Tough on National Security

Not.

Found this white flag cartoon at Andrea's site.

Paul Broun

Georgia Congressman Paul Braoun says Obama believes in Socialism rather than our Constitution.

Saying it shows he's paying attention.

Tweeting it shows his concerns for the country.

Standing by his Tweet on CBS earns the congressman a Tribute post at Ushanka.us. Priceless!



U/T: Comrade Dale

In Commie News

Cuba

Venezualian commie dictator is recovering from abdominal surgery in the glorious healthcare paradise of Cuba. WSJ:

Stratfor, a private intelligence company, says it believes Mr. Chávez has twice been operated on for prostate cancer. The first time, Stratfor says, took place in Caracas in May, when the president unexpectedly canceled a planned trip to Brazil. Citing a "source with a link to the president's medical team," it said the second operation took place in Havana on June 10 when Cuban doctors discovered that the tumor had spread to Mr. Chávez's pelvis. Since then, Stratfor says, Mr. Chávez has been "heavily medicated and in a great deal of pain."

Fernando Soto Rojas, the president of the national legislature, on Sunday denied reports that Mr. Chávez had cancer. "I'd be the first to inform the country [if that were so]," he said in a written statement.

United States

Maria Svart is the new head of Democrat Socialists of America (DSA). She is their youngest to date at 31. In 2012, it'll be all about the youth...

DSA supports those popular initiatives like universal health care, slavery reparations and progressive taxation where the more you succeed, the more you are punished. They care.

See a full list of DSA issues at Trevor's Key Wiki.

U/T: Trevor

North Korea

A new video has been smuggled out of North Korea. The footage is not just of children playing in the street as we've seen before, but now of the starvation impacting the military. ABC reports below that signs are pointing to another mass starvation.



Did you notice the headwear?

UPDATED Noon

And China

The Washington Post, via Glenn:

With the approach of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China on July 1, the country is being swept up in a wave of orchestrated revolutionary nostalgia. Nowhere is that more so than in Chongqing, this southwestern Chinese mega-city of 32 million people that has become the capital of the “red culture” revival.
---
“For people of my generation, it’s like a return to the Mao era,” said a 57-year-old lawyer who attended a middle school in Chongqing and asked not to be quoted by name speaking critically about Bo.

“I saw the beatings of the teachers by the Red Guards. It was horrible,” the lawyer said. “Young people may not recognize it. But for us who lived through it, how can we possibly sing?”

They own our debt. Now they have our Hope and Change too.

Capitalism

How does the video below fit in the Ushanka.us blog categories of "Tracking Communist Activities Globally, and Communist Inspirations Nationally," you ask?

We'll tell you! (Best viewed in full screen mode with the sound up...)



If the Soviet Leaders, and our own Dear Leader, had their way, you'd never see this.

You'd never see an artist who didn't do HOPE poster art. The artist wouldn't have many options for a soundtrack other than music with a distinct marching tempo.

You'd never see Photoshop version CS5, let alone a computer. You'd never see YouTube with unlimited upload capability, quota-free viewing capability, and those pesky advertisements. And the only sexy underthings would be in your imagination.

You would, however, see plenty of Ushanka hats as you stood in line.

In other words, F**K Communism. And that goes for its enablers too.

A hearty U/T to artist, and beneficiary of all things capitalism, Nico Di Mattia.

PS: this is our second posting of Nico's work. Click here to see the other post.

PS2: We can't draw a hat on her, but you can contribute to Capitalism by buying a hat for yourself. You know you deserve it!

Stalin's Pride

Found at IOTW.

Setting the Standard

Our tribute today, for your viewing pleasure, Pennsylvania Republican Mike Kelly:



U/T: Dave at Moonbattery

Retreat

Waiting for a new white flag cartoon is like waiting for the Democrat Party to push a policy that either contributes to American's economic growth or America's standing in the world.

The former came today. We're still waiting for the latter....

Our Dear Leader has re-announced our withdrawal surrender in Afghanistan - the war he once called 'the right war' back when he called Iraq 'the wrong war'.

In case you've lost track: The 'right' war today is, of course, Libya. But it is not a war. Yemen is a close 2nd, with Afghanistan now at 3rd and Iraq still in last place. We suppose the Libya, Yemen and Afghanistan wars would all be over had that dastardly George W. Bush not taken us into Iraq.

Imagine Peace.

Found at IOTW:

Found at Townhall:

We think a downsize of troops in Afghanistan should be conducted by the generals, with no political gamesmanship or attention. So much for our view.

We think this announcement is a slap in our troops' faces. While we want every American home as soon as possible, we don't want them used as pawns in a polling-numbers scheme for some politician who never wore the uniform.

We hope this announcement has military merit and the Afghans can begin to stand on their own. The cost tomorrow, if this is not the case, will be far more expensive than any polling gains today.

Be sure to click the White Flag Spotting label below to take a journey back in time when white flags were the symbol, correction: the soul, of the Democrat Party. We suggest nothing has changed.

Today in Gun News UPDATED X2

Notable items from today's Gun Blog scan:

Alphecca: Wisconsin legislature passes Shall-Issue concealed carry. Waiting for Gov. Walker to sign. Illinois is the last state without a Shall-Issue or May-Issue law.

What do Gun-Control Proponents, ATF Bureaucrats and Zombies have in common? Robb at Sharp as a Marble elaborates.

In Jennifer's Head has a new post on the ATF GunRunner scandal, including this Jon Steward clip:

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

At the 3:07 mark:

So our plan to prevent American guns from being used in Mexican gang violence is to provide Mexican gangs with American guns.... to use according to our plan for.... violence.

At the 4:00 mark:

If this is the plan that they went with, what plan did we reject?

And at 4:54:

So the head of ATF didn't just know about this plan, he was TIVO'ing it.

These three quotes are all you need to know about GunRunner, the ATF's priorities, and the level this administration will stoop to achieve its gun-control dreams.

Two US agents dead so far from this operation. 2,000 military-grade weapons somewhere on our South border. But who's counting.

Our suggestion: Defund ATF.

UPDATE 6.25 Found this image at IOTW, titled: Junk in the Trunk. Ha!

UPDATED 6.26.11

John Lott:

With the scandal over the gun walker case gradually getting revealed, the pressure has been building on Kenneth Melson to get him to quit. Why not simply fire him? I have wondered whether the Obama administration wanted to increase American originated guns in Mexico so they simply put pressure on gun dealers to sell guns to Mexican gun traffickers. Does Melson have something on the Obama administration that makes it so that they can't simply fire him?

Good questions!

Our question: If the deaths of 2 US agents is not enough, what is the magic number?

Assuming this scandal was intended to help Obama with future gun-control efforts - which we wholly believe is true - then it is logical to assume that the deaths of the US agents are seen as for the greater good, and that more deaths are the justified means to the gun-confiscation ends.

And, if Melson was part of this decision, then it is logical he does have something on Obama.

Related: Gun Quote of the Day at Walls of the City:

Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it tougher for sober people to own cars.

Mexico

A google map of the Mexican drug-related murders - the ones we know of:

The Black Sunday Society:

The RED balloons are civilians. The RED balloons with a dot are politicians, and other high profile killings. The BLUE balloons are police officers and soldiers (and other law enforcement officials). The BLUE balloons with a dot are high ranking officers. The YELLOW suns represent car bombs and the 2 GREEN people represent mass graves.

Luckily we have a President who is diligent in our nation's security, a wall that keeps this violence from migrating North, and an ATF that keeps guns from migrating South...

Combo

This is a rare find: an image that qualifies for our hammer and sickle series, and our ushanka series. And to have our Dear Leader pose for such a picture to boot! The stars are aligned!

U/T: Moonbattery

Site Change

You may have noticed Ushanka.us has gone through some changes recently. We're not done, so stay tuned for more.

We've eliminated the MSM Headline review section. This is after 4.5 years of capturing and reviewing over 328k MSM headlines, and classifying over 2k of them as biased. This wasn't a popular item at Ushanka.us, and it required expensive server hosting requirements. So, Adios!

The final survey results:

The Cinema, Library and Labels sections, to the left, have new additions as well. And we have a new URL you may want to bookmark: http://blog.ushanka.us/.

Our mission continues to be the same: Tracking Communist Activities Globally, and Communist Inspirations Nationally.

As we were transitioning the site, we celebrated with a CAO Brazillia:

Another Ushanka Tip (U/T) to Comrade Site Developer who makes this all possible!

Breitbart

Thank God for Breitbart.



At the 11:30 mark:

This is our media? I used to think they were biased. But then we started to head into a territory where I thought: this is evil.

At 15:14:

The collusion between the main stream media, the objectively neutral main stream media, and the Democratic party is so nasty somebody has to stand up to this. And it can't just be AM talk radio and blog saying the media is biased. We have to stand up and report the truths that are not reported by this group of people.

U/T: Trevor

No Knock Raid

"No Knock Raid," written and performed by Toronto-based musician Lindy, is a searing indictment of one of the most aggressive, ubiquitous, and mistaken tactics in the War on Drugs.



Our related post.

Reason.tv has more links.

UPDATE Noon Linking to a Walls of the City informed rant on the Jose Guerena raid.

UPDATE 3pm iTunes link (a Reason.tv podcast download)

ObamaCare Preview

This is an example of the free healthcare coming our way:



"Sure, there will be problems" Former President Obama will say.

He'll further explain, as he rests from a stressful front nine, "We setup a fully functional system, but I can't be held responsible for how it is being managed by my successor."

Words: what we get from an entitled group of marxists.

Results? Don't be so old fashioned.

Wild Bill's Solution

His solution to education:



The real crime: parents don't have the freedom to choose a school that offers that piece of wood as the alternative to the layers of liberal bureaucrats.

U/T: Andrea

Bachmann

WSJ's Stephen Moore interviews Michelle Bachmann.

'On the Beach, I Bring von Mises': The tea party favorite on her start in politics, where she learned her economics, and why she disagrees with Reagan on the War Powers Resolution.

Things that jumped out at us:

[TARP]
"During a recent hearing I asked Secretary [Timothy] Geithner three times where the constitution authorized the Treasury's actions, and his response was, 'Well, Congress passed the law.'"
---
[Auto Bailouts]
We essentially watched over 100 years of bankruptcy law thrown out the window and President Obama eviscerated the private property interests of the secured creditors. He called them 'greedy' for enforcing their own legal rights."
---
[Libya]
...she joined 86 other House Republicans last week in voting for the resolution sponsored by antiwar Democrat Dennis Kucinich to stop U.S. military action in Libya within 15 days.
---
Family and Education]
She's a mother of five, and she and her husband helped raise 23 teenage foster children in their home, as many as four at a time. They succeeded in getting all 23 through high school and later founded a charter school.
---
[Sarah Palin]
About Ms. Palin the congresswoman shrugs, "People want to see a mud-wrestling fight. They won't get it from me because I like Sarah Palin and I respect her."
---
[Taxes]
"In my perfect world," she explains, "we'd take the 35% corporate tax rate down to nine so that we're the most competitive in the industrialized world. Zero out capital gains. Zero out the alternative minimum tax. Zero out the death tax."

The 3.8 million-word U.S. tax code may be irreparable, she says, a view she's held since working as a tax attorney at the IRS 20 years ago. "I love the FAIR tax. If we were starting over from scratch, I would favor a national sales tax."

Her main goal is to get tax rates down with a broad-based income tax that everyone pays and that "gets rid of all the deductions." A system in which 47% of Americans don't pay any tax is ruinous for a democracy, she says, "because there is no tie to the government benefits that people demand. I think everyone should have to pay something."
---
[Spending]
Ms. Bachmann also voted for the Republican Study Committee budget that cuts deeper and faster than even Mr. Ryan would. "We do have an obligation with Social Security and Medicare, and we have to recognize that" for those who are already retired, she says. But after that, it's Katy bar the door: "Everything else is expendable to bring spending down," and she'd ax "whole departments" including the Department of Education.

We've updated our list of Qualified/Disqualified GOP'ers. Rep. Bachmann is the second to qualify for our primary vote.

Slippery Slope Summary

A good summary from Sharp as a Marble:

Look, I get that Weiner’s wiener is news because it shows an elected official being a complete douchebag, but let’s put this into perspective. In just a few short months, it will be illegal to sell 100W incandescent light bulbs, it’s still legal for blue-gloved high school dropouts to cop a feel of your 8 year old daughter’s crotch in the name of ‘safety’, your options for health care are being dwindled down to “None” or “Gov’t mandated care that isn’t much better than None”, and each person’s tax burden is around $500,000 plus or minus a few dozen grand. Cops are now openly smashing people’s phones who dare tape them performing their duties, there are SWAT teams now engaged in the student loan repayment business, gas prices are about to soar to a point where the $4 a gallon looks like a good bargain, and there are still forces trying to tighten the noose around legitimate gun owners while our own government gladly walks guns across the border to arm the cartels.

Don't forget the 4th war in Yemen!

US Education: A Sea of Red

That is not a sea of red. That is a recent rally for teachers in California.

The photos are from Zombie, at a San Francisco rally, and from his partner Ringo at a Los Angeles rally. Zombie discusses his previous reservations for adding competition into the education system. But after this rally, he's come full circle:

The only way to break the stranglehold that leftists have on public schools is not to get rid of the leftists (which is impossible) but to get rid of the public schools. And how can we get rid of them? By making them so terrible that no parents in their right minds would allow their children to attend. And how can we accelerate the decline of public schools (beyond the atrocious decline already caused by the progressive masters)? By letting their funding dry up. Simple.

Zombie is one step further than we are on this issue. We suggest a simple voucher program with zero involvement from the government except to cut a voucher to each parent at the start of the school year, and to monitor the standardized testing at every grade level. Then let the chips fall where they may. No doubt some public schools are stellar, and our own recent experience with a son in high school confirms there are stellar teachers.

This would have an immediate effect on students, and over the course of several years would deliver huge benefits to teachers.

Students would have choice and go to the schools with the best reputations. The early years in such a program wouldn't necessarily deliver major improvements, but students would know they have moved to a better school than where they were the year before.

But for the teachers, it gets exciting. Entrepreneurs would recognize the business climate and demand and offer small schools with limited enrollment and entrance requirements. These entrepreneurs would know that their teaching staff and test scores would be the attraction to parents and would pay a premium for the right teachers. We're upset because teachers are receiving over $100k in salary and benefits and not producing. Consider us a major proponent of teachers making over $100k salaries in a voucher environment! When compensation is tied to performance, great things happen.

Public school teachers today are either liberals progressives communists, or are cowered by their commie co-workers and union-thug representatives.

We say America is ready for the concept of PRO-CHOICE to reach our schools. Lets not lose another generation.

Update: Another advantage to vouchers is it will reduce the number of DOE SWAT team college-loan collections raids. BTW, that raid was authorized by Judge Gregory G. Hollows.

U/T: Zombie and InstaPundit

New Jobs: Food Commissars

It won't be too soon when the new Food Commissar positions open up. We'll get that unemployment number down to 9.0 if it means a new commissar in every rural town!

Ann Barnhardt catches this San Francisco Chronicle article, Obama to Create White House Rural Council. Our most pressing question: What is Ann doing reading the San Francisco Chronicle?? Is she lib'ing out??

Her advice, based on a solid knowledge of history:

These people are going to show up and attempt to bribe rural America with handouts, promises of "fair markets" (to Marxists, the only "fair" market is no market at all - never forget that), and "free money". Fight them with every fiber of your being. Keep your powder dry, gentlemen.

Immediately following the Bolshevik revolution, Lenin sent out his commissars to collect forced grain-requisitions. When they met resistance, the resistance were labeled "Kulaks," a term for the middle-class peasant. The definition for Kulak changed over time but the response was the same: Forced relocations or execution. Famine followed as diligent farmers were replaced by lazy farmers.

Mao took this concept to a new level. Instead of sending commissars, he just told the poor peasants to kill their less poor counterparts and take their land. Poor peasants love taking land as much as ACORN employees love to help underage prostitution rings. The result was 60 million dead from execution and hunger.

Our Dear Leader is taking us down the same road. His efforts to improve efficiency on our farms will follow the same path as Lenin and Mao. Imposing a government bureaucracy over a capitalist enterprise results in human suffering on a massive scale EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

He who controls the food, controls the people.

U/T: Ann

Depressioning

Trevour Loudon warns:

This isn’t about recession versus depression, this is about survival versus annihilation.

Once America falls, world totalitarian dictatorship will quickly follow. Civilization, as we know it will end.

He points to Peter Farrara's article at The American Spectator, The Coming Crash of 2013.

Great Depression 2.0

Hard as it may be to imagine, where we are headed under Obamanomics will be worse than where we have been. The economic indicators are increasingly flashing economic decline already. Once the Bush tax cuts were extended to 2013, I didn't expect to see that until then, for all of the reasons below. But Obamanomics keeps deteriorating faster than even I expected.

Already scheduled now under current law in 2013 is the expiration of those Bush tax cuts, which President Obama has refused to renew for single workers making over $200,000 a year, and couples making over $250,000. Also scheduled to go into effect in 2013 under current law are all the tax increases of Obamacare.
---
Our potential military enemies will be quite aware of this historic vulnerability of America [coming bankruptcy]. Just as Reagan brought us Peace through Strength, Obamanomics will be inviting War through Weakness. With a 2013 American economic collapse that will also disable the entire West, the world's uncivilized rogues from Russia, to China, to North Korea, to the Middle East Islamists dreaming of renewed world conquest, will all be tempted probably beyond resistance and reason to strike. They don't need even to attack the homeland to deal America a decisive defeat. They can just decimate our suddenly overwhelmed allies, from Israel to South Korea to Taiwan to our allies in the Middle East, let alone some even in Europe.

The only way to get off this bullet train to oblivion is to radically reverse Obamanomics in dogged detail. The American people get one more chance to do that in 2012.

Doug Ross posted this graph a couple days ago with the following question:

How are those Stimulus, HAMP, Cash-for-Clunkers, Weatherization, Green Jobs, Obamacare, "Banking Reform", drilling moratorium, First-Time Home-Buyer Credit, auto company takeovers and QE2 programs working out?

The graph shows the months prior to, and months following, each US recession, and the impact on employment in each downturn.

The red line is Obama's line.

Liberal Trap

In our on-going quest to bring closure to this ridiculous claim that Obama is a bed-wetting latte-sipping, heart-bleeding, wealth-redistributing commie socialist, we offer the following images and news.

The images are goofy and intended to mock our oppressors - sorta like our cool Commie Obama hat. The news, however, is based in fact.

If you are a liberal, you will discount the latter for the former. Or ignore the latter for the opportunity to criticize this post's author. Or maybe you'll go off on an unrelated tangent to explain these are trivial issues and we should direct our attention to saving the middle class/whales/environment/whatever. This is a trap for liberals that needs no concealment.

Two images from MoonBattery addressing the First Lady's obesity initiatives:

Trevor's latest research at New Zeal shows Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett's father, Vernon Jarrett, was a communist who had worked directly with Obama's childhood mentor, Communist Frank Marshall Davis. Like Forrest says of Jenni: "We were like two peas in a pod."

Romney

Ann Barnhardt continues to set the standard for all of us in her research and conclusions. Here is her take on the Mitt Romney candidacy:



At the 11:54 mark:

Don't you see? Obama wants to run against Romney because they won't have to defend against ObamaCare. The entire issue will just go away.

Full disclosure:
We voted for Romney in California's 2008 primary.
If he is the GOP nominee in 2012, he'll get our vote.
But for the reasons Ann provides in the video above, he will not get our vote in the 2012 primary unless he is the only candidate running.

Sgt. Pun

These tribute posts are our favorite! Today, Sgt. Pun.

CNN:

Queen Elizabeth II on Wednesday awarded Britain's second-highest award for bravery, the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, to Acting Sgt. Dipprasad Pun of the Royal Gurkha Rifles.

While stationed as a lone sentry at a checkpoint in Afghanistan's Helmand province on September 17, Pun fended off an attack by up to 30 Taliban fighters.
---
During the 15-minute battle, Pun fired more than 400 rounds of ammunition, detonated 17 grenades and a mine and even threw his gun tripod at a Taliban fighter climbing toward his position, according to British Forces News.

"He was just about to climb up there and I hit (him) with my tripod and he fell down again," Pun told British Forces News.

Pun's actions saved the lives of three fellow soldiers at the checkpoint and were the "bravest seen in his battalion over two hard tours in Afghanistan," according to his medal citation.

Pun was not wounded in the firefight.

“That he survived unscathed is simply incredible," his medal citation says. “Throughout Dip’s actions he was under almost constant intense fire. Dip’s courage and gallantry were simply astonishing."

UT: SaysUncle

Billy Bob Edwards

James Taranto comments on the John Edwards indictment today:

The Associated Press reports that "a plea to a felony charge involving campaign finances could strip Edwards of his law license and end any hope he could work as an attorney for the poor." How tragic. We guess he'll have to content himself with healing Christopher Reeve.

Adding insult to injury, the National Enquirer reports that Rielle Hunter (née Lisa Druck) has dumped Edwards. So he's lost two elections, two women, his dignity and maybe soon his freedom and his law license. He may have a career ahead of him in country music.

Heh.