Americans Elect: Obama's Third-Party Tar Pit

Via Western Rifle Shooters Association

Anyone with the remotest interest in replacing Barack Obama as America's president in 2012 should take his eyes off Iowa and the boring ups and downs of the race for the Republican nomination.

The real action that may well decide our next president is quietly going on elsewhere, in the state offices that qualify candidates and parties for the November 2012 presidential ballot. You may not have heard much about a shadowy group called "Americans Elect" (it does not disclose its contributors because of alleged concerns that they might suffer loss of business or social contacts, and because it fancifully but only occasionally declares itself to be a 501[c] [4] tax-exempt organization [though it has qualified as a political party for ballot position in multiple states including Ohio, California, Nevada, and Arizona, which should deprive it of tax-exempt status]). But if you haven't heard of Americans Elect, you soon will.

MORE

F-35B Ship Suitability Testing

Via Survival

"The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness."
-- Robert A. Heinlein

The Tipping Point of Climate Policy

The Independent Institute

Verbatim Post

Climate alarmists speak about a “tipping point”—beyond which many ecosystems could not adapt to the effects of increasing levels of greenhouse gases trapped in the earth’s atmosphere. The evidentiary basis of their worries may be weak—the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project, for example, discovered no warming trend after 2000. But the basis for something akin to a point of no return in the realm of what might be called “climate-policy finance” is increasingly evident, according to atmospheric physicist and Independent Institute Research Fellow S. Fred Singer.

“We’re reaching a tipping point—not of the earth’s climate, but of the financial schemes that permanently divert funds from productive activities into wasteful ones, all in the name of ‘saving the climate,’” Singer writes in his latest op-ed. “The results are evident: higher levels of spending, deficits, or taxes; higher prices for energy and electricity and therefore for all manufactured goods; less productive activity; less employment; and more misery.”

Policymakers seem less willing to commit their countries to emission targets like those spelled out in the Kyoto Protocol, which was extended at last month’s Durban Climate Summit until 2015. Russia, Japan, and Canada, for example, have indicated that they will stop playing the Kyoto charade, and even the White House has refused to forward the Kyoto treaty to the Democratic-controlled Senate for ratification. Climate researchers could mitigate the growing public cynicism toward their discipline, but doing so would require that they investigate the huge gulf between temperature data collected on land and temperature data collected in the atmosphere (and from non-temperature proxy sources). Until scientists do this, public cynicism toward climate research will get closer and closer to the point of no return.

What’s Wrong with This Picture: MSM Coverage of Obama’s Signing Homeland Battlefield Bill

The Independent Institute
Verbatim Post

Mary L. G. Theroux

On Saturday, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) a/k/a the “Homeland Battlefield Bill,” (so named because it defines the entire U.S. as a battlefield in the War on Terror), that grants the executive virtually unlimited power to indefinitely detain any American citizen he deems a suspected “belligerent”—at his own discretion, with no evidence necessary. Obama had earlier sworn to veto the law, but of course he’s already shown his proclivity for keeping and expanding every executive power-grab, so it’s no surprise he flip-flopped on this promise as well.

One would think the media would mark the end of habeas corpus with a mention of some sort, but there has been a virtual black-out on this item, akin to its coverage of Ron Paul’s candidacy until he pulled into first place.

An Associated Press item buried in Sunday’s paper did make note of the signing, “President signs defense bill.” Yet the body of the article makes no mention of the law’s granting the president unprecedented, unlimited, discretionary powers, and the caption for the photo accompanying the article reads:

President Obama has concerns about the treatment of suspects linked to terrorism, such as those at Guantanamo.

Take a look: here.

This disconnect between what’s going on and the media’s coverage of it in large part accounts for the seemingly inexorable growth of leviathan. Fortunately, there are now alternative sources of information to the mainstream media, most notably on the internet, more concerned with covering threats to liberty.

Which only then underscores the multiple dangers of new efforts to censor the internet under the guise of copyright protection and other Trojan horses.

Eternal vigilance, indeed.

Wartime Origins of Modern Income-Tax Withholding

Wars have always been the most important occasions for the introduction of new forms of taxation. At the outset of a war the state suddenly needs greatly increased revenues to pay for personnel and matériel to prosecute the war. Although governments typically increase the rates of existing explicit taxes and raise the rate of the hidden “inflation tax” by abruptly augmenting the money stock, these measures often prove insufficient, and other means must be devised to extract resources from the public quickly. One way to capture more revenue is to reduce tax evasion by seizing the people’s earnings before the earners ever lay hands on them. This procedure has come to be known as tax withholding at the source, or simply withholding.

Precedents for withholding U.S. taxes go back as far as the War Between the States, when the Treasury withheld taxes owed by federal employees under the income-tax law adopted in 1862 until an 1864 amendment exempted federal salaries from taxation.

MORE

CBM: Meet Me With Your Black Drawers On

New unconstitutional power grab imminent?

Via The Dorkfish Express

Big Government
Verbatim Post

Senate Republicans have been holding up the confirmation of Richard Cordray to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau until changes to the agency’s structure are made to provide oversight and accountability at the agency. But sources from inside the Capitol tell Capitol Confidential that a recess appointment of Richard Cordray to head the unconstitutional CFPB could come as early as tomorrow.

“We have been hearing consistently from the Senate offices that the President is considering a recess appointment of Richard Cordray along with a slew of other controversial nominees in the brief period between the two sessions of Congress,” a key Senate source said. “Now we are hearing from Senior Democrat staffers that something big is coming tomorrow [Jan 4].”

Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution provides the president with the power to “fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate.” The problem for the president and his liberal allies is that the Senate has not recessed and technically remains in session. However, liberal groups are pressing the White House to invoke the “Roosevelt Option” to stack key government positions with radicals ready to carry out an anti-business, pro-big labor regulatory agenda. The Roosevelt Option is coined from the actions of Teddy Roosevelt who in 1903, in a split-second between two congressional sessions of Congress, made more than 100 recess appointments. In 2012, Congress will need to move from the First Session of this current Congress to the Second Session. Liberals claim the fraction of a second between the sessions is enough to trigger presidential power.

Others are more brazenly calling for the president to invoke presidential powers never before contemplated. Some have even suggested the president declare the Congress in recess, like a tinhorn dictator from a Third World country.

But even invoking the so-called “Roosevelt Option” may not solve the liberals’ conundrum. Sources tell Capitol Confidential that the statute creating the CFPB demands that the director be confirmed by the Senate—not installed via recess appointment—to trigger the agency’s shift from Treasury to the Fed and empower the Director.

But none of the legal or constitutional arguments may matter much. Liberals and the Obama administration appear poised to forge ahead with an outrageous and unconstitutional power grab. And by the time the courts work it out, so much damage will already be done.

So, let’s be clear about what is happening here: The President of the United States is planning to use an obscure precedent to claim that a split second in time empowers him to go around Congress to appoint a director to an agency that has broad unchecked, almost dictatorial powers to regulate business in America with little or no oversight from the peoples’ representatives in Congress.

Such actions by the president would be an open declaration of war on constitutional principles and completely undermine our system of checks and balances. These kinds of power grabs are exactly how Banana Republics are born.

2012 and 'The Choice'

Coordinated Illumination
Verbatim Post

2012 is a time for choosing: The Constitution and Law? or, Rule of corrupt men

The Constitution acknowledges unalienable rights, granted by your creator- It does not 'grant you rights'. You have unalienable rights as a result of being human. We Constituted this government to protect those rights. Any law repugnant to the Constitution is Null and Void. Any government that makes itself repugnant to the Constitution, violates it's foundation, thereby rendering itself Null and Void.

Can a business, a city, or a state decide to infringe on the right to keep and bear arms? No more than they can choose slavery. No Constitutional entity can retain authority by violating the Constitution.

So any city/state "infringing"- Removes the foundation of it's authority, and makes itself a 'domestic enemy to the Constitution'. Such entities are 'without the rule of law' by their own doing. Mercenaries in their employ are without legal foundation traceable to the Constitution. Anyone sworn to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" is duty bound by their oath to defend the American people against these 'domestic enemies'. Failure to stop domestic enemies, or 'just following orders' was not a valid excuse for the train conductors and prison guards at Auschwitz. Nor is inaction valid today in the face of domestic enemies.

Which is where 2012 finds us. On a declared battlefield (NDAA, section 1301, 1302) without unalienable rights enumerated in the BOR. The NDAA terminated our republic, and declares that the country is "without rule of law".

How can any city/state/federal agency declare war on unalienable rights, war on America?
Because they are.
Because no one is stopping them.
Because 'There is no law', only petty corrupt men.
Only tyrants violating the Constitution, and their hired mercenaries.

Each individual chooses, either to bow down and lick their boots and just follow orders, or chooses to stand and demand his own unalienable rights.

The choices are:
a) Prison Guard at Auschwitz just doing his job following orders, or
b) Defend the Constitution against Domestic Enemies, or
c) Keep out of sight and hope the enforcers do not brutalize you too bad (other than robbing you and your children).

2012 is time to start to Arrest and Try for Treason those who are 'infringing' or otherwise making themselves repugnant to the Constitution.

And let's not forget the 'enforcers'. Swearing to support and defend the Constitution, then bearing arms against those same principles is as heinous a form of treason as can be imagined.

Treason has always been dealt with extremely harshly, especially by those who have been betrayed.

2012 is a time for choosing:
The Constitution and Law?
or,
Rule of corrupt men continuing to do as they please, waging war against America?

North Carolina Patriots of ’61: David, Tobias and , Christian A. Bumgarner Alexander County

Christian (or Christus) Augustus Bumgarner was born in Alexander County in 1846, son of Simon and Eliza Bumgarner of Sugar Loaf Township. After North Carolina’s secession in May 1861, Christian’s older brothers David L. and Tobias, both farmers, enlisted in “the Alexander Men” which became Company G, 37th North Carolina Infantry Regiment. The 37th Regiment was engaged at first New Bern and then in Virginia from Hanover Court House through Cold Harbor to Appomattox. Brother David was killed at Gaines Mill in July 1862; brother Tobias died of typhoid fever a month later.

Christian enlisted at the age of 17 in October 1863, joining Company A of the 56th North Carolina Infantry, NCT. This unit was mustered at Camp Mangum near Raleigh in July 1862 under Colonel Paul F. Faison, with further calls for recruits in Rutherford, Mecklenburg, Alexander, Camden, Cumberland, and other counties.

Christian’s company was detailed to North Carolina guard and reconnaissance duty – protecting railroads and monitoring Northern raids emanating from New Bern. The 56th Infantry also saw battle duty as part of General Matt Ransom’s brigade which fought at Gum Swamp, Plymouth, Drewry’s Bluff, Ware Bottom Church, Sayler’s Creek, Petersburg, and the retreat to Appomattox. At the latter the unit mustered only nine officers and sixty-two enlisted men in the ranks.

C.A. married Julia Catherine Daniels in 1867, settling into home in Sugar Loaf. He died at age 84 and is buried in the old churchyard of Salem Lutheran Church. His descendants are still to be found in the Taylorsville region of Alexander County.

(C.A. Bumgarner, John F. Crossen, Confederate Veteran, Sept/Oct 2003, pp. 16-17)

Confederate Marine Corps Rank Charts ++

Via Billy

LINK

"I would like to see the infernal Yankee race exterminated, and only known as a people who have passed away, unhonored and unwept."

1st Lt. John Douglas Fowler
04-23-1862

The only Confederate Marine officer to die on active duty

========

I Am Now An Ex-Marine

========

CHARTS

Confederate Marine Corps Rank Charts

Romney just another latter-day John Kerry

Kerry, what a fake. About as bad as the fake Vietnam combat veteran/fake Indian/fake artist Ward Churchill.

Kerry And His Mystical Khmer Dau (Rouge)

In the end, Mitt Romney is John Kerry without the war medals.

DES MOINES, Iowa — The bumper sticker in 2004 read: “Dated Dean, Married Kerry.”

It was a cocky slogan Democrats eagerly slapped on their Subarus, confident in their knowledge that the reign of that bumbling idiot George W. Bush was about to come to an end because of their own carefully calculated decision to nominate John Kerry.

The sticker was also a wink that, yes, they were old and wise enough to vote for an odious, oily politician. But they were also still sexy enough to have slummed around and dated a big-dreaming, slightly irresponsible, scamp like Howard Dean. He was the rebel without a cigarette.

Anyway, Mr. Dean was a hell of a lot more interesting and inspiring than John Kerry. But there was no way Mr. Dean could win, they said. He was crazy. He was unpredictable. He was unafraid to talk about big ideas that didn’t fit onto, well, bumper stickers.

Democrats so loathed Mr. Bush, they were not taking any chances. No premature elation, ‘mission accomplished’ moments for them. Instead, they bought bumper stickers that said, yes, they married an insufferable buffoon, but they used to be cool and honest and free.

So it is always the problem with calculated marriages. And so it is where Republicans now find themselves.

MORE

Sen. Rand Paul on 3rd Party Run: "I don't think it's a good idea"

Is it time to leave?

Via Western Rifle Shooters Association

I have to admit it; if I were rich I’d have left the U.S. by now. Or I’d at least have prepared a nice little offshore getaway — a vacation place that would be there when the day came that it was really, really, indubitably time to escape.

I’m not a rich person. You’re probably not, either.

Still, we Americans are living in a country whose government (not our government, but some strange occupation force, some junta that seized power when good people and fools alike weren’t watching) has declared its authority either to assassinate us at will or “disappear” us equally arbitrarily.

That’s not tolerable. One way or another, that has to end. It ends either by us leaving or by that government being ended through resistance.

Do you think about leaving? I know there are people here who say, “Never. Absolutely not. This is my country and they’re not going to drive me out of it.” “I’ll fight for it,” some say. “I’ll die before I surrender it to tyrants.”

Part of me understands that and agrees. Part of me, on the other hand, says, “Freedom is my only country and it goes where I go.” Part of me says, “If you have to fight or fear all the time, then by definition you’re not free and never will be.”

MORE

The choice is between the Bank Party and the American Party

Vox Popoli
Verbatim Post

As we all know, the result of the Iowa caucuses will either be seen as a conclusive expression of the voice of the people - if Romney wins - or a totally meaningless manipulation of a minor and outdated aspect of the nomination process that really needs to be changed - if Paul wins. I shall be very surprised if all the belated conservative drum-banging on Santorum's behalf has any impact, but then, it appears to be his turn at the Romney-alternative-who-is-not-Ron-Paul wheel.

But it will be illuminating to see how many Iowans understand that their choice is between the Bank Party and the American Party. The Bank Party, which includes both Democratic and Republican factions, is fundamentally globalist at its core and has no real concern for American interests. Romney, Gingrich, Obama, Santorum, Perry, Santorum, Cain, and even Bachmann are all representatives of the Bank Party. As Ron Paul himself correctly pointed out: “The others represent the status quo, variation of the status quo.”

Ron Paul is the only Republican candidate who actually represents America in its traditional and Constitutional form, which of course is why he is being attacked from the mainstream "left" and "right" alike. And if Iowans decide that they are more inclined to support the Bank Party, so be it. They will receive the government they have chosen, which is to say more war, more government spending, more government expansion, and more rule on behalf of the big banks. If you want the status quo, then by all means, vote for Romney, or Gingrich, or Santorum, or Obama.

As Americans, we are fortunate to actually have been presented with this choice, as most people throughout history have not been given one. Of course, the fact that we have a choice doesn't meant that we won't make the correct one.

If you're a reader of this blog and you are in Iowa, I would strongly encourage you to show up at your local caucus and cast a vote for Ron Paul's nomination. I recommend this because I suspect you may well regret knowing that you did not do so when you had the chance to give the rest of your fellow Americans the same opportunity to make a choice between America and the Bank Party.

Newt Gingrich: slippery as an eel

Borepatch
Verbatim Post

Seems that it wasn't just sitting on the sofa with Nancy Pelosi:

WASHINGTON — American Tradition Institute, a non-profit research institute dedicated to restoring science, liberty and accountability to the environmental debate, filed on Dec. 10 a Public Information Act request with Texas Tech University relating to collaboration on a book, using public time and resources, between “climate” activist Professor Katharine Hayhoe and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

Texas Tech was to produce responsive records by early last week. To date, ATI has not received a response.

Hayhoe, who preaches that human activity is destroying the climate and that Christian stewardship compels acceptance of the ‘climate’ agenda, had been publicly identified as a contributor to Gingrich’s forthcoming book “Environmental Entrepreneurs.” Hayhoe had gained notoriety for urging evangelical Christians into supporting the controversial, costly and according to all computer models, climatically meaningless ‘climate’ agenda. News outlets now report that Gingrich, under fire for his left-of-center views on the environment from presidential competitors and Tea Party activists, quickly deep-sixed Hayhoe’s chapter last week.

So just what does Newt think about climate change, Cap and Trade, and government control over energy? We don't know, and it seems that Freedom Of Information Act requests regarding this are being stymied.

Mexicans confront racism with white, black doll video

REPORTING FROM MEXICO CITY -- Is Mexico's an inherently racist society? Does the culture overwhelmingly favor those with light skin over those with dark skin? And if so, is that a legacy of European colonialism or present-day images in television and advertising?

These are among the thorny questions emerging in online forums in Mexico since a government agency began circulating a "viral video" showing schoolchildren in a taped social experiment on race.

The kids are seated at a table before a white doll and a black doll, and are asked to pick the "good doll" or the doll that most resembled them. The children, mostly brown-skinned, almost uniformly say the white doll was better or most resembled them.

One child in the video with mixed-race features says the white doll resembled him "in the ears."

"Which doll is the good doll?" a woman's voice asks the child.

"I am not afraid of whites," he responds, pointing to the white doll. "I have more trust."

MORE

'Father Christmas' stabbed to death in Tajikistan

Via Atlas Shrugs

A young man dressed as "Father Frost" - the Russian equivalent of Father Christmas - was stabbed to death in Tajikistan on Monday in an attack police believe was motivated by religious hatred, two police sources said.

A crowd attacked 24-year-old Parviz Davlatbekov and stabbed him with a knife as he visited relatives in the early hours of Monday dressed as Father Frost, who by tradition brings Russian children presents at New Year. Russian cultural influence remains strong in Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic.

"We have witness statements that say the crowd beat Parviz and stabbed him with a knife, shouting: 'You infidel!'," one of the sources told Reuters.

MORE

Georgia Court Ruled Against Obama

Breaking CCA News! This morning the Georgia Court of Administrative Hearings denied Obama’s motion to dismiss our ballot challenge. More importantly, the court’s opinion ruled in our favor on all procedural and state law issues, leaving only one thing left to decide: Whether Obama is a natural-born-citizen under the Constitution.

Remember that no court has ever addressed this issue! As you know our argument is very simple. We argue that the Supreme Court has defined “natural-born-citizen” as a person with two U.S. citizen parents, and Obama admits that his father was never a U.S. citizen.

Others have raised many legal theories and asserted numerous facts regarding Obama’s past, his identity, his parentage, and his qualifications to hold office. None of those others have EVER succeeded in having a single court address the substantive issues they raised. Every one of those cases have been dismissed on procedural grounds without considering the substantive arguments at issue. Liberty Legal Foundation will now be the first to appear before a court that has affirmatively stated that it will decide the Constitutional question.

The hearing is set for 9AM on January 26th in Atlanta, Georgia.

As you know, we have similar cases filed in Tennessee state court and Federal court in Arizona. Hopefully the Georgia court will set the groundwork for victories across the country. If any court rules that Obama is not Constitutionally qualified to hold the office of President, it will be a major victory and should make international news. All the motions are located on our website on the Georgia Ballot Challenge page.

Let us all pray that 2012 will finally be the year the courts uphold the Constitution on this critical issue. It is certainly wonderful to start the year with a win!

In Liberty,

Co-Founder, Lead Counsel

LIBERTY LEGAL FOUNDATION

New Year No Limits: World Record Jump (Slow Motion)

Via Charlie Daniels

VA School District Defends Shocking Occupy-Themed Song Performed by Third-Graders: ‘I’m So Happy to Be Part of the 99%’

claiming the children chose and wrote the lyrics themselves.

BS

The ever-vigilant crew at WeaselZippers has uncovered a jaw-dropping incident at Woodbrook Elementary School in Virginia in which third-grade students performed (and school officials claim wrote) a song titled, “Part of the 99” as part of a “Kid Pan Alley” performance in October.

But despite the backlash, Albermale County school district is standing behind the song, claiming the children chose and wrote the lyrics themselves.

The lyrics, which mirror the very same sentiments and slogans espoused by the Occupy movement, have critics up in arms. The highly politicized song, which many believe is intended to indoctrinate children, follows below:

HERE

Rep. Gosar Increases Pressure on Holder “No Confidence” Resolution Introduced in House

Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) recently introduced a resolution expressing “no confidence” in the Attorney General of the United States for his role in the Fast and Furious scandal.

Attorney General Eric Holder has been hauled before Congress multiple times to explain a government operation that led to thousands of firearms going to violent drug cartels in Mexico, and which have turned up at crime scenes on both sides of the border.

Holder initially denied knowing about the operation before admitting that “mistakes” were made, yet he remains uncooperative with Congress’s efforts to get to the bottom of the gunrunning scheme.

The Department of Justice provided some carefully selected information to the House Judiciary Committee, but nothing that would reveal who authorized the multi-million dollar, multi-agency, international operation.

There are “materials we have not and will not produce,” Holder said defiantly in testimony before the committee last month.

In fact, no one within the Department of Justice is being held accountable for approving the operation. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) told Holder during the December hearing that bureaucrats have put the wagons “in a pretty tight circle.”

“The American people need the truth,” added Rep. Sensenbrenner. “They haven’t gotten the truth from what has been coming out of the Justice Department in the last year.”

Holder’s refusal to provide any information regarding who is responsible for Fast and Furious has led many lawmakers to suspect that the Attorney General himself was intimately involved in the operation from the start.

The Gosar resolution sends a strong message to the Justice Department that the government’s reckless disregard of the law will not be tolerated. It will also help to raise public awareness of a misguided government operation that has contributed to the deaths of two U.S. law enforcement officers and some 200 Mexicans.

“It is imperative that the citizens of our nation have confidence in our Attorney General,” Congressman Gosar said in a statement. “After months of evasive answers, silence and outright lies it is time that Congress speak up on behalf of the many people who have or will fall victims to the firearms in the flawed gunrunning operation Fast and Furious.”

GOA, which is rallying Congress to use every means available to hold the government accountable for wrongdoing in Fast and Furious, applauds Rep. Gosar for authoring this resolution.

Click here to contact your own Representative today and urge him or her to cosponsor House Resolution 490, stating that Congress has “lost confidence” in the Attorney General.

My best friend, Brutus the Grizzly Bear

Roundabout viaCousin Colby