Category Archives: Uncategorized

MICHAEL MOORE WAS FAIRLY QUIVERING WITH RAGE. IT WASN’T A PRETTY SIGHT

Moore was just one angry blush short of bursting a blood vessel as he declared to Rachel Maddow, “This is War!! This is class war…”. Moore urged everyone within driving distance to converge on the capital and clog the buildings and assembly halls, effectively shutting down the process of government. He urged every thinkable action be taken, throwing in as an aside, “non violently”.
In a move, classic to the left, he called for high school children to walk out of school and join with the mob at the Madison State House. The presence of youngsters is always good PR. It was a call for indoctrination, not education. This crisis must not be allowed to go to waste.

Moore brought a pair of handcuffs with him to the show. That may not be incitement to violence like yelling “Fire!” in a theater, but one might say it’s like yelling “smoke”. He said they were for “anyone who works for the banks”. Tellers look out, Moore’s says his handcuffs are for you and everyone else who makes banking possible.

Setting one class against another is endemic across the full spectrum of the Left. It is hard to imagine the Democratic Party even existing without class distinctions and resentments between them. Who would be their constituents?
The video starts with goons breaking into the State House through a window and forcing their way past a guard. Then MSNBC goes on to give Moore a platform to spew forth his nonsense. Michael Moore is not wrong in most of what he said. He is wrong in everything he said.

I will bet you cannot sit through the whole video. There is no reason to try.

GOONS AT THE GATE IN WISCONSIN – Part II

By now it should be obvious to most everyone that there is more to what’s happening in Wisconsin than just issues affecting Wisconsin. In terms of national leftist issues, this ranks right up there with socialized medicine.

Let’s review Gov. Walker’s plan. The plan would:

1. Require employees of the state to contribute 12.6% toward the cost of their healthcare insurance. According to a Kaiser Foundation study, that’s about half of the average paid by state and federal workers nationwide. We don’t hear much from the union defending against this particular proposal.

2. Require employees of the state to contribute 5.8% toward the cost of their pensions. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “for government workers with a required plan contribution, the average contribution is 6.3 percent” We don’t hear much from the union defending against this particular proposal.

3. End the requirement that all state employees must pay into the union whether or not they choose to join. Forcing non-members to pay as a condition of employment is easily seen as extortion. We don’t hear anything from the union in defense of this. They are dead quiet about it.

4. Limit collective bargaining to basic wages. This is where the unions are screaming bloody murder.

Items 1 through 3 are about money. Item 4 is about power. Items 1 through 3 concern Wisconsin. Item 4 concerns all unions nationally; it poses a threat to union power. The private sector develops its own wealth. The public sector, and that includes public service unions, taps the wealth of others. To do that requires power. In the private sector, money leads to power. In the public sector, it’s power that leads to money.

The AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), the AFT (American Federation of Teachers) and the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) combined gave over $18M in political contributions for the 2010 election year. According to The Center for Responsible Politics, none of it, that’s 0%, went to Republicans. These unions and the Democratic Party are joined at the hip.

When Democrats are in power, the government and the union sit on the same side of the negotiating table. That’s how public sector employees have come to have higher compensation than their private sector equivalents. That, and the ability to tax and borrow without the constraints of having to be profitable to survive.

There is much, much more at stake in Wisconsin than meets the casual eye.

By the way, if you think “goons” is too strong you should watch this video, entitled “Joe the Plumber” Goes to Wisconsin.

EUROPE, the EURO and the DOLLAR

The European Union is an experiment in transnational socialism. The wealth of Germany, Europe’s most productive nation, is being “spread around” among nations that produce less and spend beyond their means. Good behavior is being punished and bad behavior rewarded. Violent riots are breaking out across Western Europe. But the people aren’t rioting for a solution; they are demanding continuation of what caused the problem.

Only private industry creates the wealth of a nation. Government consumes a portion of that wealth to pay for the services and benefits it provides its citizens. In socialistic Democracies like those of Western Europe the government portion grows slowly like a painless cancer until it threatens vital organs. Then it turns from painless to painful and that’s when riots erupt. The people deny the sickness while demanding a cure. That is where Europe is now.

It is difficult to create a common currency among sovereign nations whose cultures are as diverse as those of Greece, Germany and England, just to name three. The British recognized this and chose to keep their own currency. America is a nation of diverse people sharing one national pride. Whether you are from Maine, Iowa or Arizona, you consider yourself American first and a Mainer or Iowan second. Not so in Europe. A Frenchman considers himself French, period. A European citizen feels no pride in being a member of the European Union in the way an Iowan farmer is proud to be an American.

The Euro was vying to replace the Dollar as the standard currency for international trade only months ago. Now it is apparent the chances for that to occur are dim. It would take a profound change in the diverse national cultures within the Euro zone to build the base required to make the Euro as solid as the dollar. It didn’t happen over the last thousand years. It won’t happen over the next thousand either.

America’s race to embrace socialism has been thwarted. Now it needs to be reversed lest we end up in the tank with Europe. We have time. We can do it.

COLUMBO ROASTS FRANK SINATRA

Here’s a chance to see some old favorite faces. Victor Borgnine, Jimmy Stewart, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra of course and even a surprise politician are all caught on camera.

EGYPT, WE KNOW WHO LOST; BUT WHO WON?

The Egyptian people are joyful, enthusiastic and excited seemingly without exception. After so many years of autocratic rule they are shedding tears of relief in anticipation of having a voice in their own government. When you listen to interviews it is heartwarming to see them excited in anticipation of democracy and self rule.

Unfortunately, there is some cause for some concern. They rose up against someone, but not for anyone. Like the Tea Party, they have no supreme leader. Who will they choose? Mubarak’s departure has left a vacuum, a crisis of sorts. The Chinese character for crisis is a combination of the characters for danger and opportunity. That perfectly describes the situation in Egypt at the moment.

Contenders for assumption of power are the military, the Muslim Brotherhood, and an assortment of other groups most of us in the West know nothing about. Military rule may be benign, but it won’t be democratic. The Islamic faction that dominates the Muslim Brotherhood would impose the strict Islamic law known as sharia. It seems clear that Islamic rule is not what the majority want.

Mubarak’s Egypt was a stabilizing force in the region. That is one reason why the United States was so supportive financially. Egypt has by far the largest military force in the Arab world. It is unlikely Israel could successfully defend themselves now, in they way they did when Egypt attacked in 1948.

The Shah of Iran was also an autocratic ruler. He was also deposed by a populace seeking the freedom of being out from under his thumb. The laws under the Shah were the most liberal of any in the Mid-East Muslim world. Instead of more freedom, the people of Iran got less. Not only that, the rest of the world is facing a problem that it never would have seen under the Shah. Let us hope such a fate does not befall Egypt and the rest of us.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH STANLEY KURTZ

Stanley Kurtz is the author of Radical-In-Chief, Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism. The book is timely now that Obama has stepped away from his far left stance. The question of the hour is whether the change is genuine or only apparent. After all, 2012 electioneering is less than a year away. After reading Kurtz book, there will be no question left in your mind.

Peter Robinson interviewed the author on his program called Uncommon Knowledge. Thanks to a special arrangement between the people at the Power Line blog and Uncommon Knowledge the video of the interview video has been made available for anyone to see for a short period of time. Click here to watch it.

We are in the process of writing a review of the book. It will be quite extensive and may turn out to be more of a digest than a review. Stay tuned.

HONORING MARTIN LUTHER KING

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