Quote:

~ John Adams, letter to Mercy Warren, 1776

Despite Tea Party 'Screaming in GOP Ears,' Boehner Signals Compromise on Budget Cuts

The Blaze | by Emily Esfahani Smith | March 31, 2011

Just as the tea partiers were protesting in Washington DC today, demanding that the GOP not compromise on spending cuts, House Speaker John Boehner implied that he was open to such compromise.

Despite fresh pressure from tea party conservatives, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday that Republicans "can't impose our will" on the White House and Senate Democrats on legislation to cut tens of billions of dollars in federal spending.

At a news conference, Boehner, R-Ohio, denied Democratic suggestions that he has already agreed to jettison nearly half of the $61 billion in cuts passed by the House a month ago.

   Read More & Video . . . 

'Cut it or Shut it!': Tea Party Says No to Budget Compromise at DC Rally Today

The Blaze | by Emily Esfahani Smith | March 31, 2011

Jenny Beth Martin looked out on the rain-dampened crowd along Constitution Avenue and pointed over her shoulder at the Capitol.

"They heard us, but they're not listening!" Martin, a tea party leader, told members of the movement that helped put Republicans in charge of the House last November.

The crowd booed.

Four months after the historic election, the populist force that helped drive Republicans to power is finding that its clout on Capitol Hill isn't automatic.

   Read More . . . 

* * * Announcement * * *

CUT SPENDING NOW RALLY  

Cut Spending Now Event at the Capitol

We cannot continue to spend our way out of debt. We need to take the first step toward financial stability and Cut Spending Now. Hardworking taxpayers like you already feel the burden of "spend now, pay later" politics. It's time that spend-crazed politicians in Washington feel the pressure too.

Join us Wednesday, April 6^th in Washington, DC to tell the Budget Committee to Cut Spending Now. They need to hear from you as they crunch numbers and grapple with this year's budget. You've had to tighten your family budget in this struggling economy. They should have to tighten the national budget too.

Confirmed Speakers:

Michele Bachmann

*food will be provided

Will be joined by AFP President Tim Phillips at noon.

The cost is only $10 per person.

Bus Stop
 King of Prussia, PA
 
7:45am pick up at the Wachovia Bank, Route 202 & Mall Blvd.  Park in the large parking Lot next to the Wachovia Bank.

Click HERE or on the "Cut Spending Now" graphic above to get a seat!!

Not a lot of seats, so do it NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

HILLSDALE COLLEGE 

An Online Town Hall
Saturday, April 16, 2011

"Economic Liberty and the Constitution"

GO HERE TO REGISTER -  

"Economic Liberty and the Constitution" is an online town hall brought to you by Hillsdale College's Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship. The town hall will be aired as a live webcast on April 16, 2011. Archived recordings of the event will be available on April 18, 2011, also accessible after registering.

The organization sponsoring Nonie Darwish's appearance is the student organization, Temple University Purpose.

On Tuesday, April 12th (7:00 PM), we are having a very important, urgent event on the-oppressive and lagging human rights-women, homosexuals, minorities, non-Islamic religions-under Shari'a Law both abroad and here in United States.  We recognize that part of what adds to the conflict is that in Islamic countries there is no separation mosque and state.  Of course, therein lays the problem because to question any Government entity is to question Allah and that is a crime punishable in various ways, depending on who you are.  This ultimately suppresses freedom of speech and encourages and perpetuates a torturous cycle of suppression of thought and expression.

There will be a Q&A at the end. 

The event is meant to raise awareness of the horrific human crimes/conditions of persons both abroad and in America under Shari'a Law.

You can also find our Facebook event page here where you can confirm and through which you can invite as many persons as you'd like: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=198614740160991

 If you aren't familiar with our organization Temple University Purpose, we are an aggressive, inclusive Political/Advocacy student organization that does not subscribe to political correctness.  We are neither politically nor religiously affiliated.  However, one shouldn't mistake us as a neutral organization because that implies that one stands for nothing - we, however, stand for a lot.  And, in this particular case, we stand for the human rights of all. 

We pride ourselves in introducing conversations and creating a dialogue and debates on issues that otherwise would be omitted from the Temple University arena of thought and debate.


You can find our entire mission on our Facebook page here: tinyurl.com/tupurpose

Go here for a map of the campus to make it easier for those driving  (and walking) to find parking and their way to the building: http://www.temple.edu/maps/documents/TUMain_map.pdf

March 31, 2011


 Muslim Students Association Pledge: "Jihad is my spirit"

MSA gateway to jihad 

 

The first organization the international Muslim Brotherhood founded in America was the Muslim Students Association (MSA), in order to recruit young people into its fold.

This radical organization has chapters on hundreds of college campuses. As Erick Stakelbeck recently reported in his "Stakelbeck on Terror" program, the MSA has been "a virtual terror factory."

 And in this short video, you can view for yourself the MSA's commitment to jihad as Muslim youth are led in a group pledge that includes "jihad is my spirit."

 

Thursday, March 31, 2011

To: Friends & Supporters

From: Gary L. Bauer


Al Qaeda Says "Thank You!"

Reasonable people can disagree about America's military intervention in Libya, and polls show the country is divided on the subject. But while people of good will in the West debate the effects that the uprisings in the Middle East will have on America, it is instructive to take into account the views of our enemies as well.

Consider the latest edition of Al Qaeda's propaganda magazine Inspire. Under the headline "The Tsunami of Change," radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, Al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and other Islamic extremists, extoll the uprisings -- aided by the West -- as tremendous opportunities for Islamofascists.

Al-Awlaki writes: "Our mujahideen brothers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and the rest of the Muslim world will get a chance to breathe again after three decades of suffocation. ... For the scholars and activists of Egypt to be able to speak again freely, it would represent a great leap forward for the mujahideen." By "scholars and activists of Egypt," al-Awlaki means the extremists in the Muslim Brotherhood, which was banned under the Mubarak regime.

Al-Zawahiri writes about some "characteristics" for achieving short and long-term goals after the protests. Of course, jihad is a key characteristic. Consider the following excerpt:

"The third characteristic: force must be an element in change... whether this force will be put into practice in the form of a military coup, or in the form of a mass popular uprising or mass public disobedience ... or in the form of guerilla warfare, or in the form of armed political resistance, or in other forms. Whatever its form, method and means, force remains a necessary element for bringing about change..."

Of the revolutions sweeping the Middle East, Inspire's editor, Yahya Ibrahim, writes, "We are very optimistic and have great expectations of what is to come." As today's Washington Times notes, "The al Qaeda leadership hasn't been this excited since Sept. 10, 2001."


Tea Party In D.C.

Tea Party activists came to Capitol Hill today for a "Continuing Revolution" rally to pressure Congress to make deeper cuts in the budget. Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. It's been a cold, dreary day. I hope the Tea Party activists had more success inside Capitol Hill than outside.

I'm glad the Tea Party came to town. It's always good to have pressure from the right to counterbalance the left. But I hope these activists spent most of their time lobbying Senate Democrats. I will keep saying this until I am blue in the face: The problem in Washington is not House Republicans.

As Rep. Mike Pence told the crowd, House Republicans passed a bill to repeal ObamaCare. They defunded Planned Parenthood. They passed a budget that cut $60 billion in spending. Then they ran head-long into Harry Reid and the Democrat Senate, which killed each item. If we can't get them to agree to $60 billion in cuts, how are we supposed to get them to agree to $100 billion or more in cuts?

I also encourage Tea Party activists to carry signs with messages about jobs, not just spending cuts. As fiscal conservatives, we understand the danger posed by the federal deficit. But the average guy on Main Street is more concerned about his family's deficit. He needs a job. He needs policies that will grow the economy and expand opportunities for his family. Conservatives need to speak to the concerns of average Americans, but that is hard to do effectively when you speak like accountants.


Defund Planned Parenthood

There are lots of places in the federal budget where politicians can make cuts. At the top of the list should be Planned Parenthood. Dr. Alveda King and I have an op-ed today at FoxNews.com making the case for defunding the nation's largest abortion business.

Planned Parenthood is getting desperate as it tries to keep your tax dollars flowing. Recently, Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood's CEO, claimed that if it lost federal funding, many women would go without basic services like mammograms. There's just one problem: most Planned Parenthood centers don't provide mammograms. But don't take my word for it. Watch this video, which exposes Planned Parenthood's deception.


Obama Bundlers Get Big Benefits

An ABC News investigative report last night asked whether stimulus funds for so-called "green energy" projects were directed to some of Obama's biggest campaign donors. For example, in 2009 President Obama visited a solar panel manufacturing plant in California to announce the government's backing of a $535 million loan for the company. The company said it could create 1,000 new "green energy" jobs with stimulus money. But a year later, the plant was shut down and nearly 200 workers were laid off.

As it turns out, one of the investors in the solar company was a major Obama fundraiser who "bundled" -- raised campaign contributions from other people -- between $50,000 and $100,000 for Obama's 2008 campaign.

Then there is Steve Westly. Westly, a venture capitalist who previously worked in the Carter Administration, bundled more than $500,000 for Obama's campaign. According to the Center of Public Integrity, "Since June 2009, four companies in [Westly's] venture firm's portfolio have received more than half a billion dollars in loans, grants or stimulus money from the Obama Energy Department." Last year, Obama appointed Westly to an Energy Department advisory panel.

There is also John Doerr, a Democrat mega-donor whose investment firm is a major backer of the electric car company Fisker Automotive. In February 2009, Obama appointed Doerr to his Economic Recovery board. Fisker Automotive secured a Department of Energy loan for $528 million in September of that year. USA Today reports that the Fisker Karma will start at $95,900, but will be eligible for a $7,500 tax credit.

This is what happens when big government tries to pick winners and losers. Ultimately, the taxpayers are the biggest losers. Thankfully, House Republicans are investigating how stimulus grants were awarded.

Last month, the Government Accountability Office issued a report that was highly critical of loans made by the Department of Energy. The department's inspector general told Congress this month that he has "64 open investigations" regarding stimulus funding.

 

 

---

What's wrong with Islamo-phobia?

Mar 31, 2011 06:13 am | Coach Collins

By Ron Reale, staff writer

Islamophobe definition: Anyone smart enough to realize that Islam is NOT a religion, but a political system dependent on the barbaric Sharia law, which uses intimidation, violence and beheadings to force everyone into submission, (Islam does not mean "peace", it means "submission"). It is diametrically opposed to freedom, and is a threat to the existence of the United States.

Americans have a right to protest peacefully about anything. We put up with flag burners, artists who desecrate Christian symbols, KKK protests in the street and more. We have a God-given right to offend and be offended. Burning a bible or a Koran wouldn't turn most people's head here. It may anger them as they pass the protester while on the way to the mall, but Americans don't run home and start sharpening their cutlery.

Seventh century savages born and trapped in the political system known as Islam, are another story. While these Islamists demand tolerance, they are the ... Continue Reading:What's wrong with Islamo-phobia?

comments | read more

RedState Morning Briefing

For April 1, 2011

1. American Orchestrated Air Strikes In Libya Kill Innocent Civilians

You and I both know that anytime you have a war, innocent civilians get killed.

But Barack Obama told us this is not a war. This is just a kinetic military action.

The whole reason we are in Libya is to stop innocent civilians from being killed. It is the raison d'être of Susan Rice, Samantha Powers, and Hillary Clinton. They wanted to stop a massacre.

According to Vatican officials we have now killed 40 innocent civilians in Tripoli.

2. The Time for Action is Now

As our country faces a fiscal crisis brought on by an unprecedented surge in deficit spending, it is clear that we do not have the luxury of kicking the can down the road and continuing with business as usual in Washington. Over the past two years, President Obama and the Democrats in Congress have tried to convince the American people that we can borrow and spend our way to prosperity. The American people aren't buying it, and they have made their desire for fiscal restraint loud and clear.

3. Obama Threatens Veto If Congress Strips Pro-Union Election Rules in FAA Bill

The FAA Reauthorization and Reform Act is scheduled for a vote. However, the White House is now stating that it is likely the President will veto the legislation if a provision that gives union bosses the ability to more easily unionize airline (and railroad) employees is not removed.

4. Let's get serious about domestic energy

n his speech at Georgetown University this week, President Obama acknowledged the alarming increases in prices at the gas pump, which in many states are approaching $4 per gallon. The president restated some vague platitudes about the need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but offered no concrete plans to rein in those prices, which are putting a strain on family budgets across the country.
 On his recent trip to South America, the President expressed hope that Brazil would aggressively develop its resources so that the United States could become one of the "best customers" of Brazil's oil industry. This comes on the heels of his administration sending a loan of more than $2 billion to Brazil to expand its offshore drilling operations. Obama reaffirmed that insulting endorsement of boosting Brazil's energy economy in his speech yesterday, leaving drivers across the country wondering why we continue to import over 60 percent of our nation's total oil consumption from foreign countries and leave vast resources here untouched.

What we need is a strong energy policy that starts, first and foremost, with developing our abundant resources here at home to spur our economy, reduce our reliance on oil from unfriendly regimes overseas and bring down the deficit.

5. Planned Parenthood: Did We Say We Do Mammograms?

One of the ridiculous canards always trotted out in defense of taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood is that Planned Parenthood is not just an abortion mill, it is a full-service women's health provider. Specifically, it has been claimed over and over again that Planned Parenthood provides mammograms. Why do you want women to die of breast cancer, you evil Republican?

6. Support For The Koch Brothers From An Unlikely Source: The United Steelworkers

If you've been following the Wisconsin fracas over these past few weeks, you've probably noticed that the Left's enemy du jour has become the American businessmen Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries. As an American company, Koch Industries employs over 50,000 Americans. In total, the number of American jobs that indirectly supported Koch Industries is over 200,000. In Wisconsin, Koch Industries provides nearly 3,000 jobs directly and 11,000 jobs indirectly. More importantly, many of those jobs are good-paying union jobs. So, why all the hate?

Heritage Hotsheet

Experts on the Day's Hottest News

Items for Monday, April 1, 2011 

Congress Spending Talks Stir Unease

WSJ

House Approves DC School Choice Bill But Future Remains Cloudy

THE WASHINGTON POST

Rubio's Demands Signal Tea Party May Not Bend on Raising US Debt Limit

BLOOMBERG

US Ending Its Air Combat Role in Libya

AP

We've Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers

WSJ

The US State Department gave away $6.7 million of your money last year.  55 of the 63 grants went to Muslim countries.  $770 million went to repair Cairo, Egypt's sewer system and to repair mosques damaged by polluted sewer water.  Today, Americans are struggling to make ends meet, and millions of Americans are fighting to survive because their jobs are now in China, Indonesia, Pakistan, or Mexico.  Our government is printing money without collaterizing it, and they act like America is still the richest nation on Earth. 

 SEE VIDEO

 READ MORE:

READ MORE: 

READ MORE:

	Budget Bulletin Your source for federal budget news and analysis

Obama's 2012 Budget: Higher Taxes, Slower Growth

By Curtis Dubay

Abstract: President Obama recently unveiled his 2012 budget proposal and the 43 tax hikes it contains. The multitude of-utterly unnecessary-tax hikes will burden Americans to the tune of $1.5 trillion over the next decade. The President is proposing to raise federal tax revenues and federal spending as a percentage of GDP above historic levels, and keep them growing. This plan is a disaster for the economy-slowing down recovery, hurting job creation, making American companies less competitive, and burdening all Americans with higher taxes and consumer costs.

In what is becoming an annual tradition, President Barack Obama's newest budget proposes a host of unnecessary tax hikes that will slow economic growth. His fiscal year 2012 budget contains 43 tax hikes that will needlessly confiscate an additional $1.5 trillion from Americans over the next decade. That works out to $12,000 per household over that time.

>> Click here to read the full report

 House renews DC Voucher Program with 225-195 vote; bill proceeds to Senate.
Ask Your Senators to Support the SOAR Act 

Yesterday afternoon, the House passed the SOAR Act (HR 471), which included funds for the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. This was a tremendous win for low-income students in the District of Columbia but we have much more work to do before this measure becomes law. In order to ensure that DC kids and their parents can have the freedom to get a quality education, this bill must pass the Democratic Senate.

 

>> Email your Senators to support the SOAR Act.

As our colleagues at The Heritage Foundation have consistently demonstrated, programs that put students first are the best education policy. Voucher programs, such as the DC Opportunity Scholarship, result in higher graduation rates and better outcomes for students from low-income families. That's why we support the SOAR Act and are urging Senators to pass the bill.

>> Take Action: tell your Senators to put students first and support the SOAR Act.

Thank you for taking action and urging the House to do the right thing. Stand with us again as we take the fight to the Senate.

Sincerely, 

Russ Vought
Political Director
Heritage Action for America 

 March 31, 2011

Defend Your Healthcare

The Fight Against Obamacare Is Far From Over
 WE NEED YOUR HELP NOW

Thursday, March 31, 2011
By Terence P. Jeffrey

 

A fence erected by the federal government to secure the U.S.-Mexico border in San Miguel, Ariz. (AP photo/Ross D. Franklin)

 

(CNSNews.com) - Richard M. Stana, director of homeland security and justice issues at the Government Accountability Office (which is responsible for "auditing agency operations to determine whether federal funds are being spent efficiently and effectively"), told the Senate Homeland Security Committee yesterday that the federal government can actually prevent or stop illegal entries into the United States along only 129 miles of the 1,954-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border.

 READ MORE:

 

 Crying For America - Kory Shore

 14-Year-Old Singer Is 'Crying For America' In Tea Party Song He Wrote.

Join Our Petition Drive to Oust the Head of Duke Energy for his Support of the Obama Agenda!

Visit Patriot Action Network at: http://www.patriotactionnetwork.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network

 READ MORE:

 Donald Trump with Laura Ingraham: Proud to be a Birther; Ayers Wrote Obama's Book

 Donald Trump appeared on the Laura Ingraham Radio Show to discuss Obama's hidden past. Trump hammered the media for giving Obama a pass on his eligibility. He then hammered Obama on all fronts including Bill Ayers authoring Obama's book. Even Laura Ingraham now says she may have to focus on the Obama birth certificate issue. The segment aired on 3/30/2011 - http://www.ObamaReleasesYourRecords.com -

http://www.BirtherReport.com

HARRY TRUMAN AND FDR CONFRONT UNION POWER and WIN

When Democrats Were Patriots

Wisconsin's Governor Scott Walker and New Jersey's Chris Christie Are Not the First to Challenge Union Power. In 1946, the Unions Challenged Harry Truman, Democrat, and Lost. Likewise,  Unions challenged Democratic War President  FDR and lost. Note the racism of the TWU (now fully integrated ) discussed in paragraphs 5, 6, 7 and 8 when the TWU, like the Philadelphia IBEW 98 and Philadelphia and Vicinity Philadelphia and Vicinity United  Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and other building trades unions.

Harry Truman, Patriot and Leader of Men

Editorial: Truman Spoke, Labor Blinked

 by Jim Foster, publisher, Germantown Chronicle and Mt. Airy Independent

The most significant incident in the relationship between organized labor and the U.S. Government took place on May 24, 1946, but it has almost been lost to history. Certainly overshadowed by the often-recalled Air Controllers Strike when Ronald Reagan used presidential authority to end the strike that impacted the traveling public and commerce, the steps taken by President Harry Truman in 1946 were even farther-reaching and evinced a marked reversal for a Democratic president generally sympathetic to labor.     

The national railroad strike of 1946 was the outcome of months of negotiations that involved federal negotiators. Defiant positions from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and other sympathetic railroad worker unions set a line in the sand.  All trains were to be brought to a halt wherever they were on that day at a specific time.  Passengers and freight (much of it perishable) were to be left in their trains and the crews were to walk away.  No amount of 11th hour discussion could deter this call to action and the union members did just that.

President Truman called a joint session of the U.S. Congress and asked for authority to use the U.S. military to force operations of the trains and furthermore to use the authority of the U.S. Government to draft the strikers into the Army and force the railroads back into operation immediately.  Our Congress granted these requests. When one considers our long tradition of rarely using our military for internal purposes on our own citizenry, this was unprecedented - and scary.  Labor backed down and while Truman was giving his speech to the country explaining his reasoning, the union sent a note to him confirming that decision.

To understand the tension of the times, one has to reflect on a country where 12 million men were returning from military duty to civilian life and needed employment immediately.  The Second World War had ended only nine months earlier.  Labor challenges and some ugly strikes that included violence and often paralyzed certain cities and industries had become all too common in the 1930s, despite a 25% unemployment rate. The federal government was often caught in a dilemma between trying to regenerate an economy and protect worker's rights.  Labor's history is not all that clean in certain areas as some unions were clearly protectionist organizations that actually kept out racial and ethnic groups while claiming broad protections and human rights policies.

Truman's actions were not completely unprecedented, as a labor action in Philadelphia two years earlier caused President Franklin Roosevelt to take similar action on a smaller, but no less significant scale. A clash between two unions vying for control of this city's transit system turned a very practical decision into a major racial issue that stains labor's reputation to this day.

With gasoline rationing few employees used personal automobiles for anything but essential purposes during the war.  This city was a major provider of defense materials and a transportation hub of major proportions.  Everyone went to work by trolley, bus, subway or elevated train, run by the Philadelphia Transportation Company.

The organizing activity for the TWU against the long-standing company union was reaching a fever pitch. The need for trolley operators during the war was a constant problem and women were hired to run them for the first time, but black men were excluded. There was pressure from the federal government to set aside practices of racial discrimination in hiring and the Federal Government ordered the PTC to hire black employees for more than just maintenance and track work.  When the company began training several existing black employees as "motormen" (trolley operators) the battling unions struck the entire system and shut down surface transportation entirely for Philadelphia in a wildcat strike on August 1, 1944. 

Despite wartime orders for essential services to resume immediately from President Roosevelt, the strike continued with pickets blocking tracks at carbarns in a system that was majority rail.  Only the orders of Roosevelt, who sent the U.S. Army with loaded weapons to take the strikers to their streetcars and man depots and street stops, got the system running again.  The strike ended on August 6 in what looked like an occupied city. Soldiers with weapons rode the cars and stood curb duty in many black neighborhoods to make sure the cars stopped for black passengers. 

Clearly those initial black motormen who were trained and operating shortly thereafter were pawns in a larger war, but it took that kind of federal action against a labor movement that was becoming increasingly defiant and disassociated from the public interest.

In 1946 Truman realized this was the moment to bend back the forces of major public disregard and he had precedent. At a time when there was no interstate highway system nor an expansive passenger airline industry, most major freight and long-distance passengers depended on our extensive railroad system.  They were collectively the largest industry in the nation and the largest employers in an industry that was still incredibly labor-intensive at all levels. His speech to Congress that day is worth reading in context of what has begun to unfold in the various states where stands are being taken with localized unions. Some quotes from his speech set the tone of a man who realized that no one union should have the power to shut down a country or dictate actions so contrary to the public interest that it impacts the entire American lifestyle. "The disaster will spare no one.  It will bear equally upon businessmen, workers, farmers and upon every citizen of the United States.  Food, raw materials, fuel, shipping, housing, the public health and the public safety - - all will be dangerously affected".

Truman reiterated his standing support for labor but basically said that it had overstepped its bounds and he took on the labor leaders personally as well.  "The President will not permit either side - - industry or workers - - to use it to further their own selfish interests or to foist upon the government the carrying out of their selfish aims."

Truman's uphill battle with the standards he believed in for the postwar American society were only beginning.  After having to make the most critical military decision in history in using nuclear weapons, he was faced with getting bombarded with civilian challenges in building what became the first majority middle class in world history. Drawing that line in the sand with the railroad unions was the first of many very tough decisions not so easily accomplished in a free society.  He never sidestepped the tough ones as many have. 

Right behind this was his order to desegregate the military in 1948, beginning the civil rights movement for all practical purposes.  Further strikes by John L. Lewis and the coal miners brought out more federal and National Guard troops in the late 1940s. He made few friends among his own party Democratic leadership with these decisions and they decided to work against giving him an opportunity for a second elected term in 1948.  The splintered Democrats spawned that year the racist Dixiecrats and the Stalin-sympathetic Progressives who wanted to nationalize all industry.

Truman rescued the country from radicalism and ran the most incredible and unexpected reelection campaign in history using, with some real irony, the railroad system.  His special train traveled the entire nation (except the deep South) stopping frequently where Harry spoke from the rear of the train to all who would listen. It was not legal for the President to use the train for election purposes at government expense, and it had to be paid for by campaign contributions along the way. The amount collected at each stop determined how far it went on the next leg. 

Against all odds, and a very unsympathetic press who derided him at every turn, he won that election and ridiculed those who printed headlines of his loss without waiting for election results with great fanfare.

His next challenges were the Korean War and removing a martinet general in the process. Never shrinking, he battled the opposition party on any number of economic and social issues as well.  However, he lost the support of his own Democrats to the extent that a public that could not see the farsighted decisions for what they were, and abandoned him with the lowest popularity rating for a U.S. President.  He left office in 1952 with only the support of 24% of his citizens.

Sometimes the political cost of doing the greater good is high.

Jim Foster

Publisher

=

Obama's Assault on Weapons

Project Gunrunner Backfires on the Left

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." --Second Amendment to the United States Constitution

Barack Hussein Obama and his Socialist cadre, in their enthusiasm to "fundamentally transform the United States of America," have redoubled efforts to do what all tyrannical governments must do to establish absolute state supremacy and usurp Rule of Law -- disarm the people.

Leftists accomplish this through incremental implementation of gun confiscation measures, most of which are overt political machinations. These include legislation written and promoted by Leftist groups such as the American Bar Association, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, the Violence Policy Center, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, and the Brady Campaign.

Current legislation under consideration includes H.R. 308 to limit rounds in magazines, S. 35 to lock in gun show registrations, S. 436 designed to "fix gun checks," and, most disturbing, the reauthorization of Section 215 of The Patriot Act, which permits the FBI to seize gun sale records (4473's) pursuant to "an authorized investigation." Regarding the latter, the Inspector General estimated that between 2003 and 2006, the FBI exceeded its authority under Section 215 in more than 6,000 instances.

The objective of most of this legislation is centralized registration, which provides the federal government with data on the owner of every gun in the U.S. Then, under the duress of, say, the collapse of our economy, Leftists will "justify" confiscation by way of such nefarious measures as an Executive Order -- just as they justified weapons confiscations after Hurricane Katrina.

"Rule one: Never allow a crisis to go to waste," right?

The generation that witnessed the adulteration of our Constitution by Franklin Roosevelt and his Useful Idiots during the Great Depression know exactly what I mean. Fortunately, growing ranks of Patriots across our nation are awakening to this very real threat against our Second Amendment rights.

As FDR aptly demonstrated, the primary method in the Left's playbook for advancing its agenda is to convert tragedy into political capital. That is precisely what they did with the shooting of Democrat Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others in Tucson in January of this year, and that is the rallying point for current gun control legislation.

Of course, claiming "gun violence" is the problem, rather than social entropy institutionalized by FDR's policies and those of his Socialist successors, is a better fit with the Left's agenda.

Another case in point, and one that is now backfiring on the Obama administration, is Project Gunrunner, a government program run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). As you may recall, ATF is an agency that exposed itself as a puppet for political agendas in the botched and bloody assaults at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992 and Waco, Texas, in 1993.

The ATF implemented Project Gunrunner in 2006 as a strategy to track weapon distribution networks between the U.S. and Mexican drug cartels -- a worthy goal on the surface. Problem is, once the guns crossed into Mexico, ATF lost most of its tracking capability, which is to say that efforts to follow the distribution trail and stem the tide ended at the border.

Enter the Obama administration's gun control agenda, which breathed new life into Gunrunner and re-established the ATF leadership's standard ops tempo: SNAFU.

While Project Gunrunner failed in charting weapons distribution channels south of the border, Democrats saw its utility as a means to implement new gun regulations north of the border by asserting that all the violence in the region is the result of gun sales in the U.S.

The Obama administration hoped to make a case that Mexican organized crime syndicates depend on illegal U.S. sales of so-called "assault weapons." In doing so, they hoped to revitalize their political agenda to register and regulate the sale of those weapons -- a major Leftist goal for the last two decades.

With its mission transformed, in 2009 and 2010 the ATF expanded Project Gunrunner offices to McAllen, Texas, El Centro, California, Las Cruces, New Mexico, Sierra Vista, Arizona, and Brownsville, Texas, and added new Gunrunner teams in Tucson and in El Paso, Texas. Project Gunrunner's focus became exposing the illegal sale of guns in the U.S. in support of Obama's political objectives.

But the ATF's Gunrunner is now the subject of a political firefight.

On 28 December 2010, I was contacted by a career federal agent who, like many of his colleagues, honors his oath to "support and defend" our Constitution, whose support and defense is contingent on the Second Amendment's prohibition against government infringement on the right of citizens to keep and bear arms.

The contacting agent, who has a good track record of identifying government agendas designed to thwart 2A rights, told me that he suspected the weapon used in the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on 14 December was among those lost by the ATF during the Gunrunner operation a few months earlier. Senior career agents in Phoenix and Tucson confirmed that some of the weapons recovered at the scene of the murder of Agent Terry were, indeed, Project Gunrunner weapons, but because the ATF took control of the weapons, it could evade the establishment of any ballistic link between Project Gunrunner and the bullet that killed Terry.

Further, the agent I spoke with confirmed that the mission of Project Gunrunner was now purely political, an effort to "implement the registration of 'assault-type' rifles purchased anywhere in the United States." Obama's political appointees at ATF rejected numerous objections from field agents, including supervisory agents. Some objections were career terminators, including that of the ATF's attaché in Mexico City, Darren Gil, whose objections resulted in forced retirement on 31 December 2010, just two weeks after the murder of Brian Terry.

Now, in response to the ATF's stonewalling on ballistics related to Agent Terry's murder, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, is demanding answers. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking minority member of the Judiciary Committee, is leading Senate inquiries into the connection between Gunrunner and Terry's murder.

Additionally, Grassley has also inquired about the murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata on 15 February, which may also involve weapons connected to Project Gunrunner.

For the record, a search of the ATF website, which prominently promotes Project Gunrunner, makes no mention of the murders of CBP Agent Terry or ICE Agent Zapata other than mentioning their names in off-the-shelf condolences.

For his part, Obama says of Gunrunner, "There may be a situation here which a serious mistake was made. If that's the case, then we'll find out and we'll hold someone accountable." He then asserted, "I did not authorize it; Eric Holder, the attorney general, did not authorize it. He's been very clear that our policy is to catch gunrunners and put them into jail."

Obama and Holder may have enough cutouts to provide political insulation from Gunrunner fallout, but their politicization of its mission has not only been responsible for countless deaths in Mexico (more citizens were murdered in the city of Juarez in 2010 than in the nation of Afghanistan), but very likely the murder of two front-line U.S. agents trying to do their job in accordance with their oaths.

The attention focused on Project Gunrunner has been motivated primarily by politics: first, Obama's gun control agenda to politicize the operation, and now the Republicans' agenda to see how far up the chain of command knowledge of the operation went.

Upcoming testimony from Adam Price and Jeffrey Stirling, program managers for Gunrunner at ATF headquarters, may lead to appearances by Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, FBI Director Robert Mueller, DHS Director Janet Napolitano, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

All the political shenanigans aside, the Left's assault on the Second Amendment is a much bigger contest: Liberty versus Tyranny.

To that end, it's worth recalling the words of James Madison: "The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation ... forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition."

James Madison's appointee to the Supreme Court, Justice Joseph Story, wrote in his 1833 "Commentaries on the Constitution," "The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."

(Footnote: It is no small irony that as Obama endeavors to disarm the American people, he is contemplating how to arm "freedom fighters" (who are revealed, more each day, to be al-Qa'ida operatives or their useful idiots) in Libya. "I'm not ruling it out," says Obama. "If we wanted to get weapons into Libya, we probably could." Indeed, just call the ATF!)

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!

Mark Alexander
Publisher, The Patriot Post

Michelle Malkin

March 30, 2011 12:00 A.M.   Project Gunrunner Obama's stimulus-funded border nightmare Buried in Barack Obama's failed trillion-dollar stimulus program was a $10 million bloody border racket that has now cost American lives. This goes far beyond the usual waste, fraud and abuse underwritten by progressive profligacy. It's bloodstained government malfeasance overseen by anti-gun ideologues - and now anti-gun ideologue Attorney General Eric Holder will "investigate."

READ MORE:

 

WorldNet Daily: It's Time to Impeach Obama
By Joe Farah, WorldNetDaily

Today's Headlines:  Thursday, March 31, 2011

Going Broke: Treasury Down to $58.6B in Cash, $130.5B Borrowing Authority
(CNSNews.com) - Imagine that you had an average monthly income of about $170 balanced against average monthly expenses of about $940--and that you were more than $14,000 in debt. Then imagine that as of today, you had only $58.60 in cash left in your bank account and $130.50 left on your line of credit. Now multiply these numbers by 1 billion and you will have the up-to-date financial situation of the U.S. government.

U.S. Membership in Human Rights Council Brought Progress, But Major Flaws Remain
(CNSNews.com) - The Obama administration's announcement that it will seek a second term on the U.N. Human Rights Council raises the question of whether its membership has achieved the stated goal of improving the HRC. U.S. accomplishments include the establishment of a special investigator into human rights abuses in Iran, the decision to suspend Libya from the council, and efforts to extend the work of special investigators into abuses in North Korea, Burma and Sudan. On the other hand, regimes with poor human rights records remain on the council, which continues its lopsided focus on Israel.

'Defecting' Libyan Foreign Minister and Ex-Spy Chief Has Terror-Tainted History
(CNSNews.com) - Mussa Kussa, the Libyan foreign minister who flew to Britain Wednesday and said he was defecting from the Tripoli regime, is described as a "master of international terrorism" and the man responsible for exporting Muammar Gaddafi's revolution.

Inhofe on Stopping Obama Climate Policy: 'I've Got 20 Kids and Grandkids I've Got to Save'
(CNSNews.com) - Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said Wednesday he hopes Republicans will regain control of the Senate in 2012 because he needs to "save" his children and grandchildren from the Obama administration's environmental policies. Inhofe has introduced an amendment that would stop the Obama administration from regulating greenhouse gases without permission from Congress.

Nuclear Energy Will Remain An Essential Energy Source, Says Obama
Washington (CNSNews.com) - Despite the nuclear crisis in Japan, nuclear energy will remain a safe and important source of electricity in the U.S., President Obama said on Wednesday. The stance puts the president at odds with environmental activists.

Obama in 2002: War Shouldn't Distract from Fixing Economic Problems
(CNSNews.com) - Barack Obama - as an Illinois state senator - said that economic and domestic problems should take precedence over attacking Saddam Hussein, despite Saddam's record of humanitarian abuses. Obama, speaking at a Chicago anti-war rally on Oct. 2, 2002, said he opposed "dumb wars" and "rash wars" that distract the country from its economic and domestic problems.

Obama in 2002: Toppling Brutal Dictator a 'Dumb War'
(CNSNews.com) - Barack Obama, speaking at an anti-war rally in Chicago in October 2002, said although Saddam was a brutal tyrant "who butchers his own people," that was not enough to justify using military force to remove him from power.

Border Patrol Chief: We Have 'Operational Control' of U.S.-Mexico Border Where We Need It
(CNSNews.com) - The deputy commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection said that 1,100 miles - 'give or take a couple of miles' - of the U.S.-Mexico border is under operational control by his agency. As for the remaining 800 to 900 miles, 510 of them along the Texas border do not need the same degree of security as sectors in urban areas, he said.

Rep. Bachmann: 'Democrats Want A Federal Shutdown'
(CNSNews.com) - As a showdown in Congress looms over the federal budget, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) claims Democrats would like to see the federal government shut down after the current continuing resolution runs out on April 8th."They own the shutdown, not the Republicans," Bachmann told CNSNews.com.

Arizona Governor Signs Bill into Law Prohibiting Abortion Based on Gender or Race
(CNSNews.com) - Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law on Tuesday legislation that prohibits abortions sought or performed on the basis of race or gender. While abortionists face felony charges, there are no penalties for the woman seeking the abortion.

Gallup: Michelle Obama's Former Congressional District Dead Last for 'Healthy Behavior'
(CNSNews.com) - The former home congressional district of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama ranks dead last in the United States for "healthy behavior," according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index released this month. Out of 436 districts measured by the index, the 1st Congressional District of Illinois ranked 436th for the "healthy behavior" of its residents in 2010.

OTHER HEADLINES:

U.S. Expects Bigger Corn Crop to Ease Food Inflation
CIA Puts Boots on the Ground in Libya; White House Debates Arming Rebels
NATO Chief Opposes Arming Libyan Rebels; NATO Commander Warns Against Attacks on Civilians
NATO Takes Sole Control of Libya Air Operations
Negotiators Work on Budget Compromise, But Spending Cuts Not Enough for Tea Party
House Republicans Want to Use Tax Code to Curb Abortions
Republican-Drafted Aviation Bill Has Labor Unions Squawking
Schwarzenegger Back in Show Biz With 'Governator
US Economy Growing Faster Than Those of Other Industrialized Nations But Job Creation Lags
Hustler Fined $14K for Not Requiring Condom Use in Porn
Ohio Legislature Passes Bill Limiting Collective Bargaining Rights; Unions Want Voters
R.I. Seeks Amends for Irish Man Executed in 1845
India Population Grows to 1.2 Billion
Israeli Map Shows Nearly 1,000 Hezbollah Sites
China Military Seeks to Build Trust With Neighbors
Google Reaches Privacy Settlement With FTC
Syrian President Orders Study on Emergency Laws

NEWSPAPER ROUNDUP:

Ecuador to open consulate in Phoenix to assist Ecuadorans detained by U.S. immigration
GOP drafts legislative assault on illegal immigration
Medicare will pay for $93,000 prostate cancer drug that briefly prolongs life
National Cancer Institute Web page praising medical marijuana is altered
Senate Democrats consider proposing tax hikes
Wal-Mart CEO Bill Simon expects "serious" inflation ahead
Tea party to storm Capitol Thursday as patience wears thin on GOP promises
Within Obama's war cabinet, a looming battle over pace of Afghanistan drawdown
In Republicans' 2012 budget plan, Social Security gets a pass
Eritrea says U.N. aid makes its problems worse, not better
House passes D.C. school voucher bill
Maryland Senate OKs increase in alcohol sales tax
GOP Sen. Collins: No defense budget is 'height of irresponsibility'
Planned Parenthood accused of lying about mammogram services
Feds probe handicapped access to Atlantic City casinos
No opening-day pitch from President Obama at Nationals game
Obama accepted "transparency" award in closed session this week
Biden to speak on violence against women in N.H. next week
California community colleges to slash enrollment, classes
In Japan, Sarkozy calls for new global nuclear standards
Murder of pizza deliveryman motivated only by desire for food, police say

COMMENTARY:

Landscape of Hopelessness
By Ben Shapiro
A recent bus and train trip through the Bronx left me frightened for my country. Two generations ago, the Bronx was a diverse and thriving lower- to middle-class enclave, full of upwardly mobile people. The area was largely immigrant and hummed with the excitement of a population looking to take advantage of the American dream.  Then the government got involved. Today, the Bronx is barren -- a crime and poverty center.

Quote of the Day

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

            -Benjamin Franklin

Exclusive: Obama authorized secret help for Libya rebels

CIA on the ground

President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

Obama signed the order, known as a presidential "finding", within the last two or three weeks, according to government sources familiar with the matter.

Click here to read the full article at Yahoo News

Exclusive: Obama authorized secret help for Libya rebels

CIA on the ground

President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

Obama signed the order, known as a presidential "finding", within the last two or three weeks, according to government sources familiar with the matter.

Click here to read the full article at Yahoo News

Partisan organizations use sound bites to discredit public figures

Media Matters is full of losers

Mike Huckabee, whose nonstop book-flacking is keeping him on the political radar, was doing a routine radio interview when the talk briefly turned to Natalie Portman.

Seattle host Michael Medved questioned how the 29-year-old actress could tout her pregnancy at the Oscars when she had not yet married her fiancé. The once-and-maybe-future presidential candidate replied that it was "troubling" to see "a Natalie Portman or some other Hollywood starlet who boasts" of having a child out of wedlock, because "there aren't really a lot of single moms out there who are making millions of dollars every year for being in a movie."

Click here to read the full article at the Daily Beast

African Union court on human rights order Libya to stop killing, report back to court

Good luck with that African Union

Africa's highest court on human rights has ordered Libya to immediately cease any action that would result in the loss of life. The order also compels Libya to report to the Tanzania-based court within two weeks.

The ruling is the first-ever issued by the court against a state, Clive Baldwin, a legal adviser at Human Rights Watch, said Thursday.

Click here to read the full article at Yahoo News

Gaddafi will stay in Libya "until the end"

Quagmire?

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi will stay in the country "until the end" to lead it to victory against its enemies, a government spokesman said on Thursday.

Speaking after former Foreign Secretary Moussa Koussa defected and flew to Britain on Wednesday, the spokesman said Western air strikes against Libya had only united its top leadership against "a clear enemy."

Click here to read the full article at Yahoo News

At least 40 civilians dead in Tripoli strikes: Vatican official

Obama's war

At least 40 civilians have been killed in air strikes by Western forces on Tripoli, the top Vatican official in the Libyan capital told a Catholic news agency on Thursday, quoting witnesses.

"The so-called humanitarian raids have killed dozens of civilian victims in some neighborhoods of Tripoli," said Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, the Apostolic Vicar of Tripoli.

Click here to read the full article at Yahoo News

Liberals want G.E. CEO Jeff Immelt out of the Obama administration

Immelt actually works in the administration

Former Sen. Russ Feingold and progressive group MoveOn today called on General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt to resign from the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness in the wake of a report that despite $14.2 billion in worldwide profits - including more than $5 billion from U.S. operations - GE did not owe taxes in 2010.

They also expressed anger over the fact that the company has cut its U.S. workforce by roughly one fifth since 2002.

Click here to read the full article at CBS News

About The Wilkow Majority

The Wilkow Majority broadcasts live, Monday-Friday from 12-3pm EST on SIRIUS XM Patriot.

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New York City, New York 10020

Check out the discussion 'Al Qaeda's Libya Pilgrimage'

How do you think this will play out? Do you see the Muslim Brotherhood/terror groups getting in and directing this to their advantage?

Discussion posted by Katie Baker:

As debate rages in Washington over whether to arm anti-Gaddafi rebels, an exclusive report by The Daily Beast indicates al Qaeda forces are...

Discussion link:

Al Qaeda's Libya Pilgrimage

Department of Injustice

This column by ACRU Policy Board Member and Professor of Economics Dr. Walter E. Williams was published March 30 on Townhall.com.

One of the requirements to become a Dayton, Ohio police officer is to successfully pass the city's two-part written examination. Applicants must correctly answer 57 of 86 questions on the first part (66 percent) and 73 of 102 (72 percent) on the second part. Dayton's Civil Service Board reported that 490 candidates passed the November 2010 written test, 57 of whom were black. About 231 of the roughly 1,100 test takers were black.

The U.S. Department of Justice, led by Attorney General Eric Holder, rejected the results of Dayton's Civil Service examination because not enough blacks passed. The DOJ has ordered the city to lower the passing score. The lowered passing grade requires candidates to answer 50 of 86 (58 percent) questions correctly on the first part and 64 of 102 (63 percent) of questions on the second. Unreported was just how many of the 258 are black.

Read the Entire Column

A Big Question for 2012

This column by ACRU General Counsel and Policy Director for the Carleson Center for Public Policy (CCPP) Peter Ferrara was published March 30 on The American Spectator website.

If you listen to President Obama and his Democrat and liberal/left cronies carefully, a clear, consistent message comes through on what they think promotes economic growth and jobs. They believe that the way to promote economic growth and prosperity is through increased federal spending, deficits, and debt.

That is not a caricature of their position. This is precisely what they are saying. And they are true to their words.

Still Another Failure of Keynesian Economics

The policy, in fact, began within 30 days of President Obama taking office, with his so-called stimulus bill that increased federal spending by nearly a trillion dollars, which was supposed to create millions of jobs and promote economic recovery. It was followed by further spending increases that altogether have increased federal spending so far by nearly 30% since 2008, to an all time record.

Read the Entire Column

Court Weighs Constitutionality of Law Funding Political Opposition

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Ken Klukowski was published March 28 on The Washington Examiner website.

Should taxpayer money go to fund political campaigns when another candidate raises money? It does in Arizona. Now the Supreme Court will decide whether this system violates the First Amendment in the first campaign finance case since Citizens United v. FEC.

Arizona has a system of taxpayer-funded political campaigns called "Clean Elections." Many candidates in Arizona raise campaign money traditionally. But candidates have the option of taking taxpayer money instead, under a ballot initiative that narrowly passed, 51 percent to 49 percent, in 1998.

This system is loaded with provisions to force candidates into the public-financed system. As a taxpayer-funded candidate, you receive significant money. Your traditional (privately financed) opponent must raise his money.

Read the Entire Column

Ladies Who Launch

This column by ACRU Senior Legal Analyst Jan LaRue was published March 28 on the American Thinker website.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with a little help from her friends, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and National Security Advisor Samantha Power, is being hailed as a decisive leader for persuading an indecisive President Obama to use military force against Libya in order to prevent "a potential humanitarian crisis" by Muammar Gaddafi against his own people.

Who knew that feminists would go to war against anyone but white male Republicans and Clarence Thomas?

Read the Entire Column

An Opportunity to Throw Kids A Lifeline

In the shadow of the U.S. Capitol, children suffer in a public education system rife with violence and ranked among the worst in the nation. Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives took action to give those students some hope when it voted to reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (D.C. OSP), which provides scholarships to low-income children, allowing them to attend their school of choice. It was one of the most consequential education votes that Congress will make this year. The program empowers parents, and it rejects the notion that a child should be relegated to a failing public school because they were born in the wrong zip code. Yet, remarkably, the program faces opposition from President Barack Obama and Democrats in the U.S. Senate.

The Secret to Brazil's Energy Success

Over the past 20 years the country increased domestic oil production by a whopping 876%.

The Wall Street Journal | BY STEVEN F. HAYWARD  | APRIL 1, 2011 

The Obama administration's energy policy is in the midst of transition from being stubbornly ideological to being wholly incoherent. That much was clear when President Obama unveiled his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future this week.

With gasoline prices climbing above $4 a gallon, the administration is talking about tapping our Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a desperate attempt to hold down pump prices. It's also expanding subsidies and incentives for energy supplies that cost a lot more than oil, and it's aiming to reduce our dependency on foreign oil by one-third over the next 10 years.

Meanwhile, in a bizarre turn, Mr. Obama recently expressed enthusiasm for aggressive offshore drilling-in Brazil.

At least the president is practicing the green virtue of recycling. His energy address featured all the greatest hits of past presidential declarations of energy independence, including even George W. Bush's paean to switchgrass ethanol. Yet Mr. Obama's energy "blueprint" will get no further than all previous presidential schemes for the same reason: It is unserious at its core.

There are only two ways to reduce our foreign oil imports: a large oil tax to suppress consumption, or expanded production of domestic oil resources. All of the other bells and whistles-hybrid and flex-fuel cars, biofuels, etc.-will have only a marginal effect on overall oil demand. Higher energy taxes are not in the cards. What about expanded domestic oil production? Mr. Obama tried to thread the needle by claiming to be pro-domestic production, while at the same time embracing the tired talking point that because the U.S. has only 2% of the world's proven oil reserves-about 20 billion barrels-we can't hope to achieve independence from foreign oil from our own resources.

Yet a recent report from the Congressional Research Service that has received surprisingly little attention concludes that the U.S. probably has as much as 155 billion barrels of oil recoverable with existing technology that we simply haven't looked for or have closed off from exploration for political reasons. That's five times the outdated and misleading figure Mr. Obama cites. And there are an additional 700 billion barrels of oil shale and other unconventional hydrocarbons that could be developed here at home. That's more than the oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Obama ought to tell the whole story about Brazil, instead of just half of it. He touts the measures Brazil took to improve its energy independence, such as flex-fuel vehicles and biofuels. And yes, Brazil has gone from importing 77% of its oil from foreign sources in 1980 to importing no oil by 2009. A great success story in conservation and alternative energy? Not really. Total Brazilian oil consumption still more than doubled.

The biggest factor is that Brazil increased its domestic oil production over the last two decades by 876% (not a typo). Most of that production has come from offshore exploration.

Brazilians achieved independence from foreign oil the old-fashioned way-they drilled. Instead of tapping our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, how about tapping into our still-in-the-ground oil reserves?

Mr. Hayward is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of the forthcoming "Almanac of Environmental Trends" (Pacific Research Institute).

Defend Israel. 

LIBERAL MYTH NO. 1:

The Jews stole the land from the Palestinians.

REFUTATION:

No, they didn't. After the Romans cleared out and decimated the mighty cities built by Jews like King Herod, Palestine was an arid, sparsely populated backwater that was eventually claimed (for land bridge reasons) by the Ottoman Empire, then by the British Empire. Jews have lived in the region continuously for well over 2,000 years. The British found themselves overseeing an indigenous population made up of Jews and Arabs-and sometimes Arab Jews. All were referred to as "Palestinians." Ownership of the land was a patch work. Much of the land was owned by absentee landlords who lived in places like Egypt, and farmed by local Arab Palestinians. This may have made many Palestinians believe it was "their land," but sorry, that just wasn't the case. As the Zionist movement gained traction in the early 1900s, Jews around the world contributed to a fund to buy up tranches of land, and much of the land for the future Jewish state envisioned by the early Zionists was acquired this way. Once again, the poor Arabs living on and farming the land may not have been happy to give up the land they lived on, but it was not "stolen from them," because they didn't own it to begin with.

Turn up at your local Muslim outreach program

wearing an "I'd rather be Waterboarding" t-shirt. 

March 31, 2011

On Thursday's Program 

PC police: Easter Egg Hunt
 
A small Ohio town is making national headlines for all the wrong reasons after they made the fateful decision to remove 'Easter' from the title of the town's annual Easter egg hunt. As if reducing the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to a day about stuffing your face full of chocolate wasn't already enough for the PC crowd. Glenn has the story on radio today.

Apocalypse? Hershey to raise chocolate prices
 
Unsustainable national debt? Inflation? Israel surrounded? Iran triggering return of 12th Imam? Forget all that. A clear sign that the end of the world is near is that Hershey is set to raise the price of chocolate by almost 10% to offset higher production costs. Would the world revolt without chocolate? Glenn has more on the possible Chocopocalypse on radio today.
 
Wow: Glenn's stunning interview with 12 year old genius

Last night on TV Glenn interviewed Jacob Barnett, the 12-year-old with a 170 IQ whose hobbies include expanding Einstein's Theory of Relativity and disproving the Big Bang theory. Check out the interview which includes young Jacob teaching Glenn by writing on his NYC office windows. Watch it HERE. 

Dry run? Or just a wrong turn?
 
At Camp Pendleton three Middle Eastern men made multiple terroristic, hateful threats and then followed that up by making multiple attempts to penetrate the base. They did not stop when told and had to be pursued and detained. They were later released - but then returned to the base AGAIN. Get the report from The Blaze.

The most ridiculous question ever asked on TV: It comes courtesy of Matt Lauer who raised the stupidity bar to a whole new level during an interview with Michele Bachmann. Listen to the question and Glenn's reaction HERE.

Rolling Stone slandering the troops?

Glenn interviews Michael Yon on radio today about the Rolling Stone's piece on the 'Kill Team' in Afghanistan. Yon is a vet who served in our Special Forces and is now a freelance writer who has been embedded with troops several times. He says the piece was 'BS' and has even more choice words for the writer of the piece - hear why he is up in arms on radio today. 

Trump Doctrine agenda item #1137: "Cease all imports except for Eastern Bloc women"...What would life be like under President Trump? Read his doctrine. Expand on it yourself. Find out how HERE.