Joel's Rant

Did you know that over 14,000 oil wells were drilled in the Gulf of Mexico before the Deep Water Horizon well exploded 13 months ago?  That was one spill in over 14,000, spanning a 40 year blemish-free period.  Yet the government – defined as Barack Hussein Obama and his administration (BHOAHA) – decided to shut down virtually the entire oil drilling industry.  In the gulf, this shut down was done over the objections of a federal court order. 

At about the same time, BHOAHA effectively shut down the oil drilling industry off both of America’s coasts.  It even shut down drilling in the Arctic Ocean off the coast of Alaska, claiming the need to review the potential for environmental impact.  In the case of Alaska, over $4 billion had been recently invested and another $2.2 billion paid to the government in oil drilling leases.  Even so, the EPA shot down the drilling effort claiming “air quality issues” to the people living in that most northern of regions. 

North Dakota has one of the largest oil reserves in the world.  Nevertheless, BHOAHA’s EPA recently shut down the building of a pipeline from the North Dakota shale oil fields to Texas.  The new pipeline was to connect with an existing pipeline complex that efficiently and quickly moves oil to different areas of the country at low cost. 

BHOAHA also has actively aided and encouraged the oil drilling and exploration industries in Brazil and Columbia, and has told those countries that America will be their best customers.  This is rather than drilling and developing our own resources and having Brazil and Columbia become customers of America.  It’s all ass-backwards, no?

Is there any wonder why gasoline prices have soared in the past year, actually more than doubling in just the time Barack Obama has been president?  You still believe it’s “the speculators” that are forcing the price of gasoline to rise?

Only last month the price of gasoline first broke the dreaded $4.00 per gallon barrier in most parts of the country with nary a peep from the main-stream media and “progressive” consumer organizations.  This is the opposite of the summer of 2007, when the price last reached that level and the media outrage at the time made it seem the world was coming to an end.  Now it’s moving with speed toward $5.00 and threatens everywhere to reach $6.00 by the end of the summer driving season.  All the while, the media seems to be protecting BHOAHA. 

Clearly BHOAHA wants to proactively manipulate and interfere with the laws of supply and demand.  But why?  What’s going on? 

If you think this purposeful manipulation and inference is just crazy talk you need to listen to Obama’s Energy Secretary, Steven Chu.  As early as December 2008, before Obama was sworn in, Chu told the Wall Street Journal “somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”  That would, by the way, be in the $7.00 to $9.00 range.  He then went on to describe ways that the government could encourage people to buy more fuel efficient cars and even coax them into living closer to their work.

And what about Obama’s own words from January 2008 when he told the San Francisco Chronicle that under his administration the price of electricity “would necessarily skyrocket” and he “will bankrupt the coal industry”. 

The policies of his government, and the Democrats in general, would seem to be bringing his words and those of his lieutenants to fruition.  He meant it when he said it.  It wasn’t just rhetoric for campaign purposes.  Where exactly in the Constitution does it say the government should be considering issues like this?  How about planning policies that aim to change not only consumer behavior but social and personal behavior as well?  Where does it say in the Constitution that government should be acting to drive costs and choosing which industries are winners (“green energy”) and losers (“fossil fuels”)? 

Of course BHOAHA, like every other “class-warfare, envy-pushing, hate-the-so-called-rich Marxist”, is now trying to blame the oil companies for price gouging and making too much profit.  Like that’s the government’s business anyway? 

So let’s first put some perspective on this.  Did you know that even with the price of oil presently at over $111 per barrel, the large American oil companies make only 2 cents per gallon of gasoline in profit while local, state, and federal excise taxes amount to about 50 cents per gallon?  In other words, the government takes about 25 times per gallon what the oil companies themselves get to keep.  That’s just what the mob would do. 

Did you know that the American oil industry pays more in federal incomes taxes than the bottom 75% of all American taxpayers; in fact, the American oil industry is the second highest payer of all income taxes in America after personal incomes taxes?  Did you know that the average profit of American oil companies is less than 6%, less than drugs, computers, electronics, clothes, beverages, virtually everything manufactured and most other industries?  (Incidentally, did you know the health insurance industry runs just a 3% profit, among the lowest of all industries in America?  This is despite being labeled by BHOAHA as wealthy blood-suckers and Medicare rejecting about 7% of all claims, while private insurance rejects less than 2% of all claims.  But that’s an argument for another time.)

Did you know that no American oil company controls more than ½ of 1% of the world’s oil production volume?  It’s the state-owned companies in the Middle East and OPEC and others that set the price of a barrel of oil, not Exxon-Mobil, for crying out loud.

Did you know that the so-called $4 billion in “oil industry subsidies” BHOAHA is looking to terminate are the same exact subsidies provided to all other industries that also get to depreciate equipment and take other business related losses according to the tax code?  Not only do oil companies get nothing special, but that $4 billion will be appear at the gas pump for consumers to pay.  (Incidentally, did you know that General Motors, BHOAHA’s car company, was relieved of paying over $48 billion in future income taxes and that General Electric – BHOAHA’s favorite CEO friend – paid zero income taxes last year?  But that’s also an argument for another time).

Now I’m not crying for the oil companies, but the fossil fuels they provide, until recently at low cost, are what allows the American economy and standard of living to be the best in the world.  This applies even to our poorest people.  Even poor people in America can drive across the country and eat cheap food brought to market by cheap fuel.  But that can change and that’s just a fact. 

So why the purposeful sabotage of America’s energy industry by BHOAHA?  Why would the President of the United States purposely want to starve the country of low cost energy, thereby making virtually every product and service in America more expensive, increasing the price of food and forcing companies’ overseas and taking millions of jobs with them? 

Everything Barack Obama is doing with relation to energy is completely wrong and completely counter to free market and capitalist principles.  And he’s doing it on purpose.  But why?

The answer is because Barack Obama is a Marxist.  What Marxists do is destroy the economy so that the “Middle Class”, the one Barack Obama professes he’s trying to save, is actually destroyed.  I’m sorry to say this, but what we have is an American version of Castro or Hugo Chavez running the American government, and thereby ruining the American economy, and purposely running it into the ground.  He may have been born in Hawaii, but he ain’t no American.

By purposely increasing the price of energy, he destroys jobs.  By purposely increasing the cost of energy he increases the price of food and all other staples of life in America.  By calling for the elimination of fossil fuels in exchange for unproven and unreliable “green energy” he purposely creates chaos and rationing of energy, resulting in brown outs, black outs and the ultimate destruction of the civil society in this country.  By forcing you to live closer to where you work he destroys your freedom and mobility, and makes you easier to control.

By doing these things BHOAHA is deliberately diminishing America’s presence, standing and leadership in the world.  He is fundamentally changing our country into an alien nation. 

By doing all these things he makes everyone into a victim needing to be saved by the government.  And that makes the government, the same government BHOAHA wants to take over the health care industry, really, really, really powerful. 

And that’s all there is to it.

Why do Democrat controlled legislatures throughout the nation consistently do the wrong thing virtually every time when it’s so easy to just do the right thing instead? 

Why do Democrats virtually always vote to raise spending when common sense and good fiscal stewardship say cutting spending is the right policy?  Why do they raise taxes when taxes should be cut?  Why do they always promote policies which take money away from producers instead of keeping money in the private economy, which has time after time proven to be the best policy for everyone?  I could go on and on, but you get the point.

So why do Democrats almost always choose the wrong path instead of always choosing the right path? 

There’s something at play here that actually explains why we can count on Democrats to do the wrong thing, something that’s sort of the missing piece to the puzzle.  And here it is; the government is the Democrat Party and the Democrat Party is the government.  They are, in fact, one in the same.  That’s not an exaggeration or hyperbole; that’s for real. 

Take a moment to think about it instead of rejecting that notion out of hand.

That explains why Democrats always want to make the government bigger, more powerful, more intrusive, and more encompassing; it’s in their best interest to do that because they are the government.  Like an entrepreneur wants to grow his/her business because that’s in their best interest, Democrats want to grow government because it’s in their best interest. 

Entrepreneurs grow their businesses because they own them; Democrats grow government because they own it.  The Democrats ARE the government.

In effect, there are Republicans; and then there is the government.  For the convenience of voters, the government calls itself the Democrat Party; but when you vote for a Democrat, you’re voting for the government.

That’s the case whether people are voting for Democrats in a local election, a state election or in a national election.  It makes no difference. The word “Democrat” now means “government.”  They’re synonymous.

Now it all makes sense, right?

Once you have that perspective, you can understand why Democrats would force a potential government shutdown over what amounts to literally mere pennies, or why there will be a death struggle by Democrats to raise the debt ceiling to over $15 trillion or more, or why there will be a savage fight, with Democrats hurling disgusting incriminations before they are forced to accept any of Paul Ryan’s 2012 budget proposal that cuts into the very fabric, the entitlements, of big government. 

Democrats can’t give in to even the most minor of these cuts because to do so, in some fashion, reduces the government, which really reduces the Democrat Party.  The Democrats will never stand for such an onslaught on big government because an attack on big government is an attack on the Democrat Party.

Just look at the logic of Democrats in the showdown just ended Friday night in which even the most ridiculous federal funding could not, would not, be cut.  Where in the Constitution does it say that I must fund Planned Parenthood or the National Endowment for the Arts, or National Public Radio?  Where does it say that?  But to listen to Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer you’d think there was an enumerated power in the Constitution forcing me to do exactly that (http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/schumer-cuts-planned-parenthood-never-ne ). 

Harry Reid says that funding Planned Parenthood is more important than funding the military.  Can you believe that?  Comparing Planned Parenthood to military warriors taking gunfire?  How contemptible is that?  To Democrats, the military and national defense are relatively inconsequential matters of little importance.  They’re little more than welfare recipients.  In fact, Democrats would sooner fund abortion doctors than our military warriors in the field and in harm’s way.  If there had been a shutdown, the Democrats plan was to make sure people on welfare got their checks, but not the warriors keeping our country safe. (http://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2011/04/07/obama-ill-shut-down-the-government-and-suspend-military-pay/ ).  Screwing the families who have sacrificed the most, by sending warriors to defend our liberty, freedom and national interest, is less important than sending money to NPR, the partisan propaganda arm of the government, aka Democrat Party.  It’s just contemptible.

Look at the horrific language Democrats are using at this exact moment to characterize Republicans who are looking to make mostly modest and symbolic cuts.  Reminds you of Wisconsin, no?  Immediately, Democrats pull out “human shields” to try to keep Republicans from landing any punches or doing any damage, in pretty much the same fashion as the barbarians in the Middle East might use human shields when they are put under attack.

The “human shields” the Democrats favor are statements like Nancy Pelosi stating Republican budget cuts will force seniors literally into starvation (http://nation.foxnews.com/nancy-pelosi/2011/04/05/pelosi-republican-budget-will-force-seniors-starvation ).

Or Harry Reid saying Republicans don’t want women to get breast cancer screenings (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/08/usa-budget-health-idUSWEN079220110408.

Or Congresswoman Louise Slaughter saying Republicans want to kill women (http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/house-freshmen-came-washington-intent-ki ).  

Or Congressional delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton saying Republican budget cuts are the equivalent of bombing civilians (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20051805-503544.html ), and on and on. 

The Democrat strategy is to claim Republicans hate children, want old people to just die, don’t want anyone to get an education, favor polluting the air and water, hate poor people, hate blacks, hate Hispanics, hate gays, and on and on, pulling out human shield in front of human shield in an effort to obfuscate, disguise, confuse, conceal, and divert any criticism so as not to land a blow against the need to spend more money by the government.

This Democrat strategy is so evil it’s actually pathological.  Here’s the Democrat president, Barack Obama, just about 4 weeks ago proposing his 2012 budget.  In spite of our nation’s near fiscal collapse, yearly trillion dollar deficits every year of this entire new decade, the potential to actually triple our national debt from its present $14 trillion, the unsustainably of the Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security entitlements, he adds another $1.5 trillion of new spending and a host of new taxes that will only limit the ability of the private sector to grow the economy.  His 2012 budget plan is a total budgetary disaster. 

Now, he’s supposed to be a smart guy.  So why does he want to do this?

He does it, and the Democrats approve of it, because forcing the debt to run even higher will force, absolutely force, taxes to be raised.  And if taxes are raised to a high enough level, businesses will almost certainly have to fail or move out of the country.  That leaves the American citizens without jobs and no means of support.  And that puts them on the government dole; thereby growing the government to its ultimate size, the size where it takes control of everything, your health, your wealth, simply everything. 

And that’s really the purpose of the modern Democrat Party; that’s the purpose of big government; to control everyone and everything.

It’s all laid out in detail in “Rules for Radicals” by Saul Alinski, Barack Obama’s mentor.

The Democrat Party and the government are one in the same.  We’ve seen this pathology before, albeit on different continents.

Am I wrong?

And that’s all there is to it.

Did you know that the NEA, the SEIU and the AFL-CIO, the unions Barack Hussein Obama endorses, have not supported a single tax cut or a spending cut, at any level of government, in over the last 30 years?  Not one!

Here we are with our national on-budget debt about to top $15 trillion, and those unions ask for higher taxes and higher spending.  Our federal government has spent over $3 trillion additional dollars in just the last 2 years, and they think spending is too low.  Virtually every state in the nation is in huge debt, and several are near financial collapse and bankruptcy, and the unions are good with that.

Why is that?  It’s because public employee unions benefit from keeping taxes rolling in and spending as high as possible.  Public employee unions need higher taxes to get higher salaries and benefits, and know spending needs to grow to make those requirements happen.  They’re like a “fifth column” in our country.

Right now the average federal worker earns about $120,000 per year in wages and benefits, plus enjoys the ironclad job security provided by civil service rules and regulations.  The average Wisconsin teacher earns about $89,000 per year in wages and benefits and is similarly protected by civil service rules and regulations, but in addition also enjoys collective bargaining rights to use as leverage against local communities wishing to rein in spending.  The average private sector worker, whose taxes support the aforementioned public employee workers, earns only about $61,000 per year in wages and benefits, and has virtually no job security.    What’s wrong with this picture?

How can anyone expect lower wage and benefit people to continue to pay the higher wages and benefits of the public employees who control a monopoly over basic community services, and who continually demand ever more in wage and benefits, and are insulated and protected from the recessions and depressions private sector workers are forced to endure?  And with politicians beholden to public employee unions for votes and campaign contributions there is no one negotiating for the taxpayers.  This is corrupt and unsustainable.  In fact, it’s sort of a “master” class versus a “slavery” class, no?

Public employee unions are the enemy of the civil society.  I’m not talking about the members; there are lots of good teachers and cops and sanitation workers and all that.  I’m talking about the unions, and the union bosses.  They’re the enemy.

But that’s not the way it was supposed to be.  The whole idea of working in the public sector was that you earned perhaps lower wages, but received in return better benefits and ironclad job security than those counterparts in the private sector.  As a public sector worker you knew that going in…….there was definitely a well understood tradeoff.

But that changed in the 1960s when Democrat governors and mayors saw that bestowing collective bargaining rights on public employee unions could more or less guarantee reelection by creating an army of happy voters beholden to those same politicians for keeping the taxpayer provided gravy train going, even if it meant promising future wages and benefits that could never be paid.  I guess those conspiring politicians are the enemy too.

It may have taken 30 years or more for the public employee unions to overplay their hands but that’s what has at last happened.  The Wisconsin and Indiana and Ohio and Michigan situations of the past several weeks have forced America to take a new look at the extortion that is bringing the economies of these and other states down and there is an interest finally to do something about them.  America is finally waking up to the corruption.

I’m hoping America will wake up to the corruption that is preventing our nation from securing the energy it needs to maintain a 21^st century technological and free society.  I recently paid $3.85 for a gallon of premium gasoline while the guy next to me was filling his tank with $3.56 a gallon of regular. Our eyes met and we both shook our heads as if to say “this really blows, no?” Yet, other than an occasional mention in the media, there is no public outrage. 

I recall just 2 ½ years ago gasoline approaching $4.00 per gallon because oil was costing over $140 per barrel and the screaming about the collapse of our economy could be heard on Mars.  If I recall, the media drumbeat blaming George W. Bush for high gasoline prices was everywhere, all the time, around the clock.  Yet now, nothing.  What’s the difference?

The difference is, obviously, Barack Hussein Obama and the media hypocrisy.  Don’t forget, the media is merely the public relations arm of the Democrat Party and the Democrat Party is the federal government.  They are all as one, in bed with each other, part of the same genre. In effect, there’s the federal government, and then there’s the Republican Party.  That’s pretty much it.  Ergo, you can have $4.00 gasoline and hatred for George W. Bush; and you can similarly have $4.00 gasoline and admiration for Barack Hussein Obama.  Am I wrong?

I suppose we’re pretty lucky that oil is presently priced at only $104 per barrel, but when that changes you should expect gasoline prices to “necessarily skyrocket.”  That’s what Barack Hussein Obama said in his January 2008 comment to the San Francisco Chronicle in which he talked about energy prices under his administration, that they would “necessarily skyrocket.”  Yes, he seems to be a man of his word.

So here we are, facing instability and unrest in the oil rich Middle East, and the Barack Hussein Obama administration is purposely choking off all new oil exploration and drilling in the United States.  He’s currently defying a federal court order to resume drilling offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, and has refused to provide drilling licenses off the coasts of California, Florida and Alaska or anywhere else off shore of America.  How, as a great nation, can we let one guy, one single guy, do this to us?  Where does he suppose gasoline comes from?  Where does he get the chutzpah?

And what sense does it make to force energy prices higher, which he deliberately is trying to do?  At what per-gallon price will you purposely begin to curtail your own driving?  Let’s assume you’ll do less driving than normal when the price reaches $5.00 per gallon, which may not be very long from now.  That’s means your neighbors will likely do the same thing, if they can. 

Obviously, the first type of driving to be curtailed will be things like going to the mall and the movies and discretionary driving like that, which means the people working in those kinds of places will start to be laid off, which means they’ll be collecting unemployment benefits, and maybe social services benefits, which means they’ll be beholden to the government. 

And don’t forget the rising costs for the people driving food to your grocery store and how the costs of food and everything else that needs to be delivered, which is virtually every product you need to carry on your life, will be going up.  And don’t forget the price of every product made with petroleum products will be going up, which includes everything from Glad-Wrap and cosmetics to life saving drugs.

And all of this an intentional effort to raise costs, all brought to you by your government, your Democrat controlled government, your government administered by Barack Hussein Obama.  It’s all intended, it’s all purposeful, and it’s all been planned this way.  Buy why?

When Barack Hussein Obama was running for President he made it quite clear, and to cheering and adoring crowds, that his aim was to “fundamentally change America.”  He said that, right?  Everyone knows he said that, and in pretty much those exact words. 

You don’t do “fundamental change” to things you love.  If you love something you don’t fundamentally change it.  You may tweak it, but you never fundamentally change it.  That changes “it” into something totally different, right?  But you do make “fundamental change” to things you hate.  Am I wrong?

I’m sorry to say that Barack Hussein Obama hates America.  There, I said it, and I meant it.

That’s why he supports the public employee unions destroying the financial stability of the states, and why he supports the purposeful raising of living costs in an effort to put people on the government dole, to keep people victims, so they can be controlled by government.  It all makes sense.

And that’s all there is to it.

Tomorrow the nation will be treated once again to the display of our president bringing his yearly “State of the Union” message to Congress and the American people, as required by the Constitution of the United States.  Yes, it’s actually mandatory that the president do this. 

This constitutional requirement might come as a surprise to some in our political class, like John Conyers, Democrat Congressman for 40 years, and until recently Chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee, who when asked defended ObamaCare’s constitutionality by sighting the “good and welfare clause”.  Note to Congressman Conyers; there is no “good and welfare clause.”  Does Conyers even understand the Constitution?  Don’t ask long time veteran Democrat Congressman John L. Lewis, who apparently believes the Constitution justifies Obamacare’s mandate that people must buy health insurance because of the “pursuit of happiness clause”.  Note to Congressman Lewis; there is no “pursuit of happiness clause” and besides, the famous phrase “pursuit of happiness” appears in the Declaration of Independence, not the Constitution.  This spectacle would be downright laughable if the men making complete fools of themselves weren’t so powerful and disdainful of the laws that make our country the only indispensable nation on Earth.

One may think these are merely minor misstatements, but are they?  These people are among those making decisions that affect the lives of you and your family and the security of our nation.  Do they know where their authority to govern us comes from?  Do they know that the Constitution protects individual liberty, not the public good, whatever that is?

It’s interesting that just a few weeks ago the Republicans in the House of Representatives voted to begin their first session, as the majority, with a reading of the Constitution of the United States.  As you’ll recall Democrats of all stripes, liberals and progressive pundits and mainstream media sycophants called the action stupid and mindless and even implied that the most important political document ever written in the history of man had become irrelevant.   Did they forget that they took an oath to protect and defend the concepts written in this very document?  I find it pretty ironic that recently shot Congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords, was one of those who agreed to read some of the Constitution, as the Republican caucus requested, and in fact read from the First Amendment, the one guaranteeing the right to free speech. 

No sooner had the smoke cleared than Democrats and their media minions began to promulgate a scurrilous lie, filled with wishful hate, a blood libel, that somehow rhetoric from the political right had spawned this tragic carnage.  No sooner had the smoke cleared than leftist pundits and reporters clamored for more “civility” (code word for “conservative political censorship”) from those on the right.

(You might want to click on http://michellemalkin.com/2011/01/10/the-progressive-climate-of-hate-an-illustrated-primer-2000-2010/ if you want an astonishing and detestable review of the rhetoric that came from the political left over the past 10 years.  It’s really quite contemptible.)

I for one believe the vitriolic rhetoric, in fact, is not high enough.  Our voices, the voices of the conservative right, need to be heard.  Those who occupy the highest political offices in our country repeatedly lie to us, yet the president will appear tomorrow to talk about his agenda, going forward, as if the past two years had never happened; as if he became president only yesterday.  Yes, the new branding of Barack Obama is in full swing by the vampires in the mainstream media.  Yes, Barack’s a centrist, he’s concerned about the nation’s debt, he’s concerned about America being competitive, he’s very concerned.

Well, it just so happens that the truth has no agenda.  As the president gives his speech, let’s remember what he has done to our country.

Let’s remember ObamaCare.  Just for a moment, leave the issue of this law’s constitutionality aside; leave the CBO’s scoring of this law using corrupt and purposely fraudulent figures aside; leave aside the fact that ObamaCare will change forever the relationship every citizen of this country has with the government.  Did you know that come 2013, that 3.8% of the profit you realize from selling your home will go to pay for ObamaCare?  Did you know illegal immigrants are covered?  Did you know the government will have electronic access to all of your bank accounts and can transfer funds out without you even being advised?  Did you know that doctors will not be allowed to build new hospitals, even if they’re ready, willing and able to, and that hospital expansion will be prohibited?  When ObamaCare goes into full swing in 2014 all doctors will be paid the same regardless of specialty and all fees will be set by the government?  Did you know doctors will be penalized for requiring more medical tests, even if they believe they’re necessary?

What do you suppose just that very small sampling of what’s contained in that 2700 page law means to the medical care you can expect for you and your family?  Imagine what else is contained in ObamaCare’s language that has not yet seen the light of day?  You can draw your own conclusions.

How about the unelected bureaucrats of the EPA setting carbon limits that raises the costs of everything manufactured in “smoke-stack industries like autos, steel, energy and the like?  The Congress already refused to raise these limits but the president’s political appointee is doing it anyway in an end-around move to force manufacturing into a central planning Politburo situation.

How about the Dodd-Frank financial industries law that raises the cost of capital, does nothing to halt the potential for bailing out institutions deemed too-big-too-fail, never mentions to words Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac even one single time, and in fact leaves all the details of this law to the completely subjective discretion of nameless and unelected bureaucrats.  How about the government taking over GM and Chrysler and effectively giving those companies over to the United Auto Workers union and refusing to uphold previous and lawful contracts with primary lenders?

How about official 10% unemployment, climbing to almost 20% unofficial unemployment when part-time workers and those who’ve dropped out of the labor market are counted?  How about record foreclosures continuing without end?  How about more people living in poverty than ever before?  How about 50 million people using Food Stamps?  How about America borrowing 40 cents of every dollar spent by the government, amounting to over $1 Trillion in additional debt each year for the next 10 years?  How can the economy be improving when more net jobs are lost each and every month than those that are gained?

This all happened over the past two years and is continuing.

How about Obama literally changing the mission of NASA from developing technology and creating miracles to teaching Muslim nations that they should be proud of inventing algebra (which, by the way, the Chinese did, not the Muslims)?  How about the Justice Department attacking Arizona?  How about the Justice Department dropping the voter intimidation prosecution of the New Black Panther party? 

How about Barack Obama’s FCC Chairman attempting to gain control over the internet with this new Net Neutrality regulation plan?  How about the government pulling the plug on all Gulf oil drilling, costing 20,000 gulf-area jobs, devastating local economies and driving the cost of gasoline to over $3.20 with no end in cost escalation in sight?

I can go on and on.  It’s unending what’s happened in just two years.  And none of that even includes anything beyond the shores of our country.  There’s Iran, Syria, North Korea, Russia, missile defense, new START, cancelling the F-22 fighter, Venezuela, China, Hezbollah and more.  And how about the new policy to allow romance and sexual tension onto the battlefield over the objections of battlefield commanders?

Barack Obama and his minions truly believe the people of this country are idiots, and unfortunately many people are.  But not all of us, not you and me.  We know what’s been going on.  This guy has a two year record, for crying out loud.

And then, out of nowhere, last week the Democrat governor of Hawaii inexplicably raises the issue of Barack Obama’s birth and citizenship.  He comes out in public and purposely states that he’s going to release Barack Obama’s long sought after “long-form” birth certificate so that this “Birther” issue can finally be put to rest.  Had he consulted with the White House before making this statement?  Who knows?

Here’s what we do know.  There ain’t no “long-form” birth certificate.  He inexplicably can’t find it.  What a goof this guy Neil Abercrombie is.  What he does have are some notes, whatever that means.

So here’s the truth, as I see it, and I’m not embarrassed by saying this.  Barack Obama was born in Kenya, to a very unstable and troubled woman.  This woman’s parents, while practicing Communists themselves, and realizing their daughter might be a nut, were not themselves idiots, and quickly realized that their newly born grandson would have a better chance at life and survival if he were an American citizen rather than a Kenyan.  So they trotted down to the local Hawaii BVS and made a statement that their grandson had been born in Hawaii.  They even gave their address as Barack’s address.  According to the regulations at the time, no proof of that statement needed to be offered.  That’s why the document the White House long ago produced was a “Certificate of Live Birth” (COLB), not a birth certificate.  The Hawaii authorities presently state that the COLB is not proof of birth in Hawaii.  They say that now!

So the grandparents get their COLB, and for good measure, they place a notice of birth in the local newspaper.  Remember, they’re not idiots; in fact they’re only trying to protect their grandson. That notice probably cost them maybe $5 in 1961 money.  Maybe it even cost them less than that.

And that’s why there’s no “long-form” birth certificate.  And that’s why Barack Obama is not a citizen of the United States.  But it doesn’t matter because not enough people really care about this, or because they’re afraid of being called irrational, when in fact to think he’s not a citizen is extremely rational.

 And that’s all here is to it.

It all seemed so possible just a few weeks ago, that the Governor’s race in New York would be a toss-up and the seemingly anointed and self-important Andrew Cuomo, son of liberal icon and former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, could actually lose to underdog Carl Paladino, the inexperienced but tough as nails businessman from depressed Buffalo.  Now, after some ostensibly inexcusable remarks in which Paladino tried to explain that children shouldn’t be taught in school that homosexuality is acceptable and that while he supports gay rights he opposes gay marriage, the previous close horse race for Governor seems to have changed into a potential romp in favor of the liberal Democrat.  With the coming fiscal collapse of the State of New York you’d think the voters would focus on the mismanagement and political corruption of their present leaders instead of excoriating Paladino for mentioning the issue of teaching about homosexuality in the public schools, to sometimes very young children.  How much more irrelevant to the coming collapse of the state government could Paladino’s clumsy remarks have been, but that’s not the case, in this case, right?

Lost in the new Paladino narrative that says he’s not only anti-human rights, that he may now even be anti-human, is the fact that Andrew Cuomo is one of the architects of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac financial debacle that nearly crashed the economy of the entire United States.  As Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under Bill Clinton, Andrew Cuomo wrote the policy that forced banks, under penalty of law, to make mortgage loans to people who could never afford to pay back their debt, making failure, foreclosure and financial collapse inevitable.  That’s a fact.

It was Andrew Cuomo who further wrote the policy that required banks to count welfare payments and unemployment benefits as income in determining mortgage eligibility.  It was under the leadership of Andrew Cuomo that HUD developed the infamous “no income mortgage” and the equally infamous “no documentation mortgage”.  That’s also a fact.

When at first banks started to balk, Andrew Cuomo enlisted Attorney General Janet Reno to threaten banks with licensing and merger rejections if they did not tow the HUD line of getting loans to those least able to repay their debt.  In fact, under the direction of Andrew Cuomo, banks were required to make certain that about 50% of the mortgages they wrote had to go to the so-called “disadvantaged.”  We all know how that worked out, and yet he’s the front runner.  And that’s a fact.

And what did Carl Paladino do to take the oxygen completely out of this race?  He essentially had the temerity to take exception to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruling that parents cannot take their kindergarteners out of Massachusetts public-schools classes that teach 5-year-olds that same-sex marriage is a good thing. He essentially questioned how a federal judge in San Francisco, in ruling that same-sex marriage is a constitutional right, could declare that children do not need both mothers and fathers and do just as well being raised by same-sex couples, even though there’s no evidence of that anywhere.  The fact that New York State presently pays more in their budget for Medicaid than both Texas and Florida combined should be good reason for voter anger, yet Paladino’s questioning teaching about homosexuality in public schools has his legitimacy being questioned, while no one’s asking Andrew Cuomo any questions.  Go figure!

Except for California, New York is the next closest to bankruptcy and financial ruin of any other state in the nation.  To resolve that potentially disastrous situation, New Yorkers can vote for Andrew Cuomo, with his record of failure, financial ruin and political correctness, or they can vote for Carl Paladino who has vowed to reduce spending and taxes in New York by 20% and has the business acumen to do just that.  Yet it’s Carl Paladino who’s considered the extremist.

At a debate earlier this week, the Democrat nominee for Senator in Delaware, Chris Coons, similarly labeled Republican Christine O’Donnell “an extremist”.  He even made a special attempt to bring up her high school “witchcraft activities” to further prove his point.  Interestingly, when Coons ran for County Executive four years ago he promised not to raise taxes, yet went ahead and raised them three times in those four years to pay for his increased spending that helped drive his county to near bankruptcy.  Yet it’s Christine O’Donnell who’s considered the extremist.

And then there’s the curious case of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the partner of Barack Obama, or maybe the puppet of Barack Obama, leading the charge to pass the $872 billion stimulus bill (increasing to over $1.2 trillion when interest is included) and the disastrous ObamaCare health reform legislation that 60% of the nation wants repealed. 

Isn’t it interesting that earlier this week Barack Obama himself stated that there’s no such thing as “shovel ready” projects and that the money planned for those activities, for which the stimulus law was specifically passed, was essentially spent on other stuff that did not stimulate the economy at all?  In fact, only 3% of the “stimulus money” actually went for “shovel ready” programs, the rest being spent on paying public employee union workers and shoring up entitlement spending.  But Harry Reid supported all of it.  In fact, Harry Reid was one of the architects of that trillion dollar fiasco that future generations will have to pay back long after most of us are gone.  Even now, Harry Reid supports Barack Obama’s call for another $200 billion stimulus on top of the $872 billion, this time to really really be spent on the infrastructure projects the earlier stimulus was supposed to cover that never did.  We’re being played for suckers and Harry Reid has no problem being Obama’s field general to make that happen.

Oh, and while our armed forces were engaged in actual combat with Islamic barbarians, putting someone else’s sons and daughters and husbands and wives and fathers and mothers in harm’s way, Harry Reid stated to the entire world that the war in Iraq was lost.  In his never ending effort to actually get American forces defeated so Democrats would have a political advantage in future elections, Harry Reid gave aid and comfort to our enemies, helping them recruit and continue to carry the battle further.  Yet it’s Sharron Angle who’s considered the extremist.

I could go on and on but the important point is to ask who exactly are the extremists in these and other races all around the country.  Let’s look at the record.

In the past 21 months a record number of housing foreclosures have occurred, with no decrease in sight.  There are now over 43 million American living in poverty, the most in U.S. history.  Over 50 million people now receive food stamps; that’s one of every 6 Americans.  Another 50 million Americans are presently on Medicaid and another 30 million will be added to that number once the full impact of ObamaCare begins in 2014.

Before Democrats took control of both houses of Congress in January 2007, the last Republican Congress budget had a $171 billion dollar deficit.  Once Democrats started writing and passing the budgets, in the last two years of the Bush administration, the deficits rose immediately to over $400 billion.  In the past 2 years, Obama’s budget deficits have been $1.4 trillion each with additional $1 trillion budget deficits expected in each of the next 10 years, and that’s assuming nothing additionally bad happens.  Because of these Democrat actions, the accumulated national debt will effectively triple by the year 2020 to over $20 trillion, and will exceed the debt of every president from George Washington to George W. Bush combined.

Now let’s be absolutely clear; it’s the Congress, not the President, who determines spending and passes budgets.  The President only approves or vetoes what the Congress passes.  The “monthly deficits” presently being passed under Democrats by this Congress, and approved by this present President, now exceeds the “yearly deficits” passed under Republicans.  And it’s the Republicans who are the extremists?

Unemployment officially stands at 9.6%, while the underemployment percentage is over 17% and in some states over 20%.  Those are depression-era numbers that will not improve; in fact those are numbers that cannot possibly improve because of the anti-business, anti-free market and anti-capitalist environment and policies the Democrats in Congress and the President have pursued since January 2009.  The raising of corporate taxes and personal income taxes, new regulations, uncertainty over health care provisions and premiums, cap & trade taxation, EPA regulations and rulings, bailouts of favored industries over the free market, and the continued and constant attack against banks, entrepreneurs, insurance companies, big corporations, wealthy Americans, and any small business “grossing” over $250,000 means no new job growth will created for the foreseeable future.  None.  Our present economy is our future economy, the economy your children and grandchildren will inherit.  And it’s the Republicans who are the extremists?

Democrats have closed the Gulf to offshore drilling, foreclosed on the licensing process for new nuclear power plants, and crippled the coal industry with regulations and threats of cap and trade, all in an effort to starve the American economy of the energy lifeblood it needs to compete economically with the rest of the world.  A nation without access to cheap and continual energy supplies is a nation committing national suicide. And it’s the Republicans who are the extremists?

And that’s just some of the stuff the Democrats, the President and their minions have done.  I’m not even talking about the Black Panther fiasco, Supreme Court Justices who believe the government can force you to eat three vegetables a day, or the racism epidemic at the Eric Holder Justice Department.

So here’s the real truth.  Carl Paladino is not an extremist.  Tea Party candidates like Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell, Rand Paul, Joe Miller and others are not extremist. Sarah Palin is not an extremist. Candidates that speak of the Constitution and American exceptionalism are not extremist.  People who believe in limited government, personal property, personal responsibility and understanding the government works for the people and not the other way around are not extremist.  Neighbors and friends who stand up and take to the streets and proclaim that enough is enough and demand accountability from our so-called leaders are not extremist.

But every Democrat is an extremist.  That’s a fact.

And that’s all there is to it.