As with all politics of late, a great and grand crisis looms, it is the modus operandi of the current administration.  Our conundrum has been framed like a B western movie; shall the good guys (Democrats) continue to pay the ever expanding list of entitlements and pet programs or fall prey to the sinister and evil Tea Party thugs who wish to push the poor and downtrodden back into the work camps of self reliance?

Really??  No not really, this is what happens when message trumps substance.  The Demagogic Democrats have been handed their scripts, associate the Tea Party as radicals, position yourself as the defender of Medicare and Medicade, place Social Security in that Gore lock box and call the opposition rigid and unyielding, and most of all, repeat after me, “fair and balanced”.

This my friends is the change they believe in, never mind our government as a whole is borrowing 60 cents of every dollar spent just to service the mounting debt, never mind bureaucratic laden agencies such as the Department of Education, EPA, Amtrac, USPS, and the litany of others rife with inefficiency, we need to save these vital and crucial agencies?

In a phrase: sorry but that dog won’t hunt.  The message and answers are really simple; do we as a nation continue to “feed the beast” of rampant government growth, or do we begin to lay the foundation of accountability of the governing process.

This process of accountability began as a loosely formed group of individuals spurred on by the rant which at the time seemed like nothing more than another talking head venting his anger at government oppression; thus spawned the Tea Party.

The Tea Party is not a Republican platform, it does not consist of anarchist, it is not radical, it is the voice of frustration created by the never ending insular government leadership who fail to recognize the voice of the people.  To minimize its presence, to attack it’s viability, is a large miscalculation by its oppressors that is clearly based in the fear that finally a large majority of active individuals has had enough!

Regardless of how the manufactured passion play on the raising of the debt ceiling is resolved, more and more individuals realize a power shift is underway, we as a people are returning to a land governed by the people, and that reality has, and should strike fear in the political base for now they are accountable and no amount of polling catch phrases will stop that process.

The media’s choice to focus on minutia, is telling in that is uncovers a very real and valid fear; hey this woman is pretty darn smart and is racing up the GOP polls like a some kind of GOP Secretariate, garnering influence and mass followers along the way, or in other words a very real challenge to Obama in 2012.

If 2008 proved anything is clearly shows us that politics in the internet 24/7 age is directly tied to the buzz one can create outside of the normal means of the controlled media.  The fourth estate has expanded to small gorilla social media consortium’s so much so that now the media powerhouses of the past have been relegated to nothing more than attack dogs of any source that might not agree with their structured plan of who should be in power.

In essence a quantifiable balancing of the structured message has taken place, and the old school NBC’s, CBS’s find themselves in a diminished role of influence.  I for one could not be happier.

The Oregonian Boo Daily  Check It Out..

Liberating Our Economy to Help Create New Jobs

February 15, 2011 | Post by Speaker Boehner’s Press Office | Permalink

On Thursday night at CPAC 2011, Speaker Boehner discussed the new majority’s commitment to creating a better environment for job creation by liberating our economy from the shackles of debt, excessive regulations, and over-taxation. Boehner noted that this week the House will vote to cut $100 billion in spending over the next seven months – with more cuts to come. Read more about the past week below and check out Boehner’s remarks to CPAC here:

CLICK TO WATCH

Stopping the Washington Regulatory Assault on Small Businesses & Removing Barriers to Job Growth

* In a series of hearings and legislation last week, Republicans focused on creating a better environment for economic growth by taking on the federal regulations that are creating uncertainty and making it harder to create new jobs – a key part of the Pledge to America.

* Small businesses called on Washington to stop the regulatory assault on the private sector, saying “The uncertainty being created by Washington is stifling a small business recovery.”

* One small business owner told the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee that, “Regulatory costs require business owners like me to devote more time and resources to government compliance, which means less capital devoted to investment and job creation.”

* President Obama spoke to job creators in the spirit of “being more neighborly,” even as he pushes for more “stimulus” and higher taxes, and his party fights to protect hundreds of job-crushing federal regulations. Read more.

* The director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) testified that the Democrats’ health care law – with its maze of new federal rules, mandates, and penalties – will destroy roughly 800,000 jobs.

* A group of 28 Republican governors sent a letter to President Obama underscoring the impact of the health care law’s mandates on cash-strapped states and struggling small businesses.

* The head of the president’s own economic advisory panel is pushing for action on three pending free trade agreements to help boost U.S. exports by at least $13 billion and help create new jobs.

Cutting Spending and Ending the Job-Crushing “Stimulus” Spending Binge

* Here are some quick facts about H.R. 1, the bill that goes beyond the Pledge to America and cuts $100 billion in spending over the next few months.

* Speaker Boehner said “deficit spending is causing job creators in America to hold back,” and that’s why you’re going to see this Congress “cut, cut, cut” spending.

* Two leaders of the so-called “Blue Dog” Democrats broke with the White House and signaled they may be unwilling to raise the debt limit without “significant cuts” in spending.
* Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) introduced legislation to cancel unspent “stimulus” spending.

* Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told the House Budget Committee that the spending binge of recent years is hurting job creation.

* Washington Democrats all but admitted they don’t have a plan for helping create new jobs that doesn’t involve more “stimulus” spending and debt.

Also This Week

* Vivian Butler – a parent of one of the children in the landmark D.C. landmark school choice program – wrote an op-ed about what the program has meant for her daughter and her family.

* NOTE: Catch Speaker Boehner on NBC’s Meet the Press this morning.

As always, we appreciate your interest in the new House majority and encourage you to stay connected with the Office of the Speaker on Facebook, Twitter, and on Speaker.gov. Have a great week!

- Speaker Boehner’s Press Office

SPEAKER PRESS OFFICE
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH)
H-232, THE CAPITOL
(202) 225-0600 | SPEAKER.GOV
Twitter

They say a quiet man is a deep man, or is it your just numb? I have in one form or the other been entrenched in this spirit quest political gluttony since 2007, Moonbat Patrol was an effort at a daily blog that morphed for the most part onto Twitter. It’s a hell of a lot quicker to flash a thought in a 140 characters than it is to try to keep up a active blog when you spend 50 hours a week already on the computer, call it a time crunch cop out if you will.

But the embers were stoked by a moment of clarity, the mere frequency of the of catastrophes on the world stage as of this period of time is dazzling. This perfect storm of events is whipping to a cataclysmic stir, there is a global reboot underway, and what may shake out is nothing more than conjecture, uncertainty abounds danger lurks.

The catyalic events stoking the unrest in no particular order , global financial melt down, heightened instability of fringe dictatorships, religious jihad, move closer to home and you are faced with, total collapse of the housing market, massive government consolidation of power through exponential growth, and the byproduct of all this mess is a whole lot of pissed off people who are scared, and they should be, the finger is on the trigger. Things, keyword unrest, could go bad, ready up and stay in the information flow.

The one consistent promise from Obama is change, on that he has delivered, his handlers have coached him well, the seats at the bar have shuffled. Thankfully the forces for a free society have been inflamed and awoke the great beast of the less government of which I am member, the time of slumber and blissful ignorance is over.

Reality of the moment watch your six, gone are the times of trust in the political system. The system is corrupted and machines along with nothing less than a war or natural catastrophe getting but a turn of the head, the process of fundamental change is underway. We are being spent into oblivion by the men and women of want at all costs with little care about freedom as long as the power remains.

Some understand this is not about religion, economy, fairness, or party, its about power, and the accumulation of that power, of which does and will sit secondary to truth, enjoy the ride this is history and we are living it.

September 9, 2010
Americans’ Wellbeing Declines for Third Consecutive Month
Lower scores in six key wellbeing areas contribute to decrease
by Elizabeth Mendes

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Well-Being Index score for the nation dropped slightly to 66.9 in August, declining for the third consecutive month after reaching a high of 67.4 in May.

Americans’ wellbeing score fell to a low of 63.3 in December 2008 amid a sinking economy and rising unemployment but recovered in the first half of 2009 and has remained higher in 2010. Gallup and Healthways began tracking wellbeing in the United States in January 2008. The Well-Being Index is composed of six sub-indexes that together measure Americans’ physical, emotional, and fiscal wellbeing.

Lower scores across all six sub-indexes contribute to the lower August Well-Being Index score. The Life Evaluation Index score, one key measure of wellbeing, fell slightly again in August as it did in July, with fewer Americans rating their lives positively. The measure previously rose to a high of 50.8 in June.

The Healthy Behavior Index score, which typically remains high throughout the spring and summer months due to seasonal factors, declined slightly and unexpectedly in August, as a result of fewer Americans reporting exercising frequently. American workers’ perceptions of their work environment also decreased last month, falling to an all-time low of 47.7. Despite the downward slides in August, each of the sub-indexes, excluding the Work Environment and Basic Access indexes, is now higher than or on par with where it was during the same month in 2009 and 2008. Americans’ access to basic necessities and attitudes toward their places of work are the only areas of wellbeing yet to recover to levels found prior to the economic crisis.

Learn more about the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

To view and export trend data and for more information on each of the six Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index sub-indexes, please see the following charts: Well-Being Index, Life Evaluation Index, Emotional Health Index, Physical Health Index, Healthy Behavior Index, Work Environment Index, and Basic Access Index.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with a random sample of 31,261 adults in the United States, aged 18 and older, conducted Aug. 1-31, 2010, as a part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones (for respondents with a landline telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell phone only).

The Life Evaluation Index is based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale, which asks respondents to evaluate their present and future lives on a scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10, where “0″ is the worst possible life and “10″ is the best possible life. Those who rate today a “7″ or higher and the future an “8″ or higher are considered to be “thriving.” Those who rate today and the future a “4″ or lower on the scale are considered to be “suffering.” The overall Life Evaluation Index score is calculated as the percentage of thriving Americans minus the percentage of suffering Americans.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

For more details on Gallup’s polling methodology, visit www.gallup.com.

About the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index measures the daily pulse of U.S. wellbeing and provides best-in-class solutions for a healthier world. To learn more, please visit well-beingindex.com.

Posted by Michael Steel on September 08, 2010

Instead of working to help the American people – who are asking, ‘where are the jobs?’ – President Obama flew to Cleveland, Ohio today to attack an economic speech that House Republican Leader Boehner made there on August 24. It probably would have helped if the President (or his aides) had read Boehner’s speech beforehand. Instead, President Obama’s claimed that Republican Leader Boehner’s speech in Cleveland offered no new ideas – which simply isn’t true.

In addition to stopping Washington Democrats’ plan to raise taxes on American families and small businesses on Jan. 1 (and suggesting that the President could use better economic advisors), Boehner’s speech included a number of new policy proposals: repealing the job-killing 1099 provision in ObamaCare, a specific $1.3 trillion spending reduction package put together by Budget Ranking Member Paul Ryan, Rep. Geoff Davis’ ‘REINS Act’ – which would limit the executive branch’s ability to unilaterally impose job-killing regulations, and Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Dave Camp’s proposal for a small business tax deduction.

Like Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-NY, used to say, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own set of facts.

Excerpts from Boehner’s speech:

“The president’s government takeover of health care is already wreaking havoc on employers and entrepreneurs. This is a law that – upon its enactment – triggered the creation of more than 160 boards, bureaucracies, programs, and commissions. By the end of July, Washington had already racked up nearly 3,833 pages of regulations to direct the law’s implementation.

“One of the new law’s most controversial mandates requires small businesses to report any total purchases that run more than $600.

“If a landscaper wants to buy a new lawnmower, or a restaurant needs a new ice-maker, they have to report that to the feds. If you’re a Mom-and-Pop grocery store, and you buy $1000 worth of merchandise from 15 different vendors, that’s 15 different forms you have to file.

“What is the point of making employers and entrepreneurs spend $17 billion to send all this paperwork to Washington, where it’s going to cost about $10 billion to log it in and file it away? “

And:

“Republicans on the House Budget Committee, led by Congressman Paul Ryan, have already identified $1.3 trillion in specific spending cuts that could be implemented immediately.

“These are common-sense steps – like canceling unspent ‘stimulus’ and TARP bailout funds – that put the brakes on Washington’s out-of-control spending spree.

“Republicans have also proposed establishing strict budget caps to limit federal spending on an annual basis.

“If we reduce spending from current levels and impose a hard cap on future growth, we can save taxpayers more than $340 billion and we can make sure this is the last Washington spending spree of its kind.

“To restore balance between the federal government and the public sector, Republicans have called for freezing both government pay and government hiring. Instead of growing big-government, let’s focus on growing small businesses. “

And:

“Last month, as part of our America Speaking Out project, Republican lawmakers met with leaders of America’s employer community to hear their concerns and talk about ways to end this economic uncertainty.

“One of the ideas they mentioned was a freeze on new job-killing federal regulations – just something Washington could do to give them breathing room.

“Right now, Republicans are fighting for common-sense legislation authored by Congressman Geoff Davis of Kentucky that would require congressional approval of any new Executive Branch rule that imposes a cost of $100 million or more on our nation’s economy.

“This initiative would serve as a much-needed restraining order against unelected busybodies and bureaucrats who overstep their boundaries and make it harder to create jobs. “

And:

“One idea Ways and Means Committee Ranking Republican Dave Camp proposed as part of Republicans’ ‘stimulus’ alternative called for allowing small businesses with fewer than 500 employees to take a tax deduction equal to 20 percent of their income.

“This would free up extra capital for investment and new hiring to jumpstart a robust recovery. It was a better solution then, and it is a better solution now.”

It is no coincidence that the growth of modern tyrants has in every case been heralded by the growth of prejudice.
Henry A. Wallace

He is a professor in the Strategy and Policy Department of the United States Naval War College. He has previously taught at Carnegie Mellon,  Williams   College  and Harvard University . Kaiser’s latest book, The Road to Dallas, about the Kennedy assassination, was just published by  Harvard   University  Press.


Dr. David Kaiser

History Unfolding

I am a student of history. Professionally, I have written 15 books on history that have been published in six languages, and I have studied history all my life. I have come to think there is something monumentally large afoot, and I do not believe it is simply a banking crisis, or a mortgage crisis, or a credit crisis. Yes these exist, but they are merely single facets on a very large gemstone that is only now coming into a sharper focus.

Something of historic proportions is happening.  I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten to fifteen years.. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two.

We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why?

We learned just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has “loaned” two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. That is our money. Yours and mine. And that is three times the $700 billion we all argued about so strenuously just this past September. Who has this money? Why do they have it? Why are the terms unavailable to us?  Who asked for it?  Who authorized it?  I thought this was a government of “we the people,” who loaned our powers to our elected leaders. Apparently not.

We have spent two or more decades intentionally de-industrializing our economy.. Why?

We have intentionally dumbed down our schools, ignored our history, and no longer teach our founding documents, why we are exceptional, and why we are worth preserving. Students by and large cannot write, think critically, read, or articulate. Parents are not revolting, teachers are not picketing, school boards continue to back mediocrity.. Why?

We have now established the precedent of protesting every close election (violently in  California  over a proposition that is so controversial that it simply wants marriage to remain defined as between one man and one woman. Did you ever think such a thing possible just a decade ago?) We have corrupted our sacred political process by allowing unelected judges to write laws that radically change our way of life, and then mainstream Marxist groups like ACORN and others to turn our voting system into a banana republic. To what purpose?

Now our mortgage industry is collapsing, housing prices are in free fall, major industries are failing, our banking system is on the verge of collapse, social security is nearly bankrupt, as is Medicare and our entire government. Our education system is worse than a joke (I teach college and I know precisely what I am talking about) – the list is staggering in its length, breadth, and depth.  It is potentially 1929 x  ten…and we are at war with an enemy we cannot even name for fear of offending people of the same religion, who, in turn, cannot wait to slit the throats of your children if they have the opportunity to do so.

And finally, we have elected a man that no one really knows anything about, who has never run so much as a Dairy Queen, let alone a town as big as Wasilla ,  Alaska  ..  All of his associations and alliances are with real radicals in their chosen fields of employment, and everything we learn about him, drip by drip, is unsettling if not downright scary (Surely you have heard him speak about his idea to create and fund a mandatory civilian defense force stronger than our military for use inside our borders? No? Oh, of course. The media would never play that for you over and over and then demand he answer it. Sarah Palin’s pregnant daughter and $150,000 wardrobe are more important.)

Mr. Obama’s winning platform can be boiled down to one word: CHANGE.  Why?

I have never been so afraid for my country and for my children as I am now.

This man campaigned on bringing people together, something he has never, ever done in his professional life.  In my assessment, Obama will divide us along philosophical lines, push us apart, and then try to realign the pieces into a new and different power structure.  Change is indeed coming.  And when it comes, you will never see the same nation again.

And that is only the beginning..

As a serious student of history, I thought I would never come to experience what the ordinary, moral German must have felt in the mid-1930s.  In those times, the “savior” was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. What they should have known was that he was associated with groups that shouted, shoved, and pushed around people with whom they disagreed; he edged his way onto the political stage through great oratory.  Conservative “losers” read it right now.

And there were the promises. Economic times were tough, people were losing jobs, and he was a great speaker. And he smiled and frowned and waved a lot. And people, even newspapers, were afraid to speak out for fear that his “brown shirts” would bully and beat them into submission. Which they did – regularly. And then, he was duly elected to office, while a full-throttled economic crisis bloomed at hand – the Great Depression. Slowly, but surely he seized the controls of government power, person by person, department by department, bureaucracy by bureaucracy. The children of German citizens were at first, encouraged to join a Youth Movement in his name where they were taught exactly what to think. Later, they were required to do so.  No Jews of course,

How did he get people on his side? He did it by promising jobs to the jobless, money to the money-less, and rewards for the military-industrial complex.. He did it by indoctrinating the children, advocating gun control, health care for all, better wages, better jobs, and promising to re-instill pride once again in the country, across Europe, and across the world. He did it with a compliant media – did you know that? And he did this all in the name of justice and . . .CHANGE And the people surely got what they voted for.

If you think I am exaggerating, look it up. It’s all there in the history books.

So read your history books. Many people of conscience objected in 1933 and were shouted down, called names, laughed at, and ridiculed. When Winston Churchill pointed out the obvious in the late 1930s while seated in the House of Lords in  England  (he was not yet Prime Minister), he was booed into his seat and called a crazy troublemaker. He was right, though. And the world came to regret that he was not listened to.

Do not forget that  Germany  was the most educated, the most cultured country in Europe .  It was full of music, art, museums, hospitals, laboratories, and universities. And yet, in less than six years (a shorter time span than just two terms of the U. S. presidency) it was rounding up its own citizens, killing others, abrogating its laws, turning children against parents, and neighbors against neighbors.  All with the best of intentions, of course. The road to Hell is paved with them.

As a practical thinker, one not overly prone to emotional decisions, I have a choice: I can either believe what the objective pieces of evidence tell me (even if they make me cringe with disgust);  I can believe what history is shouting to me from across the chasm of seven decades; or I can hope I am wrong by closing my eyes, having another latte, and ignoring what is transpiring around me..

I choose to believe the evidence.  No doubt some people will scoff at me, others laugh, or think I am foolish, naive, or both.  To some degree, perhaps I am.  But I have never been afraid to look people in the eye and tell them exactly what I believe-and why I believe it.

I pray I am wrong.  I do not think I am.  Perhaps the only hope is our vote in the next elections.

David Kaiser
Jamestown  , Rhode Island
United States