A follow on to "The Big Lie":

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here."

That was written by Patrick Henry, he of "Give me liberty or give me death!" fame. Boy howdy, but what red-blooded American cannot help but be stirred by that?

What red-blooded American Christian cannot help but be stirred by Henry's statement as a founder of the nation? Certainly, Patrick Henry would would agree wholeheartedly with today’s opponents to separation of church and state.

Henry also believed very deeply in freedom of religious choice ... although he believed that choice was limited to which Christian church you were obligated to belong. Henry believed that every man must belong to a Christian church, and that every man must pay taxes to support that church, and to support "teachers of the Christian religion".

I imagine that must give our anti-separatist friends and neighbors a Chris Matthews-like tingle up the leg.

On the other hand ... government-mandated tithing? Government-mandated membership in an “approved” church? How many of us today, no matter what our faith, would go along with that?

You know what? They didn’t go along with it back then, either, and a group of unlikely bedfellows, evangelists and Enlightenment rationalists, defeated Henry’s attempt in the Virginia legislature. Why? One group was afraid of government interference in the church, while the other group was afraid of church interference with government. The idea is to protect the church from the government, and the government from the church. You won't often hear opponents to the separation of church and state cite Patrick Henry, however, lest someone point out that Henry led the opposition to Virginia's ratification of the Constitution. Patrick Henry didn't like the Constitution, and he opposed its adoption vociferously. That's one of those Inconvenient Truths that gets in the way the argument, don't you think?

In her recent letter to the editor, Laurie Gloyd, an anti-separatist, draws on one of their favorite observations: "Separation of church and state is not found in the Constitution”.

That is true. What is also true, however, is the fact that “God” is not found in the Constitution. Moreover, the Constitution actually prevents the use of any religious test as a qualifier to hold office. Therefore, Constitutionally, an atheist is as qualified to hold office as the most rabid Christian fundamentalist … or Islamic fundamentalist, for that matter. And, while a president-elect may place his or her hand upon a Bible while taking the oath, there is no requirement to do so. Nor does the oath of office make any reference to “God”.

The same individuals often point out that the Declaration of Independence refers to a “Creator”, though they gloss over a lack of reference to "Christ" or "Christianity" anywhere in the document. But the Declaration does not have force of law. The Constitution, on the other hand, is the framework for the law of the land. The Constitution was written by elected officials, then ratified by the people of the several states. The framers of the Constitution were an eclectic bunch, representing deists, Trinitarians, Unitarians, Episcopalians, and Christians who today would be called ‘evangelical’. All were deeply concerned about the relationship of church and state.

At the same time, at least two colonies, two states in the early days of the republic, had government-approved churches.

How can this be, given the First Amendment?

We have to remember that until the 14th Amendment, the Federal Constitution applied only to Federal issues. It is the 14th Amendment, with its Equal Protection clause, that extends the power of the Federal Constitution to not only the states, but all the way down to local government, even in Judge Manley’s municipal court. So in the early days, the republic and the states operated under some very different legal rules and principles.

We have a fine quote from Justice Harry Blackmun, taken from Lee v. Weisman in 1992: "When the government puts its imprimatur on a particular religion it conveys a message of exclusion to all those who do not adhere to the favored beliefs. A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some [over others]."

Of course, Blackmun is one of those 'illiterate liberal judges' to whom Mr. Reilly referred in his earlier letter on this subject. Everyone knows that Israel is 'God's chosen people', so therefore their decendents must be Constitutionally-exempt. I don't know how that applies to the separation of church and state but I just had to toss it in.

So. Let's do away with that separation of church and state. How are we going to do it? Constitutional amendment? I doubt it. That requires a majority for ratification, and Christians have managed to dig themselves into such a self-righteously deep hole, that kind of thing isn't going to happen. They just don't have the juice any more.That's the unfortunate result of out-Phariseeing the Pharisees.

But wait! As Obama has shown us, we don't need the Constitution. We can have a "religion czar"!

Who shall it be?

How about ... the Reverend Jeremiah Wright? No? How about ... the Reverend Jesse Jackson? No? How about ... the Reverend Al Sharpton?

Wowsers. How about Reverend Fred Phelps, of the Westboro Baptist Church, a fine example of Christian thought and a real anti-separatist? Brother Phelps views on homosexuals should make him particularly acceptable to Christian fundamentalists, don't you think?

So many choices. Who will make the choice? Congress? The President? Certainly not you or me.

Separation of church and state. The only thing keeping the worst of the whackjobs away from the rest of us.

Judge Nappy holds forth:

Was Joe Wilson right?

Da Judge puts forth all the reasons why Wilson was right when he hollered, "You lie" during Obama's Shuck and Jive performance. Of course, Wilson violated the Rules of the House when he did that, but that doesn't negate the fact that he was right. He was rude, too, but that doesn't negate the fact that he was right.

Take a read of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Note how the term 'citizen' is used throughout the section ... until you get down to that part about "equal protection of the laws'. Now we don't see the word 'citizen'. We see the word 'person'. The authors knew what they were writing. They clearly understood the difference between 'citizen' and 'person', yet chose to use 'person' in the Equal Protection clause.

This is why Senor and Senora Mojado, both illegal aliens, enjoy the protections of the Constitution. Remember the wetbacks who were whaled upon and beaten senseless by Riverside County deputies some years back, all why "News at 11" hovered overhead, videotaping? Said wetbacks sued Riverside County and each one of them was awarded $750,000. Why? "Equal protection of the laws". It isn't rocket science, and it isn't arcane legal mumbo jumbo ... and it is the law of the land. You may be here illegally, but that fact doesn't mean you can be a punching bag for the cops.

Nor can you be excluded because the president finds it convenient to obfuscate or ignore the facts of the case.

Da Judge is on the money.

We have been asked :

"From whence comes the term, 'The Orchid Office'?"

The answer is, thusly:

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK."

- Barack Obama, May 18, 2008

That's what Barack Obama told America, back then. All the Greenies got tingles up their legs, and Chris Matthews fainted in throes of orgasmic pleasure.

Then ...

Shortly after moving into the White House, last winter, The One took the opportunity to chastise Washingtonians, who were vapor locking and closing schools over some snow and ice. But then in almost the same breath, we had this:

US capital "flew into a bit of a tizzy" when, on his first full day in the White House, Mr Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation, the paper found: Mr Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.

"He's from Hawaii, OK?" Mr Axelrod told the paper. "He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there."

The Orchid Office. Shortly thereafter, The Obamessiah was feeding his cronies Wagyu steaks on the taxpayers' dime. Wagyu's go for about a hundred bux a pound. Yessir, Mr. President, sir, we can't eat all we want and we can't keep the temp at 72. But that doesn't apply to the president.

Some related links:

Do as I say, not as I do

The president is outraged, but enjoys his Wagyu steaks

"Green" pizza And if you think the carbon footprint was bad on those babies, what about:

The simple pleasures of a farm stand The carbon footprint from Michelle's little tomatos would probably match a couple of dozen soccer mom SUV's for a year.

Back when it became apparent that Obama had won the election, I thought, "Wow ... there are going to be so many opportunities on so many levels for all kinds of commentary on this character's regime ... a target rich environment."

But that thought is turning out to be the understatement of the century. We thought Bush II was a Happy Meal of political duplicity, but Obama is turning out to be a regular daily circus.

In this morning's observations:

Obama is taking the media to task for being 'negative'. Like wowsers. The guy ought to run for a position on the La Junta Chamber of Commerce. The mainstream media, long Obama's primary cheerleaders and ideological hookers, are slowly beginning to wake up. Obama is miffed that they have been printing the ongoing drama over Joe Wilson ... never mind that while Wilson apologized for his rude outburst and Obama accepted it, it has been Pelosi and her buffoonish entourage that has kept it going.

Along with that, Obama is 'pleased to look at' SB. 673, the Federal tax writeoff for ... newspapers. Yep. Well, once he gets his socialistic hooks into the editorial staffs, he'll just hire and fire whoever disagrees with him. It worked for the auto industry; why not the newspapers? The question is, do you really want Obama and his henchmen running the nation's newspapers? Obama should take a read of Tocqueville's observations about newspapers; they certainly apply here, and the Federal bailout card was not on the table way back then. Another question ... if the Obamanians lose the tax income from the nation's newspapers, from whom will they draw enough blood to make it up? Will they put a surcharge on each paper? I think we went through something like that once before, didn't we? George III's Chancellor of the Exchequer called it 'taxes in trade'. Note that a 'surcharge' is not a 'tax', nor is a 'fee'. Obama is right in line with Bill Ritter on that, but then, they are both Democrats. This weekend, Obama got into a bit of a dustup with George Stephanopoulis over that very thing, about when is a 'tax increase' not a 'tax increase:

"Under this mandate, the government is forcing people to spend money, fining you if you don't. How is that not a tax?" the host asked.

Obama responded: " No, but -- but, George, you -- you can't just make up that language and decide that that's called a tax increase."

Stephanopoulos then offered the dictionary definition.

"I don't think I'm making it up. Merriam-Webster's dictionary: 'Tax, a charge, usually of money, imposed by authority on persons or property for public purposes,'" he said.

Visibly taken aback, Obama rejected the notion it was a tax increase and said pulling the dictionary out was a sign the host was "stretching" a little.
I'd suggest that Obama also take a read of John Dickinson's 'Farmer's Letters', written back in 1767, about this very subject.

Going to an authoritative reference like Merrian-Webster's, to settle an argument over a word's definition, is 'stretching it a little'? Huh. I wonder how The Obamessiah feels about going to the Constitution to question his little Shucks and Jives. Are we 'stretching it a little' then, as well?

Then we have the leak of the confidential report from General Stanley McChrystal, wherein McChrystal unequivocally states:

"Resources will not win this war, but under-resourcing could lose it," Gen. Stanley McChrystal wrote in a five-page Commander's Summary. His 66-page report, sent to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Aug. 30, is now under review by Obama.

"Although considerable effort and sacrifice have resulted in some progress, many indicators suggest the overall effort is deteriorating," McChrystal said of the war's progress.

But ... our 'allies' have consistently refused to send new troops to Afghanistan, and there is no indication they are going to change their minds on that.

Then we have Hillary Clinton, who, as Rich Galen illustrates, has likely taken over from Joltin' Joe Biden the title of "Gaffe-ist in Chief" with these diplomatic 'accomplishments'(the list is from the Washington Post):

• NATO allies have refused to send new troops to Afghanistan.
• Few countries have agreed to accept detainees held at Guantanamo.
• Scottish officials ignored Obama's plea to keep the Lockerbie bomber in prison.
• U.S. efforts to head off a coup in Honduras were ineffective.
• North Korea continues to develop nuclear weapons.
• Iran may be making nukes, too.
• Middle East leaders have rebuffed Obama's efforts at peacemaking.

Galen sums it up with this observation:

Quite a list. And Obama's only been at this for eight months. Imagine how many international problems he and Hillary can exacerbate in four full years.

And Bertha Lewis, the goofball who is running ACORN, refuses to appear before Congress to answer questions about what she is doing with our tax dollars:

"There is no God-given right for any organization to receive a grant from the American people. The fact is there are organizations standing in line that wish they won instead of you, and they're giving us the transparency so we can have the confidence the money is spent only for the purpose of the grant," [Congressman Darryl] Issa said.

Lewis said her organization has "firewalls" to prevent non-political money from going toward political purposes, but Issa said that's not true.

"You shouldn't get another penny of federal dollars until you demonstrate that those dollars are firewalled for only that use, and that has not been the history of the organization," Issa said.

Well shoot ... I don't know why Lewis should be held accountable for what she is doing with our tax bux. The La Junta golf association has refused for years to account for what they do with our tax bux, so why not ACORN. It's just a few tens of millions more.

After the "I can help you smuggle in underage sex slaves" and "I can help you cheat the IRS" and "I can help you get a federally-subsidized mortgage for your whorehouse" ACORN tapes, the big shots are paying some attention to ACORN's illegal alien home loan deals:

GOP California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger now wants an investigation. But neither the Terminator nor any other California public officials raised a peep when the very same San Diego ACORN office publicly announced a partnership with Citibank to secure home loans for illegal aliens. In 2005, Citibank and ACORN Housing Corporation – which has received tens of millions of tax dollars under the Bush administration alone — began recruiting Mexican illegal aliens for a lucrative program offering loans with below-market interest rates, down-payment assistance and no mortgage insurance requirements. Instead of Social Security numbers required of law-abiding citizens, the program allows illegal alien applicants to supply loosely-monitored tax identification numbers issued by the IRS.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that “undocumented residents” comprise a vast market representing a potential sum of “$44 billion in mortgages.” Citibank enlarged its portfolio of subprime and other risky loans. ACORN enlarged its membership rolls. The program now operates in Miami; New York City; Jersehttp://acornhousing.org/index.phpy City, N.J.; Baltimore; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Bridgeport, Conn., and at all of ACORN Housing’s 12 California offices. San Diego ACORN officials advised illegal alien recruits that their bank partners would take applicants who had little or no credit, or even “nontraditional records of credit, such as utility payments and documentation of private loan payments.”

This nonsense with ACORN has been going on for some time. The Bush administration and the Republicans are not remaining untarnished, either.

Read the whole thing here:

ACORN's illegal alien home loan racket

Nothing like the simple pleasures of a farm stand to return us to our agrarian roots

No ... I'm not talking about Hanagan's in Swink, or Van Hook's in La Junta, or Knapp's in Rocky Vegas.

I'm talking about Michelle Obama and "The Farm at Sunnyside" market, there in DC.

Excerpts from The First Lady's recent shopping trip to the roadside farm market stand:

Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?

Here's how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon:

The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.

Then ... with several hundred people gathering to watch the excitement:

"Now it's time to buy some food," she told several hundred people who came to watch. "Let's shop!"


Obama, in her brief speech to the vendors and patrons, handled the affordability issue by pointing out that people who pay with food stamps would get double the coupon value at the market. Even then, though, it's hard to imagine somebody using food stamps to buy what the market offered: $19 bison steak from Gunpowder Bison, organic dandelion greens for $12 per pound from Blueberry Hill Vegetables, the Piedmont Reserve cheese from Everson Dairy at $29 a pound. Rounding out the potential shopping cart: $4 for a piece of "walnut dacquoise" from the Praline Bakery, $9 for a jumbo crab cake at Chris's Marketplace, $8 for a loaf of cranberry-walnut bread and $32 for a bolt of yarn.

Then Obama illustrated the simple humanity of Life in the Orchid Office:

The first lady, in gray slacks and blue sweater, marveled that the people were "so pumped up" despite the rain. "I have never seen so many people so excited about fruits and vegetables!" she said. (Must be the tender baby arugula.)

She spoke of the global reach of her cause: "The first thing world leaders, prime ministers, kings, queens ask me about is the White House garden. And then they ask about Bo."

She spoke of the fuel fed to the world's most powerful man: "I've learned that when my family eats fresh food, healthy food, that it really affects how we feel, how we get through the day . . . whether there's a Cabinet meeting or whether we're just walking the dog."

And she spoke of her own culinary efforts: "There are times when putting together a healthy meal is harder than you might imagine."

Particularly when it involves a soundstage, an interpreter for the deaf, three TV satellite trucks and the closing of part of downtown Washington.

Wasn't it George Bush the First who was chastized by the press for not being familiar with bar scanners in the supermarket? For being 'out of touch' with the little people?

Huh. And the Obamas have the unmitigated gall to tell you and me what we need in healthcare and in handling the rest of our affairs?

"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche," I say.

Let 'em eat cake.

Obama's 'mis-interpretations' on healthcare

"Consumers do better when there is choice and competition. Unfortunately, in 34 states, 75% of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies. In Alabama, almost 90% is controlled by just one company. Without competition, the price of insurance goes up and the quality goes down...an additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange..."

-- President Barack Obama, September 9

Two claims are made all the time in the health care debate: 1) that there is little competition among those providing health insurance and 2) that it is important to take the profit motive out of providing health insurance. Both are myths. It turns out that claims about too little competition are based on a misinterpretation of the data and that non-profit insurers are so abundant that the largest insurer in virtually every state is a non-profit.

and

... they leave out the fact that for most people it is their employer, not the insurance companies, that pays for any bad health outcomes. The firm does so out of the company’s own pocket. The companies do what is called “self-insure” or “self-fund” their plans, and that occurs for around 55 percent of employees ...

and

So what about President Obama’s claim that in the 34 states most concentrated states 75 percent of the insurance market is controlled by five or fewer companies? Given that self-insured firms cover 57 percent of people insured in those states, the correct total market share for the largest five firms control is 32 percent, not 75 percent.

Obama has to know this. But he also knows that most of us don't. And that is why he tried so hard to shove this down our throats by rushing it through Congress before the recess. Pelosi knows it, too.

This is just one example of the falsehoods and misinformation spread by our CongressClowns and by Obama. They bank on your ignorance.

Take a read of the entire article and the links contained within.

After the release of the fifth videotape, in which ACORN staffers offer ... OK, allegedly offer ... to help smuggle in child sex slaves from El Salvador, White House mouthpiece Robert Giggles" Gibbs does a great shuck and jive over ACORN, the voter registration fraud professionals:

Gibbs v. ACORN

It's kind of hard to see how Obama can 'distance' himself from an organization which has campaigned hard for him ... though ACORN is supposed to be non-partisan. The $800,000 the Obama campaign gave to ACORN in an under-the-table move is a tight tether.

“Barack Obama’s failure to accurately report his campaign’s financial records is an incredibly suspicious situation that appears to be an attempt to hide his campaign’s interaction with a left-wing organization previously convicted of voter fraud. For a candidate who claims to be practicing ‘new’ politics, his FEC reports look an awful lot like the ‘old-style’ Chicago politics of yesterday.”

But wait! There's more!

Remember SEIU? The purple-shirted thugs who were assaulting Obamacare protestors at town hall meetings? The unionistas who shoveled wheelbarrows full of money into the Obama campaign? SEIU is "one of the pillars of the ACORN family":

ACORN controls or significantly dominates several Big Labor unions and organizations. ACORN created and controls SEIU 100 (Gulf Region) and SEIU 880 (a recently expanded SEIU mega-local that covers Chicago, Illinois, Indiana, and Kansas).

ACORN founder S. Wade Rathke referred to mega-union SEIU 880 as “one of the pillars of the ACORN Family.”

Here are some of the political and mainstream media connections. You can see why the MSM has been reluctant to report on the ACORN scandal:

Schumer, Gutierrez and Waters Honored for Governing the "ACORN Way" at Anniversary Celebration

That's the story line from Chris Muir, over on Day by Day:

Day by Day

"A whitebread pi*p and his plucky prostitute arrange to smuggle in child sex slaves from El Salvador, bringing them in through Tijuana, all with the aid of a powerful yet comically incompetent cartel."

Has finally seen fit to publish something on the ACORN scandal:

Conservatives draw blood from ACORN

But as one might expect from the Fourth Estate’s chief Obama PR firm, it is somewhat ... incomplete. It’s more than incomplete; it’s a tacit defense of ACORN.

Apparently the New York Times sees nothing wrong with ACORN staffers counseling on how to set up bordellos using underage girls brought in from Central America; apparently the New York Times sees nothing wrong with money laundering; apparently the New York Times sees nothing wrong with cheating the IRS . . after all, the Secretary of the Treasury can, so why not a p**p (once again I ask ... what is the deal with Townhall and 'pi*mp?) and his prime hooker?

Instead the Times focuses on the amateur status of OKeefe and Giles. What the Times should be focusing on is how one of the nation’s largest newpapers, once famous for its investigative reporting, has sunk to such a pathetic low as to be no more than a tabloid mouthpiece for scum such as ACORN.

For more on what is not in the Times article, please see:

What's missing from the New York Times coverage of ACORN

Bill Jacobson gives a good assessment of the continual playing of the race card by the Obamanians:

Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: An Allergic Reaction To The Race Card

Ted Kennedy has just become eligible to vote in Chicago ...

That's the title of Rich Galen's piece this morning, over on Mullings: An American Cybercolumn

Some excerpts:

# ACORN is an acronym for Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. It is one of those manufactured acronyms that come before the name is invented to fit the acronym. Does that explanation make any sense?

# Whether it does or not, ACORN is an unreconstructed Liberal organization which was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the Obama campaign to turn out the vote for … Obama.

# According to Fox News

The organization has been accused by Republicans and conservative activists with fraud in voter registration drives around the country and has been under fire since last year for its support of President Obama and for its planned participation in next year's census.

# But, because it was a Liberal group doing potentially illegal things and the Liberal group was being accused by Republicans … whatever ACORN was doing was ignored, if not actively applauded by much of the major media

The major media continues to ignore the stuff breaking about ACORN.

It seems that in at least four cases ACORN counselors advised two young people who presented themselves as a prostitute and her "manager" on how to cheat and lie to get a government sponsored mortgage. The videos of the transactions are posted on the BigGovernment.com website.

# The two people - described by the LA Times as "conservative activists" - went into ACORN offices in Washington, DC, Baltimore, New York City, and San Bernardino, California and asked for advice on how to account the $96,000 in income the woman (who said her name was Kenya) had earned the previous year as a prostitute on her tax returns so they could buy a house.

# She was told to list her income as $9,600 instead of $96,000 and in the block which asks for occupation say she was a "performance artist."

Read the rest over on Galen's site. He gets into the ACORN workers giving advice on how to cover up using underage girls as hookers.

These are Obama's pals.

Because I think this, along with Obamacare, Porkulus Americanus, and pretty much everything Obama has done as president - as a senator, for that matter - is so much BS, I'm a racist. Why am I a racist? Because Jimmy Carter says so. Because Tax King Charles Rangel says so.

Hope and Change.

This time, in California.

ACORN gives advice on how to start whorehouses using underage girls from overseas

"We're bringing these girls from overseas, but we are going to take a cut of the profit and intend to use the profit from the tricks the girls perform to fund my political campaign and the advertising," O'Keefe tells Kaelke, adding that it'll fund at least 50 percent of his planned run as a Democratic congressional candidate.

Kaelke, who told the couple that she once worked as a paid escort herself, at one point admits she was unqualified to counsel but stops well short of reporting O'Keefe and Giles to authorities.

Kaelke does note that her supervisor "would shoot this down faster than a bat out of hell" ... but then tells them how to get around all those little moral and legal questions.

Then she says, "ACORN will tell you the same thing, they will. You might get an old-timer like myself who really knows what's up and who could care less."

These ACORNers are so stupid it's making me wonder if it isn't all some kind of reverse setup, of bloggers and Foxnews. Fox is the only mainstream media carrying the story. The rest of the Obamanian butt-smoochers are ignoring it. Can ACORN employ so many complete idiots? Is it possible?

CongressClown Pete Stark demonstrates the contempt our elected officials harbor for We the People:




Then Stark shucks and jives over the 'proof of citizenship' and illegal alien 'issue'.