Thursday, January 22, 2009

Holy mother of... inside the Secret Service's GMC Yukons


WWTDD has the video... and the following are the key screen-caps.

Nadia sent in this link showing what’s inside the Secret Service Yukon XL that follows the presidential limo. Namely, the Dillon M134D Gatling Gun, a six barreled, electrically driven machine gun chambered in 7.62mm, capable of firing 4,000 rounds per minute. And get this, the bullets are laced with poison. And the poison is high in calories. These guys aren’t f***in around.











Hat tip: Bernie.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: The "To Don't" List


Whose money is it, anyway?: John R. Lott, Jr.
I pledge: Iowahawk
Dutch Courage: Mark Steyn

Professor denies global warming theory: Daily Princetonian
A declaration of Independence: Mitchell Langbert
Difference between Bush and Obama: Ms. Underestimated

From the people who wanted to run the war: Jules Crittenden
I am Geert Wilders: Atlas Shrugs
Whence the First Lady's dress?: Ace o' Spades

The invisible man: Pajamas Media
Who gets to rebuild Gaza?: Prairie Pundit
A bold step drastically contemplated: Jules Crittenden

Oh, about that strategy of 'cut and run'...: Gateway Pundit
How the Presidents Stack Up WSJ (Charts)
GM warns it could be out of cash by March 31st: AutoBlog

The economy is bad, but 1982 was worse: Carpe Diem
Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists, Obama supporters, et al:: Theo Spark
This emperor has no clothes: Telegraph (Gerald Warner)

Bulleit Bourbon: Parkway Rest Stop
2010 Ford Taurus SHO spotted: AutoBlog
Today's Mark Madness: Blog of Walker

Andy Levy's 'To Don't' List: Big Hollywood:

DON’T question the motives - question the policy. When you disagree with Obama’s policies, say so, and make it clear why. But remember that President Obama is doing what he thinks is best for the country, as President Bush did. Both men love America and want what’s best for her. End of story.

DON’T make it personal. We don’t need another Derangement Syndrome. We don’t need people doing things like emphasizing Obama’s middle name in a derogatory fashion. How anyone would think that’s beneficial to their cause, or to the country as a whole, is beyond me. Also, it’s not even clever. Neither are smushwords like BusHitler, or sillywords like Rethuglicans and Dhimmicrats.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A Free New Testament in Arabic


If I lived in Saudi Arabia, the following act could be punishable by death.

Click on the image or here for a PDF download of an Arabic New Testament that you can freely distribute.

Eh, Panetta doesn't even have a daughter!


I've seen some intriguing reports regarding President Obama's choice for Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), Leon Panetta. A wide variety of sources reported that Panetta's daughter is a left-wing activist who pals around with South American thugs like Hugo Chavez.
In the interest of intellectual honesty, I'd like to call attention to AIM's Cliff Kincaid, who reports that Panetta does not have a daughter.

...Linda Panetta [was identified] as “an avowed Marxist, anti-American, anti-military leftist” and said that Leon Panetta would have to explain his daughter’s activities.

But reached by telephone in Philadelphia, Linda Panetta told Accuracy in Media that while she admires Leon Panetta and that there may be a distant family connection somewhere, he is not her father and that she has never even met him. “Not only am I not his daughter but unfortunately I have not had the pleasure of meeting this man who has done amazing work in his lifetime,” she said. “He and my father may have been second cousins,” she acknowledged, but under no circumstances is he her father.

Despite charges or information to the contrary, she has never claimed to be his daughter. She explained, “God rest my Dad’s soul. He was an incredible individual as well. I would never in my lifetime claim to be anybody’s daughter but my father’s.”

Official biographies of Panetta say that he has three sons but no daughter.

Let this be a teaching moment for the left-wing bloggers.

This is what we call "intellectual honesty." It acknowledges factual evidence and historical detail. It rejects falsehoods and baseless conjecture.

And this is precisely why Keith "Bathtub Boy" Olbermann could never, ever, ever be a conservative.

History 101 (Crash course)


Papa B sent this one in.

For those that don't know about history... Here is a condensed version:

Humans originally existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunters/gatherers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in the winter.

The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get man to the beer. These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the division of humanity into two distinct subgroups:

1. Liberals, and
2. Conservatives.

Once beer was discovered, it required grain and that was the beginning of agriculture. Neither the glass bottle nor the aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early humans were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed.

Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to barbecue at night while they were drinking beer. This was the beginning of what is known as the Conservative movement.

Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly BBQ and doing the sewing, fetching, and hair dressing. This was the beginning of the Liberal movement.

Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as girlie-men. Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy, group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.

Over the years conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals have always been represented by the jackass.

Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare. Another interesting evolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't fair to make the pitcher bat as well as through.

Conservatives drink domestic beer, mostly Bud. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, athletes, members of the military, airline pilots and generally anyone who works productively. Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living.

Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to govern the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America. They crept in after the Wild West was tamed and created a business of trying to get more for nothing.

I checked Snopes and it appears to be legit.

The progressive utopia of California wants other states to bail it out? No taxation without representation!


I'll repeat: No taxation without representation!

Here's the postcard I'm sending to Governor Jerkinator.


John Lott asks "Whose money is it, anyway?"

"[Aid for California] has long been a priority" for Speaker Nancy Pelosi... Of course, with her home state of California facing a $15 billion deficit this year and a $27 billion deficit next year, her position is understandable. But why should Americans in states that have managed their finances relatively well bail out Californians?

Over the last four years California’s budget grew from $105 billion to $145 billion. If their budget had simply grown only fast enough to offset inflation (10.3%) and the growth in population (4.65%), the current budget deficit would actually be a $9 billion surplus. California could then have used that surplus to more than cover what would have been a few billion dollar deficit next year. Would California really be that badly off if the state government spent as much per Californian after adjusting for inflation as it did in 2004?

Paying for California's mistakes when you're not a Californian?

Isn't that the kind of thing that precipitated the Boston Tea Party?

No bailout for Califailure!

What brought down the plane in the Hudson River?


I received this from multiple tippity-top secret sources.

I checked with Snopes and it came up as legit.

Top 10 Best and Worst brands of 2008


Branding company PollyWog named its Top 10 Best and worst brands of 2008. The partial list:

Best Brands of 2008
3. Sue (magazine for women in litigation)
2. Chrome (Google)
1. Air (Apple)

Worst Brands of 2008
3. Tiguan (VW)
2. HD-DVD (Toshiba)
1. G1 (Google)

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: Let the Looting (of the Treasury) Begin!


Confidence Man: National Review (Rich Lowry)
Spicoli: I'm Not a Stooge For Dictators: Jammie Wearing Fool
All class: Bush family booed at Coronation: Gateway Pundit

The speech Obama should have given: Don Surber
We have paid for Israel's failure: Tim Blair
Pitching AGW to an ignorant crowd: QandO

Tom Brokaw compares Inauguration to 'Velvet Revolution': Newsbusters (Geoffrey Dickens)
Perhaps The Wrong Question: Response39
The new dawn of gaga-eyed idol worship: Jules Crittenden

Michelle wore the Customary B't'arnanth Golden Klingon Ceremonial Battledress: Ace o' Spades
The age of Obama humor: American Thinker (Thomas Lifson)
The words of Inauguration cloud: Charlie Foxtrot

Democrats and their failed efforts at creating "affordable housing?": National Review (Thomas Sowell)
What?!? His middle name is Hussein? I thought that was a trope of the Republican Attack Machine!: James Taranto
Memo to drones: America's enemies remain our enemies: National Review (Mona Charen)

Biggest Boondoggle in American History: Power Line
Fallout: Obama prayer service leader's ties to Hamas: American Thinker (Rick Moran)
The National Prayer Service and the Wahhabi Lobby: American Thinker (Winfield Myers)

Sorry to be a party pooper, but I can't share this swooning Obama hysteria: Melanie Phillips:

People believe that Obama represents a renunciation of an America that throws its weight around the world. And they think it’s that ‘war-mongering’ characteristic, represented in particular by President Bush and the war in Iraq, which has caused so much global trouble and resentment...

I believe that’s a dangerously false analysis which fails to grasp the extent to which western civilisation is under attack from a world-wide enemy that intends to destroy it, and which further fails to distinguish between true aggression and true self-defence.

Like the hydra, the enemy now waging war on the West has many heads - but it is one enemy, and it feeds in particular on the perception that the West is weak and is no longer willing to defend itself by military means...

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

FISA Court and Holder rule in favor of Bush; slam Bathtub Boy


The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review — a special federal appeals court created by the 1978 FISA statute on matters of national security surveillance -- last week ruled that the President has unfettered constitutional authority to monitor international communications without court permission. In fact, the President can do so even when the communications of U.S. citizens are involved.

It understates the case to say the Bush administration has been slandered for asserting this power — accused of shredding the Constitution and violating the principle that no one is above the law (even as Congress put itself above the law — the Constitution — by enacting and trying to enforce a statute, FISA, that sought to diminish the president's constitutional authority). It was never true.

President Bush's Terrorist Surveillance Program — carried out by the NSA without court oversight, just as wartime presidents have always conducted national security surveillance without court oversight — always stood on strong authority, including a 2002 ruling from the same Foreign Intelligence Court of Review.  have argued in favor of the program's legality, here on NRO and elsewhere, more times than I can count.  (See, e.g., here, here, here, here and here).

Six months ago, presumptive Attorney General Eric Holder pilloried the practices as "needlessly abusive and unlawful."

But during last week's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Holder was as slippery as a FALN bomb-maker's can of machine oil.

Mr. Hatch: "Back to my prior point, the President's inherent authority under the Constitution. Can that be limited by a statute? You're relying on a statute as though that's binding on Article II of the Constitution."

Mr. Holder: "Well, the President obviously has powers under the Constitution that cannot be infringed by the legislative branch. That's what I was saying earlier. There are powers that the President has delegated to him -- that he has -- and Congress does not have the ability to say, with regard to those powers, you cannot exercise them. There's always a tension in trying to decide where that balance is struck. And I think we see the best result when we see Congress interacting with the President, the executive branch interacting with the legislative branch and coming up with solutions . . ."

Mr. Hatch: "That still doesn't negate the fact that the President may have inherent powers under Article II that even a statute cannot vary."
...
Holder: "Yeah. There are certain things that a President has the constitutional right, authority to do, that the legislative branch cannot impinge upon."

Put simply, even Holder now admits that Presidents have constitutional powers that the legislature may not abridge.

So much for the shrill meme endlessly marketed by Democrats and echoed by their public relations arm, the mainstream media. To wit:

Bush is not above the law: New York Times Op-Ed (James Bamford):

...the president of the United States broke the law, committed a serious felony and violated the Constitution... Under his program, President Bush could probably be charged with wiretapping not 17 but thousands of people without having obtained a court order authorizing the taps as required by federal law, in violation of FISA...

In a hearing on Jan. 18 [2007], the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, said, “For years, this administration has engaged in warrantless wiretapping of Americans contrary to the law... ”

His view was shared by the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, who said of Mr. Bush, “For five years he has been operating an illegal program.”

Or Bill Maher:

New Rule: Liberals must stop saying President Bush hasn’t asked Americans to sacrifice for the war on terror. On the contrary, he’s asked us to sacrifice something enormous: our civil rights... ...this administration has read your phone records, credit card statements, mail, Internet logs.. I mail myself a copy of the Constitution every morning just on the hope they’ll open it and see what it says.

Or Keith Olbermann, a man so unhinged even the left mocks him:

Olbermann's Special Comment on FISA: President Bush Is a Liar and a Fascist: If you believe in the seamless mutuality of government and big business — come out and say it! There is a dictionary definition, one word that describes that toxic blend. You’re a fascist — get them to print you a t-shirt with “fascist” on it! What else is this but fascism? ...And if there’s one thing we know about Big Brother, Mr. Bush, is that he is — you are — a liar...

...You are a liar, Mr. Bush, and after showing some skill at it, you have ceased to even be a very good liar... You would not merely be guilty of siding with the terrorists… You would not merely be guilty of prioritizing the telecoms over the people… You would not merely be guilty of stupidity… You would not merely be guilty of treason, sir… You would be personally, and eternally, responsible.

Or Elaine Cassel, author of The War on Civil Liberties (How Bush and Ashcroft Have Dismantled the Bill of Rights).

I felt compelled to share the story of how... the government was using the war on terrorism to circumvent precious liberties and rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights... [we can not] sit by and watch our freedoms dissolve under the guise of fighting terrorism.

Or miscellaneous socialists like Doreen Miller (don't all Marxists look alike?):

The [Patriot Act] eviscerates many of the protections of the Bill of Rights by allowing the Government to search people’s homes without a warrant, to monitor electronic communication without a warrant, to imprison citizens for 6 months without seeing a judge, and much more.

Or the brilliant diarists at Daily Kos:

I pray that George W. Bush burns in Hell!: I sit here and am depressed what we have become and the destroyed lives all because this pathetic man chose to defy our constitution... our people and our sense of moral decency. This horrible man will burn in hell. That would only be fair.

* * *

Now that Chimpy has been forever vindicated by the FISA review court -- and the presumptive Democratic Attorney General -- we'll patiently await apologies from the spectrum of unhappy Leftists and terror-supporters who range from the merely ignorantly to the patently deranged.

Got that, Bathtub Boy?

Depressing chart o' the day


Fabius Maximus: "We now have more people employed in government than manufacturing and construction."

The Christian Science Monitor, no friend of the GOP, calls the Obama stimulus plan "A safety net for government jobs":

In Washington this week, President-elect Obama called on Congress to create 3 million jobs over the next two years – “more than 80 percent of them in the private sector.”

Republicans on Capitol Hill did a little quick math: That means 20 percent, or some 600,000 new jobs, will be in the public sector. That would boost the ranks of federal employees by a third, they said, none too pleased about the prospect of a “big government” revival.

“The federal government is bloated, inefficient, and spends too much of your hard-earned money,” said Rep. Steve King (R) of Iowa, in a statement. Some 600,000 new government jobs “will only add to the waste, fraud, and abuse coming out of Washington, D.C., and fail to provide a true economic stimulus.”

But that calculus leaves out a key phrase that Obama transition officials insist is part of the president-elect’s plan: to create “or save” 3 million jobs. “The vast majority of government jobs will be state and local jobs being saved,” said one official, speaking on background...

...The high-profile role of public-employee unions in the lobbying over this bill is troubling for some Republicans, who see the unions as key players in GOP defeats in the 2008 election. They see a boost for public-sector jobs as a boost, too, for partisan unions.

Yes, by all means, let's emulate Califailure.

Hat tips: Instapundit and Invincible Armor.

Your positive stock market news for the day


May I present the five-year stock chart of the New York Times Company?

Flash Headlines: Google to halt Print Ads program for newspapers:

Google will kill a program to sell newspaper advertising because it is not making enough money... Google will shut the Print Ads program on Feb. 28, the company said on its blog on Tuesday afternoon. The two-year-old service was designed to help newspapers make money by enticing Google advertisers to expand into print newspaper sales...

AllThingsDigital: A Study Plan for Carlos Slim: Learn Who’s Running the New York Times:

Carlos Slim Helu, who has ridden to the rescue of the New York Times with a $250m loan this week, professed to know little about the closest thing America has to a newspaper of record just six months ago.

‘Do you know the New York Times?’ the world’s second-richest man asked one visitor in July. ‘Do you know this guy [Arthur] Sulzberger and some woman called Janet [Robinson, chief executive]? What do you think?’”

To put things into perspective, this is the only guy the Times could recruit who even might invest in the failing enterprise.

Will Ms. Dowd please turn off the lights when she leaves the building?

Update: Schadenfreude

Anyone need a really tough lawyer?



Hat tip: Ben.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: "They make them for everyone"


And the 2008 Fiskie Award goes to...: LGF
It’s Now Safe for WaPo to Report Obama’s Donors: Protein Wisdom
I will miss the Left's Bush Derangement: Rick Moran

Leonard Pitts can't help himself: trashes Lincoln: Don Surber
Poll: Blacks say MLK's vision fulfilled: American Thinker (Rick Moran)
Not racism, just life: Ace o' Spades

The triumph of hypenism: American Thinker (James Lewis)
CNN: Carve Obama's speech (tomorrow) in granite: Gateway Pundit
"They shall pass, week after week": National Review (Mark Steyn)

I hope he fails: Rush Limbaugh
The Awakening of a Dumb (Gay) American: Big Hollywood
So, Obama wants to put us in debt for generations... with ideas his own advisors opposed?: Clark County Politics

Our neighbor and why we have to kill him: Pajamas Media (Leon de Winter)
The real connection between Iran and Hamas (and France): Atlas Shrugs
Will Obama's Inauguration End Bush Derangement Syndrome?: Newsbusters (Noel Sheppard)

Record New Year's Eve Jump: ManiacWorld
My daughter racked up 14,528 text messages in one month: Physorg
Cast your vote for Meshuga Notes in Safe Auto's Jingle Contest: Safe Auto

"Individuals make wrong choices, but they make them for themselves. Governments make wrong choices, but they make them for everyone." -- Mark Levin

Monday, January 19, 2009

Don't fret the Porta Potty shortage at the Inauguration!


Obama's "Organizing for America" group: Alinsky's Rule #10


Peter Wallsten, writing in The Los Angeles Times:

Organizing for America, the new group, will be a tool to press for policy. It reportedly will have an annual budget of $75 million, making it an unprecedented standing political army for a president...

Telling millions of campaign supporters that "what you built can't stop now," President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday took his first public steps toward transforming his massive grass-roots political machinery into an unprecedented national network to help pass his policy agenda...

...Obama said Organizing for America, the new network, would be used as a tool to press for policies on major issues, including the healthcare system, the Iraq war and the development of new energy sources. He also said the effort would be housed in a distinctly partisan place: the Democratic National Committee...

Put simply, the organization will be a non-stop reelection campaign designed to market his allies in 2010 and threaten those who oppose him.

Cut to rule #10 in Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals:

"10. The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign."

For those unfamiliar with Saul Alinsky (1909-1972), he is considered the 'father of modern American radicalism.' He developed strategies and tactics designed to transform grassroots community organizing into mechanisms to overthrow governments and institute Communism.

Obama's community organizing days were rooted in the Alinsky method. In 2008 Alinsky's son wrote:

Barack Obama's training in Chicago by the great community organizers is showing its effectiveness. It is an amazingly powerful format, and the method of my late father always works to get the message out and get the supporters on board... it is a powerful strategy for initiating change and making it really happen. Obama learned his lesson well.

I am proud to see that my father's model for organizing is being applied successfully beyond local community organizing to affect the Democratic campaign in 2008. It is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky as we approach his 100th birthday.

The key quote from Alinsky's book describe his ultimate goal.

In this book we are concerned with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people; to realize the democratic dream of equality, justice, peace.... This means revolution...

A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage -- the political paradise of communism.

Hellooooooooooo... helllllllooooooooo... Mainstream media? Anyone home?

Change!

Moonbat Inaugural Party: Obama is 'Lincoln 2.0'


The Los Angeles Times had instructions on what to wear at last night's Lincoln 2.0 Inaugural Ball.

Lincoln 2.0?

At this point, it's looking more like FDR 2.0.

Nice stacks


Bernie writes:

While driving home last weekend, I was passed by this huge F-250 diesel. Those are real bullet holes -- no stickers here. And the bumper sticker says "dont drop ABAMA on me".

Note the stacks in the bed.

Larwyn's Link Kerplosion: "It isn't personal. It's business."


The 'Let's Pretend I'm Lincoln' train: Fausta
Not Lincoln, Just Another Copperhead: Gateway Pundit
Death throes of print media: McClatchy Watch

Organizing for America: Patterico
Obama prayer leader linked to Hamas: AP
Israel has huge natural gas find: INN

Why are the media protecting Geithner?: AIM
Why the Israelis have finally had enough: Independent (Ireland)
PalArab press roundup 1/17: Elder of Ziyon

High Road: Jules Crittenden
Where Hamas gets it money: Forbes
Grow up: Don Surber

The spending plan from Hell: Townhall (Amanda Carpenter)
Here they come, folks: Dan Riehl
A pictorial of the Bush record: Flopping Aces

Princeton's William Happer unloads on the anthropogenic global warming charlatans: Power Line
Real Science: Man-Made CO2 Can’t Cause Global Warming: NSWG (Candace Talmadge)
Socialists: No criticism of Hamas allowed: Harry's Place

Carol Browner: the face of Barack Obama's socialism: Northern Thoughts
Video: The Final Moments of a Giant Jew-Eating Rabbit: LGF
The Lies of Gaza: New York Post (Ralph Peters)

Look at the map. How many UN or UN-blessed aid programs have set a population on its feet and then gone home? Victims may die, but aid programs prove immortal. Increasingly, being an aid worker is a lifestyle choice (and the lifestyle can be pretty good)... The aid-worker's mantra is "None of this is your fault, you poor dear. Don't worry about education or going to work, just get in line for free rice. And that nice masked man with the AK is here to help you."

...UN aid officials are sincere in their admiration for Hamas and terrorists in general - but the last thing they want is a thriving Palestinian culture and state in the Middle East. Generations of aid workers and diplomats would be jobless... Wouldn't it be splendid if we could polygraph the entire UN chain of command involved in Gaza? We'd only need to pose a single question: "Have you ever knowingly collaborated with Hamas in support of its goals?"

...Murderous anti-Israel lies and actions abetted by the UN? It isn't personal. It's business.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Porkapalooza: The trillion dollar phony stimulus package


As Democrats prepare a trillion dollar so-called stimulus package, it's worth reviewing the last time the Feds used a Politburo-style, centralized planning model for reviving the economy.

History has a lesson for those who [would use] government spending to "stimulate" the economy and create jobs. During the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs never drove unemployment lower than 20 percent. The jobless rate actually climbed during the second phase.

The onset of World War II, not government spending, prompted America's economic [resurgence].

Furthermore, we know in advance precisely what more government spending in the proposed sectors will do. We have California -- now bankrupt -- as an example of what occurs when unchecked Democrat control allows liberal special interests to run wild:

• Expensive and overly onerous emissions standards, implemented at the behest of the environmental no-growth socialists

• Ridiculously expensive workers compensation and other healthcare mandates including more red tape for Doctors, horrific expenses and regulations for employers, undermining of private health insurance, and denial of individuals' right to self-insure.

Subsidies and freebies for illegal aliens.

Out-of-control growth in social programs aimed at corralling special interests.

Gee, with all of these programs, "progressive taxes" and regulations, shouldn't California be a liberal utopia?

Hardly. It's bankrupt. It's a Califailure.

California has effectively eradicated small business and free enterprise. It now suffers from the third-highest unemployment rate in the land as it exacts an immense stack of regulations, taxes and paperwork on all businesses.

And let me repeat: California is bankrupt. Not only will its tax refunds be delayed, welfare checks and student grants will also be held indefinitely.

Why is the situation worse in California than in neighboring states? Because it has an oppressive regulatory regime and a burdensome tax structure that penalizes individual success and drives businesses out of the state. Writing in the San Francisco Examiner in 2006, Adam Summers observed:

Apple is hardly the first business to leave California for "greener" pastures. Numerous surveys in recent years have revealed that many California companies are moving to other states because of the high costs of taxes and regulations. According to the Nevada Commission on Economic Development, 37 businesses left California in favor of Nevada in 2004, at least in part because of the favorable business climate....


...Small business owners are particularly hard hit by California taxation. According to the California Taxpayers' Association, the richest 10 percent of earners pay almost 75 percent of the entire income tax revenue in the state, and most of these are small-business owners. Thus, under California's backward tax policy, the very entrepreneurs responsible for economic growth and prosperity are being punished the most severely.

You would think that with the utter failure of the New Deal and the recent government-sponsored disasters in California, the one trillion dollar phony stimulus proposal would be laughed out of the Beltway in favor of tax cuts.

Real tax cuts, not welfare programs, which are statistically proven to increase single-parent families, crime and economic misery.

But, no. Democrats have proposed the twelve days of a lobbyist's Christmas:

1. The House Democrats' bill will cost each and every household $6,700 additional debt, paid for by our children and grandchildren.

2. The total cost of this one piece of legislation is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government.

3. President-elect Obama has said that his proposed stimulus legislation will create or save three million jobs. This means that this legislation will spend about $275,000 per job. The average household income in the U.S. is $50,000 a year.

4. The House Democrats' bill provides enough spending - $825 billion - to give every man, woman, and child in America $2,700.

5. $825 billion is enough to give every person living in poverty in the U.S. $22,000.

6. $825 billion is enough to give every person in Ohio $72,000.

7. Although the House Democrats' proposal has been billed as a transportation and infrastructure investment package, in actuality only $30 billion of the bill - or three percent - is for road and highway spending. A recent study from the Congressional Budget Office said that only 25 percent of infrastructure dollars can be spent in the first year, making the one year total less than $7 billion for infrastructure.

8. Much of the funding within the House Democrats' proposal will go to programs that already have large, unexpended balances. For example, the bill provides $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which already have $16 billion on hand. And, this year, Congress has plans to rescind $9 billion in highway funding that the states have not yet used.

9. In 1993, the unemployment rate was virtually the same as the rate today (around seven percent). Yet, then-President Clinton's proposed stimulus legislation ONLY contained $16 billion in spending.

10. Here are just a few of the programs and projects that have been included in the House Democrats' proposal:

· $650 million for digital TV coupons.
· $6 billion for colleges/universities - many which have billion dollar endowments.
· $166 billion in direct aid to states - many of which have failed to budget wisely. [Can you say 'Taxation without representation?]
· $50 million in funding for the National Endowment of the Arts.
· $44 million for repairs to U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters.
· $200 million for the National Mall, including grass planting.
· $400 million for "National Treasures."

11. Almost one-third of the so called tax relief in the House Democrats' bill is spending in disguise, meaning that true tax relief makes up only 24 percent of the total package - not the 40 percent that President-elect Obama had requested.

12. $825 billion is just the beginning - many Capitol Hill Democrats want to spend even more taxpayer dollars on their "stimulus" plan.

It's the loopiest boondoggle since FDR's "New Deal" failures.

There's only one thing that works and it's been proven over and over and over again.

TAX CUTS

And as for you, RINOs and Blue Dog Democrats? We're watching you. And we'll be coming after you in the next election cycle if you vote with failures like Pelosi, Reid, and Obama, none of whom have ever created a real job in their entire lives.