Obama said we should judge him by the company he keeps. But, for some reason he didn't want to release the records of who visits the White House. From Flopping Aces here is a list of some of Obama's buddies. Actually, Michael Jordan seems OK.

Obama promised to have the most open administration in history. Here are some examples of how it hasn't worked out that way. Obama has also politicized the Justice Department to a greater extent than Bush ever did, and has done more damage to the Constitution. In fact, Obama has not reversed the Bush policies such as wire taps that Democrats said were violations of the Constitution.

Nancy Pelosi has released her healthcare reform bill which is 1990 pages long. It is written with a lot of legalese and other arcane language, and has references to a lot of other laws and regulations. As a consequence the average person cannot read it and understand the implications. The politicians want us to not be able to understand it. Basically they are turning everything over to unelected bureaucrats in the Executive Branch who will make regulations that determine what the policy actually is. And, there will no doubt have to be a lot of court cases where unelected liberal judges will interpret for us what the Congress actually meant. There has been a trend toward this sort of law-making for some time, but it has reached a ridiculous stage recently.

A 19-year old folk singer was killed by coyotes while hiking in Canada. This is the reason I carry a gun when hiking in the woods. My Mother carried one because while walking she had encountered rabid animals. I'm not sure, but it probably against the law to carry a gun in National Parks in Canada as it is in the US. Recently governments are more concerned about animals than humans.

There has been a lot of controversy over where Obama was born. In the past it appears that he actually said he was born in Kenya. He has now convinced most people that he was born in Hawaii. I think one thing that is clear is that he is opportunistic. When it was to his advantage to be a foreign student, he said he was a foreigner. Now he says he was born in Hawaii. Regardless of where he was born, he lied at some point. Since he is a liberal Democrat he is given a pass for such actions. After all, everyone would lie to get lower tuition or more favorable student loans, wouldn't they?

The Obama Administration appears to be in a permanent campaign mode, rather than governing. They learned the lessons of Saul Alinsky, and are masters at mau-mauing the flack-catchers. I saw a clip of Obama chief advisor Valerie Jarrett being interviewed by Campbell Brown today. Jarrett incredibly said the Administration intends to "Speak truth to power." It seems not to have occurred to Jarrett that Obama now is the power. In street terms, Obama is now "the man." I think we neeed to study this phenomena carefully. It is quite possible that the Obama Administration is attacking the majority of Americans who are beginning to indicate that they do not favor the "change" that Obama desires.

Here is an article about foreign students with advanced degrees in science and engineering opting to return home rather than remain in the United States. They used to mostly remain in the United States, but now most plan to return to their homeland. I am not surprised at this development, given the depressed state of the US economy, and the booming economy in China and India. The US seems intent on following the path of the Labor Party in Great Britain by encouraging immigration of hordes of unskilled people. This is a prescription for disaster. I predict that if Obama is reelected President, we will see widespread immigration of well-educated Americans to foreign countries. It may develop sooner than that given the fiscal and monetary policies of the Obama Administration.

The UN IPCC is a political body rather than a scientific body, and has consistently used political methods rather than appropriate scientific methods in attempts to establish the validity of the Anthropogenic Global Warming hypothesis. Politicians are now using this flawed work in an attempt to severely damage the economy of the Western World, transfer wealth to third-world nations, and to promote the genesis of a world government run by unelected bureaucrats. The media have proven to be unable to understand the way in which science in being manipulated to facilitate the change the politician’s desire. Here is a link to an article that explains the situation, and explains why, whether or not the AGW hypothesis is correct, it has not been proven. At the same time, the hypothesis that observed global climate change is natural has not been disproved.

Here is something written in 1936 about the snobbishness of many of the elites. The thesis is that popular writing is important to the communication of ideas. I like the comment about when large bodies of people believe something that is unreasonable, one should look for motives rather than reasons. It seems to me that anthropogenic global warming fits into that category. There is no actual proof that the AGW hypothesis is correct, therefore we should look for the motives of Al Gore, the UN, and President Obama.

Elections have consequences. A lot of people don't recognize that, or, at least, don't analyze what the consequences may be. Here is a letter from a Grandpa to his grand daughter explaining the situation. Last year my grand-daughter told me she would vote for whomever I supported. Of course, she was only seven, and it may be different by the time she's old enough to vote.

Liberals and Democrats exhibit considerable confusion about fascism. For some reason they conflate conservative (right-wing) Americans with fascism. This despite the fact that the political philosophy of Mussolini, the founder of fascism, has nothing in common with American conservatives. Mussolini was a authoritarian collectivist who thought the state had precedence over the individual, that the state should control all means of production and distribution, and was opposed to free trade. He sounds more like a Democrat than a right-winger, but somehow the Liberals and the Democrats haven't thought that deeply about it. Here is some discussion about fascism.

It is hard to miss that Democrats and the ACLU are in favor of strict separation of church and state. It is curious that they do not consider accommodation of Muslims with special facilities and course work as an infringement on the separation of church and state that they demand where Christianity is concerned. A lot of people that I talk to are unaware of the accommodations that are being made in liberal bastions like Minneapolis and Detroit. Here is some discussion of this issue. Obama and the Democrats appear to like the idea of Sharia Law. I hope the majority of the people wake up and realize what is happening.

The US is on the verge of bankruptcy while Arabs have most of the money in the world, but Obama (peace be upon him) is giving money to Muslims. Why don't the Arabs fund their fellow Muslims? This must be part of the US surrender strategy.

John McCain has introduced legislation to block the FCC attempt to take control of the internet. I doubt the Democrats will pass the bill. This is another reason to vote against all Democrats.

Some think that Obama (peace be upon him) is more into Chicago-style gangsterism than socialism. That could be I suppose, but I still think he is a collectivist surrounded by Chicago-style advisors. People say that comparisons to Hitler are not proper, but Hitler did also surround himself with gangster advisors.

A lot of people have noted the similarity between the rise of Hitler in Germany and the rise of Obama (peace be upon him) in the United States. Now the Russians have noticed the parallels as indicated in this article from Pravda. The US Constitution makes it more difficult to achieve establishment of a dictatorship, but Obama (peace be upon him) is doing a pretty good job of ignoring the Constitution so far.

The Obama Administration seeks control of all aspects of life. Now they want control of the internet. I don’t think the FCC even has any authority over the internet, not that the Constitution or laws mean anything to the Obama Administration. I don’t see that anything is broken in the internet, so why fix it? But, the Obama Administration is intent on stopping all criticism. I suppose that is important for them to succeed in the goal of turning the United States into a fascist state. The next step will be to confiscate all of the guns in private citizen’s hands. That is next on their agenda.

Leftists claim that there are many, many examples of Rush Limbaugh's racism. If that is so, why did they use two examples that they were unable to verify? Leftists are such liars.

Another former Gitmo detainee has returned to his roots and been killed. This guy was dressed as a woman. I doubt he was gay; it's just easy to conceal your weapons in a Burka.

There are a lot of parallels between what was happening in Germany in 1933 when this article by the great Friedrich Hayek was written and what is happening in the United States today. Then in Germany as now in the United States the government had taken over control of major industries and had moved to limit executive pay. Compare the Nazi dislike of Department Stores and the Democrat’s dislike of Wal-Mart. As the article indicates, many of the people in Germany supported the Nazi’s without realizing what the Nazi’s were intent on doing. A few people were aware, such as the prominent scientists like Einstein who promptly left Germany. I think we have a similar situation in America today where people have listened to Obama (peace be upon him) say in his inaugural address that he intends to re-make America without giving any thought as to what that means.

I saw Dick Morris on the O'Reilly show on Fox News tonight. Morris says Obama (peace be upon him) has adopted a "hunker in the bunker" strategy. One explanation for why the Administration would adopt such a strategy is that they think they cannot solve the major problems the country faces, particularly the unemployment situation. Newt Gingrich thinks the strategy is to cause the media to focus on trivia like their attacks on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh rather than on their failures like the lack of job creation or the huge budget deficit.

The H1N1 flu vaccine is not going to be delivered fast enough to prevent most people from catching the disease. It would be unfair to blame Obama (peace be upon him) for this. Of course, if Bush were still President, it would be his fault. In fact, I feel pretty sure that Democrats will blame Bush if the disease gets out of control.

I don't agree with Pat Buchanan very often, but he is on the mark with this opinion piece.

It is well known that Obama used the techniques of Saul Alinsky in his rise to power. (Hillary Clinton, another follower of Alinsky also used Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, but less successfully than Obama. And the Democrats had used Alinsky's tactics against Bush for eight years.) Now, as discussed in this article by Kyle-Anne Shiver, Obama is continuing to use the Alinsky tactics against Republicans. This seems a bit odd to me because Alinsky's tactics were developed to be used by the disadvantaged against the people perceived to be in power. I'm not sure that the tactics will work as well for those in power against those who are not in power. Then there is the awareness of the victims of the Alinsky tactics as to what is happening to them, something Bush never seemed to grasp. What if conservatives now begin to use Alinsky tactics against Obama. In the past conservatives were unwilling to use tactics that would harm the US in foreign affairs, a constraint that liberals have never felt. If Obama persists, things are going to get ugly. I suspect Obama will try to provoke some sort of violent response from conservatives so he can use force against them. Without some overt action on the part of his enemies it is unlikely that law enforcement and the military would support Obama. He may have to wait until he can gain more control over those institutions. Now we know that Obama's supporters are also studying Mao's Little Red Book, so he may be about to escalate his conflict with America.

One of the silliest things I see on TV is Democrat Party spokesmen (which includes commentators on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, NPR, MSNBC, etc.) talking about the enormous benefits of "green energy." They talk about how many jobs will be created by the inefficient energy production, and how the "green" technology will make the United States a world leader, etc. They completely ignore the basic economic fact that more expensive energy is harmful to the economy, and will necessarily lead to a loss of jobs. They also ignore the experience from Europe where "green energy" has been tried, and has not worked out. Here is a blog about the "green" experience in Germany. I think it is amusing that the Germans think they may recoup some of their losses by selling technology to the US. Of course Obama thinks he is "the One" and he can make work things like "green energy" and socialism that have failed everywhere else they were tried. (Liberal Republican Christie Todd Whitman was on Fox Business talking about "green" jobs, but,it turns out, she is not as far out of touch with reality as Obama's crowd. She is proposing more nuclear energy, which is something we need.)

Sarah Palin has been mocked for her comment about "Death Panels." But the English National Health Service in essence has some sort of bureaucratic rules that are essentially a "Death Panel." Here is a report on the situation with the NHS. I recall getting several calls from my cousins when my grandmother was about 85 that Grandma was in bad shape, not responding, etc. and Doctors thought the end was near for her. But she always got better, and was lucid right up to her death at 94. Experts have a hard time telling if people are about to die, especially when they have been given medications to which they have reactions.

Most people have probably never heard of the Cloward-Pivens strategy for destroying a capitalist state. Here is a definition of Cloward-Pivens that I got from Dr. Sanity, who got it from an American Thinker article by Kelly O'Connell:

Cloward-Piven Scheme for Planned Catastrophe: Ominously, in 1966, Columbia University scholars Richard Cloward and Frances Piven published a theory outlining methods to destroy a healthy capitalist economy and force communist revolution. This eliminates capitalism by making impossible state budgetary demands, thereby bringing government insolvency.

A lot of us think that this is the model Obama is using in his attempt to turn the United States into some sort of collectivist state. Those who do no believe that Obama has such designs would still have to agree that Obama's current excessive budget combined with his even more excessive future budget plans could lead to a collapse of the current government. After that some sort of civil war would be almost inevitable. From Obama's standpoint, that might still not work out as he hopes because the collectivists are unlikely to win. To win, it is necessary that they disarm the citizens before the government collapses, and that may prove difficult. For example, today I heard that a lot of the police and military are saying they would refuse to collect citizen's guns if Obama passes a law requiring them to do so.

Things are not going well in South Africa, as was quite predictable. Blacks in Sub-Saharan Africa have an average IQ of about 70. This is not high enough for a person convicted of murder in Texas to be executed because they are judged to be incompetent. The white people in South Africa are beginning to have a hard time due to affirmative action programs that prevent them from getting jobs and a government that allows them to be ejected from their property. They are prevented from owning guns by law, so are unable to defend themselves. The result is that the whites are subject to torture, rape and murder. South Africa is going the way of Zimbabwe. As whites are displaced the infrastructure of the country will collapse. The media here in America is not interested in the plight of white people who are discriminated against, and are experiencing genocide. The attitude of the liberal American media is that the white people deserve it. The downward spiral in South Africa is accelerating. Here is an article about the situation in South Africa.

According to channel 5 the swine flu vaccine has not reached the Dallas-Fort Worth area yet. It was scheduled to be here last Friday, but did not arrive, and local authorities do not have a new expected date. How could this delay happen, given that the incompetent Bush is retired, and that the super competent, highly efficient demi-God Obama is running the Federal government now?

President Obama and Attorney General Holder have declared war on the CIA. I have suspected that a lot of CIA agents would resign, but I have not read anything about that happening in the media. Here is a blurb from Lawyer Bill Whittle that discusses this, and suggests that indeed a lot of agents are resigning. I'm sure this does not concern Obama, since he does not think there are any threats to the country's security, particularly not from Islam.

Here is an interesting analysis of average earth temperature for the last 200 years. Despite the large increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration during the last 60 or 70 years, not much out of the ordinary has happened to average temperature. Al Gore wouldn't like that assessment, but it is true. Of course the warmists simply say that a lot of energy is being stored up somewhere, and that energy will soon be released like a spring, and temperature will soar. They have no proof, but it is also hard to prove them wrong. We'll have to wait to see if they are correct. But if Gore, Obama, and the UN get their way, they will destroy the economy of the United States and the Western world while we wait. Under their plan, they get to achieve their goal of a world-wide socialist government even if they are wrong.

Another Wall Street crook charged. Not surprisingly, this guy was a big contributor to Democrats. He also gave money to terrorists. Since he is a foreigner (a naturalized American) he naturally gave money to Hillary. Here is a report from Instapundit.

President Obama thinks that tensions between Islam and the West are rooted in colonialism. I think his attitudes are generally based on his African heritage. He may be thinking specifically of the British Mandate in Jerusalem from 1917 until 1948. I think he is wrong. It seems to me that Islam has been attacking the West for centuries. Charles Martel stopped the Muslims deep in France at Tours in 732. Muslims captured Constantinople and ended the Roman Empire in 1453. Don Juan of Austria defeated the Muslims at Lepanto to stop the advance into Greece in 1571. John Sobieski defeated a Muslim invasion of Europe at Vienna in 1683 (on 12 September, which was 11 September in the Western Hemisphere, making that a date of significance to Muslims). Now the Muslims have started another attempt to conquer the West. This time the strategy outlined by the Muslim Brotherhood is immigration and subversion. I doubt that Obama is the man who will defeat this current attempt at conquest of the West. I'm not certain that he wants to stop them. I think he rather likes their style.

Here is the treaty that Obama will sign in Copenhagen later this year. Needless to say, the treaty is harmful to the United States as it proposes to solve a mythical problem. Obama likes the share-the-wealth provisions, as well as the treaty's intent of diminishing the United States. We can hope that the Senate will refuse to ratify the treaty; a possibility only if a filibuster can be invoked. That may not be possible if Obama can keep the Democrats together.

I am continually amazed that most people do not realize that liberty and equality are opposite sides of the coin. That if a state existed in which people were equal in all respects, then individual liberty would be severely restricted. President Obama intends to bring equality to the United States and so is opposed to individual liberty. The Constitution of the United States was designed to give people equality under the law while providing the maximum of liberty to citizens. So-called "Progressives" have been working to limit individual liberty in the United States since at least the time of Woodrow Wilson. (It is curious that people who oppose individual liberty are called "Liberals.") The Progressives, including in particular Obama, don't like the Constitution of the United States, and, since the time of Wilson have attempted to undermine it by transferring legislative power to unelected bureaucrats. Here is an article that discusses individual liberty.

The Democrats are back in charge, so once again missile technology may be sold to China. I suppose that China deserves a payoff for all of the money the Chinese have given to Democrats.

Should Texas join the national power grid? In my opinion the answer is a resounding no. I'm certain that Obama and the Democrats would like to get the Texas electric power grid under their control. As Obama turns the United States into a fascist state and steers a course toward chaos and collapse, Texas needs to maintain as much independence as possible. Here is a discussion about this matter from Popular Mechanics.

Rand Simberg has an interesting article that explores Netanyahu's recent mysterious trip to visit Putin. The story is that a list of the names of Russians working on the Iranian nuclear bomb was delivered. Apparently this is a warning to pull the Russians out or they may be killed in an Israeli attack. This event has implications for the American space program as is explained in the article.

It was obvious that ford has a problem with labor relations now. The union they must negotiate with owns their domestic competitors. This appears to be a clear conflict of interest, but I doubt Obama's government will have any sympathy for Ford. In fact, I expect Obama will try to drive Ford into bankruptcy so he can take control of them, too. That is the way fascists operate. Mickey Kaus also has some comments on the situation.

Robin of Berkeley thinks that Obama was elected President because of white guilt. He may be on to something. The United States is definitely a country with a dominant black culture now. I think white culture is clearly superior, but our elites and trend-setters like movie stars think we must accept black culture to atone for our sins. I don't feel any guilt for what a few of my ancestors may have done, so I don't accept that position.

Democrats now control most of the richest Congressional Districts in the country. The Republicans somehow lost the affluent people. No doubt white guilt had something to do with many people voting for Obama. But I have no doubt that many white people voted for Obama just because he is a cool black guy, and Democrat candidates rode his coattails into office.

The White House claims the healthcare reform bill is now bi-partisan because one liberal Republican Senator voted for it. That seems like a stretch to me. They just want a sound bite, not substance.

Labor unions have played a major role in destruction of American Industry, particularly in steel and auto manufacturing. They also damaged the rail industry, losing out to trucking since outsourcing overseas was not feasible. Unionized teachers have harmed public education in much the same way that industrial unions harmed steel and autos, mainly through bureaucracy and ridiculous work rules. Now unionized government workers are threatening the fiscal soundness of cities and states, and even the Federal Government. The salaries of public employees are now much higher than private employees, with pension benefits that dwarf those of private industry. In some places firemen and policemen retire while still young on pensions that are much more than their salary while working; in many places retirement pay is over $100.000 per year from jobs that paid half that. Here is something on this from Mickey Kaus.

The Nobel Peace Prize is a joke. The Nobel committee has given the Prize to worthies such as the terrorist Yassar Arafat (who stole $1 billion from his own people) and Jimmy Carter (for not being George Bush).I think the Nobel committee may have finally "jumped the shark" with the award to Obama for his work in his first twelve days in office (and also for not being George Bush). In case you think the Nobel Committee is serious, consider this:

From Wes Pruden’s column at the Washington Times:

The Nobel Peace Prize was once thought to be the ultimate reward for selfless idealism, and if you’re still in high school, maybe it is today. A decade ago four high-school girls in Kansas heard the story of Irena Sendler, a Polish social worker who saved 2,500 Jewish babies from the Nazis. They wrote a play about her and sent letters to world figures, and this led to her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Miss Sendler, who died last year at age 98, smuggled the babies out of the Warsaw Ghetto in an ambulance over several months early in the war, hiding them in crates, burlap sacks and several times in coffins. She kept a barking dog to drown the cries of the frightened babies. The Nazis arrested her and tortured her severely, breaking her legs in a vise. She bribed a guard to escape a firing squad, and after the war retrieved the names of the babies from jars she buried in her garden, and reunited hundreds of them with relatives.

The Nobel jury was not impressed. They gave the prize that year to Al Gore for his slide show about global warming.

Liberal Robert Reich made some interesting comments in a speech at Cal-Berkeley. A lot of people on TV have shown him saying that we are going to have to let Grandma die because it costs too much to keep her alive. He also made the point that a politician who tells the truth can't get elected. He points out that people, and I think primarily liberals, believe in "something for nothing." Here is discussion about Reich's speech.

Here are some insights on socialized medicine from Canada. Soon Americans will be taking "medical vacations." I was familiar with that concept, but I had never thought about "wait-list" insurance. Once Obamacare is up and running I expect a lot of people will be going to India for treatment. Israel might get into the game also, if it survives the Iranian nuclear threat. It will be tough on Canadians, since they will no longer be able to get timely treatment in the USA. Obamacare could well have the effect of ending the Canadian system.

The government at all levels, local, state and national, is moving to criminalize all behavior. Criminal intent is no longer necessary. I have written a lot about this previously. Our rational Supreme Court Justices like Scalia see this problem, but liberals like the idea of discretionary power so they can criminalize their opponents. Here is more about this from American Thinker.

Here is a list of the "hottest" heads of state. They only rate Obama as number 15, which is OK I guess. For the US to challenge for the top spot we'll have to elect Sarah Palin or Liz Cheney. I don't think Hillary would rate as high as Obama. Yulia Tymoshenko is going to be hard to beat.

Here from A. J. Strata are some comments about the Massachusetts healthcare plan, where it appears that the so-called death panels may become a reality. Usually in an authoritarian collectivist society everyone is eventually equally bad off. It apppears that in our new world order, people who smoke, are obese, or who are elderly will be worse off than everyone else where healthcare is concerned. I guess they will just let fat old people who smoke die. Oregon at least offers assisted suicide, but apparently Massachusetts won't have that option.

On Fox News today I heard that, "If Democrats love jobs, why do they hate the people who create jobs." I think the answer is that the Democrats don't think private industry creates good jobs; they like government jobs. After all, government jobs pay about twice as much as private industry jobs. And the people in those jobs tend to vote for the Democrats who have made those jobs pay more than private industry jobs. I wonder what the economy will be like when most people work for the government. France is an example of a state in which over half of the people work for the government. The old Soviet Union and present day Cuba are examples where everyone worked for the government. What happened to the high pay and great benefits in those workers paradises?

I saw Steve Wynn interviewed by Neil Cavuto today. Wynn said he had been doing business in China for 6 years. He said that it was much easier to do business there, and he felt more secure in his business there than in the USA. Maybe that is because the former communists have fewer illusions about the benefits of authoritarian collectivism than the current government of the USA.

The search for the Higg's Boson continues unabated, so far unsuccessfully. There has been a lot of bad luck associated with the efforts to isolate the Higgs, sort of like the Curse of the Mummy. Here in Texas, the government abandoned the effort after digging up a lot of land around the town of Waxahachie South of Dallas to build a huge particle collider and spending a few billion dollars. Here is some speculation that the Higgs Boson may not want to be found, and travels backwards in time to thwart efforts to isolate it.

Here are thoughts of a liberal writer published in a conservative magazine. I think he probably is a liberal because he doesn't appear to know that killing the German prisoner in the movie "Saving Private Ryan" would not have been a war crime. The reason is that soldiers who have no means of handling prisoners are not obligated to endanger themselves by turning prisoners loose. This is because what happened later in the movie is, in fact, a possibility. As they say, war is hell. Liberals have a lot of confusion about the Geneva Convention.

My computer failed last Friday night. It is fixed now, so I can resume my opinionated blogs.

One serious question in our time is how did a murderous thug like Ernie (Che) Guevera Lynch become an icon to American College students and the Hollywood elites. He oversaw the execution of around 20,000 people in Cuba, killing some of them himself. He falsely accused many of these people of working for the CIA. Later the CIA aided in tracking him down and killing him in what was a sort of poetic justice. Here is a discussion of his life.

Obama has been awarded the Noble Peace Prize by the Norwegian Quislings. They sort of like fascist governments such as Obama is attempting to impose domestically. Internationally Obama hasn't actually done much except apologize for America's transgressions and kowtow to dictators, tyrants, and other madmen. Of course he has withdrawn support from Israel, always popular with the anti-Semites in Europe. And the Norwegians approve of appeasement. And, the award can be interpreted as another slam at George Bush. That is also popular with European socialists. Here is a view from others who have a view similar to mine.

I have written a lot about Obama's plan to manage the decline of America. A lot of people do not agree with my view, but I'm glad that Charles Krauthammer, one of the smartest guys in America, does. Here is an article he wrote in which he discusses how Obama is working to reduce America's power and influence in the world, and to turn America into a Nanny State. Liberals in America, who are actually not liberal but rather are authoritarian collectivists, think the world will be a better place if American power is much diminished. To me, there is little reason to believe that because a good case can be made that America was the most benign dominant power in the history of the world. Krauthammer repeats the story of advice an ancient Greek gave Athens on how to stop decline: stop doing what you are doing. Obama will not stop because he is actively seeking the decline of America. I wonder how Europe and the rest of the so-called free world will react when they realize that America is no longer going to defend them?

Here are some comments from one of Obama's Muslim advisers. She is a member of a group that wants non-violent overthrow of the US government. Several on the Obama team see nothing wrong with implementing Sharia Law in the US. I think this is a serious issue for the US. Muslim's are demanding more and more concessions to their "special needs" just as they did a few years ago in Europe, where it is not working out well. To avoid problems with the Muslims here we need to restrict immigration of Muslims and refuse to give into their demands for special priviliges.

Here is an illustration of what is happening in Europe (in this case Germany). This was written by Johann Hari: I got it from the excellent blog Dr. Sanity.

Do you believe in the rights of women, or do you believe in multiculturalism? A series of verdicts in the German courts in the past month, have shown with hot, hard logic that you can't back both. You have to choose....

In Germany today, Muslim women have been reduced to third-class citizens stripped of core legal protections - because of the doctrine of multiculturalism, which says a society should be divided into separate cultures with different norms according to ethnic origin....

Indeed, in the name of this warm, welcoming multiculturalism, the German courts have explicitly compared Muslim women to the brain-damaged. The highest administrative court in North Rhine-Westphalia has agreed that Muslim parents have the "right" to forbid their daughter from going on a school trip unless she was accompanied by a male family member at all times. The judges said the girl was like "a partially mentally impaired person who, because of her disability, can only travel with a companion".As the Iranian author Azar Nafisi puts it: "I very much resent it when people - maybe with good intentions or from a progressive point of view - keep telling me, 'It's their culture' ... It's like saying the culture of Massachusetts is burning witches." She is horrified by the moves in Canada to introduce shariah courts to enforce family law for Muslims.

The Obama Stimulus package naturally included a lot of scams to help his supporters. Al Gore and friends are getting $600 million to develop a hybrid electric sports car. Why not one of the government owned auto companies, GM or Chrysler? It would seem that they would have a better chance of success. Successful development of a car is apparently not the objective of Obama. By the way, Gore is reported to have made $100 million since he left public office, and stands to make billions if the cap and trade law goes his way.

Back in 2006 when the Democrats took control of Congress Nancy Pelosi said she would put the House on a full five day week. What is the reality? Now the House starts work on Tuesday afternoon, and wraps up the week on Thursday afternoon.

Here is another example of children singing for Obama. I assume this is a grassroots movement. Otherwise Obama is worse than I ever imagined.

Here is a comparison of the philosophies of Reagan and Obama. Reagan saw America as a city on a hill, and his mission was to make it great. Obama sees America as morally deficient, and his mission is to put America in its proper place, which is something on the order of a banana republic.

Supreme Court Justice Scalia recently opined that in the US we have too many lawyers. I agree with him. Ilya Somin explains that we have too many lawyers because we have too many laws. I agree with him also. We will soon reach the point that people are afraid to do anything because it may be illegal, or at least government prosecutors can make a case that it is illegal under some obscure and arcane provision of some law passed but never read by Congress. The Democrat's Healthcare reform and the carbon cap and trade laws currently under consideration will be the "straw that breaks the camel's back." After these laws are passed virtually all economic activity in the US will be illegal. Environmental groups will be able to sue all energy using enterprises, and shut them down. The government will selectively choose who can continue to operate, and who is put out of business. Innovation and entrepreneurship will cease. We will have a fascist government that will slowly grind down the economy as the Soviet Union did in the 1980's.

A friend sent me these comments on the proposed healthcare legislation by a Constitutional Law instructor who actually read the bill. Of course, the Democrats always say, when the bill is criticized, that this is not the final version. That is a good point, but that is a two-edged sword, since we will probably never see the final version that is written by lobbyists and Administration Czars the night before the vote. For example, there was not a single complete copy of the over 1000 page Stimulus Bill passed earlier this year, there was just a pile of individually marked-up copies with unincorporated inserts.

I think we all need to read this to get a different perspective on what this health care bill is all about. Any bill that is more than 1100 pages long has too many "hidden" clauses to make most of us feel comfortable. We all agree that something has to be done to/for health care in the USA , but this is downright scary.

IF YOU HAVE DOUBTS AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH LAST NIGHT,
READ WHAT A CONSTITUTIONAL LAWYER HAS TO SAY...



Michael Connelly of Carrollton, Texas is a Constitutional lawyer and has read the entire health care bill and has some comments, not about the bill, but about the effects on our Constitution. It's a broader picture than just health care reform.

It's time we sit up and pay attention; once this sort of thing happens, it will be irreversible. We have reason to be very afraid of what is happening.

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE HEALTH CARE BILLS

Well, I have done it! I have read the entire text of proposed House Bill 3200: The Affordable Health Care Choices Act of 2009. I studied it with particular emphasis from my area of expertise, constitutional law. I was frankly concerned that parts of the proposed law that were being discussed might be unconstitutional. What I found was far worse than what I had heard or expected.

To begin with, much of what has been said about the law and its implications is in fact true, despite what the Democrats and the media are saying. The law does provide for rationing of health care, particularly where senior citizens and other classes of citizens are involved, free health care for illegal immigrants, free abortion services, and probably forced participation in abortions by members of the medical profession.

The Bill will also eventually force private insurance companies out of business and put everyone into a government run system. All decisions about personal health care will ultimately be made by federal bureaucrats and most of them will not be health care professionals. Hospital admissions, payments to physicians, and allocations of necessary medical devices will be strictly controlled.

However, as scary as all of that it, it just scratches the surface. In fact, I have concluded that this legislation really has no intention of providing affordable health care choices. Instead, it is a convenient cover for the most massive transfer of power to the Executive Branch of government that has ever occurred, or even been contemplated. If this law or a similar one is adopted, major portions of the Constitution of the United States will effectively have been destroyed.

The first thing to go will be the masterfully crafted balance of power between the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of the U.S. Government. The Congress will be transferring to the Obama Administration authority in a number of different areas over the lives of the American people and the businesses they own. The irony is that the Congress doesn't have any authority to legislate in most of those areas to begin with. I defy anyone to read the text of the U.S. Constitution and find any authority granted to the members of Congress to regulate health care.

This legislation also provides for access by the appointees of the Obama administration of all of your personal healthcare information, your personal financial information, and the information of your employer, physician, and hospital. All of this is a direct violation of the specific provisions of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures. You can also forget about the right to privacy.. That will have been legislated into oblivion regardless of what the 3rd and 4th Amendments may provide.

If you decide not to have healthcare insurance or if you have private insurance that is not deemed "acceptable" to the "Health Choices Administrator" appointed by Obama there will be a tax imposed on you. It is called a "tax" instead of a fine because of the intent to avoid application of the due process clause of the 5th Amendment. However, that doesn't work because since there is nothing in the law that allows you to contest or appeal the imposition of the tax, it is definitely depriving someone of property without the "due process of law.

So, there are three of those pesky amendments that the far left hate so much out the original ten in the Bill of Rights that are effectively nullified by this law. It doesn't stop there though. The 9th Amendment that provides: "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." The 10th Amendment states: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are preserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Under the provisions of this piece of Congressional handiwork neither the people nor the states are going to have any rights or powers at all in many areas that once were theirs to control.

I could write many more pages about this legislation, but I think you get the idea. This is not about health care; it is about seizing power and limiting rights. Article 6 of the Constitution requires the members of both houses of Congress to "be bound by oath or affirmation" to support the Constitution. If I was a member of Congress, I would not be able to vote for this legislation or anything like it without feeling I was violating that sacred oath or affirmation. If I voted for it anyway, I would hope the American people would hold me accountable.

For those who might doubt the nature of this threat I suggest they consult the source. Here is a link to the Constitution:
http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html

And another to the Bill of Rights: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights_transcript.html

There you can see exactly what we are about to have taken from us.

Michael Connelly
Retired Attorney, Constitutional Law Instructor
Carrollton , Texas

The Democrat's healthcare proposal calls for a tax on people who do not acquire health insurance (and in some versions, calls for jail time). The President says it is not a tax, but rather a fine, because he promised not to increase taxes on people making less than $250,000 per year. There is some doubletalk here. The real reason the bill calls the fee a tax is that if it is a fine, then people have a right to "due process." That would cause a lot of problems, tying up courts and also delaying the receipt of the funds. Then there is the matter that the fine might be (and probably is) unconstitutional. In fact, the entire healthcare reform bill is probably unconstitutional, not that Democrats care about that. Obama has frequently said that he doesn't think much of the Constitution.

Now that George Bush is retired, Code Pink can re-think their stance on the war in Afghanistan. The female members of the Afghan Parliament certainly realize that their life expectancy would be short if the US Army were to leave now. It is nice of Code Pink to take that into consideration. I suppose they couldn't have taken that into account when Bush was President.

There is a lot of criticism by Democrats saying Republicans have no health care reform plan. Actually Republicans have made some suggestions. Here from Jennifer Rubin's blog is a compilation of Republican's suggestions that fits on one page. It costs a lot less than the Democrat's plan. But, Democrats like the 1400 page plan that no one can read or understand, something they brag about. They also like creating over 50 new agencies to monitor things. They would never go for a one page bill.

The police usually want a lot of vague laws that give them much discretion in enforcement. They claim that makes it easier to get the bad people off of the street, but sometimes they use the discretionary power against their personal enemies. The Federal government is even worse than local governments. They like to pass so many laws that everyone breaks them, so they can arrest anyone that they want. I read recently that the average person breaks three laws every day, and is not even aware of it. Here is a discussion of some Federal Prosecution horror stories. Does Congress care about this? Not much. Despite what I often hear about Republicans wanting to control people's behavior, the Democrats are far more prone to criminalize everything. They have included a lot of new criminal behavior in their various proposed healthcare reform laws.

The US is going to have to increase taxes to pay for Obama's spending program. Many states are also having to raise taxes. They particularly like to raise income taxes "on the rich." Eventually the point is reached where the "rich are tapped out." What happens then? Maryland recently raised the state income tax on the rich to confiscatory levels, and one-third of the "rich" left the the state within a year. Maryland is geographically a small state, so people can conceivably move to another state without having to change jobs. California has also raised personal income taxes to the point that about 150,000 people pay for half of the budget and the other 40 million people in the state pay the other half. California has also seen a lot of high earners move to Nevada, which has no state income tax. It is harder for people to leave the country because of taxes, but it is not impossible. If US income taxes on the high earners is increased dramatically some will leave. There are a lot of foreign born scientists and engineers in the US who are high earners who could easily leave. The US does not produce enough scientists and engineers to replace them should large numbers of them return to their home country.

I see a lot written about the income gap in America between the rich and the poor. Democrats are quite concerned about the gap, and propose to close the gap through taxation. I read a report this week that said the gap has gotten worse this year because of high unemployment. Despite what is often cited, the income gap is even larger in Europe than it is in the US. I suspect that is because of the persistently high unemployment in Europe. I think the US is entering an era in which we will have systemic unemployment above 10%. Today the official unemployment rate is just under 10%, but there are indications that the true rate is much higher. The recently increased minimum wage pushed teenagers unemployment up. The carbon cap and trade legislation currently being debated in Congress, if passed, will result in huge job losses in the US as entire industries are forced to leave the country. Ross Perot's "sucking sound of jobs leaving the country" will finally be realized. Rich people will not be much affected by higher gasoline prices, utility prices, food prices, automobile prices, etc. but the poor will. They will lose their jobs to overseas companies, and everything will cost them more. The US will no longer be the economic powerhouse of the world. This is according to Obama's plan. He views himslf as the one to oversee the graceful decline of the United States.

The Democrats in Congress have another great idea: expand the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Many people other than Democrats think the CRA was the root cause of the financial meltdown last year. Their alliance with the Democrats has kept mot of the MSM from discussing the CRA role; they prefer to blame free enterprise and bankers. But, in Europe the CRA is widely cited as the primary problem. They recognize that loaning a lot of money to people who have no chance of repaying it will inevitably lead to a financial crisis. The bankers got into trouble because they came up with clever ways to disguise those bad loans, and sell them as AAA loans. This made the situation worse because no one could tell which loans were good and which were bad, so all were devalued. Now the Democrats want to expand the CRA to include credit unions and insurance companies. Thus the government can force even more institutions to make loans to Democrat voters who are unlikely to replay the money. The revised law would also increase the ability of ACORN and the SEIU (Democrat clients) to Mau-Mau those institutions to force them to make more bad loans. More legalized extortion. Democrats refuse to accpet that the CRA was basically corrupt, and caused the financial crisis, so they want to expand the law to create and even larger hazard.

Here is a 350 year record of temperature from Central England. It shows that there has been no increase in temperature. That is no surprise, of course. It is interesting that people in England claim that they are suffering from the effects of Global Warming even though there has been no warming there. We have the same situation in the Southeastern United States.

Ayn Rand is a polarizing figure; most people either love her work or hate it. As we are now entering the age of Obama, with the emergence of an authoritarian collectivist government, there is more interest in Rand's Objectivist philosophy which was developed to combat collectivism. Here is a discussion on new works that examine Rand's philosophy.

There are some bizarre things happening in Honduras. The ousted President Zelaya things that Israelis are bombarding him with radiation. Now one of his Aides has gone on radio saying that Hitler should have finished off all of the Jews. There must be something regarding Jews and Honduras that hasn't been reported. I'm not surprised that the Obama Administration is supporting a guy who admires Hitler.

The City of Chicago lost its bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. On the news I heard people who interpreted the loss as a loss for America. That sounds simplistic to me. Then I heard that it was a loss for Obama, since he took the trouble to fly to Copenhagen with his wife and Oprah to schmooze with the selection committee. It seems to me that it was naive for anyone to believe that a brief appearance by Obama would sway the committee. I take it as another example of how tone deaf Obama and his advisers are to international politics. Then I saw Democrat interviewed on Fox News who blamed Bush. Democrats blame Bush for everything. I saw Geraldine Ferraro interviewed later, and she blamed everything on Bush. According to her Obama basically has no chance because of Bush's failures. I wonder how long the Democrat's demonization of Bush will continue? It is funny that Republicans talk about how poor Carter was as President, but I don't hear them blame Carter for current problems. This despite the fact that a good case can be made that the current problems with Iran are the result of Carter's refusing to back the Shah, and allowing radical Islamists to take over Iran.

George Will has suggested that there should be a national commission created to study the AGW hypothesis. That will never happen; at least there will never be a fair commission established to study the issue. Obama might be willing to have a commission made up of AGW hypothesis supporters. But a fair commission; never. That is because in an honest debate, all of the dirty laundry of the AGW supporters would be revealed. I predict that a lot of them would not even show up, so egregious has been there exaggeration and distortion of data.

The Obama Administration is saying that the EPA will proceed with regulations on CO2 emissions if Congress won't take action. This seems like legislation by the Executive Branch. Something that is prohibited by the Administration. I don't think Obama is very concerned about the Constitution. He has said he doesn't like it.I wonder is any corporate organization would sue the EPA if they pass impose such regulations. I doubt it. They are afraid of the government, as well they should be, and selected ones will be granted favorable treatment. So fascism will continue to advance in America.

I heard on TV that some idiot in a position of authority, I missed exactly who he is, predicted that 2016 would be the last Olympics because of the effects of global warming. Given that the temperature of the world has been falling recently, and that many of the IPCC supporters of the AGW hypothesis are predicting another decade of cooling, that is clearly an incompetent prediction. There is some finite probability that there will not be an Olympics in 2016, but I would put the most likely potential cause as another World War.

Obama has a safe school czar named Kevin Jennings who is gay, and has written a book called "Queering Elementary Education." Bill Ayers, the famous terrorist who wrote Obama's "autobiography," wrote a blurb on the dust cover praising the book. I see no reason to teach anything about homosexuality in Elementary school, or in Junior High or in High School. Apparently the job of the safe school czar is to promote homosexuality in public schools.

Some people suggest that the Obama Administration has done a poor job of vetting people for positions in the Administration. I don't think that is the case: I think Obama approves of the actions of the people he has selected, and they are exactly what he wants. Obama wants to overturn the traditions of America and establish a secular progressive nation with an authoritarian collectivist government similar to those in Western Europe.

Today in the Ft Worth Star Telegram, a headline said that Jerry Jones was one of the few billionaires whose wealth increased last year. This was story was apparently based on the Forbes Magazine list of the 400 richest people. The reason for Jones's increase in wealth was the football stadium the citizens of Arlington generously built for Jones and his Dallas Cowboy football team. Crony capitalism is now the way to riches in America. It used to be that people got rich by "building a better mousetrap." Now they get rich with a government subsidy. The Obama Administration is rewarding his supporters as fast as they can. Wall Street gave a lot of money to Obama (and not much to McCain) and they are being rewarded. Jeffery Immelt of GE supported Obama, and the carbon cap and trade legislation has provisions that will aid GE and harm their competitors. No wonder the country is in economic decline.