Free In Idaho!

What’s so hard about calling Obama a socialist?  He is.  We were flipping channels the other night and got to see O’Reilly drawing his silly line around the word socialist, and we thought he looked like a fool.  But then, it was O’Reilly, so what did we expect?  Brits and Europeans know it when they see it and they don’t have the same problem calling what it is.

I have a lot of respect for Bill O’Reilly, but to a Brit who has seen his fair share of socialists and lives in a socialist country run by a self-described socialist party by a self-described socialist prime minister who has taken over for another self-described socialist prime minister, it is puzzling why self-described independents like Mr O’Reilly are doing backflips in an attempt to avoid the obvious fact — President Obama is quite clearly a socialist.

All these verbal gymnastics that are used to avoid stating the obvious may be rather humorous for someone watching from over the Atlantic, but for Americans, such delusion is a very serious matter. It is important, not just for the American right, but for the American people as a whole, to realise just exactly who it is they have elected to office.

Time grows short. America isn’t perfect, and never has been, but what it is becoming is a nightmare. I had an octogenarian friend this past summer tell me he was glad he didn’t have to live through what I and his kids were going to see…

 Did you see Obama “giving a speech” at a Baptist Church in Washington D.C. yesterday?  He hasn’t been to church in quite awhile, from what I have seen, but in honor of Martin Luther King Day he made an appearance.  No one seems to be too worked up over it though, despite praising God, talking about having “faith”, and even quoting the Bible.

But let me tell you — during those times it’s faith that keeps me calm.  (Applause.)  It’s faith that gives me peace.  The same faith that leads a single mother to work two jobs to put a roof over her head when she has doubts.  The same faith that keeps an unemployed father to keep on submitting job applications even after he’s been rejected a hundred times.  The same faith that says to a teacher even if the first nine children she’s teaching she can’t reach, that that 10th one she’s going to be able to reach.  The same faith that breaks the silence of an earthquake’s wake with the sound of prayers and hymns sung by a Haitian community.  A faith in things not seen, in better days ahead, in Him who holds the future in the hollow of His hand.  A faith that lets us mount up on wings like eagles; lets us run and not be weary; lets us walk and not faint.

So let us hold fast to that faith, as Joshua held fast to the faith of his fathers, and together, we shall overcome the challenges of a new age.  (Applause.)  Together, we shall seize the promise of this moment.  Together, we shall make a way through winter, and we’re going to welcome the spring.  Through God all things are possible. 

Harmless when Obama does it.  Not so harmless if, say, an >actual< Christian does it?  I find it more than a little humorous though that the dinosaur media at ABC (and many so-called freedom loving gunnies as well) are having a hissy over the Trijicon company’s inclusion of Bible verse “addresses” on their products. Secret Jesus Bible Codes!  Horrors!  It’s almost religious!  That can’t be legal, can it?!  On military weapons?  I mean, isn’t there something about separation of Church and gun sights in the Constitution?! Well, there oughta be… harrummpphh! The nerve! DB Weaver had this comment on one gunnie board

I consider the entire thing to be totally inappropriate. These scopes were made UNDER CONTRACT for the US Military – they should be completely secular. There is no place for prostlytising on US Military equipment – in fact, it could be argued that they are violating General Order #1 in Iraq and A-stan.

Fortunately, I know that I won’t be in any trouble over the verse on my ACOG – 15 minutes with a pointed diamond burr on my Foredom rotary tool took it right off.

People… grow up. 

By the way, the “Bible address” for the Obama “mount up on wings like eagles” is Isaiah 40:31. If you want to get all the verses he took snippets out of, try looking these up: Isaiah 40:31, Hebrews 11:1, 1 Corinthians 2:9, and Matthew 19:26, just for starters on that piece I quoted above.  Secret Jesus codes, indeed.

Oh good, a day off and nothing much to take care of until later today.  Coffee’s on, dog’s asleep under the blanket, and my Sweetie has a new garden magazine.  All is good.

Michelle points us to this piece by Heather MacDonald about Chicago’s South Side, Barack Obama, and a fatally dysfunctional Black culture. No PC BS in this article.

This past September, a cell-phone video of Chicago students beating a fellow teen to death coursed over the airwaves and across the Internet. None of the news outlets that had admiringly reported on Obama’s community-organizing efforts mentioned that the beating involved students from the very South Side neighborhoods where the president had once worked. Obama’s connection to the area was suddenly lost in the mists of time.

Haiti. It was a disaster even before the earthquake struck. I wonder if this will be Obama’s opportunity for “nation building”? Literally. Just askin’.  And I’m afraid the worst stories are yet to happen there.

What happened in Haiti this week is a catastrophe of staggering proportions — one that’s likely to shape U.S. policy profoundly in the Caribbean for years to come.

There literally is no “there” there in Haiti anymore. But it was hardly a functioning state even before the deadly earthquake added its devastating blow to tribulations man had created.

There was nothing remotely resembling a system of emergency relief or basic medical care. Propping up the country was an enormous charitable state-within-a-state, beginning with the better-known international agencies, extending to hundreds of religious charities, and filtering down to individual Americans of faith who literally flew in and built their own orphanages.

Leave it to Doc Zero to point out that America’s wealth is the only real answer to crisis and disaster in Haiti, and the world for that matter. Not only are we the wealthiest nation on earth, we are the hardest working and most giving. God has blessed us for many reasons, and this is one of them. Don’t piss it away.

The governments and people of other nations make admirable efforts, but none has the combination of strength and compassion that makes Americans the first to lift debris from broken bodies, or raise emergency medical tents where hospitals once stood. The selfish and brutal tyrannies jockeying for dominance of the post-American world do not have the heart, and the good people fearfully watching their shadows lengthen don’t have the wealth.

Make no mistake: it is wealth that feeds the hungry, cures the sick, and mends the broken. Capitalism is the practical expression of freedom, and wealth allows the tangible expression of compassion. Right now, the Red Cross can use hard cash from capitalists more than sincere best wishes from penniless bystanders. Kind hearts and helplessness blend into despair.

Mankind cannot afford to watch America slide into a socialist coma. It cannot endure the voice of freedom fading into a whisper. Those unemployed people sending their bottom dollar to help the people of Haiti would do more if they could. They don’t want to be unemployed. Businesses don’t want to lay people off. A nation with our incredible resources and human capital has no end of work to do.

Mark Steyn. Each article he posts could provide a “qoute of the day” for the week. Go, read. Will Massachusetts follow Barack off the cliff? Stay tuned on Tuesday for the outcome of a race between the “usual” Mass-Dem and some guy with an R after his name (who looks for all the world like an Idaha-Dem to me, but hey, what do I know?).

A week before the presidential election, I wrote in this space:

“Settled democratic societies rarely vote to ‘go left.’ Yet oddly enough that’s where they’ve all gone. In its assumptions about the size of the state and the role of government, almost every advanced nation is more left than it was, and getting lefter.”

For the most part, that’s just the ratchet effect of Big Government, growing, expanding, remorselessly, under cover of darkness. What happened this past year is that Obama and the Democratic Congress made it explicit, and did it in daylight. And, while Barack may be cool and stellar if you’re as gullible as “the educated class,” Nancy Pelosi and Ben Nelson most certainly aren’t: There’s no klieg light of celebrity to dazzle you from the very obvious reality that they’re spending your money way faster than you can afford and with no inclination to stop.

“The educated class” is apparently too educated to grasp this insufficiently nuanced point.

It’s not just the money. The notion that the IRS should be able to seize your assets if you don’t arrange your health care to the approval of the federal government represents the de facto nationalization of your body, which is about as primal an assault on individual liberty as one could devise.

Speaking of what’s going on in Massachusetts, here’s a WSJ opinion piece by Jon Keller: The Backlash Is Coming! I certainly hope so.

OK, that’s enough for now… I think some bacon, eggs, and English muffins might be in order.  Then I might load up the truck and head out to the desert for a little 200 yard prone Garand practice, in anticipation of the Battle Rifle Match later this month.  I hope you have a good day planned as well.

It appears that the same virus that infected the climate data in the UK is also present at NASA.

Christopher C. Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said NASA has refused for two years to provide information under the Freedom of Information Act that would show how the agency has shaped its climate data and explain why the agency has repeatedly had to correct its data dating as far back as the 1930s.

“I assume that what is there is highly damaging,” Mr. Horner said. “These guys are quite clearly bound and determined not to reveal their internal discussions about this.”

The numbers matter. Under pressure in 2007, NASA recalculated its data and found that 1934, not 1998, was the hottest year in its records for the contiguous 48 states. NASA later changed its data again, and now 1998 and 2006 are tied for the hottest years, with 1934 listed as slightly cooler.

If you change it, it isn’t data. If you hide it, it isn’t true. If no one else can duplicate it, it isn’t science.  The kind of data manipulation evident in the Climategate emails, and now in question at NASA, better get a few politicians off the fence and slamming the brakes on HARD on cap and tax.  Nothing like a good strong dose of sunlight to kill the manbearpig virus. 

The next problem will be the entrenched stupidity and progressive political ideology that infests the White House.

The White House has dismissed the British e-mails as irrelevant.

“Several thousand scientists have come to the conclusion that climate change is happening. I don’t think that’s anything that is, quite frankly, among most people, in dispute anymore,” press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters this week.

It’s not about the truth, it’s about political power. Global warming has been a powerful political vehicle for the Left for more than a decade. Don’t expect them to get off that looney bus willingly. It might take some serious throwing… are you up for it?

As if we needed any more.  Wasn’t the couch routine with Nancy the Queen of the Bay enough evidence for you? 

A spokesperson for American Solutions told AT {American Thinker} that Gingrich has made “no public statement yet” on Climategate, but Gingrich, the spokesperson said, is following the issue “closely.”  The spokesperson also said that a statement on Climategate will be released “fairly soon,” perhaps as early as “next week.”

As early as next week, eh?

Newt Gingrich is irrelevant as a speaker or a leader for the conservative movement. Go away, leave us alone.

The political correctness epidemic of the past week is wearing me to a nub.  General Casey making excuses for Muslim wielding two pistols, blazing away into a roomful of unarmed people, and shouting “Allah akbar” is inexcuseable.  I expect that from the media.  I don’t expect it from a General.  Sir, you should be ashamed of yourself.  Some of us are.

Obama pompously proclaiming at the memorial service today that no religion condones those acts is so patently a LIE, it’s amazing he wasn’t struck by lightning where he stood.  Mr President, you are a liar.  Sir, you should be ashamed of yourself.  We are.

And it doesn’t stop there.  Michael Steele suggesting that white Republicans are afraid of him because he’s black?  Mr Steele, no one is afraid of you because you’re black, they’re afraid of you because you’re wrong, and you’re wrong for the GOP.  You, and they, should be ashamed as well.

What’s the point…

You may want to take a look at this man, and ask yourself, what is it about him, and why is that important?

Go here, read.  Ponder.

I just heard a MSM talking head use the term “compelling testimony” to lead into a story about the abduction and rape of Elizabeth Smart.

Which causes me to wonder… can someone tell me the difference here?

   and      

Or how about these two?

      and    

Take your time, I’ll wait.

Bonus points:

     and    

I have to laugh at the House of Representatives putting so much energy into slapping down Joe Wilson.  We’ll see if they are similarly outraged about ACORN.  But I doubt it.  After all, they’ve given Charlie Rangel a pass for years, and really, in the great scheme of things, even in this post-racial Age of Obama, it is much more politically correct to go after a white guy for being a racist than it is for going after a black guy for being a crook.

Idaho Rep Walt Minnick voted along with his Democrat cohorts to slap Wilson.  For some reason though, I don’t think that’ll help his “street creds” with Idaho Democrats, who have already decided they don’t support him.  Poor Walt.  Too liberal for the GOP, and too conservative for the Democrats.   Now Boise Mayor Bieter, there’s a man they can get behind… last night at the City Council meeting he cast the deciding vote on a resolution calling for passage of Obama-style national healthcare.  I heard the Mayor on the news complaining how the cost to the city to provide healthcare to city employees was taking away what the city can provide for things like parks and trolley cars.  I wonder if he realizes he just made the case that if the government gets into the healthcare insurance business not just businesses but cities as well will toss off their employees onto the public plan? 

Speaking of outrage, did you see the big networks giving Jimmy Carter, the Jew hater from Georgia, facetime this morning?  Complaining about white folks not being for Obama because they’re racists.  Outrage… lefty troll outrage.  Sit down Jimmy.  Go have another Billy Beer.

It’s all Bush’s fault, and all white people are racists.  Got it.  Now that you’ve got the outrage out of your system, can we discuss actual problems and solutions?

Speaking of different worlds, did you know that this one ISN’T burning up because of human beings (or because of capitalism - h/t Stop The ACLU)?  Yes, a peer-reviewed study shows that Algore has his head…

“The close relationship between ENSO and global temperature, as described in the paper, leaves little room for any warming driven by human carbon dioxide emissions. The available data indicate that future global temperatures will continue to change primarily in response to ENSO cycling, volcanic activity and solar changes.”

“Our paper confirms what many scientists already know: which is that no scientific justification exists for emissions regulation, and that, irrespective of the severity of the cuts proposed, ETS (emission trading scheme) will exert no measurable effect on future climate.”

And speaking of different views, are you as sick of the canonization of the child-molester rockstar and the whitewashing of history and character on old Walter as I am? Whew. Not everyone who was actually, you know, alive during the time he reported thinks he was “the most trusted man in America“. Just ask a few Nam vets what they think of the old commie. Some of you younger folks might want to head over to TownHall to read why.

Cronkite was flat-out wrong in his reporting.

And while we’re at it (and since I’ve not posted in a few days), let’s link to the story about the ATF testifying before Congress that, well, er, it really WASN’T 90% of the drug cartel guns that came from the U.S.  Nope.  Maybe only 8%.  Our bad.

WASHINGTON — Barely 8 percent of the estimated 100,000 firearms seized in Mexico’s drug wars over the past three years have been traced to U.S. sales by licensed gun dealers, Congress was told Thursday.

Hmmm. Three quick stories and I wasn’t even trying. I know.  Old news.  But it goes to show you don’t need truther or birther stories to point out that things aren’t always what they seem, not even in the big media. I guess bloggers don’t have a lock on slanted stories and outright BarrySoetoro, do they?

It came from Senator Sessions yesterday.  It is not a question for Sotomayor so much as it is a question for the American people, and more specifically, the GOP and the Democrats.

“If I must one day to go court, what kind of judge would I wish to hear my case?  Do I want a judge that allows his or her social, political or religious views to change the outcome? Or do I want a judge that impartially applies the law to the facts and fairly rules on the merits without bias or prejudice?”

That the Democrats in power can ignore this question, or worse, simply give it lip service, ought to tell you all you need to know about them and their grand plans for the American system of law and government. And to the degree that the GOP will overlook the obvious bias and prejudice that Sotomayor brings to the bench, and vote along with the Democrats to confirm her, tells you all you need to know about them as well.

America was established with a government based on the law rather than the man. The Democrats have already indicated that’s not how they do business. How about you GOP? Do you even care anymore?  What do you stand for?  Anything?

We knew this was going to happen, it was only a matter of time.  And here he comes, right on cue.

WASHINGTON — Citing recent killings in Arkansas, Kansas and the nation’s capital, Attorney General Eric Holder on Tuesday said new hate crimes law were needed to stop what he called “violence masquerading as political activism.”

The attorney general’s call for Congress to act came as a civil rights coalition said there has been a surge in white supremacist activity since the election of the first African-American president and the economic downturn.

A surge in white supremacist activity? One senile old nutbag, a surge? Puhleeeze.

He cited separate attacks over a two-week period that killed a young soldier in Little Rock, an abortion provider in Wichita and a guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Holder, you’re an arrogant sack, and you’re deliberately playing up to a “civil rights group”. What you said here doesn’t pass the smell test with anyone willing to look at it. The “young soldier in Little Rock” was NOT killed by a white supremacist, he was killed by an African-American Muslim. The “abortion provider in Wichita” was killed by a nutjob. A lone nutjob at that, because even the fringe groups he tried to associate with didn’t want him around. By the way, did you mention that his victim was a white man? The only one in this group that can be attributed to white supremacists is the last one, and that hardly ranks as a dangerously increasing wave of hate crimes.

Speaking of hate crimes, where was the call for new hate crime legislation when the Christian church in Colorado was attacked in December 2007?  Or how about an investigation into the hate crime of church burning in Padilla, Alaska last December after the election?  Or the Newsom/Christian murders?  I suppose that doesn’t count as a hate crime?

The violence, Holder said, “reminds us of the potential threat posed by violent extremists and the tragedy that ensues when reasoned discourse is replaced by armed confrontation.”

“We will not tolerate murder, or the threat of violence, masquerading as political activism,” he said. “So let me be clear. The Justice Department will use every tool at its disposal to protect the rights ensured under our Constitution.”

Like, rounding them all up and tossing them all in jail?  Hmmm… there’s that pesky Constitution thing again.

Holder said that to stop such violence, Congress should pass an updated version of hate crimes legislation in order to more effectively prosecute those who commit violent attacks based on gender, disability or sexual orientation.

The growing number of hate crimes against Latinos also shows the need for tougher laws, Holder said.

I suppose we could remind you all that it’s ALREADY against the law to kill black people, or soldiers, or “abortion providers”. Heck, I’ll bet if you look really hard you’ll find out it’s also already against the law to kill white guys, or burn down churches. But that sounds like something that evil hater George Bush would say, right?

In recent years Republicans, including then-President George W. Bush, have opposed Democratic efforts to expand the hate crimes law, saying it was unnecessary because current laws on the books provide for effective punishment and prosecution.

Yup, just what I thought you’d say. No argument about whether that is true or not (it is)… just make it all about the evil George Bush opposing everything the good Democrats want to accomplish.

The article concludes by citing some stats on “hate crimes”, but provides nothing in the way of stats on crimes committed against people with white skin.  I wonder if that’s because of the way “hate crimes” are defined?  And now, here’s Eric holder, promising to get tough on hate crimes.  You’d think they didn’t already have enough crises going on that they wouldn’t need another.  But then, who wants to hear about the economy burning down around our ears?  Besides, Obama fixed that already.

The American would-be jihadist story is full of fail all around.  The young black man who converted to Islam, snuck over to Yemen on a phoney passport, then came back to wage his personal war against America was a FAILURE.  A semi-automatic rifle, two handguns, and a couple hundred rounds of ammunition, and the best he can do is a drive up shooting which killed one unarmed American soldier.  What a loser.  Most inner city gangbangers could do better than that. 

The FBI was alerted to this guy because of all his suspicious travel.  But they weren’t able to stop him.  You guys FAILED.  Seriously.  Are you naive?  Stupid?  Too politically correct to do anything about a black guy with an Islamic name who goes overseas and has his own personal grudge against America?  Or are you back in September 10th mode, asleep on the couch, code white?  Perhaps you guys are only effective when you can take a year to infiltrate a group befriend some losers and steer them into doing something stupid?

And the POTUS has failed.  Failed to speak out on the despicable murder for religious and political reasons of an innocent, law abiding man by an angry, mentally disturbed person with ties to hate groups.  Quick to denounce someone his government sees as a white right-wing Christian terrorist, but suddenly silent a day later after an identical murder by a black Muslim terrorist with ties to hate groups.  Besides, most folks just can’t get worked up about a soldier being murdered the way they do over abortion, not even the POTUS.  FAIL.

And I’m going to point one of these fingers at the Army.  One of the main ideas this blog promotes is armed defense of yourself.  Hey, Army, we’re at war.  Yes, even here, we’re at war.  I don’t know if those two soldiers were armed or not (I’m guessing not); or were they forbidden to be armed, or was that their own personal oversight?  But the idea that two American soldiers could be taken down like that is very sad to me, and it didn’t have to happen.   The jihadi loser should be in a box this morning.  He’s not.  FAIL.

And the blogosphere, both sides… you fail too.  One hundred, two hundred, even five hundred comment threads on the baby-killer.  Not so much on the Muslim though.  Just can’t tar and feather all the black people, or all the muslim people the way you do Christians.  That just wouldn’t be right.  After all, this guy was a lone nutcase, he wasn’t representative of all blacks or all muslims, nothing to see, move along… FAIL.