama's conservative estimate) by then.

So how did that auto bailout go, Mr. President? How are Chrysler and GM doing after handing them all those billions of our tax dollars?

Glenn is not usually one for hyperbole, so when he sees it (emphasis mine), it is a good bet that one hell of a lot of independents are seeing things the same way:

WE’RE OUT OF MONEY:

In a sobering holiday interview with C-SPAN, President Obama boldly told Americans: “We are out of money.”

C-SPAN host Steve Scully broke from a meek Washington press corps with probing questions for the new president.

SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money?

OBAMA: Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we’ve made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we’ve seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades.

So we’re out of money because we don’t have national health care? Bogus. I think, instead, that it has something to do with the fact that Obama has been pouring money down a crony-statist rathole at absolutely astronomical and unprecedented rates. Yep, here’s that graphic again. Note that it doesn’t support Obama’s claim at all — but it does support mine.

“I’ve bankrupted the nation, so now your only hope is to pass my healthcare plan.” That goes beyond chutzpah to the edge of pathological dishonesty. Except, I guess, that it’s not pathological if you get away with it. And so far, he has.

UPDATE: Related: US bonds sale faces market resistance. “The US Treasury is facing an ordeal by fire this week as it tries to sell $100bn (£62bn) of bonds to a deeply skeptical market amid growing fears of a sovereign bond crisis in the Anglo-Saxon world. . . . The Obama administration needs to raise $2 trillion this year to cover the fiscal stimulus plan and the bank bail-outs. It has to fund $900bn by September.” And, in the Chrysler and GM cases, it’s already shown a deep disrespect for the rights of bondholders. That’s not likely to breed enthusiasm among investors.

Something tells me the Brits won't be the only ones.

Q: In just over 100 days: worst President ever??

What a great time for Obama, his Defense-Cutting, Appeasnik Administration and his "yes man" Gates to mothball the construction of additional Missile Defense launch platforms at Ft. Greeley Alaska, even though the taxpayers have already paid for and built the missiles. Earth to ostriches: the US is not going to lose an all-out conventional war to anyone; but it only takes one missile that gets through our defenses at high altitude to have a catastrophic EMP effect that could result in millions of American deaths within 6 months:

• The xenophobic madmen running N.Korea launch missiles and explode a Hiroshima nuke--on Memorial Day (on purpose). This is a complete "in your face" to Obama and his lofty idealism, and to all previous efforts to cut deals with these liars.
  
• Iran is on a collision course with similar nuclear and missile capabilities, has launched Surface to Surface missiles this week and has reiterated its intentions to vaporize Israel; meanwhile our President has shown relative disdain and irritation at Netanyahu; my guess is that his message regarding Iran was: 'you are on your own'.
  
• Obama seems to think the UN or the "International Community" will actually take action that would stop either Iran OR NK from moving forward (or...at least he pretends to think so for his political base). This, of course is a complete joke.
  
• Iran just sent warships into the Gulf of Aden--on Memorial Day, perhaps putting them in a better position to cut off the world's Oil supply should Israel or anyone else attack it.
  
• The Russians are threatening to install surface to surface missiles on the Polish border, and have pretty much issued an ultimatum directed at any Eastern European country that strengthens its ties with the US.

Do you feel safer today than you did with President Bush? Be truthful.

I will admit it: I have always been staunchly conservative, but have never agreed with this whole "war on drugs" thing. I would rather have people smoking weed on the streets while murderers and child molesters spend more time in overcrowded jails instead of being set free to make room for the thousands of drug offenders. It takes the profit motive out of the Mexican Black Market, and thereby deprives the Drug Lords from funds to promote their increasing violence (just like ending prohibition did for stopping all the violence surrounding the Liquor smuggling trade in the 1930's...does the name Capone come to mind? And do you see people killing each other over alcohol sales today?).

Today Tom Tancredo came out for common sense (watch the videos!); the very same common sense that the great William F. Buckley, Jr. spent years arguing for: one of the best examples can be found here. Every single essay is worth your time. It made such an impact that I still have the magazine.

This is not a Left/Right issue. It is a Liberty issue, and also a free markets issue. Count me in for Liberty.

Our law enforcement and military dollars could go to much better use. There would be lots more prison space for the really bad guys, and it also frees up the courts. You tax the drugs just like you tax alcohol sales--shoot, you could use the proceeds for addiction rehab.

It just makes too much sense. If people want drugs they are going to find a way; so why bankroll the thugs in the black market to boot?

Even the NYT-owned Boston Globe gets it. From a PR perspective, game over:

It now seems clear that top Democratic leaders like Pelosi knew about the policy, and chose not to challenge it.

After participating in the secret briefings, Pelosi apparently saw little way to change course until Democrats took control of Congress and the White House. Still, it would be nice to see if CIA notes on those confidential briefings showed her at least raising private doubts about those techniques.

The country should have access to all explanatory memos and other backup information about the interrogation policy. That way Americans will know exactly what Bush officials were thinking and what lawmakers - Republicans and Democrats - were told. The country needs to hear the truth.

And that goes for the results of those interrogations too, including the attacks prevented and estimates of lives saved.

The bottom line is that the Dems (nor our President) still don't get it about the fanaticism of our enemies and the mindset we are up against.

BHO has apparently told Netanyahu that he his on his own with the Iranian zealots. I hope Bibi has the guts to do what must be done. If so, and if Obama abandons Israel completely as many predict he would, his re-election is doomed. I think he would (reluctantly) have to cave to Israel.

Bibi needs to call his bluff... and the sooner the better--before all this health care and cap and tax nonsense gets too far along.

The money behind the mythology. And it isn't just Al Gore who stands to benefit. Billions will flow into General Electrics' coffers. You know them--the parent of MSNBC and NBC news. Biased? No way!

Plus Mark Levin quotes a telling passage from Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, in which the Marxist Revolutionary urged the use of "pollution" as a strawman catalyst to prime the people for more sweeping "revolutionary change". (as usual, Levin's entire show is worth a listen)

George Will suggests that we should expect the worst (emphasis is mine):

Now California's mostly Democratic political class will petition Washington for a bailout to nourish the public sector that is suffocating the state's dwindling -- and departing -- private sector. The Obama administration, which rewarded the United Auto Workers by giving it considerable control over two companies it helped reduce to commercial rubble, will serve the interests of California's unionized public employees and others largely responsible for reducing the state to mendicancy.

These factions will flourish if the state becomes a federal poodle on a short leash held by the president. He might make aid conditional on the state doing things that California Democrats and their union allies would love to be "compelled" to do: eliminate the requirements of two-thirds majorities of both houses of the legislature to raise taxes and pass budgets, and repeal Proposition 13, which voters passed in 1978 to limit property taxes. These changes would enable the legislature (job approval rating: 14 percent) to siphon away an ever-larger share of taxpayers' wealth and transfer it to public employees. Such as prison guards, whose potent union is one reason California's cost-per-inmate (about $49,000) is twice the national average.

Read the whole thing.

You ever wonder what Barack Obama did back in the days when he was doing all of that "community activism", using the tactics of one Saul Alinsky?

Welcome to the future.

From Tom McGuire, the aftermath of the California Tax Revolt:
Obviously the MSM hates the story. As it should be. No wonder they are all going bankrupt.

Today I heard an interesting suggestion from Mark Levin: if California can pass its own emissions standards, thus holding automakers in other states and countries hostage to its trade unionists and screwball chicken little "Climate scientists", then--rather than bowing to their insane "demands"-- automakers should reply by treating California like Cuba--i.e. they should only sell to states who do not have such draconian standards and let the Californians either drive the old cars or make their own. Furthermore (Levin continued), using the same Interstate Commerce Clause that the California legislature is invoking to impose its emissions standards, then why shouldn't other States like Texas and Louisiana and West Virginia--which are exploring and drilling their own oil or mining their own coal--use the same Interstate Commerce Clause to just tell the other states, as their prices rise for gasoline and electricity: "you are on your own."

I am paraphrasing, but you get the idea. If enough State Legislatures were to stand up to Washington and say "enough is enough", what started out as tea parties and now has morphed into a full-scale tax revolt in the bluest of Blue states, could turn into a full scale Federalist wildfire. All the fire needs is for the people in the other States to step up and say "enough".

South Carolina's Governor, Mark Sanford, has set a good example towards this end by vetoing large portions of the State budget rather than accept Federal bailout money--and the Federal mandates that go with that money. Maybe it is time to encourage State legislators in our respective States to take similar action.

Now if only some real Republicans would get out in front of this movement at a national level, maybe we would really get somewhere.

In case you had missed the story earlier, Newsweek has found a whole new approach to profitability.

Never one to be late to a story, Iowahawk has found a weeks-old Newsweek magazine who was willing to go on the record.

From Rich Lowry at The Corner:

In one key respect, it seems an utterly characteristic Obama economic initiative:

Now Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee revenue for the industry. And to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit.

Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.

“It will be a different business,” said Edward L. Yingling, the chief executive of the American Bankers Association, which has been lobbying Congress for more lenient legislation on behalf of the nation’s biggest banks. “Those that manage their credit well will in some degree subsidize those that have credit problems.”

Good grief; is this not the same approach the government tried with Housing? To encourage the rest of us to subsidize housing loans to low-income borrowers who did not have the means to pay them back? While in the meantime Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and Chuck Schumer--and their buddies at Fannie and Freddie--were getting rich off of packaging/selling these bad loans? A: Yes. Exactly the same approach.

By their interference with real supply and demand, they are going to manipulate market forces to blow up the credit card market just like they did the housing market. This is not capitalism; it is the opposite of capitalism. It is the "unintended consequences" of runaway statist Marxism. We have seen the damage the government's manipulation of markets does--we've been living it for the past 9 months. And Obama is now prescribing more of the same for credit cards!

At some point, one begins to wonder if this is more than simple ignorance of how markets work, and is instead intended to make things worse; is Obama trying to fix the economy, or is he trying to wreck it so that he can implement a totalitarian takeover before his derelection of duty is discovered by a large majority of the population?

I have never been a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist. But I can see what is happening here. It isn't rocket science. For one thing, Obama is not a stupid man. Power mad and narcissistic? Clearly. But not dumb.

Perhaps I am mistaken in this; perhaps he is so taken in by a backrupt and discredited idology (which has never in history brought prosperity anywhere it has been tried); but I doubt it. I think he knows exactly what he is doing: he is slowly but surely, systematically dismantling and destroying the very foundation of America's powerful economic engine which has given us the highest standard of living in world history. And in so doing, he is (in my opinion) consciously busy enslaving the rest of us--before we have time to wake up to what is going on. Which is of course why he is in such a godawful hurry and that everything he puts forward is an "emergency".

And to hear him talk day after day about a "new era of responsibility"? It sends me to a very dark place where I do not like dwelling; It is enough to make even the hardiest stomach empty its contents.

As I mentioned a week or so ago, I watched 1984 again recently, and what terrified me about Orwell's dark vision were the shocking parallels to what is happening today. Orwell saw it happening in Europeand wrote about it 61 years ago. And now this nightmare scenario is happening here, and men.will.not.see.it. The daily distortion and changing of Obama's previousl positions and pronouncements is dizzying. Within months, weeks, even days you turn around and there he is stating the exact opposite of what he said before--and no one notices! The daily contradictions of previous statements, contortions which make Bush Sr's "no new taxes" pledge pale in comparison. Barack Obama is a pathological liar, and he could care less. That borders on the sociopathic. Am I the only one who sees this?

We are living in a real-life American nightmare, and most of us don't even know how asleep we are. When are we going to wake up?

Back in November I pointed to a great Iowahawk post about the new product offerings from Congressional Motors.

Well, it is no joke now.

Racial preferences for radio airwaves? Yep.

The march continues to a police state.

Roger Simon points out (correctly, I think) that right now, Dick Cheney is Mr. Republican. And he is also right that we could do a lot worse.

Cartoon by Michael Ramirez (click to enlarge)

Soak the Rich, Lose the Rich.

Once again, the failure of the larger portion of the public to understand Economics 101, together with the complicity of the media in looking the other way--has led to the ultimate nightmare scenario. We have a President, a willing Congress and an in-the-tank media, on a collision course with the rest of us.

This is serious business, folks.

I can't believe I missed this earlier. O'Reilly has taken a story that broke on the web this morning and brought it to the masses in a big way.

Between this revelation about the New York Times' complicity in suppressing information that would have been extremely damaging to the Obama campaign just days before the election, and the revelation 24 hours ago about the billions of dollars of "Green" contracts that General Electric (the owner of NBC News and MSNBC) stood to lose in had Obama not won the election--well, what we have here is a very interesting and serious chain of events.

Ladies and gentlemen, the genie is out of the bottle.

Cover of the May 25 issue of National Review

This is priceless:

Poor Nancy Pelosi. For more than two years, our beloved House Speaker has been fighting for the public interest, toiling to restore “integrity and civility” to the Capitol’s lower chamber, and striving to shape the most ethical Congress in world history. And what is her reward for this selfless service? The cruel wrath of a vicious, widespread, nonpartisan conspiracy—designed to convince the American public that she is lying and playing politics with national security. This cabal is especially insidious because it involves so many disparate, and seemingly unrelated, players. Further still, its nefarious and remarkably prescient architects had the foresight to begin crafting the phony case against Pelosi years ago, fabricating evidence and coordinating lies as far back as 2002. These people must be exposed and thwarted to preserve Mme. Pelosi’s honor. ...

Trust me, you will want to read the whole thing.

Hope and Change. (well, maybe just change...)

This past week, while virtually no one in the US media was watching, Barack Obama accomplished what no President--even Jimmy Carter--has ever done: he conspired to throw Israel under the bus.

It is beyond calculation how much damage this new President has already done to his own country and to the world. Israel will not simply lay down and allow itself to become the victims of another holocaust, even as Obama attempts to consolidate his own ambitions to dictatorial-like powers at home. The President obviously believes that he can appease the Russians and the Arab world by betraying Israel, much as Neville Chamberlain believed that he could appease Hitler by handing over Czechoslovakia.

I'm guessing that Obama and the rest of the world are in for a rude awakening. And so are we.

God, I love it when TRUTH is spoken in such clear and unequivocal terms. If you have not heard this yet, it is a must.

I won't be getting a check this year. You may not know this, but I am "the rich"! (never mind I am hunting for work right now...) So naturally, I am overjoyed that all of the tax money I put in is going to such.....worthy causes.

Day by Day by Chris Muir (click to enlarge)

Via Ace, via Rasmussen:

The rest of the poll is mostly bad news -- Obama's approval rate remains steady is the headline -- but good news on one front.

By more than 3-to-1 Americans think it is time for the Obama administration to start taking responsibility (64 percent) instead of continuing to blame the Bush administration for mistakes (21 percent).

Good news, politically at least, because assuming that Obama fails (and the math is pretty emphatic that he must), the public has little appetite for further dog-ate-my-homework excuses.

The hilarity begins here...

Speaking of Administrations prosecuting previous Administrations, read George Will's latest: Obama's overreaching economic policies, bordering on the criminal. (personally I think that particular "border" is non-existent with this bunch... they believe they can do anything to anyone, no matter what the Constitution says.)

After the scorched-earth march to Atlanta politics of these Democrat partisans, might not Republicans take any prosecutions they have to endure today to heart--and payback might not be pretty.

Do you really want to go there, Dems with banana republic investigations, persecutions, and prosecutions of prior Administration poilicy decisions? Because in 4 years it could be you guys sitting in the slammer.... Murtha... Pelosi... Harman... Rockefeller... even Der Führer himself?

A sharp sword cuts both ways. To use a Biblical analogy: how about fixing the colossal mess you guys are creating instead of looking for a speck in Bush's eye?

A great economic wake-up call in this morning's Big Jake of the Financial site Seeking Alpha paints a worst-case scenario for the economy; a scenario that does not seem to be that unlikely, short of someone putting something "mind altering" in the water at the White House and Capitol Hill that would suddenly bring on a bout of sudden economic sanity (my guess is that most of these people have already had their minds altered...):

As late as June 2008, mainstream consensus held that the U.S. was heading for a “soft landing” and would avoid recession. Several months later, the slump was acknowledged to have started in January 2008, but we were supposed to see renewed growth by mid-2009, with unemployment peaking in the eight-to-nine percent range. A quick “shovel-ready” stimulus bag was supposed to set us back on the road to prosperity.

In January, recovery projections were pushed forward to late 2009. Today, the consensus is for a mid-2010 recovery, with unemployment peaking at just over 10 percent. Clearly, the mainstream has struggled to catch up to reality for well over one year. What are the chances that they finally have it right this time?

Moreover, the mainstream continues to see what is going on as a plain-vanilla recession that will be quelled with some on-the-fly monetary and fiscal tinkering. Washington, we are told, will pull us out of this slump—as soon as the masses can be enticed back to the shopping malls. Then things will return to how they were before. But what if the experts and politicians are wrong not only on their ever-changing recovery timeline, but also on the nature—nay, the very existence—of a recovery?

America’s reigning political-economic ideology has demonstrably failed. Given that its government is obviously fumbling along without a clue, its foreign and domestic credit is tapped out, and its 300 million people are discovering that their hopes for continuous material improvement will never be met, could the U.S. be headed the way of the USSR?

Instead of a recovery as the mainstream envisions it, what if America permanently bankrupts, impoverishes, and marginalizes itself? What if its cherished institutions fail across the board? For example, what happens when the police realize that their under-funded pension plans cannot support a decent retirement? Will they stay honest, or will they opt to survive by any means necessary? These are questions that the mainstream does not even begin to contemplate.

In the interests of providing you with an alternate vision—something outside the mainstream—below are ten predictions for America through the year 2012. This is not boilerplate doom-saying. Rather, I am laying out in highly specific terms what will happen over the next three-odd years. Others have thrown around the term “Depression”, but I am going to tell you precisely what it means for you, your investments, and your community.

When these predictions come true, I expect to be rewarded with a seven-figure consulting gig, a book contract, or a high-level position in whatever administration succeeds the doomed Obama team—that is, if anyone succeeds it at all.

Read all ten of Big Jake's predictions; and then consider the following:

Note that the predictions not even take into account foreign policy, e.g. what would happen to the price of oil if a war breaks out with Iran and/or its surrogates, and as a result the Straits of Hormuz or Suez Canal closes temporarily or indefinitely; remember the gas lines after the inane, self-defeating attempt by the Federal government to ration gas in the 1970's? If the situation with Iran were to blow up, Oil prices could skyrocket to 3-4 times what they were last year, especially given that Obama is leaving the rest of us holding the bag in the name of Green/Marxist "mythology", having gone out of his way to stifle, rather than encourage, domestic exploration. This will result in much higher costs for every single citizen, in addition to the onerous tax rates that Obama wants to institute for a taxpayer-funded Government Health Care Rationing program.

Nor do Big Jake's predictions take into account a devastating terror attack that takes out a city or a bio attack that shuts down businesses and quarantines millions nationwide in their own homes (and you thought the Swine Flu was bad...). The article does not take into account what happens if a rogue Iran or North Korea (or Russia) sells a nuke the the highest Islamist terror cell bidder--and then they use that weapon either to kill hundreds of thousands in the West (thanks to relaxed enforcement at our borders and rampant political correctness towards extremists)--or worse, an EMP attack that takes out the grid for a large section of the country for months or years (read the linked article, estimates are that casualties would be as high as 90% in such a scenario).

Finally, Big Jake does briefly discuss the biggest ticking time bomb of all--hyperinflation. When the 2010 tax increases go into effect, along with Obama's protectionist insanity discussed earlier, take a wild guess what will happen when all this monopoly money the Fed has been printing up (which is currently being held by the Federalized banks) actually gets into circulation? Suddenly the worth of your dollars will be reduced to, what: dimes? nickels? pennies?

Remember 1923 Germany?



And even if NONE of these "additional" things come to pass in the next 4 years--there is still the remainder of Big Jake's highly plausible scenario.

Hope and Change. Welcome to it. Batten down the hatches and keep your ammo dry. You may need both.

UPDATE: More rosiness from Hot Air--The Road to Weimar America

Remember last summer's gas prices? Remember "Drill Here, Drill Now"? Remember Obama in those debates stating that that he was for both drilling AND alternative energy. Well who exactly is being "drilled" now?

If you thought last summer's prices were bad, just wait until war breaks out in the Middle East...

And the hits just keep on coming...

Smoot-Hawley II. I don't think it is even possible to put into words how bad this can get.

The sheer gall and arrogance of the Obama administration to interfere with market forces seemingly knows no limits. When the government can effectively dictate what the price of a stock "ought" to be in certain circumstances--with no regard whatsoever for investors or the importance of accurate pricing to the economy--is (really) beyond belief.

Up is Down. Wrong is Right. Death is Life. Rich is Poor. And: "all Animals are created equal; but some are more equal than others..."

All The One's horses and all The One's men.... will not be able to save Nancy Pelosi from her own (videotaped) lies.

My prediction: a complete retreat by the Dems from all investigations of CIA "enhanced interrogations", legal briefs from Bush DOJ lawyers, etc. Sure, Obama and Emanuel would like to get their hands on that District Court spot--although I personally do not see any way they could ever get 2/3 of the Senate to vote for impeaching Bybee, considering that 58% the country believes that it is not worth sacrificing thousands of American lives (is it worth any?) to allow a little water to be poured down the snout of a Daniel Pearl-decapitating, mass murderer. Sorry Barack: holier than thou morality posturing aside, that is a "No Sale" to most Americans. In fact I think it makes more and more people wonder just how far Obama would go to protect our lives.

And now, when you add Pelosi's "I did not have sex with that woman..." moment to the mix; to pursue active hearings to "investigate" these matters--or even if BHO were to allow his puppet Holder to issue subpoenas or indictments--it would also mean throwing Pelosi overboard to the legal wolves: highly-paid defense lawyers defending the Bush DOJ would almost certainly put her under oath in "discovery", and a LOT more details about Jay Rockefeller and other Democrats' complicity in and hypocrisy about their role in the enhanced interrogations.

I just don't see it happening. San Fran Nan's bone-headed video denial to the entire country has single-handedly given the advantage to the Republicans in this whole "scandal". For the partisan lefty jackals to press forward now would be beyond stupid; it would be almost suicidal.

On the other hand, the Dems have self-destructed before; and if anyone is capable of making lemons from lemonade, it is the looney left. Let them try...

Attention Texas Legislature: Not much time left. Avoid being blackmailed like California: enact the sovereignty bill now!

I really like the text of the resolution. Very similar to the text in at least one of the Texas bills I've read (there are four).

It appears that many States in our Union are not content to sit idly while the "The One" and the Activist Statists in our Federal Government attempt to steamroll over their Constitutional rights. Good. As it should be. I am hoping that Texas enacts its own resolutions into law quite soon. I saw yesterday that in Oklahoma, both House and Senate passed it, Dem Governor vetoed..but the House overrode the veto! Good job OK!

But--even if many more states also pass this measure--there still is much more to do if we are to take our country back... Now is not the time for complacency; now is the time to get organized.

Whittle/Gingrich '12!

I also like (a lot!) what I am seeing from Paul Ryan.

Via Glenn Reynolds:

NOW IT’S TENNESSEE that’s pushing a state sovereignty resolution. I saw somebody — I forget where — calling these things “neo-confederate,” but if you look at the list of states where they’ve been proposed, well, the Confederacy must be getting pretty big, to encompass places like Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. But I think they’re a dumb idea — supporters would be better off getting behind Randy Barnett’s constitutional proposal, which is much more likely to make a difference.

I'm not sure I agree that the State sovereignty exercises are necessarily "dumb". They do get publicity which communicates a large public dissatisfaction for Washington's heavy-handedness, and they also provide Governors some Constitutional cover for resisting anti-Federalist tyranny.

But with that said, I do agree that the Professor Barnett'a proposal is pure gold--IF we can get organized enough to get a number of States to push it through. And that is up to us, and the time is now: it has to start at the Grassroots level. This is the "Contract for America" on steroids, but only if it has legs.

My Rx: organize or attend a Tea party meeting near you and speak up about The Federalist Bill!

Related views here.

10 Proposed Amendments, going directly to supporters in all 50 States for ratification. And if 3/4 of the States ratify? Can Congress really vote against the will of 3/4 of the States, even if it wants to? The people would throw the bums out in a New York second.

As I see it, this could make the Gingrich "Contract With America" look like small potatoes indeed. Folks this could be the start of something really, really big. An alternative to Statism and Marxism that will resonate with large numbers of people. This could be our chance. Even if only some of the Amendments make it through, it will be huge.

Interview with Professor Barnett here, via PJTV.

Text and commentary on the proposed Amendments here:

Click here to see "The Bill of Federalism: 10 Amendments to be Proposed to the States for Ratification" as drafted by Professor Randy Barnett, working with the assistance and support of The Nationwide Tea Party Coalition. Professor Barnett will use the public comments posted here in developing a final document. This final document will be presented to supportive state legislators in all 50 states, with the idea that they will use it as a "template" in drawing up bills to petition Congress to convene a Constitutional Convention to pass the ten amendments that comprise "The Bill of Federalism". Upon the passage of these amendments by either a specially convened Constitutional Convention, or by Congress itself, "The Bill of Federalism" will be submitted to all 50 states for ratification. Upon ratification by 3/4 of these states, the ten amendments that comprise "The Bill of Federalism" will become part of the United States Constitution.

Let the debate begin.

Good grief. All I have to say to this is hopefully most cities have learned their lessons from the Banks and Auto Makers who accepted bailout funds. It's like taking money from the Mob: you get in but you can't get out.

On the other hand there is the State of Oklahoma, who do seem to have their act together: today the Oklahoma House overrode a veto by the Governor and therefore enacted a law that declares Oklahoma to be "sovereign" under the Tenth Amendment of the US Constitution, which states:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

This presumably gives the state the ability to opt out of any "mandatory" federal programs in which it does not choose to participate, particularly those which are not involved in Interstate commerce. Of course, this also means that in such cases, the State would not get the Federal dollars earmarked for it--but a majority of Oklahomans appear to be just fine with all that. Who knows: maybe that even applies to the whole EPA ruling that what every single one of us exhales (and plants use to produce oxygen) is a pollutant. So does that mean we need to kill all the people to stop the exhaling?

Texas Governor Rick Perry made news when he advocated a similar soverignity measure at a San Antonio Tea Party on Tax Day, and I am all for that: but here is my .02 for the Governor Perry and the Texas Legislature: Actions speak louder than words. Stop talking and start walking.

Texas, Montana and Alaska are also pursuing soverignity laws concerning firearms manufactured and sold within their respective states. This is all a good trend.

Which brings us back to this new idea for Federal Cities Bailout Agency: is this an attempt by the Federal Government to trump the new movement of "sovereign" State laws, e,g, if the Cities (but not States) were to accept Federal money? The problem is that City law is also trumped by State law, so you could have some really messy court battles over Federalism in the coming year.

With the reckless and dangerous way that the federal government is writing hot checks and printing up money, picking a fight with States over the rights specifically delegated to the States under the Constituion would not seem to be an astute political move in this climate; in fact I would think it could trigger a backlash that would severely hurt Democrats in the mid-terms.

I hope more states decide to test these waters.

Cartoon by Michael Ramirez (click to enlarge)

Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, more corroborating evidence of the Chicago Mobsters' complete disregard for the law and the Constitution:

Business Insider reports that more than one Chrysler senior creditor has corroborated Thomas Lauria’s allegation that the Obama administration threatened them with public attacks if they didn’t surrender their contractual rights. One of their sources says that the Obama team comprises some of the worst “ends justify the means” people he’s ever encountered (via HA reader Geoff A):

Creditors to Chrysler describe negotiations with the company and the Obama administration as “a farce,” saying the administration was bent on forcing their hands using hardball tactics and threats.

Conversations with administration officials left them expecting that they would be politically targeted, two participants in the negotiations said. …

The sources, who represent creditors to Chrysler, say were taken aback by the hardball tactics that the Obama administration employed to cajole them into acquiescing to plans to restructure Chrysler. One person said described the administration as the most shocking “end justifies the means” group they have ever encountered. Another characterized Obama was “the most dangerous smooth talker on the planet- and I knew Kissinger.” Both were voters for Obama in the last election.

One participant in negotiations said that the administration’s tactic was to present what one described as a “madman theory of the presidency” in which the President is someone to be feared because he was willing to do anything to get his way. The person said this threat was taken very seriously by his firm.

Well, that’s certainly reassuring. The man at the helm during one of the biggest economic crises in decades is a madman who will act in an unpredictable and irrational manner if he doesn’t get his way. It sounds like they paint Obama as either a lunatic or a petulant child.

As Glenn Reynolds says, the country is in the very best of hands.

The story now has more than one source, and mounting testimony — albeit understandably anonymous testimony, at least at this point — that the White House tried threatening senior creditors instead of doing their job in enforcing the law. Not only do they not realize that their responsibilities do not include building business plans for private enterprises, but also don’t include assuming the role of Michael Corleone and acting like organized-crime thugs. Actually, the way the White House made Obama sound, maybe Sonny Corleone is a better analogy … or perhaps Fredo.

Barack is acting more like a tinpot dictator than he is a President of the United States.

UPDATE: More backstory from the unimpeachable Michael Barone:

Last Friday, the day after Chrysler filed for bankruptcy, I drove past the company’s headquarters on Interstate 75 in Auburn Hills, Mich.

As I glanced at the pentagram logo I felt myself tearing up a little bit. Anyone who grew up in the Detroit area, as I did, can’t help but be sad to see a once great company fail.

But my sadness turned to anger later when I heard what bankruptcy lawyer Tom Lauria said on a WJR talk show that morning. “One of my clients,” Lauria told host Frank Beckmann, “was directly threatened by the White House and in essence compelled to withdraw its opposition to the deal under threat that the full force of the White House press corps would destroy its reputation if it continued to fight.”

Lauria represented one of the bondholder firms, Perella Weinberg, which initially rejected the Obama deal that would give the bondholders about 33 cents on the dollar for their secured debts while giving the United Auto Workers retirees about 50 cents on the dollar for their unsecured debts.

This of course is a violation of one of the basic principles of bankruptcy law, which is that secured creditors — those who lended money only on the contractual promise that if the debt was unpaid they’d get specific property back — get paid off in full before unsecured creditors get anything. Perella Weinberg withdrew its objection to the settlement, but other bondholders did not, which triggered the bankruptcy filing.

After that came a denunciation of the objecting bondholders as “speculators” by Barack Obama in his news conference last Thursday. And then death threats to bondholders from parties unknown.

The White House denied that it strong-armed Perella Weinberg. The firm issued a statement saying it decided to accept the settlement, but it pointedly did not deny that it had been threatened by the White House. Which is to say, the threat worked.

The same goes for big banks that have received billions in government Troubled Asset Relief Program money. Many of them want to give back the money, but the government won’t let them. They also voted to accept the Chrysler settlement. Nice little bank ya got there, wouldn’t want anything to happen to it.

UPDATE: Jeff Goldstein comments:

Calm, sober centrism. Not fascism. No. Mustn’t stoop to the level of our political opponents and call fascism fascism. Otherwise we’re no better than they were when they were calling everything decidedly NOT fascism fascism.

Oh. And while we’re at it, stop making the claim that the left is forcing us to cede control of language. Such a claim is perfectly outrageous!

Ahem.

Like I said, newspeak coming soon. Read all of Goldstein's excellent post.

UPDATE: From piece emailed by Newt Gingrich (also well worth the read):

What follows is just a partial list of the winners and losers of the Obama Administration so far, organized by the government policies that will decide their fate:

The Chrysler Bankruptcy Pt. 1: From the Rule of Law to the Rule of Politics

• Winners: The United Auto Workers
• Loser: The Rule of Law
  

Bankruptcy was once a legal process in which an insolvent company, an impartial judge and creditors voting in good faith worked together to make the best of a bad situation.

Under the Obama Administration, the Chrysler bankruptcy has become a political process in which government has bought off some creditors, demonized others, and predetermined a favorable result for an important political constituency.

What happened last week with Chrysler was an unprecedented case of executive branch involvement in a bankruptcy proceeding. The Obama Administration bullied smaller investors to fall in line with TARP-funded creditors in a deal that ultimately benefited the union bosses who bear so much of the responsibility for Chrysler’s downfall to begin with. In the end, the losers weren’t just the secured creditors and the taxpayers who have footed the bill for all these bailouts, but the rule of law itself.

The Chrysler Bankruptcy Pt. 2: America, Get Ready for the “Model O”

• Winners: The People Who Are Evading Responsibility for Chrysler’s Bankruptcy
• Losers: Consumers Who Want to Buy Good American Cars
  

The end result of the rigged Chrysler bankruptcy is that two political entities whose priority is winning votes (the Federal Government and the UAW) now have majority ownership of a commercial entity whose priority should be making good cars.

And despite his protestations that he wants to get out of the auto business, President Obama has some definite ideas about what kind of cars Chrysler should make. Announcing the bankruptcy, he blamed Chrysler’s troubles, not on its uncompetitive labor costs, but on its “failure to make the fuel-efficient cars like its foreign competitors.”

Politicians, not businessmen and women, are calling the shots at Chrysler. America, get ready for the Model O.

My wife and I watched the Richard Burton remake of 1984 the other night (his last film before he died, and a very dark vision). Good film although it could have been even better--but very powerful nevertheless. Watch the Opening scene (first 10 minutes) below. Consider the current cheerleading of our media and the logic-be-damned "worship" of the cult figure Obama. Imagine in the opening scene the people chanting "Obama, Obama...." instead of "Big, Big, Big...."... then watch as the paid "newsman" rewrites history and alters fact, even as he wrestles with being guilty of "thought crime".



There have always been those who will argue, "Oh what's the fuss--it can't happen here." I beg to differ. From what I can tell there are many more signs that it is happening than it isn't. Friends, we are closer to Orwell's nightmare vision that we have ever been. And if we do not get organized and take our country back to the rule of law; if we do not act now to reverse the course of this insanity within the next two election cycles, America as we once knew her may never recover.

From their actions in the last 60 days, Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, George Soros, Nancy Pelosi and the rest of these power-mad aparatchiks apparently believe that they can do anything they want, the Constitution and written laws of the land be damned.

The closest historical comparison I can think of to parallel what is happening to us is Russia's corrupt oligarchy. Obama's actions to consolidate power, pay off his cronies, and intimidate his enemies into submission is almost a textbook re-creation of Vladimir Putin in his early days as Russian President. And just look at him now...

If our President, with a rubber stamp hyper-partisan Congress can be so indifferent to our Constitution and laws--all in the name of consolidating power and Nationalizing everything in sight--who is to say that a Secret Police or a STASI-like "Big Brother" presence--or even opposition voices mysteriously disappearing in the middle of the night or dying of "natural causes" --(like they do in Russia, China, Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela) can be ruled out altogether?

If this President so obviously views the Constitution, individual rights, and private property rights to not even be worth the parchment they are written on; if he feels he has the authority to blatantly violate the law to impose his will like some Michael Corleone wannabe, then why would any one individual's right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (other than KSH and others locked up in Gitmo...) be of any concern to him whatsoever? Who are they trying to kid?

Hitler and Stalin may be long gone, but the smiling, waving Barack Obama is partying like it is 1933. And a sleepwalking American public, wanting desperately to "believe" in something, anything, seem to be marching like zombies towards a darkness that America has never seen in its long, storied history.

I am not alluding to the slobbering hero-worship on the networks. I'm not talking about Breaking News highlighting Hamburger moments and Hand-holding on the White House lawn; I am alluding to what is really happening behind the scenes of this "utopian fantasy" our media seems to want to construct for its Sun King.

Consider that the economic course that this President and this Congress have set us upon; a course which is much more likely to result in conditions resembling the Weimar Republic (where a wheelbarrow of cash would buy you a loaf of bread), than it is to lead to any lasting prosperity. If you thought the last bubble was bad, just wait until Obama's $10 TRILLION tab comes due.

Of course it goes without saying that the end of the Weimar Republic came when a "savior" stepped forward to "save" a starving economy and another nation wanting someone--a cult figure if you will--to believe in. They got what they wanted all right. You might have heard of him: guy named Adolf Hitler. At the worst of the economic depression, ol' Adolf stepped in and assumed absolute power, promising Change and a New Day and Prosperity for all! Woo hoo! And, oh, did the German people ever want to believe in him. Sound familiar?

Friends, just look at what is happening before our very eyes. And yet most of us are sitting on our hands, pretending that someone is going to come in the middle of the night to "kiss the boo-boo". Think again. They may indeed come in the middle of the night, but it won't be to give you a kiss.



Here is a "what if" to at least consider--just for grins: what if Obama really wants another Weimar, just so he can step in (as Hitler did under similar conditions) and assume "absolute power"? What if the destructive actions they are taking to "create jobs" is really intended to make things much worse, so that he can justify trampling our laws and rights to consolidate his power? Just look at what he has done already to Chrysler! I ask this question only because his budget and "emergency stimulus" packages are almost certain to bring the United States to financial ruin such that it has never seen.

Paranoia? Certainly I cannot read Obama and Emanuel's minds, I can only see what they have done already--how they have trampled on the Constitution, rewarded their cronies, and threatened/smeared anyone who dares to disagree with them (remember Joe the Plumber?). All the while smiling and waving, holding hands with his wife, eating hamburgers for the cameras, (taking big donors on an Air Force One joy ride and then covering it up?) and fielding softball questions from an adoring, slobbering media. Unfortunately, while these sorts of photo ops and smooth rhetoric may soothe the average viewer of Oprah or The View, none of it is very comforting to any real student of history and (especially) with an understanding of economics.

This is your wake up call, America. Our greatest generation is passing away, and they have left us with the greatest place to live that has ever existed; a place where people risk their lives to get IN, rather than to escape. A place where--even when people like me become alarmed and disagree--we are (for now anyway) free to speak our minds and to exchange ideas. That Greatest Generation, and those who preceded them, paid dearly for the freedoms that we take for granted today. The Great Depression, 400,000 dead in WWII. Many more dead in WWI and the Civil Wars. And then there was the American Revolution, where men valued freedom more than comfort and safety; where educated brilliant men risked being executed for treason and were condemned to death by King George because they signed a document in 1776; where, fighting against the greatest military power on Earth, against all odds, patriots and visionaries achieved the noblest experiment in history, culminating in 1789 with the most brilliant conception of government ever devised, the US Constitution. And from there flourished into the wealthiest, most prosperous, freest, most egalitarian nation the Earth has ever seen.

And so what are we, the "Spoiled Generation", going to do to defend what those before us have died to protect? Nothing?

Are we to simply pretend it will all just "be OK" and to continue to turn a blind eye to the treachery at work behind the scenes? To a person who loves this place as much as I do, that would be criminal.

In the depths of my soul, I believe that our country is at a true crossroads, the same crossroads defined so eloquently in Levin's Liberty and Tyranny. The good news is that the future of the country is still in your hands--for now. The bad news is that with every passing day it is becoming more and more apparent that dark forces are working night and day to change all that. If we do not act soon--within the law, by becoming activists and working together to vote these slugs out of office, there may be no more "law" as we have known it; there may be no Constitution where We the People are in charge of our government; in fact it is much more likely that it will be the other way round.

We will have squandered our chance; we will have sat and done nothing as our government transformed its contract with us to be servants "of the people, by the people and for the people" into a real-life manifestation of Big Brother, who see the people as indentured slaves rather than their "employers".

The Statists (read: Marxists) desire control over every aspect of life. If successful they will assert their power over everything. How hot/cold you keep your house. What you drive. Who works and who doesn't. Who thrives and who starves. Who is watched for the "national good".

They will even have the ultimate power that any tyranny can have over its citizen slaves: the power to determine who gets medical treatment and who doesn't; to decide who lives and who dies. And quite likely, for no additional charge: they will get to tell you what/who you can say and criticize and what/who you cannot. PC speech "thought police" on college campuses is only the beginning. For many on the angry Left Orwell's newspeak is THE GOAL.

Allowing the Statists to achieve their goals will be the equivalent of building a big bonfire at a modern-day Reichstag and burning books they disagree with, burning the Declaration of Independence and every word in it (or replace with the Declaration of Dependence), incinerating the Constitution. Hell, they might even burn a few thousand people who disagree with them... just like they do in their "model socialist society" (China). Thought Police. Rewriting language and history. Monitoring everything and every one. Sound familiar?

If we squander this opportunity, there is a very good chance that our great experiment will crumble, just as Greece and Rome did, to corruption; to the whim of the Dictator, to the interests of the Oligarchs, and to Mob rule equaling that at the height of the French terror. As you may recall, in the France spawned by Rousseau's ideas of man's "perfectability", etc., there was a revolution. Unfortunately, after the revolution it became necessary to behead those who did not agree with this philosophy--all in the name of the myth of a utopian "equality of result" rather than the principles of Burke and Smith (and later: Friedman, Hayek and Sowell) i.e. equality of opportunity. The French Reign of Terror was not exactly the Bill of Rights in action...

Fortunately, this is not (yet) Barack Obama's country to do with as he pleases. We have a Republic, not a dictatorship (for now..). But when the bill for the Democrats' catastrophic budget finally comes due and the mother of all bubbles bursts, you are almost guaranteed Weimar Republic--The Sequel; at that point the only way that those in power--for whom power over our lives had been an all-encompassing obsession--can retain that power is to squelch all dissent, lock up its enemies and bring down the iron fist of Big Brother. Is there not at least a glimmer of doubt that this narcissist--who revels on seing his face on every magazine cover and the effusive praise of the ignorant illiteratiis (witness that trip to Berlin during the campaign)--is not fully willing and capable of doing anything to retain this power and increasing control of our lives?

History will look back some day and know the answer. The will know if Americans lost their bearings as the Germans did, empowering absolutely a "savior" and a bankrupt economic theory to change our climate and bring a utopian prosperity to all, only to destroy the only means for that prosperity, because his ego, arrogance and lust for power trumped all else.

Or it may show that Obama did not become Ceasar; rather that he simply ruined our economy, turned America into a chaotic replica of post-Cold War Russia where corruption and who you know rules. Where oligarcs and criminal enterprises have free reign. Maybe history will show that Obama's judicial appointees so dramatically ignored our Constitution that they rendered it completely impotent. That he eventually turned over power to other Statists who continued the soft tyranny Obama ushered in--or perhaps enslaved the people even more. It might even show that Obama's appeasement of regimes bankrolling religious fanatics sworn to wipe us from the face of the earth actually led those fanatics to succeed in taking out an American city or two; or perhaps even whole country at once with one well placed EMP. Perhaps millions will die in the process and historians will say: if the people had only seen it coming, they might have taken action in time to prevent the catastrophe.

OR just maybe we will get our act together. Maybe history will show that We the People, like those before us, stepped up and prevented a catastrophe for our Country, our Economy, and our Constitution. That we re-established the only engine for prosperity and wealth that exists: free enterprise and free trade.

Those coming after us will know for sure; we mere mortals can only guess. But--for my part--I'm not going to trust the future of my country to any man who has so blatantly lusted for absolute power in such a short time period, and who has been so agressive in breaking laws and trampling the Constitution to consolidate that power.

Our Ceasar may be nearing the Rubicon as we speak; will we go into the dust of history as have so many great civilizations before us? Or will we get organized, get motivated, and once again--as all our forefathers have done--do whatever it takes to preserve, to protect, and to defend the Constituion?

It is in our hands.

So there I was, having a business lunch in one of those places where they have a bunch of TV screens but no sound. As I polished off my Ahi Tuna, I could not help but notice one of the screens, dutifully tuned into The Big Brother Network MSNBC, with the following "Breaking News" trilier at the bottom of the screen: 'THIS JUST IN: Obama and Biden dine in Hamburger joint'...

Or something along those lines. And so I began to daydream...

Yes, yes: I know that the Taliban is in danger of getting Pakistan's nuclear arsenal; that Iran may soon have nukes that will fit into a Hezbollah terrorist's suitcase; that our country is on a direct course for hyperinflation because the hyperboliclally partisan Democrat Politburo passed a budget that its own Congressional Budget Office stated was "unsustainable. I know that thanks to Dear Leader's evisceration of a highly successful Missile Defense program and National Defense in general--so that Harry Reid can build his bullet train to nowhere--we may soon have an EMP blackout or some other catastrophe to look forward to soon; that we have unprecedented interference with Private Corporations, established bankruptcy law and the 5th Amendment by a "runaway train" extra-Constitutional President. These are givens. No need to trouble the American people with these "distractions."

But when Obama and Biden decided (on a mere whim, of course...) to go buy a burger in Alexandria, Virginia instead of taking advantage of the White House chef that we are all paying for? Now that is newsworthy. Needless to say, I was amazed at how incredibly fortunate was the coincidence that that the entire BHO-worshipping NBC News crew just happened to be in the same burger bar with cameras rolling when the motorcade arrived for Obama's "I'm just a Average Joe Burger Moment"--and even got a close up of our "everyman" President placing his order! What an incredible stroke of good luck for that camera crew! The Gods were smiling on MSNBC today. This is investigative journalism at its finest.

And then I began to think about these men and women on the front lines--who put their lives in jeapordy every single day to bring us the cutting-edge news that enables We the People to manage our public servants according to the objective facts (for example, the kind of coverage it provided virtually every single day of the Bush Administration!).

These brave men and women are the very vanguards of our freedoms and justice; the people who stare evil in the face every single day--and speak truth to power, regardless of what party or ideology in en vogue...

Oh, the sacrifices that these and other Journalists have made for us. For example, I would like to also recognize whoever the brave soul (and camera crew!) were who broke the Barack and Michelle hand-holding blockbuster. Move over Woodward and Bernstein! One reporter, against all odds, breaking a story like this? Now that is valor.

But no mention of our brave men and women giving their all can be complete without mentioning the example of that brave New York Times reporter who risked his life, career, and all journalistic integrity he had built up over the years to ask The One during his press conference (hic) how "enchanted" he had been by his own Presidency thus far... (Has Barack awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom yet? This may be a good opportunity to reward the profession who are so dedicated to ensuring that average Americans have the vital information we need to discern the truth, exercise our rights under the US Constitution they care so much about, and to make informed electoral decisions.)

Anyway, I think it is safe to say that what we have here with just the above examples--at minimum--are two Pulitzers in the making . These are shining examples of the men and women who put themselves "in harm's way" every day so that we might see and discern the truth.

So, as we celebrate the spirit and willpower of these modern day "patriots" to endure everything life can throw at them--all for us, Iowahawk has a new idea for an MSNBC "news" program. Enjoy.