In the Liberal-Conservative Debate, Where’s the Common Sense?

Barry Rubin  ..."Only due to reforms, largely backed by Democratic presidents before most of us were born, was the balance corrected. The modern prosperity and progress of America has been due to a combination of Founding Fathers’ constitutionalism, largely free capitalism, and a government able to carry out reasonable levels of regulation.

Obama’s proposed solution:
 The masses unite to control
 the monster.

"A proof of that fact is that few conservatives sought to roll back all the pre-1952 innovations. And the same applies to such later initiatives as civil rights along racial and gender lines or the main and much needed environmental legislation following the discovery of just how much America’s water and air had deteriorated.

"Yet the governmental machine just kept going beyond the point of reasonable balance. More and more; further and further. The books of regulations grew and grew, strangling the society, trying to perfect ever-smaller faults at an ever-higher price. When was the turning point? The War on Poverty and Great Society of the 1960s? The ascension of Obama in 2009? The precise date isn’t so vital. What’s important is that things just went too far."
"And with Obama, the radicals-pretending-to-be-liberals took over."....

"So let’s be non-ideological serious people. Have the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, and all of the other bureaucrats and red-tape worked or not? Was the taxpayers’ money well-spent or thrown away? Are alleged good intentions and worthy causes just covers for sophisticated corruption and theft? Patriotism was once the last refuge of scoundrels. Today, that’s been replaced by claiming to save the environment, benefit the poor and downtrodden, and impose social justice through the redistribution of wealth (i.e., gimme!)."  Emphasis added.

EXCLUSIVE from Big Government blog: Ron Paul in 2009–‘I Wouldn’t Risk American Lives’ to End the Holocaust

oskarschindler.com

 Jeffrey Scott Shapiro   ..."And so I asked Congressman Paul: if he were President of the United States during World War II, and as president he knew what we now know about the Holocaust, but the Third Reich presented no threat to the U.S., would he have sent American troops to Nazi Germany purely as a moral imperative to save the Jews?”
"And the Congressman answered:"

No, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t risk American lives to do that. If someone wants to do that on their own because they want to do that, well, that’s fine, but I wouldn’t do that.”

"Paul then looked at me, and I politely thanked him for his time. He smiled at me again and nodded his head, and many of his young followers were also smiling, and nodding their heads in agreement. Clearly, I was the only one in the room who was disturbed by his response."

Most of the world would do as Paul might: not lift a finger to help the Jew. Roosevelt did not because he had a voting public that would not. But his own administration turned away a ship full of Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler, sending them back into a terrible fate when he could have saved them.

Even today, Arabs who invade Israeli homes and knife families to death in their sleep have outspoken defenders here in this country. And, I suggest they make up the Obama base.

But there are surely many others as well, though I can tell you first-hand that among those who many call "bible-thumpers" there is near unanimous support for defending Israel. TD

Video: Ron Paul Just May Be Lying About Those Old Newsletters  ..."This is rather like Obama’s defense on the Jeremiah Wright problem, isn’t it? Except, that in Ron Paul’s case he’s claiming that he wasn’t the man in the pulpit, and didn’t listen to the words coming off his own pen. So it’s even less plausible than Obama’s take on Rev. Wright.

"How is Ron Paul different from any other politician caught in a trap? How is this defense materially different from Anthony Weiner’s “I wuz hacked!” defense? Ron Paul, the only man we’re told can save America, was either lying about the newsletters in 1995-96 when he promoted them, or he’s lying about them now because they’re a problem for his campaign. And if he’s lying about them now, then his best defense is that he incompetently managed a newsletter but now wants to manage the executive branch of the federal government.

Since we're discussing Ron Paul...

Video included: The man is a Truther, but he won’t admit it because he knows it would sink his presidential run.  "Paul’s resilient strength in the polls is one of the more disturbing sidebars in the GOP primary. He has a few good ideas on economics, but in no way do those make up for his foreign policy. He discounts entirely the role that beliefs and ideologies play in our enemies’ thinking and ambitions. He constantly blames US foreign policy for 9-11, putting him in the same league as Ward Churchill and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, possibly even to the left of Dennis Kucinich. Paul is not even being honest about his true beliefs concerning 9-11, that moment of “glee” he describes above. Pay close attention to how he answered this question about 9-11 just a few weeks ago."

Paul is that guy in every car pool who, as he was expounding, the other riders would look sideways at each other and try to change the subject with something like, "so how'd them Cowboys do last Sunday?"

Byron York: 'Mischief' voters push Paul to front of GOP race   "Given Paul's views on the Fed, the gold standard and social issues, not to mention his isolationist foreign policy, the polls have left some politicos wondering whether Republican voters have somehow swerved off the rails. But there's another question that should be asked first: Who are Ron Paul's supporters? Are they, in fact, Republicans?"....

" "Paul is doing the best job of getting those people who aren't really Republicans but say they're going to vote in the Republican primary," explains Smith. Among that group are libertarians, dissatisfied independents and Democrats who are "trying to throw a monkey wrench in the campaign by voting for someone who is more philosophically extreme," says Smith."

Tony Branco

Trust me, I didn't find this Paul cartoon by going through Google. The general thrust of Google is anti-conservative, -Republican. You can be sure of that when you search any political topic and, of course, this cartoon did not show up in a search of "ron paul cartoons".

Merry, er, happy holidays from the Obamas



Hat tip to The Astute Bloggers



Segregation in the Name of Diversity

Prof. Mike Adams at Townhall.  "Unfortunately, the incident showed that having separate centers is not enough for some minority students. Some want to see racially segregated classrooms, too. Specifically, some diversophiles want to make sure that opponents of the African American Center are stuck teaching all-white classes. Telling black students not to take classes from professors who oppose African American Centers simply spreads segregation from the centers to the classroom. Why would black students want to punish a professor who says he wants more racial integration by ensuring he only teaches whites? This is a perversion of diversity. It’s perversity. It shows that the African American Center has been teaching racism, not eradicating it. And this is simply a disgrace to the entire university."
Mike Adams is a criminology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington and author of Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" On Campus.

Problems are Caused by Racial Separatism, not Immigration   "That is right, a Mexican racial supremacist group significantly comprised of illegal aliens has been systematically intimidating, harassing, and murdering Americans because they object to their culture, customs, and most important, their skin color; apparently, it is the wrong shade of brown. The progressives-invented stereotype of shoeless peasants escaping oppressive poverty to fill low-paying jobs picking crops, as restaurant workers, and as nannies is clearly propaganda."

Thomas Sowell and Victor Davis Hanson on Newt and Barack

Thomas Sowell: Gingrich vs. Obama   ..."A president who has pulled the rug out from under our allies, whether in Eastern Europe or the Middle East, tried to cozy up to our enemies, and has bowed low from the waist to foreign leaders certainly has not represented either the values or the interests of America. If he continues to do nothing that is likely to stop terrorist-sponsoring Iran from getting nuclear weapons, the consequences can be beyond our worst imagining.
"Against this background, how much does Newt Gingrich's personal life matter..."

Victor Davis Hanson: Barack Obama is a myth, our modern version of Pecos Bill or Paul Bunyan. What we were told is true, never had much basis in fact — a fact now increasingly clear as hype gives way to reality."I could go on, but we know only that we know very little about Barack Obama, and what we do know is quite different from what is alleged. All presidents have mythographies, but they also have a record and auditors that can collate facts with fiction. In Obama’s case, we were never given all the facts and there were few in the press interested in finding them.  (Both above via Neal Boortz)

How can anyone hope to defeat Obama when his smiling face is in every celebrity magazine, and adoration of his policies is on most TV programs; when Republicans are treated as suspects to be grilled by the press?

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2011/12/25/94923

The protector of American security; Has Obama lost Iraq to Iran?

American Enterprise Institute; 
 John McCain on Iraq: Losing the peace  “I believe that history will judge this president’s leadership with the scorn and disdain it deserves.”
Where was this John McCain during the 2008 campaign? He said then that we had nothing to fear from a President Obama.

Iraq--It's not over  ...."But after losing 126,000 Americans in the war to end all wars, the American public was sick of foreign entanglements. Let Europe and the rest of the world take care of itself, people said; we want our boys home.
"So at last troops did come home, and in less than two decades Pershing was proved right. The Americans who returned at Anzio, Cassino, and Omaha Beach paid in blood for their countrymen’s desire to not to be bothered with a war’s aftermath."

"We’ve left Iraq in a bottle with three scorpions–with no help from us except kind words." --Arthur Herman

After U.S. Withdrawal, Iraqi Political Standoff Raises Concern of 'Unraveling'  " "This is a clear sign that the fragile political accommodation made possible by the surge of 2007, which ended large-scale sectarian violence in Iraq, is now unraveling," they said.
"The senators claimed the Obama administration's decision not to leave a small residual force in Iraq "precipitated" the dispute.
" "If Iraq slides back into sectarian violence, the consequences will be catastrophic for the Iraqi people and U.S. interests in the Middle East, and a clear victory for Al Qaeda and Iran," the senators said. "A deterioration of the kind we are now witnessing in Iraq was not unforeseen, and now the U.S. government must do whatever it can to help Iraqis stabilize the situation." "


From THE INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR:   Iraq After the U.S. Withdrawal  by Ramzy Mardini
"The Obama administration had three years to push Iraqis toward genuine national reconciliation, the most critical component in securing a stable Iraq over the long term. The White House failed to leave behind a representative government that respects the concept of power-sharing and the rule of law under the Iraqi Constitution. Instead, the central government headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is riddled with sectarian and authoritarian elements that were bound to capitalize and expand after the departure of U.S. forces from Iraq." More here: Iraq's Post-Withdrawal Crisis, Update 2

This is what world affairs influenced by the Bill Ayers-60's "Peace" movement looks like. More killings and upheaval with not an ounce more respect for the US.

Obama and "Green" energy

Solyndra: Politics infused Obama energy programs    "Linda Sterio remembers the excitement when President Obama arrived at Solyndra last year and described how his administration’s financial support for the plant was helping create hundreds of jobs. The company’s prospects appeared unlimited as Solyndra executives described the backlog of orders for its solar panels.

"Then came the August morning when Sterio heard a newscaster announce that more than a thousand Solyndra employees were out of work. Only recently did she learn that, within the Obama administration, the company’s potential collapse had long been discussed.

"“It’s not about the people; it’s politics,” said Sterio, who remains jobless and at risk of losing her home. “We all feel betrayed.” "

Solyndra scandal timeline: "Key events in the rise and fall of the bankrupt solar company. Click on the icons to see the relevant Solyndra documents."

about.com

MORE PROOF THAT THE OBAMA GANG IS THE MOST CORRUPT ADMINISTRATION OF ALL-TIME:    "The documents reviewed by The Post, which began examining the clean-technology program a year ago, provide a detailed look inside the day-to-day workings of the upper levels of the Obama administration. They also give an unprecedented glimpse into high-level maneuvering by politically connected clean-technology investors." (emphasis in the original)

Powerline covers this also.

Revealed: Solyndra Was About Politics and Only Politics  "Why Solyndra?  "Top Obama bundler George Kaiser made multiple visits to the White House in the months before the company was granted a $535 million loan from the government. And top Solyndra officials also made numerous visits — 20 — to the White House, according to logs and reporting by The Daily Caller. Solyndra officials in the logs included chairman and founder Christian Gronet and board members Thomas Baruch and David Prend. The company secured the $535 million loan despite the fact that it was widely known Solyndra was in deep economic trouble and had negative cash flows since its inception."

Now it only remains for us to see how or if this will all be covered by ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS and any source with the letters N,B and C in their name. Remember however, that the press is heavily invested in the success of the Obama administration.

During the 2008 campaign, the network morning shows acted as cheerleaders for the Democratic field. This time around, they are providing far more hostile coverage of the various Republicans who are running, while treating Obama’s re-election campaign to the same personality-driven coverage that was so helpful to the then-Illinois Senator four years ago.

Above quote from the Media Research Center article excerpted here: How the Network Morning Shows Are Trashing Republicans and Trumpeting Barack Obama in Campaign 2012

http://drawfortruth.com/category/media-bias/page/4/

What comes out in the Christmas weekend document dump?

This is when you have to watch what info is released to the press-when they hope nobody will notice.

Fed Once-Secret Loan Crisis Data Compiled by Bloomberg Released to Public"Bloomberg News today released spreadsheets showing daily borrowing totals for 407 banks and companies that tapped Federal Reserve emergency programs during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis. It’s the first time such data have been publicly available in this form. "

Dec 3rd: Another Friday Fast and Furious document dump    "Yesterday afternoon, the Justice Department — in yet another late Friday document dump — revealed how DOJ officials came to write a Feb. 4 letter to Congress that Attorney General Eric Holder has since admitted contained false information about the gunrunning scandal Fast and Furious. Roll Call reports."

Holiday Friday Document Dump Signing Statement  Regarding funds for the transfer Guantanamo "detainees"  prisoners of war to the US: 
"It is par for the course for the Administration to keep secret which provisions it intends to “apply in a manner that avoids constitutional conflicts” even while celebrating its own “transparency.” "

Christmas Eve Document Dump Tries to Sneak Bloomberg Aides' Special Treatment for Ground Zero Mosque By Skeptical Press Corps  "Embarrassing press releases are often scheduled on Friday afternoons or on the day before long weekends in order to catch a slow news cycle, so that by the time the news media is back in "full gear" the embarrassing news is old and has been replaced by fresher, new embarrassments. However, the Bloomberg administration may have embarrassed itself, by trying to hide this and being revealed for doing so. "  From Eric Dixon's Crime, Politics and Policy

From Instapundit:   THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED OVER THE HOLIDAY WEEKEND, if you were off, you know, having a life or something.

Eric Holder blocks Voter ID in SC, sets up possible Supreme Court strikedown of Voting Rights Act Section Five.
Governors Journal names Wisconsin’s Scott Walker Governor Of The Year.
Copyright Troll Righthaven In Its Death Throes, Domain Going Up For Auction.
White House Using Bogus Numbers In Payroll Tax Fight.
DOJ to America: we won’t reveal the circumstances under which you can be assassinated by us.

More at the link.......

Bad attorney general! Bad! Bad!

http://terrellaftermath.com/                                           

"THE WHITE ROSE" - A FREE INTERNET NOVEL BY RON BARBOUR

Ron Barbour is the "Ronbo" often mentioned in this blog as publisher of The Freedom Fighter's Journal.  Here are excerpts from early chapters of his internet novel, The White Rose.
This chapter is titled:  "The Star of David".

"With its pristine appearance, the white rose has come to symbolize purity, innocence and secrecy. There are myths and legends from several different cultures relating to the origin of the first rose which is initially white in color and is then miraculously transformed. Oftentimes the pure white rose was depicted as being stained by blood, or made to blush from a kiss. The recurrence of this theme does a great deal to establish the white rose as a symbol for purity."

The main protagonists are David Hunter, Bobby Pelton, Mr. Big (Mark Alexander) and General Conway.
The character of David Hunter is a latter day Sam Adams - Father of the Revolution.
Bobby Pelton represents the American sense of adventure and fearless unconventional thinking.
Mark Alexander, a billionaire, bankrolls the revolution.
General Conway, the head of the U.S. military, would correspond to George Washington.

....

...."We modern day White Rose Americans are not so idealistic to believe that public opinion alone can change things in this country. This is the reason I gave your JDL group the means of self defense against tyranny."

I Bring You Good Tidings of Great Joy

CNS News  This article quotes the Gospel of Luke. TW prefers to use this passage from the Gospel of John, chapter one, which I think is a magnificent Christmas story and better shows the reason we say "merry Christmas":

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.


The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.  (John 1:1-14 ESV)

From the Tunnel Dweller.

Kerby Anderson's Point of View on Christmas songs: Joy to the World

Point of View "During this Christmas week, I have taken the time to discuss the theology of some of the Christmas hymns and carols that we sing. Today I would like to talk about “Joy to the World.”
....
 "“Joy to the World” continues: “No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make His blessings flow far as the curse is found.” This refers back to the Fall in Genesis 3:18 where God says there will be thorns and thistles that will spring forth from the ground. In the New Heaven and New Earth, the curse currently on the Earth will be gone.
"Christ will also come as Judge. The hymn proclaims that: “He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of His righteousness and wonders of His love.”
"The first coming of Christ was an occasion of joy. The angel said to the shepherds: “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). But this hymn also reminds us of the great joy the world will experience when Christ returns. We should look forward to it with expectation. I’m Kerby Anderson, and that’s my point of view." 

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/

More Christmas hymns discussed here:

• First Noel
• O Little Town of Bethlehem
• O Holy Night   
• Hark! the Herald Angels Sing   

 Related:  The Theology of Christmas Carols by Robert A. Pyne

Dr. Robert A. Pyne is a former associate speaker with Probe Ministries, as well as a Professor of Systematic Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. He received the Th.M. with honors, and the Th.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary. He now serves as Director of the Peace and Justice Center at St. Norbert College. He received the B.A. magna cum laude in communication from Arizona State University.