August 2009 Archives

The powerful teachers unions are running our education system - running it into the ground. As American kids score progressively worse on scholastic measurement tests, incompetent teachers plod on with their tenured lifetime jobs, resistant to any attempt at innovation or change, fighting all attempts to incorporate nation-wide scholastic achievement tests. Fighting off all efforts to make teacher rewards based upon achievement. We no longer teach American history. In randomly sampled testing of high school seniors, 85% tested deficient in history at the 10th grade measurement level. Over 50% were deficient while testing only at the 8th grade measurement level. No amount of statistics or facts have been able to penetrate the defensive mindset of the unions and teachers which seems to confirm the pungent remark that, if you want to guarantee the downfall of an institution, just unionize it. This seems to have been the case for the American education system.

Barry Goldwater wrote in his book, Conscience of a Conservative, that if the government ever established its own lobby to promote more government, the country would be in peril. We now have that with the super-powerful government employees unions. California, which leads the way in taking away the freedoms of its people, demonstrates this proposition beautifully. The public employees unions: teachers unions, state workers union, prison workers unions, and fire and law enforcement unions, because of their huge wealth and power, can force through whatever laws through the compliant legislature they deem advantageous to the unions. California's Democrat-controlled legislature has become the model for the one-party despotic government. After all, buying a Congressman is one of the best investments a union can make which, of course, they know that fact better than any of the rest of us.

In November of 2006, I wrote a letter to the editor titled, Economic Benchmark. I quoted a comment from the Post's Marxist opinion writer, Lowell Blankfort, about the meaning of the Democrat ascendancy to congressional leadership. He said it meant that "A New Day is Dawning." He was correct; a new day definitely dawned. The new day's new Democrat bunch took control of our economy - an economy that was extremely healthy and started the long process of driving it into the ground. You see, the out-of-power bureaucrats must bad-mouth the current economy regardless of its health. I took a snapshot of the economy at the time as a benchmark for future reference. Unemployment was at all all-time low of 4.4 percent, inflation was only 2 percent, wage growth was 4 percent, gas was $2.10 per gallon nationally, productivity was up, and the stock market was sitting at a record high 12,400. To that point, and just since George Bush's presidency, the country had added 8.5 million jobs. Americans were prosperous, gainfully employed, and 71% of them owned their own home. The economy suffered a downturn at that point but remained strong in spite of the heavy hands of Democrat control, but the Dow Jones was still at 11,000, unemployment was stable, and the GNP was positive when Obama, the Messiah, came to power. Tuesday, Obama's Director of the Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, announced that Unemployment will "surge to 10 percent this year and the budget deficit will increase to $2 trillion next year," both figures much higher than the Messiah promised. Have you noticed that, since Obama started his spendathon, a trillion has lost any real meaning? Of course, that is largely because it is so astronomical, that one cannot grasp it even when it is written out: $2,000,000,000,000. Amazing, is it not? Obama lies to the American people when he justifies his spending by saying he will tax only the rich. One of the dirty little secrets about Obama and the other Marxist, redistribution of income, exponents is that there are not enough rich people to pay the taxes to bail out the Obama spending.

The shine is off the apple for our Grand Mullah, Barack Obama, now that the public has had a chance to contemplate the direction of America with the Socialist/Marxist transformations taking place. The State-run media such as CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and the NY Times have once again resorted to the race weapon; they are blaming the Mullah's problems on racial prejudice with use of the emotionally loaded phrase, "angry white men." These shameless propagandists are pulling out all the stops to protect the man they elected. We have witnessed the tactic numerous times over the years when race-baiters Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton periodically pop up to proclaim racism over some dreamed up slight against Blacks. A current news item involves New York interim Governor David Paterson, who has proven to be a huge disappointment to voters, a failure as a governor, and, frankly, a dim bulb all the way around, is blaming race for his troubles. After complaining on a Friday radio show that he is the victim of an "orchestrated" campaign to push him out of office, Paterson told a blogger that some people are uncomfortable with too many black politicians in power. At one point, a position from which he has since retreated, he claimed that the media is biased against all Blacks.
Did you ever wonder why it is that only whites can be racists? Is it not a case of black on white racism for a Black politician to blame white racism for his own ineptitude?

A friend sent me the following E-mail that is apparently circulating on the net, and it so aptly summarizes comments in my blogs, I publish it here with some wordsmithing:
Dear Comrade Obama and all 535 voting members of the Legislator. It is now official: You are all morons. You bureaucrats established the U.S. Post Service in 1775 - you have had 234 years to get it right; it is broken. You came up with Social Security in 1935 - you have had 74 years to get it right; it is broken. Fannie Mae in 1938 - you have had 71 years to get it right; it is not only broken, it was instrumental in bringing down our entire economic system - with Comrade Obama's help, of course. The War on Poverty started in 1964 - you have had 45 years to get it right; In the grand Marxist tradition, you confiscate $1 trillion of our money each year and transfer it to "the poor"; it hasn't worked. You created your crowning achievement to fix our medical care system for all time with Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 - you have had 44 years to get it right; they are broken. You made the Freddie Mac misadventure in 1970 - you have had 39 years to get it right; it is broken.
Trillions of dollars in the massive political payoff called the TARP bill of 2009 shows NO sign of working. Now, as a senseless transfer of income from one group to another and temporary (3 week) aid to the car industry, that you partially own: "Cash for Clunkers" which is broken. So with a perfect 100% failure rate and a record that proves that "services" you shove down our throats are failing faster and faster, do you want Americans to believe you can be trusted with a government-run health care system? 17% of our economy? Are you crazy or just stupid?

Our American Messiah's shrill tone and babbling news conferences clearly show his in distress. Some of this no doubt because he has not often had his teleprompter instructing him. His socialist programs are failing, independent voters among the 52% who elected him are losing their trust in him, and his polls are falling. He and his Obama mafioso are resorting to dirty tricks, false accusations, and name-calling. He recently charged, Clintonesquely, that Republican leaders are engaged in a vast right-wing conspiracy to kill health care reform. The obtuse Nancy Pelosi actually called attendees registering complaints at the townhall meetings, "Nazis." Rather than examine the public's concerns, the plans' inconsistencies or the sheer irresponsibility of trying to ram something this big and complicated through Congress without a small-scale trial, the Obama administration is pointing fingers. Lots of them. Most of the targets are just plain silly, the Insurance companies; talk show hosts, Sarah Palin, and opposing journalists. A townhall attendee is apparently not supposed to point out facts such as the following: Since Obama took office and started overhauling our economic system, growing government, bailouts, takeover of American companies, threats of Obamacare and Cap and tax, the government has added 110,000 civil service jobs. At the same time, we have lost 2,000,000 jobs in the private sector. A Socialist/Marxist Chicago politician like Barack Hussein Obama does not care how he reaches his goal of making America a Socialist, Utopian State, and he will never give up the quest. He and his socialist followers consider honesty and ethics quaint, irrelevant concepts. The ends justifying the means is their deity; dirty tricks and character assassination against the opposition are mere tools in the process. Nothing will stand in the way of Obama's Huxley-like Brave New World.

Obama and the Socialist Democrats, who are eager to throw out the best medical care system in the world and install a government run system, often say the national system would provide care for everyone - yes it will do that, inferior care. We all agree that our current system has problems and needs some amending, but it is by far the best and most advanced in the world. Ironically, government control of Medicare is the source of the problems. A major reason why a certain percentage of Americans have no health coverage is that Medicare bureaucrats determine whether applicants qualify for the Medicare treatment they are seeking. Similar to Canada, the British have a government-run system; they have shortages of doctors, medicine, and hospital care, long waits, and unavailability of procedures that are common here. A British author wrote in his recent book, "England is the most unpleasant country in the free world in which to be sick." To promote his government system, Obama claims a government option would be healthy for the market, and bolstered his point with the example of the Post Office competition to FedEx and UPS. A man this ignorant about the market economy should never rise to the highest office in the country. This argument is bogus. FedEx and UPS are not direct competitors; they ship packages only. A few years ago, they attempted to compete in letter handling, and the government, afraid of competition, blocked the attempt. Moreover, the government-run Post Office has all the inefficiencies of every bureaucrat-controlled system and has operated in the red for years.

If one ignores the news, he is uninformed; if he follows the news, he is misinformed. Many have simply opted to ignore the news media. The major press is in trouble. Readership is down for practically every newspaper in the country, and the biggest of the bigs, such as the New York Times, is in financial trouble. Advertising revenue, which pays the bills, is down, down, down. The Washington Post circulation is down 20 percent. As a Conservative, I find it hard to muster more than a grain of sorrow for these liberal propaganda behemoths. Even allowing for the increase in competition from the internet, bloggers, and so on, the fact that the media is so biased must be a factor. Integrity and objectivity are long gone from a press that no longer even attempts to justify its bias toward Obama and the Democrats. In fact, journalism, along with any remaining trace of journalistic ethics finally died during the presidential campaign, because the media so wanted Obama to become president, it abandoned any pretense of fairness. The once great New York Times is an embarrassing affront to journalism. The Times carried a story on its Internet site reporting results of their poll regarding Obama's handling of the economy. The headline read, "The Poll summary described the finding that the public felt Obama was ineffective on the economy." Oddly, only a matter of hours later, the headline read, "Obama poll sees doubt on budget and health care." Note that the adjective "ineffective" is gone. Obviously to attempt to soften the harsh truth, the word "economy" had been removed and the word "doubt" inserted. Clearly, one of Obama's henchmen - and I understand these people are in contact daily with the New York Times management - came down on the Times night editor to change the headline. This is merely another instance of the shameful bias of the Times. Because of the political bias and misinformation, our major media has done far more harm to the country than it has done good in the last 60 years.

Our far left President is determined to tear down the best health care system in the world and replace it with a government system. National health care means government functionaries, rather than physicians, deciding upon our medical treatment - DMV with a stethoscope. Obama has used the Canadian system as a model. Yes, the Canadians have tried a national system of health care, have big problems with it, and are casting about for solutions; American bureaucrats, not known for learning anything from history or other people's mistakes, are trying to force us to enter the same kind of big government bureaucratic mess. The incoming president of the Canadian Medical Association , Dr. Anne Doig, said, "This country's health-care system is sick and doctors need to develop a plan to cure it." She said patients are getting less than optimal care and that physicians from across the country recognize they must make changes. She added, "We all agree that the system is imploding, we all agree that things are more precarious than perhaps Canadians realize." The Canadian newspapers are rife with headlines such as, "Surgery Postponed Indefinitely for 1,000 Kelowna Patients," "Kidney Cancer Patients Denied Life-saving Drugs by government agency" and "Girl, 3, Has Heart Operation Cancelled Three Times Because of Bed Shortage. Large numbers of Canadians come to America to avoid waiting for MRIs or to get time-sensitive treatment that cannot wait. A few have won lawsuits to pay for private service. Imagine having to sue to spend your own money in a voluntary transaction between two parties! According to a 2007 survey by the Canadian Fraser Institute, the median wait time in Canada between visiting a general practitioner and receiving treatment was more than 18 weeks -- and up to 38 weeks for procedures such as orthopedic surgery.

wish with their weakening America's security. He is speaking of liberal Congressional Democrats pressing to investigate CIA officers and prosecute them for covert intelligence operations against al Qaida and other terrorist organizations. In addition to harassment of the CIA, which obviously weakens the initiative of that organization to gain information, these people have weakened our interrogation ability and made public our techniques for gaining information. In short, the Liberals are tearing down the protective wall that has kept us from attack ever since 9/11. They clearly have the same death wish neurosis when it comes to the domestic front. This year's budget will surpass the 2-trillion dollar mark, and the deficit has quadrupled since Obama took office. Under the Democrat category of never let the truth interfere with the message, the administration proclaimed, "we are committed to reducing the deficit once we recover from the recession." The recession they caused. Even a passing acquaintance with market economics informs one we are not going to recover from Obama-nomics any time soon and may now never reach a balanced budget or zero deficit, and our great grandchildren will be paying down our debt. The Obama express has done more damage to America in a few short months than any five other presidents during their terms, if one excludes Carter who made quite a mess of both domestic and international terms.

Given the events of the past six months and particularly the recent Democrat Party's angry and belligerent response to the failure of the failure of their townhall meetings, it is difficult to believe the following, but facts are hard things to ignore. We know that a political ranking study showed Obama to be the most liberal member of the Senate, that on could fairly label him a Socialist because of his views, and that he has a history of associations with Socialists and anti Democracy extremists. His new Democrat Party has shown a striking resemblance to the old Nazi Party of the 30's and 40's. Obama sent union goons and Acorn to strong-arm, physically or mentally, anyone who dares refute the Obama plan to take over the health care system. Some more examples:
He is pushing hard for National health care; the Nazis (National Socialist Party) made government health care a cornerstone of their plan to control everything in Germany; a big foot in the door.
Anti-big business
Obama has actually suggested forming a government militia....ala the Brown Shirts.
He has encouraged ordinary citizens to snitch on their neighbor who will go into an enemies list.
He has started to nationalize some of our largest companies, beginning with the banks and car companies.
The Nazis held complete control over the press, just as the Obamanites do - without using force.
The Obama propaganda ministry (Axelrod, Carville, Begala, and Podesta) would make Josef Goebbels proud.

Contrary to the superficial, naive opinion of much of the public, there are fundamental differences between the two major parties. One of those differences is that Democrats think it a zero sum game in the country. The Dems believe that because one group's earnings or income increase, another group's income must necessarily decrease. The Democrat politicians and the state-run media promote this thinking to feed class envy, wittingly or not, they are promoting the Marxist idea of redistribution of income. Our progressive tax system is a form of redistribution, as is the capital gains tax, and virtually every other tax in our life. The Republicans know zero sum idea is false. They understand that when upper income people's earnings expand, they invest, grow their business, hire workers, and everyone's earnings can go up. It is the old saw, "A rising tide raises all boats." Zero sum is when the government takes taxpayer money to spend on a stimulus bill or bail out a bank, making that money unavailable to growing the economy. Zero sum is when money is taken from non-buyers in the form of taxpayer funds and given to those participating in the Cash for Clunkers program.

Obama and the Dems are in trouble. The Messiah's favorability numbers are dropping, because the American people, although generally inattentive to events beyond their own lives, are catching on to the obvious. Never has a national leader done so much damage, in such a short time, and in such a winning friendly way. He is a charismatic leader with questionable motives and minimal skills. He seems drawn to the world's Marxist dictators: Venezuela's Chavez, Iran's Ahmadinejad, and Cuba's Castro. When a left-wing journalist such as Camille Paglia makes the following comments, you know the bloom is off the liberal rose: "Obama seems to be surrounded by juvenile tinhorns, bumbling mediocrities and crass bully boys. Obama's aggressive endorsement of a healthcare plan that does not even exist yet, except in five competing, fluctuating drafts, makes Washington seem like Cloud Cuckoo Land. All nationalized health systems, neither nourished nor updated by profit-driven private investment, eventually lead to rationing." She said that the Dems, through their own clumsiness and arrogance, have sabotaged healthcare reform yet again. Blaming obstructionist Republicans is nonsensical because Democrats control all three branches of government. She added, "The ethical collapse of the left was nowhere more evident than in the near total silence of liberal media and Web sites at the Obama administration's outrageous solicitation to private citizens to report unacceptable 'casual conversations" to the White House.

Our President is a serial liar and the most liberal politician we ever elected - well, 52% did - an all Democrat Congress, a newly lifetime-ensconced liberal Supreme Court justice with possibly a racial chip on her shoulders, and a flakey set of new Obama appointees. He appointed Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow as head of the Senate Energy Committee who, as one would expect, immediately announced she would make the fight against the global warming crisis her top priority. Most real scientists now agree there is no global warming, nor has there been for several years. Her home state of Michigan just experienced its coldest July on record, after having an unusually cold spring. Facts that disagree with their worldview are of no regard to Liberals. In an interview with the Detroit News she said, "Climate change is very real," but, claiming that drastic actions such as the Cap and Trade tax would not lead to an increase in manufacturing costs or energy prices. The best part of the interview: she said "Global warming creates volatility. I feel it when I'm flying. The storms are more volatile. We are paying the price in more hurricanes and tornadoes, and there are sea monsters in Lake Michigan. I can feel them when I'm boating." Our liberal, biased media is largely responsible for sustaining the global warming myth in the public mind with its steady beat of misinformation tidbits. Examples abound. An AP writer, either too ignorant to understand unbiased news presentation or simply an openly biased hack, reported on the fire danger during the dry months. The alleged writer, tossed in his own sentence, "Scientists say the danger could be heightened by global warming." What scientists? What about the 750 scientists who signed a petition refuting that we have global warming; in fact, there is no data to indicate no warming for the last several years? Unethical and irresponsible in addition to poor writing.

Cash for clunkers is just another political move and excuse to con the American voting public into thinking the bureaucrats are actually doing something besides making flowery speeches to boost the sagging economy. The few economically smart lawyer-politicians in Congress know better and the other 99% could not care less about the economy; they only care about showboating. The expenditure of taxpayer money is having no net positive for the economy, just another case of distribution of earnings from one group - the non-buyers - to another group - the car buyers. It is merely another example of taxation by another name and has no net positive effect except a three-week boost to the car business. Writer Bruce Bialosky wrote, "Rarely has a government program displayed the gross ignorance of our political and media elites as the Cash for Clunkers program, a gross misuse of government funds." The writer went on that it was "just another boondoggle foisted upon us by people who have no clue how our economic system works." I might add a caveat to the criticism. The Department of Transportation reports that the top 10 cars traded in for the $4500 are all American made, and six of the top ten replacements are foreign, so the $3 billion program, although useless to us may be is a boost to the Japanese economy.

If you prowl the Internet or listen to one of the conservative talk show programs, you know that the Obama townhall meetings that were started to promote national health care are not going according to plan and, in fact, are exploding in the their faces. You would not know this if you get your news from the Obama cheerleading, State-run media.
In the grand old Stalinist style, the Obamanists are countering the townhall criticisms by attacking the disputers, demonizing them until they give up, rather than wasting pointless time trying to defend their own defenseless plan.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn wrote an open letter to the White House demanding a stop to the compilation of an "enemies list," and that the administration inform Congress what it has done to ensure it is no longer collecting electronic information about citizens.
Obama personally asked the Unions to attend the townhall meetings, and the union goons, along with some Acorn extremists, dutifully complied and proceeded to block attendees who were not on the approved list (the kool-aid drinkers) and to push around the old folks who are there because they fear they are going to lose their health care plans. Eighty percent of Americans are happy with their health care now. The Obama machine has come out in full force. The mindless Nancy Pelosi called the townhall dissenters, many of them Democrats, "Nazis." Ironic, since Pelosi and the rest are the ones acting like Nazis. Equally air-headed Barbara Boxer made similar comments, calling the dissenters, "anti-American. American National Socialism, here we come.

Obama and his left-wing flakes have taken another stride toward their planned Marxist America. Obama appointed John Holdren his new science advisor, who has hit the ground running by announcing that a fetus is not only not human but will not become a human for several years after it has gone through socialization and some education. Holdren, unsurprisingly a former Berkeley professor, is the same lefty who, a few years ago, argued that trees have the same legal standing as humans and, as such, can file court lawsuits. We could call these suits tree torts. He co-authored several articles with Paul Ehrlich, who wrote the alarmist book, "The Population Bomb, a screed proclaiming the end of the world is we did not stop the population explosion. Events have disproved everything in the book, but, amazingly, the left, that has a facility for ignoring disagreeable facts, still esteems the man.
The major goal for the Obama Marxists is to force through their government run health care system, which would give them complete power over a huge, far-reaching segment of American society. Government civil servants, rather than doctors, will decide what kind of medical care to dole out to ailing patients or if they will grant us that care at all. As anyone who has dealt with the DMV knows, civil servants, having no particular motivation to act otherwise, show little motivation to provide prompt, courteous service. Canadians come down here for medical treatment because they cannot get it with their national system. Where are we going to go?

The disgraceful California Democrat Legislature has been in power for so long and has practiced such stupid and wasteful actions, it have managed to destroy California business and everything else with it. We have hundreds of pointless departments, commissions, and committees wasting millions of taxpayer dollars and the only thing they can suggest to fix the impossible deficit is to cut firefighter, police, and classroom teachers. Fear of losing campaign funds from the teachers union handcuffs them doing any significant cuts to education such as culling out the high-priced executives in the State Superintendent's office or the Department of Education, which is superfluous. If we unloaded some of the dead weight at the top, perhaps Education would not occupy the top cost in the state budget. Or how about cutting down on the Representatives' perks such as luxury cars and boondoggle trips to Hawaii to study the flora and fauna. Their best suggestion otherwise is that the genius Democratic state assemblyman Tom Ammiano recommends legalizing marijuana so they can tax it for revenue. Pathetic.

Obama, our erstwhile messiah and new American dictator has vowed to give us not just government-controlled health care - we already have that and it is the source of many of the system's problems. He said he is going to give us government run health care even if it means doing so without bi-partisan support. He has shown his determination to do this by lying about his plan. He premised the need for reform on the claim that medical costs are destroying the economy, and government run health will save money. Uh huh, we have already seen how expertly the bureaucrats have spent our taxpayer money on large programs they run. Such as the Post Office, Amtrak, social security and Medicare which have all operated in the red since day one. Now, The President's own Congressional Budget Office reports that universal coverage increases costs -- surprise. The CBO report says that a nationalized health system will increase costs on the order of $1 trillion plus. The new totalitarians, heady with the absolute control of both houses of Congress, are forcing through the government health fiasco without having read it and are ignoring the public's desires. The great majority of the public are happy with their current plan and do not want the government taking over.
Congressional Democrats are also telling us they will appoint Sotomayor to the Supreme Court with or without any Republican support. A handful of Republicans, pandering to the Hispanic groups, are joining the New Totalitarians in voting for Sotomayor. One said, there is "no significant finding" of misdeeds. Any thing less than significant is insufficient to keep a person from becoming a lifetime member of only nine members of the top judicial body in the country? Democrat Bob Menendez threatened that, "A vote against her would send a message we will not forget." The message must be, "you voted for the nominee's suitability for the job, regardless of race or ethnicity.

The Obama pack has taken to the media with an attack on Matt Drudge for a report that exposed Obama explaining how his health care reform plans eventually would eliminate private insurance. The Obama clip was newsworthy because it provided just one more instance of President Forked-Tongue saying whatever sounds good at the moment regardless of truth; Obama has repeatedly said the exact opposite prior to this. The White House video features Linda Douglass, a former network television correspondent and now White House Office of Health Reform communications director, doing what the Left does when confronted with authentic disagreement. The members of the Obama dirty tricks brigade all seem to have the same talking points, because they are in full battle dress attacking the Democrat-organized townhall attendees who are reacting negatively and vocally to Obama's plan to take over the nation's health care. When surprised with opposition, the Liberals do what they always do: isolate the opposition, demonize and, if possible, and destroy that opposition. Obama's chief surrogate liar, Press Secretary Gates, Barbara Boxer, and Nancy Pelosi have been leading the charge to question the validity of the outspoken citizens, because - pay attention now - dressed too well. Silly, chill up the leg, liberal talk show host Chris Matthews, wanted to know where all the Obama supporters, who should be at those meetings shouting down the opposition as they did during the campaign. Flash for Matthews: even the Democrats do not want to turn over their health care to bureaucrats. Perhaps even the Democrats have noticed Obama's own Congressional Budget Office has contradicted his claim of savings when it reported his plan would increase costs by $1 trillion.

One cannot avoid noticing the little bit of irony in following minor news item: Dan Rather, liberal longtime CBS News anchor, the very same news anchor who the network had to fire for fabricating a story detrimental to President Bush, has made a plea to Obama to form a White House commission to help save the press. He said, "I personally encourage the president to establish a White House commission on public media." Further, "Such a commission on media reform ought to make recommendations on saving journalism jobs and creating new business models to keep news organizations alive." The major press is in trouble in part because it has become so biased toward the left that readers are reluctant to trust the news as pure news and not opinions of the news. Rather refuses to face up to the fact that he helped tarnish the reputation of the major media and destroy the public trust with his political bias. He was instrumental in bringing in the age of agenda journalism and media malfeasance. Someone siad, "Journalism is for people who can't write well interviewing people who can't speak well for people who don't read well." One could add, and for people who have a political axe they want to wield.

One day the inattentive public is bound to wake up and catch on to Obama's socialist plan for turning over every aspect of our lives to government bureaucrats. Like snails discovering what the word escargot means. He is growing government exponentially, destroying the free market economy, taking over major manufacturing companies, starting with the car companies. He has virtually appropriated the banking system, has taken aim at the health business, and is appointing leftists to the courts and government bureaus. So far, he is accomplishing this with a complicit press, complete control of a liberal congress, nice rhetoric, beautiful smile, false promises, and goodies for those people who have their hands out, and pay no taxes, but cast votes. Welcome to the new Marxist America; come for the hammer and stay for the sickle.

I have living, verifiable proof of my long-term contention that Liberals have no real sense of humor, and that is why they refuse to even consider an opposing idea. They do not think that Conservatives are merely wrong in their views but believe them to be evil. The proof: Occasionally a Liberal calls in to provide the comment for placement in the Forty-niner that they enjoyed a Drew Kelson cartoon and thought it was funny. I have suggested that, for starters, Drew should try to develop at least one of the following criteria for a political cartoonist: either humor, satire, or artistry. The gargoyles simply don't do it. Liberals typically appear not just humorless, but angry, malcontented, and disbelievers in everything traditionally American: God, the founding principles, the constitution, and family values. Someone said, "Liberals have no heroes." Maybe it was me.....