An e-mail came in today that we felt was very poignant given the state of our union and the reaching tentacles of Big Brother. We do not know the origins of this tale, but we thought we’d share it with you:

If Noah had lived in the United States today, the story may have gone something like this:

And the Lord spoke to Noah and said, “In one year, I am going to make it rain and cover the whole earth with water until all flesh is destroyed. But I want you to save the righteous people and two of every kind of living thing on earth. Therefore, I am commanding you to build an Ark.” In a flash of lightning, God delivered the specifications for an Ark. In fear and trembling, Noah took the plans and agreed to build the ark. “Remember,” said the Lord, “you must complete the Ark and bring everything aboard in one year.”

Exactly one year later, fierce storm clouds covered the earth and all the seas of the earth went into a tumult. The Lord saw that Noah was sitting in his front yard weeping. “Noah!” He shouted. “Where is the Ark?”

“Lord, please forgive me,” cried Noah. “I did my best, but there were big problems.

First, I had to get a permit for construction, and your plans did not meet the building codes. I had to hire an engineering firm and redraw the plans.

Then I got into a fight with OSHA over whether or not the Ark needed a sprinkler system and approved floatation devices.

Then, my neighbor objected, claiming I was violating zoning ordinances by building the Ark in my front yard, so I had to get a variance from the city planning commission.

Then, I had problems getting enough wood for the Ark, because there was a ban on cutting trees to protect the Spotted Owl. I finally convinced the U.S. Forest Service that I really needed the wood to save the owls. However, the Fish and Wildlife Service won’t let me take the 2 owls.

The carpenters formed a union and went on strike. I had to negotiate a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board before anyone would pick up a saw or hammer. Now, I have 16 carpenters on the Ark, but still no owls.

When I started rounding up the other animals, an animal rights group sued me. They objected to me taking only two of each kind aboard. This suit is pending.

Meanwhile, the EPA notified me that I could not complete the Ark without filing an environmental impact statement on your proposed flood. They didn’t take very kindly to the idea that they had no jurisdiction over the conduct of the Creator of the Universe.

Then, the Army Corps of Engineers demanded a map of the proposed flood plain. I sent them a globe.

Right now, I am trying to resolve a complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that I am practicing discrimination by not taking atheists aboard.

The IRS has seized my assets, claiming that I’m building the Ark in preparation to flee the country to avoid paying taxes. I just got a notice from the state that I owe them some kind of user tax and failed to register the Ark as a ‘recreational water craft’.

And finally, the ACLU got the courts to issue an injunction against further construction of the Ark, saying that since God is flooding the earth, it’s a religious event, and, therefore unconstitutional.

I really don’t think I can finish the Ark for another five or six years.”

Noah waited. The sky began to clear, the sun began to shine, and the seas began to calm. A rainbow arched across the sky.

Noah looked up hopefully. “You mean you’re not going to destroy the earth, Lord?”

“No,” He said sadly. “I don’t have to. The government already has.”

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Cross-posted.

“He may be just a different face, and that face may happen to be black—and if it were Hillary Clinton, it would happen to be a woman,” says Danny Glover. “But what choices do they have within the structure?”

“I think the Obama administration has followed the same playbook, to a large extent, almost verbatim, as the Bush administration. I don’t see anything different,” the activist movie actor said of Obama’s policies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Middle East. “On the domestic side, look here: What’s so clear is that this country from the outset is projecting the interests of wealth and property. Look at the bailout of Wall Street. Why not the bailout of Main Street?”

….

…[S]uch prominent voices as Rep. John Conyers, the powerful chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and New York Times columnist Charles Blow have been among those taking shots at Obama over his policies, rhetoric, and political positioning.

“He called me and told me that he heard that I was demeaning him and I had to explain to him that it wasn’t anything personal, it was an honest difference on the issues,” Rep. John Conyers told The Hill. “And he said, ‘Well, let’s talk about it.’ ” But the 80-year-old Conyers informed the president that he was in no mood to chat. “I’ve been saying I don’t agree with him on Afghanistan, I think he screwed up on health-care reform, on Guantánamo and kicking Greg off,” Conyers added, referring to the forced resignation of White House counsel Gregory Craig over the Guantánamo prison issue…

“There was an expectation, particularly among African Americans, that the first African-American president would at least be vocal about feeling their pain,” [NYT's] Blow said last week on MSNBC’s Hardball. “I think that has not been the case. The president has given a couple of speeches and he has been very heavy on the stick and not very heavy with the carrot… Just in the inability for him to commiserate with that group of people, people feel a bit deflated… He said he’s not going to focus separately on African-American issues at all. That let a lot of people down.”

“A lot of people are pi**ed off out there,” said one well-known political player… [Emphasis added.]

Given the anger from the Left on health care and Afghanistan, combined with African American disappointment, it appears Obama is alienating more and more of his base…the base that he (and Democrats) will need to rely on in 2010 and 2012 to get out and vote.

While it would be delusional to think that this base would vote for anything other than a leftist, the chances are many of them may just stay home in 2010 and 2012.

In that case, Mr. President, keep alienating and disappointing your base.  Given your Marxist czars, the bankrupting of our country, the attempt to nationalize Americans’ health care and so much more, the rest of the country will thank you for your alienation.

As Senate Dems bent on their socialist ‘progressive’ principles on health care yesterday to accomodate Joe Lieberman, the fallout is causing more problems for Harry Reid.

Rolland Burris (D-IL) indicated that he would not be supporting a bill without the public option and Ben Nelson (D-NE) is still “not on the bill” due to its public funding for abortion.

This means the math is even worse for Harry Reid than it was yesterday.

Meanwhile, House Democrats are getting impatient with Harry Reid.

“I think the majority leader sometimes has to have the leadership to resolve these things,” says Pennsylvania Rep. Joe Sestak, a Democrat challenging Sen. Arlen Specter, in a direct attack on Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “I understand it’s politically challenging, but we have the votes — and we should be doing much better than we are. I think this place needs a change, quite frankly.”

Further demonstrating their frustration, Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is trying to quell fears of a populist backlash that is leaving her vulnerable House members feeling…well…vulnerable in 2010. 

According to The HIll, Pelosi is assuring her queasy fellow Dems that the House will not take up any controversial bills unless the Senate acts first.

After a year of bruising legislative victories that some political analysts believe have done more to jeopardize her majority than to entrench it, Pelosi is shifting gears for the 2010 election.

….

“The Speaker has told members in meetings that we’ve done our jobs,” a Democratic leadership aide said. “And that next year the Senate’s going to have to prove what it can accomplish before we go sticking our necks out any further.”

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), the president of the freshman class, said that Pelosi came to last Wednesday’s freshman breakfast to deliver that message, and that it was met with wide spread approval.

“I think freshmen, particularly, are not enamored of the idea of being asked to walk the plank on a controversial item if the Senate is not going to take any action,” Connolly said.

This means that the liberal legislative agenda which includes things like amnesty for illegals, the job-destroying Employee Free FORCED Choice Act, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, as well as “Tax & Trade” may be doomed for the next year–until after the mid-terms (depending on the outcome then).

If this is indeed the case, the decimation of America may be forestalled for another year and perhaps Christmas has indeed come early.

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Cross-posted.

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“In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.” – Ayn Rand

Many have known for years that there is something fishy about the Al Gore-inspired industry known as “Global Warming, Inc.”  In fact, as the planet’s temperatures have decreased in recent years, the global warming hysterians have had to change their whole brand identification from that of global warming to “climate change,” while not changing their tactics at attempting to extort “developed nations” on behalf of developing nations.

Thanks to Al Gore, who can’t let a little thing like truth get in his way of becoming the world’s first environmental billionaire, the world is watching countries like the U.S. and those that make up the European Union scramble to find a way to squander their wealth, end their sovereignty and enslave their peoples to those “developing” countries deemed to be too poor in sound government, civility or the rule of law to manage themselves.

In sum, as ‘Climate Gate’ is only beginning to shed light on Al Gore and his pseudo-scientific, climate-controlling cronies want America to accept fraud as fact and to willingly pay for its own economic and national destruction.

Thankfully, as the Copenhagen con unfolds, bureaucrats the world over cannot seem to agree on how to destroy America…and at what price said destruction should come. 

According to news reports:

China, India and other developing nations boycotted U.N. climate talks on Monday, bringing negotiations to a halt with their demand that rich countries discuss much deeper cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions.

Representatives from developing countries – a bloc of 135 nations – said they refused to participate in any formal working groups at the 192-nation summit until the issue was resolved.

Moreover…

“I don’t think the talks are falling apart, but we’re losing time,” said Kim Carstensen, of the World Wildlife Fund. The developing countries “are making a point.”

The dispute came as the conference entered its second week, and only days before over 100 world leaders including President Barack Obama were scheduled to arrive in Copenhagen.

“Nothing is happening at this moment,” Zia Hoque Mukta, a delegate from Bangladesh, told The Associated Press. He said developing countries have demanded that conference president Connie Hedegaard of Denmark bring the industrial nations’ emissions targets to the top of the agenda before talks can resume.

Poor countries, supported by China, say Hedegaard had raised suspicion that the conference was likely to kill the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which limited carbon emissions by wealthy countries and imposed penalties for failing to meet those targets.

Poor countries want to extend that treaty because it commits rich nations to emissions cuts and imposes penalties if they fall short. The United States withdrew from Kyoto over concerns that it would harm the U.S. economy and that China, India and other major greenhouse gas emitters were not required to take action.

“We are seeing the death of the Kyoto Protocol,” said Djemouai Kamel of Algeria, the head of the 50-nation Africa group.

It was the second time the Africans have disrupted the climate talks. At the last round of negotiations in November, the African bloc forced a one-day suspension until wealthy countries agreed to spell out what steps they will take to reduce emissions.

An African delegate said developing countries decided to block the negotiations at a meeting hours before the conference was to resume. He was speaking on condition of anonymity because the meeting was held behind closed doors. He said applause broke out every time China, India or another country supported the proposal to stall the talks.

Hope may be beginning to emerge that no agreement will be reached in Copenhagen and the enviro-phonies will leave Denmark with nothing but their proverbial diatribes in their hands.  For there is something truly unholy when other nations, as well as the present and former leaders of this nation, try to bring the best nation on earth to its knees to appease the equivalent of cannibals.

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Cross-posted.

While White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs–either in a show of complete arrogance or idiocy–dismissed “the meaninglessness” of Gallup’s most recent job approval numbers (47%) for his boss, the Commander-of-the-Unemployed-in-Chief rolled out his “jobs” plan this morning calling for–you guessed it–more government spending (although he won’t put a price tag on it…yet).

Obama touted the success of his stimulus and economic recovery efforts so far this year and endorsed a series of new ideas, including tax cuts for small business, new infrastructure spending on highways, rail and other projects, and a so-called “cash for caulkers” program that would give rebates to people who retrofit their homes to be more energy efficient.

Obama’s remarks represent a sort of political doubling down on the idea of federal stimulus spending. Indeed many of the ideas he mentioned are extensions of or additional funding for, items that were included in his $787 billion stimulus package earlier in the year.

Apparently, other than a photo op, last weeks’ faux-jobs summit where it appeared only one businessman had the testicular testinal fortitude to tell the naked emperor the truth, was a big waste of time.

Meanwhile, it appears more and more Americans are catching on to the smoke and mirrors of “audacity.”

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President Barack Obama has lost ground in the last month in getting Nevadans to embrace his health care reform package and, for the first time, opposition is above 50 percent and support is below 40 percent, a new poll commissioned by the Las Vegas Review-Journal reveals.

The telephone poll of 625 registered voters found that 53 percent of Nevadans oppose the president’s attempt to provide a remedy for problems in the nation’s health care system. Support for the plan is at 39 percent….

Fueling discontent with the bill, the poll shows, is the growing belief by Nevadans that Obama’s reform package will raise taxes, result in rationing of health care, and cause major cuts to Medicare programs.

“When you look at the entire poll, it’s clear the voters of Nevada do not want this bill to pass,” said Brad Coker, managing partner of Washington, D.C.-based Mason-Dixon Polling & Research Inc., which conducted the poll Monday through Wednesday. “When you break it all down, it appears that Nevadans would just as soon throw this bill out and start over.” [Emphasis added.]

Harry, listen to your constituents: Scrap the bill!

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Cross-posted.

We’re big fans of Barack Obama’s Teleprompter.

In fact, were it not for TOTUS, the news coming out of of this White House might be viewed as mere propaganda if left only to people like Anita Dunn, Patrick Gaspard, or David Axelrod (et al.).

However, TOTUS brings so much balance and levity to the news coming from the White House that we just couldn’t imagine life without it.

Well, apparently the President feels much the same as we do. He has a hard time working without TOTUS too. So much so, apparently, that BHO has been ditching the White House press corps of late.

It’s been 19 weeks, according to the Washington Times, since BHO has had a press conference (you know, where POTUS-friendly reporters get to ask planted questions so POTUS can appear to be answering regally and…spontaneously…without TOTUS).

The president, whose job-approval ratings have been on a steady slide, hasn’t held a formal news conference in 19 weeks, since July 22. That one ended badly, when Mr. Obama waded into a racial controversy by saying a white police officer “acted stupidly” when he arrested a black Harvard professor.

“It can’t be a total coincidence that the last time he faced the press corps, we ended with beers in the Rose Garden with Henry Louis Gates and James Crowley, when the focus was supposed to be health care,” said Julie Mason, a White House reporter for the Washington Examiner who also covered the Bush administration for the Houston Chronicle.

“It does seem like they are responding to the overexposure argument and trying to exert more control over his appearances,” she said.

Veteran White House reporters have been grumbling about the lack of access to the president, who as a candidate vowed an unprecedented level of transparency. [Emphasis added.]

As the Ditherer-in-Chief preps for his big focus-group-tested speech on Afghanistan tonight, it appears the only thing transparent coming from this White House is Barack Obama’s Teleprompter.

And, for its level of transparency, we are great admirers of TOTUS.

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Cross-posted on Dienekes’ Place.

President Obama, albeit for other reasons than cited below, has earned himself a new nickname: The Kamikaze-in-Chief. [To read Ralph Reiland's reasons for POTUS' new nickname, go here.]

On Monday, it seems that the White House has decided to take aim at another media outlet: Politco.

Here’s the background: Politico ran a piece entitled “7 stories Obama doesn’t want told.”

In sum, Politico’s seven points consisted of:

1. He thinks he’s playing with Monopoly money
2. Too much Leonard Nimoy
3. That’s the Chicago Way
4. He’s a pushover
5. He sees America as another pleasant country on the U.N. roll call, somewhere between Albania and Zimbabwe
6. President Pelosi
7. He’s in love with the man in the mirror

[Read entire Politico piece here, or watch the video.]

Later on Monday, the Atlantic posted that the White House is not taking the Politico piece laying down:

It’s not just Fox News that’s become subject of White House derision. The following is an excerpt from a joke e-mail that is circulating among White House staffers. It’s a response, of sorts, to the analytical essay that POLITICO editor-in-chief John Harris wrote about the “seven stories that Barack Obama doesn’t want told.”….

…But make no mistake: many on the White House senior staff dislike POLITICO’s brand of journalism, and they do not like the effect that POLITICO’s metabolism has on the rest of the press corps, including this (i.e., my own) corner of it….

_______________

7 narratives politico is fighting in their efforts to get an interview with the President
1. They are more interested in readers than accuracy
2. Its okay to be wrong everyonce in a while, if your are the first to break the news
3. More interested in gossip than news
4. A spouter of the worst sort of insider conventional wisdom
5. Their analysis about obama has been wrong more than any one
6. Click … period
7. More obsessed with personality than policy

After the debacle of the White House attacks on Fox News this past fall, one would think that the White House would have learnt its lessons…Apparently, this is not the case as the Obama administration nose dives into another war with another media outlet.

Crazy…Kamikaze crazy.

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Having been occasional admirers of uber-mom and mega star Angelina Jolie–especially as the gun-toting Laura Croft–Ms Jolie’s cred just went up in our book.

Well said, Ms. Jolie (even if credited to a “source”).

No word, however, if Ms. Jolie is still slated to play Dagny Taggart in the Atlas Shrugged movie, or whether the part is going to Charlize Theron.

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Cross-posted on Dienekes’ Place.