John Hinderaker, Powerline

Going on vacation hasn't helped Barack Obama's standing with the American people. Among likely voters, his standing continues to slide: 41 percent strongly disapprove of his job performance, while overall, voters disapprove by a 53-46 percent margin, the worst of Obama's term. This is, obviously, the reason why Democrats have become increasingly shrill.

Here is a fun statistic: a pitiful 29 percent of voters think that Congress knows what it's doing when it comes to the economy. The voters are right; the Democratic majority is astonishingly ignorant, not only of economic theory but of basic realities of our business world. The average citizen could do much better. It's about time to turn the rascals out.

Artwork jitcrunch

From Mike Walker, Col. USMC (retired)

Attorney General Eric Holder is not seeking to prosecute the brave and loyal officers of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), for that gives the process far too much of an air of legitimacy. Attorney General Eric Holder is persecuting them, an act that is both improper and despicable. These are harsh words but are befitting of this harsh act for it reeks of abuse of power and authority at the highest level of government.

This smells from head to toe of a politically driven prosecution, a bribe to the anti-war left. They couldn’t get an immediate withdrawal from Iraq. They failed in their attack to defame our military leaders (Recall the sweetheart deal the NY Times gave these folks to run the “General Petraeus or General betray us?” advertisement). So now they will get their political pound of flesh by wrongfully persecuting hard working CIA officers.

And whom exactly does Eric Holder see as criminals? Well, we actually see quite a wicked weave. On the one hand we see a man obsessed with a manufactured case targeting some of best and most courageous in the CIA. On the other hand we see him as the champion, the legal lion who zealously pursued and obtained a presidential pardon for Marc Rich. And who is Marc Rich? Where to begin?

He is, as his name implies, very rich. Rudolph Giuliani indicted him for criminal business dealings. He illegally traded Iranian oil for huge personal profit. You know Iran, the country that is pursuing nuclear weapons with the help of North Korea, has sworn to wipe Israel off the map, and killed its own citizens protesting a stolen election. Marc Rich also made a lot of money trading with Saddam’s Iraq during the oil-for-food scandal (the largest financial scandal in history) and White Apartheid South Africa. As one Australian news report put it, Marc Rich and his company had a “history of busting UN embargoes to profit from corrupt or despotic regimes.”

As the record shows, Eric Holder is too often the lowest sort of political animal. He will support the worse amongst us in the past and now will make criminals out of decent men and women. Shame on him and shame on all of us if we let him get away with it.

If ever there was a man who has lost his moral compass in a matter of great national importance, that man is Attorney General Eric Holder in his pursuit of a partisan political agenda directed against the CIA. Al Qaeda must be cheering from their tunnels.

Ten for Tark

Follow this link and support Harry Reid's early retirement enabled by Danny Tarkanian...

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/08/024373.php

I personally feel much better after sending my "Ten for Tark". BTW, Tark just recently announced his intention to run for Reid's senate seat and already is leading the polls 49 to 38...

We've Figured Him Out

By Ben Stein

Why is President Barack Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized medicine bill passed?

Because he and his cunning circle realize some basic truths:

The American people in their unimaginable kindness and trust voted for a pig in a poke in 2008. They wanted so much to believe Barack Obama was somehow better and different from other ultra-leftists that they simply took him on faith.

They ignored his anti-white writings in his books. They ignored his quiet acceptance of hysterical anti-American diatribes by his minister, Jeremiah Wright.

They ignored his refusal to explain years at a time of his life as a student. They ignored his ultra-left record as a "community organizer," Illinois state legislator, and Senator.

The American people ignored his total zero of an academic record as a student and teacher, his complete lack of scholarship when he was being touted as a scholar.

Now, the American people are starting to wake up to the truth. Barack Obama is a super likeable super leftist, not a fan of this country, way, way too cozy with the terrorist leaders in the Middle East, way beyond naïveté, all the way into active destruction of our interests and our allies and our future.

The American people have already awakened to the truth that the stimulus bill -- a great idea in theory -- was really an immense bribe to Democrat interest groups, and in no way an effort to help all Americans.

Now, Americans are waking up to the truth that ObamaCare basically means that every time you are sick or injured, you will have a clerk from the Department of Motor Vehicles telling your doctor what he can and cannot do.

The American people already know that Mr. Obama's plan to lower health costs while expanding coverage and bureaucracy is a myth, a promise of something that never was and never will be -- a bureaucracy lowering costs in a free society. Either the costs go up or the free society goe s away.

These are perilous times. Mrs. Hillary Clinton, our Secretary of State, has given Iran the go-ahead to have nuclear weapons, an unqualified betrayal of the nation...

Now, we face a devastating loss of freedom at home in health care. It will be joined by controls on our lives to "protect us" from global warming, itself largely a fraud if believed to be caused by man.

Mr. Obama knows Americans are getting wise and will stop him if he delays at all in taking away our freedoms.

There is his urgency and our opportunity. Once freedom is lost, America is lost. Wake up, beloved America .

( Charles Krauthammer's TownHall Contributions, http://townhall.com/columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/ )

From Jimmie Lentz...

THIS MAKES THE 4th NATIONAL VOICE IN AS MANY DAYS TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST BIG BROTHER "BO." THINK MAYBE, JUST MAYBE THE "SILENT MAJORITY" IS BEGINNING TO AWAKEN~? I WILL cc: COACH

Sat 8/8/09 ahykes2001@yahoo.com wrote: Please, read to the end!!!!

Dr. Krauthammer is a contributer for Fox News . He is an M.D. and he is paralyzed from the neck down. Be forewarned on what is happening. You would do well to read and pass this along to EVERYBODY that loves his country. This is VERY serious for the direction of our country. The ramifications are staggering for us and our children.

Last Monday was a profound evening, hearing Dr. Charles Krauthammer speak to the Center for the American Experiment. He is brilliant intellectual, seasoned and articulate. He is forthright and careful in his analysis, and never resorts to emotions or personal insults. He is NOT a fear monger nor an extremist in his comments and views. He is a fiscal conservative, and has a Pulitzer Prize for writing. He is a frequent contributor to Fox News and writes weekly for the Washington Post . The entire room was held spellbound during his talk. I have shared this with many of you and several have asked me to summarize his comments, as we are living in uncharted waters economically and internationally.

Two Dems at my table agreed with everything he said! If you feel like forwarding this to those who are open minded and have not drunk the Kool-Aid, feel free. Summary of his comments:

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

2. Obama has political skills comparable to Reagan and Clinton. He has a way of making you think he's on your side, agreeing with your position, while doing the opposite. Pay no attention to what he SAYS; rather, watch what he DOES!

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

4. His three main goals are to control ENERGY, PUBLIC EDUCATION, AND NATIONAL HEALTH CARE by the Federal government . He doesn't care about the auto or financial services industries, but got them as an early bonus. The cap and trade will add costs to everything and stifle growth. Paying for FREE college education is his goal. Most scary is his healthcare program, because if you make it FREE and add 46,000,000 people to a Medicare-type single-payer system, the costs will go through the roof. The only way to control costs is with massive RATIONING of services, like in Canada. God forbid.

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

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

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

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

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

10. The election was over in mid-September when Lehman brothers failed, fear and panic swept in, we had an unpopular President, and the war was grinding on indefinitely without a clear outcome. The people are in pain, and the mantra of change caused people to act emotionally. Any Dem would have won this election; it was surprising it was as close as it was.

11. In 2012, if the unemployment rate is over 10%, Republicans will be swept back into power. If it's under 8%, the Dems continue to roll. If it's between 8-10%, it will be a dogfight. It will all be about the economy. I hope this gets you really thinking about what's happening in Washington and Congress. There is a left-wing revolution going on, according to Krauthammer, and he encourages us to keep the faith and join the loyal resistance. The work will be hard, but we're right on most issues and can reclaim our country, before it's far too late.

Do yourself a long term favor, send this to all who will listen to an intelligent assessment of the big picture. All our futures and children's futures depend on our good understanding of what is really going on in DC!!!! And our action pursuant to that understanding! !! It really IS up to each of us to take individual action!!! Start with educating your friends and neighbors

I think that I misunderstood Obama when he vowed to be transparent... he meant to be hard to pin down.

"Miss Information"* [Jonah Goldberg]

Byron has a good column on Linda Douglass and her new role as White House flack. One point he raises, that has been bugging me since I first saw her "rebuttal" to the YouTube video showing Obama endorsing single payer, is just how non-responsive Douglas' video is. She makes no attempt whatsoever to prove her assertion that Obama's comments were out of context or irrelevant.

And that's what's sort of interesting to me. Her rebuttal technique is truly Obamaesque, in that she does what Obama himself does: Quotes Obama as proof that Obama is always right. As has been noted many times around here, Obama has this tick where he says "As I've said before" or "As I said at the time" or "I've said repeatedly" etc etc. to make a point. Sometimes Obama is being less than truthful when he says he's said X before. And sometimes the fact that he said X before in no way bolsters the case he's actuall trying to make.

Douglass does the same thing. She simply quotes some boilerplate lines from Obama saying you can keep your own health insurance (which is not exactly true) and apparently that's supposed to obliterate any claim that Obama favors single payer, even though there's extensive evidence that he does favor single payer (he said it many times in the past when he wasn't trying to sell this specific health care bill) and there's serious concern that the public plan approach would lead, over time, to single payer. But rather than substantively deal with any of that, Douglass accuses people of "disinformation" and simply invokes the divine authority of Obama to rebut any criticism.

From Mark Steyn... on the President's "snitch-line"

Reporting dissent is the highest form of patriotism! Is your neighbor suspiciously “well-dressed”? Is he mouthing off about cancer-survival rates under socialized-medical systems while wearing a cravat? Give us his name, and we’ll give you his spats! Just go to flag@whitehouse.gov, not to be confused with flagging@whitehouse.gov, which is the e-mail address for reporting President Obama’s latest approval rating. Go to flay@whitehouse.gov if you’d like Speaker Pelosi to walk across your back as a whip-wielding SS dominatrix barking “Vee haff vays of making you tokk less casually, dummkopf!” Go to flange@whitehouse.gov if you need parts for your new government car, or your new government hip replacement. Go to flaunt@whitehouse.gov if you’d like a special preview of President Obama’s latest bare-chested pictorial for Vanity Fair. Go to flatulent@whitehouse.gov if you’d like to report your neighbor’s cow for excessive CO2 emissions.

Time for Courage. A message from a black man in Lubbock, Texas ... About tells it all... Sherman

At the TEA PARTY, a black man, Dr. Donald May, delivered this message from the courthouse steps in Lubbock . He electrified the audience like I haven't seen in a long time. His delivery was masterful. I am sorry you could not see him in action. Anyway, I thought you might enjoy his words. The news media was there, but not one word of this man's appearance ever appeared on TV or in print, even though he completely dominated the scene.

This is A Time For Courage

April 15, 2009 - 11:49 pm

Ladies and gentlemen, This is a Time For Courage.

We are gathered here today on the Plains of West Texas in common purpose. We are here to remind our government that this is our country. We the People are still in charge, and our government is still our servant and not our master.

Our Nation's founding document is The Declaration of Independence .. It tells us that our rights come from God and not from a small group of Elite men and women.

Our Constitution starts with the words "We the People." Our Constitution was written for ordinary Americans like you and me. Our Constitution protects us from our government and from the politicians.

Our President has complained that our Constitution gives ordinary people too much protection. He has ridiculed us for the high value we place on our Bibles, our guns, our personal property, and our Liberty .. He tells us we do not deserve to keep the money we have earned.

We are told freedom has not worked. Personal responsibility, free enterprise, and Libertyhave not been effective. Our government will now make more of our decisions for us.

Other than our military, I can think of not one government agency I have ever found to be helpful.

And speaking of our military, how about those Navy Seals blowing the heads off those three terrorist pirates? Don't you just wish our entire government would function with such efficiency, professionalism, and courage?

We watch in disbelief as our beloved United States is weakened economically, militarily, and morally by a Radical President and his eager accomplices.

What has taken generations to build is systematically destroyed and replaced with the same Socialist Evil that brought poverty, destruction, and despair to untold hundreds of millions.

The problems we face today have occurred because we have not defended our Nation from Socialism. For too long we have allowed the wrong people to make the worst possible decisions.

The Bible warns us of class hatred. The Radical leadership of our government daily fans the evil flames of class envy.

Our European and Canadian friends beg us to not make the same Socialist mistakes they did.

The President of the European Union warned our President that his Socialist economic plans are taking the World down the "road to Hell."

The path to power for Socialists includes taking God and guns from the citizens. Without spiritual and physical protection, people cannot defend themselves and their Liberty . They soon become slaves.

We are angered that our President apologizes for the exceptionalism and heroism of theUnited States of America . We are deeply troubled that he told others the United States is not a Christian nation.

We are angered that we have been called cowards and racists because we oppose Socialism. Socialism is not racial. Socialism is an equal opportunity destroyer.

We are angered that a recent Department of Homeland Security report has singled out our military men and women who are returning home as being radical threats.

The report also characterizes you and me as right-wing extremists and radicals because we favor smaller government and lower taxes.

You and I are average citizens who believe just like most of our fellow Americans. We want our government to leave us alone and to keep its hands off our money, our religion, our guns, our private property, and our lives.

We demand that our government stop spending money it does not have.

Stop confiscating our money and private property.

Stop printing money.

Stop subsidizing Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the other failed financial institutions and companies.

Mr. President, stop appointing tax cheats to positions of power and influence.

Mr. President, secure our borders.

Mr. President, do not divert money from our missile defense, F-22 Raptors, and other vital military equipment. This gives encouragement, aid, and comfort to our enemies. Protecting us is your number one job.

Mr. President, do not give voting rights to millions of illegal aliens and felons. You have no more right to create new voters for your benefit than you do to use our money to buy the 2010 and 2012 Elections.

We gather peacefully here today because there is a growing concern for what our government is doing to us and to our future. We fear for the very survival of our Republic.

Yet there is much to make us hopeful and to fill our hearts with optimism and courage. This is still our country!

The Constitution of the Unites States belongs to We the People. Our Constitution still protects us from our government.

Call every possible elected official, including our President, Vice President, and the Speaker of the House.

Demand that they stop stealing our money and giving it to ACORN and their other political supporters in order to buy votes.

Call Senators Cornyn and Hutchison, and Representative Neugebauer. Thank them. Urge them to do much more. Remind them now is a time for action and not for campaigning.

Volunteer to work on our 2010 Census. Confront ACORN. Keep our Census honest. We must not allow our President to take control of our Census for his political advantage.

We must replace as much of our Far Left Congress as possible in 2010. Get involved. Do not let the ACORN control our 2010 Election.

Talk with someone every day who does not understand our nation's history and our great heritage. Tell them why the United States is a good and prosperous nation. It still remains that brightly lit city on the hill. It still is the best hope for all mankind.

Talk with all of the young people you can find. They are our future. Many do not understand what they have and that their future is being destroyed.

Encourage your elected State officials to pass legislation that will protect us from our Federal government. This is a time for strong peaceful action. Let us pray that We the People can quickly return our government to its Constitutional responsibilities.

Our President and Congress were elected to be our servants and not our masters.

May God help our President and Congress to quickly realize the error of their ways and stop their reckless and unwarranted spending, cut our taxes, and reduce the size of our Federal bureaucracy.

If they do not, may God grant us the courage and determination to vote them out of power next year.

May God richly bless and protect each of you, and our Constitution, as together we pursue Liberty !

Delivered at the Lubbock , Texas , TEA Party by Dr. Donald May

Cartoon from Mike Ramirez... Letter from Mike Walker... All, a. North Korea: Clinton+Clinton+Bolton=Pretty accurate view of US policy Hillary Clinton: The release of two US Journalists will not lead to a change in the Nuclear Talks with N Korea-Correct Bill Clinton: If the release of two US Journalists will not lead to a change in the Nuclear Talks with N Korea then getting them freed is a win-Correct John Bolton: The release of two US Journalists will not lead to a change in the Nuclear Talks with N Korea as a regime willing to let its children to starve to death so it can purchase nuclear weapon components rather than food will never give up its nuclear weapons-Correct b. Clunkers for Cash: The glass half full, half empty dilemma The glass half full: The program works, it gets inefficient cars off the streets and helps the struggling auto industry recover at a critical time. The glass half empty: Washington DC underestimated the future cost of Medicare by at least 500%. Washington DC initially underestimated the cost of the "Clunker for Cash" Program by at least 400%. Aren't those good reasons to be worried about how much Washington DC thinks Health Care Reform will cost in the future? Regards, Mike

Something to ponder, are you aware that the White House sent out a directive to develop a list of persons or organizations that disagree with the Health Care Bill? A dissent database, sounds like Hugo Chavez. http://powerlineblog.com/