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Confederate Yankee

March 29, 2010

Hutaree Plot Revealed

If the allegations are true, this was one nasty little cult:

The indictment claims that the Hutaree planned to kill an unidentified member of local law enforcement and then attack the law enforcement officers who gather in Michigan for the funeral. According to the plan, the Hutaree would attack law enforcement vehicles during the funeral procession with improvised explosive devices rigged with projectiles, which constitute weapons of mass destruction, according to the announcement by U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade.
"Because the Hutaree had planned a covert reconnaissance operation for April which had the potential of placing an unsuspecting member of the public at risk, the safety of the public and of the law enforcement community demanded intervention at this time," McQuade said in the announcement. "Hutaree members view local, state, and federal law enforcement as the 'brotherhood,' their enemy, and have been preparing to engage them in armed conflict."

The alleged plot is one spawned of a vicious mind. When a police officer dies in the line of duty, the funeral typically consists of dozens of officers, and often includes representatives of local law enforcement agencies from around the region, federal and state law enforcement, and local and state authorities in addition to grieving family members and friends.

The slow-moving procession would be an easy target for IEDs, and it would not be surprising if it is revealed that the group planned to lie in wait with the intention of ambushing police and rescue units responding to the initial attack.

If the attacking force were sufficiently competent, they could easily kill dozens in such a scenario.

Update: According to the NY Times a total of nine co-conspirators were charged, and the charges include sedition.

I do take issue with the claim made by the Detroit FBI SAIC:

"This is an example of radical and extremist fringe groups which can be found throughout our society," Andrew Arena, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge in Detroit, said in a statement. "The F.B.I. takes such extremist groups seriously, especially those who would target innocent citizens and the law enforcement officers who protect the citizens of the United States."

There are groups like these throughout society? Really?

If that is the case, we would have already had attacks such as those the Hutaree envisioned, or at least similar arrests. As we have neither, it strongly suggests that Andrew Arena, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge in Detroit, is full of crap.

The article also sheds light on more details of the attack that the cult had been plotting:

The indictment charged that between August 2008 and the present, the defendants — led by David Brian Stone, 45, who also used the name "Captain Hutaree" — developed a conspiracy that they hoped would result in a war against the United States government. They allegedly decided they would kill a local law enforcement officer, and then bomb the funeral caravan. The killings "would intimidate and demoralize law enforcement diminishing their ranks and rendering them ineffective," it said.
Afterward, the indictment said, Hutaree members would retreat to several "rally points" and wage war against the government, using prepared fighting positions as well as "trip-wired and command-detonated" bombs.
"It is believed by the Hutaree that this engagement would then serve as a catalyst for a more wide-spread uprising against the government," the indictment said.
Mr. Stone used the Internet to obtain diagrams of "explosively formed projectiles," a particularly lethal form of roadside bombs responsible for many deaths of United States soldiers in Iraq, the indictment says.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:23 AM | Comments (29) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

AP Sources: Hutaree Militia Were Plotting to Kill Cops?

Such is the claim, but does it really make sense?

People familiar with the case against seven suspects arrested by the FBI this weekend say the case revolves around a plot to kill police officers.
Two law enforcement officials tell The Associated Press that members of the group in the Midwest had planned multiple attacks on police officers or other law enforcement personnel as a way of acting out their hatred for the government.

From what I've read of the Hutaree and similar groups, they see the federal government as their enemies. They tend to champion local and state governments having more authority. Members of this same cult recently helped a nearby militia conduct search and rescue operations at the request of local law enforcement. This claims doesn't seem to make sense.

Another theory postulates that the group was plotting to attack Muslims, though there has been precisely zero evidence of that displayed, either.

The seven Hutaree arrested over the course of the weekend have a court appearance scheduled for later today. Perhaps then we can find out precisely what they were arrested for, and whether or not federal law enforcement was justified in such a massive display of manpower for so few suspects.

An identically-sized domestic terrorist cell was successfully apprehended in Willow Springs, NC without the massive show of force authorities used in this tri-state raid. Both groups were religious extremists with large caches of weapons intent on holy war.

So why were their arrests so radically different?

Some have posited that perhaps federal authorities were attempting to provoke a response from other militias known to be active in the area. Until there is some explanation by authorities as to why such a greater show of force was warranted in this more recent arrest, we have no way of proving these theories wrong.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:34 AM | Comments (13) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

March 28, 2010

FBI Arrests Seven in Bomb-Making Raids

The media and blogosphere have been all over the map on this one. Last night federal agents conducted raids in three states, apparently targeting a small end-times religious cult called the Hutaree. According to Fox News, the raids were carried out to arrest those suspected of manufacturing and selling pipe bombs. If true, then yeah, arresting those involved was a good idea.

I'm just glad the raids were executed without anyone targeted being killed.

Federal law enforcement has a rather dismal record (to put it mildly) of botching raids on armed religious cults, and timing the raid during the current political crisis means that any gunplay could have caused the militia-saturated region to quickly escalate into bloody skirmishing between militiamen and federal authorities. It was a bad tactical decision, that could have ended badly for everyone.

I question the wisdom of using such heavy forces (including armored vehicles and helicopters according to witness reports), when light, fast and quiet raids would have been at least as effective.

More than the timing, I question the leadership.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 04:50 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Off Target

Has Josh Sugarmann of the Violence Policy Center ever been right?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:52 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

March 27, 2010

Harry Reid's Last, Best Hope Facing Felony Charges

It is really difficult to con people into thinking you represent their values and siphon off their votes when you're sitting in prison. Unless you're a Congressman's wife.

But we're talking about fake Tea Party Senate candidate Scott Ashjian, who doesn't look like he'll be politically viable.

Sorry, Harry.

A Nevada asphalt contractor who faces a legal challenge to his Tea Party of Nevada candidacy for U.S. Senate was hit Friday with felony theft and bad check charges in Las Vegas that allege he bounced a $5,000 business check last year.
Scott Ashjian is one of a record 22 candidates, including 12 Republicans, running for the seat held by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is seeking a fifth term.
Bernie Zadrowski, head of the Clark County district attorney's office bad check unit, said he would seek an arrest warrant Monday in Las Vegas Justice Court. Ashjian could face up to 14 years in state prison if convicted.
The tea party movement is a disparate coalition of conservative groups angered by federal spending, rising taxes and the growth and reach of government. Other tea party activists have been distancing themselves from Ashjian, and an ad targeting him has been sponsored by the Tea Party Express, one of the most visible factions of the national tea party movement.

The Tea Party of Nevada is a fake grassroots organization led by a Democratic lawyer and conspiracy theorists that hoped to split away enough Republican votes to give Harry Reid a chance of remaining in office.

It doesn't appear that strategy is going to work.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:13 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

March 26, 2010

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

I don't have the vocabulary to describe how reprehensible this is:

Mark Duren told News 2 the incident happened around 4:30p.m., while he was driving on Blair Boulevard, not far from Belmont University.
He said Harry Weisiger gave him the bird and rammed into his vehicle, after noticing an Obama-Biden sticker on his car bumper.

We all get angry at politicians (if you didn't, you wouldn't be reading political blogs), but attacking a stranger on the street over something as innocuous as a campaign bumper sticker is not just criminal, it crosses the line into insanity.

The attacker, a retired real estate developer named Harry Weisiger, is charged with felony reckless endangerment. I think the district attorney would get bipartisan support if the charges were upgraded to two counts of attempted murder.

Update:Weisiger's wife died of brain cancer just over a month ago.

It certainly doesn't do anything to absolve or mitigate his assault, but does it provide a hint of a motive?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:47 PM | Comments (58) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Krugman Almost Gets One Right

The old Southern aphorism "Even a blind hog can find an acorn every one in a while" is analogous to cliche of broken clock being right twice a day. It seems in his latest dim rant, blind hog Paul Krugman actually did manage to stumble into making a relevant comment, even if it wasn't intentional:

...if you care about America's future, you can't be happy as extremists take full control of one of our two great political parties.

Amen, Mr. Krugman!

Conservatives have been saying that for the better part of a year as we've watched the destructive policies and corrupt deal-making of the Progressive wing of the Democratic party set the nation on a path toward economic ruin, all to satiate their childish dreams of "economic justice." Leftists—and their economists—refuse to face the fact that true economic justice is best served by capitalism, where justice is derived in free markets as higher value and in demand products succeed, while those that are obsolete or substandard fail.

But Krugman isn't talking about economics, which is good, considering how little he actually knows about the subject (much like the raft of university professors who teach business classes even as they've failed in the market themselves).

No, our smug Times editorialist valiantly takes up the fight against his favorite opponent, the strawman.

What has been really striking has been the eliminationist rhetoric of the G.O.P., coming not from some radical fringe but from the party's leaders. John Boehner, the House minority leader, declared that the passage of health reform was "Armageddon." The Republican National Committee put out a fund-raising appeal that included a picture of Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, surrounded by flames, while the committee’s chairman declared that it was time to put Ms. Pelosi on "the firing line." And Sarah Palin put out a map literally putting Democratic lawmakers in the cross hairs of a rifle sight.
All of this goes far beyond politics as usual. Democrats had a lot of harsh things to say about former President George W. Bush — but you'll search in vain for anything comparably menacing, anything that even hinted at an appeal to violence, from members of Congress, let alone senior party officials.
No, to find anything like what we're seeing now you have to go back to the last time a Democrat was president.

Krugman's mock collapse onto the fainting couch is imminent.

Help! Help! Republicans are using literary devices!

No sane or sober person could equate metaphors used with enticing violence, but Krugman struggles mightily to make the non-existent connection.

No, if we want to take an honest look at descents into violent threats and fantasy, we merely need to watch how rank-and-file liberals have acted over the past eight years. You can and should include the murder committed by radical leftists like Andrew Mickel in the left's bloody tally. The Indymedia journalist turned death row resident assassinated a police officer in hopes of triggers a war against capitalism in 2002. Somehow, I don't think we can blame Sarah Palin for that.

Liberal Carlos Hartmann of Michigan was so outraged that the Netherlands provided troops for what he saw as "Bush's War for Oil" that he flew across the Atlantic in hopes of killing Dutch soldiers. Unable to find a soldier at the train station where he plotted to carry out his attack, Hartmann vented his rage by hacking a student to death with an axe. I'm pretty sure John Boehner didn't inspire him.

Other left-wing sociopaths—as yet uncaptured—sabotaged Florida Republican Eddie Adams truck during his campaign, and nearly burned him to death. I know...blame Bush!

These are just some of the acts of radical left wing violence the media does its very best to avoid covering... there are many, many more, from assaults and intimidation by SEIU union thugs to the biting off of fingers from MoveOn.Org antagonists to acts of vandalism, gunfire, and arson by the left-wing domestic terrorists Janet Napolitano tries very hard not to see.

Krugman wants to talk about extremism dominating political parties? Let me provide the details he ignored in his eight-year amnesia.

Even his lord and savior Barack Obama has direct ties to two of the worst domestic terrorists of the past half century, a man and woman who led an organizationthat has been implicated in murders, armed robberies, and attempted to blow up a soldiers' dance as they fantasized about murdering what they estimated to be 25 million Americans in concentration camps if they were ever able to seize power.

Indeed, Americans have watched one of its two political parties go to extremes.

Krugman just doesn't want to admit belonging to it.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:24 AM | Comments (29) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

March 25, 2010

A Tale of Four Polls: Public Still Overwhelmingly Against Obamacare Cram-down

Via the Senate Republicans Communications Center (so liberals will immediate ignore/discount it for intruding on their community-based reality), but still simply citing the facts:

QUINNIPIAC POLL APPROVAL OF HEALTH CARE BILL:
Mostly Approve: 40%
Mostly Disapprove: 49% (Quinnipiac University Poll, 3/22-23/10)

BLOOMBERG POLL APPROVAL OF HEALTH CARE BILL:
Favor: 38%
Oppose: 50% ("Bloomberg National Poll," 3/19-22/10, P.1)

CBS NEWS POLL APPROVAL OF HEALTH CARE BILL:
Approve: 37%
Disapprove: 48% ("CBS News Poll," 3/18-21/10, P. 4)

CNN OPINION RESEARCH POLL APPROVAL OF HEALTH CARE BILL:
Favor: 39%
Oppose: 59% ("CNN Opinion Research Poll," 3/19-21/10, P.2)

No matter which one of these polls you look at, support for the Democrat's health care rationing scheme never exceeds 40%.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:08 PM | Comments (14) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

And Shots Rang Out: Lies of Congressional Black Caucus Lead To Gunplay

At least, that is how the headline would read if the New York Times, Newsweek, or the rest of the media were as far right as they are left, but let's face facts: John Lewis and the other CBC members that alleged racism against tea party protesters will never be held accountable for the death threats their false charges created, such as this:

Yes, uh. Yeah, I'm glad, uh. the president passed healthcare, yeah. Funky-ass, racist-ass Republicans hate that, don't you? Jean [sic] Smith, when you got hit by that car or when you fell or whatever, you should've broke your back, b***h. You, and Boehner motherf***er, that Mitch McConnell -- all you racist f***ing Republicans. Why don't you just change y'all's party name to "racist"? 'Cause if one of those little f***ing Teabaggers would've spit on me, I would have socked them in the f***ing face with my f***ing .09 mm. F*** all you racist motherf***ers.

That particular threat was left at an office of Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio).

Someone else thought mere threats were not enough, and actually fired into Eric Cantor's office.

Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor said Thursday that his Richmond campaign office has been shot at and that he's received "threatening e-mails" -- but at the same time the House minority whip accused top Democrats of trying to exploit the threats they've been receiving for "political gain."
Cantor said "a bullet was shot through the window" of his campaign office. The incident happened Monday, Fox News has learned, the latest in a rash of apparent threats and acts of intimidation against members of Congress.

The Democratic thuggocracy has, without a doubt, underestimated the American public's resolve to stand up to their Alinsky tactics and lies designed to fan the flames of racial discord. They've simply played this card too many times, without justification or reason, for anyone but the true believers and besotted special interests to believe any claim they make.

Perhaps when our next left wing radical detonates a bomb or assassinates someone (again) these leftist thugs will stop inciting violence from their followers, but based upon their long and bloody history, I'm not getting my hopes up.

Update: In what can only be described as good news, preliminary ballistics from the Richmond PD seem to indicate that the shot that hit Cantor's office window was probably a shot that was fired into the air from a distance. This would indicate that this incident was probably not a targeted attack.

This in no way absolves the CBC of intentionally stirring up racial hatred merely for the purposes of cheap political theater. Leftists have a well-documented propensity for violence, whether bombs or bullets, or arson and sabotage, and intentionally inciting them should be recognized as a criminal act.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:56 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Breitbart Challenges Congressional Black Caucus Members to Offer Proof of Alleged Tea Party Racism

As video after video suggests that Democratic attempts to troll for racism among tens of thousands of Tea Party protesters was a failure that resulted in formerly respected Congressmen lying to the media, Andrew Breitbart has issued them a challenge:

It's time for the allegedly pristine character of Rep. John Lewis to put up or shut up. Therefore, I am offering $10,000 of my own money to provide hard evidence that the N- word was hurled at him not 15 times, as his colleague reported, but just once. Surely one of those two cameras wielded by members of his entourage will prove his point.
And surely if those cameras did not capture such abhorrence, then someone from the mainstream media — those who printed and broadcast his assertions without any reasonable questioning or investigation — must themselves surely have it on camera. Of course we already know they don’t. If they did, you'd have seen it by now.
THOUSANDS OF TIMES.
Rep. Lewis, if you can't do that, I'll give him a backup plan: a lie detector test. If you provide verifiable video evidence showing that a single racist epithet was hurled as you walked among the tea partiers, or you pass a simple lie detector test, I will provide a $10K check to the United Negro College Fund.

I suspect Lewis will not collect one thin dime from Breitbart, and it's a shame, really. If Lewis has no evidence, and won't take a polygraph, and won't apologize for fabricating these slurs, it strongly suggests that a man who spent the early part of his life combating racism has been corrupted in his later years into embracing it himself.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:17 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Should House Democrats Be Censured Over False Charges of Bigotry?

Video evidence confirms that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO)was not intentionally spat upon. John Lewis didn't hear anyone anyone call him a charged racial epithet. Barney Frank, who was called a name, was called that after uttering a shocking profanity at protestors first, a fact the media failed to report, and may have conspired to cover up.

In every one of these instances, Democrats conspired to lie or misrepresent Obamacare protesters, slandering the thousands of Americans in attendance and the millions that share their views. The deserve to be censured for their behavior now that the truth has been revealed.

Just don't expect it from the most corrupt congress in recent memory.

Update: Add Russ Carnahan to the list of gutless Congressional Democrats slandering Obamacare protestors.

Update:Politico updates to paste over Carnahan's lies.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:53 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

A Special Prosecutor for Barack?

Rep. Darrell Issa of the House Oversight committee is on the verge of asking for a special prosecutor to investigate the Obama Administration for a blatant attempt at bribery:

Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight committee, told CBS News Wednesday that he will call for a special prosecutor to investigate the White House if it does not address Rep. Joe Sestak's claim that he was offered a federal job in exchange for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Senate primary.
"If the public doesn't receive a satisfactory answer, the next step would be to call for a special prosecutor, which is well within the statute," Issa (pictured) told Hotsheet.
The California Republican has been pushing for the White House to provide details of conversations between Sestak and administration officials in the wake of Sestak's comment during a radio interview last month that he was offered a high-ranking administration job in exchange for dropping his primary challenge against Sen. Arlen Specter.
Asked if that job was secretary of the Navy, Sestak declined to comment. His press secretary told CBS News that the lawmaker stands by his original statement that he was offered the job in exchange for an administration post.

Only complete criminal ineptitude by President Obama's inner circle would end up indicting him directly in the alleged scheme, but then, we are dealing with a very arrogant and corrupt Administration, led by a neophyte and staffed by bullies and thugs. If there is significant evidence of an attempted quid pro quo agreement in order to rig the Pennsylvania Senate primary, President Obama would almost certainly face impeachment. If Democrats lose a significant number of seats in November and the evidence is strong enough, Obama and members of his Administration could be out of office—and on the way to a federal prison—by 2011 or 2012.

All of this hinges, of course, on whether or not there is evidence of a specific crime. Considering the great lengths the White House has gone to to repeatedly duck the issue, evidence beyond the public statements of the man they tried to bribe would seem to exist.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:29 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

...And We're Back

During a series of late night/early morning votes designed to keep the public's eye of the behavior of Democrats, the Senate parliamentarian discovering a pair of rule violations that will send Obamacare back to the House for another contentious round of voting:

As an exhausted Senate labored past 2 a.m. on a stack of GOP amendments, Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, told reporters that Republicans consulting with the chamber's parliamentarian had found "two minor provisions" that violate Congress' budget rules.
[snip]
Democratic aides said the problematic provisions deal with protecting students from future cuts in their grants if Congress does not provide enough money for them. They violate budget rules because they do not produce savings, one aide said.

Procedurally, this is merely a bump in the road for Democrats, but it is going to be explosive politically. After days of harsh words and threats from irate constituents, the House is going to have to vote on Obamacare again, under far more pressure.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:10 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

March 24, 2010

Rules of Engagement

If you are an American and value your individual liberties and the responsibilities that go with them, this week has been a very troubling one. Using bribes, coercion, bullying and lies, a disgraceful Democratic Congress and President have passed a law that usurps power over one-sixth of the economy, and now eagerly plots their next power grab.

Predictably, many in this nation of 300 million have taken this transformative undermining of the Republic quite seriously, and harbor righteous anger towards the corrupt and powerful who made this unconstitutional law.

Several Congressional offices have been vandalized. These were acts to be condemned, though understood.

But a line was crossed in Virginia last night, and such behavior cannot be tolerated:

Law enforcement authorities are investigating the discovery of a cut propane gas line at the Virginia home of Rep. Tom Perriello's (D-Va.) brother, whose address was targeted by tea party activists angry at the congressman's vote for the health care bill.
An aide to the congressman confirmed to POLITICO that a line to a propane tank behind his brother's home near Charlottesville had been sliced.
[snip]
"While officials are not willing to characterize the exact nature of the incident because of the ongoing investigation, it did not involve an immediate threat to occupants of the residence. However officials are taking the incident very seriously and conducting a vigorous investigation," the statement said.

The cutting of the line—a thin, flexible tube that delivers propane from the bulk tank—was not an immediate threat as the Fire Marshal investigating the incident makes clear, but it was a threat, and a threat against innocents that had nothing to do with making or passing the law.

No matter what you think of Obamacare and the craven ideologues that passed it, is totally unacceptable to threaten their relatives or friends and put them in danger.

Go to your Congressman's office and scream at him in the most colorful language possible. Hang him in effigy at protests. If you're willing to do the time for the crime, have a swing at him.

Better yet, throw a shoe... after all, the left values such behavior as a form of "vigorous dissent," and will no doubt ask for any charges against you to be dropped.

Perhaps one day stronger action will be required if Progressives continue to trample on our liberties in their blind quest for power. But that time is not now.

At this time, I suspect Shikha Dalmia's call for massive civil disobedience is the correct path. Show your anger. Make sure those who have trampled your liberties are stuck down by ballots. With your help, the Democratic Party's assault on the Republic can be undone.

The right way.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 03:37 PM | Comments (47) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

EXCLUSIVE: Media Falls For Pallywood Production...Again

European media has been falling all over itself this week to report that Israeli soldiers slaughtered a pair of innocent Palestinian boys near the sight of a protest. A human rights group is parading around an X-ray that they say is proof that Israeli forces used live ammunition instead of rubber-coated less lethal ammunition.

It is too bad for them that all the X-ray does is provide considerable evidence of deliberate fraud.

An interesting aspect of the story is the commentary of a radiologist who looked at the image, and provided his feedback after this story was written.

He noted:

Is the bullet actually inside the skull? If somebody wanted to, he/or she could take an xray with the bullet overlying the person's head and make a similar appearance. On the limited image I don't see any shards of bone/fractures to indicate entrance into the skull. I would need some kind of cross sectional image to confirm that the bullet is ACTUALLY inside the skull.
A different angle (frontal xray or crossectional imaging i.e. CT/MRI) would definitely be able show fractures or fragments of bone, but unfortunately i'm only provided with a low quality image of a one-view skull xray.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:39 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

DemCong: Obamacare a Law Written "...to Control The People"

Via Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, we find John Dingell of Michigan having a Freudian slip and admitting that the purpose of Obamacare is to control the American people:

Let me remind you this has been going on for years. We are bringing it to a halt. The harsh fact of the matter is when you're going to pass legislation that will cover 300 American people in different ways it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.

And therein lies the defining philosophical difference between statists and free men.

Democrats—I no longer see the utility of separating them rhetorically from the radical progressives that drive them—are convinced of their own intellectual and moral superiority. They are certain that society at large is too ignorant to survive and thrive on it's own, and must be overseen and controlled... "for their own good." Their default worldview is that people are children barely more competent than dumb animals, and they need to be controlled. They, of course, set themselves above the crowd, and imagine themselves benevolent protectors.

Conservatives and Libertarians—I care little for the lesser statist views of many modern Republicans—have a set of beliefs that is diametrically opposed to that of Democrats. We acknowledge that man will make mistakes and sometimes work against his own best interests, but we believe that the freedom to make decisions—including mistakes—is essential to the future of humanity. Without freedom, without liberty, imagination and innovation die. We believe that the pioneering, exploring spirit of man is to be celebrated and rewarded, that failures are to be seen as learning experiences and not traumas to be avoided.

Statism crushes the souls of men, emasculating them. It reduces and enslaves them, and punishes those who dare to dream and aspire to be more than average.

Liberalism requires mediocrity. It rewards complacency. In a world exploding with life, possibilities, and color, it desires to be beige.

We deserve better. And we shall never submit to being controlled.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:35 AM | Comments (16) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

March 23, 2010

Obamacare-Related Jobs Massacre to Begin

The media is doing it's damnedest to ignore the damage that Obamacare will have on small businesses, ignoring anecdotal stories of small businesses that will be forced to lay off workers.

It will be a bit hard to hide when they come 2,500 at a time.

SLM Corp. may cut 2,500 jobs as a result of education loan provisions contained in health-care legislation passed yesterday by the U.S. House of Representatives.
"We are profoundly disappointed that thousands of student loan originators will soon lose their jobs -- although the Senate has the power to change this," the McLean, Virginia- based lender known as Sallie Mae said today in an e-mailed statement.

Manufacturing groups are also lamenting the damage that the short-sighted political power grab will do to their businesses, making it difficult for them to keep from cutting health benefits.

"This legislation is fundamentally flawed...an could cost as much as $2 trillion over 10 years once it takes full effect," said NAM. The group said manufacturing has lost 2.2 million jobs since December 2007.
"America's manufacturers will continue to advocate for real health care reform that lowers costs, improves care and does not impede our ability to create jobs, grow our economy and remain competitive in a global market," stated the group.
The Medical Device Manufacturers Association has also issued concerns about the healthcare bill, citing how the $20 billion device tax provision will impact patient care, innovation and small businesses.
"If eliminating the tax is not possible, structuring it to provide relief for smaller companies is critical. Under the current structure, many companies will owe more in taxes than they generate in profits, requiring companies to layoff employees, cut R&D budgets and slow the development of new therapies that will improve the quality of care for all Americans. Moving forward, these issues must be addressed before the tax takes effect in 2013," the group stated in a statement.

In addition, Obamacare was created with the intention of undermining and destroying the private health care insurance market, which will begin affecting them immediately, and which will force thousands of people out of work.

On the bright side, Obamacare will create thousands of new jobs for IRS workers and in the mortuary industry.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:57 PM | Comments (35) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

Ted Kennedy's Death Had Global Economic Impact

What a tragedy.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:33 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

For The Dumb and Uneducated, Obamacare "To Be Like Christmas"

I pity DeCarlo Flythe, a local man without insurance, or much in the way of smarts:

"It's just going to be like Christmas," said DeCarlo Flythe, who lost health coverage for his family when he was laid off almost three years ago. "It's going to be great. You know, no worries (about) the bills. We are going to go ahead and pay our co-pay and be alright."

For dim souls like Flythe, Obamacare certainly seems to be an answer to their worries. In the short term, IRS agents will confiscate monies from those of us who pay taxes to pay for his inability to take care of his own family. Obamacare will pay for his diabetic medicines, and his eventual blindness. After all, with me and you picking up the tab, there is little incentive for Flythe to change his behavior to help regulate his diabetes.

What Flythe and his slow-witted allies in the dependency lobby don't grasp is that the quality of service consistently goes down in nations where socialized medicine has been tried, even as costs go up. Rationed care is an inevitability. Flythe will eventually die of his diabetes, once his poor lifestyle choices and the illusion of Obamacare's protections conspire to render him as one of those simply not worth treating as a cost-benefit matter.

Then again, Flythe might not die of diabetes and neglect.

He very well may die of one of any number of other health problems as Obamacare drives medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and doctors out of business.

Jobs are being lost already. Promising lines of research will stagnate and new cures to diseases affecting millions will never be developed.

I've read the plodding thoughts of liberal blog commenters in recent days that Obamacare will provide care to those with pre-existing and congenital conditions. What they know better than the promise is that Obamacare will lead to the development of new treatments, new cures or make fatal illnesses and conditions curable.

The simple fact of the matter is that Obamacare promises a near stasis in medical care. Research and development will necessarily slow as the very companies that create new techniques and tools for the betterment of man face crippling taxation to pay what should be the obligations of un-men like DeCarlo Flythe and other dependent wards of the welfare state.

Cancer treatments will come years later, or not at all, terminating the lives of millions before their time. Cures for cystic fibrosis, AIDS, autism and spinal cord injuries will simply not have the funding to continue in the private sector. Chronic, but non-life threatening conditions will continue to debilitate millions.

I'm not promising that our existing medical research would find cures for each and every malady if left alone, but there simply are no credible claims that Obamacare or any other iteration of socialized medicine leads to future medical innovation, and plenty of data to suggest it cripples progress.

Obamacare, as others have noted both in the House chamber and on the street, is not about patients. It's about politics.

We can only wonder how many will die unnecessary deaths before figuring that out.

Update: Even Lefty Jane Hamsher of firedoglake admits that people such as Flythe are idiots for thinking they'll get something for nothing (or next to nothing), and that a lot of people are going to get screwed by Obamacare (and not in the way Obama screwed Vera Baker).

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:59 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

On Tyranny, And The Illusions Of Hope

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope that it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen, if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve.
This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty towards the majesty of heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?
For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth -- to know the worst and to provide for it. I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years, to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House?
Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with these warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation -- the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motives for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies?
No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer on the subject? Nothing.
We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer.
Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament.
Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope.
If we wish to be free -- if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending -- if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!
They tell us, sir, that we are weak -- unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?
Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of the means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. Three millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us.
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable -- and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come!
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, "Peace! Peace!" -- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

Patrick Henry - March 23, 1775. 235 years ago, today.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:15 AM | Comments (27) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)

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