pelosi

The American Medical Association supports only its own political agenda and not its member doctors, according to some physicians. Many will not even join this once prestigious organization, citing concerns that it no longer reflects their opinions or their concerns for their patients. The AMA came out in favor of the 1.8 TRILLION dollar health care debacle. Putting the LIE to that is the report that 45% of physicians would consider quitting the profession if the bill passes. 65% of practicing doctors are fully opposed to government controlled health care. Only about 18% of physicians are represented by the AMA. That other GREAT SELLOUT is the AARP, another politically motivated Kool-Aid outfit interested ONLY in its own profit margin, who stopped speaking for the vast numbers of seniors a long time ago. Many seniors, always conscious of dollar concerns, have signed up for the AARP to take advantage of supplemental insurance discounts and until recently were largely unaware of the AARP’s extreme liberal proclivities. This all changed with the Obama administration’s drive for for a single payer health care system, which even the thickest senior could tell was BAD news for senior health care and in fact they were about to be thrown under the proverbial Obama Bus…sort of like he did to his Granny? I witnessed an AARP meeting in Fremont, California, where the AARP, attempting to answer the tens of thousands of angry calls and letters directed at them by members who objected to the AARP’s stated intent to support the massive government takeover, asked some very pointed questions of the AARP spinette, whereupon she promptly snitted up and abruptly walked out of the meeting. The AARP subsequently came out with a statement saying they were ‘rethinking’ their support…Well girls and boys, we can see how they rethunk it. Meanwhile in Washington, a little group of  FIFTY THOUSAND of our friends and neighbors gathered on the capitol steps in response to Rep. Michelle Bachmann’s call to action on Friday last. They then proceeded to the Capitol office buildings to have a little tête à tête with their Representatives about just who the hell they work for and just exactly what was expected of them. All very respectfully you understand..though some of our most liberal Congress Critters didn’t reciprocate and either hid or actually abused some constituents. I guess they didn’t care to be confronted with the truth of the fact that they have been exposed for what and who they are. There will be a HUGE reckoning in 2010. The whole country is steaming and they are so insular and so blinded by their own ambition they can’t see it. Nancy with the Flash Frozen Smile lied again and then reneged on her pledge to allow members of Congress and the public 72 hours to examine the final version of the bill. What a surprise! I’m shocked. Speaker Pelosi intends to go ahead with a sneak vote on Saturday despite sharply deteriorating support in her own party. Many Conservative patriots are staying in Washington to keep up the pressure on members of Congress. Another call was put out by Rep. Bachmann on Mark Levin’s radio show on Thursday, for anyone who is in range and can possibly reach DC in time to come to the Capitol to support this totally grass roots Conservative Patriotic effort. Mark Levin was at the rally in person and his presence was HUGE. God bless America…

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2009

We are in the grip of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930’s…which by the way folks, was a largely Democratic creation. If that sounds familiar it’s because many of the same power grabs that contributed to it then are in motion now. Here on the left coast, in once sunny California, even some of our 20 million ILLEGAL aliens have given up to move back home to Mexico and go to work for the great growth industry down there…drug cartels. Meanwhile, in the second biggest Fantasyland in the nation, Sacramento, the Democratically dominated State Assembly, along with that ever acquiescent RINO Arnold Schwarzenegger, have taken the State with the tenth largest economy in the world and destroyed it as a viable economic entity. If you think I’m exaggerating, wrap your ponytail and Birkenstocks around this: Our Great Central San Joaquin Valley, virtually BY ITSELF, could feed the world…or could before the gutless California politicians allowed the environmentalists so much sway (for a price) that a Federal judge was able to take water away from California ranches and farms, for the sake of a lousy 2″ trash fish…the Delta Smelt. Supposedly because they were getting trapped in the pumping stations of the main irrigation canals, thereby depriving the salmon of this delectable hors d’oeuvre. Um…seems like salmon all over the world thrive without a single visit to our delta…fancy that. There are dozens of examples of this abject environmental stupidity all affecting California business and investment, even education and infrastructure. Although I’ve researched most I can’t go into them…we’d be here all week. One thing you can be sure of, wherever the ENVIRONAZIS are in this state, there will be a politician nearby waiting to have his palm crossed with silver…our silver. I imagine it’s much the same in the other States as well. This, and the invariably higher taxes, both personal and business that go hand-in-hand with increasingly repressive regulation, have resulted in the MASS exodus of business and jobs from this State, once one of the most prosperous stand-alone economies in the world. Now our ever-sleazy State Legislature, probably jealous of  Nancy (Bugeyes) Pelosi’s one-sided attempt to railroad the country into Marxist servitude and unable to con the voters of California into saying yes to a handful of doublespeak hidden tax bond measures, have resorted to complete and total NO FRILLS (meaning no voters, no election, no governor) TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. Illegal and unconstitutional as hell…blatant spit-in-your-eye we’re-going-to-do-it-anyway taxation, in the form of a 10% additional withholding from pay checks. This in a state with 12.5 to 17% unemployment, depending on which set of depressing statistics you’d care to peruse. The aforementioned San Joaquin Valley has closer to 40% unemployed and invaluable farm land being destroyed by neglect and disuse. Supposedly, this additional ‘loan’ will be deducted from State income taxes at the end of the tax year…where are those Madoff investments? We’ll make a killing. I know I can speak for a whole lot of people in this State when I say there’s not a damn thing anyone in that Statehouse does to represent me! Even the Kool-Aid crowd has begun to figure out that gay sexual indoctrination of our helpless children is of a higher priority for these creeps than anything approaching responsible governance. We’ve put Congress and the White House on notice. The spin machine is working overtime, but the truth is the Democrats back there are scared peeless. NOW it’s time to take the Conservative Revolution to the California Statehouse!!

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2009

“These are the times that try men’s souls”. Thomas Paine wrote that during the year 1776, while our fledgling  nation was in the throes of armed revolution against the greatest military machine in the world. If Vegas had been around back then, the odds would have been astronomically against that we would survive being crushed inside a year. It was a minor miracle that we had survived the “battles” of Lexington and Concord on April 19th 1775. We had no standing army or navy. Our militias were ragtag groups of farmers and shopkeepers. There is another document authored by Thomas Jefferson and published on July 4, 1776. It begins, “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected to them to another”. The ‘healthcare monstrosity’ of 1990 pages will have another 800 pages of “managerial” amendments added to it in the dark of night by Pelosi’s GOON squad. They will attempt a vote on this indescribable horror. I’m not saying that armed insurrection is our answer, but something certainly has to be done. We don’t need to wait for Friday’s vote for tyranny…we have it right now in the House of Representatives. We have  one party rule enforced by pint-sized Nancy Pelosi, to include having locks changed on chamber doors to keep Republicans from introducing amendments or raising objections to the absolutely illegal and unconstitutional multi-trillion dollar robbery of our freedoms, our independence and our God given heritage. The Obama administration is out to destroy our way of life. Rush Limbaugh said as much in his interview with Chris Wallace broadcast on Sunday AND HE WAS RIGHT! Bill O’Reilly said he thought Rush was wrong that Obama wouldn’t do that for fear that he wouldn’t be re-elected. I’ve got news for you Bill…Rush is right…you are wrong. Obama is an ideologue. Pelosi, Reid and company are only slightly less so…their idea of transformative is along the lines of Pol Pot or Joseph Stalin and let us not forget that great Obama administration icon Mao Tse Tung. They couldn’t care less what the American people think or say…they are going to thug this thing through unless we STOP them… AND WE CAN. Representative Michele Bachmann (R) Minn. has called for citizens from all over America who can reach Washington by Thursday to gather at the capitol steps to rally and then proceed into the congressional office buildings to beard the cowards in their dens. Not with pitchforks  and tar (YET), but with video and cell phone cameras. Any bets the cretins will clear out Wednesday night or hide behind staff and be unavailable? I know of two people from Nancy’s own district who are winging their way east as we speak… Mark Levin has also promised to be there to lend his support. Calls and emails will also undoubtedly inundate the offices of Congress and the Senate and bring down the White House and Capitol switchboards. Given what is happening in Virginia, New York and New Jersey they’d better start listening. They’d also better be damned grateful that we have more respect for the rule of law than they do. For with us, as Conservatives, Independents and many Democrats who are not represented by this bunch, the law is something WE stand by. For those TYRANTS it’s something they hide behind.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2009

More words than the New Testament of the Bible…precisely 2.2 million dollars per word. One thing is for certain, there was not one word that came out of the Speaker’s mouth at the CLOSED INVITATION ONLY unveiling  that was the truth. Just as they did every thing else with this gargantuan power grab, behind closed doors and in the dark of night, this bill has been read by very few. Hillary Clinton’s failed attempt only had 1300 pages. What we do know of it stinks to high heaven. The 1.44 trillion projected by the CBO will become FOURTEEN times that, using the Medicare experience and everything else the government does as a gauge. The Senate Republicans have demanded that Harry Reid submit the bill to them for detailed scrutiny. This bill, like everything else this Congress and Administration has done, is a sham and a failure. Just as the much vaunted stimulus has resulted in barely over 1000 jobs and the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program ended costing US taxpayers 24,000.00 dollars per vehicle, pulling 125,000 mostly desirable used cars away from  the market place, the sale of which would normally benefit lower income purchasers. The claim is that it is budget neutral. That’s an out and out lie. It includes the public option, which Pelosi and Reid were forced by the extreme left of the party and allies to include, though it bodes ill for the passage of the bill. It also includes funding for abortions which the Republicans and 40 or more Democrats have said they will not vote for. This bill has coverage for ILLEGAL ALIENS. The Bluedog Democrats have stated they want more information. This also does not bode well for the passage of this bill. This is a HUGELY regressive power grab with thousands of SHALLS in it, each with its threat of punitive fines or imprisonment and back-breaking taxation, which is a huge gun pointed directly at the freedom of every United States citizen. It is for this precise reason that our forefathers chose to throw off the yoke of tyranny to become a free people. Americans  are rightfully incensed. The American people are about to speak in Virginia, New Jersey and New York. It’s a harbinger of things to come. Nancy…Keep your historic moment! We don’t want your European Socialist Healthcare!

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2009

In Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid’s hallucinatory world, their head long rush to have everything in Marxist heaven in its place…especially the American people, annoying creatures that we are, ISN’T WORKING. Nancy and Harry ideologues, that they are by the nature of what they are, aren’t real deep thinkers. They had this one chance to push this country into Leninist Nirvana, behind wave after wave of Democrat-manufactured crises and engineered  panic, while surfing the historically mesmerizing Presidency of Barack Hussein Obama. After the euphoria cleared many of the moon-eyed came back to earth and realized the whole game was rigged and Camelot was in fact a massive shell game. Then something changed…something happened along the way. A few conservative Republicans found their testicular fortitude and said, ‘hey wait, let’s  just slow down and read this thing’. Of course, they had just finished having a 700 billion dollar enema rammed up them by George Bush, who was putting aside his ‘conservative principles’ to save (Wall Street) “the economy” from a disaster which Ralph Nader for one had predicted eight years before…and I’m no fan of Nader. In fairness to former President Bush, he too had tried repeatedly, along with other Republican leaders, to have Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac scrutinized and their freewheeling practices regulated. They were stonewalled in these attempts time after time by such fiscal stalwarts as  Chris Dodd, John ‘Swiftboat’ Kerry, Barack Hussein Obama, Spencer Bachus, Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton and the in-all-ways-deviant Barney Frank. When the predictable result occurred, which some may be led to believe was carefully planned and engineered for precisely this purpose, it became Bush’s issue. Fast forward to Barack Hussein’s love fest Democrat wish-list budget pork feast and the debt had just been tripled. The nation was staggering from the shock of the recession with job losses in the hundreds of thousands. A rate not seen since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Still…voices began to be heard…the PEOPLE…those insignificant gnats that are always such an annoyance to the Democratic elites and (shame on us) no too few Republicans began to stir…and stir and stir… The resultant Conservative revival began to drag even some of the weak-at-heart Republican ‘centrists’ and moderate Democrats with them when they began to hear the message loud and clear. We’ll see you at the ballot box… What should have been a slam dunk agenda for Obama’s Demarxists has become a quagmire in which nothing gets done and even Democrats can’t agree. Enter the Conservative Patriot Movement… Pelosi-Reed and associates are floundering, changing terms, coming up with fanciful interpretations of what is, or is not, in the UNHEALTHY FOR AMERICA bill. Changing the count and the amount as though it was a 1960’s television game show, which is where they probably belong. But it’s too damn late…the proverbial kittycat is out of the bag. The grassroots movement of Conservative Republicans, Independents and Conservative Democrats is sweeping the national landscape. It has not slowed and in fact just keeps gaining momentum. Hey Nancy…Hey Harry… You can run but you can’t hide!

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2009

His Mightiness the Empty Suit, in the getting-dingier-by-the-day White House, is constantly holding forth, sagely saying NOTHING in front of gaggles of “journalists”, who dutifully report NOTHING, while the would be NEO-STAZI in the Suit’s administration attack the only news and information outlets that do say SOMETHING about what the President, the administration and that zany and dysfunctional but extremely dangerous Congress, led by Nancy “Stretch” Pelosi and that ever popular Harry “I ain’t got a prayer of re-election” Reid, are up to. While the people of America continue to suffer the throes of a completely jobless “recovery”, with a recession that shows every indication of being worse despite what all the liberal pitchmen in the administration and the media lapdogs are saying. The FACTS are that there are no jobs and the REASON that there are no jobs is that small business is scared to death. The government has a plethora of more than onerous taxation, regulation and punitive laws waiting in the wings, custom designed to destroy the private sector. Job growth does not come from unionized segments of the society and hasn’t since the days of Henry Ford. Trade unionism is a cancer which can destroy. Trade unionism destroyed Great Britain’s economy and it hasn’t recovered to this day. Unions by their very nature are antithetical to GROWING anything…they produce very little other than protecting their own interests. They have a tendency toward protecting the least well qualified as opposed to the most…the government unions are a prime example. The service and automobile industry unions are others. Meanwhile, the stock market continues to show increases in value. WHAT gives? Simply, they are increasing profit margins by laying people off and consolidating operations. Job growth comes from private business…in the larger context of the economy large business does not create nearly as many jobs as the small business entrepreneur. These jobs are not being created specifically because of the anti-business, anti-American policies of the Obama White House and the Marxist Obama administration and Congress. 500,000 new jobless claims is 500,000 JOBS LOST TO THE OBAMA ECONOMY. He can’t blame the Bush administration for this and hasn’t been able to for six months or more. Suspicious minds would conclude that there are more sinister activities and purposes afoot here than our usually trusting minds can easily wrap themselves around…or want to believe…

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2009

 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi became emotional when making reference to American citizens who voice their concerns over the health care debacle.

Pelosi said, “I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw … I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco,” Her voice quivered and she blinked back tears. “This kind of rhetoric is just, is really frightening and it created a climate in which we, violence took place and … I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made."

Yes Madam Speaker, it was indeed tragic when those heavy metal staples ripped up the body of San Francisco Police Sergeant Brian V. McDonnell who was working at police headquarters at Park Station. That bombing in your town was determined by the FBI to be the handiwork of the Weather Underground. That’s the group that Bill Ayers, unrepentant domestic terrorist and good buddy of President Obama, was such an integral part of. Oh,…that isn’t what you were referring to?

I’m sorry, apparently she was referring to the 1978 murders of City Supervisor Harvey Milk (gay rights activist) and Mayor George Moscone in San Francisco. The gay rights community saw evidence of a link between the murders and the violent gay rights protests going onat the time. Yes, Madam Speaker, that too was a tragedy. I guess the police station bombing must have slipped your mind.

Speaker Pelosi did acknowledge that here in America we have the right to speak our mind. (at least for the time being) Then she cautioned that we should also be held accountable for anything that happens as a result of our words.

This from the same woman who referred to about half of the citizens in this great land as Nazis. "They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare" she said, referring to American protestors at a town hall style meeting on health care reform, although she never produced any evidence to support that.

Madam Speaker, in my humble opinion, the real frightening thing here is that you are third in line to the Presidency. As Speaker, you hold great power over the direction and progress of Congress. And that is terrifying. 

more at http://commonconservativesense.com

We are in the early stages of a war. There may be no military action, no bullets or bombs, but we are in a war none the less. This war is for the soul of America. This war is for the preservation of the principles our country was founded on and which have kept us free and prosperous since our beginning. President Obama and his allies do not like America, at least not as it is and has been. They do not believe that America is the greatest country in the history of civilization. They do not believe in American exceptionalism. They do not believe that we as Americans have a right to be proud of what we have accomplished and to be proud of the good we have done for the world. They believe America needs to be remade. They are wrong.

Obama and friends are wrong about what America believes and what America stands for.

America is a Christian nation. There may be arguments about the particular faith of some of the Founding Fathers, but the majority were undeniably Christians. One would have to “willfully suspend disbelief” to believe  otherwise after reading our founding documents as well as our history. The real history, not the revisionist history. We do not deny anyone the privilege to worship as they choose, or to decline any form of worship. But our country was founded under Christian principles and beliefs.

The God of our founders and the God I pray to is Yahweh, Jehovah God, the God of Abraham and Issac. The God of the Bible. He is not some generic “man upstairs”. He is the Creator of the universe and of mankind. Because of His deep love for us, He gave His son Jesus willingly as an atonement for our sin. He is boundlessly good and has all power. He is Love, but He is a jealous God. He will chastise and correct us as individuals and as a nation if we stray too far for too long. We have strayed far and long and we need to return to Him as a nation. Pray for His mercy, His blessings, His wisdom and His guidance. If ever we needed it, it is now. If you don’t know Him, seek Him and you will find Him.

We do not believe that America needs to be remade, as Obama has stated. We believe that instead we need to return to the ideals of our Founders. We need to return to lower taxes, limited, smaller government, and unfettered personal freedom.

We do not believe that America is arrogant. Strong, confident and proud, yes. Arrogant, no.

America does not stand for wealth redistribution. We are generous, compassionate people with our money, but our generosity is not for Obama to dictate.

We believe that capitalism is the best economic system. Socialism doesn’t work. Marxism doesn’t work. We believe in equality of opportunity, not in equality of outcome. Some people work harder, some people are smarter, some people have better ideas. When those people succeed, the country succeeds. When they become wealthy, the country becomes wealthy. Wealthy people buy things, they build things, they create jobs,  they start businesses, they invest in American prosperity. America would collapse without them. They are not evil and do not deserve punishment.

America does not believe in the punitive taxation of our achievers. We believe in encouraging and rewarding achievement. It is counter productive to tax successful achievers into oblivion. All Americans should pay taxes so that all Americans have a stake in keeping the system honest. Consider that the City of Chicago just closed for a day to save money, with more days scheduled for more savings. A productive business does not save money by closing. Businesses produce wealth by being open for business. The government only takes, while producing nothing. Financially speaking, they are far more efficient and productive if they would just stay at home. We know that poor people don’t get any richer just because money is taken from the wealthy.

America does not stand for federally funded abortion on demand. A large and growing segment of us believe that abortion is wrong. However, the law of the land allows it for now. But using our tax dollars to support it is unacceptable.

America does not believe in a weakened, ineffective military. We do not believe that our military should be used to enforce social experimentation. We believe in spending our tax dollars to equip and train the greatest fighting force ever known to mankind, then praying to God that we will not have to use it. We love peace, but we are not afraid to fight for  liberty. We know that we don’t make weak nations any stronger by being weak ourselves. Being the only remaining superpower is a good thing. A very good thing. We have no desire to weaken ourselves in the interest of “fairness”. Senator Barbara Boxer had the audacity to publicly humiliate a brigadier general for referring to her as “ma’am” rather than as ”senator”. This is symptomatic of the arrogance and ignorance of many of our elected representatives. They have come to think of themselves as royalty. They think wrongly. I know of several fitting monikers for Senator Boxer, but decorum prevails.

We welcome legal immigrants, as we always have. But for those who have no more respect for our country and our laws than to cross our borders unlawfully, we are not welcoming. We certainly don’t believe in giving them the rewards of our hard earned tax dollars in the form of social benefits. We do not support amnesty for illegal aliens. Secure our borders and enforce our laws. English is our language. Learn it if you want to live here.

We do not believe in homosexual marriage. We believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. Period. That does not make us homophobic. That does not make us haters. We also do not support the concept of hate crimes. Any unlawful harm to a human being by another human being is wrong, and should be dealt with under our criminal codes. The fact that the victim may be a part of some minority doesn’t make the crime worse. It is just as wrong to harm a white heterosexual male as it is to harm a black homosexual female. The actions of the law breaker should determine the punishment for the crime, not the race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or other social characteristic of the victim.

America is not a racist nation. There are some racists in America. There are also some murderers in America, but that doesn’t make us a murderous nation. We recognized the evil of slavery, and we abolished it. We have done more to eliminate racial bias in our culture than any other nation. When we disagree with a person of another racial or ethnic background, that disagreement cannot be dismissed by a cry of “racism”. Neither are our police officers inherently racist, as Obama implied during the recent uproar over the arrest of a black Harvard professor by a white police sergeant.

We do not believe that radical Islam is our friend. We do believe that Israel is our friend and deserves our support. We believe that Islamic jihadists that want to kill Americans should be called terrorists and not some ridiculous watered down, politically correct name. They should be considered our mortal enemies, without consideration of how they “feel” or why they hate us. We are not the cause of their irrational hatred of us and what we stand for. We do not need to change so they will like us. We do need to eliminate them.

We do not believe that our President should sit down with tin horn dictators from Iran, North Korea, Venezuala or anywhere else unless there are precursory agreements about the substance and outcome of those conversations. Anything less will be used against us and will be seen as a source of legitimacy and power for our enemies, and as an indication of weakness on the part of America.

We do not believe in a government run health care system. We do not want our personal health care decisions made by the same government that has run Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the Postal Service so ineffectively that they are all on the verge of bankruptcy. Reforms are needed, but the system does not need to be recreated and it most certainly does not need to be placed under government control. This has been tried and has failed in Canada and in Britain. Changing the name to “public option” or “co-op” doesn’t change anything. We don’t want it!

We do believe that as American citizens, we have the absolute privilege and right to attend town hall meetings, speak our minds, and ask questions. We are not un-American as stated by Nancy Pelosi and Steney Hoyer. We are not evil mongers as claimed by Harry Reid. We are Americans doing what Americans have always done – standing up against intrusive over-reaching government and demanding adherence to the Constitution.

We do not believe in the “fairness doctrine”. All Americans are free to express their opinions through any legal avenue available to them. Some are better at that than others. Some don’t care enough to expend the energy. Some  are better able to convince others. Some ideas are better than others. Some ideas are just plain bad. Some ideas are wildly popular and some have very limited or no support. The government’s definition of “fairness” is equality of all ideas, equality of the effectiveness of the presenter, and equality of the acceptance of the idea by Americans. This is nothing but government control of the market place of ideas, and the only way to force that to happen is to silence the best, most legitimate ideas so that the worst  ideas have equal legitimacy. Besides being stupid, this is un-American.

We believe in the 2nd amendment right to bear arms. This is not limited to hunting purposes, in fact it has nothing to do with hunting. The purpose of the 2nd amendment is to allow the citizenry to defend themselves against those who would harm them, whether that be a criminal or a tyrannical out of control government.

We believe that our elected officials work for us – not the other way around. We are their employers, not their subjects. As their employers, we retain the right to fire them when their performance becomes unacceptable. We as citizens loan them temporary power to act on our behalf. The power still rests with the people, not with the politicians. When they forget that, they must be reigned in. It is way past time for some serious reigning in. I would start with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and Senator Reid, then proceed from there. They have clearly forgotten who they work for.

According to the Declaration of Independence, Americans are “endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government,”. These rights did not come from the government and they cannot be taken away by the government. Any and all attempts to restrict these rights must and will be fiercely resisted.

I am proud to be an American. I am proud of our history, imperfect as it may be. I am proud of what my countrymen have overcome. I am proud of American ingenuity, American inventiveness, American determination, and especially American goodness. I thank God that I was blessed to be born American. I refuse to apologize for being a citizen of the greatest, most generous nation ever in existence. America has done more for many nations than they have done for themselves. American blood has been shed around the world in defense of justice and against tyranny. American dollars have been freely spent to aid those less blessed than we. I will not apologize for the greatness of my country.

Those of us who believe in America’s greatness, Her goodness, Her limitless future and potential, must fight and win this war. We must win it for our children, and for their children. We must win it for the Founding Fathers. We must win it for the thousands who have fought and died to preserve our right to fight and to live free. Generations past have lived up to their challenges. Generations future are depending on us to do the same. It is our turn, and history will judge us. Our generation now has  to stand and be counted.

We must win this war. Our weapons are our words. Our weapons are our votes, our participation in the system our fore fathers designed. Our ammunition is truth – factual information subjected to critical and honest analysis. Write letters to the editor, contact your representatives, attend town hall meetings, email friends…however you choose to participate, get in the fight! You, sitting on the sidelines, is what the other side is counting on. The stakes are too high to allow them victory.

More posts at http://commonconservativesense.com

So I happened to come across this graph from Speaker Pelosi's website.  It represents the aggregate job losses from the point at which employment started to decline ("the peak") for the past two recessions and for our current recession.  At first glance it looks pretty scary - job losses going off the cliff.  But a moment's thought reveals that this graph represents an invalid comparison, as our economy now is bigger than what it was in 1991, or even in 2001.  So comparing total job losses makes no sense - losing 500,000 jobs is much worse if it is lost from an economy with a total employment of 50 million, as opposed to 150 million.  Really what should be compared is the percentage of total employment from the peak.

So I dug through the BLS statistics and I came up with this graph.  Still looks pretty scary, even compared on a percentage basis.  But we all know already that this recession is worse than the previous two.  How about comparing it to the 1981-82 and 1974-76 recessions?  So when I did that, I got this graph.

Not quite so scary now, eh?  In terms of job loss, our current recession is about as severe as the 1974-76 recession, and not even as bad as the 1981-82 recession.  In fact if you look carefully at the data, by this point in the 1981-82 recession, jobs continued to be lost for 4 more months until things started to turn around.  And at least according to one source, "most professional economic forecasters are now predicting a moderate recession that will last until the middle of 2009" - which is, coincidentally, about 4 months from now.

Bottom line: Nancy's scary graph notwithstanding, we aren't on the verge of disaster.  Don't let the Democrats' fearmongering get to you.

Good morning, and welcome to the start of the 111th Congress. Your intrepid blogger remains on his voter-mandated vacation as he writes this, and it is not for a lack of trying.

As we move forward to the ceremonial opening of Congress, we must ask ourselves if Speaker Nancy Pelosi will beckon children to gather about her as she is anointed like she did at the start of the 110th Congress. Or, will she beckon the special-interest group which will be at the heart of every Democrat this session: the union bosses?

The news reports today detail how Madame Speaker has, with the likely tacit approval of the incoming president, decided to embrace her own versions of "Hope" and "Change": changing the rules of the House of Representatives back to the pre-Newt days in the hope of quashing all dissent and opposition in order to protect her caucus from politically tricky votes, and installing committee chairman for life - going back on the reforms Republicans brought forth in 1994.

House Democrats are poised to approve new rules that will significantly increase their authority while taking the bullets out of the few legislative weapons Republicans have in the lower chamber.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has approved the changes from the last Congress, when House GOP members frustrated their Democratic counterparts by winning over two dozen amendment battles on the floor.

Pelosi’s move has set up a divisive mood on the first day of the 111th Congress, which Republicans say runs counter to the tone set by President-elect Obama.

Republican leaders intend to fight the rules changes, which would curtail their ability to delay legislation by forcing Democrats to take politically difficult votes.

“This is not the kind of openness and transparency that President-elect Obama promised,” the GOP leaders wrote Monday in a letter to Pelosi.

Republican leadership aides say the changes will make it easier for the Speaker to run the House and protect vulnerable House Democrats.

As I write, Rep. John Larson (the new Rahm) is speaking on C-SPAN about working together with Republicans to improve the country (which is easy, I guess, when you write the rules in such a way that the only "working together" comes from voting with the Democrats). Per CQ:

Democratic leaders are taking a hard look at preventing the minority party from scoring easy political points with motions to recommit a bill to committee with instructions to make contentious language changes and then report it back to the House “promptly.” In the outgoing Congress, “promptly’’ has meant an indefinite hold, because committees were not willing to adopt poison-pill amendments sponsored by the minority.

Most motions to recommit require instead that an amended bill be returned to the floor “forthwith,” which means within minutes.

GOP aides complain that the possible limit motions to recommit would take away the minority’s ability to attack tax increases in must-pass bills. That’s because the pay-as-you-go budget rule, which is likely to be renewed, does not allow amendments or motions to recommit forthwith that would remove any of the offsets it requires in legislation.

The pay-as-you-go rule requires that all new entitlement spending or new tax cuts be offset with equivalent spending cuts or tax increases elsewhere.

So, to sum up. Speaker Pelosi will strip term-limits from committee chairman - giving them virtually unbridled power to dominate the minority party - while stripping the minority of the power to recommit a motion back to a committee. That sounds an awful lot like one-party consolidation to me.