Don’t use the truth, just use our message.

I know this is not exactly what she meant but in a memo to the Health Care for America Now (HCAN) members on how to prepare to deal with the Tea Party protesters at the town halls earlier this year, Margarida Jorge wrote

Rather than try to reply with the truth (which won’t move them anyway) we should respond with our message

So truth is not really their friend here? Only the message.

Translation “Don’t debate. Just repeat the bullet points we’ve provided”

Which is probably good advice because I imagine they would lose the debate as soon as it got into details on how they planned to provide cheap healthcare for all for free without restriction.

I’m being flippant here, but be sure to read Big Government.com’s analysis which pulls out the real meaty stuff.

My lifestyle is unsustainable!

Nice, climate expert Rajendra Pachauri says

Hotel guests should have their electricity monitored; hefty aviation taxes should be introduced to deter people from flying; and iced water in restaurants should be curtailed, the world's leading climate scientist has told the Observer.

but neglects to mention he personally flew 443,243 miles in the last 19 months. Not to mention the weekend trip from New York to Delhi to attend a practice cricket match.

Of course the real effect of this would make the rich mobile and the poor will eventually be stuck in a 20 mile bicycle radius without ice for their Big Gulps. Wait, what am I thinking? They’ll get carbon offset refundable tax credits of course!

Fighting the Fed

In Ron Paul news the Paul-Grayson Amendment Passes Committee

Congressman Ron Paul (TX-14) is pleased to announce that his and Congressman Grayson’s amendment based on HR 1207 has passed in the Financial Services Committee by a vote of 43-26 and will be included in major banking reform legislation.

The Paul/Grayson amendment:

· Removes the blanket restrictions on GAO audits of the Fed

· Allows audit of every item on the Fed's balance sheet, all credit facilities, all securities purchase programs, etc.

· Retains limited audit exemption on unreleased transcripts and minutes

· Sets 180-day time lag before details of Fed's market actions may be released

· States that nothing in the amendment shall be construed as interference in or dictation of monetary policy by Congress or the GAO

“While HR 3996, if passed, will grant sweeping new powers to the Federal Reserve, at least with this amendment attached, it won’t be acting in secret anymore. This is a major victory for Federal Reserve transparency and government accountability. I am very grateful to Congressman Bachus and all the other Members who were so supportive and helpful in this effort," stated Congressman Paul.

Honey, remember those vows?

Shhhh, don’t tell my wife!

Texas' gay marriage ban may have banned all marriages

(HT: The Agitator)

Its the KSM in NY show!

I was going to write up my thoughts on the whole trying KSM in NY thing but apparently the Czar had his mind reading apparatus pointed towards my little hovel yesterday and did it for me.

Among the thoughts lifted from my brain…

These guys are not American citizens, nor were they arrested on American soil by law enforcement. The right to a trial by jury is a bit of a stretch for “foreigners living abroad,” especially when some of them—such as KSM himself—did not actually commit a physical crime on American soil nor Americans living abroad, but conspiracy to do so.

The President, through his AG, basically thinks that if the case is strong enough against someone in his own judgment, the Constitutional presumption of innocence need not apply.

Of course the whole line of reason to give him a trial based on “we can do it because we know he’s guilty and will be convicted” is just downright offensive. You either give him the traditional trial or not and you do not base that decision on how likely you think a conviction will be.

Honest ACORNs!

They found one! Congratulations Felix Harris! You are the only person an ACORN office who refused to help the two investigative reporters posing as a pimp and prostitute looking for housing to help run an underage prostitution ring.

Although Mr. Felix D. Harris of Los Angeles ACORN told us he didn’t care about our prostitution business in regards to a housing loan, he drew the line when we spoke about the underage girls.  Although he did not kick us out, he was the only employee in our nationwide ACORN child prostitution investigation who would not assist us.

of course with accompanying video

(From Big Government)

Oh, I’m just a bill (nitpick)

I recently heard the old favorite I’m Just a Bill from Schoolhouse Rock and maybe its just the riled up libertarian in me, but this struck me as odd. The part where they describe how the whole process starts says

Bill: Well I got this far. When I started, I wasn't even a bill, I was just an idea. Some folks back home decided they wanted a law passed, so they called their local Congressman and he said, "You're right, there oughta be a law." Then he sat down and wrote me out and introduced me to Congress

The accompanying image is

The problem is that this is clearly not the purview of Congress. Local school bus traffic laws don’t really fall anywhere under any section of the Constitution.

But maybe what everyone should go watch (many for the first time) is a little known song from the same series called Tyrannosaurus Debt (lyrics only here)

In Sheep’s Clothing

Exactly ‘Puter! That's what I’ve been saying too.

Once the government starts paying for your health care, any of your activities that have any tangential impact on your health, or that of your children, can be regulated. And that, even moreso than the exorbitant price tag, is the lurking disaster in ObamaCare.

Let’s forget that much of it is patently unconstitutional and that, long term, it will destroy the country through massive deficits. This is the single biggest danger to the whole thing.

Is Islam inherently violent?

It doesn’t matter! As of of The Corner’s readers so astutely points out

It is entirely irrelevant if Violent Islam is the true Islam, a fake one, or a fringe element. What is important is that it's followers be killed or disabled, one way or the other. There is no converting these people, trust me.

btw – be sure to go read the whole letter

How Bush and Obama’s foreign policies are the same?

I forgot to mention this a few days ago, but I thought this was a particularly interesting analysis of general US foreign interest strategy.

Obama and the U.S. Strategy of Buying Time

He makes an interesting argument that the policies are not really all that different and are specifically American, they are just at different phases of the same set of steps/choices that we always go through – although Obama may be trying to backtrack to a previous step in some instances.

Capitalism as The Wall fell

Since today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I am reminded of the story a German friend of mine related to me. He was living in West Berlin at the time with his parents. Once they saw on television that the wall was literally coming down and people were taking pieces of it as souvenirs, his mother decided it would be a good idea to have one. So she sent my friend and his father begrudgingly down to the wall in order to hack off a piece for posterity.

The two of them realized this was not necessarily going to be an easy task and involved more physical labor than either cared to provide at the moment. (Remember this is a serious wall designed to keep people at bay for years) Fortunately, once they got down there an enterprising young man had already done the work and had set up a table in front of the wall selling pieces of the wall. They decided to just pay the man and took a piece home and never told his mother where they got it.

When given the opportunity, people will find a way to provide services that benefit everyone involved in the transaction.