Well it appears with the Libya rebels taking over Tripoli that Barack “O”finally got the success in international affairs he has been so diligently seeking. As the old saying goes,“Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while.”
Rebel Fighters Celebrate in Tripoli - REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
Of course it could be said that if he was really of a mind to do this he could have completed it in 30 days by using a bit more intelligent administration of that war effort instead of initiating it and then just turning it over to NATO to carry through. How many lives might that have saved? However,you have to give him credit even if our gut reaction is to want to deny it. After all,it has occurred on his watch. There had been a long stalemate in the five month old civil war when the rebels’breakthrough occurred on Sunday. According to rebel leaders this was the result of a closely coordinated plan by rebels,NATO and anti-Gadhafi residents inside Tripoli.
The only problem that remains is,exactly what has really been won? As of today there is still a big question mark over Lybia. We still don’t really know who these rebels are and now that they have won the fight how will they govern. Will it become a democratic state similar to Iraq,or a theocratic one under sharia law more like Iran? Will the long term effect be the creation of a stable regime that lives in peace with its neighbors,or another nightmare in the region for Israel and yet another haven for terrorism?
Its great to want good things for the people of the Arab lands,but for the most part those folk are being held hostage by a combination of Islamic extremists,despots like Gadhafi,and terrorists that are from their own back yard and it has been like that for hundreds of years. The typical despotic mid-east leadership keeps their people in ignorance and abject poverty with little hope for today or the future while blaming Israel and the West for all their failed schemes.
Gadhafi ruled Libya for over 40 years using a combination of an iron fist and his propaganda machine to suppress the people and keep his personal money tree well fed and watered. I deeply hope that the new rulers that come about here will be a better breed who will finally grant that oppressed people a vision of hope for the future,but only time will tell.
As for Barrack,well done Mr President. That,by my count gives you a current score of +1 for Libya and -2347 for all the other cock-a-Mamie schemes you have come up with in the last 2 1/2 years.
For too long the Republican leadership,even when they had the presidency and substantial majorities in both houses, lacked the intestinal fortitude to attack the Democrats head on over fiscal responsibility as well as a host of other associated issues. As a direct result spending rates and debt soared and gave the Democrats the opportunity to blame the Republicans and GW Bush for our soaring debt. Sen Chuck Schumer and congressman Barney “Twinkle-toes”Frank along with other leading Democrats directly caused the housing crisis and banking failures which precipitated the current economic downturn. They did this by refusing to reign Frannie and Freddie with their sub-prime loans after being specifically and directly warned three times by GW Bush as early as 2002. With the aid of the liberal news media they then successfully blamed Bush for the banking failure and the economic downturn resulting in Obama’s election. They still are still blaming Bush although they have increased the debt triple the rate before they took over. Our country is suffering substantially as a result and will soon be in the position of Greece or Spain if this is not stopped.
It is about time that Republicans finally develop the “huevos”to stand up against these liberal socialist interlopers that have hijacked our country and threatened our very way of life. Obviously I am only one of many that no longer trusts our Republican legislators to stand up and actually stand for the conservative values that they ran on in their home districts. The “Can’t we just get along”whiners have ruled the day among the Republican party. When an issue comes up the Democrats demagogue it like crazy and the Republicans roll over and play dead for fear it will be used as a election time sound byte by their opposition.
To those members of the Republican leadership concerned about this I say,“GET OVER IT!!” The Democrats are always going to accuse Republicans of being the mean old hateful big business fat cats who want to starve little old ladies and children. They always blame their failures on the Republicans and if you go along with their cock-a-mamie schemes to keep peace,when they fail as they inevitably will,they will successfully blame the failure on you and the media will support them!
Use the truth to disarm them instead of going along with their socialistic schemes as has been the pattern in Washington. There are still a bunch of people that will understand and stand with you if you stand firmly for the principles that founded this nation and guided it for 200 years. If Republicans don’t stand up tall now for fiscal responsibility there will soon arise a true third party that will be true to the Constitution and the principles espoused by the various Tea Party groups. That would be a disaster as it would insure Democrats control of the White House for the next 20 years or more.
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Newsmax article reprint:
A significant faction of the tea party movement is prepared to revolt against any GOP deal to raise the debt ceiling – even if it is “revenue neutral” and cuts trillions from federal spending,grass-roots sources tell Newsmax.
For the most part,tea party leaders have coalesced around the “cut,cap,and balance” approach to raising the debt ceiling:Trillions in real spending cuts,a cap on how much federal spending can consume as a percent of GDP,and,ultimately,a balanced budget amendment that would prevent the federal government from running up future deficits.
But the fractious tea party movement actually consists of thousands of loosely affiliated groups. They generally support constitutionally limited government,but don’t always agree on specific policies. And they are by no means united on whether the debt ceiling should be raised at all.
The leaders of at least one major tea party organization,Tea Party Patriots,are adamantly opposed to any deal to raise the debt ceiling,under virtually any circumstances. Doing so,they say,only invites more deficit spending.
Some analysts call such fiscal hawks “debt-ceiling absolutists.” The absolutists say Uncle Sam must go cold turkey and swear off the spending binge that has saddled America with over $14.3 trillion in national debt. But labels aside,their influence within the GOP caucus is substantial.
“It’s a hard sell for [House Speaker John] Boehner,” Ryan Ellis,director of tax policy for Americans for Tax Reform,tells Newsmax. “Because the people that he’s having trouble rounding up,and that he had trouble rounding up for the CR [continuing resolution passed in April],are people who are just inherently skeptical of Republican authority in D.C. – and for good reason.”
Although most of the major grass-roots organizations,including Tea Party Express,FreedomWorks,Grassfire.org,and others have coalesced around the cut,cap,and balance approach,it is by no means clear that they have the support of the majority of their own members when it comes to raising the debt ceiling.
A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found that more than 80 percent of self-identified tea party supporters oppose raising the debt ceiling. Even Democrats only favored increasing the debt ceiling by 49 percent to 45 percent. Independents also opposed increasing the debt ceiling,by a whopping 71 percent to 24 percent margin.
Several such polls suggest the Republican leadership has failed to win the confidence of its grass-roots conservative base. In fact,several recent GOP moves have probably eroded the tea parties’ trust in the GOP leadership.
The “secret” powwow held Sunday between Boehner and President Barack Obama administration,as reported by The New York Times,has left some tea party leaders more skeptical that the ultimate deal will be palatable.
“Somehow super-secret,double-secret handshake meetings in back rooms on the weekend when nobody’s watching don’t seem to me to meet any standard of transparency for any human being that I’ve ever met,” Tea Party Patriots co-founder Mark Meckler tells Newsmax.
“Why aren’t these negotiations open to the American public?” demanded Meckler,who is always careful to stipulate that he doesn’t speak for all of his members. “Why are we not allowed to know how,and for what,they’re trading away our children’s future?”
Boehner spokesman Michael Steel tells Newsmax,“The speaker has made it clear that the American people will not tolerate – and the House will not pass – a debt-limit increase without spending cuts greater than the increase,and reforms that will bring down future spending. The only thing off the table is tax hikes,because tax hikes destroy jobs.”
The Republican Party’s relationship with its tea party base took another hit Wednesday when GOP Sen. Jon Kyl,R-Arizona,stated Republicans had put some $200 billion in new revenues on the table,in a good-faith effort to work out a deal with the White House.
Although Kyl said those revenues would be gathered through land sales and increased fees rather than higher taxes,his statement has triggered substantial angst on the right.
Ryan Hecker,the tea party leader who created the Contract From America document that served as the tea party’s manifesto in the 2010 midterms,blasted Kyl Thursday in an e-mail to Newsmax.
“I am dismayed that Republicans like Kyl continue to use doublespeak in an attempt to once again trick and fleece the American people,” Hecker wrote. “Calls to implement ‘user fees’ and close ‘tax loopholes’ are simply sly ways of calling for tax increases,” he added.
The escalating discontent on the right comes in the context of the April deal brokered by Obama and Boehner. ATR’s Ellis tells Newsmax that tea party members feel they “got played” in the continuing resolution negotiation.
Initially,the deal purported to shave $38 billion from federal spending. But a subsequent CBO analysis found it actually cut just $352 million for current-year spending. Then came the killer:When emergency military spending was included,the CBO found that federal spending would actually increase $3.3 billion above last year’s level.
Although Boehner’s staff defended the future savings that the compromise is projected to bring,it now appears the deal in April may make it much more difficult politically to get grass-roots buy-in on a grand bargain to elevate the debt ceiling. It proved so controversial that 59 House Republicans broke ranks and voted against the deal.
This time,some observers warn,the defections could be even worse. If Boehner has to rely heavily on Democratic votes to pass a debt-ceiling compromise,it could weaken his standing within his own caucus.
Some tea party members,meanwhile,complain that the Republican Party seems to have forgotten the lesson of the 2010 midterms.
“It astounds me that Republican leadership continues to operate under the assumption that they won back the House in 2010 because of their good looks and wonderful personalities,” Hecker stated.
“They won because they preached economic conservatism and no tax hikes. They were given a mandate,and yet they continue to operate from a defensive position. This failure of real leadership is why Republicans lost Congress and the presidency in the first place,” he added.
FreedomWorks chief Matt Kibbe has a more nuanced view. As much as he would prefer a more fundamental change in federal governance,he says,the GOP,with control of only one chamber of Congress,just doesn’t have the power it needs to impose its will. That’s why his organization is pushing for the more pragmatic cut,cap,and balance approach.
“The burden on Republicans is that they have to be bold because they don’t have credibility,” says Kibbe. “We don’t trust them to cut a good deal,so they have to stand firm.
“I think the impact of the tea party has been profound in this sense,” he adds. “We’re getting trashed by everyone from David Brooks of The New York Times,to Democrats,for not allowing Republicans to negotiate in good faith.
“Well,this is a spending problem. If you want to fix a spending problem,you’ve got to cut spending. If you want to talk about revenue to fix a spending problem you’re just changing the topic.”
ATR’s Ellis tells Newsmax that every tea party member he’s spoken with is “extremely skeptical” about the wisdom of raising the debt ceiling. To pass muster with the grass,he says,a deal at a minimum must:
Offer real cuts,not ones depending on elaborate accounting formulas involving spending projections and presumed rates of employment that extend beyond a five-year horizon. Both Meckler and Everett Wilkinson,the head of the Florida tea party,tell Newsmax that they simply don’t trust what they call the federal government’s “Enron accounting.”
Be front-loaded with cuts. That means immediate spending reductions mostly occurring within the next few years. Putting off cuts until long after current members of Congress have left Washington just won’t fly. “Of course Obama wants to punt it,to get it off the table until the next election,” says Wilkinson. “And I think largely the Republicans would like to do the same thing. Because I don’t think D.C. understands that the American people have had enough,and they want real cuts.”
Offer enforceable,hard caps on future spending. Once spending exceeds a certain portion of the Gross Domestic Product – perhaps 18.5 percent,compared to the current level of nearly 24 percent – cuts in spending would have to automatically ensue,activists say.
“They want a down payment,” Ellis explains. “They want a significant sign of good faith,and a down payment that these spending cuts are real,and they’re going to be enforceable going forward.”
Of course,there is no guarantee that Democrats would go along with the tea party’s bottom line. But this much is clear:The prospect is very real that any Republican politician who supports a deal unpopular with the GOP’s grass-roots base will pay dearly for it at the polls.
There is lots of ideas about what kind of defense is most appropriate against terrorism. Some people want terrorists to be treated like any other violation of law and aggressively protect them against violation of their civil rights after their terrorist attacks. Others point out that the modern terrorist is Islamic so they want to destroy mosques and run their followers out of town since they pose such a threat to our way of life. Somewhere there should be a rational effective measure between these two outlandish extremes.
I propose that the best way we can learn how to deal with terrorism is to look to the folk that have had to deal with it most extensively. Israel is a tiny enclave of western people with democratic ideals that is surrounded by a sea of radical insanity. They have had to survive in extremely hazardous surroundings for over sixty years and have had to find ways to do so within their physical and financial means. How have they done it? Well one of the most effective measures they have employed is to arm their trusted citizens.
The internet has numerous accounts of how Israeli school teachers,businessmen,students,military reserve members,housewives,and others have stopped terrorist attacks by use of their privately owned concealed weapons. They have discovered that terrorists are like prowling wolves pursuing the sheep. The wolf wants to attack and kill as many sheep as possible in order to create the maximum terror and fear. They focus on the helpless,the infirm,the weak for there is the maximum terror return for the least threat. What wolf would want to be torn apart or gored by an angry sheep or alert sheep dog? There would be no 73 virgins in the afterlife for such a wolf as that.
Starting early in the conflict many years ago Arafat and his terrorist minions focused on school buses and children. They were least able to defend themselves and offered the most terror for the little effort. Today each school has a number of teachers who are armed. Bus drivers are either issued arms or encouraged to carry their privately owned firearms and armed teachers and/or parents go along on school trips. By arming teachers to provide protection until security forces can arrive they have deterred terrorism in schools for the past 30 years.
Israeli Police Inspector General Shlomo Aharonisky has repeatedly called on all concealed-handgun-permit holders to carry firearms at all times. In March,Israeli police announced they wanted to increase the number of Israelis carrying handguns by 60,000. Inspector General Shlomo Aharonisky stated: “There’s no question that weapons in the hands of the public have prevented acts of terror or stopped them.” This is a simple acknowledgment of fact and that fact is anything but new today. Many of the founding fathers of our country were outspoken on the subject that citizens should be armed. “The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.“ –Alexander Hamilton
The idea that respectful citizens possessing the right and ability to arm and protect themselves,their family and friends just plain makes good sense. It provides security for the people while costing the government essentially nothing. In a recent debate in a 2011 Arkansas House Legislature committee meeting on a bill to allow churches to have specific members possess firearms in church for security one AR state representative was presented with the question,“What do you do if an armed person enters our church as has happened elsewhere and attempts to kill the pastor?“ She replied,“Well sometimes you just have to die.“ Such irrational thinking among legislators is insane. Voting for such a person is equally insane.
The “shall issue”laws that have come in effect in recent years are a great start to turn the tide of violence in our nation. According to a number of sources,states enacting such laws have seen a corresponding decrease in violent crime rates after enacting such a measure. It is likely that presence of armed citizens might have decreased the number of people injured or killed in the Tucson attach early this year.
It is really a simple concept to understand,wolves don’t chose to attack bears,lions or sheep dogs but prefer helpless sheep. If they know the sheep dog is on duty,they will likely chose another sheep fold. Likewise criminals,thugs or terrorists are likely to look elsewhere for easier picking if they expect opposition. Responsible citizens carrying their personally owned firearms are the sheep dogs of our society.
Instead of preventing law-abiding citizens from possessing guns the government should be encouraging them to get a self-protection weapon,learn to use it responsibly,and carry it regularly either openly or concealed. “Americans have the right and advantage of being armed –unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.”—James Madison,“The Federalist Papers.” We should be following the wisdom of our founding fathers with regard to providing the right and ability of citizens to protect themselves.
Perhaps one of my favorite quotes on this subject is the common sense statement of James Earl Jones,“The world is filled with violence. Because criminals carry guns,we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will lose.“ Why in the world would we want the “decent people”to be forced to be on the losing side of the battle against terrorism and crime?
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Following is a few links of interest:
In Time of War: The Israeli answer to terrorism by Massad Ayoob
“There’s no question that weapons in the hands of the public have prevented acts of terror or stopped them while they were in progress,” Aharonisky says.
Ordinary,responsible Americans need to be armed,just as Israelis are in the war against terrorism,writes author/researcher John R. Lott Jr.,who says that’s the only adequate response to the terrorist threat Americans now face.
I didn’t know what “mobocratic rule”was till I read this man’s article. It is “rule by mob”which pretty well describes the current administration. Mychal Massie’s column is carried by WorldNetDaily.com and he is a frequent guest on regional and national talk shows.
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An article by Mychal Massie: http://www.wnd.com/speakers/mmassie.asp
At a time when many Americans can barely afford Burger King and a movie,Obama boasts of spending a billion dollars on his re-election campaign. Questioned at a recent appearance about the spiraling fuel costs,Obama said,“Get used to it”– and with an insouciant grin and chortle,he told another person at the event,who complained about the effect high fuel prices were having on his family,to “get a more fuel-efficient car.”
The Obamas behave as if they were sharecroppers living in a trailer and hit the Powerball,but instead of getting new tires for their trailer and a new pickup truck,they moved to Washington. And instead of making possum pie,with goats and chickens in the front yard,they’re spending and living large at taxpayer expense – opulent vacations,gala balls,resplendent dinners and exclusive command performances at the White House,grand date nights,golf,basketball,more golf,exclusive resorts and still more golf.
Expensive,ill-fitting and ill-chosen wigs and fashions hardly befit the first lady of the United States. The Obamas have behaved in every way but presidential – which is why it’s so offensive when we hear Obama say,in order “to restore fiscal responsibility,we all need to share in the sacrifice – but we don’t have to sacrifice the America we believe in.”
The American people have been sacrificing;it is he and his family who are behaving as if they’ve never had two nickels to rub together – and now,having hit the mother lode,they’re going to spend away their feelings of inadequacy at the taxpayers’ expense.
Obama continues to exhibit behavior that,at best,can be described as mobocratic and,at worst,reveals a deeply damaged individual. In a February 2010 column,I asked,“Is Obama unraveling?” I wrote that it was beginning to appear the growing mistrust of him and contempt for his policies was beginning to have a destabilizing effect on him.
At that time,I wrote that not having things go one’s way can be a bitter pill,but reasonable people don’t behave as he was behaving. He had insulted Republicans at their luncheon,where he had been an invited guest. I had speculated that was,in part,what had led him to falsely accuse Supreme Court justices before Congress,the nation and the world,during the 2010 State of the Union address.
It appeared,at that time,as if he were “fraying around the emotional edges.”That behavior has not abated – it has become more pronounced. While addressing the nation,after being forced to explain the validity of his unilateral aggression with Libya,America witnessed a petulant individual scowling and scolding the public for daring to insist he explain his actions.
But during an afternoon speech to address the budget/debt,he took his scornful,unstable despotic behavior to depths that should give the nation cause for concern. Displaying a dark psychopathy more representative of an episode of “The Tudors”television series,he invited Rep. Paul Ryan,R-Wis.,to sit in the front row during his speech and then proceeded to berate both Ryan and Ryan’s budget-cutting plan. Even liberal Democrats were put off by the act. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough questioned the sanity of Obama’s actions.
Today,criticism is coming from all sides. A senior Democrat lawmaker said,“I have been very disappointed in [Obama],to the point where I’m embarrassed that I endorsed him. It’s so bad that some of us are thinking,is there some way we can replace him? How do you get rid of this guy?”(“Democrats’Disgust with Obama,”The Daily Beast,April 15,2011)
Steve McCann wrote:Obama’s speech “was chock full of lies,deceit and crass fear-mongering. It must be said that [he] is the most dishonest,deceitful and mendacious person in a position of power I have ever witnessed”(“The Mendacity of Barack Obama,”AmericanThinker.com,April 15,2011).
McCann continued:“[His] performance was the culmination of four years of outright lies and narcissism that have been largely ignored by the media,including some in the conservative press and political class who are loath to call [him] what he is in the bluntest of terms:a liar and a fraud. That he relies on his skin color to intimidate,either outright or by insinuation [against] those who oppose his radical agenda only add to his audacity. It is apparent that he has gotten away with his character flaws his entire life,aided and abetted by sycophants around him. …”
With these being among the kinder rebukes being directed at Obama,and with people becoming less intimidated by his willingness to use race as a bludgeon,with falling poll numbers in every meaningful category and an increasingly aggressive tea-party opposition – how much longer before he cracks completely?
The coming months of political life are not going to be pleasant for Obama. Possessed by a self-perceived palatine mindset,that in his mind places him above criticism,how long before he cracks in public? Can America risk a man with a documented track record of lying and misrepresenting truth as a basic way of life,who is becoming increasingly more contumelious?
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stated that the US border with Mexico is now,“better now than it ever has been.”However,she added that there is a need to correct wrong impressions about the border region. Napolitano said border towns are safe for travel,trade and commerce. She noted that the total value of imports crossing the Southwest border was up 22 percent in fiscal year 2010,she said. (The Statesman) Perhaps she should talk to some of the border patrol agents in South Texas who have been warning locals and visitors there to stay out of the Mexican border towns. Or perhaps talk to CBS, CNS News ,UP,Fox News,and others who have reported the violence there in recent months. Recently the US Border Patrol Union blasted her for her irresponsible statements. According to them,“Mexico is hemorrhaging violence,and we are being hit with the splatter.”
Great news Ms Napolitano. Especially since there have been three border patrol agents killed within the last three years and hundreds of people killed in and around the Mexican border towns in the last year alone. According to CNS News on March 3rd there were 3111 civilians killed in Cuidad Juarez last year alone! That’s more than in the entire country of Afghanistan,and she is saying the border is safe and “open for business”??
Now we learn that the border is safe. Oh happy day! She even cited as proof that there have been fewer arrests of illegals entering this country. Meanwhile AZ Sheriff Larry Dever of Cochise County,AZ says he was told by border patrol agents to cut down on arrests of illegals during specific time periods. According to Sheriff Dever he was instructed by senior border patrol supervisors to just intimidate illegals or chase them away from the border according reports by Fox News and others. The Free RepublicThe New American
What kind of message is that? Is Ms Janet manufacturing her reports by instructing her people to arrest fewer of the illegals they find? Or is this just an example of ostrich mentality in the current administration? (If you bury your head in the ground [or elsewhere] the problem will magically go away.) I recognize that for this problem to disappear would be a great political coup for the current administration,but for senior administration officials to to pretend that it doesn’t exist is the height of irresponsibility!
Hardly a day goes by that the news media is not reporting more violence being perpetuated on the citizens in the Mexican border communities by the drug cartels. Napolitano’s disingenuous report is putting American citizens at risk by encouraging them to visit violent Mexican border towns where a number of US citizens have been murdered in recent months. We deserve nothing less than honesty from senior administrations officials,no matter how that might effect reelection prospects. To get less than that just identifies them as being as unreliable as the totalitarian and despotic regimes of the third world.
The decision for our participation in a “no fly zone”in protection of Lybian rebels, right or wrong is now history. What we are left with is a reality of our current involvement in Lybia. Although Obama is receiving heat (rightly so) from both sides of the political spectrum. It is coming first because of his indecision and delay while Qaddafi made significant gains,then by his suddenly entering the fray at the last moment without benefit of consent of Congress. It is interesting that the most vehement words of condemnation are actually coming from his left wing base.
Rep Kasinich (D-Ohio) has even used the the “I word,(impeachment). Although Kasinich spews this venom wrapped in “love of the constitution”he expressed no similar concern for the sanctity of that document while he was supporting the blatantly unconstitutional Obamacare. This is mostly political grandstanding and self serving oratory not serious indignation over a real constitutional abuse of power.
Like it or not,we are stuck with the current state of things,at least for a while. Stuck is a great word here because neither the Arab League,France or NATO wants the responsibility for leadership that Obama states he will be relinquishing in a “few days”. Obama is a reluctant wartime president that was dragged to this thing kicking and screaming and lost the opportunity to vote “present”as has been shown to be his usual preference. Being Commander-In-Chief is only fun when you can sit home and make empty rhetoric and “double-speak”that you can use in your current political campaign. When you have to actually make real world decisions that you can not deny tomorrow it becomes a whole nother thing. Welcome to the real world of leadership Barack.
I pray for the safety of our military personnel and I pray that this strange operation will ultimately succeed. However,will someone please just stand up and clearly explain what “success”is? I hope it means Qaddafi’s 41 year reign of terror in Lybia is soon to be over,but that is currently unclear. I also pray that when it ends Qaddafi’s regime is replaced by one that treats their people better than did Qaddafi. All people deserve better than what these poor folks have received for the past 40+ years.
My fervent hope is that those “rebels”we are supporting there really want the kind of democratic reforms they are proclaiming and are not just another Alkada,Hamas,“Brotherhood”,bunch of Islamacist loonies that are so prominent in the Mideast these days. I am convinced that Obama doesn’t know the difference,I certainly hope Sarkozi does since he was the true leader here.
Incidentally:Note how “The Arab League”screamed incessantly for this “no fly zone”only to crawl away hiding under their normally accustomed rocks when the first shot was fired. Of course is that actually surprising to anyone? Their past history would have predicted no less.
For the past week we have been witness to the depths of depravity of liberalism in Wisconsin. Fourteen elected Democratic representatives in the state’s senate have fled to another state to protect their supposed right to prevent the legislative process while thousands of teachers abandoned their classrooms to wave signs accusing the governor of being a Nazi supporter of Qadaffi and Mubarac. Democratic congressman Rep. Michael Capuano from Massachusetts told union workers in Wisconsin,“Every once and awhile you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary.” Medical doctors from the University of Wisconsin pass out “sick notes” to union members that left their jobs to protest,some of them,teachers who took students with them closing down the schools while proclaiming they are “protecting the students”. This is not from minimum wage employees,it is from teachers and other public employee union members who are making upwards of $75,000 per year while forcing their state into bankruptcy!
These ridiculous tactics are being encouraged and orchestrated by the DNC with encouragement directly from the White House. Obama was quick to come out with comments about “ratcheting down the rhetoric”just a few weeks ago,but now totally turns a blind eye to the outrageous actions in Wisconson as well as similar events in Indiana, Ohio,and elsewhere as these states try to dig their way out of the looming likelihood of impending bankruptcy.
The national news media is quick to condemn the Tea Party and accuse them of everything from extremism to violence in their protests while they can produce not one single picture or video of such actions. All the while they say not a single word about the hundreds of documented and obvious extremist and fraudulent actions of the activists in Madison. They don’t even condemn Capuano for openly calling for violence in the streets of Madison!
Enough is enough. Everything possible should be done to strip these people of the public feedbag that they have strapped around their neck. The legislators that refuse to legislate should be stripped of their elected positions. Their seats should declared “vacated”by the governor and special elections scheduled to replace them with people that will actually show up to represent their constituents. Rep Capauno should be charged for attempting to incite a riot,a crime under federal law as well as in all fifty states! Teachers that were away from their jobs claiming “sick days”should be identified from the thousands of photos and videos available and fired for the fraud they perpetuated on the taxpayers of Wisconsin. Likewise for other public employees that participated illegally in this debacle should be terminated.
Physicians that falsified “sick notes” should have their licenses pulled and prohibited from practicing medicine in the future. That idiot that kept screaming “Fox lies,Fox lies” attempting to prevent Fox news reporters from accurately reporting the events should be deported just for extreme stupidity or perhaps referred to a local vet for neutering just to prevent the potential of spreading the insanity by breeding. Media representatives that turned a blind eye to the Nazi signs and rhetoric should,well since they are not public employees,they should be just ignored and their outlets boycotted by reasonable people.
We have a federal government that is $14 trillion (that’s a 14 followed by twelve zeros folks) and instead of making a serious effort to work on correcting that problem Obama submits a budget that perpetuates federal deficits for the foreseeable future. Obama and his Democratic cohorts ran up almost as much of that debt in two years as Bush did in eight yet continue to blame Bush for the current financial plight accepting none of the blame for themselves. Now when states attempt to correct for their looming bankruptcies he supports the status quo and advocates for the glutenous public service unions that are raping the taxpayers of the states of Wisconsin,Indiana,Ohio,and elsewhere with bloated contracts.
Enough is enough folks. We have teachers who can’t even spell,showing up with protest signs such as one I saw that proudly proclaimed “Sav are teachers”. They are illegally demonstrating with falsified claims for being out sick while protesting for the indefensibly bloated contracts that are bankrupting our states. Our schools are failing and children are graduating that are functionally illiterate while teachers in WI are protesting for contracts far in excess of what is found in the private sector. Nationally we are broke and quickly approaching the point of default and the situation is becoming more critical day by day. This insanity must stop or we will simply cease to exist as a nation.
by Ann Coulter 02/02/2011 Fresh off of blaming Jared Loughner’s killing spree in the Tucson mall on Sarah Palin,liberals are now blaming it on high-capacity magazines. They might as well imprison everyone named “Jared”to prevent a crime like this from ever happening again.
During the presidential campaign,Obama said:“I don’t know of any self-respecting hunter that needs 19 rounds of anything. You don’t shoot 19 rounds at a deer,and if you do,you shouldn’t be hunting.”It would have been more accurate for him to end that sentence after the word “hunter.”
It’s so adorable when people who wouldn’t know a high-capacity magazine from Vanity Fair start telling gun owners what they should want and need.
In fact,high-capacity mags put a predator like Loughner at a disadvantage because they are so long,unwieldy and difficult to conceal. This may be why the Tucson shooting appears to be the first spree killing involving a high-capacity magazine. It would have been easier for Loughner to bring two guns.
On the other hand,for a homeowner who is a poor marksman,a large-capacity clip could be a lifesaver.
But after every multiple murder,liberals come up with some crackpot idea to “do something”that invariably involves infringing on some aspect of our Second Amendment rights.
The ACLU won’t let us put nuts in mental hospitals and Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik wouldn’t lock up Loughner even after he had broken the law several times.
In an open society that includes Sheriff Dumbnik and the ACLU,deranged individuals may explode into murder and mayhem now and then. The best we can do is enact policies that will reduce the death toll when these acts of carnage occur.
There’s only one policy of any kind that has ever been shown to deter mass murder:concealed-carry laws. In a comprehensive study of all public,multiple-shooting incidents in America between 1977 and 1999,the highly regarded economists John Lott and Bill Landes found that concealed-carry laws were the only laws that had any beneficial effect.
And the effect was not small. States that allowed citizens to carry concealed handguns reduced multiple-shooting attacks by 60 percent and reduced the death and injury from these attacks by nearly 80 percent.
When there are no armed citizens to stop mass murderers,the killers are able to shoot unabated,even pausing to reload their weapons,until they get bored and stop. Some stop only when their trigger fingers develop carpal tunnel syndrome.
Consider just the school shootings —popular sites for mass murder because so many schools are “gun-free zones.”Or,as mass murderers call them,“free-fire zones.”
At Columbine High School,two students killed 12 people before ending the carnage themselves by committing suicide. They didn’t need high-capacity magazines because they were able to stop and reload.
At the Amish school shooting in 2006 in Lancaster County,Pennsylvania,the deranged killer murdered five little girls and then committed suicide.
In 1998,two students in Craighead County,Arkansas,killed five people,including four little girls,before the killers decided to stop and attempt an escape.
And in 2007,a deranged student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech —30 of them in a very short period of time in one building. He didn’t need high-capacity magazines because he had two guns and reloaded.
There was no one to stop him.
School shootings that have been halted were almost always stopped by the happenstance of an armed citizen on school property.
In 2002,an immigrant in Virginia started shooting his classmates at the Appalachian Law School in Grundy. Two of his classmates retrieved guns from their cars,forcing the killer to drop his weapon and allowing a third classmate to tackle him.
Three dead.
In Santee,Calif.,in 2001,when a student began shooting his classmates,the school activated its “safe school plan”—as the principal later told CNN —by sending a “trained campus supervisor”to stop the killer.
Possibly not realizing that he was in a gun-free zone,the killer responded by shooting the trained campus supervisor three times. Fortunately,an armed off-duty San Diego policeman happened to be bringing his daughter to school that day. With a gun,he stopped the killer and held him at bay until more police could arrive.
Two dead.
In 1997,a student at Pearl High School in Pearl,Miss.,had already shot several people at his high school and was headed for the junior high school when assistant principal Joel Myrick retrieved a .45 pistol from his car and pointed it at the gunman’s head,ending the slaughter.
Two dead.
In 1998,a student attending a junior high school dance at a restaurant in Edinboro,Pa.,started shooting,whereupon the restaurant owner pulled out his shotgun,chased the gunman from the restaurant and captured him for the police.
One dead.
See the pattern?
In response to Columbine,schools adopted “anti-bullying”policies;in response to Virginia Tech,eBay ceased selling magazines online;in response to the Tucson shooting,liberals want to ban the particular magazine Loughner used.
And then the next killer will come along with a different arsenal and a different motive,and the only way to stop him will be with an armed citizen with a gun.
================================================= For more of Ann Coulter’s work go to:http://www.anncoulter.com/
By Ben Stein on 1.28.11 @ 6:10AM A few more humble notes for Mr. Obama about where we are today….
During the run up to the recent Congressional elections,I was on Larry King Live with a super smart man whose name I have forgotten. Larry asked a smart question. The question was,“Is Barack Obama a better campaigner than a President?”One of the men on the panel said,“Of course he is. When he is campaigning,all he has to do is promise things. When he’s President,he actually has to do things.”
The same is true for all politicians,but the problem is acute for Mr. Obama because he has promised things he simply cannot do.
He cannot make the U.S. more competitive with the Far East and with Germany unless and until he gets U.S. education up to a far better level than it is at now. He cannot do this without revolutionizing the lives of young Americans,turning them from sex,drugs,rap,and rock ‘n’roll to studying. This is far beyond his poor power to do. He cannot make an American worker who demands $30 an hour competitive with a Taiwanese worker who will work for $2 an hour with just as good equipment. He cannot make American college students who want to study film production into competitors with Chinese engineers. (Although I should say that America leads the world in making money off mass culture because we have by far the most imaginative and creative people on this planet in this arena living within a small radius in Southern California. Studying film production is not studying engineering but for the nation’s future,it might be better than studying engineering.)
My old dad used to tell me that the reason U.S. workers could get paid so much more than Far Eastern workers was that our workers had so much better equipment to work with. This is not necessarily true any longer,and so our wages must very slowly move towards parity with Chinese wages. This will be a slow,but painful process.
President Obama seems to simply not “get it”about solar power and wind. When we taxpayers spend money to design better solar and wind power systems,those systems wind up getting made in the Far East. How this helps our workers is a mystery to me.
I also love President Obama endlessly referring to “clean coal.”There is no such thing as “clean coal.”Coal is coal. They can use all kinds of technology to immensely reduce pollution from coal. But there is no such magical thing as “clean coal.”This is not a problem for me at all. I am happy with whatever kind of coal anyone wants to burn to keep the lights on. But this idea that there is some magic thing called “clean coal”that is as non-polluting as wind is just nonsense. It is a bit worrisome to keep hearing Mr. Obama,our president,talking about something that is just a fantasy.
You know,I am getting so tired of fighting these battles… I think I will just go to sleep now. I’ll fight more tomorrow.
Washington Times May 27,2010. “American gun owners might not feel besieged,but they should. This week,the Obama administration announced its support for the United Nations Small Arms Treaty. This international agreement poses real risks for freedom both in the United States and around the world by making it more difficult –if not outright illegal –for law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms.”
“The U.N. claims that guns used in armed conflicts cause 300,000 deaths worldwide every year,an inordinate number of which are the result of internal civil strife within individual nations. The solution proposed by transnationalists to keep rebels from getting guns is to make the global pool of weapons smaller through government action. According to recent deliberations regarding the treaty,signatory countries would be required to “prevent,combat and eradicate”various classes of guns to undermine “the illicit trade in small arms.”Such a plan would necessarily lead to confiscation of personal firearms.”
“This may seem like a reasonable solution to governments that don’t trust their citizens,but it represents a dangerous disregard for the safety and freedom of everybody. First of all,not all insurgencies are bad. As U.S. history shows,one way to get rid of a despotic regime is to rise up against it. That threat is why authoritarian regimes such as Syria,Cuba,Rwanda,Vietnam,Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone endorse gun control.”
“Political scientist Rudy Rummel estimates that the 15 worst regimes during the 20th century killed 151 million of their own citizens,which works out to 1.5 million victims per year. Even if all 300,000 annual deaths from armed conflicts can be blamed on the small-arms trade (which they cannot),governments are a bigger threat to most people than their neighbors.” . . . .
amendment that would prevent the federal government from running up future deficits.
Even a Blind Pig
Well it appears with the Libya rebels taking over Tripoli that Barack “O”finally got the success in international affairs he has been so diligently seeking. As the old saying goes,“Even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while.”
Rebel Fighters Celebrate in Tripoli - REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
Of course it could be said that if he was really of a mind to do this he could have completed it in 30 days by using a bit more intelligent administration of that war effort instead of initiating it and then just turning it over to NATO to carry through. How many lives might that have saved? However,you have to give him credit even if our gut reaction is to want to deny it. After all,it has occurred on his watch. There had been a long stalemate in the five month old civil war when the rebels’breakthrough occurred on Sunday. According to rebel leaders this was the result of a closely coordinated plan by rebels,NATO and anti-Gadhafi residents inside Tripoli.
The only problem that remains is,exactly what has really been won? As of today there is still a big question mark over Lybia. We still don’t really know who these rebels are and now that they have won the fight how will they govern. Will it become a democratic state similar to Iraq,or a theocratic one under sharia law more like Iran? Will the long term effect be the creation of a stable regime that lives in peace with its neighbors,or another nightmare in the region for Israel and yet another haven for terrorism?
Its great to want good things for the people of the Arab lands,but for the most part those folk are being held hostage by a combination of Islamic extremists,despots like Gadhafi,and terrorists that are from their own back yard and it has been like that for hundreds of years. The typical despotic mid-east leadership keeps their people in ignorance and abject poverty with little hope for today or the future while blaming Israel and the West for all their failed schemes.
Gadhafi ruled Libya for over 40 years using a combination of an iron fist and his propaganda machine to suppress the people and keep his personal money tree well fed and watered. I deeply hope that the new rulers that come about here will be a better breed who will finally grant that oppressed people a vision of hope for the future,but only time will tell.
As for Barrack,well done Mr President. That,by my count gives you a current score of +1 for Libya and -2347 for all the other cock-a-Mamie schemes you have come up with in the last 2 1/2 years.