Green Follies Escalate in the Face of Failure

January 20, 2011
By Ed Lasky

Those widely heralded compact fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) turn out to be a bit of dud in the real world.

For years, we have seen traditional light bulbs vanishing from shelves of hardware stores and Home Depots across America. They have been replaced by those screw-shaped things that bespeak the future -- a future of dull lights, money flowing overseas, Americans jobs being terminated, and promised energy savings going up in smoke.

From the Wall Street Journal:

California's utilities are spending $548 million over seven years to subsidize consumer purchases of compact fluorescent lamps. But the benefits are turning out to be less than expected.  Read More

ObamaCare repeal passes the House

Thursday, January 20, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a repeal of Obama's health care reform, voting largely along party lines at 245 to 189 (three Democrats supported the vote). The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid promises to block it from ever coming to a vote there.

Congressional Republicans characterized Obamacare as "job-killing" and called it a "trillion-dollar tragedy." In response, one Democrat compared Republican rhetoric to World War II Nazi propaganda.

Democrats, predictably, attempted to emphasize how Obamacare would "create jobs." Of course it would create jobs: When the system doesn't help anybody get healthy, the number of patients needing disease management services skyrockets, and that translates into job creation in the sick-care industry.

A person could similarly "create jobs" by unleashing an infectious virus in a major U.S. city and seeing how many people line up for emergency care at the hospitals. But that's moronic. "Creating jobs" shouldn't be done on the backs of sick people -- especially when that sickness could be prevented through the application of commonsense nutrition.

Then again, one should never expect the rhetoric of lawmakers to follow any economic logic in the first place. Both war and disease create plenty of jobs. But those aren't the kind of jobs that improve the quality of life for the American people.

The real story behind health care reform:  Read More

Snow closes road to Haleakala summit

Maui News
January 19, 2011

HALEAKALA NATIONAL PARK -- The road to the summit of Haleakala was shut down Wednesday morning because of snow, slush and ice and the roadway, a park official said.

Visitors were being stopped at the park headquarters at 7,000 feet, which remained open as of 10 a.m. Wednesday, said Navnit Singh, public affairs officer at the park.

The road closure was being done as a temporary safety measure while park officials monitor the situation and will re-open the road when it is no longer hazardous.

The snow began appearing at the dormant volcano's 9,000-foot level, he said.

"It's not that deep. It's more like a dusting," he said.

The National Weather Service in Honolulu has issued a winter weather warning for the summit and upper slopes of Haleakala until 6 p.m. Wednesday.

White House Insider: Obama Celebrates Shortly After Delivering Tucson Memorial Speech

Published by Ulsterman on January 17, 2011 in World Politics

"I cannot reconcile with that kind of behavior in a leader. There really is something missing in him. Some basic element of humanity."

Author’s Note: These questions were emailed to our D.C. Insider, who then responded. Unfortunately, no follow-up was allowed. We hope to be able to do a follow-up soon. Some information was later edited per request prior to final publication.

Question: How would you rate the performance of President Obama’s Tucson Tragedy speech?

Insider: The speech itself was a remarkable display. Very powerful speech. Perhaps the president’s finest moment since taking office. The things happening outside the speech though left many of us wondering who was in charge of planning the event because that environment was almost a disaster. You were right to call into question the t-shirts. That was in very poor taste. The excuse that the Obama administration had nothing to do with those t-shirts is completely false. Every detail is run by the administration on this kind of event. Every last detail. Also, many who had attended were actually coached to be “very supportive” of President Obama. I don’t agree that this should have been “Obama’s Oklahoma”. The media is trying to make it just that, with the full support of the Obama White House/Jarrett. Tucson was a terrible tragedy. Oklahoma was something much-much bigger than that. I find it more than a bit troubling to hear all this comparison between the two events. And regarding Obama’s attitude on this tragedy. Here is something that you will never hear from the media but that some witnessed shortly after the memorial service had finished. Behind the staging area, Obama gave Michelle a “high five” and shared a laugh with her. So within minutes of seeing what is Obama’s finest moment as president it is followed by one of his worst. It is this easy and always there contradiction in the president that concerns me very very much. He was just thrilled at his performance. That was priority #1 for him. It always is. The motivation for his speech was not to heal following the tragedy, but to further appeal to the public and get their approval of him. It’s similar to that story I told you about Obama coming into the military meeting at the WH. He came in laughing and left early laughing. Maybe a photo of the high five will be released? I was told one was taken at any rate. I cannot reconcile with that kind of behavior in a leader. There really is something missing in him. Some basic element of humanity. Or humility??? Even by DC political standards the human element in Obama seems to be utterly absent. I don’t get it. I don’t understand it. And that scares the hell out of me. So that’s my assessment of the Tucson speech.  Read More

Preserving States' Rights and the Constitution

January 19, 2011
Preserving States' Rights and the Constitution
By Bruce Walker

The disintegration of states is the gravest problem we face. The omnipresent federal government means that Americans can no longer run from tyranny by leaving one state and moving to another. The transfer of power from state government to some nebulous "people" means that we have democracy, a very unhappy form of government.

What can be done? Well, states can propose constitutional amendments without going through Congress. Two-thirds of state legislatures may call a constitutional convention. Although many conservatives fear this approach to amendment, if the terms of the resolution provided that members of the various legislatures themselves were the members of any constitutional convention and limited the action of that convention to approval or disapproval of a single amendment, then the chances of true restoration of states' rights would be solid.  Read More

Our Choice: State Secession or Washington Debt Depression

Ron Holland
1/19/2011

Everyone with any intelligence in the US and around the world knows that there is no way for Washington to manage the tens of trillions in debt and unfunded liabilities short of ultimate repudiation or hyperinflation. Thanks to Wall Street bankers and the Anglo-American financial elite, our ruinous debt-financing Ponzi scheme has also been exported to most Western nations. These politicians have made a compact with the devil in delivering vote-buying programs and postponing the interest and debt reduction to future generations. Watch the cuts and subsequent riots in Greece, Ireland, the United Kingdom and you’ll see just a little of the future for the United States with its faltering world reserve currency status.

The question is, should the citizens and the formerly sovereign states of the United States wait for Washington’s foreign creditors to seize the remaining government and private assets left after our politicians have finished with us?  Read More

Hawaii governor can't find Obama birth certificate

BORN IN THE USA?
Hawaii governor can't find Obama birth certificate
Suggests controversy could hurt president's re-election chances

Posted: January 18, 2011
8:05 pm Eastern
By Jerome R. Corsi
WorldNetDaily

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie suggested in an interview published today that a long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate for Barack Obama may not exist within the vital records maintained by the Hawaii Department of Health.

Abercrombie told the Honolulu Star Advertiser he was searching within the Hawaii Department of Health to find definitive vital records that would prove Obama was born in Hawaii, because the continuing eligibility controversy could hurt the president's chances of re-election in 2012.

Donalyn Dela Cruz, Abercrombie's spokeswoman in Honolulu, ignored again yesterday another in a series of repeated requests made by WND for an interview with the governor.

Toward the end of the interview, the newspaper asked Abercrombie: "You stirred up quite a controversy with your comments regarding birthers and your plan to release more information regarding President Barack Obama's birth certificate. How is that coming?"

In his response, Abercrombie acknowledged the birth certificate issue will have "political implications" for the next presidential election "that we simply cannot have."  Read More

January 19, 2011
Hawaii governor hasn't found Obama's birth certificate yet
American Thinker: Thomas Lifson

Has Governor Abercrombie asked his predecessor for help in finding the document?

In the words of Lewis Carroll, it gets curiouser and curiouser.

Of course, to the mainstream media, all these contradictory statements and a document that somehow can't be produced by the Governor are of no interest at all. Nothing to see here, move along. They will continue to demonize anyone who suggests that it is a bit odd that nobody can locate the actual document recording the actual birth of the President of the United States.

But to anyone with an inquisitive mind, it does appear to be very strange indeed that there would be such a huge problem in locating the document itself.   Read More

Death by Liberalism

January 18, 2011
Death by Liberalism
By J.R. Dunn

Many AT readers are aware that I have been working on a book project for the past several years. I have mentioned it occasionally on this site, more often in the past few weeks as publication drew nearer. Now zero hour has arrived: Death by Liberalism. The Fatal Outcome of Well-Meaning Liberal Policies is available as of today. (Buy it here.) It's the first publication from Broadside Books, renowned editor Adam Bellow's new conservative imprint.

Simply put, DbL deals with the appalling and overlooked fact that liberalism kills. This is no metaphor, no exaggeration, and no mistake. Liberal policies put in place by liberal politicians to achieve liberal goals kill thousands of Americans each year. In the past half-century, liberalism may have killed up to 500,000 American citizens (and this is not even counting DDT or ethanol, which are responsible for a death rate orders of magnitude larger in the international sphere). We have known for years that liberalism is corrupt, wasteful, and futile. Now we know that it is even worse. Liberalism is lethal.  Read More

Why Have a Debt Ceiling?

January 18, 2011
Why Have a Debt Ceiling?
By Gene Schwimmer

Every Passover, Jews ask, "Why is this night different from all other nights?" As Republicans in the newly-minted 112th Congress take pooper-scoopers in hand to begin cleaning the Augean Stables of the 111th Congress, one might similarly ask, "Why will the upcoming debate on raising the debt ceiling debate be different from all other debt ceiling debates?"

The debate will be different this time because this Congress will be debating whether to raise the debt ceiling under the scrutiny of an electorate that is ready to raise the roof if their elected officials fail -- again -- to enact meaningful spending cuts.  Read More

Disinformation Fog Intensifies As Economic Turmoil Develops

Fiscal plague spreading delirium and destruction wherever it touches ground

By Giordano Bruno
Neithercorp Press – 1/18/2011

In the past few years, the concept of economic globalism has revealed itself as quite the Trojan horse; once posing as the next step in the evolution of “free market” capitalism and the savior of third world nations striving for development status, now revealed as a fiscal plague spreading delirium and destruction wherever it touches ground. There is no denying that the economies of the world are irrevocably tied to one another, but until recently, this was always thought of as a “good thing” in mainstream financial circles. Today, the great failings of engineered interdependency are painfully apparent. The EU’s many peripheral nations are dropping one after another like flies in a fog of DDT, rising economies in Asia are bloated with investment capital escaping from debt default in the West, causing impressive levels of inflation, and the U.S. is on the verge of a currency implosion as the Federal Reserve opens the floodgates of fiat in a bid to hide our system’s extreme destabilization and maintain what little international faith is left in our ability to service our rampant liabilities. Globalism has led us to disaster.  Read More

America: On The Brink - Freedom Of Speech In Peril

J. D. Longstreet
1/17/2011
Civil Unrest, Civil Disobedience, Rioting In The Streets Of America To Follow?

The political left in America is playing with fire. As Americans of my generation can tell you our parents warned us many times that playing with fire would get you burned. The left doesn’t know that. If they do—they are choosing to ignore it – at their own peril.

So, allow me to lay it out for the left as simply and as plainly as I know how. I apologize for the condescending manner in which this may appear, but, it seems the only way to get through the thick wall between the unrealistic world in which the left lives and the REAL world, where the rest of us live, calls for measures normally reserved for use with pre-school children.

Here goes: As long as Americans have the freedom to speak their minds openly, there will be, at least, some civility. If American’s freedom to speak freely is taken, or restricted, all hell will break lose and that includes the strong possibility, and yes, even the probability of armed resistance.

As I said, the left is playing with fire. They cannot control it. If they do not back off, it will soon become a raging firestorm that will consume them in its ferocity.

Civil discourse is great. Even uncivil discourse is, at least, discourse. But when the discourse stops, the remaining avenue of expression is — combat. It begins with civil disobedience.  Read More

The War Against The Internet

Brasscheck TV
1/18/2011

Manufactured threats are big business

The US used to focus on making useful things.

Then came a parade of manufactured enemies:

“The Huns” in World War I (a danger to British Imperial ambitions but not to us),

The Axis (which our leading industrialists and bankers funded and armed),

The communist menace (which we also helped create by exaggeration, pointless antagonism, and covert funding)

“Al Queda”, the CIA-created joke which we’ve practically spent more money “fighting” than on World War II

Now in the absence of any credible threat anywhere, the new danger is…Internet users. People with opinions, the technical term for which is now “domestic extremists.”

Here’s how this “war” (big bucks extravaganza) is being fought.

Karl Marx and “Reconstruction”--Yesterday and Today

By Al Benson Jr.

In his rather infamous book “Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution” James M. McPherson has enthusiastically quoted Karl Marx’s remarks about Abraham Lincoln. McPherson was one of the first people I read, years ago now, that openly admitted the Lincoln/Marx political love-fest. He quoted Marx when Marx referred to Lincoln as “…the single-minded son of the working class” who has led his “country through the matchless struggle for the rescue of an enchained race and the reconstruction of a social world.”
The key words here are “reconstruction of a social world.”

You can argue about what Marx meant all you want, but it is of interest to note that when the radical Northern government imposed its program of “change” upon the Southern states after the War, they called it “reconstruction.” A sheer coincidence, many will say. Others with more of a suspicious bent are not all that sure about that.  Read More

Seasonal flu vaccine fairy tale rapidly collapsing as the truth comes out

Tuesday, January 18, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) Like a medical house of cards in an earthquake, the seasonal flu vaccine mythology is collapsing right before our eyes. After months of urging everyone to get vaccinated (and blaming non-vaccinated people for skipping out on their "public health obligation"), UK health authorities announced last week that "healthy people" were to blame for causing a vaccine shortage that they claim now threatens the lives of sick children

As part of this ruse, they even suggested that pharmacies should be banned from selling flu vaccines to healthy people, explaining that healthy people didn't really need them anyway. Read More

1-18-11: Updated timeline of mysterious animal deaths

Tuesday, January 18, 2011
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com

(NaturalNews) Here's an updated timeline of the mysterious animal deaths now happening around the world. Conventional explanations for these deaths now border on the outlandish: A bird die-off event in Romania is now being blamed on "drunkenness," for example.

Here's the updated list through January 14, 2011, in reverse date order:  Read More