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April 10, 2010

Polish leader, 95 others dead in Russia jet crash - Washington Times

Polish leader, 95 others dead in Russia jet crash - Washington Times

Take note:

Polish leadership is decimated in Russia attempting to land aircraft at Russian military airport. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will head the investigation.
"Russian and Polish officials said there were no survivors on the 26-year-old Tupolev, which was taking the president, his wife and staff to events marking the 70th anniversary of the massacre of thousands of Polish officers by Soviet secret police."

A breath of fresh Conservatism...

April 9, 2010

We've been slapped down by ObamaCare. Do we quit?

Here's an intimate moment shared by the Goomba News Network staff recently.

It may be time for Europe to put on their 'big boy' pants. Or, perhaps Israel will protect them.


If We Europeanize, Europe is in Trouble
Jonah Goldberg

By now you may have heard: America is on its way to becoming another European country.

Now, by that I do not mean that we're moving our tectonic plate off the coast of France or anything. But rather, that a century-long dream of American progressives is finally looking like it might become a reality. The recently passed health-care legislation is the cornerstone of the Europeanization of America. And to pay for it, the White House is now floating the idea of imposing a value-added tax (VAT) like they have throughout most of Europe.

In the egghead-o-sphere there's been an ongoing debate about whether America should become more like Europe. The battle lines are split along almost perfect left-right lines ideologically. Liberals like the European welfare states, unionized workforces (in and out of government), generous benefits, long vacations, etc. Conservatives like America's economic growth, its dynamism and innovation.

From what I can tell, everyone agrees that you can't have Europeanization without European-size governments. Hence, America's government outlays (pre-Obama) have tended to hover around 20 percent of GDP (the average of the last 50 years), while Europe's are often more than twice that. In France, government outlays are nearly 55 percent of GDP. In 2009, the bailout and Obama budget sent America's government outlay to 28 percent of GDP, but that should decline a bit over the next decade, unless Democrats have something else in mind.

To be fair, liberals insist conservatives are wrong to think that Europeanizing America will necessarily come at any significant cost. New York Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman says that in exchange for only a tiny bit less growth, Europeans buy a whole lot of security and comfort. Economists such as Stanford's Michael Boskin say Europeans have a standard of living about 30 percent lower than ours and are stagnating. Others note that the structural unemployment rate in Europe, particularly for young people (it's over 20 percent in many countries), is socially devastating.

Obviously, I'm in the conservative camp. But I think the debate misses something. We can't become Europe unless someone else is willing to become America.

Look at it this way. My 7 year-old daughter has a great lifestyle. She has all of her clothes and food bought for her. She goes on great vacations. She has plenty of leisure time. A day doesn't go by where I don't look at her and feel envious at how good she's got it compared to me. But here's the problem: If I decide to live like her, who's going to take my place?

Europe is a free-rider. It can only afford to be Europe because we can afford to be America.

Here comes V.A.T.

April 8, 2010

The longer this question is unanswered...


President Obama Needs to Prove
His Constitutional Eligibility
to Be Commander-in-Chief

by Terrence Lakin, MD

Last week, I entered Walter Reed Army Hospital to notify the Department of Defense that I would refuse to obey any orders from my commanding officers -- including President Obama -- until the president produces his original birth certificate. After nearly eighteen years of wearing the military uniform of the country I have proudly served, including overseas assignments in imminent danger/combat areas in Bosnia and Afghanistan, I felt compelled to take this step.

I made this decision from much deliberation, after lengthy consultations with many friends, family members, and colleagues, and I firmly believe that all servicemen and women, and the American public, have the right to know the truth about President Obama's constitutional eligibility to serve as Commander-in-Chief.


As military officers, we all take a solemn oath upon commissioning into the Uniformed Services. In this oath, we swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Upholding the law is an essential part of our role as citizens; in the military, we are the ultimate protectors of that law. The Constitution is our social compact, which safeguards all of us and ensures the "equal rights" that we are entitled to as American citizens.

Since Nuremberg, My Lai, and even Abu Ghraib more recently, the military has been taught the hard lessons of following illegal orders. Any reasonable person looking critically at the information and evidence currently in the public domain about Obama's birthplace would have questions about President Obama's claim to be a natural born citizen. I made the decision to disobey all military orders, including my deployment order to Afghanistan, in pursuit of the truth of whether President Obama can legally occupy the high post that he holds today and which entitles him to send servicemembers into harm's way.

The United States serves an example to the rest of the world of a stable, civilized, democratic government, where all men are equal under the law and the rule of law is cherished and obeyed. The U.S. military teaches and promotes the rule of law and civilian control of the military to many other nations and military forces around the world. Every soldier learns what constitutes a lawful order and is encouraged to stand up and object to unlawful orders. This is called the "duty to disobey."

(More...)

We can all learn from WWII history

Click on the image to open it...



Tinfoil hat tip to FreedomCrat

April 7, 2010

Send this to all your friends and enemies



The Rape of America


By Robin of Berkeley at American Thinker

Let's start by analyzing the mind of a rapist. His goal: Domination and absolute power, through any means necessary.

His motivation: punishing another, degrading her, feeling superior and God-like. Making her feel like an object, nothing, a no-thing.

What else propels him? Taking what he wants just because he wants it. Feeling the surge of power, the adrenaline rush, the thrill of stealing a piece of her.

Anything else? Feeding primitive, twisted impulses; expressing sadistic needs; the savage excitement of subjugating and controlling another.

Those most likely to rape? Someone who was sexually abused himself, an outsider, a person robbed of a normal childhood. A man who has carved an identity out of rage and envy and resentment. Someone who feels entitled to take whatever he wants.

What fosters rape? Parents missing in action. A culture that thumbs its nose at God.

And a society that minimizes crime, that even heralds certain criminals as heroes. (Some Black Panthers were rapists, yet they're revered as idols.) A culture where punishment is weak and politicians are moral cowards, fearful of the ACLU.

What else? A media that celebrates debauchery, that entertains through degrading and objectifying. Popular rap songs and cool hip-hop artists whose words slice and dice women. Films where anything goes, where hot lesbian sex scenes are as omnipresent as those boneheaded authority figures.

And the aftermath of rape? The destruction of something in the victim that will never return: a feeling of safety in the world, in her own body. The nightmare of being treated as an animal -- no, worse than this, since animals are now venerated. And from this nightmare she may never completely awaken.

This, in a nutshell, is how rape works. But words alone can never capture the enormity, the horror, the soul-crushing evil of rape. And not only females can be victims; men and little boys are violated, with women, on rare occasions, as perpetrators.

The word "rape" has an intriguing history. It originally denoted the violent seizure of property. I'm going to use the term in both the historic and modern sense to convey what is happening today.

This country is being raped.

It's no coincidence that the race for the presidency began with vile behavior against Hillary Clinton -- a high-tech wilding of sorts, with her body and sexuality defiled.

But the abuse of Clinton was a walk in the park compared to what has been done to Sarah Palin. Because she's a conservative, and an attractive, younger woman, the debasement has progressed at a fever pitch.

And just like in a gang rape, people who could have done something about it didn't. In fact, the liberal media and many Democrats have stood around watching, egging on the players.

Can someone explain to me how the Democrats' complicity is any different from what happened a few months ago at Richmond High School? There, a gang of boys raped and beat a girl as a crowd not only snickered, but filmed the assault.

We also have the economic rapes, the constant shrieks of "Gimme, gimme." Give me what you have because I want it. Whether it's the iPod torn from your ear, or a big chunk of your income, or your standard of living, no matter. I want it, I demand it, give it to me.

Or the intrusions into our very bodies by ObamaCare's Biggest of Big Brothers. Our medical records, our personal information, our physician/patient relationship, our DNA -- they want it, so they will take it from us.

And now that the Left has finally appropriated our health care and our student loans, our banks and newspapers and automobile companies, are they happy? Satisfied? Grateful, for God's sake?

No, the mocking continues, the outright threats and the violence escalate. Suddenly conservatives are not simply opponents exercising First Amendment rights. We're delusional, crazy, violent, not quite human.

This is what happens when miscreants get away with immoral behavior. In the criminal arena, when the bad guys are given a wink-wink, or a "boys will be boys," or, "He's a victim of white privilege," the perp becomes more emboldened. And he's even more contemptuous of a culture that lets him get away with, quite literally at times, murder.

Still not convinced that what's going on is a Rape of America?

What about the queering of children, our School Czar having a history of teaching kids about fisting and water sports? Or schoolchildren being subjected to graphic talks by transsexuals or transvestites or promoters of the sexuality du jour?

What about forcing their way into young, impressionable minds, teaching them to hate? Like Palestinian children programmed to despise Israelis, our kids also learn animosity -- but toward America.

Still not sure that the sexualization of children, the wilding of women, the looting of the economy, and the intrusions into our bodies constitute the Rape of America?

I have one final piece of evidence. A majority of citizens are shouting "No," from the rooftops. No! to ObamaCare. No! to socialism. No! to trashing the Constitution.

And yet, to Obama and the Left, the assertion of "No" does not matter. Smug and entitled, drunk with power and giddy when they see our fear, they take what they want anyway.

A frequent AT contributor, Robin is a recovering liberal and a psychotherapist in Berkeley.

April 6, 2010

A Stern Message from America's Hat












What Have you Done?

An open letter to Americans:

As a Canadian, I’ve been observing for some time now, with great concern and even greater disbelief, the political farce enacted day after day in your country. And I keep asking, what have you done? For it seems to me, and to many others as well, that you have embarked upon a truly destructive course that may eventually bring the United States to the brink of ruination.

What have you done? You have elected a president on the strength of an ellipsis, neglecting to fill in the three dots trailing after his every echoing jingle—“Yes we can”…what? You have credited a nimble spinner of tales, a pretty fellow with no significant experience of the real world of risk, hard work and the hazards of survival, a thug with a beguiling smile. You have elevated to the highest office in the land a man without discernible qualifications who is plunging the nation into unredeemable debt for generations to come. You have installed possibly the most consummate liar in POTUS history, who breaks campaign promises as if he were cracking eggs for the skillet and changes his mind almost daily like a weathervane on steroids. You have put your trust in an intellectual lightweight and geopolitical bungler who makes Jimmy Carter look like a paragon of acute intelligence, moral substance and rare diplomatic foresight.

What have you done? You have bought into a fraudulent narrative. You have made a Faustian bargain with a suave Mephistophelian who offers hope and change but delivers instead inevitable suffering and a violated people. As in all such compacts, the price for a brief state of euphoria is subsequent prolonged distress. You have given carte blanche to a man with a personal dossier blacked out in many places like a letter from the front, so as not, apparently, to divulge sensitive information. You have raised among you a man whose friends and influences would surely have precluded him from meriting your confidence had you paid attention to plain facts rather than to quasi-mystical incantations. You have anointed a man with a sinister agenda. You have voted for your historical nemesis who with his every move and decision renders you increasingly insecure in a violent and unforgiving world.

If you need a slogan to trigger a reaction, it should not be “Yes we can”—whatever that might conceivably have meant—but “What have we done?”—whose implications should now be obvious. I pray it is not too late to reverse the trajectory you have unthinkingly plotted for yourselves. It may be a shame to let a serious crisis go to waste, as your president’s intimate adviser cynically put it, but it would be a much greater shame to let a crisis reach the point of no return. And there is little doubt that you are now facing an impending crisis of the first magnitude, both domestically and globally.

Let us count the ways.

The response to a looming international menace is paralysis, appeasement and misconstrual—to the dire effects of which we are all, not only Americans, susceptible. American troops are targeted on the battlefield by the interventions of rogue regimes, such as Syria and Iran, which the present administration refuses to condemn and, indeed, with which it is seeking closer engagement. Defense capability is progressively truncated. Officials sworn to defend the nation to the best of their ability are saddled with the fear of prosecution, discouraging their peers and successors from properly doing their job. Detained terrorists are repatriated to their fields of operation, many taking up once again the jihadist activities for which they were originally interned. Acts of military aggression are adjudicated as civil offenses, awarding terrorists the same constitutional rights as ordinary Americans. Solemn alliances are flouted with whimsical impunity and typical hissy fits while manifest tyrants are treated with kid gloves and gestures of obeisance. UN kleptocrats and avowed enemies are laureled with meretricious authority. This is what your president’s current foreign policy amounts to, abetted by a carefully selected and pliable cadre of career puppets without character or backbone.

Meanwhile, legitimate dissent is denounced as a form of subversion. The Constitution is euphemistically interpreted as a “living document,” that is, as subject to tampering, which is nothing less than an assault upon the foundational heritage of the Republic. Individual liberties are being relentlessly eroded and private behavior regulated by an expanding government bureaucracy. The prospect of enfranchising up to eleven million illegal immigrants presages an American ochlocracy, that is, government by the masses rather than the laws—the very antithesis of Republican rule.

Unelected officials, appointed by the president and known as “czars,” wield disproportionate power as they carry out their master’s directives. Unsustainable entitlement programs impinge dramatically upon the future. Income redistribution schemes disincentivize industrial and commercial productivity, creating a shrinking GDP and budgetary shortfall. Discredited hypotheses such as anthropogenic “climate change” are allowed to drive economic policy, leading to even further instability. Major tax hikes are on the horizon, complemented by the shell game of disappearing numbers, especially in regard to the so-called healthcare “reform,” with revenue calculated over a longer period than expenditures. New debt is piled on old debt like Pelion on Ossa. Fiscal blood drains from the nation’s arteries. These and more are the daylight consequences of your electoral delirium.

Who am I to address the citizens of another country? A loyal friend, and a citizen of a nation whose fate is inextricably bound up with yours. My interests are also at stake. That is why I am glad to note that many people are now awakening to the nature and extent of their folly, but far too many still malinger in the grip of a profound narcosis. To these latter, I would say that, in your desire for novelty, your pampered sense of frivolous grievance and your hypnotic suggestibility, you have chosen to cohabit with an incubus. You have shown a readiness to be seduced not by a lover of freedom but by a votary of his own malign gods. Despite the recent surfeit of Hollywood films, TV programs and neo-gothic novels fondly rehabilitating the undead, deep down you must know there is no such thing as a good vampire.

And so, in conclusion, I ask once again. What have you done?

iPad vs. oPad

I love this kid. He gives me real hope for change.



Hat tip to RightKlik (Yet another American Patriot)

April 5, 2010

Is there something about Lefties??





And, of course...

Offered without comment...


Homes Not Jails is doing a Rally, March, and Building Takeover on Easter Sunday, April 4th @ Noon - 24th Street & Mission.

Free food from East Bay Food Not Bombs. Speakers & Music. Housing should not sit vacant when people are living on the streets. People should not not be evicted for profit. People's rights should come before property rights. Come out and let your voice be heard!