As someone who has actually spent a good amount of time in a liberal, socialist-inclined country, I’ve often thought how most American liberals would feel after experiencing things like socialized health-care, government-controlled media, and so on. Every time yet another actor says, “If the Democrat doesn’t win the white house, I’m moving to Canada!” I can’t help but think, “Okay, have fun!” If people really, really want to live in a socialist country that badly, there are plenty of them out there to choose from. Please, go there, see how you like it, see how long it’ll be before you’re dying to come back here after paying such high taxes, not getting seen by doctors, not being able to afford the cost of living, et cetera. There’s just no excuse, our world is so easy to get around in, it’s so easy to communicate over long distances in an instant, so why not? Why not go experience that and leave America as one of the last bastions on earth that’s free from socialism!
Well, apparently I’m not alone in that, because I just found this, and I laughed. Oh boy did I laugh! Check it out.

Now, I love Canada and all; mounties are awesome, hockey’s great, I love how polite they are, Cirque du Soleil is brilliant, I love the cold weather, and I’ve even heard that poutine is at least tolerable! I adore Canada and Canadians, but I can’t say I agree with their approach to government. But that’s peachy for them! I’m not Canadian, I wouldn’t dare to tell another country how they should run their government or how their citizens should elect their representatives! (*eye roll* I’m looking at you, rest of the world, with so many of you butting into our elections and telling us how we should run our country! I don’t do that to you, please don’t do it to me!)
But seriously, I just don’t get how people here could fight so hard for socialistic principles without really finding out what it’s really honestly like to live in a socialist country. You wouldn’t say pizza’s your favorite food without tasting it first, would you? Go on, experience it! Pay the crazy high taxes, go into the debt, deal with the unemployment, deal with the inflation, deal with the extensive government control of *everything*, try to get health-care when you really need it most (i.e. like me, when your life depends on it), and try to even make small choices outside the government-mandated social norms. Go see how much fun that is, then come back and see if you still want to fight for those same controls here.
Or hell, can’t we just at least keep one country on Earth for those of us who don’t want socialized everything? Please? You can have yours, the rest of us can have ours, and we can all share like nice grown ups, right?

Of course, it still baffles me how the majority of liberals I know have so little faith in government, absolutely distrust the system, some of them even downright cling to crazy conspiracy theories about government mind control. And yet these people want to hand the government even more control than it already has? Well knock me over with a feather, cause that just makes no sense to me whatsoever.

So anyway, the next time someone stamps their foot like a two-year-old and says, “That’s it, if I don’t get my way, I’m moving to Canada!”, I’ll be the first to hand them the application form. If you’re that unhappy, go try it out for a while and then tell me how you feel about it, k?

Because I’m currently disabled, I’m allowed to vote early by absentee so that I don’t have to wait in any lines on November 4th. So this evening I went to my poling place, made sure to vote by paper, and cast my vote! I’m so excited and glad to have that done and out of the way.
There’s a reason for this post, however, beyond just announcing that I got to vote early (neener, neener! Hehe ) I don’t know about you, but in my state I was offered the choice between electronic and paper voting. I just want to remind everybody, if you have the choice, please, please, please, choose a paper ballot! There are SO many questions and concerns about the reliability of electronic voting machines. Not only can many of them register your vote incorrectly, but if for any reason the voting machines are disabled or tampered with, more often than not there’s simply no paper trail of your vote. If any evidence arises at all that the electronic voting machine is tampered with, I believe that all the votes cast on that machine are then thrown out.
Please, please, please, do NOT let this happen to your vote! All the while I’ve been trying to remind everyone that their vote is precious, that it deserves to be backed up with solid facts and research. Well, your vote is also precious enough that it deserves to be counted. So please do everything you can to ensure your vote is counted: vote paper!

For the past several weeks, I have been delving through the archives of Time Magazine to create a gallery where we will examine, contrast, and compare the appearances of the presidential candidates on the cover of Time Magazine. In it, I will focus on Barack Obama, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton, in an attempt to illustrate the extreme bias that has permeated our nation’s media. After weeks – months – of hard work, I am so proud to present:

I hope you will examine the evidence with an open mind and an honest subjectivity. Yellow journalism has never before been tolerated in this nation, yet we are imersed in the most extensive media bias I believe our country has ever seen. The first step to solving this massive problem is to acknowledge the extent of its influence. We can only do that if we work together regardless of party affiliation to ensure that our news is no longer filtered through any party’s agenda. Bias in any and all directions is contrary to the journalistic integrity that has guided the news industry for so many generations. It must not be tolerated any longer.
We, the people of this great nation, have the power to correct this great wrong. We can force the news industry to change its bad behavior, if only we will stand up as one and no longer accept the news industry’s attempts to manipulate our opinions, our minds, our decisions, and our votes. We have the right to make up our own minds! Whenever anyone tries to rob you of that right, whenever a massive organization attempts to manipulate you, they are addressing you as if you were an imbecile who cannot be trusted to make sound decisions. Stand up to their condescension, stand up to their manipulation! Tell them you will no longer tolerate being treated like cattle to be herded! Say no to media bias, because we simply have no time for it.

Every cover I have presented here is readily available through Time’s online archive. I have gone through the past fifteen years of Time covers, and I can tell you that they have never before shown such incredible over the top bias on the cover of their magazine, as they have over the past three years with Senator Barack Obama. They have never been so in the bag for one candidate that they tossed aside the entirety of their journalistic integrity. They are showing their true colors, I only hope this gallery will hope to make it all the more apparent to everyone they intend to manipulate.

The gallery will begin with examples of the covers dedicated to Barack Obama, followed by Hillary Clinton and John McCain. After an analysis of these covers, we will then examine the more subtle aspects of Time’s covers: the top of each cover, where smaller headlines continue to display the immense bias benefitting Barack Obama. These “mini-mentions” – as I have dubbed them – give an even deeper glimpse into the lengths Time Magazine has gone to sway your opinion and relentlessly shill for Obama’s campaign.
As I have gone through the archives and prepared this gallery, one thought has run continuously through my mind; in the beginning, on his very first Time Magazine cover, Barack Obama appeared prominently on the cover of 2005’s 100 Most Influential People issue. I can’t help but wonder, that as I think about what little Obama had accomplished as of 2005, was he then – or is he now – really qualified to be on such an elite list? Was he – is he – really that influential, that powerful, that important?
Or are we just being told that he is?
Is he really all that powerful, all that qualified, or are we being sold a product via an immense multi-year advertising campaign?

Thank you very much for taking the time to look. If you have any questions about this gallery or my research, please feel free to contact me at NoWayNObama@gmail.com.
Enjoy, and please remember, it is your duty, your responsibility, and your privilege to cast an educated vote on November 4th.

Sincerely,
Meg

Click Here to Visit The Gallery

P.s. Please, I would love to hear your comments on the gallery! I’ve worked hard on this and I would really appreciate some feedback. So please, click here, scroll down, and comment away! Thanks very much!

A lot of people have been buzzing lately about Colin Powell endorsing Barack Obama. I know I’m a couple days late on commenting on this, but I’ve been trying to wrap my head around the whole thing. I mean, it just didn’t make any sense. Have you seen the video where he explains why he chose to endorse Obama? Watch it, you have to see it:

Did you notice how most of his reasons for choosing Obama over McCain are based on misunderstandings? For instance, since when did McCain ever suggest that Obama was a Muslim? Or that Obama isn’t an American, or somehow linking McCain to that Congressman from Wisconsin, it’s ridiculous. In fact, McCain has gone out of his way every single time these issues came up to refute such statements! Eesh, Colin, at least get your facts straight.
Mr. Ayers, yes, McCain did bring that up, and in my opinion, it’s not “negative” to bring up the truth. It’s negative when you bring up personal speculative attacks. The truth shouldn’t ever be considered a “negative attack”, that’s just ludicrous.

Oh, General Powell also doesn’t seem to be aware of the specific points of Obama’s tax plan that McCain and Palin are attacking as being socialist in nature. Either that, or he doesn’t know what socialism means. The part of the tax plan being attacked has nothing to do with taxes for infrastructure, but has everything to do with sending a tax credit to Americans who don’t pay taxes at all, funded entirely by those who do pay taxes. That’s what Obama means by his 95% of Americans will receive an “income tax cut”. The problem is, 40% of Americans don’t pay income taxes at all. That 40% is still included in the 95% that Obama mentions, because the “tax cut” is really a “tax credit” – a check from the federal government, paid for by those who do pay taxes. Obama himself has said this is a “redistribution of wealth”, and General Powell, that has nothing to do with infrastructure and everything to do with a socialist notion.

The most important issue, however, is his discussion about the Iraq war. He states clearly and unequivocally that he has no regrets about his involvement in making the case for war. Because of that, I do not understand why Barack Obama, the Democratic party, and his supporters, would even dare to accept Powell’s endorsement. Why? Because it’s contrary to the far left’s belief that the Iraq war is an “illegal war” based on “lies” about WMDs.

Before we continue, it’s important that you set aside the fact for a minute that this war was never, ever about established WMDs. Set aside the fact that in making the case for war, the WMD issue was explicitly described as Saddam’s programs to develop WMDs, not WMDs already made and ready to launch. Set aside the fact that those programs were found in Iraq, along with essential tools and components to develop weapons of mass destruction. Set aside the fact that we now know that the major “lie” the Democrats complain about – Bush mentioning Hussein attempting to obtain uranium from Nigeria – wasn’t actually a lie, but we were told it was by a Democrat who was in charge of an investigation to determine the truth about the uranium issue. Never mind that he proclaimed Bush lied about the uranium, even though he wasn’t finished with that investigation, and a year later admitted that he knowingly misled Americans with his statement just to make Bush look bad and undermine the war. That indeed, his investigation determined that Hussein was attempting to obtain uranium, but that he wasn’t as far along in that process as Hussein himself thought he was, because his underlings were lying to him to save their own necks. On this issue, our intelligence only failed as much as Hussein’s own trust in his underlings failed him.
So set all of that aside, set the facts aside, and think for a moment like a hard-core liberal. Think that the whole case for war was nothing but a big fat lie, that we were going to Iraq for oil, that there were no WMDs, and that Bush knowingly and maliciously lied about it to the American people and to Congress.

If you believe that, why would you want the man who was responsible for distributing those lies to back up your chosen candidate? Colin Powell was the one who made the case for war to the United Nations, he was the one who advised Bush throughout the whole process that led us to war; he was the one who helped make the case not only to the American people, but to Congress as well. He was part and parcel of the whole big lie that Democrats are so angry about. Why should they accept his endorsement?

It just doesn’t make any sense. The Democrats claim that they were “duped” into supporting the war, but you can’t say that about Colin Powell. Not only was he the one who made the case for war, but he was the one directly responsible for duping those Democrats! By accepting his endorsement, how does that not undermine the Democrats’ claims that the whole war was nothing but a lie? How is Powell not just as guilty as Bush? I just honestly don’t get it. How can Democrats have, at the same time, their “they lied, soldiers died” claim, yet accept the Powell endorsement saying, “the Colin Powell endorsement proves Obama has the experience and judgment to lead”? It seems like the two are mutually exclusive. How can they possibly make for pleasant bedfellows if they believe that Colin Powell was the one who duped them into an illegal war?

Or is this yet another case of politically convenient doublethink?

As for me, I’m not surprised by Colin Powell’s endorsement, although I am a bit disappointed in him. He could have at least had the common courtesy to notify John McCain of his endorsement, and I would have hoped that he could have at least gotten his facts straight in explaining why he chose to endorse Barack Obama. It leads one to wonder, was he just uninformed or is he playing a political game? Personally, I find it incredibly hard to believe that Colin Powell is ignorant and uninformed about either of the candidates’ campaigns. That only leaves one very disappointing option; a genuine American hero is participating in a political game to further mischaracterize not only John McCain and his campaign, but the entire race for the White House. It saddens me that a man I once had immense respect for is sinking to the level of attempting to confuse voters by jumbling the facts. I know Colin Powell is smart enough and aware enough to solidly explain his true intentions for supporting Barack Obama. Therefore it’s very disappointing that he’s chosen to instead rely on misleading statements and outright falsehoods.
As always, I’m fine with whoever anyone wants to support, so long as that support is based on research and solid fact. When that support is instead based on mendacious ephemera, I have a hard time understanding or respecting it.

The mainstream media finally caught on to the fact that Obama reviewed one of William Ayers’ books back in 1997. It’s been all over the news today and everyone’s treating it like this is some grand new revelation. I wish I could remember where I read it, but I swear, I read about this weeks ago and thought it was common knowledge by now. Wow, if only I’d thought to actually save that and post it here, I would have had the scoop on the MSM!
Not like that doesn’t happen on the Internet every day, though… cause we all know how good the mainstream media is about breaking news these days. (*cough*John Edwards*cough*)

My good friend Robert has posted a brilliant summary of the main ties between Barack Obama and William Ayers – that is, at least, the ties that we know about. Check it out on his blog, POW in the People’s Republic of California. It’s well worth a read, even for those of us well aware of the Ayers situation. Cause hey, it’s always great to get a refresher on the facts so you’ll be ready to dish them out should the topic come up in conversation, right?

Just like Robert says on his blog, I’d like to end this post with a similar thought. Obama likes to toss aside his connections with Ayers as “just some guy who lives in my neighborhood.” Cause yeah, we all have to deal with that pesky neighbor who happened to have bombed the pentagon, several government buildings, and a judge’s house back in the day, and still goes on and on about how proud he was of what he did and that he wishes he could have done more. Yeah, I can certainly relate to that, can’t you?

This is why Joe matters, because he’s John Doe, he’s the average man, he’s the little punk the world revolves around.

Barack Obama’s treatment of Joe the Plumber exemplifies Obama’s general attitude toward all of us average guys of this country. It’s that brand of elitism that has spoiled this country, turned it sour. It’s that elitism that has led to our detachment from our representatives. When we elect people who don’t understand us, who look down their noses at us, who openly mock us for the whole world to see, how can we possibly expect them to work for us in Washington?
Wake up, John Doe, you’re the hope of the world. Now more than ever.

*sigh* This is a new low. A really, really sad, shameful new low. Take a look at what Obama and Biden have been doing to my beloved Joe:

So Obama complains that McCain’s ads are putting a negative spin on this campaign, and yet they think it’s perfectly okay for them to attack, discredit, laugh at, and completely mock an average working man? Really? And that’s not wrong?

Aside from that, apparently we also need to get Jay Leno a tinfoil hat, since he’s apparently all afraid there’s some massive conspiracy behind an average guy asking Obama a perfectly reasonable question. That’s a little, um, bizarre.

But what kills me is that Obama and Biden don’t seem capable of just telling the truth about Joe! They can’t just outright answer the man’s question, they can’t just be upfront about the effect Obama’s tax plan will have on average guys. Not only that, but they also seemingly have no clue about just how much money plumbers make, how much average businesses make, and how Obama’s tax plan will hurt those people. That complete lack of knowledge is a bit concerning.
But what’s even more concerning is how they’ve decided to react to this situation. No, they can’t just treat Joe like a human being. No, because he disagrees with them, because he dared speak up and voice a dissenting opinion, the almighty Obama and his henchman Biden have decided to mock Joe. They’ve decided to try to discredit him. They’ve decided to look down their noses at plumbers everywhere.
Does this make anybody else mad? Ugh. We’ve heard all sorts of people claim that Obama’s an elitist snob, but for me, this kind of clinches it. Apparently he doesn’t think plumbers are worthy of him and his campaign, and that McCain is somehow inferior for daring to speak up for the plumbers of the world.
Bleugh. Those are exactly the kind of people our government SHOULD be representing!!! The average guys, or as Gary Cooper put it in one of my favorite movies of all time – Meet John Doe – all those ‘little punks’ out there that make the world go round. They’re the ones who make this country great, they’re the ones who our representatives should answer to. Yet Obama feels they’re not worthy of him?

Honestly, this did at least bring one pleasant thought to my mind. What was that old Gandhi quote? Oh yeah, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” That one’s for you, Joe.

Joe is my new hero!

Earlier this morning (or I guess yesterday morning, since it’s past midnight now), Joe the Plumber – aka Joe Wurzelbacher – appeared on Good Morning America, where he was interviewed by Diane Sawyer. And holy crap, can you believe it? Someone actually had the nerve to say something smart, intelligent, and reasonable on national television! On a channel that’s infamous part of the dreaded mainstream media, no less!
Oh Joe the Plumber, why can’t you run for president?
You have to see this video, it’s just too good! Not because Diane Sawyer did any kind of brilliant interview (in fact, I think she comes off as rather condescending, honestly), but simply because Joe the Plumber freaking rocks. Check it out!

Isn’t he just awesome? Don’t you wanna just rub that bright shiny head of his so that some of his calm, reasonable, logical mojo will rub off on you or something? I sure do!
Dear ole’ Joe said practically everything I’ve been thinking and trying to write about since starting this blog. He acknowledges that taxing those who are “wealthy” more exorbitantly than others is not only unfair, but completely contrary to the American Dream. People in this country should be encouraged to succeed! Taxing them unfairly once they reach that hard-earned success isn’t encouragement, it’s punishment. Who in their right mind would want to punish success?! Educate yourself, work hard, be frugal, be successful! I’ll be cheering for you all the way, because there’s room enough in this country for everybody to succeed if we’d all truly put our minds to it.
And Joe’s absolutely right, it is indeed a slippery slope each time some new politician takes it upon themselves to repeatedly lower that threshold of what qualifies as “rich enough” to pay unfair taxes. It’s class warfare at its absolute worst! Taxing people unfairly based on their level of success doesn’t make life any better for the middle class, because it will only keep people stuck in their own tax brackets, making it harder and harder for people to climb that ladder of success and secure their own futures based on their own ability and desire to succeed. We all know what it’s like to complain about how our taxes go up whenever we reach a new tax bracket, so why would we support somebody who would make that even worse? It just makes no sense to me.

But that isn’t even the best thing that Joe had to say. No, as great as that was, Joe went on to say something even better. For once, somebody finally had the nerve to stand up to the mainstream media – on their own turf, no less! – and remind America that we have the priceless right & privilege of voting. Those votes are important, so important that we should cast them based on our own research, our own decisions, and not on the opinions that others may attempt to force upon us (yes, I’m looking at you, msm!) Of course, listen to the opinions of others, engage in an open exchange of ideas. But don’t just adopt opinions willy-nilly because you think they sound okay, or because they sound warm and fuzzy! Dig for the truth, look at the facts, listen to both sides; be an adult, make your own educated decision, and vote accordingly.

Joe, for that, I love you. You’re my new hero. America needed to hear that so, so badly. And I love – LOVE – that it took an average American guy from a small town to finally work up the guts to say it. Small towns simply don’t get the credit they deserve anymore, Joe, in this world that favors elitism over substance, panache over the honest truth. God bless you, Joe! God bless you for standing up for everything that so many of us silenced Americans believe in – being reasonable, honest, direct, classy, and educated.
Joe, I know that it took guts to stand up to Diane Sawyer the way you did. It took such nerve to stand up to the entire overbearing, condescending nature of the mainsteam media. And on top of all that, on top of delivering that all-important message, you managed to do it with true class and dignity. Thank you. You have millions of fans right now and you deserve it.

As for everybody else, I really, really, really hope that Joe’s message will ring true with more people. I sincerely hope that more people will honestly look into the policies and backgrounds of both candidates in a fair, open, and reasonable manner. I hope they’ll choose to base their votes on research rather than an ad, substance over a hunch; truth over manipulation. No matter which way you decide to vote, that’s fine by me, so long as you do your absolute best to learn everything you can about the candidates, both who they are and where they want to take this country. Because that matters so much more than anything else right now. We’re facing tough times ahead, we need to elect a President because we believe in him, not because he had clever advertising, cute campaign slogans, or warm and fuzzy rhetoric. Don’t sell yourself, your country, or the power of your vote short. Live up to the great privilege and honor that it is to have a say in the leadership of your country.
A vote is a truly, truly previous thing. Please, don’t waste it, don’t ever take it for granted. Use your power wisely, judiciously, and responsibly: cast an educated vote!

I’m going to say at the outset here that my reaction to this debate isn’t going to be like my usual posts – there’s still a bit of the typical fact-based stuff in there that I usually try to stick to, but since this is my own personal reaction to the debate, there’s a whole lot more of my own opinion & personality in it this time. Partly because I actually got into this debate, but mostly because it’s now five o’clock in the morning, I haven’t gotten any sleep, I feel like crap, and I’m kinda cranky. I’m just not in the mood for a tit-for-tat fact checking of every statement. So I just want you to know that this won’t be as fair and balanced as usual, cause hey, it’s late and I’m feeling goofy, so I’ll be taking a few potshots & cracking a few stupid jokes. So consider yourself warned and be prepared!
That said, click “More” to see my list of my favorite – and not so favorite – moments, in no particular order, other than the order in which I remember them.

I just flat out can’t believe it’s come to this… What in the hell has happened to our country? Listen to this clip from a radio program that one of my favorite YouTubers put up today. It’s an interview with a woman from Texas who received a phone call from a volunteer with the Obama campaign. When the volunteer asked the woman if she would support Barack Obama, this is what the woman had to say: “No, I don’t support him. Your guy is a socialist who voted four times in the state senate to let little babies die in hospital closets. I think you should find something better to do with your time.”
She hung up, expecting that to be the end of it. But the very next day, she was confronted by two Secret Service agents on her porch. Listen as she explains what happened.

Could those Secret Service agents have been any more flat-out intimidating!? They have a file on her, they make it apparent to her that they have this file, and then they go and say, “Look, you know, we’re trying to help you out, we came to you first, right, we didn’t go to all your neighbors and your family and ask embarrassing questions about you yet.” Did you catch that? “Yet”?! YET?! What other intention could there be behind such a statement than to intimidate the hell out of someone? If you translate that into its most basic intention, it’s, “Cooperate with us now or we’re going to drag your dirt around to every single person you know.”
Thank heaven they decided to pick on a real Texas woman who stood her ground, knew her rights, and wouldn’t bend to their ruthless intimidation.

Congratulations, America! We have our very own thought police in our own country, right here, right now, in the United States of America. But beyond even that, what makes this even worse, is that we have a point of comparison; we have a direct example of this frightening double standard.
In this instance, with nothing but the word of a single volunteer from the Obama campaign, the Secret Service shows up to intimidate this poor woman. Now compare that to something that I wrote about in only my second blog entry. In that entry, I posted a video of the “comedienne” Sandra Bernhardt. The clip is from a performance she gave in Washington, DC where she flat out threatened Sarah Palin, saying that if Palin dared set foot in New York, Ms. Bernhardt would call a bunch of her “big black guy friends” to have her gang raped. Now, did any Secret Service agents show up at Sandra Bernhardt’s door?
Somehow I doubt it, yet it’s perfectly alright for the Secret Service to intimidate some poor woman in her own home, without any evidence that she’d ever uttered a single threatening word? Is this setting a very good precedent? Does this scare anyone else? I honestly don’t like the idea of some random person having the power to accuse me of issuing a threat, that is then taken seriously by the Secret Service, who shows up on my doorstep to interrogate me about my thoughts, whilst making every attempt to intimidate me into compliance. Where’s the justice in that? Where’s the due process in that? Where’s the sanity in that?

That poor woman has every right in the world to face her accuser, not to mention the right to sue the living backside off the lying weasel. She also deserves a massive apology from Obama himself. Anything less than that would be a mockery of our American justice system.