Everyone’s nightmare

posted by Sibyl West

The Iran Problem with Hanson & Baer: Chapter 1 of 5

Is the nuclear Iran threat real? Victor Davis Hanson and Robert Baer say YES.

Stimulate your brain cells over at National Review Online’s Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson.

Important Notice for America’s Future

Posted by Sibyl West (hat tip Jim)

The draft Treaty of Copenhagen, to be signed in mid-December 2009, would create an unelected world government with direct power over all financial and trading markets, and direct power to intervene over the heads of elected governments in the economic and environmental affairs of all nations that sign the Treaty. The word “government” actually appears in the Treaty as the first of three purposes of a huge, new, supranational bureaucratic entity that will have the power to require wealthier nations to redistribute up to 2% of their annual gross domestic product to third-world countries in imagined reparation for imaginary “climate debt” – and all this just as final scientific proof that CO2 has a tiny and harmless warming effect is available.

Please read and sign the Instrument of Repudiation, and urge at least five of your friends to sign it too, and urge each of them to find five more to sign it.

The Instrument will be tabled during the Copenhagen Conference this December. So sign now, and save America’s freedom, democracy, and prosperity.

 

Doing Their Part?

Frank James (wbur.org) reports:

In an effort to show unity as they approach global climate change talks in Copenhagen in December, the European Union reached agreement Friday on how much would be needed to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gases enough to meet international goals.

The EU member nations meeting in Brussels agreed that $148 billion would be required annually by 2020 to help developing countries.

In a press release, the EU said:

Heads of state and government meeting in Brussels on 29 and 30 October clinched a deal on climate financing. “The EU now has a very strong negotiating position when the countdown to Copenhagen has started,” declared Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, current President of the European Council. The EU continues to take the lead in this process…

Before 2020 however, the EU agreed that $7.4 billion to $10.4 billion would be needed annually to fund the developing nations efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions. EU members would contribute their “fair share to this goal on a voluntary basis,” the EU agreed. The EU conditioned this on the U.S. and other major nations doing their part.

[For other major nations to do their part would mean a review of China’s environmental policies. Good luck with that. -Editor]

#1 Threat to Mideast Peace

(hat tip Swami Bob)

For the scoop on Iran visit Michael Ledeen’s Faster, please!

And check out his new book, Accomplice to Evil: Iran and the War Against the West

Congress Funds Study on How To Avoid Constituents, Stay in Office

 

 

Posted October 28th, 2009 at 5.13pm in Ongoing Priorities.

 

This Friday, the tax payer funded Congressional Management Foundation (CMF) is hosting a briefing for Members of Congress and their staff on their new study: Online Town Hall Meetings: Exploring Democracy in the 21st Century. The CMF study consisted of 21 townhall meetings where Members of Congress and CMF provided a moderator: “spoke via voice over IP, and constituents asked questions and made comments by typing them. Only off-topic, redundant, unintelligible, or offensive questions were screened, and only questions asked by people who had not yet asked a question were prioritized.”

 

CMF does not say what qualifies as offensive, but if this summer is any indication that definition would include anything that the Congressman did not want to talk about. In other words, this report urges Congressmen not to actually interact with their constituents, but to avoid them altogether by holding safe townhalls they can completely control. And what did CMF find where the results of these Potemkin townhalls?

 

The online town halls increased constituents’ approval of the Member. Every Member involved experienced an increase in approval by the constituents who participated. The average net approval rating (approve minus disapprove) jumped from +29 before the session to +47 after. There were also similar increases in trust and perceptions of personal qualities – such as whether they were compassionate, hardworking, accessible, etc. – of the Member.

 

The lesson: avoid your constituents’ inconvenient questions and your approval ratings will rise. And this is a taxpayer funded study. Here is the grant from the National Science Foundation.

 

Congress is actually using your tax dollars to pay social scientists to find ways they can avoid actually talking to their constituents while improving their chances of reelection.

 

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/10/28/congress-funds-study-on-how-to-avoid-constituents-and-stay-in-office/

 

And here are two more equally important reads…

 

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/10/29/conservative_base_roundtable/

 

Soros: China Will Lead New World Order (warns Americans against …

 

The peaceful solution???

 

Tangible Tea Party Tactics  

Note from a concerned Congresswoman

 

Friends,

Today, Speaker Pelosi released the latest version of the Democrat’s health care reform bill. Coming in at almost 2,000 pages, H.R. 3962 is nearly twice the length of and more expensive than H.R. 3200, the bill we considered in the Energy and Commerce Committee this past July. For nearly three full months, the Speaker and her partisans have been crafting this bill behind closed doors. I find the product they produced today as dubious as the one I voted against in July.

A colleague of mine noted that the original legislation that created Medicare and Medicare, which themselves cost nearly $800 billion annually, was less than 300 pages. Just imagine what a 2,000 page bill will create!

We expect a final vote on the bill sometime next week, though we could easily see several false starts as Speaker Pelosi twists arms to get the votes she needs.

The new bill uses the word “shall” 3,425 times. The word “shall” in a bill becomes a government order when that bill becomes law. Among those 3,425 provisions are many that concerned me in H.R. 3200. One of those “shall” provisions deals with vending machines. Under this bill, the federal government will dictate how snacks are arranged in vending machines – imagine that! Talk about the long arm of the federal government!

Since the bill’s sponsors will be claiming that “if you like your coverage you can keep it” more than ever, I want to be clear about how this bill does just the opposite. The bill sets up an “exchange” of health care options that private individuals can buy into. Private individuals who purchase a plan that the “exchange” doesn’t deem acceptable will have to pay a penalty equal to 2.5% of their income. Employers who offer plans that aren’t cleared by the exchange will pay a penalty equal to 8% of their payroll. The estimates we have seen indicate millions of Americans will lose their jobs and millions will lose their private health insurance.

The government, specifically a Health Choices Commissioner, will decide the minimum standards for those “exchange” approved plans. Under this bill, if the Health Choices Commissioner decides that the plan you have now doesn’t meet minimum standards, your provider will have to modify it. Once modified, your employer may decide to stop offering that plan, and you’ll have to go buy your insurance in the exchange.

The Commissioner will also decide what the public option plan will look like. This one person will be in a position then, to control what all health care plans – both public and private – will look like and how much they will cost – thereby ensuring that the government plan is the best plan on the market. If that isn’t government takeover of health care, I don’t know what is.

Another serious concern I have is how this bill will affect Tennessee. Governor Bredesen has already pointed out that the ideas enshrined in this bill would turn into the “mother of all unfunded mandates.” He has expressed serious concern about how these plans would increase a particular state’s Medicaid expenses. His concerns were based off Senate language that proposed expanding Medicaid to 133% of the Federal Poverty Level. He estimated that expansion would cost Tennessee $735 million over five years.

It appears that the Governor’s fears will be compounded by the Pelosi bill. The bill unveiled today expands Medicaid to individuals with incomes under 150% of the Federal Poverty Level – that’s more than 10 million Americans. The federal government will only pick up the tab for that expansion through 2014. Starting in 2015, Tennessee will have to pick up 10% of that cost. If the Speaker gets her way, she’ll bust Tennessee’s budget and Tennesseans will be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars.

I continue to work my way through this 2,000 page bill. From what I have seen so far, this is not a bill I can support. That does not mean that I find the status quo an acceptable option either. As you can see on my website, my colleagues and I have offered a series of bills that will address the needed reforms we must make to health care without imposing an unworkable and onerous “public option” bureaucracy in Washington.

I will certainly keep you posted as this debate progresses.

My Best,

Marsha Blackburn, Congresswoman from Tennessee

(hat tip Susan)

The Transfer of Power

posted by Sibyl West

From Hillary to Michelle, which explains why Fearless Leader has not yet – after more than five excruciating weeks – been able to make a decision on sending reinforcements to the AfPak region.

(hat tip Rush 24/7 at RushLimbaugh.com. Become a member…while you still can.)

Modern Heretic

posted by Sibyl West

Pelosicare doesn’t add ONE PENNY to the deficit? Right – it will add TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS. Technically she is correct. And the joke is on the taxpayers.

He always says outloud what I’m thinking in my head. Does Maharushie channel America?

(hat tip Richard)

End the Fed Rally

Announcing a new Meetup for The Austin Liberty Coalition!

What: END THE FED Rally – San Antonio

When: November 22, 2009 3:00 PM

Where:
Federal Reserve Building
126 E Nueva St
San Antonio, TX 78204

This will be our 1 year anniversary of our first End The Fed protest. We really want to make this a big event. We will be joining forces with members from the SATP, WAC, C4L, etc. Last year we had about 150 people we want to at least double that and make sure the media is out there to boot. So dust off your old signs, make some new ones, and let’s END THE FED!

check out these links for more info:

Federal Reserve educational archive

Footage from last year’s protest

Learn more here and here.

Health Care Bill Now Online

For Immediate Release

We The People Are The 9-12 Association, Inc

 

 

A copy of the H.R. 3962 – Affordable Health Care for America Act was just posted on the web for people to read.  It is 1,990 pages.

 

http://docs.house.gov/rules/health/111_ahcaa.pdf

 

Please check it out and let your voices be heard!  Do Not Forget to contact your STATE Reps also and tell them “Not In Texas”!

Thelma Taormina, Founder

House Rules Committee Posts Copy of 1,990 Page Health Care Bill

Make Mine Freedom

This Cold War-era cartoon uses humor to tout the dangers of Communism and the benefits of capitalism.

Fun and Facts About America, John Sutherland Productions. Creative Commons license: Public Domain.  For more great vintage animation check out www.animationstation.info.

(hat tip Garold)