Obama Advisor Van Jones Calls Republicans "Assholes"

Pardon the language, blog friends, it's not my choice of words, but rather a rant by Obama Green Jobs adviser Van Jones. However, offensive it may be to some, it's not the language that's important. What is important is who Mr. Jones is and what his beliefs and his associations are.

Here is Jones' recent comment on the opposition to Obama's proposed policies.

To understand where Jones is coming from, we need to know where's he's been, what he stands for and what his agenda is. Glenn Beck explains in this video.

Also of interest is Sean Hannity's September 3 interview with columnist Ann Coulter, discussing not only Janes but other Obama advisers with similar backgrounds and agendas. A video the Hannity-Coulter interview is available at THIS LINK (CLICK HERE).
On FOX News "Special Report," September 3, 2009 Charles Krauthammer, Mara Liasson and Steve Hayes predict that due to the uproar Jones's remarks have created and what has been revealed about his background and beliefs, he will be "gone by Monday." Follow their discussion at THIS LINK.
The word that didn't get out during the 2008 election campaign except on FOX and in the alternative media and blog sites is now beginning to reach the American public in greater and greater numbers. And many don't like what they are hearing and what it says about this administration. I have all fingers crossed that this is going to start making a difference and that people will contact their senators and representatives, pound on their doors if need be, and demand accountability, demand that the brakes be put on this headlong rush to total centralized control over our lives by executive appointments and edicts. -- S. Lane
Thank you, blogger Bren, for the key references that provided background for this article. /sl

House Resolution 3200 Would Establish Automatic Enrollment in Health Insurance Exchange

Health care is much on all our minds. Here's more cause for concern.

CNS News reports that the bill being considered in the House of Representatives would give the President authority to appoint a federal "Health Choices Commissioner" with "sweeping power to govern the health insurance plans offered in a so-called 'exchange' where millions of Americans would get their health insurance if the bill is enacted." Not only that, but CNS also reports "Further, the commissioner would have the authority to establish 'automatic enrollment' of individuals. . . ."

In my view none of these proposals are acceptable. We must let our Representatives in Washington know our views. We must speak out -- in e-mails, blogs, local meetings and in conversations with our family and friends. -- S. Lane

Read the full CNS article here:

Health Care Bill Gives Obama Power to Appoint Government 'Commissioner' With Sweeping Power to Dictate Health Coverage

Thursday, September 03, 2009 By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer

Check out "2 Books That Your Kids Are Expected To Read!" on Mobs-R-Us

Sharing this link which I found at a list group I read and occasionally participate in. As always, I don't agree with all the views there (though agree with quite a few), but it's another source of information that we independents often aren't informed about. -- S. Lane Mobs-R-Us Mobilizing Our Base Independent Kitty Check out '2 Books That Your Kids Are Expected To Read!' Link: 2 Books That Your Kids Are Expected To Read!

Charles Krauthammer Speaking at Center for the American Experiment

A couple days ago, I received this reference in an email from a friend. It's taken me a while to track down the original source and in the process, I found several other comments by Dr. Krauthammer pertinent to our recent discussions about the Omama-care plan that I'm sharing here. ~~ S. Lane

Dr. Charles Krauthammer speaks to the Center for the American Experiment

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Last Monday was a profound evening, hearing Dr. Charles Krauthammer speak to the Center for the American Experiment. He is a brilliant intellectual, seasoned & articulate. He is forthright & careful in his analysis, & never resorts to emotions or personal insults. He is NOT a fear-monger nor an extremist in his comments & views. He is a fiscal conservative, & has a Pulitzer prize for writing. He is a frequent contributor to Fox News & writes weekly for the Washington Post. The entire room was held spellbound during his talk. I have shared this w/ many of you & several have asked me to summarize his comments, as we are living in uncharted waters economically & internationally. Even two Dims at my table agreed w/ everything he said! If you feel like forwarding this to those who are open minded & have not ‘drunk the Kool-Aid’, feel free.

This is a summary of his comments:

1. Mr. Obama is a very intellectual, charming individual. He is not to be underestimated. He is a ‘cool customer’ who doesn’t show his emotions. It’s very hard to know what’s ‘behind the mask’. Taking down the Clinton dynasty from a political neophyte was an amazing accomplishment. The Clintons still do not understand what hit them. Obama was in the perfect place at the perfect time.

2. Obama has political skills comparable to Reagan & Clinton. He has a way of making you think he’s on your side, agreeing w/ your position, while doing just the opposite. Pay no attn. to what he SAYS; rather, watch what he DOES!

3. Obama has a ruthless quest for power. He did not come to Washington to make something out of himself, but rather to change everything, incl. dismantling capitalism. He can’t be straightforward on his ambitions, as the public would not go along. He has a heavy hand, & wants to ‘level the playing field’ w/ income redistribution & punishment of the achievers of society. He would like to model the USA to Great Britain or Canada .

4. His 3 main goals are to control ENERGY, PUBLIC EDUCATION, & NAT’L HEALTHCARE by the Fed. govt. He doesn’t care about the auto or financial services industries, but got them as an early bonus.. The cap & trade will add costs to everything & stifle growth. Paying for FREE college education is his goal. Most scary is healthcare program, because if you make it FREE & add 46,000,000 people to a Medicare-type single-payer system, the costs will go thru the roof. The only way to control costs is w/ massive RATIONING of services, like in Canada . God forbid.

5. He’s surrounded himself w/ mostly far-left academic types. No one around him has ever run even a candy store. But they’re going to try & run\the auto, financial, banking & other industries. This obviously can’t work in the long run. Obama’s not a socialist; rather a far-left secular progressive bent on nothing short of revolution. He ran as a moderate, but will govern from the hard left. Again, watch what he does, not what he says.

6. Obama doesn’t really see himself as President of the USA, more as a ruler over the world. He sees himself above it all, trying to orchestrate & coordinate various countries & their agendas. He sees moral equivalency in all cultures. His apology tour in Germany & England was a prime example of how he sees America, as an imperialist nation that has been arrogant, rather than a great noble nation that has at times made errors. This is the 1st President ever who has chastised our allies & appeased our enemies!

7. He’s now handing out goodies. He hopes that the bill (& pain) will not ‘come due’ until after he’s reelected in 2012. He’d like to blame all problems on Bush from the past, & hopefully his successor in the future. He has a huge ego, & Mr. Krauthammer believes he is a narcissist.

8. Republicans are in the wilderness for a while, but will emerge strong. We’re ‘pining’ for another Reagan, but there’ll never be another like him. He believes Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty & Bobby Jindahl (except for his terrible speech in Feb.) are the future of the party.. Newt Gingrich is brilliant, but has baggage. Sarah Palin is sincere & intelligent, but needs to really be seriously boning up on facts & info if she’s to be a serious candidate in the future. We need to return to the party of lower taxes, smaller govt., personal responsibility, strong national defense, & states’ rights.

9. The current level of spending is irresponsible & outrageous. We’re spending trillions that we don’t have. This could lead to hyper inflation, depression or worse. No country has ever spent themselves into prosperity. The media is giving Obama, Reid & Pelosi a pass because they love their agenda. But eventually the bill will come due & people will realize the huge bailouts didn’t work, nor will the stimulus pkg. These were trillion-dollar payoffs to Obama’s allies, unions & the Congress to placate the left, so he can get support for #4 above.

10. The election was over in mid-Sept. when Lehman brothers failed. Fear & panic swept in, we had an unpopular President, & the war was grinding on indefinitely w/o a clear outcome. The people are in pain, & the mantra of ‘change’ caused people to act emotionally.. Any Dim would have won this election; it was surprising is was as close as it was.

11. In 2012, if the unemployment rate is over 10%, Republicans will be swept back into power. If it’s under 8%, the Dims continue to roll. If it’s between 8-10%, it’ll be a dogfight. It’ll all be about the economy.


Also worth viewing and reading are Dr. Krauthammer's comments on the Obama health care plan, presented in his usual incisive and logical style. -- S. Lane

You Tube July 22, 2009 FOX News Special Report

The Washington Post: Obamacare: The Only Exit Strategy By Charles Krauthammer

Friday, August 28, 2009

Obamacare Version 1.0 is dead. The 1,000-page monstrosity that emerged in various editions from Congress was done in by widespread national revulsion not just at its expense and intrusiveness but also at the mendacity with which it is being sold. You don't need a PhD to see that the promise to expand coverage and reduce costs is a crude deception, or that cutting $500 billion from Medicare without affecting care is a fiction.

But there is an exit strategy. And a politically clever one, if the Democrats are smart enough to seize it.

And it is this "exit strategy" that Krauthammer warns about here:

It's the perfect finesse -- government health care by proxy. And because it's proxy, and because it will guarantee access to (supposedly) private health insurance -- something that enjoys considerable Republican support -- it will pass with wide bipartisan backing and give Obama a resounding political victory.

Isn't there a catch? Of course there is. This scheme is the ultimate bait-and-switch. The pleasure comes now, the pain later. Government-subsidized universal and virtually unlimited coverage will vastly compound already out-of-control government spending on health care. The financial and budgetary consequences will be catastrophic.

However, they will not appear immediately. And when they do, the only solution will be rationing. That's when the liberals will give the FCCCER regulatory power and give you end-of-life counseling.

But by then, resistance will be feeble. Why? Because at that point the only remaining option will be to give up the benefits we will have become accustomed to. Once granted, guaranteed universal health care is not relinquished. Look at Canada. Look at Britain. They got hooked; now they ration. So will we.

Childhood Obesity Report Calls For Government Regulations to Limit Access to 'Unhealthy' Restaurant Chains

Here's something else for us to think about.

Now the new target of behavior modification via government edict is our preferences for what our children should be "permitted" to eat, enforceable of course through targeted taxation and zoning regulations. While I would like to see all children eating healthy foods, I do NOT favor imposing that preference on others through more government regulations. But I fear it's coming. We've seen it with the regulation and ever-increasing taxes on tobacco. Not that I'd ever claim smoking is a healthy thing to do, but again, I think taking the risk should be a personal choice, not one controlled through tax policy and ever more stringent regulations on private business owners. And, let's not fool ourselves, the new target area is the foods we and our children should be permitted (by government) to have access to.

If you doubt this, you may want to take a look at the following article. -- S. Lane

Childhood Obesity Report Calls For Government Regulations to Limit Access to "Unhealthy" Restaurant Chains Wednesday, September 02, 2009 By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) - A newly released report by the Institute for Medicine and the National Research Council details strategies for local governments to combat what it calls an epidemic of childhood obesity, including enacting zoning and land-use regulations that would “restrict fast food establishments near school grounds and public playgrounds.”

Potential Cost of Waxman-Markley Clean Air Bill

Heritage Foundation study finds that passage of the Waxman-Markley energy bill creating a system of cap--and-trade would have a negative impact on business and jobs for decades as well as raising the cost of gasoline.

Thank you, Sandy, for alerting me to this information. ~~ S. Lane

Waxman-Markey's Effect on Gas Prices in Your State

by Nicolas Loris and Ben Lieberman August 28, 2009 WebMemo #2598

The Waxman–Markey energy bill, which would restrict greenhouse gas emissions by creating a cap-and-trade system, was passed by the House in June and will likely be considered by the Senate soon.

If this bill becomes law, gasoline prices would increase significantly in order to meet emissions limits imposed by the legislation.

Also see

The Economic Consequences of Waxman-Markey: An Analysis of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009
by David Kreutzer, Ph.D., Karen Campbell, Ph.D., William W. Beach, Ben Lieberman and Nicolas Loris August 6, 2009 Center for Data Analysis Report #09-04
After a truncated debate and last-minute changes, the House of Representatives narrowly passed climate-change legislation on June 26, 2009, designed by Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Edward Markey (D-MA). The 1,427-page bill would restrict greenhouse gas emissions from industry, mainly carbon dioxide from the combustion of coal, oil, and natural gas.

Since energy is the lifeblood of the American economy, 85 percent of which comes from CO2-emitting fossil fuels, the Waxman-Markey bill represents an extraordinary level of economic interference by the federal government. For this reason, it is important for policymakers to have a sense of the economic impact that accompanies any environmental benefits.[1]

Hear Lieberman's comments

More comments

Barry Goldwater Jr. said "Health Care? The Government Can't Even Run a Railroad"

A friend on one of my list groups posted this interesting and enlightening article written by Barry Goldwater, Jr. on August 26, 2009 for The American Spectator.

Mr. Goldwater succinctly points out that the federal government does not exactly have a stellar track record for running programs aimed at doing what the private sector does better. I agree with him. ~~ S. Lane

"Health Care? The Government Can't Even Run a Railroad" The American Spectator

By Barry Goldwater, Jr. on 8.26.09 @ 6:08AM

Nowhere in the debate regarding health care has anyone asked if the government is able and qualified to run such a system. Before we ask the government to manage universal health care, let's check them out.

How successful has the federal government been in managing agencies, programs and businesses?

Let's look at Medicare. The president and Congress propose to extend Medicare to cover the 47 million people who lack health care coverage. Did anyone remind Congress that Medicare is broke? It's rampant with fraud and abuse. It is estimated that Medicare and Medicaid fraud cost taxpayers $60 billion per year.

Medicare is required by law to pay full retail prices for drugs that could be obtained for far less in a competitive-bidding system.

Health insurance companies are required by state regulators to maintain a reserve for future liabilities. Every working stiff in this country is required to pay premium taxes into Medicare, which has no reserve. The federal government has been running the largest Ponzi scheme ever created, and it is on the hook for $36 trillion in unfunded liabilities. And you, Mr. President, want the federal government to run health care?

On Aug. 4, 1977, Jimmy Carter declared war on energy dependence and created the U.S. Department of Energy. Every president since has done the same. Today, 31 years later, the Department of Energy's budget is $26 billion. It employs 16,000 people and 100,000 contract employees. We are no closer to energy independence than we were in 1977. And you want the federal government to run health care?

The U.S. Postal Service lost $7 billion last year and is talking about closing hundreds of offices. And you want the federal government to run health care?

The Federal Reserve was created by the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 to maintain a stable financial system. The Federal Reserve gets failing marks for its direct complicity in the economic meltdown and subsequent recession. The Federal Reserve has failed us. And you want the federal government to run health care?

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created by Congress as government-sponsored enterprises to provide low-interest funding for the mortgage industry. These government-run mortgage banks were created to provide competition and cheap loans to those who could not afford normal market rates.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own more than $5 trillion in mortgage paper. On Sept. 7, 2008, they were declared insolvent and were taken over by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and bailed out with more than $400 billion -- another government-run mess. And you, Mr. President, want the federal government to run health care?

Amtrak was created by an act of Congress in October 1970 to run the nation's railroad system. Amtrak was supposed to reverse over two decades of continuous operating deficits. With a congressional mandate to become profitable, it was given $40 million in initial funding, along with $100 million in loan guarantees. After 38 years, Amtrak has never made a profit and receives a federal subsidy, with no prospect in sight of breaking even. And you want the federal government to run health care?

The war on drugs was started by President Richard Nixon in 1969. The United States has been spending $69 billion a year worldwide for the past 40 years, for a total of $2.5 trillion, on drug prohibition -- with little to show for it. Today, there are more drugs on our streets at cheaper prices than ever before. It is easier for young people to obtain illegal drugs than a six-pack of beer. Why? Because sellers of illegal drugs don't ask kids for IDs. And you want the federal government to run health care?

The list of government failures is long and telling. I can't wait for "Government Motors'" new car. Are you waiting anxiously? Are you holding your breath? That car will be on recall for many years. And you, Mr. President, want the federal government to run health care?

The government has failed for 30 years to achieve energy independence. The government has bankrupted the Medicare program. The Postal Service is broke. The Federal Reserve was the primary cause of this economic meltdown and recession. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been taken over and bailed out. We have lost the war on drugs.

Mr. President, our government can't even run a railroad. How the hell do you think the government will ever manage a universal health care system?

Einstein once said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

This video at the Fox Business News site underscores Mr. Goldwater's point.