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Obama Rides A Tiger He Dare Not Dismount
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*****************

You may not be aware of it yet, but those of us who have been a part of the information media spotted it right away.  I mean, of course, the Democratic Party's full bore initiative to change the name of their latest wealth redistribution endeavor from "Obamacare" to: The Affordable Care Act (or ACA).  The latter is, of course, the OFFICIAL name of the law. But it is better known as Obamacare.  Now THAT is a problem for the dems ... and Obama.

The dems are running scared.  They are past frightened.  They are near panic.  Turns out there are still too many of us old dudes and dudesses around who recognize socialism and communism when we see it and experience it.

You may recall that Obama announced publicly that he LIKED the moniker "Obamacare."  Well, he's having second and third thoughts, these days.  Now, having the name "Obamacare" associated with Obama, himself, and/or the Democratic Party is pure poison.  Not since Prohibition has a law been so unpopular in America.  Heck, in some regions the word "Obamacare" ranks right up there with a cuss-word.  Some, indeed, DO think of it as profane.

With a political massacre awaiting the democrats at the polls in November, they are desperately trying to sever any connection between them and Obamacare.  Problem is -- THEY OWN OBAMACARE.  It is a socialist/communist/Democratic Party program from top to bottom, inside and out.  Not a single republican in the United States Congress voted for Obamacare.  In fact, the republicans warned America that all the "stuff" happening today as a result of Obamacare WOULD, indeed, happen.  Now that it has, democrats are running from it as fast as they can.

I have thought that maybe republicans ought to be sporting bumper stickers that say:  "TOLD YOU SO!" on all their cars and trucks across America.   Maybe a long campaign of ten second TV ads, and some print media, as well.  Just use the words"  "Told you so!"

Seems to me, the task the GOP has before it today is to make sure that Obama and the democrats are unable to disassociate themselves from Obamacare.   Make no mistake:  The Mainstream Media is helping them, at every turn, to forge that separation.  Let's face it -- the MsM is the propaganda wing of the Democratic Party. 

Obama, we are told, is on a multi-day mission to build support among America's young people for Obamacare.  He's desperate to pump up enough support for Obamacare that it will survive, at least, his presidency.  Surely, he knows by now that it cannot survive.  His massive effort to drag America, kicking and screaming, into all out socialism is not going as planned.  As I said above -- there are entirely too many of us "seniors" around who know what socialism does to a country, to a society. We've seen it destroy nation after nation and we want nothing to do with it.

It is said the Obamacare is the largest wealth redistribution scheme to ever be foisted upon the people of America.  It also extends government control to one-sixth of the US economy.  That, dear reader, is government control of the citizens, citizens who THOUGHT they were free.

The remaining three years of Mr. Obama's reign will be defining years for America.  The anger and rage at the government, Obama in particular, is slowly reaching critical mass.  A simple trigger will bring devastating destruction -- nationwide -- if the citizenry of America rises up in righteous anger with the determination to rescue their constitution, their country, and their fellow countrymen from the clutches of the Socialist/Communist/Democratic Party tyrants now holding them in a virtual police state.
There is no way Mr. Obama can separate himself from Obamacare.  He is the face of Obamacare.  But that is not going to stop the democrats from trying to save their savior ...   and in doing so, sacrifice their own political life in the pursuit of that elusive dream of Utopia, the socialist paradise.

It has been correctly stated that liberty rests on five boxes:  the soap box, the ballot box, the witness box, the jury box, and -- when all else fails-- the cartridge box.

It is my opinion that the Obama Regime's fear of the latter of those boxes above is the explanation for the government's buying up all available ammunition on the American market. 

Mr. Obama would do well to remember this statement by Sir Winston Churchill back in 1937:  "Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry."

Consider this:  "As soon as the prince sets himself up above law, he loses the king in the tyrant. He does, to all intents and purposes, unking himself by acting out of and beyond that sphere which the constitution allows him to move in; and in such cases he has no more right to be obeyed than any inferior officer who acts beyond his commission." ( Emphasis by underlining mine) SOURCE:  Jonathan Mayhew A Discourse Concerning Unlimited Submission and Non-Resistance to the Higher Powers (1750); cited from John W
ingate Thornton (ed.) The Pulpit of the American Revolution (New York: Sheldon, 1860) pp. 94-5.

It is said that all President's, during their second term, spend a good deal of their time forming and insuring their legacy.  Mr. Obama needn't waste any time doing so.  His legacy is already assured.   Although the history books will, not doubt, disagree, he will be remembered in the hearts and minds of the "vast majority" of the American people as a failed Marxist tyrant ... a man who would have been king had the "proletariat" not risen up.

As William Shakespeare said in "Macbeth:" "This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, Was once thought honest." (Macbeth (1605), Act IV, scene 3, line 12.)

America has one year -- ONE YEAR -- to pull herself together, and make the determination to purge the government of those adherents to Socialism, Marxism, and Communism.  They must be cast out.  It is America's LAST "last chance."  Election day, in November of 2014, will mark either the last day of a semi-free America or the first day of the rebuilding of our constitutional republic.

Someone, back in the 1770's, once said:  "Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God."  Soon afterwards America was in her first revolution to gain her freedom, her liberty, from Great Britain.

It is time for freedom loving Americans to rise up and let their combined voices be heard across the land.  No American should be silent in the face of tyranny.

As Sole Soyinka warns us:   "The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny."  SOURCE:  The Man Died (New York: Harper & Row, 1972) p. 13.     
Don't allow the MAN in you to perish. 

The tiger upon which Obama rides has grown weary -- and -- irritable.  Soon it will dislodge it's burden. He would do well to remember the old limerick by William Cosmo Monkhouse entitled: "There Was A Young Lady Of Niger."  The limerick reads thusly:

"There was a young lady of Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger;
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger." 

There is a non too subtle message here for all who would ride the American tiger.

J. D. Longstreet

Right after we finished our DIY project, the pink coat, this beauty came back in stock on Asos.com- and I couldn't resist.

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

Newt Gingrich, while not my favorite Republican does a great job of honoring a great man and transformational leader, Nelson Mandela. His question to conservatives, "What would you have done?" is one that I, and probably thousands, it not millions of other thinking people would like you to answer.

You know who you are. Be honest with yourselves, answer the question truthfully. If you cannot see the rightness and wisdom in the words of a former conservative Republican leader of the House of Representatives then you have, IMNHO, lost the right to call yourselves Patriots.

GINGRICH PRODUCTIONS - Yesterday I issued a heartfelt and personal statement about the passing of President Nelson Mandela. I said that his family and his country would be in my prayers and Callista’s prayers.

I was surprised by the hostility and vehemence of some of the people who reacted to me saying a kind word about a unique historic figure.

So let me say to those conservatives who don’t want to honor Nelson Mandela, what would you have done?

Mandela was faced with a vicious apartheid regime that eliminated all rights for blacks and gave them no hope for the future. This was a regime which used secret police, prisons and military force to crush all efforts at seeking freedom by blacks.

What would you have done faced with that crushing government?

What would you do here in America if you had that kind of oppression?

Some of the people who are most opposed to oppression from Washington attack Mandela when he was opposed to oppression in his own country.

After years of preaching non-violence, using the political system, making his case as a defendant in court, Mandela resorted to violence against a government that was ruthless and violent in its suppression of free speech.

As Americans we celebrate the farmers at Lexington and Concord who used force to oppose British tyranny. We praise George Washington for spending eight years in the field fighting the British Army’s dictatorial assault on our freedom.

Patrick Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death.”

Thomas Jefferson wrote and the Continental Congress adopted that “all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Doesn’t this apply to Nelson Mandela and his people?

Some conservatives say, ah, but he was a communist.

Actually Mandela was raised in a Methodist school, was a devout Christian, turned to communism in desperation only after South Africa was taken over by an extraordinarily racist government determined to eliminate all rights for blacks.

I would ask of his critics: where were some of these conservatives as allies against tyranny? Where were the masses of conservatives opposing Apartheid? In a desperate struggle against an overpowering government, you accept the allies you have just as Washington was grateful for a French monarchy helping him defeat the British.

Finally, if you had been imprisoned for 27 years, 18 of them in a cell eight foot by seven foot, how do you think you would have emerged? Would you have been angry? Would you have been bitter?

Nelson Mandela emerged from 27 years in prison as an astonishingly wise, patient, and compassionate person.

He called for reconciliation among the races. He invited his prison guard to sit in the front row at his inauguration as President. In effect he said to the entire country, “If I can forgive the man who imprisoned me, surely you can forgive your neighbors.”

Far from behaving like a communist, President Mandela reassured businesses that they could invest in South Africa and grow in South Africa. He had learned that jobs come from job creators.

I was very privileged to be able to meet with President Mandela and present the Congressional Medal of Freedom. As much as any person in our lifetime he had earned our respect and our recognition.

Before you criticize him, ask yourself, what would you have done in his circumstances?

Here is my statement from yesterday on President Nelson Mandela:
President Nelson Mandela was one of the greatest leaders of our lifetime.

He emerged from 27 long years in prison with a wisdom, a compassion, and a commitment to help other people that was astonishing. His life was a triumph of the human spirit.

When he visited the Congress I was deeply impressed with the charisma and the calmness with which he could dominate a room. It was as if the rest of us grew smaller and he grew stronger and more dominant the longer the meeting continued.

His thoughtful disciplined but friendly and warm personality made him a leader who could define the right policies and the right behaviors.

Nelson Mandela was truly the father of an integrated, democratic South Africa.

He will be an inspiration for generations to come and an historic leader worth studying for as long as people want to learn about greatness in serving others.

Callista and I extend our condolences and our prayers to the Mandela family and to the people of South Africa.

Via: Memeorandum

Washington, D.C. (HNNUSA)- The Republican leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives has temperarily prevailed in withholding a vote on an immigration reform bill for 2013, automatically killing the U.S. Senate bill version in its tracks. A shout out for an American immigrant economic revolution to influence reform for more than 11M of undocumented workers in the U.S.
Time to take action by simply managing our $2.5T spending and buying economic power. Spend and buy only in businesses and ventures that support immigration reform with a path to citizenship. 

Click to enlarge.

1. Although we cannot see it in all its grandeur, we can infer that there was a failure during the dotcom bust. Note the decline heading into 2002.

2. We can clearly see the failure during the housing bust. The data stopped following the blue line.

3. We now have something new. The data no longer follows the red line and it seems extremely unlikely that it will return to it. Those expecting a surge in growth from here may soon be very disappointed.

I'm repeatedly told that there will be no unhappy ending this time though. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.

Quits and openings are only part of the picture of course. I'm not looking at hires or other separations. I think quits offer a fairly interesting take on how optimistic workers can be. I'd say they are way too optimistic right now. That's especially true of recent retirees who became convinced that recent stock market performance can be extrapolated well into the distant future. Good luck on that theory!

This is not investment advice.

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

Day of Infamy: A Lesson And A Challenge
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
*********************************

My personal journey to becoming a conservative began at Pearl Harbor. My philosophy on politics had its birth on the morning of December 7th, 1941.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning in Paradise when ......... ......... .........

Around 8 AM, (70) years ago today, the Japanese swooped in, out of a brilliant blue sky over Hawaii, and bombed the port of Pearl Harbor to smithereens. Much of the muscle of our Navy was destroyed

By midday, over 2,400 Americans were dead, 1,200 more wounded, seven of our finest, largest, and most powerful warships were bombed, torpedoed,  and sunk --at anchor in the harbor -- while even more were damaged, over 300 American aircraft were bombed, strafed, and destroyed or damaged -- while still on the ground -- and a plethora of other ships and military facilities were either damaged or wiped-out completely.

“Four days after the Pearl Harbor attack, Italy and Germany declared war on the United States. German submarine attacks commenced on American shipping in the Atlantic. Germans found easy pickings off our East Coast cities at night, as the blaze of city lights silhouetted merchant ships.

… within the coming weeks, American and British bases and territories throughout the Pacific fell -- Guam, Wake Island, the Philippines, Singapore, and others (fell). For our nation, each week brought a fresh defeat.”  SOURCE:  http://www.eagletribune.com/opinion/x2120612176/Editorial-Day-of-Infamy-was-crucible-that-proved-nations-strength/print

It was a terrifying time.

I was seven months old.

In the next four years, as my consciousness grew, I became aware of all the activity around me. I saw soldiers in uniform. I saw my grandmother crying when the telegram came that her baby boy had been "Killed in Action" somewhere in Europe.

And finally, I remember guns being fired into the air, people running through the streets of our little South Carolina town, hugging and kissing each other. I remember folks saying: “It’s over!” And it was. But it left an indelible mark on my family and an even deeper mark on me.

Those first 4 years of my life, the formative years, were experienced under intense stress. I learned the cost of war right from the beginning stages of my life. I lost one uncle, in Belgium (the Ancestral homeland) another was machine gunned through both thighs and lay in a freezing stream in France, all night, until American troops found him the next morning. The icy water of that frozen stream saved his life. He suffered ”shell-shock” (referred to as "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" today) the remainder of his life. A summertime thunderstorm became an instant German artillery barrage. He would race for cover. The flashbacks were ever with him.

Others of my family were in the Pacific fighting the Japanese. They, too, came home with stories of Japanese Kamikaze planes hitting their ships and, in one case, finding the pilot alive.  For whatever reason, the plane with the bomb attached, did not explode.

When we could get those veterans to talk, which was not often, I was spellbound by the stories of their experience. I soaked it up like a sponge.

You see, I learned, both from personal experience, and the second hand experience of my family members, who were in the hell of the Second World War, what war really is. And, I learned that you have no choice when the enemy brings the war to your doorstep, you must fight back, and you must prevail, no matter the cost.

I don’t suffer fools lightly. My generation shares that quality. Today we have people in our government who are advocating a policy of retreat for the United States in our war against terrorists in the Middle East. It does not seem to matter to those folks that an enemy, which has brought war to our shores, will not quit, and go home, just because we do. They will follow us back to our own country and continue to wage war against us here... in our land.

Had the United States listened to the “doves” after Pearl Harbor, I would most likely be writing this missive in German rather than English. It was that serious then, and it is that serious now.

So, as we think, today, of the men and women who gave everything they had, including their lives, to insure that you and I would have a free country, let us think of the men and women serving today for the same reason.

On December 7th, 1941 the Japanese, and the Germans, wanted nothing less than the conquest of the world. 

But there is yet another war raging in America today, even as I pen these few words. It is a quiet insurrection.   The socialist are pressing their advantage in our government toward their ultimate goal of a Socialist/Marxist America. 

Since that fateful day, 72 years ago, much has changed about America.  Americans themselves have changed.  Seventy-two tears ago Americans knew what freedom was/is.  They understood its value. They inherently understood that it must be protected and insured for the generations to come.  There was no question they would fight. 

On Monday morning, December 8th, 1941, and the week(s) that followed, long lines of young men, and some not so young, formed up at the doors of military recruiting offices.  Some lines were many city blocks long.  All over this nation, Americans stepped up ready, willing, and eager to “do their part” to stop the evil that threatened their beloved country -- and the world.

They joked with each other, while in line, of what they would, personally, do to the enemy.  But beneath the laughter and the irreverent exterior, deep down inside each one of them, lay the cold determination to fight and win, the icy resolve to do whatever it took to protect his home and hearth, and yes, there was that flicker of fear that every man feels when he deliberately lays his future, indeed, his life, on the alter of freedom.

It cannot be argued they were anything less than patriots. 

They fought a war that wrapped around the globe. In four years they fought and won a global war!  Today we wage wars for ten or twelve years, without winning, and finally drag our exhausted troops home.

As I said above, America has changed—Americans have changed.

America’s most dangerous enemy today is a domestic movement to fundamentally change America from a constitutional representative republic to a socialist dung heap.   And the socialists are winning.

America desperately needs men and women of the caliber of those men who formed up outside recruiting offices on December 8th, 1941. 

Our nation is under attack.  Our freedom is under attack, our privacy is under attack.  Our constitution, itself, is under attack.  We, as a county, are in every bit as much danger as we were on the Sunday morning in December of 1941.  But the enemy is not swooping in from some blue, sun bright, sky.  No.  They are already among us, in the top echelons of our government.

More to be feared is the enemy within, than the enemy without.

America was once a nation of lions.  Now American sheep are in abundance while there is a decided dearth of lions.  One could even say: There is an acute insufficiency of leadership for the sheep.

There is no longer time for debate.  That can come, if necessary, later.  Now we must be about saving The Republic.

A few of the veterans of that global war are still with us today.  How their hearts must ache to witness how easily their progeny has allowed America to fall within the grasp of the Socialists/Marxists.

You have to ask yourself… as an American… are you going to stand down, ground your weapon, and allow this evil from the deepest, darkest, depths of hell, to take your country? That is the question all Americans must ask themselves.

The Men and Women (Caps Intentional) of 1941 had to ask themselves the same question. We had better thank Almighty God they answered in the affirmative.

Today, we honor them for it. But they will tell you, those who survive to this day, that there was no real question about what the people of America would do. It was simply understood that freedom was far too precious to allow the forces of evil to take it from us. And so they marched forth to stop it and preserve this country for you and me. And they did!

We can never thank them enough. Not only did they save America, they saved the world!

Are we, as Americans, prepared to give up our freedom today after that generation gave so much of their blood to preserve it for us?

I pray to God that America will finally awaken to the danger that threatens us and take the painful steps, whatever they might be, to preserve this country, and again, the world.

We have one year until we go to the polls again.  Make no mistake:  This is the LAST chance we have to save our constitution, our republic, our freedom, and our liberty.  We MUST purge our government of the Socialists and Marxists who are determined to remake America into a communist utopia.

Today's anniversary of the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor should serve as a reminder that those who went before us knew not only the value of freedom, and the cost of freedom, they were willing to pay the price for freedom for you and me.  And they did it in that which is dearer than any treasure -- their blood.

In the face of their sacrifice -- for us -- are we really prepared to give it all away to the elitist tyrants now in charge of our government?   

© J. D. Longstreet

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny


Nelson Mandela died yesterday at age 95. He was a man of immense integrity who possessed a remarkable character and a great capacity for forgiveness. Wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years by the Apartheid South African government for his opposition to, and activism to end the governments oppression of his people, he later went on to become the first democratically elected black president of South Africa.

President Obama has ordered the American flag to be flown at half mast in honor of Nelson Mandela. A fitting tribute to a man instrumental in ending the oppression of his people. In so doing he left his mark on the world stage and became a inspiration for others who remain oppressed by their government. Nelson Mandela example is one to emulate and the President's decision is one all liberty loving individuals should support. Unfortunately many, and it is mostly republicans, have a problem with the Presidents decision.

TPM - Rick Clark, the sheriff of Pickens County, S.C., vowed on Friday to defy President Obama's order that U.S. flags be lowered to half staff in honor of deceased South African leader Nelson Mandela.

Clark made his promise in a Facebook post to keep flying the flag at the Pickens County Sheriff's Office at full height.

"I usually don't post political items, but today is different. I received this notification today, 'As a mark of respect for the memory of Nelson Mandela, the President orders that the flag of the United States be flown at half-staff effective immediately until sunset, December 9, 2013,'" Clark wrote. "Nelson Mandela did great things for his country and was a brave man but he was not an AMERICAN!!! The flag should be lowered at our Embassy in S. Africa, but not here."

Clark said the flags at the Sheriff's Office were at half staff Friday to mourn a deceased deputy. Clark said the flag would remain at half mast Saturday to mark Pearl Harbor Day. After that, he said, he "ordered that the flag here at my office back up" (sic).

View Clark's full Facebook post below.

For those who might share Sheriff Rick Clark's views find below the reasons for which the American Flag may be flown half mast. Note particularly the italicized red type near the end.

An easy way to remember when to fly the United States flag at half-staff is to consider when the whole nation is in mourning. These periods of mourning are proclaimed either by the president of the United States, for national remembrance, or the governor of a state or territory, for local remembrance, in the event of a death of a member or former member of the federal, state or territorial government or judiciary. The heads of departments and
agencies of the federal government may also order that the flag be flown at half-staff on buildings, grounds and naval
vessels under their jurisdiction.

On Memorial Day the flag should be flown at half-staff from sunrise until noon only, then raised briskly to the top of the staff until sunset, in honor of the nation’s battle heroes.

In the early days of our country, no regulations existed for flying the flag at half-staff and, as a result, there were many conflicting policies. But on March 1, 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower issued a proclamation on the proper times.

The flag should fly at half-staff for 30 days at all federal buildings, grounds, and naval vessels throughout the United States and its territories and possessions after the death of the president or a former president. It is to
fly 10 days at half-staff after the death of the vice president, the chief justice or a retired chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, or the speaker of the House of Representatives. For an associate justice of the Supreme Court, a member of the Cabinet, a former vice president, the president pro tempore of the Senate, the majority leader of the Senate, the minority leader of the Senate, the majority leader of the House of Representatives, or the minority leader of the House of Representatives the flag is to be displayed at half-staff from the day of death until interment.

The flag is to be flown at half-staff at all federal buildings, grounds and naval vessels in the Washington, D.C., area on the day and day after the death of a United States senator, representative, territorial delegate, or the resident commissioner from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It should also be flown at half-staff on all federal
facilities in the state, congressional district, territory, or commonwealth of these officials.

Upon the death of the governor of a state, territory or possession, the flag should be flown at half-staff on all federal facilities in that governor’s state, territory or possession from the day of death until interment.

The president may order the flag to be flown at half-staff to mark the death of other officials, former officials, or foreign dignitaries. In addition to these occasions, the president may order half-staff display of the flag after other tragic events.

The flag should be briskly run up to the top of the staff before being lowered slowly to the half-staff position.

Rest in Peace Mr. Nelson Mandela. Your legacy will live on.

Via: Memeorandum

Police officer in Bangkok disobey orders and put their weapons down in solidarity with anti-corruption protesters. 

Officers who stood by while two men were kidnapped.

The following chart shows the annual change in nonfarm payrolls divided by the population.


Click to enlarge.

This time it's REALLY permanent!

Jaws: The Revenge


Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart