Senators Mel Martinez and Diane Feinstein along with 11 co-sponsors include Barack Obama have authored a bill creating a national finger-print registry according to analysis of the bill. Yet another step towards asurveillancesociety. And another hint of the type of “Change” that Barack Obama will support – fewer freedoms.
See
Heritage Foundation on the issue:http://blog.heritage.org/2008/06/09/obama-among-supporters-of-national-fingerprint-registry/
This was the moment – this was the time – when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals. Thank you, God Bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America. – Barack Obama, June 3, 2008
Yes, if something is great, you typically want to remake it.
The United States Congress has issued a formal declaration of War on 5 occasions:
The United States has acted militarily without prior declaration of War from Congress on at least 125 other occasions, including Korea in 1950, The Philippine-American War (1898-1903), the war against the Apache nation from around 1840-1886, Vietnam.
The “Police Actions” clause, the War Powers Act (1973) and United Nations Security Council Resolutions have been used to address questions of legality.
The Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Day by Cornelius Ryan
Flags of our Fathers
D Day: June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II
1942: The Year That Tried Men’s Souls, Winston Groom
Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, Jonathan Parshall (and Miracle At Midway, Gordon W. Prange)
Ship Of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, James Hornfischer
Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II’s Greatest Rescue Mission, Hampton Sides
In Harm’s Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis, Doug Stanton
Obama claims to have visited 57 U.S. states during the campaign:
… it is just wonderful to be back in Oregon, and over the last 15 months we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in fifty …. seven states? I think one left to go. One left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit but my staff would not justify it.
“If anything, we need higher gas taxes.” – Alice Rivlin, former Clinton White House budget office, now Barack Obama supporter, May 6, 2008
Hillary Clinton and John McCain agree that the Federal gas tax should be eliminated for the summer. Barack Obama advisors argue for a higher gas taxes. Experience shows that one who is willing to raise one tax or not cut taxes is much more likely to raise others.
Hey Rivlin, it is our money. Donate more if you wish yourself. Put your money where your mouth is, or is that too much to ask?
Hyphenated Americanism is not American. Everyone is, in theory, a hyphenated American of some sort. However, we are either Americans or not. From Chinese-Americans, Mexican-Americans, African-Americans. Why is anyone an anything-American? If they are American, the item before the hyphen is unneeded.
In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American… There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language… and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.
Theodore Roosevelt 1907
It is similar to the entire “black-white” garbage of the past. Skin color is unimportant, people are American, if you need to identify the country or human.
April 2, 2008, Harry Reid , U.S. Senate Majority Leader. Clearly Harry Reid is a fool:
[Update: May 1, 2008: here is the video:
]
Jan Helfeld: …if the government is in the business of forcefully taking money from some people in order to provide welfare benefits to others, how will the people whose money is being taken feel about the government?
Harry Reid: Well, I don’t accept your phraseology. I don’t think we “force” people…
Helfeld: Taxation is not forceful?
Reid: Well, no.
Helfeld: It’s voluntary?
Reid: In fact, quite to the contrary. Our system of government is a voluntary tax system.
Helfeld: Oh… if you don’t want to pay your taxes, you don’t have to?
Reid: Of course you have to pay your taxes, but…
Helfeld: The government will force you to pay, or they’ll fine you or imprison you. Won’t they?
Reid: We have a voluntary system. The fact of the matter is, that if when you pay your taxes — you see, in many other countries, it’s not voluntary. For example, in many countries, the government makes sure that your employer takes out every penny. Many countries don’t file income tax returns. Why?
Helfeld: We have withholding here too, don’t we?
Reid: Pardon me?
Helfeld: Withholding.
Reid: With some program, yes. But I’m talking about in some countries, European countries as an example, there… you don’t file an income tax return. There is no need to, because your employer takes all the money out. That’s the difference between a voluntary and an involuntary system.
Helfeld: But can…? Can…?
Reid: You can choose to not pay your taxes, but I don’t accept your phraseology, that you forcibly take money from somebody else and give it to others. You know, that’s the way it is on any program. I mean…
Helfeld: Can the taxpayer…?
Reid: …highway program is the same. We…
Helfeld: Excuse me.
Reid: We take money, we “forcibly” take money in your phraseology, but…
Helfeld: But can…? Let me ask you something.
Reid: …build highways with it, put people in the Army.
Helfeld: Can the taxpayer decide not to pay his taxes if he wants?
Reid: He can… He can not pay his taxes if he wants.
Helfeld: What will be the…? What will happen?
Reid: He’ll be subject to civil and criminal penalties.
Helfeld: They’ll put him in jail — they’ll use force against him. He pays… everybody pays taxes under threat of jail or fines: on the threat of force. In other words, you are forced to pay your taxes. Whether you fill out your form voluntarily or whether its withheld by your employer, you don’t have a choice on whether you can pay taxes that are going to be used for welfare programs — you can’t make that choice.
Reid: Well, but the reason our system is called a voluntary tax system — and I recognize, you know, that ultimately you can’t cheat your taxes, but our… We have many provisions in the law they don’t have in most countries: we have deductibility for home interest on mortgage payment, they don’t have that in most countries, we have deductibility for certain excessive expenses as relates to health — doctors, hospitals — we have all kinds of tax — some people call them “loopholes” but others would call them “incentives for people to do business” — and that’s why… You know, you’re not “forced” to pay certain taxes. There are ways… if you decide to buy a home and…
Helfeld: You can decide not to pay taxes? In the United States?
Reid: I mean, I really don’t understand what you’re trying to get at. If you’re… What… the point of the matter is…
Helfeld: Because you objected to my phraseology. You said that… you say that the government isn’t forcefully taking money from some people to provide welfare benefits to others, and, in fact, that’s what it’s doing, because all taxation is forceful. It’s backed up by physical force. If you don’t pay your taxes, the government will intervene with you forcefully. So you don’t have a choice. It’s not voluntary. You can’t decide not to pay and not suffer consequences. If you don’t pay, you’ll go to jail. So: you’re forced to pay.
Reid: You don’t… you don’t go to jail. Some people go to jail. There are all kind of civil penalties if you don’t pay your taxes: you pay interest and you pay penalties. The fact of the matter is, our system is a voluntary system.
“It’s time for a president who is ready on day one to be the commander in chief of our economy.” Hillary Clinton, March 27, 2008
“I don’t want to run the national economy! I want your national economy runners to leave me alone!” Dagny Taggart, Atlas Shrugged
The nature of freedom is being in charge of your own life. Freedom means freedom in every sense, from the economy to your personal life. A free people do not need a “commander in chief” of our economy. Liberty means you can live on a commune in Wisconsin or a free city in Florida. A free economy implies capitalism. All other statist systems from communism to socialism to fascism, rely on force to take your freedom away from you. The people who say “capitalism does not work” are saying “freedom doesn’t work.”And what they mean by that is they want power over you to force you to change reality for them and make the economic systems based on force work.
There is no middle ground between liberty and tyranny.
Barack Obama describes his white grandmother as a “typical white person.” Can you imagine the outrage if Hillary Clinton described someone as a “typical black person” or a “typical asian person”? What if Hillary said something about Obama being a “typical black man”. Geraldine Ferraro was castigated for her comment about “if [Barack] was a white man” Where is the outrage now?
In part he said: “She is extremely proud, and the point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity. She doesn’t. But she is a typical white person who, you know, if she sees somebody on the street that she doesn’t know, there is a reaction that has been bred into our experiences that don’t go away…”