Uh, That Should Be "Hams Across America"

They can claim to be a victim of State Farm all they want, but Hickory Farms has victimized these morons far more.

Via Ace, who claims to be above such things.

Crazy on the Left and Further Left

I don't often read NewsMax. I don't have anything against them, I just have limited time and resources and rely a core group of news sites, blogs, and aggregators to gather information on a daily basis.

I rather wish I did read more frequently however, because if I did I might have been able to catch John L. Perry's column from yesterday, Obama Risks a Military 'Intervention' before it was sent down the memory hole. Clicking on that link will now redirect you to the NewsMax home page; Perry's column has also been scrubbed.

The scathing response from the blogosphere—based upon what I've been able to cobble together from quotes on several sites—seems warranted.

The simple fact of the matter is that author seems to have come unhinged, and for reasons perhaps structural to the site's editorial process, the column made it to print without a sanity check by the editors.

While the number of people dissatisfied with Obama's foundering Presidency continues to balloon and his popularity erodes on a seemingly daily basis, we are a nation of laws, not a nation of mob rule and coups by military strongmen. We will have out chance to remove President Obama in 2012 as we have always removed bad Presidents, at the ballot box.

There has only been one successful coup in American history, perpetrated by the Democratic Party and the Ku Klux Klan and allowed by a Democratic governor and President.

Advocating to repeat such a disgrace as Perry apparently did is utterly unacceptable. NewsMax was right to yank a column that never should have made it to print, and should reconsider their relationship with Perry and what that association now represents.

Update: It is also worth noting that Perry is not a conservative; his bio says he worked for both LBJ and Carter Administrations and Democratic Governor of Florida, LeRoy Collins.

From further on the left, Gore Vidal laments the "fact" that Americans are just too stupid to appreciate the genius of Obama, and also suggests that a military coup is in America's future.

Update: A statement from NewsMax:

Statement from Newsmax Regarding Blogger In a blog posting to Newsmax John Perry wrote about a coup scenario involving the U.S. military.

He clearly stated that he was not advocating such a scenario but simply describing one.

After several reader complaints, Newsmax wanted to insure that this article was not misinterpreted. It was removed after a short period after being posted.

Newsmax strongly believes in the principles of Constitutional government and would never advocate or insinuate any suggestion of an activity that would undermine our democracy or democratic institutions.

Mr. Perry served as a political appointee in the Carter administration in HUD and FEMA. He has no official relationship with Newsmax other than as an unpaid blogger.

Here is the copy of the original Perry column in its entirety, as provided by a reader:

Obama Risks a Domestic Military 'Intervention'

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 10:35 AM

By: John L. Perry
There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the "Obama problem." Don't dismiss it as unrealistic.

America isn’t the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn't mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it. So, view the following through military eyes:

Officers swear to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Unlike enlisted personnel, they do not swear to "obey the orders of the president of the United States."

Top military officers can see the Constitution they are sworn to defend being trampled as American institutions and enterprises are nationalized.
They can see that Americans are increasingly alarmed that this nation, under President Barack Obama, may not even be recognizable as America by the 2012 election, in which he will surely seek continuation in office.

They can see that the economy — ravaged by deficits, taxes, unemployment, and impending inflation — is financially reliant on foreign lender governments.
They can see this president waging undeclared war on the intelligence community, without whose rigorous and independent functions the armed services are rendered blind in an ever-more hostile world overseas and at home.

They can see the dismantling of defenses against missiles targeted at this nation by avowed enemies, even as America’s troop strength is allowed to sag.
They can see the horror of major warfare erupting simultaneously in two, and possibly three, far-flung theaters before America can react in time.

They can see the nation's safety and their own military establishments and honor placed in jeopardy as never before.

So, if you are one of those observant military professionals, what do you do?

Wait until this president bungles into losing the war in Afghanistan, and Pakistan’s arsenal of nuclear bombs falls into the hands of militant Islam?

Wait until Israel is forced to launch air strikes on Iran’s nuclear-bomb plants, and the Middle East explodes, destabilizing or subjugating the Free World?

What happens if the generals Obama sent to win the Afghan war are told by this president (who now says, "I'm not interested in victory") that they will be denied troops they must have to win? Do they follow orders they cannot carry out, consistent with their oath of duty? Do they resign en masse?

Or do they soldier on, hoping the 2010 congressional elections will reverse the situation? Do they dare gamble the national survival on such political whims?

Anyone who imagines that those thoughts are not weighing heavily on the intellect and conscience of America’s military leadership is lost in a fool's fog.

Will the day come when patriotic general and flag officers sit down with the president, or with those who control him, and work out the national equivalent of a "family intervention," with some form of limited, shared responsibility?

Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.

Military intervention is what Obama's exponentially accelerating agenda for "fundamental change" toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama's radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.

Unthinkable? Then think up an alternative, non-violent solution to the Obama problem. Just don't shrug and say, "We can always worry about that later."

In the 2008 election, that was the wistful, self-indulgent, indifferent reliance on abnegation of personal responsibility that has sunk the nation into this morass.

John L. Perry, a prize-winning newspaper editor and writer who served on White House staffs of two presidents, is a regular columnist for Newsmax.com. Read John Perry's columns here.

Affiliate Partnership with FrontSight

You may notice above that there is a banner ad to FrontSight Firearms Training Institute. After being approached by one of their staff last week about promoting a training package I decided to partner up with them, as FrontSight has a excellent reputation as a shooting school and the package they are promoting includes a Springfield Armory XD that you get to take home.

I'll have more on this later tonight or tomorrow.

In the meantime, you can read up on some the links to articles about them they so graciously provided.

Front Sight
Ignatius Piazza in Small Arms Review
Ignatius Piazza
Ignatius Piazza Blog
Ignatius Piazza in Times Democrat
Front Sight in National Enquirer
Ignatius Piazza in Handvapen
Front Sight in Sierra Times
Ignatius Piazza in Forbes
Ignatius Piazza in Playboy Magazine German Edition

Or since seeing is believing:

Last Surviving Kennedy in Office Likens Obamacare Opponents to George Wallace

Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) displays all the class and sobriety of his late father, slyly attempting to tie opposition to Obamacare to a noted segregationist:

"It's very, very dangerous," Kennedy said in the interview. "We put a lot of people in jail around the world for threatening our country's security. But this atmosphere of attack that doesn't attack the issue, but attacks the people, is very disruptive to the institution of democracy, which relies on a respect for the opposition."

He continued: "George Wallace didn't need a gun to pull a trigger. We just need to be mindful of the wisdom of people ... who have been through these ugly periods in American history. Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

I guess he forgot that segregationist Wallace was a Democrat to his dying day.

As for what he will do about the worst example of politically-motivated hate this far, there is no word on when Kennedy will push for MSNBC personality Ed Schultz to be fired for claiming that Republicans "want to see you dead. They'd rather make money off your dead corpse. They kind of like it when that woman has cancer and they don't have anything for her."

Oh wait a minute... I forgot that those rules only apply to the opposition of liberals, not the liberal themselves who have initiated every act of violence that can directly be tied to protests over the health-care debate, from SEIU union thugs assaulting a man handing out flags, to MoveOn.Org agitators biting the finger of of a retiree in Calfornia.

It should also be noted that Kennedy made the comments in front of a hand-picked audience of just 75, afraid to meet with his own constituents openly.

A Great Idea for 1993

Been there. Done that.

And truth be told, the traffic wasn't overwhelming.

And while it is no doubt cool to see your mug shot on the page beside Charles Krauthammer (and to a lesser extent, Eugene Robinson), the idea of a pundit reality contest will be less than riveting entertainment for anyone not intimately involved.

As you may imagine, the folks in the blogosphere are having a field day tearing this apart.

The Leftosphere Strikes Back

After seething for weeks over the damage caused Roman Polanski's favorite activist group (ACORN), Think Progress has struck back against an organization as equally institutionally corrupt on the right, Kitty Werthmann.

Werthmann, an aged, suspiciously white woman who watched to Nazi rise to power in Austria as she was growing up, gave a speech telling a pimp and prostitute how to commit fraud against the federal government to support the trafficking of children for purposes of prostitution noting the similarities she saw between the cult of personality that propelled Hitler into power and those backing President Obama with similar unrestrained fervor.

But Think Progress' sting operation wasn't done just yet.

In the most damning bit of investigative journalism since Geraldo penetrated Al Capone's vault, an undercover Think Progress staffer actually got Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN)—who was speaking in a room somewhere at the same conference— to autograph a CD of Werthmann's speech.

Damning evidence

As a result of this travesty, Nancy Pelosi began working with the House of Representatives on a bill to immediately defund Minnesota.

President Obama could not be reached for comment as this article went to press, as he was pitching his health-care plan on Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List.

Moby or Maybe: The Real Extremists are on the Left

Over the weekend a person on Facebook created a poll asking if President Obama should be assassinated. Results of the survey were unknown, and Facebook quickly closed the poll, suspended the user, and contacted the Secret Service.

Left wing blog such as the Huffington Post and the Political Carnival conveniently had screen captures of the poll before it was removed, and other left wing blogs and commenters are having a field day with the story, trumpeting this as existence of proof that Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, (insert conservative pundit here) is responsible of stirring up right wing violence.

They're only missing two things.

• Evidence that the person who posted the poll was serious, and not a Kilgore Trout-type moby looking to manufacture evidence of hate, and;
• if the person who posted created this poll was serious, that mainstream conservative television and radio show personalities are responsible for their views.

As is so often the case before facts as known, these liberals respond by making knee-jerk, emotional decisions, just as they did last week when the body of Census worker Bill Sparkman was found dead with the word "fed" scrawled on his chest in a remote area where illegal drug growth and manufacture is common.

The simple truth is that we don't know what we don't know.

We still don't know why Bill Sparkman was killed, and don't know the underlying reason behind it. That hasn't kept liberals from blaming conservatives. And now these same angry souls are claiming that conservative media are somehow behind this Facebook poll.

But we don't know who created this poll. We don't know if they are conservatives. We don't know if they are radical leftists attempting to find the sort of corruption on the right as James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles so easily uncovered on the left. We don't even know if the person who posted this poll is American, much less influenced by American conservative media figures, and it would not be beyond the ability of Canadian liberals to post such a poll as bait, knowing they would be immune from the Secret Service's reach (the "Kids in the Hall" defense).

What we do know is that history clearly shows that leftists are far more prone to violence than conservatives, and that the reactionary hatred on the political left runs far deeper than it does on the right.

CBS News blog Politcal Hotsheet captures this seething anger in just the second comment to their entry about the poll, as they capture a leftist hoping that the person who created the poll surrenders, and then is murdered by police.

The violence that leftists see is inferred; the violence they preach is explicit.

Silence! Do Not Speak Ill of Chicago!

A Chicago television station has been forced to pull a story that many of Chicago's residents don't want the 2016 Olympics in their city. I'd be more worried about Chicago's residents if I was an Olympic athlete or spectator.

From 2000-2008 there were 4,855 homicides in Chicago, though there have been just 285 so far this year.

Hope and Change! And a more fitting logo:

"We'll send one of ours to the podium. We'll send one of yours to the morgue."

You Can't Prevent Stupid

With all the class you've come to expect from left-wing sensationalists, Think Progress bellows:

Uninsured 22-Year-Old Boehner Constituent Dies From Swine Flu.

And like the majority of issues presented through blinders of opportunistic hatred, the actual reality of the situation is a bit different than the community-based reality would like to cobble together.

As a more credible account notes, 22-year-old Kimberly Young died because she made the decision not to seek care until it was too late to save her life. Friends claim the proximate cause of decision not to seek care was because she did not have health insurance, but that is a fig leaf, at best.

Young knew she did not feel well, and she knew this for almost two weeks. Like every American, she's been inundated with doom-pronouncing news stories about H1N1, its symptoms, and what it can lead to if not treated. She made the choice to ignore her symptoms.

As a recently-graduated double major, Young presumably had the intelligence to use both telephones and computers, but she made the choice not to find out what sort of free or low-cost options were available for her in her area. And rather obviously, she chose to ignore the signs of distress her body was issuing until it was too late for even the best medical care in the world to save her life.

Kimberly Young didn't die because she didn't have health insurance. Kimberly Young died because she made a series of bad decisions.

While Think Progress and other liberal blogs can speculate that Young would have gone to the doctor if she had the kind of government-run healthcare they would force upon America, the simple fact of the matter is that their words are, well, just words.

People make horrible decisions detrimental to their health every single day. They eat too much. They drink to much. They smoke too much. They don't exercise. They don't get enough sleep. And shockingly, many people—regardless of whether or not they have insurance—absolutely hate going to the doctor, and will not go until they are in absolute misery or fear for their lives.

There is no reason whatsoever to think a poorly-thought-out, paper-work impeded, fine-driven bureaucratic nightmare like Obamacare would save the late Kimberly Young or any other American.

The simple fact of the matter is that the aggravation and pain government-run healthcare will add to the already unpleasant stress of the doctor's office will make people that more resistant to seeking care.

Let's be honest, especiall since Think Progress is incapable of it.

John Boehner's opposition to the fiasco that is Obamacare didn't kill Kimberly Young. Widespread Republican and Democratic opposition to a fatally-flawed bill offered up by radicals unwilling to compromise didn't kill her, either. Her own bad decisions led her not to seek care. Her own bad decisions put Kimberly Young in the morgue, when all she had to do was take advantage of existing health care right in front of her.

But something else is also true.

The one-size-fits-all, join-us-or-we'll-fine-you approach favored by the radical left will make men and women already disinclined to seek healthcare even more resistant to going to doctors. There is little doubt that further government intrusion will make the experience even more bureaucratic, impersonal, and unpleasant.

It is perhaps more credible to claim that the additional pain Obamacare will cause will create more cautionary tales—more Kimberly Youngs—that it will save.

Drudge's Easy Libel of the Military

Earlier today I noted that Drudge's link to the use of LRADs as "acoustic weapons" was over the top, which he would have easily recognized on his own if he had simply applied logic to the very video he linked. Put simply, if an LRAD is being used as a weapon, various people would not be walking or standing directly in front of it.

It's common sense.

But Matt Drudge is after headlines and eyeballs, not accuracy, and that is why his inflammatory link that screams SEE U.S. MILITARY SNATCH PROTESTER... is so detestable.

It simply does no show what he claims it shows.

Look at the very image Drudge uses as his screen capture.

How many things immediately jump out at you that scream Drudge is wrong? Don't see it? Watch the video, and then I'll go over it in detail:

You should have noticed right off the bat that neither of the uniforms shown in this clip by the men that jumped out of the Crown Victoria are those currently being worn by our military.

See the officer on the left? He's wearing woodland BDUs. No active duty American soldiers wears BDUs, they wear ACUs, which are an entirely different style of uniform with a radically different camouflage pattern. Oh, and you might want to take a look at his shoulder, where you can see what appears to be a muted version of a Pennsylvania State Police shoulder patch.

The second Officer apprehending the protestor is also wearing a camouflage pattern that is not military issue. The same with the driver.

Any semi-competent national media figure should be able to tell the difference between a military uniform and a police tactical uniform, and I strongly suspect Matt Drudge does.

I just don't think he gives a damn whether he accuses the military of snatching Americans in broad daylight if that helps his bottom line.

Update: For reasons I'll never be able to understand, some of my conservative blogging peers have decided that the video is staged... faked by the protesters themselves.

The reasons they cite are similar to mine—that the uniforms are wrong for the modern military and mis-matched—but for some reason, they assume it was a staged event or "performance art" instead of Drudge simply being wrong about a very real event.

These were police officers, carrying out a real arrest, probably at the behest of the riot police 20 feet away we see at the end of the video.

And if the shoulder patch doesn't convince you they were cops, the gun should.

Dead-center in the middle of the frame you can see the bottom of a duty holster and the handgun itself printing through the uniform.

This was a police arrest, not an illegal abduction of an American citizen by the military on U.S. soil as Matt Drudge would mislead you, nor a staged event by the protesters.

Update: Via email Lawhawk notes a story that has a photo of PA State Police wearing woodland BDUs.

And in an update at Hot Air, Ed has the photo that should settle this for once and for all.

Law enforcement confirms a police arrest.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Sounds

G20 protesters are complaining that they have come under the attack from LRADs, or Long Range Acoustic Devices. LRADs are capable of directing sound at extremely high decibels, and can be used to project a warning over distances in a focused "sonic beam," or can be used to cause pain through extremely loud sounds. Using LRADs in the latter manner would classify them as a less-than-lethal weapon, though one capable of causing permanent hearing loss.

The Drudge Report has a link this morning, "Video of 'Acoustic Weapons' Deployed on American Soil" that links to the following clip on YouTube.

But do you notice something about the way the "acoustic weapon" is being deployed? If you look at the video, it is clearly not being used as a weapon.

How do we know this?

Because if you watch the video, people cross back and forth in front the LRAD the entire time it is being used, and some even slow down or stop directly in front of it from mere yards away to shoot video, as this guy did.

The LRAD is the large gray disk mounted on the back of the black truck in the left of the frame. Moments before, a pair of young women wandered across the shot to no apparent ill effect, and seconds after, another videographer passed in front of the same device in the foot steps of the first.

I will readily agree that an LRAD can be used as a weapon. But I'd submit this very video as evidence it was not being used that way in Pittsburgh yesterday, at least now when captured on camera.

Yosi Sergant's Phony Art Club Banned

If it wasn't, why did he just resign?

Breitbart claims another scalp.

Dead KY Census Worker Not Hung

Officials now claim earlier AP reports that he was fund hung from a tree were inaccurate. When discovered "his body was in contact with the ground."

But he did die of asphyxiation. And they have been unable to rule out whether this was an accident, homicide or suicide.

I'm beginning to wonder what would have killed Bill.

More than 40 Drug Dealers Arrested Near Site of Census Worker's Hanging in Past Month

A fact underplayed even in those news sites that chose to report it.

Part-time census worker Bill Sparkman was found hanged in the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky on September 12. Contrarys to what multiple news sites and left wing blogs have erroneously reported, Sparkman's body was recovered on the 12th in an advanced state of decomposition; he was not killed on the 12th.

Left wing media have eagerly posited that Sparkman's death was purposefully done on the 12th to coincide with the Tea Party Protest held in Washington, DC on that date. This is categorically false, and local police chief suspects that Sparkman may have stumbled across a meth lab:

However, the local police also consider it possible that Sparkman was killed because he came across illegal activity. A local police chief, Jeff Culver, said the area has a history of methamphetamine manufacturing and other drug trading.

"That part of the county, it has its ups and downs. We'll get a lot of complaints of drug activity. They'll whittle away, then flourish back up," he said.

Officially, authorities have not yet determined if the death was a homicide or a suicide.

9/25 Update: This account says Sparkman died early on 9/11, casting previous media accounts of the condition of his body at the time of recovery into question.

Creepy Obot Video Replaces Jesus With Obama

According to Michelle Malkin, the school is B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington Township, NJ, and the person responsible for posting the video originally was Charisse Carney-Nunes, author of I Am Barack Obama.

Children should not be signing songs filled with campaign propaganda that sounds more appropriate in totalitarian states, nor should Obama-worshipping drones be ripping off Christian spirituals and replacing references to Jesus with "Barack Hussein Obama."

The cult of personality that surrounds our incompetent President seems more desperate and unhinged every day.

Update Video replaced. Original removed due to terms of use violation by Youtube.

Census Worker Found Hanged in KY

The state, not the lube.

The AP report states that Bill Sparkman, a 51-year-old part-time Census field worker, was found hanged from a tree with the word "fed" written on his chest in a remote corner of Daniel Boone National Forest.

Predictably, the usual suspects are suggesting that Rush Limbaugh threw the rope over the branch and Glenn Beck tied the knot.

The only problems with that theory is:

• lack of evidence
• lack of evidence, and
• lack of evidence

And while liberals are quick to blame the vast right wing conspiracy for Mr. Sparkman's death, they had to overlook this part of the story to do so:

Appalachia scholar Roy Silver, a New York City native now living in Harlan County, Ky., said he doesn't sense an outpouring of anti-government sentiment in the region as has been exhibited in town hall meetings in other parts of the country.

"I don't think distrust of government is any more or less here than anywhere else in the country," said Silver, a sociology professor at Southeast Community College.

Hopefully the investigation into Mr. Sparkman's death will lead to the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of the person or persons responsible for his death. And I rather suspect that when they do find a motive, it will have very little to do with politics and quite a bit to do with him stumbling across marijuana farming, meth labs, or moonshining.

ACORN Commits Suicide

They've decided to sue James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles in Maryland.

How will they do that and avoid making their records available through discovery?

Intimidation and Domestic Terrorism at UNC Chapel Hill

Glenn Reynolds links this morning to an article that hits close to home, an apparent campaign by radical campus leftists at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill to destroy a campus group via threats of violence:

Is a major state university going to let radical groups silence a legitimate college organization and drive it off campus through a campaign of violence and intimidation?

That is just one of the important questions raised by the most recent incident involving the UNC-Chapel Hill student organization Youth for Western Civilization (YWC) and a coalition of radical leftist groups. Some of the radicals are connected to the school, such as the UNC chapter of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), while others are community-based and have no affiliation with UNC.

According to a Raleigh News & Observer report last week, anonymous flyers appeared on the Chapel Hill campus that provided the name, photograph, phone number, and home address of the YWC's faculty advisor, emeritus professor Elliot Cramer. The flyers asked, "Why is your professor supporting white supremacy?"

Nikhil Patel, the current YWC president, perceived an implied threat in the flyer. It was not the first time that the radicals used this approach to intimidate the YWC. At a YWC event in April that was violently disrupted by radicals, they directed the following chant at YWC members and in particular, last year's YWC president, Riley Matheson: "Against racists, we will fight. We know where you sleep at night."

Violence and the political left is nothing new, especially violence from the SDS.

And there is the possibility that the threats of violence from this generation of SDS radicals may have "teeth" provided by an SDS radical of days gone by with a violent past.

Until several years ago, Howard Machtinger was the Teaching Fellows Director at UNC's School of Education. Prior to his academic career, Machtinger was best known for his activities as an active member of the SDS and it's more violent domestic terrorist offshoot, the Weather Underground. A recent article called Time Bomb in the San Francisco Weekly News alleges Machtinger was one of the bomb builders for the terrorist group, and alleges that he and Bernadine Dohrn were behind the Feb. 16, 1970 Park Police Station bombing that killed SFPD Officer Brian McDonnell.

Machtinger, 63, still lives locally in Durham, NC and remains politically active.

I'm not alleging that Machtinger is building bombs for the UNC-CH Students for a Democratic Society or is training a new generation of Weather Underground terrorists, but his past associations indicate a man willing to go to extremes to push his ideology, and his proximity to the UNC group and his ties to the campus make it reasonable to wonder if his influence plays a role in the recent threats that may drive Youth for Western Civilization off of UNC-Chapel Hill's campus.

NEA/Obama Administration Target of Next Breitbart Corruption Probe?

It sure looks that way.

The President had a certain amount of plausible deniability when he tried to claim he didn't know how deeply corrupt ACORN was. After all he has only acted as a lawyer and trainer for them over a number of years.

But if someone in the White House is illegally using public funds to further the Administration's political agenda, we may just have the start of something here far worse than we ever could have imagined...

Update: Big Hollywood has the audio and transcripts of a highly politicized call between carefully-selected pro-Obama artists and artist groups, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

This is apparently a direct effort by the Obama White House to contract out political propaganda favorable to their policy initiatives.

What was said on the call seems irrefutable. What laws were broken (if any) remains to be seen.

West Salem Street, Apex, NC

Just outside the shops and cafes of downtown Apex, NC is this yard display in front of a home being renovated. One is a two-sided sign slamming Obamacare, and the other pleading "STAND UP AMERICA STOP OBAMA'S CRIMES."

Click picture for larger image.

First Lady: Women "Crushed" by Current Healthcare System

Michelle Obama said women are being "crushed by the current structure of our health care" because they often are responsible for taking care of family illnesses, arranging checkups and monitoring follow-up care.

"Women are the ones to do it," she said to an audience of 140 people, including representatives from groups such as the Women's Chamber of Commerce and the National Council of Negro Women. "Mothers are the ones that do it. And many women find themselves doing the same thing for their spouses."

I missed the First Fashion Victim's speech yesterday. I took my wife to the doctor after she had been ill with a cold for the past several days. I wanted to have her checked out because she wasn't getting any better and I wanted to make sure she didn't have any of the more serious viruses that seem to be going around. While there, trying to occupy an impatient, cranky, and ill toddler, we also had her foot looked at, as she had been experiencing severe pain since the night before.

Our primary care physician then sent us across the hall to radiology, so that my wife could get her foot x-rayed. We then went back to our primary care doctor, who saw what could be a stress fracture. We'll find out more when the radiologist has a chance to look at it Monday. Until then, we're trying to keep her off her feet as much as possible.

Later in the afternoon I took the baby to her pediatrician. she had a rash on her face and left leg, and had felt warm when we were at the wife's office visit earlier in the day. The pediatrician checked her over, and thinks that the rash could be contact dermatitis or potentially the same virus my wife has; apparently the rash component is a symptom that shows in children, but rarely in adults.

I missed a critical day of work to take care of my family. A major advertising campaign is rolling out and our marketing group is play a key role in meeting an aggressive deployment schedule. I'm the team lead for production, but my family came first. As a result of putting my family, the rest of my team had to readjust their schedules. In addition to this campaign, I'd committed to another time-sensitive project running concurrently, and was unable to meet my obligation there, either.

I love what I do, who I work for, and the team with which I work. They are extremely intelligent, knowledgeable, and hard-working, and I felt very guilty for having to take a personal day right when they needed me the most.

But family comes first.

My wife is feeling a little better this morning. I'm setting up her crutches so that she can go to our older daughter's soccer game. I'm the team's coach as well, so I'm packing two cars, one with my gear for the team, and the other with a folding chair, some toys for the toddler, her stroller, snacks etc. Grandma is going to help watch the baby on the sideline.

When the game is over, I'll take everyone home, unpack the cars, and take care of my family, the healthy and the sick. If I get them to bed at a reasonable hour tonight, I can log in and see how much work I can make up.

But healthcare is just a women's issue, so I'll manage.

Pelosi: "He Hit Me Back First!"

In a summer where ACORN-affiliated union thugs took the President's advice to hit protesters back "twice as hard" quite literally, it's now amazing to hear House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's born-again concerns of political violence erupting from harsh rhetoric.

This is the same woman who claimed Obamacare protesters carried swastikas to townhall meetings, and has been silent as Americans have been attacked as racists and radicals by everyone from officials within the Administration itself and Congress to street-level loonies.

Perhaps if Pelosi raised her voice earlier, when SEIU union thugs were beating people at town halls, or when MoveOn.org activists were cannibalizing elderly protesters on the streets, I'd find her new-found fears more legitimate.

As it now stands, she sounds like a child complaining that she might get hit back first.

Update: It's also interesting that Pelosi only recalled the political violence from the late 70s that affected liberals. The Park Police station bombing in 1970 and the bomb plot against conservative California state senator John V. Briggs and dozens of other bombings, shooting, and robberies committed by left-wing terrorist groups don't seem to have troubled her at all.

Quick Thought About ACORN and the Media

I think what bothers me the most about this still-developing story is that we have a fake prostitute trying to expose the truth, while the real prostitutes in the media are trying to sandbag the story as much as possible.

House Faces H.R.3571, the "Defund ACORN Act"

Text of a press release from N.C. Republican Rep. Walter B. Jones:

WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week U.S. Representative Walter B. Jones (R-NC) became an original cosponsor of H.R. 3571, the Defund ACORN Act. This legislation, introduced by House Republican Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), would sever all ties between the federal government and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).

"Recent news reports have described potentially criminal activity involving ACORN associates and, last year, ACORN was linked to multiple instances of voter registration fraud and other illicit activity," Congressman Jones said. "It's clear that ACORN is not capable of using federal funds in a lawful way."

It is estimated that ACORN has received more than $53 million in direct funding from the federal government since 1994, and has likely received substantially more indirectly through states and localities that receive federal block grants.

"The U.S. Census Bureau has already ended its partnership with ACORN, and I hope all other federal agencies follow suit – whether their ties to ACORN consist of partnerships or the awarding of federal funds," Jones continued. "Since other federal agencies may not voluntarily take similar action, Congress needs to stop this waste of taxpayer dollars by swiftly passing the Defund ACORN Act to immediately terminate all federal funding of ACORN and its affiliates."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finds herself in a tight spot. There is no justifiable defense of ACORN at this moment, considering that employees have been caught supporting tax fraud and the trafficking of minors for prostitution at five offices (thus far) without batting an eye.

But ACORN has long been an asset to the Democratic Party in general and this President in particular, who has literally volunteered his time to help make the organization what it is today. The DNC is also heavily invested in ACORN's symbiotic relationship with the Service Employees International Union, a group developed in parallel with ACORN and which has been responsible for acts of intimidation and violence during heath-care town hall meetings over the course of the August recess.

The House Democratic leadership and President Obama do not want to sever ties with ACORN.

The real question now seems to be whether they risk the political capital to obfuscate on ACORN's behalf so close to the 2010 elections with such popular disgust running against the group and their close alliance with the Democratic Party.

Update: The House voted to defund ACORN as part of a motion on a student loan bill. The bill passed 345-75.

Michelle Malkin has the votes.

Lunatic Fringe

Screwing over El Salvadoran girls and America's poor
at the same time, on your dime.

ACORN San Diego Offers Assistance for Smuggling Child Prostitutes

From Big Government, another exposé that shows an ACORN employee—who claims to be a lawyer who does a lot of immigration work—offering to use his contacts in Mexico to help traffic a dozen 13-15-year-old girls across the border for the purpose of prostitution.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Playing devil's advocate, I could see the man wanting to collect as much information as possible if he had the intention of turning James and Hannah in to law enforcement. He did get James' cell phone number, collected details about times and places, and could have easily set them up. So it should be a simple matter to determine if the man reported the trafficking James and Hannah were attempting to engage in to the responsible authorities (he does, after all, make a claim about working with the district attorneys).

Unless James and Hannah file their next report from a San Diego jail, however, I'll assume the cops were never called.

So ACORN: Where's the Best Place to Smuggle Kids Across the Border for Sex?

Sorry. I'm simply speechless now.

Daily Show Slams ACORN and the MSM

Sure, you've probably seen it elsewhere already, but it's worth watching again.

Somewhere in Washington, DC, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama are sweating bullets that their allies are falling apart.

ACORN in Denial and Retreat

First, they tried to claim it was an isolated incident, and threatened lawsuits.

Then they tried to claim it was the actions of a few bad apples, which they subsequently terminated.

After New York, they gave up the pretense of firing their employees for enabling fraud in the interests of trafficking in minors for the purpose of prostitution. By that point, with the state AG starting an investigation, such a fig leaf was obviously no longer of use.

And ACORN San Bernardino still employs the worker who not only was willing to help commit fraud for the lust of pedophiles, but who was concerned over the safety and love life of our young madam-to-be.

Seemingly radioactive, all ACORN can do now is hunker down and hope that they can survive being exposed. They've stopped taking new clients, perhaps fearful of what more hidden cameras might find. As Ace noted, they're playing by the crisis management handbook.

The real question is whether or not activist filmmaker James O'Keefe and journalism student Hannah Giles have enough damaging undercover videos capturing ACORN-trained employees encouraging and supporting fraud and slavery to do the criminal enterprise in.

Human Events says a new video is supposed to drop tonight, and says their are more to follow.

For their part, ACORN continues to threaten on one hand as they apologize on the other. They are ashamed of getting caught, but hardly remorseful.

They are thugs and they are monsters, exploiting those they claim to represent, and they must be shut down.

"Well, You Know, Kids Sometimes Don't Always Like What Their Parents Want Them to Do."

I know we have several months remaining, but I'd still like to nominate this as the Parental Understatement of the Year.

Christian Pebbles of Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District said the teen made it clear why she started the blaze, which damaged church pews.

"She hates the church and she worships the devil," Pebbles said. "That's the reason why."

Pebbles said the teen was taken into custody on suspicion of felony arson.

"Well, you know, kids sometimes don't always like what their parents want them to do," said Annette Hilt, the suspect's mother. "Everybody knows that."

Yeah, remember that time when you were a kid and rebelled by setting fire to a church building with dozens of people inside?

Me neither.

FBI: Be On Alert For TATP Terror Plot

Unstable men with unstable chemicals. This isn't good:

Counter-terrorism officials on Tuesday urged local police to be on the lookout for evidence of homemade bombs, a day after the FBI raided four apartments in Queens looking for bomb-making components.

Police departments are being urged to be on the lookout for specific indicators of terrorist activity.

"I believe it's prudent to put that information out. We welcome it," said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly.

The directive speaks of the possible use of hydrogen peroxide in bombs, and to look for people who may have burns on the face, hands and arms.

Hydrogen peroxide is a key ingredient in the home-brew explosive triacetone triperoxide, or TATP. It is a very unstable and made with relatively common chemicals, and has been used in numerous plots around the world.

The good news?

Many terrorists have blown themselves up attempting to create the mixture, and often times incorrectly manufactured TATP refuses to detonate.

Hopefully the exposure of the plot will send the plotters on the run and foil their plans. That said, if you happen to be near someone carrying a pungent, leaking backpack, take the only sensible precaution, and push him in front of a bus.

ACORN: A Party to Sexual Slavery?

To put it mildly, Democratic blog No Quarter has developed something of a credibility problem over the years for past threats and outbursts that didn't pan out, but one of their writers does get credit for making a very interesting observation this evening in regards to their own party amid the snowballing scandal of ACORN offices showing themselves quite willing to commit fraud and accept the trafficking and prostitution of foreign minors.

Linda Anselmi writes:

The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was passed by the Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865 and it declares that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States."

We claim we abolished slavery in the US, but we did not. We only passed a law and made it illegal. We said as a society we find the acts and practices of slavery so reprehensible and inherently harmful to our society, that hence forth we will not tolerate them.

But slavery still exist in America today. We just don’t see it. It is no longer this easily identified black vs white, North vs South, leg chains and bull whips image that we can point at in disgust and outrage. It has gone underground and become embedded in our society.

Anselmi further cites the Department of Justice, noting:

...Under federal law, the technical term for modern-day slavery or coerced labor is "severe forms of trafficking in persons." ...

defined as 1) sex trafficking in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion or in which the person induced to perform such an act is under 18;

or 2) the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of subjecting that person to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery.

...Trafficking covers the use of minors for commercial sexual activity even if there is no force, fraud, or coercion.

Put simply, ACORN officials in Baltimore, Washington, New York, San Bernardino, and as-yet-unknown other cities have willingly accepted and apparently condoned sexual slavery. There is no indication that any of the officials that have gone on camera have attempted to contact law enforcement. In fact, they did not seem overtly disturbed at all.

Perhaps there is a perfectly acceptable excuse for shockingly consistent behavior among ACORN employees in various locations. Perhaps it has something to do with the way they were trained, or they were told to act this way by legal counsel (someone allegedly filled both those roles as a "community organizer").

Or perhaps it is exactly what it looks like: a group so steeped in corruption and criminality that even the human trafficking and prostitution of minors doesn't horrify them at all.

ACORN.Org Unplugged

http://www.acorn.org/index.php?id=7878 should go to the local home page of the ACORN San Bernardino, but as a simple click will attest, it doesn't work.

ACORN.org is experiencing "Error 503 Service Unavailable," indicating that the server is overwhelmed.

Must be all those search requests for underage hookers with husband-killing madams.

ACORN Worker in San Bernardino Video Admits to Homicide on Camera

From tax fraud in support of child prostitution to murder, Big Government's James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles are exposing ACORN as a criminal enterprise more and more every day.

Tell me, Madame Pelosi: Why should taxpayers still fund this organized criminal conspiracy?

Update: Good News for ACORN. The woman in the video, Tresa Kaelke, did not apparently murder any of her past husbands (though one has a restraining order against her).

She's just another ACORN employee in a long line that condones human trafficking for juvenile prostitution.

What a relief.

BECK: "The Whole Thing is Coming Undone. Brace Yourselves."

BigGovernment.com, the Breitbart site that has revealed videotapes showing ACORN officials in three metropolitan areas attempting help commit fraud in support of child prostitution, is going to release another, even more damning video this afternoon, according to Andrea Shea King:

Glenn Beck just wrapped up what had to be the most compelling radio I've heard... and lately, most of his shows have been pretty compelling.

Whew, where to start? Well, how about this: you should make it a point to do two things today: watch his TV show at 5 ET this afternoon on Fox News, and hit the Big Government website an hour earlier at 4 ET.

Here's what you'll find - the latest video sting of ACORN. This one in a San Bernardino ACORN office where the employee can't talk fast enough about the connections they have to politicians (naming them by name) and even an admission of murder.

As I haven't seen the video yet I cannot say with certainly that what Andrea reports is accurate, but if it is, then Democrats in the House of Representatives are going to be hard-pressed to continue supporting a group that appears to be a Democratic Party-subsidized criminal conspiracy.

I don't normally watch Beck, but the DVR is going to be set for this one. This could get... interesting.

Update: Confirmed.

Update: Hannah Giles: The Science behind the ACORN Sting.

A Tale of Two Economies

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke says the worst recession since the 1930s is probably over.

Bernanke says the economy is probably growing now, but it won't be sufficient to prevent the unemployment rate, now at a 26-year high of 9.7 percent, from rising.

In responding to questions at the Brookings Institution, Bernanke says "the recession is very likely over at this point."

While I would certainly like to hope that Bernanke is right, his comments don't square with reports that credit is shrinking and that President is on the verge of inciting a trade war with our biggest creditor.

The Fed Chairman's comments seem disconnected from our financial reality. I don't think he's being honest with us.

My bigger question is why.

Escalation of Force

I saw via Glenn last night that law enforcement in San Diego. The link to the original article is apparently overloaded at the moment, but Danger Room also covered the story:

"The [Long Range Acoustic Device] was stationed by San Diego County Sheriff deputies at a recent town hall forum hosted by Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) in Spring Valley and at a subsequent town hall with Congressman Darrell Issa (R-San Diego)," East Country Magazine reported after reviewing official records. It was also parked at a local sand-building competition along the beach.

Though the Long Range Acoustic Device can be used for hailing, it has also been employed as a weapon, most prominently in 2005 by a cruise ship, which used it to ward off attacking pirates. In fact, the device, which was developed after the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, is designed precisely for that sort of mission. It can permanently damage hearing, depending on how it's used.

Deploying the Long Range Acoustic Device to local events has provided ammunition to critics of Police Sheriff Bill Gore, who was the agent-in-charge of the FBI's infamous 1992 Ruby Ridge siege. In response to questions posed by East Country Magazine about use of the technology, Gore said that officers had the appropriate training and that the device's use as a deterrent is just a "precaution in case you need it."

I understand why law enforcement desires less-than-lethal solutions, and I also understand why they prefer to deploy these tools at a distance instead of at close range. The obvious hope—the "holy grail"—is a system that can help law enforcement control a situation and deescalate a threat without putting officers or their opposition at risk of suffering permanent injury or death. A system that creates separation is presumably thought to reduce the inherent risk of short-range confrontations.

But is an LRAD an acceptable tool for use for non-violent domestic crowd control?

While I can see an obvious need for systems that make keep potentially heavily-armed crowds at a distance in foreign theaters of combat, I'm at a loss to explain why domestic law enforcement agencies feel the need to deploy acoustic weapons that have the potential to create permanent physical damage in situations where no reasonable person expects the level of violence that could justify such a system.

The deployment of an LRAD in the situation as described seems to be an unwarranted escalation of force from law enforcement, one that poses a significant simultaneous threat of permanent injury to large numbers of people. It has the potential to be used as a communications tool, or a weapon as indiscriminate as a claymore mine.

My gut reaction s that full-power military grade LRADs do not belong in the hands of civilian law enforcement at benign public gatherings any more than fully-automatic M4s do, and that having such systems in place will only encourage agitators to bring weaponry sufficient to counter these systems, putting the population at large at a much great risk than there would have been if LRADs was never introduced to the situation at all.

Snow Troll

I woke up this morning to find the following comment spammed across the comment sections of a dozen posts, regardless of subject matter:

Yes it is all the black people's fault. Let us kill all the black people. We should not have a black president.

The spammer hails from the IP of 99.233.2.165, which seems to trace to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I cannot imagine why a Canadian is worried about having Barack Obama as his President, unless...

What if Barack has a Canadian birth certificate?

Nuts in the Fire

After three separate ACORN offices enthusiastically attempted to help a pimp and prostitute get a government loan for a brothel to be filled with underage girls from Central America, the Senate has voted 983-7 to strip the Obama-trained organization of all federal funding.

The Pedophile-Pimping Seven are:

• Dick Durbin (D-IL)
• Roland Burris (D-IL)
• Robert Casey (D-PA)
• Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
• Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
• Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

President Obama, who spent time training ACORN operatives as a community organizer in Chicago and who recently displayed rapt interest in a new vintage of South American origin, could not immediately be reached for comment.

ACORN: Rotten to the Core

Auctioning
Childrens
Orifices
Right
Now

Busted for the third time helping a "pimp" and "prostitute" illegally acquire housing loans for a brothel to traffic in under-age illegal aliens. ACORN is a corrupt and possibly criminal enterprise, and all federal and state associations and funding to the group should immediately be severed.

The Department of Justice must launch an investigation immediately, and if they fail to do so, Eric Holder needs to step down as Attorney General.

Blumethal: Know Who Is Responsible for Satanism and Mass Shootings? Jesus.

Max Blumethal has a long track record as a media activist, and has established a clear method of operation:

• Draw conclusion
• Create/modify facts to support that conclusion

The actual subject doesn't matter.

He sees lynchings in lyrics, manufactures non-existent weapons at gun shows, and sees racism in every nook and cranny, and has more moral flexibility than any human with a fully-developed sense of right and wrong should have.

So it should hardly be surprising that Blumenthal took the relatively rare case of a mentally-unstable man going on a violent rampage, and turned that into an indictment against an entire faith in The Nightmare of Christianity.

You may remember Matthew Murray's story, even if you long ago forgot his name. Murray had been thrown out of a missionary program three years before in Arvada, CO, and then became obsessed with it, sending it hate mail in the weeks before he finally went on a rampage, killing two people and wounding two others.

The next day, armed with several weapons and carrying a book by satanist Alister Crowley, Murray launched an assault on New Life Church in Colorado Springs with the intention of committing a mass homicide. Church member Jeanne Assam was also a volunteer security guard, and drew her concealed pistol and engaged Murray in the church foyer, wounding him. Murray then took his own life.

Assam's stand against Murray's rampage made her something of a hero, and Murrya was written of for what he was; a deeply disturbed and violent young man with hate in his heart and confused sexuality.

But murderous spree of a possibly gay satanist wasn't what gay atheist agitator Max Blumethal wanted to see, so he decided to create something more conducive to the world he likes to imagine exists, where home schools are cults and home-schooled children are mindless and dangerous drones slaved to an aggressive and oppressive religion.

There are tens of millions of active, church-going Christians in the United States and millions more that profess Christian values even if they do not regularly attend services. There are also an estimated more than one million children home-schooled.

But Blumenthal looks past all of that to focus on one young man and try to insist that this exceedingly rare and isolated incident should be used to indict Christianity as a whole.

That The Nation would run an article based upon such obviously flawed logic simply shows that their far left-wing radicalized contempt for people of faith far outstrips their ability to apply logic or rational editorial thought.

If Blumethal had attempted to make the equally absurd argument that Murray's alleged sexual preferences were at the root of his murderous psychology, and that other homosexuals or bisexuals were therefore ticking time bombs, the editors of The Nation would have unceremoniously thrown him out on his ass.

But logic and reason matter not a whit to Max Blumenthal, nor his editors at The Nation. What matters is that they had a remotely plausible excuse to smear those with which they disagree, and that's all the justification they ever need.

No Surprise Here: Kanye West Hates White People

I could care less about the various award shows and stopped watching music video channels way back when they stopped playing music videos, but chronic tool Kanye West's latest stunt goes too far. West snatched the microphone out of Taylor Swift's hand as she started to give her acceptance speech for Best Female video at the VMAs, and told her that she didn't deserve the award, that Beyoncé did.

I don't know the videos in question, and frankly, it doesn't matter. What we do know is that West is a first rate jerk with a long record of deviant and outrageous behavior, who acted up again when a white girl won an award he thought a black artist deserved.

I'd say it was likely a racist incident, but then, with West, that's to be expected.

Message Delivered

Estimates of the crowd size at today's TEA party protest in Washington, DC vary widely, but most estimates place it north of half a million up to potentially two million or more.

By any estimate, that is an impressive figure, but what is more impressive than the numbers is the kind of person who turned out. It wasn't the professionally-aggrieved protester class, but men, women, and children of every age who had never protested anything in their lives. It was Democrats and Republicans and independents and people who had never before cared about political matters at all. It was a cross-section of America, who knew in their hearts that America cannot much longer survive if it continues down the path that our self-serving politicians are leading us.

Barack Obama was sworn in seven months ago in front of roughly a million Americans who hope he represented the future of this republic. Today, perhaps double that number angrily let the world know that they no longer have faith in him or his allies.

It was a powerful message.

It remains to be seen if he retains enough humility to listen.

"I Put a Bomb in Your Building, Bitch"

Someone find out where all of Obama's domestic terrorist friends are; organizers for tomorrow's 9/12 protest in Washington, DC were forced out of their building due to a bomb threat.

I'm sure that DHS and the Southern Poverty Law Center will be along any minute now to assure us the perpetrator was a right wing extremist:

A FreedomWorks staffer told ABC News that the organization's offices at 601 Pennsylvania Avenue were evacuated on Friday afternoon by DC Metro Police because of a bomb scare.

DC Metro police has confirmed to ABC News' Jason Ryan that the DC Metro police had, indeed, evacuated the organization's offices after being told by the organization that it had received a bomb threat.

The threat came when a man called the FreedomWorks main line and told the organization's female receptionist: "I put a bomb in your building, bitch."

The FreedomWorks staffer who spoke with ABC News said that the organization has received multiple threats but that for some reason, the DC Metro police thought that this one was credible enough to evacuate the building.

Hope. Change. Multiple bomb threats.

Man, I'm loving this Presidency so far.

Sadly Necessary

A re-linking of Popular Mechanics' Debunking the 9/11 Myths: Special Report.

Because sadly, Van Jones isn't the only left-wing idiot that signed that infamous petition, and most of his peers are still convinced the Bush Administration let 9/11 happen.

Anti-Abortion "Sign Man" Brutally Shot Down

Jim Pouillon, known among his neighbors as the "sign man" for his signs opposing the practice of abortion, was gunned down this morning in Owosso MI as students at the high school across the street were unloading from buses at 7:20 a.m.

Owosso resident Gary Shepherd, who lives near the high school, said he was in bed sleeping when he heard "four shots and tires squeeling."

He and his wife went outside to see what was happening.

"I just saw several people that I knew who were medical officials working on (Pouillon) and giving him CPR," Shepherd said. "It's a pretty sad day when somebody shoots someone over a political agenda that he had. He was always known as the 'sign man.' ... This country is based on freedom of speech."

A second man police was believed killed by the same suspect around 6:00 a.m. at nearby Fouss Gravel. The suspect in both shootings is believed to be the same man, and is in police custody.

A press conference has been scheduled by local law enforcement to discuss the shootings at 11:30 CT.

h/t Don Surber, who is also covering.

Update: The Blog Prof has a post up where a commenter suggests that the protester's murder was a crime of opportunity committed by someone strongly opposed to his views who was already on the hook for the earleir murder that morning. Gravel company owner Mike Fuoss was gunned down first, and the shooter, knowing he was going to be captured for the Fuoss murder, decided to "kill that ass," —abortion protester Poullion—who was apparently known to stand outside the high school in the mornings.

I'm not sure if that makes Poullion's murder an assassination, a crime of opportunity, or a bit of both.

Still Raw, Still Visceral

Eight years later, all I can clearly remember is the sinking feeling in my gut and the unnaturally blue skies we had in the Hudson Valley that morning.

This says so much more than my words can.

Via Instapundit, on Facebook.

Long Guns I'd Like to See

Every once in a while I get the opportunity to test some exquisite firearms.

The last to pass through my hands was Ruger's first entry into the AR market, the piston-driven SR-556, which I was able to outfit with an Insight Technologies MRDS optic. I just returned it last week after having it for three months, and it was tough to send back. I'll post my range report in the weeks to come.

Having a newly-released gun in your hands sometimes lead you to try to get into the mind of the designer to try to understand why they decided on the features they brought to market, and in my case, that leads me to wonder about other firearms that I'd be interested in seeing developed from existing firearms, or entirely new designs.

There are two that I've been kicking around in the back of my mind in recent weeks, one being a 5.56 Garand, and the other is a user-friendly dedicated home-defense shotgun.

The 5.56 Garand

The Garand needs no introduction. It was America's premier service rifle in World War II through the Korean War, a semi-automatic firing eight .30-'06 rounds loaded from an en bloc clip.

There are millions of Garands in the hands of American shooters, with the vast majority of them chambered in the traditional .30-'06, but the .308 Winchester increasing being adopted in new rifles. Modification of Garands into other calibers is nothing new, with custom Garands chambered in .338 Magnum and 458 Magnum being available to those who can afford them, but I'd like to see development taken the other way.

I'd like to see a Garand design modernized and scaled to the 5.56 cartridge. Imagine a Garand at 90-percent the size of the original, with a forward-mounted short section of picatinny rail for "scout"-type scopes, with a detachable rear sight (and perhaps a folding rear backup iron site). Even scaled to 90-percent, I wold think an 8-10 round en bloc clip is quite possible.

I imagine it as a truck gun, equally suited for utility work, plinking, predator, and defense or light to medium game hunting.

The Home Defense Shotgun

While the 5.56 is a nice " want to have," the next firearm on my wish list is for a real and vital market that in my experience, is under-served.

When I was selling firearms, the most heart-wrenching work I took on was trying to help someone who had recently been the victim of a crime. A young couple just starting out was living in rough part of town, awoke one night to a someone high on drugs battering open their front door. A single older lady found signs that someone had tried to force open her apartment window. A single woman in her 20s, visibly shaken, scared that her obsessive ex-boyfriend was going to break in one night and hurt her for leaving him.

None of these customers was the caricature of a gun owner that liberals love to set up as strawmen, and none really wanted to purchase a gun. What they really wanted was the sense of security that only firearms can provide in a potentially dangerous situation.

For each of these customers, I wish I had a better option than what I had on the shelves. What I wish I had to sell was a very easy to operate, compact and nearly foolproof shotgun, one that was light and compact enough for women and smaller-statured men, without punishing recoil, and with at least 4-5 rounds in the magazine. I still don't see a perfect solution on the market (and a one-size fits all solution will never exist), but something built off the basic concepts behind the Kel-Tec RFB would certainly be a step in the right direction.

The RFB is a very compact bullpup-style .308 rifle that ejects spent shells forward, meaning it can be used ambidextrously without any modifications. A similar weapon chambered in 20-gauge with simple iron sights and larger game loads (#4-#6) could certainly be the in-home, last defense gun that I would have recommended if we had it on the shelf.

I don't know that there is a significant market for either firearm, but it would certainly be interesting to see how such concepts might work out.

Worshipping Protocol Over Truth

The extent of which our leaders have utterly warped morals was glaringly revealed last night when SC Rep. Joe Wilson shouted out "You Lie!" after President Obama claimed that the health-care proposals he supports would not cover illegal aliens.

The simple fact of the matter is that Wilson was correct; there is nothing in the Democratic bill that would exclude coverage to those in this country illegally, and the President knows that to be true.

And yet it is a far greater sin in the eyes of the Congress that Wilson breached protocol than it was the President willfully and knowingly lied to the American people. Even Wilson himself, throughly indoctrinated, was immediately contrite.

But why should he be?

Do the trapping of office and protocol demand that obvious lies that are spouted in Congressional addresses go uncontested? Apparently so.

And we're a poorer nation for it.

29 Times Later: The Definition of Insanity is...

I must have read someone who miscounted earlier; the speech that President Obama is planning to give in just a few moments is his 29th attempt to sell the American people on the idea that the steaming pile of crap healthcare he's pimping is actually a bouquet of roses.

Based upon the excerpts already released, his delivery could run the gamut of emotions from angry and exasperated to shrill and preachy.

Don't you bitter clingers get it?

Yeah, I think I might just live blog this. Almost showtime...

8:03--Someone turn down the volume of Hillary's suit.

8:09--I can't recall ever seeing so many false smiles in one place. Well, since the last time Congress was on TV, at least.

8:11--The Won walks in. The camera flashes to Michelle, and quickly cuts away from the sour expression on her face. Wonder what her issue was?

8:14--Michelle again as Barack takes the podium. She's irritated at someone or something... doubt we'll ever find out what.

8:16--Pelosi officially presents Obama. And it begins...

8:17--Proudly claims we have "pulled this economy back from the brink." I hope he's not counting his chickens.

8:19--to the meat, and first of his pre-released comments about health care reform.

8:20--the scolding begins. Not doing too bad in his tone just yet. Think he can keep it under wraps for long?

8:22--Did Pelosi have more work done to her face? It looks like a too-tight mask.

8:23--They cut again, briefly, to the First Lady. Scowling. Again.

8:26--"Build on what works, and fix what doesn't." Who can disagree with that? Apparently, those writing the bills...

8:27--He's not doing bad with the tone of his delivery, but the message itself sounds week.

8:28--Spoke too soon. Got preachy, but settled back down after the applause line.

8:30--Going into his promises, starting to get a bit of attitude... not bad, but you can see the frustration.

8:32--Making all sorts of promises that make private insurance tough, if not untenable when competing against the government. He's not offering anything substantially different that what the American people have already decided that they don't want.

8:37--Spend 8 hours in a project management class today. Now I'm watching what some claim is a very smart man attempting to lie to the American people, claiming that a series of goals is a plan. There is no plan. I repeat. HE ISN"T OFFERING A PLAN. HE'S JUST A OFFERING A WISHLIST.

8:38--Someone shouted out "LIE!" when he claimed his plan wouldn't insure illegal aliens. I didn't know the GAO was being represented here tonight...

8:41--tuned out for a minute. sorry.

8:43--health care is somehow like college... McCain is looking at Obama like he's an idiot.

8:44--Claims he won't sign a plan that adds "one dime" to our deficits, now or in the future. Ballsy, to lie that boldly. And yes, Obots, the GAO agrees that this is a blatant lie.

8:48--Won't touch (or reform) Medicare... and wants an additional system? Why? Are Social Security and Medicare not inefficient or bankrupting what is left of the economy fast enough?

8:54--Can't focus...claims "my door is always open, though he hasn't asked a Republican to come through it to work on Health care since April.

8:56--cue violins... here comes Ted Kennedy's body being propped up on top of Paul Wellstone.

8:58--still pimping the bloated corpse.

8:59--still pimping the bloated corpse.

9:00--tries to compare Social Security and Medicare to his plan. Utterly ignores that both of those plans had popular public support, and this plan is in the negative and losing ground every day.

9:01--Claims more government is the answer to our problems. And he was serious.

9:03. Finally, mercifully, over.

29 times, and still sounding the same flat note. President Obama is still lying and claiming he has a plan. A laundry list of unsupportable wishes is not a plan.
What a waste of time.

What a waste of an Administration.

We Elected the Wrong Leader

Tonight, Barack Obama will take to the airwaves to make what I've read is his 28th public attempt to sell a fundamentally-flawed, fiscally irresponsible and morally bankrupt health-care plan to the American people.

It is probable that despite his much-discussed charisma, the President's plan is likely to lose support tomorrow.

It will lose support because former Alaska governor and Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin wrote a cogent, intelligent and concise op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that utterly eviscerates Democratic plans to control medical insurance and ration health-care.

Further, Palin provides a clear path towards real health-care reform.

Instead of poll-driven "solutions," let's talk about real health-care reform: market-oriented, patient-centered, and result-driven. As the Cato Institute's Michael Cannon and others have argued, such policies include giving all individuals the same tax benefits received by those who get coverage through their employers; providing Medicare recipients with vouchers that allow them to purchase their own coverage; reforming tort laws to potentially save billions each year in wasteful spending; and changing costly state regulations to allow people to buy insurance across state lines. Rather than another top-down government plan, let's give Americans control over their own health care.

Democrats have never seriously considered such ideas, instead rushing through their own controversial proposals. After all, they don't need Republicans to sign on: Democrats control the House, the Senate and the presidency. But if passed, the Democrats' proposals will significantly alter a large sector of our economy. They will not improve our health care. They will not save us money. And, despite what the president says, they will not "provide more stability and security to every American."

Palin has written one Facebook entry and (now an editorial) staking an articulate direction in which to move on providing health-care reform. Our President, plummeting in the polls, will attempt yet another droning, self-referential speech to convince us that a bad idea is a good idea... because he says so.

We have before us a leader with vision.

And then we have the President.

Tomorrow Belongs to ZZZzzz...

Like most parents, I was fine with my daughter listening to President Obama's speech today. Several of my fellow bloggers got reactions from their children as well, and they are worth reading as well.

When I asked my fifth-grader how it was, she told me simply, "It was good."

"It was good," is typically her tween shorthand for "I don't know because I wasn't really paying attention/was listening.doing/daydreaming about something else," and so having my suspicions about how much she actually got out of it, I asked her about various parts of the speech.

Beyond the introduction and some of the more interesting non-Obama anecdotes, she had mostly tuned it out. It was far too long, and I'm sure before he was halfway through his self-referential bloviating that her eyes were more glazed than a Krispy Kreme doughnut.

If today's ramble was written to inspire a generation of schoolchildren, it failed miserably. But then, I suspect that this wasn't a speech targeted to inspire children.

The speech was pabulum, a mundane, forgettable effort targeted at parents. It aspired to merely generate some small measure of goodwill to get the President's plummeting approval ratings out of a flat spin before he pitches Obamacare for the 28th time tomorrow night.

Our children could not be indoctrinated by Obama's effort today, but some may have ended up catatonic. But at least nobody died... which is more that can be said for the effects of the health disaster he'll attempt to resurrect (again) tomorrow night.

After a While, You Have To Accept That These Are The President's Beliefs On Display

When asked for an opinion about government-run health care, guess which Obama mentor answered this way?

I think the racists in the right wing are upset because poor people are about to be helped.

If you guessed Rev. Jeremiah Wright, you would be correct.

I know that people on the left are tired of having Wright, terrorist Bill Ayers, and other Obama mentors and allies thrown back in their faces repeatedly, but the influence these and like-minded figures had over the President in their long associations with him are very germane to how the President views the world. Wright's comments—and the twisted hatred and paranoia that underlie them—are the same sort of conspiratorial rants we've come to associate with another Obama ally that just stepped down from the Administration this weekend, Van Jones.

The simple fact of the matter is that all of these people were close to the President because they share the same core beliefs. While every person is an individual and they do differ on specific points, when a belief is endemic to a group and permeates it as a majority view, it is folly to think that that view is not commonly held and accepted by members of that group.

Barack Obama has a track record more than two decades long of walking arm-in-arm with radicals and racists that propagate these theories of conspiratorial oppression.

Perhaps Glenn Beck was right. Maybe President Obama is a racist. It certainly seems more likely every time one of his allies opens his mouth to spit forth another theory of conspiratorial oppression.

Last Second Surprise

My daughter's school just robo-called to announce that they will carry President Obama's speech tomorrow, and that parents who did not want their children to see the speech should send a note to the teacher, so that the student can be separated from the rest of his class. Nothing like a little grade-school ostracism, is there?

I've read the speech and there is absolutely nothing offensive in it (other than Obama's inability to deliver a speech without referencing himself repeatedly), but my larger question is this: if the school's adminstration feel that there is sufficient controversy to necessitate robo-calling, then why did they chose to carry the speech in the first place?

Resignation and Reality

If you follow the political blogosphere, you likely know about the various controversial statements and associations that eventually led to Obama's "green czar" Van Jones resigning.

Jones signed his name to a petition saying that he thought the Bush Administration let 9/11 happen; earlier documentation links him to other publicized "truther" activities as early as January of 2002. Jones is also a supporter of convicted Black Panther cop killer Mumia Abu Jamal, and buys into the theory that the murderer was framed. Jones also maintains that a shadowy entity of white Americans polluters is shipping poison into "people of color communities."

None of these allegations are debatable. None have been taken out of context or "spun." They accurately reflect what Van Jones himself said, felt, or subscribed to as a man and an activist. Because none of these beliefs are defensible to rational people, Jones had little choice but to resign. The fact that the did so in the dead of night on a holiday weekend only proves how indefensible his positions were.

But the most fascinating aspect of this entire affair is the left's response to Jones being called to the carpet for his beliefs.

Peer into the links on Memeorandum for yesterday or this afternoon and you will see a near-uniform claim that Jones was somehow unfairly smeared.

They try to focus attention elsewhere, on various irrelevant claims. They claim that Jones was targeted because he went after Glenn Beck of Fox News (utterly untrue; Beck had targeted Jones well in advance of Jones' organization going after Beck).

They state there must be collusion between Fox News and the center-right blogosphere in trying to bring Jones down... and of course, there is no evidence at all to suggest such an alliance exists. Perhaps they're projecting.

And of course, some claim that Jones was targeted because he made inflammatory statements, such as calling Republicans "a--holes," a belief that many Democrats share (and conservatives, truth be told, often reciprocate the sentiment).

None of those claims are relevant, and they are replete with denial.

How Van Jones feels about Republicans isn't relevant to his job, nor was his use of coarse language to describe those feelings. It did not play a role in his resignation. Fox News, while certainly influential, doesn't have nearly enough power to bring down a presidential appointee. Nor does Glenn Beck, or Matt Drudge, or the conservative blogosphere.

One thing and one thing only brought down Van Jones, and the political left cannot bring itself to face the truth.

Van Jones was laid low by the truthful, unembellished and accurate accounting of the many radical beliefs he shares with both President Obama and the far left progressive movement from which he came.

Cop-killer Mumia has long been a living martyr for the radical left, just as mass murderer Che Guevara has long been a celebrated dead hero in liberal enclaves.

Beliefs that the Bush Administration let the 9/11 terror attacks occur are closely tied to the mainstream progressive belief that Bush used the attacks to fabricate an "illegal war for oil" in Iraq. The theory that Bush falsified reasons to invade Iraq for some sort of profit is so commonly accepted on the far left as to be beyond debate.

Jones' theory that white polluters were attempting to poison ethic communities fits hand-in-glove with long-running left wing conspiracy theories that crack cocaine was created by government agencies to destroy/oppress minority neighborhoods.

Whether they call themselves liberals or progressives, radical leftists cannot admit the obvious fact that Van Jones was forced to resign from Obama's White House for being too open in his support of common left-wing beliefs. These tenuous theories are accepted and repeated in radical leftist populations as fact, but like the "theft" of the 2000 election, the significance of the so-called Downing Street Memos and delusions of the previous President plotting a military coup, they are theories that non-radicalized Americans easily recognized as the ranting of fevered minds.

Van Jones is just the first casualty of the collision between objective reality and an insular community-based reality woven from a tapestry of delusions, conspiracy theories, and impotent rage. Very likely, he will not be the last radical to fall, and that probability scares the crap out of them.

Update Via Hot Air Headlines, Dan Calabrese concurs:

The real reason Jones had to go was not his ideas per se. He thinks the way President Obama thinks. Jones had to go because his presence in the administration revealed so much about how the left operates – and these are supposed to be closely guarded family secrets.

Van Hit By Bus

One radical gone.

How many more to go?

Truther. Liar. Speed Bump.

Admitted communist community organizer and Obama "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones has tried to spin his way out of signing his name on document that claims the Bush Administration played a role in allowing thousands of Americans to die during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Jones tries to claim he didn't know what he was signing. This would mark him as either an idiot, or a liar... or more than likely both.

Unfortunately for Jones and the White House, Gateway Pundit has evidence pointing to Jones being part of the Truther movement from its inception, with documentation showing his involvement in January of 2002, just months after the attack. Being on the ground floor of this conspiracy theorizing, this marks Jones as something of a "Truther birther."

Jones has been proven to be both a liar and an idiot.

That someone with Jones' radical background could be seen as a fit for this President's objectives should be seen as a wake-up call for all Americans. The fact that Jones is clearly a Truther from the beginning of the movement shows that the White House is incompetent when it comes to vetting personnel.

Then again, many of his appoints are tax cheats and ideologues, so I guess that was proven long ago.

Jones, however, has too much baggage, and is too far &qout;out there" to be kept on Obama's team. He'll likely be thrown under the proverbial bus this weekend to join the other radicals, racists, and domestic terrorists that share and shape our neophyte President's radical past.

Thump-thump.

Goodbye, Van.

Find Young Cannibal

The Ventured County Star has posted a picture of a MoveOn.org agitator in his late 40s or 50s that crossed the street yesterday afternoon to confront a group of anti-Obamacare protesters, and caused a peaceful protest to devolve into violence.

The man on the far right of the photo wearing black shorts and tee shirt got in the face of one of the smaller seniors in attendence, Bill Rice, and began yelling at him. The confrontation escalated, with Rice throwing two punches in what other witnesses described as self-defense. The second punch ended up in the man's mouth, at which point the instigator of the conflict bit Mr. Rice's finger off.

The Ventura County Sheriff's Department is looking for the MoveOn.Org protester, who will likely be charged with felony mayhem.

If you can identify the suspect, please call the Sheriff's Department investigations bureau at (805)494-8201, and bring this elder-abusing thug to justice.

Reality-Challenged Politics Daily Inverts Political Cannibalism Story

It really takes quite a pair to completely reverse the events and actors in an incident in order to promote the story you'd prefer, but Politics Daily seems up to the task, fabricating a story about a Move.org protester who had his finger bitten off at a California protest.

(Click the image to see the full-size version in another window.)

It is particularly dishonest (or grossly incompetent) to completely reverse the actual sequence of events and identities of those involved in a story that has garnered considerable attention, but to do so after linking to those news sources and blogs that reported what actually occurred is particularly brazen.

Men Behaving Badly Yes We Cannibal

From biting comments between MoveOn.org organized pro-government health-care protesters and free-market advocates, to straight-out biting:

A 65-year-old man had his finger bitten off Wednesday evening at a health care rally in Thousand Oaks, according to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department.

Sheriff's investigators were called to Hillcrest and Lynn Road at 7:26 p.m.

About 100 protesters sponsored by MoveOn.org were having a rally supporting health care reform. A group of anti-health care reform protesters formed across the street.

A witness from the scene says a man was walking through the anti-reform group to get to the pro-reform side when he got into an altercation with the 65-year-old, who opposes health care reform.

If that sounds clear as mud to you, you are not alone.

In English, a man trying to get to the MoveOn.Org rally got into an altercation with a free market supporter, and during the confrontation, the MoveOn.Org bit the man's pinky finger off.

Lefty blogger Karoli at Drums and Whistles was there as part of the MoveOn.Org crowd and claims that the 65-year-old free market supporter/biting victim was the aggressor and instigated the violence by intimidating one MoveOn.Org attendee before punching the guy who bit his finger off.

Law enforcement is investigating, but it seems possible that charges may be warranted on both sides.

Repeat After Me: There Are No Death Panels in Socialized Heathcare...

There are no DeathEaters in the Government. There are no DeathEaters in the Government. There are no DeathEaters in the Government...

Like Hell:

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, a group of experts who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged as close to death.

Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.

But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn.

As a result the scheme is causing a "national crisis" in patient care, the letter states. It has been signed palliative care experts including Professor Peter Millard, Emeritus Professor of Geriatrics, University of London, Dr Peter Hargreaves, a consultant in Palliative Medicine at St Luke's cancer centre in Guildford, and four others.

"Forecasting death is an inexact science," they say. Patients are being diagnosed as being close to death "without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong.

"As a result a national wave of discontent is building up, as family and friends witness the denial of fluids and food to patients."

The warning comes just a week after a report by the Patients Association estimated that up to one million patients had received poor or cruel care on the NHS.

Give Sarah Palin her due: "death panels," whether an actual board of ghouls or a less-direct but no less final demand for a reduction in cost on a beancounter's ledger, are a very real part of socialized health-care. Resources are finite; governments are wasteful. Patients that are already diagnosed as terminal (rightly or wrongly) are... expendable.

What's not to love?

Is Teaching Kids to Quit a Better Idea?

I see a lot of my peers are getting angry at the thought of President Obama addressing schoolchildren in a nationwide address at 12:00 PM (Eastern) on September 8.

Some people are worried that the address is attempt at indoctrination, and considering that is precisely how Obama blew through millions of dollars in causing the Chicago Annenberg Challege to go belly-up, it probably isn't a completely unreasonable fear.

That said, look at his track record.

Barack Obama is incompetent at indoctrinating pretty much anyone, as his free-falling poll numbers suggest. He accomplished nothing for his effort in Chicago other than to provide funding for former domestic terrorists, and so I doubt another effort on September 8 would be anything other than yet another dismal failure on his already thin résumé.

Some people I admire say that we should keep our kids home that day, to send him a message. I think that's a bad idea.

First, as I already noted, Obama has a dismal record of being able to make converts out of kids, and can generally only affect children through those soft-skulled souls that have willingly chucked aside reason in order to maintain their community-based reality. While the children of liberals may be enthralled, the children of more rational moderates and independents and conservatives will recognize an infomercial when they see one. They will afford the President no more time or respect that they would any other huckster, and will tune him out within moments.

Further, forbidding your children from hearing his empty platitudes gives the impression that there is something in his speech that constitutes a threat to what they are being taught at home. It makes him forbidden fruit, instead of merely a fruitcake. It also teaches them that they should quit or skulk away when they encounter a bad idea of a problem, instead of taking it head-on. I want my kids to face life by taking on challenges, not shirking them.

Finally, it may behoove you to call your school and ask if they even intend to carry the President's address. My daughter's elementary school has no plans to participate, feeling that children are better served by learning.

People seem to forget that while Obama can try to get our children to be a captive audience, even reliably left-leaning educators know that our children should spend their time in more worthwhile pursuits.

State Dept. Extended Blackwater's Air Arm in Iraq

The simple fact of the matter is that they're the best organization for the job.

State Department officials said Wednesday they have extended a contract with a subsidiary of the security firm once known as Blackwater USA despite the fact the North Carolina company is not allowed to work in the country.

Three officials said the contract with Presidential Airways to provide air support for U.S. diplomats was temporarily extended because the firm chosen to replace it is not yet ready to take over. The contract was due to expire on Sept. 3 and be taken over a day later by Dyncorp International.

Presidential is the air wing of Xe Services, of Moyock, N.C., which used to be known as Blackwater. The Iraqi government refused to grant the company an operating license earlier this year amid continued outrage over a 2007 lethal firefight involving some of its employees in Baghdad.

One official said that providing helicopter air support for American diplomats in Iraq - transporting them and overflying their convoys - is a "complex challenge" and that "a slower transition to DynCorp taking over the task order is in the best interest of the government."

"We unilaterally extended the current task order ... to ensure the continued security and safety of U.S. personnel in Iraq," the official said.

Numerous allegations have been made against Blackwater (now Xe) and founder Eric Prince, ranging from excessive use of force, to smuggling weapons to attempting a crusade, with allegation more hysteric than the last.

The simple fact of the matter, however, is that Xe is an entire range of companies, and does far more than just provide security contractors. Presidential performs a role that other contractors have not been able to perform to the same standards, freeing up military aviators to support the mission instead of ferrying VIPs.

I can only imagine that this news is going to cause a knee-jerk response among the less-informed, but the simple fact of the matter is that the decision is a pragmatic one, to ensure that our diplomats are in the best of care.

On Being a Domestic Terrorist

I learned this morning that I am a domestic terrorist... or at least our President's allies consider me one.

I am under no illusions that the White House approved this specific language or had a direct hand in the wording of this appeal, but I do know that they have surrounded themselves with allies who feel exactly like the person who wrote about the majority of Americans opposed to government-run healthcare:

All 50 States are coordinating in this – as we fight back against our own Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists who are subverting the American Democratic Process, whipped to a frenzy by their Fox Propaganda Network ceaselessly re-seizing power for their treacherous leaders.

Americans with homemade posters protesting government intrusion into their very lives are "right wing domestic terrorists." Exercising our rights to peaceably assemble and raise our voices against the government thrusting themselves unwanted into our most private decisions is "subverting the American Democratic Process." And apparently we all watch Fox News (for the propaganda, of course) so we can re-seize power for our "treacherous leaders."

This message—which has since been taken down now that attention has been drawn to it—was not on a MySpace page or some amateur ranter's Blogspot site. It was posted on http://www.barackobama.com/.

It was on the President's web site, placed there by an ally, and summarily taken down without apology. The heated invective was aimed squarely at the majority of Americans that do not want this government involved with healthcare. And why should we trust them wit our lives, when they can't even run a simple rebate program correctly...or without pillaging the FAA of air traffic controllers to do the job?

We have every reason not to trust the government to be any more efficient with health-care than they have been with, well, anything else. We have no reason to expect that it would be more competently funded or solvent for the long term than Social Security or Medicare, and every reason to suspect that it will cause harm to the quality of health-care we receive.

Barack Obama and his allies swept into power on a promise of providing a new chapter in the relationship between Americans and their government. Now they tell me I'm a terrorist.

With his choice of allies and the messages they deliver and how they feel about us, he's certainly delivered on his promise.