Islamist terror strikes US again
by Ralph Peters
Last Updated: November 6, 2009

On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim US Army officer shouting “Allahu Akbar!” committed the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam.

What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at Ft. Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case of non-denominational shoplifting
But the president won’t. Despite his promise to get to all the facts. Because there’s no such thing as “Islamist terrorism” in ObamaWorld.

And the Army won’t. Because its senior leaders are so sick with political correctness that pandering to America-haters is safer than calling terrorism “terrorism.”

And the media won’t. Because they have more interest in the shooter than in our troops — despite their crocodile tears.

Complete article at:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/fort_hood_xjP9yGrJN7gl7zdsJ31vnJ#ixzz0WOqwgfPk

PELOSI: Buy a $15,000 Policy or Go to Jail
JCT Confirms Failure to Comply with Democrats’ Mandate Can Lead to 5 Years in Jail
Friday, November 06, 2009

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000 and imprisonment of up to five years.

In response to the JCT letter, Camp said: “This is the ultimate example of the Democrats’ command-and-control style of governing – buy what we tell you or go to jail. It is outrageous and it should be stopped immediately.”

Complete Article at:
http://republicans.waysandmeans.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=153583

Fort Hood’s 9/11

By RALPH PETERS
November 6, 2009

On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim US Army officer shouting “Allahu Akbar!” committed the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam.

What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at Ft. Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case of non-denominational shoplifting.

This was a terrorist act. When an extremist plans and executes a murderous plot against our unarmed soldiers to protest our efforts to counter Islamist fanatics, it’s an act of terror. Period.

When the terrorist posts anti-American hate-speech on the Web; apparently praises suicide bombers and uses his own name; loudly criticizes US policies; argues (as a psychiatrist, no less) with his military patients over the worth of their sacrifices; refuses, in the name of Islam, to be photographed with female colleagues; lists his nationality as “Palestinian” in a Muslim spouse-matching program, and parades around central Texas in a fundamentalist playsuit — well, it only seems fair to call this terrorist an “Islamist terrorist.”

But the president won’t. Despite his promise to get to all the facts. Because there’s no such thing as “Islamist terrorism” in ObamaWorld.

And the Army won’t. Because its senior leaders are so sick with political correctness that pandering to America-haters is safer than calling terrorism “terrorism.”

And the media won’t. Because they have more interest in the shooter than in our troops — despite their crocodile tears.

Maj. Nadal Malik Hasan planned this terrorist attack and executed it in cold blood. The resulting massacre was the first tragedy. The second was that he wasn’t killed on the spot.

Hasan survived. Now the rest of us will have to foot his massive medical bills. Activist lawyers will get involved, claiming “harassment” drove him temporarily insane. There’ll be no end of trial delays. At best, taxpayer dollars will fund his prison lifestyle for decades to come, since our politically correct Army leadership wouldn’t dare pursue or carry out the death penalty.

Maj. Hasan will be a hero to Islamist terrorists abroad and their sympathizers here. While US Muslim organizations decry his acts publicly, Hasan will be praised privately. And he’ll have the last laugh.

But Hasan isn’t the sole guilty party. The US Army’s unforgivable political correctness is also to blame for the casualties at Ft. Hood.

Given the myriad warning signs, it’s appalling that no action was taken against a man apparently known to praise suicide bombers and openly damn US policy. But no officer in his chain of command, either at Walter Reed Army Medical Center or at Ft. Hood, had the guts to take meaningful action against a dysfunctional soldier and an incompetent doctor.

Had Hasan been a Lutheran or a Methodist, he would’ve been gone with the simoon. But officers fear charges of discrimination when faced with misconduct among protected minorities.

Now 12 soldiers and a security guard lie dead. 31 soldiers were wounded, 28 of them seriously. If heads don’t roll in this maggot’s chain of command, the Army will have shamed itself beyond moral redemption.

There’s another important issue, too. How could the Army allow an obviously incompetent and dysfunctional psychiatrist to treat our troubled soldiers returning from war? An Islamist whacko is counseled for arguing with veterans who’ve been assigned to his care? And he’s not removed from duty? What planet does the Army live on?

For the first time since I joined the Army in 1976, I’m ashamed of its dereliction of duty. The chain of command protected a budding terrorist who was waving one red flag after another. Because it was safer for careers than doing something about him.

Get ready for the apologias. We’ve already heard from the terrorist’s family that “he’s a good American.” In their world, maybe he is.

But when do we, the American public, knock off the PC nonsense?

A disgruntled Muslim soldier murdered his officers way back in 2003, in Kuwait, on the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Recently? An American mullah shoots it out with the feds in Detroit. A Muslim fanatic attacks an Arkansas recruiting station. A Muslim media owner, after playing the peace card, beheads his wife. A Muslim father runs over his daughter because she’s becoming too Westernized.

Muslim terrorist wannabes are busted again and again. And we’re assured that “Islam’s a religion of peace.”

I guarantee you that the Obama administration’s non-response to the Ft. Hood attack will mock the memory of our dead.

Article at:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/fort_hood_xjP9yGrJN7gl7zdsJ31vnJ#ixzz0W6qNBJmR

Ralph Peters’ latest novel is “The War After Armageddon.”

Senate Panel Approves Climate Change Bill Despite GOP Boycott

FOXNews.com
November 05, 2009

In a rare move, Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday approved a sweeping climate change bill without any Republicans present.

Republicans had boycotted the committee’s work on the bill, insisting on a cost analysis of the proposal by the EPA.

The bill would require cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent over the next decade from 2005 levels. But Republicans warned the bill would leave consumers with higher energy bills.

“This would be the largest tax increase in the history of America,” Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., one of the seven committee Republicans, told Fox News. “I can only conclude that they don’t want the public to know how much money this thing is going to cost.”

Inhofe, who said the committee typically needs two minority members present to advance a bill to the floor, called the vote Thursday “unprecedented.”

One Democrat, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., voted against the bill.

But it still appears unlikely that the Senate will approve the legislation this year. Inhofe said the legislation is “dead.”

A bipartisan group of senators is trying to craft a compromise bill in hopes of attracting broader support.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/05/senate-panel-approves-climate-change-despite-gop-boycott/

Senate panel approves Democratic climate bill
Thur Nov 5, 2009

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday approved a Democratic climate change bill that would require industry to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels.

With Republicans boycotting the committee’s work saying more analysis of the legislation was needed, 10 Democrats voted to approve the legislation and one Democrat, Senator Max Baucus, voted against it.

The bill will now become one of several initiatives aimed at attacking global warming. Senator John Kerry is leading an effort with some Republicans and the White House to craft a compromise bill, which likely would not be voted on by the full Senate until next year at the earliest.
http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE5A42WB20091105

Posted: November 04, 2009
© 2009 WorldNetDaily

“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy,” warned Obi-Wan Kenobi, while approaching the fictional Mos Eisley spaceport in “Star Wars.”

For many Americans, the closest thing on planet Earth to the famous “Star Wars” bar scene, teeming with all its bizarre and malevolent denizens, is the Obama White House with its ever-growing menagerie of radical, unaccountable and utterly weird “czars” advising the president of the United States.

People like regulatory czar Cass Sunstein, who defends the removal of organs from terminally ill patients without their permission. Or Obama’s choice of school-safety czar, gay activist Kevin Jennings who actually pioneered the practice of introducing homosexual advocacy into public schools by disguising it as “school safety”! Or science czar John Holdren, who has advocated sterilizing welfare recipients and seizing babies born to unwed mothers, and predicted one billion people would die in “carbon-dioxide induced famines” caused by – are you ready? – a coming new ice age.

And those are just the ones you’ve already heard about. There are dozens more.

Meet people like Equal Employment Opportunity Commissioner nominee Chai Feldblum, who endorses polygamy, and AIDS czar Jeffrey S. Crowley – both openly homosexual. In fact, the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute boasts on its website that at least 60 “LGBT leaders have secured spots in the Obama administration.”

Then there’s Patrick Gaspard, officially the “director of the office of political affairs,” but whom critics call “ACORN’s man in the White House.” And defense policy adviser Rosa Brooks, a George-Soros-trained ideologue and anti-military radical who urged the prosecution of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for “war crimes.” And FCC diversity czar Mark Lloyd, who believes the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” – unanimously repealed by the FCC in 1987 – was never repealed, wants to destroy conservative talk radio, and described Marxist dictator Hugo Chavez’s rise to power in Venezuela as “an incredible revolution.”

And the list goes on. And on.

“In bypassing congressional approval and assembling an army of unaccountable czars,” says Whistleblower editor David Kupelian, “President Obama is doing precisely the opposite of what he promised before being elected.”

Since his election, Obama has zealously pursued the most stunning power grab in modern history, not only through unthinkable federal spending and takeovers of entire industries like automotive and banking, and in-progress takeovers of healthcare and energy, but by creating a virtual shadow government of “czars” within the executive branch.

Just why would a president want to bypass customary Senate confirmation and accountability to congressional oversight committees when appointing his advisers?

Van Jones provided the answer. After Obama’s “green jobs czar” was forced to resign in the middle of the night, following widely publicized revelations that he was a self-proclaimed communist and a racist conspiracy-monger, many people asked how Jones could have slipped through the White House’s vetting process.

“Jones didn’t slip through a sloppy vetting process,” explains Kupelian. “He passed it with flying colors. Jones was exactly what Obama wanted. Indeed, as you’ll see in this issue of Whistleblower, Obama’s czars – unaccountable to anyone on earth but him – are a reflection of his worldview and policy positions. They are a reflection of where Barack Obama wants to take America.”

Excerpts from:

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=114957

by Sam GustinSam Gustin RSS Feed
Nov 3rd 2009 at 2:40PM

Al Gore’s latest eco-treatise, Our Choice: A Plan To Solve the Climate Crisis, is set to hit stores Tuesday.

The former vice-president says he will donate 100 percent of the proceeds from the book to the the Alliance for Climate Protection, a green group.

But it turns out that the book money is small potatoes compared to what Gore could earn from his various eco-friendly investments. As a
partner at Silicon Valley venture capital heavyweight Kleiner Perkins
Caulfield & Byers, Gore is poised to reap hundreds of millions from
investments in the companies that will benefit from the government’s
increased emphasis on green technology.

According to The New York Times’s John Broder, Gore could become the world’s first “carbon billionaire.”

Some of Gore’s private sector green tech activities include:
· Founder of, and investor in, London-based Generation Investment
Management, which is run by David Blood, a former head of Goldman
Sachs Asset Management

· Partner at, and investor in, Kleiner Perkins.

· Invested in partnerships and funds that try to “identify and support companies that are advancing cutting-edge green technologies
and are paving the way toward a low-carbon economy.”

· Stake in “the world’s pre-eminent carbon credit trading market and in an array of companies in bio-fuels, sustainable fish farming, electric vehicles and solar power.”

· Adviser to high-profile technology companies including Apple and Google, “relationships that have paid him handsome dividends over the last eight years.”

· Capricorn has invested in Falcon Waterfree Technologies, the world’s leading maker of waterless urinals.

· Generation has holdings in Ausra, a solar energy company based in
California, and Camco, a British firm that develops carbon dioxide
emissions reduction projects.

Complete article at:

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/11/03/al-gore-the-worlds-first-carbon-billionaire/

The House Republican Conference has gone to the Herculean effort of tabulating the new federal boards, bureaucracies, commissions, and
programs that would be established by the House bill, all in the name of cutting costs of course!
They add up to 111:
1. Retiree Reserve Trust Fund (Section 111(d), p. 61)
2. Grant program for wellness programs to small employers (Section 112, p. 62)
3. Grant program for State health access programs (Section 114, p. 72)
4. Program of administrative simplification (Section 115, p. 76)
5. Health Benefits Advisory Committee (Section 223, p. 111)
6. Health Choices Administration (Section 241, p. 131)
7. Qualified Health Benefits Plan Ombudsman (Section 244, p. 138)
8. Health Insurance Exchange (Section 201, p. 155)
9. Program for technical assistance to employees of small businesses buying Exchange coverage (Section 305(h), p. 191)
10. Mechanism for insurance risk pooling to be established by Health Choices Commissioner (Section 306 (b), p. 194)
11. Health Insurance Exchange Trust Fund (Section 307, p. 195)
12. State-based Health Insurance Exchanges (Section 308, p. 197)
13. Grant program for health insurance cooperatives (Section 310, p. 206)
14. “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 321, p. 211)
15. Ombudsman for “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 321(d), p. 213)
16. Account for receipts and disbursements for “Public Health Insurance Option” (Section 322(b), p. 215)
17. Telehealth Advisory Committee (Section 1191 (b), p. 589)
18. Demonstration program providing reimbursement for “culturally and
linguistically appropriate services” (Section 1222, p. 617)
19. Demonstration program for shared decision making using patient decision
aids (Section 1236, p. 648)
20. Accountable Care Organization pilot program under Medicare (Section
1301, p. 653)
21. Independent patient-centered medical home pilot program under Medicare (Section 1302, p. 672)
22. Community-based medical home pilot program under Medicare (Section
1302(d), p. 681)
23. Independence at home demonstration program (Section1312, p. 718)
24. Center for Comparative Effectiveness Research (Section 1401(a), p. 734)
25. Comparative Effectiveness Research Commission (Section1401 (a), p. 738)
26. Patient ombudsman for comparative effectiveness research (Section 1401(a), p. 753)
27. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for skilled nursing facilities (Section 1412(b)(1), p. 784)
28. Quality assurance and performance improvement program for nursing facilities (Section 1412 (b)(2), p. 786)
29. Special focus facility program for skilled nursing facilities (Section
1413(a)(3), p. 796)
30. Special focus facility program for nursing facilities (Section 1413(b)(3), p. 804)
31. National independent monitor pilot program for skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities (Section 1422, p. 859)
32. Demonstration program for approved teaching health centers with respect to Medicare GME (Section 1502(d), p. 933)
33. Pilot program to develop anti-fraud compliance systems for Medicare providers (Section 1635, p. 978)
34. Special Inspector General for the Health Insurance Exchange (Section
1647, p. 1000)
35. Medical home pilot program under Medicaid (Section 1722, p. 1058)
36. Accountable Care Organization pilot program under Medicaid (Section
1730A, p. 1073)
37. Nursing facility supplemental payment program (Section 1745, p. 1106)
38. Demonstration program for Medicaid coverage to stabilize emergency medical conditions in institutions for mental diseases (Section 1787, p. 1149)
39. Comparative Effectiveness Research Trust Fund (Section 1802, p. 1162)
40. “Identifiable office or program” within CMS to “provide for improved
coordination between Medicare and Medicaid in the case of dual eligibles”
(Section 1905, p. 1191)
41. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (Section 1907, p. 1198)
42. Public Health Investment Fund (Section 2002, p. 1214)
43. Scholarships for service in health professional needs areas (Section
2211, p. 1224)
44. Program for training medical residents in community-based settings
(Section 2214, p. 1236)
45. Grant program for training in dentistry programs (Section 2215, p. 1240)
46. Public Health Workforce Corps (Section 2231, p. 1253)
47. Public health workforce scholarship program (Section 2231, p. 1254)
48. Public health workforce loan forgiveness program (Section 2231, p. 1258)
49. Grant program for innovations in interdisciplinary care (Section 2252,
p. 1272)
50. Advisory Committee on Health Workforce Evaluation and Assessment
(Section 2261, p. 1275)
51. Prevention and Wellness Trust (Section 2301, p. 1286)
52. Clinical Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1295)
53. Community Prevention Stakeholders Board (Section 2301, p. 1301)
54. Grant program for community prevention and wellness research (Section 2301, p. 1305)
55. Grant program for research and demonstration projects related to
wellness incentives (Section 2301, p. 1305)
56. Grant program for community prevention and wellness services (Section 2301, p. 1308)
57. Grant program for public health infrastructure (Section 2301, p. 1313)
58. Center for Quality Improvement (Section 2401, p. 1322)
59. Assistant Secretary for Health Information (Section 2402, p. 1330)
60. Grant program to support the operation of school-based health clinics (Section 2511, p. 1352)
61. Grant program for nurse-managed health centers (Section 2512, p. 1361)
62. Grants for labor-management programs for nursing training (Section 2521, p. 1372)
63. Grant program for interdisciplinary mental and behavioral health training (Section 2522, p. 1382)
64. “No Child Left Unimmunized Against Influenza” demonstration grant program (Section 2524, p. 1391)
65. Healthy Teen Initiative grant program regarding teen pregnancy (Section 2526, p. 1398)
66. Grant program for interdisciplinary training, education, and services for individuals with autism (Section 2527(a), p. 1402)
67. University centers for excellence in developmental disabilities
education (Section 2527(b), p. 1410)
68. Grant program to implement medication therapy management services (Section 2528, p. 1412)
69. Grant program to promote positive health behaviors in underserved communities (Section 2530, p. 1422)
70. Grant program for State alternative medical liability laws (Section 2531, p. 1431)
71. Grant program to develop infant mortality programs (Section 2532, p.
1433)
72. Grant program to prepare secondary school students for careers in health professions (Section 2533, p. 1437)
73. Grant program for community based collaborative care (Section 2534, p. 1440)
74. Grant program for community based overweight and obesity prevention (Section 2535, p. 1457)
75. Grant program for reducing the student-to-school nurse ratio in primary and secondary schools (Section 2536, p. 1462)
76. Demonstration project of grants to medical-legal partnerships (Section
2537, p. 1464)
77. Center for Emergency Care under the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (Section 2552, p. 1478)
78. Council for Emergency Care (Section 2552, p 1479)
79. Grant program to support demonstration programs that design and implement regionalized emergency care systems (Section 2553, p. 1480)
80. Grant program to assist veterans who wish to become emergency medical technicians upon discharge (Section 2554, p. 1487)
81. Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (Section 2562, p. 1494)
82. National Medical Device Registry (Section 2571, p. 1501)
83. CLASS Independence Fund (Section 2581, p. 1597)
84. CLASS Independence Fund Board of Trustees (Section 2581, p. 1598)
85. CLASS Independence Advisory Council (Section 2581, p. 1602)
86. Health and Human Services Coordinating Committee on Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1610)
87. National Women’s Health Information Center (Section 2588, p. 1611)
88. Centers for Disease Control Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p.
1614)
89. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Office of Women’s Health and Gender-Based Research (Section 2588, p. 1617)
90. Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1618)
91. Food and Drug Administration Office of Women’s Health (Section 2588, p. 1621)
92. Personal Care Attendant Workforce Advisory Panel (Section 2589(a)(2), p. 1624)
93. Grant program for national health workforce online training (Section
2591, p. 1629)
94. Grant program to disseminate best practices on implementing health
workforce investment programs (Section 2591, p. 1632)
95. Demonstration program for chronic shortages of health professionals (Section 3101, p. 1717)
96. Demonstration program for substance abuse counselor educational curricula (Section 3101, p. 1719)
97. Program of Indian community education on mental illness (Section 3101, p. 1722)
98. Intergovernmental Task Force on Indian environmental and nuclear hazards (Section 3101, p. 1754)
99. Office of Indian Men’s Health (Section 3101, p. 1765)
100. Indian Health facilities appropriation advisory board (Section 3101, p. 1774)
101. Indian Health facilities needs assessment workgroup (Section 3101, p. 1775)
102. Indian Health Service tribal facilities joint venture demonstration
projects (Section 3101, p. 1809)
103. Urban youth treatment center demonstration project (Section 3101, p. 1873)
104. Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for diabetes prevention (Section 3101, p. 1874)
105. Grants to Urban Indian Organizations for health IT adoption (Section 3101, p. 1877)
106. Mental health technician training program (Section 3101, p. 1898)
107. Indian youth telemental health demonstration project (Section 3101, p. 1909)
108. Program for treatment of child sexual abuse victims and perpetrators
(Section 3101, p. 1925)
109. Program for treatment of domestic violence and sexual abuse (Section 3101, p. 1927)
110. Native American Health and Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1966)
111. Committee for the Establishment of the Native American Health and
Wellness Foundation (Section 3103, p. 1968)

The information above is from:
Power Line Blog
The Let Your Voice Be Heard blog entry also has a video:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/11/024854.php?format=print

*By* *Joe Herring*
November 01, 2009

I’m an American guy. You don’t know me; I’m not famous. I have a family and the responsibilities that go with that, and I try to be a man who can be counted on. I don’t always succeed, but I’ve always tried. I was born here, but you don’t need to be native-born to be an American. In fact, that’s kind of the point of it all. America is our home, our country, and our ideal. It is much less about where you are than who you are. It is the embodiment of a set of principles through which a disparate group of people became a nation, and that nation became the fulfillment of countless dreams.

This is such a unique thing we possess, this free way of life. Power granted to the government by the consent of the governed, not taken by force. The default setting for societies has always been a brutal mash of exploitation, oppression and unfettered greed. Whether couched in religion, geography, or tribe, the strong have always ruled the weak, and the wily take their cut off the top. But now we have leaders and laws chosen by process and debate, rather than the former staples of noble birth, graft, brute force, and intimidation. To be sure, a fair measure of those same flaws remain with us in our politics and governance, but they are not the norm, and they’re usually driven out when discovered. This alone is enough to separate us from all previous attempts by man to bring order to human interaction…but wait, there’s more.

Past societies have made dramatic leaps forward on the springboard of innovative concepts that we modern folk take for granted. The Magna Carta proved an indispensible foundation for western government, the Hammurabic Code a stepping stone to our rule of law. But past glories notwithstanding, no one has done what we have done. No one. Ever.

So knowing this, why are there so many in society willing to chuck it all in and forge ahead into a brave new world that looks and smells just like the fetid carcass of the cowardly Old World? Why would intelligent people knowingly choose /less/ freedom for themselves and their children? Crudely put, it is because the idea of a fully free society with everyone making his own decisions simply chaps their asses. It is not enough for such people to be successful themselves; they must also have a hand in ordering the winners and losers amongst the rest of the players. So convinced are they of their own inestimable value that they cannot conceive of a world that doesn’t need them. In their minds, they should be consulted before decisions are made; after all, look how successful they are. Clearly anyone who doesn’t recognize this must be mentally defective, and we all know you don’t have to take seriously the ramblings of an imbecile.

Sadly, you meet people like this every day: the know-it-all at the office, the busybody at church, or the irritating uncle that insists on dominating every discussion at the holiday table. Your neighborhood association board is a protected habitat for this species. Alone, and in these settings, such people are just a grating annoyance. However, group them together and allow them to hold taut the reins of power, and true danger quickly arises where mere pomposity once sat. The mechanisms of government carry with them the unspoken yet omnipresent threat of force. In a free society, the government holds a monopoly on force (lawfully granted by the people), and the people hold sway over the government. We have used this balance to ensure equitable treatment under the law with a great deal of success over the past two centuries. A collar on the dogs of war, if you will, to which the governed hold the leash.

But what happens when the self-absorbed decide that our laws and ways are really just anachronistic barriers to their progressive real-think? If you’re smart, you tremble for a moment, then gird yourself for a fight. If you recall the puritan ethos that H.L. Mencken described as having the haunting feeling that someone, somewhere, is happy, then you easily understand the sensibility of someone who cannot be satisfied with his own success unless it involves dictating to others how they must succeed as well. And not just any old success…it must be appropriate success. Success suited to one’s station. (See affirmative action and virtually every other outcome-based folly of the Left.)

What sort of mind functions this way? Where do we find the bedrock of such a philosophy? Look first to human nature, and realize that with all our sophistication and technology, we still eat, crap, and fight much as we always have. We always will. Accept it. Madison said that if men were angels, no government would be needed. Of course, we know men are no angels; so we must ask, who will govern the governors? Many actors have played this role. Religion has been a lodestar for our leaders for the better part of 150 years. Honor and national pride have, too.

But perhaps more than anything, the vision of our founders as evinced in the Constitution has been the greatest bulwark against both the busybody and the tyrant. Behind that magnificently crafted wall we have found refuge, and in its protective shade our nation has grown into the example that has recast the world in its image.

This is how I feel: we are facing a busybody and tyrant in one, with the mighty machine of government at his command. Think of this article as a gentle slap on the back of the head to those of you who still say /it can’t happen here/. We have been lied to continuously, with great eloquence. The gatekeepers have abandoned their posts and taken sides. The traditional means by which we have held our leaders to account have been overturned and replaced with a politburo-style stamp.

It’s not enough for them to tell us what to do; they want to decide our thoughts for us, too. After all, if we had any sense, we would beg for their advice, right? Make what you will of your ideas. Preach them to all who will listen. Gather support and make your case…but do not tell me you are doing X while I, along with everyone else, am watching you do Y. And we are watching.

Article at:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/11/will_we_lose_it_all.html

By Bill Dedman
Investigative reporter
msnbc.com
Sat., Oct . 31, 2009

On the list of visitors are 3 infamous names, Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers and Angela Davis.

They include Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (whose foundation is pushing for changes in teacher pay), former AIG chairman Maurice Greenberg, Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, Chevron CEO David O’Reilly, Citigroup’s Vikram Pandit, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, JP Morgan’s James Dimon, Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis, John Stumpf of Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley’s John Mack, State Street bank’s Ron Logue, BNY Mellon’s Robert Kelly, labor leader Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union (22 visits), American Bankers Association CEO Ed Yingling, community bankers president Camden Fine, and lobbyists Heather and Anthony Podesta, whose brother John Podesta led Obama’s transition team.

Besides Gates, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt are also on the list. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC. One of NBC’s parents is GE.)

Democratic donor and businessman George Soros visited with White House aides twice.

Sen. Thomas Daschle, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, former Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. Al Franken, former Vice President Al Gore, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, and Democratic strategist Steve Elmendorf.