Fighting to Preserve Liberty in America
This is a story you are not likely to hear about from the mainstream media. As previously reported on this site the Obama administration, led by Hillary Clinton, came down hard on the sovereign country of Honduras for upholding their constitution and fighting against a Chavez style, “leader for life” power grab by their president Manuel Zelaya.
The news reports called it a coup. President Obama called it illegal. Liberty’s Lifeline followed this story with several posts defending the action of the Honduran’s to enforce their laws. The one position we disagreed on was exiling President Zalaya rather than dealing with him within Honduras. Part of the disclosure of WikiLeaks sheds some light on the issue.
Back on the campaign trail where he feels comfortable that he knows what he is doing, Barack Obama traveled to Las Vegas to stump for Harry Reid. Harry Reid used to be a boxer and when he told Barack Obama this he said, “Barack, I wasn’t the fastest. I wasn’t the hardest-hitting, but I knew how to take a punch.” Based on all the legislation that has been passed since 2008 that an overwhelming majority of the American people have opposed, makes one wonder if Harry Reid took a few punches too many.
Shortly after taking office and settling into his “bash business” mode Obama blasted businesses for their extravagant meetings held in places like Las Vegas. Someone then whispered in the president’s ear that extravagant business meetings in Las Vegas were good for Las Vegas and Harry Reid. Oops. And there you have the crux of the problem.
What, exactly, is government’s role to tell private companies how to spend their money? What is the role of governments to say to a BP, “Give us the $20 billion, or we’ll take it from you,” as was attributed to Joe Biden, without first going to court? What is the role of government to say to its citizens, you must buy this health care product or pay a fine? Well in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, it is probably all fine and dandy, but in America?
Barack, the standup comic, used the analogy that he and Harry Reid had mud on their shoes, were pushing hard to get the car back on the road, and were making progress little-by-little and when they finally got one wheel on the pavement the Republicans want to throw the car into reverse. Really? I would compare it more to conservatives telling everyone to get out of the car and help push, instead of waiting for Nancy Pelosi to come back from Dunkin Donuts with free food for all the overweight union bosses jammed in the car squawking that they didn’t do manual labor. Their contract didn’t call for pushing cars out of ditches.
So, while this car should have been out of this ditch and well down the road by now, Harry and Barry will try to convince us that what they’re doing is absolutely brilliant; it’s just that we are too stupid to see it. After all, it took the greatest president in history, FDR, over eight years and a World War to get us out of the Great Depression, so relax we have another 6 ½ years to go.
Imagine what would have happened if the ever resilient American economy was allowed to work on its own without all the government intervention in the 1930s. Perhaps the Depression would have been shorter like the recession of 1920-1921, and perhaps we would not have had World War II, and Fannie Mae, and a bankrupt Social Security, and a couple of generations later all of us swimming in debt. It’s time the tow truck of the most powerful economy on the face of the earth to come along and be allowed to do its job. Tell Harry and Barry to go sit down on that stump over there, and watch how it is really done. “You’re making a mess of yourselves and embarrassing the rest us.”
With Ahmadinejad and the mullahs taking maximum advantage of Obama’s apology tour, it was time to make a bold statement regarding a second nuclear installation in Iran. What better place and what better time than at the U.N. Security Council meeting especially with President Obama holding the gavel as the current chairman. At least that was what French President Nicholas Sarkozy thought, as well British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The problem was that President Obama was basking in the glow of his makeover of America. Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, after all, told the General Assembly that he no longer smelled the sulfurous odor of El Diablo, President Bush. It was another Obama global love fest. Why spoil it by talking about global security in the Security Council of all places? It would be far better to talk about global security the following day at an economic summit of the G-20. Don’t you think?
French Fried
Sarkozy apparently had his U.N. speech prepared to take a strong stance against Iran in the Security Council Meeting, but was forced to remove that part of the speech.
President Sarkozy in particular pushed hard. He had been “frustrated” for months about Mr. Obama’s reluctance to confront Iran, a senior French government official told us, and saw an opportunity to change momentum. But the Administration told the French that it didn’t want to “spoil the image of success” for Mr. Obama’s debut at the U.N. and his homily calling for a world without nuclear weapons, according to the Paris daily Le Monde. So the Iran bombshell was pushed back a day to Pittsburgh, where the G-20 were meeting to discuss economic policy. — WSJ, September 29, 2009
Welcome as it is, at the same time somewhat embarrassing that the French are frustrated that the United States isn’t taking a harder line. President Obama has certainly come full circle from President Bush in just nine months. As for me, I slept better with an American cowboy in the White House.
When given an opportunity to speak in Pittsburgh, President Sarkozy could hardly contain himself:
“We are right to talk about the future,” Mr. Sarkozy said, referring to the U.S. resolution on strengthening arms control treaties. “But the present comes before the future, and the present includes two major nuclear crises,” i.e., Iran and North Korea. “We live in the real world, not in a virtual one.” No prize for guessing into which world the Frenchman puts Mr. Obama.
Sarkozy continued,
“I support America’s ‘extended hand.’ But what have these proposals for dialogue produced for the international community? Nothing but more enriched uranium and more centrifuges. And last but not least, it has resulted in a statement by Iranian leaders calling for wiping off the map a Member of the United Nations. What are we to do? What conclusions are we to draw? At a certain moment hard facts will force us to make decisions.”
Vive la France. I hope we make it to 2012.
Chavez, Castro, et al, were cheering on their protege, Manuel Zalaya to make himself president for life and impose their same style of dictatorship on the people of Honduras. Zalaya is term limited, but tried to push through a referendum to amend the constitution to lift that restriction. That is against the law in Honduras.
Zalaya had his minions break into a facility that held the confiscated referendum ballots. The Honduran Supreme Court declared that he had broken the law, the military captured Zalaya and sent him out of the country. The cry throughout the region was that this was a coup removing Zalaya, but no one is saying where the Honduran Congress or Supreme Court did not follow their own laws, and show that Zalaya was not violating the same.
To Meddle or Not To Meddle?
The Obama administration was oddly silent when democracy was trying to break out in Iran, but spoke out against the laws being followed in Honduras. Now as Zalaya plays provocative games on the border, it appears the Obama administration is negotiating with the Honduran military for the return of Zalaya to power:
The communiqué was drafted in Washington after days of talks between mid-level Honduran officers and American Congressional aides. — NY Times, July 26, 2009
The communique it appears, indicates that the military would not stand in the way of Zalaya’s return. Is this not meddling? Left wing forces in the regions are trying to create another dictatorship like Venezuela and Cuba, the laws in Honduras are followed that prevent this, and the Obama administration weighs in on the side of the leftists.
There may not be a coup in Honduras, but we may be backing a socialist revolution. We have come a long way from Ronald Reagan winning the Cold War and freeing Eastern Europe.
A Rasmussen poll 68% Say 2nd Stimulus is Likely, makes stark just how committed the statist majority of Congress is to reshaping America in their image and derisively dismissing the will of the people. 68% of those polled say a second stimulus is likely while at the same time 60% of the American people are opposed to a second stimulus while only 27% are in favor. Let that sink in for a moment before I play it again, 68% of the American people believe that Congress will ram down their throats what only 27% are in favor of. Is this a government for the people? By the people? It sounds more like Iran and their recent presidential “elections”.
In Iran, hundreds of thousands took to the street while their government responded by beating and shooting them. In America, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets in Tea Parties, and thankfully the government hasn’t responded by beating and shooting us, but ignoring the will of the people just the same.
Promises, Promises
President Obama promised open- ness and transparency in his administration. During the campaign his website had the following statement:
“Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them,” the campaign website states. “As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.”
Well, true to Obama’s form, there is always an escape clause, in this case, “non-emergency.” So just declare every bill an emergency and the promise remains unbroken. But what is an emergency?
The stimulus was pitched as an emergency and it was rushed through Congress getting passed on a Friday. However despite all the urgency, President Obama did not sign it on Friday night, nor Saturday, nor Sunday, nor Monday as it was a holiday, but on Tuesday when a true media event surrounding the signing ceremony could be orchestrated. So despite the conflict surrounding “hurry up and wait” why couldn’t the American people get a look at the bill during those five days?
So what’s the track record? The Sunlight Foundation had this to say back in April:
“Of the eleven bills, only one (The DTV Delay Act) could be somewhat considered to have fulfilled the five day pledge. This could only be somewhat considered because it was posted just prior to being presented to the President, which is a slightly minor point.”
Did You Read It?
These massive spending bills (Stimulus, Cap and Trade, Health Care, TARP) are getting passed by Congress and if you ask Democrats or members of the administration if they actually read the bill they either laugh or bristle with indignation. Carol Browner Thinks It’s Unfair to Say She Hasn’t Read the Energy Bill
So it seems like this Congress and this Administration is resolute in urgently slamming through every government enlarging and power consolidating program that they can in the least amount of time before the next election cycle. What the American people want is immaterial if the political class can strengthen their grip on the government such that future Congresses and administrations will find it hard to undue.
Furthermore if they can get enough illegals, dead people, homeless, criminals who have lost the right to vote, registered or counted in the census so that they can enlarge their favorite Congressional districts, or fix elections then they can stay in office. When they lose a close election they know how to immediately dispatch teams of lawyers to invalidate ballots of their opponents and count more of their own that were “missed”. They perfected this technique in Washington state, and repeated it in Minnesota, where Republicans won both closely contested elections, but Democrats repeatedly demanded recounts until their candidate was ahead and then, with a straight face said, “enough recounts the people deserve to have this resolved.”
Pay Attention People
If more people don’t start paying attention, the greatest country in the history of the world, the United States of America, will become a nostalgic footnote. Already Communist China is building a more capitalistic economy than we have, while we try to move toward the old, failed socialist model. If we are not more careful, we will wake up some day and wonder how we became more like Venezuela, and feel a little bit………foolish?
Brothers in Arms
When I first heard the news of a “coup d’etat” in Honduras I thought, “This isn’t good.” America cannot be a champion of democracy if we only support democracies where we like the outcome. Recall the coup in Venezuela that ousted Hugo Chavez for a couple of days, and we got behind it. But he was elected and to avoid being hypocrites we have to support the process.
Not So Fast
As more news came out about exactly what happened in Honduras, it became clearer that the military was following the democratic process not subverting it. The bad news is that while President Obama kept silent or tepid at best regarding Iran, he came out forcefully on the side of Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez condemning the military’s action in Honduras.
Here is a rundown on what is going on in Honduras as reported in the Wall Street Journal on June 29 and June 30:
A Disturbing Pattern
Maybe it’s just me, but I see a disturbing pattern here. In Iran where democracy is being clearly trashed, President Obama was extraordinarily restrained in criticizing the mullahs, while they shot their people in cold blood for exercising free speech and free assembly. In Honduras, the government is carefully following the rule of law and its constitution while its president tries turn it into a dictatorship along the lines of Venezuela, and they are roundly condemned by President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton. President Obama lines up with Ahminedinjad, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, and against democracy.
Here at home he is orchestrating a massive expansion of government power and intrusion into every last detail of our lives. Our liberty to live our lives as we choose is draining away. I’m concerned. Are you?
I’ll see you at the Tea Party tonight in New York.
Did you ever watch a historical movie about how some fringe group ominously takes over the government and leaves everyone scratching their head wondering how it happened? At the end of the movie you say, “Whew, I’m so glad that could never happen in the good ol’ USA.” Then you watch the news and see things that are eerily familiar to the movie and you say, “Nah, that’s just my imagination running away with me.” Until the next piece of news drips on your head.
A news story this morning gave me that uneasy, pit of the stomach feeling again. It probably shouldn’t have since it was about Venezuela. Hugo Chavez got the term limit restriction lifted in his country that will allow him to be president for life. That measure had previously failed but now it passed by a wide margin. So why am I feeling uneasy about our liberties and what is going on in this country? Here are some of my concerns.
Bipartisanship
After all the talk of bipartisanship by candidate Obama and the need to change the tone in Washington, the reality was something completely different. In a so called “stimulus package” that will triple the budget deficit and was rammed through the Congress with no one, and I repeat no one, reading it, one party was virtually shut out of the legislative process. At the same time 44% of the American people, in a Rasmussen poll, said names picked at random out of the phone book could do a better job on the economy than this Congress. This package is chock full of 40 years of liberal programs that could not pass muster on their own, but as Rahm Emmanuel says, “You never want a serious crisis go to waste.” When Republicans protested about being shut out of the process, the response from the other side was, “We won.”
Fairness Doctrine
In the movie there will come a scene when the incoming powers break into the newspaper offices and smash the printing press, overturn the typesetting table, dump papers on the floor and set them ablaze. The message is clear, there will be no opposition press. There is only one message and that is of the new dictator and the new news will be his indoctrination.
Today, there is more and more talk about reviving the Fairness Doctrine. Here is what former President Bill Clinton said:
“Well, you either ought to have the Fairness Doctrine or we ought to have more balance on the other side,” Clinton said, “because essentially there’s always been a lot of big money to support the right wing talk shows and let face it, you know, Rush Limbaugh is fairly entertaining even when he is saying things that I think are ridiculous….”
Liberals tried to bring balance to the discussion with Air America and it failed dismally. Why? People didn’t want to listen to left wing rants all day. But face it, the main stream media overwhelmingly votes liberal. So although no one will be smashing printing presses and torching newsrooms, the objective is to stifle the conservative point of view. Once you do that the only voice that is heard is reinforcing the new ruler.
What the First Amendment says is:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for the redress of grievances.”
Congress shall make no law…so what are they doing? The line between news and opinion has long been crossed. It used to be you couldn’t tell what Walter Cronkite’s politics were, because he kept his opinions, for the most part, out of the news. But today there is little difference. For a great example see this piece by Russ Roberts. (They Report. I Edit. You Decide). They will defend the Fairness Doctrine by saying it is not censorship, but here’s the dirty little secret.
Let’s say you are a radio program manager and you put on three hours of Rush Limbaugh. Great show. Great ratings. You make lots of money. Now along comes the Fairness Doctrine. You don’t have to touch Rush’s show because that would be censorship. What you have to do, however, is give three hours over to Air America to be “fair”. Three hours of Air America hate <fill in the blank: Bush, religion, gun owners, pro life> rants. Ratings for those three hours go in the tank. No revenue. You’re making no money. Listener’s start complaining. So what is a station manager to do? It’s what they used to do when the Fairness Doctrine was here before, tell Rush he has to close up shop, dump the Air America crowd and play Top 40s songs all day long. The fact that it wasn’t censorship doesn’t matter, the effect is the same.
The Census
The census, conducted every ten years, is important in two regards. One, it helps allocate how money from government programs is distributed, and it determines how the number of Congressional seats will be apportioned among the states. Based on current estimates states like New York (Blue) will lose one or two seats and states like Texas (Red) will gain seats. That could mean a shift in power from the Democrats to the Republicans. Uh oh.
The scene in the movie shifts to a darkened office with a light over the conference table. “We cannot allow the opposition to gain any strength back, we have to consolidate our power. What do we do?”
“Comrade, we can take control of the census. Under our control we can count homeless people and illegal immigrants in Blue states and ignore them in Red states.”
“Brilliant! You see that the census is directed out of your office rather than in some Department.”
You chuckle only for a minute, when you realize that Rahm Emmanuel will be overseeing the census, operating out of the White House, rather than handling it in the Commerce Department as it has been done for years. Suddenly, the scene seems very real.
The Stimulus and ACORN
In the so called “stimulus bill” there appears to be about $4.1 billion for “neighborhood stabilization activities.” The money was initially limited to state and local governments but later changed to include non-profits, such as ACORN. ACORN is surrounded by allegations of vote fraud. It doesn’t take much of an imagination to understand how close races can be tipped by an organization that perpetuates voter fraud. Now think about how your tax dollars are being funneled to them to do it.
We Need More Votes in The House. So Let’s Add a Representative
In consolidating power, what better way than adding votes where you need them. One way is to add a representative in the House for the District of Columbia. It is a heavily Democratic district, so why not? The Constitution? Ignore it. Just go ahead pass a law. If the Republicans object, just crank up the racist machine.
Handouts
Of all the tried and tested methods for turning around an economy in trouble, the Democrats seem to be picking all the ones proved not to work. If you want to stimulate the economy through tax cuts, you cut marginal tax rates. Instead the Democrats want to give rebates to people who pay no income taxes. That’s welfare not tax cuts. But the goal is not to turn around the economy. The goal is to consolidate power. What better way than to make sure more than 50% get something from the government and less than 50% are stuck with the bill. Majority rules. We won. Once that threshold is crossed, the majority can start jacking up taxes on those evil rich, so that the “working and middle class” get checks from the government. Comrade, it from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.
Calling Dr. Mengele
In the movie a sinister doctor approaches the “patient” and plans how he is going to improve life for all of us. For the “patient”, not so much.
Another provision in the stimulus bill is to establish a new bureaucracy that will “compare drugs, medical devices, surgery and other ways of treating specific conditions.” This organization will take a role in your medical treatment that was formerly between you and your doctor. “Supporters of the research hope it will eventually save money by discouraging the use of costly, ineffective treatments.” Isn’t that what medical journals are for? Isn’t that why the AMA has conferences, to share such information?
“I’m sorry Mrs. Jones, we think you child has Down’s Syndrome, therefore you really must have the abortion, or your medical bills for your childbearing treatment won’t be covered by our national health care. And you know the costs run into the hundreds of thousands. What would you like to do?”
Do you really want some bureaucrat in Washington playing with a statistics program telling your doctor what treatment he can and cannot perform to treat you?
Is This Real?
As you leave the theatre you laugh nervously that this couldn’t happen here. But every time you pick up a newspaper, the similarity about how a dictator seizes control and then consolidates his power is just too eerie. But as we have seen in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and now in Venezuela, it can happen and once it does it may be decades before it can be undone, if at all. The Founding Fathers were very wary of a strong central government. They believed that the only powers that the Federal government should have are limited and they went to the trouble to spell them out in the Tenth Amendment:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
Where does it say in the Constitution that education is a federal function? I’m not against education by any stretch of the imagination, but how can the federal government do a better job than the local school board? Why is the federal government putting cops on the street? Shouldn’t each municipality handle this? The Federal Government has gotten too big and too powerful. It is so vast no one can manage it. We keep pushing so much up to the federal level we are almost begging for a dictatorship to form. And with everything they take, and they will take all they can grab, your liberties go with it.
We better wake up, people, and start cutting this monster down to size. Otherwise it will either consume all of us leaving nothing but a wasteland, or we will be reading our founding documents and see that they are telling to prepare for the Second American Revolution.
