THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Already wary of the federal government, Americans have grown even more critical, less trusting and even fearful of Uncle Sam since President Barack Obama took office, according to an exhaustive new study. The in-depth poll found Americans not only rejecting the idea of an activist government, but a growing number urging its power be curtailed. "By almost every conceivable measure, Americans are less positive and more critical of government these days.”

http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2010/04/americans_distrust_of_federal.html

Sarah Palin criticized President Obama for saying America is a military superpower "whether we like it or not," saying she was taken aback by his comment. "I would hope that our leaders in Washington, D.C., understand we like to be a dominant superpower," the former Alaska governor said. "I don't understand a world view where we have to question whether we like it or not that America is powerful."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100418/D9F58FG01.html

Another view: “We have a president loath to acknowledge American exceptionalism. Indeed, the weight of the evidence suggests that our chief executive, through both word and deed and with malice aforethought, seeks to undermine – if not dismantle – that exceptionalism.”

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/22055

President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency is encouraging the public to create video advertisements that explain why federal regulations are "important to everyone." The contest, which ends May 17, will award $2,500 to the makers of the video that best explains why federal regulations are good and how ordinary citizens can become more involved in making regulations.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/64297

While Goldman Sachs' lawyers negotiated with the Securities and Exchange Commission over potentially explosive civil fraud charges, Goldman's chief executive visited the White House at least four times. President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign received $994,795 in donations from Goldman's political action committee, its employees and their relatives.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/21/92637/goldmans-connections-to-white.html

“Is Goldman Obama's Enron? No, it's worse”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Is-Goldman-Obamas-Enron-No-its-worse-91613449.html

A U.S. military jury cleared a Navy SEAL of failing to prevent another SEAL from punching an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding a 2004 attack that killed four American security contractors. The trial of three SEALs has outraged many Americans who see it as coddling terrorists.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/22/seal-trial-jury-deliberates-iraqi-abuse-case/

President Obama hasn’t held a formal press conference in almost a year (274 days and counting) yet has golfed 32 times since he was elected—eight more times than President George W. Bush did during his entire presidency. Had Bush tried that, he’d have been clubbed by the media.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-04-21/the-medias-double-standard-on-presidential-golf/?cid=hp:mainpromo5

President Obama burned 9000 gallons of jet fuel to give an earth day speech in Iowa. “President Obama could have saved at least 9,116 gallons of fuel by giving his speech at the White House - but no wind turbines are manufactured here.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-4962384-503544.html

And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called a Capitol Hill press conference Wednesday to unveil new light fixtures in the House cafeteria. The “green” light fixtures cost $140,000 and will take almost 10 years to pay off in saved energy.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/64503

The United Nations has quietly upped this year's peacekeeping budget for earthquake-shattered Haiti to $732.4 million, with two-thirds of that amount going for the salary, perks and upkeep of its own personnel, not residents of the devastated island. (Business as usual at the UN)

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/04/20/uns-massive-haiti-budget-goes-staff/

The Arizona House voted for a provision that would require U.S. presidential candidates who want to appear on the ballot in Arizona to submit documents proving they meet the constitutional requirements to be president, including their birth certificate.

http://www.kpho.com/news/23202195/detail.html

Wynn Resorts Chairman Steve Wynn told CNBC he was considering moving the company's corporate headquarters from Las Vegas to Macau. "The governmental policies in the United States of America are a damper, a wet blanket," Wynn said in a separate interview aired today on Bloomberg Television. "They retard investment, they retard job formation, they retard the creation of a better life for the citizens in spite of the rhetoric of the president."

http://www.lvrj.com/news/wynn-considers-moving-company-headquarters-to-macau-91696009.html

A crowd estimated at around 2,500 gathered on the steps of the Washington State Capitol in Olympia for the Tax Day Tea Party. Here are the pictures.

http://www.redcounty.com/thousands-gather-olympia-tea-party/38793

In response to Bill Clinton’s highly publicized linking of the Tea Party movement to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, former Clinton adviser Dick Morris disclosed on Monday that it was Clinton himself, and not Attorney General Janet Reno, as Americans have been led to believe for the past 17 years, who called the shots during the 1993 botched invasion that led to the death of seventy-six people.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/22200

The latest “progressive” trend: The European Union has declared travelling a human right, and is launching a scheme to subsidize vacations with taxpayers' dollars for those too poor to afford their own trips.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/news/Vacationing+human+right+chief+says/2924330/story.html

Comcast has announced a new venture with RightNetwork, "an independently-owned media company" whose mission is "to entertain, engage, and enlighten Americans who are looking for content that reflects and reinforces their perspective and worldview.” RightNetwork's YouTube page features cameos from Kelsey Grammar and previews for such shows as "Politics & Poker":

http://www.politico.com/blogs/onmedia/0410/Report_Comcast_to_acquire_rightwing_network.html?showall

Philadelphia sports mogul and longtime backer of conservative causes, Ed Snider, is backing the new cable TV network.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20100420_Snider_funding_conservative_RightNetwork.html?posted=y&viewAll=y#comments

Former New York Gov. George Pataki (R) on Sunday debuted "Revere America" a new 501(c)(4) organization that seeks to drum up support for a prompt repeal of Democrats' healthcare reforms.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/92915-pataki-launches-anti-healthcare-group-amid-2012-talk

A public transit authority in Florida has reversed a decision to take down banner advertisements on buses that offer help to Muslims wanting to leave their faith. Activists are hailing the move as a victory for free speech and religious freedom. Not only will the ten originally planned ads appear on Miami-Dade Transit buses in coming days, but an additional 20 ads will be run at no extra cost. The decision came after the group initiating the ad campaign threatened a lawsuit, claiming breach of contract and violation of First Amendment rights. It

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/64527

Homosexual activists are pressuring the House to pass the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). A conservative group warns that the bill could ban employers (including schools) from firing transsexuals, cross-dressers or men who think of themselves as women.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/64523

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Phyllis Schlafly 4/13

Income tax day, April 15, 2010, now divides Americans into two almost equal classes: those who pay for the services provided by government and the freeloaders. The percentage of Americans who will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009 has risen to 47 percent.

That isn't the worst of it. The bottom 40 percent not only pay no income tax, but the government sends them cash or benefits financed by the taxes dutifully paid by those who do pay income tax. The outright cash handouts include the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which can amount to as much as $5,657 a year to low-income families. Other financial benefits can include child tax credits, welfare, food stamps, WIC (Women, Infants, Children), housing subsidies, unemployment benefits, Medicaid, S-CHIP and other programs. This is both a massive transfer of wealth and a soak-the-rich racket. The top 10 percent pay 73 percent of the income taxes collected by the federal government.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has become the congressional leader in explaining details of the recently passed Health Control Law. He says that, based on Congressional Budget Office figures, taxes to pay for Obamacare will have to skyrocket to an 88 percent income tax rate within 30 years.

Although all wage-earners help fund their own Social Security and Medicare benefits, only federal income taxpayers pay the costs of running the federal government, and are responsible for paying off our $12.8 trillion national debt and for bailing out Social Security, Medicare, and Fannie and Freddie when they collapse.

Even the recently passed Health Control Law contains financial subsidies to unmarried couples that are denied to married couples. This rewards the unmarried women who were the second largest demographic constituency that voted for Barack Obama for president in 2008.

When Obama told Joe the Plumber he wanted to "spread the wealth around," Obama wasn't kidding. That's exactly what he is now doing: taking money from taxpayers and spreading it around to non-taxpayers.

Nor was Obama kidding when, on the eve of his election, he threatened, "We are going to fundamentally transform the United States of America." Converting the earnings of American workers into handouts for those who voted for Obama in 2008 is certainly a fundamental transformation.

Obama's promise not to raise taxes on middle-Americans is already down the drain. Obama brought former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker out of obscurity to serve as chairman of an Economic Recovery Advisory Board and announce that we need to raise taxes. Volcker was blunt in predicting that the new tax increase will be a Value-Added Tax (VAT). That's the tax European socialists love because its rates can be hidden and frequently raised, while producing rivers of revenue for the bureaucrats. Volcker claimed that a VAT is "not a toxic idea." It really is -- Charles Krauthammer called it "the ultimate cash cow" because it transfers so much money from individuals to the government.

Having already co-opted the executive and legislative branches of government for his fundamental transformation, Obama now wants to use the judiciary, too. The retirement of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens gives him this opportunity. On Jan. 18, 2001m on Public Radio WBEZ-FM, Chicago, Obama complained that the Earl Warren Court "wasn't that radical" because "it didn't break free from the essential constraints placed by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution. ... The Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth and serve more basic issues of political and economic justice in this society."

Calling for the Supreme Court to participate in the "redistribution of wealth" is shockingly revolutionary. Any judicial nominee who agrees with Obama's theory should be rejected.

Obama's game plan to "fundamentally transform" America is based on both Saul Alinsky's modus operandi for community organizing and on the Cloward-Piven spending strategy. Saul Alinsky was a famous Chicago radical, and Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven were less-well-known Columbia University sociologists.

The goal of all three of these agitators was the overthrow of the private enterprise system. The Alinsky strategy is to use community organizing and mass demonstrations by those he labeled the "Have Nots," and the Cloward-Piven strategy is to overload the bureaucracy with enormous demands for entitlements, thereby causing a financial crisis.

Obama used Alinsky methods by taxpayer financing of ACORN and subprime mortgages. Obama used Cloward-Piven methods by massive deficit spending for entitlements for more and more millions of people.

Fortunately, hardworking, taxpaying Americans are beginning to understand how they are being ripped off and rushed into bankruptcy. The one way to save ourselves and our country is to elect a Congress in November pledged to stop the spending.

http://townhall.com/columnists/PhyllisSchlafly/2010/04/13/america_becomes_a_two-class_society?page=full&comments=true

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FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"The value-added tax has become the designated panacea for massive federal budget deficits. It's touted by think-tank economists and mentioned by congressional leaders. A VAT could, it's said, raise stupendous amounts of money, which, Lord knows, are needed to cover projected deficits. A VAT is likened to a 'national sales tax,' so once in place, most Americans would barely notice it -- just as they barely notice state and local sales taxes. How's that for friendly politics? A VAT would also discourage consumption and encourage saving and investment, making America richer in the future. What's not to like? ... Almost every pro-VAT argument is exaggerated, misleading, incomplete or wrong. The VAT is being merchandised as an almost-painless way to avoid deep spending cuts. The implicit, though often unstated, message is that a VAT could raise so much money it could eliminate future deficits by itself. This reasoning, if embraced, would create staggering tax burdens and exempt us from a debate we desperately need. How big a government do we want -- and what can we afford?"

-Robert J. Samuelson

"I am as irate as anyone at the way that Obama and Pelosi, like a pair of old-time bootleggers, strong-armed members of Congress into voting for ObamaCare. But just because the Republicans fought back, I'm not as prepared as some to give them a pass. ... I would say to GOP politicians, you had control of the House, the Senate and the Oval Office from 2001-2007, but you didn't do a darn thing about health insurance. It's only now that the liberals are gobbling up one-sixth of the economy that you're suddenly all for tort reform and allowing insurance companies to compete across state borders. When you had the power, all that people like John McCain and the rest of you punks did was cozy up to people like Feingold and Kennedy, like a bunch of school girls hoping the liberals would ask you to the prom. ... [I]nstead of behaving responsibly, you cheered Bush on when he signed a blank check to cover pharmaceuticals. You patted him on the back and took a few bows yourself, as if you or he were personally picking up the tab for granny's meds. ... I'm not suggesting that I don't despise Obama, Pelosi, Waxman and the other left-wing gnomes, but just letting you know that there's more than enough well-deserved contempt to go around. So don't assume that simply because you call yourself a Republican and make nice with the Tea Party crowd that we trust you any farther than we can throw Barney Frank."

-Burt Prelutsky

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ACTIVISM

A new political action committee (PAC) has been formed to run conservative black candidates against liberal black members of Congress. Bishop E.W. Jackson, Sr., has set up the Stand America PAC to challenge members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

http://standamerica.us/

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BOOKS

When wrapping up the nuclear security summit, President Barack Obama said, “Whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower.” The president’s comment was a very subtle example of how liberals tend to talk only to each other and are isolated from most Americans, according to R. Emmett Tyrell Jr., author of the forthcoming book “After the Hangover: The Conservatives' Road to Recovery.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/64300

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LEFTIST WATCH

An atheist group is calling on President Obama to ditch the National Day of Prayer and formally recognize its own “non-theist” version called “The National Day of Reason.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/64358

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NEWS FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD

Islamist insurgents have ordered Somali radio stations to stop playing music, a ban that went into effect last Tuesday. This order follows the Islamists’ ban on musical ringtones, movies, men without beards, football, women’s beauty salons, and bras. Those not adhering to the new ban risk a grave threat to their physical well-being, which includes getting assassinated or undergoing Sharia-based punishments. Such punishments include having your limbs amputated, your eyes gauged out, your tongue cut out, and your ears cut off.

http://frontpagemag.com/2010/04/19/the-day-somali-music-died/

A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1267262/Iranian-cleric-Women-wear-revealing-clothing-cause-earthquakes.html#ixzz0lZZdPVMd

Spengler: “A decade ago I argued that radical Islam might horrify the West into submission through the mass sacrifice of Muslim lives. During the past two weeks Iran has virtually invited a nuclear exchange with the West, in a series of statements that blend a deranged sort of bluster with malevolent calculation… Iran has taken our measure well: the theocratic regime evinced an unlimited appetite for sacrifice during its decade-long war with Iraq in the 1980s. It is persuaded, and with good reason, the prospective horror of a military confrontation is too terrible for the West to bear.”

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LD20Ak01.html

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GLOBALONEY

Just in time for Earth Day at your local supermarket newsstand, Newsweek has published “100 Places to Remember Before They Disappear,” a shrill, apocalyptic, scaremongering photo album of favorite hot spots the world over that are threatened with destruction by global warming. The lush west coast of Kauai, Hawaii? Ruined. The Caribbean? Destroyed. Big Sur, California? Wiped out by wild fires. Chicago, Illinois? Parched and flooded. (Huh?). And so on.

http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZGYzN2ZlYjFiMzliMzk2OTM5YzBhYmE0OTE0NDE2ZGU=

Agence France-Presse puts the volcanic belch from Eyjafjallajökull in perspective. The Iceland volcano is “emitting between 150,000 and 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide per day, a figure placing it in the same emissions league as a small-to-medium European economy. . . . Extrapolated over a year, the emissions (55 million metric tons) would place the volcano 47th to 75th in the world table of emitters on a country-by-country basis.” That perspective is also relevant to the U.S., where spoiled, rich elites pretend CO2 is the greatest challenge that mankind faces.

http://planetgore.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZmQyODY3ZWY4YWRiMTY4OTQyNDY5NTMyMmVkZDM5NjU=

It is no accident that April 22, Earth Day, is also the birth date of Vladimir Lenin, an acolyte of Karl Marx, the lunatic who invented communism as an alternative to capitalism. Earth Day is naked communism. To begin, it substitutes a worship of the Earth, Gaia, for the worship of God, creator of the universe and the instructor of moral behavior for mankind. The Earth does not demand a moral code of personal behavior. Indeed, the lesson it teaches is “the survival of the fittest “and an indifference to suffering.

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/22235

If you were faced with by far the biggest bill of your life, would you not want to be confident that there was a very good reason why you should pay it? That is why we need to know just how far we can trust the science behind the official view that the world is threatened with catastrophe by global warming – because the measures proposed by our politicians to avert this supposed disaster threaten to transform our way of life out of recognition and to land us with easily the biggest bill in history.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/7601929/Climategate-a-scandal-that-wont-go-away.html

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ARTICLES

The reason pension plans are headed toward financial disaster is simple. Ever-expanding public-sector unions have flexed their political muscle and larded up with lavish benefits to be be paid out decades from now. (For example)…California's public-employee retirement system stands in the most perilous condition, facing a half-trillion in unfunded liabilities. That's not surprising when you consider a California highway patrol officer can retire at age 50 and collect up to 90 percent of his salary for the rest of his life. According to the agency's website, a typical officer's pay will reach $109,147 after just five years on duty….That means a fit and healthy 50-year-old "retiree" who began work at age 20 would receive $98,232 a year from taxpayers for the rest of his life, and nothing prevents him from taking another government job to collect two paychecks.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/23/public-sector-unions-bankrupting-america/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_must-read-stories-today

John Stossel & Michael Medved: “I won 19 Emmy Awards by reporting a myth: that business constantly rips us off -- that capitalism is mostly cruel and unfair. I know that's a myth now….."You can only make a profit in this country by giving people a product or a service that they want…..It's the golden rule in action.”

http://townhall.com/columnists/JohnStossel/2010/04/21/myths_about_capitalism?page=full&comments=true

“Think tank analysts usually brim with pride when the president of the United States goes around claiming that his policies are based on their work. But when President Obama tries to sell his health-care law as a moderate approach that borrows ideas developed by the Heritage Foundation, we get incensed…. This is why we at the Heritage Foundation respectfully ask President Obama and his acolytes to stop misrepresenting our research. We think this massive health law is abominable and should be repealed.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/18/AR2010041802727_pf.html

Tea party activists are divided roughly into two camps, according to a new Politico/TargetPoint poll: one that’s libertarian-minded and largely indifferent to hot-button values issues and another that’s culturally conservative and equally concerned about social and fiscal issues. A survey was conducted by Edison Research at the massive Tax Day protest on the National Mall..

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/35988.html

“In 2006, then-governor Mitt Romney signed a sweeping health-insurance overhaul in Massachusetts into law. It relied on subsidies, exchanges, and mandates to extend coverage to the uninsured. Now, four years later, it has become the model for President Obama's new national law—and a big political problem for Romney, who risks alienating Republican critics of the president's plan as he attempts strike a delicate balance between refusing to renounce his own reforms and criticizing Obama's very similar plan.”

http://www.newsweek.com/id/236632

As the left works overtime to underestimate, if not outright disparage, the import and impact of the growing tea party movement, some telling demographics have been revealed by the unlikeliest of sources -- The New York Times and CBS News. A poll sponsored by the traditionally liberal news organizations takes a baby step in debunking the talking points of "progressive" puppet-masters that tea partyers are lemming-like Cro-Magnons, necks painted red, who tuck sawed-off shotguns into their bib overall cut-offs. Truth be told, these modern-day Sons and Daughters of Liberty are wealthier than the general public and better educated. That is, they are industrious -- they actually work and pay taxes -- and know that tickling sensation at their knees is not someone getting fresh but the hands of Leviathan administering a continual fleecing through the hole torn in their pockets.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_676868.html

Barack Obama's Missing Girlfriends

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/barack_obamas_missing_girlfrie.html

As I watch the left pile on the Catholic Church, I am fascinated by the priorities of the critics: they much prefer to attack the institution itself, even as they blatantly ignore the essence of the crimes committed. In virtually every case of sexual molestation that has been reported, a young boy was violated by an older man. In other words, it was homosexual adults talking advantage of their stature as religious figures to abuse young boys. Perhaps pointing this out to liberals, who have long championed every aspect of the militant homosexual agenda, is indelicate.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0410/ahlert.php3

“America's liberals are consumed with guilt. If not soon purged from our society, their guilt will kill us all. Bent on rewriting history, or else entirely ignorant of it, they deny that the United States has brought more freedom and well-being to more people most of the time than any other nation in history.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/the_grand_illusions_of_america.html

Wauconda, Wash., is the most recent town to be sold on ebay, purchased by an unemployed couple from Bothell Wa. “5% down?? Are Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac behind this loan?”

http://specials.msn.com/A-List/Woman-sells-town-on-eBay.aspx?cp-documentid=23972280&imageindex=1

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Respecting our history, protecting our future:

http://www.revereamerica.org/

Pictures from tax day tea parties around the country:

http://lucianne.com/article/?pageid=Tea_Party_page

Clever student puts Obama budget cuts in perspective.

http://www.wimp.com/budgetcuts/

The ABCs of Repealing ObamaCare

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=36452

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LATE NITE

Jimmy Kimmel: A volcano in Iceland has shut down air travel all across Europe. Apparently they dumped too much baking soda and vinegar into the thing and it just won’t stop erupting……The German airline Lufthansa said it plans to resume some flights. Apparently there are so many Germans in France right now that the French government surrendered.

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WISE WORDS

"I want to speak to you this evening about my highest duty as president: to preserve peace and defend these United States. ... One cannot sit in this office reviewing intelligence on the military threat we face, making decisions from arms control to Libya to the Philippines, without having that concern for America's security weigh constantly on your mind. We know that peace is the condition under which mankind was meant to flourish. Yet peace does not exist of its own will. It depends on us, on our courage to build it and guard it and pass it on to future generations. George Washington's words may seem hard and cold today, but history has proven him right again and again. 'To be prepared for war,' he said, 'is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.'"

-Ronald Reagan

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Tea party protesters marked tax day Thursday with exhortations against "gangster government.” Allied activists demonstrated from Maine to Hawaii in hundreds of lively protests, all joined in disdain for government spending In Madison, Wisconsin 12,000 cheering activists staged one of the biggest rallies in state history. In the heartland of Kansas City 10,000 tea partiers turned out - even bigger than last year - and in Oregon at least 30 tea parties swept that deeply blue state, with 3,000 folks even turning out in Salem.

http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2010/04/15/news/national/478428.txt

Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser, President Obama said that the tea party rallies across the nation have “amused” him.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/04/obama-at-democratic-fundraiser-tea-partiers-should-be-thanking-him-for-tax-cuts.html

A New York Times/CBS News poll found that a majority of Americans, 52 percent, think the policies of President Obama are moving the United States toward socialism.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/64245

Three weeks after Congress passed its new national health care plan, support for repeal of the measure has risen four points to 58%.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/march_2010/health_care_law

In blue Washington State, voters are evenly split over whether Obamacare is good (45%) or bad (45%) for the country. Fifty-one percent (51%) favor repeal of the plan.

http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=194&sid=308480

Repealing healthcare reform will be Republicans' ''No. 1 priority,'' their House leader said Monday.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/91619-boehner-repealing-health-bill-must-be-gops-number-one-priority

An analysis that portends electoral doom for Democrats come November: “A 1994-style scenario is probably the most likely outcome at this point. Moreover, it is well within the realm of possibility - not merely a far-fetched scenario - that Democratic losses could climb into the 80 or 90-seat range. The Democrats are sailing into a perfect storm of factors influencing a midterm election, and if the situation declines for them in the ensuing months, I wouldn't be shocked to see Democratic losses eclipse 100 seats.”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Analysis-Not-far-fetched--90830154.html

How bad is it getting for Democrats? “Obama and Ron Paul in a dead heat Election 2012: Barack Obama 42%, Ron Paul 41%”

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/elections2/election_2012/election_2012_barack_obama_42_ron_paul_41

Mitt Romney won the straw poll at the Southern Republican Leadership conference in a victory that will be taken as a sign of the former Massachusetts governor's strength as a 2012 presidential candidate. Romney triumphed by a single vote over Ron Paul, who took second place 439 votes to 438. Both men won 24 percent of the vote. Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich essentially tied for third with 18 percent of the vote each.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20002208-503544.html

Sarah Palin opened the door to joining forces with Mitt Romney for a 2012 White House run - a hot ticket that has some Republicans licking their chops at the prospect of unseating President Obama.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view.bg?articleid=1247346&format=text

Sixty-six percent (66%) of Americans believe America is overtaxed. Only 25% disagree. Eighty-one percent (81%) of Republicans believe the nation is overtaxed. So do 73% of voters not affiliated with either major party. Democrats are evenly divided on the question.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/taxes/april_2010/66_say_america_is_overtaxed

Arizona lawmakers passed one of the toughest pieces of immigration-enforcement legislation in the country, which would make it a violation of state law to be in the U.S. without proper documentation. It would also grant police the power to stop and verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being illegal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304604204575182721466632104.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth

The Nebraska Legislature has passed a law barring abortions after 20 weeks because of the possibility that the fetus could feel pain. The law, approved by the state legislature and expected to be signed by Gov. Dave Heineman, is a landmark in that it directly challenges one of the key tenets of Roe v. Wade: the viability standard.

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2010/04/13/newly-passed-fetal-pain-bill-in-nebraska-is-a-big-deal.aspx

A Republican activist and her boyfriend were savagely beaten in New Orleans on Friday for wearing Sarah Palin pins. “The story….has yet to make national headlines, unlike say, unfounded rumors of nasty words being said by Tea Party protesters.”

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/04/gop-official-boyfriend-savagely-beaten-for-wearing-palin-pins-including-broken-leg-jaw-concussion-media-silent/

A picture after the vicious attack. “Police are looking for a Caucasian male who appeared to be dirty, in his 20’s…with a beard and auburn color hair in a pony tail. Up to 5 men beat the couple after they left the GOP event on Friday night.”

http://biggovernment.com/jhoft/2010/04/15/photo-released-of-gop-official-and-boyfriend-beaten-bloody/

Conservative legal experts say there’s no legal basis for a federal judge declaring the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional – and predict the decision cannot stand. “If the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional, then the Constitution itself if unconstitutional.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/64225

The first man to walk on the moon blasted President Barack Obama’s decision to cancel NASA’s back-to-the-moon program on Tuesday, saying that the move is “devastating” to America’s space effort.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36476183/ns/technology_and_science-space/

More than three quarters of the U.S. Senate, including 38 Democrats, have signed on to a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton implicitly rebuking the Obama Administration for its confrontational stance toward Israel.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0410/76_Senators_sign_on_to_Israel_letter.html

A new report quotes French President Nicolas Sarkozy as stating that President Barack Obama is “dangerous[ly] aliéné”, which translates into a “mad lunatic”, or in the American vernacular, “insane”. According to this report, Sarkozy was “appalled” at Obama’s “vision” of what the World should be under his “guidance” and “amazed” at the American Presidents unwillingness to listen to either “reason” or “logic”.

http://www.eutimes.net/2010/04/french-leader-sarkozy-slams-obama-warns-he-might-be-insane/

The late Rep. John Murtha, Pennsylvania Democrat, has achieved his highest undeserved honor. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has decided to name the Navy's newest San Antonio Class amphibious transport-dock LPD 26 the USS John P. Murtha. This is a slap in the face to every service member who bridled when Murtha publicly accused Marines in Iraq of intentionally killing women and children in cold blood.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/15/sink-the-murtha/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_must-read-stories-today

Chilling new details about the foiled Al Qaeda plot to blow up New York City’s busiest subways have emerged as a fourth suspect was quietly arrested.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/04/12/2010-04-12_zazi_pals_planned_rushhour_attack_on_2_busiest_subway_stations.html#ixzz0ktd9fa9C

The Vatican's Secretary of State - No. 2 to the Pope himself - has suggested the pedophilia crisis engulfing the Catholic Church is linked to homosexuality, not priests' celibacy.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/child-abuse-is-a-gay-problem-says-vatican-20100414-se4y.html

How do Democrats do at spreading their wealth around? Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, earned $333,000 in 2009, and gave $4,820 -- 1.44 percent -- of that to charity. Estimates by charitable organizations show that most givers donate between 3 and 5 percent of their income.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/15/obamas-earned-55-million-2009b/

______________________________________________________________________________________

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Washington Times 4/16

Americans are used to taking comfort in the fact that European countries such as Sweden, France and Finland are inefficient "welfare states." Even if American competitiveness slacks off a bit, the thinking goes, we'll always be on top because the United States would never allow government to get as burdensome as it is in socialist foreign lands. It's time to start thinking differently as the U.S. bureaucracy expands to record levels.

Even before Obamacare and this year's spending increases take effect, Americans have to accept that our government already has gotten to be as big as the biggest welfare states. Socialism is not just somebody else's problem anymore.

A new Fox News report shows that even after adjusting for differences in the cost of living and the number of citizens in each country, total U.S. government spending per capita in 2009 exceeded that of all but eight nations in the world. More than 95 percent of countries have smaller relative governments than we do. In total, U.S. government spending came to $17,400 per capita, or about $70,000 for a family of four. The per capita cost of our government is much more than the per capita income of most of the world.

Sweden might be synonymous with providing costly "cradle to grave" social services, but the Swedes spend just 8.6 percent more per capita on government than the United States. Lefty France spends virtually the exact same as we do. Finland spends 6 percent less. Many countries aren't even close. Canada - which most Americans think is much less free than the Land of the Free - spends 14 percent less per capita on government than Americans, Japan 32 percent less and New Zealand about 40 percent less.

Taking out defense expenditures hardly changes the comparisons. The United States spends more per capita on national defense than most other countries, but the differences in defense expenditures are relatively minimal compared to non-defense government expenditures. Non-defense U.S. government per capita expenditures exceed that of 93 percent of other countries.

The newly enacted trillion-dollar government health care program will make this spending disparity worse, and this measure of government size doesn't account for the cost of all the new regulations Mr. Obama is imposing on everything from the credit we can borrow to the food we buy. It doesn't take into account that American behavior is controlled by the tax code much more than others.

We can't afford to throw away $70,000 on government for a family of four. If that fortune weren't funding the bureaucratic leviathan, it would be invested, saved or spent on consumer products people want. It could be used for productive purposes to get the economy moving again. Instead, the money goes down a rathole, dragging America's competitive edge with it.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/16/the-welfare-state-of-america/

_______________________________________________________________________________

FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"When Supreme Court Justices retire, there is usually some pious talk about their 'service,' especially when it has been a long 'service.' But the careers of all too many of these retiring jurists, including currently retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, have been an enormous disservice to this country."

-Thomas Sowell

"The world is about to get a lot more dangerous. For more than 60 years, the United States has been the pre-eminent nuclear power in the world, and the world has been safer as a result. While anti-nuclear fanatics warned of an apocalypse if the U.S. continued to expand and improve its nuclear arsenal during the Cold War, the reality was that our superiority over our enemy and our unwillingness to foreswear the use of nuclear weapons prevented the conflagration many feared. Now, President Barack Obama is determined to abandon six decades of proven nuclear deterrent policy in favor of a fantasy that he can rid the world of these dangerous weapons by tying America's hands behind our backs."

-Linda Chavez

"The White House issued its Nuclear Posture Review Tuesday. It told our enemies that the U.S. won't respond to a biological attack with nukes. From now on if we want to destroy a country, we're just going to send them the White House economic advisers."

-Argus Hamilton

"What rankles, though, is Obama's habit of putting down America while praising himself. The laughable assertion that Obama has taken 'historic steps to improve our own democracy' shows not humility but an extreme vanity. A truly humble president would occasionally evince some doubt as to whether he is worthy to lead America. Obama seems to doubt whether America is worthy of being led by him."

-James Taranto

"We are nearing the climax of 'tax season.' That's the problem right there, by the way: Summer should have a season, and baseball should have a season, but not tax."

-Mark Steyn

_____________________________________________________________________________________

ACTIVISM

Tea Party Patriots now has a “Contract FROM America”. Show your support, sign the contract.

http://www.contractfromamerica.org/

Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder says he does not believe the 2^ndAmendment gives individuals the right to bear arms. This takes literally 2 clicks to complete. Please vote on this gun issue question with USA Today.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/quickquestion/2007/november/popup5895.htm

Here is a chance to join a lawsuit that will challenge the constitutionality of the health care bill recently passed. The lawyer taking the case is donating his time, so the lawsuit will cost you nothing. Let the United States Supreme Court decide if the federal government acted outside their constitutional authority and against a majority of the people of the United States. 30 million people now get healthcare, while 270 million were thrown under the bus.

http://www.obamacareclassaction.com/index.php.

____________________________________________________________________________________

BOOKS

Excerpts from the book "2010: Take Back America: A Battle Plan," by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_675739.html

“Last week I spoke with Reza Kahlili, a man who during the 1980s and 1990s worked for the CIA under the code name "Wally" inside the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. He wrote a terrific book about his experience as an American agent called A Time to Betray, and today he's issuing a serious warning about his former Iranian masters: they mean what they say, and the West had better start taking them.”

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/if-you-shoot-at-a-king-you-must-kill-him-15418

“100 Great Books of Liberty” is a comprehensive and accessible guide to the books which made liberty the most important idea of Western Civilization..

http://100greatbooksofliberty.ipa.org.au/

____________________________________________________________________________________

LEFTIST WATCH

Unable to tolerate fellow Americans dissenting peacefully against their government's policies, the Left has set up a web site -- known as ''Crash the Tea Party'' -- encouraging people to pose as Tea Partiers and then ''behave in ways which exaggerate their least appealing qualities . . . to damage the public's opinion of them.'' Obviously, this trick is right out of Saul Alinsky's playbook.

http://townhall.com/blog/g/155518d4-7ab9-40c8-9477-b098fa57ee24

The University of Wyoming has been threatened with a lawsuit if the school doesn't allow 1960s radical-turned-academic Bill Ayers to speak on campus later this month.

http://trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_864541cd-4d5c-5b54-b692-466ea09d85c7.html

_____________________________________________________________________________________

GLOBALONEY

The feds are coming to inspect your home if you want to sell it, according to regulations buried in cap-and-trade legislation. The regulations purportedly require homeowners to submit to a warrantless search of their property.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/does_search_and_seizure.html

_____________________________________________________________________________________

ARTICLES

Rich Lowry: “President Barack Obama has an unsettling defense of his health-care reform -- it's merely a version of the plan implemented by Massachusetts. If the states are the laboratories of democracy, Obamacare's Menlo Park is about to blow up. Unsustainably high costs and high insurance premiums are leading inexorably toward price controls and rationing. Obama might as well boast that he's adopted a version of the California fiscal plan, or the Michigan economic-recovery plan. Obama is correct that his plan and Romney's share essential features: a mandate that individuals buy insurance, fines on business for not offering coverage, heavily regulated insurance exchanges, and large-scale insurance subsidies and Medicaid expansion. They share something else -- utterly fanciful notions of cost control….”

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_14853987

If the financial regulation bill that passed the House last year becomes law, President Obama and his Treasury Secretary will acquire the right to take over any financial institution they wish to, provided that, in their sole opinion, it is both “too big to fail” and on the brink of insolvency. The House bill provides for no judicial review and does not require any objective evidence of imminent failure to trigger the takeover provisions. Once the government takes over such a company, it will acquire the right to replace the entire board of directors, fire the management of the company, wipe out stockholder equity and even sell off divisions of the company…. This grant of power to the executive branch is unprecedented and potentially totalitarian.

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/dick-morris/92019-obamas-terrible-powers

President Obama has vowed to remake the methods by which the federal government regulates our homes, our offices, our roads and brooms and thimbles, our roller skates and garden tools and tortilla chips and sunglasses—nearly everything.…..federal regulatory policy has lately been governed by an executive order issued in 1993. Political activists disliked this old order…because it made the job of regulating difficult by requiring a federal agency to perform onerous cost-benefit analyses on each regulation it proposed and to rework the rules that proved too costly. President Obama has suggested that this approach, while perhaps well-meaning, was the product of a less sophisticated, pre-Obama era.

http://weeklystandard.com/articles/nudge-nudge-wink-wink

“As Americans rush to complete their annual tax returns, there is still some consolation in knowing that it could be worse: Like Europeans, we could pay both income taxes and a value-added tax, or VAT. And maybe we soon will. Paul Volcker, Nancy Pelosi, John Podesta and other allies of the Obama Administration have already floated the idea of an American VAT, so we thought you might like to know how it has worked in Europe.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304198004575172190620528592.html?mod=WSJ_article_MoreIn

Where will they strike next? Now that we've been flattened with the crushing weight of what Democrats imagine is health care reform, what additional burdens will follow? Some say it'll be "comprehensive" (there's that word again) immigration reform, providing a "path" for millions of expatriates here illegally to be rewarded with citizenship. But you've got to be careful when trying to figure out the direction of the next Democratic blitz. The Democrats are likely to surprise you by suddenly veering off in a different direction, or sneaking in the unexpected.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/ct-oped-0413-byrne-20100413,0,2134988.column

They may both loathe the Democratic agenda, but a cool distance has divided the GOP establishment and Tea Partyers, whose scorn for the status quo is not limited to the party in power. But after the April 15 Tax Day Tea Party demonstrations across the country, the two may be pulled much closer, whether they are ready for each other or not. A tide of Tea Party activists, eager to turn Washington's course, may flood into Republican campaign offices.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=530492

We have a president loath to acknowledge American exceptionalism. Indeed, the weight of the evidence suggests that our chief executive, through both word and deed and with malice aforethought, seeks to undermine – if not dismantle – that exceptionalism:

“[W]e will achieve our destiny to be as a shining city on a hill for all mankind to see.” – Ronald Wilson Reagan

“Our nation is chosen by God and commissioned by history to be a model to the world.” – George Walker Bush

“America does not presume to know what is best for everyone.” – Barack Hussein Obama

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/22055

_______________________________________________________________________________________

NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Tea Party Patriots

http://www.teapartypatriots.org/Default.aspx

“For decades, Boeing’s talented, experienced American workforce has been building Air Force tankers at facilities across the U.S. A Boeing built tanker will support approximately 50,000 total U.S. jobs. Let’s use common sense to create more U.S. jobs. Support Boeing. We have created this Web site for you, members of your family, friends and others to use as a vehicle to express support for Boeing and our tanker, along with links that allow you to easily e-mail your Members of Congress….”

www.realamericantankers.com

President Obama bows to the Chinese again:

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//100412/480/urn_publicid_ap_org52d493edeb0243ef84cbfc87f58f4b6a/

Hugs for the leftist president of Brazil.

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//100412/ids_photos_ts/r189563115.jpg/

Finger in the face to the conservative party leader of Canada:

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//100412/ids_photos_ts/r816130202.jpg/

King County employee salaries:

http://lbloom.net/KC2009.xls

Can your cat do this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrdZbJkLzwU

Disastrous economic fallacies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQFhm4s_-Pk

Four of the seven worst-made cars on the road come from GM brands.

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/109278/worst-made-cars-on-the-road?mod=family-home

Hat tip to reader Karl Hanke for these links:

Graph of the day.

http://randallhoven.com/id3.html

An initiative that would require the teaching of important founding documents as a requirement to graduate from high school

http://www.wethepeopleofwa.org/

__________________________________________________________________________________________

WISE WORDS

"And now today we find ourselves involved in another struggle, this time called a cold war. This cold war between great sovereign nations isn't really a new struggle at all. It is the oldest struggle of human kind, as old as man himself. This is a simple struggle between those of us who believe that man has the dignity and sacred right and the ability to choose and shape his own destiny and those who do not so believe. This irreconcilable conflict is between those who believe in the sanctity of individual freedom and those who believe in the supremacy of the state."

-Ronald Reagan

"It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."

-Samuel Adams

op ed review 4/11

THIS WEEK’S NEWS

Americans' favorable rating of the Democratic Party dropped to 41% in a late March USA Today/Gallup poll, the lowest point in the 18-year history of this measure.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/127262/Democratic-Party-Image-Drops-Record-Low.aspx

A CBS News poll shows that ObamaCare's popularity has fallen off dramatically since the day of its passage. It appears that Americans aren't as inclined to reward politicians for defying them as the Democrats had hoped. The CBS News poll shows that ObamaCare is now 10 percentage points less popular than it was on the day of its passage. On March 22, Americans opposed ObamaCare by 11 points (48 to 37 percent). Now they oppose it by 21 points.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/can-republicans-read-polls-obamacare

More than a quarter of Americans describe themselves as supporters of the Tea Party movement, and the demographics of this group generally mirror the demographics of the national population.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/63744

Democrats’ efforts to tar the tea partiers as crackpots and racists don’t seem to be paying off. Pollster Scott Rasmussen reports that 48% of voters say that tea partiers’ views on major issues are closer than those of Barack Obama to their own views.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Tea-partiers-outpoll-Obama-89914277.html

Americans are more likely to say the U.S. should prioritize development of energy supplies than to say it should prioritize protecting the environment, the first time more have favored energy production over environmental protection in this question's 10-year history.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/127220/Americans-Prioritize-Energy-Environment-First-Time.aspx

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), sold out, now he’s bailing out. Stupak has decided not to face the voters for reelection. Without Stupak on the ballot, the seat becomes an immediate pickup opportunity for Republicans.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0410/35585.html#ixzz0kcPNFDK7

The Internal Revenue Service could tap individual tax returns to collect fines against people who fail to buy health insurance as required under recently enacted healthcare legislation

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/irs-will-just-take-obamacare-penalties-out-of-your-tax-refund-89989772.html

For most of human history, across all societies, a 26-year old has been considered an adult, and not starting out but well into it. Not someone who remains a dependent of his parent. With Obamacare, however, your 27th birthday marks the point at which a boy becomes a man and moves out of his parents’ health insurance agency.

http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/3129/28/

U.S. President Barack Obama is anti-Israel and “is willing to throw Israel under the bus in order to please Muslim nations," former New York City Mayor Ed Koch charged.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/136845

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) is trailing in the latest Pennsylvania Senate poll. Public Policy Polling (D) has released its first survey of the race and found the Republican candidate, former Rep. Pat Toomey, beats both Specter and Specter's primary opponent, Rep. Joe Sestak (D), in a general election matchup.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/senate-races/90759-sen-specter-trails-in-latest-pennsylvania-poll

President Obama’s revamping of American nuclear policy is the mark of an “inept” leader intent on living a “left-wing dream,” says Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City. “A nuclear-free world has been a 60-year dream of the Left, just like socialized health-care. This new policy, like Obama’s government-run health program, is a big step in that direction……President Obama thinks we can all hold hands, sing songs, and have peace symbols,” says Giuliani.

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDI0MDViMDEzMjA5MGIyYzM5NTEzNjI5ZGM3MWI4ZWM=

The Federal Communications Commission does not have the legal authority to slap Net neutrality regulations on Internet providers, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20001825-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

After a year's struggle, a group of students at the University of Virginia have successfully placed a class on conservatism in their school's catalogue, and they expect the 40 seats available to quickly be filled. "The idea originally came about when we found out that our university annually sponsors a class called Modern Liberalism," said a student activist leader. "We thought, 'Why not balance the spectrum and have a class devoted to Modern Conservatism as well? '"As news of the course spread on campus, the student planners received responses from 11 professors eager to support their endeavors. The class is currently scheduled to seat 40 students, but based on early interest the limit may be raised to 100.

http://www.vagazette.com/articles/2010/04/09/news//doc4bbf357a24e68634899622.txt

The busybodies at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) say you are not reading the back of the box properly, so they will soon require nutritional information on the front of food packages.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/63959

______________________________________________________________________________________

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED COLUMN

Michael Barone 4/1/10

Over the past 14 months, our political debate has been transformed into an argument between the heirs of two fundamental schools of political thought, the Founders and the Progressives. The Founders stood for the expansion of liberty and the Progressives for the expansion of government.

It's an argument that has been going on for a century but was largely dormant over the quarter-century of low-inflation economic growth that followed the Ronald Reagan tax cuts. It's been raised again by the expand-government policies of the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders.

Those policies, thoroughly in line with the Progressive tradition, have been advanced by liberal elites in government, media, think tanks and academia. The opposition, roughly in line with the Founders tradition, has been led by the non-elites who spontaneously flocked to tea parties and town halls. Republican politicians have been scrambling to lead these protestors.

The conservative rebellions of the late 1970s and middle 1990s were focused on taxes. The tea partiers are focusing on the expansion of government -- and its threat to the independence of citizens.

The first mention of tea parties came in February 2009 from CNBC's Rick Santelli on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, when he asked "if we really want to subsidize the losers' mortgages. How many of you people want to pay your neighbor's mortgage, that has an extra bathroom and can't pay their bills?" Then he called for a Chicago tea party.

This struck a chord. Tea partiers began to dress in 18th century costumes -- political re-enactors -- and brandished the "Don't tread on me" flag. They declared their independence by opposing Progressive policies that encourage dependence on government.

The Progressives have always assumed that people needed safety nets and would welcome dependence on government. The public's clear rejection of the Democratic health care bills has shown that this assumption was unwarranted. Americans today prefer independence to dependence on government, just as they did 200 years ago.

All this was supposed to have been consigned to the past long ago. The Progressives of the early 1900s -- Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, New Republic founder Herbert Croly -- argued that in an industrial era of mass production and giant businesses, ordinary people were helpless and needed government's guiding hand. It would be more efficient, they argued, for centralized, disinterested experts to administer national institutions than to let chaotic markets operate freely and to observe the Constitution's horse-and-buggy limits on government power. The Founders were out of date.

The Progressives had their way for much of the 20th century. But it became apparent that centralized experts weren't disinterested, but always sought to expand their power. And it became clear that central planners can never have the kind of information that is transmitted instantly, as Friedrich von Hayek observed, by price signals in free markets.

It turned out that centralized experts are not as wise and ordinary Americans are not as helpless as the Progressives thought. By passing the stimulus package and the health care bills, the Democrats produced expansion of government. But voters seem to prefer expansion of liberty.

The Progressives' scorn for the Founders has not been shared by the people. First-rate books about the Founders have been bestsellers. And efforts to dismiss the Founders as slaveholders, misogynists or homophobes have been outweighed by the resonance of their words and deeds.

The Declaration of Independence's proclamation that "all men are created equal" with "unalienable rights" to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" has proved to be happily elastic. It still sings to us today, thanks to the struggles and sacrifices of many Americans who gave blacks and women the equality denied to them in 1776.

In contrast, the early Progressives' talk of an "industrial age" and an outmoded Constitution sounds like the language of an age now long past. Their faith in centralized planning seems naive in a time when one unpredicted innovation after another has changed lives for the better.

Polls and recent election results tell us that racial minorities and the so-called "educated class" -- the people who expect their kind will administer centralized institutions -- still take the side of the Progressives. Most Americans, however, are rejecting the path of dependence and are intent on declaring their independence once again.

http://townhall.com/columnists/MichaelBarone/2010/04/01/tea_partiers_embrace_liberty,_not_big_government?page=full&comments=true

You’d better read this also:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/the_rape_of_america_1.html

_______________________________________________________________________________

FROM OTHER COLUMNS

"A few weeks ago, The New York Times ran an editorial noting the amazing fact that, by the middle of this year, there will be an estimated 6.8 billion people on Earth -- and 5 billion will have cell phones! ... How did that happen without a Democrat president and Congress using bribes, parliamentary tricks and arcane non-voting maneuvers to pass a massive, hugely expensive National Cell Phone Reform Act? How did that happen without Barney Frank and Henry Waxman personally designing the 3-foot-long, 26-pound, ugly green $4,000 cell phone we all have to use? How did that happen without Obama signing the National Cell Phone Reform bill, as a poor 10-year-old black kid who couldn't afford to text-message his friends looked on? The reason nearly everyone in the universe has a cell phone is that President Reagan did to telephones the exact opposite of what the Democrats have just done with health care. Before Reagan came into office, we had one phone company, ridiculously expensive rates and one phone model. Reagan split up AT&T, deregulated phone service and gave America a competitive market in phones. The rest is history. If you can grasp how inexpensive cell phones in a rainbow of colors and wonders like the iPhone could never have been created under a National Cell Phone Reform Act, you can understand what a disaster ObamaCare is going to be for health care in America."

-Ann Coulter

"Far too many Americans are already willing to trade integrity for 'free' health care, a 'government modified' mortgage, or a host of other carrots held in front of them by a federal government whose resemblance to a pimp grows sharper every day. Much of human nature is about taking the path of least resistance -- which is why it is so important to resist such instincts, especially when they're portrayed as virtues."

-Arnold Ahlert

"This week the DNC group Organizing for America offered a commemorative certificate to supporters who helped pass the health care bill. The certificate said, 'We achieved the dream of generations -- high-quality, affordable health care is no longer the privilege of a few, but the right of all.' The privilege of a few? It is widely accepted that about 85 percent of all Americans have health care coverage, and the overwhelming majority are happy with it. There's simply no way anyone could plausibly claim that health coverage is the privilege of a few. "

-Byron York

"Half a century ago, Khrushchev and Nixon had what was dubbed the kitchen debate. Nixon predicted that the Russians would become capitalists, while Khrushchev insisted that socialism would bury us. Who would ever have guessed that they would both be right?"

-Burt Prelutsky

"Whereas you [Ronald Reagan] are remembered for, 'Tear down this wall,' Obama may be remembered for, 'Tear down this country.'"

-Doug Gamble

"The legendary King Midas was given the gift of the golden touch; everything he touched would turn to gold. Excited at first, he learned the price of greed when the food he tried to eat turned to gold and when he even turned his own daughter into a hunk of gold. King Obama, twentieth century America, has a magic touch, too. Everything he touches turns to ... well ... donkey dust ... owl hockey ... bull shavings ... bunny pellets ... that sort of thing."

-Tony Gallardo

"This is my favorite story of the week. The Republican National Committee is in trouble after spending nearly $2,000 at a bondage club in Hollywood. You know what I call a Republican that spends a lot of money in a strip club? A Democrat."

-Jay Leno

_________________________________________________________________________________________

GLOBALONEY

The Department of Energy announced new and higher energy efficiency standards for several classes of appliances. “What's actually going to happen is that anyone who tries to sell their home is going to need to replace that perfectly good water heater, and lots of other electrical devices in their homes in order to legally sell their home.” After spending billions of dollars, the reduction in carbon emissions for this effort will be 1.5 billionths of 1% of the total carbon in the atmosphere every year.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/04/onerous_new_doe_regulations_he.html

A national campaign was launched today to get public schools that have shown Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" to give equal time to the opposing view of global warming.

http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/12460

The level of coverage in America regarding questions raised by the Climategate scandal and other related revelations is a scandal. The Euro-media has been on the story from the beginning and surprisingly, is telling the story in a mostly objective manner. Spiegel Online has an exhaustive, 8-page review of events and discoveries since the Climategate emails were revealed. It shows a climate science community in near chaos and dispirited over the fact that so much data was fabricated or deliberately ignored.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,686697,00.html

Few adults may know it, but kids across the country are about to celebrate a holiday: Earth Day, which is April 22. Schools will take a break from normal instruction to discuss the importance of preserving the environment. That may sound like a harmless activity, but too often Earth Day becomes a platform for pushing an ideological brand of environmentalism. Parents need to pay attention and ask their children's teachers what their plans are for Earth Day. Unlike most holidays, Earth Day expressly focuses on youth.

http://townhall.com/columnists/CarrieLukas/2010/04/05/pay_attention_parents_its_almost_earth_day!?page=full&comments=true

How many more must perish in coal mines before the green lobby ends its opposition to a safer energy source? More than 100 Americans have died in coal mines since 1984. Over that same period, not one American has died in a nuclear energy accident. In fact, no American has ever been killed in an atomic energy accident.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=529510

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NEWS FROM THE ISLAMIC WORLD

A Dubai appeals court upheld a one-month prison sentence for a British couple convicted of kissing in a restaurant. Last month an Indian couple was sentenced to three months in jail for exchanging steamy text messages.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100404/D9ES6SM80.html

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ACTIVISM

This is an attempt by Patty Murray’s Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to smear Dino Rossi. Right now Dino is not even an announced candidate, so this webpage attacks a private citizen.

http://www.dirtydealsdinoforsenate.com/

This is Dino’s response, a letter sent to Sen. Murray.

http://www.blog.orbusmax.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Murray-Letter.pdf

Tell Sen. Murray this is why she will soon be unemployed.

http://murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm

mailto:info@dscc.org

The “Day of Silence” sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), will take place in most public schools on April 16. Thousands of public high schools and increasing numbers of middle schools will allow students to remain silent throughout an entire day-even during instructional time-to promote GLSEN's agenda. Here’s what you can do:

http://www.doswalkout.net/

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BOOKS

“The Marketing of Evil” is the title of one of the most important books of our day. When David Kupelian wrote it several years ago he caused many to understand that the breakdown of the family, the toxic culture, the slow chipping away at the moral fabric of our nation do not happen by accident. They happen because there are those who are intent on destroying a Judeo-Christian worldview and the goodness that goes along with it. As we face this ugly truth, the good news is that Kupelian has written a sequel.

http://townhall.com/columnists/RebeccaHagelin/2010/04/06/the_marketing_of_evil

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LEFTIST WATCH

"I don't worry about the Constitution on this. ... What I care more about, I care more about the people dying every day that don't have health care."

-Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL)

"It's a simple proposition to us: Everyone is entitled to adequate medical health care. If you call that a 'redistribution of income' -- well, so be it."

-Joe Biden

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka denounced conservative talk show hosts as “apostles of hatred.” He accused Glenn Beck and those supporting the Tea Party crowd of being a “similar movement” to the “Nazi-style” fascism of the 1930s with its “racial hatred and political violence.” A labor leader disturbed by possible “political violence”? That’s a switch.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view.bg?articleid=1245821

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WHAT CONSERVATIVES ARE SAYING

Newt Gingrich: "The most radical president in American history has now thrown down the gauntlet to the American people: 'I run a machine. I own Washington and there's nothing you can do about it,'" Gingrich said. He urged his fellow Republicans to stop what he called Obama's "secular, socialist machine."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100409/ap_on_re_us/us_republicans_gingrich

Rush Limbaugh: “We don't know the exact date of our country's future bankruptcy, but we just know that it is a certainty under Obama's direction and the help of Democrats in Congress and the government-run media. America is being administered statist-assisted suicide. Obama is Dr. Kevorkian. Forget Obama and Kevorkian's intentions. The patient's going to die if Obama isn't stopped, politically, if he's not stopped, if these policies are not reversed, that much is clear.”

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_040810/content/01125106.guest.html

Sarah Palin is hammering President Obama for putting unprecedented limits on the use of U.S. nuclear weapons, comparing him to a kid in a playground who is asking for a punch in the face.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2010/04/palin-says-obamas-nuke-stance-is-like-a-kid-who-says-punch-me-in-the-face-.html

Liz Cheney told 3,500 conservative activists and donors gathered for a conference that there are three prongs to the president's foreign policy: "apologize for America, abandon our allies and appease our enemies…..The Obama administration is putting us on the path to decline.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20002093-503544.html

In a preview of his book “Conservative Victory—Defeating Obama’s Radical Agenda,” due to be released Monday, Sean Hannity said of the policies President Barack Obama has been pursuing: “If you look up the dictionary definition of socialism, this is it.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/63316

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ARTICLES

"Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, three giant entitlements, are out of control….Exploding costs will drive our federal government and national economy to collapse…Today, Medicare is $38 trillion short of its promised benefits….in five years, the hole will grow to $52 trillion. Your family's share of this gap is $458,000....”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/The-president_s-popularity-plunge-89874577.html#ixzz0kFtJMM7F

A warning from the online edition of Pravda: “It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American descent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people…..These past… weeks have been the most breath taking of all….”

http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/107459-0/

How much are we regulated?

http://article.nationalreview.com/430684/there-oughta-be-a-law/shannen-w-coffin

“Dr. Galt” On strike: a Florida doctor has told patients who voted for Barack Obama that they should seek care elsewhere. His is a noble one-man fight against the soft tyranny of the federal takeover of the health care sector.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=529344

“Obamacare's doctorless world”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/04/obamacares-doctorless-world/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_must-read-stories-today

Dennis Prager: “When a town in Iowa seeks to rename Good Friday “Spring Holiday,” you know America has problems.”

http://article.nationalreview.com/430410/abolishing-good-friday/dennis-prager

They've been called Oreos, traitors and Uncle Toms, and are used to having to defend their values. Now black conservatives are really taking heat for their involvement in the mostly white tea party movement—and for having the audacity to oppose the policies of the nation's first black president. "I've been told I hate myself. I've been called an Uncle Tom. I've been told I'm a spook at the door," said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a group of black conservatives who support free market principles and limited government.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9ETR1380&show_article=1

Glenn Reynolds: "If no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?" -- President Reagan, Jan. 20, 1981. Economist Friedrich Hayek explained in 1945 why centrally controlled "command economies" were doomed to waste, inefficiency, and collapse: Insufficient knowledge. He won a Nobel Prize. But it turns out he was righter than he knew. In his "The Use of Knowledge In Society," Hayek explained that information about supply and demand, scarcity and abundance, wants and needs exists in no single place in any economy. The economy is simply too large and complicated for such information to be gathered together…..no matter how deceptively simple and appealing command economy programs are, they are sure to trip up their operators, because the operators can't possibly be smart enough to make them work.”

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Sunday_Reflections/Progressives-can_t-get-past-the-Knowledge-Problem-89780997.html

“Hey moonbats of Massachusetts - why won’t you pay more taxes? You’re always lecturing the rest of us how taxes are an investment in the future, the price we pay for civilization, etc., etc. But when given the option of personally paying your fair share, hey, come back here, you pony-tailed trust-fund recipient you. Put your hands up and step away from the Prius - slowly. What about the children? As the deadline for filing 2009 state income taxes nears, once again the Beautiful People of Massachusetts are proving that while they enjoy talking the talk, walking the walk is another thing altogether.”

http://bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/20100404moonbats_wing_it_when_it_comes_to_paying_more_taxes/

President Barack Obama's advisers plan to remove terms such as "Islamic radicalism" from a document outlining national security strategy and will use the new version to emphasize that the U.S. does not view Muslim nations through the lens of terrorism.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/63838

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DESERVING OF YOUR SUPPORT

One of our fellow OER readers, Elizabeth Scott, is running for state representative in Washington’s 21^st district, position 2. She is a member of the Washington State Farm Bureau, the Snohomish County Chapter of the Citizens' Alliance for Property Rights, the National Rifle Association, and Evergreen Freedom Foundation's Citizen Action Network. Endorsements by Rob McKenna, Rev. Wayne Perryman, and Kirby Wilbur, among others. She could use your support. Volunteer or contribute here: 206-330-1066

http://www.elizabeth4state.com

The Thomas More Law Center has filed a motion in a federal district court for a preliminary injunction on the enforcement of the individual mandate provision of the newly enacted health care reform act, the Ann Arbor-based law firm announced Tuesday. The government has 21 days to respond. "If Congress can use the Commerce Clause to force people to purchase insurance based on the mere fact that they exist or face federal penalties, then there is no limit to the power of Congress," said Richard Thompson, president and chief Counsel for TMLC.

http://www.thomasmore.org/default-sb_thomasmore.html?206204650

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NOTEWORTHY WEBSITES

Kirby Wilbur has joined Americans for Prosperity as the director of the Washington State chapter.

http://americansforprosperity.org/030510-afp-launches-washington-state-chapter

They’re sponsoring tea parties on April 15^th. Attend one near you.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AgdE4OXyxIv-dFFLeU1uV09MUXd6T09HSGxBM0JkRGc&hl=en

CampusReform.org is designed to provide conservative activists with the resources, networking capabilities, and skills they need to revolutionize the struggle against leftist bias and abuse on college campuses.

http://www.campusreform.org/

iPad vs the oPad

http://mommylife.net/archives/2010/04/ipad_vs_opad_-.html

Top ten low-pass flybys:

http://shock.military.com/Shock/videos.do;jsessionid=32E539AAFF2B7A9E629ADE321BCB43F5?displayContent=212576&ESRC=dod.nl

Just prior to the start of the Air Force-BYU football game, Sept. 22, 2009, this video was broadcast in the BYU stadium in Provo, Utah. Later, the USAF Academy Superintendent, LtGen Gould, showed this clip to the faculty and staff. He was clearly moved by it, as were those who watched it. BYU is a class act. (hat tip to reader Jack Clark)

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=72OhOWFMf84

The 7 wonders of the world: great photos

http://7wonders.org/

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WISE WORDS

"It has been said that all Government is an evil. It would be more proper to say that the necessity of any Government is a misfortune. This necessity however exists; and the problem to be solved is, not what form of Government is perfect, but which of the forms is least imperfect."

-James Madison