Saturday, September 19, 2009

The Kennedy Killed By The Right Myth

(Originally posted on NRO - The Corner by Jonah Goldberg. The article below is well worth reading because thanks to Obama and the liberal elite over-reach, a whole lot of left-wing myths are being exploded. The more the Left claims, the more the Right debunks. And it is about time.)
Sigh, Mark's post below is so exhausting. FWIW, from my book:

They set about creating the fable that Kennedy died battling “hate”—established
code, then and now, for the political right. The story became legend because liberals were desperate to imbue Kennedy’s assassination with a more exalted and politically useful meaning. Over and over again, the entire liberal establishment, led by the New York Times—and even the pope!—denounced the “hate” that claimed Kennedy’s life. The Supreme Court justice Earl Warren summed up the conventional wisdom—as he could always be counted upon to do—when he theorized that the “climate of hatred” in Dallas—code for heavy right-wing and Republican activity—moved Lee Harvey Oswald to kill the president.

The fact that Oswald was a communist quickly changed from an inconvenience to proof of something even more sinister. How, liberals asked, could a card-carrying Marxist murder a liberal titan on the side of social progress? The fact that Kennedy was a raging anticommunist seemed not to register, perhaps because liberals had convinced themselves, in the wake of the McCarthy era, that the real threat to liberty must always come from the right. Oswald’s Marxism sent liberals into even deeper denial, their only choice other than to abandon anti-anti-communism. And so, over the course of the 1960s, the conspiracy theories metastasized, and the Marxist gunman became a patsy. “Cui bono?” asked the Oliver Stones then and ever since. Answer: the military-industrial complex, allied with the dark forces of reaction and intolerance, of course. Never mind that Oswald had already tried to murder the former army major general and prominent right-wing spokesman Edwin Walker or that, as the Warren Commission would later report, Oswald “had an extreme dislike of the rightwing.”


Amid the fog of denial, remorse, and confusion over the Kennedy assassination, an informal strategic response developed that would serve the purposes of the burgeoning New Left as well as assuage the consciences of liberals generally: transform Kennedy into an allpurpose martyr for causes he didn’t take up and for a politics he didn’t subscribe to.


Indeed, over the course of the 1960s and beyond, a legend grew up around the idea that if only Kennedy had lived, we would never have gotten bogged down in Vietnam. It is a central conceit of Arthur Schlesinger’s Robert Kennedy and His Times. Theodore Sorensen, Tip O’Neill, and countless other liberals subscribed to this view. A popular play on Broadway, MacBird, suggested that Johnson had murdered JFK in order to seize power. But even Robert F. Kennedy conceded in an oral history interview that his brother never seriously considered withdrawal and was committed to total victory in
Vietnam. Kennedy was an aggressive anti-communist and Cold War hawk. He campaigned on a fictitious “missile gap” with the Soviets in a largely successful effort to move to Richard Nixon’s right on foreign policy, tried to topple Castro at the Bay of Pigs, brought the world to the brink of nuclear war during the Cuban missile crisis, and got us deep into Vietnam. A mere three and a half hours before Kennedy died, he was boasting to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce that he had increased defense spending on a massive scale, including a 600 percent increase on counterinsurgency special forces in South Vietnam. The previous March, Kennedy had asked Congress to spend fifty cents of every federal dollar on defense.

The Kennedy myth also veers sharply from reality when it comes to the issue of race. The flattering legend is that Kennedy was an unalloyed champion of civil rights. Supposedly, if he had lived, the racial turmoil of the 1960s could have been avoided. The truth is far more prosaic. Yes, Kennedy pushed for civil rights legislation, and he deserves credit for it. But he was hardly breaking with the past. In the supposedly reactionary 1950s, Republicans had carried most of the burden of fulfilling the American promise of equality to blacks. Eisenhower had pushed through two civil rights measures over strong opposition from southern Democrats, and in particular Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, who fought hard to dilute the legislation.

Eroding US Sovereignty

Global regulations are a violation of the US Constitution. Obama however is calling for them.

Obama Says Financial Regulations Must Be Strengthened Globally

A Harvard education ain't what it used to be.

Obamacare Daily Round-Up 09-19



Michelle Obama Says Women Are “Crushed” by Health-Care System Given what happened to the last attempt at healthcare reform with a first lady chiming in, is this really Obama's best strategy?

Obama faces trial by ‘angry white seniors’

Not a lot today - I imagine they're all holding the powder until after the Sunday Obama-palooza.

Corruption Daily Round-Up 09-19



Media Matters dishonest editing in support of their “smear” argument exposed

Carter Center Advisers Quit to Protest Book - Jimmy Carter's hypocrisy is finally being exposed. Jimmy Carter’s Race Problem.

Peanut Envy. The latest absurdities to emerge from Jimmy Carter's big, smug mouth. From Slate(!)

Michael Barone: Reflections on the ACORN Story.

Gov. Paterson orders all New York state contracts with ACORN to be put on hold

Gov. Perdue to state: Don’t do business with ACORN.

San Diego: ACORN Stands By Their Employee, Until They Don’t

Did ACORN get too big for its own good?

BC sues accused Democratic fund-raiser in New York

Friday, September 18, 2009

Gov. Will Snope In Your Medicine Cabinet?

The Medicine Cabinet Tax: Your Reactions, and Theirs
Recently, we here at Americans for Tax Reform have been trying to spread the word about the nooks and crannies of Baucus health care bill. The most recent atrocity?: the medicine cabinet tax.

As you probably already know, Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) released a draft healthcare reform plan that contains many tax increases on working families. One of these would deny 30 million American families the ability to use flexible spending accounts (FSA accounts) and health savings accounts (HSA accounts) to purchase over-the-counter medications.

Under current law, families can use their FSA/HSA account money to buy things like aspirin, pain relievers, and contact lens solution.


The above is from the Americans for Tax Reform website. Check it out.

Truth From The Treasury

The Treasury Department just released to my CEI colleague Chris Horner the unredacted FOIA documents on their internal discussions of cap and trade policy that he had requested
.


PDF here

Monopoly Helped POWs Escape During WWII

This is a fascenating article about Monopoly's role during WWII as a means of delivering silk maps and money to POWs in order to help them escape. Really cool read. Who knew?

Get Out of Jail Free: Monopoly's Hidden Maps

George Mason University

I'd be thrilled if my children got into this school.

Read this article titled "What is Masonomics" to be impressed at the intellectual giants participating in a honest debate.

What a great example for their students. Gotta love that.

Who's The Bigger Racist?

Jimmy Carter or Joe Wilson? Turns out it just might be Jimmy Carter.

Jimmy Carter’s Race Problem Who knew he had such an unsavory history.
The prospect of black and white children commingling on the streets on their way to school was apparently so horrible to Carter that he requested that the state school board stop construction of the black school until a new site could be found. The state board turned down Carter’s request because of “the staggering cost.” Carter and the rest of the Sumter County School Board then reassured parents at a meeting on October 5, 1956, that the board “would do everything in its power to minimize simultaneous traffic between white and colored students in route to and from school.”

Obama admin: dismiss gay couple benefits lawsuit

I'm on the fence here because my cousin is the Deputy Attorney General for Massachusetts who is suing the federal government in this case.

Obama admin: dismiss gay couple benefits lawsuit. I believe marriage is the union between a man and a woman but I also believe that civil unions should be acknowledged by law.

Many in the gay movement want their partnerships to be recognized as "marriage" but that is twisting the word into a completely different definition. But if two people wish to unite in a partnership for life, then that union should be given the same legal status as a marriage.

Some would say this is creating a "separate but equal" loophole. I would respond that it is better than nothing.

I wish my cousin success because I believe that it is discrimination to not allow a gay partner to make decisions a spouse would but I do not believe in undermining the very nature of marriage either.

Daniel Hannan in America

I attended this Regular Folks United event at the Army and Navy Club and Daniel was terrific. Watch Daniel speak is a joy.

Daniel Hannan Speaks at The Army and Navy Club, August 2009 Part 1


Daniel Hannan Speaks at The Army and Navy Club, August 2009 Part 2


Daniel Hannan Speaks at The Army and Navy Club, August 2009 Part 3


Daniel Hannan Speaks at The Army and Navy Club, August 2009 Part 4


Daniel Hannan Speaks at The Army and Navy Club, August 2009 Part 5


Daniel Hannan Speaks at The Army and Navy Club, August 2009 Part 6

Million Dollar Hole-in-One

I'm never one to begrudge. Other people's good luck makes me happy.

Meet the guy who makes more per hole than Tiger Woods

See Husband Speak

Here is my husband's speech on the Origins of the Ideas of the American Founders.

It's on the website CEI on Demand. Go about 10 minutes in to get to my husband's portion.

One of the interesting things about this speech is his reference to Milton's defense of Freedom of Speech.

Words have meaning and power. Words shape our perceptions of reality. When fear suppresses our abilty to freely argue "according to our conscience" for or against something, we lose our control over our world.

There's also a question/answer section.

America In The World's Take

Obama abandons Bush's plan to protect Europe with missile defence system
Critics of the Obama administration are suggesting that persistent Russian opposition to the plan is the explanation. Other theories include the enormous expense at a time when the American budget deficit is growing sharply and also continuing concerns that a missile defence system - first proposed by President Reagan in the early 1980s - is technologically too difficult. Some believe that a dirty nuclear bomb - smuggled into a major urban centre in a 'suitcase' - is much more likely and a missile defence system offers no protection against it.

Have You Come A Long Way, Baby?

What's Happening To Women's Happiness?
Even so, only the most wasted of cynics would deny that something's got to give. Not only is this "tough life" significantly tougher on women than it is on men, but the advances of the last 40 years were supposed to have changed things for the better. And not just for womankind, but for each individual woman. The hard-won rights, opportunities, and advantages were supposed to have netted women more than just another burdensome role to play--"you at work." They were supposed to have fostered in each woman feelings of fulfillment and happiness, and even, for the special few, the sustained thrill of living of an authentic life.


That's your problem right there. "The sustained thrill of living of an authentic life" isn't your job, isn't having "rights", or even education. Those are all external things. An authentic life is having the freedom to make the choices that are right for you, your spouse, your family. Not being pressured into making choices because of some dinosaur feminist's legacy or because your man-child spouse isn't man enough to be fiscally responsible.

Do I seem harsh? Good. I mean to be harsh. As a stay-at-home parent, I find it infuriating that I am looked down on. As if I made the "wrong" choice. What do you care? It's not like I'm bothering you. Except I choose differently.

I thought the feminist movement was about giving women more choices but apparently if you make the wrong one, then you're a wrong person. I decided I wasn't going to fall into the feminist trap of bringing home the bacon, frying it up in a pan, and never letting you forget you're a man. (Charlie Perfume Ad reference alert)

As I say, I can work outside the home, I can take care of the home, I can raise the kids. Pick any two.

Meet Bob McDonnell

Sign up for tonight's PWCRC Patriot's Dinner 2009 here.

Reports from Rasmussen

Overall, 48% of voters say they at least somewhat approve of the President's performance. Fifty-one percent (51%) now disapprove. Over the past week, the President’s ratings bounced to their highest level in two months but have now retreated to earlier levels.

Opposition to Health Care Plan Hits New High of 56%
While the numbers have bounced a bit following nationally televised appearances by the president to promote the plan, opposition has generally stayed above 50% since early July. Support has been in the low to mid 40s.

The number who Strongly Oppose the plan has remained above 40% and the Strongly Favor totals have been in the mid-20s. This suggests public opinion is hardening when it comes to the plan that is currently working its way through Congress.

However, now just 48% say that health care reform plan is at least somewhat likely to pass this year, a figure that has been trending down in recent days. That figure includes 17% who say passage is Very Likely.

Nouveau Poor Facing Discrimination


Report: Growing Ranks Of Nouveau Poor Facing Discrimination From Old Poor

Melting Ice Cap Alert


Melting Ice Caps Expose Hundreds Of Secret Arctic Lairs

PJTV Videos

I always enjoy AlfonZo - hope you do too.
Hollywood Loudmouths: The Confusion and Delusion of Kramer, Foxx & Kanye Pest.

From The Hicks Files White House ToDos: Appoint Radicals, Ignore Protests, Play With Fire. Sounds like fun. How's that workin' out for ya?

BREITBART: Acorn Horrors, The New Journalism & This Is Not JFK's Democratic Party 12 minutes long but you'll learn good stuff.

More of the Same

Iranian Protest Today

These people deserved more from our country and Obama than they got - which was nothing.

Today, they are protesting their corrupt government and truly risking their lives to fight for freedom.

Follow their bravery with this link to live-tweets and the links below.

Thousands March in Iran Opposition Protests

Pro- and anti-government marchers face off in Tehran.

The Pill is not A Panacea

Birth control could help combat climate change.

Sure, less people = less pollution, right.

WRONG.

First of all, more wealth = less pollution.

Secondly, calling for more women to have access to the Birth Control Pill is all well and good. But providing clean drinking water, easily accessible energy, and access to education are GREATER improvements to a woman's life than how many kids she has.

Finally, as my husband's book details, here, what environmentalists don't tell you is that fresh water fish are mutating as a direct result of the synthetic estrogen entering the water systems thanks to woman taking The Pill and then urinating what their body doesn't use into the water supply.

So if you care about the environment, you won't import this current crisis into poor countries fresh water systems. There are far better solutions for the environment and for improving women's lives than The Pill.

In Economic News 09-18

Unemployment Hits 10.3% in New York City. Hope and change, ya'll.

42 US states lose jobs in August, up from July

20 questions for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

Transparency and the Fed. Taxpayers have a right to know where all the bailout money went.

New poll finds Americans not buying Obama's light-at-the-end-of-the-recession talk.

Let's Grade Wall Street Like Colleges. The more rating agencies the better.

Fed Considers Sweeping Rules to Regulate Pay at Banks. This is what happens when you nationalize industries, the government decides who much you can earn. Banks. Automotives. Doctors. Do you think Obama and his ilk are going to stop there?

The Growing Grip of Government

Obamacare Daily Round-Up 09-18



Congress Veers Left on Health Care. The Baucus bill has been rejected by Democrats.

What the Doctors Think. About Obamacare, doctor's mostly think NOOOOOO! Remember, your physician or healthcare provider is basically a small business owner. Obamacare is nothing more than the nationalization of thousands upon thousands of small physician-owned businesses. It is the eminent domain of your healthcare provider's property.

Obama Heckled at Health Care Rally


Obama: Legalize illegals to get them health care. Republicans see a backdoor move toward 'amnesty'.

Mandatory Insurance Is Unconstitutional. Why an individual mandate could be struck down by the courts.

And then they throw the Heckler Out. Why? He was telling the truth.


Finally, Kudos for the Status Quo.

Kill Grandma or Terrorists Win. The latest argument for ObamaCare.

First lady says US health care is 'unacceptable'

The Innovation Tax. How Max Baucus knifed the medical devices industry.

Does He Lie? No, but Obama implies, misdirects, and misleads.

Innovation, Not Intervention. Why we need state-level health reform.

From the Independent Woman's Forum - More Health Care Double Speak

Real People, Real Reform, Continued: J.B. Hunt

Corruption Daily Round-Up 09-18


We're gonna cover the ongoing ACORN corruption and the folks who voted to fund them as well as the corrupt foreign policies that appease our enemies while alienating our allies and whatever else I can find that deserves sunlight. Enjoy.

O'S DANGEROUS PALSBARACK'S 'ORGANIZER' BUDS PUSHED FOR BAD MORTGAGES. Stanley Kurtz did hero's work reporting on Obama's disreputable connections only to be shoved aside by a media all too eager to endorse Obama. Mr. Kurtz's reporting deserves a second look, especially his exposure of the William Ayers-Obama connection.

Under fire, Democrats abandon ACORN in droves.

Once Upon an ACORN: Why ACORN’s Internal Audit is a Sham.

ACORN's Illegal Alien Home Loan Racket

28 Senators Call on Reid to Launch ACORN Probe.

Is Obama using US foreign policy to help specific companies work with oppressive regimes? Obama helps strengthen General Electric-Putin ties.

Obama feeds allies to bear. But they stood up to Bully Obama - Polish PM wouldn't take U.S. calls.

A Tackle Box Full of Race Bait. Hearing racism whether or not it’s warranted is called prejudice. Calling people racist simply because they disagree with you is a corruption of intellect.

Obama: Legalize illegals to get them health care. There's nothing corrupt about allowing people who break into our country to reap the benefits of living off the backs of taxpayers. Nope, nothing corrupt about that at all.

Poles, Czechs: US missile defense shift a betrayal. Probably because it is a betrayal. For the record, Dante assigned the deepest circle of hell to those who betray others.

ACORN worker fired over video sting.

A'jad gets heave-ho from Helmsley Hotel. Way to go Helmsley Hotel! Stand up to that corrupt and evil little turd. The Helmsley Hotel is doing what Obama isn't.

Presidential Control Freaks Ruin Democracies by Alexandre Marinis. Too bad Obama keeps backing the thugs.

This is too rich. Pelosi Chokes Up Warning Against Political "Violence". Where the HELL was she when the protesters against Bush were showing assasination images, etc.? Where the HELL was she? As Ed Morrissey points out over at HotAir.com, where was Pelosi when liberals were beating up TEA Party protestors like Ken Gladney?

The Acorn 75. The only way they'd defund the outfit is if it endorsed the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. Find out if your Representative voted to continue funding ACORN's support of child prostitution with taxpayers' money here. I imagine that the House Representatives who voted against defunding ACORN are either in super-safe blue areas, are so deep into ACORN's pockets that they have to vote that way, or are so morally corrupt that they still believe ACORN is good. House Votes to Strip Funding for ACORN

By the way, here are the 7 Senators who are also corrupt enough to ally with ACORN.

It Isn't About Just Glenn Beck. The Left are trying to organize an anti-Glenn Beck day, failing to realize there are more Glenn Beck viewers than Rachel Maddox - duh.

Grafetti I can support. 'ACORN Funded Prostitution Zone’

The Biggest Lie on Health Reform. Obama lies about Obamacare, say it ain't so.

Dissembling Deeds - If you can't honestly and directly answer a question, then you probably have a bent perspective.


The stunning, total defeat of ACORN. Be alert - an Instapundit reader points out those crooks in Congress could be pulling a bait-and-switch.
Reader Kevin O’Brien smells a rat: It’s a typical these-voters-are-such-rubes stunt; the House and Senate voted to defund ACORN on different bills.

The Senate bill is a housing bill, the House bill the federal takeover of student loans. Each bill will wind up in conference committee where the ACORN ban can be quietly stripped out, behind closed doors and secure from prying eyes. Then the org can keep on doing its important work of voter fraud and pandering to presumed pedophiles.

The most useful principle to hold close when considering members of Congress: they’re all crooks.


Democrats join GOP czar wars.

Does He Lie? No, but Obama implies, misdirects, and misleads.

ACORN's Shamelessness

Inside the Glorious Nation of ACORN

Let Them Eat Organic

Organic food is a crock.

But Michelle Obama decided to make it her purpose in life (figures) but according to this Washington Post article her visit to the farmer's market resembled nothing less than a Queen's passing to honor the peasants.

Cowbells were rung. Somebody put a lei of marigolds around Obama's neck. The first lady picked up a straw basket and headed for the "Farm at Sunnyside" tent, where she loaded up with organic Asian pears, cherry tomatoes, multicolored potatoes, free-range eggs and, yes, two bunches of Tuscan kale. She left the produce with an aide, who paid the cashier as Obama made her way back to the limousine.
Plus she left a huge carbon footprint. Gotta love those limosine liberals.

They Are Not The Only Ones

Dems unhappy with proposed tax in health care bill.

The glory of America is the fairly large amount of transparency in our taxation. Our sales tax is listed on our bills separately rather than folded into the price for nearly all our purchases. In Britain, it's folded in and most British folk have no idea that their VAT (sales tax) is 17%.

We prepare our own taxes. In Europe the government just takes it - not a lot of countries offer tax refunds. No charitable deductions. Not many, if any, deductions at all.

And so it goes on.

Why am I blathering on? Because we prepare our own taxes, Americans expect and look for the government's price of things. The tax issues with Obamacare (well, with any of Obama's policies) have been and will be the kiss-of-death for most of them.

The democrats in the Senate know this. And while they are not in as much peril as the folks in the House (longer term limits), the Senate democrats know they a high-tax healthcare bill will not pass.

Now if they had just listened to the conservatives who've been suggesting low-pain healthcare reform ideas like Tort Reform, interstate purchasing ability, and reform of the already existing government-run programs like Tricare and Medicaid, all this hubbub wouldn't exist.

In fact, the democrats missed a real opportunity here. They have a "captive" audience in Tricare and VA healthcare. By reforming those two quickly, democrats could have "proven" their solutions work (a big if but possible) in time for re-election. Over-reach by over-hauling the entire system is their downfall because let's face it, the democrats are in freefall right now.

As Victor Davis Hanson said (I'm paraphrasing) - this was the most perfect liberal landscape available. New president with 70% approval, control of both houses of Congress, loads of democratic state representatives and governors. Couldn't have been better. But in their greed and desire to rush, they ruined it. With their arrogance, elitism and especially their accusations of racism, it's as if they had a focus grouped the best way to destroy their own best setting.

All of which is fine by me. The democrats and liberals have not produced policies I could support anyways so let them implode by their own hands. America is strong. We'll recover.

What You Need to Know About Social Security

I couldn't get past Question 1 of this article because it starts with "don't worry, Social Security will be there for you" and then talks about it running out of "fund" money in both 2016 and 2037 and having to rely on payroll taxes for "75%" of its payments.

Ummmm, I don't believe YOU.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

College Was Wasted On These Two

From The Ashes Of ACORN...

Just as both the Senate and the House vote to defund ACORN, the democrats are now trying to renew the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) which was the initial 1970s law that CAUSED our current housing crisis and had lead to the growth of ACORN in the first place.

Dems Push to Expand CRA
A number of experts believe that aggressive enforcement of the 1970s-era Community Reinvestment Act contributed to the mortgage meltdown, and thus to the greater financial crisis, by requiring financial institutions to lend to unqualified borrowers. Now, the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives is responding to that situation by proposing to expand the scope and power of the Community Reinvestment Act.

This morning House Financial Services Committee chairman Rep. Barney Frank held a hearing on H.R. 1479, the "Community Reinvestment Modernization Act of 2009." The bill's purpose is "to close the wealth gap in the United States" by increasing "home ownership and small business ownership for low- and moderate-income borrowers and persons of color." It would extend CRA's strict lending requirements to non-bank institutions like credit unions, insurance companies, and mortgage lenders. It would also make CRA more explicitly race-based by requiring CRA standards to be applied to minorities, regardless of income, going beyond earlier requirements that applied solely to low- and moderate-income areas.

AAARGGH!

I can only assume that these Democrats are either moronically stupid or dispicably evil or both. There is NO GOOD that shall come of REPEATING THE SAME MISTAKES, hoping for a different outcome.

But that seems to be the doomed pattern of most liberals.

Today Is Constitution Day



Katherine Lopez points this out here.

Better read it fast.

What Is the Constitution?

In Economic News 09-17

'Is This What Deregulation Looks Like?

The Stimulus Didn't Work. The data show government transfers and rebates have not increased consumption at all.

The Revenge of Ross Perot. Obama's policies are making Americans worry about the national debt.

Housing, jobless data point to a fragile recovery. I doubt the millions of unemployed Americans are seeing even a "fragile" recovery.

More Evidence That the Stimulus Didn't Work.

TEA Party Daily Round-Up 09-17



BREITBART: Acorn Horrors, The New Journalism & This Is Not JFK's Democratic Party.

re 9/12 Crowd Data: Yeah, It Was Big

The Left's "All Purpose Tool" against TEA party protesters (or any protesters really).

@DLoesch & @Instapundit, The 9/12 Interview: The Movement's Future & Keeping It Local.

Emergency Call for Sonja (Note: The Microphone is Always On). Basically a humourous look at "Obama remorse".

Obamacare Daily Round-Up 09-17



Senator Bob Corker (R-TN): The Senate's Health Care Debate & Will He Run in 2012.

Democrats in Senate Reach for 60 Votes on Health Care Overhaul.

History Repeating itself? Michelle Obama turns to health care. When will Liberals learn?

Senator Baucus: what $856 billion buys you

Bredesen criticizes Obama's health care plan. Another Dem. against Obamacare.

12% Say Most Opponents of Obama Health Care Plan Are Racist. From Rasmussen.

Also from Rasmussen are the Presidential Approval Index and Daily Presidential Tracking. It ain't looking good. Nor have Obama's numbers on Obamacare budged either.


"Wait 'til all the young people who championed Obama find out that they are the ones who'll be funding health care reform." From Althouse.

He's still trying though. Obama pitches health care at college campus.

'Obama Used Faulty Anecdote in Speech to Congress'

Peggy Venable: Tort Reform? We've Already Done It.

ObamaCare and Red State Democrats. The president is changing the political landscape, but not in the way he intends.

Corruption Daily Round-Up 09-17



Still a LOT of stuff about ACORN but as far as ACORN is concerned - the more sunlight, the better.

House Votes to Strip ACORN of Federal Funding. The House voted 345-75 to strike ACORN funding from a student aid bill with two voting present. I wonder how many Citizen-Journalists are going to do a little investigating of those seven Senators and 75 Representatives that actually voted to continue federal funding of ACORN? I wouldn't want to be them right now.


ACORN and corruption go together.

MORE VIDEO from BigGovernment. This time the San Diego ACORN office is exposed! ACORN Video: Prostitution Scandal in San Diego, CA How does supporting child prostitution fit into ACORN's mission again?


Oh Goody! BigGovernment says the end is NOT nigh. More ACORN Videos To Be Revealed

Senator Flees Fox News Reporter Asking Why He Supports ACORN.
Class Act that Sen. Burris.

White House collects Web users' data without notice. Social-media messages go into archives. So beware, anything you say can be held against you.

Schwarzenegger Wants ACORN Investigated.

W.H. distances from activist group. I love how it just says "activist group". ACORN is now that-which-shall-not-be-named? Given Obama's long and deep relationship with ACORN (here) it comes as no surprise to me that they'd try not to say "ACORN".

George Will finally gets around to discussing the attempt to use the NEA as propaganda in this column titled, "Artists in Harness."

Pelosi: I'm clueless about cash cut-off. Of course you are.

Because Unions are such paragons of virtue... A Gift for Labor. Union 'card check' isn't dead yet, and it may be getting worse.

No Double-Standard Here

I think this pattern of behavior deserves to be under the Corruption Daily Round-Up. It may not be actual illegal corruption but it exposes a corruption of intellect that can have horrible consequences for America. Dealing with What Has Come.

House ethics panel investigates Rep. Maxine Waters. GOOD!

Oprah No Longer Feeling the Hope-Rah? I wonder how she feels now?

Alienating Allies, Appeasing Enemies

This post's headline pretty much sums up Obama's foreign policy that seems to be growing more nauseating by the week.

This week's specific alienating our allies while appeasing our enemies policy maneuver on the part of Dear Leader is to throw our Eastern European allies under Russia's bus.

Obama scrapping missile shield for Czech, Poland.

Obama's apparent hope is that placating Russia will help them cooperate with the U.S. over Iran's missiles. All Obama has done is shown Russia and Iran that Obama will spinelessly cave at the slightest pressure and shown Poland and the Czech Republic that America will no longer help protect them.

Obama is giving preferential treatment to governments that have a history of socialism and communism over America's natural democratic allies. Obama is placating fascist-Islamic countries over democracies. Obama is weakening America, making us vulnerable to both attack and bad treaties.

So long as America is a superpower (and thanks to Obama's domestic policy that standing is increasingly in doubt), America will be disliked. To try to make friends with some of the most vicious and despicable governments on planet Earth - at the expense of our long-time allies - is idiotic at best, dangerous at worst.

Obama should be ashamed. I know I am.

UPDATE - My views are shared by many.
Barack Obama surrenders to Russia on Missile Defence

Anger in Europe as Barack Obama 'scraps missile defence shield'

Abandoning the Third Site Harms America’s Allies and Decreases Security.

U.S. Shelves Eastern European Nuclear-Missile Shield

Coddle Your Enemies; Betray Your Friends

AP sources: US to reveal Euro missile defense plan.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Pakistan's Charitable Movement - The Citizens Foundation

Classic Doublethink from the LCV

(Orignally posted by my husband on NRO - The Corner)
As I'm sure you've heard by now, CEI has used the Freedom of Information Act to find out what the administration thought its proposal to introduce cap-and-trade would cost the economy. CBSNews's Declan McCullagh can fill you in on the details:
A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. At the upper end of the administration's estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.

A second memorandum, which was prepared for Obama's transition team after the November election, says this about climate change policies: "Economic costs will likely be on the order of 1 percent of GDP, making them equal in scale to all existing environmental regulation."
Politico's Ben Smith posted a story on this, to be greeted by an angry harrumph from the League of Conservation Voters:
Specifically, the original White House plan had 100% of emissions permits being distributed by auction; the plan that passed has just 15%. "Can you say 'irrelevant analysis'? It would be like pricing the health care bills currently in front of Congress based on a single-payer system," he writes.
Well, CEI never said that the documents refer to the cost of cap and trade as it passed the House (for the record, the 15% is a bait-and-switch payoff to industry, with the percentage moving to 100% over a number of years), but the figure accurately reflects the likely cost of the president's proposal, which is, amazingly enough, also the actual position of none other than the League of Conservation Voters:

By embracing a mandatory cap-and-trade program, the Obama energy plan would provide incentives to cut production of carbon dioxide and other pollutants that cause global warming. In addition, because this program is a 100% auction, this system will generate significant revenues for reinvestment in job-creating, clean energy industries.

So what's going on here? Is the LCV now fully behind the 15% plan? Or is it annoyed that it has been established that its favored 100% plan is actually just as expensive as everyone now realizes it is?

Oh, and the LCV spokesman added the "postage stamp" canard (the idea that the cost of cap and trade will be less than a postage stamp a day). That only works if you deposit your postage stamp cost in a guaranteed interest account today and withdraw it when the bill comes due in 2020, and even then it will only pay for the real cost, not the nominal cost (see here for a full analysis of the postage stamp claim). One thing even the current bill will not cost is just "a postage stamp a day per household . . . in 2020."

But the real problem with the postage stamp claim is that even that figure is more than people are willing to pay. Polls show that only 10% are willing to pay more than $100 a year for cap and trade. That's considerably less than a postage stamp a day.

Even the LCV's Doublethink won't get it past that one.

(BTW, I'm guessing the LCV's response: EXXXXOOOONNNNNNN!!!!)

Why Snowe Said NO

RE: It's Snowe's World, We Just Live In it.
This is an excellent post with lots of links and a great explanation of the failure of Maine's government-run healthcare program which pretty much acts as a predictor of how Obamacare would behave if, God Forbid, it ever came into being.

Now Even White Guys Are Playing The Race Card?


Jimmy Carter - that stunning paragon of presidential leadership - has come out saying criticizing Obama is racist.

Carter 'Racism' Claim Draws Widespread Criticism. Folks are right to criticize Carter for this.

The more these liberals play the race card, the more tattered the race card gets. Rather than being a tool to shame the truly evil, it is now just another cheap shot without value. Like using violence, name-calling only reveals the weakness of your argument, persuading only the foolish and the arrogant.

Another view - The White-Racism Chorus

Rare Daily Show Gets It Right



Duo who turned this trick

Get Ready for More Taxes

Cap And Trade Could Cost Families $1,761 A Year.
The Obama administration has privately concluded that a cap and trade law would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes by about 15 percent.

A previously unreleased analysis prepared by the U.S. Department of Treasury says the total in new taxes would be between $100 billion to $200 billion a year. At the upper end of the administration's estimate, the cost per American household would be an extra $1,761 a year.

Hope & Change, Ya'll

Ready to spent 10,300,000,000,000 on Welfare in 10 years?

Stephen Spruiell from National Review has a post up today titled, "Spreading the Wealth.
The end of welfare reform as we knew it." in which he describes how "Obama’s policies would spend $10.3 trillion on welfare programs over the next decade."

Read all the gory details here.

BREAKING NEWS: ACORN Suspending New Client Intake

BREAKING: ACORN Suspends Operations
ACORN, calling the actions of some of its employees “indefensible,” has suspended advising new clients as part of its service programs and is setting up an independent review to see what happened.

ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said in a written statement that she was “ordering a halt to any new intakes into ACORN’s service programs until completion of an independent review.
I wonder how long that review will take - possibly until after the 2010 elections?

ACORN says workers conduct 'indefensible'. Suspends, plans audit, in wake of videos.

Here's Michelle Malkin's full history of ACORN corruption. She's done hero's work with this and deserves tons of credit. What’s missing from the New York Times coverage of ACORN.

TEA Party Protest Round-Up 09-16



An amazing, long, and heavily linked post here on how dissent is no longer the "highest form of patriotism" but in fact is now racism. From The Anchoress. So beware. If you oppose any view or policy of the Liberal Left, you are now automatically a racist. Enjoy.

Heavyweight vs. Dodd Linda McMahon is now in the Senate race against Dodd. Excellent. That'll make WWE fans republicans in no time flat. The more, the merrier.

Sheriff's Department Responds To Sonic Device Outrage. I couldn't get the link to the original story but suffice it to say that San Diego Sheriff department had brought a weapon to a townhall. At least the ACLU got it right.
"On Monday, members of the American Civil Liberties Union spoke with 10News, and they expressed outrage that local law enforcement had the device and that they had brought it to recent town hall meetings in case things got out of hand."

Obamacare Daily Round-Up 09-16


Thanks for helpin' Obama. Rangel: Health bill harder after Obama speech

Harry Reid ain't happy either. Health care bill won’t work for Nevada

Thank God The Kids Will Pay For Health Reform. They say that you always want your kids to do better than you did but apparently only those opposed to Obamacare believe that.

45% Of Doctors Would Consider Quitting If Congress Passes Health Care Overhaul. This does not suprise me. My husband has a British family member who was not only an award-winning British physician for the NHS but also someone who had to sit on the British version of a Death Panel (they are exist and they decide who lives or dies). She now teaches medicine because she could not longer stand the NHS. This is the inevitable outcome of ANY version of government-run healthcare. I promise you.

Will illegal immigrants be covered under health care reform? Muddled language makes it clear loopholes are being deliberately created.

Snowe falls away, leaving Senate Dems without GOP support on healthcare. Only a fool would support this bill. Oh.

Snowe Statement on Decision Not to Support for Baucus Bill.

According to this Gallup poll "40% would advise a "no" vote" on Obamacare. Of course, you can't tell that from the headline, "Healthcare Bill Supporters Cite Uninsured; Foes, Big Gov’t."

Rasmussen Reports are clearer. Here is the link for the Presidential Approval Index. Below is Daily Approval Rating.
And here is the report on the plummetting support for Obamacare, titled "Opposition to Health Care Reform Reaches New High at 55%" YIKES!

The Senate Is Ready to Act on Health Care. Our reform plan would protect the market for innovation. I think you mean that Obamacare will protect the market from innovation.

Baucus Releases Senate Health Care Proposal. And McConnell Statement on the Baucus Draft.

Grassley: 'We're being pushed aside'

The Cruelness of It All.

Dem Senator Warns of 'Big, Big Tax' on Middle Class in Baucus Bill. Not a lot of fans of Baucus's version of Obamacare I'm sensin'. Especially if a democrat is doing the warning.

Pass Obamacare So These Two Can Have More Fun! If Obamacare is taxpayer-funded, then isn't this a form of prostitution?

Liberals Blast Baucus Plan Who says American's are split? Here's a plan both the Right and the Left can hate equally.

On a lighter note, maybe putting in coverage for this will help Obamacare - One Study, a Heart Benefit for Chocolate.

Corruption Daily Round-Up 09-16


I've changed ACORN Daily Round-up to Corruption Daily Round-Up because there's just so darn much of it and the ACORN fallout is spreading everywhere.

More smooth moves from Russ Carnahan Lots of links to examples of Union corruption!

NYT and NPR react to ACORN And here from Hugh Hewitt - How The New York Times "Covers" The News

From the Wall Street Journal - Acorn Runs Off the Rails. 'We're just community organizers, just like the president used to be.' This too is from the WSJ - Acorn Confronts More Pressure Over Videos

That's credible. ACORN Claims That California Worker "Met Their (O'Keefe and Gile's) Outrageousness With Her Own Personal Style Of Outrageousness" Ex-Husband of ACORN Worker Unaware of Claims He or Other Ex-Husbands Had Been Killed.

Judge for yourself if that CA ACORN worker was "acting" the full videos are here over at HotAir.com under "Fox News posts full, unedited video of sting on ACORN San Bernardino"

From ACORN, a mighty controversy grows

Why Did Holder’s Justice Department Dismiss the Black Panther Case?

GOP leaders ask IRS to cut all ties with ACORN.

ACORN Takes Some Mainstream Heat

Justice for Black Panthers. Attorney General continues to cover up voter intimidation.

Conservatives Draw Blood From Acorn. Maybe ACORN needs to bleed.

Shut Off ACORN's Spigot.

SEIU: ‘One of the Pillars of the ACORN Family’ And yet ACORN fights unionization of its own employees. Go figure.

The Big Payoff

Acorn Confronts More Pressure Over Videos.

ACORN Comes Under Closer Scrutiny In New York.

Acorn Live! Democrats still fund this rogue operation. (!)

Fourth Videotape Reveals ACORN Advising 'Pimp,' 'Prostitute' in California

Ethics Panel Investigates Waters, Graves and Jackson. Congress better start putting some teeth in their "ethics" investigations 'cause we're getting sick of the swamp.

No Joke

Frank Warner makes a good point that the "Legacy" media are corrupt too in that they will not report certain stories in his post titled "While Democrats rule, 20 things the press won’t report on."

I'm putting this post from National Review under the Corruption Daily Round-up because it is a corruption of the America's system of checks and balances, a power grab by the executive at the expense of both the legeslature and the judiciary. Czar Power.

Krauthammer's Take

New Poll With Revealling Insights

This AP/NCC poll offers some interesting insights into American opinion which are worth highlighting.

60% of Americans are opposed to government bailouts but the "number in favor drops to a third when jobs would be lost, without greater damage to the economy."

We like our checks and balances. "Three-fourths of Americans said no, up from two-thirds last year" to the question of "whether the president should have more power at the expense of Congress and the courts, if doing so would help the economy."

"Most people believe laws to protect the voting rights of minorities are no longer needed. Nearly two-thirds oppose preferences for minorities in hiring."

"The poll found a small majority in support of extending to same-sex couples the same benefits given to married, heterosexual couples. By a similar margin, however, Americans oppose government recognition of gay marriage."

And finally, there is now "even stronger support than a year ago for the view that the Constitution is an enduring document that remains relevant and that rule of law should be followed, even at the expense of short-term public safety considerations."

We All Agree With Obama On This One

While anyone who spends more than two seconds on this website will realize I am no fan of Obama's I have to agree with him, Kayne is a "jackass".

And since I agree with Obama that Kayne is a jackass, I have to defend Obama's calling Kayne a jackass by pointint out that...

1) Kayne was a jackass for interupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech.

2) Obama's comments were "off the record" and not directed at the person who first tweeted them out aka as "private" a moment as anyone in the White House can expect.

3) He is still a human being. As leader of the United States, I expect certain standards of behavior - no public cursing, no attacking private citizens, no law-breaking, honest, transparency, etc.

But all presidents are also human beings with human being moments. You may be the "Leader of the Free World" but if you leave that toilet seat up, you're gonna hear about it from your wife. (Although it would be nice to see a chick president.)

So it is reported that Obama called a jackass, a jackass - in what is considered an off the record moment. B. F. D.

We would never get anyone to serve in any public office anywhere if they were never allowed to relax their guard in private. Does anyone think Kayne was not a jackass? Does anyone think Kayne should have interupted anyone's acceptance speech?

This is one of the rare instances that Obama has said something that we can all AGREE with. I'm not going to castigate the man for that.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

CA ACORN Sting Video - Updated



There Will Be Blood. Watch Glenn Beck tonight for all the details.



Ma’am Talks Regularly with Woman Who Killed her Husband?!?! From the excellent GayPatriot

New ACORN video: Murder in California?

The "murder" has a "self-defense" component but not a strong one. What gets me is that she claims she's run a brothel herself!

Of course, given ACORN and Obama's close, long, and well-documented relationship (here), it's not suprising that Obama's mouthpieces (aka the press) are keeping mum. Charles Gibbs is even pretending he's never heard of 'em. Charlie Gibson: Dan Rather Wearing Mary Mapes' Underwear and Great moments in gatekeeping.

ACORN's CEO is playing the race card over at there website here. It's all "smears" and "lies" even though they've GOT IT ON TAPE! Look, if ACORN is innocent and this is a hoax, then ACORN has also wrongfully fired several employees over this "hoax". I'd say its real and ACORN is scared.

It's All Required.

Organizing for America Just Called Me

Today at 5:19pm EST Organizing for America/DNC auto-dialed me and left a recorded message encouraging me to go to one of the events.

I dialed back at 5:23pm EST and left a message requesting that they do not call me again (name and phone number were left) as it would be "a waste of their money".

I know that political groups are exempt from the Do-Not-Call list but I can't imagine any political group would be foolish enough to continue to harass someone but who knows. I'll keep you updated.

For anyone who wants to know, the number I dialed was 1-866-495-2004.

Make 'em Feel the Heat

(Originally posted by my husband on NRO - The Corner)
President Reagan said, "When you can't make them see the light, make them feel the heat." Washington is now completely in the dark — so a new group called Freedom Action is here to help you put the heat on. Believing in nothing more than individual rights, free markets and limited government, Freedom Action is a new grassroots activist social network aimed at putting government back inside its constitutional limits.

Every group has to start somewhere, and Freedom Action's first campaign is about Carbongate — the EPA's internal suppression of a scientific assessment skeptical of global-warming alarmism. It hopes that citizen action in the form of e-mails and other communications telling EPA to put its regulatory plans on hold until it clears up this scandal will start the process of bringing this bloated regulatory behemoth back under control. If you agree, head over there and sign up. If you're interested in the principles of the organization, get involved in the social network and contribute blogs, comments, jokes, and videos. In the spirit of the Tea Parties, the group will take its future direction from its members, as long as it is in keeping with the founding principles, so this is a chance to get your voice heard, and have the corridors of power tremble a little more at the force of the vox pop.

Top Ten on that list for 24 straight weeks

That would be Mark Levin’s Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto which has now sold one million copies despite NEVER having been reviewed by the New York Times or Washington Post.

Yet another reason why the liberal media elite are going intellectually and financially bankrupt, they are out-of-touch.

They never reviewed my husband's book either. Feel free to pick up a copy.

(Sorry Christmas is coming, I've got to beat this horse.)

Debunking the Violent Right-Wing

The Paranoid Center. How the panic over right-wing violence is being used to marginalize peaceful dissent. (Are you really paronoid, if someone really is out to get you?)
A similar dynamic is at work in 2009. When pundits weave a small number of unrelated incidents into a "pattern" of crime, then link it to the rhetoric of Obama's opponents, it becomes easier to marginalize nonviolent, noncriminal critics on the right, just as a red scare makes it easier to marginalize nonviolent, noncriminal figures on the left.


From Instapundit.
THE TOWN HALLS of August. “That’s the full list of documented violence from the August meetings. In more than 400 events: one slap, one shove, three punches, two signs grabbed, one self-inflicted vandalism incident by a liberal, one unsolved vandalism incident, and one serious assault. Despite the left’s insistence on the essentially barbaric nature of Obamacare critics, the video, photographic, and police report evidence is fairly clear in showing that 7 of the 10 incidents were perpetrated by Obama supporters and union members on Obama critics.”


Tea Party Protesters, Black Family Reunion Particpants Peacefully Break Bread Together, WaPo Weeps at the Racism (Scroll down)

Not So Great Generation

Victor Davis Hanson talks about "The Rise of the Uncouth" in our culture and why it is a bad thing.

He blames the Baby Boomers and I do too.

To a certain extent. Baby Boomers are adults now but once they were childen (most still are) and it is their parent's responsibility to instill good character and values into their children.

So perhaps as much as I love my grandparents, perhaps "The Greatest Generation" weren't so great parents.

I am the child of Baby Boomers and I love them both very much. Yet I have chosen a far more traditional path than they because I miss civility (although I am occassionally rude-see third post down, she started it).

U.S. Condemned For Pre-Emptive Use Of Hillary Clinton Against Pakistan


U.S. Condemned For Pre-Emptive Use Of Hillary Clinton Against Pakistan

ACORN Organizer: "I killed him . . . I shot him.”

The dynamic duo behind the other ACORN expose videos is releasing video showing an ACORN employee confessing "that she killed her allegedly abusive husband, and laid some "groundwork" beforehand."

ACORN Prostitution Scandal: California Here We Come! (Part 1)


Bonus: The Science Behind the ACORN Sting.

House Republicans to Focus on ACORN-IRS Ties.

This report is from The Weekly Standard (link here) sounds legit. Plus Glenn Beck will be airing the video. This is gonna hurt ACORN if true.

Link to running commentary, here.

UPDATES
Also calls to "starve the beast" Reps. Boehner, Cantor, Camp to IRS: Sever ACORN Ties Now

Exclusive: ACORN Illegally Operating in Maryland

Harriet Harman is a Sorry Sack of ...

How could you leave MARGARET THATCHER out of an official government document detailing the "28 of the most significant events between 1907 and 2008 involving women on the political stage."?

That's the sort of crap that happens in communist countries. What kind of idiot would do that?

Oh, Harriet Harman, the deputy leader of the Labour Party and head of the "Equality Office." She's the kind of idiot that would do that.

All she put on this list is 1979 - First female Prime Minister. This partisan hack couldn't even write Margaret Thatcher's name. It gets worse.
But there is no mention of Lady Thatcher becoming the first female leader of a British political party when she replaced Edward Heath in 1975, or the fact that she was the longest serving prime minister in the 20th century, and won three general election victories.
Baroness Thatcher is a righteous kick-ass babe who came to power solely on her own merits, ran a war against Argentina and won, ran a war with Ronald Reagan against the Soviet Union and won, and restored Great Britian to economic greatness.

And this troll Harman doesn't even mention her by name?!?

Well, no one will EVER remember the name of a low-ranking nobody such as Harriet Harman while Baroness Thatcher stands astride 20th British history with Winston Churchill and Queen Elizabeth II.

If I seem harsh, well I am furious. Margaret Thatcher, Helen Keller, and Rosa Parks are always the first three names that come to mind when I think of my heros. I have to remind myself of George Washington, John Adams, Edmund Burke, William Wilberforce, Dr. King, etc. I may not always agree with them, but I've always admired them. Shame on Harman. Shame.

Berlau on the President's Financial Proposals

(Originally posted on NRO-The Corner by my husband)
Listening to the president's Wall Street speech yesterday, you'd think that he had a powerful package of commonsense regulations aimed at ending abuses in Wall Street itself. Far from it. As my colleague John Berlau notes:

A closer look at many of the provisions of the regulatory package shows that more of the rules would not go after the culprits in the Wall Street crisis, but burden Main Street businesses that had nothing to do with the meltdown and indeed are leading the way back to growth. The causes of the crisis are complex, but I think folks would be hard pressed to argue that somehow the main culprits were the limited banking operations of Target Stores and Harley Davidson, discount stockbrokers and their customers, and venture capital firms who fund technology startup. Yet these are the business that could be most adversely affected by the Obama administration's "regulatory reforms" now being debated in Congress.


John takes the president's proposals apart, kicks them around a bit, and then stomps on what's left over at Openmarket.

Wanted: For Carbon Crimes

(Originally posted by my husband on NRO - The Corner)
The global-warming industry would probably still be solely owned by assoted cranks and romantics (and the odd vice president) if it weren't for a bunch of CEOs taking a leaf from Enron's playbook and attempting to monetize the issue. Playing the bootleggers in a classic bootleggers and baptists alliance, these businessmen have realized that they can get the government to increase their profits by means of "cap and trade" and similar regulatory interventions, at the expense of other businesses and the paying public. Ordinarily, such shenanigans would have the corporate watchdog groups in arms, but by getting the "baptists" of the green movement on their side, they have shielded themselves from public disgust.

This has to stop, and the good folks at Junkscience.com are at the forefront of calling foul. They are releasing a series of "Wanted" posters for six corporate fat cats who want to grow fatter by means of the Waxman-Markey Bill. Junkscience describes the six and their crimes as:

* Exelon CEO John Roe, the "carbon bandit," who stands to make billions of dollars at taxpayer expense from Waxman-Markey's free carbon allowances;

* General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, the "carbon schemer," who would rather profit from lobbying for Waxman-Markey than innovating products that consumers actually want;

* Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers, the "carbon betrayer," who is lobbying for higher energy prices and against his own customers and shareholders;

* Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris, the "carbon extortionist," who threatens to send American jobs overseas unless Congress pays him off with free carbon allowances;

* Caterpillar CEO James Owens, who can only be considered as "carbon clueless" since he is lobbying against the coal industry, one of his biggest customers; and

* John Deer & Co. Chairman Robert Lane, the "carbon crapshooter," who seems to be betting that he can wreck the economy and profit simultaneously.


Form that posse and go get 'em, guys.