The Green Movement - Eco Terror or Socialist Plot?

Out of all the nooks and crannies that socialists have infiltrated in our society, the environmental movement has proven the most productive. It has everything they need. Armies of passionate followers that can be easily swayed by tainted studies laced with falsified data as well as the urgency of crisis they need to force entire nations headlong into self-destructive legislation and international pacts under the guise of saving the planet Neither of which are acts that are designed to save the planet. It wasn’t always that way. Many environmental groups began life to protect endangered species, prevent deforestation and to insure our air and water were free of dangerous chemicals and poisons. It was only in the last 30 years that the “green” movement added political activism into their repertoire.

The groups that were formed around the environmental movement are now funded in large part by the same people and organizations that fund socialist efforts as well as the extreme left of the Democrat party and other progressive movements. One of the more notable “contributors’ is our old friend, George Soros. It seems that wherever there is a movement to defeat Capitalism in general and American Capitalism in particular, you always seem to find George and his check book. Another familiar donor to anti-American / anti-Capitalist environmental organizations is the Tides Foundation.

Established in 1976 by California-based activist Drummond Pike, the Tides Foundation was set up as a public charity that receives money from donors and then funnels it to the recipients of their choice. Because many of these recipient groups are quite radical, the donors often prefer not to have their names publicly linked with the recipients. By letting the Tides Foundation, in effect, "launder" the money for them and pass it along to the intended beneficiaries, donors can avoid leaving a "paper trail." Such contributions are called "donor-advised," or donor-directed, funds.

In 1996 the Tides Foundation created, with a $9 million seed grant, a separate but closely related entity called the Tides Center, also headed by Drummond Pike. The Tides Center functions as a legal firewall insulating the Tides Foundation from potential lawsuits filed by people whose livelihoods or well-being may be harmed by Foundation-funded projects. (Such as farmers or loggers who are put out of business by Tides-backed environmentalist groups.) In theory the Foundation's activities are restricted to fundraising and grant-making, while the Center focuses on managing projects and organizations; in practice, however, both entities do essentially the same thing.

The Tides Center's Board Chairman is Wade Rathke. Wade is also a member of the Tides Foundation Board. If you recall, Wade Rathke was a protégé of the late George Wiley, founder of the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO) and a devout follower of Cloward and Piven. Maya Wiley, daughter of George Wiley, currently sits on the Tides Center's Board of Directors. In addition to his work with the Tides center, Rathke also serves as President of the New Orleans-based Local 100 of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and is also the founder and chief organizer of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). Isn’t funny how the same names keep popping up when the discussion is radical socialism?

One particularly notable donor to the Tides entities is Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Senator John Kerry. From 1994 to 2004, the Heinz Endowments, which Mrs. Kerry heads, gave the Tides Foundation and Center approximately $8.1 million in grants. Until February 2001, Mrs. Kerry also served as a trustee of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which also gave Tides numerous six-figure grants. I case you haven’t guessed; George Soros also infuses money into the Tides Foundation. The Tides Foundation funnels money into hundreds of projects for the radical left including several dozen for the stated purpose of environmental sustainability. All of this draws Senator Kerry’s involvement with environmental legislation into serious question. With that kind of money changing hands, there must be a trade off. Has Kerry been promised a “soft landing” when the eco-activists finish tearing our Constitution and economy to shreds? Will these deals leave the Heinz-Kerry fortune one of the fortunate “untouchables” in a post-America, Socialist elite club with George Soros, Maurice Strong and Al Gore?

Getting into the groups themselves, Greenpeace must top the list. Founded in 1970 as a loose assortment of Canadian anti-nuclear agitators, American expatriates, and underground journalists calling themselves the "Don't Make a Wave Committee", Greenpeace, is today, the most influential group of the environmental Left. Its stated mission is to "use non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and force solutions for a green and peaceful future." After a schism in the late 1970s, the various organizations originally comprising Greenpeace have today united into 41 affiliates and two main branches, Greenpeace USA and the Amsterdam-based Greenpeace International.

One of the founders of Greenpeace was Irving Stowe (1915-1974) who was also on the executive board of Canada’s New Democratic Party. The New Democratic Party are Democratic Socialists that advocate many radical ideals including the abolition of the Canadian Senate. While they have never attained power over the Canadian Federal Government, they have had sufficient success in several provinces to be able to exert considerable political pressure.

Another of Greenpeace’s founders, Patrick Moore, left Greenpeace in 1986 after what he saw was a shift to a radical political ideology. He said in a statement that “Greenpeace today is motivated by politics rather than science and that none of his "fellow directors had any formal science education". In the 2007 film “The Great Global Warming Swindle, Moore commented: "See, I don't even like to call it the environmental movement anymore, because really it is a political activist movement, and they have become hugely influential at a global level.”

A prime example of socialists that discovered the environmental movement as a vehicle for their agenda is the group “Socialist Action”. Socialist Action is a nation-wide group of revolutionary socialists. In their own words: “We fight for a society organized to satisfy human needs, rather than corporate greed. We seek to revitalize the anti-war, labor, student and other social movements, and to bring activists together from different backgrounds into a revolutionary party that can successfully challenge the wealthy elite. As socialists we seek to understand the theory of Marxism, but as an activist group, we also seek to put those ideas into practice. Join us in the struggle to make a better world!”

Christine Frank of Socialist Action says: “We need to build a powerful and uncompromising environmental movement led by working people in alliance with other oppressed groups in society. In addition, we must infuse this new movement with eco-socialist principles that go beyond the maintenance of capitalism and its suicidal and genocidal policies and advance toward a zero-waste, democratically planned socialist economy that is green and sustainable and puts planetary and human needs before profits.”

Elmar Altvater is another Marxist that discovered the environmental movement could be used to further socialist policies. Mr. Altvater gained fame as one of Germany's most important Marxist philosophers, who strongly influenced the political and economic theory of the 1968 generation of radicals and is a renowned critic of "political economy" and author of numerous writings on his desire for globalization and his disgust of the free market. He suggests that there is only one “realistic alternative to oil imperialism; a shift from dependence on renewable energy sources, on the radiation energy released by the sun (and its derivatives such as photovoltaic, water, wave and biotic energy etc.), or on volcanic and geothermal energy”. He argues that “A society based on renewable instead of fossil energy sources must develop adequate technologies and above all social forms beyond capitalism.”

The Bullitt Foundation was established in 1952 by Dorothy S. Bullitt, who also created the King Broadcasting Company in Seattle. Denis Hayes, who was the national coordinator for the first Earth Day in 1970, is currently the Foundation's President. Hayes is a strong supporter of leftist political candidates, groups, and causes.The Bullitt Foundation, whose stated mission is "to protect, restore, and maintain the natural physical environment of the Pacific Northwest for present and future generations", directs its grants almost exclusively to radical environmental organizations whose ultimate goal, as writer Michael Berliner explains, is "not clean air and clean water, rather . . . the demolition of technological/industrial civilization." This philosophy is certainly aimed at using the environmental movement to further the group’s advocacy of destroying capitalist industry in favor of the establishment of socialism in the western nations.

Take your pick. When you research environmental groups, 90% are considered political activists and obtain funding from the same “progressive” sources. All have left-wing policies and many believe that only socialism will give society the tools it needs to stave off environmental disaster. The fact is that the United States has meaningful tools in place to prevent the irresponsible release in pollutants coupled with crippling fines and criminal prosecution for violators. In a socialist society, these safeguards would disappear as productivity drops, industries are lost and revenues to fund enforcement and remediation dwindle.

You must remember that wherever environmentalists have won the day, economic disaster followed closely. The logging industry in the Pacific Northwest was decimated in the 1990’s by the environmental campaign to preserve the spotted owl. Even though logging was banned in vast areas of the Pacific Northwest because this was purported to be the spotted owls “critical habitat”, in February 2008, a federal judge reinforced a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision to designate 8,600,000 acres in Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico as critical habitat for the owl as well. It just so happens that is prime cattle grazing area so is this just a move to cripple yet another U.S. industry to drive us deeper into financial crisis a la Cloward-Pivens?

Last summer, half a million acres of fertile California farmland in the San Joaquin Valley have turned to dust after the water used for irrigation was reduced by 90% to save the endangered “Delta Smelt”. The smelt was not being further endangered by falling water levels, but because they were being drawn into the pumps. All technical suggestions to alleviate that from happening were dismissed in favor of denying water to the farms. These are the same farms that provide 15% of all the produce consumed in the United States. These examples, as with so-called “global warming”, display that only one conclusion can be reached and that is, the “real inconvenient truth” is that this is not about the environment at all but about progressive socialism, political power and who will ultimately wield much of the power in the “New World Order".

Paul

Here Lies the Rupublic - May She Rest in Peace

While the talking heads tally the latest count of pro and con votes for healthcare, Nancy Pelosi predicts a vote will take place by late next week. The President has postponed his trip to Asia so he can strong-arm…oops…I meant persuade wavering Democrats for an additional three days. One thing is clear; Pelosi will only proceed to a vote if she is certain of the outcome and that certainty will either be purchased in more promises through back room deals or through the threats of retribution in the form of base closures and the diversion of stimulus money.

A sizeable amount of the stimulus funds remains unspent and many could not understand why the Congress would pass a jobs bill for even more money when so much stimulus money is still waiting for distribution. A quick accounting of stimulus dollars show that the funds that were distributed were focused in areas that were represented by Party faithful by a factor of two to one and that districts represented by Republicans with higher unemployment rates and more dire economic expectations were largely ignored. The eyes of the nation are on the healthcare debate and talk of backroom deals like the Louisiana Purchase (Hi Mary) and the Cornhusker Kickback have infuriated the public so intensely that Democratic leadership can no longer risk such blatant examples of vote buying. What they can do is point to the huge pile of stimulus money still waiting to be spent and wink at those that are on the fence.

Democratic leadership will stop at nothing to get this vote done before the Easter break because the one thing they fear more than anything else is the possibility of the public getting to speak with their representatives before a vote can be taken. After all, those angry people that attended the town hall meetings last August nearly upset the whole reform conversation. Now that the opposition to this bill has been cemented even further and Congressional approval ratings are at their lowest point in recorded history, any contact between Congress and constituent would damage the chances for passage beyond repair. Apparently, this latest push and deadline is meant to prevent that contact from ever happening. Is this democracy? Is this representative government?

The argument has been made that in a Republic, we elect representatives that best reflect our values and then trust them to vote their conscience. If that were true in every case and the will of the people can only be counted on Election Day, then why do so many elected officials claim a “mandate” if they win election by more than a mere majority? When there is overwhelming opposition to any legislation then the will of the people must determine the outcome or the validity of representative government becomes impaired. A Republic can only survive if the governed have confidence that they are actually being represented.

Today, we have little confidence in that representation and even less faith that our confidence can be restored. The 2010 elections will be more than a commentary on this President and his Congressional colleagues; it will be a turning point in the history of our nation. I sadly predict that healthcare bill will pass by hook and mostly by crook and that the Democrats will suffer a major defeat in November because of it. However, if the November election does not usher in a new breed of politician that will act with dignity and honor to restore the faith of the electorate, I have little hope that the United States will escape the grave consequences brought on by the last hundred years of Progressive meddling.

The latest assault on our Constitution is already being planned if the White House and Nancy Pelosi cannot secure the votes to get the bill past the house in the manner prescribed by law. As I discussed Friday, Representative Louise Slaughter (D-NY) has suggested that since the House and the Senate have already passed similar bills, the Senate bill should just be sent to the President without a House vote. If that is attempted, I can envision a fire storm among the electorate that can only end in disaster. People were already incensed at the news that if the Bill passed through the house, the Senate intended to use reconciliation to effectively negate the vote of newly elected Republican, Scott Brown. The Slaughter plan would represent a new low for the most corrupt Congress of the century; negating not only Scott Brown’s vote, but the representative vote of the American people.

Not even during a state of emergency has this amount of power been seized by an obvious minority of elected officials. This is not the opening day of World War III and there is no looming threat of an asteroid collision with earth. There is nothing about this bill that would require such extraordinary and dictatorial measures be taken to secure its passage. If Congress can perpetrate such a clear and dangerous abrogation of due process then the rights guaranteed by the Constitution may only be a signature away from extinction. The legislative rules that Louise Slaughter and Nancy Pelosi obviously consider an issue of mere formality are really the basis of representative government. To use this tactic means that the sheer will of Progressive ideologues can and will create laws, administrations and regulations without the need for even a simple majority. Where is your Republic then?

Blatant chicanery has marred the healthcare bill ever since it was proposed. The kickback schemes that encouraged members of Congress to prostitute their votes (Hi again Mary…and you thought I forgot you!) were only the beginning. The President promised he would not sign a bill that added to the deficit so they began skimming major spending deals out of the bill only to be hidden within other less obvious resolutions. The “Doctor Fix” that would stabilize Medicare payments to doctors is valued at nearly three-hundred billion dollars, would have added every penny of that fix to the deficit. They needed that “fix” to secure the silence of doctors so it was cut from the healthcare bill and now resides quietly and uncounted in the latest jobs bill. It still adds to the deficit but just not as part of the healthcare bill.

The Presidential promise of “If you like your current insurance, you can keep it” has slowly transformed into “If you like your doctor, you can keep him.” Not many picked up on that because it was repeated so often that the minor change of two words was barely noticeable. But the change of those two words makes all the difference in the world. Certain plans will be grandfathered in as long as they meet the new government established requirements while the rest will be replaced. Even grandfathered plans have a shelf life and will be terminated under this bill by 2019.

The President assured everyone that the cost of insurance plans would go down with passage of this bill but now it seems that the reduction the President was talking about is relative to the new expanded coverage mandated by the bill and in fact, current plans will see an increase of ten to thirteen percent almost immediately. The President also said that abortion is not covered under the healthcare bill but even Planned Parenthood is calling for support for the President’s bill because of the new access to abortion the plan will provide.

Lie after lie has been told to gain support for this bill and now that the lies have failed and the truth is too widely known to obscure it with platitudes and sob stories, Progressives are desperate to save it. Reconciliation would have shoved it down your throat but Ms. Slaughter and Ms. Pelosi are now planning a different and more painful route to the gastrointestinal tract. Progressives are like roaches. Most of their work must be done in the dark and they usually scatter when the lights go on. Hopefully, enough people will launch a preemptive strike and flood the Congress with letters and phone calls to warn them we are watching. The Slaughter plan must not be allowed to stand or the Republic will fall as an emboldened President and his Congressional henchmen continue chopping away at our Constitution to create more loopholes in order to advance his radical agenda.

Paul

Ben Nelson takes to the air to calm angry Nebraskans

The Senate vote on Healthcare is over so let the backpedaling begin. Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska took to the air in his home state on Wednesday to try to defend his vote for the Healthcare reform bill. Even though he does not face reelection until 2012, his poll numbers are abysmal and show him losing by a 61 to 30 margin if the election were held today against an opponent who has not even said they are running. The poll also shows Nelson with a 55% generally unfavorable rating and the Democratic healthcare plan he voted for fairs even worse with 64% disapproving of the plan nationwide.

Unfortunately for Nelson, he made his stand on principals over his opposition to the use of public funds for abortion; that is he stood on principals until Harry Reid found out how much money it would take to buy his vote. At least when Mary Landrieu of Louisiana prostituted herself to Harry Reid, her original opposition to the bill was fiscal. Ben can buy all the air time they will give him but no one, particularly Nebraskans, will ever trust a man that can place his ethics up for sale.

When Nelson had stood his ground against the bill and said he would not vote for it unless there were iron-clad protections against the use of public funds for abortion, he had an enormous amount of support back home and many more around the nation lauded his firm stance on a moral issue. After he sold his vote along with his moral objection to abortion, his numbers plummeted. He couldn’t have possibly believed that this back room deal would have remained a secret after similar deals had been made public so why would he take the bait?

Not that I will defend Nelson’s decision for one moment; after all principals are only principals if you stand by them, but there is more to this story than meets the eye. An unnamed member of the White House called Ben Nelson’s office and threatened to have Nebraska’s Offutt Air Force Base placed on the base closure list if he didn’t play ball. While Nelson says that he knows of no such threat, credible sources say that the threat was indeed made. Nelson was probably faced with the limited options of either voting for the bill and receiving a cash benefit of reduced Medicaid liabilities for his State or voting against the bill and having major military installations in Nebraska shut down as well as being ostracized within the Democratic Party; never being able to advance another piece of legislation in the Senate again.

Even though Nelson will have to pay the price with his constituents for folding on his convictions, we should not forget the corrupt machine that threatened him to accept the bribe that bought his vote or else. The “horse trading”, as the Washington wonks like to call it, has been brought under extreme criticism of late for the shameless way it has been used to secure the votes of Congressmen that were not even given an opportunity to read the current version being crafted by Harry Reid and the White House. The argument that this is how business in Washington has always been done is only drawing heavier fire as many more demand the President keep his campaign promise that the days of “business as usual” would be over under his administration. He promised that as President, he would not sign any legislation that was laced with pork barrel spending. Well he has already signed a number of bills saturated with pork and every indication we have is that he intends to go right on signing them as long as he gets what he wants.

What the White House and the Democratic leadership fails to grasp is that Americans are not only unwilling to accept “business as usual” from their elected “agent of change” but that they are particularly disgusted with the heavy handed tactics that this administration has used to advance its agenda. What we have witnessed in the past few months of the healthcare debate is what we would have expected if America had lost its mind in the 1930’s and drafted Al Capone as President. The administration and the Democratic leadership have been caught telling outright lies about the insane costs and negative effects of the healthcare bill. Their only strategy is to silence their opposition by any means necessary and to continue to tell the same lies hoping that if people hear them often enough, they will begin to believe them. Did I say Al Capone? Maybe I should have said Adolf Hitler and his propaganda minister, Joe Goebbels.

I would almost bet that Ben Nelson is not airing his ads explaining his vote and boasting about the benefits of the healthcare bill to boost his own sagging poll numbers but rather it is probably part of the deal he cut with Harry Reid. It seems to me that Reid would have demanded that since Nelson voiced such serious concerns about the bill that he must now publically support the bill to counter that. I guess they haven’t seen one of the more recent polls that place America’s trust in Congress lower than that of used car salesmen. They can take out all the ads they want but it will not improve the poll numbers in support of healthcare reform because an overwhelming number of Americans no longer trust the messengers.

With Congressional approval flat at 25% and a staggering 69% saying that they overwhelmingly disapprove of the job Congress is doing, there doesn’t appear to be a lot that Congress has done to impress anyone. In fact, the healthcare bill has an awful lot to do with those numbers as the 64% of Americans that oppose the reform legislation racing through the Congress are angry at being ignored by the people that were elected to represent them. Congress had an opportunity to not only improve their standing with the American public but of the public perception of the Healthcare bill itself and they blew it. The forced votes and closed door meetings only reinforced the idea that the bill contains little that is not detrimental to the quality or cost of care for the average American or it would have been debated and amended in the kind of public process Obama promised us.

Let’s face it; they spent nearly two months arguing over how many Americans were actually uninsured. First it was forty-seven million but then we found out that figure included millions of illegal immigrants. Once the illegal immigrants were excluded because of a public outcry, it dropped to thirty million. Even then, there were a large number of people that had access to healthcare insurance that simply decided not to obtain insurance. Some because they were young and did not see the need for it and others because they made the choice to spend that money in other areas of their lives that were more important to them at that moment. To this day, the reported number of uninsured Americans fluctuates wildly between fifteen and fifty million which only adds to the uncertainty Americans have regarding the total cost of this monstrosity.

The proponents of healthcare reform said that all must be covered arguing that the uninsured simply use the emergency room system for care and then disappear, leaving the bills unpaid. They claimed that providing coverage for those people would drive the overall cost of care down for everyone. Really? That is like trying to say that it would be cheaper to buy an entire wardrobe for someone because once in a while they may shoplift a shirt or two. I’m just not sure how to make those numbers work? A $15 dollar shirt and maybe you can add another $3 to the cost for loss prevention weighed against an annual government expenditure of $500 to $1000 for a whole wardrobe paid for by the taxpayer. Hmmm…..I still don’t see where this strategy lowers cost for the people that actually buy their own clothes. It would seem to me that the tax liability for the average American would far outweigh the price increase the store would charge to absorb the loss of that $18 shirt.

I know healthcare is far more complex than that and I am not saying that the theft of healthcare services is not a major problem; I concede that it is. I just don’t think we are looking in the right places to find those creepy thieves. Overall, the largest thief of health services is perpetrated by the Federal government. The Federal government routinely short-pays doctors and hospitals to the point where it is increasingly difficult to find a doctor that will even accept Medicare or Medicaid patients. Sure there are some uninsured that seek services in a hospital emergency room and skip out on a bill of a few thousand dollars but turn that into the systematic looting of health services by cutting the reimbursement rates government is willing to pay for the care of millions and that represents a catastrophic loss that this bill only promises to exacerbate.

Go ahead Ben, air your ads and make your case. No one believes this bill will do any of what the President has promised it will do and Nebraskans will not believe that you affected any meaningful change to the bill that suddenly made it better for your State or for the nation as a whole. The only thing we know for certain is that you sold your vote to Harry Reid along with the few remaining scraps of your integrity that were left after spending two terms in the Senate Brothel

Paul.

Congress and Christmas

It isn’t as though we needed a reminder of the iconoclastic nature of Congressional Democrats but just to make sure we haven’t forgotten what they represent, they have scheduled the final Senate vote on healthcare reform for Christmas Eve.

Isn’t ironic that they chose the day that many of us will spend preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus to move this legislation forward? For Christians, Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise, the messiah that was to free the world from suffering and the lamb that would eventually be offered for the forgiveness of all sins. The founding fathers recognized that man’s rights descended from God and that all mankind was born free through the grace of God.

The unalienable rights so carefully described by these extraordinary men were not accorded by the act of a beneficent King or through the acts of an enlightened government; they are divine, eternal and inexorable. Jesus represents God’s promise that man should not be slave to man and that our rights, both enumerated and implied in the Constitution, are an affirmation of that liberty. Curiously, the healthcare bill places many of those rights in jeopardy as the roughly seventy new agencies and administrative boards formed under this legislation will for the first time, allow government to determine how we live our lives.

We will find ourselves under government mandate to live healthier lives based on a government agency’s definition of healthy. The bill already contains a special tax on beverages containing sugar and on tanning salons since the current heath advisory panels have already determined these are unhealthy. As the left gain more control the extremists will have more to say about your life than you will.

Animal rights activists have tried to advance their agenda by promoting the health benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle for decades. Studies conducted with the same unscrupulous manipulation of data corrupting the Climate Change argument have already suggested that consuming meat presents a hazard to one’s health. Cass Sunstein, Obama’s regulatory Czar, has already weighed in on the subject in previous writings and would be more than happy to “nudge” people into a meat-free lifestyle using the regulatory authority of the government and the weight of punitive “sin” taxes to achieve that goal.

Gun control, animal rights, leisure activities, hunting and a whole host of other things that we take for granted now, can all be reigned in given the broad brush healthcare officials will be given to paint with. This bill is not centered on healthcare but on preventative care which would give the administration an incredible amount of new power where basic lifestyle choices are concerned.

Worse of all, the sanctity of life itself will be jeopardized by this bill. The new agencies and health panels will mete out care based on your current health, age and their actuarial assessment of how many years of “quality” life you have remaining. As Dad approaches 80, the usual course of medical intervention for prostate cancer may be limited to a regimen of less effective treatment only because it is less costly. For the first time in American history, choices will be made by authoritative government boards that will determine how resources will be allocated based on the need to contain the overall cost of healthcare and not on the need of the patient or the desired outcome of treatment. Grandma may get a prescription for pain medication and a wheelchair instead of the hip replacement she would receive now.

This legislation enacts new taxes and the cuts in Medicare reimbursements immediately even though the benefits of the bill are not fully realized for four years; a little accounting trick to show “budget neutrality” over a ten year period simply to gain passage of the bill. The truth is that the cuts are not going to reduce the cost of the program but to fund a host of entirely new entitlement programs, including subsidies for the low income purchase of insurance through the exchange. Without the promised cuts going to reduce the cost of the overall program, the program must go into financial difficulty in year five through fifteen, forcing cuts in services and draconian rationing of healthcare to anyone that does not fall under the government definition of a “contributing” member of society.

No? Well that was one of the prescribed ideas of Dr. Ezekiel Emmanuel, architect of the Healthcare Bill and brother of White House Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel. Dr. Emmanuel believes in redefining the doctors Hippocratic Oath to allow assisted suicide and euthanasia. He also believes in the rationing of care based on an assessment of the patient’s ability to contribute to society and that only government can possess the impartiality required to make those assessments.

In order to pass this legislation, the government has had to manipulate the definition of commerce just to claim the authority for government to intervene in healthcare. They are using the Commerce Clause in the Constitution to find that authority, similar to what FDR did in the 1930’s. Even though you are seeking local medical care from a local doctor and purchasing your medicine from a local pharmacy, the government makes the leap that even this activity has a broad effect on the interstate relationship of the entire healthcare industry. That is a sham and they know it.

The fact is, and the general admission from Congressman James Clyburn is that most of what Congress does is not authorized in the Constitution. It is only the complacency of the American public that has allowed this to continue for as long as it has. Progressives have created an entire segment of the population that not only pays no taxes at all, but actually receives payments from the government for being good little dependents. With only 53% of the population actually paying taxes, we are fast approaching the tipping point where an election based on issues instead of preserving a government entitlement will no longer be possible.

The American people have been lied to since the debate on healthcare began. The truth now, is as it always was, is that the government’s lust for healthcare reform is that they must reduce the costs of their own failed and corrupt programs of Medicare and Medicaid. These programs were in trouble a mere three years after their inception and the short term cure in 1968 was to raid the Social Security trust fund and use that money to prop up Medicare/Medicaid, leaving Social Security as a hollow promise that they would deal with later. Well, later is now and thanks to the Federal government, all three programs are bankrupt and threatening the solvency of the United States. Without an enormous infusion of money, the government will have to admit their gross mismanagement and close the books on the Federal entitlement system or close the doors of the Federal government. The easiest way to achieve that was to channel the American healthcare system through the Federal entitlement machine. Dumping one sixth of our economy into the wide end of that funnel and regulating what drips out of the small end through cuts in benefits and services will allow them to keep the illusion of success alive, but for how long?

In the end, best estimates are saying that the current healthcare bill will only extend the life of Medicare and Medicare through 2019. Beyond that, it will have to collapse because there is little left they can take from us to keep it going. Not to worry, the loss of freedoms guaranteed by this bill will allow our benevolent government to make even more of those hard decisions on our behalf and euthanasia may even become a mandate based on who and what you are. If we let our rights dissolve now, how can we stop it then?

Don’t forget the government already has a free hand to do what the rest of us are still prohibited from doing. Government is still the only place in America where it is allowable to use race in the execution of policy. Government is still the only place where prejudice is allowable e.g.: rich vs. poor in the tax system, right vs. left in public broadcasting and let’s not forget government vs. religion in nearly every expression of faith. The government’s National Endowment for the Arts is prohibited from using public funds for religious art so it will not support the creation of a devotional scene involving a crucifix but it will find art where a crucifix is submerged in a beaker of urine.

As we near Christmas all Americans must ask themselves what they believe. What are our rights? Where do those rights come from? Most importantly, will we heed the call of duty Thomas Jefferson charged us with and fulfill our obligation to defend those rights for our progeny?

Paul

The Senate Brothel

Senator Ben Nelson is the latest member of Congress to sign on to Harry Reid’s suicide pact on healthcare and the final vote needed to achieve a vote on cloture. Nelson’s constituents are opposed to the current healthcare bill by a factor of two to one and in a recent poll, 61% said that they would vote against Ben Nelson in the 2012 election if he voted for the healthcare bill.

Ben Nelson had made many eloquent speeches that he could not support a bill that did not have iron clad protections against the use of public funds for abortion. He argued that the Hyde Amendment did not offer enough protection because it would not prevent federal subsidies from being used to purchase healthcare policies that included coverage for abortion. I am not even sure why abortion has become an issue; even pro-choice advocates should be able to admit that abortion is not a bona fide healthcare issue unless there are specific circumstances. In fact, if pre-choice advocates had an ounce of integrity, they should argue that real choice begins with prevention and focus on that. We must realize that abortion is an issue where compromise is impossible but I would gamble to say that the members of Congress that oppose abortion on moral grounds would have no problem including funds and coverage to prevent contraception to avoid the quagmire of publically funded abortion.

Abortions in the case of rape or to preserve the life of the mother are not in question and have never been excluded. While abortion is a medical procedure, just the title “pro-choice” says it is an elective procedure so unless pro-choice advocates are saying that hair weaves, breast implants and plastic surgery should be covered in a healthcare policy as well, they should drop the issue and let those that “choose” to have an abortion find a way to pay for it the same way those that “choose” these other elective procedures do.

Unfortunately, for those that supported Ben Nelson’s stance on abortion, Ben Nelson, the man-whore, belongs to the same Senate brothel that his colleague Mary Landrieu does (Hi Mary). Even Bernie Sanders, the self proclaimed socialist Senator from Vermont, gave up his demand for a single payer system in exchange for $10 billion dollars for community based health centers that will be written into the bill. Since Sanders is such a dawdling old fool I don’t think we can actually charge him with prostitution. In his case, I am guessing he just wanted to end the negotiations so he could slip into a fresh diaper. Nelson, on the other hand, prostituted himself as shamelessly as Mary Landrieu did; perhaps worse. After all, Mary Landrieu’s opposition to the bill was economic while Nelson claimed moral superiority on the issue of abortion and in the end; no one respects anyone that would place their morality up for sale.

Ignoring the demands of his fellow Nebraskans, Ben Nelson announced Saturday that he would support the current Senate healthcare bill after achieving major concessions from Sentate Pimp, Harry Reid, that would exempt Nebraska from the rise in the state share of Medicaid costs. These costs are expected to increase dramatically after 2016 as a result of healthcare reform. Louisiana’s exclusion from those increases will expire within a few years but Nelson’s deal has the Federal government picking up the tab for Nebraska’s share of the costs in perpetuity. All other states will see their Medicaid burden increase beginning in 2016 as a direct result of the passage of this bill and while they may still pass this monstrosity now, don’t think for a moment that Senators from each state will not demand similar relief as the timeline for the implementation marches forward.

Senator Tom Harkin not only intimated that Iowa would in fact, seek the same deal as 2016 draws near but in a bid to keep progressives on board after the loss of the public option, Harkin pleaded for patience saying this is a work in progress. He cautioned that the bill may not be a mansion, but is rather a starter home with plenty of room for future expansion. Harkin’s statement exposes the lie in the President’s assurances that this bill is not a Trojan Horse that will lead to a single payer European style healthcare system when in fact, that is exactly what Progressive Democrats are planning.

The other big lie is on the issue of budget neutrality. The bill is only budget neutral to the Federal government as much of the real costs of care are shifted to the States, deepening their budget issues. Think about it…the deal Mary Landrieu received for her vote only provides a relief from those increases for a few years yet she claims the benefit for her state is a whopping $300 million dollars. If a small state like Louisiana can save $100 million a year in this deal, what will the cost be to more populace states? Better still, where will they get the money from? There will be state tax increases on everyone to cover the gap and that is a guarantee. So; as long as we are talking about lies, here is a good question. If the President’s policies intentionally shift major costs to the states, forcing them to cut services and raise taxes for everyone, is that not an Obama middle class tax increase by proxy?

The CBO estimated price tag for this mess kept going down every time it was scored; even as Reid promised billions upon billions to gain the votes he needed for passage. The only way that could happen is if they are shifting these concessions out of the healthcare bill and plan to hide the expenses as earmarks in other pieces of legislation. I hate to be so blunt, but five pounds of crap is still five pounds of crap even if you put it in ten different bags.

Any fool can see that this entire process has been corrupt from the start and has gotten worse with each passing day. The promises Obama made during his campaign that the debates on healthcare would be viewed on C-Span have vanished as the process disappeared behind closed doors. At first it was only the Republicans that were barred from negotiation sessions then curiously, all but a handful of Democrats were barred from the discussions as well. In the end, Harry Reid, his staff and White House personnel have been writing the bill and although the final vote is still expected before the Christmas break, the people that will vote on it have no idea what changes have been made or when they will even see the completed bill.

What we do know is that when outright bribery could not buy the needed support, the evil emperor resorted to extortion and intimidation. As Senator Lieberman wavered in his support for the bill, he suddenly found his wife Hadassah under attack as the liberal machine set their sights on her. Jane Hamsher, liberal pit bull and founder of Firedoglake.blog, demanded that she be fired from her work to support breast cancer research as the Ambassador to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation claiming she has troublesome ties to the healthcare industry. Of course everyone denies that the attacks have anything to do with forcing Joe Lieberman’s hand but isn’t it curious that the assault began the same day that Joe said he couldn’t support a bill that contains a public option?

Representative Peter DeFazio (D-OR) knows firsthand how DC politics have taken a Chicago twist. “Don’t think we’re not keeping score, brother,” Obama told DeFazio during a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus, according to other members. About the only thing missing from that exchange was Luca Brazzi sporting a roll of piano wire. DeFazio maybe a progressive Democrat but for DeFazio, it is still a matter of beliefs. He will not support issues that are not consistent with his ideology regardless of the pressure brought to bear. When they yell, he simply yells back.

Before Ben Nelson caved on healthcare, the White House reportedly threatened to place an Air Force base in Nebraska on the closure list if he didn’t play ball. The base they threatened was not just any base, it was Offutt Air Force Base, a major asset in the strategic command network and vital to American national security. This was the base that secured President Bush during the brief period when the origin and scope of the 9-11 attacks were still unknown. If this is true, it represents a mindset so misguided that it would place politics ahead of national security. Is a victory on healthcare so important to the President that all other consideration are secondary, even the ability to defend our country?

Nelson was also told, as I am sure others were, if he voted against the Senate Healthcare Bill he would never get another piece of legislation through that body. What is going on here? This is no longer a Republic; at least not in the true sense of the word. I have often charged that “Progressive” is actually a code word for American Marxism. If you look at their ideology and litany of issues, it is a summary of Karl Marx’s writings. The only difference between Progressive Democrats and true Marxists is that the Marxists prefer radical change through revolution where the Progressives believe they can bring about the same changes through manipulation of the legislative process. Apparently they are right because each successive year brings us closer to the final plunge into the socialist abyss.

I warn you, my friends; if we do not return to the Constitution as it was written and contain the monster that the Federal government has become, there will be no Constitution to return to. Progressives have been writing legislation outside of their Constitutional authority for over a hundred years and it will not be long before they introduce legislation that will alter the definition of the Constitution so that our protections against their lust for power will be forever lost in the translation.

Paul

Pass the "Creamer" please!

While the main stream media was consumed with finding out exactly who Tareq and Michaele Salahi are and how they managed to get past three levels of Secret Service security screenings, gaining entry into a White House State Dinner, the press apparently missed the bigger story of at least one of the invited guests.

Robert Creamer, husband of Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), was an invited guest of the same White House function that the Salahi’s snuck into. The Salahi’s are merely publicity hounds seeking attention for a reality show Bravo reportedly has them competing for. While they may eventually face charges for their bold move, the Salahi’s, unlike Robert Creamer, are not convicted felons.

While Congress holds hearings on the lapse of security that allowed the Salahi’s to waltz through the front door of the White House I wonder if they will take up the question of how effective White House security really is when a convicted felon can receive a bona fide invitation to a State dinner. I’m sure if the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh were asked, he would probably have preferred the company of the Salahi’s over that of a Chicago felon but then again, this whole concept of a Presidential “Thugocracy” is new to the White House and it will take world leaders some time to adapt.

Robert Creamer plead guilty to charges of bank fraud in 2004 and received five months in prison and eleven months of house arrest for defrauding banks of $2.3 million dollars in an elaborate check kiting scheme. Prosecutors had wanted a three-year sentence, but U.S. District Judge James B. Moran said five months was fairer because no one suffered "out of pocket losses" and Creamer acted not out of greed but in an effort to keep his community action group going through a period of financial difficulty.

James Moran (1930-2009) was not only a Federal Judge but a self described liberal Democrat who supported many liberal and progressive causes. To Judge Moran, the ends obviously justified the means and he couldn’t bring himself to mete out a harsh punishment to someone that wasn’t committing fraud for personal gain, but had only broken the law to help his struggling progressive group, the Illinois Public Action Council, from failing. After all, Creamer was a political organizer and strategist, a lobbyist for George Soros and a progressive (Marxist) just like the good judge. Sentencing Creamer to the three years the prosecutor had asked for would be akin to political cannibalism and we all know that liberals, like cannibals, don’t eat their friends no matter what they’ve done.

Like many other felons, Robert Creamer had to find himself in prison. He wrote a book while he was serving his sentence titled: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win. This book was lauded by David Axelrod as the blueprint for progressive politics and I suppose, as Obama’s top political advisor, his glowing review probably placed this book high on the President’s reading list. Curiously, many of the bullet points that Creamer named in his strategy appear to have been adopted, verse and chapter by this administration in their plan to advance their agenda. It’s all there…creating a crisis, naming enemies, shaming opponents, etc, etc.

I’m just not sure if Axelrod really believes Creamer’s book is that brilliant or if he just sees Creamer as a kindred spirit. After all, Axelrod was born to a middle class family living in the lower east side of Manhattan, New York City. He never held a job outside of politics, political reporting or political consulting but has managed to amass a comfortable fortune reported to be between $6.9 and $9.5 million dollars. Last year he reported a $900,000 salary from AKP&D and more than $650,000 in partnership income from his two firms. It always amazed me that so many of our political figures seem to make millions, virtually overnight. Oh sure, there are many that were just born into money like Rockefeller and Kennedy or married it like John Kerry but for many, it is an almost miraculous transformation into wealth.

Who would ever think that devoting your life to Democratic principals and service to your nation could be so…..so rewarding! Not like those corrupt corporate heads and Wall Street fat cats that deserve to have their salaries capped by the Federal Government at $500,000. They are evil and Democrats are only working for the good of the people. I bet that Mr. Axelrod would forgo his excessive salary altogether if it weren’t for the fact that he wants to pay as much income tax as possible to help support the government. If it were not for the progressive tax structure, he would probably despise himself for being so loaded with filthy, evil, capitalist money. What a guy!

Conspiracy advocates are usually denigrated because most conspiracy theories are such a stretch of the imagination and if they have proof, it is nearly invisible. This administration, however, is surrounded by curious characters with very troubling views. None of the allegations about communist beliefs or links between his agenda and radical third parties have ever been disputed by the White House which only deepens the mystery. The links to 1960’s militant radicals, Czars with ties to socialist organizations and alliances with Marxist union chiefs are all well know and the most damning evidence is documented by their own statements made in speeches and other appearances or in black and white on the pages of their own books.

Cash for Clunkers and training prison labor for “green Jobs” are now known to have been the brain child of Van Jones, the self-proclaimed communist and the only Czar that was too radical, even for this administration. Now we have policies adopted by the White House that appear to be part of a plan crafted by an ex-con detailed in a book he wrote in prison. How much lower can they go? It is all filthy politics designed around the absolute control of America with or without the consent of Congress but that sounds like the kind of plan a common criminal would come up with; doesn’t it.

The inspirations that Obama has based his life and career on were, until a very few years ago, the people and plans that the radical left discussed in dark closets and University courses in political science. Lenin, Mao Zedong, Saul Alinsky and now Robert Creamer are all part of the equation. Can anyone deny that the healthcare reform bill now under discussion is not the first brick in a socialist cathedral? The foundation was laid by FDR in the 1930’s and reinforced by Johnson in the 1960’s. Both would have preferred to have universal healthcare brought to life under their administrations but Americans then, as now, have no stomach for a massive and all powerful Federal government. Can anyone deny that Cap and Trade otherwise known as the Climate Bill, would give government express control over every industrial and economic activity in this nation? We were shocked when the Feds took over GM and now it appears that this was the tip of the iceberg. Cap and trade will give the government power to regulate everything and in essence, seize control of industry without having to “buy” control as in the case if GM.

Now that the evidence to support global warming is known to have been manufactured for political reasons, the Congress is rethinking their commitment to Cap and Trade, as well they should. Well that throws a good old fashioned monkey wrench into their plans for national domination so Obama’s appointee to the EPA steps in and declares carbon dioxide is a pollutant that can be regulated by the EPA under existing law. The White House is now threatening Congress to either pass cap and trade or the EPA will do something even worse. They will impose cap without the trade and just shut industry down all together.

You know, I am really beginning to believe we have been looking in all the wrong places for terrorists. After all, only a terrorist would threaten to collapse the entire American economy unless we concede to their demands. Only terrorists would intentionally surround themselves with radicals, militants and criminals. Aren’t terrorists driven by ideology? Aren’t they driven by the “teachings” of like minded individuals? Don’t they believe they are the soldiers of fundamental change?

Well it is another Friday so I will be keeping my ear to the ground again. The other trait this administration has in common with terrorists is in their tendency to strike without warning and when least expected. They love making surprise announcements and personnel changes during the wee hours of the night during weekend when few are looking. I only hope that 2010 isn’t too far away to stop these people and the things they manage to push through can be undone while we still have a nation and a Constitution to protects.

Paul

Mary Landrieu - Political Prostitute

Prostitute
Pronunciation [pros-ti-toot, -tyoot] verb, -tut⋅ed, -tut⋅ing.

–noun
1- A woman who engages in sexual intercourse for money; whore; harlot.
2- A man who engages in sexual acts for money.
3- A person who willingly uses his or her talent or ability in a base and unworthy way, usually for money.

In another Saturday night, special session of Congress (there seems to be a lot of those these days), the Senate voted to allow Harry Reid’s version of the healthcare bill to proceed to debate. For a President and Congress that promised unparalleled “transparency” in government, there have been far more closed door meetings and midnight votes than during any previous administration; essential requisites for “ladies and gentlemen of the evening”. That coupled with the fact that the healthcare bill is a staggering 2000 page document that the senate was given a mere 72 hours to digest before a vote was taken spells a total disconnect between the actions of government and the expectations of the governed.

By comparison, Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” is a mere 1275 pages, in hardcover, containing a total of more than 560,000 words. We are now being asked to believe that every one of our elected Congressmen possess the unique ability to be able to read the equivalent of “War and Peace” twice in a 72 hour period. In Senator Mary Landrieu’s speech, she made mention of the time she was granted to do just that. She applauded the work of Senator Blanche Lincoln in assuring that the Senate received the time required to read the legislation and to “attend the necessary meetings”.

We can now surmise that at least one of those meetings was with Harry Reid and the subject of that meeting was just how much taxpayer money it was going to take to purchase her vote to proceed. On page 432 of the Reid bill, there is a section increasing federal Medicaid subsidies for “certain states recovering from a major disaster.” The section spends two pages defining which “states” would qualify, saying, among other things, that it would be states that “during the preceding seven fiscal years” have been declared a “major disaster area.”

This section applies to exactly one state: Louisiana, the home of Democrat Mary Landrieu, who has been playing hard to get on the health care bill. In other words, the bill spends two pages describing what could be written with a single phrase: In exchange for Mary Landrieu’s vote, Louisiana will receive the equivalent of one-hundred million dollars in increased Medicaid subsidies. While she will claim this settlement is “doing the good work” for her home state, it is clear to us that this is only intended to strengthen her position in the 2010 election. Since hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana in 2005, the payoff will expire in five years leaving her state, by 2015, to contend with the same increased financial mandates that the healthcare bill will impose on all other states.

There is no doubt that Mary Landrieu will deny that she personally gains from this “provision” and since the bribe was crafted in general language that provides relief to any state that has been declared a major disaster area, Harry Reid can and will deny that it had anything to do with Louisiana specifically, but words are words and deeds are deeds. The facts are that Mary Landrieu withheld her support of the healthcare bill knowing that her bid for re-election would be in jeopardy if she voted for the bill. The estimated one-hundred million dollars Louisiana will receive from the bill will go along way in mitigating the negative effects the rest of the states will suffer if this monstrosity passes, in effect, anesthetizing the voters in her state from the pain of the full effects of this bill until the elections are well over.

Mark my words; knowing the way that politics works in Washington, she will distance herself from this bill later. Reid needed 60 votes to bring the bill to the floor for debate but if he uses reconciliation, as has been threatened; he will only need 51 votes to pass the final version. All the Democratic Senators that are facing election difficulties in 2010 including Mary Landrieu, will be allowed to vote no on the final vote and it will squeak by with the minimum number of required votes just as it did in the House of Representatives.

John Kerry looked ridiculous when he made his famous “I voted for it before I voted against it” statement referencing the $87 billion dollar appropriation for the Iraq war. No one believed John Kerry and no one will believe Mary Landrieu either. It is obvious that the Democrats need some new strategists because they keep using the same idiotic plays over and over. We’ve seen this before and no one is buying it. Congress is at its lowest approval rating in decades and these deceitful tricks only serve to deepen our distrust and distain for career politicians. Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, George Voinovich, etc. can try the “Kerry Play” but who will believe them now?

What Mary Landrieu failed to anticipate was the degree of attention this “bribe” for her vote would receive. I’m sure she was aghast after she finally left the chamber and saw her name plastered all over the news. To the American people and to her constituency, she has been singled out in the press as the one Senator who prostituted herself by placing her vote on the auction block. That tells anyone that follows politics that she has no foundation; no fundamental beliefs. Even though I oppose this hideous government takeover of the American healthcare system, I wouldn’t have blamed her if she voted her conscience, stood proud of what she had done and could tell us why. The fact is you cannot publically place your vote up for sale and not be accused of being a political whore.

The funny part is that she believed the Senate “pimp” (Harry Reid) and signed her soul away for something that will probably not make it into the final bill anyway. If the Medicaid savings for Louisiana represents $100 million over the next five years, what costs will be forced on more populace states as this bill shifts more of the burden for Medicaid to them? Does Mary Landrieu not realize that her “spiff” will probably disappear in the final version as other Senators demand similar provisions because of the equally catastrophic fiscal disasters in their own states? Since the government cannot provide that relief for all states, it is doubtful they can honor the agreement to do it for only one.

Not possible? Well the House version only passed the vote because of the last minute passage of the Stupak amendment, eliminating any possible use of public funding for abortion. Nancy Pelosi agreed to allow that amendment to come to a vote to gain the support of pro-life Democrats. As a resolute pro-choice advocate, she only agreed to the Stupak Amendment because she knew the Reid bill would strip that protection and the final version will invariably not provide the iron clad prohibitions that the pro-life Democrats sought. In their haste to pass “something”, they missed the one opportunity they would get to stop this lousy bill in favor of legislation that guaranteed the prohibitions against public funding for abortion could not be removed at a later date.

I am making the prediction now that if the healthcare bill fails, Mary Landrieu only has a 50/50 chance of being re-elected in 2010 because of the publicity associated with selling her vote. Let’s face it. If she were actually representing the will of her constituents, their voices would have guided her vote and not what her pimp promised her. If the healthcare bill passes, her political career will go down in flames and she can spend the next couple of years trying to rebuild her law career in a nation that won’t have the money to hire her services. I intend to use this forum regularly so that we do not forget those members of Congress that are so blatantly corrupt that they would sell their vote for another shot at being reelected. On the bright side, Mary won’t be homeless…ACORN still offers some fantastic housing options for “Ladies of the Evening”.

Paul