No SOTU--Who owns the Democratic Party?

Who owns the Democratic Party?

An extraordinary electoral defeat last November HAS LEFT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY ON LIFE SUPPORT -- NOT YET DEAD, BUT STILL REELING FROM THE OVERWHELMING "SHELLACKING" IT ABSORBED -- and facing structural challenges that few commentators have systematically analyzed.

With a net loss of 63 seats in the House and six seats in the Senate for the Democrats, A LOOK AT THE ELECTION MAP SHOWS THAT OUR COUNTRY IS ALMOST ENTIRELY RED, with blue sections mainly situated on the liberal east and west coasts, which is notably different than the pre-2010 map that had some blue in the South and Midwest.

On the state and local level, the Republicans picked up a historic 680 state legislative seats, and now control both chambers in 25 state legislatures. Overall, GOPers won 11 governor's races, including key races in states like Nevada, Virginia and Iowa, states that President Obama won in 2008 and that he will need to win re-election in 2012.

And, according to the 2010 census, DEMOCRATS ARE EXPECTED TO LOSE SIX CONGRESSIONAL SEATS in states that Obama won in 2008, and at least six Electoral College votes once congressional districts are redrawn, further diminishing his prospects in 2012, and providing the GOP with the same clout -- if not more -- than it commanded in 2001…..

…. While THE ELECTORATE MAY BE TRENDING TOWARD THE CENTER-RIGHT, POWER WITHIN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY LIES WITH THE MOST LIBERAL MEMBERS OF THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE, and especially with the special interests on the left, including public employee unions, environmentalist groups and trial lawyers, that have influenced the agenda of the Democratic Party and moved the party far to the left of mainstream America.

These special interests have used the power of the purse to co-opt the agenda of the Democratic Party vis-a-vis campaign contributions and independent expenditures…..

… DEMOCRATS MUST BREAK THE STRANGLEHOLD THAT TRIAL LAWYERS, PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS, AND SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS HAVE ON THE PARTY. If they can't do that, it will be very difficult to take the party off life support, and the 2012 election could very well be the final nail in the coffin for the Democratic Party.

http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/special-reports/2011/01/special-report-democrats-must-break-free-their-special-interest-stra#ixzz1C31kLvke


The mantra of the Democrats is that the Republicans are controlled by special interest groups. But this charge reminds one of pots and kettles. This is a series being run by the Washington Examiner. I will continue this over the next two days.



Do you wonder why the States are going broke?

ON TOP OF HIS $739,695 BASE SALARY, UCLA ADMINISTRATOR DAVID FEINBERG -- WHO SERVES AS BOTH ASSOCIATE VICE CHANCELLOR AND CEO OF THE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY'S HOSPITAL SYSTEM -- RECEIVED A $218,728 "AWARD" FROM THE UC REGENTS THIS MONTH FOR A JOB WELL DONE.

That brings his yearly earnings to about $1 million.

According to the SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, the REGENTS APPROVED FEINBERG'S BONUS, along with roughly $3 million more in "incentive pay and raises" for top UC medical officials, on January 21.

For instance, Paul Staton -- the chief financial officer of UCLA's hospital system -- RECEIVED BOTH A 10.5 PERCENT PAY RAISE (BRINGING HIS FUTURE SALARY TO $420,000 ANNUALLY) AS WELL AS A NEARLY $100,000 JANUARY BONUS.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/01/ucla_salaries_hospital_feinber.php


When civil servants are getting a million dollars a year in salary and bonuses, it is time for investigations and criminal prosecutions. California is a fiscal basket case and this is one of the reasons why.

History tells us" something that history doesn't tell us, say sociologists stumbling to protect Frances Fox Piven.

Here's the expression of "outrage" by the officers of the American Sociological Association:

SCHOLARS OF HER CALIBER, INTELLECTUALS OF HER STATURE, and especially those who tackle social conflicts and contradictions, mass movements and political action, SHOULD STIMULATE EQUAL LEVELS OF SERIOUS CHALLENGE AND CREATIVE DIALOGUE. Being called by Glenn Beck one of the “nine most dangerous people in the world,” and an “ENEMY OF THE CONSTITUTION” IS NOT A CREDIBLE CHALLENGE; IT IS PLAIN DEMAGOGUERY.

So vigorous debate about Piven's ideas is really important, but it better be the RIGHT KIND OF DEBATE by the RIGHT KIND OF PEOPLE and most certainly not that terrible, terrible man Glenn Beck. She's very lofty and serious, so, while she should be challenged, she must be challenged only by lofty and serious individuals, and of course, Glenn Beck is not one.

http://althouse.blogspot.com/2011/01/history-tells-us-something-that-history.html

Elitist, arrogant, and simply stupid is the only way to describe the American Sociological Association comments. I guess only a “gentleman” can call a “lady” an intellectual whore in their world.



Government run healthcare scandals in UK

Official figures show that, under Private Finance Initiative [PFI] schemes, British taxpayers are committed to pay £229 billion for new hospitals, schools and other projects with a capital value of just £56 billion. Several contracts are due to run for 60 years, documents released under freedom of information requests show, meaning taxpayers will be paying for the projects for generations to come.

Private contractors who agreed PFI deals with the Government are set to make billions of pounds in profit, with some due to see returns of up to 71 per cent.

In the first of a series of reports, The Daily Telegraph discloses the heavy costs and administrative burdens caused by PFIs. The deals are a way of building large public projects using private finance, which were relied upon by the Labour government. The disclosures will lend weight to MPs calling on PFI companies to refund a share of their profits to the taxpayer.

The PFI deals include:

• A hospital which charged £52,000 for a job that cost £750. Demolishing a shelter for smokers resulted in the PFI contractor charging £2,600 a year for the “extra cleaning”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/8279974/Private-Finance-Initiative-hospitals-will-bring-taxpayers-60-years-of-pain.html


Leftist rally against anyone making a profit on healthcare. But here we have a story of a national healthcare service and we still have scandals.



The road to hell is paved….

The turbulent years of the 1960s and '70s are best known by the headline-grabbing civil rights and women's rights movements. BUT THERE WAS ANOTHER "RIGHTS" MOVEMENT, LARGELY OVERLOOKED, THAT HAS ALSO HAD A PROFOUND EFFECT ON AMERICAN LIFE. The looming public-pension crisis that threatens to bankrupt city, county and state governments had its origins in those same years when public employees, already protected by civil-service rules, gained the right to bargain collectively.

LIBERALS WERE ONCE SKEPTICAL OF PUBLIC-SECTOR UNIONISM. IN THE 1930S, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia WARNED AGAINST IT AS AN INFRINGEMENT ON DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS that threatened the ability of government to represent the broad needs of the citizenry. And in a 1937 letter to the head of an organization of federal workers, FDR NOTED THAT "A STRIKE OF PUBLIC EMPLOYEES MANIFESTS NOTHING LESS THAN AN INTENT ON THEIR PART TO PREVENT OR OBSTRUCT THE OPERATIONS OF GOVERNMENT until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, IS UNTHINKABLE AND INTOLERABLE."

Private-sector union leaders were also divided. GEORGE MEANY, the president of the AFL-CIO from 1955-1979 who came out of the building trades, argued that it was "IMPOSSIBLE TO BARGAIN COLLECTIVELY WITH THE GOVERNMENT." Private unionists more generally worried that rather than winning a greater share of profits, public-sector labor would be extracting taxes from a public that included their own workers. BUT IN THE LATE 1950S, WITH THE FAILURE OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT'S ORGANIZING CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH, MEANY'S OWN EXECUTIVE COUNCIL INSISTED ON THE NECESSITY OF WINNING THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE PUBLIC EMPLOYEES.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703909904576052150177439350.html?mod=djemEditorialPage_h


Public employee unions have worked well for the employees. Public Employees now earn more than their private sector counterparts with much higher benefits. Look to read a lot about this over the next few years.

Obama’s climate change czar leaving White House

This’ll be spun as part of the standard midterm turnover inside the administration, but the big difference between her and people like Axelrod and Gibbs is that they’ll be replaced. SHE (CAROL BROWNER) MIGHT NOT BE, FOR THE SIMPLE REASON THAT HER PORTFOLIO IS ALL BUT DEAD IN THE NEW CONGRESS.

Which is to say, it’s not so much that she’s quitting. It’s that you fired her…..

An increasing number of Democrats have raised their voices against Browner’s War on Carbon.

SHE INFAMOUSLY BULLIED AUTO EXECS TO NEVER PUT DOWN ANYTHING IN WRITING EVER.

OBAMA’S OWN OIL SPILL COMMISSION SINGLED OUT BROWNER FOR MISLEADING THE PUBLIC and “contributing to the perception that the government’s findings were more exact than they actually were.”

And HER BP DATA DOCTORING WAS UNDER FIRE by both Senate and House Republicans.

The GOP must not let her slip out the door quietly without answering for her abuse of power under oath and in the full light of public hearings.

http://hotair.com/archives/2011/01/24/obamas-climate-change-czar-leaving-white-house/

Carol Browner’s tenure is a good example of why Congress has the power to oversight and investigate. She should be sworn to tell the truth and then questioned extensively.



Was Genghis Khan history's greenest conqueror?

GENGHIS KHAN'S MONGOL INVASION IN THE 13TH AND 14TH CENTURIES WAS SO VAST THAT IT MAY HAVE BEEN THE FIRST INSTANCE IN HISTORY OF A SINGLE CULTURE CAUSING MAN-MADE CLIMATE CHANGE, according to new research out of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology, reports Mongabay.com.

Unlike modern day climate change, however, the MONGOL INVASION ACTUALLY COOLED THE PLANET, effectively scrubbing around 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

So how exactly did Genghis Khan, one of history's cruelest conquerors, earn such a glowing environmental report card? The reality may be a bit difficult for today's environmentalists to stomach, but Khan did it the same way he built his empire — with A HIGH BODY COUNT.

Over the course of the century and a half run of the Mongol Empire, about 22 percent of the world's total land area had been conquered and AN ESTIMATED 40 MILLION PEOPLE WERE SLAUGHTERED by the horse-driven, bow-wielding hordes. Depopulation over such a large swathe of land meant that countless numbers of cultivated fields eventually returned to forests.

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/climate-weather/stories/was-genghis-khan-historys-greenest-conqueror


What is actually scary about this is how modern leftist really seem to agree with this. And it appears we need to reassess the contributions Hitler, Stalin, and Mao made to the planet. Here are some scary quotes.


“Man is always and everywhere a blight on the landscape.”


- John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club


“I got the impression that instead of going out to shoot birds, I should go out and shoot the kids who shoot birds.”


- Paul Watson, Founder of Greenpeace and Sea Shepard


“Human beings, as a species, have no more value than slugs.”


- John Davis, editor of the journal Earth First!


“My three main goals would be to reduce human population to about 100 million worldwide, destroy the industrial infrastructure and see wilderness, with it’s full complement of species, returning throughout the world.”


-Dave Foreman, co-founder of Earth First!


“A total population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.”


- Ted Turner, founder of CNN and major UN donor

Hansen Savages Democrats In Shock Statement. Turns on Clinton Administration.

James Hansen, the controversial scientist at the centre of the global warming movement has TURNED ON AMERICA’S DEMOCRAT PARTY IN A SHOCK ANNOUNCEMENT, savaging past Democrat administrations for “huge mistakes” that denied America the possibility of producing zero carbon emissions energy by now.

Andy Revkin of the New York Times reported that Hansen was not happy with the current Obama administration, as DESPITE OFFERING HIS SERVICES “I NEVER HEARD BACK ANYTHING FROM THE WHITE HOUSE”. This “lame” approach, he said could be seen in past Democrat administrations:

Nowhere is the lame middle-of-the-road go-slow compromise approach clearer than in the case of nuclear power. The [Obama] Administration has been reluctant to admit that THE CARTER AND CLINTON/GORE ADMINISTRATIONS MADE A HUGE MISTAKE IN PULLING THE U.S. BACK FROM DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY.

http://hauntingthelibrary.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/hansen-savages-democrats-in-shock-statement-turns-on-clinton-administration/


This is truly a case of Hansen completely abandoning science and having become a zealot turns on anyone and everyone who doesn’t see the world EXACTLY as he does.


Weather forecast? Cold!

For people who are sick of the cold and snow and hoping for a quick end to winter, AccuWeather.com Chief Long Range Forecaster JOE BASTARDI MAY HAVE BAD NEWS.

MORE PERSISTENT COLD IS EXPECTED TO HOLD STRONG THROUGH AT LEAST THE MIDDLE OF FEBRUARY ACROSS MUCH OF THE EASTERN TWO-THIRDS OF THE COUNTRY. Bastardi also expects wintry events to last into April in some areas, which would be longer than last year.

Based on what is predicted for the rest of the season, Bastardi also says that THIS WINTER COULD END UP BEING THE COLDEST FOR THE NATION AS A WHOLE SINCE THE 1980S.

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/44657/bastardi-forecast-for-rest-of.asp

Politics, Palin, and Disharmony

Allegory of the Cave of the Mama Grizzly

I'm sure you all studied at one time in your lives Plato's Allegory of the Cave, but to refresh your memory: PRISONERS IN A DARK CAVE ARE FORCED BY THEIR BINDINGS TO LOOK ONLY STRAIGHT AHEAD TO THE WALL IN FRONT OF THEM, ON WHICH PUPPETEERS PROJECT IMAGES OF THINGS AND PEOPLE. THESE PROJECTIONS FORM THE ONLY REALITY THE PRISONERS KNOW. Only when a prisoner is released from his bonds does he see the sleight of hand -- the puppeteers and all their paraphernalia. As he climbs out of the cave into the bright sunlight he is temporarily blinded, his eyes having for so long been accustomed to the dark. The ex-prisoner is understandably frightened and bewildered by this new world. And he must learn to see what is around him without the puppeteers' filtering. But it is only then, after this uncomfortable journey into the bright and unfamiliar world around him, that the prisoner finally can think and understand, that he can appreciate what is real and true from that which is artificial and contrived.



In my view, THE MEDIA TARRING OF SARAH PALIN RESPECTING THE TUCSON TRAGEDY is an event which -- perhaps not this week, but soon enough -- WILL BE REMEMBERED FOR HAVING EXPOSED THE POLITICAL CLASS AND CULTURAL ELITES AS THE PUPPETEERS PROJECTING THEIR OWN IGNORANCE AND VIOLENT HATRED OF SARAH ONTO HER. Those who uncritically followed the media will come to see that they have spent too much time in the cave and need to get out into the sunshine and face some realities.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/allegory_of_the_cave_of_the_ma_1.html


This is a good article with a good allegory of the viciousness of the left wing media. Highly recommend you read this.

An anti-authority creed

America is a creedal nation and the creed is, as Robert Penn Warren wrote, the "burr under the metaphysical saddle of America." IT IS A RECURRING SOURCE OF NATIONAL INTROSPECTION, DISCONTENT, SELF-INDICTMENT AND PASSIONATE POLITICS. We are in the midst of a recurrence. …

…By the time Huntington's book appeared, AMERICAN HAD HAD FOUR OF WHAT HE CALLED "PERIODS OF CREEDAL PASSION" - the Revolutionary era (1770s), the Jacksonian era (the 1830s), the Progressive era (1900-20) and the 1960s. We are now in the fifth.

THE AMERICAN CREED'S VALUES ARE LIBERAL, as that term was understood until LIBERALISM SUCCUMBED TO 20TH-CENTURY STATISM. The values, expressing the 18th century's preoccupation with defending liberty against government, are, Huntington said, "INDIVIDUALISTIC, DEMOCRATIC, EGALITARIAN, AND HENCE BASICALLY ANTI-GOVERNMENT AND ANTI-AUTHORITY." The various values "unite in imposing limits on power and on the institutions of government. The essence of constitutionalism is the restraint of governmental power through fundamental law."….

….AMERICA IS AN INHERENTLY "DISHARMONIC SOCIETY" because the ideals of its creed are always imperfectly realized and always endangered. Government is necessary but, Huntington says, "the distinctive aspect of the American Creed is its anti-government character. Opposition to power and suspicion of government as the most dangerous embodiment of power are the central themes of American political thought."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/21/AR2011012106907.html


This is a very interesting piece about what the American’s experiment is all about.

Who’s advocating violence?

Glenn Beck has pulled back the curtain on this disgraceful specimen BY QUOTING HER ACCURATELY. No one has identified any statements he has made about Piven that are incorrect, or claims that he has in any way threatened her. Unlike Piven, Beck is a staunch opponent of political violence. But the mis-named Center for Constitutional Rights–another Orwellian touch–thinks there is such a thing as too much free speech. THEY WANT FOX NEWS TO SHUT BECK UP BECAUSE OF THE “SHEER QUANTITY” OF BECK’S REFERENCES TO PIVEN.

PIVEN WAS HEARTENED BY THE RECENT RIOTS IN GREECE AND ENGLAND and urged that radicals in America adopt them as a model:

[B]efore people can mobilize for collective action, they have to develop a proud and angry identity and a set of claims that go with that identity. THEY HAVE TO GO FROM BEING HURT AND ASHAMED TO BEING ANGRY AND INDIGNANT. [T]he out-of-work have to stop blaming themselves for their hard times and turn their anger on the bosses, the bureaucrats or the politicians who are in fact responsible.

An effective movement of the unemployed will have to look something like the strikes and riots that have spread across Greece in response to the austerity measures forced on the Greek government by the European Union, or like the student protests that recently spread with lightning speed across England in response to the prospect of greatly increased school fees.

AS MS. PIVEN UNDOUBTEDLY KNOWS, THE GREEK RIOTS HAVE BEEN EXTREMELY VIOLENT, AND SEVERAL PEOPLE HAVE BEEN MURDERED. That is the violence that she wants to see here in the United States.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2011/01/028190.php


So here we have a leftist advocating violence and the left wants to silence the person who is pointing out what they are saying. The left is a threat to freedom of speech and with their violence freedom of everything else as well.



Why we will miss Keith Olbermann

As John Tabin reports, KEITH OLBERMANN HAS BEEN CANNED. This after being temporarily suspended in November for making political campaign contributions to Democratic congressional candidates.

Olbermann's suspension in November was bogus. Say what you will about the man, HE NEVER HID HIS POLITICS. HE NEVER FEIGNED FAIRNESS OR BALANCE LIKE SO MANY OTHER BIG MEDIA BLOWHARDS DO.

To the contrary: Olbermann wore his rabid left-wing views on his sleeve. That, after all, is why MSNBC hired him.

It's not clear what now has precipitated Olbermann's sudden and surprise resignation. The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz notes that Olbermann's "combative style put him increasingly at odds with his network bosses."

CONSERVATIVES ARE BOUND TO HAVE MIXED FEELINGS about Olbermann's departure.

On the one hand, many will be glad to see this pompous, angry windbag leave the airwaves. As National Review's Rich Lowry tweeted this evening: "WHO NOW WILL BE THERE TO LECTURE US ANGRILY AND HATEFULLY ABOUT THE NEED FOR CIVILITY?"

In fact, Olbermann was a left-wing hypocrite. He angrily denounced conservatives for their alleged sins while he himself committed flagrant crimes against fairness and the truth.

But that is precisely why conservatives are going to miss him: OLBERMANN WAS A USEFUL AND EFFECTIVE FOIL.

http://spectator.org/blog/2011/01/22/msnbc-shuffles-deck-chairs-as


Olbermann was a walking contradiction. The left’s hatred for Fox News, Shaun Hannity, Glen Beck, etc. was expressed consistently by Olbermann. And even while he spewed hatred, he called for others to do like him and leave the hatred behind.

George Allen to announce Senate bid Monday

Former Sen. George Allen will end weeks of speculation and formally declare his candidacy for U.S. Senate in Virginia on Monday, two Republican advisers tell POLITICO.

Allen, who has been making all the moves of a candidate in recent weeks, is expected to blast an e-mail to supporters with a video message before alerting the media.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/48027.html#ixzz1BxNmair6

And so it begins.

This cynical five-a-day myth: Nutrition expert claims we've all been duped

For a long time, I too was a believer. I was a vegetarian for 20 years. It is only after nearly two decades of my own research — I am a Cambridge graduate and currently studying for a PhD in nutrition —that I have changed my views.

THE MESSAGE THAT FRUIT AND VEG ARE PRETTY USELESS, NUTRITIONALLY, GRADUALLY DAWNED ON ME.

The facts are these. THERE ARE 13 VITAMINS AND FRUIT IS GOOD FOR ONE OF THEM, VITAMIN C.

Vegetables offer some vitamins — vitamin C and the vegetable form of the fat-soluble vitamins A and vitamin K1 — but YOUR BODY WILL BE ABLE TO ABSORB THESE ONLY IF YOU ADD SOME FAT, SUCH AS BUTTER OR OLIVE OIL.

The useful forms of A and K — ¬retinol and K2 respectively — are found only in animal foods. As FOR MINERALS, THERE ARE 16 AND FRUIT IS GOOD FOR ONE OF THEM, POTASSIUM, WHICH IS NOT A SUBSTANCE WE ARE OFTEN SHORT OF, AS IT IS FOUND IN WATER.

Vegetables can be OK for iron and calcium but the vitamins and minerals in animal foods (meat, fish, eggs and dairy products) beat those in fruit and vegetables hands down. There is far more vitamin A in liver than in an apple, for instance.

Among dieticians, FRUCTOSE IS KNOWN AS ‘THE FATTENING CARBOHYDRATE’. It is not metabolised by the body in the same way as glucose, which enters the bloodstream and has a chance to be used for energy before it heads to the liver.

FRUCTOSE GOES STRAIGHT TO THE LIVER AND IS STORED AS FAT. Very few -people understand or want to believe this biochemical fact.

Another argument that is often put forward by dieticians on behalf of fruit and vegetables is that they are ‘a source of antioxidants’.

They believe we need to have more ¬antioxidants in our diet to counteract the oxidants that damage the body’s cells, either as a result of normal metabolic processes or as a reaction to environmental chemicals and pollutants.

But I WOULD RATHER CONCENTRATE ON NOT PUTTING OXIDANTS SUCH AS SUGAR, PROCESSED FOOD, CIGARETTE SMOKE OR CHEMICALS INTO MY BODY.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-1349960/5-day-fruit-vegetables-myth-claims-nutrition-expert.html#ixzz1BxRO9Y9r


This will come as a shock for vegans.