Will Jimmy Carter please shut up?

It seems like former president Jimmy Carter has been in the news as much in the last week as he was in 1978.  First, he belittled opposition to Barack Obama as racist.  I didn't worry much about that, though, and chalked it up to the ramblings of a washed-up, liberal has-been who is enjoying a return to the limelight mostly because large numbers of Americans aren't old enough to remember what a horrible job he did as president.

But now Carter is criticizing his country, our country, abroad and in support of a South American dictator.  Talking about a coup staged against Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, Carter told a newspaper in Columbia that, "I think there is no doubt that in 2002, the United States had at the very least full knowledge about the coup, and could even have been directly involved."  (Link to story here.)

If Carter was merely a private citizen, that would be one thing.  Every American is entitled to his or her own opinion - even if it is baseless or outrageous or anti-American.  But Carter is not merely a private citizen.  As a former president, he is, like it or not, a representative of the nation everywhere forever.  And his words are giving aid and comfort to an enemy.  

It is time for Jimmy Carter to shut up and fade away.

Maybe we should "swear in" President Obama before he speaks

Witnesses in a court of law are required to be sworn in before giving testimony.  They swear to tell "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."  

Joe Wilson (R-SC) famously interrupted Barack Obama during his healthcare speech to Congress shouting "You lie!" when the president claimed that his healthcare plans would not cover illegal immigrants.  Since then that interruption, folks have debated whether or not Obamacare (Version ?) did or did not provide such coverage.  

Whether Obama was telling the truth or not is one thing but now we can be certain that he was not telling the whole truth . . .

Obama doesn't want to give "illegal immigrants" taxpayer-funded healthcare - nope - he wants to give them amnesty, convert them into "legal immigrants" and then provide them with taxpayer-funded healthcare.  (Link to story here.)

So Obama doesn't support ONLY free healthcare for illegal immigrants - he wants to grant them all citizenship first.

Next time Obama speaks, I want him to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Obama Abandons Allies

Today, on the seventieth anniversary of the Soviet Union's invasion of Poland, Barack Obama announced that the United States would not (though promised by his predecessor) build a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.  (Link to story here.)

Update 9/18/09 . . . The front page of a Polish newspaper today screamed "Betrayal!  The U.S. sold us to Russia and stabbed us in the back."  (Link to story here.)

Thanks Sarah!

Sarah Steelman will not be running for U.S. Senate in 2010.  (Link to story here.)  Her decision to avoid a sure-to-be bitter primary fight with Roy Blunt is commendable.  It is good for the State and the GOP.

But I'm not saying that because I don't like Steelman as a candidate.  I do.  Rather I believe that Republicans fighting each other helps Democrats.  Steelman's challenge of Kenny Hulshof in the gubernatorial primary last year all but ensured Jay Nixon's election.  With no serious primary challenger, Blunt can focus on conservative Missouri's real opponent . . . Robin Carnahan.  (Where is she, by the way?)

Here's hoping that Steelman sets her sights on Claire McCaskill in 2012.

Wow - even Jay Rockefeller now realizes that Obamacare is a bad idea.

Yesterday, Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana) released his long-awaited and no-longer-bipartisan healthcare reform bill.  The bill proposes to pay for Obamacare by imposing a huge tax on so-called Cadillac health insurance plans.  But even fellow Democrat Jay Rockefeller has figured out what such a tax would really mean . . . "virtually every single coal miner is going to have a big, big tax put on them," just like millions of other middle-class Americans.  (Link to story here.)

This thing must be stopped.  Now and forever.

Signs of Hope in D.C.

What would happen if a million people showed up in Washington, D.C., to protest Barack Obama and creeping socialism?

Well, they showed up (link to story here), so I suppose we'll see in the days and months ahead.

Thanks to those of you who attended and made your voice heard.

What happens when you place a "community organizer" in charge of U.S. foreign policy? (Part 2)

Part 1, back in March, showed one of America's foes taking advantage of Barack Obama's foreign policy naiveté.  (They're still at it, by the way.)

Now, in Part 2, we see America's friends "betrayed . . . irked . . . slighted" as the Obama administration considers pulling the plug on Bush administration plans to protect Central Europe with a missile defense system and fails to send a top official to Poland for the commemoration ceremony recognizing the beginning of World War II.

While Democrats quarrel with the "Bush Doctrine," the Obama Doctrine seems to be developing into "dialogue" with our enemies, capitulation, and snubbing of our allies.

Illegal Immigrants beware . . . Walker is on patrol

Texas Governor Rick Perry, fed up with the continuing failure of the federal government to secure America's border with Mexico, has called in the Rangers.  (Link to story here.)  Perry's calls to Washington for National Guard troops have been ignored and somebody's got to step in and do the job.  

Good luck Gov. Perry and good luck Rangers.  Thanks for your efforts.

A cyberspace pat on the back to Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer

Why does he deserve a pat on the back?  Read his response to a selfish, whining, e-mail that he received from someone upset by the inconvenience of a fallen hero's funeral procession at this link.  Thanks for telling it like it is Sheriff.

Don't trust ANYTHING you hear on CNN

CNN's Political Ticker is touting a "double-digit post-speech jump" in support for Obamacare.  (Link here.)  "Two out of three Americans who watched President Barack Obama's health care reform speech Wednesday night," the CNN report continues, "favor his health care plans - a 14-point gain among speech-watchers."

Wow.  That sure differs with the mood on the street here in St. Louis.  But CNN isn't bothering to tell you that it created the numbers, very nearly, from whole cloth.  What they actually did (and give them some credit for disclosing it, though at the bottom of the article) is poll a bunch of Democrats and almost no Republicans.  So, shocker, a bunch of Democrats think Obama's plan is just peachy.

This isn't news.  This isn't reporting.  This certainly isn't journalism.  No, as James Earl Jones would say, this is CNN. 

What's buried in the healthcare bills?

According to Mark Mix at the Wall Street Journal, forced unionization of healthcare workers.  (Link here.)

Do Democrats represent Americans? Or not?

I'm just wondering because the latest poll shows that 52% of American oppose Obamacare.  (Link here.)

Where's Robin Carnahan?

Apparently, nobody knows . . . and her silence is being noticed nationally. (Link to story here.) But, as Jake Wagman notes in the Post-Dispatch piece, she's keeping Missouri voters "in the dark on certain policy positions in the here-and-now, issues such as health care and environmental legislation. While those votes may be in the rear view mirror, the issues provide telling insight into how a candidate would behave as a legislator."

Shocker: Obama wants tax on soda

In a complete surprise, Barack Obama is open to a new tax on consumption of soda and other sugary drinks. (Link to story here.)

Actually, of course, it is no surprise at all. None of us should be surprised that a liberal Democrat stands ready and willing to raise your taxes. The fact that doing so could take a swipe at your freedom to drink what you want to drink is an added bonus. Dealing a blow to American businesses, like Coca-Cola and Pepsico . . . well, that's icing on the cake.

Democrats like to yell and scream about keeping government "out of the bedroom." How about keeping it out of our refrigerators!

Obama wants to end healthcare debate . . . me too!

I'm always pleased when Barack Obama and I agree on something.  Today, in his Labor Day speech in Cincinnati, the president said "every debate at some point comes to an end.  At some point, it's time to decide.  At some point, it's time to act.  Ohio, it's time to act and get this thing done."  (Link here.)

I agree completely.  It is time to stick a fork in Obamacare and call it done.

But let's dig a little deeper into Obama's statement.  He's calling for a vote on and, presumably, passage of "this thing" when nobody, nowhere, knows the details of the "thing" he's talking about.  The House has passed a bill; the Senate hasn't; and the president has proposed nothing.  The "public option" is on the table one day and off the table the next.

Doesn't calling for an end to debate at this point in time seem a bit ludicrous?

Three Peas in a bad Pod . . .

According to a new paper published by the Institute of Economic Affairs and endorsed by Nobel Prize-winning economist James Buchanan, Barack Obama is making the same mistakes made by Franklin Roosevelt (which prolonged the Great Depression by several years) and also by Argentinean dictator Juan Peron (which caused his country's economy "collapse from first to Third World status").  (Link to story here.)

If lessons in history are not well learned . . . 

Carnahan ducking Blunt . . . and the issues

Today, I was in the car listening to Rep. Roy Blunt on the Mark Reardon Show on KMOX.  (Link here to hear it yourself.)  Blunt referred to a challenge that he has consistently issued to his presumptive opponent in Missouri's 2010 race for the U.S. Senate, Robin Carnahan, since February.  That challenge is, in Blunt's own words, "let's talk about the issues anywhere, anytime, anyplace."  The latest incarnation of the challenge was to have a joint news conference on healthcare tomorrow in front of Carnahan's office in Jefferson City.  But Carnahan has refused, as she's been refusing for months.

Is Carnahan simply ducking Blunt, afraid to face off with him on these issues?  Or is she ducking the issues themselves?  

I think both . . . she's nowhere to be seen.  She's not talking about he issues.  And she's trying to stay out of the public eye.  Why?  Because she's a liberal Democrat . . . and, thankfully, the bloom seems to be coming off that rose nationwide.

Robin . . . if you want to be a U.S. Senator, tell Missourians what you would do if you were sitting in Kit Bond's chair today.  We deserve to know what kind of Senator you would be.

Obama Propaganda in the Schools

Seriously folks.  This isn't just a pro-Obama video.  It is a propaganda film.  Celebrities pledging allegiance to the Supreme Leader, Barack Obama.  This is scary stuff.  

And it is being used at elementary school assemblies (link to story here) to indoctrinate the youth of America.

I'm a big proponent of public schools.  But if this dung was shown in my children's school, I would seriously consider pulling them.  Parents and communities cannot abandon their responsibility for the education of their children to the government or N.E.A.  If they do, this stuff will be the end result.

Question: How does the U.S. end dependence on foreign oil?

Answer:  More domestic oil.

In related news, oil giant BP announced today "another 'giant' oil discovery" in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.  (Link to story here.)

Fantasy Football Break

Sorry to my regular readers.  Tonight was SLC's fantasy football draft.  No time to blog.  Hopefully, I'll have some time in the morning.