WE NEED A PRESIDENT WHO PRACTICES THE FREEDOM HE PREACHES ABOUT
America's most quoted philosopher (and baseball player) Yogi Berra once said, "You can see a lot just by looking" -- simple wisdom that President Barack Hussein Obama is not likely to heed. In order to see, you have to want to look at the truth that's actually out there. With reality so different from how our president wishes to portray it, he has little interest in seeing things as they really are. The president delivered a "Kumbaya" appeal this past week (9/25) to the current session of the United Nations General Assembly. In his speech, Obama quoted South African leader Nelson Mandela, saying, "To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." This from an American president who is now forcing American employers to buy condoms and abortion pills for their employees, even if it is against that employer's religious convictions. Or from a nation where poor children are forced to attend public schools where teaching traditional, religious values that they desperately need are prohibited. Or where the people of the state of California voted to define marriage as between a man and a woman, only to have this referendum overturned by a federal court.
WHY ARE JOURNALISTS VOTING TO LOSE THEIR JOBS?
Many in the mainstream media appear to be in the bag for the re-election of President Obama. They also appear to not have thought through the consequences of their wishes, both to the nation and their own careers. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and many leading economic forecasters have predicted that we are likely to go into another recession by the first quarter of 2013 if the administration and Congress allow the economy to go off the "fiscal cliff" at the end of this year. Unfortunately, it now seems to be almost a certainty that this will happen if President Obama is re-elected. Here is why:
THE WORLD’S CRAZIEST COUNTRY
Beijing. I've just come back from two weeks in a hermetically sealed land. No internet, no cell phones, no contact with the outside world. It is George Orwell's 1984 made real, where its inhabitants truly, deeply, passionately love and worship Big Brother. These people were born on an isolated political island cut off from the world, and have lived all their lives surrounded by a sea of state-worship propaganda. The State makes every effort to prevent them from learning anything about their country or the world it doesn't want them to. The word that summarizes being here is suffocation. You are constantly, ubiquitously, unrelentingly suffocated with the deification of the rulers. The films on television or in the theatres are propaganda productions without exception, with unending smiling, laughing, happy faces, everyone so joyously doing whatever their work is. There is never, ever, the slightest hint of criticism, cynicism, or irony. All forms of art are suffocatingly saccharine, all the pictures, paintings, songs and singing are beautiful, smiling, and sugary sweet. This is the Land Without Irony, where Doubt is never permitted. You'd think that this is the world's craziest country. But after returning from my second venture into it - I was here two years ago as well - I am convinced that it isn't. I'm now headed for one even crazier - much crazier, in fact. Where have I been and where am I going?
HALF-FULL REPORT 09/28/12
It may be a scandal too big for the news media to cover up. * * * * The man chiefly responsible for the video President Obama blames for Middle East violence has been arrested on a parole violation. The video may have been an Islamist provocation. * * * * Zero is farting away the victory in Iraq, says the chief military correspondent of the New York Times. * * * * The president had no time to meet with foreign leaders at the UN, but made time for an appearance on "The View." If it seems as if Zero is just mailing it in these days, that may be exactly what the slacker-in-chief is doing. * * * * Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion last year to staff, house, transport and entertain President Obama and his family last year. Britain's royal family cost British taxpayers just $57.8 million. * * * * An old column by the former father in law of de facto White House chief of staff Valerie Jarrett explains why Zero bows to Saudi princes. * * * * Even Howard Dean conceded Dingy Harry Reid has a credibility problem after Mitt Romney disclosed how much tax he's paid.
HIDING THE TRUTH
U.S. SHOULD AX DESTRUCTIVE TAX
Corporate levy trashing returns It's difficult to say definitively which tax is the most destructive. The corporate income tax is a leading candidate for causing higher prices to consumers, lower wages to workers and lower returns to investors. It misallocates capital, resulting in higher levels of unemployment and lower levels of economic growth and opportunity, and it taxes income that has already been taxed as least once before. The 2012 annual rankings of "Corporate Tax Competitiveness" was published in Canada by University of Calgary and in the United States by the Cato Institute. In the study, authors Duanjie Chen and Jack Mintz of the school of public policy at the University of Calgary present new estimates of effective tax rates on corporate investment for 90 countries. "These tax rates take into account statutory rates plus tax-base items that affect taxes paid on new investment, such as deductions for capital depreciation, inventory costs, and interest expenses." The United States is in the "uncompetitive position of having the highest statutory tax rate in the world, with a combined federal-state tax rate of about 40 percent." Only the economic basket cases of Argentina, Chad and Uzbekistan have slightly higher effective marginal tax rates. The United States...
THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN IS OVER
The war in Afghanistan effectively ended last week. We lost. The last of the surge troops President Barack Obama sent to Afghanistan were quietly withdrawn. They did not leave in triumph: Taliban guerrillas dressed in U.S. Army uniforms attacked Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan, Sept. 14, destroying 8 Marine Harrier jump jets. It was our greatest loss of aircraft since the Vietnam war. Two British and four American soldiers were killed by Afghan policemen the following Saturday and Sunday. After these attacks, NATO suspended most joint operations with Afghan security forces. “We’re to the point now where we can’t trust these people,” a senior military official told NBC’s Pentagon correspondent.
HALF-FULL REPORT 09/21/12
THE CAMPAIGN THAT WILL NOT DIE
AN OUT-OF-COUNTRY EXPERIENCE
I'm in a place so bizarre that one of the folks I'm with describes being here as an out-of-body experience. The internet is not allowed for anyone in the country (save for the ruling elite), and we are not allowed to have cell phones - so we are simply cut off from the rest of the world. Yesterday (9/20), I ran into a British guy who had just arrived. Any news about the US? I asked. "This tremendous scandal of Romney's has exploded," he replied. I sighed. He explained: "He was caught on a secret video telling a group in Florida that 47% of voters think they are ‘victims' who the government has to take care of, so they will vote for Obama no matter what." I was befuddled. "Why is that a scandal? That's the plain truth," I stammered. He shook his head. "Your press doesn't think so. All your papers and television are treating his words as so outrageous that his campaign may be dead, that Obama's reelection is now assured." With that, I realized that my own country is on its way to becoming as crazy as the one I'm in. Call it an out-of-country experience. So I wrote this up, put it on a thumb drive, am giving it to a friend who's leaving today and will email it to Miko for posting on TTP. Hope this works, as I'll be here until the end of the month and you won't hear from me again until then.