USA Today/Gallup: Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton The Two Most Admired Women In America

This is a new USA Today/Gallup poll out there that shows something very interesting. When asked, Americans chose both Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton as the two women they admire the most.

Lets take a look at this, as I think it says some very interesting things about America. First, without a doubt, both Sarah and Hillary are feminist icons. They are both hard core, successful women. Both tough as nails.

No surprises in the way the polling shakes out, either. Gallup asked 1025 adult Americans to rate their most admired. These two came out on top in basically a dead heat, considering the +/- 4 point margin of error.

What woman living today do you admire the most?

Hillary Clinton………………….16%

Sarah Palin………………………15%

Oprah Winfrey……………8%

Michelle Obama………….7%

Condoleezza Rice…….2%

Queen Elizabeth……….2%

Margaret Thatcher…1%

Maya Angelou………1%

Of course, this was pretty partisan, as both ladies got the bulk of their support from their particular political parties, which is why this poll fascinates me. It’s a good look at how both liberals and conservatives look at the world.

It should be noted too, that more Republicans were apt to admire Hillary Clinton than democrats were to admire Sarah Palin. Roughly 6 percent of the Republicans asked admired Hillary, while only 1 percent of the democrats admired Sarah. Again, several things come into play here, at least in my mind. One, Conservatives, and Republicans are generally more open minded, and democrats are more apt to follow the party line, no matter what. One also has to factor in education and how informed Conservatives generally are vs democrats.

Frankly, you can count me in the list of those that has at least some admiration for Hillary Clinton. I blame our friends at HillBuzz.org for this! (Just kidding, these are some of the best folks out there. They honestly do have me looking at Clinton in a different light!)

I don’t agree with her on many issues, and sometimes have my doubts about her competency, but compared to most democrat/communist party members, she comes out looking pretty good. She’s by far the most competent member of the Obama administration.

One thing that fascinates me, especially considering both of these women truly are feminist icons, is how they got there. I also think it says a bit about Conservatives and liberals. And what matters to them.

First lets look at Hillary. Frankly, you know you are an icon, when you only need a first name, something both Hillary and Sarah pull off well! Mention either one, and people know who you are talking about, though, I give Hillary the edge here, as she’s enjoyed this status longer.

Hillary took a rather conventional path to her place in the world, even for a feminist. She met Bill in college, got married and started a family. Hillary has a degree in law, and was a practicing attorney. Of course, Bill was the politician and star of the family from the start. As he worked his way through Arkansas politics, she worked and raised their daughter. Then of course, she became First Lady of Arkansas, and then, of course, First Lady of the United States. And, no doubt, she was one of the more outspoken and active presidential spouses. Of course, like in any family, the wife is most certainly a husband’s strongest, most trusted adviser.

After Bill’s time in office was over, Hillary certainly made the most of her opportunity. She was able to use her time as First Lady to make a successful bid for the United States Senate, using that time honored tradition of trading on her successful husband’s name to get her foot in the door, and then her own ability to cross over the threshold.

This is not to take anything away from her either, it just is what it is. Hillary worked hard in the Senate, and proved that she hard earned a shot at the presidency, at least to those who support her. And she was considered the front runner. If not for Obama, she might indeed be the one sitting in the Oval Office right now. Personally, I think we’d be better off!

But she still did well, and while Obama didn’t choose her as Vice President, probably out of fear of being overshadowed, she was chosen as Secretary of State, not exactly a bad thing.

Sarah’s life and path was a little different. She was more of an athlete, and dreamed of being a sportscaster at ESPN. She was a leader even then, and as team captain, led her high school team to a state championship.

She met and married her high school sweetheart. A hard working, ruggedly handsome guy with whom she has five beautiful children. He would go one to be her trusted adviser, Sarah also put herself through school, working several jobs, as well as earning some scholarships. This, of course, is why it took her longer than many of her peers in politics. She has a degree in journalism.

Like most of us, she went to work. Among other things, she worked as a commercial fisherman, with Todd. A tough, physical, but rewarding profession. She’s the complete outdoorsman who hunts, fishes, and loves to run every chance she gets.

Finding a need to serve, she became interested in politics, and steadily went from a seat on the city council to Mayor, then made an unsuccessful run at Lt Governor, which led to a position as the state’s chief energy and environmental regulator, and that of course, led her to becoming one of America’s most successful Governors, which found her in the 2008 presidential race, as the VP nominee. Her path was that of a self made woman who really had no family or spousal name to trade on. Of course, she did enjoy the support of her entire family, all along the way.

Oh, and she got to be a sportscaster, as well. At least at the local level.

Two different paths, by two different feminine and feminist icons. That’s what makes this such an interesting poll, one that is interesting to contemplate.

This of course, brings both Hillary and Sarah to 2008 and the presidential election. Neither were successful in the respective bids, but both have endured.

Like Sarah Palin, Hillary was savaged by Barack Obama and his Chicago street thug tactics. They went after both her and Bill, America’s “first black President” as he was lovingly called by the dems until Obama showed up on the scene. With a new golden boy though, the Clintons, once the most powerful force in democrat politics, were now racists, “straight up“, as Janeane Garofalo would say.

Of course, that wasn’t even a good warm up for what the Obama slime machine had ready to go after Sarah with. Frankly, you would have thought Sarah was the Presidential candidate, and John McCain didn’t even exist. Throughout the campaign, the real contest was between Obama and Palin. Those were the two who were always compared, McCain was almost an afterthought. And frankly, considering just how poorly McCain’s “all-star” campaign performed, and how severely they restricted Palin, never allowing Sarah to just be Sarah, It was a smart strategy by Obama and his team.

Other than that one odd breakdown though where Hillary cried a bit, maybe for effect, maybe just out of sheer frustration, she endured the hate piled on her by the Obama campaign, the ultra-left wing radicals that now make up the party’s base, as well as the entire media.

Then she went to work for Obama, becoming Secretary of State, third in line to the presidency. Not too shabby.

Sarah also endured. Frankly though, and I’ve said this before, and surely will say again, in the 50 years I wandered this planet I have never seen the effort to destroy someone that I have seen thrown at Sarah Palin. You had everything Obama and his weasels could throw together, the most vile, ugly, dirtiest Chicago style hate and slime they could muster, followed by an over the top assault by the dishonest media, and of course, the recruitment, by the campaign, and then continued coordination from the White House after the election, of the Alaska Mafia., the radical bloggers and serial ethics charge filers.

Sarah of course, after watching Obama and the Mafia make her job in Alaska totally undoable, as they stole millions in taxpayer dollars, famously stepped down from office, in what is turning out to not only be an incredibly smart and self sacrificing move for Alaska, but also the shrewdest political move most of us have ever seen. This truly shows that Sarah has incredible political instincts.

Since stepping down, Sarah has become a record setting, best selling author, who is in her fifth straight week atop the New York Times Best Seller List, the spot she debuted in.

Sarah has also become the most popular Conservative in America, hit the talk show circuit, even doing a gag with Conan and Bill Shatner, and is now considered the absolute favorite to win the 2012 GOP nomination, as well as the presidency.

More importantly though, is the fact that just as the Obama campaign never let up on her, even after the election, she never let up on Obama. Unrestrained by the McCain campaign, and just being herself, Sarah has been on the attack ever since. No quarter is given to Obama, Congress or any of their insane ideas.

Sarah has turned a social network into her personal domain, and her every note to her over 1 million Facebook supporters is picked up by all of the news media and quoted world-wide. She has shown a knack for condensing relatively complicated issues down to their rawest, simplest forms for maximum impact.

Her first comment on ObamaCare and the inevitable rationing of health care, especially to the elderly, disabled, and chronically ill, birthed what might be the most important phrase of the year, if not the decade. “Death panels” will forever be the phrase most associated with ObamaCare.

Of course, as with everything Sarah, “death panels” stirred incredible controversy. (Hint: it was supposed to) Those on the left called her every name in the book, some even printable. So strong was the attempt to discredit her, the President actually felt he had to single her out, little Sarah from Wasilla, a private citizen, in his joint session in front of Congress. The dog and pony festival of lies he put on back in the summer that prompted Congressman Joe Wilson to actually call him on it, giving us the decade’s second best phrase “you lie!” This one is used often now after Obama says anything more complicated and involved than “good morning” or “hello.”

Anyhow, not only did she drive the democrat/communists crazy with this incredible succinct and accurate description of health care rationing, she also embarrassed the Rockefeller, country club, RINO wing of the Republican Party. Of course, embarrassing milquetoast moderates is fairly simple.

Now some tried to make it complicated, or were just dumb, or maybe they were trying to muddy the waters, by claiming it was all about “end of life counseling, which is certainly a troubling issue, but not where she was going.

In the end, two things have happened, the far left St Petersburg, Florida newspaper proclaimed “death panels” the “lie of the year” while simaltaniously Senate Majority Leader, and hack, Harry Reid placed a questionable provision in his version of ObamaCare that would make it nearly impossible to take the “death panels” out of the picture…ever!

Funny how liberals always try and have it both ways! “There’s no such thing as ‘death panels’ and oh, by the way, it is now impossible (and illegal) to take the ‘death panels’ out of ObamaCare!”

For her part, where most people would have backed down, Sarah managed to mention death panels every chance she got! In her latest, she mentioned them no less than four times, shoving those “death panels” right up their…… well……you know where!

Long story short, Sarah has shown she is not afraid to fight what she believes in. To put it all out there, not hold back, or play it safe. She has proven she is politically courageous where others are incredibly timid. These are not the times for timidity and political cowardice.

We have seen some really interesting turns too. The media is acting a little different, treating her more seriously, even somewhat complementary. And not just the conservative media. A lot of this is because people are realizing what a complete and total disaster Obama is. He has managed to not only further anger conservatives, and totally alienate the so-called independents, he’s even got many of the far left slingin’ snot!

You really, really have to work hard to completely and absolutely piss everyone off , so congratulations Obama, you’ve not only found your true calling, you’ve managed to unite the country, just not in the way you imagined!

Again, what we are witnessing, with Sarah, is two fold. Part of this is her finally being able to be herself, and make her case to the American people, on her terms. Turns out, she incredibly good at that.

Second is all of those drunk on hopenchange are now sobering up and have one hell of a hang over. They are realizing that every single prediction Sarah made at her RNC speech, as well as on the stump, has come to pass. Now is the time for the big “I told ya so!”

This is leading to wild editorials from liberals such as David Michael Green, a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York, where he says things like this:

You know, I’ve really been trying not to write an article every other week about all the things I don’t like about Barack Obama.

But the little prick is making it very hard.

Like any good progressive, I’ve gone from admiration to hope to disappointment to anger when it comes to this president. Now I’m fast getting to rage.

How much rage? I find myself thinking that the thing I want most from the 2010 elections is for his party to get absolutely clobbered, even if that means a repeat of 1994. And that what I most want from 2012 is for him to be utterly humiliated, even if that means President Palin at the helm. That much rage.

Think this guy would have said something like that a year ago? You can read it all here, it’s worth it!

Of course, among Conservatives, Sarah has become the absolute favorite. She is the defacto leader of the movement.

Politico, which leans left, just ended a reader poll. Out of nearly 17,000 votes, Sarah was chosen by 47 % of the readers as the biggest winner of 2009. Number two was Obama at 19%. “Someone Else” was third!

In the People’s Republic Of San Francisco, Sarah’s book, Going Rogue, is number three in sales! This in a town were many booksellers were proud to proclaim they would not even offer it for sale!

Even far left Ed Schultz over at Obama Central, MSNBC proclaimed her the biggest winner, going so far as to say “Show me what she has done wrong!”

This is pretty strong language.

By anyone’s measure, whatever negative feelings that have been out there about Sarah Palin, slowly, methodically, and most assuredly, she is turning those around.

So let me end by saying this. Both Sarah and Hillary deserved to be called the most admired women in America. They earned it!

These two are both the biggest winners of 2009, by far.

Hillary is a big winner, because she’s managed to avoid the absolute taint that has hung over the Obama administration since day one. She might be the only one to walk away from this fiasco with something that resembles a career.

Of course, I’m incredibly biased and in my mind, Sarah Palin is the biggest winner of not only 2009, but of the entire decade. Absolutely everyone, but her strongest fans wrote her off when McCain lost the election in 2008.

This became a weekly ritual, anytime her name was mentioned. “X” was going to end her career, no matter what “X” was!

Then she “quit” as Governor. Oh my, political suicide. Yeah, right. Incredibly savvy move that completely changed the game on Obama and his Chicago street thug strategy of trying to stop her before she ever had a chance to come after him. This, it seems, has turned out to be a flawed strategy. There’s a reason why “they” say “let sleeping dogs lie” or “let well enough alone.”

Up until midway through her book tour, we were told Sarah’s career was over. Then something happened. I don’t know if it was the big crowds, the great interviews, yucking it up with Shatner, or just the realization that this is one sharp woman, who is right more than she is wrong. One thing is for sure, there has been an incredible shift in the way most of the nation looks at Sarah Palin, and that’s not only a good thing for Sarah Palin, but a good thing for America.

America needs strong, fearless, and ethical leadership. That describes Sarah to a tee.

As we prepare to start a new year, and a new decade, America has found a true leader we can all get behind, and believe in. Someone who has the courage and ability to bring this nation away from the brink of destruction, and get it back on track.

America’s brightest and most exciting days are ahead of us, and Sarah Palin will be playing a major roll, bringing us not only energy and excitement, but the common sense and leadership we need to see this happen.

I for one cannot wait for 2010 and beyond!

Why The Latest Terror Threats Prove Beyond A Shadow Of A Doubt That Sarah Palin Is Right About Energy Independence For America

The terror attack on Christmas Day has brought out all sorts revelations about just how pathetic our terror fighting abilities truly are. I mean this deal was a comedy of errors and it was only by the grace of God almighty himself that this Islamic mad man’s Underbooms © failed to explode and take the plane down.

Not only was Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab on several watch lists, and from a real hotbed of al Qaeda terrorist activity, the guy’s own father warned the embassy that his son had become radicalized by militant Islamic fanatics. Never mind Abdul showed up with no luggage, tried to board with no passport, and paid for the one-way ticket to Detroit in cash. Who goes to Detroit without a ticket out of there anyway?

As bad as all of this is though, and this is a serious indictment on our entire terror fighting process, it also highlights another issue, energy independence.

Long before Sarah Palin made “death panels” a household word, long before she was even picked as the John McCain’s running mate, Sarah made energy independence a centerpiece of her message, her career. Sarah didn’t just talk the talk either, within hours of stepping into her new office as the Governor of Alaska, she began working on making the decades long dream of a natural gas pipeline to the lower 48 a reality.

It was Sarah’s dream to get Alaska’s 100’s of trillions of cubic feet of clean burning natural gas out of the ground and into use. She was able to work out all of the issues and now the pipeline is on track to become a reality.

Of course, Sarah’s message on energy independence isn’t just an economic one. Now it’s true, we send between $700 billion and $1 trillion dollars annually overseas. The problem is many times it’s to nations that not only hate us, but use our own dollars to fund efforts to undermine us as a nation. In other words, they use our dollars to fund terror, world wide, against the United States, and our allies.

Even worse, we are forced to act gingerly, even timidly, on many issues, lest we cause major problems with big oil producing nations like Saudi Arabia. We make those guys mad, and they can shut us off, or raise prices to the moon, destroying our already devastated economy. (That is if Obama and the rest of the democrat/communists don’t beat them to it!)

Brian Ross, from ABC News, has this little gem on two of the planners of the Christmas Day attack:

Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S.

Former Guantanamo Prisoners Believed Behind Northwest Airlines Bomb Plot; Sent to Saudi Arabia in 2007:

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

Art therapy rehabilitation program. Really? Who’s running our war on terror efforts, Pee Wee Herman? This of course, just points out the absurdity of our entire approach to this issue. It should also be the final nail in Obama’s grand scheme to move Gitmo to Chicagoland, and make his corrupt buddies richer off of tax payer dollars that it will take to basically convert an unused prison into a “supermax” job.

There are issues with much of the Middle East, for sure, but by far, Saudi Arabia is the biggest problem, and a hot bed for radicals. Well funded radicals. But we are powerless, because we need them for the oil they have, so we must “play nice” with them.

There are other nations, such as Venezuela, who are teaming up with bad actors like Iran, and Russia, forming alliances that will further weaken the United States, and her allies. These relationships will also allow Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez to exert power over weaker South American states, thus spreading communism and further destroying what freedoms people in that region have. It will be a disaster.

I know Obama and his group of thugs, along with Al Gore, the Bernie Madoff of the climate change hoaxers, are doing their level best to keep Americans from using their own God given natural resources, all in an effort to enrich themselves, and their friends, by lying to the American people.

First they create a “crisis” in the name of the totally laughable claim of “global warming,” then, they just so happen to have ready made solutions, and the promises of completely non-existent “green jobs” that will “grow the economy,” if only we will allow them to destroy the one we have now.

These are really just schemes to enrich themselves, and their closest friends. We’ve already written about the Chicago Climate Exchange an already in place carbon credit trading scheme, where billions of dollars worth of carbon credits will be traded on the open market. Owing to the fact this thing is in Chicago, does one even need to ask if there is any corruption, or “friends of Obama” involved in this deal?

Al Gore has already made millions off of his hoax, and stands to make billion through the cap and trade schemes. Past that, big Obama supporters like General Electric, which owns NBC/Universal, will also clean up, so to speak, as they make many of the implements of the global warming scam.

There is more mass corruption, that we can get to in a minute, but this editorial from Investor’s Business Daily is critical reading, and reminds us that fossil fuels are here to stay for the foreseeable future:

No Substitute For Fossil Fuels

Energy: Earlier this year, Congress approved a scheme to pour $80 billion — on top of the tens of billions already spent — into renewables. A government report released last week indicates the money will be wasted.

Renewable energy is the shiny gem that everyone wants but no one can have. Not even a president. Campaigning last year in Lansing, Mich., President Barack Obama said that it was his goal for the U.S. to generate 10% of its electric power from renewable sources by 2012 and 25% by 2025. But he cannot, by the force of will or executive order, change the laws of physics and economics.

America has long relied on fossil fuels to power its economy. Oil, natural gas and coal provide about 84% of the nation’s energy.

And for good reason. They are plentiful and typically easy to retrieve, and, consequently, cheap.

At the other end of the spectrum are renewable sources such as solar, wind, biomass and geothermal. They supply only about 4% of our energy, the remainder coming from hydro and nuclear power.

An axis of environmentalists and Democrats want to change this ratio, because, according to the usual complaint, we depend too heavily on the fossil fuels that emit carbon dioxide.

Trouble is, the market for renewables is poor. Few want to use the inefficient, unreliable and expensive sources. But that hasn’t slowed the renewable energy campaign, which has succeeded in persuading the public that renewables are a sensible energy source and convincing Congress to fund supporters’ daydreams.

The government can continue to “invest” in renewables, and the dreamers will keep using public money to find the magic formula. But little will change over the next 25 years.

The federal Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook says in 2035, demand for liquid fuels will increase by almost 10% over 2008 levels, natural gas by nearly 7% and coal by 12%.

While use of renewables will increase as well — by 81%, including hydropower — they will still be unable to unseat our dominant energy source. Fossil fuels’ share of consumption will fall by only six percentage points, from 84% to 78% by 2035. Renewables will provide about 8%.

It’s clear that renewables, which have benefited from government subsidies far in excess of what fossil fuels have received, can’t compete in today’s market and won’t be faring much better a quarter century from now, according to the government’s own reckoning.

It’s just as clear that throwing taxpayers’ dollars at renewables has produced little progress.

Spain provides perhaps the best lesson. The government there has spent $43 billion on solar energy projects, yet solar provides less than 1% of the country’s electric power. It was a bad investment.

Chasing the wind is just as ineffective. When Congress temporarily eliminated wind power credits in 1999, 2001 and 2003, the number of new turbine projects fell sharply. The Texas Public Policy Foundation says that providing a modest level of wind power in that state would cost taxpayers at least $60 billion through 2025.

Biomass is also a poor substitute. It’s both primitive — its sources are wood and trash — and an environmental nightmare, devouring in some cases as much as 10 times the land mass than needed to create a wind farm. And wind farms themselves are big land eaters.

Geothermal energy, considered “free” energy from the earth, is also a space eater that requires heavy capital investment, which is often hard to recoup. In California earlier this month, a geothermal project was abandoned, despite a $6 million grant from the Energy Department and roughly $30 million in venture capital.

Geothermal has, as well, some environmental drawbacks. The day before the California project was closed, Swiss government officials permanently shut down a geothermal project in Basel because, the New York Times reports, “of the damaging earthquakes it produced in 2006 and 2007.”

Maybe some of these renewables will one day be cheap and reliable. Technological advances will help. But today they are neither cheap nor reliable, and, based on the government’s report, won’t be for another generation.

Until they can compete, the country has to rely on proven sources: fossil fuels and nuclear power. To force cutbacks on these so that renewables can get a bigger market share, and to continue to fund projects with public money, is foolish and irresponsible.

This is a huge waste of tax payer dollars, something that Congress is very good at. Spain, by the way, promised millions of “green jobs” but instead saw only increases in the unemployed, once again proving that if one listens very closely to what the liberals recommend, and then does the exact opposite, things will usually work out much better. Spain’s quest to be “green” has destroyed their economy. Cap and trade schemes have crippled the entire European Union, as well.

It would be one thing if the United States wasn’t sitting on massive oil reserves, reserves that rival the biggest oil producing nations, as well as a century’s worth of natural gas, and several hundred years worth of coal. But we are, and it’s criminal that we aren’t using these resources.

As a practical matter, anyone care to guess what the effect of keeping an extra $700 billion to $1 trillion in the American economy would do for the American people? How about how it would effect state sponsors of terror, who rely on American dollars to fund these efforts?

But of course, there is major corruption going on in these industries, and, as usual, you can trace this back to Barack Obama and his puppet master, former Nazi collaborator, and multi-billionaire, George Soros. Soros, the self proclaimed “owner of the democrat party,” funds many of the left wing organizations that drive the democrat/communist party machine. They are truly too many to mention, but groups like MoveOn.org, and even ACORN benefit from his billions. Suffice it to say, if there is a prominent democrat/communist cause, or group, you will find Soros involved.

With that kind of money comes power and influence. And Soros wields incredible influence over his hand picked puppet, Barack Obama. Back in August the big talk was Petrobas, and the huge deal Obama made with the Brazilian Oil Giant. Obama “loaned” Petrobas $10 billion American tax payer dollars so they could drill offshore, something Obama and his thugs fight tooth and nail against in our own country.

America is rich in oil, right off our own coast line, but we are told we will literally destroy the world, and all of mankind, plus all of the fishes in the sea, and the polar bears, of course, if we dare to drill for that oil.

This made me wonder why, if drilling for our oil would be such a disaster, could one drill off the coast of Brazil without such harmful effects. Are the waters magical down there? Is there some sort of fairy dust that floats in the air that keeps the evil oil companies from destroying everything? Nope, turns out the answer is a lot simpler, and well, a lot more predictable.

You see literally just days before our most corrupt president in the nation’s history was so generous with our money, his boss, George Soros, became the major stockholder in Petrobas! In fact, it became Soros’ largest holding. Funny how having Soros involved made all of the environmental concerns go away, huh? You can read more, including a statement from Sarah, here.

But wait, there’s more! Remember the Copenhagen sham of a conference? Well, our buddy George was over there as well, causing all sorts of problems for those who wish to bring clean, and dare I say “green” natural gas to market. Under the guise of “saving the planet” Soros, and his enablers, sought to block all efforts.

Investor’s Business Daily has this:

Get The Frackin’ Gas

Energy: An oil company wants to invest its profits in clean-burning American natural gas. A Hungarian billionaire and a “green” politician want to stop it. This is the real Climate-gate scandal.

While the greenies of the world united in Copenhagen to talk about the weather, emitting a Third World-country-size chunk of greenhouse gases to gather there, the world’s largest oil company, Exxon Mobil, was doing something about it.

On Dec. 14, Exxon agreed to buy XTO Energy, a natural gas firm, in a deal valued at $41 billion. XTO is one of the leaders in something called “fracking” technology, in which water, sand and additives are pumped into the ground to unlock trillions of feet of natural gas previously thought to be unobtainable.

This is what energy companies really do with their profits. They find more energy, then sell it to you.

While the technique is not new, the technology exploiting it is.

XTO has helped develop new technologies that let it drill a single well 9,000 feet and then bore horizontally through shale formations to unlock the natural gas trapped in the porous rock. The rock is fractured and the gas is pushed into accessible pockets whence it can be extracted with a minimal surface footprint.

Because of these new technologies, it is estimated that the U.S. sits on 83% more recoverable natural gas than was thought in 1990.

The Barnett Shale rock formations of Texas and Louisiana, the Bakken Shale formation in Montana and North Dakota, and the Marcellus Shale formation running through New York and Pennsylvania and other states may hold as much as 2,000 trillion cubic feet of this clean-burning, domestically produced fuel.

We are the Saudi Arabia of shale.

At current use, we have an estimated 90-year supply, if we are allowed to get at it.

Slam dunk? Hardly. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., one of the sponsors of the job- and economy-killing Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill and no fan of domestic energy, wants to hold hearings on the alleged environmental dangers of the new technology.

There’s been an organized campaign to discredit fracking as an environmental danger to the nation’s water supply. Ed Lasky at American Thinker has traced a tangled web of deception that rivals the “hide the decline” campaign by the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit.

A media group called Pro Publica has done what it calls “investigative journalism” and exposed the alleged dangers of fracking in a series of stories it has provided free to cash-starved media outlets and newspapers. The first expose was an attack on energy companies developing the Marcellus Shale.

Pro Publica was started by billionaires Herbert and Marion Sandler, who, along with billionaire George Soros, funded the left-wing Center for American Progress, run by John Podesta and touted as the Obama administration’s “idea factory.”

Soros owns a major stake in a company called InterOil, a company that has discovered a large natural gas field in Papua, New Guinea, with which American shale resources would compete.

Soros would rather have us import his liquefied natural gas than develop our own. His allies in the media, the environmental movement and the Democratic caucus are all too eager to exploit public fears to do it.

Roger Willis owns a hydraulic fracturing company in the Pennsylvania town of Meadville. He says thousands of frack jobs have been done in rock formations above and below the Marcellus Shale in New York state with no aquifer damage.

“This 60-year-old technique has been responsible for 7 billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas,” according to Sen. James Inhofe, ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee. “In hydraulic fracturing’s 60-year history, there has not been a single documented case of contamination.”

Whether some are trying to hide the decline in global temperatures or the abundance of clean-burning domestic natural gas, it’s a scandal. If we’re serious about both carbon emissions and energy independence, let’s stop this nonsense and get the fracking gas.

Another story, another corrupt democrat/communist, and another case for severely limiting the amount of time one can “serve their country” in Washington. Let’s face it, crooks and usurpers like Gore, Obama, and Soros would have a harder time influencing policy if Congress worked as the founders intended, and actual citizens served a term or two, and then went home, forced to live under the laws, and conditions, they help to create. But that’s another story for another day.

I know this started out as a discussion of energy and national security, but as one sees, all of this is intertwined. As they say, “it’s complicated!”

Doesn’t have to be though, that’s for damned sure! First, we must get rid of the corruption in Washington, no matter how hard it is, how much time and effort it takes. We all know this entire global warming scam is nothing more than a way for a select few to enrich themselves on the backs of normal hard working people world wide. Greed and corruption has been with us since the beginning of time, but the current president and Congress have certainly set the bar at a whole new level for future politicians to shoot for.

Heads need to roll and jail cells need to be filled. Say,…. maybe we CAN buy that prison in Chicagoland after all. That way Obama will feel at home while he serves out his sentence after he is convicted of his High Crimes and Misdemeanors. He will have a lot of company there if we do this right! Gore could be his cell mate!

Next we need to look at the suggestions that Sarah Palin has been making for years now. Sarah has an incredible commonsensical approach to the whole problem that will work. Obviously, we need an “all of the above” approach to the energy issues at hand. And well, we also would like to have clean energy, please.

We are now spending not millions, not billions, but trillions of dollars, amounts of money that are so large that no one can really comprehend fully them. Obama and his corrupt Congress have spent more money in one year than all of our previous presidents and congresses have in the nation’s 233 year history, COMBINED! For what? For failed programs that do little but put us further in debt, and cost more jobs. Nothing is created, we might as well just pile the money up and burn it. At least it would keep us warm this winter!

For what we are throwing away on all of these idiotic programs we could start a crash program that would guarantee energy independence, and our national security for the foreseeable future. We need a program similar to the one that saw us go from small rockets that blew up more often than not, to walking on the surface of the moon, in less than a decade. We need a serious “all of the above” approach.

We have the oil, and we know how to get it. Stop the bureaucratic nonsense and “drill baby drill” make it a matter of national security, and tell all of the crazed groups who would try and stop it through law suits, and what have you, to go take a powder.

Next, get that natural gas to market, and instead of wasting efforts on silly things like electric cars, work on converting the fleet to natural gas. I could write a book on why natural gas is the right solution for much of our automotive needs, but will save that for later. Suffice it to say, for now, that this is well proven technology. The Big 3 automakers, Ford, GM, and Chrysler, have made cars, trucks, and buses that run on compressed natural gas (CNG) for decades. With today’s engine management technology, coupled with exciting new things like direct injection for gasoline engines, the time is right to move from using gasoline exclusively for motorfuel. As a bonus, diesel engines can be converted to run, and run well, on CNG too. Natural gas burns very cleanly and would reduce (actual) harmful emissions greatly as well as extending engine life.

What people forget about electric cars is the fact that the have been around since the invention of the automobile. They were actually relatively popular in the early years, especially among women, as the first Model T Fords were a serious pain to drive, and maintain. By the 1920’s though, the manufacturers,, and the public, came to realize they just weren’t the practical solution to transportation needs. Ever since, a dedicated few have sought to prove the consensus wrong. The results:

After billions spent, and Lord knows how many attempts, the mechanics of it all, and the results are really no different than the were 100 years ago. An all electric vehicle is still no more practical. It still has a very limited range of travel, top speed, and driveability. Oh, and they cost a lot of money, and since they must be plugged in to the existing electrical grid, they use the same “dirty” electricity that all of the greens are losing their minds over today!

Oh sure, you can buy a hybrid, but they are underpowered, overpriced, and only work because they also have a gasoline engine for when you actually want to drive them somewhere. Other than making yourself feel better, and lightened your bank account unnecessarily, you’ve accomplished absolutely nothing. Oh, and those batteries? Major environmental hazzards. Wait till the landfills start filling up with those deals. Talk about pollution!

Natural gas fixes this problem. It’s proven technology that’s been with us for decades. It works, and would take minimal effort to get the infrastructure in place to make it happen. Many larger municipalities already run most of their city owned fleet on CNG, and other countries have retail outlets that dispense the product, such as this one in the Czech Republic:

Of course, any discussion that talks energy, must talk nuclear. We must do it. France gets nearly 80 percent of it’s electricity from nuclear energy. France! If France can do it, the United States, the most powerful nation on earth, most certainly can.

It always amuses me: We actually aid rouge nations, nations who want to develop nuclear weapons to destroy the world, by helping them set up civilian nuclear plants “to generate electricity,” and yet, we are absolutely verboten from building our own cheap, safe, and really clean sources of nuclear power. It is the very definition of insanity.

Again, move the enviro-nuts out of the way and start expediting the process. Instead of wasting billions on “cash for clunkers” or trillions trying to destroy the best health care system on the planet, lets make it our goal to get 80 percent of our electricity from nuclear power, in say, a decade!

In the mean time, it is said that we have several hundreds of years worth of coal. It is actually our most plentiful source of energy in this country. It goes without saying that we need to develop clean coal technology to it’s fullest.

Now, while all of this is going on, we absolutely should look at other ways to generate energy, and power our cars and trucks. That quest should never stop. But we need better ideas than what we have now, because so far, we don’t have true workable solutions, solutions that can work in a free market. In other words, solutions that will work without billions, or trillions in tax payer funded subsidies.

Now the other benefit from all of this is Joe Biden’s favorite three letter word “J-O-B-S.” And I’m not talking the Barack Obama style temporary jobs, or jobs in government. I’m talking quality, durable jobs. Jobs that will pay Americans a good wage for a good days work, the kind of jobs that built America in the first place.

Energy is the single most important issue to society in general, and the United States in particular. The entire world runs on energy. We simply can’t function without it. Even more important, something that most folks overlook, even if we stopped using oil today, as a source of fuel, almost every product you use, every medicine you take, has some form of petroleum in it’s base. Oil isn’t going away!

We need to get serious for many reasons. A realistic energy policy, one like Sarah Palin has been touting for years, will not only give us economic security, but security from terrorism, as well. It will make America independent and able to look out for her own interests rather than having to bow before ruthless dictators world wide, just to keep the flow of our economy’s lifeblood coming. We will no longer fund terror, and we will no longer have to be gentle with nation states who continue to sponsor terror.

A coherent and comprehensive energy policy will create millions upon millions of well paying, durable jobs, for generations to come. The push to attain this goal will stimulate our economy right now, and create real jobs, right now.

It’s time to “Drill Baby, Drill” and do “all of the above” as well.

Ronald Reagan And Sarah Palin’s Christmas Messages To The Nation

Came across this wonderful Christmas message the Great Ronald Reagan gave to the nation. This was 1981, The Reagan family’s first Christmas in the White House. For those that remember, this was of great comfort to the nation during some rough times, I find it of great comfort in these times as well.

The times are tough, and the Republic in grave danger, but we are indeed a nation built on faith and freedom. Reagan’s words serve to remind us that the American spirit, along with divine providence, shall always prevail.

Sarah Palin also has an inspirational message to us all:

Merry Christmas!

Todd and I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! The Palin family is blessed to all be together among family and friends this Holiday – and that is one of the greatest gifts of all. But while this is a beautiful time of the year for families and friends around the world, we recognize that it is a difficult time of the year for so many others – especially this year. May we remember all those who are lonely or in need on this blessed night, and please join us in saying a special prayer for those away from their loved ones in the service of a grateful nation. May God bless you all and continue to bless our great country.

– Sarah Palin

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:14)

May everyone have a Merry Christmas and may everyone be blessed with all of the love and joy this time brings to our lives. May God bless you all.

Sarah Palin: Midnight Votes, Backroom Deals, and a Death Panel: The Continuing Constitutional Crisis

More like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil with this bunch!

At what should be the happiest, most wonderfully magical time of the year, a great evil has gripped the nation. The most corrupt Congress in our nation’s history in lockstep with the most corrupt and evil man to ever step foot in the Oval Office are committing acts that amount to no less than treason.

As we wrote earlier, in a piece entitled Death of the Republic, some serious maneuvering by Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid slipped some language into the already grossly unconstitutional Obamacare fiasco that would prohibit future Congresses from making changes or repealing key measures of this legislation.

As you can imagine, the outrage over this is through the roof nationwide.

Ironically, and well…even laughably, this provision that Reid and the other communists want to make sure is never, ever modified, or repealed, is the very death panel that the communists and their lap dogs in the corrupt, Obamacentric media have been working night and day, with almost superhuman effort, to convince the public that it never existed!!

It was even deemed “lie of the year” by the radical left wing media!

Sarah has now weighed in on the subject:

Midnight Votes, Backroom Deals, and a Death Panel

Last weekend while you were preparing for the holidays with your family, Harry Reid’s Senate was making shady backroom deals to ram through the Democrat health care take-over. The Senate ended debate on this bill without even reading it. That and midnight weekend votes seem to be standard operating procedures in D.C. No one is certain of what’s in the bill, but Senator Jim DeMint spotted one shocking revelation regarding the section in the bill describing the Independent Medicare Advisory Board (now called the Independent Payment Advisory Board), which is a panel of bureaucrats charged with cutting health care costs on the backs of patients – also known as rationing. Apparently Reid and friends have changed the rules of the Senate so that the section of the bill dealing with this board can’t be repealed or amended without a 2/3 supermajority vote. Senator DeMint said:

“This is a rule change. It’s a pretty big deal. We will be passing a new law and at the same time creating a senate rule that makes it out of order to amend or even repeal the law. I’m not even sure that it’s constitutional, but if it is, it most certainly is a senate rule. I don’t see why the majority party wouldn’t put this in every bill. If you like your law, you most certainly would want it to have force for future senates. I mean, we want to bind future congresses. This goes to the fundamental purpose of senate rules: to prevent a tyrannical majority from trampling the rights of the minority or of future congresses.”

In other words, Democrats are protecting this rationing “death panel” from future change with a procedural hurdle. You have to ask why they’re so concerned about protecting this particular provision. Could it be because bureaucratic rationing is one important way Democrats want to “bend the cost curve” and keep health care spending down?

The Congressional Budget Office seems to think that such rationing has something to do with cost. In a letter to Harry Reid last week, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf noted (with a number of caveats) that the bill’s calculations call for a reduction in Medicare’s spending rate by about 2 percent in the next two decades, but then he writes the kicker:

“It is unclear whether such a reduction in the growth rate could be achieved, and if so, whether it would be accomplished through greater efficiencies in the delivery of health care or would reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care.”

Though Nancy Pelosi and friends have tried to call “death panels” the “lie of the year,” this type of rationing – what the CBO calls “reduc[ed] access to care” and “diminish[ed] quality of care” – is precisely what I meant when I used that metaphor.

This health care bill is one of the most far-reaching and expensive expansions of the role of government into our lives. We’re talking about putting one-seventh of our economy under the government’s thumb. We’re also talking about something as intimate to our personal well-being as medical care.

This bill is so unpopular that people on the right and the left hate it. So why go through with it? The Senate is planning to vote on this on Christmas Eve. Why the rush? Though we will begin paying for this bill immediately, we will see no benefits for years. (That’s the trick that allowed the CBO to state that the bill won’t grow the deficit for the next ten years.)

The administration’s promises of transparency and bipartisanship have been broken one by one. This entire process has been defined by midnight votes on weekends, closed-door meetings with industry lobbyists, and payoffs to politicians willing to sell their principles for sweetheart deals. Is it any wonder that Americans are so disillusioned with their leaders in Washington?

This is about politics, not health care. Americans don’t want this bill. Americans don’t like this bill. Washington has stopped listening to us. But we’re paying attention, and 2010 is coming.

I love this woman! The radical communist scumbags in the media, Congress, and the White House keep saying she’s crazy with the death panel talk, trying to intimidate her, and she comes right back and shoves it up their asses!

BOOM, taste my nightstick!

Sarah, of course, is correct here. This is all about politics and nothing about health care. This is an evil, wicked thing that is being visited on the American people as we get ready to celebrate the birth of Christ, our Lord and Savior.

At the end of her note, Sarah references an opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal that must be read:

Change Nobody Believes In

A bill so reckless that it has to be rammed through on a partisan vote on Christmas eve.
And tidings of comfort and joy from Harry Reid too. The Senate Majority Leader has decided that the last few days before Christmas are the opportune moment for a narrow majority of Democrats to stuff ObamaCare through the Senate to meet an arbitrary White House deadline. Barring some extraordinary reversal, it now seems as if they have the 60 votes they need to jump off this cliff, with one-seventh of the economy in tow.

Mr. Obama promised a new era of transparent good government, yet on Saturday morning Mr. Reid threw out the 2,100-page bill that the world’s greatest deliberative body spent just 17 days debating and replaced it with a new “manager’s amendment” that was stapled together in covert partisan negotiations. Democrats are barely even bothering to pretend to care what’s in it, not that any Senator had the chance to digest it in the 38 hours before the first cloture vote at 1 a.m. this morning. After procedural motions that allow for no amendments, the final vote could come at 9 p.m. on December 24.

Even in World War I there was a Christmas truce.

The rushed, secretive way that a bill this destructive and unpopular is being forced on the country shows that “reform” has devolved into the raw exercise of political power for the single purpose of permanently expanding the American entitlement state. An increasing roll of leaders in health care and business are looking on aghast at a bill that is so large and convoluted that no one can truly understand it, as Finance Chairman Max Baucus admitted on the floor last week. The only goal is to ram it into law while the political window is still open, and clean up the mess later.

***

• Health costs. From the outset, the White House’s core claim was that reform would reduce health costs for individuals and businesses, and they’re sticking to that story. “Anyone who says otherwise simply hasn’t read the bills,” Mr. Obama said over the weekend. This is so utterly disingenuous that we doubt the President really believes it.

The best and most rigorous cost analysis was recently released by the insurer WellPoint, which mined its actuarial data in various regional markets to model the Senate bill. WellPoint found that a healthy 25-year-old in Milwaukee buying coverage on the individual market will see his costs rise by 178%. A small business based in Richmond with eight employees in average health will see a 23% increase. Insurance costs for a 40-year-old family with two kids living in Indianapolis will pay 106% more. And on and on.

These increases are solely the result of ObamaCare—above and far beyond the status quo—because its strict restrictions on underwriting and risk-pooling would distort insurance markets. All but a handful of states have rejected regulations like “community rating” because they encourage younger and healthier buyers to wait until they need expensive care, increasing costs for everyone. Benefits and pricing will now be determined by politics.

As for the White House’s line about cutting costs by eliminating supposed “waste,” even Victor Fuchs, an eminent economist generally supportive of ObamaCare, warned last week that these political theories are overly simplistic. “The oft-heard promise ‘we will find out what works and what does not’ scarcely does justice to the complexity of medical practice,” the Stanford professor wrote.

• Steep declines in choice and quality. This is all of a piece with the hubris of an Administration that thinks it can substitute government planning for market forces in determining where the $33 trillion the U.S. will spend on medicine over the next decade should go.

This centralized system means above all fewer choices; what works for the political class must work for everyone. With formerly private insurers converted into public utilities, for instance, they’ll inevitably be banned from selling products like health savings accounts that encourage more cost-conscious decisions.

Unnoticed by the press corps, the Congressional Budget Office argued recently that the Senate bill would so “substantially reduce flexibility in terms of the types, prices, and number of private sellers of health insurance” that companies like WellPoint might need to “be considered part of the federal budget.”

With so large a chunk of the economy and medical practice itself in Washington’s hands, quality will decline. Ultimately, “our capacity to innovate and develop new therapies would suffer most of all,” as Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey Flier recently wrote in our pages. Take the $2 billion annual tax—rising to $3 billion in 2018—that will be leveled against medical device makers, among the most innovative U.S. industries. Democrats believe that more advanced health technologies like MRI machines and drug-coated stents are driving costs too high, though patients and their physicians might disagree.

“The Senate isn’t hearing those of us who are closest to the patient and work in the system every day,” Brent Eastman, the chairman of the American College of Surgeons, said in a statement for his organization and 18 other speciality societies opposing ObamaCare. For no other reason than ideological animus, doctor-owned hospitals will face harsh new limits on their growth and who they’re allowed to treat. Physician Hospitals of America says that ObamaCare will “destroy over 200 of America’s best and safest hospitals.”

• Blowing up the federal fisc. Even though Medicare’s unfunded liabilities are already about 2.6 times larger than the entire U.S. economy in 2008, Democrats are crowing that ObamaCare will cost “only” $871 billion over the next decade while fantastically reducing the deficit by $132 billion, according to CBO.

Yet some 98% of the total cost comes after 2014—remind us why there must absolutely be a vote this week—and most of the taxes start in 2010. That includes the payroll tax increase for individuals earning more than $200,000 that rose to 0.9 from 0.5 percentage points in Mr. Reid’s final machinations. Job creation, here we come.

Other deceptions include a new entitlement for long-term care that starts collecting premiums tomorrow but doesn’t start paying benefits until late in the decade. But the worst is not accounting for a formula that automatically slashes Medicare payments to doctors by 21.5% next year and deeper after that. Everyone knows the payment cuts won’t happen but they remain in the bill to make the cost look lower. The American Medical Association’s priority was eliminating this “sustainable growth rate” but all they got in return for their year of ObamaCare cheerleading was a two-month patch snuck into the defense bill that passed over the weekend.

The truth is that no one really knows how much ObamaCare will cost because its assumptions on paper are so unrealistic. To hide the cost increases created by other parts of the bill and transfer them onto the federal balance sheet, the Senate sets up government-run “exchanges” that will subsidize insurance for those earning up to 400% of the poverty level, or $96,000 for a family of four in 2016. Supposedly they would only be offered to those whose employers don’t provide insurance or work for small businesses.

As Eugene Steuerle of the left-leaning Urban Institute points out, this system would treat two workers with the same total compensation—whatever the mix of cash wages and benefits—very differently. Under the Senate bill, someone who earned $42,000 would get $5,749 from the current tax exclusion for employer-sponsored coverage but $12,750 in the exchange. A worker making $60,000 would get $8,310 in the exchanges but only $3,758 in the current system.

For this reason Mr. Steuerle concludes that the Senate bill is not just a new health system but also “a new welfare and tax system” that will warp the labor market. Given the incentives of these two-tier subsidies, employers with large numbers of lower-wage workers like Wal-Mart may well convert them into “contractors” or do more outsourcing. As more and more people flood into “free” health care, taxpayer costs will explode.

• Political intimidation. The experts who have pointed out such complications have been ignored or dismissed as “ideologues” by the White House. Those parts of the health-care industry that couldn’t be bribed outright, like Big Pharma, were coerced into acceding to this agenda. The White House was able to, er, persuade the likes of the AMA and the hospital lobbies because the federal government will control 55% of total U.S. health spending under ObamaCare, according to the Administration’s own Medicare actuaries.

Others got hush money, namely Nebraska’s Ben Nelson. Even liberal Governors have been howling for months about ObamaCare’s unfunded spending mandates: Other budget priorities like education will be crowded out when about 21% of the U.S. population is on Medicaid, the joint state-federal program intended for the poor. Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman calculates that ObamaCare will result in $2.5 billion in new costs for his state that “will be passed on to citizens through direct or indirect taxes and fees,” as he put it in a letter to his state’s junior Senator.

So in addition to abortion restrictions, Mr. Nelson won the concession that Congress will pay for 100% of Nebraska Medicaid expansions into perpetuity. His capitulation ought to cost him his political career, but more to the point, what about the other states that don’t have a Senator who’s the 60th vote for ObamaCare?

***

“After a nearly century-long struggle we are on the cusp of making health-care reform a reality in the United States of America,” Mr. Obama said on Saturday. He’s forced to claim the mandate of “history” because he can’t claim the mandate of voters. Some 51% of the public is now opposed, according to National Journal’s composite of all health polling. The more people know about ObamaCare, the more unpopular it becomes.

The tragedy is that Mr. Obama inherited a consensus that the health-care status quo needs serious reform, and a popular President might have crafted a durable compromise that blended the best ideas from both parties. A more honest and more thoughtful approach might have even done some good. But as Mr. Obama suggested, the Democratic old guard sees this plan as the culmination of 20th-century liberalism.

So instead we have this vast expansion of federal control. Never in our memory has so unpopular a bill been on the verge of passing Congress, never has social and economic legislation of this magnitude been forced through on a purely partisan vote, and never has a party exhibited more sheer political willfulness that is reckless even for Washington or had more warning about the consequences of its actions.

These 60 Democrats are creating a future of epic increases in spending, taxes and command-and-control regulation, in which bureaucracy trumps innovation and transfer payments are more important than private investment and individual decisions. In short, the Obama Democrats have chosen change nobody believes in—outside of themselves—and when it passes America will be paying for it for decades to come.

This health care bill is a complete and total disaster for the nation. It destroys the Republic forever. In this writer’s opinion, anyone who puts their name to this legislation is guilty of treason and deserves the harshest penalties allowed by law.

One last thing, as both Sarah and myself mentioned death panels here, I just got an e-mail linking to a nice piece from the CATO Institute, a libertarian think tank, that backs up what we’ve been writing about here, and Sarah has been saying from the start:

Death Panels? Sarah Palin Was Right

Posted by Alan Reynolds

PolitiFact.com gave Sarah Palin their “Lie of the Year” award for warning on August 7 that the Democrat’s idea of “cost containment” implied rationing by “death panels.”

The self-described fact-checking web site of the St. Petersburg Times claimed Palin was criticizing a provision in the House bill under which “Medicare would pay for doctors’ appointments for patients to discuss living wills, health care directives and other end-of-life issues.”

The claim that Governor Palin confused one-on-one counseling between doctors and patients with any sort of “panel” was always ridiculous on its face. Indeed, that claim should itself have been a leading candidate for “Lie of the Year.” Yet Palin’s critics kept on equating death panels with counseling throughout the year, as though they could not even begin to understand plain English.

In a column called “Reporting the Lies,” Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein wrote, “Before Sarah Palin talked about death panels, no one knew about Sen. Johnny Isakson’s quiet crusade to persuade Medicare beneficiaries to adopt living wills.”

Adopting a living will requires a lawyer, not a doctor, so there must have been more to the crusade than just that. There is some reason to wonder if the crusaders intended to promote penny-pinching advice like President Obama’s famous suggestion that perhaps grandma should skip the expensive operation and take a cheap pain pill instead (generic, of course).

In any case, no single physician’s advice involves any panel, deathly or otherwise. Palin was clearly worried about rationing by some government-appointed group, panel or board of experts — such the (currently) powerless panel that recently suggested fewer and later breast exams, or the Senate bill’s potentially more lethal Independent Payment Advisory Board

The shameless hoax that Palin had confused individual consulting with rationing by a panel was repeated endlessly. By November, the Washington Post was treating this obvious canard as an established fact: “Proposed health-care reform legislation includes a provision that allows Medicare to pay for “end-of-life” counseling for seniors and their families who request it. The provision — which Sarah Palin erroneously described as “death panels” for seniors — nearly derailed President Obama’s health-care initiative.”

What Palin wrote about death panels clearly had nothing to do with counseling or with any other specifics in seminal House bill. What she wrote was: “Government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course.”

How could anyone believe Palin’s sensible comment about rationing was, in reality, a senseless fear of counseling? To say so was no mistake; it was an oft-repeated big lie.

Rather than even mentioning the House bill, Palin linked to an interesting speech by “Rep. Michele Bachmann [which] highlighted the Orwellian thinking of the president’s health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the brother of the White House chief of staff.”

Dr. Emmanuel’s varied and murky remarks about using panels of experts (like himself) to ration health care are less clear or less candid than those of another bioethicist, Peter Singer of Princeton. Singer’s article, “Why We Must Ration Health Care,” was a cover feature in The New York Times Magazine on July 15 — shortly before Palin took the opposing side of this issue.

Singer’s argument (about an expensive anti-cancer drug) is that, “If there is any point at which you say, ‘No, an extra six months [of life] isn’t worth that much,’ then you think that health care should be rationed.” But the question itself is rhetorical trickery, sophistry. Even if there was certain knowledge about life expectancy with or without some treatment (which is never true), Singer has no right to any opinion about how much an extra six months of my life is worth (and vice-versa) unless he’s paying the bills.

But that, of course, is what makes the proposed expansion of insurance subsidies and Medicaid so ominous. Just as federal politicians imagine that a small minority stake in some bank entitles them to override all other stockholders when it comes to executive pay, federal politicians would surely claim that even small subsidies for anyone’s health insurance entitle them to, as Singer put it, set “limits on which treatments should be paid for.” And those politicians would surely appoint panels of experts as cover when some life-saving procedure, device or drug was ruled-out for those with insufficient quality-adjusted years left to live.

Singer wrote, quite correctly, that in “Medicare, Medicaid and hospital emergency rooms, health care is rationed by long waits. . . [and] low payments to doctors that discourage some from serving public patients.” [emphasis added]

Pending health care bills would make such government-mandated scarcity of health care much worse. There would be massive shifting of money away from Medicare toward Medicaid. But the extra Medicaid money would be spread around more thinly. States would cut benefits to the poor in order to accommodate millions of new, less-poor people lured into Medicaid, at least half of whom (7 or 8 million by my estimate) currently have employer-provided health insurance.

The Senate health bill supposedly intends to slash Medicare payment rates for physicians by 21% next year and more in future years, with permanent reductions in payments to other medical services too. It would also establish an Independent Payment Advisory Board which would be empowered to make deeper cuts which Congress could reject only with considerable difficulty. If that’s not quite a “death panel” it would surely not be pro-life in its impact.

The Congressional Budget Office says, “It is unclear whether such a reduction in the growth rate could be achieved, and if so, whether it would . . . reduce access to care or diminish the quality of care.”

Actually, it’s clear enough that the proposed Medicare cuts won’t be achieved, but that efforts in that direction will nonetheless reduce access to care and diminish its quality. The government can’t boost demand and cut prices without creating excess demand. And that, in turn, means rationing by longer waiting lines and by panels (rationing boards) making life-or death decisions for other people.

As Sarah Palin predicted, “Government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course.“

As the CATO Institute points out so well, Sarah is right, as usual. The chronically ill, old folks, and, of course, the disabled are royally screwed here. Evil men like Dr Ezekiel Emanuel have already written the book on these death panels, and it’s all based on who is deemed “productive to society.” This is as evil as it gets. This is a few psychopaths playing God with Americans’ lives.

Below is the original poster the modified one above came from. In Nazi Germany, the government worked overtime to convince it’s people that some lives just weren’t worth living and should be extinguished. They even went so far as to point out how much keeping what they termed “useless eaters” alive cost each and every German. They got this thinking from the American “progressive” movement, by the way.

Sarah Palin brings this home to me, through her beautiful son Trig. Thanks to the American “progressive” (liberal) movement and immoral groups like Planned Parenthood, a group started by Klu Klux Klanner Margaret Sanger, as a way of Negro population control…she called blacks “human weeds“…,we now abort fully 90 percent of all Downs Syndrome babies.

As our friend Adrienne Ross points out: “Trig is a testimony to the beauty and value of all God’s children.” There is simply no way you can look at this beautiful boy and not see that he is a blessing and a true gift. He brings much joy to his family, and inspiration to other families with Downs Syndrome children.

It breaks one’s heart that so many children like Trig never are allowed to experience life because the “progressives” are carrying out a jihad against all children with disabilities. They are attempting to desensitize and dehumanize all of mankind.

Kim Priestap has a very revealing piece on Dr Death, entitled Ezekiel Emanuel: Deny Coverage to Elderly and Disabled for the Greater Good that is a must read.

Sorry to be so long winded here, but lets face it, this is the most sweeping, and the most dangerous legislation ever proposed by Congress and a President. This is pure and absolute evil. Nothing less. The men and women who have signed on to this destruction of America, and her peoples need to be dealt with in the harshest manner humanly possible. They are all traitors.

There was one bit of sanity in Congress though as freshman Alabama Congressman Parker Griffith did something very rare, he switched parties. From Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air:

Usually one does not see Congressmen or Senators flipping parties to join the minority. However, Politico’s Josh Kraushaar has a scoop that Blue Dog Democrat Parker Griffith of Alabama, a freshman in Congress, has seen enough of Nancy Pelosi’s leadership. He will join Republicans in a move that has far more symbolic than substantive impact — for now.

This is a fascinating story. It is rare to see folks switch parties, and switching to the minority party is virtually unheard of. This is a very strong statement about the state of the democrat/communist party.

Congressman Griffith is a doctor BTW. I imagine that had a lot to do with his switching parties and fighting so hard against all of this. I know from speaking with my doctors and their staff, that this pending evil is not wanted in any way, shape, or form.

Sarah was quick to welcome Congressman Griffith aboard via Twitter:

Congratulations Alabama!And all Americans concerned about Capitol Hill’s current agenda;Rep Parker Griffith just did the right thing.Welcome

We are proud to welcome him to the fight as well.

I want to leave everyone with this reminder from the Great Ronald Reagan on the dangers of allowing government to take over health care and what their real end game is:

Death Of The Republic: Democrat/Communists Place Provision In Health Care Bill That Makes It Impossible To Repeal: Senator Jim DeMint Challenges

Our nation is no longer a Representative Republic, it has officially become a communist dictatorship. Our United States Constitution has been rendered null and void. After 233 years of being the shining city on a hill, the bright beacon of liberty and freedom to all of the world, the lights have been extinguished.

Great evil has gripped our nation in the form of the most corrupt President and the most corrupt Congress in our nation’s history. The democrat/communist party has succeeded where the British (twice) The French, Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and the Soviet Union failed. They have destroyed the United States.

This didn’t happen overnight. This has been over 100 years in the making. With the advent of the progressive movement, what many label as liberalism, there has been an incredible effort to fundamentally change our nation from a Representative Republic, a Constitutional form of government, to a centrally planned, command and control type of communist dictatorship.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt did more to destroy the fabric of this society than any other President in history, that is until Barack Obama came along. Roosevelt, like Obama today, took office during an economic recession. And like Obama, Roosevelt used this opportunity as an excuse to greatly remake government.

Roosevelt, like Obama, bullied corporations, took over banks, business concerns, tried to dictate salaries, replace CEOs and many other unconstitutional activities. So rabid was the lust to change America from a free nation to his vison of a command and control form of government, that FDR even threatened the Supreme Court with the notion of adding to it’s size a number of justices so as to delude any attempt to overrule his authority. Something a President is allowed to do, with the advice and consent of Congress.

The major concern of the day, as it is now, was joblessness. We were in a deep recession, much worse than now. Roosevelt’s solution, predictably, was all sorts of government control, regulation, and over all heavy handed meddling. In other words, the free market system was all but abandoned. The result? A serious recession, one that could have been turned around, became what is now known as The Great Depression.

How do I know that recession could have been turned around? Well, it was no worse than the recession America faced in the 1970’s under both Ford and Carter. Ronald Reagan was able to come in and through common sense, and Conservative principles, turn it all around. It took some time, and most of Reagan’s first term still saw rough economic waters, but he ended up creating the greatest peace time economic growth in our nation’s history.

Now this not to say that all of Roosevelt’s programs were bad. We got things like government backing for our banking system: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, FDIC, was born as a result of the economic collapse, for example. However, most of Roosevelt’s plans were rooted in the ideology of socialism and communism. (Basically the same thing)

Roosevelt instituted massive federal work programs, CCC camps for youth, and so on. Yes, it got people back to work, and many landmark buildings, bridges, dams, and other outstanding projects came about, but in the process, the free market system was all but abandoned. This ended up delaying economic recovery for a decade.

Economists will argue about this until the end of time, but many feel that it was only because of World War II that the American economy eventually recovered. It was most certainly afterward when things got back to where they should be.

One of the other things to come out of the Imperial Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt is the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution. Before Roosevelt, Presidents lived by the example set by our first President George Washington.

As you may, or may not know, after the Revolution, Congress, and the people, were quite ready to make Washington king. He refused. In fact, it is said that King George III, ruler of England asked American artist Benjamin West what would Washington do after Great Britain acknowledged the nation’s independence. Would he take his Army and create a government? West reportedly told King George no, that Washington would probably go back to his farm. The king scoffed, then went on to say that if he did that, he would be the greatest man alive.

Presidents ever since had respected that tradition, until Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt, who like Obama, controlled the media, the information, was elected to two terms, then an unprecedented third term, and an alarming fourth term. Only death ended what had become a defacto dictatorship.

Even though Roosevelt’s policies were dangerous to the Republic and many did far more harm than good, through manipulation of the media, and strong propaganda campaigns, voters willingly kept voting for him.

Ever since the ratification of the 22nd Amendment, democrat/communists have been scheming for ways to take control through other means. Since they can’t just install a dictator for life in the oval office, they have sought to make Americans so dependent on government, rather than themselves, that the would always vote for those who would pledge to create and maintain this type of arrangement.

One of the most horrific notions created by Roosevelt is something straight out of Karl Marx’s play book of communist ideology. Roosevelt proposed a “Second Bill Of Rights.” While I admit many of these things seem to be quite OK, on the surface, each and everyone requires you to totally and completely give away every single right and freedom that God gave you, and the Constitution guarantees you. They require you to submit every facet of your life to the command and control of the dictator.

Let’s take a listen to FDR’s propostion:

Now let’s take a look at some of these:

* The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.
OK, so the government is going to guarantee you a job. What if you want to work in one sort of field, but the government has a different idea for you? By the way, France “guarantees” jobs through legislation that makes it almost impossible to fire someone once you hire them. The results?

For one thing, unemployment is permanently in the double digits. It is incredibly high among the youth of the nation. Employers are incredibly reluctant to hire them. What if they turn out to be worthless? They’re stuck. Currently, President Sarkozy is struggling with new laws that allow for a probation period where younger workers can be hired, then fired, if things don’t work out. As expected, this is unpopular, and riots have been common.

Another issue is the fact that if you can’t fire someone, in keeping with human nature, those employees will tend to be less productive, less competent, because no matter what, they have a job for life. We see that in this country in union shops, and most especially in education, where teachers unions constructed a scheme where it is almost impossible to fire a lousy teacher.

The entire nation suffers under these type of systems.

Roosevelt mentions adequate food, clothes, and recreation. Who decides this? Who controls the “adequate” supply of food, clothes, and recreation?

I’m a bit of a gourmand eater. I like fine foods, right along side with my cheeseburgers, pizza, and burritos. There are many, especially in government, that bombard me, and 100’s of millions of other Americans, daily, with propaganda that tells me all of this is bad. Will I be forced to exist on a diet of tofu and sprouts? Or just watery soup and day old bread, when they have it?

Every communist nation that guarantees food, has massive shortages, and starving citizens.

And what about clothes? Americans are rather fashion conscious. We like our blue jeans as well as our Armani suits. For me, a pair of shorts and a comfortable tee shirt is the uniform of the day, 365 days a year, unless there is an occasion. For others, they simply “must” be dressed in the finest bespoke attire, as nothing else would be “adequate” to their needs, wants, and desires. How do you think that would work out?

And what about recreation? Is that a day off? Is it free ticket to the movies? The baseball game? Or is it a certain amount of allotted TV or computer time? All of these can be considered recreation. Who decides?

I grew up at the drag strip. Drag raced motorcycles, and was blessed to be able to race nationwide because of the fruits of my labor, and a bit of help from sponsors. This has been and always will be my favorite form of recreation. I would love nothing more than to own a professional drag racing team, but alas, the yearly budget for a top NHRA team is north of $3 million. To me, “adequate” recreation would be owning one of these teams. For the millions who participate in drag racing, from the sportsman level to professional ranks, to the fans, this is their “adequate” recreation. Will Uncle Sugar by me a Top Fuel dragster? And if not, why not?

One of the things that makes the United States of America the greatest nation the world has ever known is freedom. In this country anyone can be anything they wish to be. Our history is filled with stories of men and women who have beat all the odds against them, poor education, physical and mental handicaps, poverty, even horrible prejudices, to became successful beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. This is because of freedom and liberty, a concept that was only a dream, and virtually unknown to mankind before America was founded. It was certainly something no government had ever embraced.

Of course, along with the freedom to succeed beyond all dreams, comes the possibility to fail spectacularly, and that’s as it should be. In fact, it’s necessary. It’s obvious that we learn from failure, it’s the necessary process mankind has used to develop since the beginning of time.

Since the beginning, man has sought to improve his life. He has invented all sorts of gadgets, schemes, tools, and so forth. Some have been lucky and just had their ideas work the first time. But generally all great inventions are birthed through a painful process of failure, before the success. More profound is the fact that often, through the process of learning what doesn’t work, completely new things are discovered, and new inventions come into being.

This is the same in business. Some businesses fail, some succeed. Our history is filled with great businessmen, captains of industry, who failed spectacularly, many times on multiple occasions, before becoming household names and fabulously successful. This didn’t happen because they somehow blindly stumbled into success. No, this happened because through failure, for any number of reasons, these great men, and women, learned what worked, and most importantly, what didn’t work. This is vital.

Now under the communist system, and the current thinking of the democrat/communist party, certain businesses are deemed “too big to fail.” This sets our entire system on it’s ear. It causes failures to be put on life support, sometimes indefinitely.

Several things happen when something becomes “too big to fail.” The biggest change, when government comes along, is control. These once independent businesses now become micro-managed by government, usually by people who know absolutely nothing about business. These businesses are subject to the every whim of politicians. Sound and proven business practices go out the window.

With failure no longer an option, productivity, creativity, and profitability suffer, and ofttimes disappear. Worse, competitors who didn’t make the mistakes that caused the business to fail, are now at a disadvantage, because those propped up by government have the advantage.

As government has deemed something “too big to fail“, all sound business practices disappear.

Government will operate at incredible loses, into infinity, to keep their pet industry on life support. Look at AMTRAK or pretty much any other mass transit system. They are incredible money losers. But politicians have deemed them “too big to fail“. So billions annually are poured down that bottomless pit.

So what does this have to do with you? Well….under communism, government deems you “too big to fail.” That of course is quite alluring and comforting to many who don’t understand the ramifications of this. I mean gee, no matter what happens, Uncle Sugar is going to take care of you:

Of course, for Uncle Sugar to be able to take care of your every need, he must take from those that produce, and give to those that don’t. One could think of Uncle Sugar as “Robin Hood” or a thief in the night.

The end result though is a poorer quality of life for everyone. You hear the communists talk constantly about “economic justice.” It’s the same tired old class warfare the democrat/communist party has waged on success for a century. Their entire existence is based on making you hate people with money and success, rather than celebrate them. Their entire spiel is that somehow, by simply being successful, those “evil rich” have stolen YOUR future!

Of course, it doesn’t work that way, it’s not a zero-sum gain. There is no limit to economic growth. In other words, if I make a dollar, it doesn’t prevent someone else from also making a dollar. In fact, under capitalism, I must make a dollar, so I can spend it, for others to gain a dollar.

The communists infiltrated our schools decades ago, so the concept of all of this has been lost over time, only to be replaced with an inherent hatred for those more successful than others. We see it at every level.

We’ve seen a disturbing trend where games are played but no one keeps an official score, where there are no winners or losers, and everyone gets a trophy, just for showing up. This is counterintuitive to human nature, as man is instinctively competitive. But for the communist system to work, that must be dampened. It must be stifled.

Common sense tells us that competition is good. It breeds higher quality. Not only in business, with superior goods and services, but in life. It is that competitive spirit that founded this nation. It’s that competitive spirit that made man get off the couch and exercise so he could meet hot chicks!

Unfortunately, for the communist, the competitive spirit also thwarts their plans of domination over mankind. It’s that competitive spirit that will not allow man to have his freedom and liberty, once gained, to be stolen from him, without a fight.

This is why the communists seek to condition children to be less competitive. It just more of the charming evils they bring to the table with them.

Here are some more “rights” FDR proposed:

* The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.

Who determines what a “decent living” is? And what is a “decent living?” This discussion alone could last into eternity. For some, “decent” would be “three hots and a cot” for others nothing short of the “rock star” lifestyle will do. Fortunately, in America, you have the opportunity to have either one. Not the right, but the opportunity.

*The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad.
Sounds good, where do I sign up!

How do we stop nations abroad from unfair practices? I can hear the anti-war protesters now! Instead of shouting “no war for oil” it’ll be “no war for unfair business practices!” Just doesn’t have that same ring, does it?

But just as it IS our nation’s policy to go to war over oil, it would necessarily be policy to go to war against nations that trade or compete unfairly on the open market.

Let me know how that turns out, I’ll wait here.

*The right of every family to a decent home.

Who decides what a “decent” home is. And what is “decent?” Is it a shotgun shack, a FEMA trailer, forty acres and a mule, or one of the McMansions that are popular among new home buyers in Texas? What if they run out of mules?

*The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.
*The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment.

That’s right, you too can become “too big to fail“, and even too big to get sick!

*The right to a good education.

This is already an epic failure. We had good schools, led the world. Then Jimmy Carter came up with a central command and control system through the creation of the Department of Education during his presidency. The march to mediocrity thus began!

The bottom line on all of this is simple. In order for this Utopian system to come to pass, you must surrender all of your rights to the state. You must give up every semblance of freedom and liberty. You submit your life to the will of nameless, faceless bureaucrats who answer to no one.

Capitalism seeks to bring everyone up, to allow everyone the potential to experience unlimited growth and success, so long as they work for it. Under capitalism, there are no guarantees whatsoever, except the right to either spectacularly succeed, or fail, based on your own talent, and ambition.

Under communism, “economic justice” is sought. Those that produce are actually punished, sometimes greatly, for personal achievement. In an effort to “spread the wealth,” those who have the drive, the spirit to excel are punished through confiscatory taxes, and other penalties for exceeding an artificial “limit to success” placed on them by government.

So unlike capitalism, where the goal is to allow success for all, in effect raising the standard of living for all people, communism, socialism, Marxism, whatever ism you want to call it, in effect, reduces the standard of living, the quality of life, for all.

Quite simply, where capitalism seeks to build up, communism seeks to tear down.

Communism is the ideology of destruction.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

_____Winston Churchill

Just so you know, Roosevelt’s “Second Bill of Rights” the notion of them, have never went away. They are deeply rooted in communism, and all of the cool communists, like Barack Obama and his corrupt Congress, are embracing these ideas with gusto.

We are on the precipice of disaster in this nation. Our Constitution has been rendered null and void by the actions of this corrupt Congress. This isn’t the first America has faced destruction through communism. It’s just the first time it has seemingly succeeded.

In 1948 John Southerland, through his animated series Fun Facts About America, created a short film Make Mine Freedom. This film is just as prudent now, as it was then.

A bit of a side note, our friends over at Hillbuzz.org use the name “Dr Utopia,” exclusively, when referring to Barack Obama. After watching the film, you’ll understand why!

So what the hell does this have to do with Jim DeMint?

Well……. it’s quite well known that the nation is solidly against the so-called “health care bill” that is on the eve of becoming the law of the land. Only one third of the nation supports this travesty. Obama and his corrupt democrat/communist Congress don’t care.

In fact, it looks like the 2010 elections are going to see the absolute destruction of the democrat/communist party at the ballot box. It’s going to be a disaster for them. They will lose both Houses of Congress, and their President may, if the right people are elected, face impeachment. They don’t care. This bill so destroys America as it is, so tears down the Republic, they feel it’s all worth it.

Oh, I know, some think that’s crazy talk. But what this health care legislation does is enslave the nation, and in their calculations will set up a system where they can gain permanent control.

Now I know that may not make sense. But look at programs like Social Security and Medicare Over time, they have become sacred. Democrat/communists have scared old people to death for decades by telling them “evil” Republicans were going to take away their goodies.

Ironically, this very legislation does just that! It cuts programs by a half trillion dollars. It will severely limit access to health care to those on Medicare.

The democrat/communists feel their way to permanent rule, and they want to rule, not govern, is by getting everyone used to depending on the government, not themselves, for their most basic needs.

So…in the short term, they are willing to lose it all, to gain their long term dream of total domination of America, their total domination of mankind.

Now, the Republicans, for their part, have done an incredibly poor job of stopping the destruction of the Republic, pretty much useless, in fact, but that’s a whole entire column unto itself.

Here’s the thing…. the communists know the jig is up come November 2010. They fully expect to lose it all. One of the litmus tests for anyone running to replace these evil men and women in Congress will be their promise to repeal this legislation. In fact, due to ineptness on their part, the GOP is basically reduced to using this as their only option. Not much of a strategy.

As you know, this entire process has taken place behind closed doors, with no Republicans allowed. The Senate bill is 2700 pages long. It took less than 20 to write the entire Constitution!

Knowing that Republicans are already promising to repeal this unconstitutional monstrosity once they take back Congress, Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, a certain casualty in 2010, has added wording that makes this virtually impossible to repeal. This, of course is unconstitutional, in and of itself, and violates Senate rules.

This provision seeks to illegally bind future Congresses to this incredibly bad legislation forever.

From Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

At first, Senator Jim DeMint starts off with a few points of parliamentary inquiry which seem rather dull, but like any good prosecutor, DeMint is carefully building a case — and his target is a particularly noxious clause in Harry Reid’s ObamaCare bill. On page 1020 of the text, DeMint discovers that Reid has created a rule binding future sessions of Congress to a supermajority requirement to overrule the bill’s rationing board, the Independent Medical Advisory Board, whose purpose (stated on page 1001) is to “reduce the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending.” DeMint demands an explanation of how the Majority Leader can allow legislation to alter the rules of the Senate, both on the floor and in committee. The Weekly Standard has the key portion of the transcript:

Here’s a partial transcript from the Weekly Standard:

There ’s one provision that I found particularly troubling and it’s under section C, titled “Limitations on changes to this subsection.”

And I quote — “It shall not be in order in the Senate or the House of Representatives to consider any bill, resolution, amendment, or conference report that would repeal or otherwise change this subsection.”

This is not legislation. It’s not law. This is a rule change. It’s a pretty big deal. We will be passing a new law and at the same time creating a Senate rule that makes it out of order to amend or even repeal the law.

I’m not even sure that it’s constitutional, but if it is, it most certainly is a Senate rule. I don’t see why the majority party wouldn’t put this in every bill. If you like your law, you most certainly would want it to have force for future Senates.

I mean, we want to bind future Congresses. This goes to the fundamental purpose of Senate rules: to prevent a tyrannical majority from trampling the rights of the minority or of future Congresses.

Morrissey goes on to add:

As I recall, Congress is not allowed to pass rules that bind future Congresses. In the House, the rules have to be offered and approved at the beginning of each session. The Senate has standing rules, but they are not in the form of law that requires further legislation to alter — legislation that would be, under this bill, out of order even to introduce. It basically makes Harry Reid the dictator of the Senate, not just now, but in perpetuity.

Is it unconstitutional? The ability of each Congress to govern itself is certainly strongly implied in Article I, Section 5:

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two-thirds, expel a Member.

Clearly the founders did not intend that to mean that the first Congress could set the rules in perpetuity, and indeed as DeMint points out, rule changes have been made consistently without resorting to legislation to accomplish them because of the orders of a prior Congress. Put another way, the elected representatives of today should not have greater authority than those who will follow them. Any attempt to pass this into legislation aggrandizes the power of this Congress at the expense of those that follow.

And as DeMint points out, it sets a very dangerous precedent regardless of which party is in power. What will be next — a Republican Congress declaring any future bill that increases taxes out of order? Would Democrats sit still for that, too?

Erick Erickson has more.

Update: Gabriel Malor says the issue isn’t constitutionality, but the substance of what it protects. Be sure to read it all.

So this is where we are at. Communist thugs, disguised as legislators, have killed the United States of America. They have voided the Constitution. They have rendered the 222 years of precedence since the ratification of our Constitution, irrelevant.

The rule of law no longer exits in the United States of America.

We no longer live in a Representative Republic. We now reside in a communist dictatorship where the will of the people no longer matters and the will of the government will be forced upon the people with an iron fist.

Can this be stopped? Not by anyone in Washington, that’s for sure.

So what now?

Many are making their way to Washington as I write this. The chat rooms, twitter tweets, and Facebook posts are filled with those who are going and imploring others to “just show up” in DC on Christmas Eve, presumable to stage a large protest, and possibly some civil disobedience of some kind.

Here’s what I know for sure: The time for reasonable negotiation with the radicals in this nation is over. Conservatives outnumber the evil liberal/progressive/communist element in this country three to one. We can defeat them by sheer numbers alone. But we must be willing to fight. We must be willing to risk it all to save the nation.

We must all come together and stand up against the most tyrannical and corrupt government out people have ever known. The old Revolutionary cry of “Unite or die” has never been more poignant, more appropriate than now.

The price of doing this will be high, almost unbearable to some, but the price of doing nothing will be eternal slavery for us, our children, and their children. The price of doing nothing will be allowing the greatest nation mankind has ever known to vanish from the face of the earth. To see the beacon of liberty and freedom to go dark forever.

The price for either course of action is high. It’s up to the good people of America to decide if they want that price to be paid in the service of liberty and freedom, or of tyranny and evil.

It is indeed a time for choosing.

Surprisingly Not Very Surprising: Sarah Palin More Respected Than Joe Biden, Al Gore

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll has some very interesting bits of data scattered within. As expected in this poll, Barack Obama’s favorable/unfavorable numbers are upside down, and support for his unconstitutional “health care reform” has collapsed.

Being an NBC poll, the internals are about what you’d expect:

Out of the 1008 questioned, democrats are over sampled by 6 percentage points over Republicans, though those who claim to have voted for Obama vs McCain are closer with only 3 points between them. So that sort of brings it back a little closer to reality.

Ninety percent of those polled are registered voters, not always the most reliable sample, as out of those polled, only sixty-seven percent voted. So one would have to consider this a soft sample. In other words those polled may, or may not reflect the mood of the nation as well as a sample that contained a higher percentage of likely voters. The margin of error is +/- 3.1 percent.

What is interesting though is what is down further into the poll. Half of those polled were asked who they respected the most and half were asked who they respected the least. This yields some remarkable findings:

Now I’m going to mention some people who have served in public life at some point in the past decade. Please tell me which one or two of these people, if any, you have the most regard and respect for

THIS TABLE HAS BEEN RANKED BY THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE

Barack Obama………………….28

Colin Powell……………………..27

Bill Clinton………………………..21

George W Bush…………………17

Hillary Clinton……………………14

John McCain…………………….13

Sarah Palin……………………….13

Dick Cheney………………………9

Al Gore……………………………..8

Joe Biden…………………………..3

None…………………………………3

Not sure…………………………….3

Knowing the sample, that doesn’t seem all that unreasonable. What is simply remarkable is Joe Biden, the Vice President, with almost four decades in Congress is tied with “none of the above” and “I don’t have a clue” for dead last on the old respect-o-meter.

This next question is where it gets a bit more interesting:

Now I’m going to read you some people who have served in public life at some point in the past decade. Please tell me which one or two of these people, if any, you have the least regard and respect for.

THIS TABLE HAS BEEN RANKED BY THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE

George W Bush…………….33

Dick Cheney…………………27

Al Gore……………………….19

Barack Obama……………..19

Sarah Palin…………………..16

Bill Clinton…………………..14

Hillary Clinton………………10

Joe Biden……………………..9

John McCain…………………5

Colin Powell………………….1

None……………………………3

This is interesting to me mainly because it shows how just wording a question differently can yield somewhat different results. While in the first question Barack Obama is the most respected out of the bunch. When a different group is asked to name those who are least respected Obama has the dubious honor of finishing rather high in the ranking here as well. In fact, on the old disrespect-o-meter, more people have little regard for Obama than Sarah Palin.

What does this really mean? Practically nothing! But it tells us that in the grand scheme of things Sarah Palin may have a little work to do yet, when it comes to repairing her image, after being savaged by the media non-stop for a year. Of course, she has plenty of opportunities to do just that.

On the other hand, Barack Obama has done all he is ever going to do. While folks tend to like him personally, he consistently earns poor marks for actual job performance, which is what matters. So, for Obama, it’s all downhill from here.

You can check out the entire poll by clicking here.

Battleground Poll: Conservatives Make Up 63 Percent Of America: What It All Means

Here is the latest polling from Battleground. This comes right on the heels of Gallop polling that also shows the majority of Americans consider themselves conservative. This is no fluke either. And as much as we’d love to say that Obama is driving people away from his and his party’s rapidly dying ideology, the truth is Battleground polling, since 2002, has consistently found similar results. Battleground, a bipartisan polling group, has a record of being very accurate.

Bruce Walker over at the American Thinker has some great analysis:

The Battleground Poll and the Battle for America

There’s good news for conservatives in the latest Battleground Poll. The political implications are profound…if the already-energized conservative base takes even more initiative.

In August 2008, I wrote an article on “The Biggest Missing Story in Politics.” The article explains that conservatives are an overwhelming majority of America. One year later, I wrote an update on that theme, this time based on the Gallup Poll which showed that conservatives outnumber liberals in virtually every state in the union. I have been writing about the remarkable Battleground Poll results in many articles for many years.

The Battleground Poll reveals the internals of its poll. It also asks respondents the same demographic questions in each poll: What is your education level? What is your age? What is your religious affiliation? What is your marital status? Question D3 asks respondents to describe their ideology. The choices are “very conservative,” “somewhat conservative,” “moderate,” “somewhat liberal,” “very liberal,” and “unsure/refused.” Those asked by the Battleground Poll — if they dislike the liberal label — can call themselves moderates, they can refuse to answer, and they can express an uncertainty about their ideology. Only those certain of their ideology and willing to label themselves are considered conservative in the poll.

The Battleground Poll is not a Republican polling organization. It is, rather, one of the few bipartisan polling organizations. Republican and Democrat pollsters agree on the language of the questions for respondents, so that the questions asked are not only fairly worded, but unusually fairly worded. Republican and Democrat pollsters agree on the population sample, so that polls results are not skewed because too many Democrats, too many Republicans, or too many independents are included. The Battleground Poll also has proven very accurate over many elections.

The responses to Question D3 have been remarkably consistent. Respondents have changed dramatically about what they thought of President Bush or of the state of the economy or the most important issues facing our nation. Respondent may swing quite a bit about which party they support or trust the most. But in one single area of this long list of polling data, the American people have not wavered at all from Battleground Poll to Battleground Poll: About sixty percent of the American people, in poll after poll, year after year, describe themselves as “conservative.”

On December 16, 2009, Battleground released its latest poll. In this one, 63% of the American people described themselves as “very conservative” or “somewhat conservative.” The rest of America — not just liberals, but moderates and people who were unsure about their ideology or chose not to respond to that question, totaled only 37% of America. A measly one percent of Americans called themselves moderates; 25% of Americans called themselves “somewhat liberal“; and 8% of Americans called themselves “very liberal.”

This is no aberration. Consider in Battleground Poll results since June 2002 the percentage of Americans who have described themselves as conservative: June 2002 (59%), September 2003 (59%), April 2004 (60%), June 2004 (59%), September 2004 (60%), October 2005 (61%), March 2006 (59%), December 2007 (58%), July 2007 (63%), May 2008 (62%), August 2008 (60%), September 2008 (59%), and October 2008 (56%).

In the November 2008 Battleground Poll, for the first and only time, the straight question of “conservative” or “liberal” was not posed to respondents. Instead, the poll asked respondents two separate questions: fiscal ideology was asked in Question D6 and social ideology was asked in Question D7. The Battleground Poll clearly intended to refine Question D3. What were the results? Fiscal conservatives in Question D6 were 69% of respondents. Social conservatives were 53% of respondents and social liberals were 39%. While that sounds like social conservatism is a weak link, that is misleading: a whopping 34% of all Americans described themselves as “very conservative” on social issues, by far the largest very intense group in any Battleground Poll.

What does this mean for American politics today? It ought to boldly empower conservatives. The “right,” which every Democrat leader reflexively attacks whenever political opposition to his plans grows strong, boasts the overwhelming majority of Americans. This explains why the left’s ballot initiatives in California last year failed, in some cases, in every single county of the state and why the gay marriage ballot measure failed in liberal Maine. This also explains why Obama runs away from “labels” (all leftists do, and have for many years).

What it means in politics is that any true conservative against a true leftist should carry every state and win by a landslide. But it means more than that. Conservatives in the areas of culture, media, entertainment, and education are treated like unwanted stepchildren, or worse (despite the fact that conservatives on average are better-educated than liberals).

The worst victims of invidious bigotry in America today are conservatives. Only a tiny percentage of professors are conservative. The same is true for government-supported media like NPR, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Libraries are dominated by the minority left. How different would America be if fifty or sixty percent of teachers, librarians, professors, public media producers, and staff in government-supported organizations were conservative?

That ought to be a goal for conservatives. Winning elections is fine, but how much more vital is it for us to recover at least an equal voice in colleges, media, schools, libraries, and entertainment? What is wrong with us, the overwhelming majority of Americans, demanding not to be consigned to a ghetto or treated by Jim Crow standards? We begin by pointing out the obvious: conservatives are the majority of Americans, but we are almost invisible in our public and private institutions of education, information, entertainment, and study.

Then demand that those who want our tax dollars, our commercial business, our donations — anything, really, from us — treat us fairly, portray us honestly, and invite us into the halls of influence. It is a modest demand, but it is very important. It is a cultural “game-changer,” and that, more than anything, is what we need.

Walker nails it here. This is more than just about who wins elections. This polling shows that conservatism is greatly under represented in this country. The implications, for business, media, entertainment, and marketers are incredible.

Let’s take the media first. It’s no secret that liberals make up the bulk of those who choose “journalism” as their career. Even at the so-called “Republican” Fox News, liberals far out number conservatives on the payroll. Everywhere else, conservatives are almost non-existent.

Oh sure, every network and big newspaper has their “token conservative.” They all have their David Brooks or David Frums. But none are actually conservative. Most are “progressives” masquerading as conservatives. Is it any wonder that the newspaper industry is collapsing and the two cable news networks that aren’t Fox are going virtually unwatched?

A smart operator would shake things up and get back to being a news agency rather than a shill for the democrat/communist party. Their profits would soar, and America would be better for it.

The same goes for Hollywood. You ever notice that when Tinseltown makes a movie or television show that is family friendly that folks flock to them in droves? Shows like American Idol and Dancing With The Stars are huge hits because they appeal to a conservative audience. Now that’s not to say every show should be a version of these two, but it shows that Americans enjoy more wholesome fare than what they are generally served up.

Frankly, I enjoy films and shows that are considered “edgy.” There is absolutely a place for these sort of things. Where Hollywood loses me is when they turn otherwise entertaining and delightful movies and TV shows into nothing more than vehicles for liberal propaganda.

One has to look no further than the NBC/Universal to see this on display. Although under new management, NBC/Universal is the poster child for unrelenting propaganda. Owned by General Electric, whose CEO is an adviser to Barack Obama, NBC/Universal has pushed the global warming hoax to the max for years, going so far as having “green weeks” where all of their shows, and entertainment work the global warming shtick into the story line.

NBC uses their long running series Law and Order to bash conservatives, Christians, gun owners, pro-life advocates, and so on. Portraying them as evil and unstable.

It’s easy to see the motivation behind Law and Order. They despise conservatives and use tactics right out of Saul Alinsky’s Rules in order to demean and marginalize the object of their scorn. While the far left eat this up, conservatives, by nature, are too timid to act. This needs to change, and change big time.

Of course, for GE, it’s all about the money. NBC pushes “green” as much as possible because GE makes most of the implements of this movement. By hammering viewers constantly with propaganda, they hope to convince people to fall for the global warming scam. Hundreds of billions of dollars are riding on this deal for GE alone. Big Global Warming, if not stopped, will be a trillion dollar industry built on the back of the American people.

Again, smart operators in the entertainment industry would take a pass on all of the propagandizing and get back to just entertaining. The ones who do that will have great success and loyal viewers.

Now this is not to say that TV shows shouldn’t have messages built in. The greatest movie ever made, Casablanca, is one of the most patriotic films ever made. Whether it was intentional or by accident, this movie stirs great emotions, even to this day.

Years ago, television was leading the way with socially relevant programming. TV tackled tough subjects like racism and sexism. Important issues of the day and issues Americans agreed needed addressing. That was responsible and appropriate. What we see now is just pushing an agenda that most of the country doesn’t care for.

Liberals always have to force their agenda on the people, because few would willingly submit.

With all of that said, this has the greatest implications for the Republican Party. The Party is in shambles. For decades the so-called “moderates” have attempted to marginalize conservatives, and conservatism. It’s why they are completely out of power in Washington.

The country club, blue blood, Rockefeller Republicans, the RINOs and DIABLOs (Democrats In All But Name Only) are, and always have been, “progressives.” This is worse than liberal, and frankly all of us are guilty of labeling “progressives” as liberals. The “progressive” movement goes all of the way back to Teddy Roosevelt, a Big Government Statist. “Progressives” totally control the democrat/communist party.

Conservatives, when in power within the Republican Party, have always come out as winners. One has to look no further than the Great Ronald Reagan, who won two unprecedented landslide elections to the presidency, to see that conservatism is attractive to the American people.

We are seeing the same sort of buzz around Sarah Palin, an unapologetic conservative icon. Not since Reagan has a single politician truly aroused the American people.

Oh sure, Barack Obama achieved pop star status, but it was all smoke and mirrors. There was absolutely no substance. In fact, as it is now painfully clear, Obama had to lie about his actual agenda in order to win the election. Obama had to work over time to keep his radical associations from derailing his run for office. Of course, he had plenty of accomplices in the willing media to carry his water and hide the real Barack Obama. Now that he is in, the American people are mortified by the incredible mistake that was made. The American people are horrified now that any pretense that Obama isn’t an out and out communist is gone.

Bounce this off of Sarah Palin’s incredible popularity. Unlike Obama, she actually has decades of experience as an executive level leader. She has an actual public record, going back 20 years, that can be examined by all. She is quick to state her position on any given subject, and all one has to do is look back at her actual record as a public servant to see that she’s pretty consistent in her beliefs and agenda. In other words, if she is saying it now, she has a record of doing before. She doesn’t have to hide behind trickery and the slight of hand. She is what she is.

Sarah doesn’t have to hide from the American people who she is. She is genuine. In this way, Sarah Palin is just like Ronald Reagan: Outspoken and unabashedly conservative. People see this, and respond favorably.

The implications for the Grand Old Party are many, and great, but the biggest is the myth that the GOP needs to “moderate it’s message” to win elections. The current GOP wisdom, or what passes for it, is that we need to pander to the oh so precious “moderate” vote to win. (A whopping 1 percent of the population, according to this poll!) That we need to be a “big tent party” to regain power. The end result is a party that is nothing more than democrat/communist light.

Yes, there are differences in the parties, but on many issues top candidates from our party sure sound a lot like the democrat/communists, and certainly vote with them in their misguided effort to be bipartisan. Our last presidential candidate made one of his center piece talking points the fact that he was known for “reaching across the aisle.” You see where that got us! And I’m not just talking about the election!

Conservatism is the big tent. Always has been. In 1984 Reagan won crushing victories in 49 states by governing as a true conservative in his first term. A feat that hasn’t been, and may never be, duplicated. Running as an unbridled conservative, Reagan “only” won 44 states in 1980.

If you look around at the current political landscape, all of the stars are unabashedly conservative. Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Rick Perry, Jim DeMint, James Inhofe, Michael Williams, and Lt Col. Allen West are all solid conservatives and not afraid to say so.

Speaking of Michael Williams:

Williams is the Railroad Commissioner of Texas, a very powerful job, that among other things, regulates energy in Texas. Hmmm…..Sarah Palin had a powerful job in Alaska doing pretty much the same thing!

Williams is wildly popular in Texas, and a shoe-in to take Kay Baily Hutchison’s seat, giving Texas an actual conservative in the Senate for the first time, in some time. Make sure you check out his You Tube channel that is filled with inspiring speeches.

Then you have Lt Colonel Allen West, from Florida, who is running for Congress:

This is the message of conservatism. This is the message of liberty and freedom. This is the message of America. One of the most powerful speeches you’ll see.

The video below is what is considered the best speech given by any leader since Ronald Reagan’s iconic 1964 address to the Republican National Convention. In this speech Sarah Palin solidified her position as the new leader of the conservative movement:

Of course, the original is still the blueprint for greatness in America. I’ve always considered this “must see TV” and go so far as to say that schools need to teach an entire subject based on this speech alone, and no one should graduate high school without a working knowledge of it’s concept.

It’s amazing how much of what Reagan had to say still applies today. It’s chilling what decades of liberal control of our culture has done to us, as a nation. The destructive nature of liberalism is seen all over the fruited plain. It touches our lives daily. It makes our lives just a little less whole, just a little less free.

Few, if any, in Washington get it. Our nation has been taken over by the most radical elements on earth. Vicious elements that have no problem using brute force, as well as trickery and deceit, to see their agenda prevail.

Liberty and freedom are the enemy of the liberal movement. The current communists in Washington are the enemies of liberty and freedom. They only bring tyranny and oppression to the table. The opportunity is ripe for true conservative leaders to step forward and assume the mantle of freedom and liberty, of the American way.

America sorely needs conservatives to answer the call at every level We need conservatives to step up to the plate in local and national races. We need conservatives to seek careers in education, journalism, and the arts. Most importantly we need conservatives to stand up and speak out. You are by far the majority in this nation, it’s about time you realize this, and no longer remain passive, no longer remain silent.

America is a conservative nation and it’s time that our conservative nature is both respected, and celebrated. It’s time for our government to respect the will of the people. It’s our duty to replace those that won’t, with those that will.

“Screw political correctness. Stand up, speak up, and be bold!”

_____Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin Takes On All Climategate Deniers

Whew! Man, that Sarah Palin sure has started a real firestorm now that she has attacked the Holy Church of Global Warming! It’s one thing to knock ObamaCare on it’s backside, there are only billions of dollars in payoffs and corruption riding on that deal. But the global warming hustle truly is the whole enchilada!

Not billions, but trillions of dollars will change hands. Government control like you’ve never even dreamed of will come to pass. Taxes will flow into incompetent government hands like never before. Energy will “necessarily skyrocket.”

Of course, the real story is all of the money that will be made trading “carbon credits.” Al Gore, the Bernie Madoff of the climate change movement, has made hundreds of millions of dollars already off this scam, and stands to make billions.

As I wrote in an earlier piece, Obama and his friends also stand to make out like bandits if cap and trade laws are enacted. The Chicago Climate Exchange is already up and running, and ready to go when all of these insane laws are enacted. Of course, being Chicago, there is absolutely, positively no corruption going on with this deal. Uh huh. There’s this bridge for sale that you just must see if you believe that one!

Just to bring everyone up to speed. If you remember the failed, disgraced Governor from California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, decided to go off on Sarah for her resent stance on the hoax, the greatest lie ever told. Sarah, in what is her usual style, fired right back with this:

Greener Than Thou?

Why is Governor Schwarzenegger pushing for the same sorts of policies in Copenhagen that have helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment? Perhaps he will recall that I live in our nation’s only Arctic state and that I was among the first governors to create a sub-cabinet to deal specifically with climate change. While I and all Alaskans witness the impacts of changes in weather patterns firsthand, I have repeatedly said that we can’t primarily blame man’s activities for those changes. And while I did look for practical responses to those changes, what I didn’t do was hamstring Alaska’s job creators with burdensome regulations so that I could act “greener than thou” when talking to reporters.

– Sarah Palin

BOOM, taste my nightstick! (What!?! You KNOW we’re gonna go to that one early and often!)

Sarah has what is probably the most reasonable stance there is on the whole notion of climate change. Being someone in a position of power she honestly didn’t have the luxury to just call these liars out and blow them off. And, as someone who spent time as her state’s chief energy and environmental regulator, Sarah knows more than the average politician and humble blogger about the subject.

Climate change may be happening, but the climate on earth has a history of changing. The earth is millions of years old, for goodness sake! We’ve had heat waves and ice ages. All before man even existed! Obviously if the entire earth was covered in ice, and we now have places where it is not, there was some significant warming.

Anyhow, one failed California Governor pwned.

But why did Arnold even bother to speak up? What prompted all of this? Well, as always, follow the money! Our friend and colleague, The Might Serf, went to town on this one and found some fascinating information:

Schwarzenegger vs. Palin: Arnold has no credibility

In an interview with George Stephanopoulos, from the COP15 Climate Summit in Copenhagen, Governor Schwarzenegger took a swipe at Governor Palin. He was asked about her editorial published in the Washington Post last week. He replied:

“You have to ask: what was she trying to accomplish? Is she really interested in this subject or is she interested in her career and in winning the nomination? You have to take all these things with a grain of salt.”

Tack on “mind reader” to Arnie’s long list professional talents…

Not only is that conjecture on his part, it’s also a convenient way to avoid the subject matter and deal with what she said. Arnold deflects the debate, as is common with the global warming faithful and turns it into a ‘what’s Palin going to do next’ moment.

Then he goes on to say:

“We in California have proven it over and over that you can protect the economy, and you can protect the environment.” …

“I don’t think you have to choose. I think it is nonsense talk to say let’s talk first about the economy.”

Either Arnold needs advisors that don’t lie to him or he has a serious literacy issue. The last time I checked, the statewide California unemployment rate was at 12.3 percent. With the highest rated area, a town about forty minutes east of where I’m sitting, called El Centro at 22.6 percent.

The report goes on to say:

As a Californian who happens to believe that we are in a current trend of “global cooling” (and yes, lefties that also is a “change” in climate) and also someone forced to live under the green foot of my state government, I got a little more joy from that post than some.

She correctly points out the economic mess California is in and accurately points to one of the main culprits. Arnold keeps talking about these “green jobs” (sounds familiar) but when you look at the numbers I posted above, the small number of positions that open up in the market aren’t enough to even put a small dent into those figures.

When my car can run off of algae, we may see a boost in the green economy. Until then, realize what makes an economy work and what doesn’t. Like new regulations and laws for instance… Those are instant job killers. If you mandate small businesses that are already stretched too thin, they will lay off workers. They don’t have a choice. In business, you do whatever it takes to make it to the next month.

Now, to the “why” in Governor Palin’s statement.

I remember when Arnold Schwarzenegger spent his time trying to convince American’s that they should buy a Hummer. Well those days are long gone and a new Climate Crusader has emerged in place of that carbon spewing truck peddler.

Schwarzenegger is now one of the most outspoken global warming alarmists in public office today. He has dramatically steered this state toward more “green” centered policies, programs, and worst of all, mandates. So did he have an epiphany? Did his wife’s family convince him over turkey dinner during the holidays?

Probably not, but I believe Robert Kennedy, his wife’s cousin, has everything to do with Arnold’s conduct in regards to environmental policies.

Robert Kennedy is not only the governor’s relative but he is also one of Arnold’s closest advisors, even if he does serve in an unofficial capacity. The two of them can be seen at various press announcements and environmental meetings talking about their great plans to reconstruct California into a “green economy.”

There’s just one problem with that… A slight conflict of interest arises when one looks over the contracts and plans Californians will be forking money over for in these deals. Robert Kennedy is a Venture Partner and Senior Advisor for a company called VantagePoint Venture Partners. VantagePoint has a multimillion-dollar stake in a company called BrightSource, who produces solar technology. BrightSource has lobbied to build a massive energy project in the Mojave Desert. The project would provide power to 142,000 homes and cost about $2 billion. BrightsSource hopes to build three solar-powered plants situated on land near the Nevada-California borders. As Schwarzenegger told a joint conference of Mexican and U.S. governors, “They’re going to blanket the world with solar panels.”

Last year Governor Schwarzenegger also announced a plan to build a massive electric vehicle grid that would cover most of California. At the press conference in San Francisco, Robert Kennedy said “Creating an energy-independent economy is our generation’s moon-shot.” Whatever “moon-shot” means, I don’t know but I don’t like it. He also said “For too long we’ve believed that economy and environment stood at odds with each other. By coming together in this time of turmoil to build a clean transportation infrastructure, this generation will fuel the economic and environmental prosperity of generations to come.” Given the fact that Robert attended that conference as a representative of VantagePoint, you better believe they are looking to rake in millions from the deal.

In fact, there is an overwhelming amount of information out there that points to Governor Schwarzenegger’s real motives in pushing a “green” economy. It’s all about money and it has little to do with the environment. As is usually the case when it comes to the big names in the Climate Change “movement.” Just do a quick search into Al Gore’s finances to see how philanthropic that guy really is. I’ll go out on a limb here and call the man a profiteer.

As far as Governor Palin’s motives behind publishing words of warning and giving Obama advice (good advice) on environmental matters… She’s trying to help the country. Nothing else. She has no financial ties or personal ties to an industry that stands to heavily profit from the outcome of the Copenhagen Summit. In fact, I’ve done a lot of research into Governor Palin’s background and connections… I’ve linked her up to the Rotary Club and the NRA. That’s it.

By the way, for any of you that still think Arnold resides on the right, politically speaking. The left-wing Annenberg Foundation, helped cover the bill for his trip to Copenhagen through a California State Protocol Foundation grant. I wonder if Robert made the journey too???

Regular readers of this website will recognize the name Annenberg Foundation straightaway. This is the very same Annenberg Foundation that gave the unrepentant murdering domestic terrorist William Ayers, and his good old buddy Barack Obama $60 million dollars for “education,” which Ayers and Obama then in turn gave to radical groups like ACORN, you know, “for the children.”

You can read more from The Mighty Serf here.

Look, Schwarzenegger is married to a “Kennedy.” That alone makes him suspect on many levels, but it’s not really all that hard to figure out what is going on here.

Whole lot of corruption goin’ on ‘round here!

Now….As we talked about before, Sarah’s two Op-Eds she wrote for the Washington Post were some of the most read of the entire year. The one she wrote in July on the subject of global warming was the third most read. Predictably, the loons have lost their minds over this! In the world of the democrat/communist, dissenting thought, and differences of opinion, simply are not tolerated, and most certainly not written.

The Washington Post has, of course, been savaged for allowing that woman to sully the pages of their fine paper. The reaction by the crazies has been hilarious, well worth the time to observe. These people’s entire lives are based on lies, and they can’t justify themselves. Liberalism is one of those things that simply cannot withstand the light of day, or hockey moms from Wasilla, Alaska.

So, WaPo trots out their resident hack, Eugene Robinson, to satisfy the moonbats. What could go wrong?

Sarah, obviously loving this little exchange, offered this up for the WaPo, as well as all of her Facebook supporters:

My Letter to the Washington Post

Letter to the Editor

Washington Post

Thursday, December 17, 2009

I’d like to thank Eugene Robinson for highlighting Alaska’s achievements on climate change [“Palin’s own ‘Climate- gate,’” op-ed, Dec. 15] and for noting that I’ve “treated the issue as serious, complex, and worthy of urgent attention,” while making “any number of pragmatic, reasonable, smart decisions as governor.” But he’s wrong to suggest that my views have somehow changed or that now I’ll have to “renounce” my past efforts.

Once again: I don’t deny that climate change is real. In creating a sub-cabinet to deal specifically with the issue, I said that “Alaska’s climate change strategy must be built on sound science and the best available facts and must recognize Alaska’s interest in economic growth and the development of its resources.” That goal made sense to me then, and it makes sense to me now.

Mr. Robinson tries to make hay out of the fact that I asked the group to advise me regarding opportunities to participate in “carbon-trading markets.” But considering voluntary participation in carbon-trading programs is much different from endorsing the economically disastrous cap-and-tax proposals put forward by Democrats in Washington. Those proposals will burden our job creators and raise energy prices for all of us, and that’s why I oppose them.

As governor of Alaska, I sought common-sense solutions that took real-world costs and benefits into account. That’s what I’m looking for now. But that’s not what’s on the table in Washington or in Copenhagen.

Sarah Palin, Wasilla, Alaska

BOOM, taste my nightstick!

Obviously, Sarah has hoisted this entire bunch of nimrods by their own petards. It’s glorious to watch a politician who will actually fight back when these liars in the media and RINOs attack. I certainly wish President George Bush, an honorable and decent man, would have had ½ the spunk this gal from Alaska has. The entire world might be different today. (sigh)

Of course, what’s a good story about taking the global warming hoaxers to the woodshed without some real meat and potatoes. As you know the Climategate scandal was uncovered in Russia where, ironically, their media is open, and relatively honest.

From Andrew Breitbart’s Big Government:

ClimateGate Just Got Much, Much Bigger

Over at ICECAP.us Meteorologist Joe D’Aleo has posted an item on a “Russian Bombshell” highly relevant to the ClimateGate scandal. The Russian media first posted the story and now some Brits are loving it.

The long and the short of it is best summarized by the Telegraph’s James Dellingpole: “What the Russians are suggesting here, in other words, is that the entire global temperature record used by the IPCC to inform world government policy is a crock.”

That is, we have yet further evidence that the data is being cooked to make the long-running claim of an increase in global temperatures, and now to diminish the apparent cooling of said temps. As the gang at EU referendum tout, “it is in Soviet Union that the CRU, NOAA, NASA show the greatest warming.”

Around the world temperature stations have been widely decommissioned in rural and higher elevations, and we see an over-emphasis on increasingly urbanized (and therefore warmer) stations in the curious selection process as to what temperatures should count, and how much. The latter point references the fact that the data is then adjusted, and we are also seeing an increase in adjusting urbanized (that is, artificially warm) temperature records not down, but upward.

Excerpted in pertinent part, Joe Writes:

On Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) issued a report claiming that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) had probably tampered with Russian-climate data.

The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory. …The data of stations located in areas not listed in the Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature UK (HadCRUT) survey often does not show any substantial warming in the late 20th century and the early 21st century.

The HadCRUT database includes specific stations providing incomplete data and highlighting the global-warming process, rather than stations facilitating uninterrupted observations. …

IEA analysts say climatologists use the data of stations located in large populated centers that are influenced by the urban-warming effect more frequently than the correct data of remote stations.

The reason this cherry-picking is relevant — as is the apparent similar gamesmanship being played with other countries examined in recent days including China and New Zealand — because our NOAA compiles the global dataset and the rest work from it. So when CRU claimed that it “lost” its raw data, what they’re saying is the claim to have lost which stations they chose from NOAA’s compilation, making it impossible for those who wish to check it to discern how they got the answer they did.

If it is what it appears to be, and my dozen years working with these people and the past few weeks peeking further inside thanks to ClimateGate tell me that it is, then this is root-cause corruption.

Meanwhile, they are scrambling madly to stitch up an agreement in Copenhagen politically committing the U.S. to the long-desired wealth-transfer. The question is which moves faster, the collapse of the increasingly likely scientific fraud, or the global governance set.

Look, there are a lot of links there, and in incredible amount of information that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that pretty much all of the information used by the global warming hoaxers is not only faulty, but an absolute lie. You simply must take time to investigate them.

These dishonest scientists have cooked the books, withheld and manipulated data to suit their needs, all in an effort to pull off the greatest scam in history. The greatest lie ever told.

This is the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, and UFOs on a global scale! Why? Money, of course. All of these scientists make money off of government and private foundation grants. No crisis, no funding. No funding and you have a lot of “climate scientists” working at McDonald’s asking you if you want fries with that, which is probably where they belong.

And of course, there is power. Look at all of the power that would be wielded if this wasn’t a hoax, and we allowed measures to fight this mythical beast to be put in place. It would be enormous.

The bottom line is this: The climate exists, that’s indisputable. The climate changes, well…duh! Live in Texas and you may see all 4 seasons in one day! That’s real climate change.

But seriously, the climate indeed changes, that’s why the marketing managers over at Big Global Warming, and Big Government, changed the name to “climate change” once it got out that the earth had actually been in a cooling mode since the mid 1990’s. Thus Big Climate was born.

There is no credible data though, that man can cause the climate to change. Now, can man screw up his local environment? You bet’cha! For example, the environmental whack jobs have turned America’s breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley of California into a desert because of a minnow. Millions of acres of land that used to feed the world, literally, is now a dust bowl, all because man has screwed with nature.

The answer to this sort of thing is to allow the states, not the federal government, to regulate the activities of the insane. This also goes for those who pollute, and well, even litter. We all want a clean world, a healthy world. But we also want a world that places a premium on liberty and freedom. A world were we, the individual, are what matters, not Big Government, Big Climate, Or Big Al Gore.

As the wheels start to come off of the global warming hoax wagon, men like Al Gore, who has bored us to death with his inane braying, need to be rounded up and jailed. The same goes for politicians and officials who have pushed these lies on the world.

There is simply no way to measure the amount of blood and treasure that has been lost in pursuit of this hoax. Industries destroyed, jobs lost, and lives destroyed. We could be talking about trillions of dollars, but how can one even measure the destruction these liars have caused?

Well, for now, we have a few brave souls, like Sarah Palin, who has the power of her position as the true American leader, to take these people and their lies on. Thank God for that.

Did Barack Obama Just Commit High Treason?

I know there are some that think that Obama commits treason just by showing up to work. Yes, there are more than a few eligibility questions, that sadly, will never be resolved, thanks to a compliant media, and the most corrupt Congress in our nation’s history.

Frankly, I see other acts that border on treason such as the unprecedented power grab that Obama and the corrupt democrat/communist Congress are attempting to engineer with “health care reform.” We’ve discussed at length the unconstitutionality of this entire exercise, as well how it effectively renders our Constitution null and void.

I’ve also written at length about the real agenda behind the global warming scam, and how the end game is complete destruction of not only the United States, and the capitalistic system, but literally all of mankind. For those that read the quotes from the various leaders of the global warming movement, and learned of their utter contempt for the United States and humanity itself, it is both shocking and frightening that these people are allowed to roam among us. They all belong in insane asylums!

Certainly, knowing all of this, for Obama to embrace the global warming scam full bore, could easily constitute treason.

But with all of that said, we have an even more serious charge that should end the Obama presidency immediately and see him, and all involved charged with high treason and dealt with in the proper manner, if true.

We all know how bad Obama and his corrupt Congress want to pass “heath care reform.” It will represent the final blow to the republic and the republican form of government. If ObamaCare passes, it will void the Constitution and do away with states rights. It will set up a central command and control government, a communist state that the far left has dreamed of since FDR’s time. (Don’t forget, Roosevelt affectionately referred to Stalin as “Uncle Joe.”)

ObamaCare will take control of almost all activities that are generally controlled by cities and states and place it in the hands of unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats. ObamaCare is the Holy Grail to the far left, and highly corrupt democrat/communists. They have tried to do this for over 60 years. It’s been an obsession for them.

There is a bit of a silver lining though. Barack Obama, who has never run anything as complicated as a lemonade stand, is an incredibly inept CEO. There’s a reason why we generally elect Governors, not Senators, as President. One must have executive experience to get things done. Obama never even took time to learn the job of Senator before he abandoned that job in order to satisfy his lust for wealth and power as President.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is right up there with Obama on the competency scale. So what we have is a situation that has gone from SNAFU, “Situation Normal, All Fouled Up” to FUBAR, “Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition.”

As much as the democrat/communists want to blame the GOP for this, Republicans are irrelevant. Democrat/communists have a solid majority in the House, and a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. In other words, the democrat/communists have total control of government, and there are absolutely no checks and balances. They only saving grace is these are some truly dumb people. Not many marketable skills in that party.

So…..there is a civil war going on. You have a few level headed people that see this boondoggle for what it is, some pro-life democrats/communists, a truly rare bird, and then you have the far left, the base. As radical as this health care fiasco is, it doesn’t go far enough for the moonbats.

At first, the back room deals were all about payoffs. Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana was given $300 million, in what has been called “The Louisiana Purchase,” just for her vote on cloture. Others have been promised huge sums of tax payer monies for pet projects. But now we are past all of that. As hard as it is to believe, there are a handful of democrat/communists that have some integrity. They can’t be bought off.

We have seen how Senator Joe Lieberman and his wife have been threatened. It’s simply unconscionable, but pretty much what you expect from a bunch of street thug “”community organizers” from Chicago.

With that said, as vile, and possibly illegal, all of the machinations have been so far, they pale in comparison to what is going on with Senator Bill Nelson of Nebraska. Nelson is one of the few truly moderate members of the radical party. A holdover from the old Bob Bullock, Scoop Jackson wing of the party. Nelson has more than a few issues with ObamaCare, such as tax payer funded abortions, and mandated compliance. Also he has his state Governor, his constituents, and colleagues demanding he vote no. So far, Nelson is listening to the will of the people.

So just how desperate is Obama to pass this monstrosity into law? Strong enough to commit treason, evidently.

Nebraska is home to Offutt Air Force Base, home to the US Strategic Command, the successor to the old Cold War US Strategic Air Command that used to keep B-52 bombers, loaded with nuclear weapons, flying 24/7 within minutes of Soviet air space as a deterrent against an attack.

Offutt is still one of our most strategic bases. It’s location, in the center of the nation, is very strategic. This is where President Bush had wanted to make his address to the nation on 9/11, before it was decided he would go back to the White House, and it was the site of the initial strategy sessions after the terrorist attacks took place that morning.

So craven is Barack Obama, so desperate is he to pass this unconstitutional “health care reform,” that he has crossed the line. Obama is quite willing to risk national security to achieve his goal of a communist state.

According to Michael Goldfarb at the Weekly Standard, Obama has threatened to close Ottuff, out of spite, should Senator Nelson not buckle under to the pressure and go along with this massive unconstitutional power grab disguised as “heath care reform.”

While the Democrats appease Senator Lieberman, they still have to worry about other recalcitrant Democrats including Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson. Though Lieberman has been out front in the fight against the public option and the Medicare buy-in, Nelson was critical of both. Now that those provisions appear to have been stripped from the bill, Lieberman may get on board, but Nelson’s demand that taxpayer money not be used to fund abortion has still not been met. According to a Senate aide, the White House is now threatening to put Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base on the BRAC list if Nelson doesn’t fall into line.

Offutt Air Force Base employs some 10,000 military and federal employees in Southeastern Nebraska. As our source put it, this is a “naked effort by Rahm Emanuel and the White House to extort Nelson’s vote.” They are “hreatening to close a base vital to national security for what?” asked the Senate staffer.

Indeed, Offutt is the headquarters for US Strategic Command, the successor to Strategic Air Command, and not by accident. STRATCOM was located in the middle of the country for strategic reasons. Its closure would be a massive blow to the economy of the state of Nebraska, but it would also be another example of this administration playing politics with our national security.

Matt Lewis tweeted earlier, presumable from a source independent of Goldfarb’s, that Nelson has been both pressured, and offered a blank check! You can read that here.

Forget the fact that this is one of our most strategic military bases in the nation, vital for national security, closing Offutt would simply devastate the economy of the surrounding area. Having lived in the shadow of Ft Hood, Texas most of my life, I can tell you that simple downsizing can all but destroy local economies, shutting the base would be catastrophic. And since Obama hasn’t created net job one since he has been in office, it would devastate those effected by the closure, adding to those without work, or the prospect of work.

With that said, this isn’t just about jobs lost. This would be a major blow to our national security at a time we are fighting two wars and there is a growing list of aggressor nations who are only waiting to strike a vulnerable United States and her allies.

Obama is already doing things to make America less safe. From insanely restrictive rules of engagement on the battlefield, to coddling terrorists. From bringing the confessed 9/11 planners, who have already asked to be put to death, to New York for a show trial, something that will give these animals a world wide soapbox to spew their hatred for America and recruit thousands to their cause, to moving other Gitmo detainees to Illinois. Everything Obama is doing endangers America, and is at the very least suspect, and reason to make sure he is a one term President.

In fact, I imagine if one really looked into the Illinois prison deal, there is some serious money changing hands, especially since most of the facility will have to be brought up to spec, using union thugs from the SEIU, no doubt. Corruption is the lifeblood of Chicago politics. One can only imagine the money changing hands on this deal. This will most likely be Obama’s retirement package when he’s forced out of office.

I would think sharp investigators could come up with information that would demand Articles of Impeachment be drawn up by Congress, if only someone cared. But as bad as it is, all of this pales in comparison to even threatening to close Offutt.

In the private world, extortion lands you in prison. In Washington, with this President, it’s simply the way they do business. The Chicago way.

A group of 20 Republican Senators have sent a letter to democrat/communist Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and John McCain, the leading Republican on the Committee, the text of which is below:

It has been reported that the Obama Administration threatened the closure of a U.S. military installation for political purposes, thereby bringing into question the integrity of the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process. The BRAC process was established to remove political influence so that the decision to close or not to close a military installation could be based upon military utility.

Specifically, various media reports have stated that the Obama Administration would put Offutt AFB in southeastern Nebraska on a future BRAC list because of a vote on healthcare reform. While we recognize the importance of Offutt AFB as the headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command and the approximately 10,000 individuals that work there, we feel that this installation should remain open or be closed on its own merits.

Therefore, we respectfully ask that a hearing be held as to whether the BRAC process has been compromised. We do not want to see the name of a base from our state on a BRAC list and think it has been put there to settle partisan scores. We also do not want our bases to be more vulnerable to closure because political arm-twisting has taken another installation off the table. National security not partisanship should determine how BRAC decisions are made.

A tad less forceful than I would have written, but a solid effort.

Here is the list of Republican Senators who signed onto this letter:

The Republicans signing the letter were Sens. John Ensign of Nevada, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, John Thune of South Dakota, Jim Bunning of Kentucky, Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker of Tennessee, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Kit Bond of Missouri, Michael Enzi of Wyoming, George LeMieux of Florida, Pat Roberts of Kansas, David Vitter of Louisiana, Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker of Mississipi, John Cornyn of Texas, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, Bob Bennett of Utah, Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

Fellow Texans should note that Senator and gubernatorial candidate Kay Bailey Hutchinson is conspicuous by her absence from this group.

For their part, both the White House and Senator Nelson are denying any such threat ever existed. Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director had this to say:

This is nothing but a cynical, crass political game that is designed to maintain the status quo. Let’s be clear: the people spreading these falsehoods think nothing is wrong with a system under which families and businesses continue to bear the brunt of skyrocketing costs, insurance companies are allowed to discriminate and drop at will, and thousands of Americans lose their coverage every single day.

Isn’t it amazing how, in the face of being charged with high treason, the White House has their ridiculous talking points flying to the bitter end! I’m surprised Pfeiffer didn’t end by reminding us that all of this is for “the children!”

When I look at these people and hear them speak all I see is a bad used car salesman, plaid pants, white shoes, white belt, bad comb over, and all.

Obviously, this must be looked into. Hell, pretty much ever action Obama and Congress have taken since January needs to be gone over and reviewed! However, if this is indeed true, if Obama indeed offered to put our nation’s security in peril over his unconstitutional “health care” bill. He should be removed from office and charged with treason immediately, along with all of those who participated in and facilitated these actions.

It’s very easy to dismiss Obama as an inexperienced buffoon, who is simply too inept to govern, and while that may be true, it may also be by design. Nothing like a little misdirection to keep the public distracted while the real damage is being done.

As a citizen of the United States it is your duty to demand satisfaction on this matter. Congress, and the President, no matter what they may think, work for you. They are your employees. Obviously mass firings are coming in 2010, and a lot of new hires will be taking their places, but in the meantime, you must demand action. You must demand action from your Senators and from your Congressmen. You must also demand the media take a serious interest in this and actually investigate.

America is in crisis. Our government has been taken over by radicals who wish to destroy our American way of life. We must use any means necessary to stop this from happening. We must hold these evil men and women accountable.

America is on the brink of destruction from within. As we have warned all year, things will only get worse, unless you get involved.

Sarah Palin And Frozen Al Gore

This comes from the really just too good not to talk about file.

Compeau’s the Fairbanks, Alaska boat, snowmachine, and ATV dealer has an ongoing effort to expose the utter ridiculousness of the global warming hoax. From their website about this photo:

Sarah Palin stopped by to see the Frozen (Al) Gore ice sculpture in Fairbanks, in February 2009,

along with daughter Piper, husband Todd (on right) and Craig Compeau.

(The Frozen Gore sculpture, crafted in January 2009, made it until May 1 before melting.)

Check out the Arctic Fox in her Arctic Cat jacket! I guess the “official DNC blogger for Alaska”
was laying down on the job, or she’d have file an ethics complaint over this deal!

Here’s what the guys are up to at Compeau’s today:

Okay, so Frozen Gore was so popular last winter that we are at it again!

Help us decide what sculpture to introduce to the globe this winter by submitting your idea using the form below. Suggestions should relate to the global warming issue. Compeau’s will donate heating oil to the town of Tetlin, AK (where it unofficially hit -80F last winter), in the winner’s name.

This is what is great about this bunch. They can poke fun at Al Gore, help expose the greatest lie ever told, and help out fellow Alaskan’s all at the same time!

In case you didn’t know, heating oil in Alaska is expensive with a capital E!

You can check out their website here. Give ‘em some good ideas and maybe your name will be connected with helping some needy, and cold, Alaskan’s out.

Below is a cool (pardon the pun) video of sculptor Stephen H. Dean creating this masterpiece, followed by some interesting commentary on the weather trends in the area. A must see.