Archive for April, 2009

The Golden Dome on Colfax Avenue

April 30, 2009

Shenanigans, pure shenanigans is what I see going on down on Colfax Avenue at Colorado’s golden dome. Those few brave souls that try to do what is right and correct for the state’s population are to be commended. Those that do otherwise need to be tarred and feathered, chained to a log and tossed into the South Platte River. What with the run off beginning, they might make it all the way to New Orleans where their politics and sense of ethics would be more the norm. To that end, I’m posting an informative email that I received from one of the people that is taking the heat by standing firm for his beliefs.

The final version of the budget passed the House and Senate last week. It was one of the most controversial bills of the session, forcing legislators to make a choice between true fiscal responsibility and the temptation of big government.

In spite of the doomsday proclamations you may have heard about budget shortfalls in Colorado, the Democrats managed to pass a budget that increased spending by about 4% over last year.

Colorado fell about $850 million short of projected tax revenues this year. The Democrats’ original plan to fill the gap was to increase fees on everything from car registration to hospital stays and to seize $500 million from a private insurance company. Shortly after the Senate approved the seizure, Governor Ritter and the Democrats were forced to accept the fact that his plan was illegal and doomed to failure.

The House then had to rewrite  the $17.9 billion budget to make up for the $500 million gap. The Democrats relied primarily on gimmicks to fill the  gap: adding a new tax to vending machine sales, diverting cigarette tax revenues from anti-smoking campaigns to state coffers, repealing several tax breaks, and furloughing state employees for eight days next year.

While making small, temporary cuts is certainly preferable to Communist-style nationalization, this approach does nothing to address the fundamental budget problems in Colorado: our government has grown too big, too fast.

The Democrat notion of fiscal management consists of growing the size of government as quickly as possible: they managed to add 200 new employees to the state payroll this year in spite of the recession. To avoid making tough choices, they have drained cash funds, used creative accounting practices, and sidestepped TABOR to raise taxes again and again without voter approval.

Colorado needs to return to fiscal responsibility and adjust spending to meet revenues, reassess the size of government, and live up to the spirit of the law and ask voters before increasing their taxes. The Democrat-controlled legislature has dug itself into a deep fiscal hole. I sincerely hope that the economy bounces back quickly so that Coloradans will not be forced to pay for their irresponsibility.

In the final stretch of the legislative session, I could use your help in writing or e-mailing legislators and donating to cover ongoing expenses. You can donate online now be clicking HERE.

The legislative session will end next week, and I am still fighting a repeal of the death penalty, more tax and “fee” increases, forced unionization of public employees, and a proposal to abolish the Electoral College. I’ll keep you updated.

Sincerely,

Ted Harvey

Navy honors fallen Littleton corpsman

April 30, 2009

The Navy has honored Littleton Hospital Corpsman Luke Milam, who was killed during a fierce battle with the Taliban in Afghanistan, by naming a new 504-bed, $60 million “Homeport Ashore” barracks for him at Naval Station Everett in Washington.

The building named in Milam’s honor, which will double the base’s current housing capacity, was dedicated Friday.

“While we know that Luke would absolutely hate the fuss made over him, we’re sure that he would love the building and the wonderful apartments,” said his father, Michael.

In October 2007, hundreds of mourners packed a Littleton church for services for Milam.

He was killed on Sept. 25, 2007, during a battle between U.S.-led coalition forces and Taliban forces near the city of Musa Qula, an area of Afghanistan known for opium-poppy cultivation.

At the time, Milam, a special amphibious reconnaissance corpsman, was assigned to Golf Company, 2nd Marine Special Operations Battalion.

During a lengthy tribute at his Littleton service, the Columbine High School graduate was honored for being a “warrior” who fought bravely in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those who spoke said Milam was both an exemplary Navy corpsman and an excellent combat fighter.

They also said he was an exceptional human being, driven by compassion.

In Iraq, where he had served earlier, Milam received the Bronze Star for bravery after his platoon came under attack. He pulled injured soldiers from burning vehicles, arranged a defense perimeter and fought off attackers.

On April 20, 1999, Milam, then a senior at Columbine High School, lost his close friend Isaiah Shoels in the school shooting rampage. Milam was devastated by Shoels’ murder and vowed to go into the Navy, become a corpsman and prepare himself to help others so “he would never be in that position again.”

“Luke was an ordinary kid who fell in love with the Navy as an 8-year-old,” said his father. “He early enlisted at 17 years old, left for boot camp two weeks after high school graduation and never looked back.”

In addition to apartments, the building — called Charles Luke Milam Bachelor Housing — also features seven lounges available to sailors for viewing movies, studying or playing a variety of games, including pool, ping-pong, air hockey and video games.

SOURCE

More on the Specter of evil…

April 30, 2009

Arlen Specter, what a joke. This is in addition to my previous posting, and why, years ago when I first started blogging I tagged him “The Specter of evil.” As usual, GOA hits the ten ring.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

First, Senator Arlen Specter provided the instrumental Republican
support to get anti-gun Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed by the
Senate.

Then, he singlehandedly pushed through the massive economic bailout, the
so-called stimulus bill, which contained several provisions of concern
to gun owners.

So it comes as no surprise that liberal anti-gun Specter, who has no
loyalty to the Constitution, also has no loyalty to the political party
that elected him.  Specter announced this week that he will leave the
Republican Party and run as a Democrat in 2010.

Specter's announcement comes only after poll after poll showed him
trailing pro-gun conservative Pat Toomey in a Republican primary.

Specter thinks that changing parties will improve his chances of winning
next year.

What he's going to learn is that the voters of Pennsylvania are much
more concerned about their Constitutional rights than they are with what
political party a candidate belongs to.

Every time Attorney General Eric Holder opens his mouth and talks about
reinstating the Clinton gun ban, gun owners know they have Arlen Specter
to thank.

Back in early January, Sen. Specter said he had "grave
concerns" about
Eric Holder.  He made it sound like he was going to join other pro-gun
Senators and oppose the Holder nomination.

Specter was only putting on a show.

After pretending to oppose Eric Holder, Sen. Specter provided the key
support that brought the nomination to the floor of the Senate.

Why the big switch?

Simple.  When it looked like Specter was going to face a primary
challenge from a real conservative, he talked tough and made it look
like he was opposed to Holder.  Then for a while, it appeared that
Specter would not have a serious challenge, so Specter flip-flopped and
decided not to oppose Holder.

With people like Specter in office, it's no wonder our gun rights are in
such jeopardy.

At least gun owners have a clear choice in the next election.  Former
Congressman Pat Toomey has again taken up the conservative, pro-gun
mantle and will challenge the liberal incumbent.

Visit http://www.toomeyforsenate.com/contribute to support Pat Toomey
for Senate.

Together, we can defeat the Senate's most dangerous turncoat and replace
him with a real Second Amendment defender.

Specter was one of three Republicans whose vote was needed to pass the
bailout.  When one of the other two Senators expressed reservations,
good old Arlen Specter stepped in and brought that Senator "back in
line."

Without Specter, there would be no $1 TRILLION bailout.

Really, by the time debt services and other frills of the "socialism
bill" are accounted for, the cost will be over $3 TRILLION!

The debt foisted upon us by Arlen Specter will be passed on to
succeeding generations, AND the bailout is being used as a tool of the
anti-gun left.

You see, the bailout bill contains provisions that can fund anti-gun
activist organizations like ACORN and Moveon.org to the tune of hundreds
of millions -- even billions -- of your taxpayer dollars.

The bailout also contains provisions to require your doctor to
retroactively put your confidential medical records in a government
database.  Medical records have already been used to deny about 200,000
military veterans their Second Amendment rights, and that situation will
be made worse for all citizens thanks to the Specter bailout bill.

Perhaps no single Senator is negatively affecting the future of this
country more than Pennsylvania's Arlen Specter.

Please help Gun Owners of America make this Specter's last term in
office by supporting Pat Toomey for Senate at:
http://www.toomeyforsenate.com/contribute

Rep. Toomey challenged Specter in a primary in 2004 with the support of
Gun Owners of America, and came just 1.7% short of winning.

Specter's bacon was pulled out of the fire only after the incumbent
Senator, President Bush and even, unfortunately, some in the gun rights
community campaigned on his behalf at the last minute.

Well, Senator Specter has sold out the people of Pennsylvania and
conservatives across the nation for the last time.

At the same time we get rid of an enemy of gun rights, we can also help
to elect an ardent supporter of the Second Amendment.

Pat Toomey served in the U.S. House of Representatives for three terms,
before honoring a self-imposed term limit and retiring in 2004.

Rep. Toomey was "A" rated by Gun Owners of America during his
time in
Congress.  Even though he was supposedly "too conservative" for the
eastern Pennsylvania district he represented, Toomey stood firm on his
pro-Second Amendment principles.

Unlike Arlen Specter, there was no waffling on the issues concerning
your gun rights.

Gun Owners of America knows from experience that when we're in the
trenches battling the anti-gunners over reinstating the semi-auto gun
ban, closing down gun shows and funding liberal leftist organizations,
Pat Toomey will be with us shoulder to shoulder.

But first he has to defeat Specter, an anti-gun
Republican-turned-Democrat with millions of dollars in the bank and lots
of new liberal friends ready to give him more.

Gun Owners of America calls on sportsmen and gun owners in Pennsylvania
and across the country to stand with us to defeat Arlen Specter and to
elect Pat Toomey to the U.S. Senate.

Please make the most generous contribution possible to Pat Toomey for
Senate at http://www.toomeyforsenate.com/contribute on the web.

If you prefer to contribute by check, make your check payable to "Toomey
for Senate" and mail to: PO Box 220, Orefield, PA 18069.

Or, you can call the campaign at 484-809-7994 to contribute by phone.

Pat Toomey stands 100% in favor of your gun rights.  Together, let's
stand with Pat Toomey in this crucial election.

Sincerely,

Tim Macy
Vice Chairman

****************************

Paid for by Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund. Not
authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee. Gun Owners of
America Political Victory Fund is a Project of Gun Owners of America.

****************************

Congress Trying to Implement the Medical Records Gun Ban

April 29, 2009

Well we knew this wouldn’t be going away!

Congress Trying to Implement the Medical Records Gun Ban
— Step #2 in fraudulent budget process comes to a vote on Wednesday

Gun Owners of America E-Mail Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408
http://www.gunowners.org

Monday, April 27, 2009

Congress is moving closer to a showdown over the largest expansion of
government in modern U.S. history — a bill which would require
virtually every single American to buy government-approved health
insurance, whether they wanted it or not. And, in the process, that
bill would feed all of your most confidential medical data into an
enormous database, which could be used to take away your guns.

This is a bit complicated. But here’s where we are:

Once a year, the 1974 Budget Act allows Congress to pass a bill —
solely for the purpose of balancing the budget — and that bill cannot
be filibustered in the Senate. Hence, it can be passed with only fifty
Democrat votes (plus the vice president), without any Republican
support.

Now, that supposed “budget-balancing bill” is called the
“reconciliation
bill” — and it can only be created if the annual budget resolution
mandates it.

Three weeks ago, the Senate considered its version of the annual budget
resolution. Gun Owners of America asked you to oppose passage of the
Senate version of the budget resolution for two reasons:

* First, although the Senate version of the bill did not contain
language mandating the giant anti-gun database and the huge $10,000+
per person government health mandate, the Pelosi-devised House version
did.

* Second, although Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND)
protested mightily that the Senate version did not mandate the anti-gun
database and health mandate, GOA found out that Conrad intended all
along to capitulate in House/Senate conference to the Pelosi language.

Now, the budget resolution has come back from conference, and guess
what?

Budget Chairman Conrad stabbed us in the back, just as GOA thought he
would. His actions meant that Senators didn’t have to go on record
voting for gun control the first time around.

The conference report gives Senate and House Republicans until September
to cave in and agree to pass the anti-gun database and $10,000+ health
mandate. And, if they do not, the Left Wing Democratic leadership will
pass their own bill with 50 Senate votes — and no Republicans.

And, incidentally, when we say “anti-gun database,” we mean that
everything your kid told his pediatrician about whether you have a gun
collection will be searchable by the government. And people with
Alzheimer’s, ADHD, and other disorders will begin losing their gun
rights just as quickly as veterans — who have seen the ramifications of
being on a government database.

Although the next vote on this budget resolution will not be the final
battle in this eight-month war, GOA is asking senators and
representatives to vote against the sleazy, corrupt budget resolution
conference report — scheduled for a Senate vote this Wednesday.

Incidentally, the one thing that the federal government can do to reduce
health costs is to remove the anti-gun federal laws which prohibit more
Americans from using firearms to defend themselves and their families.

ACTION:

Contact your senators and representative. Ask them to vote against the
“fraud scheme” which the budget resolution conference report
has become.

Please use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at
http://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send your legislators the
pre-written e-mail message below.

You can also call them toll-free at 1-877-762-8762.

—– Pre-written letter —–

Dear

The budget resolution conference report would set the stage for
legislation to require virtually every American to purchase
government-approved health insurance. And it would use government
control over health insurance to require providers to feed our most
confidential medical data into an anti-gun government database.

When I say “anti-gun database,” I mean that everything a kid
tells his
pediatrician about his dad’s gun collection will be searchable by the
government. And people with Alzheimer’s, ADHA, and other disorders will
begin losing their gun rights just as quickly as veterans — who have
seen the ramifications of being on a government database for the last
decade.

The budget resolution was sold to the Senate under a lie. Senators were
told that the Senate version contained no “reconciliation
instructions”
when, all along, Budget Chairman Kent Conrad intended to immediately
capitulate in conference.

Please show that such underhanded tactics are unacceptable in the
Congress. Please vote against the budget resolution conference report.

Sincerely,

Orrin Hatch calls it like he sees it

April 29, 2009

Honesty and integrity are but two of the mandatory traits of leadership. Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah possesses those traits in abundance. He takes on the establishment media in a great piece exposing the lies, and mis-truths that are being bandied around his home state.

Read about it here.

Perhaps New York should listen to Senator Hatch, or even the State of Texas.

Broken clock politics again?

Welcome Home Arlen Specter, and good riddance

April 29, 2009

Any cursory search of the voting record of Arlen Specter will make it plain to anyone  with an I.Q. above room temperature that he will be at home in the Democrat Party. He has consistently voted for taxes, against liberty, and for expanded government. Take a look at it here.

If, and it is a very big if in my opinion, the Republican Party is ever to regain any sense at all of integrity it should be cleaning house. Not waiting for people along the lines of The Specter of Evil to resign. Leadership, real leadership, is so lacking among the Republicans that I think it is like Humpty Dumpty. Broken beyond repair.

My good friend Texas Fred has repeatedly called for a new conservative party, and I agree.

Nugent electrifies

April 27, 2009

Leave it to the Brother of Blood to tell it like it is!

Nugent Electrifies Gun-Rights Backers

By Bradley Vasoli, The Bulletin
Monday, April 27, 2009

Spring had arrived in earnest, the sun shone brightly and the sky was clear as sportsmen rode up the verdant woods to practice shooting and archery last Saturday. The Commonwealth Foundation’s Live Free PA event couldn’t have come happened on a better weekend.

That’s not just because of the weather. The men and women who arrived at the Eltonsville Sportsmen’s Association came to celebrate their right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment. The Commonwealth Foundation began planning the event about a year ago, but it happened to land on a date just a few weeks after Gov. Ed Rendell, D, began a new push for more gun control.

After target practice around midday, rock songwriter and guitarist Ted Nugent spoke to the Live Free participants, as he pushed back against recent calls for greater restrictions on gun rights. Consistent with his reputation, he was articulate and upbeat.

“Your life is a precious gift from God,” he said. “You deserve, and I believe we have a duty to protect and defend it.”

Recent high-profile crimes, particularly police shootings in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, have boosted the case for gun control in the eyes of some public officials. Mr. Nugent asked Americans to consider how firearms be more part of the solution than the problem.

He said jurisdictions in the United States with looser gun laws have lower crime rates than those that don’t. His assertion is backed by some prominent researchers, such as the University of Maryland’s John Lott. Mr. Nugent urged citizens to consider the good that gun ownership has done many crime victims.

“Anti-gunners side with rapists,” the musician and sportsman told his audience. “Either you like the rapists shot, or you like the rapists raping.”

He also said the push to limit gun purchases in cities like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh ignores the experience of other cities. Chicago, he noted, has enacted gun control to become an essentially “gun-free zone,” but has nonetheless seen crime rates skyrocket.

“Ed Rendell sees the dead bodies and wants more of this,” Mr. Nugent said. “I’m a different species. I don’t like increased innocent death. I like decreased innocent death.”

Mr. Rendell has won the support of police unions and other law-enforcement organizations for his the anti-gun case, but Mr. Nugent said he would have less success if he sought the backing of rank-and-file officers.

“In the vast majority of the instances,” he said, the anti-gun officers are “bureaucrats and desk jockeys.”

He has some firsthand knowledge of law enforcement, having served as a deputy sheriff in Michigan and a deputy constable in Texas.

After rousing the fervor of several dozen gun-rights supporters, he gave them a demonstration of his archery skills, refined by decades of practice. He landed several arrows perfectly on three targets shaped like a turkey, a deer and a bear.

It was a unique setting for a Commonwealth Foundation event. The organization spends most of its time defending Pennsylvanians’ economic liberties. But the think tank’s president, Matthew Brouillette, said “the other freedoms that we’ve got under attack” deserve attention as well.

“We don’t need a nanny state to tell us how to live,” he said. “We’re free Americans and should be treated as such by our government.”

SOURCE

obama still rated number 1! Gun Sales Soaring!

April 27, 2009

As reported earlier here obama is still the number one “Gun Salesman” of the year! His attempts at misdirection via the use various lackeys has spurred the sale of firearms to heights not seen since the Clinton debacle.

Assault weapon ban talk increases guns sales

John Sprague, the store manager at Johnson’s Sporting Goods in Adrian Township, gestures to half-empty shelves of ammunition behind the counter.

He said a campaign pledge by President Barack Obama to reinstate a weapons ban led to a rush on sporting goods stores to buy guns and ammunition, a buying trend that continues.

“Since before the election, when there was a good chance of (Obama) becoming president, sales went way up,” Sprague said Thursday. “I can’t keep most ammunition in stock.”

Because of demand, Sprague said, Johnson’s is temporarily limiting ammunition sales to one box of per customer.

Obama had pledged during his campaign to seek renewal of an assault weapons ban but has bowed to the reality that such a move would be unpopular in politically key U.S. states and among Republicans as well as some conservative Democrats.

Confronting a Mexican drug war that is “sowing chaos in our communities,” Obama signaled on April 16 that he will not seek renewal of the weapons ban, but instead will step up enforcement of laws banning the transfer of such guns across the border.

“He (President Obama) appears to be backing down, but sales are brisk,” Sprague said.

An Adrian Wal-Mart associate, who spoke Friday on the condition of anonymity, said the sporting goods department has difficulty keeping  the 550-round boxes of .22-caliber ammunition in stock due to brisk sales. The smaller boxes of rounds, however, are more readily available.

“People want the large boxes,” she said.

A representative in the Adrian Meijer sporting goods department, who also declined to be identified, said he hasn’t seen a significant increase in ammunition sales since the election, and there is no rationing in effect at the store.

Signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, the Federal Assault Weapons Ban prohibited the sale of ammunition clips with more than 10 rounds and a variety of rifles such as semi-automatic versions of AK-47s and AR-15s. Semi-automatic rifles fire a bullet each time the trigger is pulled. They differ from automatic rifles, which fire continuously as long as the trigger is pulled. Automatic rifles are illegal without a federal permit, and must be registered with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The ban expired in 2004 during President George W. Bush’s administration, and a 10-year extension proposed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was voted down.

The difference between what defined assault from otherwise legal weapons, Sprague said, was optional accessories. Those included bayonet mounts, magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and gun flash suppressors. Except for those additions, Sprague added, there was no mechanical difference between those rifles being legal or illegal during the ban.

Sometimes all it takes to make an illegal weapon legal, such as a 9 mm LAR-15, is to have two or more of those options removed from the instrument.

Sheriff Jack Welsh said problems with assault weapons in Lenawee County haven’t been an issue, before, during or after the ban.

“I saw no concrete evidence that the ban ever significantly reduced violent crimes,” he said. “Legit­imate gun owners register their weapons. Unfor­tu­nately, whether there is a ban or not, some individuals will find ways to get weapons that are illegal.”

Welsh added he is against any fully automatic weapons being possessed or sold, and is in favor of background checks for any weapons purchased. He added that, if the Obama administration attempts to reinstate an assault weapons ban, he will pay close attention to the issue.

Sprague said FBI crime statistics show most crimes aren’t committed with assault weapons.
“Besides, most criminals cannot afford these types of guns,” Sprague added, pointing to rifles with price tags of more than $1,000.

Cambridge Township Police Chief Larry Wibbeler said he also never saw any increase or decrease in violent crime during or after the ban, adding the criminals who are after the assault rifles will usually locate them through illegal purchase or theft.

“If they (the criminals) want them, they’ll find a way to get them,” he said.

Wibbeler said very few fully automatic assault weapons have ever been confiscated in Cambridge Township.

SOURCE

obama: April Update

April 27, 2009

An ongoing project exposing the impostor in chief, the administration, and the destruction of America by those sworn to protect the nation.

On 1 April 2009, Senate Republicans revealed that by 2016 the Obama deficit would reach $8.7 trillion, which is $2.9 trillion more than the deficits racked up by all presidents combined since 1789 (232 years).

In his latest international blunder, Obama, during his visit to the United Kingdom, was granted an audience with the Queen, during which he gave her an iPod as a gift. The Queen, however, has had an iPod since 2005. The embarrassing gaffe follows Obama’s gift to Prime Minister Brown of a box of DVDs that do not work in British DVD players.

On 2 April 2009, the Obama regime handed out instructions for reporters to join a conference call with Secretary of State Clinton and National Security Advisor Jones that included an 800 number for reporters to call. When they began calling the number, they all got a phone-sex business with a woman asking if the caller wanted to “get nasty.”

As the G-20 summit came to a close on 2 April 2009, Obama was sent away a humbled failure after he failed to achieve his primary goal of cementing a global economic stimulus plan between the 20 parties. Instead, all he got was approval for some loans to small countries and a series of embarrassments involving protocol gaffes.

On 2 April 2009, Russian dictator Dmitry Medvedev, speaking at the G-20 summit, referred to Obama as “my new comrade,” a foreboding description of the clearly disturbing friendship that has formed between the Russian strongman and socialist American president.

Standing on foreign soil in Strasbourg, France, Obama stunned Europe, America and the world by publicly and vehemently insulting his own country, stating that America’s “arrogance,” “dismissive” attitude and “derisive” actions are just cause for Europeans to despise America. No president in history has ever done such a thing.

On 1 April 2009, despite the Taliban’s insulting and highly negative response to Obama’s offering of an olive branch last month to what he termed “moderate Taliban,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered an “honorable form of reconciliation” to Taliban terrorists who she claimed wanted peace. One day later, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called Clinton’s offer “a lunatic idea,” again causing the clueless Obama regime a great deal of international humiliation.

On 18 February 2008, Obama released a statement in which he said: “When I am President, it will not be business as usual when it comes to food safety.” In late March 2009, two million pounds of pistachios were recalled for salmonella poisoning from a California processing plant and the FDA instructed all Americans to avoid eating any pistachios or products containing pistachios they had on hand.

In early April 2009, Obama appointed Harry Knox, the homosexual leader of the Human Rights Campaign anti-Papal hate group, to the Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Knox routinely attacks Catholic groups, the Vatican and Pope for their stance on gay marriage.

On 7 April 2009, the government of Pakistan handed Obama another major setback in an on-going series of very public international embarrassments by denying the Obama regime’s request to conduct joint ground combat operations with Pakistan forces inside Pakistan. The request was personally delivered to Pakistan by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Obama special envoy Richard Holbrooke.

On 4 April 2009, in a news conference in Strasbourg, Austrian reporter Sonja Sagmeister asked Obama a question, to which he replied: “There’s a lot of — I don’t know what the term is in Austrian — wheeling and dealing…”, revealing that Obama actually believes the language spoken in Austria is called Austrian. In reality, of course, there is no such language; the primary language of Austria is German.

On 9 April 2009, after repeated questions from reporters about the pirate hostage crisis, Obama refused to answer, saying he could focus that day only on one thing: the housing and mortgage situation, despite his promising during the campaign that he was best qualified to handle multiple problems that might face his regime.

On 10 April 2009, Obama again refused to answer any questions on the pirate hostage crisis, and the London Telegraph called him “President Pantywaist” and the “new surrender monkey on the block,” two nasty insults that reflected Europe’s growing contempt for the pathetic president.

On 10 April 2009, the AP reported that Obama was throwing a 140-guest pizza party at the White House and that Obama ordered the pizzas to be made fresh in the White House by the owner and chefs from Pi Pizza. The catch: Pi Pizza is in St. Louis. Obama had the owner and chef gather up all the ingrediatents and pans and fly to the White House to personally prepare the pizzas, this as Americans are losing their homes and jobs and businesses.

On 7 April 2009, the Obama regime released to law enforcement an “assessment” that informed recipients of the report of how military veterans, gun owners, pro-lifers, pro-soveriegnty, anti-illegal immigration and other conservative Americans could be terrorists who might attack the homeland. The DHS document was roundly debunked by a variety of organizations as a piece of liberal trash meant to incite fear and distrust of conservatives.

On 14 April 2009, North Korea, despite Obama claiming repeatedly that he would get the to listen to reason, pulled out of the six-party talks, ordered UN inspectors out of the country, and announced it was restarting its nuke program.

On 13 April 2009, Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, admitted falsely reporting to the Congress that she had received only $12,000 from infamous Kansas late-term abortionist George Tiller, and that she really accepted $35,000.

On 15 April 2009, the Times of London reported on French President Sarkozy’s insulting remarks and very negative opinions on Obama, calling Obama’s ideas “rhetoric,” saying Obama is naive, that most of his proposals came from the Bush administration, that Obama’s climate plans were behind those of Europe and his tax plans were unsatisfactory. The stream of insults received wide coverage in the French press as well.

On 16 April 2009, NBC reported that the White House had requested Georgetown University cover up the IHS symbol for Jesus in Gaston Hall for Obama’s speech there. The university admitted this was true and that it had complied with the request from the Obama regime to places drapes over the symbol that would have appeared behind and above Obama during his speech.

On 16 April 2009, DHS Secretary Napolitano apologized to veterans for insulting them in her department’s 7 April 2009 “assessment” that veterans may become domestic terrorists and attack the homeland using their combat skills.

In April 2009, Obama declassified and ordered released for publication numerous top secret documents relating to the interrogation of terrorists that, among other things, revealed the CIA’s interrogation processes and which techniques are the most effective. For mer CIA Director Michael Hayden stated doing so aided and abetting the enemy, which is treason under the United States Code.

On 21 April 2009, David Axelrod, Obama’s top political advisor, stated “amti-Americanism isn’t cool anymore” among other countries due to Obama’s apologetic, anti-American statements made in the UK, Europe and Latin America. The irony and contradictory nature of the statement was apparently lost on Axelrod.

In a total reversal of his policy as stated the week before, on 21 April 2009, Obama said his regime is now open to the prosecution of Bush administration officials who stated the law allows for enhanced interrogation methods. The day prior, Obama went to the CIA and swore to them that he would protect them.

On the weekend of 19-20 April 2009 on CNN, Obama regime DHS Secretary Napolitano, a pro-illegal alien amnesty activist, lied by stating “crossing the border is not a crime per se” in refering to illegal aliens. In reality, 8 U.S.C. 1325 states very cleary that illegally crossing the US border is a crime: a misdeamor for the first offense and a felony for additional offenses.

A once top secret and now declassified CIA memo dated 30 May 2005 revealed that Obama lied when he stated that no intelligence gathered from captured al Qaeda terrorists via waterboarding had resulted in an attack being prevented. The memo stated that 9-11 operations chief Khalid Sheik Mohammed at first refused to cooperate under standard interrogation methods, but after being waterboarded revealed that a 9-11-style attack using East Asian terrorists was planned for Los Angeles and that the attack was thwarted because of the intelligence KSM surrendered during the waterboarding.

On 20 April 2009, Venezuelan Marxist strongman Hugo Chavez stated that, under Obama, socialism is now reaching the United States. Obama, at the Summit of the Americas, refered to the dictator as his “amigo” and warmly greeted the thug as a comrade, even accepting a book on the evils of the United States from him, which he said he would read.

On 20 April 2009, in an interview with the CBC, DHS Secretary Napolitano claimed that some of the 9-11 terrorists entered the US via Canada. This is an outright lie. As the 9-11 Commission reported, all of the 9-11 terrorists entered the US from abroad. She then stated that no terrorists have entered the US via Mexico, which is patently false according to the Director of the FBI in testimony before the Congress.

On 16 April 2009, Obama regime Department of Education Sec. Arne Duncan signed a Joint Statement of Exchange and Cooperation with the Chinese Minister of Education Zhou Ji. The Chinese government is listed by the State Department as a nation that operates massive and brutal “re-education camps” for dissidents, some of whom do not survive the horrific conditions and violence for which the camps are infamous. Obama claimed during his campaign that he would be the best human rights president.

On 22 April 2009, the Obama regime asked a federal court to throw out a lawsuit filed by Americans held hostage for 444 days by the terrorist regime of Iran during the Carter administration. The suit seeks $6.6 billion from the genocidal terrorist regime, but the Obama regime, siding with the terrorists, says an agreement between Carter and the terrorists disallows the suit.

On “Earth Day” 2009, Obama made two Air Force One (Boeing 747) flights and four Marine One (Sikorsky VH-3D Sea King) flights to places like Des Moines to make speeches about the importance of using less carbon-based fuel, like jet juel and helicopter fuel. He used more than 9,000 gallons of fuel during those flights and the aircraft dumped huge amounts of toxic pollutants into the air while doing so.

In April 2009, Obama appointed Rosa Brooks to the position of advisor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, a highly influential and coveted position which will grant her access to huge amounts of the nation’s most sensistive national security and military secrets. Brooks, a former LA Times columnist who has railed against Jews and a radical leftist who worked for billionaire extremist Socialist George Soros, has publicly sided with al Qaeda in its war against America. She has no military experience whatsoever.

On 20 April 2009, The New York Times reported that Obama was considering coverting the preferred stock it owns in banks that took TARP funds into common stock, which would give the regime voting rights on each bank’s policies and management, which is a key factor in socialism in that Obama would be able to control credit via controlling the banks, and thus the economy.

On 23 April 2009, Rasmussen Reports published a poll that said 58% of Americans believe Obama damaged national security by releasing the once Top Secret memos on enhanced interrogation techniques of al Qaeda terrorists. Only 28% said in the telephone poll that the release was helpful.

Complete Story Here

This past week in history: Things that no American should ever forget

April 27, 2009

Just because this should never be forgotten, and we do remember that it was democrats that were running things…

Sixteen years ago we were reminded of the deadly danger of having the left-liberals in charge of the police state. The largest massacre of American civilians by the US government since Wounded Knee climaxed on April 19, 1993. The siege that had begun on February 28 with a botched ATF publicity stunt ended when the Branch Davidian church and home went up in flames, after an FBI-operated tank on lease from the military was driven through the building, pumping flammable CS gas for six hours into the place where women and children were cowering in fear. Chemistry professor George Uhlig later testified that the high concentration of the gas combined with poor ventilation subjected the women and children to conditions “similar to… the gas chambers used by the Nazis in Auschwitz.”

On April 12, the FBI had ruled out using gas because it was dangerous to children. A week later, Bob Ricks, FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge, said the gassing was “to make their environment as uncomfortable as possible until they do exit the compound.” This excuse came after weeks of throwing flash-bang grenades at the building when people tried to leave.

Attorney General Janet Reno said the gas attack “was not meant to be D-Day. This was just a step forward in trying to bring about a peaceful resolution by constantly exerting further pressure to shrink the perimeter.” This militaristic lingo was characteristic of the feds’ approach throughout the siege. The government had waged psychological warfare by blaring obnoxious music, shining glaring lights and cutting the Davidians off water, electricity, their friends, attorneys and the press. Firefighters were not permitted near the scene as the flames continued engulfing the home. When it was all over, the ATF stuck its flag up on the building to declare victory.

At a press conference on April 20, a day after the FBI gassed American civilians, President Clinton said he did not believe “the Attorney General should resign because some religious fanatics murdered themselves.” The press corps, in an unusually naked expression of solidarity with the government, applauded Clinton’s statement.

This underscores the dynamic of having this crop in power. If even the liberals are for a show of force, it must have been necessary. The blame was put on the “religious fanatics,” not the government fanatics, and the press and most Americans ate it all up.

The media slavishly pushed war propaganda in Bush’s first term, but they will prove even more sycophantic of Obama. Fair-weather left-liberals who often criticize the most violent side of the Republican state look the other way as their leader jails people without trial, builds civilian surveillance systems, and kills innocents.

Over the last eight years, muckraking liberal journalists dissected every word and deed of the Bush regime, but under Clinton very few were bothered about the unambiguously atrocious nature of the federal raid at Waco. They did not care that Lon Horiuchi, the sniper who murdered Vicki Weaver at Ruby Ridge in August 1992, had been brought to Waco. They were not jumping up and down about Janet Reno using internationally banned chemical warfare on American children. They did not condemn the FBI for using explosives in addition to flammable gas and then lying about it. They were not concerned what it meant for the militarization of law enforcement, and did not ask why David Koresh, who had befriended federal agents, was friendly with local law enforcement, and had opened the Davidian home up for inspection, was simply not arrested when he was jogging or visiting the bar. The liberals did not wonder why the excuse for the raid shifted from a meth lab to illegal gun ownership to child abuse. They assumed that, as much as the government might have messed up the raid, the fault was primarily that of the victims. The fact that the Davidians were different and armed – though no more armed than the average Texan – was enough to dismiss their suffering and excuse the death of 80 Americans, many of them children, at the hands of law enforcement.

Many mainstream conservatives also backed the administration after Waco, but the weak reaction by the left-liberals, who Americans rely on as the outspoken critics of police abuses, was more important. Incidentally, many libertarians, broadly defined, also took the government’s side. Notably, Objectivist Leonard Peikoff of the Ayn Rand Institute defended the state’s raid and demonized the victims.

When Democratic administrations murder, the law-and-order right is often split. The left is in denial or supportive. And the press tends to spin the story to make the administration seem soft.

The headlines today emphasize Obama’s rhetorical shift from the “war on terror” and his superficial changes in detention policy. The media push the notion that Obama has cut military spending, when he is doing the opposite.

Moreover, the continuity between the Clinton and Obama administrations is not encouraging. We have Hillary, who cheered on the belligerent foreign policy of her husband, the bomber of Belgrade, now in charge of State. We have a Justice Department even more committed to sovereign immunity than the last administration and headed up by Janet Reno’s Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder.

Then there is the group the Democrats love to demonize: “Rightwing extremists.” Clinton built a proto-Bushian police state around fear of militias. We saw a major blow to federal habeas corpus, which liberals claim to love, when the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act passed in 1996, in response to Oklahoma City and the supposed epidemic of rightwing militias. When John Ashcroft was being confirmed as Attorney General, his very suggestion that the U.S. government could become “tyrannical” was mocked as ridiculous and extremist by Ted Kennedy and liberals nationwide.

Today, we’re seeing a return of anti-militia hysteria. Just as the federal government and its liberal defenders throughout the 1990s conflated patriotic Americans and peaceful separatists with dangerous “hate” groups and Rush Limbaugh’s listeners with Timothy McVeigh, we have the same kind of culture-war nonsense today.

The Department of Homeland Security recently circulated a report that warns against the “Rise in Right-Wing Extremism.” The document is apparently unclassified but nevertheless indicates it is “not to be released to the public, the media” or others who do not “need to know.” The libertarian Judge Andrew Napolitano, who has roundly criticized the tyrannical usurpations of both Republicans and Democrats, writes:

The thrust of this report is that in the present environment of economic instability, returning military veterans, those who fear of the loss of Second Amendment-protected rights, those threatened by an African-American president, and those who fear “Jewish ‘financial elites’” could all be a fertile breeding ground for groups whose power and ideas the government hates and fears. The document is essentially a warning for DHS and FBI officials to be on the look-out for rootless persons looking for the comfort of groups as they may be a danger to American security.

The summary (unclassified) document is terrifying. One can only imagine what is contained in the classified version. This document runs directly counter to numerous U.S. Supreme decisions prohibiting the government from engaging in any activities that could serve to chill the exercise of expressive liberties. Liberties are chilled, in constitutional parlance, when people are afraid to express themselves for fear of government omnipresence, monitoring, or reprisals. The document also informs the reader that Big Brother is watching both public and private behavior.

Do you oppose the Federal Reserve? Support states rights? Hate the income tax? Support the right to bear arms? Know the Constitution better than our rulers? You are a likely suspect of a hate crime. You are in the same class as violent racists and terrorists.

With the upsurge in gun and ammo purchases and the mysterious rise in mass shootings, we can expect more efforts to lump violent agitators together with normal Americans who simply wish to defend themselves and their families. With growing resentment about Washington’s saddling future generations with debt, there will be more attempts to characterize Americans who hate paying ransom to a distant government with people who hate their country or want conflict. With the neglected veterans of Bush’s wars having trouble readjusting to society or simply dissatisfied with the increasingly socialistic country they come home to after being told they were defending freedom, we will see this tragedy caused by the federal government disgustingly twisted into a way to bolster that government.

Many Republicans are making a big stink about the DHS report, but others have pointed out that the administration has also warned about “left-wing extremists” and so it is no big deal. Most grassroots conservatives are rightly outraged, although they do not see the continuity from the Bush era. As I warned them on LRC precisely four years ago:

Conservatives today might be able to wrap themselves in the flag and condemn dissidents as traitors, but before they know it, another Clinton might come to power and they’ll be the ones again accused of assisting the enemy by opposing the State. They might come, once again, to see the difference between love of country and love of the government, only it might be too late to bask in the distinction, thanks to the anti-dissident political atmosphere they are helping right now to create. Today’s leftists, it is to be hoped, will remember the feeling of being branded a traitor, should a Democrat be in power during the next national crisis or war.

The next national crisis has come and the left has for the most part not learned its lessons. Now that their guy is in power, we are back to the peculiar political dynamic of the 1990s, when the left-liberal police state conducted atrocities and dissent was thin.

Of course in reality, the policies are bipartisan. Ruby Ridge happened and Waco was planned under Republicans, and Waco was whitewashed by the Republican Danforth Report. The Homeland Security Department and the Fusion Centers going after rightwing militia were begun in the Bush era. Under Bush the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, which targeted many of the same groups today targeted by Obama, won the support of the overwhelming majority of Republican Congressmen. But what changes most is the way the public reacts to state violence, and with left-liberals at the throne police brutality and massacres tend to be more tolerated by the mainstream. It is somehow politically correct when a Democratic administration cracks down on the most marginalized people in society.

Meanwhile, the Obama regime is raiding medical marijuana clinics in violation of the spirit of campaign promises, continuing most dictatorial Bush terror policies, and scheming new ways to censor and control us. They want to take over the internet. They are contemplating more citizen disarmament, a move toward national service and more cradle-to-grave welfarism. By casting “rightwing extremists” as the Other, they can use this domestic bogeyman to expand upon the tools of oppression Bush constructed in the name of fighting the foreign bogeyman. It will aggravate the culture war and cause social division, but we must remember it is the state that is doing this dividing.

Obama has already killed a lot of foreigners. He has already broken key promises on civil liberties and transparency. He has already looted enough for five years of profligate spending. Let us hope his team does not react to “rightwing extremists” the way Clinton’s did at Waco. They would get away with it.

Anthony Gregory