I have always been opposed to Abortion as a form of Birth control for irresponsible sexual choices.  I was watching Hannity the other day and he briefly explained what a partial birth abortion was and I was HORRIFIED.  I decided to do a bit of research to educate myself on the subject and came up with the following:

Partial Birth Abortion Demonstration

I consider myself to be a pretty open minded individual, but I CANNOT see how any “doctor” could willingly perform such an atrocity, or how any woman could willingly undergo such a barbaric procedure.  If the child is well formed enough to be partially delivered, then they should be fully delivered and given up for adoption if they are unwanted.  I can see no reason why if the mother’s life is in danger, how the killing of the baby prior to “full” delivery helps her situation more than full delivery of a live child.

Apparently as a Senator, Barack Obama voted to legalize this type of abortion

(see here)

Please comment with your opinion on this.  I would like to know what others think

I have been doing a lot of reading lately.  ALOT of reading.  I have found great value in old books, many of which are out of print.  I recently raided my fathers bookshelf, and came away with W. Cleon Skousen’s THE NAKED COMMUNIST.  Dad told me that in the 1960’s and 1970s that this was a required textbook for high school seniors and college freshmen.  My interest in the book stemmed from the realization that I knew little of the nuts and bolts of communism.  I graduated high school in 1997.  I was ten when the Berlin Wall fell.  For my generation, there was no perceived need to really scratch the surface on Communism, since the Cold War was over.

I am currently reading “Voices of Revolution, 1917″ by Mark Steinberg.  While I have only gotten through a few chapters so far, I feel compelled to write about some obvious parallels between Russia (between February and October 1917) and the USA RIGHT NOW.

One example is the recent campaign against Fox News by Obama and his faithful minions Anita Dunn and David Axelrod.  Obama and his ilk are the leftist progressives in Russia in the fall months of 1917 calling for closure of “Borgeois” newspapers for “foul lies and slander” directed at them.

The book says that these leftist progressives “Evidently believed that true freedom necessitated silencing the voices who opposed the struggles and demands of workers, soldiers, & peasants” and thus threatened the “freedoms won through revolution”.

In my opinion, to Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the other progressives that currently control the United States government, the Obama victory in the 2008 election was the Revolution, and they truly believe that their big government will bring freedom to the workers (SEIU), soldiers (via apology, diplomacy, and nuclear disarmament), and peasants (illegal immigrants, minorities, the poor - and interest groups like ACORN who purport to work in the interest of them)

The liberal progressives in control view their worker/soldier/peasant base as those oppressed by the bourgeoise (conservatives and the upper and middle class).  The Bourgeoise is the oppressor, and Fox news represents their voice.

I have a feeling that this may just be part one of a series of commentary on the parallels of the current situation in the US and 1917 Russia.

I recently spent several days with my niece who is 23, after her grandmother (my mother in law) passed away.  Since I am a self avowed Glenn Beck freak, each day we watched the show together, which opened up a dialogue about politics that was not planned, but (always!) welcome in my home.  We come from VERY different backgrounds.  She has dyslexia, and dropped out of school.  I have 2 degrees in business.  She had a difficult home life, I did not,  Neither of us has a job at the moment.

The discussion spawned from me yelling at Pelosi on the TV, then yelling at Obama on the TV.  She asked me why I didn’t like Obama -

I had to pause and think how far back I needed to go into this discussion.  She is not a politics junkie like I am.  She also looks up to me (I am only 30, but (as she put it) I am like her smart older friend)  Instead of erupting in a scathing critique of Obamacare, and bringing up Van Jones and the like, I calmly explained about his “fundamental transformation of America” and that his agenda does not seem to run within the bounds or “constraints” of the Constitution.  She started asking me questions, and I was able to answer them competently (I think the blogosphere has caused me to shy away from discussion, because I am a perfectionist, and seem to spend more time fact checking than I do expressing my views)

The most important part of our discussion came when I asked her why she voted for Barack Obama.  She said that she “did it for meemaw” - because her grandmother (who grew up in Ohio) was always a Democrat.  I said - “But meemaw voted for who she wanted to vote for -”  she had never thought of that.

I was raised in a VERY republican home.  When I asked my grandfather (shortly before his death in 2007) who he voted for the first time he voted, he told me “My first vote was against FDR the first time he ran”  I recall the pictures of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Barbara, etc… on my grandparents refrigerator.  I went through a period of disillusionment with the GOP, and then discovered that I am in fact a Libertarian.

She listened intently to me and what I had to say.  I went on about the dollar, monetization of the debt, entitlements, and how freebies from the government are not at all free.  She stopped me and asked questions along the way, and I answered them to the best of my ability, and listed what I could not answer to look up (which we did afterward).  It was quite a refreshing contrast to the screaming matches I have had with friends who are liberal democrats.

All that said, sometimes it is better to ask why in a discussion than to beat them on points, facts, and correctness.  Many times they are looking for answers, not to be told that they are just flat out wrong.  Alot of them don’t know what they believe, and trust me, it is EASY to make sense of conservative beliefs and values to those who are democrats “just because”.

Socialist International: the way forward on climate change and the financial crisis « Talking Union.

"Stand your ground. Put on an air of injured innocence. You are not a 'Communist', just a 'Progressive' whose record proves you have always fought for the rights of labor. Rally all of your 'Liberal" friends around you. If necessary, hire a lawyer to fight the case through on the grounds that your reputation has been badly damaged. Meanwhile, pull every string you can yo get this business quashed. Use Currie, White (Harry dexter White, the top Treasury Department Official), anybody else you know and trust." -Communist Operative Elizabeth Bentley to fellow Operative Gregory Silvermaster, after the FBI, Army Intelligence and Navy Intelligence sent a letter to his supervisor at the Board of Economic Warfare calling for his termination

Watching C-Span 2 just moments ago, and Sen. Lamar Alexander brought up a fantastic argument regarding the Czars and the centralization of power in the Obama White House.

Will look for the link to post later

Everyone knows about the Apollo Alliance.  Everyone knows Van Jones is on the board of the Apollo Alliance.  There is a 501c(3) organization called Green for All organized in September 2007 with operations started january of 2008.  Click around the site, and you tell me who helped write the bill.

Their CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins may be someone to keep a watchful eye on…

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins is the CEO of Green For All.  Since March 2009, she has assembled a civil rights coalition that successfully lobbied for two significant improvements to the U.S. House of Representatives’ version of the American Clean Energy and Security Act; securing funding for job training, and guaranteeing broad access to clean energy jobs. Under her leadership, Green For All has won major legislative victories in Washington State and New Mexico which are pioneering state-level green jobs and energy efficiency programs.  Prior to Green For All, Ms. Ellis-Lamkins headed the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and Working Partnerships USA where she earned her reputation as one of the nation’s most brilliant, inspirational, and creative problem solvers for working families.  She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal online, San Francisco Chronicle, NBC News and ABC News.

Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins to take over for Van Jones

Staff: Green For All

Thank Ms. Lamkins when you pay your 100% higher power bills if Cap and Trade goes through and becomes lawThis is an excerpt from a study by the Political Economy Research Group at the University of Massachusetts Amherst dated 8/2009. .

“Not only households will be impacted by the
Higher fossil fuel prices that result from a carbon
cap. Government expenditure accounts for
about 14% of U.S. carbon emissions. Of this total,
3.6% comes from federal spending and
10.8% from state and local government spending.
To keep government whole – to avoid cuts in
real government purchasing power – a comparable
share of carbon revenues will need to flow
to government coffers.
If the dividends paid to the public from carbon
revenue are non-taxable, then policymakers will
need to allocate a portion of the remaining carbon
revenue to this purpose. If they are taxable,
we estimate that roughly 24 cents on the dividend
dollar will flow back to government in
the form of federal and state taxes (Boyce and
Riddle 2008). With 80% of the total revenue distributed
as dividends, this means that taxes
would recycle 19% of total carbon revenue to
government, enough to offset fully the impact of
higher fossil fuel prices on government purchasing
power, with about 5% of total carbon revenues
left over for other purposes.
Taxable dividends are preferable to lower, nontaxable
dividends from the standpoint of distributional
equity. Taxation claims a bigger share
of the dividends in upper-income brackets than
it does from lower-income and middle-income
households. Directly tapping the carbon revenue
to obtain the same amount of money, by contrast,
reduces dividend payments equally to all,;
a result equivalent to a head tax, one of the
most regressive forms of taxation.
Whatever approach is used to keep government
whole, some formula will be necessary to allocate
carbon revenues amongst state and local
governments. One way to do this, which would
be consistent with the principles of cap-and-dividend,
is to divide revenue among state and
local governments in proportion to their populations,
with equal per capita amounts to each jurisdiction.
As in the case of dividends paid to
individuals, this distribution would protect the
governments’ purchasing power while giving
them incentives to invest in energy efficiency
and clean energy.”

Cap and Trade is a bad idea.  It is an especially bad idea NOW.   I know it, you know it, and the Liberals in Washington know it.   I have a sneaking suspicion they know exactly what it will do, and that it is part of the “Social Justice” initiative.

I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to implement a policy that would do so much financial harm to so many.  I began doing research on the “green” agenda, and other policy goals of the left, and came up with this:

http://tinyurl.com/cap-tradePERI

http://tinyurl.com/greenprosperity

Their whole “green” platform is just obfuscatory rhetoric.  Cap and trade is just the means to an end for the left.  In short, cap and trade is the legislative conduit through which the left will inact “social justice”, i.e. the redistribution of wealth.  (see p. 21 of the linked document)

If Cap and trade is signed into law, it will be permanent, and a HUGE score for the left.  The permanence comes from the TRADE part of Cap and Trade.

In the bill there are provisions laying out how the new commodity will be initially distributed, and sets guidelines for trading on an exchange.  As with all commodities, futures and derivatives trade based on speculated future value.

Once the new commodity is incorporated into the financial markets, there is a dollar value associated with it.  To repeal cap and trade once this happens would be like shutting down trading for wheat, gold or T-bills.   Too many people would lose too much money, and who knows what that would do to the rest of the U.S. economy, or the global economy.

FED UP with what I see and what I hear.  Fed up with what I know they reallymean. They talk out of both sides of their mouths but provide no answers.

They do not deviate from the script.  Their canned answers and their song and dance are so absurd they would be comical, but for the consequences of the policy.

I can’t keep quiet anymore.  I am educated, and I understand the true ramifications of this administration’s agenda.  I can honestly say that I have come to my conclusions without bias…  I refrained from voting in the last election because I was so disillusioned with the GOP because of Bush, and yet I wasn’t sure what the Dems were really all about.  Upon his inauguration, Mr. Obama actually had brownie points due to his jumping in with both feet and shadowing President Bush before he even took office.  All downhill from there.  Please see the following excerpts from a personal journal that I keep to better understand my frame of mind:

January 20, 2009

CHANGE

I am watching history unfold from the relative comfort of my living room and  writing down my thoughts as America swears in her first African American as President.

In moments this country and the American People will take back

something that has been denied them by the current administration.

Not just Hope , faith, vision, focus, change -

LEADERSHIP, CANDOR, RESPONSIBILITY, and TRANSPARENCY

In moments we will have sworn in a new President

President Obama the first African American President of the United States.  I don’t think he was elected because of the amount of melanin in his skin, or despite it.

I am not a democrat

I MAY NO LONGER BE A REPUBLICAN

I am an American, and I am proud of it.  I am somewhat of a skeptic by nature, but I am also an incurable Optimist.

Skeptic says:  To rise to the national level in politics, one must be shady in some respects.  In the political realm, it seems that for those without shadiness, there is no longevity.  Obama probably knows where some bodies are buried.  They all do.

Optimist says: Obama is smart.  Very smart.  He studied constitutional law at Harvard.  He IS the American dream - at least in terms of his biography.    Time will tell…

President Obama:

Protect and defend the constitution of the United States of America.

I have a great respect for the initiative shown as President Elect.

I wish you and your team the best with what you have to work with.

I honestly think that you may very well be the only one who can restore our nation to greatness.  You were able to give people from all walks of life something in common…  Their common ground is their faith, belief, and support of you, Mr. President

You have the full faith and hope of your fellow Americans who chose you.  Never, ever take that in stride.  May God be with you as you take the oath of our nation’s highest office.

March 17, 2009

President Obama,

While I do enjoy hearing you speak much more than the previous president, I think that your first 2ish months in office have in my opinion been characterized more by rhetoric than change.  I often feel as if you and Secretary Geithner view the American public (YOUR CONSTITUANTS!!!) as mindless children who cannot possibly comprehend the current state of affairs.  You then pat them on the head with your promises of change and send them on their way, while you decrease their freedom by expanding government and reward the greedy bastards who got us and the rest of the world into this “Great Recession” in the first place through irresponsible lending, credit default swaps, and derivatives.

I must say that I have a great deal of respect for you – you probably have the most difficult job in the entire world.  I do fear that your administration (whether intentionally or unintentionally) is using the same fear tactics employed by the previous administration in the wake of 9-11.  Every day the news is bad, and “CRISIS” is on the lips of every elected official, talking head, and employer in the nation.  A little reassurance might be nice.  I have asked myself if you have made a shift from the candor you showed during your campaign and your early days in office.  There are far fewer answers than there have been answers, and remedial regulatory legislation is nowhere in sight – I am trying my hardest to give you a fair shake, but am having a damn hard time figuring out why you would want to increase capital gains taxes on investors and small businesses.  That will only serve to stagnate or further shrink the economy, increase unemployment, and harm the USA.

Your marketing/PR during your campaign ran nearly flawlessly, so I have doubts that you or your advisors are unaware of the dissonance between message and action.  I hope that you will not betray the trust that your people have placed in you.

So, there it is.  Where am I now?  I am finding myself DVRing Glenn Beck, and watching Washington Journal on CSPAN.  The economic collapse last year scared me very much.  People don’t realize how fragile our society is, and how intertwined and interdependent markets,  industries, and consumers really are.  Nothing is guaranteed to be as it is today in the future.  Ask the Mayans, Romans, and Egyptians.