Lies Of Omission

I’m fairly sure that anyone here is sufficiently ”plugged in” to current politics enough to have heard about House member Gabby Gifford’s recent plea for further gun restrictions. I’m not sure what your local media is like, but there’s a fair chance that there was even a mention of Sarah Palin or at least some sort of “incitement” behind that shooter’s attack. Given the body count, it’s not too surprising.

Also recently mentioned, though only in passing, is that the guy who shot up the Family Research Council in DC. Honestly, my main memory of that was being on a family trip and wondering why the heck somebody targeting based on “anti-gay bias” would have bags of Chick-fil-A. I can remember a few commentators suggesting that it was some sort of cartoonish attempt at “blending in”– an indication of just how crazy his view of those who disagree is or was. “Hey, Chick-fil-a is ‘anti-gay’ the same way that the FRC is– they don’t support redefining marriage to fit current pop culture appeals. The Family Research Council even denies a man and woman are functionally identical to two guys or two gals, of all the nerve! They’ll never notice me coming in and killing people if I have suitable fast food bags!”   Not someone to take too seriously, even if he <I>did</i> have a gun.

I vaguely remember reading a blog about him choosing the target from the Southern Poverty Law Center, but I think that was from a site that collects examples of the SPLC faking and inflating “hate” for fundraising purposes. As I said, it didn’t stick in my mind, and I already don’t trust the SPLC. I assumed that they’d mentioned the FRC as being against homosexual marriage and the guy had gone from there.

Mostly, the “Giffords shooting” (the six dead victims get less press, since it seems likely she was the focus– if only because her public meeting gave that scum a crowd) sticks in one’s mind so much more because of the horrible range of people killed; from the little girl that was a 9/11 baby and the retired grandparent-types to the federal Judge and the first staffer to die in the line of duty, there was someone incredibly relatable to for everyone. Nobody died in the FRC attack, and Leonardo Johnson was able to overcome the shooter even after being shot in the arm.  No fuss about heroism there, so it must have not been that bad of a shot, or it would’ve hit the news, right? (An aside: You might notice that I don’t name the murderers or attempted murderers. I don’t want to give them that level of recognition. The victims or heroes, though, are a different matter, and it took quite a bit of digging to find Mr. Johnson’s name wasn’t “A. Security Guard.”)

After today, I’m rather disabused of the notion that the Giffords attack was anything but more successful and more hyped: the attempted murderer bought the Chick-fil-A sandwiches to rub in the faces of his dying victims.

Insult to injury.  Fatal injury.  Not as cartoonish, now.

If not for Mollie Hemmingway’s post over at Ricochet, I wouldn’t have even thought about media bias. I’m Catholic– if that doesn’t make you realize how much the media screws up, what on earth will?  It would be easier to find stories about the Church where reporters got it right than where they didn’t.  I’m sure other traditional religion followers, or even folks who simply are part of uncommon fandoms or do something as “strange” as know more about a gun than what end the bullet comes out can relate…. The news screws things up, a lot.

I’m guessing folks will remember the “Blame Sarah Palin Because Her Website Had A Map With Gifford’s Area In A Target” to-do? If not, Mollie goes over it, with links. Although I want you to go read it, the short version is: even though Mrs. Palin didn’t say anything vaguely like ”go shoot this bad woman,” and there was no evidence that the Gifford’s shooter had even seen the map or Palin’s facebook page, it was worrying because it might affect an effect on “troubled” people.

Turns out that the FRC was ”mentioned” on the SPLC site– it was on a “hate map.” That’s where the thank-God ineffective attempted murderer got his target. From a hate map.  They’re hateful, you see– so it’s good to target them.

Target a house seat: dangerous.

Make a “hate map” of those who oppose you politically on an issue: not worth mentioning. In fact, noticing that the attacker specifically stated he chose the target because of that “hate map” means that you are picking a fight.

As Mollie writes in response to a quote about that little detail “reigniting the culture wars that erupted around the shooting:”

Excuse me? What is that supposed to mean? I mean, you have an actual shooting in the culture war – an actual shooting – and you dismiss this aspect of the story as a “detail” that is “sure to reignite the culture wars”? The gall. The chutzpah. The …. hypocrisy of our media. The story doesn’t mention, by the way, that the shooter had a list with other groups whose names he got from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Cherry on top: a guy goes in to kill people he hates, and has a list of other targets that he hates, and intends to assault the dying further with a symbol of yet another group he hates… and the SPLC doesn’t include that as a “hate incident.”

Culture War on a Shoe String Budget

Over at the blog of the author, Sarah Hoyt, there’s a very good post.

I was going to try to use the theme to combine with some conversations from over at Ricochet.com, but then she went and put what I would’ve been pointing at into its own paragraph:

Both of these endeavors will change your perception and you’ll find yourself huffing at sitcoms you used to enjoy.   This is good.  Most of the politics are snuck into stuff like that (hence the directive that came down for more plots about healthcare in sitcoms and episodic dramas) and if you’re not aware of them they’ll insidiously color the way you see the world.  It’s brilliant to sneak them into entertainment because if you complain, you’re a sour puss.  But at this point they’re not even subtle, and you’ll start seeing them if you look: cardboard “conservative” characters who are anything but and who can’t defend their positions.  “Dangerous” tea partiers.  Liberating yourself through having indiscriminate sex and stuff.  The government as a fount of goodness.  It’s all there.  And it’s there on purpose.

There’s more, some general stuff on how the polite refusal to inject politics into everything puts us at a bit of a disadvantage, and it’s quite worth reading.  Now, on to my comments:

She’s right.  My husband is a lot more easy going than I am, but we both can’t watch some shows because of the obvious agenda involved.  Recognizing it isn’t just about paying attention or such– we had a rather long argument with my mother over a TV show that opened with a guy being shot inside his house by a SWAT team called in for a false hostage situation. (Before SWATting got big.)  The show, and the woman who taught me to not trust the story that the news presented, held the SWAT team (personified by the leader) responsible.  TrueBlue and I held those who certified that it was a hostage situation on an anonymous call from a random number as being responsible– there wasn’t any way for the guys who’d been told they were going in to a known hostage situation to know that the guy charging them with a kitchen knife was righteously defending his house.  The guy risking their lives had to be at fault, while the paper-pushers that actually created the entire situation had to be blameless– not even faceless, but as natural a thing as the sun rising, and as unquestioned.  Something goes wrong?  It’s the fault of those uniformed Authority Figure guys. (Who all incidentally looked military.)

Stories set up the way we see the world.

Cumulonimbus + AgI = ??

A dark cloud follows him wherever he goes.
Every cloud has a silver lining.

Farmers obviously need rain for their crops, so there are some who resort to cloud seeding, adding silver iodide to the clouds to try to force rain out of them. But it’s a bad idea to seed a thunderstorm cloud. Cumulonimbus clouds can produce nasty things like hail storms, massive lightning storms, micro-bursts, tornadoes.

And of course, there are those who always bring bad luck with them, like Bad Luck Schleprock, our current President.

 
So, today I am telling you about the seeding of a 3,000 mile wide thunderstorm cloud hanging over the US — and the silver lining that comes with it. It’s painfully schadenfreudig. Painfully schadenfreudig, indeed. (Multiple stacked redundancy intentional.) Barack Obama and the Democrats, very cynically aware that their grand scheme to shove the US headlong into Socialism could cause them to fall out of power, set up a series of Laws and programs that would save most of the very bad results until after the 2012 election. After having blamed Bush for all the Democrat-and-Socialist caused travails, they would have a way of avoiding responsibility for the looming mega-disaster. It works like this:

• Set up a Socialist system with all the false positives front-loaded and all the negatives back-loaded.
• Get possibly voted out of office before the negatives hit, so the Socialist-caused negatives would hit when Conservatives were in office.
• Blame the Conservatives in office for the economic disaster the Socialists caused.
• Get the Socialists re-elected to complete the evil transformation of the Free Market US into a Socialist state, with the Conservatives forever blemished by the results of Socialist actions.

But a strange thing happened along the way. The Socialists got re-elected by a completely ignorant, envious, slothful, free hand-out seeking crowd. And all the back-loaded disasters will hit while the Socialists are in power. (By the way, did you know that tornadoes are also backloaded? They are on the back end of cumulonimbus clouds, and not up front.)

ObamaCare is one such program. As most of it is set to kick in now that the election is over, total disaster is on the horizon. Businesses, who cannot pay the cost of ObamaCare and stay afloat at the same time, will be laying off massive numbers of workers nationwide. Other businesses will be cutting their low-level employees (the working poor) to under 30 hours a week so those businesses can stay in business. Very little expansion will be happening, if any at all. It’ll be full-on contraction.

A nice little poisonberry in ObamaCare — that “make health care cheaper for all” lie — is a 2.3 percent excise tax on all medical devices, such as crutches, wheelchairs, heart stents, etc, etc. And an excise tax is far worse than a profit tax or income tax. It hits the gross revenue and not the after-expenses cost. For example, suppose it costs a business 5,000 dollars for the raw materials to make a single product. Add in the labor costs, the health insurance costs, the retirement costs, the social security tax, the medicare tax, the property tax for the building itself, the electricity cost, the property insurance cost, the transportation cost, the bookkeeping cost, and all other costs associated with getting the already developed product to market and the final cost to the business is 6,800 dollars. The business sells the product for 7,000 dollars because that’s what the market will bear. The business gets a profit of 200 dollars per sale.

In comes the 2.3 percent excise tax. Another 161 dollars off the top. The new profit for the 7,000 dollar item falls from 200 dollars to a whopping 39 dollars (an effective tax rate of 80.5 percent of the profit). Not enough to make the company a going concern. Kill the Research and Development department of the company — the life-blood of all businesses that want to survive, for if a business is not growing and moving forward it is necessarily dying.

But it doesn’t stop there. No, not at all. That same company also has to pay the new, higher costs involved in providing ObamaCare to all its employees (instead of the less expensive insurance plans which were optional, which fair portions of employees did not opt into). That 39 dollars per product, which used to be 200 dollars per product goes negative. It costs more to produce than it can be sold for.

But, again, it doesn’t stop there. Obama’s declaration that electricity costs must necessarily skyrocket and he’ll bankrupt coal-fired electric plants necessarily means the energy-intensive manufacturing industry will get hit hard with skyrocketing overhead costs. Costs that cannot be reduced merely by laying people off. So instead, the companies will shutter its doors and either go off-shore or cease to exist, providing a double-whammy of forcing the products to become far more expensive than they are now and far more difficult to obtain.

Small businesses will collapse. The middle class will become working poor. The working poor will become the unemployable destitute. Products the middle class used to be able to afford will become luxury items. Items that were luxuries for the working poor will become nothing but unreachable pipe-dreams. Inflation will go into hyper-drive. Interest rates will climb, making the cost of borrowing prohibitive. And deficit spending, which has been kept artificially low (yeah, I said it), will explode.

How is 1.2 trillion dollars (or more) in deficit spending “artificially low”? That’s a good question. And I have a good answer for that. Two words: “debt” and “service”. Debt service.

Historical view of the Prime Rate from Forecast Chart.com (8 percent line added).

Above is a chart showing the historic levels for the Prime Rate, from Forecast Chart.com. I added a red line at 8 percent for reference. Below is a chart showing the historic levels for the Discount Rate, from a 2009 article on Apin Talisayon’s Weblog (data obtained from the Financial Forecast Center). I added a red line at 6 percent for reference.

US Discount Rate From 1950 as found on Apin Talisayon’s Weblog (6 percent red line added).

From Apin Talisayon:

As I said, central banks had recently been dropping interest rates, and so we cannot use the abnormally low prevailing interest rates (0.5%). I plotted the historical data of discount rates set by the US Federal Reserve since January 1950 from the Financial Forecast Center[.]

As you can see in the above two charts, the Prime Rate and the Discount Rate differ in levels, but mirror each other. And they’re not only at historic lows; they’re far below historic norms. That means the future necessarily will provide much higher rates on borrowing than today. And the Federal Government’s debt service costs absolutely must skyrocket. Couple that with the US credit rating crumbling — and will continue to crumble — and the interest on the debt will become astronomical. Even a fairly normal rate of 6 percent with our current 16,000,000,000,000 dollar deficit means 960 BILLION DOLLARS in interest payments alone. By 2015, our national debt will be 20 TRILLION DOLLARS and the interest on that debt will be 1.2 TRILLION DOLLARS. That’s before paying for roads, bridges, high speed trains to nowhere, free birth control pills for Sandra Fluck (phonetic spelling), free abortion pills for Sandra Fluck (phonetic spelling), free ObamaPhones, free health care, free foodstamps, free college tuition, free housing for the poor and forever pregnant single mothers, free Big Bird, free NPR propaganda, bailing out California, Illinois, Maryland, New York, free cowboy poetry, and oh yeah, paying for our national defense.

1.2 TRILLION DOLLARS SPENT TO PAY FOR ALREADY SPENT MONEY WE DIDN’T HAVE BEFORE PAYING FOR ANY CURRENT PROGRAMS AND EXPENSES!!!

The Socialist who ascended the throne in DC, along with the Socialists in the US Senate who have adamantly refused to produce a Federal Budget since April, 2009, in direct violation of Federal Law and the US Constitution, have successfully Cloward-Pivened the most prosperous nation in the history of the world. The most prosperous nation this world has ever seen has been successfully brought to financial ruin by the Leftists in power who have no use for a document that is “over 100 years old”. The aim? Destroy the Free Market and implement Socialism worldwide.

The silver lining? Conservatives have not been responsible for any of it. Conservatives have not been in charge for any of it. I know, little solace for the loss of a once great and mighty and FREE nation. Will there be anything left to save by 2016? And will there be any conceivable way to save it and return to prosperity from the Abyss of Destitution Obama and the Socialist Democrats have created? Or will it already be too late? I, for one, am not looking forward to the disaster these next 10 years will provide us. (UPDATE: Nice Deb performed her Karnac impression and answered my questions before seeing them. Go to her site to read her answers.)

RELATED
This medical device tax is just not going to end well
Economics 101: Schadenfreude!
Video: What free-market medicine looks like
2013: A Century Of Progress
Gee, why do you think the Obama administration waited until after November 6th to mail these letters?

It’s All The Social Conservatives Fault!

I really, really wish I were joking about the title, but I’ve actually heard several folks seriously suggest this.  (Hugh Hewitt show had a co-host/guest suggest “dropping the abortion issue,” for example—thankfully, Hugh pointed out that was…not a great idea.)

In a campaign where social issues were not focused on, where the SoCon vote was assumed, where the entire point would be “It’s the economy, stupid” and our turnout dropped hugely… we should really ditch these social conservatives entirely and try to peel off some Democrat voters.  I was one of the folks that was saying at the beginning that we could not just assume we’d get our own base and that all we needed was to go after other groups, though I—like many others—thought that things were obviously bad enough that maybe the base could be taken for granted.

We tried the “shut up about social issues, focus on the financial short-term disaster.”   Shock shock, it didn’t work.  The “of course” votes didn’t show up, as best we can tell at this early of a time.  Of course there was fraud and probably voter suppression, but we knew from the start that we’d have to win so big that they couldn’t cheat.

I know the thinking Libertarians believe that Social Issues hurt us, and if we’d just drop them it would improve—but they ignore that if you let people do all the stupid stuff they immaturely desire, they are going to want to be saved by someone else.  (I’m ignoring the sub-group of thinking Libertarians that thinks having children at is a “personal choice” with no serious effect on the future of society, and mostly only something that ‘women want while they leach off men.’  I wish that last part was not a very slight paraphrase.)  Of course, thinking Libertarians think social issues hurt because when thinking Libertarians recognize the cause and effect of libertine personal actions in creating demand for a leech-State, they become at least isolationist conservatives, rather than Libertarians.  But I’m digressing.

So, we tried assuming that the rah rah Abortion!! stuff on Obama’s side would be enough to 1) get half our base out, and 2) get them to vote for Romney.  Clearly, that was wrong.

We focused on the economy.  I think we did pretty well on that, considering that Obama and Co could lie their tails off about what we actually said.  (It’s a given, sadly.)

That makes me think that we maybe should’ve beat on the military side of things a bit more as well.  I  have friends who are still active duty who thought I was blowing smoke up their rears when I told them there was never a protest when the Ambassador was killed, when that was known just days after the attack.  (Power Line linked an interview in a UK paper that included quotes from the guys who were opening a hospital with the Ambassador; they were on the phone when the attack started, and there was no mention of a protest, which would’ve been a pretty big deal.)

So, we need to actually make our own case, try to win the base before we try to peel folks off, and probably improve our communication networks.  I’m going to work even harder on applying this in person—when someone says something incredibly untrue in person, I’m going to politely correct them.  Yes, it’s uncomfortable and socially awkward, but that is what the other side’s tactics depend on.  At some point, the drunk in the party has to be confronted.  We’re there and past.

This is going to be especially hard on religious people.  There are a lot of very nice people who…well… voted for Obama because that’s what “nice” people do.

What Our Future Holds

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury.

From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:

• From bondage to spiritual faith;
• from spiritual faith to great courage;
• from courage to liberty;
• from liberty to abundance;
• from abundance to selfishness;
• from selfishness to apathy;
• from apathy to dependence;
• from dependency back again into bondage.

–Dr Alexander Tytler, Scotsman, history professor at the University of Edinborough on The Fall of The Athenian Republic around the time of the birth of the US

Having reelected a Socialist who has vowed vengeance on us and to bypass Congress and maintained a Leftist Senate which has refused to obey the US Constitution and Federal Law by refusing to write a Budget since April 2009, here are a few things I see in our future:

1. Energy inflation and food inflation (two items left off the “official” inflation rate) will continue to far outstrip the inflation rate, as the Obama administration bankrupts electricity producers and rolling black-outs become commonplace in this land of plentiful natural resources we will not be permitted to use. The inflation rate itself will necessarily heat up heavily.

2. Businesses will continue to downsize due to the undue burdens of catastrophic regulations and taxes, reducing the number of employees and turning many full-time positions into part-time positions, causing the official unemployment numbers to climb and the real unemployment numbers to skyrocket.

3. The poverty rate and dependency rate will climb higher, as fewer people work and more people hold their hands out for “ObamaMoney”, causing even greater harm to those who are the producers. The US will further cannibalize itself.

4. The National Debt will continue to skyrocket and deficit spending will once again increase year-over-year instead of decreasing, causing two more reductions in US credit ratings. The Fed, which has caused the absolutely inevitable skyrocketing inflation rate, will no longer be able to keep interest rates artificially low. The interest rates will jump 7 to 15 points in the next 4 years, causing the US debt service portion of the (unwritten) Budget to explode.

5. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Welfare expenses will reach half the (unwritten) Federal Budget, and beyond, as each work to bankrupt themselves and the US.

6. Religious Liberty will be curtailed as Government forces Christians to either fund that which is immoral or dissolve their outreach programs. Churches will learn they cannot preach on certain subjects without fear of criminal sanctions.

7. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom to peaceably protest the Government will be restricted. Our Second Amendment rights will be severely cut. Our rights against illegal searches and seizures will be infringed upon. The Ninth and Tenth Amendments, largely ignored now, will be blatantly curtailed.

In short, the “shining beacon on the hill” that was the Freedom and Liberty the US provided the world will have its 50,000 watt light removed and replaced with a half-watt red decorative light. The US has spent the last 30 years slipping from apathy into dependence. We are now sinking from dependence back into bondage. And it will take great men and women of steely resolve and moral strength to wrest this once great nation out of the entropic hands of the Socialists and the Dependent Class. And that means fighting both the Democrat leadership and the Ruling Class Republican leadership. Tooth and nail.

Are there enough of them left?

Mia Love Uses White Child Slave Labor!

What better way for a white person born over a century after slavery was abolished to pay reparations to a black woman born roughly a century after slavery was abolished than to perform slave labor for that black woman?

From Mia Love:

Look at all those young men with “fun bags” (according to Pennsylvania Legislator Babette Josephs, D – Phila)!!!

By the way, normal people call them “responsible, politically astute young adults”. We all know Leftists have all manner of different terms for them, many of which would not survive the moderation filter here at Truth Before Dishonor.

Also note: Truth Before Dishonor officially endorsed Mayor Mia Love for Congress many months ago, prior to her winning her Primary in Nevada’s 4th Congressional District.

Dr Thomas Sowell Discussing Dishonorable, Duplicitous Democrats

Via Representative Michele Bachmann (R – MN).

It’s actually very simple, Dr Sowell. The Modern Left have decided that they have the Orwellian power to redefine anything they wish to mean anything they wish, and to Sheol with the Truth.

By the way, a race traitor (according to today’s Left) made the comment and a man with boobs (according to today’s Democrat office-holders) is helping make the comment viral.

Five Truths Found On Facebook

From Our Country Deserves Better PAC:

It has been proven for over 400 years, in places like the old Soviet Union, China, Cuba, North Korea, Greece, and the Massachusetts Bay Colony that the above Socialist program leads to impoverishment and death by starvation. The Massachusetts Bay Colony tried the “spread the wealth around” idea and half its population died due to starvation. When they switched to “you keep what you make”, the colony grew greatly in wealth, becoming a net exporter of food. And did so in extremely short order.

So, you can choose the “death by starvation” route Obama and the Liberals (and Big Government Republicans) push — OR — you can choose the “keep what you make” route that has proven to lead the most people out of poverty and into wealth in the history of the world, the route our Founders and Framers set us on, the route the TEA Party Conservatives want us to return to.

The choice has never been so obvious, so stark, so cataclysmicly important as this election cycle. The future of America and the world really does depend on this election. The future of freedom, liberty, prosperity is riding in the balance. Freedom? Or death by starvation and permanent subservience to Big Brother/Nanny State?

Communism, Socialism, Progressivism And The American Founding

[This article was originally published on the Fourth of July, 2011. I am republishing it today, the Fourth of July, 2012. As the election cycle heats up, the choices Americans make this year will decide whether the USA survives as a Free country or descends fully into Tyranny.  Brought to the front page on September 29, 2012.]

As we celebrate American Independence, it is important to know what it means and what it doesn’t mean. It is important to know what to fight for and what to fight against. After 236 years of American Independence, we are once again in a fight for the survival of the United States. While militant Islam is a grave threat from without, an even graver enemy from within is threatening to destroy the United States. That enemy is Communism, Socialism, Progressivism.

Communism, Socialism and Progressivism is essentially the same thing. Oh, there may be differences between them, but the differences are slight. As the sassafras tree has as many as four different leaf patterns on the same tree, Communism, Socialism, Progressivism and Fascism are all essentially from the same tree. Fascism may be considered the most unique of the four, but like the other three, Fascism is dependent on a large, centralized, and omnipotent government.

A look at the Communist Party USA Constitution provides some scary stuff. It is definitely totalitarian in form and function. And it is dependent on class envy and class warfare. The Communist Party USA Constitution precludes individual Liberty and mandates a loss of liberty — within the document.

The document begins immediately with class warfare and class distinction and class identification. There is nothing “individual” about it.

The Communist Party USA is the party of and for the U.S. working class

The document very clearly spells out its aim, within the preamble.

Our party fights for jobs and economic security, … with socialism as our goal. Only through the abolition of the capitalist system and the socialist reorganization of society… We seek to build a socialist society…

Three calls for Socialism in the second paragraph of the preamble, with two declarations that Capitalism is to be destroyed. Communism and Socialism are two completely different things? Not so, according to the Communists’ own governing document.

Marxists have long hailed its progressive significance… This legacy gives us, the working class and its allies, the right and responsibility to build a new society. We advocate an expanded Bill of Rights to guarantee religious, political, and individual freedoms, but also freedom from poverty, hunger, joblessness, and racism.

Not only a tie to Progressivism in the third paragraph of the preamble but also a demand for Constitutional rights to not be poor, hungry, unemployed. Add in a Constitutional prohibition on racism. Now, that would destroy the First Amendment’s Freedom of Speech and of the Press and of Association.

Paragraphs 4, 5, 6 of the preamble hit the class warfare gong some more, with ties into Progressivism and more attacks on capitalism. But there is something even more insidious in paragraph 6.

In the spirit of working-class internationalism, the Communist Party builds the closest bonds with Communist and Workers Parties throughout the world.

There is zero interest in National Independence and an overarching aim for One World Socialist government. Remember, the very beginning of the Communist preamble said Socialism was its goal; therefore, a single Socialist government is the Communist goal. That means the destruction of the US and everything it stands for.

Founded in Chicago in 1919, the Communist Party of the United States has an outstanding history in the struggles for peace, democratic rights, racial and gender equality, economic justice, union organization, and international solidarity.

“Economic justice” is a euphemism for taking from the rich and spreading it around. In other words, class warfare. And there’s that “union organization” thing. The Communists are very strong on unions (which, not coincidentally, are destroying government budgets nationwide). You’ll see more of that later. And once again, the internationalism and rejection of national sovereignty.

Article 2, Section 1, Paragraph 1:

The system of organization of the Communist Party is based upon the principle of democratic centralism, which means that decisions and policies are made through democratic procedures, and that once a final decision is made, all members are obligated to carry it out.

Centralized power. And no individual liberty. Everyone is required to work to fulfill the demands of the central power. No choice in the matter. Does that sound like the America you know? Does that sound like the America you want?

Article 2, Section 1, Paragraph 3:

Collectivity is the basic style of work of the Party.

You work for the Collective. You are not an individual.

Article 2, Section 3, Paragraph 1:

All members, including those who disagree, are duty bound to explain, fight for and carry out such decisions, as long as they do not conflict with national policies and decisions.

Nobody has a choice. Individual Liberty is lost. If the Party says it, it must be obeyed. If you disagree with it, you have no choice but to fight for it and push it. Freedom is done. The Collective, the Party rules. They own you. Is that something you want? Or is that something to fight tooth-and-nail against?

Article 2, Section 3, Paragraph 2:

While the appeal is pending, the decision must nevertheless be carried out by all members of the Party.

So, you can take your problem up the Communist chain, closer to the omnipotent central power, but in the meantime, you are required to do that which you do not want to do. Because the Communist Party said so. No freedom; no individual Liberty; no individual identity.

Article 2, Section 3, Paragraph 3:

Once a final decision is made, no member, club, committee or leader has the right to violate the decision or to combine with others to conduct an organized struggle against the decision.

A grass-roots campaign to shift the Communist Party in a different direction is expressly forbidden. Everyone is mandated to march in lock-step with the Central Power. Further in this insidious document, the Party allows its members to voice their differences of opinion, but only within the Communist Party structure, never in public. And then, once the Elites at the Top make their decision, all differences of opinion are vanquished. March in lock-step. No individual Freedom. No individual Liberty.

As I said, I’d get back to the union thing.

Article 6, Section 5:

All Party members who are eligible must belong to their respective labor unions. If no union exists at a Party member’s place of employment, he or she shall strive to organize, or help to organize, a labor union whenever possible.

You have zero say in the matter. You are required to be a Union member. No freedom of choice, no individual Liberty, no individual Freedom. So, you are required to pay Union Dues. Oh, and further up, you are also required to pay Communist Party Dues. No choice, no freedom, no liberty.

I almost forgot. According to the Communist Party Constitution, if you are an “informer,” you get thrown out. What is an informer? That, in itself, is insidious. That means there are Communist Party secrets it doesn’t want the people to know about. That is a major danger to a free society.

There is nothing American about the Communist Party USA. But there is plenty that is anti-American.

The Democratic Socialists of America are just as dangerous to the survivability of the United States.

American movements for social justice must of necessity adopt the internationalism of the socialist tradition.

Internationalism, One World Government, the end to National Sovereignty.

We are socialists because we reject an international economic order sustained by private profit…

Private profit… no more small business owners working to better their situations. It must be Collectivized.

We are socialists because we share a vision of a humane international social order based both on democratic planning and market mechanisms to achieve equitable distribution of resources…

Internationalism, One World Government, take it away from those who have it and give it to those who don’t. You are not allowed to become too successful, to acquire for yourself too much stuff. It must be taken away from you and spread around.

A democratic socialist politics for the 21st century must promote an international solidarity… Democratic socialists are dedicated to building truly international social movements – of unionists, environmentalists, feminists, and people of color -that together can elevate global justice over brutalizing global competition.

More Internationalism, One World Government. National Sovereignty dies. Individual Liberty, individual Freedom, individual choice die. Power to the Unions! Power to the environmentalists (while whole swaths of rich farmland become dust bowls where nothing will grow)! “Competition” also known as the Free Market is the enemy of the Socialist.

In the United States, we must fight for a humane public policies that will provide quality health care, education, and job training and that redirect public investment from the military to much-neglected urban housing and infrastructure.

Does that sound familiar? Why, yes indeed. That is the cry of the Progressives. Socialized health care system with all its mandates and freedom-stripping. Pump more money into State-run education, where all the other money did nothing to improve educational outcomes (but private education, costing much less, outperforms State-run education). Deplete the National Defense. And that “much-neglected urban housing” sounds very familiar, as well. HUD wasting billions of dollars producing next to nothing. CRA causing the mortgage bubble.

Democratic socialists recognize that for individuals to flourish, a society must be grounded in the moral values and institutions of a democratic community that provides quality education and job training, social services, and meaningful work for all. Leaving the provision of such common needs to the private marketplace guarantees a starkly inegalitarian class system of access to opportunity.

The Free Market and private enterprise are to be banished and replaced by a central power that will distribute everything evenly among everyone. You cannot become wealthy by your own ingenuity because that would mean someone else doesn’t have as much as you. And that’s a bad thing. Doesn’t sound very American, does it? Doesn’t sound like individual Liberty or Freedom, does it? And there’s that class warfare, that class envy business again. Very Communist. Very Progressive.

A democratic commitment to a vibrant pluralist life assumes the need for a democratic,responsive, and representative government to regulate the market, protect the environment, and ensure a basic level of equality and equity for each citizen. In the 21st century, such regulation will increasingly occur through international, multilateral action.

Internationalism, One World Government, the loss of National Sovereignty, the loss of Individual Liberty. And “equity for each citizen” once again means you’re not allowed to have more stuff than the person living down the street. Ironic that this was put in the “Liberty” section, no?

As democratic socialists we are committed to ensuring that any market is the servant of the public good and not its master. Liberty, equality, and solidarity will require not only democratic control over economic life, but also a progressively financed, decentralized, and quality public sector. Free markets or private charity cannot provide adequate public goods and services.

Loss of individualism. Loss of Individual Liberty. Destroy the Free Market system. Pay lip-service to “decentralized” public sector, knowing full-well that an omnipotent Central Government must be created. And there’s that Progressivism again.

There is no difference between Communism, Socialism and Progressivism once all the masks are off. They all go to the same place: Loss of Liberty, loss of National Sovereignty, loss of the Free Market, loss of opportunity to become successful and better off than the lazy person down the street, complete loss of Freedom.

And DNW quotes Fascist Oswald Mosley:

“The Fascist principle is Liberty in private, Obligation in public life. In his public capacity a man must behave as befits a citizen and a member of the State; his actions must conform to the interests of the State, which protects and governs him and guarantees his personal freedom. In private he may behave as he likes …

Every man shall be a member of the State, giving his public life to the State, but claiming in return his private life and liberty from the State, and enjoying it within the Corporate purpose of the State. ”

Oswald Mosley, British Union of Fascists

So the Fascists are part of the same tree with the Socialists, the Communists and the Progressives. The people are to be subservient to the all-powerful Government. Individualism, individual Liberty, individual Freedom is to be a thing of the past. And Fascism works great with the Socialist, Communist, Progressivist One World Government.

But that’s not what the United States is about. That’s not what the Founders fought and died to create and protect. That’s not what the Framers worked so hard to protect. And that’s why the Socialists, Communists, Progressives, Fascists all need to destroy all meaning in the US Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution.

This Independence Day, think on those things. Consider the grave circumstances and events of the past few years and the great peril the US is now facing from within. Shall you be one of the “Good men who do nothing” or shall you fight for America’s survival?

More Information On Artur Davis (Already Available For TBD Viewers)

For those of you who don’t know about Artur Davis, he was a Democrat member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and a Representative from the great state of Alabama. He lost his bid to become the Democrat Governor of Alabama, and this year, having moved from Alabama to Virginia, has also moved from Democrat to Republican. Like Ronald Reagan, Texas Governor Rick Perry, and many Democrat politicians before him, he declared he hadn’t left the Democrat Party but rather the Democrat Party left him.

And Artur Davis, the black man who was once tagged as a great up-and-coming power broker in the Democrat Party, who seconded Baraka Hussein Obama’s nomination for President and introduced him to the Democrat Convention in 2008, absolutely rocked the Republican Convention in 2012. Absolutely killed it.

 

Remember 2009 to 2011: lesson learned. 2012: mistake corrected. Yowza! Baraka Hussein Obama: merely a man I once knew. And the angels rejoiced!

Now, there are many Socialists, such as Perry Hood, the 77 year old Socialist from Lewes, Delaware, who cynically declared that Artur Davis only switched parties to stand a better chance to get elected in the future out of very Conservative Alabama. The fact Artur Davis moved to northern Virginia aside, there was a possibility that such dishonest and cynical Socialists had a point. So I decided to do a bit more research. And that research involved examining information found right here at Truth Before Dishonor.

How did Artur Davis vote on ObamaCare? Especially since Artur Davis loudly and derisively declared that the Democrats refused to add a single Republican option to the monstrosity and the monstrosity was passed without a single Republican vote? And since Artur Davis noted that 50 percent of Americans are Republican? (More accurately, it’s about a 34/34 split with 32 percent being too wishy-washy and uncaring about the government that is wrecking their lives and the lives of their children.)

Well, Truth Before Dishonor has had that information for a very long time now. It’s in the ObamaCare Roll Call page. That’s right, a whole page devoted to the ObamaCare Roll Call. Artur Davis’ votes are recorded here.

How did Artur Davis vote on that Socialist wet dream that refused any Republican input and didn’t get a single Republican vote? He voted NO and NO again. He voted with the Republicans and against the Socialist Democrats both times. So, did Artur Davis switch parties out of self-serving expediency like the septa-genarian Socialist from Lewes, Delaware proclaimed? Or did Artur Davis look at what the Democrat Party had become, then look at what the Republican Party stands for and decide that he is, after all, a Republican? You decide for yourselves. As for me, I have already decided.

Welcome home, Artur Davis!

MSNBC Spreads Its Socialist Lies

Who among you remembers when MSNBC was frothing at the mouth about the TEA Partier in Arizona who had the unmitigated gall to wear an “assault rifle” on his back out in the open, in a crowd? Do you remember how MSNBC was telling all ten of its viewers that was undeniable proof of the murderous desires of the purely white TEA Party? Do you also remember that MSNBC cropped the shot of that man so closely that you could only see part of the man and the rifle? Do you also remember that, while MSNBC was warning everyone about how the WHITE TEA Partiers so the black men could likewise be afraid, that the closely cropped image of a TEA Partier with a rifle was cropped closely to hide the fact that that particular TEA Partier with a rifle strapped to his back was black? Proving MSNBC would lie and provide wholly dishonorable and deceitful video to advance its Socialist agenda?

WELL…

Mess NBC is at it again! While they claim to be covering the Republican National Convention for all ten of its viewers, it is studiously avoiding anything that would harm the Socialist Baraka Obama’s (and the rest of the Socialist leadership of the Democrat Party) propagandistic agenda. So, what did MessNBC do? In their coverage of the Republican National Convention, MessNBC studiously avoided airing any speeches by minorities!!!! Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware should be proud!!!

When popular Tea Party candidate Ted Cruz, the GOP nominee for Senate, took the stage, MSNBC cut away from the Republican National Convention and the Hispanic Republican from Texas’ speech.

MSNBC stayed on commercial through former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis’ speech, as well. Davis, who recently became a Republican, is black.

Then, when Puerto Rican Governor Luis Fortuno’s wife Luce’ Vela Fortuño took the stage minutes later, MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Chris Matthews opted to talk over the First Lady’s speech.

And Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval? Noticeably missing from MSNBC, too.

Mia Love, a black candidate for Congress in Utah, was also ignored by MSNBC.

Say, wouldn’t the practice of ignoring people of color be considered raaaaaaaaaaaacist? And what did MSNBC use as a replacement for all of these speakers last night?

In lieu of airing speeches from former Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, a black American; Mia Love, a black candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Utah; and Texas senatorial hopeful Ted Cruz, a Latino American, MSNBC opted to show commentary anchored by Rachel Maddow from Rev. Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz, Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes and Steve Schmidt.

No doubt, they were trying to keep their 20 19 17 viewers up to date with all of the antics of raaaaaaaaaaaacist Republicans, and so had no choice but to block out Republicans like Mia Love, Ted Cruz, and Artur Davis. I’ve seen news reports from Communist countries that had less Orwellian message control than this.

MessNBC didn’t bother to provide the speeches of minorities. Period. Full-stop. Why? Because the Socialist Baraka Obama (who was a registered Socialist in Chicago) has decided to wage a campaign on the over-played raaaaacist card and the over-played “war on women” lie. And MessNBC is absolutely in bed with the Socialist Baraka Obama and the Socialist leadership of the Democrat Party.

Former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice ROCKED THE HOUSE!!! But if you were one of the ten people who were religiously watching MessNBC, you didn’t see it. Because she was a black woman and MessNBC did not want you watching a black woman rock the Republican Cazbah!

 
(YouTube video provided by Barracuda Brigade. Please, do go visit that worthy site.)

Governor Nikki Haley ROCKED THE HOUSE!!! But if you were one of the ten people who were religiously watching MessNBC, you didn’t see it. Because she was a Sikh woman and MessNBC did not want you watching a Sikh woman rock the Republican Cazbah!

Mayor Mia Love ABSOLUTELY ROCKED THE HOUSE!!! But if you were one of the ten people who were religiously watching MessNBC, you didn’t see it. Because she is a black woman born of LEGAL immigrants who have made their own way without freebies from the Government (read “everyone else”).

That BLACK WOMAN, Mia Love hates black people like herself so much that she married a white man! That white man, a Conservative Republican hates black people so much that he married one! MessNBC was right to hide Mia Love’s speech from its ten viewers because nobody should be faced with an intelligent black person who decries the Liberal hatred of all who stand in their way of ruling the ever-declining and ever-impoverished world. Mia’s YouTube video provided by mialoveinterviews. Mia Love is involved in a very tight race for Representative of the 4th District of Utah. All freedom-loving people who haven’t been devastated by the Obama economy should strongly consider donating money to her campaign.

Artur Davis ROCKED THE HOUSE, then CRUSHED THE HOUSE in his speech. Remember 2009 to 2011: lesson learned. 2012, mistake corrected. Absolutely crushingly powerful! Barack Obama is only a man I once knew! Wowzers! Coming from the former up-and-coming black Democrat and former member of the Congressional Black Caucus (is there a Congressional White Caucus, and would the Democrats inside the Congressional Black Caucus remain civil?), the man who seconded Obama’s nomination in 2008 and introduced him to the Democrat Party at their 2008 convention!

 

To those Democrats and independents whose minds are open to argument: listen closely to the Democratic Party that will gather in Charlotte and ask yourself if you ever hear your voice in the clamor.

Ask yourself if these Democrats still speak for you.

When they say we have a duty to grow government even when we can’t afford it, does it sound like compassion to you — or recklessness?

When you hear the party that glorified Occupy Wall Street blast success; when you hear them minimize the genius of the men and women who make jobs out of nothing, is that what you teach your children about work?

When they tell you America is this unequal place where the powerful trample on the powerless, does that sound like the country your children or your spouse risked their lives for in Iraq or Afghanistan?

Do you even recognize the America they are talking about? And what can we say about a house that doesn’t honor the pictures on its walls?

John F. Kennedy asked us what we could do for America. This Democratic Party asks what can government give you. Don’t worry about paying the bill, it’s on your kids and grandkids.

Bill Clinton took on his base and made welfare a thing you had to work for; this current crowd guts the welfare work requirement in the dead of night.

Bill Clinton, Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson reached out across the aisle and said meet me in the middle; but their party rammed through a healthcare bill that took over one-sixth of our economy, without accepting a single Republican idea, without winning a single vote in either house from a party whose constituents make up about 50 percent of the country.

You know, the Democrats used to have a night when they presented a film of their presidential legends: if they do it in Charlotte, the theme song should be this year’s hit, “Somebody That I Used to Know.”

Governor Susana Martinez ROCKED THE HOUSE!!! But if you were one of the ten people who were religiously watching MessNBC, you didn’t see it. Because Susana Martinez is a wise Latina. The NBC News website, which listed Republican speakers, didn’t even mention her. At all.

 

I fear some of our leaders today have lost the courage to stand up. What we have now are politicians. They won’t offer real plans, and only stand up when they want to blame someone else.

And I don’t say that just because a Democrat is in the White House, I was a Democrat for many years, so were my parents.

Before I ran for district attorney, two Republicans invited my husband and me to lunch, and I knew a party switch was exactly what they wanted. So, I told Chuck, “We’ll be polite, enjoy a free lunch, and then say good-bye.” But we talked about issues — they never used the words Republican or Democrat, conservative or liberal. We talked about many issues, like welfare, is it the way of life or hand up? Talked about size of government, how much should it tax families and small businesses? And when we left that lunch, we got in the car and I looked over at Chuck and said, “I’ll be damned. We’re Republicans.”

Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban American, ROCKED THE HOUSE!!! Did the ten people watching MessNBC see it? Highly improbable.

 

My Dad used to tell us: “En este pais, ustedes van a poder lograr todas las cosas que nosotros no pudimos” “In this country, you will be able to accomplish all the things we never could.”

A few years ago during a speech, I noticed a bartender behind a portable bar at the back of the ballroom. I remembered my father who had worked for many years as a banquet bartender.

He was grateful for the work he had, but that’s not the life he wanted for us.

He stood behind a bar in the back of the room all those years, so one day I could stand behind a podium in the front of a room.

That journey, from behind that bar to behind this podium, goes to the essence of the American miracle — that we’re exceptional not because we have more rich people here.

We’re special because dreams that are impossible anywhere else, come true here.

That’s not just my story. That’s your story. That’s our story.

It’s the story of your mother who struggled to give you what she never had.

It’s the story of your father who worked two jobs so doors closed for him would open for you.
The story of that teacher or that coach who taught you the lessons that shaped who you are today.

And it’s the story of a man who was born into an uncertain future in a foreign country. His family came to America to escape revolution.

They struggled through poverty and the great depression. And yet he rose to be an admired businessman, and public servant.

And in November, his son, Mitt Romney, will be elected President of the United States.

Former Solicitor General of Texas and next US Senator Ted Cruz brought the house down!!! But if you were one of the ten people who were religiously watching MessNBC, you didn’t see it. Because Ted Cruz is a Cuban-American.

 

This love story is the story of the brave Texans in the City of Gonzales. When General Santa Anna demanded that they give up their guns and the cannon that guarded the city, they responded with the immortal cry “Come and take it.”

It’s the story of the greatest generation of Americans, who rose up to confront the grotesque evil that was the Nazis, and ushered in the greatest era of peace and prosperity the world has ever seen.

It’s the story of civil-rights heroes, like Dr. Martin Luther King, who stood strong against the scourge of discrimination, and bravely championed that every man and woman should be judged, not by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character.

It’s the story of President Ronald Reagan, who turned back the creeping growth of government and restored Morning in America. Who spoke out against the oppressive evil of communism and demanded “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

It’s the story of my Mom. Irish and Italian, working class, the first in her family to go to college – a pioneering mathematician and computer programmer in the 1950s.

It’s the story of my Dad, who was imprisoned and tortured in Cuba, beaten nearly to death. He fled to Texas in 1957, not speaking English, with $100 sewn into his underwear. He washed dishes making 50 cents an hour to pay his way through the University of Texas, and to start a small business in the oil and gas industry.

My father is here tonight. When he came to America, él no tenía nada, pero tenía corazón. He had nothing, but he had heart. A heart for freedom. Thank you, Dad.
…
This election presents a stark choice. Two visions: we can continue down the road of the Obama Democrats, towards more and more spending, debt and government control of the economy and our lives. Or we can return to the founding principles of our nation-free markets, fiscal responsibility, and individual liberty.

Unfortunately, President Obama’s campaign is going to try to divide America. They’re going to try to separate us into little groups, and try to scare everybody. They’re going to tell seniors that Medicare will be taken away, tell Hispanics that we’re not welcome here and send the Vice President to preach a message of division.
…
How do we turn things around? How do we get America back to work? President Obama thinks the answer is more and more government.

Government is not the answer. You are not doing anyone a favor by creating dependency, destroying individual responsibility.

Fifty-five years ago, when my dad was a penniless teenage immigrant, thank God some well-meaning bureaucrat didn’t put his arm around him and say let me take care of you. Let me give you a government check and make you dependent on government. And by the way, don’t bother learning English. That would have been the most destructive thing anyone could have done.

Instead, my parents worked together to start a small business, to provide for their family and to chart their own future. That’s the American dream, and Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan understand that.
…
I’d like to close with asking you a few questions, with apologies to Barack Obama.

Can we restore the Constitution?

Yes we can.

Can we retake the U.S. Senate?

Can we repeal ObamaCare?

And can we defeat President Barack Obama?

That, my friends, is change we can believe in.

Thank you, and God bless America.

Ann Romney absolutely killed it!!! Did you ten viewers of MessNBC see it? Well, did you Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware? Not if you watched MessNBC!!!

Senator Rand Paul killed it!!! Did those ten viewers of MessNBC see it? Maybe.

 

When the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, the first words out of my mouth were: I still think it is unconstitutional!

The leftwing blogs were merciless. Even my wife said — can’t you pleeeease count to ten before you speak?

So, I’ve had time now to count to ten and, you know what? I still think it’s unconstitutional!

Do you think Justice Scalia and Justice Thomas have changed their minds?

I think if James Madison himself — the father of the Constitution — were here today he would agree with me: The whole damn thing is still unconstitutional!

This debate is not new and it’s not over. Hamilton and Madison fought from the beginning about how government would be limited by the enumerated powers.

Madison was unequivocal. The powers of the federal government are few and defined. The power to tax and spend is restricted by the enumerated powers.

So, how do we fix this travesty of justice? There’s only one option left.

We have to have a new president!

When I heard the current president say, “You didn’t build that,” I was first insulted, then I was angered, then I was saddened that anyone in our country, much less the president of the United States, believes that roads create business success and not the other way around.

Anyone who so fundamentally misunderstands American greatness is uniquely unqualified to lead this great nation.

The great and abiding lesson of American history, particularly the Cold War, is that the engine of capitalism — the individual — is mightier than any collective.

American inventiveness and desire to build developed because we were guaranteed the right to own our success. For most of our history, no one dared tell Americans: “You didn’t build that.”

In Bowling Green, Kentucky, the Taing family owns the Great American Donut shop. Their family fled war-torn Cambodia to come to this country. My kids and I love to eat doughnuts, so we go there frequently.

The Taings work long hours. Mrs. Taing told us that the family works through the night to make doughnuts. The Taing children have become valedictorians and National Merit Scholars.

The Taings from Cambodia are an American success story so, Mr. President, don’t you go telling the Taings: “You didn’t build that.”

When you say they didn’t build it, you insult each and every American who ever got up at the crack of dawn. You insult any American who ever put on overalls or a suit.

You insult any American who ever studied late into the night to become a doctor or a lawyer. You insult the dishwasher, the cook, the waitress.

You insult anyone who has ever dragged themselves out of bed to strive for something better for themselves or their children.

My great grandfather, like many, came to this country in search of the American Dream. No sooner had he stepped off the boat than his father died.

He arrived in Pittsburgh as a teenager with nothing, not a penny. He found the American Dream: not great wealth, but a bit of property in a new land that gave him hope for his children.

In America, as opposed to the old country, success was based on merit. Probably America’s greatest asset was that for the first time success was not based on who you were, but on what you did.

My grandfather would live to see his children become doctors, ministers, accountants and professors. He would even live to see one of his sons, a certain congressman from Texas, run for president of the United States of America.

Immigrants have flocked to our shores seeking freedom. Our forbearers came full of hopes and dreams. So consistent and prevalent were these aspirations that they crystallized into a national yearning we call the American Dream.

No other country has a Dream so inextricably associated with the spirit of its people.

In 1982, an American sailor, John Mooney, wrote a letter to his parents that captures the essence of the American Dream:

“Dear Mom and Dad, today we spotted a boat in the water, and we rendered assistance. We picked up 65 Vietnamese refugees. As they approached the ship, they were all waving and trying as best they could to say, ‘Hello America sailor! Hello Freedom man!’ It’s hard to see a boat full of people like that and not get a lump somewhere between chin and bellybutton. And it really makes one proud and glad to be an American. It reminds us all of what America has always been — a place a man or woman can come to for freedom.”

Hung and Thuan Tringh are brothers and friends of mine. They came to America on one of those leaky, overcrowded boats. They were attacked at sea by pirates. Their family’s wealth was stolen. Thuan spent a year on a South Pacific island existing on one cup of rice and water each day until he was allowed to come to America. Now both of these men and their families are proud Americans. Hung owns his own business and Thuan manages a large company. They are the American Dream.

So, Mr. President, don’t go telling the Tringh family: “You didn’t build that.”

When the president says, “You didn’t build that,” he is flat out wrong. Businessmen and women did build that. Businessmen and women did earn their success. Without the success of American business, we wouldn’t have any roads, or bridges, or schools.

Mr. President, you say the rich must pay their fair share. When you seek to punish the rich, the jobs that are lost are those of the poor and middle class.

When you seek to punish Mr. Exxon Mobil, you punish the secretary who owns Exxon Mobil stock.

When you block the Keystone Pipeline, you punish the welder who works on the pipeline.

Our nation faces a crisis. America wavers. Unfortunately, we are one of a select group of countries whose debt equals their gross domestic product.

The republic of Washington and Jefferson is now in danger of becoming the democracy of debt and despair. Our great nation is coming apart at the seams and the president seems to point fingers and blame others.

President Obama’s administration will add nearly $6 trillion to our national debt in just one term.

This explosion of debt is unconscionable and unsustainable. Mr. President, we will not let you bankrupt this great nation!

Republicans and Democrats alike must slay their sacred cows. Republicans must acknowledge that not every dollar spent on the military is necessary or well-spent, and Democrats must admit that domestic welfare and entitlements must be reformed.

Republicans and Democrats must replace fear with confidence, confidence that no terrorist, and no country, will ever conquer us if we remain steadfast to the principles of our Founding documents.

We have nothing to fear except our own unwillingness to defend what is naturally ours, our God-given rights. We have nothing to fear that should cause us to forget or relinquish our rights as free men and women.

To thrive we must believe in ourselves again, and we must never — never — trade our liberty for any fleeting promise of security.

Author Paul Kengor writes of a brisk evening in small-town Illinois. Returning home from a basketball game at the YMCA, an 11 year old boy is stunned by the sight of his father sprawled out in the snow on the front porch. “He was drunk,” his son later remembered. “Dead to the world, crucified.” The dad’s hair was soaked with melted snow, matted unevenly against the side of his reddened face.

The boy stood over his father for a minute or two. He simply wanted to let himself in the door and pretend his dad wasn’t there. Instead, he grabbed a fistful of overcoat and heaved his dad to the bedroom, away from the weather’s harm and neighbors’ attention.

This young boy became the man – Ronald Reagan – whose sunny optimism and charisma shined so brightly that it cured the malaise of the late seventies, a confidence that beamed so broadly that it pulled us through a serious recession, and a faith that tugged so happily at all hearts that a generation of Democrats became Republicans.

The American Dream is that any among us could become the next Thomas Edison, the next Henry Ford, the next Ronald Reagan.

To lead us forward, away from the looming debt crisis, it will take someone who believes in America’s greatness, who believes in and can articulate the American dream, someone who has created jobs, someone who understands and appreciates what makes America great, someone who will lead our party and our nation forward.

I believe that someone is our nominee: Governor Mitt Romney.

As Reagan said, our freedom is never more than a generation away from extinction. If our freedom is taken, the American Dream will wither and die.

To lead, we must transform the coldness of austerity into the warm, vibrant embrace of prosperity.

To overcome the current crisis, we must appreciate and applaud American success. We must step forward, unabashedly and proclaim: You did build that. You earned that. You worked hard. You studied. You labored. You did build that. And you deserve America’s undying gratitude. For you, the individual, are the engine of America’s greatness.

Thank you.

Because MSNBC is working very hard to lie to all ten of its viewers and pretend that only angry white men are involved in the Republican Party. MSNBC cannot at all tell the truth because the Truth absolutely destroys MSNBC’s lie-filled, hate-filled, anti-American, Socialist agenda, as provided by the Socialist in Chief, one Baraka Hussein Obama.
_________________________________________________
Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware, has just this week hatefully attacked DNW because DNW remains anonymous. Previously, Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware cried like a baby when I refused to release the last name of an US Army officer who told a highly inappropriate joke to my daughter (who rather enjoyed the joke) but could have a career shortened to “today’s your last day” should his or he name be published.

Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware, who is in his late 70s, has decided that he wants anonymity after repeatedly giving his name out in public, but Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware demands everyone else give up his or her anonymity.

That makes Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware the worst possible person in the world, and an absolute flaming hypocritical Socialist.

Paul Ryan, Our Next Vice President

Just an hour ago, Mitt Romney announced Representative Paul Ryan as his running-mate. It was one of the wisest decisions Mitt Romney could make, as Paul Ryan is a bona fide TEA Party Commonsense Constitutional Conservative and already has a Budget blueprint that can turn this Titanic around and away from the iceberg known as Obama’s Democrat-enabled Cloward-Piven strategy. A great many Conservatives were understandably disgusted by the Romney-squish pick, and many — myself included — declared a resoluteness not to vote for Romney due to the garbage Romney brings to the table. Ryan does not bring any of that garbage to the table, at all. In fact, Ryan has a long history of fighting to throw that garbage in the garbage heap, where it belongs.

The Ryan selection will energize many of the demoralized TEA Party Commonsense Constitutional Conservatives, who will now be willing to “crawl a mile through broken glass” to vote for Ryan and will man the phones and pound the pavement to GOTV (get out the vote) for the Real Conservative and Real Patriot, Paul Ryan for Vice President. Yes, today, Romney’s chances of winning the Presidency and throwing the Socialist Constitution and Federal Law violator out of the White House has improved greatly.

Also, Romney again vowed to repeal ObamaCare, which is a good thing, considering his campaign’s foul-up earlier in the week. And Romney declared “we will once again return Work to Welfare” (my recollection of what I heard on my drive home from work), a very direct attack against Obama’s Constitution-violating and Federal Law-violating waivers of work requirements for people (very clearly and up-front including illegal aliens) to suck on the government teet.

Romney mentioned Obama’s lowest of low-brow campaign tactics (the tactics which Washington Post, CNN, and other Leftist media outlets have been shredding, giving Obama and his Super PAC multiple “four pinnochios” and “pants on fire” awards for flat-out lying) and declared his campaign would, instead, be aspirational and his administration would return America to its former greatness after 3.5 years of decline.

All in all, with his speech and his selection of Ryan, Romney’s appearance at the USS Wisconsin in Virginia was a major success for America and a major heartache for the Socialist Obama, the Democrat National leadership, Democrats in Congress, and Democrats down-ticket. We won’t see the 700-seat flip from Democrat to Republican we saw in 2010, but we will see a much larger than normal coat-tail flip. Perhaps 300 seats in toto going from Democrat to Republican on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of this year. More seats following shortly thereafter, as Democrats flip to Republican after yet another TEAnami.

I said I would not vote for Romney and gave my very specific reasons. Now, I gave evidence for some of my reasons on Patterico’s Pontifications previously (I completely forget which thread) and Daleyrocks provided information that counters my information, causing doubt in my position on that issue. Let me give a couple general reasons for my position (which Daleyrocks helped to waver):

1) If you cannot get the baby-murdering issue right, what morally imperative issue can you get right?
2) If you cannot even counterfeit a Bell Curve Tenther position well enough to hoodwink Tenthers — greater amperage of fail with his very recent arm-twisting of Republicans to vote to give the President authority to appoint without Senate approval nearly 200 more Government positions which were previously “nominate and Senate advise and consent” positions — why should any Constitutionalist vote for you?

Paul Ryan could be a reason. There isn’t much better than Paul Ryan. Of my 5 endorsements, 2 are clearly better (Palin and West), 1 is possibly better (Cruz) and the other two are likely equal (Love and Radtke). But a Paul Ryan is a rare find. The 50-karat blue diamond.

If I vote Republican and not Third Party this cycle, it will be just like last time. I will vote for Paul Ryan just like I voted for Sarah Palin. I will not vote for Mitt Romney, just like I did not vote for John McShame.

#TXSEN The Big Guns Come Out

DON’T DO THE DEW

VOTE TED CRUZ

Too sexually charged? Alright, try this one.

SLAY THE DC GORMAGON

WITH A CRUZ MISSILE

Too revolutionary? How about this, then?

CRUZIFY DEWHURST

Too violent? Okay, I give up.

Truth Before Dishonor endorsed Ted Cruz over all other candidates for US Senate (Texas) very early on, earlier than did Sarah Palin or most other notables. But Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint, Mark Levin all came out with early endorsements for Ted Cruz, while David Dewhurst, scuzzball that he is, tried to paint Ted Cruz as a commie-pinko-loving DC corruptocrat. Dewhurst used all manner of lies and misinformation to try to destroy Ted Cruz (the Chicago way) in a disgusting outburst of raw sewage.

David Dewhurst has tried to convince Texans that Ted Cruz is in bed with Communist China, a tool of the Chi-Coms. Ted Cruz. The son of a man who fled Cuba to get away from the Communist enslavement. Ted Cruz, who learned from his father that if the US fell, there would be no place on Earth to flee to. A ComSimp.

 

(You can read the entire transcript of Robert Stacy McCain’s exclusive interview from October 2011 I provided at the above link to The Other McCain.)

David Dewhurst has accused Ted Cruz of wrongfully siding with a Chinese Government owned company over an American company, destroying American jobs, and taking Chi-Com money to do it. It is disgustingly dishonest and intentionally deceptive, in order to try to convince the uninformed of a lie. That “American” company? The American who owns it pulled all of the manufacturing out of the US 20 years ago, moving it to Communist China! If any jobs were lost, those jobs would have been held by Chinese subjects of Communist tyranny, and not US citizens.

David Dewhurst claimed that Ted Cruz is bought and paid for — thus beholden to — DC insiders. Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint, Mark Levin. Washington insiders? Can David Dewhurst tell the truth at all about Ted Cruz? Who in their right minds would think Sarahcuda or The Great One would give their full support and their Star Power to a DC corruptocrat insider? Anyone? Anyone?

Why can’t David Dewhurst run on his record? Perhaps because his record stinks so bad that David Dewhurst is busily changing and scrubbing it. Dewhurst loudly and proudly advocated for full amnesty to all illegal aliens in Texas. And then, in a move many have proclaimed could be in violation of Texas Law, tried to have it stricken from the Official Record. Dewhurst pushed for a wage tax (that would be an income tax) for the income tax-free state of Texas, and has since tried to memory-hole that action. When a Sanctuary City bill (a bill that would eliminate all sanctuary cities in Texas — where illegals can run to and not fear deportation) was in the Texas Legislature, it was Dewhurst in his job as Lieutenant Governor who killed it, despite the overwhelming support for it. David Dewhurst’s record is abysmal for someone claiming to be the Conservative choice. That’s why the scuzzball cannot run on his record.

And David Dewhurst has gotten even more Dishonorable as the run-off election nears, and Dewhurst’s desperation begins to show full force. Many “in the know” have said that the race that was once supposed to be a coronation of the Republican Lieutenant Governor (who nearly got 50 percent of the vote in the Primary, which would have prevented a run-off) is now Ted Cruz’s to lose. So what does David Dewhurst do? He runs out and creates a totally dishonest sock puppet. From Twitchy.com on July 7:

While Cruz maintains an active Twitter presence, Dewhurst’s personal Twitter account has been silent for more than a week and his official campaign account has tweeted just four times in the last eight days. Maybe that’s because Team Dewhurst is more focused on duping voters through misleading social media practices.

Blogger Kemberlee Kaye discovered that “TXSen Fact Checker,” a supposedly objective Twitter account “dedicated to fact-checking the claims in the race for U.S. Senate in Texas,” is actually a Dewhurst for Texas project.

All links go to a tumblr account with a matching name, txsenfactcheck.com which has a similar description as the twitter, “a microsite dedicated to fact-checking the claims in the race for U.S. Senate in Texas, launched to separate fact from fiction in the constant information flow concerning the July 31st run-off.” Once again, no mention of candidate affiliation, that is until you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page where, “Paid for by Dewhurst for Texas” appears in tiny print.

The Twitter bio for @TXSenFactCheck does not disclose the account’s affiliation with the Dewhurst campaign.

So are we clear on this yet? David Dewhurst is Dishonoring himself with his wholly dishonest attacks and his sockpuppetry in order to try to destroy Ted Cruz’s good name.

And the BIG GUNS have come out. In a very big way. Sarah Palin and Jim DeMint are going to a Ted Cruz rally in Houston on Friday. Glenn Beck will be at a Ted Cruz rally in Dallas on Thursday. Rick Santorum will be pounding the Texas pavement with Ted Cruz this weekend. Rand Paul is coming down to Texas to stump for Ted Cruz. Tea Party Express is all-in for Ted Cruz.

When you have powerhouse names in the Constitutional Conservative movement going all-in in support of Ted Cruz, how is a dishonest schemer such as David Dewhurst supposed to paint Cruz as a RINO ComSimp DC insider and it actually, you know, stick? Only with the uneducated will Dewhurst’s dishonest attacks work.

US House Of Representatives Vote To Repeal ObamaCare

The US House of Representatives voted today to repeal ObamaCare, with five Democrats crossing the aisle to vote with the Republicans. As I predicted, Harry Reid has declared the US Senate will not vote on the bill, just like Harry Reid prevented a similar House Bill from being voted on in the Senate in 2011.

More on this later, as I build the article. And apologies for the lateness as I was in the midst of writing an article responding to the radical Leftist Perry Hood of Lewes, Delaware, and his unhinged, fact-free rant about Texas, which included the “severe drought” and how everything was going kaput, when I had to take a 3-hour break due to a strong thunderstorm which caused rivers of water down the gravel drive and heavy ponding in the yard, and caused an internet outage for me.

_____________________
From The Hill (HT Hot Air):

The five Democrats who supported repeal were Reps. Dan Boren (Okla.), Larry Kissell (N.C.), Jim Matheson (Utah), Mike McIntyre (N.C.) and Mike Ross (Ark.).

Matheson voted against the original law but did not vote for its repeal last year.

In a statement after the vote, Matheson, who faces a tough reelection bid, said he had voted against the healthcare bill “at every opportunity” but did not mention last year’s opposition to repeal. He cited statistics showing that healthcare costs are still projected to rise at a greater rate than the economy, indicating the law has had little if any impact.

“With the Supreme Court ruling behind us, and as I reflect on my conversations with Utahans, I think about protecting the future of our economy,” he said. “We must scrap this flawed effort once and for all, start over and do it right.”

Note: Jim Matheson (D – Utah) is up against Truth Before Dishonor endorsed Mia Love, and in a fight for his political life. That could very easily explain both his vote and his dishonest and dishonorable statement after his vote.

Kissell, also in a tough reelection fight, had earlier announced his intention to switch his position on repeal, citing the law’s continued unpopularity with his constituents.

The other three — Boren, McIntyre and Ross — all voted to scrap the law in 2011 and opposed its enactment.

I have updated my ObamaCare Roll Call page with today’s vote, with an extremely modified version of a roll call. If you wish to see the actual Roll Call as provided by the Office of the Clerk of the US House of Representatives, it is provided here.

The Oh So Terrible Condition Of Texas

Perry, the radical Leftist resident of Delaware who comments at The First Street Journal, decided to spout off “facts” that somehow “prove” Texas is terrible, and worse than the rest of the country.

Well of course our Editor wants to claim a pattern here, but he isn’t willing to peel back the curtain here, realizing that there is more to the quality of life than so-called business friendliness.

Consider this:

* Unemployment is higher than the national average,

* TX has a serious budget shortfall,

* TX has had to seriously cut back on education,

* TX is running out of groundwater, with no solution in sight,

* TX is currently in the second year of a serious drought,

* cattle and grain production has dropped precipitously,

* highest uninsured health care in the country,

* TX is turning down the medicaid expansion federal money,

* John Hitchcock lives in TX,

* and the highest number of death penalties in the country.

You name it, problems in TX are severe.

“Unemployment [in Texas] is higher than the national average.” From his very comment, he includes — but does not link to — something said on CBS last autumn, which included this dandy little statement: Texas’ unemployment has nearly reached the national unemployment level. We’ll check out that claim soon, but let’s point out here that Perry Hood’s claim at the top of his comment is directly contradicted by his link-free quote (something he does with regularity, quoting something without providing a link or a name) at the bottom of his comment.

As I previously noted in an article which made “Post of the Day” at Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion on June 21, the May unemployment figures showed Texas has had a lower unemployment rate than the national average for 65 straight months (and that will only continue to be the case). It’s some strange alternate universe in which Perry the Delaware Socialist lives where Texas’ 6.9 percent May unemployment rate is somehow worse than the US 8.2 percent unemployment rate.

From June 2006 to June 2011, Texas was one of only nine states plus DC that added jobs. During that time-frame, Texas added 537,500 jobs, or over 73 percent of the total jobs added (a rate of 2,138 new jobs per 100,000 population). At the same time the US lost 4,818,000 jobs (a rate of 1,561 jobs lost per 100,000 population). And, point in fact, during 2006 and up till March, 2007, the US was still adding jobs at a rate fast enough to easily keep pace with the population growth. So that only amplifies the rate at which the US lost jobs while Democrats held control of Congress.

In an article I wrote noting again how the Leftist-ruled states of California and Illinois are shedding jobs and productive people with their tax-heavy and regulation-heavy (especially in California) agenda, I pointed out yet another Leftist state’s demise. Maryland, in its anti-Tenth Commandment “soak the rich” Class Envy and Class Warfare mentality created a new tax on the wealthy, most productive residents. What happened? They fled the state and went to more Conservative, more business-friendly, less tax-heavy states. And, in violating the Tenth Commandment, Maryland’s tax revenue stream actually shrank. By quite a bit. Maryland raised taxes on “the rich” and lost money in the process. That’s an outcome we Conservatives have been loudly declaring would be the case with the Leftists’ Class Warfare “soak the rich” mentality. Of course, the “economics experts” are completely shocked to find when the Federal Government puts policies in place that closely track what those self-same “experts” espouse, the results are very notably dismal — again and again and again and again, providing the absolutely knee-slappingly hilarious, yet sobering “unexpected” mantra that those “experts” have been everpresently spouting for the past three and a half years.

Now, Texas does have its share of problems. Barack Obama’s Contempt of Federal Court activities in shutting down off-shore oil drilling and exploration, one of Texas’ largest industries. Barack Obama’s EPA working feverishly to shut down some of Texas’ electric generating plants while Texas is growing much more quickly than the rest of the nation in terms of both population and jobs. And, of course, Texas’ decades-long (or should I say Century-Long) explosive population growth, far exceeding that of the US as a whole, which means Texas has to produce far greater numbers of jobs per 100,000 population than the US as a whole — just to keep pace with population growth.

And how is Texas doing? The state’s unemployment numbers have remained well below that of the US for years and the unemployment rate is dropping faster than the US as a whole. As forecast by the Conservatives among us.

“Texas has a serious budget shortfall.” No, that would be Illinois, California, Maryland, New York, etc, etc. Places the Democrats have run into the ground. Texas has a Constitutional requirement to run a balanced budget. And its biennial Budget is balanced and was balanced without raising taxes, much to the chagrin of Paul Burka, Leftist Senior Editor of Texas Monthly magazine, whose rants I documented and shredded in an 8,500 word article that Le-gal In-sur-rec-tion also named “Post of the Day”. If you don’t want to read the entire thing (and you should), drop down near the bottom where Paul Burka rants and raves about the absolutely demanding, governing-free Conservatives and their orgasmic feeding frenzy of not eating. It’s a real knee-slapper.

“TX has had to seriously cut back on education.” Let’s let IowaHawk handle this one. In his first article, IowaHawk provides this:

So how does brokeass, dumbass, redneck Texas stack up against progressive unionized Wisconsin?

2009 4th Grade Math

White students: Texas 254, Wisconsin 250 (national average 248)
Black students: Texas 231, Wisconsin 217 (national 222)
Hispanic students: Texas 233, Wisconsin 228 (national 227)

2009 8th Grade Math

White students: Texas 301, Wisconsin 294 (national 294)
Black students: Texas 272, Wisconsin 254 (national 260)
Hispanic students: Texas 277, Wisconsin 268 (national 260)

2009 4th Grade Reading

White students: Texas 232, Wisconsin 227 (national 229)
Black students: Texas 213, Wisconsin 192 (national 204)
Hispanic students: Texas 210, Wisconsin 202 (national 204)

2009 8th Grade Reading

White students: Texas 273, Wisconsin 271 (national 271)
Black students: Texas 249, Wisconsin 238 (national 245)
Hispanic students: Texas 251, Wisconsin 250 (national 248)

2009 4th Grade Science

White students: Texas 168, Wisconsin 164 (national 162)
Black students: Texas 139, Wisconsin 121 (national 127)
Hispanic students: Wisconsin 138, Texas 136 (national 130)

2009 8th Grade Science

White students: Texas 167, Wisconsin 165 (national 161)
Black students: Texas 133, Wisconsin 120 (national 125)
Hispanic students: Texas 141, Wisconsin 134 (national 131)

To recap: white students in Texas perform better than white students in Wisconsin, black students in Texas perform better than black students in Wisconsin, Hispanic students in Texas perform better than Hispanic students in Wisconsin. In 18 separate ethnicity-controlled comparisons, the only one where Wisconsin students performed better than their peers in Texas was 4th grade science for Hispanic students (statistically insignificant), and this was reversed by 8th grade. Further, Texas students exceeded the national average for their ethnic cohort in all 18 comparisons; Wisconsinites were below the national average in 8, above average in 8.

Perhaps the most striking thing in these numbers is the within-state gap between white and minority students. Not only did white Texas students outperform white Wisconsin students, the gap between white students and minority students in Texas was much less than the gap between white and minority students in Wisconsin. In other words, students are better off in Texas schools than in Wisconsin schools – especially minority students.

In his second article on the subject, IowaHawk provides even more evidence that destroys the Leftist meme.

Average ACT Composite Score 2010
White students: Wisconsin 23.5, Texas 23.3 (national 23.1)
Black students: Texas 17.6, Wisconsin 16.9 (national 17.5)
Hispanic students: Wisconsin 19.8, Texas 18.7 (national 19.4)
…
As an aside, reader Dr. William Borland (Principal Research Engineer, Georgia Institute of Technology, lah-tee-dah) points out that 2010 state-specific public high school dropout rates are now available- and bolster my case.

2010 Public High School Event Dropout Rates
White students: Wisconsin 1.4%, Texas 1.8% (national average 2.8%)
Black students: Texas 6.3%, Wisconsin 7.8% (national average 6.7%)
Hispanic students: Texas 5.3%, Wisconsin 5.4% (national average 6.0%)

While no dropout event is good, Texas is hardly the outlier national shame claimed by Krugman. In fact, it has below national average dropout rates for all 3 ethnic groups considered, consistently in both 2007 and 2010 measures. Among white students, Wisconsin had the second lowest state event dropout rate (NJ #1), where Texas was tied for 7th. Among black students, Wisconsin was #39, Texas tied for #24. Among Hispanic students, Wisconsin was tied for #21, Texas was tied for #17.

Here’s a chart from a September17, 2009 article at Demablogue:

We have been dumping more money per student into Public Education for over 40 years without seeing any improvement in test scores. Obviously, to any reasonable person, dumping even more money into the broken system will not fix the broken system. Continuing on with IowaHawk:

Hey, it’s been a fun two days based on a simple 30-minute study of educational statistics. As regards the effect of teacher collective bargaining on student learning, I wouldn’t call what I did conclusive; just pointing out the fallacy of aggregate statistical comparisons. For a definitive study of the effect, I would point to Caroline Hoxby’s (Harvard/ MIT /Stanford, lah tee dah) 1996 QJE paper [pdf], which statistically controls for additional variables. Her main conclusions: collective bargaining increases the input provided to schools (spending, construction and the like), but actual decreases school output (test scores and the like). If you don’t like Greek letters, here’s Hoxby discussing the effect on YouTube.

[Video added.]

Perry would do very well not to listen to Paul Krugman as the above very clearly shows the fraudulent huckster’s tomfoolery. Also, from IowaHawk:

But hey, if credentials and oak-framed vellum degrees are your bag, let me share this email with you:

Dear Mr. Burger:
I edit educationnext.org. I have a blog on the site. I would like to do a blog that will depends heavily on your material,quoting you at length, as I also think Krugman is a nobel prize winning fraud and because your data are intrinsically interesting… I will link the piece to your site, obviously.

Paul E. Peterson
Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government
Director, Program on Education Policy and Governance
Harvard University
Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution

Degrees-y enough for you? Despite getting my name wrong, I accepted Prof. Peterson’s request and encouraged him to go at my results hammer-and-tongs. His comments are here.

As for Mr. Krugman, I’ll only note the remarks of his former ombudsman at the New York Times, Daniel Okrent:

“Op-Ed columnist Paul Krugman has the disturbing habit of shaping, slicing and selectively citing numbers in a fashion that pleases his acolytes but leaves him open to substantive assaults.”

No shit, Sherlock.

“TX is running out of groundwater, with no solution in sight.” “TX is currently in the second year of a serious drought.” I don’t know what “groundwater” Perry is talking about. Perhaps it’s the water that’s on the ground, which is directly affected by rain. Because there’s plenty of water under the ground. And I had to stop researching and writing this article for about 3 hours as a strong thunderstorm swept through the area, providing rivers of water running down the gravel drive and ponding heavily in the yard. But Perry doesn’t want people to know that Texas has had one of its rainiest Springs in many years, far above average precipitation.

“Cattle and grain production has dropped precipitously.” Because only Texans eat the beef from Texas cattle. There’s no export to other states or other countries. And no other states ever get effected by droughts (the Carolinas and Georgia a few years ago) or floods (the Great Plains states a few years ago). What foolish claptrap. And with the far wetter-than-average Spring, which is continuing into Summer, the cattle-and-grain issue will very easily resolve itself, without government intervention. That’s not to say the same thing about California’s very agriculturally rich Central Valley, where radical Leftist environmentalist wackos in the California EPA and the US EPA turned the water off, destroying the agriculture, destroying businesses, destroying employment, destroying private wealth, destroying lives. California’s Central Valley problem could be very easily solved. Turn the water back on, you radical Leftist nutjobs!

“Highest uninsured health care in the country.” That may or may not be the case, but Texans are a very Independent, Liberty Loving people on the whole. If they do not want to buy health insurance, that should be their prerogative, and absolutely no concern for the Socialist busy-bodies like Perry. Heck, for individual adults under 30, health insurance is a bad investment, overall. They don’t tend to get all that sick, so their overpayments just go to take care of other people and not themselves. That’s not what makes a good investment.

“TX is turning down the medicaid expansion federal money.” Imagine that. A principled position for Independence and Liberty, refusing “free” OPM (other people’s money) with all the Federal regulations, restrictions, throat-slashing strings attached, coming from an “entitlement” program that is quickly becoming bankrupt. How dare Texas stand up for fiscal responsibility, Liberty, Freedom and Principle! Texas should help bankrupt the US so we can become a Socialist dictatorship that much faster!

“John Hitchcock lives in TX.” That’s just a hate-filled personal attack coming from The First Street Journal’s resident hater. That is all.

“And the highest number of death penalties in the country.” This is a good thing. A very good thing. Violent felons who snuff out innocent lives, be warned. Try that in Texas and you lose your own life. Also, Texans are among the most heavily armed, and we have the Castle Doctrine. Enter my property uninvited after dark at your own risk.

Of course, I produced the evidence a month ago regarding Texas’ economic strength compared to the rest of the country.

The economic strength rankings of the US’s 366 metropolitan areas is out, and the Killeen-Fort Hood-Temple area (where I live and work) is 30th nationally. Dover, Delaware is ranked 158, Detroit is 215, Cleveland, Ohio is 185.

Overall, Texas is doing very well, with Austin at 5, San Antonio 10, Houston 12, Dallas-Fort Worth 14, Killeen-Temple 30, and Corpus Christi 49.

Among other things, cost of living and job growth are strongly considered to create the rankings.

Let’s do a little math. Of the 366 metropolitan areas in the US, Texas has 6 in the top 49. Washington DC, with its absolute dependence on Federal Government jobs and not economy-growing jobs, ranks number 1. With 6 metropolitan areas in the top 49, each of those six Texas metropolitan areas is guaranteed to have outperformed at least six entire states. With 4 of the top 14 metropolitan areas, each of those four Texas metropolitan areas is guaranteed to have outperformed at least 39 entire states. Is it any wonder Texas is the number one state in the Union, economically?