From the good folks at Reason.com…
Socialism
Tea Party, Don’t Let Your Opposition Define You
-By Frank Salvato
With the mid-term elections now literally in the history books, the powers that be on both the Left side of the aisle and the Right, inside the beltway and out, have finally come to understand the power and appeal of the citizen movement commonly referred to as the Tea Party Movement. But, along with this recognition of power and appeal comes the wont of these groups to rationalize away the catalyst and the chemistry that gave birth to the movement. If the Tea Party Movement is to keep its potency it must avoid several pitfalls common to well-intentioned movements. Chief among these pitfalls is allowing your opposition to define who you are; or what we are.
Make no mistake, the establishment political apparatus does not – repeat, does not – celebrate the Tea Party Movement. In fact, they are extremely threatened, both on the Left and the Right, by this pure grassroots movement; this phoenix that has ascended from the ashes of a grotesque governmental system centered on political opportunism and self-preservation. They are threatened – not they feel threatened, but they are threatened – because their status quo is threatened; because the very apparatus they have assembled is about to be junked. And just like a feral cat that has been cornered, they are willing to do and say anything to protect their status quo.
Tea Party, Don’t Let Your Opposition Define You”
Obama’s Socialist-Admiring Medicaid/Medicare Chief Gets Hearing
-By Warner Todd Huston
Donald Berwick, Obama’s nominee to head up the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, made himself infamous earlier this year when video came to light showing him telling a British audience how much he admired their socialist healthcare system because it “redistributes” the Brit’s wealth.
Berwick went all warm and fuzzy over the socialist features of the British National Health Service saying,“Any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized, and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is by definition redistributional.” The Heartland Institute had an extensive report on Berwick’s British address back when the video first surfaced.
Recently Senator Jim Bunning (R, KY) challenged Berwick, who accepted a recess appointment after his initial nomination never came to a vote in the Senate. Republicans are concerned that a man so taken by socialist policies would be in a position to attempt to implement similar left-wing policies here.
Berwick was brought before the Senate on Wednesday and The Heartland Institute covered the hearing in a live blog. It makes for interesting reading.
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Obama’s Socialist-Admiring Medicaid/Medicare Chief Gets Hearing”
What We Need to Say, And Say, And Say
-By Warner Todd Huston
If leftists are good at one thing it is staying on message. Since 2006 when Nancy Pelosi was raised to the dizzying heights of Speaker of the House of Representatives the left has been chanting over and over that the voters wanted the country to take a hard left turn. This month’s election, however, proved that the left’s hoary claim is wrong. And we need to say so, over and over.
It isn’t that the leftists were wholly wrong in their claim that the country wanted to go left in the previous two national elections. Clearly the voters lost faith in the Republicans and just as clearly they wanted to give Democrats the opportunity of an iron clad majority to make some changes. It’s just that the left was very wrong in just how far left the voters wanted to veer — as this election proved.
One thing is sure. Democrats and their extremely left-wing money men — George Soros, the Rathkes, the MoveOnners, etc. — pushed the meme that the country wanted a quasi socialist, Euro-esque styled American government for all it was worth. They moved forward based on the assumption that the country thoroughly rejected the right and they made a mad dash for every hard left policy idea they could think of.
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What We Need to Say, And Say, And Say”
The Business Cycle: Krugman vs. Austrian Economic Theory
-By Thomas E. Brewton
The Keynesian black-box doesn’t work, because the reality of independent actions by millions of individuals is ignored in order to achieve a simplistic representation of the economy in computer models.
Keynesian economics, as expounded by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, is essentially a black box theory. Stand on the outside of the economic box and dump into it endless baskets of inflationary fiat money, and things supposedly just happen automatically inside the black box to produce permanent prosperity and near zero unemployment.
Read David Gordon’s commentary on THE HANGOVER THEORY by Paul Krugman.
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The Business Cycle: Krugman vs. Austrian Economic Theory”
The Next Missions…If the Tea Party Will Accept Them
-By Frank Salvato
The overwhelming, message-sending, victory that Republican candidates scored in the 2010 mid-term elections was nothing less than historic. With six pick-ups in the US Senate, 61* pick-ups in the US House and 7* pick-ups in governorships – not to mention myriad pick-ups in state, county and municipal elections across the country – a sea change took place unlike any seen since 1938 when the Democrats lost 72 seats.
To be certain – and without any doubt – the motivating factor, the catalyst for this march away from Progressivism was the advent of the Tea Party Movement. Loyal to the founding tenets of limited government, limited taxation, a strong national defense, sovereignty, self-reliance, fiscal responsibility and a jealous adherence to the US Constitution and the whole of the Charters of Freedom (which, by the way constituted the original platform of the Republican Party circa 1856), the Tea Party exploded onto the scene empowering a new breed of citizen legislator, citizen legislators who were not only ushered into office almost everywhere they existed on a ballot, but who have shaken the very foundation of the good-old-boy, inside-the-beltway status quo in both political parties.
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The Next Missions…If the Tea Party Will Accept Them”
ACORN’s Get-Out-The-Vote Operative Under State Felony Charges
-By Warner Todd Huston
Contrary to popular perception, the criminal group ACORN (Association for Community Organizations for Reform Now) is not quite a’moulderin’ in the grave, folks. Many might recall that Congress turned off the spigot of federal funds flowing into the coffers of the organization responsible for federal election law crimes all across the country. Many might all recall that ACORN itself eventually said it would shutter its operations.
But even with all that recent history, ACORN’s Project Vote is still in operation and one of its main directors is a woman under a cloud of criminal charges in the state of Nevada.
Project Vote is supposed to be separate from ACORN, at least on paper. But as Matthew Vadum writes, “Although legally separate entities, in practice the two are the same, as the congressional testimony of former ACORN/Project Vote employee Anita MonCrief can attest. They share office space, employees, and budgets. Project Vote continues to operate out of ACORN’s Washington, D.C., headquarters.”
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ACORN’s Get-Out-The-Vote Operative Under State Felony Charges”
As The Chinese Laugh at America, the Failed Nation…
And now we sit in on a lecture by a Chinese Professor explaining why the United States of America has fallen…
Truly chilling.
Video sponsored by Citizens Against Government Waste.
John Conyers Speaking at Democratic Socialists of America Meeting
-By Warner Todd Huston
Should Democrats “pal around” with socialists? Whether it is a good idea or not here we have a sitting congressman actually going to a group of socialists and addressing them at one of their meetings. It wasn’t that many years ago that such a meeting would ring the death knell for a politician’s career.
Today, though, it goes entirely without note.
On October 5, 2010, Congressman John Conyers went personally to speak before a meeting in Michigan’s of members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA).
The socialist that introduced Conyers reminded the gathered comrades that Conyers was a major sponsor of the single payer healthcare system. Amazingly Conyers noted that he was “honored” to be introduced by the socialist, too, and paid all due deference to those assembled.
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John Conyers Speaking at Democratic Socialists of America Meeting”
Representative Shakowski Again Refusing to Answer Simple Questions
-By Warner Todd Huston
Rep. Jan Schakowski has refused over and over to answer the simple question about just where in the Constitution Obamacare’s insurance mandates appear. What part of our nation’s governing document justifies Congress forcing Americans to buy something? Shakowski consistently refuses to answer this seminal question.
John Ruberry of Marathon Pundit once again asked these questions of Rep. Shakowski and, once again, she refused to answer.
Notice how these were not screamed questions, not raucous, right-wing attack dogs here? These videographers comported themselves professionally, did not name call, and asked their questions in a respectful tone. Yet Rep. Shakowski still refused to answer.
It’s time to get rid of this odious, leftist, monstrosity. Vote Joel Pollak in the 9th District!
http://www.pollakforcongress.com/
Go over to Ruberry’s post and see more of the great points he brings up about this most left wing of all members of the House of Representatives.
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Representative Shakowski Again Refusing to Answer Simple Questions”
Rep. Jan Schakowsky: The Most Extreme Left-Winger in Congress
According to GovTrack.us, a non-partisan legislative tracking service, Illinois Representative Jan Schakowsky is the most left-wing member of either of the two houses of Congress, based on the bills she co-sponsors. Similarly, the non-partisan National Journal, which measures members of Congress by their voting record, name Schakowsky as the most liberal Democrat in the House of Representatives.
Imagine what this is saying? Jan Shakowsky is even further left than avowed socialist Bernie Sanders who is listed as an “independent” in the Senate. Shakowsky is even further left than the nation’s token socialist!
See Jan Shakowsky To The Extreme to see more of Shakowsky’s un-American extremism at: http://extremejan.com/.
Video: What We Tea Party Conservatives Believe
Bill Whittle has a great, great video here helping to explain our conservative views in an intelligent, even soft-spoken, style. This is part one of two, the second to come soon.
Progressive ideas have always failed and our ideas are successful every time they are tried.
Bill Whittle is the host of PJTVs Afterburner.
Mid-term elections in Venezuela: Did revolution make it on the ballot?
Paul A. Ibbetson
As reported by the Christian Science Monitor, Venezuela’s communist dictator Hugo Chavez faces his biggest challenge to retain his political voting monopoly since ascending to power almost twelve years ago. Citizens of Venezuela are building in dissatisfaction with the country’s growing crime rate and poor economy. As Steven Bodzin of the Monitor reports, the token opposition parties that currently exist under the totalitarian reign of Hugo Chavez will attempt to use any mid-term election successes as a springboard to actually defeating the president in 2012. Good luck.
While it seems cold to highlight the futility of using the electoral process to improve the lot of individuals anywhere within a communist dictatorship, truth is still the best medicine. What is the truth in the face of a growing population of Venezuelan people who want more money, less crime and in the end, more freedom to make it happen? The truth is that it will never transpire under a communistic regime run by a dictator like Hugo Chavez.
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Mid-term elections in Venezuela: Did revolution make it on the ballot?”
Constructing the Buzzword ‘Extreme’: Alinsky Rules 11 & 13
-By Frank Salvato
If you are paying attention to the politics surrounding the midterm elections – and, for the good of the country, you should be – then you have, no doubt, heard almost everyone from the Left side of the aisle using the word “extreme” where the Tea Party is concerned. To a lesser extent they use it to describe the Conservative movement as a whole but without doubt, it is the descriptor of choice when anyone of the Liberal or Progressive persuasion talks about the Tea Party. This tactic comes straight from the Progressive playbook.
I have been saying since before Barack Obama was elected president that if you want to understand the tactics being used by the Progressive Left you have to read two books: Boss by Mike Royko and Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky.
The first, Boss, examines the genesis of the Chicago Machine – Mayor Richard J. “The King Maker” Daley’s Chicago Democrat Machine – and Chicago style politics. It is important because it not only sheds light on how “The Machine” came to be, but how it operates. Barack Obama, Dick Durbin, Rahm Emanuel, Luis Gutierrez and Jan Schakowsky, to name but a few, are all products of “The Machine.” “The Machine” has been responsible for the election of every Democrat president since John F. Kennedy.
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Constructing the Buzzword ‘Extreme’: Alinsky Rules 11 & 13″
The Obama Nag, Body Armor Disparities & Dobsonian Maoists: Headline Potpourri #15
-By Frederick Meekins
MSNBC denounced the Tea Party as overwhelmingly White. Will the network denounce illegal aliens as overwhelmingly Hispanic?
Cops should have probably shot the owner along with or rather instead of the dog at a DC street festival. As with people that drag newborns out into extreme cold or heat, often those that have to drag their dogs to mass gatherings unless they are seeing-eye type dogs merely want attention for themselves and don’t really care about their animals.
First Nag Michelle Obama believes restaurants should serve more apples and less butter. And that is from someone that’s probably barely cooked a meal in her entire adult life. Her mother lives with here and she has had a chef on her staff back when she was a nobody just like the rest of us. Frankly, if one goes out to eat, one is going out for the slop. One can eat healthy at home.
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The Obama Nag, Body Armor Disparities & Dobsonian Maoists: Headline Potpourri #15″
Daily Show Humiliates Unions that Hire Non-Union Picketers
-By Warner Todd Huston
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) is attacking Walmart (and has been for years) and how are they doing it? By picketing, of course. Yes, they send their members down to Walmart to protest the evil, evil Walmart that refuses to hire union folks and…what? Wait.
The union doesn’t send their members to protest?
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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Ah, the Daily Show finally realized that this has been going on for a long time. Like every left-wing show they only attack their own friends when it is a last resort.
But, hey, at least Jon Stewart FINALLY got around to noticing that the unions are hypocrites, eh? So, he’s got that going for him… which is nice. Heck we had it here months ago.
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Daily Show Humiliates Unions that Hire Non-Union Picketers”
Leftwits Try to Top Beck With October Rally in D.C.
-By Warner Todd Huston
The leftists are trying to emulate both Glenn Beck and the Tea Party movement by having their own march on D.C. and it is coming in but a few days. They are claiming that “hundreds of thousands” of their extreme leftist compatriots will gather at the Lincoln Memorial on October 2 for a left-wing bacchanalia at our nation’s capitol.
They are calling it “One Nation Working Together,” and it is yet one more left-wing, extremist attempt to employ Orwellian language to name an event because, Lord knows, they don’t include the millions of conservative Americans in that “one nation” title!
Here is what they are saying of their poor attempt to emulate Beck:
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Leftwits Try to Top Beck With October Rally in D.C.”
Newt Gingrich: Winning in ’10 Means Utilizing the Power of 10
-By Warner Todd Huston
Joe Biden has been telling everyone that will listen to him that the summer of 2010 was “recovery summer.” In a way he was right, but only if we take up the banner and drive the socialists out of office in November. If we can get as many good conservatives and Republicans in office in November we truly will start the recovery that Joe was all fired up about but couldn’t implement.
Newt Gingrich has taken up the charge and launched an effort to organize ten million voters to support candidates who stand for creating jobs and sensible economic policies.
Newt reminds us of the economic disaster that has been the Obama “recovery”:
- $1 Trillion Obamacare
- $863 Billion “Stimulus”
- $2.4 Trillion Additional Federal Debt
- Jobs Killing Moratoriums on Offshore Oil Drilling
“In order to keep America the most prosperous nation on Earth,” Newt says, “we must replace those who would mortgage America’s future through the Democrats big-spending, job-killing agenda with principled, pro-job candidates. America only works when Americans are working. It’s that simple.”
He is exactly right, of course.
But here is the annoying part. The life’s blood of politics is money and the left is swimming in it. Multi-millionaires like George Soros and his ilk not to mention unions control a flow millions of dollars into the pockets of Democrats all across the nation. On the other hand fiscally responsible Republicans and conservatives have only the people to fund them.
As annoying as it is, conservative candidates need money if they are going to beat the rich candidates on the left. That is why Newt Gingrich is launching his effort to raise money for good candidates.
Newt’s site is www.TenMillionVoters.com. Go take a look and donate if you feel disposed. But baring that, pick your own candidates and donate. Which ever you do, we need to heed Newt’s warning that without support our candidates cannot win.
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Newt Gingrich: Winning in ’10 Means Utilizing the Power of 10″
Obama’s Favors to Unions
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Washington Examiner asks a few substantive questions about unions this Labor Day weekend. Why do they seem to have such an outsized power when their dues paying members are fewer than ever, when they work in fewer industries than ever, and when they have such money troubles?
Ah, but the answer is what we all know. They have a president in Washington that’s bought and paid for.
Here are just some of the favors that Obama has given to his patrons in Big Labor as the Examiner notes:
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Obama’s Favors to Unions”
Communism – The Redistribution of Income – Follow The Money
-By Gary Karl
Article 1 – Unions
There is a clear and present danger in the White House and Congress for the last few years and we are quickly converting to a communist society. As long as I have my first amendment rights and even after that, if it means jail time for defending my constitutional rights as a 1st Amendment scholar, guardian of the constitution and free market, I will continue to write against communism in all of its forms and fight it dying until my last breath.
Even Congressman Michelle Bachmann from MN is quoted in saying that we are officially socialist with 51% of the economy under Federal Government control. General Motors (now jokingly known as Government Motors) had fired its CEO at the request of the Obama Administration. That’s scary
Even Thomas Jefferson, the founding father of the Democratic Party said “When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty”. These guys and gals in the White House and Congress are not Democrats, but Communists.
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Communism – The Redistribution of Income – Follow The Money”
Sci Fi Giant Ray Bradbury Slams Obama’s Era of Big Government
-By Warner Todd Huston
The L.A. Times has a heartwarming story of literary giant Ray Bradbury who at 90 is not afraid to tell everyone exactly what he thinks. A gathering of admirers got an earful of Bradburyisms on the verge of his Aug 22 90th birthday celebration in Los Angeles. Bradbury railed against the “too many machines” that we surround ourselves with, lamented that we hadn’t colonized the moon by now, and said that the U.S. is in need of a revolution because “there is too much government today.”
You have to hand it to this wizened sage. He hit the nail on the head with every statement. Bradbury is so right to point out that we are losing our American soul and character.
Here are his statements as reported by the Times:
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Sci Fi Giant Ray Bradbury Slams Obama’s Era of Big Government”
The Tax Left-Wing Professors Act
-By Warner Todd Huston
James Lileks of the Minneapolis Star Tribune recently had a brilliant idea. Let’s tax tenured professors at a higher rate than everyone else. And how could they complain? After all, these left-wing, communist sympathizers are always saying everyone should pay more taxes. How could they complain about being called to “pay their fair share”?
Lileks came up with this idea on a recent Ricohet podcast with Jonah Goldberg and Hollywooder Rob Long.
His brilliant proposal should be loved by everyone; both those that hate our anti-American professoriate, and those professors that hate America because Americans won’t pay enough taxes for social programs.
And here is that proposal:
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The Tax Left-Wing Professors Act”
Congress’ Spending FAIL Map
-By Warner Todd Huston
Want to know a few of the outrageous wastes of the taxpayer’s money as funded by Obama’s so-called stimulus that happened in your state?
Check out the Bankrupting America Spending FAIL map to see if your state got and wasted some of this “free” cash.
Not every state is yet represented on the map, but you can click around and see some of the vast waste of money across the country that the Obama stimulus went to fund.
The map is sponsored by BankruptingAmerica.org.
And here is their hilarious video showing the sort of waste we are getting out of the “stimulus.”
AFL-CIO Chief Pleading for Union Support of Dems in Nov.
-By Warner Todd Huston
The AFL-CIO plans to spend another $50 million coming to the aid of Democrats during this campaign season for the 2010 midterms. But all is not well in uniondom as many unions are very, very unhappy with various and sundry Democrat candidates across the country.
Still, AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka has issued a call to arms for the Democrats anyway. “We know you’re angry,” Trumka said to his membership. “We know you’re frustrated. We know we haven’t achieved everything that we worked for. But we’ve made progress, and we have to keep it going.”
Unions are a smaller political constituency than ever before, however, with only about 12% of America’s workforce being unionized. Despite the hundreds of millions that unions gave Democrats in the 2008 election cycle, their diminished numbers may have made some small dent in the once Pavlovian response that Democrat politicians had to the union beck-and-call. Despite the money, the votes are not there like they once were.
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AFL-CIO Chief Pleading for Union Support of Dems in Nov.”
National Education Association Orders Members to Read Communist Guide Book
-By Warner Todd Huston
The National Education Association (NEA) is the premier teachers union group in the country. As such it is instructive to learn the sort of reading material that the biggest of all teachers unions tells its own members to study so that they can more adequately represent teachers in America today.
A look at the NEA website reveals a shocking recommendation to its members. The union that represents the teachers that we send our children to every school day suggests that its members read the communist-like manifesto of famed left-wing agitator Saul Alinsky.
That’s right, the NEA wants its members, America’s teachers, to become programmed by the ideas and policy prescriptions in a communist manifesto.
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National Education Association Orders Members to Read Communist Guide Book”
Howard Zinn, Left’s Favorite Historian Now Proven Member of US Communist Party
-By Warner Todd Huston
Howard Zinn (1922 to 2010) is the left’s favorite contemporary historian. As an historian he is a child of the Beardian revolution yet he has for decades been able to straddle that line between legitimate historical observer and anti-American leftist. America’s intellectual society, in both the social movement and universities, have looked to him as a paragon of American virtue. He’s always been held up as just the right mixture of American leftism coupled with true scholarship.
But those of us on the right that have paid attention understand that he is not American in outlook and never was. Until now, though, it’s been hard to pin down his final loyalties. Now, with the revelations made due to a recent FOIA request, Zinn’s FBI files reveal the truth that Zinn fought his whole life to hide from the public. Howard Zinn was a card carrying member of the Soviet funded Communist Party USA (CPUSA).
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Howard Zinn, Left’s Favorite Historian Now Proven Member of US Communist Party”
Are We Headed Toward Another Revolution?
-By Warner Todd Huston
We see this sort of thing off and on as political eras wax and wane. The question of whether or not we are only just behind a new revolution starting up in the United States has been repeatedly asked almost since the instant the first one (or even the second one — the Civil War) came to a close.
But are we? Are we about to be plunged into a second revolution of some sort or another? And who will be on what side of this revolution? Angelo Codevilla, professor emeritus of international relations at Boston University, asks this question in the recent issue of the American Spectator and I must say he presents compelling reasons why we might be headed for another revolution.
It’s all about “America’s Ruling Class,” says Codevilla. These elites have lost touch with America and are now solely interested in whats good for the ruling class and not whats good for America and it people.
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Are We Headed Toward Another Revolution?”
Obama Parody Brilliance: Same as it Ever Was… After the Oils Gone
This is some brilliant parody of the Talking Heads song “Same As It Ever Was.” This one lampoons Obama’s sad reaction to the Gulf oil spill.
Smashing work, from The PolitiZoid Channel.
They also gave us this one…
Love it.
(H/T HotAir.com and alhouse.blogspot.com)
I Must Condemn Iowa Billboard Comparing Obama to Lenin and Hitler
-By Warner Todd Huston
Recently an Iowa Tea Party group sponsored a billboard in Mason City, Iowa that grouped President Obama with Communist Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin and monstrous WWII maniac Adolph Hitler.
The billboard showed the three leaders each with the word “change” under them and with a message that read, “radical leaders prey on the fearful and naive.”
Clearly the billboard was saying that Barack Hussein Obama was a “radical leader” in the same vein as Lenin — whose Russian Revolution spawned nearly a century of oppression, gulags and wars — and Adolph Hitler — whose unhinged hatred for Jews sparked genocide and WWII.
I must admit I got a smirk out of the whole episode. But even as I got that nervous giggle out of my system, I simply cannot countenance the message of this sign and must wholeheartedly condemn it.
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I Must Condemn Iowa Billboard Comparing Obama to Lenin and Hitler”
Is The U.S. Too Big to Fail? Greece Wasn’t…
SIGN THE PETITION NOW!!! www.crnc.org/petition
The College Republican National Committee is thrilled to announce the “Don’t Put It On Our Tab” debt-awareness initiative! The national debt poses a lethal threat to our economic future, and we’re not about to let the Democrats think we are ignorant to that fact. Help the CRNC stand up and speak out for our generation by signing the petition today!
Did you know that the a child born into this world today owes over $117,000 to the DEBT alone? With unemployment rising, ‘entitlement’ programs collapsing, and debt skyrocketing how are we ever going to pay that back? The answer is through conservative reform. Join our facebook group ( http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dont-Pu… ) to stay informed 24/7 about the debt, what we are doing to combat it, and to examine potential solutions to it!