Occupy Atlanta Shows Their True (Lack of) Color

Well, the little self-indulgent hipsters descended upon Woodruff Park in downtown Atlanta yesterday afternoon and began their occupation. I give them credit for one thing, they started their little hissyfit at a time that it dovetailed with another gathering that was already going on in the area and therefore made it appear to outsiders that they had a far bigger crowd then what was in reality their true numbers. As soon as the other folks realized what was going on they started leaving and it wasn't long before this group of hundreds was down to a group of dozens, but by far the biggest boneheaded stunt of the night goes to this group when they refused Rep John Lewis a chance to address the crowd.

Sorry that should read Civil Rights icon Rep. John Lewis. (I forgot the AP style book on his correct title.)

Rep. Lewis was already on the record as supporting the progressive causes espoused by these occupy folks, views which for most of the country are completely a mystery. Well, in truth they are a mystery to most of the folks participating in the protests too.

What made this snub so noteworthy was the fact that the mostly white, mostly young, and mostly southern accent-challenged crowd failed to realize that in Atlanta if Rep. Lewis shows up and wants to speak, you had better damn sure give him five minutes of your time or you are going to alienate a vast majority of the population.

Their rationale for refusing him is even more hilarious. I watched the whole thing last night on their UStream feed; I can't even begin to describe how torturous that was, something if utilized at Gitmo would most assuredly run afoul of most human rights groups. Their reason? Nobody was special. Everybody was equal.

Just imagine if something similar had happened at a Tea Party rally. We would never hear the end of it from the melanin-challenged cast of MSNBC and every race pimp in the country from Jesse Jackson to Al Sharpton would have taken to the airwaves to tell what despicable people they were to deny this icon a chance to speak.

The local Fox affiliate has probably the most unbiased report, yeah, no surprise, I know, but notice even they realize the need to send an African-American reporter to this location; she did manage to locate a couple of blacks to put on camera but notice all the group shots, including the one of Rep. Lewis surrounded by clueless masses. I choose this clip for precisely that reason. None of the others seemed able to get an African-American on camera.

Yes, this is the rainbows and unicorns alternate universe these folks live in. Everything they did last night was by consent of the crowd. They claim to have no leaders. It was a group decision. Nice way to avoid assigning blame, ya numbnuts.

Shortly after denying him a chance to speak many members of the group began to notice the lack of color in the crowd, something that is somewhat of a miracle to accomplish in downtown Atlanta. Especially in this location.

A little bit more about the location they chose. Woodruff Park is named in honor of the man who donated the money to have it built, the former Coca-Cola president Robert Woodruff.

Established in the early 1970s, Woodruff Park was formerly known as Central City Park. The park was created thanks to a philanthropic gift from former Coca-Cola Company president Robert W. Woodruff, who donated the money anonymously. After two years of planning and preparation, the park opened in 1973.

Yeah, one of those evil capitalists. Of course, if the occupiers are looking for something to do with their spare time might, I suggest a trip over to the Georgia Aquarium which is just a few blocks away.

The Georgia Aquarium started with The Home Depot founder Bernie Marcus. Marcus wanted to present a gift to the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia, one that would encourage education and economic growth. In November of 2001, he announced his plan to build an aquarium in downtown Atlanta. He and his wife Billi donated $250 million toward the Georgia Aquarium's construction.

Damn, more evil capitalism.

Well, I hope they enjoy themselves, and for God's sake, clean up after yourselves; but seeing as this is Saturday and football season in the south, most of us will have better things to do today then monitor the antics of this Ritalin-deprived crowd.

Go Ramblin' Wreck!

Update (JWF) : Really creepy video:

He Owns It: Obama Embraces 'ObamaCare' Label

It wasn't long ago Democrats sniveled over ObamaCare being used as a pejorative. Now the desperate Obama claims he cherishes the monkiker.

Sure.

President Obama is embracing the term “ObamaCare” on the campaign stump, attempting to turn the tables on critics who use it in a derogatory way.

“They call it ObamaCare?” the president told supporters at a St. Louis fundraiser Tuesday evening. “I do care! You should care, too.”

Earlier in the day, Obama told an audience in Dallas, “Folks go around saying ObamaCare. That’s right — I care. … That’s their main agenda? That’s your plank? Is making sure 30 million people don’t have health insurance?”

The president’s remarks are clearly part of a White House strategy to reclaim some lost ground on healthcare, taking the fight to Republicans.

“I have no problem with people saying Obama cares. I do care,” the president said in Minnesota, the first stop of his rural bus tour this summer. “If the other side wants to be the folks that don’t care, that’s fine with me. I do care.”

The second most senior Democrat in the House, Rep. John Conyers (Mich.), has been urging Democrats to embrace the term for months. He had even taken to handing out buttons with the words “I [heart] ObamaCare” as part of his campaign to rehabilitate the moniker.

Great strategy. I care, so therefore the other guys don't.

The Video the Left Is Urging You to Watch: 'There is Nobody in This Country Who Got Rich On His Own. Nobody'

This shrieking Obamaton has apparently been selected not elected by the Democrats in Massachusetts to challenge Scott Brown in 2012. This brand of Marxism may sell in the People's Republic, but voters across America will recoil in horror listening to this lunacy.

The juiceboxers are lapping it up.

But as this video shows, Warren is very good at making the case for progressive economics in simple, down-to-earth terms. Despite her professorial background, she sounds like she’s telling a story. She came across as unapologetic and authorative, without a hint of the sort of defensiveness you hear so often from other Democrats when they talk about issues involving taxation and economic fairness. This is exactly what national Dems like about Warren.

Actually, she comes off as a snottier Barbara Boxer, as impossible as that may seem to believe.

Nobody in this country ever got rich on his own?

What?

In the video (at left), which was filmed at an event in Andover, Mass., Warren rebuts the GOP-touted notion that raising taxes on the wealthy amounts to "class warfare," contending that "there is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody."

She speaks of marauding bands. We call them liberals. We'd like be be saved from the marauding bands of bureaucrats making our lives miserable, thank you very much.

Using Warren's insane logic, if the taxpayers who built the roads own them, then the 47% who pay no taxes have no right to use them.

Hmmm: Obama Suddenly Willing to Give States 'Flexibility' to Opt Out of Individual Mandate

Never mind the fact that Obamacare's individual mandate was ruled unconstitutional several weeks ago by not one but two federal district court judges. That hasn't stopped the administration from proceeding apace with implementing the law, in clear contempt of court. Appeals are for suckers, anyway. Why bother, right?

But wait! King Obama is now generously considering allowing states to have the 'flexibility' to opt out of Obamacare's bipartisanly loathed individual mandate. The only catch: They must hop on the fast track to single-payer, the Socialist Holy Grail that Obama wanted all along but never had the votes in Congress to pass, despite huge Democrat supermajorities in both Houses.

Oh, goodie.

Seeking to appease disgruntled governors, President Obama announced Monday that he supported amending the 2010 health care law to allow states to opt out of its most burdensome requirements three years earlier than currently permitted.

In remarks to the National Governors Association, Mr. Obama said he backed legislation that would enable states to request federal permission to withdraw from the law’s mandates in 2014 rather than in 2017 as long as they could prove that they could find other ways to cover as many people as the original law would and at the same cost. The earlier date is when many of the act’s central provisions take effect, including requirements that most individuals obtain health insurance and that employers of a certain size offer coverage to workers or pay a penalty.

“I think that’s a reasonable proposal; I support it,” Mr. Obama told the governors, who were gathered in the State Dining Room of the White House.

“It will give you flexibility more quickly while still guaranteeing the American people reform.”

The announcement is the first time Mr. Obama has called for changing a central component of his signature health care law, although he has backed removing a specific tax provision that both parties regard as onerous on business. The shift comes as the law is under fierce attack in the courts and from Republicans on Capitol Hill and in statehouses around the country.

The bipartisan amendment that Mr. Obama is now embracing was first proposed in November, eight months after enactment of the Affordable Care Act, by Senators Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, and Scott Brown, Republican of Massachusetts. Senator Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, a Democrat, is now a co-sponsor.

Quick side note to Scott Brown: I'd like my stinkin' twenty bucks back now, Senator. With interest.

Continuing...

The legislation would allow states to opt out earlier from various requirements if they could demonstrate that other methods would allow them to cover as many people, with insurance that is as comprehensive and affordable, as provided by the new law. The changes also must not increase the federal deficit.

Well, of course - Obama is a real stickler when it comes to the deficit.

h/t: Weasel Zippers. Cross-posted.

UPDATE: Ack, the dreaded inadvertent double-post. Oh, well. Does JAG's post feature a well-placed Snobby Obama photo?

Didn't think so.

Socialism's Toll in Europe

As the Obama Administration continues to adopt the European socialist model, evidence continues to surface concerning the abject failure of this disastrous economic system.

Francesca Esposito, 29 and exquisitely educated, helped win millions of euros in false disability and other lawsuits for her employer, a major Italian state agency. But one day last fall she quit, fed up with how surreal and ultimately sad it is to be young in Italy today.

It galled her that even with her competence and fluency in five languages, it was nearly impossible to land a paying job. Working as an unpaid trainee lawyer was bad enough, she thought, but doing it at Italy’s social security administration seemed too much. She not only worked for free on behalf of the nation’s elderly, who have generally crowded out the young for jobs, but her efforts there did not even apply to her own pension.

“It was absurd,” said Ms. Esposito, a strong-willed woman with a healthy sense of outrage.

The outrage of the young has erupted, sometimes violently, on the streets of Greece and Italy in recent weeks, as students and more radical anarchists protest not only specific austerity measures in flattened economies but a rising reality in Southern Europe: People like Ms. Esposito feel increasingly shut out of their own futures. Experts warn of volatility in state finances and the broader society as the most highly educated generation in the history of the Mediterranean hits one of its worst job markets.

Politicians are slowly beginning to take notice. Italy’s president, Giorgio Napolitano, devoted his year-end message on Friday to “the pervasive malaise among young people,” weeks after protests against budget cuts to the university system brought the issue to the fore.

Giuliano Amato, an economist and former Italian prime minister, was even more blunt. “By now, only a few people refuse to understand that youth protests aren’t a protest against the university reform, but against a general situation in which the older generations have eaten the future of the younger ones,” he recently told Corriere della Sera, Italy’s largest newspaper.

You see, there are no jobs for these extensively government-educated people to find. Add to that the fact that it is very costly to try to eliminate existing workers and you have a situation where employers do not want to hire and incur the high cost and risk of adding staff.

In other words, socialism has destroyed the job market in these countries. Which then leads us to the obvious question: Is this the future of the United States under Obama's socialist model?

To quote a former Alaska Governor: "You bet'cha."

After all, Obama did promise change.

Yesterday's View

Click to enlarge
I found this at ep_jhu's photostram; one of the better pix from the Leftisphere's circle jerk.

One Way For Greece to Survive

The economic meltdown in Greece has led to some interesting steps being taken for their survival. One of which is the realization that socialized medical care is a failure and needs to be privatized.

Policy Failure: Greece was told that if it wanted a bailout, it needed to consider privatizing its government health care system. So tell us again why the U.S. is following Europe's welfare state model.

The requirement, part of a deal arranged by the IMF, the European Union and the European Central bank, is a tacit admission that national health care programs are unsustainable. Along with transportation and energy, the bailout group, according to the New York Times, wants the Greek government to remove "the state from the marketplace in crucial sectors."

This is not some cranky or politically motivated demand. It is a condition based on the ugly reality of government medicine. The Times reports that economists — not right-wingers opposed to health care who want to blow up Times Square — say liberalizing "the health care industry would help bring down prices in these areas, which are among the highest in Europe."

Of course most of the media have been largely silent about the health care privatization measure for Greece, as it conflicts with their universal, single-payer health care narrative.

The public health system in the Hellenic Republic is operated by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, where centralized decisions and rules are made.

It provides free or low-cost treatment through what is essentially a single-payer system established in 1983 when the Socialist Party was in power. Family members and retirees are also covered. Like the systems in Britain and Canada, it has agonizingly long waiting lists.

It should be no surprise that in Greece, health care spending as a percentage of the economy is relatively steep. According to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development data, it's higher than that in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Japan. Despite all the spending, Greece could never cover 100% of its citizens, reaching only about 83% for primary care.

Today, the patient most in need of a room in the intensive-care ward is Greece itself — what with government debt nearing 120% of GDP and the deficit at 13% of GDP.

So let me get this straight.

The Democrats in Washington have been adopting the European socialist economy model, the same one that is melting down now before our eyes. Those same European socialists are just now realizing that their socialized health care system is too expensive and cumbersome and can't be sustained. Some of their public is rioting over the prospect of losing their government handouts.

At the same time, in the U.S., the socialists who have taken over Congress and the White House are sending us headlong into socialism in general, with the centerpiece of their agenda the socialized ObamaCare program. They claim that their socialized medicine plan is needed to save money and make the health care delivery system viable, even though that same system fails everywhere it is tried.

This is either the height of arrogance or insanity.

Stunner: Chavez's Socialist Dreamstate Crumbling

Hard to believe isn't it? Socialism has a 100% track record: It's failed every time. Of course the only way this thug is leaving office is in a box, but keep hope alive. His day will come.

Venezuela's economy is in trouble despite the country's huge oil reserves. Blackouts plague major cities. Its inflation rate is among the world's highest. Private enterprise has been so hammered, the World Bank says, that Venezuela is forced to import almost everything it needs.

The situation is creating a serious challenge to President Hugo Chavez's efforts to transform his country into a socialist state.

Take, for instance, the Three M metal works, tucked into an industrial zone in San Cristobal, the capital of Tachira state in western Venezuela.

On a recent day, big machinery stamps out sheet metal. For a moment, things seem normal in the plant. But more often than not these days, the contraptions are dead quiet — shut down.

"Just like us, everyone is suffering," says manager Marta Medina. She reels off a list of problems the company faces: lack of spare parts, power shortages and falling orders.

The workforce is down to just eight, from more than 50 people employed a year ago.

It's a common experience in Venezuela, where the economy contracted 3.3 percent in 2009 and is expected to shrink further this year. Few business owners see a rosy future, at least in the short term.

Jose Guerra, a former Central Bank economist, says state intervention in private businesses is hitting the economy hard.

"The government is nationalizing, expropriating, or confiscating," he says. "They are not creating new wealth; this is wealth that was already created."

If that weren't bad enough, another factor is hobbling the economy — an unprecedented energy crisis.

There's that word again: unprecedented. Whenever socialism fails, the media calls it unprecedented. Of course there is precedence all over the globe of failed socialist states.

Critics say a lack of investment, coupled with government ineptitude, left Venezuela without the electrical generation capacity it needs. The government blames a brutal drought.

Whatever the reason, cities such as San Cristobal go dark every day — sometimes for four hours or more, as the government uses rolling blackouts to save energy.

On a recent morning at Zambrano auto works, the compressors and power painters come on after a blackout. Workers have been at a standstill for an hour, says Jesus Yanis, who paints cars. He adds that he expects the power to go out again later in the day, for another two hours.

The blackouts have hurt business, Yanis says.

This is not the way it was supposed to be. Venezuela is one of the world's great energy powers. Its oil reserves are among the world's largest and its hydroelectric plants are among the most potent.

But these days, Venezuela is being left behind: The rest of Latin America is expected to grow at a healthy rate this year, according to the World Bank.

Guerra, the former Central Bank economist, says the government must reconsider its policies — and drop the statist socialist model that Chavez adopted.

"The government has to consider that the socialist point of view is not so good for the economy," Guerra says. "Chavez believes in the old-fashioned socialism. This kind of socialism is dead, definitely dead, it doesn't apply to any country in the world."

Sadly, the Democrats in this country still believe in socialism, which is why they must be removed from office.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Shhh, Don't Say Socialism, Just Do It

I have seen a lot of folks writing about this poll which shows that Democrats are embracing the term Socialism, while scolding conservatives for using it as a derogatory term.

In what seems to be even more evidence of how schizophrenic Democrats are, they are also evenly split on their opinion of capitalism and socialism.

Probably the most bizarre part for the Democrats is that 85% of them have a favorable opinion of free enterprise. Don't they realize that socialism is the exact opposite of free enterprise and capitalism is the enemy of socialism?

So they think socialism is good, but they just don't want anybody saying it publicly, or something like that.

I guess the Democrats want a free enterprise, capitalistic system operating under socialist rules.

Hmmm, on second thought, that might be a good way to describe unions.

Opportunities Lost

Socialist Medicine
The Party of European Socialists (PES) kicked off its eighth congress in Prague last Monday, the same day the Copenhagen climate summit started.

While to a certain extent the socialists hitched their wagons to the higher-profile affair to the north by publicizing their effort at holding a “carbon-free” event, the main effect has been that of relegating the congress to the back pages of the news. This was the first time a top-level party congress was held in one of the EU’s New Member States. According to PES general secretary Philip Cordery the choice of Prague was chosen to support the electoral bid of the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) ahead of next year’s elections.

The publicized arrival at the site of the congress of the head of the CSSD Jirí Paroubek, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen and a number of other party leaders following a three-stop tram ride was meant to represent the event’s reduced carbon footprint and the seriousness with which Europe’s socialists take environmental issues. But beyond issuing an appeal supporting firm negotiations in Copenhagen nothing significantly new was presented regarding European environmental policy.

The other centerpiece of PES policy is support of increased financial regulation and reform of the capital markets. In his opening speech however Rasmussen admitted that the European left had missed an opportunity. “Overall, people are not convinced that the financial crisis is a failure of right-wing ideology. And they are not convinced that we have a credible alternative,” Rasmussen said, bemoaning electoral failure of socialist parties in European elections and blaming what he referred to as the “sofa party,” or voter apathy for the disappointing results. While acknowledging that new steps and initiatives were needed to get the socialist message across though Rasmussen’s own re-election to another five-year term as PES President represented the continuity of the assembled and, at times, dissimilar parties.

One national party which found itself again included in the European socialist mix was Slovakia’s largest governing party Smer-Social Democracy (Smer-SD) of Prime Minister Robert Fico. Smer was suspended from PES in 2006 after forming a coalition government with the right-wing Slovak National Party (SNS). PES members voted 93 percent in favor of readmitting the Slovak party in spite of its continued coalition with the SNS. The Belgian and Hungarian parties remained opposed.

While Smer is now expected to try to garner mainstream prestige by showing themselves as part of a Europe-wide movement the host party CSSD also defined its own benefits from being a part of a larger whole. “Those claiming that we are worse than communists or that we are a sort of crypto-communists will have it worse now,” Paroubek said, according to the Czech News Agency (CTK).

Karl Marx was unavailable for comment.

Via Czech Business Weekly

Socialism Is For Weaklings or Economic Darwinism

This is what happens when you try to go from a state run institution to private type and have to actually compete in the marketplace.

There have been 22 suicides at the firm since the beginning of 2008 and 13 attempted suicides, according to labour unions.

The unions blame chronic restructuring and work pressure at France Telecom for the wave of suicides, saying that some staffers are being left behind in the firm's transformation from a staid government agency to a private company with profit targets and intense competition.

Here in this country we are trying to follow the French model, where everything is state run, while they are trying to go the opposite way with some serious consequences for those who have for so long lived on the teat of the government.

Why do we want the government to control all of our industries and businesses? In France they are like of bunch drug addicts going cold turkey, and unfortunately for some of them they just can't handle reality or responsibility.

Obama Has His Priorities

Obama is putting the banks on the back burner to pursue his dream of total socialism.

The Obama administration’s revamp of U.S. banking and market regulations may be stalled into next year as Congress and the president set health-care reform and climate control as domestic priorities.

The ability of banks to repay U.S. aid and raise capital without government help may signal the economy is rebounding, easing pressure for sweeping change in financial rules. A delay this year may push the political debate into the 2010 congressional election campaign.

“It seems like some of the fire in the discussions has gone out of it,” said Alex Pollock, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington and former president of the Chicago Federal Home Loan Bank. “Regulatory reform is always a popular topic in the wake of a bubble and bust.”

What is happening is Obama and his team are realizing that within the next several months it will become very clear that his economic policies are a failure. At that point, he may lose some of the current blind support he enjoys in Congress.

So he is going to forge ahead with his socialism efforts while he still has the votes to do so.

The Shape of Things to Come

When I was a kid there was pop music hit called The Shape of Things to Come. Well, if you want to see what the future holds for the U.S. under the economic polices of Obama and the left, you need look no farther than the UK.

On May 21, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on the United Kingdom to negative from stable. At the same time, the AAA long-term and A-1+ short-term sovereign credit ratings were affirmed.

Rating outlooks assess the potential direction of a rating, typically over a period of up to two years. An outlook does not necessarily precede a rating change.

We have revised the outlook on Britain to negative because of our view that, even assuming additional fiscal tightening, the net general government debt burden could approach 100% of gross domestic product and remain near that level in the medium term.

This fiscal disaster is due to many years of socialism, including nationalized health care. We now have nationalized banks, nationalized auto companies, nationalized insurance companies and soon will likely have nationalized California. And all of this is met gleefully by the MSM and blamed on George Bush.

This is going to be a very, very bumpy ride.

Got Food Stamps? Here's Your Free Cell Phone! (VIDEO)

This is a commercial that has been running in Georgia over the past week or so. I am absolutely stunned.

How in the hell did we get to this point? A free cell phone, given to you by the government? WTF? I bet this stuck in the spendiferous package somewhere.



Oh yeah, sure they tug on your heartstrings by showing an old black woman cowering during a thunderstorm, but when did we get to a point in our society where qualification for food stamps is enough for the government to give you a damn cell phone? And make no mistake - this phone isn't "free." It's coming out of our taypaying pockets!

Now with your gubmint cheese, you'll get your gubmint minutes.

We're clearly on the road to socialism. A cell phone is not a right.

I promise you folks this one thing: Every government social program from here on out will be sold to use with a black person in the commercial/advertisement/stump-speech/PSA, etc. Then if we complain about it, we'll all be RAAAACCIIISSSTS!

'In America, 'Socialism' is a Dirty Word'

Would be nice if it were true.

Sadly, it's not the word of the year.

REFLECTING what's on the minds of Americans, "bailout" and "socialism" beat "maverick" in a US dictionary's word of the year contest.

Bailout - "a rescue from financial distress'' - was declared the winner of Merriam-Webster's word of the year competition on Monday after it was judged the most looked-up word on the dictionary's website, Merriam-Webster editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski said.

'''Bail out' as a phrasal verb refers to parachuting from an aircraft or, in our second sense, to abandoning a harmful or difficult situation, both of which point to distress,'' said Mr Sokolowski.

Second on the list was "vet'', as in to evaluate a candidate's suitability and qualifications for a position.

And in third place, just in front of "maverick'' - a word used during the long presidential campaign to describe Republican candidate John McCain - was the word "socialism''.

"In America, 'socialism' is a dirty word,'' said Mr Sokolowski.

Lookups - itself an accepted word dating back to 1936, according to Merriam-Webster - of "socialism'' began to climb in September, as the economic woes of US companies began to mount and the race for the presidency between McCain and his Democratic rival Barack Obama neared its close.

Not only was there heated discussion of bailouts - economic socialism and the US Government taking control of ailing companies - but the word was also used in a disparaging sense by the Republicans to try to turn voters against Mr Obama.

"It's a funny word to have on the list but it's clear to me that Americans don't know what socialism is,'' said Mr Sokolowski.

No kidding.

'It's Clear That His Main Goal is Redistribution of Wealth, Not Growth'

Sadly, we've come to the point where more people agree with redistributing wealth. The Democrats for years have played the envy card to great effect.

You won't find it in his campaign ads, but Barack Obama let slip his plans to become a modern-day Robin Hood in the White House, confiscating money from the rich to give to the poor.

Conservatives yesterday ripped Obama after he was caught on video telling an Ohio plumber that he intends to take the profits of small-business owners and "spread the wealth around" to those with lesser incomes.

The fracas over Obama's tax plan broke out Sunday outside Toledo when Joe Wurzelbacher approached the candidate.

Wurzelbacher said he planned to become the owner of a small plumbing business that will take in more than the $250,000 amount at which Obama plans to begin raising tax rates.

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the blue-collar worker asked.

After Obama responded that it would, Wurzelbacher continued: "I've worked hard . . . I work 10 to 12 hours a day and I'm buying this company and I'm going to continue working that way. I'm getting taxed more and more while fulfilling the American Dream."

"It's not that I want to punish your success," Obama told him. "I want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success, too.

Then, Obama explained his trickle-up theory of economics.

"My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody. I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Maybe if everyone behind Mr. Wurzelbacher worked as hard as he does they wouldn't have to sit around waiting for the government to spread the socialism around.

I've tried warning people they're going to take a huge hit on taxes when they vote for Obama and they refuse to listen. The mantra of change, whatever that means, now trumps all reason. They'll learn later, of course, but by then it'll be too late.

Jon Voight: Obama 'Falls Short in Every Way'

God bless Jon Voight, one of the few Hollywood actors man enough to tell it like it is.

Man, the left is going to flip when this see this harsh dose of reality thrown at them.

We, as parents, are well aware of the importance of our teachers who teach and program our children. We also know how important it is for our children to play with good-thinking children growing up.

Sen. Barack Obama has grown up with the teaching of very angry, militant white and black people: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Rev. Michael Pfleger. We cannot say we are not affected by teachers who are militant and angry. We know too well that we become like them, and Mr. Obama will run this country in their mindset.

The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way. It seems to me that if Mr. Obama wins the presidential election, then Messrs. Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers and Pfleger will gain power for their need to demoralize this country and help create a socialist America.

The Democrats have targeted young people, knowing how easy it is to bring forth whatever is needed to program their minds. I know this process well. I was caught up in the hysteria during the Vietnam era, which was brought about through Marxist propaganda underlying the so-called peace movement. The radicals of that era were successful in giving the communists power to bring forth the killing fields and slaughter 2.5 million people in Cambodia and South Vietnam. Did they stop the war, or did they bring the war to those innocent people? In the end, they turned their backs on all the horror and suffering they helped create and walked away.

Those same leaders who were in the streets in the '60s are very powerful today in their work to bring down the Iraq war and to attack our president, and they have found their way into our schools. William Ayers is a good example of that.

Thank God, today, we have a strong generation of young soldiers who know exactly who they are and what they must do to protect our freedom and our democracy. And we have the leadership of Gen. David Petraeus, who has brought hope and stability to Iraq and prevented the terrorists from establishing a base in that country. Our soldiers are lifting us to an example of patriotism at a time when we've almost forgotten who we are and what is at stake.

Read the rest.

Thank you, Mr. Voight.

Contrast Voight with the idiotic bilge of this moron.

HuffPost Hearts Chavez

We noted Tuesday Hugo Chavez was ripping off the Democrat playbook by ramming through a windfall oil tax in Venezuela and to no surprise, it's going over well on the far left.

Of course, it comes with the qualifier that Chavez isn't a friend, but hey, the guy's ideas are just swell.

Fellow travelers, different path.

Stealing From Democrat Playbook, Chavez Institutes Windfall Oil Tax

They're socialists, it's what they do.

The only difference between Chavez and what the pinheads in this country want is democracy. We at least have opposition.

For now.

Venezuela moved Tuesday to take a greater cut of windfall oil profits, approving a 50 percent tax on foreign oil companies when crude tops US$70 a barrel.

The tax rate would rise to 60 percent when the average monthly price for benchmark Brent crude exceeds US$100, according to the bill approved by Venezuela's National Assembly. The legislation will take effect as soon as it is published in the official gazette.

Revenues from the tax could reach US$9 billion (euro5.7 billion) annually, Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said after meeting with lawmakers.

"That's why, for the executive branch, it is urgent to create this law," Ramirez said.

The new legislation will let President Hugo Chavez further extend state control over foreign oil companies operating in Venezuela — home to the largest petroleum deposits in the Western Hemisphere — as he steers the nation toward what he calls "21st-century socialism."

Make no mistake the greedy Democrats would do something like this in an eye-blink if left unchecked.

I'm Barack Obama. I don't take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists, and I won't let them block change anymore. They'll pay a penalty on windfall profits.

Of course, that will never work.

Connecting the Zimbabwe Dots

Zimbabwe's economy is imploding and the socialists running the BBC are finally allowing as how there might be some minor difficulties encountered in repairing the damage done by the communist leadership there. But they still don't quit connect the dots.
The BBC starts out bemoaning the election confusion, then gets to the point:

Meanwhile Africa's worst basket-case economy continues to flounder, without a leader to take stock of what needs to be done.

In terms of statistics, Zimbabwe's plight is pretty much immeasurable.

Figures such as a rate of inflation of more than 100,000% and an unemployment rate said to be in excess of 80% are startling, but also largely meaningless.

Meaningless?

To socialists maybe, but to those who understand economics, they are very important statistics. Then the article continues:

After 28 years under Robert Mugabe, emotive terminology such as utter despair and desperate destitution describe the situation in Zimbabwe better than any maths and statistics can ever do.

This is certainly the case for the 700,000 people who have been robbed of everything, even their homes in urban slums that were razed by Mr Mugabe who had deemed them an embarrassment.

The cause, as well as the solution to all this is actually quite simple. The foundation of any prospering, growing economy is the fundamental right to hold, own and protect private property. The takeover and confiscation by the communist Mugabe to enrich his political friends destroyed any incentive by the productive people in his country to take a risk and produce anything.

Imagine for a minute that I impose a 100% income tax on you today (I can just feel Hillary and Obama supporters drooling at the very thought). I instead confiscate all your assets, income and production and dole it out to my buddies as I see fit. What possible motivation would you have to get up the next day and go to work? Of course, there is no such motivation. In fact, you have every motivation to either leave the country or just sit back and hold your hand out for your share of the largesse like everyone else. Since everybody does this, nobody is producing, and then the government has to just print money to pay for all the handouts. Foreign capital leaves the country to avoid being confiscated. And presto-chango! You have destroyed your economy.

The solution is to reinstitute the right to own private property. Then you can have a free market system and capitalism, with the resulting growth and prosperity.

Even with all this damage to the Zimbabwe economy, the editors at the BBC just can't quite let go of their love for communism/socialism. Get a load of this knee slapper buried in the end of the article:

Yet the underlying fundamentals of Zimbabwe's economy, resource base and even parts of the corporate sector remain reasonably robust.

Excuse me!? Zimbabwe's economy is the extract of a heroin addict's nightmare, including 100,000% inflation, 80% unemployment (and they can't even blame Bush for it), life expectancy of 37 years, and the BBC editors think the underlying fundamentals of their economy is robust. But yet they think the U.S. economy is crumbling.

The BBC, documenting their worship of socialism and communism every day.