A friend sent me another great email that I just had to share. It’s from Glenn Beck’s radio program earlier today, where he spoke about precisely what “spreading the wealth around” means. But he did such a beautiful job of putting it in the context of today, Halloween. It’s a great read and does a brilliant job of explaining just how annoying and wrong the very idea is, when it’s finally seen in practice. Click “more” to check it out.

I honestly have no clue if this is authentic or not, but I received this from a friend of mine it was just too compelling not to post. It’s an essay about the state of affairs amongst Obama’s campaign, allegedly written by a former Hillary Clinton staffer who had been adopted into Obama’s fold as an attempt at repairing the bridge burned between their two campaigns during the primaries. (That adoption process does at least check out, considering other things I’ve heard from various PUMA Democrats.) The essay details the four biggest hurdles for the Obama campaign, as seen from the inside. Even if this isn’t authentic and it wasn’t written by an Obama staffer, it’s still a brilliant and remarkable evaluation of the current state of Obama’s campaign. For that reason, I’m posting it here, along with a full disclaimer that I honestly have no clue if it’s authentic, but it’s at least still a darn good read. Click “more” to check it out.

It seems that if the editorial department of your newspaper decides to endorse McCain, Obama wants to pack up his toys and go home. Shortly after the Washington Times, Dallas Morning News, and New York Post each endorsed John McCain, they were kicked off of Obama’s campaign plane.
Does that seem fair to you? What do you think the reaction would be if John McCain had kicked the New York Times & Washington Post off his plane? Don’t you think the MSM would be all over that, decrying John McCain for being intolerant? That’s precisely what they were doing when Sarah Palin decided to give her first interview to ABC over the other networks, that in so doing she was being intolerant and unprofessional. Did anyone else say the same thing about Joe Biden refusing to speak to the local networks who had asked him tough questions, and then tried to have their ad revenue depleted? Of course not! Cause fair is fair, so long as you’re playing by Obama’s rules.

This is what the Washington Times had to say about it:

The Obama campaign informed the newspaper Thursday evening of its decision, which came two days after The Times editorial page endorsed Senator John McCain over Mr. Obama. The Times editorial page runs completely independent of the news department.

“This feels like the journalistic equivalent of redistributing the wealth, we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars covering Senator Obama’s campaign, traveling on his plane, and taking our turn in the reporter’s pool, only to have our seat given away to someone else in the last days of the campaign,” said Washington Times Executive Editor John Solomon.

“I hope the candidate that promises to unite America isn’t using a litmus test to determine who gets to cover his campaign.”

This just keeps getting more and more ridiculous. It seriously disturbs me that the Obama campaign is attempting to punish entire newspapers for their editorial department’s dissenting opinions. It’s a very dangerous precedent, as this will only lead to further yellow journalism. These papers have been completely denied access, which is astounding to me. This leaves them with two options – report some of the facts in a favorable light or completely lose their ability to report any news whatsoever. Again, is this fair? Is this the kind of “change” we need in our nation’s media? I hardly think so. We need less yellow journalism for goodness sake!
But, of course, this sort of behavior always ticks me off. Throughout this entire election process, all four freaking years of it since our last election ended, I’ve been thinking to myself, What the hell happened to our ability to maturely agree to disagree like adults?! If we can’t do that, if we can’t agree to disagree, we’re completely doomed. All discussion will end, the constructive exchange of ideas will cease, and we’ll be stuck in stagnant pools of thought, unable to move forward in any positive manner. I can’t tell you how truly frustrated I am with attitudes like these. Our own fear of being offended has trumped our desire to learn! If we don’t grow up and realize that in any exchange of ideas there will inevitably be disagreement and offense, we will never learn anything new, we will never be exposed to points of view previously unimagined, we will never grow as a society! Suck it up, people, and realize that we’re never all going to be able to agree about everything! Until we can grasp that concept like mature adults, truly meaningful change will be impossible in this country.

I sincerely hope I don’t need to write a long essay to explain why this is scary as hell.

Government controlling the free market to effect change amongst the masses. That is the definition of socialism. Does it need to get any more apparent before we wake up and realize who this man is and what he intends to do to us?

The bottom line is, if you grant government the power to send price signals to modify your behavior, even just in this regard, you are granting them the power to use those same surrendered rights to modify other aspects of your behavior. It isn’t that big of a leap from the government modifying how much you pay for electricity, to how much you pay to have a child, how much you pay to eat, how much you pay to live in a home, and so on.
That is precisely how the utopia that socialism promises turns into the tyranny that socialism has always guaranteed throughout history. Every time you give up a right, even if that right seems small, that’s one less way in which you control and guide your own life. It’s one more inch you hand over to the government, one more inch of that noose around your neck that they’re allowed to cinch up at their pleasure. How long will it be before you realize it’s getting so tight you won’t be able to breathe on your own?
Your dependence on the government is his key to ultimate power. That is why socialism is so wrong, that is why it has always dissolved into absolute oppression. That is why the utopia they promise you is nothing but false hope. The only way to ensure absolute liberty and freedom is to ensure the self reliance of the people. That is why the further we travel along the road to socialism, the harder it will be for us to turn around. We have a chance now to say no to government dependence, please take that opportunity before it is too late.

Really? Seriously? And this is the man we’re supposed to elect as President? Sorry, but is he going to show up late to important peace negotiations?
Ugh. I know this is a departure from my usual posts, but this just bugs the crap out of me. We’re supposed to elect him based on only 143 days of experience in the Senate, and yet here we see that not only did he have the bad habit of mostly voting “present”, but he also shows up late all the time. Was he too busy appearing on Oprah, writing his third memoir, and having coffee with Rashid Khalidi? Was he perhaps taking an extra smoking break or two, or three, or four? I mean, this is his job! He gets paid well for it! Those are very, very important committee hearings!! Now he’s applying for the most important job in the world, and he’s tardy?!
Ugh, ugh, ugh. Again, sorry this isn’t a nice fact-based essay, but man, this just bugs me to no end. Plus I’ve been up all night again, I have the flu, I feel like crap, and thus am in a particularly bad mood. *sigh* I should be writing a post about his awful 30-minute infomercial, but I just can’t bring myself to handle that right now. I mean, holy freaking crap, can you imagine how much money that must have cost?! That’s a sure sign that he has raised way too much money and honestly, I can’t help but wonder where all of that’s coming from. We already know about the fraudulent donation registrations, but come on, that amount of money cannot be coming solely from individual people sending him money online. Not that kind of money.
*sigh* And of course, never mind the fact that he promised to accept public financing.
Heh, but one thing about it that does make me giggle, is that a friend of mine said that during part of the infomercial, a guy was interviewed who said he had been laid off his job at an auto plant, and he was talking about how times are so tough for him financially. Um, yet he took his family out to eat. It showed him paying the $26 bill, so it’s not even like Barack took them out to dinner. That’s the sort of guy my hard earned money is supposed to be redistributed to, so he and his family can eat out while he’s out of work? Sorry, that’s just kinda… stupid. But somehow funny. In a sad way. I dunno about you, but whenever my Dad was scared about losing his job, we didn’t even wait for him to get laid off before we stopped going out. Not only that, but we cut back our regular meals to cheaper, more basic food. Sorry, but the nice family outings to Bennigans kinda have to stop when you’re laid off. Do you have any idea how much basic food that $26 could have bought? His family could have been fed nicely for at least a week, if not more. Be smart with your money, people! Or is that not necessary when the government doles all that out for you?

Argh. Fevers make me cranky, sorry. I promise, I’ll get better and write a nice, long, fact-based essay for you next time. Until then, I think I’m gonna crash.

How many times will he need to say “redistribute wealth” and “Marxist” before we actually realize the truth behind the myth he has created around himself?

This is absurd. Peter Wallsten, a reporter from the LA Times, apparently is in possession of a video from an event Barack Obama attended in 2003. At this event, Barack Obama delivered a toast. This video could be quite important and, in my opinion, voters deserve to see it. Why?
Because this 2003 event was hosted in honor of Rashid Khalidi, a critic of Israel, advocate for Palestinian rights, and quite frankly, a hate-speech-spewing Jew-basher. Coincidentally, he is also a best friend of Bill Ayers.
There’s been a lot of speculation and talk, claiming that Barack Obama is very familiar with Rashid Khalidi, that they went to events together all the time, that they were close friends, and that they often shared long family dinners where they discussed Palestinian rights. Of course, Barack Obama denies this, because Rashid Khalidi doesn’t exactly have the nicest track record.

Well, apparently this video would show just exactly how whitewashed this relationship is. According to Wallsten, this video features a toast delivered by Barack Obama, where he discusses his many talks with the Khalidis. Obama said, these talks had been “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases… It’s for that reason that I’m hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation — a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid’s dinner table,” but around “this entire world.”
Additional portions of the dinner are also on the video tape, showing Obama participating in the many discussions at the event about Jews, Israel, and the problem they present to Islam. According to Wallsten, “During the dinner a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, ‘then you will never see a day of peace.’ One speaker likened ‘Zionist settlers on the West Bank’ to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been ‘blinded by ideology.’”

This has been a side of Barack Obama that many people have speculated about, and many former colleagues from Chicago have expounded upon. Hell, even Rashid Khalidi himself has talked very openly about the relationship he and Barack Obama shared.
Yet the media’s still choosing to ignore this issue, instead decided to believe Obama 100%, despite the vast array of evidence stacked up against him.

THIS is the media bias everyone’s been talking about, right there. Do you honestly think that if any reporter had such damning evidence about John McCain or Sarah Palin, do you honestly think they’d refuse to release it? If it was John McCain attending a dinner in honor of someone who supported and promoted hate crimes, where the entire event devolved into a relentless bashing of a minority, and then McCain proceeded to deliver a toast in honor of such a man, that it wouldn’t be all over the news every minute of every day until the election? Seriously, we heard all about the completely made up claims about Sarah Palin supposedly attempting to ban books, yet stuff like this is ignored? The claim against Sarah Palin was completely false, yet here we have absolute evidence that shows Barack Obama openly bashing Jews and supporting hate speech, and that’s what ends up getting buried?

Seriously, if we don’t wake up, we’re going to end up going to hell in a hand basket. If we don’t wake up and start demanding responsible journalism from our nation’s media, we will have invited our own destruction. When we have such little regard for the truth that we will allow such behavior to continue, we are indeed hopeless.

(The best summary of this issue is from Gateway Pundit. Just so you’re aware, they are a conservative blog. As you know, I try to find as moderate a source as possible, but in this case, the reason I’m linking to them is because the blogger actually had direct contact with Peter Wallsten and detailed the conversation they had about the tape. It’s honestly the best and most direct synopsis of the situation. So please, check it out.)

I’ve been awake all night, feeling miserable, so I won’t really have too much to say, but I just saw this and it seriously makes me want to cry. Will they really stop at nothing?

SONORA, CA – The California Republican party is asking the secretary of state to investigate an organized voting campaign involving developmentally disabled adults in Tuolumne County.

As many as ten clients of the Thumbs Up! adult care center have already cast absentee ballots under the supervision of center director David Simerley, and nearly all of them were for Barack Obama.

“We all registered to vote and we all sat together as a group and went over our ballots and voted,” Simerley told News10.

Among those voting was Michael Rascon, 56, whose father described him as having the mental capacity of a 5-year-old.

“What kind of people would do this to somebody like that,” asked Sam Rascon, who discovered his son had registered and voted only after seeing him with an Obama button last Thursday. “He wouldn’t know one candidate from another.”

News10 spoke to Michael Rascon at the Thumbs Up! center about the election. When asked which candidate he’d voted for, Rascon answered “the black man.” He was unable to remember Obama’s name.

Simerley said the absentee voting followed field trips to both local Republican and Democratic party headquarters.

“When we register people to vote, we try to be totally non-partisan,” Simerley said. He insists he exerted no influence over his clients despite the fact nearly all of them voted Democratic in an otherwise Republican county.

“I think maybe Obama would appeal to people with disabilities,” he explained.

Clients interviewed by News10 agreed that Simerley had allowed them to choose their candidate freely although Simerley filled out the ballots for those who can’t read or write. One client said he voted for McCain.

Simerley said his voting campaign also involved developmentally disabled adults not directly under his care. Tuolumne County clerk Deborah Russell confirmed Simerley took out 25 voter registration cards in January, but she could not say how many had been returned.

Russell said she’s asked the district attorney to investigate the specific complaint by Sam Rascon that his son was manipulated.

California Republican party leaders are calling on Secretary of State Debra Bowen to conduct a broader investigation of Simerley’s activities, according to the party’s communications director Hector Barajas.

When asked about it on Tuesday, Bowen had not yet heard of the complaint. “The situation’s never arisen,” Bowen said.

She explained there is no prohibition against developmentally disabled adults voting without a court order declaring them incompetent.

Simerley defends his actions despite complaints from Sam Rascon and other parents of his adult clients. One parent actually tore up her son’s absentee ballot before it was mailed.

“Our mission is to help these people become valued, respected citizens,” he said. “And one of the most important things is to vote.”

This is absolutely appalling. These poor disabled people were taken advantage of by ruthless political profiteers. It doesn’t sink any lower than taking advantage of the weakest, most helpless amongst us, just to attain power.
Remember, this was done without the consent of their families! Their families are the ones who have the legal right to make decisions on their behalf! Not the director of that facility, not the employees; the families.
This is hideous, beyond hideous. Do Obama supporters really believe that they cannot win based solely on the merits of their ideas, but rather they must trample upon the most helpless amongst us just to get ahead? Power attained via treachery and deceit will never be exercised with wisdom and benevolence. It never has and it never will.

This is a clear and obvious case of absolute voter intimidation, manipulation, and outright fraud. I sincerely hope the families of the individuals who were victimized in this situation will stand up for their rights and hold these people accountable for their hideous actions. I hope those who speak on the behalf of these people will speak up now, because let there be no doubt, the people under the care of that home were manipulated, victimized, and utterly extorted. This is not the behavior of a democracy, this is not in the spirit of a democratic election. This is hideous and it must be stopped. This wrong must be righted immediately.

In talking to friends and family members, I’ve been shocked to hear that question from educated, well-intentioned, kind people. They honestly don’t know what’s so bad about socialism. Let me just say, that floors me. It honestly floors me. Whenever those five words escape their lips, I’m literally so shocked it takes me a minute to pick my jaw back up off the floor, crank my brain back up, and start explaining why it’s just so terrible. But there’s just so much to convey, just so much evidence against it, that it’s almost like you don’t know where to start. I want to just scream, don’t you even look at history?! Don’t you see the hundreds of thousands of Americans who came before you who gave their lives to stop the spread of socialism and communism, because they knew that it had never worked? Don’t you see that of all the displaced peoples in this world, the vast majority of them are running away from socialism, not running toward it? Don’t you see that throughout history, every single time socialism has ever been implemented, it turns into absolute tyranny? What makes us so arrogant, so pompous, so self-righteous, that we think we can contradict all of history that has come before us? Isn’t that old saying always ‘pride cometh before the fall’? That’s never more true than when a nation begins to accept socialism despite all the evidence to the contrary that history has laid before us. Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it; accepting socialism is nothing short of pride convincing us to ignore the lessons of history.
But that said, John McCain gave an interview today where he explained it in his own words. I thought I’d share them with you, as evidence that at least someone out there in Washington understands this. Again, I’m not pro-McCain, I don’t agree with him on a lot of things. But on this, I agree with him 100%.

HOST: Senator McCain, I hear people actually write me, say to me — I have a sister who said to me, “You know what, what’s the big deal with socialism. So what. He’s socialist. Why is that bad.” Could you please explain why socialism is bad?

SENATOR McCAIN: It doesn’t work, number one. It’s been tried many times. Second of all, redistributing the wealth creates disincentives to entrepreneurship, capitalism, small business, free enterprise. If people know that their hard earned — the fruits of their hard earned labor are going to be taken from them and given to others, then they are obviously going to have disincentives to work. The fundamentals of the free enterprise system is that less government is the best government. Now, there are times for government, in emergencies, in wars and, you know, many other areas where we can interpret it, but the fact is that government should let free enterprise, small business and capitalism function and, of course, it has to be — has to have regulation. Of course there has to be transparency. Of course Teddy Roosevelt was right where he said unbridled capitalism leads to corruption. But let’s not take people’s hard earned money that they worked to save and pass on to their children or build their businesses, let’s not take it away from them and give it to others. That’s — socialism is antithetical to progress and job creation and wealth, progress for all of society.
Full interview

Please, any of you out there who think that maybe socialism just might work, get your head out of your textbooks and look at the real world. Look at the unfettered harsh reality of history, look at the people socialism has so mercilessly harmed. Look at the good that the United States has done for this world in protecting those who have been victimized by socialism and communism. Look at the lives it has ended, the dignity it has destroyed, the villains it has produced. Then ask yourself, do you really trust anyone enough to give them that degree of power over you? Should anyone be subjugated in such a fashion? Is anyone in this imperfect world righteous enough for such power as is granted under the socialist system?
Are you really that pleased with the behavior and responsibility of your government that you would ever wish to give it any additional power over you, your life, and your family?

This nation was founded as a beacon of hope for the rest of the world, a beacon of freedom, equality, and liberty. We hear those words so often that it is so easy to forget what they really mean. It’s not freedom from offense or freedom from responsibility! It’s freedom to make your own choices about your own life and the life of your family. It’s the equality for all to seek after life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Yes, we haven’t always been perfect at the whole equality thing, but we’re improving, we’re striving, we have good intentions! Don’t sacrifice those for tyranny.
But most importantly of all, we have the liberty to guide our own lives. We have the liberty to succeed by our own hard work and determination. But just as importantly, we have the liberty to fail, for without failure there will never be success. We have the freedom and the liberty to fail so spectacularly that we then pick ourselves up, dust off our hands and knees, and get back up again to try for the real American dream. The American dream does not guarantee success for all, it only guarantees the opportunity to strive for it. Not all of us are going to make it, but isn’t it a beautiful feeling to know that all of us could if we wanted to? It is up to us, the people, as individuals, to determine who makes it. It’s up to our own hard work, grit, and determination! Not the government, not our representatives. Whenever they stand in our way, they are at fault, not us. They must be chastised, not us. We’re not the problem, they are. So why would we give them any more power to restrict our liberties, our equality, or our freedoms?

Yes, socialism may offer some aspects of equality, but again, get your head out of a textbook and look at the reality of history! The only equality it offers is to equally wallow in misery. According to socialism, we will only be truly equal when we are all equally poor, downtrodden, miserable, and at the hand of a merciless tyrant. That is not freedom, that is not liberty, and we must not accept it in this country. We are one of the last hold outs of true freedom on earth. So many nations across this planet have accepted just a pinch of socialism here, a pinch of socialism there, until they are so swallowed up in it they have nowhere else to go. We have the opportunity right here, right now, to say no more. We have been walking down that path long enough, but so very soon we may get to the point where we no longer have a choice. We may get to the point where there are no more forks in the road, but rather we’re stuck on a one-way thoroughfare to socialism. Please, don’t get to that point, don’t let our nation go so far down that road that we can’t turn back. We need to scale back our government now more than ever, because it’s their fault that so many people are out of their homes, it’s their fault that our economy is in such turmoil, it’s their fault that our stock market is in shambles. It’s their fault, not ours.
So please, do not give them any more power over you. Do not invite that into your home, your country. Do not give up your opportunity to fail, because if you do, you will no longer have an opportunity to succeed.

First and foremost, he is not a law professor, nor has he ever been. There is a huge difference between a senior lecturer who is on leave and a law professor. I know law professors. In fact, a law professor from an ivy league university just released a textbook in which an entire chapter is dedicated to something that I did as a teenager. I know these guys, I know the differences, yet Obama does not? That’s scary.

But that’s not as scary as what the man is actually saying. There you go, folks! What he told Joe the Plumber was not a slip of the tongue, it was the truth seeping out from behind the facade. Here he says it again, he explains it in great detail. Not only that, but he then goes on to discuss the best ways in which to implement his redistribution of wealth. Note, he was not discussing whether or not it was a good idea, he wasn’t having a theoretical discussion about the pros and cons. No, he was just flat out telling you how he would accomplish this redistribution of wealth. Period.

What I think is perhaps the worst part is that Obama is a lawyer specializing in constitutional law. Clearly the man must have read the constitution at some point. But if you listen to this, it sounds like he’s never read it at all! Or at the very least, he doesn’t understand it. “Negative liberties”? What?! The only group it’s negative toward is the federal government.
Why? Because you remember that opening bit? “We the people”? The constitution wasn’t written on behalf of the federal government, it was written by the people! It was written to keep the federal government in check, it was written to keep the federal government under the control of the people!! Yet he thinks that’s a limitation inflicted upon us by the founding fathers that he thinks should be reversed by the courts? Hell no!

As for his statement that the Constitution doesn’t lay out enough about what the federal government is going to do for you, again, has he read it? I can’t even fathom his statement about the Constitution not laying out enough about “community organizing” and “ground level” work. Does he not understand the difference between the federal level of our government versus state and local level government?! Does he not get it?!
Or, perhaps, would he prefer that all state and local governments were kicked out the door in favor of a larger federal government? I mean, hell, if we’re talking about completely getting rid of the “limitations of our founding fathers”, is it really that big of a leap to say bye-bye to all of our local government? Because sure, we sure have seen how fantastic the federal government is at addressing local issues!

Man… I’m just astonished. This is like a child’s understanding of how our government works. No, sorry, that’s an insult to children. I’ve known children who have a better grasp of it than this! This is absurd.

All I can say is, people, please wake up! Please! This is our very foundation, our very way of life, that we’re talking about here! This goes beyond possible slips of the tongue. We have a long-standing pattern of rhetoric, behavior, and ideology from which to judge. So please, take advantage of these examples and come to grips with who this man really and what his intentions really are for our government. To me, it’s scary as hell, and there’s no way I would ever support this man.