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In Congo, Hillary Clinton Suggests Government Ownership of Industry Would be a Good Thing Wednesday, August 12, 2009 By Adam Brickley (CNSNews.com) - In a television interview Monday in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested that it would be a good thing for the government to take an ownership interest in industry.

The debate over health care reform has turned violent in the last week as protesters on both sides of the issue clashed in cities across the country, revealing a long-simmering civil unrest. {Cut} As it turns out, it was the so-called liberals, actually union thugs, instigating the fights. In Tampa, SEIU goons attacked senior citizens who came out because they quite rightly feel that the health care reform proposal threatens their ability to obtain health care. {Cut} Make no mistake, the civil unrest brewing here is not exclusively over the health care issue. That is simply the spark which made...

The Daily Beast's Meghan McCain on why the far-right pundit, who says McCain needs to shut up, won’t be getting her wish—and why telling moderates to get out of the party is bad for the GOP. BY MEGHAN MCCAIN Michelle Malkin, the conservative pundit and author of the recent book Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies, was asked during a live chat on Politico’s The Arena on Friday which conservative political figure or commentator needs to shut up. Guess who her answer was? Yeah, that’s right—yours truly. So Michelle Malkin successfully rounds out...

(Obama):"I was opposed to this idea because my general attitude was, the reason people don't have health insurance is not because they don't want it, but because they can't afford it. And if you make it affordable, then they will come," he said in a recent interview with CBS. "I've been persuaded that there are enough young, uninsured people who are cheap to cover, but are opting out. To make sure that those folks are part of the overall pool is the best way to make sure that all of our premiums go down."

Mamadou Tandja, president of the desert nation of Niger, has secured another three years in office and unlimited runs at future terms, in a referendum that opposition officials have called a coup d’etat in all but name. Tandja, a 71-year-old former army colonel, who had promised to step down after his second term expired in December, thanked voters even before the official results were announced on Friday by the country’s electoral commission. Giant posters appeared in the capital of Niamey by Thursday, expressing gratitude for the “renewed confidence” of voters. The commission said Tandja’s proposal for a new constitution received...

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Democratic National Committee released a sharply-worded statement Tuesday accusing Republicans of colluding with "K Street Lobbyists" to incite "angry mobs" of extremists to disrupt health care town halls in congressional districts around the country. Full statement as released by DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse: The Republicans and their allied groups – desperate after losing two consecutive elections and every major policy fight on Capitol Hill – are inciting angry mobs of a small number of rabid right wing extremists funded by K Street Lobbyists to disrupt thoughtful discussions about the future of health care in America taking...

video, Part II of two.

This was absolutely breath-taking. The health care bill in the Senate version says the Secretary will establish (and enforce!) "gender" and race "standards" to ensure equity. Folks, they are going to define men and women, and ENSURE that transsexuals get access to "health care" that others will be denied; that there will be "race-based" health care to ensure fairness!!!!

Venezuelan president revokes licenses of 34, says those who share socialist vision will get back on the air

TAMPA - The accusations come fast and furious on Web sites and talk radio: President Barack Obama is a socialist, a communist. Is he? Is his health care proposal socialist? "Yes. Next question," said Michael Steele, chairman of the national Republican Party, speaking to reporters in Washington on Monday. "He has surrounded himself with people that have been for the redistribution of wealth. That's part of the communist mindset," said Ted Webb, a rightist Tampa radio commentator. "'Communist' is not the correct word, and 'socialist' is debatable - the correct word is 'Marxist,'" said Rick Klepal, a Tampa commercial investment...

NYT Shocker: 'Obama’s Pledge to Tax Only the Rich Can’t Pay for Everything' By Noel Sheppard Created 2009-08-01 12:01 Unless you are hopelessly liberal and/or drinking WAY too much Kool-Aid, you are fully aware that President Obama and his Democrat minions on Capitol Hill can't get enough money from the so-called rich to pay for all the programs they're proposing. On Saturday, such an inconvenient truth was actually revealed by none other than the New York Times: "This idea that everything new that government provides ought to be paid for by the top 5 percent, that's a basically unstable way...

Geologist Ian Plimer takes a contrary view, arguing that man-made climate change is a con trick perpetuated by environmentalists By Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver SunJuly 28, 2009 Ian Plimer has outraged the ayatollahs of purist environmentalism, the Torquemadas of the doctrine of global warming, and he seems to relish the damnation they heap on him. Plimer is a geologist, professor of mining geology at Adelaide University, and he may well be Australia's best-known and most notorious academic. Plimer, you see, is an unremitting critic of "anthropogenic global warming" -- man-made climate change to you and me -- and the current environmental...

Buried amid its astonishing annual growth rate, even in the recession, is the sad story of China's socialist sector, a huge and perennial drag on its economy. The failure of government control amid the success of private initiative is a story that President Barack Obama would do well to study as he brings government control and management to the automobile and banking industries in the United States. In China, 80 percent of all investment activity comes from bank loans largely controlled by the government — a harbinger of what Obama will bring to the United States as TARP-funded banks increasingly...

If Barack Obama disappoints his supporters, they will have only themselves to blame. In January 2007 Mike Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas, said he was running for president to revive “our national soul”. He was not alone in taking an expansive view of presidential responsibilities. With the exception of Ron Paul, all the serious candidates waxed grandiloquent about their aims. John McCain said he modelled himself on Teddy Roosevelt, a man who “nourished the soul of a great nation”. Hillary Clinton lamented that America had no goals, and offered to supply some. And let us not forget the man...

(snip) Since Democrats have enough votes to shove almost anything they want through the Senate, why suddenly all this talk about seeking "bipartisan reform"? Because Democrats can't tell the truth. They know socialized medicine will cost enough billions to lower the standard of living for millions of Americans, but they have to pretend they believe otherwise, that it will somehow "save money." They can't run for re-election in 2010 -- any more than they could run in 2008 -- on an honest platform of, "We'll raise your taxes to the sky and borrow the nation into bankruptcy to get to...

Former GOP Governor Helped Make 2006 Reform Reality. BOSTON -- Three years after the inception of Massachusetts’ landmark health reform legislation, which required every citizen to buy insurance, NewsCenter 5’s Ed Harding wondered what former Gov. Mitt Romney, a key political architect of the plan, thought of its progress. Call it protecting his legacy, well-earned pride, or seeing the glass as half-full, but Romney says Massachusetts deserves an ‘A.’ “It’s working like we had hoped it would work,” the one-time republic presidential candidate said. “We got nearly everybody in Massachusetts health insurance, which really, something people didn't think was possible.”...

Once upon a time, British and American politics seemed to operate in tandem. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan came to office, both supposedly little experienced and out of the mainstream, at about the same time. Tony Blair shaped his New Labor politics with the New Democrat approach of Bill Clinton very much in mind. But today, British and American politics are moving in very different directions. One reason is that changes of government, from one party to another, have become very infrequent in Britain. The only one the last 30 years, since Thatcher's victory in 1979, was Blair's in 1997....

Why is now the time to work for change? Because we have a new president and new hope for a better America. Because we need change like never before, on everything from the economy to climate change and more. And because we know that the challenges we face, from ending our dependence on oil to winning the battle for equal rights, are huge—and the politicians and powerful interests who stupidly and stubbornly resist change aren’t calling it quits anytime soon. America’s leading advocacy groups are gearing up to meet these challenges this summer. In order to win, they need citizen...

Her appointment could further shrink the property rights of homeowners and small businesses, says law professor Ilya Somin in an editorial. Somin says that Sotomayor takes the Supreme Court's controversial 5-to-4 Kelo decision, which allowed homes to be seized for the benefit of developers, and expands it beyond even what the Supreme Court intended:

Melbourne, July 09: Wikipedians have slammed a report that found them to be egocentric introverts, socially awkward, and closed to new ideas...

(CNN) – Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told an interviewer that he could not say whether or not President Barack Obama is a socialist, and that the president would not have been elected if he had been honest with Americans about his agenda. Bush would not answer the question of whether he agreed with the assessment of some congressional Republicans that the president is a socialist. "I don't know. Define socialism for me," he told Esquire magazine. "It's a word… I believe he's a collectivist. He believes that through collective action, through government, you can solve more problems." He added...

Now it’s official, as far as the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute is concerned: The present crash is the worst U.S. economic slump since the Great Depression. And that’s even before the June jobless numbers came out. “This recession has become the longest and deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression,” EPI director Larry Mishel and co-author Heidi Shierholz wrote, noting that as of May, it was in its 16th month. June makes it 17. “In order to see how this recession stacks up against previous post-war recessions, we compare labor market indicators at the start of recessions to their values...

WASHINGTON -- Carol Browner, President-elect Barack Obama's choice to be his climate czarina, served until last summer as a member of a socialist organization whose mission is to enact progressive government policies, including toward environmental concerns like climate change. Browner's name and biography have been scrubbed from the Web site of Socialist International, the umbrella group for 170 "social democratic, socialist and labor parties" in 55 countries. But a photo of Browner speaking in Greece to the group's Congress on June 30 remained in the site's archives. Browner, formerly the longest serving administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, having served...

President Barack Obama's Orwellian rhetoric has become absolutely pathological. And it's become so blatant that you can almost guarantee that the truth is the exact opposite of what he says. To wit: The president insisted he had no intention of taking over Chrysler and General Motors. He did. The president calls "cap-and-trade" environmental legislation a "market-based" approach, based on "sound science." It is not. The president claims his health care reform plan is not "socialized medicine." It is. He claims it won't harm private insurance. It will. He claims service won't be rationed. But to control costs as he proposes,...

"In his landmark 1942 book, 'Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy,' economist Joseph Schumpeter emphasized the key role that creative destruction plays in generating long-run economic growth. It is the driving force of capitalism."

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — An exit poll says that Bulgaria's right-wing opposition GERB party has won the country's parliamentary election by a wide margin. The Alpha Research poll shows the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, or GERB, led by Sofia Mayor Boiko Borisov claiming 38.5 percent of the vote Sunday.

July 4, 2009 Hitler? He got things done, says Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone (Ben Gurr/The Times) Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One chief, said yesterday that he preferred totalitarian regimes to democracies and praised Adolf Hitler for his ability to “get things done”. In an outspoken interview with The Times, the 78-year-old billionaire chastised contemporary politicians for their weakness and extolled the virtues of strong leadership. Mr Ecclestone said: “In a lot of ways, terrible to say this I suppose, but apart from the fact that Hitler got taken away and persuaded to do things that I have no idea...

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, launched a campaign Monday criticizing the four lenders for not doing more to help with refinancing and modification of distressed mortgages. The Phoenix housing market has been one of the hardest hit by the real estate slide and has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the U.S. ACORN will hold rallies in Tuesday in cities including Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Seattle. None have been set yet for Phoenix. ACORN is one of the nonprofit agencies approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to help...

Labor unions, environmentalists and liberal advocacy groups are getting behind president-elect Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plans geared toward public works. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, and the Economic Policy Institute Campaign for America’s Future and People for the American Way Foundation, both backed by financier George Soros, are among groups launching a major lobbying push in favor of Obama’s stimulus spending programs. Soros has been a harsh critic of the Bush administration. The AFL-CIO, Service Employees International Union, National Education Association and AFSCME government workers union are the main labor drivers...

WASHINGTON -- Aiming to keep the focus on climate change legislation, President Barack Obama put a plug in for administration efforts to make lamps and lighting equipment use less energy. "I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and businesses," the president said, standing alongside Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the White House.

Those promises remain largely unfulfilled. Corruption has dogged his government with several officials accused of taking kickbacks. He doubled the minimum wage but most businesses have refused to pay it, saying they can't afford it amid a global financial crisis. And violence has surged, rising 25 percent from 2007 to 2008 to make Honduras one of Latin America's deadliest countries. [snip] His government declared it had the right to monitor phone conversations, though officials say they stopped tapping after a month because of the public outcry. Zelaya has been embroiled in disputes with media outlets, accusing them of criticizing his...

In condemning the removal of Honduran President Mel Zelayaya by the Honduran military, Pesident Obama stands shoulder to shoulder with the Fidel Castro and his thug epigones Hugo Chavez and Daniel Ortega. Zelaya sought to conduct an illegal referendum to extend his rule. The Honduran military has sought to enforce the rule of law by providing for Zelaya's departure from the scene. Mary Anastasia Grady explains:

Out of all the things Obama denounces during his first 6 months in office is the overthrow of a puppet socialist leader who is attempting to extend his presidency beyond the term limits written in their constitution and claims the rule of law must prevail. Standing shoulder to shoulder with Chavez and Castro it's the new Moe, Larry and Curly show. A women is shot dead in the streets of Tehran and this president claims we dont need to meddle in the sovereignty of another nation and how patience needs to prevail in order to see how things play out....

What did you do when capitalism died, Daddy? I won't be surprised to hear that question from my daughter by the time she gets out of college, or should I say the State Mandatory Voluntarism Training Facility. When liberals hear conservatives decry the death of capitalism, they titter and roll their eyes. "Oh, you paranoid right-wingers! You see Bolsheviks around every corner." But such exasperation is the exhalation of concentrated ignorance. The absence of free markets isn't necessarily Bolshevism, or even socialism. Capitalism's death can come in many forms, by many different hands. After all, not all of Julius Caesar's...

Oxford historian Timothy Garton Ash discusses the demise of Europe's social democrats, threats to the European Union posed by populist nationalists, the imminent change of government in Great Britain and America's rapid slide to the left. SPIEGEL: Professor Garton Ash, in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression voters have turned away from the social democrats and socialists in European elections. Isn't this paradoxical? Timothy Garton Ash: I think there's an explanation for it. First, voters apparently feel that the conservatives and liberals are more competent when it comes to economic policy. Second, we are witnessing...

Tenants Want Status Quo, But Landlords Say Money Has To Come From Somewhere; Firewors Expected At Cooper Union NEW YORK (CBS) ― The New York City Rent Guidelines Board voted 6-3 on Tuesday night in favor of raising rents for the 1 million New Yorkers who live in rent-stabilized apartments, CBS 2 HD has learned. Renters on a one-year lease will face a 3 percent or $30 increase, while those on two-year leases will face a 6 percent or $60 increase – in both cases the actual amount will depend on which is more. The response by the thousands...

On June 7, 1995, the Washington Times printed a letter to the editor from a man named Thomas Colton Ruthford in which he described the Nazis and how Hitler came to power and then abused that power. In light of current events, this letter could be quite chilling. There are those who say that "Those who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it," but I would like to modify that and say that, "The only lesson we learn from history is that we don't learn from history." Gary ****************************** **** Letter to the Editor 6/7/95 - Arlington,...

There has been much talk recently that the US is becoming more like Europe. To be more technically accurate, we should say that the US is becoming more like what Europe used to be. In the meantime, Europe is un-Europeanizing. We are about to make France look like a holdout for rugged individualism. Plenty of sophisticated observers, including Mark Steyn and Claudia Rosett, have said the US is undergoing Europeanization. Too late. In February of 2008, I said that we are just another European country now. Exactly one year later, Newsweek agreed with me, under the title "We are all...

"They're on you day and night. Their oversight is just too extreme," said former Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca.

10 Reasons Why Obama Will be a One-Term President 1. Barack Obama won in part because of the amount of people he inspired with the campaign slogans: "Hope and Change" and "Yes We Can." He won't be able to use these slogans in 2012, unless he starts rooting for the opposition. 2. Over saturation. The problem with electing a Celebrity President is that people get tired of celebrities after a while. The news has become the new Entertainment Weekly, with anchors reporting on the latest Obama gossip. 3. The history factor will be gone. Part of the allure of voting...

Last fall's economic downturn and liquidity crisis were very serious. However, in the course of responding to them, the government abandoned its initial plan of action to purchase toxic assets and instead took to buying ownership stakes in a large number of private companies. An attempt to respond to an emergency quickly changed into something unanticipated by most Americans and most members of Congress. When the dust settled, the federal government had become a major investor in more than 500 private American businesses. I share the concerns of those who are alarmed at the federal government's increasing role in our...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has again urged President Barack Obama to adopt socialist principles to see the United States through the ongoing economic crisis. Speaking on Thursday on his new television program, Hello President, Chavez said the U.S. administration has taken some interesting steps in attempting to counter the "difficult crisis." He said that in Venezuela, socialism and well-timed state measures have helped the country save its "healthy national economy and healthy national bank in contrast with other world powers." "I recognize Obama's good intentions, but will repeat once again: Unite with socialism! Obama, join socialism and we'll see if...

Obama Aspires to a 'Light Touch,' Not a Heavy Hand By GERALD F. SEIB As he prepares to release the most extensive proposals to change financial regulations since the 1930s, President Barack Obama is a bit anxious. Anxious, that is, for people -- and specifically for his conservative critics -- to know he isn't the heavy-handed meddler some suspect. "I think the irony is that I actually would like to see a relatively light touch when it comes to the government," he said Tuesday in a White House interview. It is a counterintuitive argument to make when his government is...

President Obama is demanding dangerous, sweeping new powers to seize financial services companies. [T]he proposal expected to be unveiled tomorrow will be "the most significant new regulation of the financial industry since the Great Depression, including a new watchdog agency to look out for consumers' interests." The plan would give the government "new powers to seize key companies -- such as insurance giant American International Group Inc. -- whose failure jeopardizes the financial system." The news report notes that "[c]urrently, the government's authority to seize companies is mostly limited to banks."

WASHINGTON – Nearly half of all adults in America believe there has been a decrease in personal freedom under the Obama administration, which signals a significant degree of alarm across a wide swath of the population, the WND "Freedom Index" Poll finds. Significant percentages of Americans see their personal freedom diminishing under President Obama and even fear speaking their minds, expressing their political and religious views and freely associating with others because of potential retribution by government, the scientific survey conducted by Wenzel Strategies found.

It has finally happened. With yesterday's naming of Border Czar Alan Bersin, the Obama administration has by any reasonable reckoning passed the Romanov Dynasty in the production of czars. The Romanovs ruled Russia from 1613 with the ascension of Michael I through the abdication of Czar Nicholas II in 1917. During that time, they produced 18 czars. While it is harder to exactly count the number of Obama administration czars, with yesterday's appointment it seems fair to say it is now certainly in excess of 18. In addition to Bersin, we have energy czar Carol Browner, urban czar Adolfo Carrion,...

President Obama wants health care reform this year. He said at a town hall meeting the other day that he won't tolerate "endless delay" and that we probably won't reform health care if we don't do it this year. Now why is that Mr. President? Will Congress be on vacation for the remaining three years of your term? Consider that it's not unusual to take a full session of congress -- two years -- to pass legislation a fraction of the size and consequence of health care reform. Yet our president is demanding that a bill to overhaul a $2.5...

Nationalizing General Motors, and part of Chrysler, may or may not turn out to be a good deal for the taxpayers. I have a different concern, though: Was it constitutional? With hundreds of thousands of jobs on the line, this may seem a churlish question. Then again, the temptation to bend the rules of democracy is always greatest in a crisis. It wasn't so long ago that a president claimed the power to do all sorts of questionable things -- from waterboarding to electronic surveillance -- because the country faced a crisis. Bailing out Detroit is not in the same...

... Q. President Obama has talked about his desire to wean Americans off automobiles. A. What we’ve talked about is getting to a concept that we call livable communities, where people don’t have to get in a car every day. You can use light rail, you can use buses, you can use walking paths, you can use your bike. Q. The conservative columnist George Will recently denounced you as the “secretary of behavior modification,” in reference to your plan to have Americans give up cars. A. When George came over here for lunch, I could tell from the tone of...