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Arnold Ahlert, JWR.com

 

"Listen.. (doo wah doo) Do you want to know a secret?..."—The Beatles

 

Apparently, Congressional Democrats, and an increasingly tone-deaf president, aren't Beatles fans. In yet another display of arrogance mixed with utter contempt for the public, these folks have decided that the only sensible way to craft a health care bill is to do it beyond the "prying eyes" of ordinary Americans.

 

Thus, one of the most unsavory troikas in the history of American politics—Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama—are cobbling together a take-it-or-leave-it takeover of one-sixth of the American economy. Moe, Larry and Curly couldn't have done a better job of mocking transparent government.

 

The American public? Once again it is worth reminding people that the American left sees their fellow Americans as hopelessly stupid, and completely unable to think or do for ourselves. As such, ignoring the majority's opposition to this monstrosity is as easy as Sunday morning. After all, what could a bunch of red-neck, tea-bagging, Neanderthal, astro-turf, religion-clinging, gun-toting rubes know about health care?

 

We know at least one thing, you arrogant, elitist hacks: we'll be paying the multi-trillion dollar tab for this steaming pile of socialist sludge. Read article.

Flopping Aces.net

 

Many Americans were looking forward to the promise of change extolled by candidate Barack Obama on the presidential campaign trail. “Change” was printed on every campaign sign, button, bumper sticker and placard, and it served as the background in many of candidate Obama’s televised speeches and campaign rallies.

 

The politically convenient and rewarding cornerstone of candidate Obama’s “change” campaign was transparency. He promised us that he would be a different kind of president.

 

Well, many Americans are feeling double-crossed and used right now, after voting for candidate Obama because of his promise to bring transparency to Washington, only to now learn that he and other Democrat leaders are excluding America from the democratic process as a healthcare deal is being forged this very moment behind closed doors in secret meetings.

 

Regardless of where Americans come down on the policy questions addressed in the healthcare legislation, healthcare impacts every American in one way or another, accounting for one-sixth of this nation’s economy. To say that Americans are entitled to participate in healthcare’s reformation is an understatement and voters should be demanding transparency and storming the steps of this nation’s capital with pitchforks to get it. Read article.

Investors.com

 

War On Terror: Our top counterterrorism officials were "shocked" that an "individual" conducted an al-Qaida plot. They must have been asleep when the shoe bomber struck eight years ago. Are they still asleep?

 

White House counterterrorism czar John O. Brennan and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the two highest-ranking officials charged with protecting America from terrorist attacks, say they failed to see the tree because they were busy looking at the forest.

 

The two held a joint White House briefing after the president's statement last Thursday. They were asked, "What was the most shocking, stunning thing that you believe came out of the reviews?"

 

Their answer is what was stunning.

 

Brennan said that "we had a strategic sense of sort of where they were going, but we didn't know they had progressed to the point of actually launching individuals here. And we have taken that lesson, and so now we're all on top of it."

 

According to Secretary Napolitano, "the tactic of using an individual to foment an attack, as opposed to a large conspiracy or a multiperson conspiracy such as we saw in 9/11 ... really emphasizes now the renewed importance on how different intelligence is integrated and analyzed, and threat streams are followed through."

 

Why is it so hard to envision a young, radicalized African Muslim like Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab being willing and able to act alone? Shoe bomber Richard Reid did the same thing in December 2001 on American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami, failing to detonate explosive footwear in his case rather than underwear. The only conclusion to be reached is that this country's counterterrorism efforts have been switched to autopilot. After all, top officials from the president on down don't like to refer to our challenges against the world's jihadists as a "global war on terror." Read article.

Ollie North, Townhall.com

 

On Wednesday, January 6 national security adviser Gen. James Jones warned that we would feel "a certain shock" at revelations in a White House report on what the Obama administration is calling the "failed Christmas terrorist attack." He was referring to the breakdowns that allowed a 23-year-old Nigerian-born, al-Qaida-trained suicide terrorist to nearly bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 over Detroit.

 

But the stunning information isn't learning "what did we know and when did we know it" leading up to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's attempt to detonate a bomb concealed in his underwear. The greatest cause for alarm is in what has happened since.

 

Radical Islamists intent on blowing themselves and others to pieces on the ground in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Madrid, Bali, Amman and London or in the air over our cities are not part of an al-Qaida "network."

There are no membership cards for radical Islamists.

 

There is no malevolent mullah exercising central authority over who lives or dies or when some attack will or will not occur. Directing the intelligence community to construct "wire diagrams" of al-Qaida cells in a dozen or more countries won't make us any safer. Read article.

Jeffrey Lord, Spectator.org

 

Now it begins.

 

The iconic election contest of the new century: Barack Obama versus…Ronald Reagan.

 

In one corner of the ring: progressivism/statism/liberalism as championed by Obama. In the other: Reagan conservatism/individual liberty and freedom. It will be a knock down, no-holds barred fight, with Obama progressives already on the ropes, the consequences and costs of but one year of Obama in power with an Obama-controlled Congress having been driven home to startled Americans.

 

Neither Obama nor the late President Reagan will have his name on a ballot anywhere this election year. President Obama does not face the voters for another two years, and former President Reagan, of course, passed from the scene in 2004.

 

Yet in a high-speed culture in which politics is conducted in the short-hand of sound-bites, the 2010 election can be easily summarized by the last names of the two presidents immutably identified with their respective governing philosophies, making the first national election of the 21st century's second decade a virtual War of the Presidents. It will beget one simple question. Are you Reagan or Obama?

 

There is a reason that the Obama White House repeatedly attempts to drag George W. Bush back into the arena beyond Bush's unpopularity with the electorate. The reason? It's one thing to take on the unpopular and very much alive Bush, who left office with a 22% approval rating in a final CBS News/New York Times poll. It's another thing entirely to take on the revered Reagan. Gallup polls in 2001 and 2007 -- one each three years before his death and three years afterwards -- had Americans ranking Reagan as either America's greatest president or number two -- right behind Lincoln. Read article.

 

Sultan Knish.Blogpsot.com

 

The narrative that liberal pundits have constructed and continually replayed over the last year is one in which progress minded and enlightened liberals are working to reform America into a modern society, while being stymied by a bunch of knuckle dragging reactionary conservatives who are anti-Science and want to drag America back into the dark ages. There's only one problem with this narrative, it's actually a mirror image of reality.

 

When it comes to holding on to reactionary ideas or maintaining an ideological worldview built on a reflexive hostility to modernity; nobody can top the modern leftist or his tamer liberal cousin. If you took away leader worship, fear of technology, the state as the solution to all problems, the supremacy of the group over the individual and the belief that the "enlightened" should rule over the common masses for their own good and control every aspect of their lives-- there would be nothing left of the modern liberal. Literally nothing at all. Read article.

 

Dr. Sanity.Blogspot.com

 

If you want to understand why American foreign policy seems so ridiculous and ineffective these days, you need look no further than the doctrines of political correctness and multiculturalism. Our society is drowning in sea of PC and a culture of multicultural BS.

 

Wretchard once wrote that, it isn't "... the universal chorus of harmony" that the multiculturalists have propagandized, "but religious conflict at its most primitive level." He was speaking at the time about the the hysteria surrounding the Mohammed cartoons, but the same thought is easily applicable to all aspects of multicultural dogma, including the madness that is driving Obama foreign policy.

 

The reality is that multiculturalism as a doctrine brings out the basest, most uncivilized and least admirable aspects of human nature.

 

To the extent that immigrants to this country refuse to be assimilated into American culture and are actively encouraged not to do so by the diversity crowd, then the "melting pot"analogy that was once described the foundation of American strength and resiliance, has morphed into a swirling conglomeration of immiscible liquids. If the container in which they are held is fractured in any manner, each will flow his own way without regard to the other simply because they share no common bond or meaning that holds them together.

 

Think about what multiculturalism preaches in its high-minded rhetoric. Then WATCH WHAT IT BRINGS ABOUT in real life. Read article.

 

Don Loos, BigGovernment.com

 

The bosses of Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Union (AFSCME), Andy Stern and Gerald McEntee, know that ObamaCare will hurt the very workers that they claim to represent.

 

But, it appears that they just don’t care!

 

These two union bosses who stand to gain the most power under ObamaCare are spending hundreds of millions of forced union dues promoting ObamaCare. A government run health insurance program is an SEIU and AFSCME “membership net” designed to eventually complete the capture of 21.1 million forced-dues paying government workers.

 

If a special collectively bargained health insurance carve out appears in the current plan, it will be quickly eliminated when the first poll reveals overwhelming electorate anger at government employees getting plans that most Americans are denied under ObamaCare. Politicians will appear overnight promising to eliminate the special plans and “fix” the problem.

 

This healthcare bill on top of the other gargantuan spending by the Obama Administration will cost jobs. It will cost union jobs. And, Big Labor Bosses must know it. They likely have already made the calculations figuring in large losses of current members. But, ObamaCare is not about current members. Union officials have 21.1 million other reasons to support it. Read article.

 

Democrats gear up for amnesty battle

Ann Kane, American Thinker.com

 

There is no doubt the Democrats should be fearful of losing seats in Congress in the midterm elections; however, their blasé attitude about the Great Tsunami of November 2, 2010 suggests they have a plan. 

 

There are an estimated 15 to 20 million illegal aliens living in the U.S. On December 15, 2009, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced the Comprehensive Immigration Reform for America's Security and Prosperity Act of 2009, to the U.S. House of Representatives. A brief summary of the bill From the Miami Herald:

 

 

 

This past December, Gutierrez spoke about:

 

 

The Chicago Democrat's words sound as if they're right out of David Axelrod's playbook. He pulls on our heart strings to distract us from the truth of the matter-This bill will give illegal aliens the right to become U.S. citizens without substantial punishment for their crimes. 

 

According to the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Office), applying for and receiving citizenship status takes an average of five months thanks to a sped up process instituted during the Bush administration; yet, USCIS does not restrict the processing of citizenship applications to a specific time frame. 

 

Add amnesty to the Universal Voter Registration proposals explained in AT by James Simpson, and the Democrats can add millions of voters to the rolls, replacing disillusioned supporters, and ensure itself a permanent majority. The present health care bill includes coverage for illegal aliens; yet, for Gutierrez and his cosponsors, simple health care does not suffice. They want the U.S. government to waive appropriate penalties for undocumented workers, and they demand citizenship for these people, which will send them straight into the electorate. Read article.