Conservative Outpost

Republicans! Beware Of Obama’s Move To The Right.

Skip MacLure — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:14:42 -0500

Be wary… be very wary. There are a number of gutless Republicans who would like nothing better than to be thought of as ‘reaching across the aisle’ to find some sort of accommodation with the White House, so as not to be seen as the ‘party of no’. Any Republican who thinks that this may be a good idea has missed the entire message of the Conservative Republican revolution and the Tea Party movement.

Obama’s sudden ‘willingness’ to work with Republicans in a bi-partisan effort to resurrect health care from the legislative trash pile where it resides now, and deservedly so, should be viewed with extreme caution. An old Texas cowboy I was once with on a mining venture told me, “Son, when you’ve got a rattler in the high grass around camp, you’d best know where it is and that it bites”.

The message we sent to the administration, both the Democrats AND Republicans in Congress, was NOT that we wished that benighted health care legislation to be repaired, ‘fixed’ or otherwise incremented into law. The message we sent, are sending, and will continue to send, is that we want nothing to do with Obama’s monstrosity at all. The Republicans who have been insisting that the entire stinking mess be scrapped and that we need to start over from scratch need to stick to their guns. What is wrong with health care is not our medical health system. American medicine is the finest in the world.

Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams - Pleased To Receive Treatment In The United States. read more »

Founding Fathers MIA in the classroom?

Drew McKissick — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:06:13 -0500

As hard (or easy) as it may be to believe, the education establishment in North Carolina is proposing new standards that would eliminate the teaching of any American history prior to 1877 to high school seniors.

Yes, really.

Of course, the people pushing these changes have a perfectly logical explanation...

We are certainly not trying to go away from American history," Rebecca Garland, the chief academic officer for North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, told Fox News. "What we are trying to do is figure out a way to teach it where students are connected to it, where they see the big idea, where they are able to make connections and draw relationships between parts of our history and the present day." read more »

Does the Government Pose a Bigger Threat to Toyota Than its Sticky Pedals?

Drew McKissick — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:00:29 -0500

Toyota’s bad press has been for its sticky pedal incident certainly isn’t surprising, but is all the negative attention warranted? When asked about the Toyota recalls, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood responded by saying, “My advice to anyone who owns one of these vehicles is stop driving it, and take it to the Toyota dealership because they believe they have the fix for it” and that “we’re not finished with Toyota.” Hood later toned down his remarks but immediately after his “stop driving” comment, Toyota’s stocks plummeted. Even after recovering some, the stock closed down 6% that day.

Much like Vice President Biden’s comments not to use public transportation or ride an airplane because of swine flu, LaHood’s comments were a bit over the top and have caused some to question the government’s motive. We don’t speculate motives at The Heritage Foundation, but it’s easy to understand why a government that now owns a major stake in General Motors would want to put continuous bad press on a rival automaker. ...

Recession chugs on, except in government

Drew McKissick — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:47:27 -0500

White House apologists were quick to point to the unemployment rate decline from 10 percent to 9.7 percent as evidence that the recovery is gathering momentum and that President Obama's policies -- especially his $787 billion economic stimulus bill Congress approved last February -- are "working." But the back story behind the figures provides cold comfort.

First, the drop to 9.7 percent unemployment does not reflect the creation of new jobs that normally accompanies an economic recovery. The number of new jobs is actually declining. Total nonfarm payroll employment, for example, dipped by an additional 20,000 positions after a December decline of 150,000 positions. The unemployment rate the day Obama took office last year stood at 7.6 percent and 134.6 million people had jobs. When he signed the economic stimulus, Obama promised the bill would bolster the economy sufficiently to keep unemployment below 8.0 percent. But the unemployment rate has exceeded 8.0 percent since last fall, and total employment stands at only 129.5 million. The stimulus has been a bust.

H1N1, Obama’s Pandemic That Wasn’t – ‘Nuther Snow Job.

Skip MacLure — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:00:03 -0500

How far would Barack Obama and his administration go in order to gin up support/panic for his signature health care legislation? If you’ll remember, the grandstanding and informational blitz for the ‘UPCOMING’ H1N1 started back around January and February of last year. The Democrats were shouting from the roof tops that “THE PANDEMIC IS COMING, THE PANDEMIC IS COMING”. We HAD to have health care passed right now! Sounded an awful lot like the bleating that was going on with the ’stimulus’ didn’t it? We absolutely, positively had to have it or the banks would collapse. Wall Street would fold up and go home and the economy would collapse.

As such things usually do in the light of sober reflection, it is apparent that we would have been SO much better off had we simply allowed the banks, the investment houses and the auto manufacturers to fail and go into bankruptcy, which is precisely why the bankruptcy laws had been written into the Constitution in the first place. The market place would have adjusted, reorganizations and bankruptcy courts would have adjudicated and the void would have been filled, because nature abhors a vacuum.

As it was, we allowed the ‘leaders’ who had us dead in their sights, with SAP written all over us, to panic the country into the MASSIVE PORK FEED that is the stimulus and every single ancillary piece of paper that has come out of Washington remotely associated with it. Keep in mind that many of these so called leaders are the very ones who knowingly fostered and promoted the very factors that created the situation to start with. read more »

How Obama Lies

cominius — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:17:39 -0500

An email today from Mybarrackobama.com asked me to write a letter to my local paper and post it on Facebook. The email said:

"An alarming new study shows that health care costs increased last year at the fastest rate in more than a half century. Health care spending rose to an estimated $2.5 trillion in 2009, or $8,047 per person -- and is now projected to nearly double by 2019. If we don't act, this growing burden will mean more lost jobs, more families pushed into bankruptcy, and more crushing debt for our nation. The conclusion is clear: This isn't a problem we can kick down the road for another decade -- or even another year. We need to pass health reform now."

Readers will note an initial lie (act of omission) that although this was an html email there was no link provided to that "alarming new study." Don't want you folks being influenced by facts or informed about the source of the 'study'. read more »

Raising the bar for Nullification

Drew McKissick — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 15:29:02 -0500

Around the country, twenty two states are currently considering a bill known as the “Firearms Freedom Act.” This bill declares that guns, accessories, and ammunition made within a state, sold within that state and kept in that state are not subject to federal laws or regulations under the “Interstate Commerce Clause” of the Constitution.

Montana and Tennessee passed a Firearms Freedom Act into law in 2009, and a number of states are moving that direction in the 2010 legislative session. In South Carolina, where a Firearms Freedom Act was also introduced in 2009, some representatives have taken things a step further.

NULLIFYING GUN REGISTRATIONS

Introduced in the South Carolina General Assembly this week is House Bill 4509 (H4509), which if passed, would make law that “no public official of any jurisdiction may require registration of purchasers of firearms or ammunition within the boundaries of this State.”

No caveat for regulations under the commerce clause. No caveat for types of firearms either. This bill says NO to all gun registrations – period.

The principle behind such legislation is nullification, which has a long history in the American tradition.

In the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, Thomas Jefferson wrote in response to the hated Alien and Sedition Acts: read more »

Rasmussen poll: Republicans Still Trusted More on Most Key Issues

Drew McKissick — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:33:34 -0500

Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on nine out of 10 key issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports.

But the latest national survey finds that the two major political parties are much closer this month on the top issue of the economy. Forty-six percent (46%) of voters trust the GOP more on economic issues, while 42% trust Democrats more. Another 12% are undecided. Last month, Republicans held an 11-point edge on the issue and had a 12-point lead in November.

In fact, the latest results mark the highest level of trust in Democrats on economic issues since last May.

Among voters nationwide, 81% see the economy as a very important issue.

Among voters not affiliated with either party, Republicans lead 45% to 32% on economic issues over Democrats. Mainstream voters heavily favor the GOP on economic issues, 58% to 28%. Those in the Political Class trust Democrats more, 84% to 16%. read more »

9.7% – What’s Wrong With That Figure?

Skip MacLure — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 05:01:36 -0500

Like every thing else about this Obama Presidency and administration, nothing is straight forward. It’s always a conjuration of smoke and mirrors. It’s just like Rush Limbaugh used to say about the Clinton administration, “These people get out of bed in the morning saying to themselves, ‘HOW CAN WE FOOL THEM TODAY?’ “

Fact is, it’s getting a lot harder to do. The leftists can no longer depend on calling up the same old reliable chimera time after time to bend issues and opinion to their will. Some of their favorite issues just aren’t playing like they used to and in a strange case of role reversal they just don’t seem to grasp what’s happened to them.

'Seasonally Adjusted' Unemployment Variance.

The unemployment figures are a good example. After shouting to the heavens that if we passed his 787 BILLION DOLLAR stimulus, unemployment rates would not go above 8%. Well, billions and billions of absolutely wasted dollars later we have 10.1% unemployment, which has magically gone down to 9.7% despite the government’s own ‘adjusted’ figures for last year, showing an increase of unemployment from about 7.5 million jobs lost during this recession to EIGHT POINT FOUR MILLION. Jobs lost in December were revised from 85,000 to ONE HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND. read more »

Cortex Loses Its Courage.

Skip MacLure — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 12:55:44 -0500

One of the many sites on which this column is posted is/was Political Cortex. In the beginning we were on half a dozen or so sites and Political Cortex was one of them. It really sort of surprised me given the decidedly left-leaning bent of most of the articles and comments on their site. Wonderful I thought. A leftie site that is fair enough to accept other points of view and said as much to Dee, who at that time was my helper, as I’m absolutely thick when it comes to IT stuff. The IT staff at work see me coming and they run shrieking from the building.

Since then, Dee’s roll has expanded to encompass everything that makes this site successful. It’s a lot of hard work and she does it very well and with unfailing good cheer and humor. I used to bookmark the sites we are on until they filled the page and obscured the screen. I’m not sure even now exactly how many we are on because we’re being picked up by news outlets and blog sites around the globe.

I have YOU, the reader and lovers of freedom everywhere, to thank for that and am grateful and humbled by it every day. The United States has always represented a beacon of freedom for all peoples and I believe there is a yearning for freedom that exists in the heart of every human being no matter how severely repressed or oppressed they may be.

Today I got a note from Dee that our column for Wednesday 2/3/10 had disappeared from Political Cortex along with every single archived article of ours on the site going back to September 25, 2009. Inquiries to Political Cortex administration by Dee were met by silence… sort of like calling your Democrat member of Congress. A little tongue in cheek there, but I couldn’t resist. read more »

The President’s Permanent Political Slush Fund

Drew McKissick — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:27:27 -0500

After suffering major electoral and legislative defeats last month, President Barack Obama took to the campaign trail in Nashua, New Hampshire, pitching his administration’s latest new plan to lower our nation’s double digit unemployment rate. This time, the President hopes to do for small businesses what Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did for home mortgages. Specifically, he wants to create a new $30 billion “Small Business Lending Fund” which will loan money to banks with assets under $10 billion at favorable new rates, as long as they comply with a slew of new regulations designed to incentivize them to loan that money to small businesses. Never mind that a recent poll of small business owners by the National Federation of Independent Businesses ranked “Finance and Interest Rates” as the second to last most important problem facing their business.

And just where does the President plan to get this new $30 billion? The President explained yesterday: “This proposal takes the money that was repaid by Wall Street banks to provide capital for community banks on Main Street.” In other words, TARP – the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program first signed into law by President George Bush, and then used by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to force many financial firms into taking taxpayer money they never wanted in the first place. But if Wall Street banks are paying-back their TARP funds, then how can President Obama say the following when justifying his Financial Crisis Responsibility Fee:

Clarence Thomas on Why He Skips the State of the Union

Drew McKissick — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:07:05 -0500

One final contribution to the post-mortem on the State of the Union address.

In a question-and-answer session at Stetson University College of Law in Florida this week, Justice Clarence Thomas defended the court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. This was, of course, the decision that inspired President Obama to criticize the ruling by addressing the justices directly in the audience.

Thomas offered several reasons for the court's decision, which I won't repeat here; but what intrigued me was his parenthetical explanation for his absence from the State of the Union address. "I don't go because it has become so partisan," he said, "and it's very uncomfortable for a judge to sit there. There's a lot that you don't hear on TV: The catcalls, the whooping and hollering and under-the-breath comments. One of the consequences is now the court becomes part of the conversation, if you want to call it that, in the speeches. It's just an example of why I don't go."

Congressional Quail Break For Cover – Conservative Bird Hunt.

Skip MacLure — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:36:05 -0500

IT’S MAGIC! Congressional leftists are finding all sorts of mainstream centrist and even (gasp) right of center issues to take up… as they scatter in all directions trying to distance themselves from a President and a Democratic party leadership who they see as leading them down a rocky road to destruction.

This magic transformation has come about, as predicted by yours truly, by the turn of the new year and the sudden recognition by some REALLY arrogant Democratic Congress critters who have had a really rude awakening, something else I predicted was on the way. Before anyone gets the idea that I’m making claims towards prescience, I’m not and it wasn’t really all that hard. Following the mood of the American people through news research you can get a pretty good idea of how things may go. Once the Virginia and New Jersey races were improbably won by Republicans in predominantly Democratically dominated areas the change in the temper of the electorate started to make itself known loud and clear. Then came Massachusetts and the Democrats were rocked to their core.

Tea Partiers Make Themselves Heard.

The Democrat leadership began to lose their iron grip on the membership, with Senators and Representatives being incessantly hammered by their constituents and any number of the millions of patriots who have been making themselves heard in no uncertain terms. The Obama, Reid and Pelosi brand of hope and change is not what we want and as AMERICANS we really resent having something crammed down our throats or sneaked behind our backs. We pushed back. We stopped the Obama juggernaut in its tracks, super majority not withstanding. We stopped the illegal and unconstitutional theft of our health care, though that battle isn’t over yet. There are other battles yet to fight, but as Conservative challenges have sprung up all over the nation the momentum has begun to change. read more »

Incinerating a Hot Potato

scottspiegel — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:53:25 -0500

If deficit spending is the way out of an economic downturn, as leftist economists like Paul Krugman keep telling us, then one way to characterize President Obama’s approach to reviving the ailing economy is “killing it with kindness.”

Another is “tough love”—not the kind where you force hard choices and self-discipline, but the kind where you shoot the poor beast to put it out of its misery.

James Clyburn, House Majority Whip, recently crystallized the Democrats’ position on fiscal responsibility when he announced, “We’re not going to save our way out of this recession. We’ve got to spend our way out of this recession, and I think most economists know that.”

Here are some fun facts about Obama’s proposed federal budgets over the next decade:

• The projected deficit for Obama’s 2010 budget is $1.6 trillion, which is 10% larger than the 2009 deficit, which was three times as big as the record 2008 deficit under President Bush.

• The projected 2010 deficit is 10 times as large as the deficit for Bush’s 2007 budget, the latter of which included funding for the troop surge that won the war in Iraq. Nearly matching our accomplishment in Iraq, the White House Travel Office has approved a trip for Obama to go to Cambridge, Massachusetts in November to get a Democratic dogcatcher elected in Harvard Square.

• The projected 2010 deficit will render our national debt 13% bigger on the last day of this year than it is today. Projected 2010-11 deficits will cause the debt to swell 23% bigger than it is now. By 2020, the debt will be twice as big as it is today. read more »