The Democrats have a big fat donut (”zero”) in the bank of political capital, the economy is sucking Greyhound bus fumes, the Republicans have all the political capital in the world but only 40% in both houses, and yet this Chicago thug sits in the White House looking to stomp into splinters even the shards of a broken economy. I think we all have something to gain, and something to lose.

So I propose a deal.

What the Democrats Want

• Pay off their union cronies, ACORN, their trial lawyer masters, Big Hollywood: it seems the first Stimulus was advertised as a “jump-start” for the economy, but was in reality a great big fungible wet kiss to various Democrat constituencies. Clearly it was not enough, judging by poll numbers. They’ll be wanting more money.
• More spending, more programs, more bureaucracy: after all, they’re Democrats. What would you think of a leopard without spots, anyway?
• More investigations of Bush era misdeeds: nothing helps your poll numbers like sending a bunch of Republicans to jail.
• A ghost of a shot at re-election: it ain’t looking so good for 2010. Every “blue dog” Nancy forces to vote for government takeovers is going to die ugly on election day. As a matter of fact, a whole bunch of left-wingers are going to go down as well. Living large in Northern Virginia, having talk shows and network anchors lavish attention on you, sending pork home, and getting wined and dined by future employers (K Street), that life can be addicting.
• Permanent Democrat dominance in national politics: Nothing says “I love me” like a lifetime appointment to the House or Senate.
• The 2010 elections rigged: that’s spelled “A-C-O-R-N”. It’s been a rather bumpy road for ACORN the last 11 months, and it looks like defunding, prison sentences, and dismantling are on the horizon. And without ACORN, Democrats simply cannot steal any close elections.

What Republicans Want

• Lower taxes, lower deficits, lower spending: Who wouldn’t want these things? Except for Democrats, and the leftist partisan media, I mean.
• More personal freedom, less government intrusion, for all Americans: Once again, is there any serious, patriotic American who does not want this?
• The economy back on track, thriving, and unemployment back down under 5%: the above two items would go a long way toward securing this item.
• A strong and respected America on the world stage: we’re tired of being made to look guilty for leading the world in technology, in human rights, in economic growth, in agriculture, in military prowess, and on and on. We are America, we are exceptional, and we don’t bow.
• Freedom and self-determination for Iraq and Afghanistan: for Honduras as well.
• The troops to be supported or pulled out: the life of every soldier is precious (except for that murdering jihadist pig), and being over there in harm’s way with no discernable mission is getting American men killed. I know every president can’t lead like George W Bush, but this Obama character is dangerously incompetent to lead anybody anywhere.

What Bambi the Chicago Showgirl Wants

Ah, who bloody cares what he wants. He wants to be Hugo Chavez. President for life of a crumbling, broken banana republic. And it ain’t gonna happen. This punk is 4-and-out, and the job of all of us is to contain the damage he does until he’s gone.

The Middle Ground - a Second Stimulus

So I propose a compromise between Democrats and Republicans on a second stimulus, to get this economy in the recovery mode. So 4 of these are from the Dem list, 4 from the Repub list. I have taken the liberty of co-opting the Democrat definition of “bipartisanship” : get everything I want, promise a few bennies to enough suckers on the other side to get their votes, then change the rules and mock them behind their backs while they reap all sorts of unintended consequences.

I hope you like it, and we SO should propose this as the Second Stimulus:

From the Democrat side:

• Pay off their union cronies, ACORN, their trial lawyer masters, Big Hollywood: well, not ALL their cronies, just Big Pharma. Obviously Big Pharma is their friend, since they backed this BambiCare thing. Right? Right? So, I was thinking: if we were to enact nation-wide tort reform, Texas-style, I’m pretty sure Big Pharma would be tickled pink. Not that we care about such things, but a whole lot of things happen as a result: medical costs go down, insurance rates go down, more doctors are willing to work in more areas and more states, and (curiously) with insurance rates going down, more people can afford coverage. Isn’t that interesting? I know it’s a long shot, but we might get Vioxx back on the market, the best arthritis medicine ever invented (long story).
• More spending, more programs, more bureaucracy: First, spending program: re-fund the F-22 Raptor. Now that we know China has its own competitor, soon to hit the scene, the F-22 is no longer “over-kill”. One more spending program: give General McChrystal his 40,000 additional troops. Both of these spending programs would actually stimulate the economy by bringing jobs directly to defense contractors, as well as all the smaller businesses that feed huge companies like that.
• More investigations of Bush era misdeeds: Start by ordering the reinstatement of Inspector General Gerald Walpin, who was doing great work digging into Bush-era misdeeds by Obama crony Kevin Johnson, Mayor of Sacramento who was fleecing AmeriCorp for personal goods and “services”. These misdeeds were going on during the Bush Administration, and I think they should be investigated carefully. Obama had Walpin canned, for obvious reasons. But in the interest of investigating Bush-era misdeeds, we should go for it. William Jefferson and his 2001-2008 misdeeds are no longer as amusing as they used to be.
• A ghost of a shot at re-election: there’s not alot of hope here. But if the red-district moderates tell Obama and the far-left agenda people to go jump in the lake, they have a better shot at keeping their seats in 2010. Better shot. Not a good shot.

From the Republican side:

• Lower taxes, lower deficits, lower spending: cancel what’s left of TARP, what’s left of Porkulus, cancel all funding of anything that even smells related to unions, ACORN, and any number of bureaucracies. Make the Bush tax cuts permanent, and wipe out capital gains taxes (and watch how fast companies start hiring).
• More personal freedom, less government intrusion, for all Americans: start deregulating the heck out of everything. Start by dissolving the Departments of Education, Labor, HHS, HUD, Energy, and most of all, Homeland Security. Remove from any consideration Net Neutrality, the so-called Fairness Doctrine, and any similar proposals.
• A strong and respected America on the world stage:see above, under “give General McChrystal his 40,000 troops”. See also “re-fund the F-22″. While we’re at it, see if we can get Great Britain to ship that bust of Winston Churchill to Senate Minority Leader McConnell’s office for safe-keeping until January 21, 2013. Instruct various heads of state throughout the world that while our president may bow, our people and our Congress do not.
• Freedom and self-determination for Iraq and Afghanistan:Win the war. Let the terrorists know that what President George W Bush said is still true of America: “We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail.” We will, in fact, own you, and end you.

Pretty good proposal? Fair? A few things for both sides?

Yeah, that was what I thought. I think I could live with it.

PS - on a personal note, your lovable, redoubtable EPU now has his own online conservative t-shirt store, called EPUGear (what else). And Christmas season is coming up…..

I don’t know what it takes to be the stupidest person at MSNBC. You have to beat out Keith “Raging, Spittle-Flecked Tantrums” Olbermann, Chris “Leg Tingle” Matthews, and Rachel “Mad Cow” Maddow. But I gotta hand it to Norah. I think she has pulled it off.

Here she picks a fight with a 17-year old Sarah Palin fan (at about 1:50 in the clip), tries unsuccessfully to trap her into defending Palin on a false premise, and gets her head handed to her, by a kid who obviously knows her stuff. I can’t believe they actually let this film get out. It’s cute how whoever made this video titled it : “MSNBC interviews clueless Sarah Palin Supporter”. They have all the right words, just not in the right order.
.
Notice which person uses cue cards.
.

UPDATE!! djemi in the comments below points us here where the young lady tells her story of the events of the day, including the skirmish with Norah O’Donnell. Great kid, who handled herself quite well.

Frank J allows us a peek inside the 2012 Dick Cheney movement [sometimes called Cheney X2, with Liz Cheney on the ticket as well], while they generate good campaign slogans. I must say, I am in awe. In the interest of fair use, I’ve just listed a sampling of them. for the whole list, go here.

• I know what the he[ck] I’m doing.
• I shoot my friends in the face with a shotgun. What do you think I’ll do to America’s enemies?
• I’m what the Mayans predicted.
• The only time I’ll bow before a foreign leader is in preparation for an uppercut.
• I already control everything; let’s just make it official.
• Torturing terrorists may not make reliable intelligence, but does make reliable fun.
• Probably not going to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
• KSM will get to plead his case to my shotgun.
• You don’t inaugurate me; you unleash me.

Be sure and read them all. Cheney X2!!!!

Word to your moms,
48

The past 9 months have been instructive, yes? We’ve seen what happens in the utter absence of conservative governance; when evil, arrogant, and ambitious people have unfettered control over the reins of power. We’ve seen they are unable to govern either themselves or their lust for power, riding roughshod over all Constitutional safeguards in order to ‘help’ those they assay to govern. It is only due to a tremendous and wholly unexpected backlash by ordinary citizens that the advance of arrogant rule has been blunted (hardly halted).

So today, let’s talk about governance as it should be: Burke and Kirk style.

After a long operational pause, we resume the series on Russell Kirk’s 10 Conservative Principles. I hope you missed me, as I have missed our discussions of conservative principles and foundations. To tell the truth, in light of the last 9 months, I’m half inclined to start over at #1. We’ll thin about that. But for today, #5:

Fifth, conservatives pay attention to the principle of variety.

From the great one:

They feel affection for the proliferating intricacy of long-established social institutions and modes of life, as distinguished from the narrowing uniformity and deadening egalitarianism of radical systems. For the preservation of a healthy diversity in any civilization, there must survive orders and classes, differences in material condition, and many sorts of inequality. The only true forms of equality are equality at the Last Judgment and equality before a just court of law; all other attempts at leveling must lead, at best, to social stagnation. Society requires honest and able leadership; and if natural and institutional differences are destroyed, presently some tyrant or host of squalid oligarchs will create new forms of inequality.

EPU’s short Kirk: People will are different. Let it be.

To the left, people are just things

During WW2, the massive production facility at Willow Run, Michigan produced at total of 8685 B-24 Liberators, at its peak putting out 650 aircraft per month, nearly 1 per hour. A great many ground-breaking techniques were developed along the way that improved speed, accuracy, and quality of production.

The B-24’s were tools, instruments of American foreign policy. It was important that they be essentially identical and interchangeable, because that was most useful and advantageous for the war effort; for production, training, spare parts, and mission planning.

It is ever the aim of leftists, under whatever name, to impose sameness upon people. They strive to control people, if only “for their good” (occasionally). They are never content with the messy business of people helping themselves, doing for themselves, deciding for themselves. We’ve got to be managed, sequestered, lined up, stacked, located on a grid.

Notice how often they call people “workers”? If you haven’t, then start. You see, we are not “citizens” to the left. We’re “workers”. I think you can figure out why. Your goals, desires, and dreams are of no interest whatsoever to the left. Not so to conservative principles. Personal liberty, the unencumbered pursuit of happiness, is the goal of conservatism. You begin to see why they hate conservatives so much.

The left’s irrational hatred of businesses (all kinds, not just the evil, maniacal, exploitative “big businesses”) stems from the simple fact that businesses are inconvenient to the left. Businesses are, by definition, self-interested. A person starts and maintains a business to make a profit; he sees an opportunity, a niche, and supposes he can do something better, faster, or cheaper than the competitors. The left thinks businesses exist primarily as the vehicles by which “workers” get paid.

Unions are the perfect leftist vehicle for collecting, collating, pressing, folding, and stacking “workers” into great piles of “things” that suit the left. Union members serve the unions, not the businesses they work for, thus disrupting free-market forces. As an aside, it’s spectacularly convenient that unions are also such cash cows and cesspools of corruption, there to be plundered for the benefit of all sorts of leftist, anti-freedom rackets — including Democrat campaigns.

Variety is beautiful

People will not willingly become cogs in some great state-run machine, numbered parts in a bin somewhere in a government warehouse. They do not exist for the benefit of the state. Quite the contrary, as we know — of the people, for the people, by the people, ring a bell?.
It is ever the aim of people to express individuality. OK, other than teenagers with their emo, screamo, moppy hairdos, goth, girl pants, tramp stamps, and whatnot ["I want to be unique, just like everybody else!"]. Just drive down Dallas highways a day or two, and you will experience seemingly no end of variety in vehicle choices - makes, models, colors, and then all those delicious modifications in rims, decals, bumper stickers [,horsepower!]. Step aside in any store or mall and just watch people for 15 minutes. People just naturally customize themselves and everything else they have.

Just.
Let.
People.
Be.

Holy cow, Democrats. [Holy cow, Republicans too!]

Equal Access to Justice

There is one thing Kirk points out, and we should too, about equality. It is the government’s business, and it is their job, to assure that people have equal access to justice, and an equal vote. The consent of the governed can brook no less.

Beyond that, it is not under the purview of government to equalize life. Every OTHER way in which government might try to make people equal involves some form of taking something away from Person A, to which he is justly entitled, and giving it to Person B.

No.

Freedom to succeed means freedom to fail

People like what they like, and they will strive endlessly to do as they will. They choose their own friends, they marry for love, for position, for convenience, or not at all. They seek careers and money, or not. They have pets or not, rent or own, live in the city or country, and they conduct business how they will. Thomas Jefferson, in our founding document, considered life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness rights given by God, and not to be given nor taken away by government.

Some people are very ambitious, study hard, sacrifice short-term pleasure for long-term gain. All people have native strengths and weaknesses, and the wise person plays to his strengths, plans ahead, and lives within his means. Some people are naturally lazy, irresponsible louts. Most likely they will have limited material success, but then that was really their choice, Wasn’t it?

Government Theft

It is intrinsically a criminal wrong for government to confiscate from Person A to help Person B. It’s more than that. It teaches Person B that there is no consequence for underperforming. Further, it teaches Person A that there is no benefit to excel, to dream lofty dreams, if the government simply robs you of the fruits of your work.

Taken to its conclusion, you get a world where nobody will work anymore. Kinda like Communist Russia. [Or Michigan!?!!??]

Lessons about Russell Kirk’s variety

So let’s wrap it up. On a practical level, what does it all mean? Most of these are obvious.

• Government-run health care takes away your freedom to choose how, where, and how expensively to purchase your health care.
• Government-run health care takes away the incentives of health-care providers to provide an excellent product at the lowest practical price.
• Government-run health care takes away the incentives of individuals to get into the business. That means doctors, nurses, x-ray techs, all sorts of smart and capable people. Polls indicate that many of them will walk away, leaving us fewer (and probably the less talented and motivated) providers.
• Most of the current problems in the health-care industry are directly or indirectly caused by intrusive, meddling government regulation. Government takeover will do nothing more than cause the charlie-foxtrot of all time.
• Government-run health care lies far, far outside the purview of the government. It’s simply not their place, and one must question why they want this level of control over your life.
• Take the first 5 items above. Substitute every government program, every regulatory agency you know about, and every proposed 1000-page program the Democrats are proposing (substitute appropriately for ‘doctors’ et al). See if you can figure out why it’s government’s job to do that, and why any sane person thinks the government would do it better than the free market would.
• Overachievers have 40% of their income confiscated by the government, largely to pay for things the government should not be doing anyway. These people are usually also called “employers”. Underachievers have from 0 to 10% of their income confiscated by the government. Yet the left continually, unceasingly harps on “tax cuts for the rich”, “sticking it to the rich”, “rich people succeeding on the backs of regular people”, and so on. Most of the current big-cost programs the Democrats sell by saying “we’ll just tax the rich more: they don’t deserve all that money”. This is vile and unforgivable. Not only that, it will merely mean that these people, aka “employers” will lay off employees since their operating income will be lowered by these extra taxes.
• Most regulations are an assault on liberty. What business is it of the government that you want to operate a restaurant that allows smoking?
• Most regulations, in an open market with information freely available, are completely without merit. For example, if all smoking regs were abolished, you would literally see no-smoking restaurants sprout out of the ground. There are so many people, as consumers, that won’t eat in a smoking-allowed restaurant that in pretty short order, the marketplace would reflect the desires of the consuming public. My friends, Burke and Kirk are exceedingly wise.
• Public schools should be replaced by private schools, and property taxes to pay for schools should be abolished. I have no kids, yet I have to fork out $6000 PER YEAR to fund that sorry, piece-of-crap, government-run Democrat indoctrination camp in my town. That ain’t the government’s job, and it shouldn’t be my problem.
• The EPU Plan — You could give people 5 years, and say, on August 1, 2017, there are no public schools, no property tax. You would see charter schools sprout out of the ground, competing for kids, competing for teachers, providing the best product possible for the cheapest price. Good ones would thrive, bad ones would not. An underserved area would draw those willing to fill the niche. The free market is not perfect,m but it creates, by definition, efficiency and excellency in the long run.
• Regarding the above idea: if you don’t like it, propose another non-government solution. I don’t care. What I do know is that the government is not morally entitled to huge piles of my money to provide for other people’s needs. I went to college, I studied, taught myself how to do what I do. I sacrificed tremendously to become the professional I am. And the government takes great huge chunks of it mainly to throw onto wasteful, left-friendly garbage. Do I sound a little bitter? I don’t want you to miss this point. That’s MY money. Not the government’s. We’ll touch on this point more when we hit Kirk’s principle #7 (”freedom and property are closely linked”)
• I think Republicans should campaign, not this year but in 2012, on this: Every year, the next 4 years, we are going to eliminate a cabinet department. Every year, we are going to reduce the federal code by 10%. Every year, we are going to reduce the regulation code books every single place there are regulations, by 10%. And we are going to reduce every year, income taxes and every single fee, license, or any other code-named-tax that the government levies by 10%.
• It goes without saying that the government takeovers of the auto and banking industries were a vile assault on freedom, and on the principle of variety. Ditto for the proposed health care system takeover. Immoral. Tritto on the Cap-n-Tax.
• You do know why gasoline costs what it does, don’t you? You do know that the shores of America are teeming, practically swelling with petroleum, untapped because the Democrats won’t allow it. You know this, right? You also know that China is drilling off our shores, don’t you? We have private companies, chomping at the bit to get to that oil. Just sayin’

Well anyway, enjoy your variety!

Is darkness the opposite of light?

In a conversational and practical sense, you could answer yes. You can live your life treating these as opposites and you would function just fine. Yet you would be factually, scientifically wrong.

Darkness is the absence of light. You may think that’s a ‘distinction without a difference’. Walk with me and I’ll show you otherwise, and why the distinction is at the very heart of what makes our conservative struggle so epic, so grand in both scale and importance; a struggle for all time.

The Dark Sucker

You know about the Dark Sucker Theory, right? It’s a humorously offered proposition that light bulbs don’t actually emit light: instead, they suck the darkness out of the immediate area (thus, ‘dark suckers’). Others have expanded it into a more robust, and still more hilarious, treatment of the physics of darkness and light (for example, instead of photons, there are ‘darkons’ whose paths bend in response to gravity).

The dark sucker hypothesis is an application of the the Limbaugh-patented device of illustrating absurdity with absurdity to point out that darkness is not the opposite of light; it is the absence of light.

Conservatism is the anti-ideology

Political Conservatism is not an ideology, nor is it properly the opposite of leftism, marxism, statism, socialism, fascism, communism, or any other insipid, failed ism.

Conservatism is not much more than the principle that government should jealously protect the citizens from itself, and from each other. Ideologies, as the first order of business, implicitly sacrifice the freedom so jealously guarded by conservatism. They seek to define, construct, and design a government-managed system based on some beliefs or notions, imposed more often than not for the supposed good of the citizens subjects.

How we more specifically define conservatism is subject to some debate. Even the great Russell Kirk struggled with a compact definition, leading him to his Ten Conservative Principles that were his best shot.

The attitude we call conservatism is sustained by a body of sentiments, rather than by a system of ideological dogmata. It is almost true that a conservative may be defined as a person who thinks himself such. The conservative movement or body of opinion can accommodate a considerable diversity of views on a good many subjects, there being no Test Act or Thirty-Nine Articles of the conservative creed.
[...]
It is not possible to draw up a neat catalogue of conservatives’ convictions; nevertheless, I offer you, summarily, ten general principles; it seems safe to say that most conservatives would subscribe to most of these maxims.

At an even lower level, it boils down to this, really. Conservatism is the style of governance of a nation that supports the imposition of enough order, and no more, to secure the basic rights and the maximum sustainable liberty of individuals. Facing outward, it supports a foreign policy robust enough, and no more, to secure the internal system.

Flowing from that I believe comes the core thoughts of of Kirk’s Ten (my paraphrase).
–There are absolute right and wrongs, that dictate both basic rights and basic duties.
–Man’s ability to govern without ruling is less than assured.
–Freedom is paramount.
–Untested new is not often better than established old.

Take away conservatism, what do you get?

All these isms — leftism, marxism, statism, socialism, fascism, communism, fascism, or just plain old-fashioned totalitarian dictatorship — are just various manifestations of the absence of conservative principles. Most of these are built on some misguided notion that if the state can control enough factors of human civilized life, it can bring about a superior reality. Even well-meaning systems are horribly flawed, and make the fatally stupid assumption that the people in power will guide their actions for the best of their citizens subjects.

Conservative principles are uprightness and liberty with order. In the absence of conservative principles, the guaranteed result is powerlust, tyranny, human slavery, oppression. In whatever organized or disorganized form it takes, and whatever motives might have inspired it, the end — the inevitable, inescapable end — is unbridled power, license, and excess for the rulers, and poverty and oppression for everybody else.

Don’t believe it?

Let’s play the absence-of-Kirk game

Let’s take away all ten Russell Kirk principles, and see what it leaves us:

1. No enduring moral order.
With no intrinsic right and wrong, then there can be no expectation that people with their hands on the levers of governmental power will act with honesty or integrity, or with the needs of their constituents in mind. Ah, who cares!

2. No adherence to custom, convention, and continuity.
Old-school is just old-fashioned. There is no value in things being done the way they were before. New ideas are cool.

3. No principle of prescription.
There *is* no wisdom of the ages. Family is unimportant. The Constitution should be “living” because those people could not anticipate the modern world. Schools, not family, should be the source of a child’s values.

4. No principle of prudence.
I have a brand new idea! And I think we should totally remake the fabric of society to conform to my new idea. I haven’t really thought about unintended consequences, but hey, I’m smart and popular, so I must be right.

5. No principle of variety.
We must impose equality! It’s unfair that some people are better at what they do, work harder, went through a grueling training process, made sacrifices. Everyone should make the same amount of money, there should be no punishment for bad investment or bad decisions, no child should be left behind, and everybody should have universal health care, paid for by those greedy, cheating rich!

6. No principle of imperfectability.
We really should be more lenient on criminals. They’re misunderstood, we should focus on rehabilitation, they had a rough childhood.

7. Freedom and property are not closely linked.
You can be free, even if we confiscate most of your money through taxes. We can impose all manner of ridiculous regulation on businesses and individuals without seriously infringing on your liberty.

8. Voluntary community is not required, involuntary collectivism is acceptable.
The government can regulate, at its discretion, what groups you can and cannot belong to, what kind of neighborhood you can live in. Further, we can even force you into communities, and dictate exactly what social and professional relationships you must have.

9. No need for prudent restraints upon power and upon human passions.
People who hold power for long periods of time are never corrupted (unless they’re Republicans, of course). There are no needs for safeguards like the threat of impeachment, Senate confirmation hearings, judicial review, veto power, veto override, checks and balances, and separation of powers.

10. Permanence and change need not be recognized and reconciled.
Just forge on! Change!

The absence of conservatism. Looks pretty fun, doesn’t it?

Why they call it conservative

Outside of politics,Merriam-Webster defines conservative as:

a : tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions : traditional
b : marked by moderation or caution
c : marked by or relating to traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners

It’s not so hard to see how the term came to be embraced. It’s not an exact match, to be sure. Conservatism is cautious about change, but not overly so. It respects the wisdom of tradition. While the normal definition fails to account for the central theme of conservatism it’s not a far stretch to say that conservatives seek to “conserve” the core freedoms, the fundamental rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is not the perfect word, perhaps, but it’ll do.

And it is the perfect political philosophy.

With his poll numbers consistently sub-50 these days, with his pet vote-stealing army ACORN going down in flames, with his takeover of 16% of the American economy in dire, dire straits, with the press occasionally asking moderately stern questions, with America becoming an international joke, and with soldiers dying in Afghanistan while he tries to make a Coke-or-Pepsi decision, he consults the Chicago playbook.

Buy off seniors and veterans with cash

.
And true to the Chicago way, don’t even give them much money, just enough to make him some glowing headlines by the government-run media. $250 checks. It’s probably at least a moderately successful tactic, which is a shame.

Jerk. Liar. Punk. Cheater. Thug. Panderer.

In the Book of Habakkuk, the prophet asks (paraphrased) “Why do the evil men prosper?” He says he will wait on the city wall until he gets his answer. And after a fashion, he gets an answer:

For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.

I know when one part of that reckoning comes. On November 3, 2010, Republicans will take the House and break the filibuster-proof Democrat Senate. That’s not the whole reckoning, when the wronged are avenged and returned to power. But it’s a start.

If you know all of the above and you vote for that bill, you are a crook. You are some kind of person who has put power above principle, a person who took an oath that you are breaking by voting for this bill. You may be gaining personally, you may just be gaining power over ordinary Americans, or you may have been pressured or blackmailed into voting for it. At any rate, you are a crook.

If you are *not* aware of the above, and vote for ObamaCare, you are an idiot. If you think the Democrats are offering some kind of deal in good faith you are an idiot. If you make a habit of signing the bottoms of blank sheets, you are an idiot. In fact, to the extent that you agonized over whether to vote for this ridiculous economy-killing, freedom-killing power grab…….you are an idiot.

If you vote against ObamaCare, in every committee vote, every cloture vote, every possible way to vote against ObamaCare, then good for you. America thanks you. You can come to my Christmas Party. I want a pony, by the way. Or anything Dr Pepper. Or anything bacon, such as the famous BAK-47.

Irrelevant Al is bleating again, in the oh-so-unsurprising matter that has come to light recently. He’s unhappy, and the left-biased media wants to make sure you hear about it, because he’s so……….irrelevant, dishonest, racist, and stupid, I guess. I can’t actually think of a good reason. Rush Limbaugh, along with St Louis Blues owner Dave Checketts, has put in a bid to buy the St Louis Rams. Rush, you may recall, cut his teeth on sports broadcasting with the Kansas City Royals, and has ever since maintained a keen interest in sports. He’s shown his sports acumen repeatedly, particularly in football matters.

As everyone knows, Rush enjoyed a brief stint working for ESPN in the NFL pregame show in 2003. What informed people know is that he got run out of town for making a perfectly valid (and true) observation that Eagles QB Donovan McNabb was overrated because the media had a vested interest in seeing a black quarterback succeed. What other people think they know, thanks to either their own biases, blatantly leftist media coverage, or both, is that Rush made a racist slam against Donovan McNabb.

So now that Rush wants to become an ownership stake in an NFL team, and Tawana Bradley Al Irrelevant Al has his panties bunched in drearily predictable fashion. He’s written a letter to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to complain that Rush has beein “divisive” and “anti-NFL” — pretty amusing coming from a guy who has made his life’s work criticizing white people for being white, and extorting businesses for money and to force them to institute racial bias into their company policies. NFL Players executive director DeMaurice Smith has called Rush “divisive”, and is attempting to rally NFL players to oppose the move.

How typical. How irrelevant.

PS - special note to liar, tax cheat, thug, and punk, Attorney General Eric Holder: You said a few months ago that America was a “nation of cowards” when it came to race.

He said that Americans are afraid to talk about race, adding that “certain subjects are off-limits and that to explore them risks at best embarrassment and at worst the questioning of one’s character.”

OK, what happened to Rush is what happens when a white person mentions race in any context, for any reason. Democrats and the media have made this environment. Do you know that the Dallas City Council went into an uproar because two black members objected to a white member using the term “black hole” [to describe central collections ] and demanded an apology? Did you know that? And did you find amusing that whole story about Skip Gates making a racist scene, and Obama making a national uproar over it? So why do you suppose, then, that white people are reluctant to bring up race?

If you want to have a national dialog about race that is honest and objective, then maybe you could use your influence to combat this sort of thing — instead of using your influence to cancel Justice Department investigations of civil rights violations committed by the New Black Panthers brandishing weapons outside voting facilities and caught on nationally viewed video. I hope you get impeached over that, by the way. You should.

Just saying.

PPS - If the team including Rush actually does buy the Rams, then the Rams instantly become my second favorite team. Not only that, every NFL player that makes it known they will not play for the Rams on account of Rush joins my Sports Hall of Shame - adding them to the list that includes Barry Bonds, Dwight Clark, everybody that kept Bob Hayes from the Hall of Fame while he was alive, and Fernando Cabrera, and Josh Howard, among others.

If you are judged by the enemies you accumulate, Honduras is one of the better republics around — all the local tinpot Marxist despots in the region, one that would like to be (Ortega), and the cherry on top : the world’s lone Superpower, led by a radical Marxist sympathizer who has already acted against Honduras and signaled that the world should do likewise.

Purely on the basis of its all-star collection of enemies, I declare Honduras, interim President Roberto Micheletti, the Supreme Court, and the Congress:
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The rogue’s gallery - thugs, dictators, bullies

Enemies of Honduras:

• Hugo Chavez: originally voted president of Venezuela in free elections, but in a series of moves took over as dictator; founder and leader of anti-US ALBA (Western Hemisphere Chapter of Thugs-R-Us™); noted America-hater; desires to control all of Latin America; has bankrolled and provided logistical support for first (and now second) attempts by deposed president Zelaya to retake control of Honduras.
• Evo Morales : Bolivia’s strongman president, also freely elected but halfway to becoming the de facto dictator, using the Chavez 12-step plan.
• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva: Brazil’s ineffective communist president has not necessarily been a perennial bad guy, but has acted as Chavez’s tool in allowing his embassy in Honduras to harbor Zelaya while he incites violence and unrest in an attempt to regain power.
• Daniel Ortega: communist who led the Sandanistas back in the 1980’s has recently regained control of Nicaragua. Zelaya reportedly crossed the border into Honduras from Nicaragua.
• Raul Castro: communist dictator of Cuba stands firmly with the other punks.
• Organization of American States is posing as the mediator between Honduras and the evil forces but is anything but a neutral arbiter.
• ALBA: The official umbrella group of all the bad guys in Latin America, led by Chavez and includes Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Honduras (under Zelaya), Dominica, Cuba, Nicaragua, and some others.
• European Union: the world’s largest confirmed case of penis envy, has already imposed sanctions against Honduras.
• United Nations: Like the Mos Eisley spaceport on Tatooine, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. The General Assembly freak show looks like the bar scene. And they are considering and may have enacted their own sanctions against free Honduras.

And the chief thug and bully of them all:

• Barack Obama: the neophyte president of the United States, who deliberately torpedoes the foreign interests of the United States, snubbing our allies and aligning with evil tyrants.

I am Honduras

So what are you to do if you are Honduras? They are poorer than dirt, they are situated directly in the corridor between the drug suppliers in South America and the primary drug consumers in the United States, and as such are the doormat of organized crime. Yet they desire nothing more than the freedom to be governed as they see fit. In 1982 they formed a Constitution that among other things took strong measures to protect themselves from an elected president going rogue and installing himself as dictator [sitting next to Nicaragua had an influence on this, maybe?].

Yet Zelaya attempted to do exactly this (the exact means was indirect, but there’s no question whatsoever about his intent), and the proper authorities in Honduras followed their Constitutional provisions in deposing him and installing an interim president who will govern until the election in November. The interim president was what we would call Speaker of the House, and he was the rightful successor, since the VP had previously resigned to run for president.

They have acted perfectly in accordance with their own laws, except for the comparatively minor matter of deporting Zelaya instead of throwing him into jail to await trial for a variety of offenses related to the misdeeds that led to his ouster.

There is nothing to debate, no point on which they should be reasonably expected to compromise.

Not exactly our little secret

OK, it’s not like your trusty friend EPU just today stumbled upon this, the fact that Honduras has in nearly all points acted perfectly in accord with their own Constitution (except that minor deportation thing), and the world’s thugs are making false accusations and trying to force their punk friend on an unwilling and free Honduras.

This has been covered detail by detail in the media (except for the unfailingly horrid coverage by both Reuters and AP). Jim DeMint, our finest conservative in the Senate, has made a pest of himself making the case for free Honduras. He recently traveled to Honduras, humorously outmaneuvering John Kerry who tried to have the trip blocked, and delivering his findings here. The Congressional Research Service researched and came to the same conclusion at the request of Congress.

It has been mentioned a time or two here at RedState.

There is no excuse, no ignorance. The Obama administration knows exactly what is going on. They are acting within what they consider their own best interest.

Honduras, I salute you

May the grace of God give you the fortitude and the fortune to win out in this stalemate. May we, the 46% led by Senator Jim DeMint, win the battle in our borders to force our government to stand for good and not for evil. You have been a loyal friend. May we be allies again in better times and under better United States leadership.

From the lips of Obama at the United Freak Show last week:

No one nation can or should try to dominate another nation. No world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will succeed.
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[snip]
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There are basic principles that are universal; there are certain truths which are self-evident — and the United States of America will never waver in our efforts to stand up for the right of people everywhere to determine their own destiny.

OK then, big boy. How about let’s start with Honduras? How about you butt the heck out of Honduras, seeing as how the smart people conclude you are wrong about the recent so-called ‘coup’?

This week we find that the Congressional Research Service (CRS) states that Honduras acted within their laws in deposing Chavez-buddy, would-be dictator Manuel Zelaya.

Specifically, they conclude:

Available sources indicate that the judicial and legislative branches applied constitutional and statutory law in the case against President Zelaya in a manner that was judged by the Honduran authorities from both branches of the government to be in accordance with the Honduran legal system.

[they go on to say that deporting him was not legal, but I expect everyone agrees that the alternative was putting Zelaya in jail and trying him for crimes against the state; in other words, the deportation hardly constitutes some kind of outrageous breach that must be remedied by international interference]

The CRS, by saying so, merely agrees with most Republicans in Congress, for example Jim DeMint; with Honduras-born District Judge, Asst Solicitor General, and filibustered Appeals Court nominee Miguel Estrada; with Fausta Wertz; with the gloriously, immeasurably awesome Pamela Geller, and with your humble servant.

So who is the Congressional Research Service?

I’m glad you asked.

The Congressional Research Service is an agency of 700 employees operating under the authority of the Library of Congress, whose mission is to provide research and informed analysis of pretty much any question any member of Congress requests an answer to. They do original research as well as pore over the public record and whatever private information that have access to.

Their reports go to the Congressmen or committees that request the information, and their availability to the public is subject to the discretion of the Congressmen who receive the information (i.e., CRS cannot release any data, but those who use it may if they choose). In addition to reports, they provide testimony before Congress or committees, and provide seminars and training.

This is the Congressional Geek Squad, an army of scientists, accountants, business analysts, economists, lawyers, policy wonks, and miscellaneous experts. They have a mostly solid reputation and go to some lengths to foster a name for nonpartisanship. But like all geeky people in the federal bureaucracy, they might wear a veneer of political objectivity but they tilt a bit to port (left), at least according to conservatives.

Which is all the more damning to the Obama administration. Let me quote the CRS again, just because it’s fun to read:

Available sources indicate that the judicial and legislative branches applied constitutional and statutory law in the case against President Zelaya in a manner that was judged by the Honduran authorities from both branches of the government to be in accordance with the Honduran legal system.

Obama has levied sanctions in order to force the rightful government from power; he’s revoked the visas of all the high Honduran officials to keep them from attending the recent UN summit; the UN and the OAS have spoken against Honduras; thugs like Chavez, Evo Morales, and Castro are naturally in favor of their pet mini-thug Zelaya; Reuters and AP routinely use phrases like “the de facto goverment” and “military coup” in order to marginalize the rightful government.

But the smart guys, the left-leaning smart guys — they call BS.

In an interview this week with Wall Street Journal’s “Deal Journal” column, noted film-maker Michael Moore speaks out about soon-to-be released Capitalism: A Love Story, produced by his own film production company, Dog Eat Dog Films. In the interview he suggested some changes in the ownership and decision-making structure of his own company*:

My role is not to applaud half measures. My job isn’t to start from a position of compromise. The workers need to own [100%] of Dog Eat Dog Films, Inc. The workers decide whether to accept investors. The consumer who watches the movie needs to have a representative on the board. If you let them have a say, the company will make a better movie….I didn’t deal with [the film industry] very much in the movie… I started to construct some scenes, but it felt like been there done that.

OK, that’s quite an interesting viewpoint. Let’s see, Michael Moore:

• went through all the trouble to begin the new company (in something like 1989), filled out forms, paid fees, and followed strict incorporating requirements
• at the beginning, took considerable personal financial risks on a venture that might or might not succeed
• writes, directs, stars, produces, and maintains creative control over all major processes
• makes many, many public appearances on behalf of the company
• risks considerable capital and his own reputation every time he takes on a film project, in an industry notoriously subject to the fickle imaginations and desires of the public

All that, but he thinks he’s not entitled to ownership or the profits. This part is important: He’s not being charitable. He BELIEVES he is not entitled to ownership or the profits.

He believes it’s right to see 100% ownership rest in the hands of the employees: assistant directors, makeup artists, key grips, dolly grips, best men, cinematographers, costume designers, sound editors, boom operators, foley editors. production design editors, actors, property managers, assistant art directors, assistants to the major actors, and so on. It should probably include non-film-related employees as well: janitors, secretaries, shipping/receiving clerks, payroll assistants, AP clerks, accountants, and so on.

Good man, that Michael. Of course, you, dear reader, realize there’s something wrong with this picture…..

If you read the link, you’ll see that it was not his own company he thinks should be given over to the employees, but General Motors. He was bagging on General Motors, Wall Street, and the “well-to-do” as evil and avaricious. He chuckles at the irony that he himself profits from his ventures and the system he attacks. In closing:

This is not about socialism versus capitalism. Let’s change the paradigm: It’s capitalism versus democracy. It seems to me that capitalism is the enemy of democracy and enemy of my faith. It’s the enemy of what any good Christian, Jews, Muslim or Buddhist believes in….

Instead of talking about it, he should put his money where his mouth is. And I don’t mean that as some kind of FatJoke™. Don’t even try to say that I said that.

*somewhat paraphrased

Multiple sources (Reuters) (AP) report that ousted and exiled former president Manuel Zelaya is back in Honduras, hidden for the moment in somebody’s embassy and therefore out of the reach of authorities, who have promised to arrest him and try him for treason if he re-appears on sovereign Honduran soil.

By the way, when you hear the name Manuel Zelaya, you should think pal and disciple of Venezuelan thug dictator Hugo Chavez.

Zelaya was ousted in what has widely been reported in the American press as a “coup” on June 28. The United Nations, the Obama administration, the OAS and other dubious characters like Hugo Chavez have roundly condemned the constitutional government in Honduras and have worked diligently to bring pressure to bear to reverse events in Honduras. The Reuters link above includes the assertion that “Soldiers toppled Zelaya”.

The truth is quite the opposite. Honduran officials acted perfectly according to their own constitution and within their authority in removing from office a president who was attempting to install himself as the permanent ruler similarly to how Hugo Chavez did in Venezuela. Take your time reading the sources. The facts of the matter are widely available, yet the Obama administration has led the way in applying pressure to Honduras, invoking economic sanctions and going so far as to revoke the visas of most high Honduran officials in order to block their attendance at this month’s United Nations General Assembly. You don’t want to know who all *did* make the cut and will attend. OK, yes you do: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez, and Muammar Gaddafi.

So far today:

Details are conflicting as to Zelaya’s actual location — he’s been reported as at the UN compound, at the Brazilian Embassy, NOT at the US Embassy (although his wife is apparently there). The more authoritative reports place him in the Brazilian Embassy. He apparently gave an address on Honduran television that was audio-only, in which he called his supporters to show up at the UN compound, where several thousand people have now gathered.

There are various reports as to how he arrived, and nobody seems to know much more than is being reported. Will there be an armed uprising? Rioting? Will foreign governments intervene? One thing is clear. The Obama administration has steadfastly applied pressure to force the constitutional government of Honduras to accept a return of the deposed president. They may be about to get their wish.

And it’s about as evil, cruel, and criminal a turn of events as can be imagined for a nation whose people only want to be free to be governed at their own consent, by their own constitution.

One thing we’ve learned about Obama in the last 24 months is that he’s willing to betray or under-bus just about anybody - except his old radical associations. Pelosi, Reid, Murtha — all expendable. The Blue Dogs — so much chattel. But Wright was not jettisoned, just moved off the front stage. Van Jones was not canned - he was transferred to another division of Soros Inc. Obama said not a word about SIEU’s violent antics during the August recess.

Then there’s ACORN.

As anybody knows, Obama’s ties to ACORN run deep and go way back to his beginning. If you believe he has not been closely following the ACORN video scandal then you are a moron. There’s no other way to put it.

Now meet George Stephanopoulos if you have not already.

Stephanopoulos is an unlikely protagonist. He’s ABC’s Chief Washington Correspondent and was a senior advisor in the Clinton administration. Normally we get from him about what you would expect from somebody with that resume. But yesterday Barack Obama’s whirlwind wow-and-impress Sunday Talk Show Express made a stop at Stephanopoulos’ This Week show, where he met a surprisingly cynical, aggressive, and persistent host. Here’s an interesting exchange (emphasis mine), and the link has video:

STEPHANOPOULOS: How about the funding for ACORN?

OBAMA: You know, if — frankly, it’s not really something I’ve followed closely. I didn’t even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Both the Senate and the House have voted to cut it off.

OBAMA: You know, what I know is, is that what I saw on that video was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you’re not committing to — to cut off the federal funding?

OBAMA: George, this is not the biggest issue facing the country. It’s not something I’m paying a lot of attention to.

Yeah, I bet he’s not paying a whole lot of attention to it. Just like Charlie Gibson.

Know this: ACORN was and probably remains a key component in Obama’s plans. His ties with ACORN run long and deep. He will neither support nor countenance the doom that seems imminent for them, and he is deeply and intimately involved in whatever left-wing response is coming.

Don’t doubt that, even for a second.

If you get your news primarily from the typical newspapers and alphabet-soup TV networks (ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, et al) then:

• Van Jones must be some kind of NBA center or NFL lineman, just like Johnny Malibu, Truck Johnson, or Tractor Traylor.
• The words ACORN, hidden cameras, underage prostitution, and tax cheating are not especially related to each other
• Republicans are racists because they oppose health care for poor people.
• People who protest are racists.
• But that didn’t become true until this January.
• Democrats could get more done if those 40 Senators and 178 House Republicans would quit blocking everything.
• You hear the word teabagger in your dreams, and are unaware of a site called urbandictionary.com
• Honduras overthrew their president in a coup, but Obama is standing up to them.
• Hugo Chavez is misunderstood.
• All the world’s thugs and dictators are now learning to appreciate how warm and fuzzy America is, and at any moment are about to break into Kum-Ba-Ya and will probably wish us Happy Winter Observance around mid-late December.
• America sucks, but Obama is changing that by apologizing to everybody, and fixing all the broken stuff like the banking industry, the auto industry, the health industry…and anything else he can get his hands on.

And because you are so well-informed, the government would like to make it so you are always that well-informed.

Conservatives have long known that the Democrats would love an excuse to subsidize the collapsing left-partisan newspaper industry. Readership has been dropping steadily for years, thanks to a relentlessly bitter left-wing news slant and the growing availability of alternate news sources. I realize the ‘falling ad revenue due to everything moving to the web’ argument gets used alot, but I tell you, I don’t see the Washington Examiner, New York Post, and the Wall Street Journal yipping about declining revenues.

If you get my drift.

One of the remarkable things about this collapse of the bird-cage-lining industry is that in spite of readership vaporizing, and in spite of some pretty substantial evidence that their leftist political pitch is at least a factor, they refuse to moderate their tone. The decline in the evening news viewers on ABC, NBC, and CBS over a 10-year span is AWESOME BABY rather drastic, and the corresponding numbers at FoxNews has risen to the point where they border on competitive with the broadcast networks.

Ideology may not be the whole reason but it is undeniably a part of it. Whether you think the Examiner and FoxNews are right-biased or now, it is a FACT that conservative viewers and readers can no longer tolerate the stench issuing from the NY Times, WaPo, CBS, and friends.

So the industry will not change in order to be profitable. And now Democrats are proposing to “subsidize” — aka take over — the industry, and Obama has expressed that he’s “open” to it. That is code for “it was his ideal”. We already have Government Banking and Government Motors. Now we can have the Government Press.

I bet that will result in a better product and more fair political representation.
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Especially during election season.

You are probably not surprised to find that Poland and the Czech Republic are not the only loyal and faithful American allies getting screwed by the Obama Administration these days. The ongoing drama in Honduras is an outrage and a disgrace, but not because the Hondurans have done anything wrong. It’s because the Obama administration is actively intervening on behalf of a thug would-be dictator whom the Hondurans properly and legally drove from power.

Shame on you, Barack.

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Follow closely, because this is an extremely important and telling example of the kind of foreign policy we are getting from Barack Obama. Let’s review what’s been going on in Honduras this year, and how the Obama administration has come down completely on the side of tyrants, cheaters, and marxists They’ve done it deliberately, and in keeping with their overall global policy of rejecting freedom and snuggling up to the thugs and bandits of the world [remember Iranian protesters after the fraud election? remember soldiers shooting them? remember Obama's reaction?].

The Scene

Honduras is one of the most impoverished countries in central America, but it has been and remains a democratic republic in a region currently overshadowed by several evil dictators who are intent on spreading the evils of drug-money fueled marxism and tyranny to the entire region: Fidel & Raul Castro of Cuba, Evo Morales of Bolivia, Rafael Correa of Ecuador, and most of all, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. [a cynic like me might add Daniel Ortega in neighboring Nicaragua to the list, as he's lobbying to change their constitution to allow him to run for president again]

Morales, Correa, and Chavez were ALL elected in free elections, then seized power by one means or another, and turned republics into their personal tin-pot dictatorships. In the crisis currently underway, Zelaya tried to do the same thing.

Manuel Zelaya ran for president as a left-centrist in 2005, but once elected, his friendship and alliances with Hugo Chavez and Raul Castro and signing Honduras onto the Bolivarian Alliance (ALBA, aka, “we hate the US club”) along with clashes with the business sector, rising violent crime rates, and a seeming lack of a coherent domestic policy led to 25% approval ratings by 2008.

The Rules

The Honduran Constitution, ratified in 1982, is the latest in a series (common among nations not named “The United States”). This one appears to have improved on previous ones, and one notable character of it is that it strives to guard against tyranny.

Article 4 (translated)

The form of government is republican, democratic and representative. Is exercised by three branches: legislative, executive and judicial, and independent and complementary relationship of subordination.
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Alternation in the presidency of the Republic is required.
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Violation of this rule constitutes the crime of treason.

Article 239 (translated)

The citizen that has been the head of the Execut[ive] Branch cannot be President or Vice-President (again). Whoever violates this law or proposes its reform, as well as those that support such violation directly or indirectly, will immediately cease in their functions and will be unable to hold any public office for a period of 10 years.

Article 272 (translated)

The Armed Forces of Honduras, are a National Institution of a permanent basis, essentially professional, apolitical, obedient and non-deliberative.
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They are set to defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Republic, maintain peace, public order and the rule of the Constitution , the principles of free suffrage and alternation in the exercise of the Presidency of the Republic.
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Cooperate with the National Police in the maintenance of public order .
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In order to ensure the free exercise of the vote, the custody, transport and surveillance of electoral materials and other aspects of the security of the process, the President of the Republic, put the Armed Forces available to the National Elections Tribunal, from a month before the elections, until the final declaration of the same.

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The Constitution is straightfoward enough:

• It is a crime of treason to even propose to change the constitution to allow a president to have a second consecutive term. That may be a little strict or strange to you, but its intended purpose seems to have been to keep a person like Zelaya from following his baser instincts.
• The duties of the military include enforcing the constitution, mentioning in particular the maintenance of the alternation of the presidency.

According to Miguel Estrada — yes, THAT Miguel Estrada, born in Honduras, educated at Columbia and Harvard Law school, apprenticed under Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, and argued cases in front of the Supreme Court as Assistant Solicitor General; the one the Democrats filibustered to keep from becoming an appellate judge purely because he was Hispanic; THAT Miguel Estrada — there are only three unamendable provisions in the Honduran Constitution:

• the country’s borders
• the rules that limit a president to a single four-year term
• the requirement that presidential administrations must “succeed one another” in a “republican form of government.”

The Crime

As I mentioned above, Zelaya ’s been hanging around with dictators while crime rates have gone up and his popularity has gone down. Early this year, with his term winding to a close, he called a referendum for June 28, which if approved, would call a constitutional convention for the purpose of replacing the current constitution with a brand new one.

Given Zelaya ’s leanings, track record, and his waning presidency, there could be only one reason to scrap the constitution: to, in effect, amend the unamendable portions. This move was widely viewed in that light. A referendum requires a 2/3 vote of Congress to even propose to the people, and the Congress voted it down, saying it was illegal. Yet the referendum was proceeding.

Attorney General Alberto Rubi filed suit to stop the referendum, and a court order made it so. Zelaya declared the referendum would proceed, but called it an “opinion survey” . This was also halted but the courts. Nevertheless he persisted. No printer in Honduras would print ballots in defiance of the courts, so he had the ballots printed in Venezuela and flown in.

Persistent cuss, ain’t he? He wasn’t done yet.

He ordered the military to dispense the ballots to polling stations. He was refused, so he fired General Romeo Basquez, leader of the military. The Supreme Court re-instated him. Since the military was not going to dispense the ballots, on June 25, a group of Zelaya supporters marched into the Air Force installation where they were sequestered, stole them, and began distributing them.

The Consequence

At this point, AG Rubi asked for an arrest warrant from the Supreme Court on grounds of treason for violation of Article 239. He also asked the Congress to impeach Zelaya . In response, the Supreme Court, ordered the military, per Article 272, to arrest Zelaya , which was done June 28, the day the referendum had been scheduled. In a breach of protocol, the military exiled Zelaya to Costa Rica instead of placing him in custody in Honduras to face trial for treason.

So far, it would seem the Supreme Court and the military acted within their authority in enforcing the Constitution. The Congress, dominated by Zelaya’s party, voted 122-6 to remove him from office (I presume this is the impeachment Rubi asked for). Since the Vice President had quit earlier (to run for President) and had not been replaced, next in the line of succession was Roberto Micheletti, leader of Congress (analogous to our Speaker of the House, who is also 3rd in line), also of Zelaya’s party. He was appointed to complete Zelaya’s term, which expires next January. He cannot run for re-election, and has experssed no interest in doing so.

A coup?

Estrada sums it up:

It cannot be right to call this a “coup.”

• Micheletti was lawfully made president by the country’s elected Congress.
• The president is a civilian.
• The Honduran Congress and courts continue to function as before.
• The armed forces are under civilian control.
• The elections scheduled for November are still scheduled for November.

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Indeed, after reviewing the Constitution and consulting with the Supreme Court, the Congress and the electoral tribunal, respected Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga recently stated that the only possible conclusion is that Zelaya had lawfully been ousted under Article 239 before he was arrested, and that democracy in Honduras continues fully to operate in accordance with law. All Honduran bishops joined Rodriguez in this pronouncement.

Yet Obama called it a ‘coup’, and continues to do so.

President Obama said yesterday that the military ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was illegal and could set a “terrible precedent,”
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(snip)
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Obama repeated yesterday that the United States viewed Zelaya as Honduras’s president and that “the coup was not legal.”

The Meddling Outsiders - ‘it was a coup’

Since claiming from the start that it was a coup, Obama has directed broadside after broadside at the poor but courageous nation of Honduras. From the beginning, he along with OAS has called for the unconditional re-instatement of Zelaya. On July 2, he suspended military and non-humanitarian aid, and on Sept 3, that was made permanent, and apparently all aid, including humanitarian, agricultural and other, is threatened. The State Department also threatened to not recognize the results of the upcoming November election:

“Based on conditions as they currently exist, we cannot recognize the results of this election. So for the de facto regime, they’re now in a box,” said State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley. “And they will have to sign on to the San Jose accords to get out of the box.” He was referring to the plan for Zelaya’s return, which was negotiated in the Costa Rican capital.

Further insulting Honduras, the administration has revoked the visas of Interim President Micheletti 14 members of the Supreme court, and Foreign Minister Carlos Lopez, ahead of the upcoming UN General Assembly. Oh, did I mention, the UN condemned the ouster of Zelaya?

So while Obama is putting the screws to Honduras and refusing their proper authorities entry into America for the UN summit this month, here’s a short list of despots, tyrants, dictators, and blood-soaked murders who will be welcomed onto American soil to attend the General Assembly:
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Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Raul Castro, Hugo Chavez, Muammar Gaddafi.
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I don’t know whether that’s hope or change. I lose track.

The Conclusion

The Honduran people strongly desire freedom while their nation, as a primary corridor of drug traffic between Columbia and the United States, is racked with murder and violent crime not of their making. They have ousted, by perfectly legal means, a president who tried to overthrow their constitution.

In response, Obama and his administration have acted in the most vile and disgraceful way possible, acting against the best interests of not only a staunch ally in Honduras, but against the obvious interests of United States.

Honduras deserves a chance.

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Honduras deserves our support.

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And no pony for you, Barack!

Did you now?

September 6 - Van Jones resigns under pressure as Obama’s ‘Green Jobs Czar’.
September 9 - He’s back at the Center for American Progress, where he was previously a Senior Fellow.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that (NTTAWWT), of course.

Make no mistake. Van Jones is well taken care of. Just like Louis Caldera, the fall-guy for that Air Force One fly-over stunt over Lower Manhattan, who also now works at CAP. Tom Daschle is getting along just fine, as is Perjurin’ Bill Clinton. And don’t be surprised at all if convicted felon William Jefferson (D-LA) is well-taken care of once he’s done his time. He’ll land some fat-cat do-nothing job under some leftist umbrella group. No Democrat is ever shamed out of public life; they’re merely transferred to a less visible position from which to continue the same subversion.

CAP is not just *any* old think tank. It is Soros-backed and operated by Clintonista John Podesta. It has a 180-person staff, including at least 10 full-time bloggers, and a $27 million budget. Podesta ran Obama’s transition team. CAP holds policy briefings that are reportedly packed full of reporters and lobbyists who want to get a feel of where the administration is going. They write policy that ends up in these 1,000 page bills Obama keeps trying to shove down our throats.

It is hard to tell where the Obama administration stops and Center for American Progress starts, no? The sad, sick truth is that this nut-job America-hating 9/11 truther will be allowed to influence policy and legislation probably no less than from his position as Green Jobs Czar.

Democrats are primarily about the accumulation and securing of power to themselves, and the advancement of government control over the lives of America’s citizens. It is the fatal flaw of flatulent braying camels like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Trent Lott, Bill O’Reilly, populists, independents, Rockefellerians, and RMSP toads that they assume otherwise, in spite of decades of finding “Kick Me’ signs on their backs and having the Lucy-Charlie Bown-football scene played out too many times to count.

When you understand the nature of the enemy, you have a chance to defeat it — loosely rendered Sun Tzu. Driving Van Jones out of his position was a good thing. Success breeds success, and conservatives are lately on a tremendous roll that may yet topple the entire leftist gameplan, from top to bottom. Just don’t think because we take down a leftist orc that he’s *actually* down until we see his rotting political corpse burning in a pile with the other ones.

Oops.

The fun just does not end for America’s favorite taxpayer-funded racketeering, embezzlement, and election fraud enterprise. Having been caught on video TWICE (so far) giving the OK to under-age prostitution, tax fraud and signing false statements, they’ve reacted petulantly, and MOST entertainingly [caution - you may want to disinfect your hands before and after you visit ACORN's home site]:

But it is clear that the videos are doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist “filmmaker” O’Keefe and his partner in crime. And, in fact, a crime it was - our lawyers believe a felony - and we will be taking legal action against Fox and their co-conspirators.

More excerpts below the fold, hilarity and laugh track included…

Good beginnings

The year started off so well for ACORN. The ACORN candidate was installed in the White House - a former community organizer and avowed Alinskyite who was closely tied to ACORN all along the way. The partisan media were 100% in the bag for their candidate, providing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of in-kind campaign donations (in the form of ‘newscasts’, ‘news’ magazine shows, ‘news’ articles and that wonderful little ‘Sarah Must Die’ blitz) and the Republicans ran a lackluster squish candidate, so it’s very likely their candidate did not even NEED the half a million fraudulent votes (my WAG) ACORN provided him.

In the famous Porkulus package passed within 5 weeks of inauguration, up to $8.5 billion (that’s 8.5 BILLION BUCKS) was allocated to grants, funds, and projects ACORN would be eligible for.

Next thing you know, Obama has moved control of the US Census Bureau from the Commerce Department to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s desk. Soon ACORN was named a ‘national partner‘ with the Census Bureau for the 2010 census, giving ACORN a whole range of grand new ways to cheat America, advance Marxism, and get paid by you to do it.

Meanwhile the national partisan leftist media had succeeded in largely burying news of all the investigations, indictments, and convictions in something like 15 states — too busy convicting and sentencing CIA interrogators in the paper, apparently. Eric Holder, another shyster and crook, was now in charge of the Justice Department, and had already killed the investigation into the New Black Panthers voter intimidation case.

Indeed, good times were on the way for ACORN.

Ruh-roh

Then the Tea Parties happened. The August recess happened. Van Jones, fellow traveler, happened. Suddenly and disturbingly, the partisan media were no longer in charge. It was starting to look like the racist teabagging elitist conservatives common American people were deciding for themselves what was news.

And now the video tapes. Even with a full partisan media blackout, the New Media and Fox News splashed this sensational and disturbing video into the public consciousness. The U.S. Census Bureau, apparently already fed up with ACORN, immediately sent ACORN a letter severing all ties for the 2010 Census. The Dear John letter was quite nasty, and one wonders how soon before Rahm Emanuel orders up a horse head to be delivered to Census Bureau Director Robert Groves’ bed.

Amusingly, the leftist media were finally forced to mention the videos — in order to explain why Census was dumping ACORN.

ACORN’s devastating riposte

I kid, I kid……

Just start this laugh track (repeat as needed) and read for yourself poetry from the pen of ACORN Chief Organizer Bertha Davis [my color commentary in brackets]:
.

• The relentless attacks on ACORN’s members, its staff and the policies and positions we promote are unprecedented. [yeah try being a conservative and see what it's like every day, beyotch]
• It is not coincidence that the most recent attacks have been launched just when health care reform is gaining traction. [really? Going down in flames is 'gaining traction'?]
• We are their Willy Horton for 2009.[really? You're murderers and rapists? Good to know]
• This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen. [then I guess these employees in Baltimore and DC missed the internal memo to 'watch out for those scam artists posing as pimps and asking for tax advice']
• But it is clear that the videos are doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist “filmmaker” O’Keefe and his partner in crime.[I admit, I saw the government doctors posing as aliens too ............ what, you didn't?]
• We will not be intimidated by this international conglomerate, which has made as its mission the destruction of our organization.
• [Our committment has included...] helping hundreds of thousands of African-American and Latino voters register to vote and get to the polls in recent years.[mostly dead ones, duplicate ones, and Dallas Cowboy players]

.
OK I admit it. ACORN has convinced me that we’re all evil. Evil capitalists and liberty-loving cads.

]]> [as I post this, ACORN's main site appears to be down...]

Oops.

The fun just does not end for America’s favorite taxpayer-funded racketeering, embezzlement, and election fraud enterprise. Having been caught on video TWICE (so far) giving the OK to under-age prostitution, tax fraud and signing false statements, they’ve reacted petulantly, and MOST entertainingly [caution - you may want to disinfect your hands before and after you visit ACORN's home site]:

But it is clear that the videos are doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist “filmmaker” O’Keefe and his partner in crime. And, in fact, a crime it was - our lawyers believe a felony - and we will be taking legal action against Fox and their co-conspirators.

More excerpts below the fold, hilarity and laugh track included…


Good beginnings

The year started off so well for ACORN. The ACORN candidate was installed in the White House - a former community organizer and avowed Alinskyite who was closely tied to ACORN all along the way. The partisan media were 100% in the bag for their candidate, providing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of in-kind campaign donations (in the form of ‘newscasts’, ‘news’ magazine shows, ‘news’ articles and that wonderful little ‘Sarah Must Die’ blitz) and the Republicans ran a lackluster squish candidate, so it’s very likely their candidate did not even NEED the half a million fraudulent votes (my WAG) ACORN provided him.

In the famous Porkulus package passed within 5 weeks of inauguration, up to $8.5 billion (that’s 8.5 BILLION BUCKS) was allocated to grants, funds, and projects ACORN would be eligible for.

Next thing you know, Obama has moved control of the US Census Bureau from the Commerce Department to White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel’s desk. Soon ACORN was named a ‘national partner‘ with the Census Bureau for the 2010 census, giving ACORN a whole range of grand new ways to cheat America, advance Marxism, and get paid by you to do it.

Meanwhile the national partisan leftist media had succeeded in largely burying news of all the investigations, indictments, and convictions in something like 15 states — too busy convicting and sentencing CIA interrogators in the paper, apparently. Eric Holder, another shyster and crook, was now in charge of the Justice Department, and had already killed the investigation into the New Black Panthers voter intimidation case.

Indeed, good times were on the way for ACORN.

Ruh-roh

Then the Tea Parties happened. The August recess happened. Van Jones, fellow traveler, happened. Suddenly and disturbingly, the partisan media were no longer in charge. It was starting to look like the racist teabagging elitist conservatives common American people were deciding for themselves what was news.

And now the video tapes. Even with a full partisan media blackout, the New Media and Fox News splashed this sensational and disturbing video into the public consciousness. The U.S. Census Bureau, apparently already fed up with ACORN, immediately sent ACORN a letter severing all ties for the 2010 Census. The Dear John letter was quite nasty, and one wonders how soon before Rahm Emanuel orders up a horse head to be delivered to Census Bureau Director Robert Groves’ bed.

Amusingly, the leftist media were finally forced to mention the videos — in order to explain why Census was dumping ACORN.

ACORN’s devastating riposte

I kid, I kid……

Just start this laugh track (repeat as needed) and read for yourself poetry from the pen of ACORN Chief Organizer Bertha Davis [my color commentary in brackets]:
.


• The relentless attacks on ACORN’s members, its staff and the policies and positions we promote are unprecedented. [yeah try being a conservative and see what it's like every day, beyotch]
• It is not coincidence that the most recent attacks have been launched just when health care reform is gaining traction. [really? Going down in flames is 'gaining traction'?]
• We are their Willy Horton for 2009.[really? You're murderers and rapists? Good to know]
• This recent scam, which was attempted in San Diego, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia to name a few places, had failed for months before the results we’ve all recently seen. [then I guess these employees in Baltimore and DC missed the internal memo to 'watch out for those scam artists posing as pimps and asking for tax advice']
• But it is clear that the videos are doctored, edited, and in no way the result of the fabricated story being portrayed by conservative activist “filmmaker” O’Keefe and his partner in crime.[I admit, I saw the government doctors posing as aliens too ............ what, you didn't?]
• We will not be intimidated by this international conglomerate, which has made as its mission the destruction of our organization.
• [Our committment has included...] helping hundreds of thousands of African-American and Latino voters register to vote and get to the polls in recent years.[mostly dead ones, duplicate ones, and Dallas Cowboy players]

.
OK I admit it. ACORN has convinced me that we’re all evil. Evil capitalists and liberty-loving cads.

]]> http://www.redstate.com/e_pluribus_unum/2009/09/13/acorn-claims-video-was-doctored/feed/ http://www.redstate.com/e_pluribus_unum/2009/09/11/congressman-joe-wilson-patriotic/ http://www.redstate.com/e_pluribus_unum/2009/09/11/congressman-joe-wilson-patriotic/#comments Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:25:22 +0000 E Pluribus Unum (Profile) http://www.redstate.com/e_pluribus_unum/?p=1398 A couple of days ago Barack Obama gave a speech for which he had demanded a prime-time joint session of Congress, an occasion nearly always reserved for national emergencies or extraordinary times. This session was called merely so Obama could mug in front of the cameras and deliver a bitterly partisan invective in hopes of shoring up badly sagging support for the unpopular Democrat proposal to force a government takeover of the health care system.

Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) famously shouted “You Lie!” from the floor of the House Chamber as Barack Obama propounded yet another lie in a speech crammed full of insults toward mainstream America and lies about himself, his virtues, and his political opponents. While Wilson immediately apologized for his incivility and lack of decorum (not for the substance of what he said, which warms my heart), the damage was done, and most headlines featured dual storylines - the regal president and the uppity congressman.

Joe, I salute you, my brother!

Lefty outrage has been predictable, and we on the right have noted the partisan media’s typical convenient memory. Democrats were utterly boorish in their treatment of Bush, far, far beyond what Wilson did, and with less, if any, justification. Now the left and their media lapdogs have made a point of smearing Joe Wilson (the newest revelation? Caffeine junkie, much, much worse than our coke-snorting president) and driving fundraising efforts for his 2010 opponent. Apparently that guy has raised some $700,000 in the last 2 days (mostly needed to retire some $400,000 in debt). Meanwhile, RedState and other New Media have rushed to Joe’s support, both editorially and through campaign donations, and he’s raised over $200,000 himself to add to his existing $200,000 war chest.

Unlike spineless frankfurters like Trent Lott and George Allen, Joe is done apologizing and now he’s fighting back. Follow the jump…..



RedState brothers and sisters, we have more power than we used to have. Nationalized health care and cap-and-trade are on the ropes because New Media and regular Americans have risen up to fight this takeover. Racist America-hating punk Van Jones is out of the White House because the New Media forced him out (with no help whatsoever from the partisan majority media). We’re going after ACORN too, which you KNOW is very near and dear to Obama’s heart and is instrumental in his electoral strategy. They are a big, big, difficult adversary, but just watch this play out and keep speaking your mind about it.

Now we want to make sure that Congressman Wilson is covered. He exposed himself to Left’s anger by actually speaking truth to power (to steal a lefty meme). It is our job to come to his assistance. If we let him fall, no other conservatives will speak out and America will get steamrolled. If we cover his back, then many other conservatives will be emboldened to speak out and take political risks against the Chicago Machine.

So use the tools you have and get in the fight:

• Write diaries, here and elsewhere.
• Comment on websites and blogs where our opponents reign.
• Tweet on Twitter (use @CongJoeWilson). Be sure to use #tcot. Point to his FB Cause with this: http://tinyurl.com/knlqm7 , and donation site: http://tinyurl.com/nawdw9
• On Facebook, link your diaries to your wall, and join his Cause and his Fan Page)
• Donate to his campaign here.

Now House leadership is moving to propose a censure against Joe Wilson if he does not apologize on the floor of the House. Does that anger you?

Then fight back.

]]> A couple of days ago Barack Obama gave a speech for which he had demanded a prime-time joint session of Congress, an occasion nearly always reserved for national emergencies or extraordinary times. This session was called merely so Obama could mug in front of the cameras and deliver a bitterly partisan invective in hopes of shoring up badly sagging support for the unpopular Democrat proposal to force a government takeover of the health care system.

Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) famously shouted “You Lie!” from the floor of the House Chamber as Barack Obama propounded yet another lie in a speech crammed full of insults toward mainstream America and lies about himself, his virtues, and his political opponents. While Wilson immediately apologized for his incivility and lack of decorum (not for the substance of what he said, which warms my heart), the damage was done, and most headlines featured dual storylines - the regal president and the uppity congressman.

Joe, I salute you, my brother!

Lefty outrage has been predictable, and we on the right have noted the partisan media’s typical convenient memory. Democrats were utterly boorish in their treatment of Bush, far, far beyond what Wilson did, and with less, if any, justification. Now the left and their media lapdogs have made a point of smearing Joe Wilson (the newest revelation? Caffeine junkie, much, much worse than our coke-snorting president) and driving fundraising efforts for his 2010 opponent. Apparently that guy has raised some $700,000 in the last 2 days (mostly needed to retire some $400,000 in debt). Meanwhile, RedState and other New Media have rushed to Joe’s support, both editorially and through campaign donations, and he’s raised over $200,000 himself to add to his existing $200,000 war chest.

Unlike spineless frankfurters like Trent Lott and George Allen, Joe is done apologizing and now he’s fighting back. Follow the jump…..



RedState brothers and sisters, we have more power than we used to have. Nationalized health care and cap-and-trade are on the ropes because New Media and regular Americans have risen up to fight this takeover. Racist America-hating punk Van Jones is out of the White House because the New Media forced him out (with no help whatsoever from the partisan majority media). We’re going after ACORN too, which you KNOW is very near and dear to Obama’s heart and is instrumental in his electoral strategy. They are a big, big, difficult adversary, but just watch this play out and keep speaking your mind about it.

Now we want to make sure that Congressman Wilson is covered. He exposed himself to Left’s anger by actually speaking truth to power (to steal a lefty meme). It is our job to come to his assistance. If we let him fall, no other conservatives will speak out and America will get steamrolled. If we cover his back, then many other conservatives will be emboldened to speak out and take political risks against the Chicago Machine.

So use the tools you have and get in the fight:

• Write diaries, here and elsewhere.
• Comment on websites and blogs where our opponents reign.
• Tweet on Twitter (use @CongJoeWilson). Be sure to use #tcot. Point to his FB Cause with this: http://tinyurl.com/knlqm7 , and donation site: http://tinyurl.com/nawdw9
• On Facebook, link your diaries to your wall, and join his Cause and his Fan Page)
• Donate to his campaign here.

Now House leadership is moving to propose a censure against Joe Wilson if he does not apologize on the floor of the House. Does that anger you?

Then fight back.

]]> http://www.redstate.com/e_pluribus_unum/2009/09/11/congressman-joe-wilson-patriotic/feed/ http://www.redstate.com/e_pluribus_unum/2009/09/11/god-bless-the-usa-via-lee-greenwood/ http://www.redstate.com/e_pluribus_unum/2009/09/11/god-bless-the-usa-via-lee-greenwood/#comments Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:52:59 +0000 E Pluribus Unum (Profile) http://www.redstate.com/e_pluribus_unum/?p=1394 Yet another awesomely done video commemorating 9/11 and the GWOT, by country music, aka the patriotic wing of pop culture.


.
[h/t]Exposing Liberal Lies

We must never forget.

]]> Yet another awesomely done video commemorating 9/11 and the GWOT, by country music, aka the patriotic wing of pop culture.


.
[h/t]Exposing Liberal Lies

We must never forget.

]]> http://www.redstate.com/e_pluribus_unum/2009/09/11/god-bless-the-usa-via-lee-greenwood/feed/