From Fox news online, with very few comments because this speaks for itself:

North Korea’s health care system is in shambles, with doctors sometimes performing barbaric amputations without anesthesia and working by candlelight for payment in cigarettes, in hospitals lacking essential medicine, heat and power, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said Thursday.

North Korea’s state health care system has been deteriorating for years amid the country’s economic difficulties. Many of its 24 million people reportedly face health problems related to chronic malnutrition, such as tuberculosis and anemia, Amnesty International said in a report on the state of the health care system.

I would venture to guess that all the “little ‘c’” communists milling about the White House would make a forceful argument that North Korea is doing it wrong and communism isn’t all that bad when approached correctly, blah blah blah…

A 24-year-old defector from northeastern Hamkyong province told the human rights organization that a doctor amputated his left leg from the calf down without anesthesia after his ankle was crushed by a moving train when he fell from one of the cars.

“Five medical assistants held my arms and legs down to keep me from moving. I was in so much pain that I screamed and eventually fainted from pain,” said the man, identified only by his family name, Hwang. “I woke up one week later in a hospital bed.”

I wonder if Michael Moore is on his way to do a film, because…

…Margaret Chan, who refused to be accompanied by foreign reporters on her visit, also praised the isolated regime for providing universal health coverage and said programs like one for child immunizations and its response to a malaria resurgence make it the “envy” of many other developing countries.

Words fail me, my prayers for those souls who are enslaved by a cruel, hate-filled, Godless regime, and my prayers for the United States as we on the right battle those who deny the barbarism and misery that has been the hallmark of communism.

Let’s very quickly tie together two other little tidbits from the Bull City of Durham, North Carolina – home of Duke University, Mike Nifong and the Duke University lacrosse team. Did you know that there was an organization in Durham called The Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People? Would you like to go to a meeting? No problem – unless you are white:

For years, political observers have speculated whether the credibility and influence of the committee is waning due to shrinking membership, diminishing cooperation with other activist groups and infighting. What goes on behind the organization’s closed-door meetings is out of view to many, as it is open only to Durham residents of African-American descent.

Move along folks. Only blacks allowed here. Your water fountain is over there. But there is another little link to our friends named Shabazz:

Recently, several high-profile members of the group questioned the fairness and validity of the committee’s endorsements in last month’s municipal elections, in which Mayor Bill Bell nearly lost its support. The committee also favored City Council candidate Donald Hughes, a recent college graduate with no previous professional experience in public office over two-term incumbent Cora Cole-McFadden. Hughes is the son of committee member Jackie Wagstaff, who ran against Cole-McFadden for City Council in 2001.

Jackie Wagstaff? So what? Well, turns out she was at the NBPP’s little rally at Duke back in 2006:

Black power, black power!” chants echoed throughout the crowd as members explained their cause.

[snip]

I am here with these brothers because it appears Durham does not want to see the truth,” said Durham school board member Jackie Wagstaff.

School board member Jackie Wagstaff? Did you read that right? Yes you did, and that is the subject of another diary altogether. It is tough being a cracker in Durham sometimes.

One last little thing to complete the trifecta. It is almost too much to bear. From the RNC’s website, verified by my on the ground memory:

In North Carolina, Durham County's Elections Director, Mike Ashe, Has
Asked That Approximately 80 Voter Registration Forms Submitted by ACORN Be
Investigated For Suspicions Of Fraud. "A Durham official is asking state
elections administrators to check approximately 80 voter registration forms
for possible fraud. ... Mike Ashe, Durham County's elections director, said
the forms were among about 4,000 submitted to his office over the past four
to six weeks by a national left-wing group called Acorn ... Ashe's staff
also learned this week of irregularities with a handful of other
registrations. It was not clear who was responsible for these problems. ...
'This is serious, obviously,' Ashe said." (Matthew E. Milliken, "Elections
Chief Asks For Voter Fraud Probe," The Herald [NC] Sun, 9/19/08)

Shabazz, Shabazz, I thought…where have I heard that name before? A-ha! Remember the Duke lacrosse case? Seems like Barack Obama is not the only one who can’t let a good crisis go to waste. From the blog “Sweetness and Light”, circa 2006:

Malik Zulu Shabazz, a Washington lawyer who is the leader of the New Panthers, said he will be in Durham to rally with local black leaders and monitor progress of the criminal case against Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, the two students charged with raping and kidnapping the dancer.

Well, it sounded good then.  And for the record, Malik Shabazz and King Shabazz are two different people (I guess). As for the intimidation on display in Philadelphia? Not a new tactic. You make the call…

“We are conducting an independent investigation, and we intend to enter the campus and interview lacrosse players,” Shabazz said Thursday. “We seek to ensure an adequate, strong and vigorous prosecution.”

A flier distributed by the group this week displays photos of Finnerty and Seligmann and calls for those who have “had enough of disrespect and racism from Duke” to assemble at the front gates of the university’s West Campus at 10 a.m.

Asked whether his followers will be armed when they come to Duke, Shabazz chuckled and said, “I don’t know if I can comment on that.”

Here’s how it went when they got there, from The Chronicle:

Approximately 20 members of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense demonstrated at the West Campus gates in support of the exotic dancer who alleged she was raped by three members of the men’s lacrosse team.

[snip]

The group arrived at 10:05 a.m. in more than 20 cars, pulling simultaneously up to the curb at the Green Zone overflow parking lot on Duke University Road.

Before starting a formal press conference at the entrance to the University, demonstrators conferred in a huddle in the parking lot for about 30 minutes. They were surrounded by NBPP members-wearing black boots, fatigues, bulletproof vests and berets with NBPP logos-who kept bystanders at bay.

OK, so far so good. The bullet proof vests were a little overdone, unless they had heard about the high crime in Durham and felt a need to be prepared. Then they went to a rally at an A.M.E. church about a block from North Carolina Central University. Located in Durham only a couple of miles from Duke, NCCU is a traditionally black university where the lacrosse player accuser went to school. Here’s how things went at a little friendlier venue. Remember, Malik Shabazz was the keynote speaker. Again, from The Chronicle:

St. Joseph’s African Methodist Episcopal Church was abuzz Monday evening as the group led a town hall meeting for Durham’s black community. Many in the audience cheered the new Panthers’ attacks on Zionism, capitalism and white Americans.

From the pulpit, NBPP officials said they had come to Durham to share their revolutionary message and defend the accuser in the Duke rape case. They said the media has unfairly portrayed them as violent hooligans.

“All they will tell you is that we’re carrying guns,” said Minister Hashim Nzinga, NBPP’s national chief of staff.

Violent hooligans? That hardly seems fair…

Another NBPP official, spokesman Yusuf Shabazz, expanded on his party’s anti-Semitic black separatist agenda. He added that the party would use violent means to increase the power of blacks and create an independent territory he called “New Africa.”

“Anytime a white man grabs a rifle and stands up for his liberty and wife, he’s a hero.” Yusuf Shabazz said. “We’ll kill everybody in a household, we’ll kill everybody on our block.”

Incredibly, the leaders of the NBPP were also allowed to meet with the prosecutor in the case, the now disbarred Mike Nifong, who reviewed the case and discussed the evidence with them. Nifong and all the blacks in the area were either in support of these thugs or silent, but a few did manage to distinguish themselves. From WRAL online:

The accuser’s mother in the case told WRAL that family members did not ask the group to come to Durham, and they do not want their help.

And a final commentary on the New Black Panthers from the People’s Republic of Chapel Hill:

“What they do is come into a community and exploit the pain,” said UNC associate professor Michael Waltman.

Or, at the risk of repeating, they never waste a good crisis.

On Thursday, January 4, 2007, Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives and the Senate from Republicans. As we approach the midterm elections, with nearly four years of Democrat rule in Congress under our belts, the most important question to ask is:

Are we better off now than we were four years ago?

Well, are we? Is an unemployment rate of 9.5% better than the 4.6% the Republicans left to Democrats in January of 2007? If you are employed, do you feel safe in your position or is the possibility of a layoff still in the back of your mind? Do you feel like Democrats have made this country business and employment friendly, or do you believe that their anti-business rhetoric and legislation have crippled the economy past the point of recovery?

How about your 401K? Is the nest egg you have spent so much time contributing to and nurturing doing well, or would you rather turn back the clock to a Dow Jones Industrial Average that closed at 12,480.69 on Thursday, January 4? Do you even feel like you can ever retire, or have you adjusted your plans to include some amount of work until the day you are physically unable to?

Are you more confident, the natural disposition of Americans? Or do you believe the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index, which stands at 73.6, down from 96.9 in January 2007? Have you decided to buy the new home, or car, or start the new business, or are you waiting for some clarification from a Congress and Administration that seem more and more confused, leaderless and out of ideas?

Have you decided to spend less and save more? The government sure hasn’t. The annual budget deficit, which stood at $248 billion at the end of 2007 has grown to an estimated $1.555 trillion in 2010. The national debt has grown by $3.403 trillion since 2007, and that is before you tack on the deficit of 2010. When that math is complete, the total government debt has increased by nearly 60% – sixty percent* – since Democrats gained control.

On January 5, 2007, the New York Times wrote:

The first order of business for the new Democratic-led House was a series of measures designed to more tightly regulate relations between lawmakers and lobbyists and to remove the odor of corruption from the halls of Congress.

Do you feel that Congress is less corrupt than it was in 2007? With Cornhusker Kickbacks and Louisiana Purchases to buy votes to pass legislation that the majority of Americans don’t want and the majority of Democrats didn’t read? Job offers to candidates in order to clear the field in Democrat primaries, and the attempt to outright sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat? Elected officials who accepted sweetheart mortgage deals being allowed to write new financial regulations? Democrat tax evaders at every level of government, even as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee? Are lobbyists less of an influence, or have they taken up residence with the Democrats in Washington, all the way to the West Wing of the White House?

If you are not better off than you were four years ago, you are not alone. But we all have a choice to make – do we turn in a new direction, remembering why we first relieved Democrats of their power after forty long years, or do we trust a Democrat party that has spent the majority of the last two years trying to convince us all that they just arrived in Washington and had nothing to do with everything that has happened since they took control? Should we trust a party has spent the last four years demonizing Americans, from our troops in the field to those who believe in free enterprise and risk everything to improve their lives and the lives of others?

I know the answer to the question, and I pray that every other American will answer the question honestly and have the courage to do what is right this November.

* From the Treasury Department “Historical Debt Outstanding”

As a long-time visitor to the beautiful white sand beaches of the Gulf of Mexico, from Gulf Shores, Alabama all the way across to Destin and St. George Island, Florida, I have been mighty upset over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The prospect of ravaged fisheries and spoiled beaches was infuriating to me, and I have sure let everyone hear about it. I could not believe that BP didn’t have an “if all else fails we can do this” plan, and as the cameras showed the oil spewing into the Gulf, I could hardly bear to look at it.

Billion dollar fines? Heck yeah. Jail? Let’s give it to ‘em. Drilling anywhere near the coast? Hell no.

Until I actually started thinking about it.

First of all, anyone who doesn’t bike, paddle or walk to work, plus grow their own food and make their own clothes should STFU about the spill. Now. That includes me. Oil is the fuel that is used for transportation, and if there were any other alternative we would have found it when Jimmy Carter had us all buying gas on odd and even days. Everywhere we go, whether jetting off to a global warming summit or hopping in the van to take the kids to the very beaches that are in danger, requires oil. The fishermen who are suffering now need oil to run their boats, and all the products we buy require oil to make their way to our stores. Our national defense, our commerce and our way of life depend on the availability of oil. Period.

Second, the response from this administration has barely risen to the level of a playground on its best day. Instead of mature leadership and problem solving, as Vladimir noted in his excellent post on the subject, we got torches and pitchforks. Again. Is this the third time? Fourth? Sure – tough talk sounded good to everyone until we realized that it wasn’t terrorists who flew airplanes into buildings whose throats were going to receive our boots or whose asses we were going to kick – it was a reputable company with real American human beings who work hard and were ten times more horrified about what was happening than we could ever be. Eleven of those human beings died bringing us the oil we require, and they and their families have been at least forgotten, and at worst demonized.

How about getting in a room with experts from BP and saying, “Guys, we can’t stop this spill, but you can. All the resources of the government are at your disposal at a moment’s notice. Tell us how we can help, because like it or not, we are in this together.”? Not a chance. Can’t let a good spill go to waste, can we? Let’s get the Titanic guy to call BP, then whine about how they wouldn’t use his vast knowledge to plug the damn hole. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Leftists whine that Obama can’t wave a wand and make the oil go back into the hole, while insisting that George Bush should have made the flood waters of New Orleans recede or at least pilot a boat into the streets to pick everyone up. They can’t understand that sometimes things can’t be planned for or foreseen – some events are truly unprecedented. For instance, at one time we thought that remaining calm and granting hijackers their wish was the way to handle the situation – now we know better. The notion that BP was somehow willing to risk billions of dollars by ignoring safety precautions that would cost fractions of a percent of the eventual figure is absurd. The proposition put forth by blowhards like Senator Markey, (D) – Some Northeastern Rust Bucket Liberal State, that BP has been running their operations in some massively fraudulent manner is absurd to anyone who knows how corporations work (which probably explains his position).

Last, the drilling moratorium. I have kids that attend public schools, and every single year there comes a time when their teachers lazily and stupidly punish the entire class for the actions of a few. All this does is turn the good kids against the teachers, and allows the bad kids to punish the teachers and the good kids any time they feel like it. Of course, this only happens when there are actually bad kids – even the laziest teachers don’t punish the entire class if, say, one kid had an accident that he was deeply regretful for and was doing everything he could do to correct.

A lazy, stupid, knee-jerk response is par for the course for this administration, and the moratorium serves as a poor man’s Cap and Trade until the real thing can get done. We should learn what we can from this event, use it to prevent or minimize future deepwater accidents and spills, and move on. Punishing an industry and more importantly, the good and decent people who work for that industry, is the absolute worst thing that can be done. It is only a matter of time before this administration’s thugs come for all of us who dare make a profit, so we might as well stand now while we can.

I don’t know a lot about this oil drilling stuff, so you almost had me Greenies. Almost. Then a little common sense kicked in. Sorry for your luck.

I know it hurts, Bill. No state troopers to fetch willing (or in some cases, unwilling) women for you. No adulation since your groupies found another messiah. The fiddling with an intern thing is so, well, 1990′s, and it seems if the Enquirer can catch John Edwards, you know they can catch you and it has really cramped your style. You are insignificant, relegated to the rubber chicken circuit, with everything behind you and nothing really in front of you. So when you get a little press from some controversial comments, I understand why you can’t help but double down like you did today.

Former President Clinton on Sunday broadened his warning that Tea Party protesters could feed violence reminiscent of the Oklahoma City bombing, suggesting “right-wing media” and the blogosphere could be culpable for any future politically fueled extremism as well. 

The former president, speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” elaborated on his controversial comments from Friday, when he drew parallels between the modern Tea Party movement and the anti-government rage of the mid-’90s that preceded the 1995 Oklahoma City attack that killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. 

When you lefties can stand on some bodies to score some political points, you just can’t help it, can you?

But do me a favor, just for fun. Go to your office – the place you are supposed to take care of and lead – and set up a jar to collect money for, say, a cause for children. Make sure it gets full, then steal it. That’s right, just take it. Right in front of everyone. Over their objections. Now you may have to use part of the money you stole to get the right people to look the other way, or even support what you did, but that’s OK. If that is what you need to do in order to take the jar out of the building, that’s what you should do.

Now this should cause a minor uproar at the office. There will be some - probably a majority - that are highly offended at what you just did. They may actually call you on the carpet and start causing some problems. Those are the people you need to target. The first thing you need to do is find out what sort of groups they belong to – maybe a bowling league, or a poker night, or something similar. You need to get your human resources department to issue a memo saying that they are worried about violence at the workplace, and that everyone should be on the lookout for people who belong to bowling leagues or play poker every week.

OK – good. Your next step should be to act like a little schoolyard bully, and taunt the very ones who you just unfairly singled out but who are still indignant about the fact that you stole from children right in front of them. Tell them that there is nothing they can do about it, that you know what you are doing with the money and they will be OK with it and even support it once some time passes. Remind them that the world hasn’t come to an end, that cracks haven’t appeared in the earth and that the birds are still singing. Most of all, tell them that they should be thanking you for taking the money. That’s right – they should be thanking you.

Things should really be boiling over at this point, and it could become real uncomfortable for you. It’s time to play the victim card. I know, I know – you have stolen money, you have unfairly targeted decent people, you have taunted them and acted like a child. It doesn’t matter. I feel sure that someone will utter “jerk” as he passes you in the hall, or mumble “someday he will get what’s coming to him” at the water cooler. This is perfect – threats! They have played right into your hands! And since you are America’s first black President, you get the extra bonus of yelling “Racism!”. Of course, they really aren’t threats – these people haven’t broken a law in their lives – and it really isn’t racism. It’s all about the money you stole, their money, but that doesn’t matter.

Do all this. Continue the taunting and demonizing, continue to act like some schoolyard bully. Provoke, and if nothing happens, provoke some more. Enlist the local press in your efforts, and tell them to cite the uproar at your office as some sort of precursor to workplace violence. They’ll do specials and have discussions and dwell on it, and dwell some more. You get the picture.

Since you are dealing with decent people, you may be disappointed if there is no violence, no matter how hard you try to provoke it. People have wised up since the 60′s and Kent State, and may realize that you are doing this while praying to get a reaction so you can wipe some blood on your shirt and make new a career of “I was there” speeches. Of course, permit the people who support you to be as violent as they wish, because your friends in the press will ignore it. But maybe, just maybe, someone – probably someone not even affiliated with the people at your workplace – will do something you can point to. Then you can sigh, give the press your “I told you so” speech, still keep the money in the jar, then look forward to stealing much more because you just shut up the only people who cared.

Just remember – you didn’t start it. No matter what they say, or what videos they produce, or what bricks with notes they pick up off their office floors, or what statements from your side they dig up, it wasn’t you. And given your experience in that department, it won’t be very hard, will it?

Kent State was an odd place to incite riots, but many believe it was because the campus was idyllic, and calm, and that the local police and sheriff had no way to handle the influx of leftists who would radicalize the student body. It was also a very short distance from a prominent SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) chapter in Cleveland. In reality, the location was perfect – close to Cleveland, a great place to stretch something until it breaks – then see what happens. If they get arrested, they’re victims. If they get beaten, they’re victims. If they get shot…well, we erect monuments and write songs and talk about it forever. That would be the jackpot for the leftists, and they could tell the families of the victims that they had sacrficed for a cause greater than themselves. The left needs victims, because the facts are not on their side.

Writing for NPR, Phil Caputo describes how he heard of Kent State while working in Chicago:

The disturbances in Kent had grown serious over the weekend. Store windows had been smashed in town, radicals had burned down the ROTC building, firemen had been driven off by mobs slashing hoses and throwing stones, and the Kent city police were unable to cope with the situation. The Ohio National Guard had been ordered in and were now occupying the university.

That doesn’t sound quite like Martin Luther King or Gandhi if you ask me. But surely the students were already angry, and the SDS, Weathermen and other groups had nothing to do with the ROTC building being burned and other destruction? Mark Maedeker, a student at the time and a member of the ROTC said in an interview:

I never experienced any animosity on campus when I wore my ROTC uniform after drills.  Sometimes I would have to wear my uniform to class after ROTC practice, and nobody ever said anything derogatory to me about it.

I wasn’t there on May 4, 1970, when the radicals got their wish and National Guardsmen, some younger than the students who had been rioting for days, shot at the students, killing four. I don’t know whether someone shot at the Guard, as some have said, whether a shot was fired from a pistol into the air, whether the Guard felt in danger or whether they were just tired of being yelled at and hit by anything the students could throw. I don’t know.

What I do know is that the radicals got their wish. This was not peaceful, it was not civil disobedience, it was lawless and violent, and the SDS, Weathermen, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and all the rest had their dead bodies to stand on.

Let me make this very clear. The people who developed and participated and supported this strategy of intimidation and violence and confrontation are in the highest levels of the government of the United States. Their tactics have changed but the goal is the same – to delegitimize their enemies, with the help of their lap dog media friends,  by provoking them into violence. They sent mobs to burn down buildings for their cause, then send out fund raising letters when a lone person throws a rock at a building without even knowing who did it or why.

Their tactics today? Taking taxpayer money to bail out unions at car companies. Don’t like it? Tough. Do something about it.

Helping out their buddies on Wall Street in order to keep the donations flowing. Don’t like it? Tough.

Taking over the health insurance of those of us who have made the right decisions throughout our lives, taxing us and rationing our care while their dream of controlling us takes a giant leap forward. Don’t like it? Don’t protest, because we are ready for you, you violent racist.

Speaking of protesting – took care of that. The DHS said to watch out for your guys – especially the veterans. A little wacky to even serve, then even wackier when they get out, dontcha know.

I could go on and on and on. They have incited this country by keeping their foot on our throats and bearing down, then daring us to try and struggle to our feet. And yet we do not burn down buildings. We do not yell what they accuse us of yelling. We do not destroy property or get arrested. We confuse them because their projection of themselves onto us is not working out, so they struggle to blow any incident out of proportion while ignoring all their side has routinely dished out to Republicans.

They are pros, and they know exactly what they are doing because they have done it so many times before. Will Maxine Waters call it an “uprising”, like the death and destruction in L.A.? I doubt it. But if there is any violence, and I hope there isn’t, they incited it. They caused it. They want it so badly they will do anything to provoke it, and have.

We are not out of the woods. If health care hasn’t torn the country apart enough, they will search for the thing that will. Because when something is torn apart and shattered and weak, it can be replaced with something else – new and shiny and oh so sympathetic to the population.

We have never been in greater danger.

If I were to mention the words “Kent State”, what comes to mind? Maybe “massacre”, or “National Guard”. An idyllic, peaceful campus, where college students minded their own business and went to classes until crazed, militaristic right-wingers showed up and shot four of them dead. That’s the way it was portrayed then, that’s the way it is portrayed now, and you would be forgiven if this is what you thought.

But you would be dead wrong.

What isn’t remembered, or isn’t mentioned if it is remembered, is that the Kent State shootings were the culmination of almost two years of recruitment, radicalization and agitation by a group called Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS. There were also some fringe groups involved, whom we will meet later. Phil Caputo penned a description of the radical left in a retrospective written thirty-five years after Kent State:

Meanwhile, America’s noisy minority had gotten noisier and nastier. At their fringes – or was it their leading edges? – the civil rights and anti-war movements had embraced a cult of violence.

He goes on to describe the SDS, and its evolution just prior to 1970. Did I mention that this was written for NPR?

The New Left, as it was called, was led by the SDS, and the SDS had been hijacked by its most extreme elements. They emerged at the SDS national conference in the summer of 1969. Formed in 1960 at the University of Michigan as the student arm of an old-Left organization, the League for Industrial Democracy, the SDS had been involved in civil rights causes and in inner city community organizing projects during the early sixties. Tom Hayden, a leader of the Democratic convention protests, later a California state assemblyman and one of Jane Fonda’s husbands, had been among the SDS’s founders. It might have remained a small, obscure band of quasi-socialist idealists had it not been for the galvanizing effect of the Vietnam War. By 1969 it had grown to one hundred thousand members in three hundred chapters across the country.

Some elements within SDS were not satisfied with what passed for “peaceful” protests by the SDS. They wanted to “bring the war home” with more violent tactics, and believed America was ripe for a violent overthrow. At the 1969 SDS national conference – in Chicago – they, these 

…putative revolutionaries from middle and upper-middle class backgrounds and with long histories of student activism….in love with romantic rebels like Che Guevara…white, disaffected undergraduates…

issued a manifesto called “You Don’t Need A Weatherman To Tell You Which Way the Wind Blows”.

The manifesto expressed disdain for the SDS’s policies of peaceful protest (though we have seen that their demonstrations were not always peaceful), rejected Progressive Labor’s call for an alliance with the white working class, which the authors considered too conservative and pro-war, and called for a campaign of “exemplary violence” by planting bombs in symbolic targets like the Pentagon, ROTC buildings, military bases, and other “imperialist” bastions.

If this is beginning to sound a little familiar, you are correct. Here’s why:

The group changed its name to “Weathermen,” and led by charismatic and photogenic figures like Bernardine Dohrn, William Ayers, Kathy Boudin, David Gilbert and Bill Flanagan, staged its first example of exemplary violence in Chicago in October, 1969. It was called the “Days of Rage.”

The Weathermen’s intent was to transform themselves from bourgeois kids into revolutionary street fighters by taking on the Chicago police in hand-to-hand combat, and through their actions rally others to their flag.

The next time some left wing media type tries gets completely apopletic about some caller wishing Bart Stupak “ill” , remember that a mentor of the President of the United States of America, and of hundreds of people inside his administration and close to it, didn’t just wish people ill. He made it a mission statement and formed an organization to carry out the mission. He made a plan, he made bombs, and rallied people to deliberately unleash violence on the streets of this country. This individual, this influence on Barack Hussein Obama, today is celebrated on the left as the author of the model that is being used against law abiding citizens who are peacefully expressing themselves.

Caputo describes what came next:

Things got off to a rousing start on October 6, when Ayers ( prep-school graduate, son of a utility company executive raised in the affluent suburb of Glen Ellyn) and a few others blew up a statue in Haymarket Square dedicated to police killed and injured in the 1886 Haymarket Riot.

Ayers then took things a step further. Remember, Barack Hussein Obama started his political career in this man’s living room:

The “official” Days of Rage protest began two days later. (snip) The Weathermen had expected thousands to show up, but mustered a mere five hundred. They were armed with brass knuckles, clubs, lead pipes and chains, and were garbed in goggles, gas masks and football helmets (thus turning an iconic image of the all-American jock on its head). The inversion was carried further in the stadium cheers they yelled as they ran down the streets: “Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh! NLF is gonna win!” and “What do you want? Revolution! When do you want it? Now!” A bank window was shattered, and that started a bacchanalia of glass breaking. The cops waded in, and in less than an hour had shot and slightly wounded six Weathermen, arrested seventy more, and clubbed an unknown number.

Tell me again about right wing violence, Chairman Kaine. List all the mean things people have said, David Shuster. Let me read about it, Maureen Dowd. Even if the right were violent, even if we blew things up, we would only be doing things that the left had done hundreds and thousands of times before, in cities all across this country, with the specific goal of provoking an overthrow of the goverment. Tell me again how bad we are. All of you on the left. I really want to hear it.

Next – further down the road to Kent State.

Getting older is actually quite liberating. At one point in my life I will admit that I cared very deeply about what others thought of me. Now, not so much. I’m now the guy that interjects himself into the debate at the post office or bar. I’m now the guy that won’t let people with Obama stickers merge in front of me. I’m the guy that ran over a “Health Care Reform Now” sign on the side of a busy road five minutes ago. Being a little older means I can’t drive as well as I once could, ya know.

I’m ready to take it up a notch now. Believe it or not, we had a pretty decent year last year financially (not so much this year – thanks Barry). This means we made money, which means I will pay taxes. But I am not going to pay them on time. The massive trough at which the government hogs feed will be a few grand lighter for a little while, because I am going to file an extension. Perfectly legal, and perfectly perfect. Because I have figured out that the tyrants who are busy stuffing me full of mandates desperately need me to conform. I pay the taxes. I obey the rules. I pull the wagon that they ride. They need me to continue to do so. They need you to continue to do so. They need us all. Remember – we pull, they ride.

No more.

Now if I do this, it probably won’t make a bit of difference. If a few people do it, not much. But what if we all did it? Every business, every individual, every entity that owes the government a dime took full advantage of their legal rights? What if we played by the rules, but only at the boundaries? What if instead of not taking the time or spending the money as I have done before, I hired a tax attorney to wring every dime out of my payments, then paid him that amount instead of the government? What if?

From this day forward, I will engage in little acts of civil disobedience. Every single day. Barack won’t have ol’ Jack to count on any more, because tyranny is not what I signed up for. And they need me. They need us.

And we shouldn’t play any more. Now if you will excuse me, I have a line to hold up at the DMV.

It should be read by Eric Cantor or Mitch McConnell, and it should go something like this:

Mr. President, thank you for inviting us to this conference on health care. I am sure you noticed that none of the Republican members of the House or Senate, or our staff have taken our seats, and I would like to explain why.

For a solid year, Republicans and our ideas were shut out of the process that crafted the bills which passed the House and Senate. What the public got was the worst that Washington has to offer – backroom negotiations, special deals for political allies, and an unreadable monstrosity that is nothing less than a complete takeover of one-sixth of the economy – by a government that is singularly unprepared to do so with the slightest chance of success. The bills and this process have been bad for everyone who have made the American health care system the envy of the world, but most of all they have been bad for the American people.

Mr. President, we are here to present our ideas. We believe that free markets and competition can solve most of the problems we face. We believe in an incremental approach, where important parts of our overall plan can be passed one at a time, their effect measured and their approach perfected.

We are not here, however, to tinker around the edges of bills that are fundamentally flawed and disasters beyond redemption. I ask you now, Mr. President, whether you are willing to scrap these bills completely and start from scratch, with the shared goals of lowering health care costs and providing health care for as many people as we can, without adding to the already unsustainable deficits that will surely bankrupt our great land.

If you are willing to begin anew, Mr. President, we will work with you as much as we can within the principles we hold dear. If not, then we will have to admit that those who characterized this meeting as nothing but a show designed to provide political cover for Democrats were correct, and we will be forced to walk out of this meeting here and now.

This is a yes or no question. What is your answer, Mr. President?

I am out of hibernation for an afternoon to dream. See you all again soon.

I am going on a little sabbatical for several weeks. I need to work on some charitable obligations I have taken on, my present occupation, my career path, and how my temperament manifests itself, sometimes in that order and sometimes not, and would appreciate your prayers. Especially the temperament thing.

I wanted to share some random thoughts before I go:

- I am proud to report that over the holidays, I lost or didn’t gain 45 pounds. I think I’ll go have some chocolate cake to celebrate.

- Every time Obama blabs “if we hadn’t done “X” there would have been catastrophe” I am reminded of the rooster who firmly believed that his crowing was what made the sun come up.

- On “Fox News Sunday” last weekend, Senator Evan Bayh was asked where the terrorist trials should be held. He replied:

Look, I think we ought to have three criteria. Number one, where can we try them safely? Where can we try them quickly? And where can we try them inexpensively? I’m for whichever venue accomplishes those things.

Hmmm….OK….how about Guantanamo Bay, Senator?

- As Erick rightly pointed out yesterday, Pam and Tim Tebow have finally rooted the pro-abortion crowd from their foul nests. There is nothing pro-”choice” about them at all. “Choice” would make sure adoption facilities are located next to Planned Parenthood clinics. “Choice” would insist parents know when their 14 year-old daughter was planning on having an abortion so they can fulfill their roles as parents by helping her sort through the decision. “Choice” would show women the ultrasound so they would know exactly what would be filling the medical waste bin after the “procedure”.

If one is pro-abortion, fine, but at least call it what it is. And for an old Seminole to turn into a Tebow fan, something mighty has happened indeed.

- And while I am on the subject, we all have heard the obnoxious line, “we want to make abortions safe, legal and rare.” If abortion isn’t really a big deal, why bother trying to make them rare? I think it is high time the same people who attempted to excoriate Pam Tebow were made to answer that question, and if they answer honestly I hope they are ready to work with us to achieve the goal they parrot so often.

- Liberals can’t figure out traffic problems in New York or L.A., parking problems on major college campuses or submit a federal budget that is within $1 trillion dollars of being balanced, but they can change the temperature of the earth.

Right.

- The AP is peddling a story that insists that the Christmas Bomber is singing like a canary, proof positive that Obama’s method of interrogation is superior to Bush’s. The narrative is full of lies – vaguely suggesting that every prisoner under the Bush Administration was waterboarded when only three were, or that the interrogations were always harsh, for example. Putting aside for a moment exactly what this particular bomber could know about higher-ups in Al Qaeda, the story also mentioned that the interrogators were getting help from the boy’s family, who have been flown in. I would be willing to bet that the “help” was to let the bomber see his family (without their knowledge), then explain that “we have them – do you want to talk now?”, although I am sure we will never know.

- Toyota is finding out pretty quickly exactly what kind of competitor the federal government is going to be. Unfortunately, because of Cash For Clunkers, thousands of former GM owners are finding out what a pleasure Toyotas are to own, gas pedal problems or no gas pedal problems. Obama’s administration is as inept as it is ill-intentioned, so it looks like a wash for now. For now.

Go GOP. See you all soon.

And by “here”, I mean North Carolina, where I live, and Virginia, where I travel. My wife is actually one of these people. She is at the grocery store, “stocking up”. She wants me to split some wood, and get the propane tank filled, and park the car at the top of the hill. She’s not the only one – the grocery store is jam packed. There are trucks putting “brine” on the roads. No one is making plans for tomorrow. We may not even plan on going to church Sunday.

Right now it is partly cloudy, about 35 degrees, and everything is fine. I don’t know what is going on. But let’s change the subject (sorta) for one paragraph.

You may have heard about some of Barack Obama’s remarks to the attendees at the GOP retreat in Baltimore. He gave the amount of job losses in December of 2009, and asked if the attendees thought his policies were the cause. He gave the figures for January 2010, and asked the same question.

Here is the answer to both questions.

My wife, and many others like her, are doing the only rational thing that can be done – they are preparing for a storm they know is coming. It may be moderate, it may be severe, but we know for a fact that it is on its way, and it would be foolish not to be prepared. As the caretakers for our family, it is our responsibility to do so.

Barry, after the November election business people across this country knew a storm was coming. Every prediction they were planning on back then has come true now. There has been a war on American business, from banks to pharmaceutical companies to oil companies to S corporations down the block. To paraphrase a movie, they knew you were a comin’, and hell was comin’ with you.

The caretakers of business prepared for the Obama storm by laying off or firing hundreds of thousands of workers, because they know when Democrats are in charge of the White House and Congress, taxpayers and businesses are square on the enemies list. Consumers prepared by cleaning up their balance sheets as best they could and eliminating consumption. So don’t act like you just landed on earth. People who earn their living planning for the future planned for your arrival, and the jobs that were lost are absolutely, directly related to you.

Just statin’ the facts.

I must say that I am still stunned at what passed for a State Of The Union address last night. It was at once condescending, haughty, bizarre, foolish, delusional and stupid. The president knows just enough to make him very, very dangerous, and if anyone still believes he is a serious person after last night, they are complete idiots. He isn’t a serious person, but he is a serious threat.

A while back, a group called Al Qaeda declared war on America. The people in charge at that time, the Clintons and their administration, really didn’t pay much attention. Oh, it was a nuisance alright – a bomb in Kenya here, a hole in a Navy vessel there – but it really didn’t hit their radar. We can all get along – right? They are just thugs, and no real threat. Dealing with it was messy and uncomfortable, people might be upset, and it may interfere with all the harmony and prosperity and good stuff that was going on. They decided to basically ignore the declaration, and I don’t need to remind anyone what eventually happened.

Barack Obama and the other Socialists (by the way, does the question “Is Obama a Socialist?” even need to be asked any more?) have declared war on anyone that stands in their way. In a section of the speech that was stunning to everyone who was listening, Obama even went after the Supreme Court. They were a convenient target for Obama, because out of respect for tradition they could not, and cannot, respond to his outright lies about their most recent decision. They are basically defenseless, just the way Obama likes it. He is a real tough guy when his target can’t hit back.

If Republicans do not believe they are not square in the crosshairs of this declaration and struggle, they are wrong. If they believe they can give an inch in the name of “bipartisanship” and have it turn out well, they are wrong. If they believe the personal relationships they have built in their years in Washington will yield anything but a knife in the ribs from the Democrats, they are wrong. They are targets, personally and professionally, and there is a well-financed and smoothly running industry on the left dedicated to their personal destruction. If anyone is on the side of freedom, capitalism and the constitution, they are the Enemy.

We need to understand that it only takes one side to declare and fully carry out a war. This was the fundamental misunderstanding of the Clinton administration, and it is the fundamental misunderstanding of Republicans in Washington and around the country. We are in a figurative war with Democrats, whether we want to be or not, and whether we like it or not. We are either with them, or against them. It is as simple as that, and it applies whether you are a Mom home schooling your kids, a voucher wielding escapee from the D.C. school system or the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Of The United States.

If anyone who has the audacity to make a profit in this world doubts that Obama is coming after them, they have their heads in the sand as much as Sandy Berger did. If anyone dares believe that they are better off without government intervention in their lives, they are on the wrong side of this administration. If anyone believes that if they take one dime from the government and can then live their lives as they please, they are sadly mistaken. Obama and his troopers have demonized group after group, industry after industry, and person after person after person who dares stand in their way. If you are not a trial lawyer, government worker, Democrat operative or union member, you fall into this category.

I wonder what it will take for us all – businesses, home schoolers, bankers, doctors, capitalists, Americans - to realize that they regard us as enemies? ALL of us? I wonder what it will take for us to realize that if we remain outside of the control of government, and are not properly assimilated, we are a threat, both collectively and as individuals? When will we realize that when they say “governable” they mean “controllable”? Will it take the social equivalent of the collapse of the Towers? A cap and trade bill that cripples our nation in the name of a hoax? A government run health care system that will allow the tentacles of government to reach into our lives, our habits, our diet and our homes in a way we cannot imagine? Goverment agencies that have been given the authority to interfere in the most basic guarantees of the Constitution? All of the above?

Am I comparing Democrats and Obama to terrorists? NO. If a lefty draws that conclusion they need to begin the process of understanding why they think it applies to them.

Is there a reason businesspeople read Sun Tzu’s The Art Of War?  YES. Because there are corollaries between real battles on real battlefields, and figurative battles on figurative battlefields. Tactics, strategy and mercilessness. Understanding your competitor, and understanding those who aim to harm you to a point just short of death.

I watched the speech last night, and the main point I got from it is that we need to completely understand that we are in very, very serious trouble as a country. We need to understand that the people in charge do not mean to fix things, they mean to control things. We need to wage the battle around the water coolers, in our schools and in elections all across this country. We can be happy warriors, but we need to understand that we are still warriors. So very, very much depends on it, and we are the last line of defense.

UPDATED: And we most certainly need to get involved in our local GOP organizations as precinct captains, and take this thing back one step at a time, from the ground up. Thanks for the reminder Cold Warrior, and thanks to Martin Knight and all the other advocates of this grassroots involvement.

Boy – this is a REAL surprise:

The man accused of killing one soldier and wounding another outside an Arkansas military recruiting center has asked a judge to change his plea to guilty, claiming ties to Al Qaeda.

Abdulhakim Muhammad’s attorney, Claiborne Ferguson, said Thursday night that his client sent a letter earlier this month to the judge in his case asking to change his plea to capital murder and attempted capital murder charges.

I remember when my kids were very young, they would close their eyes and think they could not be seen by me when we played hide and seek. Looks like Obama believes he can close his eyes and we won’t be in a war.

This is from the AP, and it pretty much explains itself:

LANGLEY, Virginia  —  A group led by anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan has protested near the CIA’s headquarters and former Vice President Dick Cheney’s home in northern Virginia.

They were protesting the use of unmanned drone aircraft to attack al-Qaida and Taliban targets.

The group of about 70 people rallied alongside a highway near the CIA compound Saturday. About half then marched to Cheney’s nearby street and stayed for 20 minutes. Police kept them from going down his street.

Cindy, I hate to tell you this, but it is 2010. Your guy won the election. George Bush is in Texas. Leon Panetta is head of the CIA.  Joe Biden is Vice-President, not Dick Cheney. The White House is not anywhere real close to Langley. For real. Look it all up.

 (Sheehan) says using drones is “cowardly” and “immoral.”

No, using children as suicide bombers is cowardly and immoral. Sending people to fly airplanes into offices full of innocent Moms, Dads, sons, daughters and children is cowardly and immoral. Beheading people who only want to live in peace is cowardly and immoral. Get it straight.

Or if you ask me, anti-drone protesting at the home of Dick Cheney instead of the home of the current Commander in Chief is cowardly and immoral.

Harry Reid has put to rest rumors that he might be a victim of the preemptive Torricelli Strategy that caught Chris Dodd in its foul wake:

“I am absolutely running for re-election,” the Nevada Democrat told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which commissioned a new poll that found more than half of Nevadans are unhappy with his performance.

OK – fine by me, but I wonder exactly what race (or racist, as the case may be) he is running for? I hear Bob Byrd has vacated his position in the Klan due to health reasons, and Reid is making a mighty fine case for replacing him:

Reid’s troubles continued on Saturday, when he was forced to apologize for private remarks reported in a new book in which he described Barack Obama during the presidential campaign as a black candidate who would benefit from his “light-skinned” appearance and speaking patterns “with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.”

“I sincerely apologize for offending any and all Americans, especially African Americans for my improper comments,” he said in the statement. “I was a proud and enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama during the campaign and have worked as hard as I can to advance President Obama’s legislative agenda.”

Hmmm…maybe he can explain exactly what a “Negro dialect” is. At least he didn’t call Obama “clean and articulate”. I mean, that would be a career killer – right?

I expect much more on this story in the oldstream media in the next few days, and will be holding my breath waiting for it to happen. If you see me, I’ll be the guy turning blue and passing out.

One down and a boatload to go. From Fox News online:

Rep. Parker Griffith, a freshman Democrat from Alabama, announced Tuesday that he’s switching parties to become a Republican.  

“I have become increasingly concerned that the bills and policies pushed by the current Democratic leadership are not good for north Alabama or our nation,”  Griffith said during a press conference Tuesday.

“I am announcing today that I’m joining the Republican conference immediately,” he said.  ”Our nation is at a crossroads and I can no longer align myself with a party that continues to pursue legislation that is bad for our country, hurts our economy, and drives us further and further into debt.”

Griffith, a retired oncologist and businessman, succeeded former Democratic Rep. Bud Cramer, who retired earlier this year, in a hard-fought contest for the northern Alabama seat.

I like the thought of Nancy Pelosi standing in front of hordes of terrified freshman Democrats yelling, “All is well! Do not panic! All is well!”

I mean, besides the nuclear weapons, killing activists and stuff like that – maybe this?

Iraq’s government has ordered Iranian troops to withdraw from the oilfield which they have taken control of in southern Iraq, Reuters reported.

“Iraq demands the immediate withdrawal from well No. 4 and the Fakka oilfield, which belongs to Iraq. Iraq is looking for a peaceful and diplomatic settlement to this issue,” said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh, according to Reuters.

Iranian troops crossed into Iraqi territory Thursday and seized an oil well that lies in a disputed area along the two countries’ southern border, Iraq’s deputy foreign minister said Friday.

Iran denied these claims, Reuters reported.

Nothing to add.

Peter Barnes and Major Garrett from Fox News report:

While praising his own team for pioneering “ambitious” financial reform and “sweeping” economic recovery initiatives, the president took some pointed shots at Republicans who are now blasting the latest package as a spend-crazy “stimulus two” that will drill deeper into the deficit. 

“We were forced to take those steps (to jump-start the economy) largely without the help of an opposition party which, unfortunately, after having presided over the decision-making that had led to the crisis, decided to hand it over to others to solve,” Obama said, starting his address with a history lesson on the roots of the recession. 

Now for the breaking news promised in the headline – you know, I’ll have to check my notes, but didn’t Democrats take over the House and Senate in 2006, while unemployment was around 4.7% and the stock market was about 30% higher than it is now?

Of course, since the statement above wasn’t quite enough, Obama decides to whine / channel Orwell a little more:

Obama said the crisis was caused not just by economic weakness but the “weakness in our political system” — one corroded by the “bitterness of partisanship,” and the “endless campaigns focused on scoring points instead of meeting our common challenges.” 

“We’ve seen the consequences of this failure of responsibility. The American people have paid a heavy price,” Obama said, calling the nation’s unemployment a “human tragedy.” 

If I may, I would like to offer a correction to the bitterly partisan, endlessly campaigning Teleprompter In Chief, and it is this – we are seeing the consequences of a failure of responsibility. The American people are paying a heavy price.

Carry on, Mr. Obama. By the way, the over / under on when you quit blaming others and take responsibility is 2032. I have the house on the over.

A question – what do the Navy SEALS facing court marshal for their “abuse” of a detainee and the average conservative American have in common? Besides an abiding love for our country and a willingness to fight for it?

Some months ago I read an article in National Review authored by Otto Reich. Mr. Reich served as assistant secretary of state and special envoy for Western Hemisphere affairs under Pres. George W. Bush, and is president of Otto Reich Associates. He and his family fled Cuba in 1960, eighteen months after Castro seized power. He is unapologetic in his hatred of dictators, and as a result, he is despised by the left. He wrote this particular article about the conditions in Cuba, and one paragraph jumped off the page:

After 50 years, Cubans are convinced that the government surveillance system, Orwell’s Big Brother put into practice, is so effective that it knows even what they are thinking. Though Orwell’s books are banned in Cuba (they are far too close to reality for Castro’s comfort), Cubans have another name for Big Brother. They call it “the policeman in the head,” the most pernicious kind of mind control: self-censorship, the fear that leads to intellectual paralysis and prevents a citizen from even thinking thoughts that could be deemed counterrevolutionary, leading him to jail or worse.

After reading that, it became clear to me that the main objective of the left is making space in our heads for this Policeman. The success of the disjointed, warped, ever changing and mostly implausible belief system they lay claim to depends on his presence. He lives in their head, and they want him in ours. The Policeman thrives in this climate of political correctness, destroying the reputation of anyone who has ever said anything that may even hint of racism. He darkly warns of “violence” when he speaks of Tea Parties or Sarah Palin rallies, he calls anyone who dares challenge him “dangerous”, and he has made the worship of the earth the law for us all.

The presence of The Policeman causes us to hesitate, doubt ourselves, stop, and avoid. He makes real discussion impossible while crying out that we are cowards because we shy away from the conversation. He badgers us into changing our lives because of the climate while hiding the supporting data. He is the Prince of Dithering, he excuses the broken window and the one who breaks it while hounding anyone who tries to fix it, and no one is exceptional because we are all equal under his law.

The worst thing that could possibly happen has happened, aided and abetted by Barack Obama and his army of lemmings. The Policeman has taken up residence in the military. The last noble warriors on earth now must stop and hesistate and debate, when doing that compromises their mission and will most certainly cost them their lives. The ultimate goal of the left has seeped in to the last stronghold of self-reliance, and four Navy SEALS find themselves at his mercy, and the mercy of those who have invited him in. Haditha and Abu Gharib and every other false accusation, from “baby killers” in Vietnam to Tailhook to “abusers” in Iraq have finally opened the last steel door, which may never again be shut. The left will cry out at the failure of the CIA and the FBI and the armed forces to protect us, while their Policeman puts up the Gorelick wall and prosecutes our interrogators.

This is about control and conformity, it is about having things both ways, and we need to call it what it is when we see it and resist it until the bitter end.