Why are they doing it? Because, according to Mr. Cassidy, ObamaCare serves the twin goals of "making the United States a more equitable country" and furthering the Democrats' "political calculus." In other words, the purpose is to further redistribute income by putting health care further under government control, and in the process making the middle class more dependent on government. As the party of government, Democrats will benefit over the long run.
This explains why Nancy Pelosi is willing to risk the seats of so many Blue Dog Democrats by forcing such an unpopular bill through Congress on a narrow, partisan vote: You have to break a few eggs to make a permanent welfare state. As Mr. Cassidy concludes, "Putting on my amateur historian's cap, I might even claim that some subterfuge is historically necessary to get great reforms enacted."
No wonder many Americans are upset. They know they are being lied to about ObamaCare, and they know they are going to be stuck with the bill.
In an email exchange Gheen said that the November 14 rallies were put together rapidly to catch any backlash that would come from Gutierrez if he files his proposed legislation. Gheen made it clear that these upcoming rallies are a precursor, “We plan larger scale operations in the Spring,” he wrote back.
The last time comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship for illegal aliens was put forward was in June 2007 under former President George W. Bush. The bill was defeated when the Senate vote fell 14 votes short of the 60 required to move it forward.
While it is no secret that America’s immigration system is broken, and this longstanding system breakdown adversely affects America’s national security and economy, the latest Rasmussen Report shows, “By a 70% to 22% margin, voters say that gaining control of the borders is more important than legalizing the status of undocumented workers already in the country.”
However, despite the wishes of voters, legalizing illegal aliens inevitably seems to become the dominate topic in the immigration debate. It also appears in impending legislation aside from Gutierrez’s proposals. Before President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, for instance, in January 2009, Vermont’s Senator Patrick Leahy introduced the tough-titled “Stronger Economy, Stronger Borders Act of 2009,” S. 9. However, in Sen. Leahy’s introduction it is revealed that a wall with Mexico should be “reconsidered” because it is a “symbol of fear and intolerance,” and “harsh penalties and more enforcement” are not a realistic solution to address illegal aliens.
Then there is Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer, a co-sponsor of S. 9, who also serves as the Chairman of the powerful Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security. His voting record, documented by Ontheissues.org, suggests he is a staunch illegal aliens advocate.
Quote:
Sen. Schumer:
Voted YES on continuing federal funds for declared “sanctuary cities”. (Mar 2008)
Voted YES on comprehensive immigration reform. (Jun 2007)
Voted NO on declaring English as the official language of the US government. (Jun 2007)
Voted YES on building a fence along the Mexican border. (Sep 2006)
Voted YES on establishing a Guest Worker program. (May 2006)
Voted YES on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security. (May 2006)
Voted YES on giving Guest Workers a path to citizenship. (May 2006)
Voted NO on limiting immigrant benefits & controlling borders more tightly. (Sep 1996)
Voted NO on prohibiting illegal immigrants from receiving FEMA benefits. (Jul 1994)
Co-sponsored providing funding for social services for noncitizens. (May 2006)
Rated 8% by USBC, indicating an open-border stance. (Dec 2006)
More evidence that legalizing illegal aliens is on the horizon appears in an October 1 interview in the New York Times with the new director of the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS), Alejandro Mayorkas. Mayorkas said that the agency “is already planning ahead for the possibility of giving legal status to millions of illegal immigrants.”
This all might be good news for amnesty advocates but here is the bad news — which should concern both points of view on this issue. The notion that the USCIS, tasked in part to keep America safe by keeping unscrupulous people out, is a competent agency and therefore will be equipped to process millions of illegal aliens should amnesty become law is fiction and entirely absurd when one examines the USCIS’ record. For starters, America’s $2.6 billion a-year immigration agency amassed a twenty-year backlog of applications under both Democratic and Repubican administrations. It loses files. Even worse, it is riddled with crime and corruption where bribery, be it for money, gifts or sex is part of their record of achievement that has put America’s national security in jeopardy and arguably contributed to the illegal alien problem in the first place. To expect competency from this troubled bureaucracy could prove to be an exercise in self-defeat.
ALIPAC’s mission is to conduct rallies and protests across America. “We hope that these events combined with our lobbying efforts and support for campaigns will stop these attempts to destroy America through mass illegal immigration and amnesty.”
For more information on Tea Parties Against Amnesty click here.
Contact: Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC)
www.AgainstAmnesty.com
(866) 703-0864
The Obama administration's gutting of key immigration and border security programs combined with a push for amnesty legislation by the Hispanic Caucus in Congress has led to a national organization calling for Tea Parties Against Amnesty & Illegal Immigration to be held across America on Saturday, Nov. 14!
Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, also known as ALIPAC, is a multi-party and multi-ethnic national organization founded on 9/11 in 2004 to oppose illegal immigration and amnesty, while supporting border security and the enforcement of our existing immigration laws.
Americans love freedom too much to become socialists or communists and Americans are not so stupid as to believe that is actually what the Obama administration is trying to do. I've read the dictionary definitions and reality does not fit. We are generally smart enough to know the difference between free market capitalism, socialism and fascism... but GW Bush did get into office TWICE...so any reasonable person must conclude the American people aren't all THAT smart.
A lot of people think the Obama Administration wants absolute power and total control of the people, their finances, their health care and the rest of their lives. This is ABSURD. And some are very successful at convincing people to be very afraid. They are used to these tactics and are trying to scare people because it WORKS. Sarah Palin is one LOONY DAME who doesn't CARE TOO MUCH FOR FACTS. And I am surprised Sen. John Baynor doesn't know the difference between the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States...with these kinds of people running the GOP and the RNC, no wonder those two organizations are LOSING CONSERVATIVES who see the fringe has really TAKEN OVER THEIR PARTY.
I saw signs last week at a republican sponsored protest that said Obamacare was the same as the HOLOCAUST. ONLY THE HOLOCAUST IS THE HOLOCAUST. Shame of republicans for trying to make people think otherwise! COMPARING PRESIDENT OBAMA TO HITLER and his death camps IS NOT RATIONAL. People who advocate in this manner ARE SICK.
What is really going on is the establishment that guards the STATUS QUO when it comes to health care is actually very concerned THEIR DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES are over.
Remember, the American people DISGUSTED at GOP control and incompetence and optimistic about a new young, smart president who actually has a lot of ideas, ELECTED BARACK OBAMA into the White House to CHANGE not just how business is done but to actually GET BUSINESS DONE. This means action on health care and a dignified, graceful END TO THE TWO WARS. The two wars are BIG FIRES STARTED BY THE PREVIOUS ADMINISTRATION and they were not interested in putting them out. Now that Obama has to, he CANNOT DO IT ALL IN ONE YEAR.
IT IS NAIVE FOR ANYONE TO THINK THESE BIG COMPLICATED PROBLEMS ALL COULD BE SOLVED IN A YEAR. And the right wing of the GOP wants America and President Obama to FAIL so hopefully THEY CAN GET ANOTHER EIGHT YEARS OF INCOMPETENT RULE where little if anything was done for the American people. Remember the Abramoff scandals? ( The republicans were too busy SERVING THEMSELVES to notice the economy was tanking. )
However, if you are still unemployed and can't find good money even with that degree, don't despair. The economy WILL TURN AROUND but more importantly, someone needs to show you that most recessions are jobless and that it is really naive to think one man, even if he is the president of the U.S. , can actually create millions of full-time, long term jobs that will be well-paying and provide health insurance at little or no cost to you. Even if he said so...HE IS A POLITICIAN!!!!
I just want health care reform, hopefully with a public option. One of the best thinks about a public option other than giving the insurance companies REAL COMPETITION, is that if it passes and becomes law, for the first time, people wouldn't have to stick with a REALLY bad job just because they need the health care insurance for their families. Think new financial regulations that ACTUALLY PROTECT CREDIT CARD HOLDERS AND OTHER CONSUMERS. For the first time in a long time, Washington DC is passing laws that BENEFIT THE CONSUMERS FOR A CHANGE. CORPORATE AMERICA HATES THAT.
A PUBLIC OPTION, WE CAN AFFORD IT. WE SHOULD HAVE IT. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE FROM THOSE WHO BENEFIT FROM THE STATUS QUO. Much of their anger is canned and paid for. Grass roots tea parties are successful because the people are lied to and tend to believe what they are told without checking out the facts first.
Last Thursday, a "lone wolf" shouted his allegiances to Allah... and opened fire. When the Fort Hood carnage was over, 13 people were murdered and 30 more injured, making it the deadliest mass murder on a military base in our history.
Last Friday, unemployment in America hit 10.2 percent, coming in higher than the experts expected. This, after Democrats in Congress spent almost a trillion dollars in so-called stimulus (including the pork), and after Obama said unemployment would not top 8 percent. This news followed the Obama White House touting an internal report -- full of misleading hype -- over jobs they've "created" or "saved."
Last Saturday, House Democrats cheered after securing a vote to destroy the best health care delivery system in the world and replace it with a massive, big government, trillion-plus-dollar job-killing monstrosity.
And this. On Sunday, Obama's chief of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, speaking to students in the United Arab Emirates, assured them that her agency is hard at work to prevent any anti-Muslim backlash in response to the Ford Hood rampage. That's right: to Democrats, we bigoted Americans are the problem.
Two of every three practicing physicians oppose the medical overhaul plan under consideration in Washington, and hundreds of thousands would think about shutting down their practices or retiring early if it were adopted, a new IBD/TIPP Poll has found.
The poll contradicts the claims of not only the White House, but also doctors' own lobby — the powerful American Medical Association — both of which suggest the medical profession is behind the proposed overhaul.
It also calls into question whether an overhaul is even doable; 72% of the doctors polled disagree with the administration's claim that the government can cover 47 million more people with better-quality care at lower cost.
The IBD/TIPP Poll was conducted by mail the past two weeks, with 1,376 practicing physicians chosen randomly throughout the country taking part. Responses are still coming in, and doctors' positions on related topics — including the impact of an overhaul on senior care, medical school applications and drug development — will be covered later in this series.
Major findings included:
• Two-thirds, or 65%, of doctors say they oppose the proposed government expansion plan. This contradicts the administration's claims that doctors are part of an "unprecedented coalition" supporting a medical overhaul.
It also differs with findings of a poll released Monday by National Public Radio that suggests a "majority of physicians want public and private insurance options," and clashes with media reports such as Tuesday's front-page story in the Los Angeles Times with the headline "Doctors Go For Obama's Reform."
Nowhere in the Times story does it say doctors as a whole back the overhaul. It says only that the AMA — the "association representing the nation's physicians" and what "many still regard as the country's premier lobbying force" — is "lobbying and advertising to win public support for President Obama's sweeping plan."
The AMA, in fact, represents approximately 18% of physicians and has been hit with a number of defections by members opposed to the AMA's support of Democrats' proposed health care overhaul.
• Four of nine doctors, or 45%, said they "would consider leaving their practice or taking an early retirement" if Congress passes the plan the Democratic majority and White House have in mind.
More than 800,000 doctors were practicing in 2006, the government says. Projecting the poll's finding onto that population, 360,000 doctors would consider quitting.
'We are calling for a peaceful, political revolution in America now'
Posted: November 03, 2009
10:31 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
WorldNetDaily
The chief of an organization that has been fighting plans to grant amnesty to millions, perhaps tens of millions of illegal aliens now within the United States, has launched a campaign for a series of "tea parties" on Nov. 14 to let Washington know what Americans want.
"I'm not going to mince words," said William Gheen, chief of Americans for Legal Immigration, "We are calling for a peaceful, political revolution and uprising in America now."
Dozens of events already have been planned, but more are needed, Gheen said today. That's simply because while President George W. Bush's plans for immigration reform and amnesty for illegals were bad, under President Obama the situation is deteriorating quickly.
"The globalists that are behind illegal immigration intend to replace heartland Americans with new voters who previously were illegal aliens," Gheen told WND. "If that occurs it won't matter what your issue is, they will control that voting population, effectively destroying the conservative base of the Republican Party … There will be no peaceful or political hope for future immigration enforcement of the borders
of the United States.
"It will be a country that no longer exists," he said. "It will be the coup de grace."
Under the banner of the AgainstAmnesty.com website, where details about the times and locations are being listed, events are being planned nationwide. Already plans have been confirmed for:
* Phoenix
, Ariz., 10 a.m. on the state Capitol grounds at 1700 W. Washington St.
* Los Banos, Calif., 11 a.m. at 903 East Pacheco Blvd. near Los Banos County Park
* Pasadena, Calif., 10 a.m. at 100 N. Garfield Ave.
* San Diego, Calif., 11 a.mm. at 100 Tuna Lane "Tuna Harbor Park"
* San Francisco, Calif., 11 a.m. at Fisherman's Wharf Pier 39
* Santa Maria, Calif., 11 a.m. at Bradley Rd & Betteravia Rd.
* Denver, Colo., 10 a.m. at 500 E. Colfax Ave.
* Durango, Colo., 1 p.m. at 149 S. Camino Del Rio Santarita Park
* Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 1 p.m. at N. Federal Highway and E. Oakland Park Blvd.
* Sebring, Fla. 1 p.m. at 213 Circle Park Dr.
* Post Falls, Idaho, noon at 5100 Riverbend Ave. Greyhound Park & Event Center
* Chicago, 1 p.m. at Michigan Ave. and Madison Ave.
* Wilbraham, Mass., 8 a.m. at 2001 Boston Road
* Waterford, Mich., noon at 5100 Dixie Highway
* St. Paul, Minn., 11 a.m. at 75 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd
* Dumont, N.J., 8 a.m. at Columbia Ave. and Washington St.
* Raleigh, N.C., 2 p.m. a 16 W. Jones St.
* Columbus, Ohio, 10 a.m. at 1 Capital Square
* Maria Stein, Ohio, 2 p.m. at 8608 State Rt. 119
* McAlester, Okla., noon at 500 S. George Nigh Expressway
* Hazleton, Pa., 2 p.m. at 40 N. Church St.
* Fort Worth, Texas, noon at 100 East Weatherford St.
* Alexandria, Va., 11 a.m. at 333 N. Fairfax St.
* Sterling, Va., 1 p.m. at 21660 N. Sterling Blvd.
The organization said that while most polls show a supermajority of Americans "of every race and political affiliation oppose any form of amnesty or path to citizenship for illegal aliens," Obama already is moving that direction.
"Like Bush, he is creating amnesty without congressional or public approval by suspending enforcement of most of our existing immigration laws
! The latest news reports indicate Obama has recently stopped work site enforcement, stopped local police from enforcing immigration laws, stopped Arizona Sheriff [Joe] Arpaio from arresting illegal aliens, and now intends to release illegal aliens in custody from detention centers as a prelude to his comprehensive amnesty.
"We find his actions to be authoritarian, dictatorial, and a violation of both the letter and the spirit of the U.S. Constitution and his own oath of office. Obama is depriving all Americans of representation for those who are taxed, and is violating public trust at a time we need every job and taxpayer resource for Americans!" the group's website says.
"It is time for Americans to stand together in unity to insist that citizen control of our government be re-established and that the requirements of the U.S. Constitution, which empowers Congress to create uniform immigration laws and the president to enforce them, be respected!"
Gheen told WND there's an urgency because U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez has announced plans to introduce an amnesty bill to Congress by the end of this month. He said while it may not be address immediately, by spring of 2010, it's expected to be on an Obama fast-track much like the health care takeover proposal now.
Gheen said his organization has worked with lobbying, telephone calls and e-mails in the past. But the situation now, "is getting so unstable that we feel its important for people to get in the streets and organize in a civil fashion."
Those who worked hard to earn their American Dream used to be respected. They were a source of inspiration and jobs for those who aspired to their own success. Americans took pride in being the land of opportunity where anyone could better their position in life.
How then have those who have worked hard to achieve success now become the subject of envy and derision? When did it become acceptable for Americans to embrace candidates who could openly brag about redistributing the wealth of the top 5% of wage earners to subsidize their supporters?
We see entities that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand some of the disastrous scenarios. And even if there were a problem, the Federal Government doesn't bail them out.
Oops, this year Congress bailed them out with 100 billion of your tax dollars. And congress has promised Fannie and Freddie ... another $300 billion in guarantees.
Will the renters ever leave? I doubt it, given government’s track record.
After Hurricane Ike hit Texas, so FEMA promised “temporary” housing in trailers. .. Now, more than a year later, almost 2000 people live in free FEMA trailers.
FEMA even sent $17 million in rental assistance to families who were living in free FEMA trailers.
And while you could buy a trailer for $30,000, FEMA spends as much as $229,000.
We already have a huge public housing bureaucracy-- 3,200 different public housing authorities. Now the monstrous Fannie Mae is diving in.
Army Major in Fort Hood Massacre Used 'Electronic Means' to Connect with Terrorists
U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.
Can you imagine having a Christian demonstration against Islam in downtown
Baghdad ?
View the pictures below and decide how you really feel about the future
of the Western World.
These pictures are of Muslims marching through the STREETS OF
LONDON during their 'Religion of Peace Demonstration.'
Why would anyone think that we should be at war with such nice,
peaceful Muslims?!
You should forward this one to everyone! These pictures tell it all! Muslims
Have stated that England will be the first country they take over!
These are pictures not shown on American TV or in American Newspapers,
but were forwarded by a Canadian who thought All of us in the World
ought to know!
Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices."
Who is the primary author of this workbook? Dr. Robert Pearlman, chief of ethics evaluation for the center, a man who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide in Vacco v. Quill before the U.S. Supreme Court and is known for his support of health-care rationing.
"Your Life, Your Choices" presents end-of-life choices in a way aimed at steering users toward predetermined conclusions, much like a political "push poll." For example, a worksheet on page 21 lists various scenarios and asks users to then decide whether their own life would be "not worth living."
The circumstances listed include ones common among the elderly and disabled: living in a nursing home, being in a wheelchair and not being able to "shake the blues." There is a section which provocatively asks, "Have you ever heard anyone say, 'If I'm a vegetable, pull the plug'?" There also are guilt-inducing scenarios such as "I can no longer contribute to my family's well being," "I am a severe financial burden on my family" and that the vet's situation "causes severe emotional burden for my family."
When the government can steer vulnerable individuals to conclude for themselves that life is not worth living, who needs a death panel?
One can only imagine a soldier surviving the war in Iraq and returning without all of his limbs only to encounter a veteran's health-care system that seems intent on his surrender.
I was not surprised to learn that the VA panel of experts that sought to update "Your Life, Your Choices" between 2007-2008 did not include any representatives of faith groups or disability rights advocates. And as you might guess, only one organization was listed in the new version as a resource on advance directives: the Hemlock Society (now euphemistically known as "Compassion and Choices").
This hurry-up-and-die message is clear and unconscionable. Worse, a July 2009 VA directive instructs its primary care physicians to raise advance care planning with all VA patients and to refer them to "Your Life, Your Choices." Not just those of advanced age and debilitated condition—all patients. America's 24 million veterans deserve better.
Many years ago I created an advance care planning document called "Five Wishes" that is today the most widely used living will in America, with 13 million copies in national circulation. Unlike the VA's document, this one does not contain the standard bias to withdraw or withhold medical care. It meets the legal requirements of at least 43 states, and it runs exactly 12 pages.
After a decade of observing end-of-life discussions, I can attest to the great fear that many patients have, particularly those with few family members and financial resources. I lived and worked in an AIDS home in the mid-1980s and saw first-hand how the dying wanted more than health care—they wanted someone to care.
If President Obama is sincere in stating that he is not trying to cut costs by pressuring the disabled to forgo critical care, one good way to show that commitment is to walk two blocks from the Oval Office and pull the plug on "Your Life, Your Choices." He should make sure in the future that VA decisions are guided by values that treat the lives of our veterans as gifts, not burdens.
Top donors to the Democratic Party have been given "VIP access to the White House, private briefings with administration advisers and invitations to important speeches and town-hall meetings," according to a Washington Times investigation.
The White House has hosted several receptions for donors; contributors with the fattest wallets were given access to senior officials. One fundraiser visited the Oval Office on his birthday, and others were allowed to use the White House bowling alley and movie theater.
The biggest donors apparently get face time with the president. Robert Wolf, chief executive of the UBS Group for the Americas and a top fundraiser from New York, was invited to play golf with Obama over the summer. Wolf was later appointed to Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
Fundraiser Alan Solomont was nominated to be ambassador to Spain.
“H.R. 3962 provides that an individual (or a husband and wife in the case of a joint return) who does not, at any time during the taxable year, maintain acceptable health insurance coverage for himself or herself and each of his or her qualifying children is subject to an additional tax.” [page 1]
“If the government determines that the taxpayer’s unpaid tax liability results from willful behavior, the following penalties could apply…” [page 2]
“Criminal penalties
Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual:
• Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year.
• Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.” [page 3]
When confronted with this same issue during its consideration of a similar individual mandate tax, the Senate Finance Committee worked on a bipartisan basis to include language in its bill that shielded Americans from civil and criminal penalties. The Pelosi bill, however, contains no similar language protecting American citizens from civil and criminal tax penalties that could include a $250,000 fine and five years in jail.
“The Senate Finance Committee had the good sense to eliminate the extreme penalty of incarceration. Speaker Pelosi’s decision to leave in the jail time provision is a threat to every family who cannot afford the $15,000 premium her plan creates. Fortunately, Republicans have an alternative that will lower health insurance costs without raising taxes or cutting Medicare,” said Camp.
According to the Congressional Budget Office the lowest cost family non-group plan under the Speaker’s bill would cost $15,000 in 2016.
This seemed to be a terrorist attack since he seemed to be more concerned about going to Iraq and fighting the war and then kills the American people.
From looking at this video this man does not look one bit like someone who is out of his mind and loses control to kill 13 people.
Makes me think he planned this attack and knew full well what he was doing and the consequences thereof.
Cindy..Ga
--------------------------------------------
Anderson Cooper 360: Blog Archive - Exclusive Video: Hasan at a ...Nov 6, 2009 ... From looking at this video this man does not look one bit like someone who is out of ... CNN Exclusive Video: Surveillance video of Hasan ...
ac360.blogs.cnn.com/.../exclusive-video-hasan-at-a-convenience-store
Our educators should make a lesson plan on these statements and instill these words in the minds of all students.
1 "You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.”
2 ”What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.”
3 ”The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.”
4 ”When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, my dear friend, is the beginning of the end of any nation.”
Spokeswoman Tammi Arender Herring said the search warrant was executed shortly after 9 a.m. and resulted in the seizure of computers, hard drives and documents.
"It is quite a bit of stuff," Herring said, adding that ACORN officials were "extremely cooperative."
The search warrant follows the removal of computers and other items by two unidentified former ACORN employees when they left the organization, according to ACORN attorneys.
Assistant Attorney General David Caldwell said the original allegations of embezzlement were made last year by ACORN board members who were terminated after asking for an examination of the activist group's books.
ACORN fired its longtime director of its Louisiana chapter last month, citing a lack of accountability.
Calls to Brian Kettenring, a spokesman for ACORN, were not immediately returned.
Take two good friends to the nearest liquor store and purchase one or both of the antidotes - Work Isolating Neutralizer Extract (WINE) and Bothersome Employer Elimination Rebooter (BEER). Take the antidote repeatedly until WORK has been completely eliminated from your system.
The false premise here is that "tradition" is either arbitrary or antiquated when in fact it is neither.
A progressive should recognize that "traditional" American values are highly evolved, originating in a philsophical quantum leap known as the Age of Enlightenment. The lifestyle Americans enjoy is nothing less than Darwin on display: survival of the fittest. Not some zero sum game nonsense of Americans surviving while everyone else perishes, but evolution in the sense that our enlightened freedom displaces the natural poverty that other social and political structures just can't seem to eradicate.
The liberal laments that our prosperity is shackled by so much tradition (property rights, anyone?) without ever recognizing traditional values as the very source of that prosperity.
Every authoritarian government in history has been an experiment in all the same principles of liberalism. Progressives have new theories, but their ideas are neither better nor new.
Progressive income taxation did not work when the king took all the money for himself, and it does not work any better when the elites give it away to their favored interests. Prosperity isn't bound by whether there's a law against poverty -- the problem is that less gets produced when there are laws against wealth. And that's exactly what progressive taxes are, whether imposed by medieval nobility or modern-day elites.
Everybody in Virginia knew that the democratic candidate was very weak and ran a really bad campaign. He was not EXPECTED to win. Also, Virginia has a long and predictable record of electing governors politically opposite to whomever they went for as President. The democratic loss was no surprise but to rightwingnuts.... any win is a BIG WIN for their cause!!!! Pathetic.
In New Jersey's case, Politics are local. I remember the last republican governor of New Jersey, someone I voted for. What did NJ get? High taxes and huge budget deficits. Good for Ms. Whitman that she left the Bush Administration after they MADE HER LIE ABOUT THE AIR AT GROUND ZERO as head of the EPA.
New Jerseyans are fed up with high property taxes and voted Corzine out because he failed to reign in spending and property taxes. It had nothing to do with President Obama who still enjoys high approval marks from suburban and urban New Jerseyans alike. New Jerseyans are smart enough to know that one year is not going to see sweeping and tangible changes in government and they are giving the new administration a chance to do its job. Considering all the major problems that face our nation, that job is going to take four years. Whining about how Obama has not solved the world's problems with his magic touch is not only disingenuous but its also stupid.....extreme right wingers give a pass to loons like Sarah Palin because she is ONE OF THEM, but Obama is SET UP to be a "magic negro" who can easily tackle the previous administration's mess with deft oratory and charm.
Remember, its the extreme right and their naive followers who have SET UP president Obama to be so great, so MAGICAL...just so they can knock him down when he mis steps or mispeaks as if he is NOT human and should not show any faults. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had it right when she recently said that if President Barack Obama could walk on water, his detractors on the right would fault him for not being able to swim.
THE MESS that the previous administration and nearly 100% of their supporters in the House and Senate, left THE NATION are HUGE and complicated. Americans are not stupid and know that the president is doing a very good job and will get his health care reform bill to sign either this year or early next year. No matter, we will get it and with a public option. That way, it will have teeth and offer greedy insurance companies REAL COMPETITION...something these so called free market capitalists DON'T WANT.
UNEMPLOYMENT IS STILL HIGH AND some of these are the people most angry because they, UNLIKE LOWER CLASS PEOPLE who deal with job losses and other economic crisis all the time and therefore are better at coping, these newly frustrated formerly white-collar and middle and upper class people are the most disturbed BY HARD TIMES..... because....THEY JUST ARE NOT USED TO BEING UNCOMFORTABLE. I wish they would get some backbone and cope like everyone else instead of sitting in their parent's house complaining on blogs and doing NOTHING CONSTRUCTIVE EXCEPT TO CAUSE TROUBLE.
Are right wing nut extremist tactics working? You betcha!! After the election of George W. Bush TWICE, you know that America is full of really stupid partisan people who see everything through the prism of politics, but we are a big country and can tolerate and outmaneuver a few million dittoheads.
I hope the governor-elect, Chris Christie can continue to fight corruption, cut spending and waste, reign in taxes of all kinds and address New Jersey's tough problems but his supporters will see that its not as easy as they think. See, everybody wants more efficient and smarter government, police and fire protection and their highways and roads to be well-maintained but NOBODY WANTS TO PAY FOR IT.
In New Jersey, people want their property to APPRECIATE but they don't want their property taxes to go up accordingly.
Does America STILL stand by the change they voted into office last year, absolutely! Does America want the democrats to ACCOMPLISH something major like health care reform? Damn right!!