Right Mind

10 Years Ago Today: y2k

10 years ago today, I was the y2k coordinator for the navy in Monterey, California.

Everyone was talking like the apocalypse was coming. We needed to stock up on food and water because the world was going to melt down when midnight rolled around.

Only the government could save us from being thrown back into the Stone Age.

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

—H.L. Mencken

"You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before."

—Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s Chief of Staff

There have been other “disasters that only the government could save us from” (of course by always removing more liberty from her citizens). Here are the ones that come to mind immediately, and in no particular order.

• y2k
• The coming Ice Age (70’s)
• Global Warming (00’s)
• Avian Flu
• Swine Flu
• Sars virus
• West Nile virus
• Mad Cow Disease
• The Red Scare
• Nuclear Winter
• 70s Energy Crisis
• Aids Epidemic,
• Killer Bees
• Ozone Hole

Did I miss any?

Ron Paul, Protectionism, and Liberty

My friend, David Bahnsen, took me to task for my previous post: Ron Paul blames U.S. for violence: Congressman: 'They're terrorists because we're occupiers'. I wrote:

There’s a false assumption that Ron Paul is an isolationist because he is supports a non-interventionist military and non-interventionist economic policy. But the other half of being an isolationist is to support economic protectionism (tariffs, trade restrictions, etc). And Ron Paul and every libertarian I know of are 100% against the latter.

David replied:

Every Libertarian repudiates protectionism? Since when? Vast majority are rank NAFTA haters and trade blamers. Ron Paul too.

I disagree with David here. Ron Paul wrote an article Protectionism vs. Liberty where he took to task the Bush Administration’s 30% tariff on steel imports.

I am disheartened by the administration’s recent decision to impose a 30 percent tariff on steel imports. This measure will hurt far more Americans than it will help, and it takes a step backwards toward the protectionist thinking that dominated Washington in decades past. Make no mistake about it, these tariffs represent naked protectionism at its worst, a blatant disregard of any remaining free-market principles to gain the short-term favor of certain special interests. These steel tariffs also make it quite clear that the rhetoric about free trade in Washington is abandoned and replaced with talk of "fair trade" when special interests make demands. What most Washington politicians really believe in is government-managed trade, not free trade. True free trade, by definition, takes place only in the absence of government interference of any kind, including tariffs. Government-managed trade means government, rather than competence in the marketplace, determines what industries and companies succeed or fail.

We’ve all heard about how these tariffs are needed to protect the jobs of American steelworkers, but we never hear about the jobs that will be lost or never created when the cost of steel rises 30 percent. We forget that tariffs are taxes, and that imposing tariffs means raising taxes. Why is the administration raising taxes on American steel consumers? Apparently no one in the administration has read Henry Hazlitt’s classic book, Economics in one Lesson. Professor Hazlitt’s fundamental lesson was simple: We must examine economic policy by considering the long-term effects of any proposal on all groups. The administration instead chose to focus only on the immediate effects of steel tariffs on one group, the domestic steel industry. In doing so, it chose to ignore basic economics for the sake of political expediency. Now I grant you that this is hardly anything new in this town, but it’s important that we see these tariffs as the political favors that they are. This has nothing to do with fairness. The free market is fair; it alone justly rewards the worthiest competitors. Tariffs reward the strongest Washington lobbies.

On a personal note, I cut my economic eye teeth (so to speak) in college using Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in one Lesson. My economics prof was a true blue libertarian, and we used Hazlitt’s book for the entire semester of microeconomics. After 35+ years of being a libertarian, I have a pretty good idea of what libertarians believe about tariffs and free trade.

But back to David’s question about NAFTA. Ron Paul said:

NAFTA has nothing to do for free trade. It’s a pretense to lower tariffs, but it’s a reason to go talk to the WTO to raise tariffs. We need free trade. That’s very, very important. But you don’t get that by world government.

Ron Paul co-sponsored blocking NAFTA Superhighway & North American Union. Here’s the text of the Resolution against the NAFTA Superhighway (H.CON.RES.40) 2007-HCR40 on Jan 22, 2007

This resolution urges disengaging from the NAFTA Superhighway System and the North American because these proposals threaten U.S. sovereignty:

• Whereas US trade deficits with Mexico and Canada have significantly increased since the implementation of NAFTA;
• Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System from the west coast of Mexico through the US and into Canada has been suggested as part of a North American Union to facilitate trade;
• Whereas the State of Texas has already begun planning of the Trans-Texas Corridor, a major multi-modal transportation project beginning at the US-Mexico border, which would serve as an initial section of a NAFTA Superhighway System;
• Whereas it could be particularly difficult for Americans to collect insurance from Mexican companies which employ Mexican drivers involved in accidents;
• Whereas future unrestricted foreign trucking can act collaterally as a conduit for illegal drugs, illegal human smuggling, and terrorist activities; and
• Whereas a NAFTA Superhighway System would likely include be controlled by foreign management, which threatens the sovereignty of the US:

Now, therefore, be it Resolved:

• that the US should not engage in the construction of a NAFTA Superhighway System;
• that the US should not allow the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) to implement further regulations that would create a North American Union with Mexico and Canada; and
• the President should indicate strong opposition to these acts or any other proposals that threaten the sovereignty of the United States.

I’m all for open and free trade with Canada and Mexico. But I’m not for anything that would compromise or reduce US sovereignty.

I think we can have it both ways: open, free trade without compromising our national and state sovereignty.

Thanks for the dialogue, David B!

Questions for Abdulmutallab

From the Wall Street Journal:

On the third day after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's attempt to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, President Barack Obama finally interrupted his Hawaiian vacation to announce that our government "will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable." But how are we going to do that now that the terrorist is lawyered up and is even challenging what should be a legal gimme: giving the government a DNA sample?

It was not wise to try enemy combatants such as Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker in the 9/11 attacks, in our regular criminal courts. And it is unwise that Mr. Obama has decided to try some Guantanamo detainees in New York City. Never in our country's history prior to 2001 have we done so, for good reason.

The constitutional protections designed to ensure a person is not wrongfully convicted have no relevance to wartime military needs. The argument that our system is strong enough to try a terrorist is a non sequitur. It equates to the argument that if a person is in excellent health, she can withstand being set ablaze.

The bigger question: should the US constitution apply at all to non-US citizens? Why are war criminals held in Guantanamo being offered constitutional protections?  

Realization

My dog sleeps about 20 hours a day. He has his food prepared for him. He can eat whenever he wants, 24/7/365. His meals are provided at no cost to him. He visits the Dr. once a year for his checkup, and again during the year if any medical needs arise. For this he pays nothing, and nothing is required of him. He lives in a nice neighborhood in a house that is much larger than he needs, but he is not required to do any upkeep. If he makes a mess, someone else cleans it up. He has his choice of luxurious places to sleep. He receives these accommodations absolutely free. He is living like a king, and has absolutely no expenses whatsoever. All of his costs are picked up by others who go out and earn a living every day. I was just thinking about all this, and suddenly it hit me like a brick in the head, Holy Cow!, my dog is a democrat!

Via Bill J.

SCOTUS Deals Socialism And Obama A Blow

From various sources. First from Technorati:

In a summary decision so brief as to slip under the radar of many, the U.S. Supreme Court settled the law about this (at the time) white-hot legal issue with a silent bolt of lightning, vacating the appeals court ruling affirming the original judge's legal reasoning.

A "summary decision" to overturn is taking this position: the original ruling was so dramatically improper that there's no point even bothering to hear arguments as to why it should be upheld. Smack-downs such as these are very rare in American jurisprudence.

Now, the Supreme Court didn't undo the sale of Chrysler; it merely took a stand that there should be no illusion that treating secured creditors - the ones who are supposed to get paid back first, from liquidation if need be - may not be so openly shortchanged in favor of unsecured creditors, such as the UAW and the U.S. government.

While Chrysler is a done deal, those who viewed the precedent established by the Chrysler case as a way to begin a new regime of quick bankruptcies will have to live with disappointment.

And from The Bankruptcy Litigation Blog:

Hard to ignore today's bombshell summary disposition by the US Supreme Court today on the Indiana Pension Funds' appeal of the Second Circuit's decision in Chrysler (see earlier discussion of case here). Clearly, however, the Court's six line summary disposition tossing the 2d Circuit’s decision in Chrysler requires careful thought. First, here's what the Supreme Court held:

The petition for a writ of certiorari is granted. The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit with instructions to dismiss the appeal as moot. See United States v. Munsingwear, Inc., 340 U.S. 36 (1950).

One may be tempted (as this esteemed blogger was) to claim that Chrysler remains persuasive authority, but was simply “vacated on other grounds.” I don’t think that's the case here, however. For starters, the Supreme Court couldn't have vacated Chrysler on the basis that the matter was moot at the time the case was decided. After all, the 2d Circuit's original order of 6/5/09 denying the appeal on the merits wasn’t moot at the time of entry since the effectiveness of the bankruptcy court's sale order had been stayed by the 2d Circuit itself until it had a chance to rule on the merits. Additionally, the effectiveness of the 2d Circuit's judgment itself was stayed by the Supreme Court. As such, there’s no basis for the Supreme Court now to have vacated Chrysler based on an argument that the matter was moot at the time of the original decision.

We’ll see. Socialism-lite has been the law of the land for the last 70+ years.

HT: Dave D

Top 10 Tax Stories of the Decade

From The Tax Foundation:

Top 10 Tax Stories of the 2000s

1. The Bush Tax Cuts

2. The Alternative Minimum Tax

3. The IRS, Rebate Checks, and Fiscal Stimulus

4. Influence of the Housing Lobby on the Federal Tax Code

5. Emergence of Environmental Taxation as Key Policy Issue

6. Health Care and Tax Reform

7. Growth of Tax Competition (Good and Bad)

8. Rising Popularity of Nanny Tax Policies

9. The Tax Gap

10. California's Decade of Fiscal Decay 

Snowstorm squelches climate change protest

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

A downtown protest of the climate change talks in Copenhagen became a victim of Wednesday's snowstorm.

"Not many people showed up because of the blizzard conditions," said organizer Clea Major, an international studies student at the University of Utah.

It didn't take long for the six friends to pack up a bullhorn and posters they'd planned to use for their "scream-in," an outlet for their frustration about the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks earlier this month to curb the pollution blamed for climate change.

Still, they chatted with a few passers-by during the commuter-hour protest near the Gateway, and explained that, blizzard aside, climate change is expected to bring chaos to the global climate, said Major.

She called Wednesday evening's effort a success and possibly the first in a series. As for the snow, it's not entirely new; a protest she attended last year in Washington, D.C., suffered a similar fate.

"There is always the irony element," Major said. 

Ah, yes, the irony element, totally lost on the global warming alarmists.

Science Daily: 'No rise' of atmospheric carbon dioxide fraction in past 150 years

From Science Daily as reported in Geophysical Research Letters.

At least some journals have enough guts to report the facts.

Most of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity does not remain in the atmosphere, but is instead absorbed by the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. In fact, only about 45 percent of emitted carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere.

However, some studies have suggested that the ability of oceans and plants to absorb carbon dioxide recently may have begun to decline and that the airborne fraction of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions is therefore beginning to increase.

Many climate models also assume that the airborne fraction will increase. Because understanding of the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide is important for predicting future climate change, it is essential to have accurate knowledge of whether that fraction is changing or will change as emissions increase.

And the models are wrong.

To assess whether the airborne fraction is indeed increasing, Wolfgang Knorr of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol reanalyzed available atmospheric carbon dioxide and emissions data since 1850 and considers the uncertainties in the data.

In contradiction to some recent studies, he finds that the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades.

The research is published in Geophysical Research Letters.

"Congress Just Signed Millions of Death Warrants"

From HLI:

Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, today responded to the U.S. Senate's passing of a massive $447 billion omnibus spending bill, within which lies almost $700 million for abortion and other population control measures.

"The United States Congress has just signed millions of death warrants," said Rev. Euteneuer. "They have opened up the floodgates for murderous population controllers to use every means necessary to eliminate the weakest and poorest in developing nations."

On Sunday, December 14, the omnibus bill, which had already been approved by the House, passed the Senate by a wide margin, funding a wide variety of federal government initiatives and projects. Among the funds approved were $648.5 million for "international family planning" (including abortion and contraception) and $55 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which has been exposed as having collaborated with China's destructive and coercive "one child policy". With President Barack Obama's January 2009 reversal of the Mexico City Policy, federal funds are again permitted to be funneled toward groups that perform and promote abortion worldwide-permission that had been denied by the previous Bush administration. The bill is expected to be signed by President Obama soon.

"Our country is broke. We keep having to increase our debt limit so we can borrow more money. And we are now borrowing money so that our government can fund the killing of unborn children. I cannot imagine a scenario more shameful than that which we are now witnessing," said Rev. Euteneuer.

"When ours was a saner nation, we used to decry the exploitation and destruction of God's weakest children around the world. In many cases we would even risk our own lives to defend them. Now we are collaborating with those who think that there are too many Africans, too many Asians and Latinos, too many unwanted human beings," said Rev. Euteneuer. "May God have mercy on us as a nation and our world, and may He defend those who now stand in the crosshairs of the anti-life extremists, including those extremists in our own government."

Ron Paul blames U.S. for violence: Congressman: 'They're terrorists because we're occupiers'

Here’s Ron Paul’s point (and the point of libertarians): the US has no business doing military action/occupation in other countries just to further our corporate interests. We do not have a mandate to be the world’s police force. And when we try to do so, we only hurt ourselves and others. And we make other countries angry at our being “occupiers”. Think of the attitude of the Americans against the Brits before and during the American Revolution.

How do we fix this? We maximize our economic trade with every country. Those countries will have no incentive (other than to their own hurt) to break economic ties. But we don’t have to force that on them against their will by US military action.

Finally, there’s a false assumption that Ron Paul is an isolationist because he is supports a non-interventionist military and non-interventionist economic policy. But the other half of being an isolationist is to support economic protectionism (tariffs, trade restrictions, etc). And Ron Paul and every libertarian I know of are 100% against the latter.

From World Net Daily:

A prominent member of Congress with libertarian ideals is blaming terrorism on the U.S. presence around the globe.

"They're terrorists because we're occupiers," Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, said on the Larry King show.
…
Paul added that the one factor that is missing is a question about the motive.

"We bombed Yemen 2 weeks ago," he said. "He (the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab) did it because of the bombing."

Reports confirm that there was an air strike by Yemeni jets - and possibly some from Saudi Arabia - on a remote region of Yemen where al-Qaida operatives reportedly were staying, killing as many as 30, just before Christmas. 

HT: David D.

CNSNews Top 10 Greatest Hits for 2009

From CNSNews:

2009 will long be remembered as the year Barack Obama became president and his administration started building a road to socialism through Congress, pouring concrete on it by:

• pushing through Congress a $787 billion economic stimulus bill raising the U.S. deficit to astronomical levels;
• seizing control of General Motors and tossing out the CEO;
• telling banks how much they could pay their top execs;
• closing down Gitmo and deciding to try foreign terrorists and war criminals in civilian courts, as if they were American citizens;
• pushing Congress to pass climate-change legislation that promises to hike energy bills by 40 percent or more if implemented;
• and, of course, getting the House and Senate to pass their own versions of trillion-dollar health-care reform legislation that will place one-sixth of the American economy into the hands of federal government control -- and could put taxpayers in the business of paying for abortions, with a final bill yet to emerge.

Throughout the year, CNSNews.com has been there with numerous stories on all those topics.

But we covered so much more in 2009.

And here’s their Top 10 Greatest Hits as determined by their readership:

1. Georgetown Says It Covered Over Name of Jesus to Comply With White House Request
2. Democrats Launch Petition Against Rush Limbaugh
3. Joe Biden: ‘We Have to Go Spend Money to Keep From Going Bankrupt’
4. Rep. Stupak: White House Pressuring Me to Keep Quiet on Abortion Language in Senate Health Bill
5. Millionaire Filmmaker Michael Moore: ‘Capitalism Did Nothing For Me’
6. Conservatives Now Outnumber Liberals in All 50 States, Says Gallup Poll
7. Justice Dept. Investigates Arizona Sheriff for Enforcing Immigration Law
8. Conyers Sees No Point in Members Reading 1,000-Page Health Care Bill--Unless They Have 2 Lawyers to Interpret It for Them
9. Army Investigating How and Why Troops Were Sent Into Alabama Town After Murder Spree
10. Never Reviewed by NYT or WashPost, Mark Levin's 'Liberty and Tyranny' Has Now Sold 1 Million Copies

HT: David D.

WND's Top Ten

Their list overall is very Obama-centric, and their #4 is conspiratorial.

From World Net Daily:

1. Overwhelming evidence the Fort Hood mass murderer was an Islamic terrorist acting as part of a larger, radical Islamic movement bent on infiltrating, subverting and ultimately conquering the U.S.
2. The Tea Party movement, including the 9/12 Washington, D.C., rally
3. The "Climategate" leaked e-mails and the devastating, smoking-gun proof they offer of corrupt and grossly politicized junk science
4. Obama's constitutional eligibility to be president
5. The true impact on Americans of Obama's health care agenda
6. The true impact on the U.S. and world economies of cap-and-trade, should it become law
7. The true cause of the subprime meltdown that led to the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression
8. Obama's czars and other radical appointees
9. The Obama administration pushed for the legally ousted Honduran president to be put back in office and also called for a halt to Jewish residential construction in the Holy Land after the president insisted during the Iran protests that he could not interfere in another country's politics.
10. The exposure of ACORN's criminality by a freelance undercover probe and the many criminal charges against the community organizing group tied to President Obama and the Democratic Party

HT: David D.

Everything's Amazing but Nobody's Happy

A classic worth reposting.

HT: Mark J. Perry

Cash for Appliance Clunkers

Here comes Cash For Clunkers Part 2: for home appliances.

Modeled after the popular Cash for Clunkers program, which was intended to get cars with low gas mileage off the road, a federal appliance rebate program is launching in early 2010. It offers a boost to people buying energy-efficient clothes washers, refrigerators and other appliances – those that qualify for the federal “Energy Star” designation – and to manufacturers, whose sales fell 10 percent in 2008 and another 12 percent through mid-December this year.

The program has only $300 million, one-tenth as much money as Cash for Clunkers, or about $1 per U.S resident, so it could run out fast. States are receiving roughly the same amount per capita, with California getting the most at $35.2 million, but what’s eligible varies by state.

HT: Scott Lamb

Obama Bought Himself an Automobile Company

From CNN:

GMAC Financial Services will get a new $3.8 billion bailout, giving the government a controlling stake in the company. 

Raiding the Treasury: Dems' Year of Giveaways

From Real Clear Politics:

The Democrats are right. Sleazy bribes and pork payoffs didn't start with their government health care takeover bill. They've been doling out taxpayer-funded goodies for votes all year. Harry Reid's latest Cash for Cloture deals are the culmination of Washington's 2009 shopping spree at our expense.

Go back to January and February. The multitrillion-dollar stimulus bill was the mother of all legislative Christmas trees. The ruling party used the economic downturn to redistribute wealth from struggling Americans to favored congressional districts, phantom districts and special interests from golf-cart makers to fly-by-night beauty salons.

According to a new study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Democratic districts have raked in nearly twice as much porkulus money as GOP districts -- without regard to the actual economic suffering and job loss in those districts. In fact, the researchers found that far more stimulus money went to higher-income areas than to lower-income areas.

…

No, revolution will come when taxpayers have a chance to kick these reverse Santa Clauses posing as saviors out of office. It can't happen a minute too soon.

HT: David D.

Farms-to-forest plan worries Vilsack

From The Washington Times:

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has ordered his staff to revise a computerized forecasting model that showed that climate legislation supported by President Obama would make planting trees more lucrative than producing food.

You don’t need a PhD in economics to figure out where that is going to take us.

The latest Agriculture Department economic-impact study of the climate bill, which passed the House this summer, found that the legislation would profit farmers in the long term. But those profits would come mostly from higher crop prices as a result of the legislation's incentives to plant more forests and thus reduce the amount of land devoted to food-producing agriculture.

According to the economic model used by the department and the Environmental Protection Agency, the legislation would give landowners incentives to convert up to 59 million acres of farmland into forests over the next 40 years. The reason: Trees clean the air of heat-trapping gases better than farming does.

HT: David D.

America the Weak

“When the American President is perceived to be strong in the world, political tyranny recedes; when he is perceived to be weak in the world, political tyranny surges.”

—Andrew Sandlin

Annual Shiite Ritual

Coming now to an airline near you with explosive thongs.

Shiite Muslim worshippers, stained by their own blood from self inflicted wounds, hold knives during the festival of Ashoura, when faithful show their grief over the 7th-century killing of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein, in Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, 550 kilometers (340 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009.	A Lebanese child cries as he is cut in the head during Ashoura day in the southern market town of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009. Sunday's commemorations marked the climax of Ashoura, the yearly mourning period in which Shiite Muslims remember the seventh century death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein, in a battle in the central city of Karbala.	This image provided by ABC NEWS shows charred underwear with explosive packet, a six-inch long packet of the high explosive chemical called PETN that was smuggled onto the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 by 23-year-old Nigerian suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

HT: Bill J

Dutch to use full body scanners for US flights

Bill J. raises the question: will Muslim men become enraged when their wives are full-body scanned?

From the Associated Press:

The Netherlands announced Wednesday it will immediately begin using full body scanners for flights heading to the United States, issuing a report that called the failed Christmas Day airline bombing a "professional" al-Qaida terror attack.

A top Dutch official said a scanner of that type may have stopped Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Friday carrying undetected explosives. Law enforcement officials say the 23-year-old Nigerian tried but failed to detonate the explosives on a plane carrying over 300 people.

"It is not exaggerating to say the world has escaped a disaster," Interior Minister Guusje Ter Horst told a news conference, referring to it as "another al-Qaida attack."

The Dutch minister said U.S. had not wanted these scanners to be used previously because of privacy concerns but said there was now agreement with Washington authorities that "all possible measures will be used on flights to the U.S."

A key European legislator urged the European Union to begin rapidly installing the new equipment across the 27-nation bloc, but no other European nations immediately followed the Dutch move.

Body scanners that peer underneath clothing have been available for years, but privacy advocates say they are a "virtual strip search" because they display an image of the body onto a computer screen.

Ian Dowty, a lawyer with Action on Rights of the Child, said allowing minors to pass through the scanners violates child pornography laws.

"It shows genitalia," he told The Associated Press. "As far as English law is concerned ... it's unlawful if it's indecent."

HT: Bill J.

Moscow Police Press Release: Sprint/Latah Federal Credit Union Scam

MOSCOW POLICE DEPARTMENT

118 East 4th Street

Moscow, Idaho 83843

Tel: 208-882-COPS    Fax: 208-882-4020

PRESS RELEASE

December 29, 2009

On 12-29-09 at about 4:03 pm (Pacific Standard Time) people owning cell phones with SPRINT services may have received a text message saying their Latah Federal Credit Union card had been deactivated.  The message states to re-activate your card to call the number of 208-301-9136.  The Moscow Police Department and the Latah Federal Credit Union asks that people not to respond to this message.  This is an on going scam. 

If a person calls this number you will hear an automated recording asking you to enter your pin number and account number.  The person(s) on the other end can use the tones from the phone to get number a person has pushed and they will then have your card information.  The telephone numbers are called possibly with an automated dialing system, much like telemarketers use.  The person(s) enter an area code and the phone prefix and the computer system starts dialing random numbers and sends an automated text message. 

To date, most of these messages have been sent on phones with sprint service.  Again we want to ask everyone not to respond to these messages and not provide any banking information of any kind that comes to you via text or e-mail messages. 

DANIEL L. WEAVER

Chief of Police 

Abdulmutallab and the Obama Mindset

Can you imagine the police trying to do their job if they were told that they could not profile the bad guys?

From the American Spectator:

When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was placed on the British government's watch list in May 2009 and banned from entering the country, the U.S. embassy in London (and by extension the U.S. State Department), as well as U.S. intelligence agencies, were notified of this move as part of information-sharing agreements entered into by a number of Western governments after the September 11, 2001 attacks, says a U.S. State Department employee on the condition of anonymity because of concern that by speaking about the situation, their job could be endangered.

"We have agreements with a number of different countries that work with us cooperatively on intelligence matters," says the State Department employee. "A number of the treaties work through our justice departments or foreign offices or intelligence and interior or homeland security agencies. Several departments here in Washington got the information from London and it didn't trigger anything within our own system.

This employee says that despite statements from the Obama Administration, such information was flagged and given higher priority during the Bush Administration, but that since the changeover "we are encouraged to not create the appearance that we are profiling or targeting Muslims. I think career employees were uncomfortable with the Bush procedures and policies and were relieved to not have to live under them any longer."

Another $3.5 billion on the way to GM

From the Washington Examiner:

A person with knowledge of the matter says the government is moving ahead on a fresh multibillion dollar cash infusion to stabilize auto financing company GMAC Financial Services.

GMAC, based in Detroit, is instrumental to the operations of automakers General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC. It has already received $12.5 billion in taxpayer money and is 35 percent owned by the federal government.

Your tax dollars at work.

HT: Mike Costello

UK Telegraph: Obama gets an 'F' for protecting Americans

From the U.K. Telegraph:

There is no more solemn duty for an American commander-in-chief than the martialling of  “all elements of American power” – the phrase Obama himself used on Monday – to protect the people of the United States. In that key respect, Obama failed on Christmas Day, just as President George W. Bush failed on September 11th (though he succeeded in the seven years after that).

Yes, the buck stops in the Oval Office. Obama may have rather smugly given himself a “B+” for his 2008 performance but he gets an F for the events that led to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarding a Detroit-bound plane in Amsterdam with a PETN bomb sewn into his underpants.  He said today that a “systemic failure has occurred”. Well, he’s in charge of that system.

The picture we’re getting is more and more alarming by the hour.

The Telegraph lists 10 reasons why Obama gets an “F” for protecting Americans.

French Constitutional Court Rejects Carbon Tax

There reasoning here is important. From Bloomberg:

France’s constitutional court rejected a proposed tax on carbon emissions, saying a web of exemptions violated the principal of equality and rendered efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions ineffective.

The government said it will make new proposals on Jan. 20.

The tax, which would have started on Jan. 1, was set at 17 euros ($24.38) per ton of carbon-dioxide emissions, President Nicolas Sarkozy said in September. To make the tax more palatable, he partially or fully exempted power plants, public transport, airlines, farming and fishing, as well as 1,018 older cement, steel and glass factories.

In all, 93 percent of all industrial carbon emissions in France would have avoided paying the full tax, the constitutional court said in a decision published on its Web site. The tax would have fallen disproportionately on fuel for heating and cars, it said.

“The court ruled that the system of exemptions, due to their extensive nature, were contrary to the objective of fighting global warming and contravene the principle of equality before the tax system,” the court said.

The court rejected all the articles relating to the carbon tax in the government’s 2010 budget.

In a statement, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said a carbon tax remains a “priority for the President of the Republic and the government.” He said changes to satisfy the constitutional court will be presented at a cabinet meeting Jan. 20.

The tax had been criticized by the Socialist-led opposition and critics in Sarkozy’s Union for a Popular Movement, who said the tax would hurt the poor and handicap employers.

USA Today/Gallup Poll: Clinton/Palin in a Statistical Heat

From the L.A. Times:

At the end of the 21st century's first decade, Americans have decided on the women they admire the most -- and their picks might surprise some. (Although probably not if they're looking at these photos.)

One is a woman who once lived in the White House -- Hillary Clinton. And the other is a woman suspected of harboring ambitions of living there someday -- Sarah Palin.

A Democrat and a Republican. A former senator and a former governor. Two polarizing politicians, both moms, both best-selling authors, who lost their own bids for one of the nation's top elected offices last year.

Are American voters dropping a hint here?

According to a new survey just released by USA Today and the Gallup Poll, the 62-year-old Clinton barely beat out the 45-year-old Palin as the most admired female -- 16% to 15% in a poll of 1,025 adult Americans.

However, since the poll has a margin of error of +/- 4 points, it's statistically a P-C draw. The survey was....

...open-ended, meaning men and women respondents had to provide the names by themselves.

Not that public admiration necessarily translates to votes. But the results have to set off any political spectator's eager imagination about a future presidential ballot match-up between the pair, who

are politically polar opposites, both outspoken, both often under-estimated and both beloved by their respective bases.

Rasmussen Poll: Health Care Vote Puts Nelson 30 Points Down in Reelection Bid

From Rasmussen Reports:

The good news for Senator Ben Nelson is that he doesn't have to face Nebraska voters until 2012.

If Governor Dave Heineman challenges Nelson for the Senate job, a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows the Republican would get 61% of the vote while Nelson would get just 30%. Nelson was reelected to a second Senate term in 2006 with 64% of the vote.

Nelson's health care vote is clearly dragging his numbers down. Just 17% of Nebraska voters approve of the deal their senator made on Medicaid in exchange for his vote in support of the plan. Overall, 64% oppose the health care legislation, including 53% who are Strongly Opposed. In Nebraska, opposition is even stronger than it is nationally.

Fifty-six percent (56%) of voters in the state believe that passage of the legislation will hurt the quality of care, and 62% say it will raise costs. 

All we can do is throw the bums out and then repeal this awful legislation.  

Best Political Quotes Of 2009

John Hawkins has his list of the Best 40 Political Quotes of 2009.

I’m just going to list his Top 10 here. You can check out his post for the other 30.

1. Umbrage is itself, generally, a lie. The ostensible victim of the offensive remark (call him or her the "umbragee") is actually delighted at the opportunity, while the ostensible offense giver (call him or her the "umbragor") is sorry to have wandered into this thicket, or is made to feel sorry as the umbrage game plays itself out. The rules of the game are perverse but simple: I scream with pain until you cry "uncle." -- Michael Kinsley
   
   
2. The response to my op-ed by global warming alarmists has been interesting. Former Vice President Al Gore has called me a “denier” and informs us that climate change is “a principle in physics. It’s like gravity. It exists.”
   
   Perhaps he’s right. Climate change is like gravity - a naturally occurring phenomenon that existed long before, and will exist long after, any governmental attempts to affect it. -- Sarah Palin
   
   
3. The government competes in the private sector the way an alligator competes with a duck. -- Mike Pence
   
4. I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised. -- Carrie Prejean set off a firestorm after giving this response when she was asked about gay marriage
   
   
5. Bowing to the Saudi king is not an energy policy. -- Newt Gingrich
   
   
6. Madam President, I’m sad to say that I serve during what I would call the selfish generation. The political leadership that we have today that we are a part of no doubt embodies the most selfish policies this country has seen in its history. There is no question that is the case.
   
   For short time political gain, in order to make certain constituencies happy, in order to give people what they want with no sacrifice, we are willing to throw future generations under the bus. -- Bob Corker
   
   
7. If we’re able to stop Obama on [health care reform], it will be his Waterloo. It will break him and we will show that we can, along with the American people, begin to push those freedom solutions that work in every area of our society. -- Jim DeMint
   
   
8. If we have another 2,000 people killed, I want Nancy Pelosi and George Soros, John Conyers and Pat Leahy to go to the funeral and say, 'Your son was vaporized because we didn't want to dump some guy's head under water for 30 seconds.' -- Peter King
   
   
9. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil. -- Sarah Palin
   
   
10. You Lie! -- Joe Wilson during a Barack Obama speech to Congress

HT: David D.

Letter to the Executive Director of the AARP

The following letter was sent to Mr. Rand, the Executive Director of the AARP. It has been authenticated by Snopes.

I can tell you that once I reach AARP age, I won’t be joining unless they change their ways. The American Seniors Organization (americanseniors.org) is a better organization all around: they actually care about seniors and are not an arm of the Democratic Party.

Dear Mr. Rand,

Recently you sent us a letter encouraging us to renew our lapsed membership in AARP by the requested date. I know it is not what you were looking for, but this is the most honest response I can give you. Our gap in coverage is merely a microscopic symptom of the real problem, a deepening lack of faith.

While we have proudly maintained our membership for several years and have long admired the AARP goals and principles, regrettably, we can no longer endorse it's abdication of our values. Your letter specifically stated that we can count on AARP to speak up for our rights, yet the voice we hear is not ours. Your offer of being kept up to date on important issues through DIVIDED WE FAIL presents neither an impartial view nor the one we have come to embrace. We do believe that when two parties agree all the time on everything presented to them, one is probably not necessary. But, when the opinions and long term goals are diametrically opposed, the divorce is imminent. This is the philosophy which spawned our 200 years of government.

Once upon a time, we looked forward to being part of the senior demographic. We also looked to AARP to provide certain benefits and give our voice a power we could not possibly hope to achieve on our own. AARP gave us a sense of belonging which we no longer enjoy. The Socialist politics practiced by the Obama administration and empowered by AARP serves only to raise the blood pressure my medical insurance strives to contain. Clearly a conflict of interest there!

We do not understand the AARP posture, feel greatly betrayed by the guiding forces that we expected to map out our senior years and leave your ranks with a great sense of regret. We mitigate that disappointment with the relief of knowing that we are not contributing to the problem anymore by renewing our membership. There are numerous other organizations which offer discounts without threatening our way of life or offending our sensibilities.

This Presidential Administration scares the living daylights out of us.. Not just for ourselves, but for our proud and bloodstained heritage. But even more importantly for our children and grandchildren. Washington has rendered Soylent Green a prophetic cautionary tale rather than a nonfiction scare tactic. I have never in my life endorsed any militant or radical groups, yet now I find myself listening to them. I don't have to agree with them to appreciate the fear which birthed their existence. Their borderline insanity presents little more than a balance to the voice of the Socialist mindset in power. Perhaps I became American by a great stroke of luck in some cosmic uterine lottery, but in my adulthood I CHOOSE to embrace it and nurture the freedoms it represents as well as the responsibilities it requires..

Your website generously offers us the opportunity to receive all communication in Spanish. ARE YOU KIDDING??? Someone has broken into our 'house', invaded our home without our invitation or consent. The President has insisted we keep the perpetrator in comfort and learn the perp language so we can communicate our reluctant welcome to them.

• I DON'T choose to welcome them.
• I DON'T choose to support them.
• I DON'T choose to educate them.
• I DON'T choose to medicate them, pay for their food or clothing.

American home invaders get arrested.

Please explain to me why foreign lawbreakers can enjoy privileges on American soil that Americans do not get?

Why do some immigrants have to play the game to be welcomed and others only have to break & enter to be welcomed?

We travel for a living. Walt hauls horses all over this great country, averaging over 10,000 miles a month when he is out there. He meets more people than a politician on caffeine overdose. Of all the many good folks he enjoyed on this last 10,000 miles, this trip yielded only ONE supporter of the current administration. One of us is out of touch with mainstream America . Since our poll is conducted without funding, I have more faith in it than one which is power driven.

We have decided to forward this to everyone on our mailing list, and will encourage them to do the same. With several hundred in my address book, I have every faith that the eventual exponential factor will make a credible statement to you.

• I am disappointed as hell.
• I am scared as hell.
• I am MAD as hell, and I'm NOT gonna take it anymore!

Walt & Cyndy
Miller Farms Equine Transport

(Add'l. comment: I think quite a few of us have torn up our AARP cards!)

"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress & the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."

Two-Thirds of Abortion Clinics Closed Since 1991

More than two-thirds of the abortion clinics in the United States have closed since 1991.
 

There were nearly 2,200 abortion clinics in 1991. Today, there are just 713 clinics.

 

—Operation Rescue