Have liberals turned America into a "banana republic"?

American Banana Republic    Mark Steyn: The decay of a free society doesn’t happen overnight, but we’re getting there.

 

“ 'Banana republic” is an American coinage — by O. Henry, a century ago, for a series of stories set in the fictional tropical polity of Anchuria. But a banana republic doesn’t happen overnight; it’s a sensibility, and it’s difficult to mark the precise point at which a free society decays into something less respectable. Pace Obama, ever swelling debt, contracts for cronies, a self-enriching bureaucracy, a shrinking middle class preyed on by corrupt tax collectors, and thuggish threats against anyone who disagrees with you put you pretty far down the banana-strewn path."

Thomas Lifson; Obama claims, 'We're not some banana republic' and Mark Steyn examines the evidence  " Obama has been behaving like a caudillo in ways beyond those enumerated by Steyn. Laughter may still be effective in persuading low information types about the fundamental transformation Obama is implementing." 

 

Dictator's job: Promise them everything and give them nothing.

The MSM will have a field day over this, especially Chris Matthews

White nationalists aim to take over tiny North Dakota town   "Paul Craig Cobb wants to transform the town 70 miles southwest of Bismarck into a community that mirrors his white supremacist views. He did so quietly at first, asking residents whether their land was for sale. But recent reports from The New York Times and the Southern Poverty Law Center exposed his mission and turned it into a national story." 

 

Remember when militant gays wanted to take over Alpine, CA in 1970?  ...."Tough mountaineers, woodsmen and fishermen all, they have preserved the pioneer purity of their independent existence. Now that existence stands threatened, and by as unlikely a force as could be imagined—the militant homosexuals of the Gay Liberation Front."  More.

And, of course, the Nation of Islam wanted entire states turned over to them .
I refer you to item four in their website.  And item ten at this same site is pretty much what Paul Craig Cobb (three names again!) wants for his white supremacists.
"10. We believe that intermarriage or race mixing should be prohibited. We want the religion of Islam taught without hindrance or suppression."

Great minds think alike; "American Nazi Party Commander George Lincoln Rockwell (center) at a Nation of Islam (NOI) rally, Uline Arena, Washington, DC, June 25, 1961."

 

At least this nation's history has given African Americans cause for anger -which so very many have risen above- but what did these Nazis want?

Hmmm. Blacks and white supremacists might clash, but Muslims and Nazis are a match made in Heaven.

Gay couple (or words to that effect) ruin Christian couple’s business

iOwnTheWorld.com
 "No, these idiots are not noble. They haven’t struck a blow for gay rights. They targeted  a Bed and Breakfast that had a policy of no unmarried couples allowed to stay in the same room together.
"But these creeps used that blanket policy as a means to further the gay agenda.
Daily Mail-
"Legal bills from their case against the gay couple they refused a room to have made it impossible to stay in business."
Vindictive progressives hacked their website and made death threats.  How can anyone feel sympathy for these two men?

 

 

"Their hotel website says: ‘We have few rules but please note that out of a deep regard for marriage we prefer to let double accommodation to heterosexual married couples only.’ 

"Such rules are so strictly adhered to that Mrs Bull has admitted that even her own brother, when he comes to stay, is required to stay in a separate room to his female partner.’
"In August 2008, the Bulls received a letter from Stonewall, the gay rights organisation, saying it had received a complaint and warning the hotel it was breaking the law.
"The following month Mr Preddy, from Bristol, rang to book a double room for two nights, but did not mention he was part of a homosexual couple."  Read more

"I have to question the bad reviews on the internet; If gay activists will make death threats, they will most definitely destroy this establishment's reputation on the internet."

Wisdom and joy from the Comical Conservative

The Comical Conservative   "The number #1 Conservative Humor Aggregator! We also post serious stuff too..."

Or put another way:

TheComicalConservative

The Islamist-inflicted ordeal of the Syrian Christian town of Maaloula

Here is a follow-up to this post from Sept 8th about the Christian enclave of Ma'loula or Maaloula. Wikipedia tells us:
Religiously, the population consists of both Christians (mainly Antiochian Orthodox and Melkite Greek Catholic) and Muslims. For the Muslim inhabitants, the legacy is all the more remarkable given that they were not Arabised, unlike most other Syrians who like them were Islamised over the centuries but also adopted Arabic and shifted to an "Arab" ethnic identity.

The Historic Christian Town Of Maaloula, Syria, Now Under Control Of Islamists

Snipers haunt Syrian Christian town of Maaloula  "Maalula(sp), city of culture and history, welcomes you," reads a sign at the entrance to Syria's best known Christian town. But any semblance of welcome evaporates once inside Maalula.
....
"On September 14, for the first time, the town known across the Middle East for its "Exaltation of the Cross" feast day was not decorated with lights, nor did it host Christian and Muslim visitors dining and celebrating together."

Christian village Maaloula falls into jihadists' hands as Al-Qaeda grows in Syria



Syrian Christians forced to convert to Islam in isolated town  "They shot and killed people," one Maaloula resident says. "I heard gunshots and then I saw three bodies lying in the middle of a street in the old quarters of the village. Where is President Obama to see what has befallen us?"

" 'I saw the militants grabbing five villagers and threatening them and saying, "either you convert to Islam, or you will be beheaded,'" another Christian resident said.

"Another said one church had been torched while other gunmen stormed into two other churches and robbed them."

Why does the Islam we see daily only destroy, never build? And why does the left support their war against civilized nations? 

The real Navy Yard scandal

Charles Krauthammer  "In the liberal remake of “Casablanca,” the police captain comes upon the scene of the shooting and orders his men to “round up the usual weapons.”
"It’s always the weapon and never the shooter. Twelve people are murdered in a rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, and before sundown Sen. Dianne Feinstein has called for yet another debate on gun violence. Major opprobrium is heaped on the AR-15, the semiautomatic used in the Newtown massacre."
....
Krauthammer turns to the subject of committing the psychotic, something the civil rights crusaders and the ACLU go ballistic over as cruel:

"Sounds cruel? On the contrary. For many people living on park benches, commitment means a warm bed, shelter and three hot meals a day. For Alexis, it would have meant the beginning of a treatment regimen designed to bring him back to himself before discharging him to a world heretofore madly radioactive."

As Dr. Charles said, the murdered dozen and Alexis all died with his rights intact.

Rural pharmacist frustrated by Obamacare’s regulatory onslaught

Kansas Watchdog    "Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, Hilger said his pharmacy is drowning in new government guidelines that ultimately leave him with an uncertain financial future.
 '“It’s so cumbersome, it’s virtually impossible for any pharmacy anywhere to stay up on the regulations, and every day there’s new regulations that somebody writes that we don’t even know about,” Hilger said." 

Kansas Small Business Owner Tells it how it is  "Mr. Bergmeier offered testimony about the company before the House Small Business Committee, of which Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas) is a member. Congressman Huelskamp invited Mr. Bergmeier to come to Washington and participate."
I like his comparison of the spread of cedar trees with government regulations.

Hat tip to Don Edmonds at Conservative Bloggers on Facebook

The ObamaCare battle rages on; it comes before the U.S. Supreme Court again

Breitbart  "...On Thursday, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) lawyers filed the first viable petition for Supreme Court review involving Kathleen Sebelius’ HHS Mandate, which requires employers to provide abortion-related insurance coverage, even if those employers have a religious objection to abortion."

House passes spending bill to defund Obamacare  "The 230-189 vote, which split almost exclusively along party lines, is the precursor to the big action next week, when the Senate is expected to strip out the health care provisions and send the bill back to the House — where Republicans will have to decide whether they can accept it at that point."

10 Creepy liberal reactions to creepy Obamacare videos  "Two videos have been released by Generation Operation as part of a national campus push to convince young people not to sign up for Obamacare.
"If young people don’t sign up, Obamacare become even more unsustainable, because the voodoo-economics behind it depend on the system sucking money out of the young to subsidize the less-young." 

 

 

 

"The reaction has been severe hyperventilation, and attempts to dismiss it all as nonsense.  Those reactions are trying too hard.
"In the world of low information voters, these types of video approaches are just what the doctor ordered.  It’s the imagery that matters."

Here are the expected liberal, pro-ObamaCare (but I repeat myself) reactions to these videos.

More PC silliness

Politically correct:  adjective

: agreeing with the idea that people should be careful to not use language or behave in a way that could offend a particular group of people.

 Amazon.com

From Kerby Anderson of PROBE Ministries in 2000  "U.S. News and World Report columnist John Leo occasionally collects examples of politically correct silliness. Today I thought I would share a few of his examples of our cultural craziness."

Censored Cartoons – What Stereotypes are Politically Correct?   "....[This short film] was one of a series of silly looks at the future (or actually a satirical look at the present), looking at farms, homes and televisions as well. Retro future is always fun. Some people take it too seriously though.

 Politically Correct silliness, the 50 words you can't use in school
“ 'Condom” passed muster. Because, after all, the schools pass them
out like candy. Also A-OK: “homosexual.” I believe there’s mandatory
class participation involved with that one. Sex-ed starts in Kindergarten;
but discussions of hunting might be too controversial?
"Religion is off-limits. So you can’t mention religious holidays, such as
Christmas, Yom Kippur, and Ramadan. But made-up holidays like Kwanzaa seem to be admissible."

The silliness of Political Correctness  "Yes, that’s right, the term “black hole” is racist, just as angel food cake, black sheep, and anything else that has the words white or black used in it.

Brittany Kirschman teaches a classroom of students what it means to be "politically correct." 

 

 The Odyssey of Tom and Jerry cartoons I do very much regret the shameful way African-Americans were treated in the old movies and wish they had been shown as they should have been. But I hope the old cartoons will not be lost to us out of sheer, ever-changing cultural standards. PC is becoming too much like the Chinese Communist Cultural Revolution and one only needs to remove the word "Mao", replacing it with the word "progressive". .

ESPN Columnist Defends Redskins Name

Oh, the guilt we must bear, being Caucasian, um, American.
Say, can we take a poll of those who want the Redskins to change their name to find what percentage of them are Democrats? We should hang on to the Redskins' name just for that reason.

NRO  "At least one sports columnist isn’t falling in line with some of his colleagues in not using the Washington Redskins team name. In a scathing piece yesterday, ESPN’s Rick Reilly fired back at the critics — mostly white sports writers — who claim that the name is racist and offensive to American Indians and should be changed.

"Reilly offers several testimonies from American Indians throughout the country, including his own father-in-law, a Blackfeet Indian in Montana. “‘The whole issue is so silly to me,’ says Bob Burns, my wife’s father and a bundle holder in the Blackfeet tribe,” he writes. Reilly also recounts conversations with a number of administrators, teachers, and parents at American Indian–majority high schools that proudly use the “Redskins” name, such as Red Mesa High School in Arizona, where “the student body is only 99.3 percent Native American.”

But, so far this year:

 

 

Reading list; What Democrat voters have given this nation

A Truly Great Phony   ...."What our glib talker was saying might have seemed impressive to someone who had never read "Capital," as most people have not. But it was complete nonsense to me.
"Incidentally, he did not get the grant he applied for.
"This episode came back to me recently, as I read an incisive column by Charles Krauthammer, citing some of the many gaffes in public statements by the President of the United States."....
....
"One wonders how he will laugh when all his golden promises about ObamaCare turn out to be false and a medical disaster. Or when his foreign policy fiascoes in the Middle East are climaxed by a nuclear Iran."

Labor Dept: Same-Sex Spouses Must Receive Benefits Regardless of State Laws  "...Obama Labor Department announced that married same-sex couples must receive the same pensions, 401(k)s, health plans, and employee benefits as heterosexual married couples, regardless of whether they live in one of the 37 states where same-sex marriage is illegal."

Obama Wasn't Ready in 2008, Isn't Ready Now  "In 2008, the RNC warned what would happen if Americans voted to elevate one of the least experienced presidential candidates in history to the Oval Office." Reince Priebus

 

Another Obama 'smart diplomacy' belly-flop  "The vast and growing gap between what Obama promised and what he has delivered would be hilarious, were it not for the fact that America's prosperity and power are diminishing with every day he remains in office."

 

Jonah Goldberg; Obama: I Meant to Do That   "The president’s bait-and-switch on Syria will turn out badly for the U.S. "

...."The question, however, is: What policy?"... 

Stephen F. Hayes; Administration's Benghazi Review Board Discredits Itself in Congressional Hearing  *The ARB did not investigate the Obama administration’s public response to the attack or the role that senior State Department officials played in shaping that narrative. That response included the highly misleading claim that the attacks had come as a reaction to an anti-Islam video and many other claims that were later shown to be false."

Cleveland Clinic To Layoff Workers Due To O-Care  "She attributed most of the budget reductions to looming changes accompanying the start of the Affordable Health Care Act."

So we say thank you to all of the 50,000,000 Obama voters who voted for this man and his party because you thought he was "really cool" and so you could feel like a nice person. TD

Spitting on Their Graves: Democrats Leave Benghazi Hearing Before Testimony From Families of the Dead Americans

Atlas Shrugs

"During the second portion of a House Oversight and Government Reform hearing about Benghazi Thursday on Capitol Hill, the majority of Democrats on the Committee left the room and refused to listen to the testimony of Patricia Smith and Charles Woods. Ms. Smith is the mother of Sean Smith, an information management officer killed in the 9/11 Benghazi attack. Charles Woods is the father of Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who was also killed."

 

Darryl Issa has tweeted out one of the most appalling photographs I’ve ever seen emerge from the United States House of Representatives.  

Darrell Issa        ✔ @DarrellIssa

PHOTO: @OversightDems excuse themselves from testimony of #Benghazi heroes' family members #PJNet pic.twitter.com/NP9u2I2noC

2:23 PM - 19 Sep 2013

 

...."In sum, the incompetence of a Democrat administration left a U.S. outpost vulnerable to a terrorist attack; that same Democrat administration could not be bothered to rouse itself to protect Americans fighting for their lives in a tiny outpost of America on foreign soil; and the Democrat administration then tried to cover-up its gross dereliction of duty by lying consistently in the days and weeks following the attack. Other than that, of course, the Democrats have nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to events in Benghazi."

 

Weasel Zippers names the Democrats who walked out on the parents of the slain

Carolyn Maloney                                            Danny Davis

Michelle Lujan Grisham                                  Eleanor Holmes Norton
Peter Welch                                                    Matt Cartwright
Stephen Lynch                                                Mark Pocan

 Steven Horsford                                             John Tierney
Tammy Duckworth                                          Jim Cooper
Tony Cardenas                                               Gerald E. Connolly
William Lacy Clay