Free kibbles

SOCIALISM:

Praise of socialism from somebody who obviously can't tell the difference between the government and the marketplace. Libertarian alarm clock sets him straight.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH:

Fears of a Chavez-style media crackdown in the US.

"Free Press’ curious stance on media reform can best be summed up by McChesney who suggests that, “Any serious effort to reform the media system would have to necessarily be part of a revolutionary program to overthrow the capitalist system itself."

Such radical hyperbole coming from the founder of a group called “Free Press” drips with irony. But it’s a rhetorical flourish that Dr. McChesney is apparently quite comfortable with. He has employed it repeatedly to argue that his version of media reform is the first step in the struggle to remake American society in a socialistic fashion. In his attack on the existing media “power structure” in the U.S., he calls for a “class struggle from below…In the end there is no real answer but to remove brick by brick the capitalist system itself, rebuilding the entire society on socialist principles.”

If any of this sounds eerily familiar, it should. It’s right out of Hugo Chavez’s playbook. Like Chavez, Free Press’ call for “media reform” harkens back to a bygone era when the radical left’s doctrinarian opposition to a genuinely free press was rooted in the totalitarian political theories of Marx, Lenin, Hitler and others.

All of this could be ignored as the comical rantings of a loony leftist professor safely ensconced in the tenured halls of academia, were it not for Free Press’ astonishing -- and growing -- influence on policymaking within the current administration and Congress.

As hard as it may be to believe, McChesney and his indefatigable band of media revolutionaries are being taken seriously by some policymakers in Washington. They are granted regular audiences with those overseeing our nation’s media policy at the FCC and FTC, and meeting regularly with members of Congress.

Their latest plan to defacto nationalize the media calls for the federal government to bail out newspapers with $60 billion in new government subsidies. As anyone familiar with Washington knows, money does not come free: Such subsidies will virtually invite the government into the fourth estate as overseers. Richard Nixon must be rubbing his eyes in disbelief. But Free Press tells us not to worry. Such media reform will have safeguards in place to protect the freedom of the press from government influence. "

Of course the Marxists in the White House are interested.

RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS:

Mitt Romney was for the assault weapons ban before he was against it. He signed an assault weapons ban in Massachusetts. This guy is slime and an enemy of freedom, and until conservatives give him the boot, they have zero credibility.

ECONOMY:

The fraudulent actions taken by government and the Fed to re-inflate the housing bubble.

Peter Schiff believe we're heading toward another housing price collapse because of rising long-term interest rates, and taxpayers will be on the hook for bigger losses.

TAX AND SPEND:

$12,670,895,780,689.20: America's public debt as of a few days ago.

Congressman admits that government steals from us.

Ron Paul explains that every action by the Fed is harmful to the economy. That's because every action it takes perverts interest rates from their natural value. It's price fixing.

Jim Rogers calls the federal bond market a bubble. Uh-oh. But a falling bond market might impose some discipline in Washington, but more likely the Fed will inflate to fill the gap.

""I like to buy what's cheapest. Silver is cheaper than gold, on a historical basis; natural gas is cheaper than oil.""

That's because people naturally gravitate to gold and oil.

HEALTH CARE:

Video of members of the Congressional Black Caucus trying to provoke an incident so they could cry racism at last Saturday's health care oppression protest. It's clear in this video that no incident occurred, but that didn't stop them from lying and saying one did.

"That’s how much the Democrats need a racist Tea Party moment. To stop it in its tracks. That’s why on Saturday they used the Congressional Black Caucus to try to manufacture the false appearance of one. And when they didn’t get it, they did what they always do: they lied."

They lied.

Being a healer is another way that government tries to present itself as a god.

The damage from Obamacare is piling up already.

"It's been a banner week for Democrats: ObamaCare passed Congress in its final form on Thursday night, and the returns are already rolling in. Yesterday AT&T announced that it will be forced to make a $1 billion writedown due solely to the health bill, in what has become a wave of such corporate losses.

...

On top of AT&T's $1 billion, the writedown wave so far includes Deere & Co., $150 million; Caterpillar, $100 million; AK Steel, $31 million; 3M, $90 million; and Valero Energy, up to $20 million. Verizon has also warned its employees about its new higher health-care costs, and there will be many more in the coming days and weeks."

Obama is one big step closer to his goal of collapsing America under the burden of government.

"Henry Waxman and House Democrats announced yesterday that they will haul these companies in for an April 21 hearing because their judgment "appears to conflict with independent analyses, which show that the new law will expand coverage and bring down costs.""

So now they're going to publicly flog these companies for telling the truth about Obamacare's costs. The message is clear: Don't speak the truth about Democrat policies or they'll punish you. This is classic fascism.

Mike Pence says, "This law will not stand." I don't think paraphrasing Bush the Elder is any way to win the confidence of the American people.

People who wrote Obamacare exempt themselves from it. That's how bad it is.

Civil disobedience of Obamacare.

"...a fraudulent piece of legislation based on fraudulent thinking backed by fraudulent facts enacted through a fraudulent process."

That's a pretty good description.

"President Obama went for broke using tactics more reprehensible than the "business as usual politics" that he had pledged to change when he came to office."

Like I said, more of the same, but worse.

"The prerequisites for any movement's success are credible leaders and a moral high ground. "

This is wrong. The moral high ground is necessary, but not a credible leader. Look what's happening in Iran where the people are on the verge of bringing down the mullahs because they don't have a leader. This statement illustrates how badly our society has been corrupted into thinking we need central planners to tell us what to do. We don't. All we need is the ability to communicate with each other, and that's why freedom of speech is under unprecedented attack.

"The first means that opponents of ObamaCare cannot--cannot--let Mitt Romney come within sniffing distance of their cause. He is trying to position himself at the forefront of the Repeal ObamaCare movement to further his presidential ambitions. But he couldn't be a worse spokesman given that as governor he was responsible for implementing a universal coverage program in the Bay State that is identical in every essential respect to ObamaCare, including the individual mandate. He has to be banished from every anti-ObamaCare panel, podium and platform lest the movement be accused of partisanship and hypocrisy."

That's a fact. If Republicans and conservatives don't banish him entirely, they're nothing but hypocrites. The problem is Republicans were for Obamacare before it before it became Obamacare, and they can't change that fact.

"But any hint of violence--even inadvertent--will compromise their cause because there are crucial differences between our colonial and current rulers. The colonial rulers were monarchs who used violence to extract taxes from Americans to enrich themselves and their motherland."

Where's the difference? Our aristocrats use violence to extract taxes from Americans to enrich themselves too. Why does being a monarch versus being a career politician matter? We have no option to elect somebody who doesn't do that.

"This can't be done by threatening a civil war--even metaphorically--against them. Gandhi's ahimsa--or nonviolent resistance that seeks to change minds by a firm and calm expression of one's own conscience --is a far better strategy."

I agree.


FOREIGN POLICY:

Ralph Peters blasts Obama's foreign policy, pointing to a failure with the Russians, Pakistanis and Israelis in one week. He closes by calling the Obama administration a surrender cult.

POLITICS:

Barack Obama should change his slogan to "more of the same, but worse."

Republicans compete for tea party endorsement. This is a great thing. Tea parties need to stay independent and make Republicans come to them.

Judge Napolitano tells it like it is:

"I believe we have a one party system in this country, called the big-government party,” Napolitano says. “There is a Republican branch that likes war and deficits and assaulting civil liberties. There is a Democratic branch that likes welfare and taxes and assaulting commercial liberties."

The only problem I have with this quote is Democrats like war too and Republicans like welfare too.

MISC:

The meaning of the commerce clause.

"There’s been a lot of scholarly research on this clause, especially the word "commerce" itself. Without getting into the long details of it all, it means this: Congress is authorized to make uniform national rules on the trade and exchange of goods (and related activities like their transportation) that cross state borders. On top of it, the word "regulate" meant to "make regular" – that is, to specify how these transactions may be conducted. Regulate did not mean ban, prohibit, or mandate. These words have different meanings."

The commerce clause was about promoting trade, not limiting it.


Promoting happiness is not a proper function of government. Government is supposed to protect our right to the pursuit of happiness.


Clint Eastwood turns 80 in May. Wow. And you always knew Clint would be the last man standing.