America’s Most Communist States: California and New York

Hat tip to Fox News for this report

New York and California have for generations of Americans been considered destination spots to express personal freedoms — one with a city big enough for anybody with a dream to perhaps become a star and the other a state synonymous with the so-called laid-back lifestyle.  

But such attitudes have drastically changed, according to a new study that finds the two states last in individual freedom.

The “Freedom in the 50 States” study published last week by the libertarian-leaning Mercatus Center ranks New York last and California second to last.

The survey is based on fiscal issues such as job prospects and tax rates, regulatory policies that include property rights and personal freedoms such as gun laws.

“When it comes to overall freedom, New York ranks dead last,” the study’s authors said.

They point out that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has taken away – or at least tried to take away – several personal freedoms, including his failed effort to outlaw the sale of sodas 16 ounces and larger.

“Though the law ran into a judicial buzz saw on the eve of its enactment earlier this month, it demonstrates the attitude city and state legislators have toward their constituents,” the authors noted.

Bloomberg has already imposed a stiff tax on cigarette sales and is a leading advocate for tougher gun laws.

In addition, New Yorkers pay a state income tax of 14 percent.

“Even New Yorkers who don’t care about sweet drinks have to deal with the highest state and local tax burden in the country,” the authors wrote.

The result is New Yorkers are voting with their feet, with roughly 1.7 million leaving between 2000 and 2010, though newborns and new immigrants are keeping the state’s population steady, according to the study.

“We’re not living in a police state,” White Plains attorney John Murtagh told CBS New York. “But the economics of New York clearly don’t work. And then you see things like Mike Bloomberg and his Big Gulp sodas.”

The top five states with the most freedom are North  Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, New Hampshire and Oklahoma, according to the study from the center, at George Mason University in Virginia.

North Dakota came in first in large part based of its “very low taxes” and government debt, the authors said. “However, its spending is uncharacteristically high.”

The three other lowest ranking states are Rhode Island, Hawaii and New Jersey, in descending order.

The study authors said California’s biggest problem is business regulation, though a recent attempt to impose a higher tax rate on the state’s highest earners has become a major complaint among residents.

“The Golden State, with hundreds of miles of picturesque Pacific coastline, nonetheless managed to drive off a net of 1.5 million residents between 2000 and 2010 — over  4 percent of its 2000 population,” the authors wrote.

They also pointed out Californians‘ personal income contracted by 0.4 percent a year in the seven years before the Great Recession struck, a record worse than any other state besides Michigan.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/31/survey-new-york-california-last-in-personal-freedoms/?test=latestnews#ixzz2PCVvUI12

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• New York’s future flees to Florida (nydailynews.com)
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• Report Rates States By Freedom, And New Yorkers Get To Cry Into Their Regulated Sodas (reason.com)
• New study shows Americans flocking to more free “red” states (redalertpolitics.com)

 

Senate Democrats Pass First Budget Bill in Four Years Raising Taxes One Trillion Dollars

WASHINGTON –  An exhausted Senate approved its first budget in four years early Saturday, calling for almost $1 trillion in tax increases over the coming decade while sheltering safety net programs targeted by House Republicans.

While their victory was by a razor-thin 50-49, the vote let Democrats tout their priorities. Yet it doesn’t resolve the deep differences the two parties have over deficits and the size of government.

The nonbinding but politically symbolic measure caters to party stalwarts on the liberal edge of the spectrum just as the House GOP measure is crafted to appeal to more recent tea party arrivals.

Late Friday afternoon, the Senate then began a marathon session of votes on dozens of amendments to the 2014 budget proposal. Many of the proposals were offered in hopes of inflicting political damage on Democratic senators up for re-election in GOP-leaning states like Alaska and Louisiana.

The two main budget proposals produced by Senate Democrats and House Republicans are miles apart. The Senate plan does not attempt to balance the budget at all, though it does claim to reduce the deficit by imposing nearly $1 trillion in tax increases on top of more than $600 billion in higher taxes on top earners enacted in January. It also includes $875 billion in spending cuts, generated by modest cuts to federal health care programs, domestic agencies and the Pentagon and reduced government borrowing costs.

The House plan — by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., his party’s vice presidential candidate last year — claims $4 trillion more in savings over the period than Senate Democrats by imposing major cuts in Medicaid, food stamps and other safety net programs for the needy. It would also transform the Medicare health care program for seniors into a voucher-like system for future recipients.

“We have presented very different visions for how our country should work and who it should work for,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who chairs the Senate Budget Committee. “But I am hopeful that we can bridge this divide.”

Congressional budgets are planning documents that leave actual changes in revenues and spending for later legislation, and this was the first the Democratic-run Senate has approved in four years. That is testament to the political and mathematical contortions needed to write fiscal plans in an era of record-breaking deficits that until this year exceeded an eye-popping $1 trillion annually, and to the parties’ profoundly conflicting views.

“I believe we’re in denial about the financial condition of our country,” Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, top Republican on the Budget panel, said of Democratic efforts to boost spending on some programs. “Trust me, we’ve got to have some spending reductions.”

Though the shortfalls have shown signs of easing slightly and temporarily, there is no easy path to the two parties finding compromise — which the first months of 2013 have amply illustrated.

Already this year, Congress has raised taxes on the rich after narrowly averting tax boosts on virtually everyone else, tolerated $85 billion in automatic spending cuts, temporarily sidestepped a federal default and prevented a potential government shutdown.

By sometime this summer, the government’s borrowing limit will have to be extended again — or a default will be at risk — and it is unclear what Republicans may demand for providing needed votes. It is also uncertain how the two parties will resolve the differences between their two budgets, something many believe simply won’t happen.

Both sides have expressed a desire to reduce federal deficits. But President Barack Obama is demanding a combination of tax increases and spending cuts to do so, while GOP leaders say they won’t consider higher revenues but want serious reductions in Medicare and other benefit programs that have rocketed deficits skyward.

Obama plans to release his own 2014 budget next month, an unveiling that will be studied for whether it signals a willingness to engage Republicans in negotiations or play political hardball.

In a long day that began Friday morning, senators plodded through scores of amendments — all of them non-binding but some delivering potent political messages.

They voted in favor of giving states more powers to collect sales taxes on online purchases their citizens make from out-of-state Internet companies, and to endorse the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that is to pump oil from Canada to Texas refineries.

They also approved amendments voicing support for eliminating the $2,500 annual cap on flexible spending account contributions imposed by Obama’s health care overhaul, and for charging regular postal rates for mailings by political parties, which currently qualify for the lower prices paid by non-profits.

In a rebuke to one of the Senate’s most conservative members, they overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to cut even deeper than the House GOP budget and eliminate deficits in just five years.

The Democratic budget envisions $975 billion in unspecified new taxes over the coming 10 years. There would be an equal amount of spending reductions coming chiefly from health programs, defense and reduced interest payments as deficits get smaller than previously anticipated.

This year’s projected deficit of nearly $900 billion would fall to around $700 billion next year and bottom out near $400 billion in 2016 before trending upward again.

Shoehorned into the package is $100 billion for public works projects and other programs aimed at creating jobs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/23/senate-approves-first-budget-proposal-in-4-years/#ixzz2OMA781xN

Related articles

• Senate Democrats’ budget includes nearly $1 trillion in new taxes (grumpyelder.com)
• Four Years , A Trillion In Tax Hikes And Still Not Balanced (youviewed.com)

 

Sarah Palin Unchained at CPAC Conference: Calls Out the RHINOS and DEMOCRATS

Watch as Sarah Palin Unleashes the Truth about the Political Mob in Washington

Let us all Stand With Sarah and hold our Torches high

America needs Sarah Palin and we need to Stand with her as

‘We the People’

begin the work of taking Back

‘Our Country’

 

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Government Censorship of the Internet coming to a Web-Site near you…

Hat tip to Fox News for this report

Big Brother? US linked to new wave of Censorship, Surveillance on Web

Even the most open, democratic governments have sought laws and new forms of surveillance that many see as a new wave of censorship — and that includes the United States.

The U.S. government asked Google for data on its users more than 31,000 times in 2012 alone, for example. And the government rarely obtained a search warrant first, Google recently revealed; in nearly all cases, the company ended up turning over at least some data.

Some argue that heightened surveillance, restrictions on Internet freedom and even censorship are necessary to protect intellectual property rights, prevent cyber-espionage, fight child pornography, and protect national interests such as nuclear power plants from hackers. And here the U.S. is far from alone.

“A number of democratic states have considered or implemented various restrictions in response to the potential legal, economic, and security challenges raised by new media,” notes the Freedom House report “Freedom on the Net 2012.”

Anxiety over online theft and cyber-attacks is not unwarranted. Virtually every major U.S. company and media outlet has been a victim. Google was attacked back in 2009. Facebook, Apple and Microsoft revealed this month that hackers had breached their defenses. And The New York Times and Wall Street Journal have fought off Chinese hackers for months. Indeed, dozens of countries have their own online hacking groups — so-called cyber or asymmetrical warfare divisions.

“It’s been going on in China since at least at least May 2002,” said Alan Paller, founder of the SANS Institute, an information security and training firm.

Consequently, lawmakers — even President Obama in his State of the Union speech — have been motivated to take steps to stem the hacking tide. However, the road to better security could also stifle free speech.

When the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) met in Dubai in December, some 89 member countries including Russia, China, Cuba, and Iran, supported a treaty that would give individual governments more control over the Internet’s infrastructure.

Sensing a thinly veiled attempt to suppress dissent, 55 countries — including Canada and the U.S. — said no.

While the agreement has failed (for the time being), individual governments — including Canada and the U.S. — continue to introduce their own legislation to control what’s online.

North of the border, for example, the Canadian government proposed Bill C-30, known as the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act. Proponents claimed the measure was designed to combat the exploitation of children, but it required Internet service providers to create monitoring systems that would allow the police to intercept and track all online communications — without a warrant. The public reaction was so fiercely opposed to Bill C-30 that Canadian authorities were forced to withdraw it this month.

Watchdog Agencies

Far from leading to the spread of democracy and freedom online, the events of the 2011 Arab spring led many authoritarian countries to clamp down more tightly, fearful of rebellious citizens inciting and organizing online.

Here’s the latest from three groups monitoring Internet freedom:

Reporters Without Borders
A 2012 list of countries that are “Enemies of the Internet” notes that more than ever before, online freedom of expression is now a major foreign and domestic policy issue.

Freedom House
According to Freedom on the Net 2012, a survey by the independent watchdog group, of the 47 countries covered “20 have experienced a negative trajectory since January 2011.

Google
The Web giant has been using its reach to monitor Internet openness. The Transparency Report visualizes disruptions in the free flow of information, whether it’s a government blocking information or a cable being cut.

On this side of the border, the U.S. government continues to conduct warrant-less online searches. Thanks to outdated laws such as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 and other regulations protecting copyrighted materials, U.S. authorities are increasingly looking at private online communications, often without any oversight by a judge.

Google says it has seen a 70 percent increase in requests from authorities for information about its users, information which includes private e-mails and search data. The biggest requester? The U.S. government, which sought information 8,438 times in the last six months of 2012. Google complied with those requests in roughly 88 percent of the cases.

While Google states it is against such broad government access to personal information — dealing with such requests costs Google time and money — where it stands on strict Internet freedoms is mutable.

Shortly before his State of the Union speech, President Obama signed an executive order designed to let federal government agencies share critical cyber-threat information with private companies to protect companies involved in supporting the nation’s critical infrastructure.

“We know hackers steal people’s identities and infiltrate private e-mail,” the President said in his speech. “We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy.”

Even though the data shared by the government could include personal information, in this case companies have been in favor of the executive order. The reason: private firms don’t have to in turn share data their data about their users with the government.

However, that may be about to change. As the President implied, Congress is working on reintroducing the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). It would enable companies to divulge private information to government authorities if the companies perceived some form of “cyber threats.” Any personal information — Facebook jokes, Twitter tussles, errant Web searches — could be handed over to a variety of government agencies if that information has anything to do with the potential vulnerability of a computer network.

“CISPA offers broad immunities to companies who choose to share data with government agencies,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Mark M. Jaycox explained in a blog post. “It also creates avenues for companies to share data with any federal agencies, including military intelligence agencies like the National Security Agency.”

While congress has yet to hammer out new, possibly more precise, language for a reintroduced CISPA bill, the powers it grants to both private companies and government authorities could end up making them partners in nationwide surveillance — the same complaint often levied against countries like China.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/02/27/special-report-surveillance-and-censorship-america/#ixzz2M6IJuISa

ANY QUESTIONS?

 

Fact Checking the Liar in Chiefs Speech

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama did some cherry-picking Tuesday night in defense of his record on jobs and laid out a conditional path to citizenship for illegal immigrants that may be less onerous than he made it sound.

A look at some of the claims in his State of the Union speech, a glance at the Republican counterargument and how they fit with the facts:

OBAMA: “After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created over 6 million new jobs.”

THE FACTS: That’s in the ballpark, as far as it goes. But Obama starts his count not when he took office, but from the point in his first term when job losses were the highest. In doing so, he ignores the 5 million or so jobs that were lost on his watch, up to that point.

Private sector jobs have grown by 6.1 million since February 2010. But since he became president, the gain is a more modest 1.9 million.

And when losses in public sector employment are added to the mix, his overall jobs record is a gain of 1.2 million.

OBAMA: “We have doubled the distance our cars will go on a gallon of gas.”

THE FACTS: Not so fast.

That’s expected to happen in 12 more years.

Under a deal the Obama administration reached with automakers in 2011, vehicles will have a corporate average fuel economy of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, twice the 27 miles per gallon, on average, that cars and trucks get today. Automobile manufacturers won’t start making changes to achieve the new fuel economy standards until model year 2017. Not all cars will double their gas mileage, since the standard is based on an average of a manufacturers’ fleet.

——

OBAMA: “Already the Affordable Care Act is helping to reduce the growth of health care costs.”

THE FACTS: The jury is still out on whether Obama’s health care overhaul will reduce the growth of health care costs. It’s true that cost increases have eased, but many experts say that’s due to the sluggish economy, not to the health care law, whose main provisions are not yet fully in effect.

OBAMA: “Real reform means establishing a responsible pathway to earned citizenship — a path that includes passing a background check, paying taxes and a meaningful penalty, learning English and going to the back of the line behind the folks trying to come here legally.”

THE FACTS: The seemingly stern admonition that illegal immigrants must go to the back of the line, often heard from the president, doesn’t appear to have much practical effect except in the most obvious sense. Everyone who joins a line, whether for a movie, a coffee or citizenship, starts at the back of that particular line. It’s not clear he is saying anything more than that illegal immigrants won’t get to cut in line for citizenship once they’ve obtained provisional legal status.

Like those living abroad who have applied to come to the U.S. legally, illegal immigrants who qualify for Obama’s proposed path to citizenship will surely face long waits to be processed. But during that time, they are already in the U.S. and will get to stay, work and travel in the country under their new status as provisional immigrants, while those outside the U.S. simply have to wait.

Sending illegal immigrants to the “back of the line” is something of a distinction without a difference for some legal immigrants who dutifully followed all the rules before coming to the United States.

For instance, some legal immigrants who are in the U.S. on an employer-sponsored visa can’t easily change jobs, or in some cases take a promotion, without jeopardizing their place in line to get a green card. In other cases, would-be legal immigrants in other countries wait for years to be able to settle in the U.S.

Obama is using “back of the line” somewhat figuratively, because there are multiple lines depending on the applicant’s relationship with family already in the U.S. or with an employer. Generally, a foreign-born spouse of a U.S. citizen or someone with needed skills and a job offer will be accepted more quickly than many others.

But even as a figurative point, his assertion may cloak the fact that people who came to the U.S. illegally and win provisional status have the great advantage over applicants abroad of already being where they all want to go.

OBAMA: “Study after study shows that the sooner a child begins learning, the better he or she does down the road. … And for poor kids who need help the most, this lack of access to preschool education can shadow them for the rest of their lives. … Every dollar we invest in high-quality early education can save more than $7 later on — by boosting graduation rates, reducing teen pregnancy, even reducing violent crime.”

THE FACTS: Dozens of studies have shown Head Start graduates are more likely to complete high school than their at-risk peers who don’t participate in the program. But a study last year by the Department of Health and Human Services that found big vocabulary and social development gains for at-risk students in pre-kindergarten programs also found those effects largely faded by the time pupils reached third grade. The report didn’t explain why the kids saw a drop-off in performance or predict how they would fare as they aged.

——

OBAMA: “I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy.”

THE FACTS: Obama failed to get a global warming bill through Congress when both Houses were controlled by Democrats in 2010. With Republicans in control of the House, the chances of a bill to limit the gases blamed for global warming and to create a market for businesses to trade pollution credits are close to zero. The Obama administration has already acted to control greenhouse gases through existing law. It has boosted fuel-efficiency standards and proposed rules to control heat-trapping emissions from new power plants. And while there are still other ways to address climate change without Congress, it’s questionable regulation alone can achieve the reductions needed to start curbing global warming.

FLORIDA SEN. MARCO RUBIO, in the Republican response: “The real cause of our debt is that our government has been spending $1 trillion more than it takes in every year. That’s why we need a balanced-budget amendment.”

THE FACTS: That statement may reflect the math behind recent debt, but it doesn’t get directly to the cause — the worst recession since the Depression and its aftereffects. The deficit is not only caused by spending, but by reduced tax revenues. And during the recession, revenues from both individual and corporate taxes fell markedly.

The steep increases in debt and the measures that should be taken to ease the burden are central to the debate in Washington. But there is no serious move afoot to amend the Constitution to prohibit deficit spending.

The ability to take on debt has been used by governments worldwide and through U.S. history to shelter people from the ravages of a down economy, wage war and achieve many other ends. An effort to amend the Constitution for any purpose faces daunting odds; this would be no exception. Most state constitutions demand a balanced budget, but states lack some big obligations of the federal government, including national defense. And Washington’s ability to go deeper into debt provides states with at least a minimal safety net in times of high unemployment.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/13/fact-check-on-obama-state-union-address/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fpolitics+%28Internal+-+Politics+-+Text%29&utm_content=My+Yahoo#ixzz2KmFlmPOg

ANY QUESTIONS?

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America’s Broken Government Agencies

The U.S. Postal Service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.

 Social Security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.

Fannie Mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.

War on Poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to “the poor” and they only want more.

Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.

Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.

The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.

To President Obama and all 535 Voting members of the Legislature

 

Remembering when the expression Happy New Year actually meant something

A message to America from the

Grey-Haired Brigade

They like to refer to us as senior citizens, old fogies, geezers, and in some cases dinosaurs. Some of us are “Baby Boomers” getting ready to retire. Others have been retired for some time.

We walk a little slower these days and our eyes and hearing are not what they once were. We have worked hard, raised our children, worshiped our God and grown old together.

Yes, we are the ones some refer to as being over the hill, and that is probably true. But before writing us off completely, there are a few things that need to be taken into consideration.

In school we studied English, history, math, and science which enabled us to lead America into the technological age. Most of us remember what outhouses were, many of us with firsthand experience. We remember the days of telephone
party-lines, 25 cent gasoline, and milk and ice being delivered to our homes. For those of you who don’t know what an icebox is, today they are electric and referred to as refrigerators. A few even remember when cars were started with a crank. Yes, we lived those days.

We are probably considered old fashioned and out-dated by many. But there are a few things you need to remember before completely writing us off. We won World War II, fought in Korea and Viet Nam. We can quote The Pledge of Allegiance, and know where to place our hand while doing so. We wore the uniform of our country with pride and lost many friends on the battlefield. We didn’t fight for the Socialist States of America; we fought for the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.” We wore different uniforms but carried the same flag.

We know the words to the Star Spangled Banner, America, and America the Beautiful by heart, and you may even see some tears running down our cheeks as we sing. We have lived what many of you have only read in history books and we feel no obligation to apologize to anyone for America.

Yes, we are old and slow these days but rest assured, we have at least one good fight left in us. We have loved this country, fought for it, and died for it, and now we are going to save it. It is our country and nobody is going to take it away from us. We took oaths to defend America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that is an oath we plan to keep. There are those who want to destroy this land we love but, like our founders, there is no way we are going to remain silent.

It was mostly the young people of this nation who elected Obama and the Democratic Congress in 2008. You fell for the “Hope and Change” which in reality was nothing but “Hype and Lies.”

You have tasted socialism and seen evil face to face, and have found you did like it after all.

You make a lot of noise, but most are all too interested in their careers or “Climbing the Social Ladder” to be involved in such mundane things as Patriotism.

Many of you fell for the Great Lie yet again in 2012 and are now having some buyer’s remorse as you should.

With all the education we gave you these past four years, you didn’t have sense enough to see through the lies and instead drank more of the  Kool-Aid.

Now you’re paying the price and complaining about it. No jobs, lost mortgages, higher taxes, and less freedom.

This is what you voted for again and this is what you got.

We entrusted you with the Torch of Liberty and you traded it for Entitlements and a Free Ride.

This land does not belong to the man in the White House nor to the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

It belongs to We the People and  We the People plan to Reclaim our land and our Freedom. We hope that next time, if there is one, you will do a better job of preserving it and passing it along to our grandchildren.

So if you ever have the chance to say the Pledge of Allegiance again, stand up, put your hand over your heart, honor Our Country, and Apologize to America and the

Grey-Haired Brigade

 

Be an informed Voter this time and not a Blind Sheep

Hat tip to Alan Caruba’s blog and Don Fredrick, ©2012, blogging at The Obama Timeline for this information

Can It All Be a Coincidence?

 Warning Signs features my daily commentaries, but I will break with that and share one that is well worth your consideration:

CAN IT ALL BE COINCIDENCE?
by Don Fredrick, ©2012, blogging at The Obama Timeline

(Oct. 1, 2012) — As I noted in the introduction to my book, The Obama Timeline, a jury at a murder trial will often find the accumulated circumstantial evidence so overwhelming that a guilty verdict is obvious—even though there may be no witness to the crime. “The jurors in the Scott Peterson trial believed the collection of evidence more than they believed Scott Peterson. Among other things, the jury thought that being arrested with $15,000 in cash, recently-dyed hair, a newly-grown goatee, four cell phones, camping equipment, a map to a new girlfriend’s house, a gun, and his brother’s driver’s license certainly did not paint a picture of a grieving husband who had nothing to do with his pregnant wife’s disappearance and murder.”

In the four years I have been gathering information about—and evidence against—Barack Hussein Obama, I have encountered hundreds of coincidences that strike me as amazing. None of those coincidences, by themselves, may mean much. But taken as a whole it is almost impossible to believe they were all the result of chance. Consider the Obama-related coincidences:

Obama just happened to know 60s far-left radical revolutionary William Ayers, whose father just happened to be Thomas Ayers, who just happened to be a close friend of Obama’s communist mentor Frank Marshall Davis, who just happened to work at the communist-sympathizing Chicago Defender with Vernon Jarrett, who just happened to later become the father-in-law of Iranian-born leftist Valerie Jarrett, who Obama just happened to choose as his closest White House advisor, and who just happened to have been CEO of Habitat Company, which just happened to manage public housing in Chicago, which just happened to get millions of dollars from the Illinois state legislature, and which just happened not to properly maintain the housing—which eventually just happened to require demolition.

Valerie Jarrett also just happened to work for the city of Chicago, and just happened to hire Michelle LaVaughan Robinson (later Obama), who just happened to have worked at the Sidley Austin law firm, where former fugitive from the FBI Bernardine Dohrn also just happened to work, and where Barack Obama just happened to get a summer job.

Bernardine Dohrn just happened to be married to William Ayers, with whom she just happened to have hidden from the FBI at a San Francisco marina, along with Donald Warden, who just happened to change his name to Khalid al-Mansour, and Warden/al-Mansour just happened to be a mentor of Black Panther Party founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale and a close associate of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, and al-Mansour just happened to be financial adviser to a Saudi Prince, who just happened to donate cash to Harvard, for which Obama just happened to get a critical letter of recommendation from Percy Sutton, who just happened to have been the attorney for Malcolm X, who just happened to know Kenyan politician Tom Mboya, who just happened to be a close friend of Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., who just happened to meet Malcolm X when he traveled to Kenya.

Obama, Sr. just happened to have his education at the University of Hawaii paid for by the Laubach Literacy Institute, which just happened to have been supported by Elizabeth Mooney Kirk, who just happened to be a friend of Malcolm X, who just happened to have been associated with the Nation of Islam, which was later headed by Louis Farrakhan, who just happens to live very close to Obama’s Chicago mansion, which also just happens to be located very close to the residence of William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who just happen to have been occasional baby-sitters for Malia and Natasha Obama, whose parents just happen not to mind exposing their daughters to bomb-making communists.

After attending Occidental College and Columbia University, where he just happened to have foreign Muslim roommates, Obama moved to Chicago to work for the Industrial Areas Foundation, an organization that just happened to have been founded by Marxist and radical agitator Saul “the Red” Alinsky, author of Rules for Radicals, who just happened to be the topic of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s thesis at Wellesley College, and Obama’s $25,000 salary at IAF just happened to be funded by a grant from the Woods Fund, which was founded by the Woods family, whose Sahara Coal company just happened to provide coal to Commonwealth Edison, whose CEO just happened to be Thomas Ayers, whose son William Ayers just happened to serve on the board of the Woods Fund, along with Obama.

Obama also worked on voter registration drives in Chicago in the 1980s and just happened to work with leftist political groups like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and Socialist International (SI), through which Obama met Carl Davidson, who just happened to travel to Cuba during the Vietnam War to sabotage the U.S. war effort, and who just happened to be a former member of the SDS and a member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, which just happened to sponsor a 2002 anti-war rally at which Obama spoke, and which just happened to have been organized by Marilyn Katz, a former SDS activist and later public relations consultant who just happened to be a long-time friend of Obama’s political hatchet man, David Axelrod.

Obama joined Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC), whose pastor was Reverend Jeremiah Wright, a fiery orator who just happened to preach Marxism and Black Liberation Theology and who delivered anti-white, anti-Jew, and anti-American sermons, which Obama just happened never to hear because he just happened to miss church only on the days when Wright was at his “most enthusiastic,” and Obama just happened never to notice that Oprah Winfrey left the church because it was too radical, and just happened never to notice that the church gave the vile anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan a lifetime achievement award.

Although no one had ever heard of him at the time, Obama just happened to receive an impossible-to-believe $125,000 advance to write a book about race relations, which he just happened to fail to write while using the cash to vacation in Bali with his wife Michelle, and despite his record of non-writing he just happened to receive a second advance, for $40,000, from another publisher, and he eventually completed a manuscript called Dreams From My Father, which just happened to strongly reflect the writing style of William Ayers, who just happened to trample on an American flag for the cover photograph of the popular Chicago magazine, which Obama just happened never to see even though it appeared on newsstands throughout the city.

Obama was hired by the law firm Miner, Banhill and Galland, which just happened to specialize in negotiating state government contracts to develop low-income housing, and which just happened to deal with now-imprisoned Tony Rezko and his firm Rezar, and with slumlord Valerie Jarrett, and the law firm’s Judson Miner just happened to have been a classmate of Bernardine Dohrn, wife of William Ayers.

In 1994 Obama represented ACORN and another plaintiff in a lawsuit against Citibank for denying mortgages to blacks (Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Federal Savings Bank), and the lawsuit just happened to result in banks being blackmailed into approving subprime loans for poor credit risks, a trend which just happened to spread nationwide, and which just happened to lead to the collapse of the housing bubble, which just happened to help Obama defeat John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.

In 1996 Obama ran for the Illinois State Senate and joined the “New Party,” which just happened to promote Marxism, and Obama was supported by Dr. Quentin Yong, a socialist who just happened to support a government takeover of the health care system.

In late 1999 Obama purportedly engaged in homosexual activities and cocaine-snorting in the back of a limousine with a man named Larry Sinclair, who claims he was contacted in late 2007 by Donald Young, who just happened to be the gay choir director of Obama’s Chicago church and who shared information with Sinclair about Obama, and Young just happened to be murdered on December 23, 2007, just weeks after Larry Bland, another gay member of the church, just happened to be murdered, and both murders just happened to have never been solved. In 2008 Sinclair held a press conference to discuss his claims, and just happened to be arrested immediately after the event, based on a warrant issued by Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, who just happens to be the son of Joe Biden.

In 2003 Obama and his wife attended a dinner in honor of Rashid Khalidi, who just happened to be a former PLO operative, harsh critic of Israel, and advocate of Palestinian rights, and who Obama claims he does not know, even though the Obamas just happened to have dined more than once at the home of Khalidi and his wife, Mona, and just happened to have used them as occasional baby-sitters. Obama reportedly praised Khalidi at the decidedly anti-Semitic event, which William Ayers just happened to also attend, and the event Obama pretends he never attended was sponsored by the Arab American Action Network, to which Obama just happened to have funneled cash while serving on the board of the Woods Fund with William Ayers, and one speaker at the dinner remarked that if Palestinians cannot secure a return of their land, Israel “will never see a day of peace,” and entertainment at the dinner included a Muslim children’s dance whose performances just happened to include simulated beheadings with fake swords, and stomping on American, Israeli, and British flags, and Obama allegedly told the audience that “Israel has no God-given right to occupy Palestine” and there has been “genocide against the Palestinian people by (the) Israelis,” and the Los Angeles Times has a videotape of the event but just happens to refuse to make it public.

In the 2004 Illinois Democrat primary race for the U.S. Senate, front-runner Blair Hull just happened to be forced out of the race after David Axelrod just happened to manage to get Hull’s sealed divorce records unsealed, which just happened to enable Obama to win the primary, so he could face popular Republican Jack Ryan, whose sealed child custody records from his divorce just happened to become unsealed, forcing Ryan to withdraw from the race, which just happened to enable the unqualified Obama to waltz into the U.S. Senate, where, after a mere 143 days of work, he just happened to decide he was qualified to run for President of the United States.

Obama just happened to save $300,000 on the purchase of a $1.65 million Chicago mansion for which he deposited only $1,000 in earnest money, while the seller’s adjacent empty lot which was appraised at no more than $500,000 just happened to be sold at the inflated price of $625,000 to Rita Rezko, who just happened to earn only $37,000 per year working for Cook County government, and who just happened to be married to Tony Rezko, who just happened to be Obama’s main money man for his political campaigns, and who only days before the Obama mansion purchase just happened to obtain a $3.5 million loan from wealthy Iraqi Nadhmi Auchi, who just happened to have been kicked out of Iraq, and who just happened to have been convicted of corruption charges in France, and who just happened to ask Rezko to ask then-U.S. Senator Obama to help him obtain a visa to travel to the United States.

Rita Rezko just happened to borrow the money for the $625,000 empty lot from the Mutual Bank of Harvey, which just happened to be run by Tony Rezko’s pal Amrish Mahajan, whose wife Anita just happened to have been charged with fraudulently receiving $2 million in Illinois taxpayer dollars for drug tests never performed by her company, K. K. Bio-Science, which just happened to have a no-bid contract with the state, and whose computers just happened to disappear right before investigators arrived to take them away for evidence.

Obama just happened to obtain a $1.32 million mortgage for his mansion even though the payments of $8,000 per month (plus at least $1,500 per month in property taxes) exceeded 50 percent of his $162,100 U.S Senate salary income, and even though Michelle Obama was claiming that she and her husband were still paying off substantial student loans and were struggling to pay for piano lessons for their daughters, one of whom just happens to look remarkably like one of the daughters of Malcolm X.

Obama just happened to obtain his mansion mortgage from Northern Trust Bank, whose Board of Directors just happened to include Susan Crown, who just happened to be part of the wealthy Crown family, which just happened to donate to Obama’s campaigns, and which just happened to have ownership in defense contractor General Dynamics Corporation, and the Crown family just happened to sit on the board of energy company Exelon, formerly known as Commonwealth Edison, which just happened to have had Thomas Ayers as its CEO, and the Crown family also owned the Maytag appliance company, which just happened to move its operations to Mexico, after its employees just happened to donate to Obama’s campaign, after he just happened to pledge that he would keep their jobs in Galesburg, Illinois.

In June 2005, just months after Obama became a U.S. Senator, Michelle Obama just happened to be named a “non-executive director” of the board of TreeHouse Foods, a supplier of Wal-Mart, for a salary of $51,200 in 2005 and $101,083 in 2006, and she just happened to be given 7,500 TreeHouse stock options, worth approximately $72,375, even though she just happened to know nothing about the private sector or running a business.

In 2006 Obama pushed for a $1 million earmark for the University of Chicago, and his wife Michelle just happened to be promoted to Vice-President of Community and External Affairs for the hospitals with a salary increase from $121,900 to $316,962, and she just happened to receive public relations help from Obama’s political strategist David Axelrod, whose mother just happened to write for a communist newspaper.

In 2006 Sarah P. Herlihy, an associate of the Chicago law firm of Kirkland and Ellis, whose employees later contributed $87,722 to Obama’s presidential campaign, and whose partner Bruce I. Ettleson just happened to be a member of Obama’s campaign finance committee, just happened to write a paper calling for the elimination of the “natural born citizen” requirement in the U.S. Constitution.

Obama just happened to visit Kenya in 2006 to support his cousin, Raila Odinga, a Muslim socialist candidate for president, who just happened to have ties to both al-Qaeda and Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, and who just happened to have been educated in communist East Germany, and who just happened to name his son Fidel, and who just happened to plan on establishing Shari’ah Muslim law in Kenya, and whose activities prompted the Kenyan government to lodge an official protest of Obama’s passport abuse and misconduct, and Obama’s actions just happened to have been denounced by the U.S. State Department as being in direct opposition to U.S. National Security, and after Odinga, for whom Obama just happened to have raised $950,000, lost the election, his Muslim followers just happened to burn Christian women and children alive in a church where they had sought refuge.

In 2006 Obama endorsed Alexi Giannoulias in his race for Illinois State Treasurer and stated that he is “…one of the most outstanding young men I could ever hope to meet”—even though Giannoulias just happened to be only 29 years old and even though his family’s Broadway Bank just happened to finance Chicago crime figures like Michael “Jaws” Giorango, a Chicago thug with convictions for bookmaking and promoting prostitution, and even though virtually all of Chicago’s Democrat politicians were keeping their distance from Giannoulias, whose reputation was so questionable he even failed to get the endorsement of the Chicago Democrat Party—which just happens to almost never be concerned about questionable reputations.

Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, once worked for the Ford Foundation’s Asia program, which just happened to be run by Peter Geithner, who just happened to be the father of Timothy Geithner, who just happened to neglect to pay Social Security taxes on much of his income, which just happened to somehow qualify him to be Obama’s Treasury Secretary.

During the 2008 campaign Obama’s passport records just happened to have been illegally searched by an employee of a firm headed by John O. Brennan, and Lt. Quarles Harris, Jr., who was cooperating with federal investigators in connection with the incident, just happened to be found with a bullet in his head, and the murder just happened never to be solved, and Obama later just happened to make Brennan his terrorism and intelligence advisor.

On election night in 2008 in Chicago’s Grant Park, Obama just happened to wear a black suit and a red tie, and his older daughter just happened to wear a red dress, and his younger daughter just happened to wear a stark black dress, and his wife Michelle just happened to wear an arguably unattractive black dress that appeared to have a giant red X design, which just happened to prompt some to wonder if their clothing just happened to denote black power, communism, and Malcolm X, and at the very least prompted others to wonder why anyone would have his daughter wear a jet-black dress for a celebratory occasion—or where one could even just happen to find a store that sells black dresses for little girls.

From election night forward there are hundreds of other “just happeneds,” not the least of which is the long-form birth certificate released by Obama in April 2011 which just happened to consist of multiple image layers, including various objects which can be separated and rotated with computer software—which just happens to be impossible if a birth certificate is merely scanned and not computer-constructed by a forger.

I could go on… but you get the idea.

P.S. If Obama just happens to win reelection on November 6, remember that hyperinflation just happens to be the inescapable consequence of printing trillions of dollars to cover massive government deficits.

http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/2012/10/can-it-all-be-coincidence.html

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Democrats Kick God to the Curb Removing Him from the Democratic National Convention 2012 Platform

Hat tip to The Blaze for this report

Dems Remove All References to ‘God’ From 2012 Party Platform

The Democratic Party may be getting a fair amount of attention this week — and not only because the political movement is hosting its national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Another point of focus has already been the contents — or the lack thereof — present in the 2012 Democratic Party Platform.

Earlier today, we told you that the document fails to mention Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a proclamation that was previously touted by the party. And now, in an even more shocking revelation, CBN News is reporting that the Democrats have removed mentions of “God” from the document as well.

(RELATED: ‘Godless’: Sen. Durbin Lashes Out at Fox Host Who Called Him Out Over Dems Removing ‘God’ From Platform)

This is a departure from the past. In 2008, the platform read (emphasis added), “We need a government that stands up for the hopes, values, and interests of working people, and gives everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.”

With the words “God-given” removed, the 2012 platform sticks to a more secular script: “We gather to reclaim the basic bargain that built the largest middle class and the most prosperous nation on Earth – the simple principle that in America, hard work should pay off, responsibility should be rewarded, and each one of us should be able to go as far as our talent and drive take us.”

In the end, the Democratic platform doesn’t mention the words “God” or “Lord” even one time. In contrast, the GOP platform mentions God 12 times. A simple comparison to past years’ platforms shows a disparity. In 2008, the Democrats had only one mention (the aforementioned ”God-given”), but in 2004, God was mentioned seven times.

But, as CBN’s David Brody notes, the Democratic document isn’t entirely devoid of religious sentiment. A portion discusses the notion that faith has always “been a central part of the American story, and it has been a driving force of progress and justice throughout our history.”

Below, read the remainder of the Democratic platform’s views on faith:

“We know that our nation, our communities, and our lives are made vastly stronger and richer by faith and the countless acts of justice and mercy it inspires. Faith-based organizations will always be critical allies in meeting the challenges that face our nation and our world – from domestic and global poverty, to climate change and human trafficking.

People of faith and religious organizations do amazing work in communities across this country and the world, and we believe in lifting up and valuing that good work, and finding ways to support it where possible. We believe in constitutionally sound, evidence-based partnerships with faith-based and other non-profit organizations to serve those in need and advance our shared interests. There is no conflict between supporting faith-based institutions and respecting our Constitution, and a full commitment to both principles is essential for the continued flourishing of both faith and country.”

While faith communities being given credit for embracing “justice and mercy,” it’s quite odd to see that the word “God” — a central tenet in most areas of American life, including the political, is absent.

(H/T: CBN’s David Brody)

Carousel image courtesy of Shutterstock.com.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/dems-remove-all-references-to-god-from-2012-party-platform/

So there you have it!

The Democrats have replaced God with Obama’s Big Government

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Related articles

• Unreal… Democrats Drop “God” From Party Platform (thegatewaypundit.com)

The Ignorance of the Obama Voters Continues: Come November were going to “Kick the Can” up their Asis

Sampling of 2008 Obama Voters

Sampling of 2012 Obama Voters

Obama Voters, were coming November 6th

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