It's Really All About Mexicans- nada Americanos, Appraising Arizona

Appraising Arizona - NRO Symposium - National Review Online

The experts examine the state’s new immigration law.

The short blogs by several conservative and libertarian scholars are found in the above NRO Symposium. The article here by Heather Mac Donald is among the best. She has been studying and writing thoughtfully about this problem for over a decade. She has links to other articles and her 2006 City Journal article.

HEATHER MAC DONALD
It must be worrisome to be an illegal alien in Arizona right now. Whether you think that this is a good or a bad thing is a litmus test for whether you believe that immigration laws should be enforced. For years, any hint of immigration enforcement has triggered loud complaints from illegal-alien advocates about the stress that the mere possibility of detection places on illegal aliens’ peace of mind. For the illegal-alien lobby, there is a right not just to be in the country illegally, but also to be free from any nervousness that might be caused by one’s illegal status.

The Arizona law resoundingly rejects that assumption and announces: No, you shouldn’t be in the country illegally, and yes, we really mean it. The onus now falls on illegal-alien advocates to explain why deportation is not a valid consequence of immigration-law violations, for the main effect of SB 1070 is to marginally increase the still-slim chance that any given illegal alien will be apprehended and deported.

If the Obama administration continues to oppose SB 1070, Republicans should point out that the White House’s alleged commitment to enforcement as the quid pro quo for amnesty is a feint. Confining immigration enforcement to federal agents and the handful of local agencies that the administration sees fit to deputize under the 287g program cannot possibly elevate the risk of detection sufficiently to deter illegal entry and to induce those already here illegally to leave the country on their own — the real goal of enforcement. Only by allowing local law enforcement to act on immigration violations can the attrition strategy be given a real chance to work.

Charges that the Arizona bill is “near-fascist” because it requires aliens to produce proof of lawful status are overblown. The federal government already requires lawfully admitted aliens to carry their immigration documents. The charge that SB 1070 could open the door to racial profiling is less specious. Training and monitoring, however, can reduce the chance that someone might be asked for identification papers simply because he is Hispanic. The possibility that an otherwise valid law may be abused is not a sufficient argument against it.

SB 1070 demonstrates that Americans in states with high rates of illegal entry continue to reel under the health-care, education, and law-enforcement costs imposed by unrestricted entry from Mexico. Republicans can respond to that burden by calling for an immigration policy that puts a premium on skills and education, and by refusing to enact an amnesty. They will have to constantly counter the illegal-alien lobby’s strategy of conflating legal and illegal immigration.

— Heather Mac Donald is a contributing editor to City Journal and a co-author of The Immigration Solution.

On Earth Day, you say VAT, I say Cap-and-Trade: Obama’s Other Source of Tax Billions

On Earth Day, you say VAT, I say Cap-and-Trade: Obama’s Other Source of Tax Billions | CEI

By Christopher C. Horner

Created 04/22/2010 - 03:00

Publication:

The Daily Caller [1]

As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of calling Lenin’s birthday “Earth Day” — true story — the increasingly fashionable talking point in Washington is that a European-style “value added tax” or VAT is coming because, if you install European-style entitlements, you have to have a gusher of revenue, and the VAT is the only option to raise that sort of haul.

Untrue.

Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, I obtained internal Treasury Department memos drafted mere days after Obama’s election by staffers in a new “green” office established by Henry Paulson to administer his (and his Goldman Sachs friends’) pet program of “carbon cap-and-trade.” The documents tell a different tale.

According to the memos, cap-and-trade is a revenue cash cow worthy of the promise by Barack Obama that, in addition to making electricity rates “necessarily skyrocket,” it “will also generate billions of dollars.”

Re-read that. Also, remember it next week when the talking point resumes that this energy rationing scheme won’t cost anything. Apparently, Senate Democrats (joined by Lindsey Graham and longtime global warming enthusiast Joe Lieberman) think Obama was lying when he said those things in San Francisco. Or, in the face of reason, tradition and the laws of probability they have decided to draft a bill, intended by its champion to raise billions, instead so as to forgo such a bounty.

If the latter is the case, just how many billions would the biggest-spending, most radical Congress in history be, by some miracle, passing up? As I detail in my new book out this week, “Power Grab: How Obama’s Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America” — arguing that “climate” isn’t the issue, this is about power — the Treasury Department projected that cap-and-trade would yield revenues equaling “possibly up to several percentage points of GDP (i.e. equal in size to the corporate income tax).”

Yes, you read that correctly. Our corporate income tax, among the highest in the world, generates about $400 billion in revenues to the state. That is huge. Cap-and-trade isn’t the new VAT. It’s the forerunner.

Like a VAT, cap-and-trade would impose cost increases at every step of a product’s or service’s passage through commerce. It would, also like the VAT, be hidden. Even more so than a VAT, in fact, as the cost of cap-and-trade would appear nowhere on your utility bills or receipts (VAT would show on receipts, even if only the specific VAT amount imposed at that stage and not at the others).

Obama and his team have long sought to impose the energy-rationing agenda, whose marquee item is the “cap-and-trade” scheme which would not, according to anyone, detectably impact the climate. It isn’t about the climate. The climate is the latest excuse, or vehicle, for the Left’s agenda.

Cap-and-trade would, however, give the state the power to decide how much of something that the current political class disfavors — our most abundant and reliable energy sources — the private sector could have. That is the issue. As is that it would “generate billions of dollars.” Obama’s plan all along has been to use these revenues to underwrite his social engineering.

Incredibly, and as noted above, beginning next week this plan will receive yet another push in the Senate. This will be its fifth iteration and fourth vote in that body since 2003, only this time with Harry Reid having just vowed to circumvent the committee process to avoid transparency and scrutiny. Open deliberation could only lead to public rebellion, and wavering among Reid’s troops.

Reid now says that he will draft the bill in the back room. Last week the meetings commenced with Reid marching in different constituencies asking what they need to support the scheme and, if history is any guide, also threatening them if they do not. For example, with EPA doing even worse things to them.

This should sound familiar, it is the script played out during the health-care takeover. For that project, Reid and Obama could not risk letting senators go home for a recess to face their constituents without having first committed their vote. Here, with what would be by far the biggest tax increase in American history in constant dollars and in the name of averting warming that stopped — surely in fear of or deference to the (failed) Kyoto Protocol — Reid and Obama have seemingly made the calculation that the public beast cannot be stirred to any more anger or resistance than is already the case.

The accuracy of that remains to be seen. But regardless, do not be fooled. Cap-and-trade is not a low-cost proposal no matter how it is sliced, and it is intended to raise billions of dollars.

• Climate Change
• Economic Regulation
• Energy
• Environment

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Source URL: http://cei.org/articles/2010/04/22/earth-day-you-say-vat-i-say-cap-and-trade-obama%E2%80%99s-other-source-tax-billions

Links:
[1] http://dailycaller.com/2010/04/22/on-earth-day-you-say-vat-i-say-cap-and-trade-obama’s-other-source-of-tax-billions/

Power Grab: How Obama’s Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America

Power Grab: How Obama’s Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America | CEI by Christopher C. Horner
April 6, 2010

Christopher C. Horner, author of Red Hot Lies, has a new book coming out Monday, April 19, from Regnery Publishing. Power Grab: How Obama’s Green Policies Will Steal Your Freedom and Bankrupt America is an exposé of the Green Movement’s rise to political power and the frightening consequences of Obama’s Green-friendly energy mandates. Horner reveals who in Washington is driving this expansion of environmentalist policy and analyzes how new restrictions will harm economic recovery and development in America.

From the Front Flap:

If Obama and his “green” coalition get their way, we’re headed for blackouts, skyrocketing energy prices designed to bankrupt disfavored industries, and even greater government control of our economy.

Obama’s green jobs agenda masks a declaration of war against America’s most reliable sources of energy—coal, oil, and natural gas. He seeks to shut them down and convert America to green energy—mostly wind and solar—in an irresponsible experiment that will guarantee an energy crisis and drive America from recession to depression. The Obama administration, working in collusion with green groups allegedly protecting the environment, unions protecting their paychecks, and local elites protecting their ocean views, is putting the special interests ahead of your interests.

From Chapter One:

“Under Obama’s economic and energy plans, conventional energy is punished by government policy in order to force the adoption of new, Obama-favored technologies. These plans will force us into energy poverty, a return to government-inspired uncompetitiveness, and a surrender of individual and economic liberties.

Modern environmentalism in a nutshell sounds something like this: impose energy taxes that serve as a rationing scheme (the “cap”), along with mandates of what sort of energy people can use, and in what amount. Environmentalists seek to use the state to create scarcity in order to further impose their will over our lives.”

The Art of Choosing

The Art of Choosing review by Virginia Postrel

The Art of Choosing

" Sheena Iyengar is the psychologist responsible for the famous jam experiment. You may have heard about it: At a luxury food store in Menlo Park, researchers set up a table offering samples of jam. Sometimes, there were six different flavors to choose from. At other times, there were 24. (In both cases, popular flavors like strawberry were left out.) Shoppers were more likely to stop by the table with more flavors. But after the taste test, those who chose from the smaller number were 10 times more likely to actually buy jam: 30 percent versus 3 percent. Having too many options, it seems, made it harder to settle on a single selection. Wherever she goes, people tell Iyengar about her own experiment. The head of Fidelity Research explained it to her, as did a McKinsey & Company executive and a random woman sitting next to her on a plane. A colleague told her he had heard Rush Limbaugh denounce it on the radio. That rant was probably a reaction to Barry Schwartz, the author of “The Paradox of Choice” (2004), who often cites the jam study in antimarket polemics lamenting the abundance of consumer choice. In Schwartz’s ideal world, stores wouldn’t offer such ridiculous, brain- taxing plenitude. Who needs two dozen types of jam? That's the opening to my review of Iyengar's The Art of Choosing in today's NYT Book Review. Read the rest here. My fullest treatment of the questions of choice appeared in this Reason article, which anticipated many points made in Iyengar's book. See more of my work on the "variety revolution" here."

Sharia and Jihad - Censorship of Islamic Terminology: A Call for a Congressional Inquiry

PJTV - Sharia and Jihad - Censorship of Islamic Terminology: A Call for a Congressional Inquiry

Watch This!!!

The Barack Hussien Obama administration has censored all references to Muslim Terror in the continuous war on us!

Sierra Club criticizes Christie’s first 100 days

Sierra Club criticizes Christie’s first 100 days By Andrew Kitchenman

This is rather amusing because the Sierra Club criticized his last 100 days and it is expected they will criticize his next 100 days and his next...

The Sierra Club would be happy if New Jersey were even more over regulated than it is now! The NJ EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is the most powerful, subjective, costly and out of control, bloated bureaucracy in the State.

Its regulations have most significantly contributed to the population outflow and high cost of living and added to already high property taxes.

The Sierra Club will not be happy until the entire County is given back to the Indians, except for their executive board rooms.

The political endorsements by the Sierra Club are almost exclusively for incumbent Democrats (with the exception of two NJ Republicans-in name only).

Self-Censoring South Park -

Self-Censoring South Park - Nina Shea on National Review Online

More on South Park and the ridiculous images of Mohammed. It looks like Mohammed has been able to have a mountain of crap come from him.

Did Lindsey Graham Just Kill the Immigration Bill? -

Did Lindsey Graham Just Kill the Immigration Bill? - Daniel Foster - The Corner on National Review Online

The text in red stood out like... Text in Red!
If you scratch a born and bred, briar patch Southerner, you don't have to cut too deep to get to Dixie and a Democrat, no matter what party they proclaim. That is especially true for a Southern from the heart of 'sessesh'.

The Corner Text Posted-

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Did Lindsey Graham Just Kill the Immigration Bill? [Daniel Foster]

I've been watching the Goldman circus, but the Senate Judiciary Committee is also having hearings, and during testimony from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) may have effectively put the kibosh on support for any immigration reform bill before "the borders are secured" — no sooner than 2012:

Sen. Lindsey Graham, the sole Republican who was working on a bill to legalize illegal immigrants, in effect put the bill on the shelf on Tuesday, saying a debate now would destroy any prospects for passage and saying the issue needs to wait until 2012.

The remarks likely signal the end of any serious chance for broad immigration legislation to pass this year, since Mr. Graham, South Carolina Republican, was the best hope for a partnership with President Obama and Democrats who want to write a bill.

"It is impossible for me and any other serious Democrat to get this body to move forward until we prove to the American people we can secure our borders," Mr. Graham told Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who was testifying at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

"I believe we can do it by 2012 if we're smart," he said.

[. . .]

Mr. Graham has been working with Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, to write a bill, but said any effort to bring it up now would so anger Americans that it would kill any chance of getting the issue passed this year and in the near future.

"If immigration comes up this year, it's absolutely devastating to the future of this issue," he said.

UPDATE: A number of readers have noted Senator Graham's intriguing turn of phrase, "It is impossible for me and any other serious Democrat. . ." Yes, I did notice this. But I figured Graham already has enough problems without me calling him on his Freudian slip (?).

UPDATE II: More strong words from Sen. Graham:

Graham, the only Republican negotiating with Democrats to craft an immigration reform bill, said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing he would bet everything he owns that a bill would "crash and burn" if it was brought up in the near future and would be "absolutely devastating" to the reform movement.

The comments mark the strongest words yet from Graham about the prospects of advancing a reform bill he has been working on with Sen. Charles Schumer D-N.Y.

"To the Hispanic community - if you bring a bill up now, it's going to go down," Graham said after the hearing. "You won't get 40 votes because nobody can go back home and justify that the system is fixed when we know it's not."

04/27 01:21 PMShare

More Global Warming Profiteering by Obama Energy Official

Pajamas Media » More Global Warming Profiteering by Obama Energy Official April 26, 2010 - by Christopher Horner

The full article is posted here. This is just the surface level of politically connected friends of the administration to "green energy" related companies that have suddenly become booming businesses. There is nothing wrong with true profits, but this administration goes out its way to demonize legitimate capital growth, while encouraging climate hoax driven scam mongers that are associated with the administration.

Curiouser and curiouser!?

"[Documents show] Assistant Secretary of Energy Cathy Zoi has a huge financial stake in companies likely to profit from the Obama administration’s “green” policies."
"Zoi, who left her position as CEO of the Alliance for Climate Protection — founded by Al Gore — to serve as assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, now manages billions in “green jobs” funding. But the disclosure documents show that Zoi not only is in a position to affect the fortunes of her previous employer, ex-Vice President Al Gore, but that she herself has large holdings in two firms that could directly profit from policies proposed by the Department of Energy."
"Among Zoi’s holdings are shares in Serious Materials, Inc., the previously sleepy, now bustling, friend of the Obama White House whose public policy operation is headed by her husband. Between them, Zoi and her husband hold 120,000 shares in Serious Materials, as well as stock options. Reporter John Stossel has already explored what he sees as the “crony capitalism” implied by Zoi being so able to influence the fortunes of a company to which she is so closely associated.
In addition, the disclosure forms reflect that Zoi holds between $250,000 and $500,000 in “founders shares” in Landis+Gyr, a Swiss “smart meter” firm. She also still owns between $15,000 and $50,000 in ordinary shares.
“Smart meters,” put simply, are electric meters that return information about customer power usage to the power company immediately and allow a power company to control the amount of power a customer can consume. These smart meters are a central component of the Obama administration’s plans to reduce electricity consumption as part of the “smart grid.”
In a rare moment of candor, Obama “Energy Czar” Carol Browner said to US News & World Report last year: “We need to make sure that …[e]ventually, we can get to a system where an electric company will be able [sic] to hold back some of the power so that maybe your air conditioner won’t operate at its peak, you’ll still be able to cool your house, but that’ll be a savings to the consumer.” (emphasis added)
Clearly, DoE funding to encourage the adoption of “smart meters” would very likely lead to much increased sales by Landis+Gyr — and a potential windfall for Zoi. But surely Zoi doesn’t participate in the relevant “energy efficiency” policy?

In fact, as a condition of her employment with the Obama administration, while Ms. Zoi maintained significant security holdings in Serious Materials and Landis+Gyr, she promised to “not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter that has a direct and predictable effect on the[ir] financial interest” without obtaining a waiver first.

But then, if she doesn’t participate in decisions that could have a “direct and predictable effect” on her Landis+Gyr holdings and she doesn’t participate in decisions that could have a “direct and predictable effect” on her holdings in Serious Materials, it seems worth asking in which decisions she can participate.

Doesn’t Zoi’s involvement in these issues raise serious ethical or legal issues?

Given her position and the breadth of the decisions and duties from which she would have to recuse herself if someone with the rather glaring conflicts as Ms. Zoi has follows through on her promises to avoid participating in decisions that would impact companies in which she oddly has retained a substantial financial interest — what decisions and policies is she participating in? Has she obtained waivers? If so, on what; if not, why not? Re-read her title. Re-review her investments. What, precisely, is she doing on our dime and how come she is permitted to carry such obvious conflicts of interest that either preclude her from working on nearly any matter of substance under her purview, or trigger automatically serious ethical and other considerations? And, what happened to that whole ethical, transparency thing?"

Arizona: Doing the job the feds won’t do

Michelle Malkin » Arizona: Doing the job the feds won’t do
This new State Law is redundant to Federal Law, but:

• it still doesn't protect the boarder
• Obama and McCain appear to favor illegal aliens over American Citizens

Yet, to the west in California, near San Diego, the Feds are making a show case of cracking down on employing illegal aliens:

• Feds’ push to seize restaurant a rare one--Illegal workers at heart of French Gourmet case

And when the lowest-high-profile race pimps show up:

• Sharpton vows to protest Arizona immigration bill

Then Arizona is at least on the right track!

Ira Einhorn, Earth Day's Dirty Secret

Magic City Morning Star: Ira Einhorn, Earth Day's Dirty Secret
Highlights of this comprehensive article follow:

Lest we never forget, one of the main Earth Day creators was the Unicorn Killer.
Self-righteousness knows no bounds!

"You won't find Ira Einhorn's name listed in any of the Earth Day promotional literature, as the organizers have taken great pains to distance themselves from this man, at least since he became better known for composting his girlfriend in a trunk in his closet for a couple of years in the late 1970s."

"Earth Day organizers and publicists don't want to have anything to do with Ira these days. Since he was convicted of murder, he hasn't been very useful to them. But that wasn't always the case. In 1970, during the first Earth Day event, which was televised throughout the globe, Ira Einhorn was on stage as master of ceremonies."

"Or so he claims, and it seems likely that he was."

"Due in large part to his influence, Einhorn escaped punishment for his crime for a quarter of a century.

"After bludgeoning his girlfriend of five years to death, fracturing her skull in a dozen places, Ira stuffed her body into a trunk, which he packed into a closet where it remained until discovered by the police nearly two years later."

"When Holly Maddux disappeared in the fall of 1977, Einhorn was named as a suspect by the girl's parents, who knew that Einhorn had threatened their daughter with violence. Yet, after briefly questioning him, while the body of his murdered girlfriend lie decomposing in a trunk stored in a closet of his apartment, police accepted his denial of any knowledge of her whereabouts."

"When she failed to reappear, the murdered girl's parents hired an investigator who very quickly came up with sufficient evidence for a warrant to search Einhorn's apartment. A downstairs neighbor told of a liquid leaking from Einhorn's apartment into the kitchen below, describing it as being dark in color and smelling of putrefaction. He also testified to hearing a scream, as well as "several sharp thuds", at the time of Holly's disappearance."

"When the private investigator presented this evidence to the police, they finally obtained a search warrant, which was served on March 29, 1978."

"The battered and partly mummified body of Holly Maddux was found in a trunk in a bedroom closet, packed in styrofoam, newspaper, and air fresheners."

Then there was Arlen Spector, Einhorn's attorney!

"Arrested, Einhorn's attorney was considering a run for the Senate. His name was Arlen Spector, of Pennsylvania. The darling of New Age society, politicians, Ivy League professors, and corporate executives alike, Einhorn had no shortage of friends during his bail hearing. With his great love for the earth, surely Ira would not have murdered anyone. Released on a mere $40,000 bail, of which he had to pay only ten percent, Einhorn fled to Sweden, remaining as a fugitive in Europe until 1997, when he was found living in France under another name."

"While it is likely that Einhorn's violent history is not shared by other Earth Day founders, the observance is nevertheless bizarre."

"Underlying the themes of Earth Day is a call for mankind to align itself with nature, and against itself, enlisting human beings to take part in a battle that seeks to place humanity under the control of an enlightened elite, one that values the interests of nature above that of people."

Ira Einhorn, Master of Ceremonies, Earth Day Rally on Belmont Plateau in Fairmount Park, Apr. 22, 1970. Maicher, Michael J., photographer. This image and many other images are available in Temple's Archival Collections Database.

Jupin' Jehad, 'South Park' Episode Prompts Death Threats

YouTube - 'South Park' Episode Prompts Death Threats
This video is from the Bill O'Reilly Show from April 20, 2010, where there is a good overall synopsis of the South Park Mohammed Episode and the death threat dilemma that has developed since the Danish Cartoons in 2006.

Here is the "Mohammed" episode from South Park on youthcafe,tv.

And here is the 'boingboing' interview with South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone regarding the "Mohammed" 200th episode!

Stan, one the star characters on South Park had already met Mohammed (pictured here- he has flames shooting out of his hands) before the Danish Cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard, had death threats made against him.

In an interview for Princeton, Danish Cartoonist, Kurt Westergaard said, "When — in early September 2005 — I got a brief request from my editor at the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten to draw my impression of the prophet Muhammad, I had little idea of what I was getting myself into. To me it was just another day at the office. So I tried to do the best job I could, and I drew up a picture of the prophet with a bomb in his turban. I further inserted the quotation: “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.”

On Sept. 30, the paper published 12 cartoons, including my own, that took Islam and Muhammad as their subject. The ‘Danish cartoon affair’ which ensued turned out to be perhaps the most important free speech case of our time. In the months after the cartoons’ publication, protests against them morphed from peaceful objections to irrational violence which included serious threats on my life. The cartoons have become a watershed test for the ability of the press to comment and criticize all religions without fear of violent reprisal. All of us — and not least the students and faculty at an institution such as Princeton — will be on the center front of this debate for years to come."

The Cartoon by Kurt Westergaard-

Various caricatures were spawned by the Westergard Cartoon, including this-

'There are a lot of nuances in this piece of art (and clearly that is not Muhammad). via Islam in Europe: Denmark: New ‘Muhammad cartoon’.'

The above cartoon is from a great free speech blog: http://creepingsharia.wordpress.com/

The most insightful of the "Mo' cartoons was the one drawn out of fear by by Stan's Dad on South Park. It shows how empty we have become in no standing up to, what is Islam's Terror now called, "man-caused" disasters.

It's possible that the term "War on Terror" may be outmoded, but surely there were better options than this:

The end of the Global War on Terror -- or at least the use of that phrase -- has been codified at the Pentagon. Reports that the phrase was being retired have been circulating for some time amongst senior administration officials, and this morning speechwriters and other staff were notified via this e-mail to use "Overseas Contingency Operation" instead.'"

Strange times we live in....STRANGE TIMES INDEED!

Global Warming Causes Volcano Eruptions -

Global Warming Causes Volcano Eruptions - Jonah Goldberg - The Corner on National Review Online

MY QUESTION IS: WHAT TOOK THE CLIMATE LEECHES SO LONG?

I smell the brimstone of multiple government, UN and other NGO grants for studies, white papers and endless committees on the effects of global warming on the vulcanization of the earth (or the Vulanism if Leonard Nemoy makes an application).
I'm considering making an application for a grant myself. It will be based on the effect mooseriding may have on global warming. Does moose-gas affect global warming negatively or does mooseriding affect global warming positively by less use of fossil fuel?

Preston Sturges ... for Richer or Poorer

Preston Sturges was one of the best screenwriters and directors. He made two of my favorite films with some of the most insightful quotes to be spoken on nitrate.

He was able have great stars in his best films, including Henry Fonda, Barbara Stanwick, Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert. The one thing I always found imponderable was why he had Eddy Bracken star in his later films.

In the LA TV market, Tom Hatten, the former "Popeye the Sailor Man" cartoon show sketch doodler, M.C.-ed an old movie show. He was terrific at introducing movies from the Universal and Paramount Library. He gave the viewers the film's historical and biographical context and thankfully he introduced Preston Sturges' films to me.

Sullivan's Travels (1941)

ON POVERTY

Burrows the Butler: Good morning, sir.

Burrows: I don't like it at all, sir. Fancy dress, I take it?

John L. Sullivan: What's the matter with it?

Burrows: I have never been sympathetic to the caricaturing of the poor and needy, sir.

John L. Sullivan: Who's caricaturing?

John L. Sullivan: I'm going out on the road to find out what it's like to be poor and needy and then I'm going to make a picture about it.

Burrows: If you'll permit me to say so, sir, the subject is not an interesting one. The poor know all about poverty and only the morbid rich would find the topic glamorous.

John L. Sullivan: But I'm doing it for the poor. Don't you understand?

Burrows: I doubt if they would appreciate it, sir. They rather resent the invasion of their privacy, I believe quite properly, sir. Also, such excursions can be extremely dangerous, sir. I worked for a gentleman once who likewise, with two friends, accoutered themselves as you have, sir, and then went out for a lark. They have not been heard from since.

Burrows: You see, sir, rich people and theorists - who are usually rich people - think of poverty in the negative, as the lack of riches - as disease might be called the lack of health. But it isn't, sir. Poverty is not the lack of anything, but a positive plague, virulent in itself, contagious as cholera, with filth, criminality, vice and despair as only a few of its symptoms. It is to be stayed away from, even for purposes of study. It is to be shunned.

Sullivan:
Well, you seem to have made quite a study of it.

Burrows: (dryly)
Quite unwillingly, sir. Will that be all, sir?

(Sullivan watches him exit, then turns to the valet.)

Sullivan:
He gets a little gruesome every once in a while.

The Valet:
Always reading books, sir.

"There's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that's all some people have? It isn't much, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan."--John Lloyd Sullivan (Joel McCrea)

The Palm Beach Story (1942)

Gerry Jeffers: Anyway, men don't get smarter as they get older. They just lose their hair.

Princess Centimillia: I'd marry Captain McGloo tomorrow, even with that name.

John D. Hackensacker III: And divorce him the next month.

Princess Centimillia: Nothing is permanent in this world - except for Roosevelt.

"To Destroy You Is No Loss"

To Destroy You Is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family

by JoAn D. Ciddle

The Story of Teeda Butt Mam

"To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss." The taunting slogan used by the Cambodian Communists to intimidate millions of Cambodians in 1975"

I found this book by accident and story grabbed me immediately. It may be that I've become so terribly attuned to the outrages of government and the indifference to the individual that it creates.

Here was Cambodia, by fate geography and time, that had survived with "When Elephants Fight the Ant moves out of the way philosophy," the French, Japanese, French again, North Vietnamese, Americans, Chinese and Vietnamese Communists to be nearly self obliterated by its own Angkar (organization) Communism.

In a sad ironic twist, the Khmer Rouge, mirrored the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution.

Olbermann Suggested Jail Time for Obamacare Evaders

Olbermann Suggested Jail Time for Obamacare Evaders

WeeklyStandard.com or in The Weekly Standard.

"[M]media coverage forced the Senate to include a specific provision in the bill unveiled October 19 that stipulated no one would go to jail for not buying insurance. So you could argue that after October 19, reporters should have acknowledged you probably wouldn't go to jail. But we really didn't know what the enforcement mechanism for the individual mandate would be until the final text of the bill was released in March.

If Fox News personalities are to blame for suggesting jail time for Obamacare evaders, so is Keith Olbermann. He said on December 16:

We must not buy federally-mandated insurance. [...]

I hereby pledge that I will not buy this perversion of health-care reform. Pass this at your peril, senators. And sign it at yours, Mr. President. I will not buy this insurance. Brand me a law-breaker if you choose. Fine me if you will. Jail me if you must.

Get ready for the insurance spiral of death -- if Republicans don't repeal Obamacare in time."

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US Senate climate bill to be unveiled April 26

Reuters AlertNet - US Senate climate bill to be unveiled April 26

These Senators just want to tax, Cap (euphemism for Tax) and trade is like sound and fury,

"and [it is] a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing."-MacBeth.

"A long-awaited compromise bill to reduce U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming will be unveiled by a group of senators:according to government and environmental sources,--- is being drafted by Democratic Senator John Kerry, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and independent Senator Joseph Lieberman."

Have these political hacks been locked in a room reading the 3,000± pages of the Obamacare Bill over the last year so they didn't hear that anthropogenic global warming is a hoax and that Climategate revealed the climate coverup!

"A group of nine senators, mostly from Midwestern manufacturing states, urged Kerry, Graham and Lieberman in a letter on Thursday to take into account jobs in their states."

"Without such a plan, we are concerned that the legislation will ultimately be unsuccessful," Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown and others wrote."

Let us hope so!

Lower and Simplify Taxes! by John Stossel on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

Lower and Simplify Taxes! by John Stossel

It's that joyous time of year: income tax time. So I spend time with my accountant. I don't want to see him, but I must. I could not do what he's doing. The tax code has grown so complex that today most Americans hire someone to do their taxes.
For the money I pay my accountant, I could get a hundred massages. I could buy a fancy motorcycle. I could take a cruise ship to Venice and back. ...

Updated: Wed Apr 14, 2010 (tax monster from granitgroc.com)


  

Obama's disregard for media reaches new heights at nuclear summit

Obama's disregard for media reaches new heights at nuclear summit

By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, April 14, 2010; A02

'World leaders arriving in Washington for President Obama's Nuclear Security Summit must have felt for a moment that they had instead been transported to Soviet-era Moscow.

They entered a capital that had become a military encampment, with camo-wearing military police in Humvees and enough Army vehicles to make it look like a May Day parade on New York Avenue, where a bicyclist was killed Monday by a National Guard truck.'

The only part of the summit, other than a post-meeting news conference, that was visible to the public was Obama's eight-minute opening statement, which ended with the words: "I'm going to ask that we take a few moments to allow the press to exit before our first session."

Reporters for foreign outlets, admitted for the first time to the White House press pool, got the impression that the vaunted American freedoms are not all they're cracked up to be.

Yasmeen Alamiri from the Saudi Press Agency got this lesson in press freedom when trying to cover Obama's opening remarks as part of that limited pool: "The foreign reporters/cameramen were escorted out in under two minutes, just as the leaders were about to begin, and Obama was going to make remarks. . . . Sorry, it is what it is."

------

Oh, by the way, Obama didn't mention Iran's or N. Korea's nuclear threats in any of his prepared statements. He only made token, meaningless replies to the few questions about the two rogue countries. Obama acted offended by the questions. Remember, he's saving the world!

A friend sent this along to me. I can't think of a reason to disagree.

A friend sent this along to me. I can't think of a reason to disagree. I am sending this to virtually everybody on my e-mail list and that includes conservatives, liberals, and everybody in between. Even though we disagree on a number of issues, I count all of you as friends. My friend and neighbor wants to promote a "Congressional Reform Act of 2010".. It would contain eight provisions, all of which would probably be strongly endorsed by those who drafted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.. I know many of you will say, "this is impossible". Let me remind you, Congress has the lowest approval of any entity in Government, now is the time when Americans will join together to reform Congress - the entity that represents us. We need to get a Senator to introduce this bill in the US Senate and a Representative to introduce a similar bill in the US House. These people will become American hero's.. Thanks, Congressional Reform Act of 2010 1. Term Limits: 12 years only, one of the possible options below. A. Two Six year Senate terms B. Six Two year House terms C. One Six year Senate term and three Two Year House terms Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work. 2. No Tenure / No Pension: A congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work. 3. Congress (past, present & future) participates in Social Security: All funds in the Congressional retirement fund moves to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, Congress participates with the American people. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, server your term(s), then go home and back to work. 4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan just as all Americans. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work. 5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.. 6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work. 7. Congress must equally abide in all laws they impose on the American people. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work. 8. All contracts with past and present congressmen are void effective 1/1/11. The American people did not make this contract with congressmen, congressmen made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, serve your term(s), then go home and back to work.. If you agree with the above, pass it on to all in your address list. If not, just delete.

Why the Fed's Zero Interest Rate Policy May Be Dangerous - DailyFinance

Why the Fed's Zero Interest Rate Policy May Be Dangerous - DailyFinance: "Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has pledged to keep interest rates near zero to stimulate the economy but is this policy doing more harm than good? Such low rates push banks to take more chances to get better returns and encourage investors to move money into into inherently riskier assets."

The Daily Gut

The Daily Gut
FOXNEWS-Red Eye's Greg Gutfeld usually gets it right as he does here.
Read it, then watch the link to his video. It's more entertaining.
After the Greg-alogue video, there was an ironic following link to a "HOWTO" about HOW TO MAKE AL GORE PROUD. It's written at a grammar school level and it's just full of Al Gore's Decrees!
At first I thought it was a joke! It would be very funny if it weren't so sad.

THURSDAY'S GREGALOGUE: The Consequences of Chicken Little So, I'm wearing pants, which means another Rasmussen Poll has arrived. And - to echo every single hack editorial writer - it's bound to cause a "chilling effect" among whatever needs chilling. According to the poll, 65 percent of Americans say they won't make major lifestyle changes to help the environment. These findings, of course, will be filed under "idiot America" by our greenies stateside, and those abroad. Yep - It's just another example of how selfish and short-sighted we dumbass Yanks really are. Screw the earth. All we care about is our monstrous SUV's, our Play Stations, and of course, our vintage collection of shrunken spotted owl heads. I have 58. So when not frenching Hugo Chavez, Sean Penn will shake his head ruefully. Al Gore will sob quietly in his air conditioned silo made of coffee table books. Tim Robbins will try to suffocate himself in a biodegradable, but reusable shopping bag. Hooray, I say - because these freaks are wrong. The reason why Americans are less likely to make said changes isn't because they don't care about the earth - it's that they just don't care for the propagandists who browbeated them into caring about the earth. So whose fault is that? Well, it's Gore's, and every single manmade global warming apostle out there. By abandoning reasoned debate found in just about every major scientific arena, and instead embracing media friendly, self righteous hysteria - they became a noxious mixture of Chicken Little and Mrs. Kravitz. You know, from Bewitched. And of course, they got cocky and fudged their data. Fact is, most Americans do care about the earth, but they can smell BS a mile away. And yeah, I'm referring to Barbra Streisand. And if you disagree with me, you're probably a racist homophobe who pours milk on starving kittens in hopes of enticing them to cannabalism.

dailygut.com

As support for ObamaCare repeal hits new high, support for Obama hits new low |

As support for ObamaCare repeal hits new high, support for Obama hits new low | Washington Examiner

By: John McCormack
Weekly Standard
04/12/10 4:45 PM EDT

Rasmussen:

Three weeks after Congress passed its new national health care plan, support for repeal of the measure has risen four points to 58%. That includes 50% of U.S. voters who strongly favor repeal.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters nationwide finds 38% still oppose repeal, including 32% who strongly oppose it.

Chicago Tribune:

President Barack Obama’s job approval rating has slid to 45 percent today in the Gallup Poll’s daily tracking, a rolling average of the past three days’ surveys.

That’s a new low in the Gallup tracks — which found the president’s approval rating at a previous low of 46 percent in early March.

Any chance these two stories are related?

GOOGLE FRANKENSTEIN: MACHINES TO CHOOSE YOUR NEWS

GOOGLE FRANKENSTEIN: MACHINES TO CHOOSE YOUR NEWS

Mon Apr 12 2010

So What else is new, machine like libs in the msm choose the news (usually off the NY Times) to spoon feed it to us in syndicated papers, radio and TV news shows. The New York Times hasn't been written by anything but left lubed contraptions in decades!

GOOGLE CEO and Obama political activist Eric Schmidt declared this weekend that his machines will help decide what news you receive!

News sites should use technology to PREDICT what a user wants to read by what they have already read, Schmidt told the AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NEWS EDITORS, where a few humans still remained in the audience.

"We're all in this together."

MORE

Schmidt said he doesn't want 'to be treated as a stranger' when reading online, POLITICO reports.

He envisions a future where technology for news editing could help tailor advertisements for individual readers.

And he wants to be challenged through technology that 'directs readers' to a story with an 'opposing' view.

[An odd suggestion from the CEO of a company long accused of offering little to no conservative-leaning links on its news page, while aggressively promoting left-leaning hubs.]

Schmidt said GOOGLE is working on new ways to push adverts and content for consumers, based on what stories they've read.

What stories his machines have selected.

Developing...

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashes.htm

Will Mainstream Media reporters and editors expose, screen out, or help Tea Party saboteurs? | Washington Examiner

Will Mainstream Media reporters and editors expose, screen out, or help Tea Party saboteurs? |

This has happened many, many times before.

"Have you seen the "Crash the Tea Party" web site? It's among the most illustrative expressions ever of the thirst on the Left to suppress dissent by whatever means are necessary. It is Saul Alinsky on steroids."

The Crash the Tea Party site asks" "Are You a Capitalist or Socialist?"

This what they say:

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Will-Mainstream-Media-reporters-and-editors-screen-out-Tea-Party-crashers-90572559.html#ixzz0kvEUqIdR

Fight organized crime: Re-elect NO ONE...

Love this VAN!! "In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress."-- John Adams Fight organized crime: Re-elect NO ONE-