Democrats: for and against religion

Hope n'Change illustrates the Democrats' two faces on freedom of religion:
RELATED: Uncoverage explores how many people have been killed in the name of Islam.

PREVIOUSLY on liberal hypocrisy:
•Environmentalists more likely to cheat: being a liberal means not having to follow the rules
•The UN's global warming advocates vs. their own carbon footprint
•Eco-hypocrite of the day: supermodel Giselle
•The hypocrisy of ACORN and others on minimum wage
•It is outrageous to make Hitler analogies, or not
•Dems, taxes, and hypocrisy
•Poll: Dems think it OK to cheat on taxes
•The rules apply only to other people
•The ever-increasing energy use of Al Gore's mansion
•With five private jets, Travolta still lectures on global warming.
•Dems supported enhanced interrogation.
•UN humanitarian hypocrisy
•Poster child hypocrisy
•Edwards' hypocrisy toward the poor
•Liberals bash gays

In EU, shoppers are "panic buying" incandescent lightbulbs

The (London) Telegraph reports (hat tip: Instapundit):
In the EU, it will soon be "an offence to import or manufacture 75W bulbs." Consequently, prices of 75W incandescent bulbs as panic buying spreads. This follows similar panic buying last year when 100W bulbs were outlawed. Next year, 60W bulbs are outlawed and in 2012, manufacture of any incandescent will be illegal. Consumers find that the global-warmist-approved replacements for these bulbs give off a "sickly light" and are often just plain "ugly." They can also be toxic.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of environmentalism:
•Environmentalists more likely to cheat: being a liberal means not having to follow the rules
•The ever-increasing energy use of Al Gore's mansion
•Ethanol subsidies in perspective
•Global warming whitewash: Penn State and the Michael Mann
•Global warming's profiteers
•Penn State to investigate its global warmist Mann, or not
•Climategate: laws were broken
•The collapse of the UN IPCC's credibility
•Yet another UN IPCC Glacier-gate scandal
•UN IPCC claims of melting Himalayan glaciers exposed as fraud

Court: Big Brother may track you

Remember when "warrantless" searches were considered a bad thing? In California, the left-wing Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals says that that time has past. CNN reports:

Law enforcement officers may secretly place a GPS device on a person's car without seeking a warrant from a judge, according to a recent federal appeals court ruling in California.

The court specifically gave the OK to sneaking onto a driveway and placing the GPS device on your car. In a bit of class-ism, the ruling does not apply if you park your car in a garage: that would still require a warrant.

The Chief Justice of the Ninth Circuit, a Reagan appointee, dissented.

It seems reasonable to me that law enforcement should occasionally be allowed to track suspects with GPS but, because the potential for abuse of this is so great, such as the tracking of political opponents, court approval should be required.

Hat tip: Leonard Stone.

PREVIOUSLY on civil rights:
•In liberal paradise, dissent will be a crime
•Fascism and Atheism: a connection?
•When co-workers behave like junior brown-shirts.
•Obama vs. the rule of law.
•DailyKos opposes fairness for Hillary
•Is it fascist to oppose fascism?
•Fascists and atheists
•To rise to power, 20th century fascists depended on liberal do-gooders.

Obamacare endangers student health

Colleges and universities have traditionally provided low-cost limited health benefits to their students.  Obamacare may make this illegal.  For one, Obamacare requires "minimum essential coverage that will satisfy the individual mandate. (See ACA §1501(f)(1)(E))" and student plans may not meet this definition.  Another typically bureaucratic issue is that, for the student to avoid the Obamacare tax, he must have either group health insurance or individual health insurance and, according to the American Council on Education, school plans currently do not qualify as either.

The end result will likely be that schools carve out special exceptions so that they will be allowed to provide students with affordable coverage.  People wanting affordable coverage who are not students at these institutions will be left wanting.

MSNBC and Megan McArdle have more on this.

RELATED:  Sen. Max Baucus, one of the chief authors of Obamacare, said he hadn't read the bill before he voted for it.  Further he told constituents that reading it would be "a waste [of] my time."  This is particularly relevant to the plight of university health plans because some of the problem are simply sloppy writing in the Obamacare care law (known as ACA).  As the American Council on Education explains:

ACA does not use consistent language with respect to the application of the reforms. Instead, the act uses interchangeably the terms "health insurance coverage" and "insurance market." This distinction does not appear to have any policy basis but nonetheless is causing confusion in the SHP market, particularly with respect to the application of PHSA §§2701 (premium variation), 2702  (guaranteed availability), and 2703 (guaranteed renewability) as created by ACA.

PREVIOUSLY on Obamacare:
•Preview of Obamacare: Doctors abandoning Medicare
•The dawning of the reality of Obamacare
•Consumers outsmart Massachusetts' version of Obamacare
•Obamacare threatens high tech jobs
•Obamacare and trillions of dollars of unfunded mandates
•The fraud of Obamacare, as seen from the left
•Pelosi: Pass Obamacare so artists can quit their day jobs
•How many House Democrats would be vulnerable this fall because of Obamacare?
•Britain's Obamacare: Hospital patient dies of thirst as nurses ignore his pleas for water
•Nobel Laureate economist explains why socialized medicine always fails
•Rep. Ryan explains the dishonesty of Obamacare economics

The priorities of "feminists"

Dana Loesch writes about the priorities of the feminist left:

This past month, liberal feminists made more hay made over Palin's "mama grizzlies" talk than the matter of the Food and Drug Administration jerking Avastin off the market. Avastin is a drug used to treat late-stage breast cancer and has been shown to extend the life of some breast cancer patients by five months, but was deemed "cost-prohibitive" by the government.

Emily's List cared enough about women to make a video criticizing Palin, but apparently not enough about breast cancer patients to make a video criticizing the FDA's move.

RTWT.

Like many liberal groups, feminists are liberals first and feminists second.

RELATED: Richard A. Epstein has more on the Avastin issue.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of Democrats practicing sexism:
•Pelosi: Sexism in the House
•Majority Leader Reid declares: men are abusive.
•It was all about the racism and sexism
•MSNBC's sexist attacks on Sec. Rice and Obama's sexist attacks on Hillary
•DailyKos opposed to treating Hillary "fairly"
•Two examples of sexist stereotyping
•Sexists in the Senate
•A Democrat opposes sexism
•Media sexism backfires
•Salon has a sexual fantasy about Palin as a dominatrix
•Sexist attack on Palin or merely an example of Obama's "silver tongue"?
•Dem Gov says Dem primary voters are sexist and racist
•What is the victim status of your identity group?
•Dems urged to vote their gender

Democrats embarrassed by fake "tea party" filings

In Oakland County, Michigan, three fake candidates filed to run under the Tea Party name. Investigation has traced the fake filings back to Democrats who chose to make the fake filings in what they anticipated to be three close races. Taking the unusual step of acknowledging the problem (rather than stonewalling), Democrats are embarrassed enough that they are now calling for the removal of one of their own:

Democrats on the Oakland County Board of Commissioners Saturday called for the removal of a county Democratic Party employee in the wake of allegations of fraud by Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson a day earlier.

Hat tip: Instapundit.

UPDATE (8-Oct-2010): There is also fake tea in New Jersey, as the Cherry Hill Courier Post reports:

Congressman John Adler's campaign and the Camden County Democratic Committee recruited "NJ Tea Party'' candidate Peter DeStefano to confuse conservative voters and hurt Adler's Republican challenger this fall, Democratic operatives say.

PREVIOUSLY on the Democrats response to the Tea Party movement:
•Democrats respond to Tea Party with smears and lies
•Democrats respond to Tea Party movement with "F*ck Tea"
•Yet another Tea Party infiltrator caught
•A Tea Party greets Obama in San Francisco and the left responds by chanting smears
•Infiltrators at a San Francisco Tea Party

Last Combat brigade leaves Iraq (or not)

The Army Times reports:

So while the “last full U.S. combat brigade” have left Iraq, just under 50,000 soldiers from specially trained heavy, infantry and Stryker brigades will stay, as well as two combat aviation brigades.

In other words, Obama gets to keep his pledge to remove "combat" troops from Iraq by renaming the heavily armed troops that remain there as "Advise and Assist Brigades."

At least, Obama is not foolish enough to do what the left really wants and actually abandon the democratic government.

UPDATE: The UK Guardian reports the First US soldier killed since Obama 'withdrew' combat troops:

An American soldier was killed by a rocket strike near Basra today, in the first US fatality since the last combat troops left Iraq.

The announcement came amid growing concern that the withdrawal of combat forces will allow security in Iraq to further deteriorate.

PREVIOUSLY on the related subject of Pres. Obama's Afghanistan policy:
•Spinning Obama's firing of Gen. McChrystal
•Obama White House has time to demonize Fox but not to work on Afghanistan
•The left is upset that Obama was not lying about his Afghanistan policy
•The commander-in-chief is clueless
•Foreign policy: Will Obama learn from experience?
•Obama as Procrastinator-in-chief (cartoon)
Our Commander-in-chief is missing in action
•Obama's priorities, updated
A further clarification of Obama's priorities
•Obama's sense of priorities

Democrats respond to Tea Party with smears and lies

According to some preliminary polls, 5-term incumbent Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA) may be losing to his Tea-Party supported opponent, John Koster. As syndicated talk show host Jason Lewis explains on Fox News, Rep. Larsen has responded with smears which have been exposed as lies:

John Koster provides more detail on how his opponent Rep. Larsen has used deceptive juxtaposition in photos in the Democrat's smear campaign :

One photo shows Koster supporters at a 4th of July parade in Arlington standing next to a civil war reenactment troop carrying battle flags that was positioned next in line to the Koster Team.

Larsen used a different 4th of July parade in another example:

Another photo was taken at the Everett 4th of July parade where the Confederate flag appeared as part of a historical American flag display by one of the state legislative candidates. While Koster signs may have appeared in the Everett Parade, the Koster Campaign did not even have an entry in that parade.

Another interesting bit from the above Fox video was that fake "tea party" candidates have been driven from the ballot in two locations after legal challenges to their claim to represent the Tea Party.

PREVIOUSLY on the Democrat smear campaign against the Tea Party:
•Democrats respond to Tea Party movement with "F*ck Tea"
•Yet another Tea Party infiltrator caught
•A Tea Party greets Obama in San Francisco and the left responds by chanting smears
•Infiltrators at a San Francisco Tea Party

Lawyer joke of the day

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS:
The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this -- you cannot post 'Thou Shalt Not Steal' 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery' and 'Thou Shall Not Lie' in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians, it creates a hostile work environment.

Hat tip: Rob.

Gallup says a majority disapprove of Obama

For the first time, a majority of those surveyed by Gallup disapproved of Pres. Obama's job performance (Hat tip: Instapundit). In this way, Gallup is catching up the Rasmussen which has reported a fairly steady majority disapproval of Obama for the past couple of weeks.

PREVIOUSLY on Obama's public approval:
•Democrats disappointed in Obama
•Obama sets yet another record
•Obama sets another record
•For 306 straight days, Obama's polls have never been above Carter's.

PREVIOUSLY in other related polls:
•Poll: Democrats twice as likely to have seen a ghost as Republicans.
•3 in 10 Californians identify with Tea Party protests
•If there were a Tea Party, it would out-poll the GOP.

UPDATE: Nate Beeler illustrates the the Vacationer-in-Chief's problems:

Meet Mr. Snerdley

If you listen to Rush, you are familiar with Mr. Snerdley. You have probably never seen him. He made an appearance at Rush's wedding:

It is impressive that he manages to make Rush look small.

Reagan speaks

Despite the decades between "the speech" and now, Ronald Reagan has not lost his relevance:


PREVIOUSLY on the subject of Ronald Reagan and his legacy:
•What is looks like when a foreign policy succeeds

PREVIOUSLY on the contrast between Reagan and Obama:
•Foreign policy: what is the Obama Doctrine?
•Stalinists cheer Obama
•Obama babbles about "cynicism"

California's upcoming ballot proposition: a quick look

Californians will vote on nine propositions this November 2. I've grouped them into four categories:

1. Social Issues:
   
   • Proposition 19: Legalize and tax marijuana
     
     The problem with marijuana is not recreational users, it is the "stoners" who consume enough that they are no longer able to be self-supporting members of society. If marijuana is legalized, the number of stoners will likely increase. On the other hand, is that worth the effort in police, DEA, and prison resources that are now used to enforce laws on a drug which is less addictive than alcohol?
     
   
   
2. Redistricting:
   
   • Proposition 20: Congressional district lines to be re-drawn by a committee
     
   • Proposition 27: Return task of redistricting to the California State Legislature (repealing Prop 11)
     
   
   Before Proposition 11, redistricting was done by the politicians in the state legislature. Proposition 11, passed in 2008, changed that so that state districts are redrawn by a citizen's commission. The first proposition extends Proposition 11 to include Congressional districts. Proposition 27 repeals Proposition 11. It is not clear to me if the Citizens Commission will do a good job of redistricting. It is clear that the politicians have gerrymandered California into an ungovernable mess and it is hard to imagine the citizens doing worse.
   
   
3. Taxes:
   
   • Proposition 21: Increase vehicle license fees by $18 a year "to fund state parks"
   • Proposition 23: Suspend AB 32, the "Global Warming Solutions Act" until unemployment falls below 5.5%
   • Proposition 24: Taxes Eliminates three business tax breaks
   
   Proposition 21 claims it will raise $500M to "protect wildlife and natural resources." After it gets the money, the legislature will, of course, be free to re-allocate other money away from the parks to whatever they please. The bottom line is that this is just another tax. Proposition 23 reasonably suspends California's anti-jobs "global warming" act until unemployment drops. Proposition 24 claims it will collect $1.3B while raising taxes on 120,000 businesses. The tax law changes seem a bit obscure but the proposition seems like a bad idea because (a) California, with its high unemployment rate, needs to become more business friendly, not less, and (b) this proposition doesn't address the underlying problem of runaway state spending.
   
   
4. Controlling the runaway legislature:
   
   • Proposition 22: State government prohibited from taking designated types of local funds
   • Proposition 25: State spending State budget and tax increases can be passed with a simple majority vote, rather than current 2/3rds requirement
   • Proposition 26: Voters must give permission before any new taxes can be imposed
   
   The state has been "borrowing" from money raised by local governments. Proposition 22 would end that practice. Proposition 25 would allow the legislature spend money with a simple majority vote instead of the current two-thirds requirement. This might make California more governable. However, critics say that, via some sneaky language, it would also allow the legislature to raise taxes with a merely a majority vote, something most voters don't want. (So far, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette agreed with the critics that the state shouldn't claim that the proposition leaves tax requirement unchanged. He was overruled, however, by the a 3-judge panel of the 3rd District Court of Appeal which sided with Prop. 25's supporters.) As an exception to the 2/3 requirement for new taxes, the state legislature can raise certain fees, levies, and charges with a simple majority. Proposition 26 eliminates that loophole.
   

PREVIOUSLY on California politics:
•California steps closer to bankruptcy
•What a long strange trip its been!: Tea Party protests establishment hippies
•California tilts Republican
•A Tea Party greets Obama in San Francisco and the left is not happy about it
•3 in 10 Californians identify with tea party protests

Sophisticated liberal thought

Democrats have been struggling to find a way to respond to the Tea Party. Since previous ideas, like the coffee party, didn't work out, so they've created a new variant called "f*uck tea" which comes complete with t-shirts, a video, and song:

Consider the song lyrics (c1:42):

F*ck you, f*ck you very very much
Because we hate what you do and we hate your whole crew
So please don stay in touch
F*ck you, f*ck you very very much

So, it is clear that they "hate" the tea party and "hate" the whole tea party crew. Why do they hate? That is answered by this lyric (c0:15):

Cause we are so unspired, so sick and tired of the hatred you harbor

and also (c1:27):

Do you really enjoy living a life that is so hateful?
Cause there's a hole where you soul should be
Your are losing control of it and it's really distasteful
F*ck you, f*ck you very very much

They "hate" the tea party because the Tea Party is "hateful"? Have they looked in the mirror, recently? Add this as another case study of psychological projection.

Consider one more curious lyric, this one sung over a picture of Rush Limbaugh (c1:17):

You want to be like your father whose approval you're after
Well, that's not how you find it

If you picked one prominent American politician with the biggest father-approval-complex, who would it be? Barack Obama comes to my mind.

Lastly, consider this lyric (c0:26):

So you say it's not OK to be gay
Well, I think you are just evil

They have clearly missed a key point: the Tea Party is an economic/libertarian movement, not a social/religious movement. I suppose that once they decided to hate the Tea Party, they didn't consider the reasons why to be important.

RELATED: LegalInsurrection writes about the collapse of the Coffee Party. (Hat tip: Instapundit)

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of psychological projection:
•More psychological projection: Democrats says those racists call them names
•The masters of astroturf claim that tea parties are astroturf
•Air America projects hate
•Air America fantasizes a right-wing hate machine
•Syria imagines that Israel does not want peace
•The New Republic says lying is 2nd nature to Republicans
•Rahm Emanuel caught projecting his strategy onto Republicans
•Alec Baldwin projects his hate onto Republicans
•Progessives and prejudice and hate
•HuffPost blogger projects enviro-hypocrisy
•Dems accuse other Dems of acting like Republicans

Yet another Tea Party infiltrator caught?

Fox News reports a tape of a man carrying racist signs at a Tea Party and claiming to be a Rand Paul supporter but allegedly later seen with Paul's opponent, Democrat Conway:

Notice how Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh tries to spin it:

Mary Anne Marsh: It doesn't really have anything to do with the Tea party because these kind of tactics have been around forever and both parties practice it, not the racist part, but trying to show up at your opponents events, trying to do something, stealing signs, crank calls, there's a whole host of things but that s just politics. ... This is how politics is played.

She wants to claim that everybody does it but she admits that she can't, at least "not the racist part." Is this really just politics? If it were, wouldn't there be examples of the MSM highlighting some infiltrator acting crazy at an anti-Bush demonstration and trying to pretend that that crazy person represented all liberals or all Democrats? There aren't, of course.

UPDATE: Confirmed: the man in question is a long-time Democrat activist. (Hat tip: GatewayPundit)

RELATED: Democrats are reportedly supporting efforts to get fake "tea party" candidates on the ballot in New Jersey, Michigan, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

PREVIOUSLY on Tea Parties in the San Francisco area:
•Long Strange Trip: Hippies defend establishment; Tea Party protests (Jul 18)
•A Tea Party greets Obama in San Francisco and the left is not happy about it
•Collected photos of this year's San Francisco Tea Party events
•Minutemen vs. May Day protesters in San Francisco
•A tax day Tea Party breaks out in San Francisco's Union Square
•A tax day Tea Party breaks out on the San Francisco Peninsula
•3 in 10 Californians identify with tea party protests
•To protest Obamacare, San Francisco holds a sick-in (Nov. 15)
•A Tea Party greets Obama in San Francisco (Oct. 15)
•Videos of the October 15 San Francisco Tea Party
•San Franciscans speak to Nancy Pelosi (Aug. 14)
•The San Francisco Tax Day Tea Party Protest in Pictures (Apr. 15)
•Farmers protest in San Jose (Nov. 21).
•Tea Party breaks out in Palo Alto (Nov. 21)

Hybrid cars: an economic failure

The British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA) has examined 16 hybrid cars and compared them to similar conventionally-powered cars. In all but one case, the gas savings from driving a hybrid failed to make up for the higher initial price: hybrid cars remain more expensive to own and operate than conventional cars. This remains true despite their having been mass-produced for the North American market for over 12 years.

The BCAA's study was done using Canada's high gas prices. At the US's lower prices, the hybrid cars would be at an even bigger disadvantage.

Which one of the 16 hybrids cost less than its conventionally-powered equivalent? According to the BCAA, that would be the Mercedes S400 with a sticker price of $105,900 Canadian. (A lot of resources, each of which has an environmental cost, go into making a $105,900 car. So buy the car if you like it but not because you're "helping the environment.")

It is said, plausibly, that more oil is used to ship a hydrid car from Japan to North America than the car will ever save through its increased mileage. Owning a hybrid is not about the environment. Like most things liberal, it is about the narcissism.

WELCOME to readers of  Miles Franklin.

RELATED: Smug Alert

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of narcissism:
•Narcissist-in-Chief (with cartoon and photo)
•Study: Environmentalists more likely to "cheat" and "steal"
•Obama: "I want you to understand: this is not about me!"
•Obama: it's all about me!
•Confusing Compassion with Narcissism
•Obama's narcissism and the Chicago Olympics bid
•Environmentalism and Narcissism, II
•From OpenLeft: Is liberalism narcissism?
•Environmentalism and Narcissism,
•The side-effects of good intentions

Why business isn't hiring

Michael P. Fleisher, president of Bogen Communications Inc. in Ramsey, N.J., explains how much it costs, adding up the various taxes and fees, to employ an average worker, call her Sally, in New Jersey:

When you add it all up, it costs $74,000 to put $44,000 in Sally's pocket and to give her $12,000 in benefits. Bottom line: Governments impose a 33% surtax on Sally's job each year.

He concludes:

A life in business is filled with uncertainties, but I can be quite sure that every time I hire someone my obligations to the government go up. From where I sit, the government's message is unmistakable: Creating a new job carries a punishing price. [Emph. added]

RTWT for the details.

Pres. Obama's economic initiatives, particularly Obamacare, seem aimed at making the costs of employing a worker not merely higher but also more uncertain and, hence, risky.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of Obamanomics and how it differs from economics:
•Dodd-Frank finance "reform" bill stops bond market cold
•Why unemployment insurance must be extended (illustrated)
•Obamanomics still failing, Washington Post discovers
•Russia goes supply-side
•Study: Liberals are economically illiterate
•Obama's health care and economic policies explained
•Obama modeling US economy after Europe's
•Irresponsibility pays!
• Obamanomics prolonging the recession
•US Aaa bond rating threatened by Obama's budget says Moody's
•Obamanomics illustrated II
•How Dems are prolonging the recession
•How Obamanomics destroys jobs
•Obamanomics illustrated
•Deficits: Obama goes where no man has gone before (illustration)
•How to raise the standard of living
•Obama's anti-intellectual economic theory
•Obamanomics and the test of science
•Obamacare may raise insurance costs by 54%
•Harvard economist explains why Obamacare will raise premiums
•HHS says Obamacare will cause costs to go up and cause employers to drop coverage

How does a Democrat blow out candles?

In 2008, Barack Obama was the Messiah and no jokes were allowed. With his approval ratings having dropped like a rock, the MSM considers finally considers Obama jokes acceptable. From Jay Leno's Tonight Show (transcript from News Busters):

JAY LENO: Welcome to the "Tonight Show," and we want to start off by saying Happy Birthday to President Barack Obama. He is...

[Cheers and applause]

LENO: He is 49, which is eight points higher than his approval rating. Wow.

[Laughter]

LENO: If you would like to get him a a gift, he's registered at Bed, Bath and Blame it on Bush. That's the store.

[Laughter and applause]

LENO: What, did you see the cake they had for him? They had a huge cake. A little different than most birthday parties. What he did was he didn't blow out the candles, he just taxed them until they finally gave up and went out on their own.

PREVIOUSLY on the humorous side of our present predicament:
•Bob Hope's greatest movie line
•If Pres. Obama was "amused" by the tea parties....
•Comedy in the tragedy
•Obamacare, illustrated
•Seeing the humor in a disaster
•Obamacare and trillions of dollars of unfunded mandates
•Where has the laughter gone?

"The Tea Party movement empowers Black people"

So says the Tea Party Express spokesman in the video below. The Tea Party movement does this, of course, as part of its goal to empower all people.

CNN bills this video over the caption: "Tea Party Express members say racist claims about the movement are being exaggerated by left wing opposition groups." Naturally, that caption is a lie. These Tea Party Express spokesman are instead complaining primarily about the racist attacks by Democrats against Tea Party members and Blacks:

Hat tip: HotAir via Instapundit.

PREVIOUSLY on the related subject of Democrats and racism:
•Is witch doctor image racist?

•Gov. to require racism in the financial industry
•Obama ally: "I hate white people...."
•Bill Maher explains how "real" blacks act
•Democrats move to their comfort zone
•Black students, harassed for "acting white," get $150,000
•“You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”
•"The city wasn't ready to hire a white police chief."
•A prominent black politician says the white incumbent cannot properly represent black voters.
•San Franciscans discriminate against blacks.
•"He's not black and he can't represent me, that's just the bottom line."
•NAACP defends racism.
•Stanford finds Democrats are racist.
•Obama nominates a racist.
•Leaders acknowledge Democrat base is racist.
•"That's just how white folks will do you." ---Barack Obama.
•Dem says Dem primary voters are racist.
•Dems accuse Bill and Hillary of racism.

Obama DoJ: vote fraud helps "increase turnout"

How often does voter fraud occur? Whistleblower J. Christian Adams reviews (hat tip: Instapundit) some recent developments:

Just in the last month there have been indictments, convictions, or investigations of voter fraud in: Atlantic City, New Jersey; Troy, New York; Canton, Mississippi; Brooks County, Georgia; Independence, Louisiana; Dillon County, South Carolina; Adair County, Oklahoma; Muncie, Indiana; and most notably, Minnesota, where there have been dozens of felon voting indictments arising out of the closely contested 2008 elections.

Consider one case as an example, as reported by KSDK:

Tarrell Campbell, 34, pled guilty to one felony count of voter fraud Friday morning, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

According to court documents, Campbell had been a long-time registered voter in the city of St. Louis when he moved to Edwardsville, Illinois in June of 2007, and then registered to vote in Illinois. As the 2008 general election approached, Campbell voted in October in Illinois, under that state's early voting procedures, and later voted in the City of St. Louis on election day November 4, 2008.

These cases are hard to catch because no one is comparing voter databases from one state to another to identify duplicates. Section 8 of the Motor Voter act requires such effort. The Obama administration, however, is taking the other side. J. Christian Adams reports:

In November 2009, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Julie Fernandes, the Obama political appointee in charge of the DOJ Voting Section, told the assembled Voting Section that the Eric Holder Justice Department had “no interest in enforcing Section 8.” Because “Section 8 denied ballot access rather than increase turnout,” the DOJ wouldn’t be enforcing the law, she said. Her tone exhibited dismissive contempt for this law.

Upon hearing this lawless announcement, seasoned Voting Section veterans and managers had a look on their faces as if someone announced without shame they were planning to steal boxloads of office supplies. I was there to hear the corrupt announcement firsthand. I saw the reactions. [Emph. added]

"Vote early, vote often" is now official US policy.

This is consistent with administration support for voter intimidation.

PREVIOUSLY on the subject of vote fraud:
•More vote fraud: New York State
•How to buy a vote
•NJ Dems demand equal rights for fraudulent voters
•Nevada accuses ACORN of 39 felonies
•Three Obama supporters plead guilty
•Another ex-ACORN worker pleads guilty
•An insider's guide to vote fraud
•Vote fraud update
•Absentee ballot and dishonest elections
•Fraud and Deceit in 2004

Social Policies: the more things change, the more they stay the same

Democrats thinks that their ideas are "new ideas" responding the "complexity" of "modern" society. They think that because they do not read history. Consider LBJ's "war on poverty." Benjamin Franklin knew how LBJ's "war" would turn out two centuries in advance:

"I am for doing good to the poor, but...I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. I observed...that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer." —Benjamin Franklin

Hat tip: Leonard.

PREVIOUSLY on America's Founding Fathers and their relevance to today:
•The Declaration of Independence in perspective
•From Rousseau to Al Gore: the rise of the declinists
•Hamilton vs. Jefferson on the French Revolution
•Disaster and conspiracy theorists: from Alexander Hamilton to today
•Fatherless children and their support for centralized government: from Hamilton to Obama
•Hamilton vs. Jefferson on monarchs
•Fear and delusion among liberals: from Alexander Hamilton to Rosie O'Donnell

Conservatives go to pot

On November 2, Californians will vote on Proposition 19 which would allow anyone over 21 years of age to have 1 ounce of marijuana for personal consumption. The issue splits both parties. Democrats normally favor total government control over, for example, your retirement savings, your use of tobacco, and even the light bulbs you use to light your home. However, for marijuana, many on the left, such Rep. Pete Stark, Rep. Barbara Lee, and the NAACP, suddenly favor less government control. This makes sense once you understand, as the Gunslinger pointed out to me, that the left is not in favor of liberty but it is in favor of libertinism.

On the right side, conservatives see the social problems with drug addiction (marijuana may or may not fall in that category) but temper that with the reality that the current policy, prohibition, is not working well. Thus, Wm. F. Buckley Jr. and Milton Friedman have been supporters of drug legalization. As this clip shows, current conservative talking heads Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin also are favoring pot legalization:



Both of California's gubernatorial candidates, Meg Whitman and Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown, oppose legalization. Senators Feinstein (D-CA) and Boxer (D-CA) also oppose. Public Policy Polling says that, among the public, Proposition 19 is currently leading by 52% to 36%.

RELATED to the distinction between being pro-liberty and pro-libertinism: The Spearhead discusses a feminist, Jaclyn Friedman, who writes in support of, in her word, "sluthood."