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/

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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/

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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

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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.

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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/

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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

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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

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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

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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/

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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