Wednesday, February 29, 2012

How about some good old political repentance from the GOP?

I think that there would be few things more beneficial to the Republican Party (GOP) than a general catharsis of heartfelt repentance among its politicians for their unprincipled behavior with regard to limited government, the U.S. Constitution, support for corporate bailouts, and their general propensity to succumb to pressure from special interests.

For GOP officeholders to simply stand before the public and say:

"We see where we are have gone wrong and have found that you, the people, are wiser than we thought we were.  Forgive us.  We are going to change our ways.  We are going to fight for YOU and return power to YOU and cease from our own corrosive power-seeking ways that have helped lead our nation to this brink of disaster and the collapse of sound government."

This would be a great thing, would it not? And it would, to a great extent, end the fears of erosion of GOP support by third-party conservatives.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Conservative black woman speaks up at Al Sharpton rally

“In 1960 over 80 percent of black babies were born in two-parent households. After welfare… (I work in the inner city, I work with kids that look like me) …after LBJ’s welfare policies in the 60's in the inner city over 90 percent of kids are born without fathers. Because the liberal establishment wants to break apart the nuclear family. Because they want kids controlled by the state. That’s what Karl Marx said. So let’s talk about that!”

-- A conservative young black woman speaking up at an Al Sharpton rally in Washington, DC

[Originally reported September 2, 2010]

Sunday, February 26, 2012

On ObamaCare’s manipulation of markets

Imagine this:

Obama—”We need to bend the health care cost curve. I want the food industry to cut chocolate sales by 25 percent."

Industry—“But we would lose $100 million from the cutback.”

Obama—“Just raise the price of celery to recoup the $100 million.”

Industry—“Nobody will buy celery at the inflated price.”

Obama—“Not to worry. We'll impose a fine on any family that doesn't buy a sufficient quantity of celery.”

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

Try this:

Obama—“A lot of sick people can't get insurance. I want the industry to cover pre-existing conditions.”

Industry—“But we would lose a fortune if we did.”

Obama—“Just raise the premiums paid by healthy people and sell more policies to those who aren't insured.”

Industry—“If we have to cover pre-existing conditions, healthy people won't buy policies until they're sick.”

Obama—“Not to worry. We'll impose a fine on any family that doesn't buy a policy now.”


[Thanks to Robert Levy in the “Cato Policy Report” (March/April 2010)

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Stop federal aid to state and local governments


The theory behind federal aid to local governments is that the federal government can operate programs in the national interest to efficiently solve local problems. Now that whole concept is laughable on the face of it. I’m not sure how any politician can even say that sentence with a straight face!

When has the federal government ever operated more “efficiently” than anything with which it might be sensibly compared?

No. No! I don’t think this theory holds water on the “efficiency” factor.

But let’s take a look at this other matter of “programs in the national interest.”

Let’s be serious here!

Outside of those few matters for which the people should truly look to the federal government—such as our national defense—politicians do almost nothing in Washington, DC, “in the national interest.” In fact, a great deal of the time and money spent by the staff of Congressmen and Senators is not, in fact, spent on “the national interest.”

Instead, they spend a huge portion of their time and energy on “the local interest,” for which the reader might instead read: “Securing ‘pork’ for their local constituents in every effort to leverage the taxpayers’ money to buy votes from the very taxpayers they have pick-pocketed.

Federal aid to states and localities is nothing short of politicians hoodwinking the taxpaying public into believing that by giving some of the money they have confiscated from the taxpayers back through “aid,” that they have somehow done the citizens a great favor.


See also National Suicide – How Washington is Destroying the American Dream from A to Z.


Of course, this doesn’t even cover the fact that huge amounts of federal control and incentives to overspend accompany money from Washington, D.C.

Friday, February 24, 2012

On the free market “fine” for improper discrimination

"If an employer has an opening that pays $50,000, and a Christian applicant will result in a $51,000 in benefit to the firm while a Muslim applicant will bring in a $55,000 in benefit to the firm, then to discriminate against the Muslim in favor of the Christian will cost the employer $4,000 in potential profits. No government inspector or watchdog agency is required: by definition, the discrimination is automatically "fined" in the free market [through the lower profits].

Not only does the free market catch discrimination [every time] whenever it occurs, but the amount of the ‘fine’ is also exactly proportional to the severity of the discrimination."

Adapted from The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism by Robert P. Murphy.

The same, of course, applies if the discrimination is based on race, color, gender, sexual orientation, age or any other factor.

GENERAL 100DollarBills

Thursday, February 23, 2012

The false economy of government “stimulus”

In its ongoing attempts to “stimulate” the economy, the government takes money out of the economy (in the form of cash through taxes or credit through deficits), consumes part of it in waste and administration, and then spends some part of it for a stadium, a bridge or whatever.

All the government can do, at best, is to move some jobs from that portion of the economy where the private sector would have used the money to that portion of the economy for which the politicians can take credit in hopes of reelection. Nevertheless, due to the manifest inefficiencies in government, more jobs would have been created in the private economy had the money not been unceremoniously extracted from the taxpayers' wallets in the first place.

Hence, while the politicians get to take credit for some job creation, the net number of jobs created will always be less than had the private sector been left with the money and regulation reduced.

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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Be aroused to jealousy and vigilance for liberty


“Politicians are alarmed at nothing so much as attempts to awaken the people to jealousy [for liberty] and watchfulness; and it has been an old game played over and over again, to hold up the men who rouse their fellow citizens and countrymen to a sense of their real danger, and spirit them to the most zealous activity in the use of all proper means for the preservation of the public liberty, as 'pretended patriots,' intemperate politicians', rash, hot-headed men, Incendiaries, wretched desperadoes, who, as was said of the best of men, would turn the world upside down, or have done it already.”

-- Samuel Adams 
Essay in the Boston Gazette 
1771

This is my goal, dear patriots: to awaken “we, the people,” to jealousy for liberty and vigilance for the same. This is, indeed, a time of grave danger and we must give heed to every proper means for the preservation of liberty for ourselves and our posterity.

Philadelphia-postcard

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Telling the truth about the GOP and Black history

Recalling these important matters for Black History Month is worthwhile.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Tactics and intentions of international banksters

When designs are formed to raze the very foundations of a free government, those few who are to erect their grandeur and fortunes upon the ruin, will employ every art to sooth the devoted people into a state of indolence, inattention and security....

-- Samuel Adams
Essay in the Boston Gazette
1771

A warning from Samuel Adams regarding the intentions and tactics of the international bankers and their ilk.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Saving the liberties of Americans

If the liberties of Americans are ever compleatly [sic] ruined, of which in my opinion there is now the utmost danger, it will in all probability be the consequence of a mistaken notion of prudence, which leads men to acquiesce in measures of the most destructive tendency for the sake of present ease.

-- Samuel Adams
Essay in the BOSTON GAZETTE
1771

Saturday, February 18, 2012

The punishing Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)

If Washington politicians don't act, and it is not likely that they will, the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) could cost U.S. taxpayers earning just $50,000 in adjusted gross income as much as $10,000,000,000,000 ($10 trillion). That’s $10 trillion taken out of the private economy and subject to more government waste.

In 1997, the AMT punished 618,000 taxpayers. By 2006, it penalized 3.5 million American taxpayers. By 2007, some 17 million U.S. taxpayers would have had to pay the unfair tax had not Congress passed a temporary patch.

But why was the “patch” temporary? The AMT ought to be eliminated completely! Both Democrat and Republican controlled Congresses have had opportunity to do away with the AMT and neither have done so.

Why?

Because the politicians are as addicted to tax dollars to support their profligate spending as a heroin addict is addicted to the needle!

Stop the madness!


See National Suicide by Martin L. Gross

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Friday, February 17, 2012

Ending the war on drugs the old fashioned way

The following letter has circulated on the Internet from time to time. However, I thought it worthwhile to share with my readers here, too.

The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse in the adjoining county, and he asked me a rhetorical question, “Why didn’t we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?”

I replied…

“I had a drug problem when I was young: I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather.

“I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults. I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of a teacher or the preacher, or if I didn’t put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.

“I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profanity. I was drug out to pull weeds in mom’s garden and flower beds and cockleburs out of dad’s fields. I was drug to the homes of family, friends and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair a clothesline, or chop some firewood, and, if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.

“Those drugs are still in my veins and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, or think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin; and, if today’s children had this kind of drug problem, America would be a better place.

“God bless the parents who drugged us.”

CG227C

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Minnesota GOP has no “brand” and appears ignorant of dangers of ObamaCare

The following message was received from Twila Brase and the Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom:

The ObamaCare health insurance exchange bill, (Minnesota) HF 2290, is deceptive. It talks only about a "marketplace." It never mentions the word "exchange," but that's exactly what it is. A new government-established agency to comply with ObamaCare law and myriad regulations.

The bill will implement the ObamaCare Exchange, the command and control structure that is key to the federal government takeover of health care in each state. The first set of proposed Exchange regulations include the word "require" a whopping 811 times.

The Minnesota House co-authors of the bill, HF 2290, are Taxes Chairman Rep. Greg Davids (R-Preston), Commerce and Regulatory Reform Chairman Rep. Joe Hoppe (R-Chaska), and Health and Human Services Finance Chairman Rep. Jim Abeler (R-Anoka).

To contact them by email: rep.greg.davids@house.mn, rep.joe.hoppe@house.mn, rep.jim.abeler@house.mn

For additional information please see CCHF Press Releases:
"Marketplace" Legislation Will Implement ObamaCare and Government Takeover.

DFL press conference, Feb 16, 2012

All House Co-Authors

HF 2290

House GOPers sign onto exchange bill, Jake Grovum, Politics in Minnesota, Feb 16, 2012

Keeping you informed and engaged,

Twila Brase, RN, PHN
President, CCHF
651-646-8935


Citizens' Council for Health Freedom (CCHF)
161 St. Anthony Ave Ste 923
Saint Paul, MN 55103
Phone: 651-646-8935


www.cchfreedom.org

The President and his Constitutional oath

The President (POTUS) solemnly swears to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. He does not solemnly swear to ignore, overlook, supplement, or reinterpret it.

statue-bust

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

On Unionist Lies and Solidarity

Every page of the history of the past 150 or more years belies the communist-unionist dogma that they are necessarily "internationally minded" and that there is an unshakable solidarity with the "workers of the world."

The very fact that unions in more highly developed economies—like the United States—are constantly active in lobbying efforts against opening immigration from lesser-developed economies proves that they are willing to condemn their “working brothers” (falsely so-called) in these poorer nations to a life of poverty and poor working conditions in order to protect their own privileged life of higher wages, better benefits and shorter working hours.