Italy ... socialist government decides when you can run your air conditioner

A sign of things to come in America if Barack Obama, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and others continue on their socialist path?

A friend just returned from vacation in Italy and shared the cultural experiences of traveling in that part of the world. But she also stressed that it was wonderful to come back home to America for a number of reasons.

She told how the final weeks of April were hot in Italy and, although the places they stayed were air conditioned, it could not be used. Why? The government allows residents to use their air conditioning only in the months of July and August.

Will that some day be the law of the land in America?

Wolf in sheep's clothing?

“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened. I no longer have to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party, the Democratic Party has adopted our platform.”

--Norman Matoon Thomas, 1944 (leading socialist, pacifist and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America in the 1930s and ’40s)

H/T to Sue

Thomas Sowell: "Dismantling America"

Will America wake up before it's too late?

Nothing so epitomizes President Obama's own contempt for American values and traditions like trying to ram two bills through Congress in his first year-- each bill more than a thousand pages long-- too fast for either of them to be read, much less discussed. That he succeeded only the first time says that some people are starting to wake up. Whether enough people will wake up in time to keep America from being dismantled, piece by piece, is another question-- and the biggest question for this generation. --Thomas Sowell

Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent?

Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers-- that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish?

Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get life-saving medical treatments?

Scary as that is from a medical standpoint, it is also chilling from the standpoint of freedom. If you have a mother who needs a heart operation or a child with some dire medical condition, how free would you feel to speak out against an administration that has the power to make life and death decisions about your loved ones?

Does any of this sound like America?

How about a federal agency giving school children material to enlist them on the side of the president? Merely being assigned to sing his praises in class is apparently not enough.

How much of America would be left if the federal government continued on this path? President Obama has already floated the idea of a national police force, something we have done without for more than two centuries.

We already have local police forces all across the country and military forces for national defense, as well as the FBI for federal crimes and the National Guard for local emergencies. What would be the role of a national police force created by Barack Obama, with all its leaders appointed by him? It would seem more like the brown shirts of dictators than like anything American.

How far the President will go depends of course on how much resistance he meets. But the direction in which he is trying to go tells us more than all his rhetoric or media spin.

Barack Obama has not only said that he is out to "change the United States of America," the people he has been associated with for years have expressed in words and deeds their hostility to the values, the principles and the people of this country.

Jeremiah Wright said it with words: "God damn America!"

Bill Ayers said it with bombs that he planted.

Community activist goons have said it with their contempt for the rights of other people.

Among the people appointed as czars by President Obama have been people who have praised enemy dictators like Mao, who have seen the public schools as places to promote sexual practices contrary to the values of most Americans, to a captive audience of children.

Those who say that the Obama administration should have investigated those people more thoroughly before appointing them are missing the point completely. Why should we assume that Barack Obama didn't know what such people were like, when he has been associating with precisely these kinds of people for decades before he reached the White House?

Nothing is more consistent with his lifelong patterns than putting such people in government-- people who reject American values, resent Americans in general and successful Americans in particular, as well as resenting America's influence in the world.

Any miscalculation on his part would be in not thinking that others would discover what these stealth appointees were like. Had it not been for the Fox News Channel, these stealth appointees might have remained unexposed for what they are. Fox News is now high on the administration's enemies list.

Nothing so epitomizes President Obama's own contempt for American values and traditions like trying to ram two bills through Congress in his first year -- each bill more than a thousand pages long -- too fast for either of them to be read, much less discussed. That he succeeded only the first time says that some people are starting to wake up. Whether enough people will wake up in time to keep America from being dismantled, piece by piece, is another question -- and the biggest question for this generation.

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.

Glenn Beck and Fox News recognized by Thomas Sowell for exposing Obama appointees

Thomas Sowell said it in his column, "Dismantling America":

Any miscalculation on his [Barack Obama's] part would be in not thinking that others would discover what these stealth appointees were like. Had it not been for the Fox News Channel, these stealth appointees might have remained unexposed for what they are. Fox News is now high on the administration's enemies list.

Glenn Beck has been connecting the dots and exposing the ugly underbelly of the Barack Obama administration.

For that he is vilified not only by the liberals, the White House, Democrats, and moonbats but also by some conservatives and others who seem more content on bashing rather than listening.

Watch Glenn Beck at 5:00 weekday afternoons on Fox News. You may learn something ... and you may even become alarmed at what is being discovered.

Barack Obama said to judge him by the people who surround him. Glenn Beck and Fox News did that. They began researching those people around this president and what they found was disturbing. Wake up, America.

"I pledge to be a servant to the president...."

Gag. A servant? To the president?

Can you believe the "I Pledge" ad that is currently making the rounds? Watch it here at Michelle Malkin's blog. She writes in her column, Obama’s classroom campaign: No junior lobbyist left behind:

“ABC” stands for All Barack’s Children. On September 8, young students across the country will be watching television. Yes, they’ll be parked in front of the boob tube and computer screens watching President Obama’s address on education.

Parents in droves are complaining to school systems ... others are vowing to keep their children out of school that day.

Day by day, I feel as if we're being indoctrinated into the Obama Nation.

The good part is that it has awakened a sleeping nation of people who are determined to protect their freedoms and not let their country be socialized by what is going on from the Obama Administration and the Democrats who rule Washington, D.C.

With these types of jam-it-down-their-throats tactics going on, I expect the home school movement and private schools to begin to grow again as parents pull children out of public schools. And a warning to those school choice parents: expect to be on the radical left's hit list. You are independent thinkers ... you must be indoctrinated.

"Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state." Adolf Hitler

Reagan on socialism disguised as health care

Ronald Reagan audio ... health care for America. Amazing message in the words of Ronald Reagan himself. Read the transcript. Amazing. Health care is the path to socialism wrapped up as a humanitarian cause. Beware.

Obama's 44 czars ... and counting

They answer to no one except Barack Obama himself ... 44 "czars" with at least another seven czar positions in the works ... those in charge of everything from auto recovery to "disinformation" to religion to stimilus ... the list goes on.

It even includes the "Green jobs czar," Van Jones, who reportedly has a communist background.

Let me repeat that ... a communist background ... in the employ of our American president.

The complete list of czars can be found at The Betrayal blog.

Random conservative encounters

Had a meeting this morning with two local Tea Party ladies who are helping to coordinate the bus trip to Washington, DC, on September 12 for the National Taxpayer Protest. When I returned to my vehicle, the car parked next to me had a bumper sticker that said:

SOCIALISM ISN'T COOL
Americans for Prosperity -- Virginia

It was a great bumper sticker and good to see AFP represented in Staunton. I took one of my business cards and wrote on the back that we had buses leaving Staunton heading to DC on September 12 for the nationwide tea party and invited this anonymous person to join us.

When I returned home, there was an email from the gentleman who is a local businessman. He said he would like to go but would be out of state that weekend but asked to be kept in the loop.

I called Ben Marchi, Virginia State Director of Americans for Prosperity, and caught him as he was driving to Roanoke for the AFP Hot Air Balloon tour event later today, and told him about the bumper sticker on a vehicle in a parking lot ... wanted to let him know AFP is really making inroads and it was neat to see one of their bumper stickers locally.

It was a random conservative encounter ... reaching out to like-minded Americans ... but not the last, I'm sure.

So you think socialism is okay? Read this....

An economics professor at Texas Tech said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class.

The class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism.

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little. The second Test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would ultimately fail because the harder to succeed the greater the reward but when a government takes all the reward away; no one will try or succeed.

H/T to Joy

"The American Spirit vs. the All-Mighty Government"

From Bobby Eberle at GOP USA....

The [stimulus] bill should be defeated, and NO Republican should support it. But rather than going line by line and showing just how bad it is, I believe we should all look at it from a higher level and see how this bill perfectly defines what the socialist mindset is all about. If you've ever had a hard time explaining the difference in political philosophies to your friends or co-workers, just point them to this bill. It is truly the American spirit vs. the all-mighty government.

Read the entire article here.

Teach your children well ...

"You can't make Socialists out of individualists--children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society which is coming, where everyone is interdependent."

- John Dewey (1859-1952), American psychologist, humanist, philosopher, and educational reformer

Redistribution of wealth ... is this what Obama means?

Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed. Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie. Again I laughed as he had given away his political preference--just imagine the coincidence.

When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need--the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight. I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I had decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient needed the money more.

I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.

[Passed on by a friend....]

"Spread the wealth around"? Socialism 101

Where is the incentive to work hard? Here is an example of "spreading the wealth around."

IBD: "Obama's radical roots and rules" ... do we really want his kind of socialist "change"?

This is eye-opening and should be required reading for every voter in America. Know the product ... know who you are voting for.

Most Americans revile socialism, yet Barack Obama's poll numbers remain competitive. One explanation: He's a longtime disciple of a man whose mission was to teach radicals to disguise their ideology.

Investor's Business Daily wrote today about where Obama's "changes" came from ... and most Americans would be appalled if they knew the background. Capitalism is the enemy ... America's corporations are a spiritual slum ... typical hard-line radical liberalism.

Sen. Obama was trained by Chicago's Industrial Areas Foundation, founded in 1940 by the radical organizer Saul Alinsky. In the 1980s, Obama spent years as director of the Developing Communities Project, which operated using Alinsky's strategies, and was involved with two other Alinsky-oriented entities, Acorn and Project Vote.

On the Obama campaign Web site can be found a photo of him teaching in a University of Chicago classroom with "Power Analysis" and "Relationships Built on Self Interest" written on the blackboard — key terms utilized in the Alinsky method.

The far-left Alinsky had no time for liberalism or liberals, declaring that "a liberal is (someone) who puts his foot down firmly on thin air." He wanted nothing less than transformational radicalism. "America was begun by its radicals," he wrote. "America was built by its radicals. The hope and future of America lies with its radicals." And so, "This is the job for today's radical — to fan the embers of hopelessness into a flame to fight. To say, '. . . let us change it together!' "

Alinsky students ranged "from militant Indians to Chicanos to Puerto Ricans to blacks from all parts of the black power spectrum, from Panthers to radical philosophers, from a variety of campus activists, S.D.S. and others, to a priest who was joining a revolutionary party in South America."

Capitalism always was considered the enemy. "America's corporations are a spiritual slum," he wrote, "and their arrogance is the major threat to our future as a free society." Is it surprising that an Alinsky disciple such as Obama can promise so blithely to increase taxes on CEOs?

Read the entire editorial here. And then call your Republican Committee and ask to volunteer for John McCain because we will need boots on the ground to get the message out to voters.

Virginia is not ready to elect a socialist radical liberal to lead our country. Spread this editorial to everyone you know including your military friends. These are dire times for America.

John McCain for President 2008

Cross-posted at SixtyFour81.com

The Ant and the Grasshopper and Hillary-Care....

[This has circulated the internet but it is good ... sent by my parents.]

The Ant and the Grasshopper ... two different versions ... two different morals....

OLD VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself.


THE MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, "It's Not Easy Being Green."

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome." Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

Hillary gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel of federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent welfare recipients.

The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be careful how you vote.