Arizona immigration law; Seth Meyers; late-night comedians; Goerge Orwell - 1984; two minutes hate.

For all of its weaknesses, the MSM/DNC still has the ability to flog a talking point to death, especially on an issue as crucial to the MSM/DNC as flooding our borders with illegal aliens.

In the "debate" over Arizona's border protection law, the MSM/DNC has given up any pretext at rational argument and simply vowed to repeat the "fascist/Nazi/Hitler" talking point until Americans are intimidated into giving up any attempt to protect the border. Hitler would have loved to have such a fifth column operating in the countries he invaded.

One example comes from SNL's Seth Meyers, who attacked the Arizona law by asking, "I know there are some people in Arizona worried that Obama is acting like Hitler, but can we all agree that there's nothing more Nazi than saying, 'Show me your papers?'"

Really? Nothing more Nazi than saying "show me your papers?"

What papers?

• Do you mean proof of a social security number, without which Americans cannot work or obtain credit?
• Or do you mean tax returns, for which your failure to file results in prosecution?
• Or do you mean all of the documentation that will soon be necessary for law-abiding Americans to comply with Obamacare, including proof of participation in (and payment into) Obama's socialized insurance pool?
• Or do you mean the new national ID proposed by Democrats that would contain biometric information on every law-abiding worker in the United States.
• Or do you mean all of the "papers" contained in the FBI files that the Clinton White House improperly obtained and used against political opponents in the 1990's?
• Or do you mean the various registrations and permits that the government has used for decades to "control" guns and (only law-abiding) gun owners?

Of course Seth Meyers and the other late night "comedians" do not mean those papers. He means only the papers that would protect our borders and the lives and pockets of law abiding Americans.

The welfare state has turned "show me your papers" into standard policy ever since the New Deal. The welfare state propoganda machine known as "late night comedians" have voiced no objection. Indeed, for the past year and half, they have even forgotten that a man named "Hitler" ever existed. It has become "hate speech" even to draw comparisons between Obama's statist policies and the failed totalitarian regimes of the past.

But now that one state demands basic "papers" to protect its citizens against foreigners who would overwhelm the very welfare systems created by the left, the late night propagandists suddenly rediscover Hitler.

The very notion of comedians becoming the number one weapon in the hands of a statist regime is unsettling. We are being told that if we oppose Obama's policies of increased government control and increased statism, we will be singled out for character assassination.

Late night comedians and their coastal audiences are the equivalent of the "two minutes hate" from George Orwell's 1984. Crowds are gathered. Enemies are identified. Instead of anger, the audience is encouraged to laugh at this evening's enemy of the state, no matter how uninspired the joke. Slowly, but surely, the viewers at home learn to keep silent for fear of being laughed at themselves.

As the ratings for the evening news decline, and as sales and advertising revenue plummet for all major newspapers, the welfare state has one weapon left - the late night comedian and his obedient audience.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

The same day that Mayor Newsom [of San Francisco] took his bold stand [against Arizona], I saw a phalanx of police officers doing the full Robocop – black body armor, helmets and visors – as they marched down the street. Naturally I assumed they were Arizona State Troopers performing a routine traffic stop. In fact, they were the police department of Quincy, Ill, facing down a group of genial Tea Party grandmas in sun hats and American-flag T-shirts.

Mark Steyn 4-30-2010

Obama attacks the Supreme Court; Mark Steyn; Hugh Hewitt; Justice Kennedy; Robert Mugabe

After last week's "State of the Union" speech (during which President B. Hussein Obama attacked the Supreme Court), Hugh Hewitt and Mark Steyn discussed Obama's attack in the context of today's politics and future decisions of the Court:

BHO: With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations to spend without limit in our elections.

HH: Now Mark Steyn, that is not accurate. The Austin decision is 20 years old, it had never been directly challenged. This was explained in the Chief Justice’s concurrence. But putting that aside, he attacked the Court which is non-partisan, and is supposed to represent the rule of law. It’s really unprecedented.

MS: Yes, and it’s very interesting. I would be interested to know what Nancy Pelosi thinks of that, because Nancy Pelosi’s comment, best known comment on Supreme Court decisions is that oh well, they’re sort of like God. In other words, once the Court has ruled, that’s it. It’s chiseled in tablets of stone, brought down from the mountain, and delivered in this case by Justice Kennedy. I mean, what I find so odd about this is that Justice Kennedy is the new Sandra Day O’Connor on that Court. He’s the swinger. He’s the swing vote. And I think, I don’t think it’s strictly in naked political interest, it’s sensible for Obama to actually publically sneer at Justice Kennedy when he’s sitting a few feet away from him. It just seems to me a very odd thing to do, and yet another example of how isolated and detached from the facts on the ground this Oval Office is.

Steyn's point is that Obama made a political mistake by attacking a swing voter on the Supreme Court, which attack will adversely affect future Court decisions.

What Steyn does not mention is that Obama (and the left) does not care so much about a few decisions of the Court. He cares about destroying the institution and its ability to check and balance the other branches of government. By attacking the Court publicly in this fashion, he has helped diminish the Court in the eyes of the 40% of the poll respondents that will follow Obama no matter how badly he performs in office.

Obama has promised to transform America. He means it. He has taken many steps designed to bankrupt this country. He has taken over industries. These are transformative steps. Destroying what is left of the rule of law is another such step. Diminishing the Supreme Court is necessary to the destruction of the rule of law.

Obama and the leftist utopians envision a world where the President can give any order without worrying about a pesky court getting in the way. The left can not get to that promised land without constant attacks on the Court. Obama's 40% must be mobilized against the very institutions that stand in the way of the progressive, populist dictatorship. (Whether Obama is the ultimate beneficiary of this dictatorship is irrelevant to the "progressive" masses. There will be a dictator someday - the name of the puppet that dances on the end of the strings is irrelevant.)

Did Robert Mugabe worry about the attitude of the swing voters on the Zimbabwean Supreme Court as he was seizing farms and turning the currency into confetti? Obama and his allies have a broader agenda than bean counting votes on the Supreme Court.

Red Decade; Eugene Lyons; thug persecution of anti-Obama dissent

We have had more than a year to observe the religion that is Obama-worship and the Obama cult of personality. But worse than the unearned praise and unearned rewards are the personal attacks on those who refuse to worship Obama. Right now we are witnessing coordinated attacks upon "Fox News," the Chamber of Commerce, "big insurance," Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, etc.

This type of attack is nothing new. In the 1930's, American supporters of the Soviet Union would not tolerate criticism of their faith. Anyone who pointed out the brutality of the Soviet system was attacked [I am referring to attacks by American fifth columnists for the Soviet Union - not persecution by the Soviet government in Russia]:

People shut their eyes and their ears and their minds to anything which might reflect on their new religion. Supposed "intellectuals" were sure they were demolishing detailed reports on Russian realities by insulting the authors. I shall have more to say about the arts of character assassination as practiced against infidels. The process served essentially as a psychological trick for ignoring their views with a clear conscience.

One day an apologetic stranger came to see me. He told me a heart-rending tale. It seems that his wife, a high-strung and warm-natured woman, had devoted years of ardent effort to the communist movement. Several weeks before, she had heard me speak at a forum meeting at the Community Church of New York. What I had to report on Russia had shaken her faith. She came home that night and suffered a nervous breakdown. Now her husband came to plead that I go to the hospital and assure the woman that I had lied, that everything in Russia was lovely . . . .

I became familiar with high-pitched, hysterical hecklers; with insulting letters. As I came out of the auditorium after talking to a few hundred schoolteachers gathered at the Ethical Culture School on a Sunday afternoon, a wild-eyed, dark-visaged woman shouted obscenities at me and tried to scratch out my eyes. She was one of the "activists," I was told, of the communist local of the New York Teachers Union.

And my own experience was mild compared with those of dozens of others who dared to tell aloud what they knew of the bogus Utopia. Eye-scratching and name-calling and sneering were in the temper of the Red Decade. The methods seemed even less edifying when disguised as "literary criticism" in the New Republic or as "economic analysis" in the Nation, or as slapstick humor in a column by the late Heywood Broun.

Red Decade, p. 194

Only when we see the thugs through the eyes of history can we see them for what they really are.

Sgt. James Crowley; scandal; DUI; police brutality; drugs; alcoholism; bribery

I am trying another experiment. Last year, I attracted google traffic from idiots looking for dirt on Sarah Palin. This past April, I attracted google traffic from idiots looking for dirt on Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California whose crown was removed because her views on gay marriage agree with those of the majority of Americans.

Both posts drew tremendous amounts of traffic (especially the post on Carrie Prejean).

Now, I want to see how many people are trying to find dirt on Sgt. Crowley so as to somehow justify the race card comments of Barack Obama this week.

Quote of the day - Dick Morris - Obama health care bill

The Obama plan effectively repeals Medicare, putting a Federal Health Board between the elderly and their doctors. This board will instruct public and private insurance carriers on what procedures are to be approved, at what cost and for what patients.

The bulk of this rationing will fall on the elderly. We’ll have to revisit the idea that the elderly have, in the words of former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm, “a duty to die.”

The more word gets out about what the bill contemplates, the firmer opposition will grow. That’s why Obama wants to push it through now, while he retains some popularity.

And if the bill passes? The howls of protest from the elderly the first time they’re denied care will be something to behold. It will become evident that the health-care resources being denied to the elderly are going instead to immigrants — legal and not. The anger will be enormous and instant.


Dick Morris 7-21-09

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn - paying for socialism

There aren't enough of us to pay for all this – for government health care, government banks, government mortgages, government automobiles, government horses, government burros, for cap-and-trade, for stimulating phony-baloney nonjobs like Deputy Executive Associated Assistant Stimulus Resources Manager on the Stimulus Co-ordination & Compliance Commission.

Mark Steyn - July 17, 2009

Socialism and union control; On the Waterfront

Here is a three (3) minute clip from the movie, "On the Waterfront." This clip is 55 years old, but it shows our future.

In this clip, the union boss hands out small chips to the dockworkers. Having a chip allows the worker to work for that day and collect a paycheck. Those workers who have an "in" with the union leadership get a chip. The others either receive nothing or must fight each other for the remaining chips while the union bosses watch and laugh.

Either give kickbacks to the union bosses or don't work. A classic example of "pay to play."

The priest observes the situation with the sister of a dockworker who was recently murdered by the union/mob so he could not testify about union/mob activity on the docks. At one point, she intervenes to help her father obtain a chip.



This is how health care, automobile jobs and other perks of socialism will soon be handed out. These conditions will prevail in any industry that is dominated by government/unions. It is already beginning to happen. Note the Chrysler dealers that were terminated solely because they had not donated money to Obama.

Imagine being seriously ill and having to fight this way for the few health resources that might remain in our soon-to-be socialized medical system.
--------------------------------
Michelle Malkin posts a more specific video about the future of socialized health care.

Quote of the day - Dana Milbank - planted questioners at "press" conference

The use of planted questioners is a no-no at presidential news conferences, because it sends a message to the world -- Iran included -- that the American press isn't as free as advertised. But yesterday wasn't so much a news conference as it was a taping of a new daytime drama, "The Obama Show."

Dana Milbank - Washington Post - 6-24-09

Quote of the day - Bloomberg News - Kevin Hassett

I’ve finally figured out the Obama economic strategy. President Barack Obama and his team have been having so much fun wielding dictatorial power while rescuing “failed” firms, that they have developed a scheme to gain the same power over every business. The plan is to enact policies that are so anticompetitive that every firm needs a bailout.

Once that happens, their new pay czar Kenneth Feinberg can set the wage for everybody and Rahm Emanuel can stack the boards of all of our companies with his political cronies.

Kevin Hassett - Bloomberg News - June 8, 2009

Quote of the day - Dick Morris - Obama War on Prosperity

President Lyndon Johnson’s administration was known for his War on Poverty. President Obama’s will become notable for his War on Prosperity.

Dick Morris - 3/3/09

Tim Geithner tax cheat stamp

h/t Where's the Change

Check out "Where's the Change" for an idea on how to register our displeasure at Tim Geithner's hypocrisy.

Porkulus bill; What was the hurry?

There is a reason that the administration was in such a hurry to pass the 787 billion dollar porkulus bill (aside from the fact that Democrats don't know the difference between a million, a billion and a trillion), even though no congressman had time to read the actual bill. I think Thomas Sowell got it right this week:

The great sense of urgency of the Obama administration to get legislation to authorize slow-moving spending projects may seem inconsistent. But the urgency is real, even if the reasons given are not. The worst case scenario for the administration would be to have the economy begin to recover on its own before this massive spending bill is passed, reducing their chances of creating the kind of politically directed economy they want.

Note that retail sales and jobless numbers this week showed slight improvement and began to present a more ambiguous picture of the economy, despite MSM/DNC spin regarding those numbers.

In the world of the MSM/DNC, the economy is all about the numbers. If the numbers are good, then the economy is good, even if the U.S. destroys its own industrial base in order to placate union demands or environmentalist religious doctrine [e.g. 1970's through 2008]. At some point, the numbers will turn around so that the economy will once again appear strong. If that turnaround occurs before Obama can impose one party rule and censor his critics, then he will be unable to accomplish these goals. If the numbers turn around after Obama signs Porkulus legislation, then Obama will take credit for something that was happening anyway.
--------------------------------------------------

update - Sunday - 2-15-09

My theory here has been supported by Obama's weekend vacation, after which he will sign the bill on Tuesday:

The push to get the bill through before the holiday weekend was so frantic, members of Congress didn't have a chance to read all 1,071 pages of the document before they could vote.

NY Post 2-15-09

If the bill is so urgently needed, Obama would have signed the bill on Friday night and started printing money right away to pay for it. But Obama has what he wanted. What he wanted was not "stimulus" for the economy, but the tools to impose tyranny. He can take his time now.

Quote of the day - Kevin O'Brien - Cleveland Plain Dealer

If all goes as scheduled -- and barring an exquisitely timed meteor strike on Washington, D.C., it will -- on a holiday formerly dedicated exclusively to the president who saved the union in hopes of "a new birth of freedom," the president we have today will sign freedom's death warrant.

............

The deeper problem is two-fold: This bill will do almost nothing to ease the current financial crisis and, far worse than that, it tightens the federal government's fist on the future of education, energy research, industrial policy and especially health care. And all without so much consideration as a congressional committee hearing.

Kevin O'Brien - Cleveland Plain Dealer - 2-12-09

William Buckley; 1968; centralized government

William Buckley speaks in 1968 about the plans of the central government for every detail of our lives.



As it turns out, he was underestimating the reach of big government. The above video was part of a larger segment broadcast on ABC on election eve, 1968.

Jim Jones 30th anniversary; Jonestown; American Thinker; Orwell's Children; Bruce Walker

Bruce Walker commemorates the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown cult suicides in American Thinker:

Jonestown ended in mass suicide, but the real horror was that ordinary people, Americans like you and I, had become so decoupled from reality and morality that they could be led to surrender everything, even their lives, intoxicated only with the venom of modern Leftism. These were Orwell's Children.

We are drifting into the sort of horrific future he described. Too many of us for comfort or solace have become just like the denizens of Jonestown: Orwell's children -- a new generation of creature enraged into constant militancy against eternal enemies, oblivious to the notion of a Blessed Creator, melded into the consciousness of the party hive, divorced from history, hypnotized by images, inoculated against reason, stripped of family, and existing only to serve the cause.

Jim Jones was not simply "another religious preacher" as the left has (and will) undoubtedly repeat. He was a leftist who used leftist tactics and methods:

Jim Jones, the communist leader of Jonestown, Guyana, had become "Big Brother." Soviet and Communist Chinese propaganda films and condemnations of capitalist and imperialist America blared continually to the subjects of this island of Leftist Hell.

In other words, Jonestown was like a DNC convention or editorial board meeting at the New York Times.

Read all of Walker's article.

Also, read my post from 2007, in which I detail some of the connections between Jones and the San Francisco Democrat machine. Jones was as responsible as any other single individual for the Democrat takeover of San Francisco city politics. The politicians of the San Francisco Democrat party (including some famous names) rewarded him well.

America's future under Obama; retirement funds; Argentina; Cristina Kirchner

The following item grabbed my attention at Asia Times:

Argentina is now effectively broke, and the government of Cristina Kirchner has expropriated the country's private pension plans to obtain cash.

Further research revealed this. Does anyone really think that Obama won't try to do the same thing? Even if he does not do this, he will lay the groundwork for a successor who will find it that much easier to seize our IRA's and 401(k)'s.

Cristina Kirchner

Predictions for the Obama administration; Weather Underground; Larry Grathwohl; reeducation camps;

I think it is best to take Obama's friends at their word:




The Grathwohl film, among other things, supports the idea that leftists view hostile foreign governments as allies.

I do not believe that re-education camps will exist in the United States anytime soon. But it is apparent that a substantial number of Obama's influential supporters advocate such a program. It is also apparent that Obama does not hold this advocacy against his supporters.

We already knew that the hardcore Obama supporters have no qualms about destroying our system of free elections.

Given the hardcore militancy of those on the left, the damage they have done thus far and the programs they support, why would America be immune from the chaos and collapse that destroyed ancient Greece? What makes us so different from the civilizations of the past?

While it is impossible to predict the exact form that the tyranny will take or how the remaining free institutions will collapse, the general pattern is starting to emerge. Instead of violent overthrow as envisioned by Obama's friends in the Underground, economic upheaval resulting from decades of government interference, taxation and regulation will frighten unsuspecting voters into installing a terrorist sympathizer under the mantle of "change."

There are many historical models for the collapse of civilization. Greece, Egypt, Rome and the Byzantine Empire. All of these examples resulted from oppressive government, licentiousness, high taxes, some form of socialism, etc. Some of these examples involved class warfare and conquest by foreigners. Other examples include hyperinflation, including Weimar Germany and post-revolutionary France. Trying to predict the exact path that we will take gets easier with each new disaster that we encounter, but the actual course of events will most likely involve some combination of the disasters that destroyed the aforesaid civilizations.

What to expect from an Obama regime; ancient Greece; Will Durant

Numerous commentators have speculated on the effect of a Democrat landslide in this year's elections. They have identified many programs that will be created or expanded with Democrats in the White House and enjoying a filibuster proof majority in Congress. Commentators usually conclude these remarks by stating that this scenario will be bad "from a conservative standpoint."

But these commentators, even conservative commentators, miss the real point. The leftist agenda is not simply bad "for conservatives." We are not watching some sporting event where only Republicans and Democrats have a stake in the outcome. The consequences of a Democrat takeover would affect everyone - and for a very long time.

The Democrats have pledged to restrict free speech and expand existing programs that would accelerate the bankruptcy of the United States, all the while robbing us of the means to defend ourselves, protect our borders and choose our own medical providers. The Democrats have attempted to investigate, prosecute and censor innocent political opponents. The Democrats have shown no reluctance to commit violence and voter fraud in this election and the elections of 2004 - thus foreshadowing the ultimate end to free elections should these thugs ever obtain real power over the executive branch of the federal government. The Democrats have used class warfare as a political weapon - pitting rich versus poor - for decades.

All of the elements exist for the type of near civil war that marked the collapse of the ancient Greek civilization in the 3rd and 2nd centuries B.C.:

Some governments nationalized certain industries . . . . but the governments paid as low wages as the private employer, and squeezed all possible profit from the labor of their slaves . . . the class war became bitterer than before. Every city, young or old, echoed with the hatred of class for class, with uprisings, massacres, suppressions, banishments, and the destruction of property and life. When one faction won it exiled the other and confiscated its goods; when the exiles returned to power they revenged themselves in kind, and slaughtered their enemies; imagine the stability of an economic system subject to such decerebrations and disturbances. Some ancient Greek cities were so devastated by class strife that industry and men fled from them, grass grew in the streets, cattle came there to graze.

Durant, Life of Greece, p. 564 [1939 edition]

See these quotations for a comparison with 4th century B.C. Greece and 1st century B.C. Rome.

If Obama and the Democrats seize as much power as the rest of us fear, this election may be the last national election that carries even a pretext of legitimacy. Those who would rig and steal the election will not allow free elections once they seize power. Acorn and its allies cannot continue to submit thousands of frauduent registrations every year. Cheating on such a massive scale is difficult to coordinate and organize. They don't plan to cheat forever. They plan to win once in a big way, after which there will be no need to cheat. In the future, two scenarios are possible - (1) local election officials will have learned to be submissive to the Acorn/Obama controlled federal government and remain silent while election totals are rigged or (2) certain elections will simply not take place.

I do not believe all of this will happen immediately upon the inauguration of Obama. Cattle will not be grazing in the streets of Manhattan in Janaury 2009. Obama will allow a certain "healing" period where he speaks of unity and the MSM/DNC presents "feel good" images of children, puppies and general calm. We will be allowed to get comfortable. But soon, our taxes will go up, our doctors will become government bureaucrats, class warfare will resume as it has never existed before and the country will change forever.

Mark Steyn; How Barney Frank's gay lover caused the Fannie Mae collapse; Herb Moses

Mark Steyn comments on another aspect of the financial crisis for which taxpayers must now suffer:

Last week in this space, I made a jocular reference to a global economy "so
vulnerable that only the stalwart action of Barney Frank stands between it and
ten years of soup kitchens". I tittered too soon. It turns out the
entire planetary meltdown is due to Congressman Frank's sex life:

. . . . . . . .
Moses "helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home
improvement lending programs."
Critics say such programs led to the mortgage
meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its
financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad
mortgages throughout the private financial sector...
. . . . . . . . .

while the old Moses parted the red sea, the new Moses drowned us in one.

See also this.

So it appears that taxpayers will now pay $700,000,000,000 for Barney Frank's failed gay relationship. The Moses/Frank partnership will turn out to be the most expensive gay marriage in history.

- In the 1970's (and before), gay bathhouses were responsible for the spread of aids throughout the western world (although the left undoubtedly blames George W. Bush (and, by extension, John McCain (and Sarah Palin's downs syndrome baby))).

- In the 1990's, Fannie Mae became a financial gay bathhouse, spreading the financial equivalent of aids throughout the economy of the western world.

Fannie Mae


[See the analysis of how even this was made possible only by the Federal Reserve policy of credit expansion during the credit boom of the 1990's.]