Quote of the day – Mort Zuckerman

Many voters who supported him are no longer elated by the historic novelty of his candidacy and presidency. They hoped for a president who would be effective. Remember “Yes We Can”? Now many of his sharpest critics are his former supporters. Witness Bill Broyles, a one-time admirer who recently wrote in Newsweek that “Americans aren’t inspired by well-meaning weakness.” The president who first inspired with great speeches on red and blue America now seems to lack the ability to communicate any sense of resolve for a program, or any realization of the urgency of what might befall us. The teleprompter he almost always uses symbolizes and compounds his emotional distance from his audience.  Mort Zuckerman/WSJ

(emphasis mine.)

Did Eric Holder’s ends justify the death of Brian Terry?

Last week, Eric Holder issued subpoenas to go after News Corp. – the parent company of the Wall Street Journal and Fox News. This isn’t news to anyone who reads my blog because you are well read and well educated on current events. Unlike some of the liberals I hear call Rush and Levin, we know what’s going on and we know the actors.

Holder is holder-ing out on Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R – CA) congressional investigation of the Fast and Furious/gun running fiasco.

This is a big story.  There are reports of DOJ attorneys at Fast and Furious meetings with other very upper level ATF guys.  But who’s covering it? Fox. Who is Holder now investigating? Fox. Connect the dots – what’s the message from Holder?

Now it seems to me that Eric Holder knew about this gun running crap and so did Obama. Remember Obama’s words regarding gun regulations, back in March, to Mrs. Jim Brady – “We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

And those processes are what? More executive orders, more regulations from unelected regulatory czars and letting guns walk over the border to make a case for more gun regulations.

I’m gonna say it again – This is a big story and the MSM is not covering it – on purpose. They are choosing not to cover this because of definite harm to Holder and probable harm it will do to Obama.

But the ends justify the means to the Marxists in our government. Let no one forget – LET NO ONE FORGET – that the means was the murder of at least one (and possibly another) American law enforcement agent named Brian Terry.

 

Quote of the day – Daniel Henninger

We ought to be a lot prouder of our troops coming home from Iraq than we are showing this week. They deserve a monument. That war wasn’t just about helping Iraq. It was about us. The march across the nuclear threshold by lunatic regimes is a clear and present danger. The sacrifice made by the United States in Iraq took one of these nuclear-obsessed madmen [Saddam Hussein] off the table and gave the world more margin to deal with the threat that remains, if the world’s leadership is up to it. A big if.   Daniel Henninger/WSJ

Great column from the WSJ and some little known TEA party facts

William McGurn

. . . [M]oralizing about the ugly motives of the American people has become common. Whether it’s a federal judge declaring there exists no rational opposition to same-sex marriage, a mayor railing against those who would like a mosque moved a few blocks from Ground Zero, a Speaker of the House effectively likening the majority of her countrymen who did not want her health-care bill to Nazis, or a State Department official who brings up the Arizona law on immigration in a human-rights discussion with a Chinese delegation, the chorus is the same: You can’t trust ordinary Americans.

We’ve been called Nazis, racists, evil mongers and haters. We’ve been compared to the klan. Our attorney general has called us “a nation of cowards.” We are labeled homophobes and xenophobes. We’ve been accused of not only inciting violence but wanting it, as well.

And none of these epithets or accusations have anything to do with what ordinary Americans are really concerned about. We want to return to constitutional government, less taxes, smaller government, more fiscal and moral responsibility. So, again, what do any of these issues have to do with homosexuals or with race?

Absolutely nothing but the narrative has been written for us by the Obama loving liberal media and it’s a real uphill climb to overcome it.

Does it matter that there have been no arrests of any TEA party members at any of their events? Or that no one has been able to come forward and claim a $100,000 reward with proof that anyone called a black politician the N-word? Of course it doesn’t matter because those little facts don’t fit the liberal narrative.

March 2010 TEA party in Searchlight, NV

It’s a little known fact but over 70% of TEA party members have some college or are college graduates. You won’t read that in the liberal media because they prefer to paint us as stupid white rednecks who “cling to our God and our guns.” An educated grassroots movement doesn’t fit in the tapestry that the MSM is weaving about us.

The TEA party is composed of 75-80% white Americans. The general population of white America is 75%. The total population of Black and Hispanic Americans is 27%. There are 24% of TEA party members who are minorities.  How far off, really is the demographics of the TEA party from the general population of America? (24% is a surprisingly high number when you consider that we have been labeled as racists from the get go.) But do we see these numbers anywhere in the media? All I had to do was a google search to find them.

The media will not report these numbers. They will continue to spread the narrative of older white male, gun-toting, angry TEA party members and that is what a great many Americans are still believing about us. It’s going to be a real climb for us to prove them wrong but we have to persevere, hold fast to our ideals and agenda and come November, make them eat their words.

Steve Moore: we’re all screwed after December 31. Happy new year.

Well Nancy, you passed the bill and we will be finding out for months what’s in it – what you and your party has done to us. You know, we the folks who all make less than $250K/year?

Steve Moore of the WSJ said in a Heritage speech in Michigan last month that as of January 1, we will see the largest tax increase in this nations history. Capital gains will go up to over 20% from 15%. Dividend tax will increase from 15% to 43%. That is almost triple. He said that this will mean no dividends will be paid to investors. Microsoft paid out $40billion dollars in dividends in ’05, the largest in history and when asked about this Bill Gates stated it was because of the Bush tax cuts. That won’t be happening again for a long while.

How will this affect those folks with 401K’s? Many working people in this country have those accounts through their employers.

Business taxes go up from 35% to 40%. That means less, or almost no, new business development and investment. Moore said that 2 out of 3 of those people who will be hit the hardest with these tax increases all own, operate or invest in small businesses. These are the job creators – or should I say, were the job creators.

But the most dramatic increase will be the return of the death tax – from zero to 55%, literally overnight. (Bernie Saunders (socialist VT) wants that increase to be 65%!) The effect this will have on family businesses and family owned farms will be devastating. The idea – the American dream – of having a business or farm to leave to our children is now a thing of the past. They will have to be sold to pay the taxes! How un-American and patently absurd is this? And how many times does our money have to be taxed? By the time of death, that money has already been taxed a multitude of times.

All of this was hidden in the ObamaCare bill.

Before December 31st, there will be a huge stock sell-off. And after January 1st, unemployment will rise. You don’t have to be an economist to figure this out. Call me cynical but I’d also be interested in knowing if there’s an increase deaths before December 31.

These people have to be voted out in November and then we have to pray that from November until the new Congress come in, that the democrats don’t push through all kinds of crap during the lame-duck session.

We can pray about it but I know they will do it.

Quote of the day – Fred Barnes

In his WSJ column regarding being labeled a racist by JournoList:

What was particularly pathetic about the scheme to smear Mr. Obama’s critics was labeling them as racists. The accusation has been made so frequently in recent years, without evidence to back it up, that it has little effect. It’s now the last refuge of liberal scoundrels.

Media marginalizing and misreporting Tea Party events

Tea Party rally in Searchlight, NV

John Fund/WSJ.com

Saturday’s Tea Party Express event in the hometown of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was downplayed by much of the media — perhaps because the only incidents of violent behavior among the large crowd seemed to come from angry supporters of Mr. Reid. Following a week in which charges and countercharges about which side in the health care debate has engaged in more objectionable rhetoric, the media’s treatment of the Tea Party event in Searchlight, Nev. was curious.

There was virtually no reports of eggs being hurled at the Tea Party buses or the threat of physical violence against Breitbart. I agree Mr. Fund, that is curious.

CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield certainly didn’t think the crowd was worth much of a mention, estimating that only “hundreds of people, at least dozens of people,” turned out for it. By contrast, Politco.com concluded that the event drew “as estimated 20,000 Tea Partiers” to a windswept desert lot.

I can attest that “hundreds of people, at least dozens” was a real understatement.  When I left, before Palin stopped speaking, I waded through a sea of people. No question, there were thousands. But it works so much better as part of their narrative to understate and underestimate the numbers. Tea party people must be marginalized to the few thousand viewers that CNN and MSNBC have.

Andrew Breitbart, the conservative Internet entrepreneur who was one of several speakers at the rally, says the crowd was large enough that it raised the ire of local Reid supporters. He noticed one man holding a sign directing Tea Parties in the wrong direction. When Mr. Breitbart approached to chat with the Reid supporters, he saw several throwing eggs at the Tea Party Express buses. The protesters, he says, quickly surrounded him, including one who declared: “I’m going to have to go to jail today if this guy [Breitbart] doesn’t leave.”

These people have taken on a mob mentality, one that tea partiers don’t have. It’s frightening to think what could happen if only one had taken some kind of action against Breitbart.

“It’s unsettling to see them use threats and provocation like this,” he told me. He was especially peeved at what he witnessed given what he said were the unconfirmed accusations hurled at Tea Party protestors last week in Washington, including that some had used ugly and violent language against members of the Congressional Black Caucus. On stage at the Searchlight event, Mr. Breitbart offered to donate $100,000 to charity if anyone could provide video evidence that racial epithets were used against CBC members. Mr. Breitbart says he suspects the accusations were just a cynical attempt by the left and elements of the media to “marginalize” the Tea Party movement.

These congressmen took the deliberate and provocative step of doing their own mini “march on Selma” in order to make it a civil rights issue. It was an unnecessary move to do nothing but be provocative and to do nothing more than incite the protesters further.  And really, does any of this rise to the level of Kenneth Gladney being beaten up by men dressed in SEIU shirts and also called the n-word? No it does not but no one is covering that story or the one of the man who got his finger bitten off at a rally, either. Neither of those stories got any national coverage but allegedly spitting on a congressman has turned into a major national event. But you know what? Congressmen and senators are not any more important than I am. I really don’t care what they were allegedly called or whether one was spit on. I no longer have any reverence or respect for the office they have held and tainted.

If so, it doesn’t seem to be working. The stage at the Nevada event was crowded with notables, including Sarah Palin. She brought cheers from attendees when she proclaimed that voters in the November election would fire Harry Reid. She added: “There’s something not quite right when Fidel Castro comes out and says he likes ObamaCare when we don’t.”

Another speaker was Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons, who told the audience: “Voters don’t want to see the Constitution trampled. They are angry, they deserve to be listened to and this is going to be heard nationally.”

No, Governor Gibbons, we do not deserve to be listened to. We demand it.

WSJ: Abuse of Power

From today’s WSJ:

Regrets, they’ve got a few. Yet these Democratic Sinatras will still do it their way. President Obama is expected to endorse reconciliation in remarks this morning.

The goal is to permanently expand the American entitlement state with a vast apparatus of subsidies and regulations while the political window is still (barely) open, regardless of the consequences or the overwhelming popular condemnation. As Mr. Obama fatalistically said after his health summit, if voters don’t like it, “then that’s what elections are for.”

In other words, he’s volunteering Democrats in Congress to march into the fixed bayonets so he can claim an LBJ-level legacy like the Great Society that will be nearly impossible to repeal. This would be an unprecedented act of partisan arrogance that would further mark Democrats as the party of liberal extremism. If they think political passions are bitter now, wait until they pass ObamaCare.

SCOTUS rules to protect free speech

4 of the 9 Supreme Court justices are in favor of book banning and speech censorship. F-O-U-R  of them. And the 5 who voted in favor of the First Amendment are being called ACTIVISTS. Now, isn’t that ironic? To be in favor of the Constitution is now considered radical.

Amazing.

The case of Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission was decided last week by the U.S. Supreme Court, in a sqeeker vote that should scare all Americans. This case has unveiled to the public, the justices who would be in favor of censoring free speech and who are willling to ignore the first amendment’s stark and direct language:

“Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press…”

How much clearer could the Founders have been?

From the AP:

When the Supreme Court first heard the case in March, Deputy Solicitor General Malcolm Stewart, representing the FEC, was pulled into a discussion of an issue that took him down a slippery slope: If the movie were a book, would the government ban publishing the book if it mentioned a candidate for office within the election time frame?

Stewart said that it could.

“That’s pretty incredible,” Justice Samuel Alito said.

Then came questions about electronic devices such as the Kindle.

“If it has one name, one use of the candidate’s name, it would be covered, correct?” Chief Justice John Roberts asked.

“That’s correct,” Stewart replied.

“It’s a 500-page book, and at the end it says, ‘And so vote for X,’ the government could ban that?” Roberts asked.

[David] Bossie [founder of Citizens United and maker of Hillary the Movie] said this was the argument that turned a majority of the bench against the FEC and in favor of Citizens United.

“That sent a chill down the Supreme Court,” Bossie said. The argument became a “point of demarcation.”

The marxists progressives are now screaming outrage. This from the Wall Street Journal:

President Obama was especially un-Presidential yesterday, putting on his new populist facade to call it “a major victory for big oil, Wall Street banks, health insurance companies” and other “special interests.” Mr. Obama didn’t mention his union friends as one of those interests, but their political spending will also be protected by the logic of this ruling. The reality is that free speech is no one’s special interest. New York Senator Chuck Schumer vowed to hold hearings, and the Naderite Public Citizen lobby is already calling for a constitutional amendment that bans free speech for “for-profit corporations.” Liberalism’s bullying tendencies are never more on display than when its denizens are at war with the speech rights of its opponents.

But the marxists progressives make no mention of networks like MSNBC that is owned by the corporate giant General Electric and that has been nothing short of the communications center for the Obama administration. This case protects their free speech, as well.

As David Bossie writes at BigJournalism.com:

Finally, as the Court acknowledged, the position that corporations cannot engage in political speech has a fatal logical flaw.  Almost every major media outlet in the country is owned by a corporation and most of them advocate for or against candidates via endorsements, opinion columns, or politically-oriented programming.  Why should General Electric, which owns MSNBC, be permitted to use its nearly unlimited resources to influence elections, while I, who made Hillary The Movie using corporate funds for roughly .03% of the budget, could be put in prison for airing the documentary?

What is really frightening is that TheOne has 3 more years to appoint justices. One more liberal appointment could change the entire complexion of the Constitution and it’s protection of Americans. Those appointees have to be confirmed by congress. This is just another urgent reason that Constitutionalists must be elected this  year.

Useful Idiots and Bigotry of the Left

4 fired ACORN volunteers and perhaps, more to come

The marxist keeps a person around until he or she is no longer of use and then they “throw ’em under the bus.” Why? Because they are no longer Useful Idiots. It’s a pattern, keep watching them and you’ll see it. One could even claim that Van Jones was a UI for Obama. Has Obama said word one about Jones since he ‘resigned’?

Frank James of NPR said this:

It’s also important to keep in mind that ACORN’s workers are coming from the same low-income neighborhoods the organization serves, with all that entails–poor schools, high crime and the sorts of social problems that have been documented for decades.

So the flaws conservatives are pointing out about ACORN are not so much problems associated with that organization per se but more about the problems of being poor and minority in urban America.

And James Taranto of the WSJ countered with this:

It’s hard to see how James’s casual assumption that corruption is the predictable result of “being poor and minority” is anything other than invidious bigotry. Further, even if one assumes for the sake of argument that Acorn is a mere passive embodiment of “social problems,” how exactly does that get it off the hook? Acorn is supposed to ameliorate those problems, is it not?

Corruption is predictable because you are poor? Immorality is inbred because you live in a housing project? I think there are millions of “poor” in this country who would take issue with those questions. But the Marxists are going to purpetuate that fallacy as long as there are poor folks to believe it.

These people are being held down – dare I say, oppressed – by the very Marxists who claim to be their saviors. They are used on the frontline – the UIs – to make the Marxist’s plan look altruistic and humane but as soon as they are a liability, under the proverbal bus they go!

These 4 fired volunteers and maybe more to come, are taking a dive for ACORN. They are ACORN’s former Useful Idiots who are now laying under the big yellow bus. These people were trained by ACORN. They behaved in ways that they felt were acceptable to the leadership of their organization.

I”ll say it again: we are a reflection of the leaders we have and our leaders are a reflection of the people we are.