According to media reports, Obama reiterated that Social Security would not be privatized while he was president. Hopefully, that will only mean another two and one half years. He suggested that the struggling federal entitlement program only needed some minor “adjustments” to make it solvent, which is blatantly inaccurate and he knows it.

 Cross-posted from redstate.com (http://redstate.com/billwitten) where I am no longer a member due to my rant about the Republican machine in Colorado and my support for Tom Tancredo.

I shudder when I hear the word “democracy”.  Democracy is nothing short of the rule of the mob.  It is as tyrannical as a dictatorship.  It is, in fact, a dictatorship of your neighbors.

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner. Liberty is a well-armed lamb vetoing the decision.

Author unknown but often attributed to Ben Franklin

This country is not a democracy, it is a republic. Democracy is mob rule. Republics have a constitution that restricts the whims of the majority and protects the Rights of the minority.  Our particular republic has its philosophical foundations in Natural Law and, particularly, as it was perceived by John Locke in Second Treatise on Civil Government.  Any fair-minded person who has read Second Treatise blushes on behalf of Thomas Jefferson when he is cited as the author of the Declaration of Independence.

When I see that the right and means of absolute command are conferred on any power whatever, be it called a people or a king, an aristocracy or a democracy, a monarchy or a republic, I say there is a germ of tyranny, and I seek to live elsewhere under other laws.

Alexis de Toqueville, Democracy in America

The foundations of this country, having been firmly embedded in Natural Law, recognize that Rights are not given or bestowed by government but rather are given and bestowed by the Creator.  The Constitution is merely a tool to safeguard the Rights bestowed on us by God.  The Constitution is a social contract (and perhaps more) that cements an agreement amongst the American people to not impinge upon each other’s freedom.

The Progressives and Liberals of modern day America are products of the public school system and the dominant liberal mainstream media but they are also products of their own cognitive abilities.  Many of us attended public school.  All of us have been exposed to the mainstream media.  The simple fact is the truth can’t be hidden from those seeking it.  All of us have traveled the path to understanding the true historical foundations of this country and know that anyone who seeks it out will find the truth.  In light of this, how should we deal with our Progressive countrymen?  We know them to be willfully ignorant of the history of our nation.  We know them to be intentionally pursuing a mechanism to restrain our God-given freedoms.  We see their machinations boldly plastered on their web sites and we see their media machine spewing lies and ignoring truth on a daily basis.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke

In which Article and Section of the Constitution does one find the justification for government control over healthcare?  Where does the Constitution grant the federal government the Right to take our money and give it to corporations to keep them in business?  The authority for the federal government to take partial ownership of corporations comes from where?  Seizure of property without due process is outlined in which Article?  

Fellow Conservatives, I submit to you that attacking or ignoring the Constitution is destructive of this country, by definition.  It is a de facto (and in some cases de jure) declaration of a sizable portion of the citizenry of the United States that they no longer intend to honor the social contract that binds us together, prima facie.  Again, I ask, how are we to deal with our willfully ignorant and statist Progressive countrymen? 

…he who attempts to get another man into his absolute power, does thereby put himself into a state of war with him; it being understood as a declaration of a design upon his life. For I have reason to conclude that he who would get me into his power without my consent, would use me as he pleased when he had got me there, and destroy me too, when he had a fancy for it; for nobody can desire to have me in his absolute power unless it be to compel me by force to that which is against the right of my freedom, ie. make me a slave.

John Locke,  Second Treatise on Civil Government

Across this great nation, every day, the culture war rages.  One can see it in the comments section of every major news story.  It is broadcast to the world in a million ways.  The seething, Alinsky-style personal attacks of the left and the intentional avoidance of logical discussion combine to drive many Conservative and Libertarian voices out of the discussion.  The ringing cries of “hypocrite” and “racist” spew from every dark, malodorous corner as the leftist “purpleshirts” march to the cadence of Horst Wessel Lied, many of them completely unaware of its baleful origin.

What do we mean by revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and was effected from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington.

John Adams, August 24, 1815 letter to Thomas Jefferson, The Works of John Adams, ed. Charles Frances Adams, 1856.

How do we deal with our Progressive countrymen?  The answer is obvious: we fight them.  We drag them kicking and screaming into the light of day and we rejoice in revealing their ignorance to the world.  We shrug off their reeking personal assaults and we educate those who are willing to be educated.  We show our fellow citizens that we know how to fix the problems besieging this country.  We persevere.  We endure.  We reveal to the world that these malcontents are willfully breaching the social contract.  We do this by engaging them in every forum available.  We do this by electing representatives that are well educated and truly understand the foundations of this great nation.  Representatives that are unafraid to challenge the lies and willing to stand up in ferocious opposition to the continuing assault on the very tenets that form the foundations of our culture and society.

I am an American, unafraid to stand for the cause of freedom and sworn to defend our Constitution against all enemies–foreign and domestic. I do not acknowledge the term “loyal opposition” because the left is not loyal. They are not loyal to the Constitution and they are not loyal to the people of this country. They stand in willful breach of contract by their very actions and the issues they promote.  The President is their standard-bearer and his opinions as well as his actions place him firmly in the UNAmerican column and, again, in breach of contract with the American people at-large. How could someone who loves America say that we should no longer be the most dominant nation? How could he say that the multitude of UNAmerican things he says? How could he befriend someone like Chavez if he is such a great American? Sneer at our allies and provide aid and comfort to our enemies and those that wish us harm? How can he find more common ground with the President of Iran than the Prime Minister of Great Britain? How could he? These are not aberrations or mistakes–they are the policy of the President of the United States and if you don’t know that you haven’t been paying attention.  They represent a prior and continuing intent to attack the very foundations of this nation!  They are the same policies promoted and supported by our Progressive countrymen.

The left can apologize for him all they want but we must force them, in every venue, to stop trying to twist and bend his actions, as they desperately try to make him look American. He most certainly is not.  He is a traitor that hates this country and he has an entire political movement behind him.

I suggest that the only course of action available to us is to save this country.  The difficult truth is that this is the last reasonable government on Earth.  Let’s see there’s….no wait, they are socialist now. But there is….um, no they are too now. Oh I know…….wait, no they are communist.  I hope my point is clear: our backs are to the wall.  We are cornered.  We have no choice but to win this war or be sucked into socialism (at best).  The terrible truth is that the enemy is inside the gates.  History, again, repeats itself.

These are the fruits of the policy of statesmen who have risen from beggary to opulence, from obscurity to distinction, whose private mansions are more splendid than our public buildings, and whose fortunes are exalted in exact proportion to the decline of the interests of the state. What is the cause of this change? The simple fact, gentlemen, that formerly the people, having the courage to act, and to see service in person, controlled our statesmen and was master of all our emoluments; and any of the citizens in general was content to receive from the people his own share of honor or office or advantage; whereas now, it is the statesmen that dispose of our emoluments; it is through their agency that everything is done; while you, the people, gentlemen, reft of all your strength, stripped of your treasure and allies, have become mere underlings and appendages, and are satisfied if your statesmen present you with a dole from the festival fund, and the manliest part of all! you are even grateful for receiving from them what is your own all the while. They coop you up in the city, and entice you to your pleasures, and make you tame and submissive to their hands. But it is impossible as I hold to have a high and noble spirit, while engaging in petty and mean pursuits: men’s pursuits must necessarily have an influence on their character. I should not be surprised if, for merely mentioning these matters, I were to suffer more than those who are themselves responsible for the state of things. It is not every subject on which you permit your boasted liberty of speech: I wonder that you have permitted it to-day.

But if, gentlemen, you would only renounce these practices and be ready to take to the field…you might, you might perhaps, secure some solid and important advantage.

The Greek Statesman Demosthenes (384–322 BC), in the Third Olynthiac

The 2010 elections are not the goal.  The 2012 elections are not the goal.  The goal is to achieve an educated public that thinks for themselves and understands their responsibilities as citizens of the greatest nation on Earth.   We must act now to secure the blessings of liberty for our posterity.

This is where I am supposed to say “Send me your money!”, right?  Not a chance.  Don’t send me your money.  I want more than just money: I want your active participation every day.  The days of pretending that we can win this war by sending money to elect Sen. whatshisname or to fund an initiative by the latest greatest conservative whatever ARE OVER.  There is no shortcut.  There is no miracle solution.  There is no easy way back to prosperity and liberty.  There is only the task before each and every one of us.  Americans used to be hard workers.  Well, that is exactly what we will have to be to get our country back.

If one expects to enjoy the blessings of liberty, one must first undergo the fatigue of supporting it.

Thomas Paine

 Join me in this endeavor.  If you are already in this war then recommit yourselves to it. If you are not, then go out and educate yourselves and get into it! Exercise your Rights! Be truthful, moral, unafraid, ferocious, strong, tough, inventive and educated.  Be American.  Be Free. 

There is a Just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave…It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it Almighty God!–I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

Patrick Henry

 ___________________________

( - Promoted by Hestons Ghost - )

The other day a friend of mine was joking that come March, she was going to struggle with only a three-day weekend, instead of the monthly four-day weekends she’s been enjoying thus far. She’s a Colorado state employee whose mandated furlough days have been falling once a month coupled with holidays. For instance, she had the Friday before the MLK Day holiday off and will have the Friday before the President’s Day weekend off.

Most Americans will understand if parks are closed for a day, if the IRS doesn’t answer phone calls for a day, if Congressional staffers don’t send news releases for a day or if the federal courts are closed for a day. It’s called sacrifice and it’s sorely needed. Could you imagine the savings created by dropping the 2% pay increase and furloughing the more than 2.7 million civilian workers? Colorado’s furloughs save the state tens of millions of dollars. Imagine what the federal government could save?

Barack Obama made a number of trips to Virginia and New Jersey to help out Democratic gov. candidates Creigh Deeds and Jon Corzine, but exit polling of the races out tonight shows that Obama's trips were a wash with voters in deep-blue New Jersey and may have actually motivated the opposition more in Virginia. The National Journal reports:

A majority of voters in both states said, for the most part, that Pres. Obama wasn't a factor in their vote. In NJ, 60% said Obama's support of Corzine didn't play a role either way, which 55% of VA voters said they didn't consider Obama's embrace of state Sen. Creigh Deeds (D) when deciding how to vote.

Of voters who said Obama's support did play a role, 19% of NJ voters said they were voting to support Obama, while 20% said they were voting to oppose him. In VA, 18% were seeking to support Obama while 24% voted as an expression of opposition to Obama.

We see in today's Denver Post what Obama's economic recovery plan has funded, virtually nothing.

A Colorado company said it created 4,231 jobs with the help of President Barack Obama's economic-recovery plan.

The real number: fewer than 1,000.

A child-care center in Florida said it saved 129 jobs with the help of stimulus money. Instead, it gave pay raises to its existing employees.

Elsewhere in the U.S., some jobs credited to the stimulus program were counted two, three, four or even more times. The government has overstated by thousands the number of jobs it has created or saved with federal contracts under the president's $787 billion recovery program, according to an Associated Press review of data released in the program's first progress report.

It is time we recognize this for what it is, wasted tax dollars. Washington could have held on to the money and had nearly the same result.

The DCCC has just sent out a breathless fundraising email mortified that an elected official would call the President of the United States a liar:

Last night as President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on the need for health insurance reform, Republican Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina actually screamed out "you lie" on the House floor in front of the full Congress and the entire nation.

Calling the President of the United States a liar in front of the nation is a new low even for House Republicans and it deserves the strongest response we can give. That's why we're issuing a special Rapid Response Alert.

Their outrage is understandable. The Democrats have always shown the utmost respect and decorum for the office of the presidency, regardless of who holds it or what their party affilliation is. The House Democrats in particular have always been a shining example in this regard. You would never hear any of them calling a president a liar.

( - promoted by Rocky Mountain Right - )

President Obama’s speech before Congress Wednesday was disappointing.

There was a lot of empty eloquence. There were few specifics about what Obama wants in his health insurance bill, which really is a health spending bill and a power grab.

He provided no leadership on health reform, but he gave his backers some nasty and dishonest talking points.

Obama’s backers called it a great speech. They were sucked in by the rhetoric and show.

But if you listened to the speech instead of watching it, you found that it was misleading, demonizing, inaccurate and meant to rally Democrats, not to inform Americans.

Robert Wilson was right when he impolitely called Obama a liar on the bill’s provisions for illegal immigrants. No the bill doesn’t give them insurance, it just makes sure that they will get free care and that more illegals will come to the U.S. for free care.

Similarly, Obama lied about dealth panels. No, there are no death panels, but the bill was written to provide government-funded end-of-life counseling, which would eventually become end-of-life recommendations to suck it up and die as comfortably and quickly as possible.

Like Clinton, Obama played with words to convey sincerity but actually showed that he believes as he always has in funding health care for illegals and that he believes Medicare spends too much on its beneficiaries last months of life.

As The Wall Street Journal’s editorial this morning notes, Obama gave a mean, dishonest and partisan speech.

He is willing to sacrifice control of Congress to win more power for himself. It’s all about Obama. He doesn’t care whether Reid is re-elected, Pelosi keeps her job or Blue Dogs stay in Congress.

Why that doesn’t anger Congressional Democrats is a mystery. But maybe it does anger enough Democrats to cause a backlash that will doom ObamaCare. We can only hope.

Obama blamed Republicans for opposing ObamaCare. Yes, they oppose his radicalism because they don’t believe the government can run anything or should try and for political reasons.

But, as the editorial points out, Dems and Obama have not allowed Republicans to help write health reform bills, and Obama clearly stated in his speech that if opponents won’t accept his plan, he won’t talk to them.

Obama attacked insurers’ profits. A socialist, he doesn’t believe in profits. He doesn’t understand economics nor profits. He won’t accept that political greed for power is much worse than greed for profits.

And he vastly exaggerates the problem of insurers dropping insureds who’ve become sick. He doesn’t point to millions of insureds who have been covered throughout catastrophically expensive illnesses.

Most of us know more people who’ve had their expensive recoveries covered by insurers than people who’ve lost their coverage. I don’t know anyone who’s lost insurance after becoming sick, and I know lots of people.

So, on balance, Obama gave such an obviously partisan and dishonest speech that the public will see through it, and they will continue to oppose it.

All of us here at Rocky Mountain Right have been trying our hardest to ignore the silly rumors about Barack Obama being born in Kenya (or Indonesia, or Britain, or Betelgeuse VI...), but a poll to be released in full later today purports to show that 43% of Colorado Republicans do not think President Obama was born in the United States.

We sincerely hope those numbers are inaccurate. If not; it is a sad commentary on the Republican Party in this state that when we have a president who promptly burned over a trillion dollars upon taking office and has been trying to push through a radical healthcare plan, that 43% of us are wasting our time indulging conspiracy theories that should be more at place on Coast to Coast AM. Talk about misplaced priorities.

Even worse, this whole theory can be debunked in around 10 seconds. Unless you honestly believe that either:

A) Barack Obama's parents could see the future and planted birth announcements in the Honolulu newspapers in anticipation of this problem. Or..
B) Barack Obama travelled back in time and planted the announcements himself.

If either of those scenarios were true, there would be much more interesting questions raised than whether or not Obama was born in the United States. These questions would include, but are not limited to: Where did President Obama obtain a time machine? Is the gift of prophecy genetic, and if so, did Obama inherit it?

We get it. You don't like Obama. We don't either. But please focus on stuff he's actually done instead of fantasies.

While Gallup typically places Barack Obama's approval rating higher than some other firms due to their methodology, it is worth noting that in their state-by-state breakdown of the president's popularity that Colorado is among the lowest in the nation. Only seven states polled by Gallup ranked Obama lower than Colorado and all of those states are very solidly in the Republican column in presidential elections (Wyoming, Alaska, Utah, West Virginia, Idaho, Montana, and Oklahoma).

As Gallup notes:

North Dakota also gave Obama his highest approval rating of any state he did not carry in the 2008 presidential election. Obama's lowest approval rating in a state he won is Colorado's 55%.

Forget "diagnosis by videotape," welcome to "treatment by government decree." The latest odd talking point that an increasingly desparate Barack Obama is putting forward seems to be implying that the benevolonet bureaucracy will begin deciding the correct course of treatment for patients; all to save money by taking the decision away from our foolish doctors who might opt for a more expensive course of action without for a moment considering the government's wishes.

Ignoring for a moment the seemingly unintentional reference to The Matrix (Borrowing from the movie, the terms blue pill and red pill have become a popular metaphor for the choice between the blissful ignorance of illusion (blue) and embracing the sometimes painful, sometimes pleasant, truth of reality (red).),  it is refreshing at least that President Obama is finally beginning to admit that any health care reform package will result in quite a bit of nitpicking of patient treatments by government bureaucrats.

This is getting a little ridiculous. Congress has now taken to wasting taxpayer money on publicly funding car trade-in deals that you usually see in cheesey used car dealership commercials. The Associated Press reports:

Under the proposal, car owners could get a voucher worth $3,500 if they traded in a vehicle getting 18 miles per gallon or less for one getting at least 22 mpg. The value of the voucher would grow to $4,500 if the mileage of the new car was 10 mpg higher than the old vehicle. The miles per gallon figures are listed on the car window's sticker.

Owners of sport utility vehicles, pickup trucks or minivans that get 18 mpg or less could receive a voucher for $3,500 if their new truck or SUV got at least 2 mpg higher than their old vehicle. The voucher would increase to $4,500 if the mileage of the new truck or SUV was at least 5 mpg higher than the older vehicle.

Michael Bennet is reportedly one of the Senators who was on the fence over this bill but caved to pressure from the Obama administration.

( - promoted by Rocky Mountain Right - )

(Castle Rock, CO 5/30/09) The Weekly Homebuyer's List in the Denver Post catalogs residential real estate sales in Colorado. The Homebuyer's List for the week of May 24th totaled only 62 sales for all of Douglas County. The low number of sales may not surprise many in the current market, but a closer examination of the problem reveals a strange disparity in housing prices. It may be easier and a little more fun to think of today's market as a Monopoly game.

** The most expensive property conveyed last week in Douglas County was for $1,050,000. That would be Boardwalk in Monopoly terms. The property, on Longsbluff Lane in Parker, had previously sold for $1,120,000, so the reduction in price was only $70,000. Not terribly bad.

**The most inexpensive property conveyed was for $139,000 for a new condominium on Cutter's Circle in Castle Rock. That would be Mediterranean Ave. just past GO, COLLECT $200 on the Monopoly board.

**Again this week, bank-owned foreclosure properties have taken the biggest hits. Things are not doing so well on the middle of the board, at St. Charles Place and Marvin Gardens. A property in the Cherokee Ridge Estates section of North Douglas County sold for $730,000. The sale would not be remarkable except for the fact that the foreclosed property had previously sold for $1,549,000. That means this million dollar home sold for less than half what it fetched two years ago - a loss of $819,000. That is a big pile of gold $500 monopoly bills taken off the board.
 

(- promoted by Senate Watch -)

Source: Email from my brother. My brother recently retired from the DIA (Defence Intelligence Agency). As noted in the introduction, there is no independent coroboration yet. The language certainly sounds authentic. I'm sure our dedicated hard-working, main-stream media will dig it out if it is true.

(- promoted by Rocky Mountain Right -)

House GOP leaders today released a summary outline of the kind of budget and universal health insurance plan they would enact if they had the power, which, of course, they don't.

They would end bailouts for failing businesses, curb inflationary spending, lower taxes and provide universal health care that would improve care under the Medicaid program and give Americans choices of providers and treatments that the Democrat's planned HMO would not. Their 18-page document, which is not a full-blown budget, is being put down by the White House. President Obama, like Woodrow Wilson, our first totalitarian president, brooks no criticism nor accepts any alternative ideas. And left wing bloggers and commenters on those blogs are having a field day parroting the White House line. But the document is worth a read, because it clearly explains the problems with the president's unaffordably ambitious budget and HMO-style health plan that would enrage Americans if it were enacted and implemented. The document does a good job of explaining the problems with the president's budget and broadly outlining the Republicans' alternatives.

Some activists fed up with the Obama administration's policies of bailing out irresponsible behavior at the expense of everyone else are planning a Denver Tea Party. The event is slated at 10 AM on Friday on the West Steps of the capitol. They have a Facebook group created but are doing this on short notice as part of a nationwide push to hold these in major cities.

If you haven't seen it yet, here's CNBC reporter Rick Santelli's original call for a "Chicago Tea Party":

Most Americans agree with Santelli, Rasmussen Reports shows that the mortgage bailout plan is very unpopular:

Fifty-five percent (55%) of American adults say the federal government would be rewarding bad behavior by providing mortgage subsidies to financially troubled homeowners. Among investors, 65% hold that view.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that, among all adults, just 32% disagree.

MICHELLE MALKIN: Serving up roast pork.

SLAPSTICK POLITICS: El Presidente managed to get video of the event with audio you can actually hear, a task my camcorder was not up to in the high wind.

PPC: A plethora of photos from the event.

Slash Taxes- Starve a feeding bureaucrat

A decent sized crowd

"Pork Chop"

Sen. Josh Penry

Sen. Shawn Mitchell

Barack Obama will be in Denver tomorrow to sign the stimulus bill into law. Come down to the West Steps of the State Capitol to voice your opposition. From the YouDontKnowStimulus.com website:

BARACK OBAMA: YOU DON’T KNOW STIMULUS
12:00 noon, Denver, Colorado
West Steps of the State Capitol
200 E. Colfax Ave
Join hundreds of activists gathering to tell Barack Obama, “You Don’t Know Stimulus”

You'll be able to find extensive coverage of the event on this site, the Rocky Mountain Alliance, and the People's Press Collective. Josh Penry, Jon Caldara, Mike Coffman, Bob Beauprez, and a number of state legislators will be on hand. There is also slated to be a pig roast.

Come on down and send the message that you don't want Weimar Republic-style hyperinflation in the United States.