Demolishing Jefferson

Since I deeply and actively dislike Thomas Jefferson and admire John Adams, I am posting this link, here, which is written by the great Daniel Hannan but principly offers up the wonderful Myron Ebell's "taut" destruction of the Jeffersonian mythos.

A sample...

“On thinking in the U. S. about the division and dispersal of power, it was not Jefferson but John Adams who was the major figure. Indeed, Jefferson was on the other side, although his rhetoric was designed to mislead. Jefferson may have said that that government is best which governs least, but he never had a useful thought about how to keep limits on government except to recommend revolution in every generation. Which is of course disastrous. But he was a very silly man - a true, because superficial and calculating, product of the Enlightenment. While Adams was horrified by the French Revolution as soon as Burke was, Jefferson was still enthusiastic even after the terror had begun. Jefferson was the inventor of faux egalitarianism, which was a way of keeping the enlightened patrician (and slave-owning) class in power based on the rationale that they were protecting the interests of common folk. FDR and Teddy Kennedy are the direct descendants, and indeed Jefferson was FDR’s hero and model of a patrician who protected the interests of his class by “representing” and looking out for the working man."

Myron goes on - in particular holding Adams over Jefferson.

John Hughes, RIP

The man made the movies that defined my teenage years.

I'm surprised at how sad I feel.

"Behold The Scary Swastika Astroturfers"

Redstate.com covers an AARP meeting where the AARP representative - despite being courteously treated - pulled the meeting because these retirees stood up and disagreed with them. For shame. Very shabby.

What I love is that the AARP members continued the meeting AFTER the AARP representative left! One guy towards then end says "We are all Americans. We have to show love for each other..." (paraphrased) And some how talk to each other until we can come to agreement. That, my friends is a townhall meeting.



Also this from ABCnews.com where the Obamacare protesters come out and say "We're real!"

Malkin's ACORN Watch

Michelle Malkin reports at her website that Louisianna-based ACORN is being investigated for various corruption charges, here.

About time.

The Trojan Horse is Just A Horse

As Jonah Goldber points out, they come out and say it around the 1:46 mark - Obamacare is designed to eliminate private healthcare.

Period.

Not immediately but soon.

Watch for yourself.


Hat Tip: Goldberg and Beck

One thing, I noticed is that they guy coming out saying this at the 1:46 minute mark was sponsored by Tides.org - you see the logo in the lower righthand corner. Tides Foundation is run by Drummond Pike who actively supports ACORN to the point of buying "the promissory note that required the Rathke family to repay Acorn the money that Mr. Rathke’s brother, Dale, had stolen.

Mr. Rathke is a member of the board of the Tides Foundation and other Tides-related organizations."

So I ask you - if ACORN and Obama and Rathke and Pike all have these "connections", why shouldn't we believe they also are all actively working for government-run healthcare.

I know that is arguably a leap but there it is.

34,000,000 on Food Stamps

That's a lot of suffering Americans who's economic problems could be cheaply resolved via judicious de-regulation and lower personal and corporate tax rates.

What are the odds that'll happen before 2010?

Reuter's is reporting the details here.

More "Angry Mob" News Stories

Arkansas Democrats defend healthcare positions in front of "rowdy" crowd, here. Actually, this FoxNews report barely discussed the crowd.

The Miami Herald is reporting here that the staffers of Rep. Klein in South Florida faced a group that "was rowdy, rude and fired up about healthcare."

The Hartford Courant reports Rep. Murphy getting cornered by his constituents at a local Stop & Shop here.

Democrats pointed to the rowdy, sometimes vicious tone of some of the comments and said that the protests were part of a well-funded and organized effort to derail the health care plan. Wednesday's protest drew activists from the Tea Party movement and the so-called Dump Dodd campaign.

But many who attended were not affiliated with an established group. Maryann Culkin, a stay-at-home mother from Avon, said she represents no one but herself. She went to Stop & Shop simply because she wanted to have a word or two with her congressman.

"For the first time in my life, I'm embarrassed and scared of where my country is going," Culkin told Murphy. She is worried about how the government will pay for Obama's health care policies.

Pelosi is so scared she's claiming the protestors are "carrying swastikas", here. Unles she or someone else shows pictures of protestors with pro-nazi/socialism signs, she is lying. Seriously, it is the socialism of Obamacare that people are protesting. Nazi's were National Socialists. If anyone is carrying a swastika to these events it is because they think Pelosi and her ilk are the nazi/socialists, NOT that they support fascism. Dumb Cow.

Destroying the US Economy, $1,200,000,000.00. Calling those who disagree with you Nazis, priceless.

Interestingly, the democrats' attempts to discredit their constinuents by claiming this is astroturf riska an even deeper backlash against themselves.

That left-wing protestors are free-speechifying and right-wing protestors are "angry mobs" assumes that the two will never mix. It is an ignorant, stupid, and politically dangerous response to what is clearly genuine and universal anger. As this poll here indicates - "After 6 Months, More View Obama's Presidency as a 'Failure' Than Bush's"

Democrats might want to reconsider their 2010 chances if they continue to pursue Obama's policies.

Majority House Leader Called A Liar

Is it wrong that I am enjoying these democrats being called liars to their face.

N'ah!



Best line of this video is a man askes Rep. Hoyer "Why are you trying to cram this healthcare bill down our throats when the president took 6 months to pick out a dog?"

Proof-positive that William F. Buckley was right - any name picked at random from the Boston phone book would be a better candidate from Congress than those who are there now.

It's Diet, Not Exercise

This revealing article explains that new scientific studies seem to indicate that weight loss and low-level everyday activities are healthier and more efficient than intense 4+ times a week aerobic exercise.

Here's to hoping.

Went to Redskins Summer Camp

Photos from our morning.

DNC Does It Again

It's hard to imagine how the DNC could produce a more hypocritical, ignorant, insulting and susceptible to backlash as as this one.

Boxer Is An Arrogant Idiot

Sen. Boxer claims that the "well-dressed protestors" are fake.

So if these protestors were badly dressed, they'd be legit? What an idiot.


Hotair.com has a full report here.

That explanation is a classic. If it’s true at all, she probably stunned the Floridians with the sheer stupidity of her non-sequitur. Ronald Reagan would not have gone into Florida to tell them how to conduct their recount; he had too much respect for state sovereignty in those issues. I almost laughed out loud when Boxer trotted that out on national TV.

Reason.com Takes On Big Brother Obama

Worst. Cake. Ever.

She's right.
This cake is really ugly. Worst of all, he's 48 years old, not 44 - unless they're celebrating his "number" not his age.

YIKES!

Taxpayer Revolt Videos Keep Comin' In

As Rick Lowry points out, "The best part of the Driehaus video featured on Drudge right now is his look right at the end."

We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it any more seems to be the theme for these events.

Wake up Democrats. You can not "talk" your way out of this. This is not some GOP fringe thing. These people are your constituents and they have educated themselves on these issues. You might be able to pass some of this legislation but you will not make it pass 2010 if you do.

Tim Bishop Gets It

And it looks like it hurts.

Summer of Discontent

More Congressional Representatives face furious voters this August.

I told you, you were warned.

Here at Gateway Pundit.

Dr. Helen's take on Angry Votor Syndrome.

And HotAir has three videos here on why Obamacare is in trouble.

We already have Obamacare via the Veteran's Administration - this US Veteran here tells you what you can expect from government-run healthcare.

Paying For European Socialism

In the middle of tax revolts (aka Tea Parties), Obama and his cronies are attempting to edge around Obama's pledge not to raise taxes during the election season.

Yet another Obama lie, as this Wall Street Journal article seems to imply. But the WSJ missing a point here. They talk about how the democrats are going to put a 10% Value Added Tax (or VAT - essentially a federal level sales tax) on everything at all stages of manufacture and sale.

The journal piece goes on to state...

The undeniable reality is that you can’t run a European-style welfare-entitlement state without European-style levels of taxation on the middle class (and eventually without low European-style growth and high jobless rates). It’s looking more and more like Mr. Obama’s no-middle-class-tax pledge was one of the greatest confidence tricks in American political history.

While that is indeed true, I would also argue that you can't run a European-style welfare entitlement state without the US military protecting Europe enough that Europe no longer funds any real military of its own (excepting Britain of course).

US Taxpayers have been funding European Socialism for over 60 years. Perhaps we should stop that before we bring socialism to our own shores.

Why Biden?

Jonah Goldberg, with his trademark humor and in this USA Today column here, explains why Biden was invited to the "beer conference" between Obama, Crowley, and Gates.

Given that the scheduled attendees looked more awkward than Sen. Robert Byrd at the NAACP Image Awards, Biden's presence made lots of sense. If you were Obama, wouldn't you want an oxygen-sucker such as Joltin' Joe to Hoover through all those painful silences with a vomit of words?

No doubt, Obama figured: It doesn't matter what he has to say, so long as he keeps talking long enough for the press to get its photo-op without Crowley tasing Gates or Gates flipping over the table to shout, "Do you know who I am?" Biden could just simply switch on his mouth's autopilot and jibber-jabber about Iraqi Kurds, socket wrenches, gay basset hounds, Social Security, World War II, World War II-and-a-Half, World War II-and-Three-Quarters and whatever else popped into his mind. Anything to eat up the time would do.

This theory's appeal lies in that it's very hard to figure out what Joe Biden is doing in the Obama administration in the first place, especially since every time he lends the benefit of his experience and insight, the White House corrects him.

If you want a laugh today, read the whole thing.

PS - I'll give a signed copy of my husband's book to the first person who can show me proof that Goldberg's prediction about Joe Biden saying, "squirrels would taste more like ice cream if goats were only taller." came true.

Sleepy Hamster 2

From the fantastic website, "Cute Things Falling Asleep"

Destroying Private Insurance Was the Plan All Along

I think this video speaks for itself.

Must Visit Site

Operation Embarrass Your Congressman.

I'm all for it. How about you?

NHS Rations Pain-Killer Drugs

According to this UK Telegraph article, here, the NHS wants to deny pain treatments like cortisone to NHS patients.

The Government's drug rationing watchdog says "therapeutic" injections of steroids, such as cortisone, which are used to reduce inflammation, should no longer be offered to patients suffering from persistent lower back pain when the cause is not known.

Instead the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is ordering doctors to offer patients remedies like acupuncture and osteopathy.

Specialists fear tens of thousands of people, mainly the elderly and frail, will be left to suffer excruciating levels of pain or pay as much as £500 each for private treatment.

The NHS currently issues more than 60,000 treatments of steroid injections every year. NICE said in its guidance it wants to cut this to just 3,000 treatments a year, a move which would save the NHS £33 million.

If Obamacare passes, consider this article a glimpse of your future.

Answering to Their Constituents

For the first time in a long while, Congressional representatives are facing irate contituents. Some are completely non-plussed after years and years of experiencing docile crowds. Videos below.

UPDATE: Plus, here are 10 Questions to Ask Your Representative from the Washington Examiner.

'Who's a climate scientist? Depends on which side you're on . . .'

(Originally posted by my husband on NRO)

My colleague Myron Ebell has some interesting observations on how, if you are an alarmist, you can be a "reputable climate scientist" if you are a lawyer, but, as a skeptic, a professor of geology does not count.

Also, always remember that the head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is actually a railroad engineer.

Arlen Specter Gets Hammered

Long Version

Because D. Hannan is Great