Press 1 for Save the Elites Press 2 for Pandering...

indyfromaz|

Remember this beauty, it’s 80 Miles from the Border.
The Democrats, and specifically Harry Reid have decided to bring the issue back up, but in an underhanded manner that is a cynical political ploy.
Put simply, Harry Reid has attached the DREAM Act (Amnesty) to a Defense Bill so you can vote against the troops or vote for Amnesty. The so-called “Blue dog” Democrats won’t vote for it. The Republicans certainly won’t. So it’s just red meat thrown to the troops as “Hope”.
HOPE IS FEAR
And the cynical ply doesn’t stop there.
Oh no, why would it.
No, this is a blatant attempt to energize a demoralized base to turn out at the polls to save themselves from a taxpayer revolt.
It’s all about them.
“We need to get out the message that it’s now really dangerous to re-empower the Republican Party,” said one Democratic strategist who has spoken with White House advisers but requested anonymity to discuss private strategy talks.
Late Sunday night, White House advisers denied that a national ad campaign was being planned. “There’s been no discussion of such a thing at the White House” or the Democratic National Committee, said David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s senior adviser.(NYT)
Which means they are have produced the ads and are just waiting for that last minute all-out Nuclear Armageddon strike.
The more people they can get out to the polls to vote against the anger wave headed their way, the better.
So let’s throw a “hope” out. A “hope” that has no real hope of actually passing. But we can stir up the Hornet’s nest  and try obscure what we’ve done to destroy this country.
And besides, if you disagree, you’re a racist!
After all, the Democrats main strategy seems to be, Want More Bush? or Want these kooks and extremists (aka Tea Party) to takeover??
They can’t and won’t run on their own “accomplishments” because none of them are positive.

Heath Care: The Majority still favors repeal. Despite the campaigns to “explain it better” so you’ll love have the government deciding whether you live or die.
Debt: It was George Bush’s Fault that the 10 Trillion Deficit is now over 14.
Financial reform: It was Bush’s Fault that they’ve stiffeled business and burdened them with choking regulations and made uncertainty the only certainty.
It  was the Democrats fault for the Subprime-Meltdown because they got the ball rolling that eventually turned into the mountain. But you won’t hear that from them either.
And does anyone seriously think that the sequel to the 1980′s Anti-Reagan movie “Wall Street” is anything other propaganda?? I mean really…
Stimulus: A miserable failure. A Trillion dollars that “saved or created” jobs that either didn’t need saving (because they were saving Union Pensions instead) or they cost $2 million per jobs (as in LA).
Vice President Joe Biden on Friday cited one in which the New York City Department of Transportation is spending $175 million to renovate bridges and a parking lot, putting all of 120 people to work. That’s $1.46 million per job. Another job on Biden’s list, a highway project in Ohio, has created 300 jobs and costs $138 million — $460,000 per worker.
When the Democrats are in charge, the rich just get richer. Wait — isn’t that what we’re supposed to say about Republicans?
Not so when federal stimulus funds are being spent.
Washington has taken trickle-down economics to a whole new level of inefficiency. Those closest — literally — to the seat of federal power get the most. By the time the funds make their long journey to paychecks for people doing productive work, there’s not a whole lot left. (IBD)

But don’t worry, there’s always hope.
Taxes: they are going up on 1/1/11 and The Democrats are ideologically incapable of stopping it. It’s like staring into mouth of hell for Democrats to raise taxes on anyone but “the rich” which the Bush tax Cuts WILL do and they are hypnotized by it. So they just conveniently forget about it and go for class warfare instead.
Then there are all the taxes associated with their “Reforms”, Aka health Care and Financial that they won’t talk about.
Jobs: Well, the President’s “focus” has been a bit lazy. And when his economic team promised if you spend a Trillion dollars on the stimulus the maximum unemployment will be is 8% (That person has now left the team).
It’s nearly 10% and has been for the better part of a year and now many pundits and economists are talking about a permanent underclass and permanent structural unemployment.
So Mission accomplished there!
You have plenty of people completely dependent on your largess and will do whatever you want them to do and think whatever you want them to.
And that were the illegals come in again.
They are apart of that underclass. And they have to stay there to be manipulated. So keep dangling the carrot!
And just like the NAACP, Hispanics have plenty of organizations that “speak form them” that are only interested in their own self-interest of self-perpetuation of their own power and self-importance.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says illegal immigrants do essential work in the U.S. and he has firsthand knowledge of that — because they fix his house.
Powell, a moderate Republican, urged his party Sunday to support immigration generally because it is “what’s keeping this country’s lifeblood moving forward.”
In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” he said a path to legal status should be offered to illegal immigrants because they “are doing things we need done in this country.”
He added: “They’re all over my house, doing things whenever I call for repairs, and I’m sure you’ve seen them at your house. We’ve got to find a way to bring these people out of the darkness and give them some kind of status.”
Powell did not say whether he has hired illegal immigrants directly or they showed up with contractors.
They do Gen. Powell’s house so they must be ok! Let’s just give them all Amnesty!
So what about the Legal American Construction Worker?
Oh, he’s on the unemployment line looking for a job ,for the past 2 years.
The unemployment rate for the construction industry edged down to 17 percent in August.
Who cares about him. Because if you’re against illegal aliens taking his job, you’re a racist!


“While we may have a handful of nominees out of the mainstream, the American people have come to the conclusion this administration and this Congress are out of the mainstream,” said John Weaver, a Republican consultant.(NYT)
The elites are better than you, remember. You should trust people who are smarter,better educated, slicker than oil itself, after all.
And besides, if you disagree you’re a racist and/or a bigot!
Or even better, An EXTREMIST!  (not that they aren’t, by they the way-just ignore the socialist behind the curtain).
So Press 1 for Elitism
Press 2 for Pandering
Press 3 for Creative Lying
Press 4 for Out-and-Out Bold faced Lies
Press 5 For Class Warfare
Press 6 For Ministry Truth/mainstream Media Spin
Press 7 to VOTE THE BUMS OUT!
7 has always been a lucky number.

The Ruling Class Propaganda Machine

indyfromaz|

Did you hear the one about the 55 jobs that were saved or created by using $111,000,000?
No? Just ask Los Angeles.
More than a year after Congress approved $800 billion in stimulus funds, the Los Angeles city controller has released a 40-page report on how the city spent its share, and the results are not living up to expectations.
“I’m disappointed that we’ve only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million,” said Wendy Greuel, the city’s controller. “With our local unemployment rate over 12 percent we need to do a better job cutting red tape and putting Angelenos back to work.”
According to the audit, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works spent $70 million in stimulus funds — in return, it created seven private sector jobs and saved seven workers from layoffs. Taxpayer cost per job: $1.5 million.
The Los Angeles Department of Transportation created even fewer jobs per dollar, spending $40 million but netting just nine jobs. Taxpayer cost per job: $4.4 million.
Greuel blamed the dismal numbers on several factors:
1. Bureaucratic red tape: Four highway projects did not even go out to bid until seven months after they were authorized.
2. Projects that were supposed to be competitively bid in the private sector went instead went to city workers.
3. Stimulus money was not properly tracked within departments
4. Both departments could not report the jobs created and retained in a timely fashion..
And this bureaucrat went on to give themself a B- grade for their performance!!
And these are the bureaucrat types who are going to be in charge of your Health Care and whether you live or die?
God Help us All!!
But the Stimulus is a compete and glorious success. Just ask the Mainstream Media and Press…
And Now the Ministry Of Truth Cheerleading of The Week Story:
Diane Sawyer (Anchor, ABC News Tonight) announced the “President’s stimulus program” of $818 billion was “designated to create or save millions of jobs” and though “Republicans say it’s been largely unsuccessful,” the “White House is firing back, and our Jon Karl has a look at the top of the list, the ones that have worked the best.”  Previewing a report to be released Friday by the Vice President’s office, “100 Recovery Act Projects that Are Changing America” (AP dispatch), Karl trumpeted how “the White House will detail the top 100 stimulus programs in the country. We have an exclusive list at what they considered the greatest hits of the stimulus program.”
Karl began with a project in New Jersey “where a toxic area contaminated by an old electronics plant is being transformed into a new industrial park, thanks to $30 million stimulus dollars” and, he raved, “the project has already created 68 jobs.”
Showing the effort to which ABC went to produce the advertisement for President Obama, the Washington DC-based Karl showed himself at the site of his second example in New York City, to which he credited 120 jobs: “The White House is also touting the $175 million in stimulus funds being spent here at New York’s Staten Island ferry terminal, replacing nine bridges like this one that are in a dangerous state of disrepair.”
Next, after noting Senator John McCain’s claim the spending has been a waste, Karl cited “230 jobs created” by “$51 million for a new facility for injured veterans at Fort Bliss, Texas” and, finally, without any job creation claim, “$25 million in tax credits for GE to build a new plant for energy efficient appliances in Louisville, Kentucky.” That would be a little corporate welfare for MSNBC’s owner.
Karl concluded that adding up all the jobs in the 100 projects in the White House list, though he did not cite a total claimed number, “comes to $250,000 per job, but the White House says the actual cost per job is much lower, because each of these projects will have ripple effects, creating many more jobs in the future.”
Sawyer then reiterated the White House line: “So they say these are facts, too, and these are the facts that show it’s been working.”
And these are the facts that show there is no Journalism anymore in the Mainstream media, just Propaganda for Big Brother.
“I’m sad to report today a death of a good friend to all of us…..Journalism, the once esteemed 4th estate of our nation and the protector of our freedoms and a watchdog of our rights has passed away after a long struggle with a crippling and debilitating disease of acute dishonesty aggravated by advanced laziness and the loss of brain function.”–Former Gov. Mick Hucakbee (2009).
Just the Facts, Ma’am!
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Our New Orwellian Phrase of the Week:
From the administration that brought you “man-caused disaster” (terrorist attack) and “overseas contingency operation,” (war) another terminology change is in the pipeline.
The White House wants the public to start using the term “global climate disruption” in place of “global warming” — fearing the latter term oversimplifies the problem and makes it sound less dangerous than it really is. (FOX)
So from Global Cooling…”inadvertent climate modification.”….to Global Warming…To Global Climate Change… to Climate Change…to Global Climate Disruption?…..
And when that fails to dull the minds of everyone to their fake threat then what?
But Republicans predicted that re-branding the issue would have limited effect on the legislative effort. GOP strategist Pete Snyder said he doubts the term is going to change hearts and minds. “Are they going to change the name of weathermen to disruption analysts?”
Especially, after Climate Gate it was very apparent that science was taking a back seat to Progressive Liberal Politics.
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Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) turned an already fractious midterm election cycle on its ear, defying her own party to launch a write-in campaign for her Senate seat after losing to Tea Party Republican Joe Miller in the primary. I guess her Ego just couldn’t handle losing to an insignificant little dweeb in the Tea Party.

This is what’s wrong with the ruling political classes on BOTH sides. They are too comfortable with their Marie Antionette “Let Them Eat Cake” attitude that they are so much better than the little people.

Yes, even Republicans.

Remember, I am a registered Independent. I am also a Conservative, first.

“We cannot accept the extremist views of Joe Miller,” she said, admitting that she did not “swing back” when under attack in the primary, but promising to do so with relish now.
“The gloves are off,” she said.

Her Ego must have really been bruised. Now she sounds like MSDNC, or the NAACP or Huffington Post.
The ruling class has been hurt by the little people.
“The Peasants are revolting, sire”
“Yeah, I know, they stink on ice” (Mel Brooks History of the World Part 1)
Then there’s Chrisitine O’Donnell, the “kooky” candidate Tea party nominee in Delaware that upset the apple cart by taking out a RINO (Republican in  Name Only) who was well loved by the ruling class because he had an (R) next to his name but was in fact a Liberal. But he was one of “them”.
Karl Rove attacks her savagely, sounding like Chris Matthews  or Rachael “Madcow” Maddow on MSDNC.
Charles Krauthammer, who anyone who reads this blog will know I have great respect for, attacks her.
Why?
Because it’s a numbers game to them. Winning at any cost is just politics.
And that’s all that matters. The Power. Not the principles.
But if we happen to get conservatives in at the same time, that’s a bonus. Not the actual benefit.
And isn’t that ass backwards??

“The verdict is in,” O’Donnell proclaimed. “The small elite don’t get us. They call us wacky. They call us wing nuts. We call us ‘we the people.’” What is happening in America today, she said “is a love affair with liberty.”

“The constitution is making a comeback,” O’Donnell said. “Americans want our leaders to defend our values, our culture, our legacy of liberty and our way of life — not apologize … They have rejected the narrative that has been imposed on them by the D.C. cocktail crowd.”

Many voted for “Hope and Change” and what they got was a Hope of what the Progressive Liberal Democrats wanted to Change this country into.

“Yes We Can” meant the Democrats changing America into Europe.

And the ruling classes of politicians are ok with it, as long as they are the ones in power.

“I don’t want the majority back if we don’t believe anything,” Sen. DeMint said on Fox News. “So I think if we want the numbers, if we want the majority, then we’re going to have to stand on some principles that the American people believe in.”

And neither do I, because then you’re just trading one slave master for another.

The political animal has not changed his spots.

So we have to change them for him or her.

Simple.

The Dream of Amnesty

indyfromaz|

The wet dream of Liberals, just like their slobbering for government control of Health Care that they’d been dreaming of for 70 years, here comes Amnesty again!
But it’s not straightforward, oh no, never. That hasn’t worked. So now we have to be sneaky again.
The Wolf is trying to sneak in the back door under a false guise. And it’s not even Halloween yet!
As if the Justice Department and ICE office simply not prosecuting illegals for any reason was bad enough, now in a highly cynical and political way, Senate Majority Harry Reid has re-proposed the DREAM ACT (aka Amnesty) but not in the way anyone should think.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has hit a new low by slipping an amnesty plan for illegal immigrants into a defense funding bill. In effect, he’s holding U.S. troops hostage to advance his own political career.
Longtime members of the Senate Armed Services Committee are shuddering at the way the defense budget has become a Christmas tree for political ornaments. Since last year, Democrats have used appropriations for U.S. troops in Afghanistan to attach riders that couldn’t otherwise pass muster.
Now Reid has hung the ugliest ornament of them all — the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act — and has scheduled a vote on it next week.
“This is an all-time low for me being in the Senate, and that’s saying something,” committee member Lindsay Graham told Foreign Policy magazine. “The one area that’s been kept off limits from partisan politics has been the defense of our nation. To say that you’re going to bring up a defense bill and put the DREAM Act on it … to me is very offensive.”
But Reid, D-Nev., apparently couldn’t care less. He sees a political payoff — for himself — by offering amnesty to the children of illegal immigrants via the DREAM Act in a bid to energize the Latino vote.
As representative of the state with the highest number of illegal immigrants (as well as the highest unemployment rate at 14.2%), Reid is hoping he can break away from Republican challenger Sharron Angle in his own dead-heat reelection race by delivering amnesty to that constituency.
He’s also betting that Republicans will be forced to go along because of their strong support of the military. Reid has also slipped in a second rider, this one for ending the Pentagon’s “don’t ask-don’t tell” policy on gay servicemen without waiting for the military’s input.
Both riders stand to wreak havoc in the U.S. if this bill passes. The act is outright amnesty for the children of illegal immigrants, and offers a no-penalty path to citizenship for anyone connected with them.
It says that any child of an illegal who arrives in the U.S. before age 16, spends five years here and completes two years of college or military service in a six-year span without felonies gets a green card ahead of others who have waited patiently for their papers.
They will have access to taxpayer-funded loans and grants, and may crowd out children of U.S. citizens at state and community colleges. They are not required to pay back the loans, learn English or maintain a decent GPA. They can start the process up to age 35, and get six years to finish a mere two years of college or military service.
And once they’ve been granted citizenship, they can bring all their relatives to the U.S. in what will be the mother of chain migrations.
Even worse, there’s no cutoff date on when an illegal immigrant can begin the process, so the bill becomes a dinner triangle to would-be immigrants everywhere to ship their teenagers to the states before they turn 16. Mexican cartels that smuggle illegals for $10,000 a pop must be slavering at the possible new business.
Thanks to an effective propaganda campaign based on sob stories from immigrant lobbies, most of these facts about the DREAM Act aren’t well-known. But make no mistake: The legislation as written amounts to amnesty for almost everyone.
This may be why, despite the measure being around the Senate for seven years, it has never garnered enough votes for passage. It has come close, but public opposition has stopped it when the facts are made known. That should be the result when Reid selfishly tries to get away with it again next week.
But you don’t want to say no to troops, now do you?


WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama assured Hispanics on Wednesday he was not walking away from immigration reform while expressing disappointment that he had not delivered on a 2008 promise to overhaul U.S. policy.
Aka Amnesty.
He blamed Republicans for backing away from reform and urged Hispanics — an important and growing voting bloc — to continue giving him the support they gave during his presidential campaign.
“Now, I know that many of you campaigned hard for me, and understandably you’re frustrated that we have not been able to move this over the finish line yet. I am too,” he told a gala dinner for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, referring to immigration reform.
“But let me be clear: I will not walk away from this fight. My commitment is getting this done as soon as we can. We can’t keep kicking this challenge down the road.”
Be we can utterly cynical and manipulative to benefit ourself and our party, isn’t that right, Mr President?
The Democrats want poor, hispanic voters as a bloc to fight over the rest of you “racists” who don’t want to recognize the magnificence, grandeur, and magnanimity of THE ONE.
In other words, they want SUCKERS!

“But don’t forget who is standing with you, and who is standing against you. Don’t ever believe that this election coming up doesn’t matter. … Don’t forget who your friends are.”
Anyone with a (D) next to their name is not your friend. And many with “incumbent” aren’t either.
Be Involved. Be Informed. Vote.

Recipe for Control

indyfromaz|

I took up cooking, one, because I found I really enjoy it, but also because it’s better for me to control my own food rather than trust it to a heart attack in a box (have you read the fat & sodium contents on some of those pre-prepared meals!).
But the difference between my approach and the First Lady’s Food Police cudgel approach is I’m not preaching and I’m not trying to control other people.
She is. Just like her husband.
I often wonder who’s the more elitist, her or her husband.
“Even if we give parents all the information they need and improve school meals and build brand new supermarkets on every corner, none of that matters if when families step into a restaurant, they can’t make a healthy choice,” Mrs. Obama told them.
So we have to control you at every turn so you won’t be tempted!
So, instead of speaking to parents about moderation, the first lady wants to micromanage menus, making french fries a special order item at fast-food outlets and apples the default side order of choice for kids. Butter and cream must be cut, and whole wheat pasta must replace white.
Harmless advocacy? Perhaps. But Mrs. Obama’s speeches at political rallies and conventions suggests it’s probably more. The gears of government seem to be turning to her cause.
The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday announced a $31 million program to combat obesity (and smoking) in eight states. It comes with a plan to go coercive: “Use price to discourage consumption of tobacco and to benefit consumption of healthy food/drinks,” the press release reads. As in price controls?
The coincidences pile up as community organizers tied quite closely to the Obama campaign, including the National Council of La Raza and the NAACP, joined the cause. To aid the effort, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation chipped in a $2 million grant.
Fascinating associates don’t you think? La Raza, a racist hispanic group and the NAACP who calls Tea Partiers racists. Fascinating…
Then there’s the anti-McDonald’s TV ad campaign just launched by the Physicians Committee for Responsibility, another pressure group with a vegetarian and animal-rights agenda. In true Alinsky style, they’ve picked a target, personalized it and laid all the problems of obesity on one fast-food operator.
The advert shows a woman weeping over the body of a man in a morgue, with the man still holding a half-eaten hamburger. Toward the end of the advert, the McDonald’s logo appears along with the tag-line “I was lovin’ it”. The commercial then urges watchers to ““High cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart attacks. Tonight, make it vegetarian”.
Then you get Michael Moore who hadn’t been getting any attention lately spouting off that McDonald’s has killed more people than terrorists have.
What’s galling about all this is that Mrs. Obama’s anti-obesity campaign — like the policies pushed by her husband — presumes government has all the answers. In reality, it doesn’t.
Bu they think it does, as long as they are in control of it, that is. The Insufferably Superior Left strikes again!
Diets are a personal choice with different impacts on different people. Some children stay fit eating all the fast food they like; others can’t handle a donut. Some effective low-carbohydrate diets don’t restrict cream and butter at all, but minimize fruit. Go figure.
Micromanaging restaurant menus will only drive consumers to the junk food section at the grocery to get the goodies they crave. It won’t end childhood obesity, the causes of which are far more complex and numerous than trips to the Golden Arches.
But then you just drive the junk food purveyors out of business then and TA DA!   Instant Health! And you have Big Brother and Big Mommy to thank for it!
Like any solution imposed by big government, Mrs. Obama’s will harm business, limit choice and politicize the personal — a recipe for failure. (IBD)
You have to assume the Insufferably Superior Left actually cares. I know I don’t.
After all, her husband is frequent photographed (to look less like the elite he is) eating very unhealthy foods and he admits to being…a SMOKER!
Don’t do as I do, do as I say!
But Michelle can’t clean up her husband, oh no, she has to crusade against evil fat and salt to save you all from yourselves!
The Empress has no clothes.
She said it’s also important to change these national eating habits because they end up costing billions in additional healthcare costs.
And they want to take over your Health Care from birth to death. Hmmmm…Fascinating…
“I’m not asking any of you to make drastic changes to every single one of your recipes or to totally change the way you do business,” she said.
Not Yet, at least.
After all, when Liberals start preaching about it “being for the children” watch out!! (since they consider anyone who disagrees with them as “children” anyhow).

So how long before we “recommend” to a private business what they can serve and just force them to serve what we think is best for you?
After all, restaurants that serve crap, close. That’s business. But what if that’s all they are allowed to serve??
While suggestions that eateries serve a side of apples instead of French fries as the default side dish likely won’t go anywhere, there is another way to serve kids fewer calories. Just make the portions smaller.

Smaller portions mean less cost for the restaurant, and can help kids slim down. Charge the same, serve less food. Talk about a win-win! (Entrepeneur.com)

Exactly. The portion sizes today are about 1/3 larger than say 50 years ago.

If you can teach people to eat less, not just control what they eat, then you can lose weight!

After all, you have to burn more calories than you take in to do it.

And I fail but not as often as I used to and I have cleaned up my diet. So a lot of it is   also because of lack of proper regular exercise to on this middle-aged frame. But that’s another story…

But I don’t want to control you.

I trust with proper education and not liberal hysterics and Alinsky scare tactics that you are capable of make reasonable decisions and understand and accept the consequences of your actions.

But I also know that that part is nearly impossible in today’s liberal entitlement and evade responsibility for everything environment.

That’s what has to change. Not the menu.

“The delusion is that we all make free choices,”- Anti-soda crusader Harold Goldstein

* Obesity lawsuit instigator John “Sue the Bastards” Banzhaf lashes out: “All these platitudes about, ‘people should eat less,’ ‘responsibility,’ all this crap!” * Marion Nestle, queen of the food scolds, thinks that “balance, moderation and exercise” have no practical importance. “I don’t support that,” she says.
* Discussing “The Politics of Food,” Skip Spitzer of the radical Pesticide Action Network maintains that “the idea of personal responsibility is a cultural construct.”
* PETA medical “expert” Neal Barnard tells tales of food addiction, arguing that “it’s high time we stopped blaming ourselves for over-eating.”
* Kelly “Big Brother” Brownell advocates “a more militant attitude about the toxic food environment, like we have about tobacco… [smoking] became so serious that society overlooked the intrusion on individual rights for the greater social good.” He also suggests that human beings have no more control over their food choices than animals in a cage.
* Margo Wootan, one of the top killjoys at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), implores: “We have got to move beyond personal responsibility.” And when the World Health Organization added a single, understated sentence referencing the “exercise of individual responsibility” to its anti-obesity strategy, CSPI raged: “Obesity is not merely a matter of individual responsibility. Such suggestions are naive and simplistic.”

Here’s how noted food critic Robert Shoffner describes their philosophy: “People are children and have to be protected by Big Brother or Big Nanny from the awful free-market predators … That’s what drives these people — a desire for control of other people’s lives.” (consumerfreedom.com)

So they aren’t the Insufferably Superior are they?

You are just children who must be led to do what is best for you.

Just like the fact that the fabulously beautiful planet Bethselamin is now so worried about the cumulative erosion by ten billion visiting tourists a year that any net imbalance between the amount you eat and the amount you excrete whilst on the planet is surgically removed from your bodyweight when you leave: so every time you go to the lavatory it is vitally important to get a receipt. (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy)

John Stossel: For what it’s worth, here is some of the research we dug up to prepare my Michelle Obama discussion:
In his article “Egg on their Faces,” Steve Malanga points out that “Government dietary advice often proves disastrous.”
Starting in the 1970s… the American Heart Association advised people to reduce drastically their consumption of eggs as part of a goal to limit total cholesterol intake to 300 milligrams a day (a single egg can have 250 milligrams). The recommendation, seconded by government and other public-health groups, prompted a sharp drop in the consumption of eggs, a food that nutritionists praise as low in calories and high in nutrients. In 2000, the AHA revised its restrictions on eggs to one a day (from a onetime low of three a week)… To what purpose? A 2004 article in The Journal of Nutrition that looked at worldwide studies of egg consumption noted that the current restrictions on eating eggs are “unwarranted for the majority of people and are not supported by scientific data.”
Furthermore:
As a recent review of the latest research in Scientific American pointed out, ever since the first set of federal guidelines appeared in 1980, Americans heard that they had to reduce their intake of saturated fat by cutting back on meat and dairy products and replacing them with carbohydrates. Americans dutifully complied. Since then, obesity has increased sharply, and the progress that the country has made against heart disease has largely come from medical breakthroughs like statin drugs, which lower cholesterol, and more effective medications to control blood pressure.
Malanga also notes that new FDA guidelines recommend a maximum of 1500 milligrams of salt daily (down from 2300).  One hypertension expert observed  that the government’s salt war is a giant uncontrolled experiment with the public’s health.

Here are a few more reasons why government shouldn’t tell us what to eat:
We’re living longer than ever! 80 yrs today vs. 57 yrs  80 yrs ago
A CDC study found that more people die every year from being underweight than overweight!  And that moderately overweight people live longer than those at normal weight.
Government was once excited about BMI index. (body-mass index) Gov Mike Huckabee had all Arkansas kids tested!  But BMI is a lousy measure of health.  According to BMI: Tom Cruise and Arnold Schwarzenegger are obese; GWBush and George Clooney are “overweight”
Calorie counts on menu boards don’t work: people STILL don’t take in fewer calories! A study at McDonald’s , Burger King, Wendy’s, and Kentucky Fried Chicken found that people ordered MORE calories after the labeling law went into effect.
What’s junk food?  Chicago’s new candy tax defines sweets that contain flour as “food” – w/o flour as “candy.”  (Hershey bar? Candy. But Kit Kats, Twix, Twizzlers –are “food”) O.j. and apple juice? More calories than Coke! (97 v 120/cup)
“Protect the children?”  Children are the responsibility of their parents. When the state assumes the role of parent, it makes children of all of us.
It’s a good sign that America has food nannies – means were so rich that these are the things we’re worried about!
The food police haven’t jailed anyone yet, but who knows 20 years down the road?  MeMe Roth suggests annual obesity screenings at school; serving soft drinks to only those over 18; child abuse laws for parents with obese kids; taxes on soda and sweetened drinks.


If the government is allowed to dictate our diet, what’s next? Do they start deciding who we’ll marry, where we’ll work?

Thomas Jefferson said “A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have.”

Leg Breakers & Truthers Unite

A Must See:  New Ray Stevens Song- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWpOcZVnBrc

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TIME FOR SOME LEG-BREAKING!

Katherine Sebelius, Health Czar (Health and Human Services Secretary) is going all Chicago Style:

"Health insurers say they plan to raise premiums for some Americans as a direct result of the health overhaul in coming weeks, complicating Democrats' efforts to trumpet their signature achievement before the midterm elections. Aetna Inc., some BlueCross BlueShield plans and other smaller carriers have asked for premium increases of between 1 percent and 9 percent to pay for extra benefits required under the law, according to filings with state regulators," reported by the Wall Street Journal.
In addition, a Mercer survey of employers found that 79 percent expect they will lose  their "grandfathered" status by 2014, and therefore will become subject to many more of Obamacare's new mandates - a much higher figure than the administration  had estimated. Employers expect those additional mandates will increase premiums by 2.3 percent, on average, and boost the overall growth of premiums from 3.6 percent to 5.9 percent in 2011.

In response to the health insurers' claims, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius fired off a letter to the head of the health insurance lobby. The news release on the HHS website makes her purpose plain:

"U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius wrote America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the national association of health insurers, calling on their members to stop using scare tactics and misinformation to falsely blame premium increases for 2011 on the patient protections in the Affordable Care Act. Sebelius noted that the consumer protections and out-of-pocket savings provided for in the Affordable Care Act should result in a minimal impact on premiums for most Americans. Further, she reminded health plans that states have new resources under the Affordable Care Act to crack down on unjustified premium increases."

In the letter, Mrs. Sebelius cites HHS' internal analyses and those of Mercer and other groups to support her claim that Obamacare's effect on premiums "will be minimal" - somewhere in the range of 1 percent to 2.3 percent, on average. Mrs. Sebelius tells insurers that she will show "zero tolerance" for insurers who "falsely" blame premium increases on Obamacare, and promises aggressive action against those who do:

"[We] will require state or federal review of all potentially unreasonable rate increases filed by health insurers. ... We will also keep track of insurers with a record of unjustified rate increases: those plans may be excluded from health insurance Exchanges in 2014. Simply stated, we will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections."

There's word for this: It's called extortion, folks. :(

As defined: the crime of obtaining money or some other thing of value by the abuse of one's office or authority.

You either do it our way and do as we say and only do it our way and what we want you to do, regardless, or else we'll boot you out of the market and you'll go out business.

Which, by the way, was the plan all along. Leaving Big Brother and Mama Government as the sole choice.

But now you have the Chicago-Style Leg breakers threatening companies to play their game or else!

But don't worry, We are from the Government and we are here to protect you!! :)

Here's something elseto consider: Mrs. Sebelius threatened insurers for claiming Obamacare will increase premiums by as much as 9 percent. Yet there were no threats issued against the Rand Corporation when itestimated Obamacare will increase premiums for young adults by an average of 17 percent beginning in 2014, or against Milliman Inc. when it Trlikewise estimated premium increases of 10 percent to 30 percent for young adults. The reasons for the disparate treatment are fairly obvious. Mrs. Sebelius has less power over Rand or Milliman, and bullies always find it easier to pick on the unpopular kid. But an equally important implication is that Mrs. Sebelius knows that Obamacare's largest premium increases are yet to come. Mrs. Sebelius may be intimidating insurers now to prevent them from blaming those much larger premium increases on Obamacare. (Washington Times)

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GROUND ZERO MOSQUE IMAM's CLOSE ASSOCIATE IS A "TRUTHER"

Imam Feisal Abdul Raif has stepped in it again. But don't expect the Ministry of Truth to tell you. They will vigorous ignore or try to discredit the following from the NY York Post.

A "Truther" by the way is an individual who has the utter irrational view that 19 High-jackers mostly from Saudi Arabia did not murder 3000 people on 9/11/01, the US Government- more specifically the newly elected George W Bush and CIA were behind it or it was Corporate America or some conspiracy of all of them. Name whatever the Left hates, they did it.

Not Islamic Terrorists.

I may be cynical, but not a complete nutjob. :)

Still, that didn't stop Rauf from telling his high-brow audience that he wants to build a coalition of religious moderates, who he said must retake the debate from extremists of all religions.

Presumably, such a coalition would not include Rauf's longtime associate, Faiz Khan -- who touts "the inescapable fact that 9/11 was an inside job."

By which, he told The Post's Jennifer Gould Keil, he means he's "certain" that "the towers of WTC 7 could not have collapsed without controlled demolition placed from the 'inside.' "

Now, Khan is not the only crackpot out there who's convinced that "the quarter known as 'militant Islam' " had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. (He maintains the World Trade Center was actually brought down by "corporate America" and "the heroin trade.")

But he is the only one, that we're aware of, who was a founding director of Imam Rauf's American Society for the Advancement of Muslims -- which, along with the Cordoba Institute, is spearheading the Ground Zero mosque.

Khan claims he severed his connection to ASMA in "2002 and 2003" -- though he spoke at the group's 2006 conference in Copenhagen, where he was described as a board member.

All of which raises yet more questions about the so-called moderate imam and the people around him.

If Rauf truly wants "the best possible outcome for all," there's only one solution -- move the mosque.

But don't worry, Just like the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, where Obama was a parishioner for 20 years and never heard any of the Reverend fiery anti-american, anti-white rants this too will come to pass with the Imam's friend. Despite him actually preaching at the Burlington Coat Factory mini-mosque that already exists on the site of the Ground Zero Mosque and they were board members together.

He'll use the Sargent Schultz defense, "I know nothing!" and the liberal media will defend that to your death. :)

Media Matters, one of the co-founders of the Hunt down Tea Party Racism site has an exhaustive and vitriolic denial. That right there proves something to me. :)

So just get out a high-speed fan as the Liberals and their apparatchiks in the Liberal Media once again try and blow smoke up your ass! :)

Reality is to Be Feared

indyfromaz|

Remember this when you hear liberals screaming and yelling about “fat Cat” CEO’s and their bonuses and how evil they are:
DETROIT – New General Motors Co. CEO Daniel Akerson will get the same $9 million pay package as the man he replaced, Ed Whitacre.
The automaker, which is 60.8 percent owned by the U.S. government, disclosed the pay package in a filing on Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is identical to what the company disclosed for Whitacre in February.
So don’t do as they do, do as they say and hate the “the rich” because they are evil incarnate.
Contrary to press reports that he would not be compensated, uncovered Treasury Department documents reveal President Obama’s pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, received a $120,830 annual salary.(WT)
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WASHINGTON — The Homeland Security Department plans to test futuristic iris scan technology that stores digital images of people’s eyes in a database and is considered a quicker alternative to fingerprints.
ACLU lawyer Christopher Calabrese fears that the cameras could be used covertly. “If you can identify any individual at a distance and without their knowledge, you literally allow the physical tracking of a person anywhere there’s a camera and access to the Internet,” he said.
Iris scans can be quicker than fingerprints. “You can walk up to a wall-mounted box, look at the camera, and that’s it,” Grother said.
Homeland Security will test cameras that take photos from 3 or 4 feet away, including one that works on people as they walk by, Vemury said.
If I agree with the American Communist Liberals Union (ACLU) you know the universe is endanger!
But don’t worry, Big Brother and Big Sis are not trying to track your every move and know and control everything about you. No, not at all…
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The number of people in the United States who are living in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.
Census figures for 2009 – the recession-ravaged first year of Obama’s presidency – are to be released this week, and demographers expect grim findings.
The expected poverty-rate increase – from 13.2 percent to about 15 percent – would be another blow to Democrats struggling to persuade voters to keep them in power. Midterm congressional elections are only weeks away.(WP)
But don’t worry,this too is also totally Bush’s Fault!
He claims that “the policies of the previous decade … that cut taxes, especially for millionaires and billionaires … ultimately culminated in a financial crisis and a terrible recession that we’re still digging out of today.”--President Obama
The president falsified the record. The Democrats’ politicization of mortgages — not Bush’s tax cuts — caused the financial crisis.
But don’t expect the Ministry of Truth to tell you that either.
If the tax cuts are to blame, why did Obama’s just-resigned Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer — whom Obama on Friday said “helped save this country from a depression” — recently co-author an article in the American Economic Review “contrary to the White House’s plan to reverse the Bush tax cuts,” as columnist Donald Lambro noted? (IBD)

And then there’s former Budget Director Pete Orszag who said the tax cuts should be kept.
So if tax cuts are so evil and wrecked the nation, then why were two of Obama’s biggest Financial Guru’s for them??
Mind you, it was only AFTER they left.
President Barack Obama talked a lot about economic recovery during his State of the Union address on Jan. 27, 2010, including the benefits of the economic stimulus bill passed last year.
The stimulus, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, included tax cuts for many Americans, Obama said.
“We cut taxes. We cut taxes for 95 percent of working families. We cut taxes for small businesses,” Obama said. “We cut taxes for first-time homebuyers. We cut taxes for parents trying to care for their children. We cut taxes for 8 million Americans paying for college.”
So when he says he cut taxes (and doesn’t really or does and then raises in other ways-like Obama Care) it’s good. But if someone else proposes it, it’s just cuts for “the rich” and wrecks the country.
Say what??
“We’re going to take the next 50-some days to convince the public that’s exactly what the Republicans would do – back to the Bush policies,” White House Spokesman Gibbs said.
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“By far, Jan Brewer has shown herself to be the most unreasonable and racist governor in our country, and her discriminatory policies echo the type of prejudice that took place during the lynchings and brutality suffered by African Americans in the South,” Duarte said. “I have known families who have suffered gravely due to the policies she has so easily signed into law.”– Stella Pope Duarte, Phoenix College.

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FEAR IS HOPE
Ad Hominem: attacking the person instead of attacking his argument.
Democrats desperate to convince their base to show up at the polls in November have begun talking less about issues and more about the possibility of a “Tea Party Congress” next year.
The passage of landmark bills such as healthcare and financial regulatory reform has not triggered as much grassroots enthusiasm as initially envisioned, Democratic strategists say. And while the right is engaged this cycle, the left is deflated.

“This is a big problem,” said Democratic targeting and turnout guru Hal Malchow.

So Democrats have turned to a strategy that may be their next best bet: demonization of the “insurgent” Tea Party.
“These are not your run-of-the-mill Republicans we’re talking about here,” said one Democratic organizer working in a state with a contested Senate race this fall. “When you actually start telling voters what these candidates are about, it scares the hell out of them.”
In the past several weeks, when Democratic activists cite the ramifications of a “Tea Party Congress,” they say, more volunteers have signed up to knock on doors to preserve a Democratic-led House and Senate.
President Obama does not fire up the left as much as he did in 2008, and polls indicate independents are turning on him.
A recent Gallup survey shows that Republicans are far more enthusiastic about voting than Democrats, leading by a 50 percent to 25 percent count.
Many liberals have expressed frustration with the White House on issues ranging from the war in Afghanistan to the military prison in Guantanamo Bay — which Obama pledged to close by last January — to the lack of a public option in healthcare reform.
Uniting the party, and making sure their voters don’t stay home this fall, has become the No. 1 issue for the Democratic Party.
“The argument that we’ve made is that the Republican Party has been taken over by the Tea Party,” Democratic National Committee (DNC) spokeswoman Hari Sevugan said. “It not only energizes Democrats, but it’s the fundamental choice that independents and moderates face in the fall, too.”
Some in Democratic circles are unsure whether they can convince voters that this election is a choice instead of a referendum on Obama and the Democratic Congress. Still, there is a consensus that it’s the best game plan they have.
While then-President George W. Bush was an effective bogeyman for Democrats in 2006 and 2008, blaming him now for the nation’s economic woes has not resonated nearly as much.
University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato pointed the finger at “the failure of the Obama economic agenda” for depressing the Democratic base, but is skeptical that shifting away from issues on the campaign trail will solve the party’s turnout dilemma.
“I’m not sure trotting out a bunch of devil figures — the Tea Party congressional nominees, George Bush, [former Alaska Gov.] Sarah Palin, etc., is going to make much difference. Democrats know Obama is in power for at least two more years and can stymie a GOP Congress,” Sabato said. “But in the absence of good news on the economy, it’s worth a try to point out to Democrats who’ll be running things at one end of Pennsylvania Avenue if Democrats don’t show up to vote.”
Many Democrats, including Obama, predicted six months ago that voters would embrace the healthcare reform law when they learned more about it.
But polls show that the public is deeply divided on it. And it’s not moving many people off their couches, according to Democrats at the state and local level.

“Healthcare is largely unpopular in most places,” Malchow said. “That’s why Democrats aren’t talking about it.” (Fifty-three percent (53%) of U.S. voters now say they at least somewhat favor repeal of the new national health care law, matching the lowest level of opposition since the bill was passed by Congress in March. That includes 42% who Strongly Favor repeal.A majority has favored repeal of the legislation every single week since late March, and the bill is playing a major role in a number of congressional races across the country. Support for repeal has ranged from a low of 53%, reached once before in July, to a high of 63%.-Rasmussen)
Financial reform, and other items enacted in the 111th Congress, are likewise not lighting a fire under the Democratic base.
What is working, turnout specialists say, is talking about the “insurgent” Tea Party and how the “rising red” movement could affect the agenda in Washington in 2011.
The success of Tea Party candidates in primaries, especially candidates backed by Palin, has given Democratic operatives a key talking point. These officials have also used the Aug. 28 rally in Washington, D.C., led by Fox News commentator Glenn Beck, as a volunteer recruitment tool.
Malchow said that Tea Party-backed candidates who are further to the right than centrist and independent voters will, in the end, help the Democrats’ cause: “That’s a major motivating factor for Democrats, but I think it also depends on where you are.”
In Nevada, with a Republican nominee for Senate like Sharron Angle, Malchow said, it’s likely to be more of a motivator for Democrats than in a state like Illinois, where the party has nominated a more centrist Senate candidate in Rep. Mark Kirk.
“Base voters understand what’s at stake in this election,” said the DNC’s Sevugan. “The message that’s resonating is, do we continue to move forward or do we allow the Republicans to take us back? A slate of Republican candidates who hold very extreme positions make that choice crystal clear.”
Earlier this summer, Democrats launched an effort to cast the Republican Party and the Tea Party as one and the same.
“You don’t know where the Republican Party ends and the Tea Party begins, and they have to own that,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said in July.
In an interview on MSNBC late last month, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said he expects voters to wake up to what Tea Party-backed candidates are actually running on before November.
“I think we’ve got some folk — Tea Party folk, Republicans — who are out of sync with the average American. And most Americans are in the middle,” said Cummings.
That’s a much sharper tone than Democrats were employing six months ago. In late February, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went so far as to say that she and Tea Partiers share some of the same views. Since then, however, Democrats have identified the Tea Party as their clear adversary.
For example, Vice President Joe Biden lashed out at the “Republican Tea Party” a couple of weeks ago, predicting Democrats will retain control of both houses of Congress.
“It’s a race between Democrats and the Republican Tea Party,” Biden said.(The Hill)
Washington is today a human and systemic failure that is destroying us from within. Its profligate spending is undermining the dollar — and, according to the International Monetary Fund, it is risking a U.S. sovereign debt crisis. According to Lenin, “There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than debauching the currency.”
The eminent Samuel Huntington observed that Washington is — through the Third World orientation of its immigration policies — deliberately destroying the linguistic, cultural and creedal glue that defines and holds the nation together. Research by Harvard professor Robert Putnam associates high levels of government-created “diversity” with civic dissonance and decline.
Washington makes tax slaves out of one in four Americans, forcing them to pay nearly all the income tax while others pay little or none. It taxes too heavily in the dumbest way possible that does the maximum economic damage (about $3 for every $1 of tax collected), costing everyone jobs and incomes. Taxation is an economic poison that spreads quickly.
And when government spends a dollar, the economic benefit is typically between zero and 60 cents, thereby digging the hole still deeper with a loss on each transaction. No wonder “stimulus” doesn’t work.
Washington discriminates among us according to race and gender, takes our money and property and gives it to union bosses and other friends on its political Facebook, and by forcing us to fill out millions of government forms, annually confiscates 10 billion hours of our time.
It invades our schools, raises costs, messes with students’ minds and morals, and lowers educational quality. It scorns and interferes with traditional Americans in the exercise of their religion — and it forces everyone to fight through a jungle of federal regulations just to live our daily lives.
Washington has by fiat reduced the earnings on our savings accounts to near zero and given the differential to banks and speculators. It has taken $2.5 trillion out of our Social Security Trust Fund and “replaced” the money with federal IOUs that it can pay only by imposing additional taxes on us. What a cruel hoax.
A soon-to-be-published analysis of historical data (by Gary and Aldona Robbins) shows how government ineptitude has for decades been increasing the price of health care. ObamaCare is the final atrocity. It will not be tolerated.
Washington constantly intervenes in our free-market economy, cannibalizing vital parts and impairing its ability to provide jobs and raise living standards. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” of commerce and trade may soon stop altogether. Absent that productive genius, what will we do then? Rely on government? What a hoot. Washington is broke and produces nothing.
The Great Recession tells us that government is better at creating problems (such as deficits, debt, unemployment and the housing bubble) than it is at providing solutions. And President Obama proves daily that profligate spending really is a sin: It kills jobs.
Instead of apologizing to the world for America, Obama should apologize to us. His administration seems unfortunately to have lost both its economic mind and its moral compass. (IBD)

But instead, you get it’s Bush’s Fault, fear the “tea party” as radicals and nutjobs, and spending EVEN MORE money than we have will solve everything!
I’ll give Gov. Deval Patrick (MA) the last word: “It’s a free country. I wish it weren’t, but . . . it’s a free country,” Patrick said on the “Jim & Margery Show” on WTKK-FM. “You know, you got to, you got to respect that freedom.”

The Light

indyfromaz|

The light at the end of the socialist environmentalist tunnel is a train, by the way.
But it will make you “feel” good as you get run over by it and your freedom denied.
But you’ll be saving the planet! Isn’t that peachy.
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
FEAR IS HOPE
Beginning today (Sept 1), it is a crime to manufacture or ship for sale a traditional 75-watt incandescent light bulb in the European Union. Autocrats in Brussels last year declared war on Edison’s greatest invention with a ban on 100-watt lamps. Homes throughout the Old World will continue to dim until incandescent lighting of all types is snuffed out in 2012 – the same year the United States is scheduled to begin a phaseout schedule mirroring the European plan.
The EU’s final solution to the incandescent problem was sparked by bureaucratic irritation at a public that refused to accept the pale, flickering, cold light emanating from government-approved, expensive compact fluorescent bulbs. “Although energy-saving bulbs have been clearly labeled since 1998 as the most cost-effective bulbs, their relatively high purchase price has inhibited take-up,” the European Commission website explains. “To remedy this, EU European Parliament asked the Commission to adopt minimum requirements phasing out the least-efficient bulbs.” governments and the
Consumers realize the warm glow of a cheap incandescent is superior in every way to the deadly, mercury-filled substitute being foisted upon them. In Finland, Helsingin Sanomat reported that the new ban has not resulted in a surge of sales for the new bulbs that the bureaucrats expected. Instead, 75-watt packages have been flying off the shelves as customers filled their closets, garages and attics with lighting supplies for the long term. Such hoarding has been the rule for more than a year. London’s Daily Mail gave away 25,000 of the 100-watt bulbs as a prize in a January 2009 contest. Der Spiegel reported that German customers left hardware stores with carts jammed with enough incandescent bulbs to last 20 years.
We can look forward to a similar reaction on these shores as our own Jan. 1, 2012, deadline approaches. President George W. Bush’s signature on the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 condemned the traditional bulb in favor of the fluorescent lights rejected by the free market. Only eight senators and 100 House members opposed the bill.
Yes, George W Bush, the Left’s Anti-Christ!
There is still hope that sanity could return before the U.S. ban on normal light bulbs takes effect. Two years ago, New Zealanders faced an imminent ban. The National Party, at the time in the minority, made overturning the light-bulb scheme a priority in its campaign against the ruling Labor government. The public responded favorably to the party that proclaimed that it “stands for freedom, choice, independence and ambition.” In December 2008, the National Party government overturned the light-bulb ban. Republican challengers seeking an edge over Democrats in November could learn a few things from the Kiwis. (Washington Times)


A light bulb factory closes in Virginia as mandated fluorescents are made in China. It’s now a crime to make or ship for sale 75-watt incandescent bulbs in the European Union. Welcome to green hell.
(I bet if they’d had a Union…)

Thomas Alva Edison was a genius credited with the invention of many things — the phonograph, the motion picture, the incandescent light bulb, global warming. That last credit was given by those who rank light bulbs right up there with the internal combustion engine as ravagers of the planet.
The General Electric light bulb factory in Winchester, Va., closed this month, a victim, along with its 200 employees, of a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014.
Just as they are by fuel-economy standards, consumers are denied choice and the freedom to evaluate any possible benefits on their own by the nanny state. Washington’s force and coercion are necessary because it seems the great unwashed can’t seem to see the benefits or ignore the risks of compact fluorescents, or CFLs.
In Europe, light bulbs are already a controlled substance. The 100-watt bulb was banned last year and the 75-watt became illegal as of Sept. 1.
Not surprisingly, incandescent light bulbs there quickly became a hot item, flying off the shelves while they were still available. Der Spiegel reported that German customers leave hardware stores with carts piled high with enough incandescent bulbs to last 20 years. Garages and attics throughout the Old World are full of them.
It’s said that CFL bulbs are more economical in the long run because they supposedly use up to 80% less energy than old-style bulbs and don’t burn out as quickly. Though we’re not fully convinced of these claims, we do know that CFL bulbs are more expensive, costing up to six times as much as equivalent incandescent bulbs. Because they are made of glass tubes twisted into a spiral, they also require more hand labor and therefore cost more.
Due to the expense, CFLs are made largely in China, where labor is cheaper and environmental regulations not so strict. As with wind turbine blades, we are creating plenty of green jobs — in the People’s Republic.
Despite governments’ effort to market them, CFLs are not necessarily better. Tests conducted by the London Telegraph found that using a single lamp to illuminate a room, an 11-watt CFL produced only 58% of the illumination of an equivalent 60-watt incandescent — even after a 10-minute warm-up that consumers have found necessary for CFLs to reach their full brightness.
Lack of light isn’t the only drawback. CFLs apparently are so dangerous, the European Commission has to warn consumers of the environmental hazards they pose. If one breaks, consumers are advised to air out rooms and avoid using vacuum cleaners to prevent exposure to the mercury in the bulbs.
You can’t just throw an old bulb out, either. It must be properly disposed of lest your bedroom or family room become a Superfund toxic waste site.
Mercury is considered by environmentalists to be among the most toxic of toxic substances and, yes, it is dangerous if ingested or handled over time. We’ve been warned that high concentrations in fish are dangerous to pregnant women. We’ve been told mercury in vaccines causes autism. So it’s safe in light bulbs?
As we’ve found out here with energy regulation and taxes, and the push for cap-and-trade, governments don’t care what people want. Nor do they weigh the costs, the benefits and the risks of this or that. Government must mandate what’s good for us under penalty of law. (IBD)


And if this is the humble Light Bulb, imagine what Health Care will be like.
And then there’s the Chevy Volt, built, subsidized and marketed by the US Government (GM-Government Motors).
Texas Instruments, for example, has a page on its web site devoted entirely to the wonders of using RFID chips to monitor municipal trash collection in order to determine whether people are properly recycling.
The city council in Cleveland, Ohio, on the other hand, is far less concerned with even the appearance of benevolence in its RFID-based trash monitoring program, than is Texas Instruments.  The council recently voted to expand its RFID trash program by mandating the installation of the devices in order to determine and hand out fines for failure to participate.  In yet another example of the unholy alliance between business and government in expanding the reach of Big Brother, Cleveland has retained a  private company to handle its high-tech recycling program.  It’s a win-win — the company makes money by collecting the recycled trash, and the city reaps at least a short-term windfall by receiving payments from the company for a task it formerly had to carry out.  The loser, of course, is the consumer who is paying the taxes and fees for such activities; and surrendering to the company and the city council any privacy in their accumulation or disposal of garbage.
In California, schools are finding that students – like municipal citizens — constitute another captive audience on which to experiment with RFID chips.  One school district in Contra Costa County, for example, now requires all its students to wear jerseys embedded with RFID tags, so their whereabouts can be monitored all the while they are at the schools, and then data-based.   The tags also reportedly will alert school officials if a student has not eaten; though what punishment will befall dieting students is unclear.
Where is the Contra Costa County school system getting the money to implement such a school-based Big Brother program?  They get the money from same place most of these and other privacy-invasive programs come from — you, the American taxpayer; genereously given away as federal “grants.” (AJC)
The government wants to know everything about you. Because, you want to misbehave and act outside society’s interest (aka their control) you individual freedom-ist. You selfish bastard.
We, The Government, just want you to be safe, save energy, and save the planet all at the same time.
Is that so wrong?