Obama lied on stem cell research

Krauthammer’s Take [NRO Staff]

From last night’s All Stars.

On Obama’s executive order on stem cell research:

What Obama is doing is he's expanding the range of the federal funding of research involving embryonic stem cells. He is allowing the use of embryos that were created in fertility clinics and are not going to be used anymore.

Now, I supported that when I was on the president's council of bioethics and in my writing, which I suppose is why the White House invited me to the signing ceremony.

But I declined for three reasons. One is the president has left open the cloning of human embryos in order to destroy them in experiments. Secondly, he leaves open the creation of human embryos entirely for the purpose of research and experimentation.

And thirdly, he had a memorandum which he signed in which he talks about restoring the scientific integrity in government decisions, which is an outrageous attack on Bush.

I disagreed with where Bush ended up drawing the line on permissible research, but he gave in August of 2001 the single most morally serious presidential speech on medical ethics ever given, and Obama did not, even though I agree on where — I agree more on where he ended up.

So I think it was disrespectful. And in pretending, as Obama did, that there's never a conflict between ethics and science, he was wrong.

I suspect that they're not going to be asking me to any more signing ceremonies in the future.

This is a man deeply involved in this issue because of his own disabilities. I have great respect for him and always have. Even when I have disagreed with him (and I do on the use of embryo's for experimentation, even those from fertility clinics, which are a horror in and of themselves, but that is a different post), I have always listened carefully because he is one of the most intelligent men I know of.

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If what he is saying is true, that Obama has left the door open for cloning and creating embryo's for the sole purpose of experimentation, then Obama just flat out lied to the American people in his address on the issue. Are we getting used to that yet?

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It seems every move Obama makes either plunges our economy deeper into a morass or he emboldens the culture of death.

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The thing that the msm seems to hardly mention is that embryonic stem cell research HAS continued during the Bush years. Bush DID NOT ban it, he only banned federal funds from funding it. And since we HAVE SO MUCH EXTRA MONEY NOW, why not use taxpayer money to fund something that offends so many of us?

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Bush also allowed federal funding for research on 60 lines of embryonic stem cells.

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And in those years of experimentation, Adult stem cells (and other stem cells) have proven to be much more useful, and embryonic stem cells have proven to be much less so. But don't let that get into the way of a culture determined to undermine those of us who believe in a culture of life.

E-Verify

Most Americans don't even know this happening. I meant to post on it earlier and forgot (from e-mail):

URGENT-WE ALL MUST CALL TODAY!! MONDAY, MARCH 09, 2009. THE VOTE WILL PROBABLY HAPPEN TONIGHT OR TOMORROW. CAN YOU MAKE ONE PHONE CALL TODAY? JUST ONE??

From www.numbersusa.com. Please go to the website for the full story. Here is the short version.

Your phone calls to your Senators are especially important today to ensure that E-Verify opponents don't kill the 5-year re-authorization by just "running out of time. Call your Senators now at 202-224-3121. Check www.numbersusa.com for talking points, and here are a few suggestions:

Do NOT vote for "cloture" (cloture= to terminate debate by calling for a vote) to shut off debate on the Omnibus before the E-Verify amendment comes up for a vote.

A vote for cloture before an E-Verify vote will be graded by NumbersUSA as a vote AGAINST E-Verify and a vote FOR hiring illegal aliens.

Because of your activism, Sen. Sessions' Amendment 604 to the Omnibus Bill (HR 1105) is on the list of amendments to be debated and voted on tonight and tomorrow. Please call your Senator to urge them to support E-Verify! Go to: www.numbersusa.com.

Since December of 2007, 4.4 million jobs have been lost while the federal government continues to bring in approximately 1.5 million foreign workers per year. Go to: www.numbersusa.com for a fast and effective ways to help.

The jobless rate jumped to 8.1% according to numbers released by the Labor Department this morning. It's the highest rate since 1983. Another 651,000 jobs were cut in the month of February. We Need Immigration Reform and We Need To Start With E-Verify!!! Please share this information with everyone you know and call today. Go to: www.numbersusa.com. They make it very easy and quick. If we all made one phone call think of the impact we would have. to tell your representatives what

There are now 12.5 million unemployed American workers, these people need Legal Immigration Rocks!! Illegal Immigration is, well ILLEGAL!!!
your help and one phone call could make the difference in their lives.

Embarrassing and Rude

I watched Glenn Beck today as he discussed the enormous gaffes and insults the Obama's made toward our greatest ally, Great Britain, in how they treated the Prime Minister and his wife while they were here.

I had read the stories from London, but I heard Beck had said that our media was pretty much ignoring it, so I came home and googled it in the news and found, astonishingly, that he was right. Imagine if this had been a Republican? Oh dear Lord, it would have been all we would have heard about.

The New York Post managed to sum it up:

London newspapers are howling over a string of alleged snubs by Obama to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown during his visit to Washington last week — including a squabble over presidential gift-giving.

"President Obama has been rudeness personified towards Britain," sniffed The Daily Telegraph Friday. "His handling of the visit of the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to Washington was appalling."

The list of complaints is longer than the Magna Carta: Obama canceled a planned, podium-to-podium news conference with Brown (actually, none was ever scheduled) Excuse me, but isn't that even MORE insulting???

The London paper declared that the gifts to the Brown family were "about as exciting as a pair of socks."

After Brown presented Obama with a pen holder crafted from the timbers of the 19th century British warship HMS President (whose sister ship, HMS Resolute, provided the wood for the Oval Office's desk), Obama offered up ... 25 DVDs of American movie classics.

"Oh, give me strength," wrote one appalled Daily Telegraph staffer. "We do have television and DVD stores on this side of the Atlantic."

Oh, did I mention that our DVD's don't play in their players? Different configuration of some kind. The White House have people in charge of making sure things like this don't happen. Where were they? Helping out at the Treasury Dept where they are woefully shorthanded?

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Equally insulting, decided the Times of London, was Michelle Obama's "solipsistic" and "inherently dismissive" gifts to the Browns' two little boys, Fraser and John.
The offending souvenirs? Toy models of Marine One, the President's helicopter — gifts no doubt plucked from the White House gift shop at the last minute, The Times decided.
Brown's wife, Sarah, by contrast arrived with dresses for Sasha and Malia from the UK's trendy Top Shop (with matching necklaces) and a selection of books by British authors.
"A bit of thought had clearly gone into choosing them," crowed The Daily Mail. "Lovely."

Beck also reported that Obama gave back to England a bust of Winston Churchill that we received on 9-11 as a show of unity.

Good grief.

I may disagree with Obama on a great many things, but I never thought him as classless. Until now.

The State of The Union By Me

I was determined to ask Sen. John Cornyn a question that he had never been asked before. I told him to let me know when that happened. I finally got there when I asked this; "If George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin suddenly appeared at the Capitol, what do you think they would think about how we are taking care of the country and the liberty they founded?"

Cornyn said that he thought they would be proud that this country has survived as long as it has and prospered. He also thought they would be alarmed by what they would see as some erosion's of the free market they created, in particular in regard to the judiciary to re-write the constitution.

I couldn't agree more. In my view, I think that we have forgotten that this is a government "of the people, by the people." We have allowed black robed activists to misuse and abuse the constitution. We have allowed the executive branch to ignore the will of the people, and we have made the Presidency a popularity contest.


We let activists and politicians take the belief of our founding fathers that we would never become a theocracy or allow a government to tell it's people what religion to follow, and warp that into believing that public faith has no place in the public square.


In the most profound way, we have lost the meaning of the following statement in our declaration of Independence:


We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.


Our forefathers would never approve of a nanny state. These men crossed an ocean, left a country and their former lives behind to begin, against all odds, a grand experiment that produced the most free and most prosperous nation on earth.

Last March I stood at the National Archives and gazed upon our Constitution. It's words are disappearing. Literally. My eyes filled with tears because it seemed to be a metaphor.

Republicans don't have the answers to our problems. Democrats clearly do not have the answer to our problems. But we don't need new answers. All that we really need to know and understand about governing can be found in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. This is where we have gone horribly wrong, and what Sen. Cornyn was referring to. We should have always adhered to the original intent or meaning of our Constitution. To not do so brings in politics that literally changes and distorts it.


Did our founding fathers ever imagine, in their wildest dreams, this bloated over reaching government that is involved in almost every aspect of our lives? Could they ever have imagined how everything we touch, everything we earn, would be taxed?

They certainly could never have imagined in their nightmares"a right to privacy" found in the Constitution that would approve of the destruction of our children.

Imagine they returning to find all the diseases we have cured that have allowed most parents to go a lifetime without ever having a child die? A common thing in their day. All that grief taken away with our modern medicine. How astounded and thrilled they would be with that! But then to discover that instead of appreciating this and understand the true meaning of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we allowed our country to destroy that which makes it most precious, our children.

People oftn accuse of me of being a "one issue" voter. Maybe so. When that issue defines us fundamentally, then yes. It tells us who we are and what isn't or is important to us. If the value of human life does not matter to us, then what are we really left with?

There is a saying, "The hand that rocks the cradle, rules the world." But if that hand is manipulated, assured, and convinced that the cradle can be empty, then we are a people lost.

How long will we remain lost? How long before we reap what we sow?

We have twisted the Constitution to our own means and desires. When we find our way back to it, then we will truly be free again.

Please

Ann Coulter to debate Bill Maher on March 10th in Boston.

Great. The political equivalent of the World Wide Wrestling Federation.

I think I'll pass.

Obama is in over his head...

Gee...ya think?

I suppose the next four years could be a big "I told ya so" from all of us who warned that this charismatic smart man was not ready for the Presidency. Barely 2 yrs as a Senator with zero business experience, and zero foreign policy experience, and this is what we get.

Hillary tried to warn everyone, but the Democrats and many others in the country were besotted with the image of Obama. Politico's reporting of Obama's reliance on teleprompters is another indication that he is so overwhelmed he can't even think on his feet.

Normally this would be annoying just long enough to elect someone else in four years, try to reverse the damage, and move on. But the chilling truth is that Obama's incompetence is being displayed at a time where some decisions are irreversible. This economy may never bounce back to where we were before. Bigger govt, higher taxes, more social engineering, and more pork is the mess we will all wallow in the next few years. The fear is that we will drown in the muck and never truly recover.

The old adage, "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it" has never been more apt.

The Story of Us

I once read that science is the canvas upon which God paints the world. I thought it beautiful and true.

I don't get into the evolution/intelligent design debate usually, simply because I believe in both in their essence. There is no doubt that the earth and man has evolved. Science tells us this, and it does not disprove God or his creation in the least, unless you think of God as some magician that waved a wand and created all the glories of the earth. I can only disagree with fellow believers that are asked to believe that the Old Testament is to be taken literally. Not to offend those that believe that, but it only makes people of faith seem silly when we claim to believe something that science has shown us to be untrue, such as the age of the earth. The age of our earth is written in it's stones.

As Catholics, there is no problem believing in the evolutionary process, and at the same time knowing that God's hand formed this process. We know what it looks like when a star is born in the sky. Scientists can claim a big bang theory, but they can never find that one beginning. How it all came from....nothing. That is where faith steps in and tells us that as sure as there are souls in our earthly bodies, there was God creating us, the universe, the planets, and everything in it. In science we discover how he did it, and all his mysteries that we are forever discovering.

A U.S. professor, Robert J. Russell, founder and director of the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences in Berkeley, Calif., spoke at a Vatican conference yesterday.

"Evolution is not the problem. The problem is scientism; it's people like (Richard) Dawkins who use evolution as an argument for atheism," he told Catholic News Service March 5. Russell was one of dozens of experts in science, theology and philosophy invited to speak at an international conference in Rome to mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of "The Origin of Species," in which Charles Darwin put forth his theory on evolution.

Russel went on to say:

"If you claim evolution makes you an atheist or legitimates atheism or is the route to atheism, then you're really moving beyond the constraints of science," Russell said. While people of faith are right to criticize scientism, proponents of creationism or intelligent design are wrong to attack science, he said. He said if people want to "attack evolution they should do it in Proponents of intelligent design and creationism offer "a kind of fool's gold" claiming they are the only ones who can keep God's role in explaining the origins of life since "those nasty atheists have co-opted it" with the theory of evolution, he said. "Well, they should attack the atheists. You don't attack the victim," which in this case has been the scientific theory of evolution, he added. an intelligent way, not in an embarrassing way" by putting forth arguments that the scientific community addressed years ago.

Darwin's scientific theories have been co-opted for decades by unscrupulous people who use them to put forth and justify "absolutely horrendous social policies," he said, such as Nazi Germany's eugenics program. But Russell said it is wrong to blame Darwin or his theory of evolution for their being manipulated by others.

No one ever seems to address that truth. That people have used Darwin's theory, not to advance science, but to disprove God. This should never be the measure of science.

Darwin's desire to disprove an image of God involved a tragedy that not many people know about. It was the death of his 11 yr old daughter. Along with that and his studies, Darwin abandoned his faith in God.

I have held fossils in my hand that are 100 million years old. I have experienced miracles that only God could have placed before me.

No one could ever convince me that either one isn't true and astounding.

Speaking of Biden...

You know, I'd rather have "Darth Vader" Dick Cheney as VP, rather than "Dark Helmet" Joe Biden. How about you?

Here is the quote of the day from Biden as he speaks to organized labor. This to AFL_CIO's President:

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"Mr. President, you know, you go home with them that brung you to the dance. Well, you all brought me to the dance a long time ago. And it's time we start dancing, man. It's time we start dancing."

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Translation: This job creation stuff? It's all about you guys. Union jobs only baby. *wink, wink*

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Even the LA Times is embarrassed for him.

Good grief!

We are getting used to these colossal gaffes from the likes of VP Joe Biden, but "always on point" Hillary???

from AP:

US gesture lost in Russian translationGENEVA (AP) — Call it a goodwill gesture lost in translation.With smiles all around, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gathered with aides Friday for talks on a range of issues, including the fight against terrorism, Iran's nuclear ambitions, missile defense and other topics.With a media gaggle looking on, Clinton handed Lavrov a green box tied with a green bow. He opened it to reveal a "reset button," a reminder of Vice President Joe Biden's recent remark that the Obama administration hopes to reset U.S. relations with Moscow.Trouble was, the Russian-language label the Americans put on the button had the wrong word. Before she realized the mistake, Clinton assured Lavrov, "We worked hard to get it right.""You got it wrong," Lavrov responded with a smile. He said the word the Americans chose — "peregruzka" — meant "overloaded" or "overcharged" rather than "reset."

via NRO

Update: Video: Hillary: "Never waste a good crisis."

Right About Rush

Remember a few posts back when I said the silver lining of the Rush controversery was that more people would tune into Rush and listen? I said that they would actually see for themselves how the media and the Obama clan distort what Rush says. I asked how many of us how heard former liberals or apathetic political novices call Rush and thank him for changing their minds. Remember that? Yeah. Well, I was right.

By one measure, Rush Limbaugh is a clear winner this week: His ratings have nearly doubled since his feud with the White House burst into the media limelight.

Comforting

Nice to know a mob boss visits the White House once a week.

Did I say mob boss? I meant the AFL-CIO President.

My bad.

Sometimes Karma's a B*tch

Did CNN fire D.L. Hughley for baiting RNC chair Michael Steele and referring to Republicans as "Nazis?"

Nah.......... but it's still sweet he was bounced, isn't it?

By the way, are you following me on twitter?

Posted without comment

via Atlas Shrugs

Rahm The Ballerina

I almost fell off my chair laughing this morning when I saw this picture of Rahm Emanuel as a ballerina over at Rush's site. Sometimes the transcript from Rush's show is more than worth the read. This is one of those times. Oh my gosh, he just excoriates Rahm and deservedly so. He also challenges Obama to a debate (leader to leader, right?). Oh, and without a teleprompter.

Is this border violence bothering anyone else?

I have a post up at my Texas Magazine blog with the recent news, and it's quite disturbing.

Boehner comes out swinging

I told you how impressed I was with Congressman John Boehner at CPAC. Today in the WaPo he shows he is fired up and ready to fight against creeping socialism: (emphasis mine)

In the first two months of 2009, the Democratic Congress and the White House have spent more money than the combined cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and the response to Hurricane Katrina. After they doled out taxpayer dollars at such a blistering pace, the instinct of many inside the Beltway is to do what's most convenient: desperately try to change the subject by creating straw men -- called "the party of no" -- to rally against.

I do want to be "the party of no." I want to say no to excessive ridiculous spending at a time of economic crisis. I want to say no to a radical left agenda on abortion. I want to say no to an overreaching government that interferes with our lives and the free market. I want to say no to punishing the successful. Your damn right I want to say no.

And in a carefully calculated campaign, operatives and allies of the Obama administration are seeking to divert attention toward radio host Rush Limbaugh, and away from a debate about our alternative solutions on the economy and the irresponsible spending binge they are presiding over.

Surely many of you have wondered why in the world the President of the United States would talk about a radio talk show host. This is why my friends. While Obama talks of bi-partisanship and coming together, he is involved in a calculated effort to divide us. It's cheap political theatre at it's finest.

The president apparently plans to sign the $410 billion "omnibus" spending bill, even though it is loaded with some 9,000 unscrutinized earmarks and the largest increase in discretionary spending -- save for a brief increase after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- since the Carter administration. And the Obama administration has proposed a budget blueprint that increases taxes on every American, to the total tune of $1.4 trillion. Each of these policy proposals is meant to lay the groundwork for a new era of big government -- and neither Main Street nor Wall Street likes what it is seeing.

This really is about replacing free market ideas with big government. It's as simple and as scary as that.

Update: Sen. John Cornyn is tag teaming with Boehner on calling out Obama on spending, hypocrisy, and diversion:

...this coordinated strategy began with “conversations and email exchanges” taking place “in and out of the White House” between former Clinton political operative James Carville, the political team at the Democrat National Committee, and White House staff. The article goes on to note that “a senior White House aide has been tasked with helping to guide the Limbaugh strategy.”This is an outrage. It appears the Obama Administration has forgotten that the salaries of White House staff are paid for by you the taxpayer. To say nothing of the fact that this story reeks of hypocrisy coming from a President who campaigned against these very cynical political tactics last fall.

Has Obama figured out yet that he won? He doesn't have to campaign and do the dirty spin anymore.

So much for "change" in Washington.

Just 11% of Republicans say Limbaugh Is Their Party Leader.

And since 11% of Democrats think Obama is immortal, I think we get a full picture (ok, just kidding about Obama).

So can the Democrats drop this tired talking point?

via HotAir

Photographing The War Dead

NBC nightly news ran a story on Feb. 24th regarding lifting the 18 year ban on photographing coffins of the war dead. The story reports that critics say the ban was put in place to "hide the human cost of war." Sen. Frank Lautenberg says,"It was designed to conceal the pain that goes with the war." But the truth is found, in a bit they did report, of why the ban was put into place to begin with. In 1989 the news displayed a split screen showing the first Pres. Bush bantering with the press, as coffins of Americans killed in Panama arrived in the U.S.

The reporter goes on to say that hiding the human cost of war included "the nearly 5000 American killed in Iraq and Afghanistan." Might it have helped to report the obvious? That the ban simply prevented the media from trying to embarrass the President as they did with the first Pres. Bush? Do any of us doubt they would have used the same split screen with Pres. George W. Bush during the height of the Iraq war? And does anyone doubt that now that they have access to photographing the war dead, that they will not use it to embarrass Pres. Obama?

In defense of Michael Steele

Republicans are angry over RNC chair Michael Steele's reaction to CNN host D.L. Hughley saying that the National Republican Convention looked like Nazi Germany. Newsbusters has the full description here.

Hughley should have simply said there are too many white faces and not enough of color at the RNC, instead of describing it as "Nazi Germany," but a while back I inferred that the Obama followers reminded me of Nazi Germany because of the adulation and swooning of Hitler, and the spooky Nazi symbol everywhere. Check out the pics here.

Now, I didn't mean that Obama followers were like the Nazis in thought or practice, just in how they swooned over one man. Hughley (I hope) didn't mean that the Republican National Convention had the beliefs of Nazis. What he meant is that we were a sea of white faces.

And he was right.

And Michael Steel knew he was right. Maybe instead of getting angry with Michael Steele, we should be angry at ourselves for not reaching out to minorities and sending the message to minority communities that they are welcome here.

I talked about this in my conversation with Sen. John Cornyn, and we both agreed that we need to stop being the party that says "Look at us, we are family values, free market, low taxes, pro-business" and just expect minorities to come to us.

It's time for us to come to them. And not just at election time. We need to be a part of their communities and their concerns. We need to show up and speak at their Churches, their festivals, and their local community meetings.

The Hispanic community is the largest minority in our country and it's growing. They are a natural fit for the Republican party. They are pro-family, pro-life, and entrepreneurial. We completely alienated them in the recent election cycle allowing the immigration debate rhetoric to become anti-Hispanic.

We alienate blacks by never showing a concern for the problems many of them face in the inner city and by never showing up to speak to them.

Could Steele have handled it better? Of course. He should have said "We are hardly Nazi Germany and I find that insulting, but we do need to expand our party with miniorities."

Republicans getting angry at Steele is about the most counter productive thing we can possibly do. We finally have a strong face of color leading our party, and an opportunity to bring in people of color into our party, and we decide to get angry with him because he acknowledges the obvious of our over abundance of whiteness??

No. We need to face it and do something about it. Starting now.

What Obama has brought us

You can read the accompanying WSJ article, but doesn't this graph really say it all?

Tea Parties

I was very disappointed that I couldn't attend the first series of tea parties in Houston (and across the nation). The next date for tea parties is April 15th. I wanted to share these videos from Houston. I WILL be at the next one. My favorite radio talk show host, Claver T. Kamau-Imani from "The Truth in Black and Right" radio every morning on KCHNradio.com, is in both videos above speaking the truth of what this really is we are experiencing with the pork fests and bailouts in Congress.....soft tyranny.

There were tea parties across the nation put together in less than a week. Here is the D.C. one.

Keep checking for details of the tea party in your city on April 15th!

h/t Lorie

Obama's support for the culture of death

I don't think anyone in recent history has been more of an advocate for abortion than Pres. Obama.

Let's review.

In his 2nd day in office he allowed taxpayer money to be used to fund abortion overseas by overturning the Mexico City policy.

Pres. Obama has now begun the process of repealing the regulations that enforce pre-existing federal law that protects healthcare workers' right to conscientiously refuse implementation of or involvement in abortions, including dispensation of the abortifacient morning-after pill.

In other words, you can't say, as a healthcare worker, that you refuse to participate in an abortion.

He has appointed as Health and Human Services Secretary Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, the most pro-abortion Governor in the country. She has never met a pro-abortion legislation she didn't like, and who has dined, as Governor, with the infamous abortionist, George Tiller, who has performed late term abortions for years.

He promised Planned Parenthood that he would sign FOCA as a top priority, which would wipe out all restrictions on abortion including parental notification of a minor having an abortion, a 24 hour waiting period, and informed consent.

My God, and he has only been President for little over a month.

I may start referring to him as the President of abortion.

The Silver Lining of the Controversy of Rush and Steele

We all know that Rahm Emanuel and the rest of his buddies are repeating the talking point of "Rush wants Obama to fail" and "Rush is the leader of the Republican party" so that Republicans can be painted with the same false brush of "hate speech" and such that the msm likes to unfairly accuse Rush of. Rahm wants those 8-20% in the middle that actually and unfortunately decide elections to get that impression.

But it occurred to me today that this may backfire on them. I was thinking that if I was one of those in the "mushy middle" hearing all this about Rush, that I would want to see what this was all about and actually tune into Rush and actually listen.

How many hundreds of times over the years have you heard someone call into Rush and tell him how they used to be a liberal, but he opened their eyes? How they now understood what this country was founded upon; liberty, freedom, self responsibility, and limited government. How they understood how destructive liberalism has been to the family and to the country.

More people tuning into Rush will open more eyes and more minds and that is only good for us.

I want to add one more thing about Rush. Over at my Houston Chron blog I have dozens of liberal commenters who take great glee in Rush's addiction to prescription meds. These people of the "party of tolerance" love to bash the fallen, don't they?

Millions and millions of Americans struggle with addiction every day, but these people on the left have no "compassion" for them. They ridicule Rush every chance they get. It doesn't matter to them that Rush didn't use meds to get high. He became addicted after back surgery. But no matter, He is a "drug addict" to them. Rush's message has always been to overcome the obstacles in your life and succeed. Having a family member who struggles with addiction I know how difficult and really amazing it is that Rush overcame his addiction.

That kind of will should be applauded, not ridiculed. But that is what liberals do.

Jindalicious!

As Ed at Hotair says, this is how it's done. Michael Steele. Watch and learn.

Let's just trust them

From NRO:

Obama has allegedly offered to skuttle the European missile shield in exchange for "help" with Iran:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama suggested to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that the United States would back off plans for a missile defense system in Eastern Europe in exchange for help stopping Iran from developing long-range weapons, The New York Times reported Tuesday.Obama made the proposal in a secret letter that was hand-delivered to Medvedev three weeks ago, the Times reported, citing anonymous U.S. sources.Russia has vigorously opposed the missile shield, which would include sites in the Czech Republic and Poland, since it was proposed by the Bush administration. The stated aim of the shield is to deter Iran from launching nuclear-tipped missiles at U.S. allies in Europe.According to the Times, Obama's letter said the U.S. would not need to build the missile defense system if Iran's efforts to build a nuclear weapon were halted.

Let me get this straight. We are going to trust Russia to make sure that they trust Iran not to build a nuclear weapon.

God help us all.

I've been worrying if my children will be able to pay off this huge debt that Obama is giving them, now I'm worried if they will be here at all to pay for anything.

via Lakeshore Laments

Your kids aren't good enough for Obama's children's school

From The Liberty Papers:

"The Washington Post takes the Democrats to task for playing political games with the District of Columbia’s school voucher program:

REP. DAVID R. Obey (Wis.) and other congressional Democrats should spare us their phony concern about the children participating in the District’s school voucher program. If they cared for the future of these students, they wouldn’t be so quick as to try to kill the program that affords low-income, minority children a chance at a better education. Their refusal to even give the program a fair hearing makes it critical that D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) seek help from voucher supporters in the Senate and, if need be, President Obama.

Last week, the Democrat-controlled House passed a spending bill that spells the end, after the 2009-10 school year, of the federally funded program that enables poor students to attend private schools with scholarships of up to $7,500. A statement signed by Mr. Obey as Appropriations Committee chairman that accompanied the $410 billion spending package directs D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee to “promptly take steps to minimize potential disruption and ensure smooth transition” for students forced back into the public schools.
We would like Mr. Obey and his colleagues to talk about possible “disruption” with Deborah Parker, mother of two children who attend Sidwell Friends School because of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. “The mere thought of returning to public school frightens me,” Ms. Parker told us as she related the opportunities — such as a trip to China for her son — made possible by the program. Tell her, as critics claim, that vouchers don’t work, and she’ll list her children’s improved test scores, feeling of safety and improved motivation.

Sidwell Friends, of course, is the school that President Obama’s daughters Sasha and Malia attend. It’s also the school that Chelsea Clinton attended while her father was President.

Apparently, it’s good enough for the children of Presidents, but too good for the children of inner-city Washington, D.C."

Do Democrats even pay taxes?

Until they are caught, that is.

I'm beginning to wonder.

A Taste of My Interview With Sen. John Cornyn

Ok, here is just a bit of my interview. Now remember, this is an interview for a written piece for Texas Magazine. I have my recorder on. This video was filmed by my daughter just for me to use. In other words, I don't want you thinking this was suppose to be a professional videotaped interview. The sound is terrible because we are in the cloak room off the floor, with people coming in and out and all kinds of noise. Enjoy the first part where I am describing where I am and Sen. Cornyn comes up and surprises me.

In case you can't hear at all, the first question was about up and coming Republican candidates for 2010. He names a few and where our expectations are. The second question was about running Republicans against Specter, Snowe, and Collins because of the anger out here from Republicans. The answer simply is we can't afford to lose Senate seats at this point. Maybe that is not what many of us want to hear, but there is truth there. If a liberal Democrat wins their seat then we get 0% voting with us.

I'll say this about my impression of Sen. Cornyn. Anderson Cooper has nothing on Cornyn's blue eyes. Very intense. Very focused. He believes in conservatism and will fight for it, but he won't fight Republicans. His experience of being a judge and an attorney general comes through. He is thoughtful and pragmatic. Remember, this is a guy who put McCain in his place when McCain was running for President.


Big Bad John indeed.

Keep your eyes on this guy. Five years in the Senate and he is head of the NRSC. Bigger things are yet to come.

Update: This bit of news might change things for Sen. Specter in Penn. Pat Toomey says running against Specter is "back on the table."

The Kiss of the Culture of Death

The most pro-abortion President selects the most pro abortion governor as Health Secretary. This administration just keeps getting worse.

Update: And....it gets unbelievably worse.

Final thoughts on CPAC

I will try and get some of my interview with Cornyn uploaded tonight. But you will get my full interview in a Texas Magazine edition coming out soon.

I know that Rush has taken over all the coverage on CPAC. Rham Emanual has seen to that. And that's too bad.

Look, Rush is an entertainer. He is the first to admit that. He is also highly intelligent. He speaks the truth, even if it's hard to hear. The rhetoric that he speaks hate couldn't be farther from the truth, and anyone who really listens to him knows that. On a personal level, he is far from perfect and he would also be the first to tell you that. Rush's gift is being able to put in simple terms how destructive liberalism is and how powerful and empowering conservatism is. That's the bottom line.

But it's too bad that the media focuses on the entertainer (Ann Coulter is an entertainer as well, highly intelligent also), because the REAL leaders of our party did speak at CPAC and had incredible things to say. When I get back from Church I will link the texts of John Cornyn, John Boehner, Michael Pence, and Jim DeMint. They are the ones who really inspired me. They are not entertainers my friends, they are LEADERS. Everyone should listen to what they have to say. Impressive doesn't even begin to describe it.

I know that Newt Gingrich is brilliant with brilliant ideas, but to be honest with you, I cannot get over the fact that he cheated on his wife at the same time Clinton was cheating on Hillary. Hypocrite is too mild of a word. I can't get past it. So I didn't even try to see him speak while there.

Bottom line. Let the media go on and on over Rush. We have little control over the media. But here in the new media, we do have control and we should use to advance the conservative agenda that was laid out by our leaders that spoke at CPAC.

There was a lot of excitement and energy at CPAC. We need to use it for our good and the good of this nation and not let the msm confuse and define it on their terms. Here, it's on our terms. Let's use it wisely.

Ok, here is Cornyn's speech (text). John Boehner speech (youtube). Forgot to add Mitt Romney's speech as well here(text). Mike Pence's speech here (text) Ace has the Pence video here. Jim DeMint's speech is here (text), but you have to scroll through John Cornyn's to get to it. It's worth a scroll, I promise you.

I think I'll add some of my favorite highlights.

From Cornyn's speech:

So the message to the voters seems pretty clear to me. The American people will support us if we stick to our principles and they will abandon us if we don’t.

Now to reclaim our party’s identity, we must demonstrate our principles in respectful opposition. Principle opposition means supporting the idea of the stimulus bill, if it’s timely targeted and temporary, and opposing when it’s not.

Principle opposition means supporting the administration, when it calls for greater transparency and accountability in government, and exposing their hypocrisy when their rhetoric doesn’t match reality.

And principle opposition means reading the fine print on what the Democrats are actually doing and explaining the American people what they’re trying to get away with.

From DeMint's speech:

When we stand together for Americans to make their own choices about where their children go to school and their way to choose their own doctors and to own a health plan, a health plan that they can afford and keep from job to job; when we fight for them to have a choice to own their own social security account and to keep a larger share of what they earn in their paychecks; when American see us fighting, not just talking, but fighting for their rights and freedom, then we will earn their trust and their votes.

Most Americans don’t expect the government to give them the American dream. But they do expect their elected officials to make sure that they have the opportunity to work for it and to earn it. That dream begins with individuals, not the government.

John Boehner: (The last part is just over the top terrific)

But that’s freedom that we enjoyed, economic freedom is really under assault today. And I think the stimulus was the opening of salvo. It was supposed to be focused on jobs, jobs, jobs and it turned into nothing more than spending, spending, and more spending.

But when you put this in the hands of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed, it obviously became a gravy train for leftwing pork, and I knew something was wrong when I read the first version of the bill, and it had the word contraceptives in it, $230 million.

And I brought up to everyone’s attention and guess what they have finally decided to take it out, but...

Sitting in my desk right when this outline came out before -- long before they have resolved the bill, and I was looking at this outline eating my lunch, getting ready up to the press gallery and talk a little bit about it, and all I could think of was, “oh my god.”

When you look at all of the spending that was in there, for every leftwing idea there whatever it was, you began to realize that we were on the wrong path.
............................

All this is being done though on the backs of our kids and our grand kids, and all of these bills seek to replace our economic freedom of what their wins and mandates of politicians and bureaucrats.
Listen, I took to meet from liberals for my speech on the House floor opposing the stimulus.

They didn’t like it when I pointed out, but no member of the Congress had read the nearly 11,000 -- 1,100 pages in this bill.

And they didn’t really didn’t like it when I toss this bill on the floor of the House. They called it disrespectable.

Well, I tell you it was disrespectable, it’s taken a trillion dollars from our kids and grandkids and giving it out to people like A. Corman (ph) and other liberal groups at America.

Disrespectful is spending a trillion dollars of money that our kinds and grandkids going to have to pay for in the dark of night behind closed doors without even giving the Americans more -- less than a day to actually read the bill. Don’t talk to me about disrespectful.

Rush

I didn't get to see Rush and I wouldn't have even if I had stayed. The line to get into see him at CPAC started 4 hours before he was to speak. I can think of no person on earth I would stand in line for four hours for. I almost didn't get to see Mitt Romney for the same reason, but we managed to get in. Transcript of Romney's speech here (video link in the comments)

Hot Air has compiled video of Rush's entire speech on their website, and the full transcript can be read here.

CPAC PICS!

Stephen Green/VodkaPundit and his evil drinks.

Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit fame!

Me and Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs

Me and Rick Moran of Right Wing Nut House.

Remember this guy's video's here? Alfonzo. I'll to go back and find his videos.

JOE THE PLUMBER!

My Girl Michelle Malkin. Sweet as EVAH.

More CPAC pics!

Me and my baby girl, and Teri Christophe from Smart Girl Politics

Ken Shepard from Newsbusters and my buddy Melissa Clothier.

Melissa and James Joyner from Outside The Beltway on blogger's row.

My girl and former Senator George Allen

More Pics!

Ann doing a radio interview.

Congressman John Boehner. Very inspiring.

Congressman Tom Tancredo

Sen. John Cornyn

Bay Buchanan

Finally checking again from CPAC!

This weekend has just been so much fun and productive that I didn't have time to blog. My good friends Melissa Clouthier and Ed Morrisey at HotAir were liveblogging it for all of us. Tons of other great bloggers there. James Joyner from OutSideTheBeltway. Stephen Green from the VodkaPundit was there and he has some sort of evil power that makes martinis 3 times more powerful just by being near him. I was a victim of his evilness. It was fun though.

I can't begin to name all the people I met, from National Review writers to Joe the plumber, who I got a pic with (I'll put up all the pics tonight) Joe turned down doing "The Bachelor." Can you believe that? He didn't want to get into that cheesy stuff especially when it comes to finding someone to love. He really is just a humble good guy.

Talked Michelle Malkin again , who is just a living doll. My daughter was so excited to meet her. Glenn Reynolds and his wife Helen of "instapundit" was there as well and as sweet as can be. We saw Stephen Baldwin for just a second. We listened to Mitt Romney sounding very Presidential. There is no doubt he will run again. William Bennet spoke about us not using over the top rhetoric with Obama . We shouldn't even use the word "socialism." We just need to be factual.

Sen John Cornyn spoke yesterday and was very good. He has presidential qualities imo. Congressman John Boehner was fantastic! Very funny and nice looking. Very inspiring. He had us giving him about 3 standing O's. Sen Jim DeMint was also charismatic and down to earth. I was very impressed with him. There was a very "fighting back" spirit in the place. Very upbeat and I liked that.

We stood close to Ann Coulter doing some interviews (so skinny!) and I got to speak with former Senator George Allen, and Jim Pinkerton of Fox News, and Tom Delay (who I am not overly fond of), and guess who else I met?? Alphonso from the videos I always embed here. The young black guy that slams Obama and tells it like it is. He was so cool and sweet. I got a pic of
him too.

When I get home tonight I will put all the links in and I'll try to remember all the things that happened. I had such a good time!

ON RADIO NOW http://kchnradio.com/3.html

Quick Update

Yesterday was so much fun! When I got to Sen. John Cornyn's office she asked me if I could conduct the interview off the floor! Cornyn was in a vote. So she takes me to this beautiful room off the floor and there was Orrin Hatch standing there and several more Senators! I saw Specter (ugh) sitting right beyond the door (there was glass in the doors).

The interview went great and I videotaped it, but I don't have time yet to download any of it!

We got a private tour of the Capitol and that was awesome as well!

I'm off the hear speakers Romney, Boehner, Cornyn, DeMint, and many others. I''ll check back in later!

CPAC

I'll be leaving tomorrow for CPAC and an interview with Sen. John Cornyn. I will probably be too busy tomorrow to say much, but check back in the evening for updates and videos. Especially Friday and Saturday. Should be fun.

Too Funny

Best Dilbert comic evah.

Pres. Obama's address and Gov. Jindal's response

Pres. Obama, as we all know, is a fine speaker. He promises us rainbows and unicorns while he also speaks of dark clouds and hard times. His best line was "We are not quitters." And he is certainly right about that. But Pres. Obama's solution always remains with the government, and that is the problem. Obama saying that he didn't believe in bigger government was on it's face, laughable. Obama has gotten very good at saying one thing and doing another.

I don't doubt Pres. Obama's sincerity. He believes that what he is doing is what is best for the country. He simply believes in the role of government over the role of the market and the people.

Liberty and freedom should never be diminished because of fear and uncertainty. Hard times are not reason enough to hand over to our government what makes us great, the free market and the decisions we make for ourselves.

But the first line of Gov. Jindal's response was exactly on point:

Who amongst us would ask our children for a loan so we could spend money we do not have on things we do -- we do not need? That is precisely what the Democrats in Congress just did. It's irresponsible. And it's no way to strengthen our economy, create jobs, or build a prosperous future for our children.

He also pinpointed our fundamental differences:

In the end, it comes down to an honest and fundamental disagreement about the proper role of government. We oppose the national Democratic view that says the way to strengthen our country is to increase dependence on government. We believe the way to strengthen our country is to restrain spending in Washington, to empower individuals and small businesses to grow our economy and create jobs.

Meanwhile MSNBC tries to regain some semblance of journalistic integrity by actually fact checking Obama's speech. They call him on saying that only deserving homeowners will receive help in the mortgage crisis among many other things.

McCain called Obama out on the "no earmarks" comment. McCain said to Katie Couric: "But when he says there are no earmarks - I just picked up a bill that we are going to take up tomorrow that has 9,247 earmarks in it,” a combative McCain continued. “What am I supposed to believe here?” Pres. Obama reminds me of a snakeoil salesman. Saying all the right things with a charming smile, promising us cures, but none of us really know what we are buying.

One thing not mentioned by Pres. Obama of course, is the taxes he is planning and the effect it will have on all of us.

As someone at NRO noted, PBS, Mark Shields said that the President is more popular than his policies. True. People just like Obama as a person (and some, of course, are wacko over him). Not enough people are paying real attention to what this "change" really means for America.

Guess what the Democrats are doing now...

They want to force the Republican Governors resisting parts of the pork bill to take ALL the stimulus money.

Tea Party Madness

It all started when CNBC's Rick Santelli called for a "Chicago Tea Party" Thursday. It was this shout out (and you have to watch it) that caused this ripple of revolution that touched a nerve. People are frustrated to no end about this stimulus bill that passed too quickly, and not even properly read by anyone who voted on it. Along comes this mortgage bailout and the frustration mounts.

Santelli called for the "Chicago Tea Party" but it's gone national now. Michelle Malkin has a bunch of stuff on it.

Bottom line? Responsible homeowners who worked hard to put a good sized down payment on a 30-year fixed mortgage should not have to bail out those who bought more house than they could afford.

What is especially rich with irony is ACORN's nationwide effort to not allow banks to evict homeowners who have failed to pay their mortgages. It's called being a "Home Defender." They become "squatters" at a home and sit there until the money from Obama comes though. It's rich with irony because it was ACORN that blackmailed banks into giving those same questionable loans. ACORN was all about the 1977 federal law, the Community Reinvestment Act, which forced banks to make bad loans to the poor. In order for banks to get approval for mergers and acquisitions they need to prove they have not discriminated against minority communities in their lending. The CRA gave “community groups” the opportunity to lodge complaints against the banks. And you better believe ACORN was all about that. ACORN developed a lucrative side business as an “advisor” to banks seeking regulatory approvals. In other words, banks had no choice but to give risky loans and ACORN was there as the watchdog to make sure it happened. Banks then took hundreds of individual mortgages packaged together and sold them to investors as “mortgage-backed securities." And we all know how that turned out.

Now, many on the left say "where were you protesting with the bank bailout?" And they would have a legitimate point. What idiots we were. We bought into the scare tactics. The Republican leadership bought into the scare tactics and voted for this insane bailout. How could we have EVER been fooled into thinking that a govt bailout was every going to solve anything?! Bush was wrong about the bank bailout and Obama is wrong about the stimulus bill (as it was passed anyway) and this mortgage bailout.

Tarp I and Tarp II. What a joke. Tim Geithner doesn't seem to have a grasp on what is going on. It's like we are watching a nightmare we can't wake up from, and it's made worse by the fact that we contributed to it big time.

Here is the "Tea Party" protests site. There seems to be one being planned for CPAC in Washington D.C. this week. I'll be there, so I'll bring it to you.

I'm all for it, but you have to admit that Republicans aren't very good at "protests." We just don't have that "Che Guevara" mojo going. I remember during the 2000 presidential vote recount when a bunch of Republicans invaded the voting counting offices. I had to laugh at all the khaki and white button down shirts. Let's face it, we don't exactly scream "revolution!"

But it's time for something. It's time to just stop sitting here watching our an economic meltdown and do nothing.

If the thought of nationalizing our banks doesn't send a chill up your spine, then you aren't paying attention.

Maybe we can't match the papier mache Bush and Cheney dolls or the stepping on the flag, or the lying "dead" in protest. Maybe we will look like the responsible nerds that we are, but at least our voice will be heard.

And that's kind of important. Especially now.

Forcing States

Good Stuff here at WSJ:

These Governors -- Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Butch Otter of Idaho, Rick Perry of Texas and Mark Sanford of South Carolina -- all have the same objection: The tens of billions of dollars of aid for health care, welfare and education will disappear in two years and leave states with no way to finance the expanded programs. Mr. Perry sent a letter to President Obama last week warning that Texas may refuse certain stimulus funds. "If this money expands entitlements, we will not accept it. This is exactly how addicts get hooked on drugs," he says.

I can't think of a more apt analogy. The Federal Government is our drug pusher and the people who have long depended on them, need their fix. This is the vicious cycle of government dependency.

Consider South Carolina. Its annual budget is roughly $7 billion and the stimulus will send about $2.8 billion to the state over two years. But to spend the hundreds of millions of dollars allocated to the likes of Head Start, child care subsidies and special education, the state will have to enroll thousands of new families into the programs. "There's no way politically we're going to be able to push people out of the program in two years when the federal money runs out," Mr. Sanford says.

Once a government program is introduced into the system there is almost no way to eliminate it. That is why the government has become the real life version of the movie, "The Blob."

For example, the stimulus bill temporarily increases the share of state Medicaid bills reimbursed by the federal government, but in 2011 almost all the $80 billion of extra federal Medicaid money disappears. the Democrats in Congress know that no state is going to just dump people when the money from the federal government runs out, so it's their sneaky way of making states pay for programs that that they themselves want.

The Democrats get millions more on the dole, and then come election time pat themselves on the back for being so benevolent with our money and ask those same people who are receiving their aid...to vote for them.

See how this works?

I suppose the Democrats in Congress saw that many Republican Governors would see this ruse, so they stuck in a little-noticed provision into the stimulus bill giving state legislatures the power to overrule Governors and spend the money "by means of the adoption of a concurrent resolution." Since legislatures are a lot like Congress, in that they simply adore spending our money, most of the Governors will be overruled.

Blackmail and Funding

From Politico:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Friday that he will decline stimulus money specifically targeted at expanding state unemployment insurance coverage, becoming the first state executive to officially refuse any part of the federal government’s payout to states…
“The federal money in this bill will run out in less than three years for this benefit and our businesses would then be stuck paying the bill,” Jindal said. “We must be careful and thoughtful as we examine all the strings attached to the funding in this package. We cannot grow government in an unsustainable way.”

Jindal says he will accept money for transportation infrastructure and a modest increase in unemployment benefits, but says that unemployment insurance would mean a $12 million tax hike for Louisiana businesses three years from now.

via HotAir

I just love Jindal. He is the real deal.

The Federal government has long used blackmail to get States to do it's bidding. It also does this kind of thing where it funds something in exchange for a State to give into what the federal government wants. And then years down the line, the funding dries up from the federal government, and the States then have to then fund it themselves. So the federal government gets what it wants, and then ends up not continuing the funding it blackmailed states with. This is exactly what Jindal is trying to prevent happening here.

It's hair pulling out crazy and I cant' stand it.

Recently you may have read about 100 college Presidents who are trying to get the drinking age lowered to 18 again (which I am for btw). When I was in college the drinking age was 18. I have two children in college now and I can promise you that the drinking has in no way abated. Now it's just a system of clandestine drinking, fake ID's, and a big local enforcement business of making money off of MIP's (minor in possession).

What a lot of people don't know is how getting all states to lower their drinking ages happened. In 1984 the federal government said (threatened) that they would withhold 10 percent of federal highway funds from any State that did not prohibit selling alcohol to those under the age of 21. By 1988, 49 states had complied.

Louisiana happens to be the one State that fought this law in the courts for years and didn't join the rest of the States until 1995.

Just one example of many.