When I see Mitt Romney, I picture him in a dopey tank helmet or as an oompa loompa (pictures very conveniently located here).  Politicians from Massachusetts never do the same thing twice… but if Romney gets the GOP nomination, in addition to alienating the tea party and/or fiscal or libertarian minded Republicans you can rest assured that just before the election he will grace the Democrats with an incredibly ridiculous photo opportunity.  It’s what politicians from Massachusetts do.

Given the current candidates for the Republican nomination for President, there is nobody else to vote for other than Ron Paul.  A “NotMitt” cannot win the general election.  Neither can a “NotObama”.  And especially not the Diet Coke of Conservatives – Mitt Romney: Conservative Flavor without the Principles!

Merry Christmas!

Luk 2:1 NIV – In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.
Luk 2:2 NIV – (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
Luk 2:3 NIV – And everyone went to his own town to register.
Luk 2:4 NIV – So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.
Luk 2:5 NIV – He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.
Luk 2:6 NIV – While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,
Luk 2:7 NIV – and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luk 2:8 NIV – And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
Luk 2:9 NIV – An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
Luk 2:10 NIV – But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
Luk 2:11 NIV – Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
Luk 2:12 NIV – This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Luk 2:13 NIV – Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
Luk 2:14 NIV – “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
Luk 2:15 NIV – When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
Luk 2:16 NIV – So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
Luk 2:17 NIV – When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,
Luk 2:18 NIV – and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
Luk 2:19 NIV – But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Luk 2:20 NIV – The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Luk 2:21 NIV – On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.
Luk 2:22 NIV – When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord
Luk 2:23 NIV – (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord” ),
Luk 2:24 NIV – and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”
Luk 2:25 NIV – Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.
Luk 2:26 NIV – It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.
Luk 2:27 NIV – Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,
Luk 2:28 NIV – Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
Luk 2:29 NIV – “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace.
Luk 2:30 NIV – For my eyes have seen your salvation,
Luk 2:31 NIV – which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
Luk 2:32 NIV – a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”
Luk 2:33 NIV – The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him.
Luk 2:34 NIV – Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against,
Luk 2:35 NIV – so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”
Luk 2:36 NIV – There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,
Luk 2:37 NIV – and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.
Luk 2:38 NIV – Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
Luk 2:39 NIV – When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth.

Eric Holder’s performance before Congress has been stomach turning.  And the reaction of the Democrats – to try to use something like this to shove more gun control down our throats is abominable.

Take this gem from Hank Johnson

“There is a hole in our gun control laws that you could drive or fly a space shuttle through it,” Dem Rep. Hank Johnson said, adding that the National Rifle Association and Second Amendment supporters are “radicals.”

Of course, we all know that Hank Johnson is really worried that if you pile all the guns in one corner of America, the country could capsize.  And we further know that there won’t be any space shuttles flying through anything anymore.

If you haven’t read it, be sure to read the whole write up on Townhall.com.  What the Department of Justice has been doing under Obama and Holder is criminal.  And the Congress as a whole needs to hold them accountable.  Although if you look at the Democrats, they apparently care more about providing cover for their guys and pushing their agenda than about right and wrong.

It is my very sincere hope that the American people are paying attention.  The Republic is in very sad shape – there is a good case to be made that the Republic is gone.  If we let this pass we may as well give up any hope of restoring our once great Republic.  (I guess that answers that…  “A Republic, if you can keep it.“)

A portion of the state’s first modern toll road, the Triangle Parkway, will open to traffic after a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday morning.Starting Jan. 3, 2012, tolls will be collected electronically along the Triangle Parkway – a 3.4-mile stretch from Interstate 40 and N.C. Highway 147 in Durham County to Interstate 540 in Wake County – and the existing portion of N.C. Highway 540 between N.C. Highways 54 and 55.

We pay the highest gas taxes in the Southeast (and what is it, something like the 9th highest in the nation?) and we can’t even pave a road.  The story isn’t that we’re getting North Carolina’s first toll road.  The story is the utter fiscal mismanagement that has led to obscene taxes AND WE STILL CAN’T BUILD A ROAD WITHOUT A TOLL.

Why won’t the media ever bother to remind anybody where the money goes?  Jim Hunt squandered a lot of money paving roads for his cronies.  But at least Ol’ Jimbo actually paved some roads with the money the state collects for road construction and maintenance.  It was Mike Easley (found to be corrupt and now facing discipline from the state bar) who ended the gas tax money being reserved for roads and instead used it to make sure his precious pet projects didn’t have to be defunded.

To deal with a state economy reeling from the combination of the dot-com bust and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Easley raided various funds in February 2002, seizing $1 billion to help cover a mounting deficit. Included in those funds was $80 million from the Highway Trust Fund.

Two men who helped create the Highway Trust Fund in the late 1980s, former Transportation Secretary Jim Harrington and former state Sen. W.D. Goldston, an Alamance County Democrat, sued over the move, saying money raised through gas taxes that goes into the trust fund is earmarked for specific highway projects.

And from the same article… less you think that Bev is any better…

Gov. Beverly Perdue twice took money from other funds last spring to help pay state bills amid a deficit, including the lottery reserve fund, the Clean Water Trust Fund and the public school building and textbook funds.

And the General Assembly:

All three appellate judges agreed that a legislative transfer of $125 million from the Highway Trust Fund in 2002 was constitutional.

And so now here we sit with a turnpike commission and toll roads.  All because the politicians that run North Carolina impose heavy taxes on us for a legitimate purpose and then pull a bait and switch to fund their pet projects every time.  Every. Single.  Time.

I know that the NC GOP doesn’t read this blog.  But if I was in charge, abolishment of the Turnpike Commission and toll roads would be at the top of my agenda.  The GOP – if it wants to win (and I haven’t seen any evidence of that…) – needs to educate the people about how they’re being ripped off by these political funding bait and switch scams.

I hope everybody remembers:

• The state lottery was to fund education and wouldn’t just replace school funding in the general fund (which all pretense of that has now been dropped)
• The bonds for higher education would be paid for with projected surpluses (how is that working out?  What?  The UNC system schools keep hiking tuition at an obscene rate??  I sure would hate it if UNC had to cut back on their Women’s Studies and Social Justice programs…)

And while I’m ranting I would like to remind the world that it really isn’t that hard to see this kind of stuff coming from a mile away.

So, to start with, let us simply state up front:  Banks that took bailout money should have been forced into bankruptcy and liquidated.  There have been a lot of banks that committed very serious crimes (Wachovia laundering money for drug lords being one.  Banks forclosing on mortgages they didn’t rightfully own using forged documents being another).   There was plenty of illegal things going on (and still are) that the Bush Administration should have noticed and prosecuted and that the Obama administration has negligently failed to prosecute.

At this point, the “Occupy Wall Street Protestors” have failed to make a unified case for anything.  Nobody knows what exactly they want.  The “Proposed List of Demands” borders on some kind of farce and reads like the Soviet Constitution.  But, given the lack of any sort of agenda (that has been released at least) it leaves the movement open for people to imprint their personal feelings onto the movement.  And this is exactly the same thing that happened with Barack Obama in 2008.  The movement has no identity and people are making it out to be whatever they think the country needs.

Given the cast of characters we’ve seen parade through there, I simply do not trust the Occupy Wall Street movement.  If they ever decide that they stand for something that might change.  But dancing around and chanting and picketing don’t do anything for me except make me believe that  you’re a dirty hippie.

This post was inspired by the Associated Press’ latest missive, “Fears of far-right rise in crisis-hit Greece”

ATHENS, Greece — They descended by the hundreds — black-shirted, bat-wielding youths chasing down dark-skinned immigrants through the streets of Athens and beating them senseless in an unprecedented show of force by Greece’s far-right extremists.

And just who are Greece’s “Far Right Extremists”??

The move comes amid spiraling social unrest that has unleashed waves of rioting and vigilante thuggery on the streets of Athens. The U.N.’s refugee agency warns that some Athens neighborhoods have become zones where “fascist groups have established an odd lawless regime.”

Oh.  I see.  They’re Fascists.  Which means that there is a problem with the article.  You see – Fascists are a Marx-Inspired Party of the Left.  What these people frequently leave out when discussing Anders Breivik or Grecian Fascists is that in European politics the political scale seems to be Communists, Socialists, Fascists.

However, here in the Good Ol’ United States, Conservatives, that is, the right wing of the political spectrum in this country, want absolutely nothing to do with Fascism, Fascist thought, and in general, find Fascism to be utterly repugnant.

And to that end… I ask that you read the following with an open mind as ask yourself, who would agree more with it, The Tea Party or the Democratic Party?

11. The abolition of incomes unearned by work.

The breaking of the slavery of interest

12. In view of the enormous sacrifices of life and property demanded of a nation by any war, personal enrichment from war must be regarded as a crime against the nation. We demand therefore the ruthless confiscation of all war profits.
13. We demand the nationalization of all businesses which have been formed into corporations (trusts).

14. We demand profit-sharing in large industrial enterprises.

15. We demand the extensive development of insurance for old age.

16. We demand the creation and maintenance of a healthy middle class, the immediate communalizing of big department stores, and their lease at a cheap rate to small traders, and that the utmost consideration shall be shown to all small traders in the placing of State and municiple orders.

20. The State must consider a thorough reconstruction of our national system of education (with the aim of opening up to every able and hard-working German the possibility of higher education and of thus obtaining advancement). The curricula of all educational establishments must be brought into line with the requirements of practical life. The aim of the school must be to give the pupil, beginning with the first sign of intelligence, a grasp of the nation of the State (through the study of civic affairs). We demand the education of gifted children of poor parents, whatever their class or occupation, at the expense of the State.

21. The State must ensure that the nation’s health standards are raised by protecting mothers and infants, by prohibiting child labor, by promoting physical strength through legislation providing for compulsory gymnastics and sports, and by the extensive support of clubs engaged in the physical training of youth.

22. We demand the abolition of the mercenary army and the foundation of a people’s army.

23. We demand legal warfare on deliberate political mendacity and its dissemination in the press. To facilitate the creation of a German national press we demand:

(a) that all editors of, and contributors to newspapers appearing in the German language must be members of the nation;
(b) that no non-German newspapers may appear without the express permission of the State. They must not be printed in the German language;
(c) that non-Germans shall be prohibited by law from participating financially in or influencing German newspapers, and that the penalty for contravening such a law shall be the suppression of any such newspaper, and the immediate deportation of the non-Germans involved.
The publishing of papers which are not conducive to the national welfare must be forbidden. We demand the legal prosecution of all those tendencies in art and literature which corrupt our national life, and the suppression of cultural events which violate this demand.

24. We demand freedom for all religious denominations in the State, provided they do not threaten its existence not offend the moral feelings of the German race.

The Party, as such, stands for positive Christianity, but does not commit itself to any particular denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and without us, and is convinced that our nation can achieve permanent health only from within on the basis of the principle: The common interest before self-interest.

25. To put the whole of this programme into effect, we demand the creation of a strong central state power for the Reich; the unconditional authority of the political central Parliament over the entire Reich and its organizations; and the formation of Corporations based on estate and occupation for the purpose of carrying out the general legislation passed by the Reich in the various German states.

The above was excerpted from the National Socialist German Workers Party’s Munich Manifesto.  History’s most notorious fascists.  Although an examination of Mussolini’s Italian Fascism will yield similar results.

Well… the truth comes out…  So Sayeth Barack Obama:

President Obama on Tuesday said he cannot guarantee that retirees will receive their Social Security checks August 3 if Democrats and Republicans in Washington do not reach an agreement on reducing the deficit in the coming weeks.

“I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven’t resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it,” Mr. Obama said in an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, according to excerpts released by CBS News.

If the checks can’t be guaranteed to go out on August 3rd unless we borrow money… does that not imply that the Social Security “Trust Fund” has been raided and there’s nothing actually there but a bunch of IOU’s from the Federal Government?  Contrary to what liberals who shriek about entitlement reform believe to be the case?

There you have it, folks.  From the mouth of Barack Obama himself.  There is no actual money in the Social Security trust fund.

On this day it is incumbent upon us to revisit the words of the men who declared Independence from Great Britain on this day in 1776.

Copied from the National Archives:

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

---

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

Are we, the current citizens the intellectual heirs of this document?  Or have we abandoned our birthright instead to go chasing after the bloodthirsty French Revolution?

Thus far, I have kept silent around here on the debt ceiling.  This is mostly because there hadn’t been anything of real interest to me in writing about until now.  Despite Boehner’s whining that the Republicans only control 1/2 of 1/3 of the government they hold all the cards on the debt ceiling.

Which is why I find it very interesting that Barack Obama was complaining the other day about the Republicans not wanting to compromise.  I mean, I could hop in my time machine and go just a few short years ago and get the Obama who said, “I won” in response to Republican objections about how things should be done.  But pointing out the blatant hypocrisy of Barack Obama is like shooting fish in a barrel.  He has become such a joke that there isn’t any point in pointing out his self contradictions even for the purposes of mockery.

No.  I write tonight because I think that we – the Conservatives of this country – should give Obama what he wants.  Obama has repeatedly called for ending “spending in the tax code”.  He did this at his press conference on Wednesday.  And he said it in April.  Where Jon Stewart beautifully explained Obama’s position.

What? “Spending reductions in the tax code”? The tax code isn’t where we spend, it’s where we collect, and that…. ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I guess what you said is tax “code”, code for raising taxes. You managed to talk about a tax hike as a spending reduction. Can we afford that and the royalty checks you’re going to have to send to George Orwell?

So, if Obama wants to talk about some changes to the tax code, I’m all for him.

First, since he’s so horribly offended by the tax cuts for corporate jets, I suggest that we repeal the legislation that introduced them.

Second, lets all be honest.  GE paying no taxes is a very bad thing.  It just goes to show how bad our tax law is.  Therefore, it’s time for a total tax overhaul!  Flat Tax?  Fair Tax?  Lets have that discussion!  Demanding a balanced budget amendment is small potatoes now!  The POTUS has spoken!  He wants to talk about the tax code!  Lets oblige him!  Show us the difference between Republicans and Democrats.   Send him a bundle to sign that cuts the crap out of spending, bans federal monies going to Planned Parenthood in any way shape or form, raises the debt limit high enough to pay for the money he’s taken out of pension plans, social security, and medicare to keep his spending levels up, and reforms the tax code to remove all loop holes via a flat tax or fair tax and defunds the Department of Justice until the congress gets answers on Operation Fast and Furious and Obama and Holder agree to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court.

I’m also all for cutting the Department of Education’s police force.

But, abolishing the income tax in its current form (i.e. no deductions, no loopholes) we also undercut one of the major arguments that has been used to foist “homosexual marriage” on us in that we will no longer have to hear about married couples getting the tax credit while gays and lesbians don’t have their partnerships recognized and don’t get a tax cut.

As I said to open this post – the Republicans are holding all the cards here.  If Obama would rather default on United States debt than put some federal spending on hold then so be it.  The GOP needs to immediately send Obama a bill prioritizing debt payments for when the treasury runs out of fiscal games to play and the spending orgy has to stop.

To be completely serious – in Obama’s first two years of office, he shoved his agenda down our throats without thinking twice about it.  And now he wonders why nobody is just running to him to work out some kind of compromise bill?  It’s really very simple – we categorically reject the kind of tax hikes that Obama wants and in his time in the Oval Office he has shown absolutely zero ability to work with Republicans to get things done.  And that’s showing right now.  His skill set is demagoguery.  He gave his long hypocritical speech the other day to try to community organize his followers into pressuring the Republicans into giving him what he wants.  If the Republicans do that, there will be a third party in 2012 and they know it.  It is not going to happen.  And in my opinion, it’s very unlikely that Obama is going to come out of his ivory tower willingly and try to solve the problem.  He will continue to send Biden and Reid to deal with the Republicans while blathering on like the irrelevant wind machine he is to any microphone in reach.

So, if it’s unlikely that Obama is going to deal with us in a sincere way, what have we to lose by writing up a Conservative vision for the country and demanding he go along with it?  Give the voters are clear and distinct choice in 2012.

My home is my castle.  Or at least it will be Dec 1.  WRAL reports on the update to the law in North Carolina:

Effective Dec. 1, gun owners will have less guesswork. The update to the law flips the burden of proof from the homeowner to prosecutors. If someone unlawfully crosses a homeowner’s threshold, whether there’s a weapon in the intruder’s hands or not, it’s automatically presumed that the person is a violent intruder.

Which only makes sense.  The law is not a license to kill, but it simply acknowledges our God given right to be secure in our homes and possessions.  The simple act of breaking into another person’s home is an act of aggression.  I for one am glad that the State of North Carolina is recognizing that law abiding citizens are not psychotic madmen intent on shooting up the state, and that criminals shot while in the process of invading another person’s home already broke one law, it is unreasonable to expect for a homeowner to sit there and try to figure out if the guy if a violent sociopath intent to kill or a drug addict looking to steal a TV and run away (which, of course, assumes that the drug addict stealing your tv is actually in his right mind).