Joel's Rant

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.

It’s now official.  The people and the individual states of the United States, on one side, are now locked in a death roll with the federal government, on the other side.  It’s us versus them.  It’s good versus evil.  It’s the Founders versus the Marxists and their anti-American accomplices.  Don’t believe me?  How do you explain what’s been happening to our country over the past 18 months?

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is forcing Arizona to keep its border with Mexico open to illegal aliens despite the wishes of the American citizens who live there.  This federal government affront to the Constitution is clearly transparent when you consider that the Obama regime would never be taking this “open border” action if it was understood that illegal alien Hispanics, given the opportunity, would almost certainly vote for Republicans instead of Democrats.  You get that, right?  Otherwise, Obama’s rouge government would have the border closed in 20 minutes.  Turning the sovereignty of our country into a mere political calculation is the height of pure evil and is in absolute opposition to his oath of office to “….preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”  Clearly this government respects the “rights” and “needs” of non-citizens, who given the chance will help the current group of Obama’s minions retain power, over the rights and needs of the real American citizens.  Obama’s ends clearly justify his means, no?

How about the Obama regime closing off-shore drilling for some unspecified period of time?  While it seemed the gulf leak would be the most unprecedented eco-disaster of all time, the results so far appears not to be the case at all.  It’s essentially not even in the news anymore.  In fact, even the New York Times is reporting that while sightings of tar balls and emulsified oil can be seen here and there (those are their words), the immense patches of surface oil that covered thousands of square miles of the gulf after the April 20^th oil rig explosion are largely gone.  It seems the amount of oil dispersed, compared against the size and water volume of the gulf, is much like spilling a 12 ounce can of soda into the Superdome filled to the roof with water.  Even the marshes and wetlands are already recovering from the “disaster” and seafood has been declared safe to eat.

Robust off-shore drilling not only continues everywhere else in the world but the bidding for dormant gulf drill rigs is already underway.  It’s estimated that over 100,000 gulf state jobs will be lost, most forever, crippling local economies and spreading financial misery to more millions of Americans.  The Governor of Louisiana is now forced to fight the federal government moratorium in court again, much like what’s happening in Arizona, for the right to continue drilling.  Is it possible the Obama regime, and his rogue government, is actually attempting to starve the energy demands of the country and/or purposely creating victims of former oil industry workers and their families?  Do you still think this ban on continued drilling is a mere “safety issue?”  What do you suppose would have been the clean-up response of the Obama Interior Department had the oil leak been off the shores of blue states like Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland instead of red states like Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama?  What does common sense and your life experiences tell you?  And there’s more.

Why have the governors of 18 states demanded EPA rules favoring climate change legislation be rescinded?  Even more interesting is why the Troubled Asset Relief Program Special Inspector General (IG), Neal M. Barofsky, recently testified that decisions on which car dealerships to close as part of the auto industry bailout, closures the Obama administration forced on General Motors and Chrysler , were based in part on race and gender.  In effect, over 2000 dealerships were strong-armed into closing simply because they were not minority or woman owned.  Because of that, an estimated 100,000 people lost their jobs during a recession.  And the benefit to the car companies for this arbitrary Obama regime action was exactly zero, none.  In fact, the IG report shows the action to have been detrimental to the health of both car companies.  In response to the IG report, Obama’s “auto team czar” Ron Bloom admitted that the dealerships could have been kept open, saving those jobs, “but that doing so would have been inconsistent with the President’s mandate for “shared sacrifice.”  How completely loathsome is that?

Why did the DOJ let the New Black Panthers off the hook for obvious and malicious voter intimidation during the last presidential election with absolutely no apparent reason?

Why has the DOJ proffered rules and policies favoring the “rights” of terrorists while attacking CIA intelligence officers attempting to get information from them that would protect the nation from assault?

Why has the DOJ made it the policy of the federal government to see the mastermind of 9/11, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, tried for crimes in New York City, yards from ground zero, thereby allowing him the largest stage in the world from which to spin his tales of the need to destroy America? 

Why did the Obama regime agree to let the Lockerbie bomber go free?  Yes, they provided a copy of the letter they initially sent to Scottish officials making it appear, with a wink and a nod, that they opposed the release of the bomber, but Obama won’t provide copies of the two other missives they shared with Scottish officials before the bomber’s release on the grounds that any additional information about the matter being made public could make future relations with foreign governments more difficult.  How convenient.  So there’s more to the story but the Obama State Department won’t make public additional available information. Hmm……makes you wonder, no?  Whose side is Obama on, anyway?   

He and his rogue government certainly have a soft spot for killers, thugs, dictators and terrorists, and that’s no joke.  He really does. It seems he’d be much more comfortable having dinner with Hugo Chavez and the Castro brothers than with you and our family.

Why was Elena Kagan, of all people, put on the Supreme Court?  Is it possible, or is it more likely, that she’s just a political operative of Barack Obama, whom she called one of her personal heroes?  Here’s a person with no experience as a judge, and virtually no experience as a litigator in court, and no experience outside the cloistered halls of academia, stating quite frankly and clearly that the government of the United States is not limited in any way from doing virtually anything it wants to do to the people of this country, a concept totally anathema to the Constitution and the Framers and Founders of this country.  Yet she can be on the court for another 20, 30 or 40 years or more, plying that kind of anti-American logic and helping transform America into something quite alien, and quite Marxist, from the country required by our founding governing documents.  And she’s just the newest of three others on the court who think like that.  One more and America will be lost forever.  Think about what kind of country your children and grandchildren will live in if Obama’s ever able to replace one of the conservative judges.

And what about news last week that the Congress finally passed, with virtually no Republican support, the unfunded extension of unemployment benefits which will require borrowing from China over $36 billion.  But that’s not all.  Congress also passed this week, also with virtually no Republican support, an unfunded bill to provide another $26 billion so that teachers won’t be laid off.  That’s another $62 billion borrowed dollars to accomplish some friendly sounding priorities, but how friendly are they really?  It’s amazing how in just about 18 months $62 billion went from being considered real money to now it’s just chump change.  That’s a real problem.

How many weeks should someone expect to receive unemployment benefits?  At what point do unemployment benefits become welfare payments?  How about 99 weeks?  How about 126 weeks?  We’re there now.  Let’s be honest for a moment.  How many people look seriously for a job until just before unemployment benefits are scheduled to run out?  Many of us know people that could be working but are instead waiting for the “right” position to become available or are taking a “vacation” as long as the government is willing to pay for it.  Let’s get real.

How about those poor teachers that will be laid off without additional “emergency” funding?  And what will happen to the poor children without those poor teachers?  What about the fact that, according to the Cato Institute, public school employment nationwide has risen 10 times faster since 1970 than student enrollment?  That’s 1000%, for crying out loud!   Is it possible that teacher unions have held taxpayers hostage over the years, and that teacher salaries, which are only for 10 months of work,  are way out of proportion to what the market place should be paying, and that a huge number of administrative personnel should be removed, and that teachers are completely protected from the perils of recession when private sector jobs are not, and on and on?  But the Marxist government is beholden to teachers and other public employee unions in the way described in detail by the socialists of the past, including Karl Marx himself.  It’s part of his manifesto.  Instead of continuing to fund even higher the public education monstrosity of ineptness, there may not be another sector in the American economy more in need of reducing spending than public education.  But is anyone in our rogue government responsible enough to say that?

And then there’s the curious case of Dr. Donald Berwick.  Here’s a Marxist, apparently pretty good as a medical doctor, but who has stated convincingly that he supports a single payer plan for the country, marvels at the British health care model despite its failure, and supports emphatically the rationing of health care in America, yet gets to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) without a congressional hearing.  Barack Obama provided him with a “recess appointment”, an action permitted by the Constitution ostensibly for when, particularly in the old days when travel was difficult and time consuming, Congress is in a long term recess.  In this case Congress was in recess for only 2 weeks and in previous such appointments Congressional hearings had already taken place, like when Ambassador John Bolton was provided a recess appointment by George W. Bush.  The importance of hearings, of course, is so Congress can complete their constitutional responsibility to ask questions and make decisions about the people tasked with running important government business.  In this case no questions were asked of this guy, who is tasked with managing a federal agency with a budget over $600 billion, more than even the Department of Defense, and has responsibility for crafting the regulations required by ObamaCare.  You’d think people would want to know more about this guy, no?

Why then would the Obama regime want to keep Berwick from being grilled by Congress?  The answer, of course, is because he’s a rank political operative of Barack Obama, much like Elena Kagan and Sonya Sotomayor before her, and will do whatever is asked of him by Barack Obama.  Case closed.  The Constitution once again betrayed.

The theme of the Constitution is that the interest of the citizens must be paramount over the interests of the government.  The complete reversal of that theme, coupled by the fact that the Constitution is being willfully misinterpreted by the President, Congress and the Supreme Court, proves that there is no end to the destruction of our country from an enemy within.

And that’s all there is to it.

It was reported earlier this week that former Bush administration Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez was cleared by the Department of Justice of any wrongdoing related to his firing of 9 U.S. Attorney’s.  If you recall, the Democrats in the House and Senate, along with their compadres in the state-run media, created this controversy, politically damaging George W. Bush (GWB) and leading Gonzalez to subsequently resign his cabinet position. 

Besides the fact that GWB had every right, as the President, to fire these 9 people because they were political appointees of the Executive Branch, and therefore served at his pleasure, what’s interesting here is that the entire scandal was completely made up.  It was a lie. 

Just like the lie that GWB usurped constitutional authority by not getting search warrants before wiretapping suspected terrorists.  That lie was quietly put to rest by the Department of Justice, right after Barack Obama was sworn into office.  How convenient.  It was a very quiet announcement, but a lie nonetheless.

I remember another old lie, like the Valerie Plame case, in which a supposed CIA operative had been “outted” by GWB or Dick Cheney or someone in his inner circle.  In fact, Plame was not a foreign operative and was not protected by the laws making leaking her identity a crime.  In fact the leaker was Richard Armitage, Deputy Undersecretary State and a well known opposer of GWB’s foreign policy, and he was protected from being recognized as the leaker of Plame’s name by no less the weasel than Colin Powell.  Again, what’s interesting here is that the entire scandal was completely made up.  It was a lie.

Let’s fast forward to the present.

Last week it was reported that Federal money could be used to fund abortions.  That should come as a surprise since, unless you were living in a tunnel during the recent ObamaCare fiasco, you’ll recall Democrat Congressman Bart Stupak and his merry men were planning to vote against the bill unless federal funding of abortions was specifically removed from the bill.  To the health care reformers rescue came Barack Obama to sign an executive order forbidding such funding.  The fact that Obama’s action carried virtually no weight, and could be overturned by Congressional action, did not stop Stupak from caving.  The bill was passed; Obama signed it into law, and now guess what?  The funding is being provided anyway.  It was a lie.

In fact, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Maryland have all released details of their high-risk insurance pool, known as the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP).  And just in case you haven’t yet guessed, these federally-funded PCIP’s were all found to cover abortions. 

Under Obama’s health care plan, each state will have its own PCIP to give temporary health coverage to those who can’t presently get health insurance because of a pre-existing condition.  The states can either create their own PCIP or allow the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to run their program directly.  The Secretary of DHHS, Kathleen Sebelius, has indicated that each state’s program will be “funded entirely by the federal government.”  $5 Billion is marked for this purpose.

So ObamaCare was passed because Democrats promised to reject federal funds to be used to pay for abortions, and then like magic, abortions will be funded up to 100% anyway. 

Now this is critically important so pay attention, even if you’re a liberal or believe in a woman’s so-called “right to choose” and all that.  It doesn’t matter a damn if you believe in federally funded abortions or not.  What’s important is that the government purposely and proactively lied.   Their entire aforementioned “rejection” of using federal funds to pay for abortions was a ruse, intended to make you think one way when in fact they planned to do exactly the opposite.  They pulled the old switcheroo, the old bait and switch, the old up yours with a hot poker and who cares.

Let me know when you become fed up with being played for a sucker and not a very smart one either.

This past week the Obama regime headed for court to defend its ObamaCare law, passed just a few months ago.  In the debate before the bill was passed Barack Obama claimed the law would require everyone to buy health insurance.  In an unforgettable televised discussion with ABCNews and George Stephanopoulos, on September 20, 2009, Barack Obama stated emphatically that the “universal mandate” was not a tax, and in fact was an insurance premium guaranteeing that those without insurance would not have to rely on government to pay their health care bills.  Barack Obama stated vigorously, and just as forcefully, that no one earning over $250,000 a year would see their tax bill go up by so much as a dime.  His words, not mine.

Incredibly, in the brief filed with the court, the Obama regime specifically referred to the mandate that every American buy health insurance as, in fact, a tax.  They actually call it a tax.  They knew all along this law could not stand constitutional muster by forcing people to buy a consumer product from a third party that they otherwise would not want to do business with.  They used to same exact argument FDR used to get the Social Security Act (SSA) through the Supreme Court in 1937.  FDR also claimed, in the debate leading up to the SSA vote, that what people would be forced to buy was insurance, but in their court defense called it a tax, the “FICA tax”. 

The Obama regime knew all along this universal mandate would have to be called a tax, and in fact is a tax.  But they dared not say so because otherwise it would have been rejected even by those Democrat fools in Congress that voted for it.  It was all a ruse.  It was deceitful.  It was duplicitous.  It was a lie. 

Also this week the Obama regime went to court to stop the Arizona immigration law from going into effect on July 29^th as scheduled.  All along, for these many months, Barack Obama and his minions have been wailing against the law because it amounted to racial profiling, even though a simple reading of the 17-page law completely refutes that dastardly contention.  Astoundingly, in the brief filed with the court, the Obama regime did not mention racial profiling at all.  Instead Obama’s argument is that the Arizona law, they now claim, only supersedes federal law, which of course it does not. 

Wasn’t Obama’s demagogueing really meant only to stir up the racial passions of the left and Hispanics in particular?  Do you suppose Barack Obama and his allies would have taken up the mantle of racial profiling if Hispanics, stealing into the country, were likely to become Republican voters? 

So what was all that instigating stuff about “racial profiling” that filled up the 24/7 news cycle 24/7?  It was bullcrap.  It was a lie.

And what about the NAACP calling the Tea Party a racist organization?  No proof, no nothing, all lies.

And what about the Obama regime and their state-run media allies calling Fox News racist for airing the edited video of Shirley Sherrod?  In fact, the Department of Agriculture, and with the approval of the White House, had already fired Shirley even before the first mention of her name appeared in any show on the entire Fox News Channel.  Did you know that? 

Likewise, she was also denounced by the NAACP, who had the entire unedited tape in their possession all along since her speech was before the Georgia chapter of the NAACP.  But that didn’t stop the NAACP, another political arm of the Democrat Party, from calling Fox News racist.  It’s all a lie.

Another political arm of the Obama regime, MSNBC, filed a report last year about health care protesters showing up at Tea Party protests armed. I hear this all the time from friends of mine from the political left and is the source of a lot of this “tea partiers are racist” stuff.  In the report, MSNBC showed a man carrying an assault rifle and said “there are questions about whether this has racial overtones….white people showing up with guns.”  Of course, as it turned out, the guy carrying the gun was black. But you never would have known because MSNBC strategically edited the tape, so the race of the armed man wasn’t revealed. You just assumed he was white.  It was all a lie.
It’s always lies.

Obama blaming Republicans for stone-walling the extension of unemployment benefits to 126 weeks (that’s pushing 3 years my friends) and for being cold and cruel, yet all Republicans wanted was for the extension to be paid for.  Did you know the $862 Billion stimulus still has $400 Billion unused and the extension could have been paid out of that without having to borrow additional money from the Chinese to pay unemployment benefits?  And if the stimulus was really working, why would unemployment benefits have to be extended to almost 3 years?  It’s all a lie.

Obama declaring 3 million jobs created or saved, yet not being able to provide any data, at any time, under any circumstances that would back up that nonsensical claim?  It’s all a lie.

Black Congressmen claiming they were spat on, and had racial epithets shouted at them, at the April 15^th Tea Party protest on Washington.  Never has anyone provided any evidence that ever happened.  With every camera, seemingly in the entire world, focused on the black congressmen’s walk through the crowd, has any image shown any of the claims to have happened?  There is even a $100,000 standing reward for anyone who can produce any evidence anything untoward happened.  Yet nothing.  No evidence.  None.  Guess what?  It was all a lie, a lie meant to denigrate and cast aspersions on the peaceful protestors.  It doesn’t get much more vile and loathsome than that.

It’s as if our country is being run by the Mafia, except even Tony Soprano went on vacation once in a while and let all his victims breathe for at least a while.  This is worse, much worse.
So here’s a question.  How can a civil society continue to exist if the government and its leaders, and the media that support them, lie to the people regularly and with pathological ease?  The answer is it can’t.  We’re headed for disaster.

 And that’s all there is to it.

Unless you’ve been living on another planet you know the case of Congressman Joe Barton (R, TX) and how he supposedly is an apologist for BP and how he’s being portrayed, along with every other politician in the Republican Party, as caring only about BP and its ability to function as a corporation and to hell with the people in the Gulf whose lives can very well be ruined by this accident.

By now everyone has heard the audio or seen the video of Joe Barton saying this:

“Now I’m going to speak totally for myself. I’m not speaking for the Republican Party, I’m not speaking for anyone in the House of Representatives but myself – I’m ashamed at what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it is a tragedy in the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown – in this case a $20 billion shakedown. The attorney general of the United States, who is legitimately conducting a criminal investigation and has every right to do so to protect the interests of the American people, participated in what amounts to a $20 billion slush fund. That’s unprecedented in our nation’s history, has no legal standing and which sets, I think, a terrible precedent for the future”.

“There is no question that BP owns this lease. There is no question that BP made decisions that objective people think compromised safety. There is no question that BP is liable for the damages. But we have a due process system where we go through hearings, and in some cases court cases and litigation and determine what those damages are and when those damages should be paid. So, I’m only speaking for myself – I’m not speaking for anybody else – but I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or corporation that does something that is legitimately wrong, is subject to some sort of political pressure that is again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown. So I apologize.”

What most people did not hear, and what Democrats and the state-run mainstream media are loath to discuss or report is what was deleted from Joe Barton’s full comment, what was in between the 2 paragraphs above:

“If I called you into my office, and I the subcommittee chairman, Mr. Stupak, with me, who was legitimately conducting an oversight investigation on your company and said if you put so many millions of dollars in a project in my congressional district, I could go to jail, and should go to jail.”

What Joe Barton was saying, and what is true and correct, is that what the Obama regime did to BP is seriously against the law.  If the Congressman did it, it would be a crime punishable with jail time.  When the President does the same thing, the media calls it a sweet victory for the people.  How can that be?  Something is very wrong, no?

And here is the problem, a problem which too many people are more than willing to ignore.  We are a nation of laws.  We are a nation of rules and due process.  We have a Constitution that sets out the blueprint of how the government is supposed to operate, what they are allowed to do and under what circumstances they are allowed to do it. 

What Obama and his regime are doing here is once again ignoring the Constitution, and because of the way they and their minions in the media are spinning it, most Americans are delighted that the President is again ignoring the Constitution. 

 Joe Barton is very specific in saying that in cases of corporate or individual malfeasance actions are necessarily brought against the wrongdoers but, and here is the really important part, those actions take place in court, or in some cases in congressional hearings, and there is litigation, and lawsuits, and responsibility is categorized and those responsible are called to account in a public forum.  And in the case where the wrongdoer is required to put money in an escrow the law demands who the money is spent on, whom and under what circumstances the money is spent, and that those believing they have been unfairly treated are provided recourse and on and on. 

And what if the money ends up being spent incorrectly, or used by politicians to promote their own nefarious agendas, the American people have redress for that as well.  That’s what would be spelled out in court or after a judicial judgment, not with some blatant shakedown behind closed doors, where absolutely no details are known.

And that’s what Joe Barton was saying.  That’s why what the President is doing is wrong and even worse, it’s setting a precedent that future presidents can ignore the laws of the land and set terms on their own, with no oversight, or hearings, or discussion and without any accountability except for his own and on his own terms.  And that, my friends, is tyranny.

And there’s more and much worse and here it is.  Where does the President get the power to “shakedown” BP?  Where in the Constitution is the President allowed to call BP to the Oval Office and “negotiate” with them, with some unknown and non-public pressure, and get them to “agree” to terms that no one knows what they are, if they’re even legal, and to whom and under what conditions money will be paid.  As it happens, no one knows what the deal with BP includes and the Obama regime will essentially be figuring it all out as they move forward.  Why am I not surprised?

And no one will ask the President for accountability.  Actually, if you have the temerity to even ask a question, the state-run mainstream media and the Democrats and Marxists will call you a hatemonger, or a racist, or a homophobe or whatever.  The state-run mainstream media definitely won’t ask any questions.  The Congress won’t ask, and in fact they have forfeited their constitutional duty to set these terms themselves.  They have instead abrogated their responsibility entirely.  And that, my friends, is tyranny.

Where does the President get the power and authority to take $20 Billion from a private corporation and put one of his own henchmen in charge of doing whatever he wants with it?  Who’s Ken Feinberg and where does he get the power and authority to pay out money to whomever and under what conditions?  He’s unelected and unaccountable yet he’s the one that will set all the rules and cut all the deals.  Why is he judge, jury and executioner all in one? 

There is already talk that Feinberg will allow seafood restaurants in Boston to sue BP because their actions have led to higher seafood prices.  There’s also talk that Feinberg will allow New York State employee pension fund to sue BP because this accident has caused BP’s stock share price to go down.  That kind of acceptance of collateral damage, and we ain’t seen nothin’ yet, my friends, is tyranny.

And what if someone has a complaint, where do they go, who do they talk to?  Does some fisherman have to call Ken Feinberg personally?  No one knows.

And here’s the amazing part that too many people are not thinking about.  The government has squandered every trust fund, every escrow account, every lock box in history, and they have bankrupted every Agency in existence.  Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are already over $60 Trillion in the red, and all the unfunded liabilities the government has amassed through mismanagement and fraud already total over $100 Trillion.  Those are Trillions with a “T”.  And yet too many people have no problem turning all that $20 Billion over to the same government to do with what they like and there are completely no rules to guide them or restrict them.  Does this seem like a nightmare to you, because it should?

And it always comes down to where does the government, the President, get this authority?  It is not in the Constitution.  So where is it?  And why don’t enough people care about that?  What about the 40% of BP’s shareholders who are American citizens and who count on BP dividends for their retirement income or pension income?  Did the President consider them before he decided to shakedown BP for the political grandstanding it provided?  Not likely.

Look how, just last year, the Obama regime shook down the Chrysler secured bond holders and made them settle for pennies on the dollar when he undertook similarly unconstitutional action and nationalized that company.  I don’t know how many laws and contracts were arbitrarily broken by Obama, contracts previously protected by the Constitution, but he didn’t really care as long as his union supporters got control of the company.  That precedent is one of the reasons private investors are not running back into the free market, because Obama has unintentionally set new standards which are that the government can pretty much do whatever it wants at any time, including stealing money from their rightful owners.  Just ask those Chrysler bondholders.  How will other international and foreign investors react to BP’s treatment by the American President?  Will they continue to invest in America; will they continue to create American jobs?  Try and guess.

Or what about the health reform bill for which there is no basis in the Constitution.   Where in the Constitution does it provide for the government to order people to buy a commercial product, with their own money, from some third party that they don’t know and don’t want to know?  What precedent does that set for the future, for your children’s future?

When is the stealing going to stop?  When is the truth going to finally prevail?  When will the tyranny cease?

Earlier this year the Supreme Court struck down the government’s case that private corporations could not support their favorite candidates.  Remember the firestorm and how the Democrats yelled and screamed about the unfairness of that “Citizen’s United” case and even lied to the public about the court allowing foreign companies to support candidates?

Of course the court did nothing at all about foreign companies, as they left that part of the law in place.  It’s still unlawful for a foreign company to provide financial support to an American candidate.  That’s what the video of Samuel Alito, at the State of the Union address, mouthing the words “not true” was all about.  So it’s still unlawful.

But that hasn’t stopped Barack Obama from taking over $1 million in campaign donations from BP, a foreign company, a company that wanted to buy support and protection from the Obama regime.  What Obama and his regime have done by taking that money from foreign owned BP is against the law.  Will he return that money to BP?  Not on your life.

Conservatives know rape when they see it, and they don’t like it.

And that’s all there is to it.