Let the Left show us how to astroturf like pros

The Real AstroTurf: "Indeed, it is the opposition to this opposition that is aggressively and meticulously organized. White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina last week gave the order to 'push back twice as hard.'

And the national field director of the union-backed Health Care for America Now (HCAN) on Aug. 4 apparently sent out a four-page, single-spaced, 2,500-word-plus 'how to bully' memo.

The document, featured on the Talking Points Memo Web site, says 'it's important that you take away right-wingers' opportunities to talk with reporters.' It tells operatives to 'confiscate signs or leaflets' of those opposing ObamaCare. It adds: 'Make sure that you assign marshals to take care of moving the crowd.'"

OMG, The "Angry Mob" funded by Insurance Industry hacks!!!

Look out, congress people! These demonstrators might come at you with some pocket protectors or pencils or something!

Of course, the only way to squelch this un-American dissent is to counteract these "subversive" demonstrations with paid public government union thugs, and the government-funded, "non-partisan" ACORN to intimitate and "punch back twice as hard." Truly, a perfect example of and the spirit of our "unifying," transcendent President and Messiah. The late Saul Alinsky would be proud.

AP to distribute Soros-funded 'journalism'

AP to distribute Soros-funded 'journalism'

Is there really any lingering doubt that today's dominant mainstream media news is no longer reporting, but rather a propaganda offensive largely controlled and funded by ultra-leftist, ultra-rich statists, who coincidentally happen to be Democrats, or control and finance much of the Democratic Party? There is nothing comparable to this on the political right.

"The Associated Press is delivering to its subscribing 1,500 American newspapers content, it has emerged, penned by groups with financing from philanthropist George Soros and another far-leftist billionaire who not only campaigned for President Obama but also topped donor lists to groups like ACORN and MoveOn.org.

The AP announced last month it will allow its subscribers to publish free of charge work by four nonprofit groups, the Center for Public Integrity, the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, the Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica.

Controversial Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., a friend of President Obama who was embroiled in a recent national race scandal, sits on the board of ProPublica. The group defines itself as "an independent, non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest."

ProPublica was founded with a $10 million yearly grant from Herbert and Marion Sandler, the former chief executives of the Golden West Financial Corporation, which was one of the nation's largest mortgage lenders and savings and loans. The Sandlers last year sold their business to the Wachovia Corporation for about $26 billion, a deal which valued their personal shares at about $2.4 billion.

The Sandlers are major donors to the Democratic Party and are top funders of ACORN, MoveOne.org, the American Civil Liberties Union and other far-leftist groups like Human Rights Watch.

In 2008, the Sandlers were behind two controversial California Political Action Committees, Vote Hope and PowerPac.org, which spent about $5 million in pro-Obama ads in that state. The two groups were run by the Sandler's son-in-law, Steve Phillips, the former president of the San Francisco School Board.

The journalistic integrity of the Sandler-backed ProPublica, however, has been repeatedly called into question.

A report by the Capital Research Center concluded ProPublica "churns out little more than left-wing hit pieces about Sarah Palin and blames the U.S. government for giving out too little foreign aid." "

Utopia Versus Freedom (TOWNHALL.COM)

Utopia Versus Freedom
Thomas Sowell
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/08/04/utopia_versus_freedom

"Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom." We have heard that many times. What is also the price of freedom is the toleration of imperfections. If everything that is wrong with the world becomes a reason to turn more power over to some political savior, then freedom is going to erode away, while we are mindlessly repeating the catchwords of the hour, whether "change," "universal health care" or "social justice."

If we can be so easily stampeded by rhetoric that neither the public nor the Congress can be bothered to read, much less analyze, bills making massive changes in medical care, then do not be surprised when life and death decisions about you or your family are taken out of your hands-- and out of the hands of your doctor-- and transferred to bureaucrats in Washington.

Let's go back to square one. The universe was not made to our specifications. Nor were human beings. So there is nothing surprising in the fact that we are dissatisfied with many things at many times. The big question is whether we are prepared to follow any politician who claims to be able to "solve" our "problem."

If we are, then there will be a never ending series of "solutions," each causing new problems calling for still more "solutions." That way lies a never-ending quest, costing ever increasing amounts of the taxpayers' money and-- more important-- ever greater losses of your freedom to live your own life as you see fit, rather than as presumptuous elites dictate.

Ultimately, our choice is to give up Utopian quests or give up our freedom. This has been recognized for centuries by some, but many others have not yet faced that reality, even today. If you think government should "do something" about anything that ticks you off, or anything you want and don't have, then you have made your choice between Utopia and freedom.

Back in the 18th century, Edmund Burke said, "It is no inconsiderable part of wisdom, to know much of an evil ought to be tolerated" and "I must bear with infirmities until they fester into crimes."

But today's crusading zealots are not about to tolerate evils or infirmities. If insurance companies are not behaving the way some people think they should, then their answer is to set up a government bureaucracy to either control insurance companies or replace them.

If doctors, hospitals or pharmaceutical companies charge more than some people feel like paying, then the answer is price control. The actual track record of politicians, government bureaucracies, or price control is of no interest to those who think this way.

Politicians are already one of the main reasons why medical insurance is so expensive. Insurance is designed to cover risks but politicians are in the business of distributing largesse. Nothing is easier for politicians than to mandate things that insurance companies must cover, without the slightest regard for how such additional coverage will raise the cost of insurance.

If insurance covered only those things that most people are most concerned about-- the high cost of a major medical expense-- the price would be much lower than it is today, with politicians piling on mandate after mandate.

Since insurance covers risks, there is no reason for it to cover annual checkups, because it is known in advance that annual checkups occur once a year. Automobile insurance does not cover oil changes, much less the purchase of gasoline, since these are regular recurrences, not risks.

But politicians in the business of distributing largesse-- especially with somebody else's money-- cannot resist the temptation to pass laws adding things to insurance coverage. Many of those who are pushing for more government involvement in medical care are already talking about extending insurance coverage to "mental health"-- which is to say, giving shrinks and hypochondriacs a blank check drawn on the federal treasury.

There are still some voices of sanity today, echoing what Edmund Burke said long ago. "The study of human institutions is always a search for the most tolerable imperfections," according to Prof. Richard Epstein of the University of Chicago. If you cannot tolerate imperfections, be prepared to kiss your freedom goodbye.

Copyright © 2009 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved.

Suborned in the U.S.A.

Suborned in the U.S.A. by Andrew C. McCarthy on National Review Online: "The birth-certificate controversy is about Obama’s honesty, not where he was born."

In New York, It’s the Summer That Isn’t - NYTimes.com

In New York, It’s the Summer That Isn’t - NYTimes.com: "... this summer has been conspicuously different in New York City. Not one 99-degree day in Central Park. Not a single day that the temperature even approached 90. For just the second time in 140 years of record keeping, the temperature failed to reach 90 in either June or July."

Government monopsony distorts climate science, says SPPI

80 BILLION DOLLARS ON A SELF-SERVING GOVERNMENT RACKET TO JUSTIFY THE LARGEST EXPANSION OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL AND TAXATION IN WORLD HISTORY. How much longer are we, as a nation, going to continue to play into this con game?

Government monopsony distorts climate science, says SPPI: "The US Government has spent more than $79 billion of taxpayers’ money since 1989 on policies related to climate change, including science and technology research, administration, propaganda campaigns, foreign aid, and tax breaks. Most of this spending was unnecessary."

One more noteworthy point ...

"Exxon-Mobil Corp is repeatedly attacked for paying just $23 million to skeptics—less than a thousandth of what the US government spends on alarmists, and less than one five-thousandth of the value of carbon trading in 2008 alone."

Definitions of monopsony on the Web:

* (economics) a market in which goods or services are offered by several sellers but there is only one buyer
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

* In economics, a monopsony (from Ancient Greek μόνος (monos) "single" + ὀψωνία (opsōnia) "purchase") is a market form in which only one buyer faces many sellers. It is an example of imperfect competition, similar to a monopoly, in which only one seller faces many buyers. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopsony

* A market situation in which there is only one buyer for a product
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/monopsony

Wonderful Shari'a Law, Iranian Style

This fact alone is enough prima facie evidence and legal case for destroying this evil regime ... And the current U.S. administration wants to negotiate and reason with these nuke-seeking mobster thugs????? I apologize to any mobsters that may have been offended by any comparison to the barbarians in occupied Persia.

I married Iranian girls before their execution | Iran news | Jerusalem Post: "In the Islamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a 'wedding' ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by her 'husband.'"

The CIA thought about taking out top al Qaeda villians ....So?

Another Phony Scandal by Andrew C. McCarthy on National Review Online: "Of course the CIA has been trying to figure out how to take out top al-Qaeda leaders. One assumes — one hopes — they are also brainstorming about wiping out the Taliban, overthrowing the Iranian regime, undermining Kim Jong Il’s nuclear program, disrupting Syrian support of Hezbollah, and tackling all manner of threats to the United States. But there is no law that requires, or could practically require, the CIA to brief Congress every time some agency component considers the feasibility of some security initiative."

Go Sarah!

Sarah Palin - A 'Cap and Tax' Road to Economic Disaster: "We have an important choice to make. Do we want to control our energy supply and its environmental impact? Or, do we want to outsource it to China, Russia and Saudi Arabia? Make no mistake: President Obama's plan will result in the latter.

For so many reasons, we can't afford to kill responsible domestic energy production or clobber every American consumer with higher prices.

Can America produce more of its own energy through strategic investments that protect the environment, revive our economy and secure our nation?

Yes, we can. Just not with Barack Obama's energy cap-and-tax plan."

CRC vs. ACORN on Fox News

ACORN 'led the fight" for responsible lending? ...

Cap & Tax: another great way to bring down a nation

A Garden of Piggish Delights by Stephen Spruiell & Kevin Williamson on National Review Online: "Two main things to understand about Waxman-Markey: First, it will not reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, at least not at any point in the near future ... it will manage to drive up the prices consumers pay for every product that requires energy for its manufacture — which is to say, for everything. Second, it represents a worse abuse of the public trust and purse than the stimulus and the bailouts put together."

More on how revolutionaries benefit from a manufactured crisis, a la "global-warming."

American Thinker: Revolution

This opinion article is somewhat dated, but makes some great observations ...

American Thinker: Revolution: "now we can see clearly what's been happening in the United States during the last three decades. While conservatives have been working to improve our democracy and our free-market economy, liberals have been working to replace our democracy with a dictatorship, and our free-market economy with a command economy controlled by the government. The liberals couldn't say this aloud, because if they did the American people would have tossed them out of office on their ears. So the liberals worked covertly, feigning support for democracy and for the free market while working diligently to undermine both."

The Great Global Warming Swindle

Reposting, because I think older post is not valid any longer.
Still a classic, and relevant, after the House passed the Cap & Tax fraud.

Cap and Trade: It's an Energy Tax

This promise, portraying himself as some sort of fiscally conservative centrist for "the little guy", probably got him about 10 percent of the 53% of the vote he garnered.