Arlington - a song by Trace Atkins and a place Obama won't visit today, as he is too busy creating jobscutting the deficitcapping the BP oil leak on vacation.
We don't need a disgrace of a president; a self-centered communist-inspired liberal; an anti-military community organizer to lay a wreath for us to celebrate the sacrifices of the nation's best. So we'll proceed as we always do and celebrate with family and friends.
When the campaigns hit full speed in 2012 and Obama lists all of his accomplishments, we'll say the following:
Ya, but you blew off Arlington on Memorial Day 2010.
In Obama's defense, he might not have been up to the stark contrast in an election year:
Here is a solid video from the Tea Partiers in San Francisco. It includes commies and survivors of communism.
From the comments at the Moonbattery post, poster KHarn:
Since the trolls are too gutless to debate this sort of topic, I'll speak for them
"But this time it'll work because we have the best and the brightest!" "That's all McCarthyite propiganda!" "You're too STOOOPID to understand!" "We're going to make the world a better place!" "You STOOOPID rednecks are too ignorant to understand the nuances of socialism!" "We should at least TRY it!" "You're all brainwashed by the corporations! "RACIST NEO-CONS!"
Before Reagan, the biggest threat to the Soviet Union occurred on June 22, 1941 when Hitler's 3-million man blitzkrieg crossed into Soviet territory. Stalin had his #2, Molotov, announce the invasion to the public while he disappeared to his dacha.
Having ignored his advisors, his spies and his generals, Stalin failed in his most important responsibility to protect the Soviet peoplemotherland Politburo. Since the non-aggression pact with Hitler in August 1939, Stalin had adopted a policy of appeasement with Germany. Even letting Luftwaffe to conduct reconnaissance flights over Soviet territory. The non-aggression pact was the first - and last - international treaty that the Soviets, and Russians thereafter, ever complied with.
When his advisors found him, Stalin thought they had come to arrest him. Luckily, Stalin's selection of spineless yes-men created a situation where his vacuous leadership was better than any other available option.
Stalin preferred the 'leadership' of setting quotas for citizen executions or relocations to the Gulag. He also applied his quota-setting interests to agriculture and industry, but the only quotas ever met had to do with human liquidation and labor. In the end, Stalin made the wise choice of putting his full faith into Zhukov and his other generals while his opponent micro-managed the German effort. In other words, Stalin was most effective when he removed himself from the most important decisions in dealing with the crisis.
On April 22, 2010 - 40 days ago - the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon off-shore rig caught fire. 11 workers were killed and several thousand barrels of oil have flowed into the Gulf every day since. The state beaches, fishing operations and other economic and environment interests are now threatened in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.
Since the explosion, BP has executed several significant operations in an effort to cap the well. President Obama went on vacation.
Actually, he's gone on vacation twice. 4 golf games. Two fund-raisers. PolitiPage has a full list of his activities during the oil leak.
President Obama prefers the 'leadership' of agitation and redistribution. Solving the oil leak doesn't translate into the defeat of Republicans nor the nationalization of another corporation. Directing military and other government resources to the Gulf on day one would not have advanced the Obama agenda of division and intimidation, but would have instead made Obama a partner in the effort where he would share responsibility. The spin says he's been involved all along. For some, spin is leadership.
A video by those opportunistic Republicans:
Hey - We're not saying ideology translates into leadership ability. We've worked with and for liberals who led with purpose and integrity.
We are saying there are those who retreat from responsibility. Who are leaders of convenience rather than leaders of conscience.
Obama ran on the unquestioned premise that he would be more responsible that Bush. He would be Bush, but 'better'. He ran without a record and 52% of Americans bought it. He has failed at every major initiative and crisis since.
Our new box of Camacho SLR's arrived yesterday, and we didn't waste any time setting one on fire.
We are finishing Lenin, Stalin and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe. What a great read. Our sincere thanks to Professor Robert Gellately for making the effort to tell the horrid story of pure, unhinged evil that was the Nazi and the Soviets systems.
Page 390 - a Byelorussian's regret for not seeing the Soviets for what they were:
When I ask myself why it is that in a very short time there remained no advocates of the Soviet system and - except for an entirely isolated group of men who were like a small island in the sea - no one who would not like a return to the prewar era, my answer is clear. Not because the prewar order (under Poland) was so good that we desired no change. Not because we could not live through a cold and hungry winter... The true reason is that no one was any longer master in his own home. Somebody had put a gag in our mouth, and spoken in our name. Somebody had intruded upon our life, and begun to boss us, and to push us around at his own will.
China's Foreign Ministry again sought to play a neutral role between the two Koreas. "We hope all parties will exercise restraint, remain cool-headed and appropriately handle issues concerned ...and prevent escalation of the event," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said. "We always believe that we should adopt a fair and objective perspective in dealing with international issues on the merits of the situation. That principle applies to the handling of the Cheonan incident."
Get that? China is "neutral" about their ally sinking a South Korean ship and killing 46 sailors.
"The Chinese recognize the gravity of the situation we face," Mrs. Clinton said. "The Chinese understand the reaction by the South Koreans, and they also understand our unique responsibility for the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."
The North torpedos a South Korean warship, and peace is the responsibility of the.... US. Keeping up?
Mrs. Clinton said the State Department is continuing to review whether to relist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. The Bush administration removed Pyongyang from its list in 2008, easing some economic sanctions, in a bid to underpin disarmament talks.
Let's recap. 46 South Korean sailors murdered. South Korea is a US ally. The US Secretary of State is "continuing to review" whether to list the communist nation as a sponsor of terrorism exactly two months after the attack. Are the remaining South Korean sailors terrorized?
Would it be considered 'moderate' of us to say we are 'continuing to review' the claim that Democrats are weak on security?
Another note: the WSJ reports the South is placing loud speakers along the DMZ to broadcast "propaganda". For non-communist entities, this propaganda is true information such as "We are eating three meals a day" and "We don't have concentration camps down here".
The WSJ reports that of all the penalties being discussed, the North has only reacted to the loud speakers. The North has ordered its troops to fire on the loud speakers if used. In other words, sanction us all you want, but don't tell our people that we are commie bed-wetting frauds.
UPDATE 2:30pm:Reuters reported an hour ago that the North has severed all ties with the South. The South will have to go elsewhere now to buy counterfeit currencies, pornography, conventional arms and missiles.
The article includes the text of the statement from the Worker's Paradise. Here is a taste:
The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, accordingly, formally declares that from now on it will put into force the resolute measures to totally freeze the inter-Korean relations, totally abrogate the agreement on non-aggression between the north and the south and completely halt the inter-Korean cooperation.
It is time for the Obama Administration to take a hard, long look at the reasons why the North hates the West...
Commanders have ordered a U.S. military unit in Afghanistan to patrol with unloaded weapons, according to a source in Afghanistan.
American soldiers in at least one unit have been ordered to conduct patrols without a round chambered in their weapons, an anonymous source stationed at a forward operating base in Afghanistan said in an interview.
What is going on in our president's home town? Here is a video from Thursday's Social Justice Student Expo at a Chicago Community College.
The "Social Justice Student Expo" was a brazen display of communist and socialist propagandizing and youth recruitment by the far Left, with the full blessings and accomodations of the CCC. Grade schoolers, high schoolers and college students were encouraged to attend.
We weren't big fans of his father, nor do we know much about Rand Paul's policies. But... this guy handles the liberalprogressive communist press like no other.
Hoping the controversy continues until every MSM network gets owned like this!
A video by Rachel Higgs. "Life-long Democrat and former Obama supporter, betrayed by her party and her President, joins the Tea Party to save her Country! Hell has no fury like a woman scorn! Rock ON!"
We are still reading Robert Gellately's Lenin, Stalin and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe.
Page 330 - Hitler:
He identified the Jews with the spirit of Communism. He referred to the famous phrase at the end of The Communist Manifesto (1848) by Marx and Engels, "Workers of the world unite," as "Jewish words." Hitler suggested an alternative motto: "Productive members of all nations recognize your common enemy!"
Say that in today's politically correct environment and our non-productive members (the Main Stream Media and the rest of the Democrats) would call you a "Hitler Lover".
Hitler was half right in his political philosophy and presentation. His two themes in all his speeches as he went from 1% popularity to 97% over a decade of effort were 1) Twisted, Racist and Hateful - 'down with the Jews', and 2) On Target and Dead Right - 'avoid Communism at all costs'. As for his choices for, and execution of, government policies, he was all wrong. Which puts him on the same level as the Communist dictators of the 20th century.
In his address to congress yesterday, Mexican President Felipe Calderon blamed Bush for the mythical increase in assault weapons across the border. He wants the Assault Weapons Ban re-instated AND enforced. He wants the US and Arizona immigration laws ignored. It is this moral buffet style of 'leadership' that keeps Mexico in the ditch along humanity's highway.
To clarify - it isn't US assault weapons going to Mexico. It is the parts that are not controlled by US law such as the rifle stocks and barrels. It is the weapon actions that enable a rifle to shoot automatic fire, and these are manufactured by criminal gangs in Mexico, then mated with the high quality and inexpensive US parts. Someday, hopefully, Mexico will have a leader that targets the demand for these weapons, and the moral bankruptcy that led to their current crisis.
To repeat: Our solution to stop the flow of guns South of our border is to do the following. Build a fence.
Related: Michael Savage offers his opinions on firearm ownership.
UPDATE 11AM: Our former state (CA) representative Tom McClintock responded to the Mexican President's comments:
And Ann Althouseparticipates in the theory that the Obama team participated in the preparation of the Mexican President's speech. So the Obama team gets a foreigner to call for a renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban?
Why conduct townhall meetings if you won't listen to your constituents?
They didn't listen then, but they hear us now.
When will liberalsprogressives communists learn? You are doomed to failure if you must 1) lie to get elected, 2) lie about the motives behind your votes, and then 3) run for re-election?
Next time, instead of cramming a massively unpopular bill down our throats only to find yourselves being voted out, ban elections first. Then vote in all your redistributionistcollectivizationnationalization communist decrees. Duh!
Pennsylvania's Democratic primary did see a longtime incumbent lose. But here incumbency was less important than lack of principle. The defeat of Republican-turned-Democrat Arlen Specter shows opportunistic politicians are rarely trusted or accepted. Mr. Obama's endorsement in ads and appearances didn't save Sen. Specter.
The GOP would be better off if Mr. Specter had won. The weaknesses that became apparent in the primary would have doomed him in the fall. The race now, pitting former GOP Congressman Pat Toomey against Congressman Joe Sestak, will be among the country's hardest fought races.
Maybe so. But having to wait another five months to see Senator Spector lose would have been too long of a wait.
Read City Journal Claire Berlinski's A Hidden History of Evil: Why doesn't anyone care about the unread Soviet archives?
The questions come back time and again, it is true, but few remember that they have been asked before, and few remember what the answer looked like. No one talks much about the victims of Communism. No one erects memorials to the throngs of people murdered by the Soviet state.
Indeed, many still subscribe to the essential tenets of Communist ideology. Politicians, academics, students, even the occasional autodidact taxi driver still stand opposed to private property. Many remain enthralled by schemes for central economic planning. Stalin, according to polls, is one of Russia’s most popular historical figures. No small number of young people in Istanbul, where I live, proudly describe themselves as Communists; I have met such people around the world, from Seattle to Calcutta.
We rightly insisted upon total denazification; we rightly excoriate those who now attempt to revive the Nazis’ ideology. But the world exhibits a perilous failure to acknowledge the monstrous history of Communism.
Related link: Soviet Archives, documents posted online by dissident Vladimir Bukovsky.
In a mistaken identity disaster, the 10 pirates captured by Russian naval forces were not Russian journalists as originally thought.
Apparently the released pirates set sail for home, but without their weapons and navigation equipment. And apparently using the sun or stars for navigation is an optional course in Pirate school.
Ten pirates released from a Russian warship 300 miles out to sea may have drowned, according to Russian officials and colleagues of the pirates, raising fears of retaliation against other vessels plying East African waters.
The pirates were captured last week after they hijacked the Moscow University, a Liberian-flagged, Russian-operated oil tanker sailing off the Somali coast. A Russian warship came to the ship's rescue and apprehended the pirates. But after determining it would be too difficult to obtain a conviction, Russian officials said that they dropped plans to take the pirates to Moscow for trial.
How should we feel about this?
Did Putin's Russia intend on the pirates dying at sea when they confiscated their navigation equipment? If the Russians wanted the pirates dead, why didn't they kill them after their capture? As we understand it, it is within the law of the seas to do so.
Steve Gilbert at Sweetness & Light goes so far as to suggest the Russians actually killed the pirates. Either "over-hydration or lead poisoning." He also adds: "You have to hand it to the Russkies, they don’t spend too much time worrying over world opinion."
As with commies, the only good pirate is a dead pirate. We just wish the US could get the credit.
Fox's Red Eye Greg Gutfeld offers his guess as to what is going on behind the scenes at George Soros-funded leftist bedwetting Media Matters (no link on purpose).
As we prove here every day, mockery is the most powerful weapon when combined with the truth.
Everywhere we look we see RED! The cigar wrapper, the cover of our latest book, and of course, the star.
Who said this? Stalin in 1929, or Obama in 2010?
The past year was a year of great change on all the fronts of Socialist construction. The key to this change has been, and continues to be, and unrelenting offensive of Socialism against the capitalist elements in town and country. This offensive has already brought us a number of decisive successes in the Socialist reconstruction of our national economy. We may, therefore, conclude that our Party made good use of our retreat during the first stages of the New Economic Policy and that we are thus able, in the subsequent stages, to organize the change and to launch a successful offensive against the capitalist elements.
If you are irritable, skip this post. If you don't handle animal suffering well, skip this post. If you want to believe that your rights as an American citizen are intact and want to continue believing so, SKIP THIS POST!
We just saw this at Reason that has our blood pressure up. It includes video. Very disturbing.
We have nothing to add, but we have one question: How many of our police agencies are looking into this new technology?
UPDATE 5.12: This story has gone viral. Here is a 2nd article from the author, Radly Balko, at Reason.
Found at New Zeal, a video comparing the recent Immigration (May Day) rallies to the Tea Parties. More specifically, the saturation of communist propaganda and their recruitment efforts.
Starting at 2:16:
We live under a system of capitalism imperialism. A system in which US imperialism is the most monstrous, most oppressive superpower. A system driven by a relentless chase after profit, which brings horror upon horror, a nightmare seemingly without end, for the vast majority of human poverty and squalor. Torture and rape. The wholesale domination and degradation of women everywhere. Wars, invasions and occupations. Assassinations and massacres. Planes, missiles, tanks and troops of the USA bombarding people in faraway lands while they sleep in their homes or go about their daily lives. Blasting their little children to pieces. Cutting down men and women in the prime of life, or in old age. Kicking down their doors and dragging them away in the middle of the night.
Gosh. We didn't realize things were so bad.
They forgot about:
"Old Testament - real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling. The dead rising from the grave. Human sacrifice. Dogs and cats living together. Mass hysteria!"
The Communist Party USA has endorsed Obama's policies. These people just got free health care. Yet they want to "sweep this [American] system from the face of the Earth". Are they confused? Or was Universal Health Care just the next step in a bigger plot?
President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday slammed the Soviet Union as a totalitarian regime that suppressed human rights, in the most damning assessment of the USSR by a Russian leader in recent years. In an interview with the Izvestia newspaper published two days before Russia marks the 65th anniversary of victory in World War II, Medvedev said the crimes of wartime dictator Joseph Stalin could never be forgiven.
"The Soviet Union was a very complicated state and if we speak honestly the regime that was built in the Soviet Union... cannot be called anything other than totalitarian," he said.
"Unfortunately, this was a regime where elementary rights and freedoms were suppressed."
In addition to the many western reporters who chose not to cover Medvedev's comments, or provide the missing context, were these journalists and Putin/Medvedev critics:
Ivan Safronov, Russian journalist whose 5-story fall at his apartment building was ruled a "forcible suicide". Unfortunately, the story he was working on did not get published - a story about arms sales from Russia to the Middle East.
Or Alexander Litvinenko, who died of food poisoning. More specifically, Polonium 210.
Or Anna Politkovskaya, who died of lead poisoning inside her apartment door.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has the count at 13, or about 1.4 murdered journalists per year in the past 9 years. That's reasonable. Right?
Do not look to the CPJ for a current tally on the number of Russian journalists intimidated. Or for the number of western journalists who embrace the ideology behind these deaths.
We couldn't find the NYT article under this headline. Not unusual - we often post headlines on our home page that are later changed. We imagine there are dedicated staff at each bureau watching the Ushanka.us site for laughable headlines. Such is the cost for operating a leftist propoganda organ of the state disquised as an objective news service.
We found this headline during our search - also NYT:
The beautiful University of Illinois is over their quota for conservative professors with two on record as promoting the idea of America as it was founded. Our three loyal readers already know about Laura Hollis (archive), quoted here often. Last week Professor Robert Weissberg wrote a piece at American Thinker called A Stranger in Our Midst.
He follows many who try to affix a label to President Obama, and does better than most. We've been consistent to our label - Communist Inspired. Others have argued for or against: Marxist, Socialist, Statist, Fascist, and other 'ists', all with varied success. Professor Weissberg shares his frustration trying to find the right label. His struggle has paid off with a unique take:
As the Obama administration enters its second year, I -- and undoubtedly millions of others -- have struggled to develop a shorthand term that captures our emotional unease. Defining this discomfort is tricky. --- After auditioning countless political terms, I finally realized that the Obama administration and its congressional collaborators almost resemble a foreign occupying force, a coterie of politically and culturally non-indigenous leaders whose rule contravenes local values rooted in our national tradition.
He supports his thesis with the following points: Obama's Associations, Appointments, the Apology Tours, the Bowing, the Spending, the support for Illegal Immigration, and the "Collapse or Trust" in the government. He concludes:
Perhaps the clearest evidence for this "foreigner in our midst" mentality is the name given our resistance -- tea parties, an image that instantly invokes the American struggle against George III, a clueless foreign ruler from central casting. This history-laden label was hardly predetermined, but it instantly stuck (as did the election of Sen. Scott Brown as "the shot heard around the world" and tea partiers dressing up in colonial-era costumes). Perhaps subconsciously, Obama does remind Americans of when the U.S. was really occupied by a foreign power. A Declaration of Independence passage may still resonate: "HE [George III] has erected a Multitude of new Offices [Czars], and sent hither Swarms of Officers [recently hired IRS agents] to harass our People, and eat out the Substance." What's next?
No mention of the GM/Chrysler takeovers, the misuse of TARP and Financial Reform to attack the nation's banks, the impulses to harm private energy companies, or the new enemy of the people - the right wing extremists.
He supported his thesis and made an excellent argument. But there is more, and it leads to analogies to the governing styles of 20th century dictators.
U/T: Rush Limbaugh, who uncharacteristically read the full article on the air. Rush too has struggled with the label issue, and like Professor Weissberg, has made every effort to be fair and defend his ideas.
Not everyone was at home staring at our Obama Cuss Jar trying to figure out how much $$$ it contains. Remember, our contest ends Monday at Noon Eastern. (See post below)
Here are some selected pics from this year's May Day gatherings of the Communists and the Confused:
English Russia posted pictures of the May Day parade rehearsal at Red Square. Are they celebrating the past, or the future?
Berman Post posts pics from the NYC Immigration Rally:
City Square posted pictures from San Francisco. We're not sure this table is only out for May Day events...
The face of the Communist Party USA, The People's World, had this picture on their home page. Remember when commies tried to hide their ideology behind a suit, tie and a smile? Those were the days!
Looking at the Left has a post called Aztlan Astroturf with pictures from the march in Denver. Here is the requisite child pic:
IOwnTheWorld posted this 1:14 video of the march in Santa Cruz that turned violent. Notice the torches, and remember that Tea Party attendees are told not to bring signs that are mounted on sticks, as the sticks could be used as weapons. What gives?
And Michelle Malkin posts several pictures. Like this one, she has the pics that sum up the May Day theme: "We hate America and all it stands for. Down with America. Blah blah blah."
Ushanka Tips to these members of the New Media who provided these objective reports!
: The Age of Social Catastrophe. What a great read. Our sincere thanks to Professor Robert Gellately for making the effort to tell the horrid story of pure, unhinged evil that was the Nazi and the Soviets systems.
