Choosing The Right Lane To Travel

In pursuit of Constitutionally grounded governance, free markets and individual liberty

"There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." --George Washington

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US sending 20 brand new F-16s to Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood

Instability in Egypt, where a newly-elected Islamic government teeters over an angry population, isn’t enough to stop the U.S. from sending more than 20 F-16 fighter jets, as part of a $1 billion foreign aid package. The first four jets are to be delivered to Egypt beginning Jan. 22, a source at the naval air base in Fort Worth, where the planes have been undergoing testing, told FoxNews.com. The North African nation already has a fleet of more than 200 of the planes and the latest shipment merely fulfills an order placed two years ago. But given the uncertainty in Cairo, some critics wonder if it is wise to be sending more top gun planes. “Should an overreaction [by Egypt] spiral into a broader conflict between Egypt and Israel, such a scenario would put U.S. officials in an embarrassing position of having supplied massive amounts of military hardware … to both belligerents,” said Malou Innocent, a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute. “Given Washington’s fiscal woes, American taxpayers should no longer be Egypt’s major arms supplier.”

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Islam is Nazism with a Religious Twist

We were honored to welcome to our show, Keith Davies, the Director of Rescue Christians, an non-profit organization that provides aid to persecuted Christians in Pakistan, Iran, Egypt and around the World. There are very few organizations that actually “hands on” help Christians escape prison, death, and torture and start a new life in a safe place. Keith also works closely with Walid Shoebat, former Muslim terrorist, in educating Americans on the threat of Islam and Keith is Director of the Forum for Middle Eastern Understanding. The main stream media is not informing the public on the extent to which Islam has infiltrated our highest government offices and some of our courts. Shariah Law cannot coexist with the Constitution. Islam’s goal is world domination. Murfreesboro, TN, in the center of the Bible belt now houses the largest Mosque in North America. Thousands of Muslims are being flown into Middle Tennessee. This is a terrorist breeding ground right in our backyard. For more information, visit Shariah The Threat. For nearly a decade since 9/11, America’s national security establishment’s understanding of the threat of Islamic terrorism and its approach to contending with that danger flow directly from a conviction that they have nothing to do with Islam, except to the extent al Qaeda “perverts” or “hijacks” that religion. But what if this characterization of the problem we continue to face is simply and utterly wrong?  What if there actually is a direct tie between what recognized, mainstream authorities of Islam call “shariah” and the jihad (or holy war) it demands of adherents, some of which is manifested as terrifying violence? What if, in addition, jihadists engage in non-violent – and, in some ways, far more insidious – efforts to accomplish the same goal: the supremacy of shariah worldwide under a caliph?  These questions have been the focus of an intensive six-month study by a remarkable group of highly accomplished civilian and military national security professionals. The results are in Shariah: The Threat to America.

"In a remarkable demonstration of political tone-deafness, a source at the naval air base in Fort Worth told Fox News that 20 F-16 fighter jets -- paid for by U.S. taxpayers as part of a foreign aid deal made in 2010 when Mubarak ruled -- will still be delivered to Egypt. ... Such a move represents an overt slap-down of opposition leaders desperate to prevent Egypt's steady march towards Sharia statehood. Moreover, it reveals that Obama's call to Morsi last Thursday, expressing 'deep concern' about the deaths and injuries of protesters, was nothing more than the kind of empty rhetoric this president often uses to obscure his true intentions. Morsi's dictatorial ambitions are clear. Tragically, it appears that Barack Obama has no problem whatsoever with them." --columnist Arnold Ahlert

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73% Think Health Care Law Likely to Cost More Than Projected

Voters are narrowly divided in their views of President Obama’s national health care law, but a sizable majority thinks the law is likely to cost taxpayers more than has been officially estimated.

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Chronicle: The Left Finds a Right They Can't Tolerate

"Michigan has passed a modest labor reform, and the result has been threats and violence from Democratic elected officials and their union henchmen. ... To hear the Democrats tell the tale, you would think that Governor Rick Snyder and Michigan's Republican-controlled legislature had abolished unions. In fact, the legislation merely prohibits unions from forcing workers to pay dues to them as a condition of employment, which is why such measures are called 'right-to-work laws.' The law imposes no limitation on unions' ability to organize, to engage in collective bargaining, or to strike. It merely forbids them to take money out of the pockets of workers who do not wish to join them. In response, Democratic legislator Douglas Geiss declared on the floor of the state house: 'There will be blood. There will be repercussions.' And indeed there were: Knife-wielding partisans brought down a tent on representatives from the conservative group Americans for Prosperity -- women and children among them -- and roughed up bystanders. Fox News contributor Steven Crowder was beaten by the same mob, punched repeatedly in the face. Michigan is the 24th state to enact a right-to-work law, and the most heavily unionized state to do so. ... Right-to-work laws do not necessarily hobble unions; rather, they force unions to compete for resources and prove their value to their workers. Some unions provide obvious value: In places in which private-sector unions already are strongly established, right-to-work laws have in fact had little effect on union membership. The critical difference is that workers have a choice. This is a principle that should be codified in law in every state, and at the federal level as well. ... The shrieking in Michigan isn't about workingmen's wages, but campaign coffers. That is why there is blood."

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More From Queen Nancy of Pelosi

The BIG Lie: "As far as the unemployment insurance is concerned, that is something that is really a safety net for our whole economy. It's not just a safety net for individuals. It's a safety net for our economy. ... [W]hen [the economy] is down, people have paid into an unemployment insurance program and then they have those benefits, which probably are one of the most important stimuli for the economy. The economists tell us that dollar-for-dollar there's more demand injected into the economy by unemployment insurance than almost anything you can name, food stamps being another one of those." --House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Fake cuts: "The fact is that the president has -- and Democrats agree with him -- agreed to ... $1.6 trillion in cuts, in the Budget Control Act and other acts of Congress. ... Where are the cuts? They're in bills that you, Mr. Speaker, have voted for." --Nancy Pelosi

Depends on the meaning of "beauty": "The beauty of the 39.6 -- the Clinton tax rates -- was the following: it produces the revenue we need to have a fair and balanced solution that also helps reduce the deficit. It stops the hostage taking of the middle income tax cut." --Nancy Pelosi, who has no intention of reducing the deficit

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Nancy Pelosi Compares Race-Oriented Kwanzaa to Christmas by Gary DeMar

Nancy Pelosi asked, “Is there not an appreciation for the Jewish holidays? The Christmas holiday? Kwanzaa? Ron “Maulana” Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 as the first specifically African-American holiday. Kwanzaa celebrates race. Anybody who argues that Kwanzaa is not comparable to Christmas is, of course, a racist. But Kwanzaa is all about race. It is a black-only celebration. Kwanzaa is more than a celebration of black history and culture, something that Black History Month does. In 1965s, Karenga was a co-founder of “US Organization,” or “Organization Us,” as in “us and them,” a violent Black Nationalist group. The Black Panthers were ideological and political rivals of the US Organization, describing them as “United Slaves.” In 1971, Karenga was convicted of felony assault and imprisoned for assaulting and torturing two women members of US. He spent five years in prison. As his trial, a “psychiatrist reportedly observed that Karenga talked to his blanket and imaginary persons, and believed he’d been attacked by dive-bombers.” “United Slaves were proto-fascists, walking around in dashikis, gunning down Black Panthers and adopting invented ‘African’ names. . . . Kwanzaa itself is a nutty blend of schmaltzy ’60s rhetoric, black racism and Marxism. Indeed, the seven ‘principles’ of Kwanzaa praise collectivism in every possible arena of life . . . .”

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Right To Work States Have Lower Unemployment, Higher Income and Healthcare Coverage, NRTW President Says

History shows that Michigan’s citizens will soon be saying that the state’s new “Right to Work” law is “a good thing for Michigan,” National Right to Work Pres. Mark Mix explain a in an exclusive interview with “The Right Views,” Mix discusses the benefits Michigan will reap by becoming the nation’s 24th Right to Work state and explains that the goal is to promote prosperity and individual freedom, not to bust unions: “First of all, Right to Work is about individual worker freedom. It is wrong to think that, in this country, we could force a worker to pay a private organization for the privilege of working. So, on a fundamental basis, it’s about individual freedom.” “But secondarily, it’s pretty demonstrable that economic benefit comes to those states that pass Right to Work Laws.

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Obama’s Busy Party Schedule Can’t Accommodate “Cliff” Talks

Since returning from a trip to Southeast Asia on Nov. 21, President Obama has managed ­­­­­to play three rounds of golf but has met face to face only once with House Speaker John A. Boehner, the man with whom he is trying to strike a deal on taxes and spending that could prevent another recession. With the deadline for averting the “fiscal cliff” less than three weeks away, the president’s schedule this week is exceptionally light. It does not include any time on the links with Mr. Boehner, Ohio Republican, who is also an avid golfer. On Monday, Mr. Obama’s only public event was a trip to Detroit, where he held a campaign-style rally with union autoworkers that was ostensibly a push for middle-class tax cuts but mainly showcased Mr. Obama’s criticism of Michigan’s new right-to-work labor law. “It seems to me, that time would have been better spent here in Washington, D.C., working on the fiscal cliff, but he was in Michigan,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, Tennessee Republican.

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Steny Hoyer: The Debt Limit ‘Is Not Real’  By Elizabeth Harrington

From an another elected idiot! House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that the debt limit is “not real” and should not be part of any negotiations to avert the fiscal cliff. “First of all, I again would urge the Speaker not to use the debt limit to the detriment of the credit-worthiness of the United States of America as a leverage point,” Hoyer said during his weekly pen and pad briefing with reporters on Capitol Hill. “It is not a leverage point.” “It is not real,” he said. “It is a phony political debate. We have incurred debt and the United States will meet its obligations, pure and simple.”

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Lindsey Graham: Obama Needs to 'Man Up' on Entitlement Reform By Jim Meyers and John Bachman

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Budget Committee, tells Newsmax he will refuse to approve an increase in the debt ceiling unless a deal is reached on major entitlement reform — and he is convinced House Speaker John Boehner will refuse as well. The South Carolina Republican also says President Obama should “man up” and create a lasting legacy by saving Medicare and Social Security with those reforms. And he insists defense spending should not suffer significant new cuts because “there is no Social Security without national security.” So what I would like to see from the president for me to raise the debt ceiling is to turn around the nation’s long-term indebtedness, adjusting the eligibility age for Medicare from 65 to 67 over decades like they did with Social Security. Means test benefits — there’s no reason in the world my prescription drug entitlement program should be subsidized by the general treasury. Have people in my income level pay the actual cost of Part B and Part D premiums on the Medicare side and means test [Social Security] benefits for upper-income Americans.  “That will turn around America’s fortune and we won’t become Greece with entitlement reform. And if we don’t get that, then I’m not going to raise the debt ceiling. What good have you done to keep borrowing money if you never address what got you into debt to begin with? And that’s entitlement spending over time.” Graham was asked if the president has enough leverage with his own party to get the cuts that are going to make the GOP happy. “Man up, Mr. President, and do something like Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill did,” he says. “He has never done a bipartisan deal that was of big enough consequence in his entire political career. The only big ideas he’s pushed since he’s been president is Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, the massive stimulus package — big liberal ideas. “What a legacy it would be for President Obama to work with the Republicans to save Medicare and Social Security for the people who are going to need it the most. We’re talking about 40 to 50 trillion dollars of unfunded liability. You would need $8 trillion in today’s money in a bank right now to keep Social Security solvent for the next 75 years. You need about three times that for Medicare.

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The All-American Entitlement Mentality by Eric Rauch

John Stossel’s newest article is a welcome addition to the conservative/libertarian arsenal. Entitled “Government Gone Bad,” Stossel makes the point that laws rarely improve life. In fact, he argues, it is a difficult task to convince the average voter that fewer laws are actually better. Most voters, Stossel says, are under the impression that when laws are being passed, government is “doing something.” And when government is doing “something,” they are fulfilling the civic duty for which they were elected. In other words, most voters believe that the government’s primary job IS to pass more and more legislation; that is, most Americans don’t understand that government doesn’t actually solve problems—it creates them. This is a bitter pill to swallow because it indicates that we have much work to do before we can hope to see the majority of voters embrace limited government. In fact, even on this very website, we encounter individuals who claim to be “free-market” supporters, yet still have an entitlement mentality in many areas. One of the criticisms we hear time and again is people griping about “all of the ads” on the site. They accuse us of being “in it for the money,” as if that’s somehow a bad thing. As if getting paid for what you do somehow invalidates the message.

The entitlement mentality runs deep in America, thanks to both government and corporations. Government gives “free” things by forcibly taking money from citizens in the form of taxes, and corporations fund “free” things by taking money from people in exchange for goods and services. A true free-marketer can look at the two options and determine that even though at times the corporate model can resemble the government model, it is still the better of the two by far. More advertising is much preferred to more laws, because at least ads have to well-written to be effective.

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'NeoComs' - The Neo-Communist Economic Agenda Alexander's Column

Today, I have a new entry for the political lexicon to categorize the latest ideological iteration of Marxists in America: "Neo-Communists" or the abbreviated version, "NeoComs." You're no doubt familiar with the label "Neo-Conservatives," and its shortened version, "NeoCons," to describe conservatives who have adapted to more interventionist foreign policies promoting democracy, and who support open trade policies. "Neo" differentiates these conservatives from the isolationist and non-interventionist conservatism of the 1930s -- until the attack on Pearl Harbor drew us into war with Japan and Germany. At the other end of the political spectrum from the Ronald Reagan NeoCons are the NeoComs -- modern-day socialists who have risen, in the last decade, to dominate the Democrat Party. They have modified old Marxist doctrines and adapted them to current political platforms and policies using leftist propaganda more compatible with contemporary culture. Chief among these is the Democrat Party's tried and true "divide and conquer" disparity rhetoric, which foments discontent and division based on income, race, ethnicity, gender, education, occupation, etc. However, bull pucky by any other name is still bull pucky. Democratic Socialism, like Nationalist Socialism, is nothing more than Marxist Socialism repackaged. The objective of today's NeoComs is, as you by now know, "fundamentally transforming the United States of America," in order to "peacefully transition" from our constitutional republic and its free-enterprise economy to a socialist republic with a state-organized and regulated economy. Ideological adherents of the American Communist Party made few political gains under that banner in the last century because the label "communist" was and remains "distasteful" to most Americans. Thus, NeoComs have infested the once-noble Democrat Party and are using it as cover for socialist policy implementation. The political genes of the current cadres of NeoComs establish them as the direct descendants of the statist policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the programs he implemented under cover of the Great Depression. Roosevelt, like most of today's wealthy liberal protagonists, was an "inheritance-welfare liberal" -- raised in a dysfunctional home and dependent on his financial inheritance rather than that essential spirit of self-reliance, which forms the core of American Liberty. Consequently, the "dependence ethos" irrevocably shaped by FDR's privileged upbringing is virtually indistinguishable from the dependence ethos of those who have been raised or inculcated with belief that they are reliant upon welfare handouts from the state.

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"We must make our election between economy and Liberty, or profusion and servitude." --Thomas Jefferson (1816)

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Boehner: Can we just be honest about this? We’re broke

On the House floor on Tuesday, Speaker John Boehner broke from the mutual semi-silence of what’s been going on between himself and President Obama on the fiscal-cliff negotiations, and informed the Congress that all he’s waiting on are some proposals for spending cuts from the White House on which they would be willing to make moves as part of the “balanced approach” we’ve heard so much about (emphasis mine):

"The Republicans made a serious offer to avert the fiscal cliff… Let’s be honest, we’re broke. And the plan that we’ve offered is consistent with the president’s call for a balanced approach. A lot of people know that the president and I met on Sunday. It was a nice meeting, it was cordial. But we’re still waiting for the White House to identify what spending cuts the president is willing to make as part of the balanced approach that he promised the American people. You know, where are the president’s spending cuts? The longer the White House slow walks this process, the closer our economy gets to the fiscal cliff. … We know that the president wants more stimulus spending and an increase in the debt limit without any cuts or reforms. That’s not fixing the problem, frankly, it’s making it worse. On top of that, the president wants to raise tax rates on many small business owners. Now, even if we did exactly what the president wants, we would see red ink for as far as the eye can see. That’s not fixing the problem either, it’s making it worse and hurting our economy."

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Three Months Later: No Justice, Unanswered Questions on Benghazi

Three months ago today, President Obama woke up to the news that US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans had been murdered during a terrorist attack on our consulate in Benghazi. The president had been informed that an active attack was underway the night before — but how actively he followed the developing raid, and what (if any) orders he issued, remains a mystery. On September 12, the president skipped his daily intelligence briefing and flew to Las Vegas for a campaign rally. This much we know. The Obama campaign eventually accused Republicans of “politicizing” the massacre by asking questions about it, asserting that the “entire reason” it was a major national story was due to rank exploitation of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. Even with the president’s re-election safely tucked away, the White House has continued to defend its UN Ambassador (and possible Secretary of State in waiting) against charges that she dissemminated false information to mislead the public about the true nature of the deadly attack. The president and his top lieutenants have repeatedly dodged difficult questions, changed their stories, and hidden behind the dubious fig leaf of “ongoing investigations.” Obama has vowed to track down those responsible for the atrocities and bring them to justice. He has also stated his desire to find out exactly what happened in Benghazi that night. The federal investigation into the attacks got off to a stupefyingly dreadful start, and three months later, justice and accountability remain in short supply.

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Union Toad Jimmy Hoffa Predicts “Civil War” in Michigan

Union president James Hoffa predicted a “civil war” would break out between Michigan unions and lawmakers in an interview on CNN’s “Newsroom” today. CNN reports: Jimmy Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, said Tuesday he expects Michigan unions and lawmakers to break out into “civil war” after the state legislature passed right-to-work bills that would weaken unions’ power. “This is just the first round of a battle that’s going to divide this state. We’re going to have a civil war,” Hoffa said on CNN’s “Newsroom.”

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"Law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of our love, unless they first become the objects of our knowledge."

--James Wilson, Of the Study of the Law in the United States, 1790

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Note to Conservatives: Better to Lose with our Principles than Win with Theirs by David L. Goetsch

There is a lot of hand wringing going on among mainstream Republicans these days.  After losing two presidential elections in a row to the least qualified, most incompetent president in the history of the nation, “leaders” of the Republican Party are beginning to doubt the veracity of conservatism.  Conventional “wisdom” among the RINOS who run the Republican Party is that they have become the party of the past—a bunch of old white guys who appeal to a rapidly shrinking segment of the population.

Writing for The Washington Times, Jeffrey Kuhner summed this trend up as follows:  “…liberal Democrats and establishment Republicans are urging the GOP to be more inclusive of single women, minorities, Hispanics, and homosexuals.  They want Republicans to become pro-gay, pro-amnesty, pro-environment, and pro-choice.  In short, the conventional wisdom can be distilled to one simple point: To win national elections again, the GOP must be transformed into a softer, more centrist version of the Democrats.  Call it Democratic Lite.”  This, of course, is nonsense.  My message to weak-kneed Republicans is simply this:  It is better to lose with our principles than to win with theirs. 

It speaks volumes that the Republicans who managed to pull defeat from the jaws of victory in the recent presidential election blame their failure on a changing electorate that rejected conservative principles.   The RINOS who ran the national races for the Republican Party would not even recognize conservative principles.  Republicans lost because of: 1) no leadership, 2) no commitment to real conservative principles, 3) letting Democrats define the terms of socio-political debates, and 4) doing a poor job of using successful conservative women, blacks, and Hispanics to sell the conservative message. Frankly, if Republican candidates could not explain the value of economic growth and job creation to the 23 million Americans who were out of work on November 6th, they deserved to lose. Barack Obama won on November 6^th, but America lost—a fact that will become evident even to the most ardent Obama supporters in due course.  Just wait until the Chinese and Saudis say “no more loans” and the federal treasury runs dry.  When this happens, entitled Americans will receive nothing in the mail from Uncle Sam but an IOU.  As Jeffrey Kuhner wrote in The Washington Times, The Obama economy is destined to crash upon the rocks of fiscal reality…When the Ponzi scheme, known as welfare liberalism, comes crashing down—and it is now only a matter of time—the right needs to be there to clean up the mess.

Consequently, Republicans need to avoid the temptation to abandon conservative principles in an attempt to appeal to the selected demographic groups.  According to Jeffrey Kuhner, “The job of Republicans is not to mimic the Obama Democrats.  When it comes to sexual license, crass identity politics, and big government spending, the GOP can—and will—never outdo the Democrats.  Voters will always prefer the real thing.  Instead, conservatives should act as the adults; liberals are the adolescents.” A better plan is to re-commit to the principles of conservatism: limited government, low taxation, free-market economics, personal responsibility, individual liberty, and constitutional integrity. Then, having done so, begin the hard work of developing conservative candidates who can do a better job of selling the inherent truth of conservative principles to those who for now naively accept the Democrat’s destructive principles of big government, entitlement, class envy, and moral relativism.  In short, the Republican Party must decide if it is going to lamely follow socio-cultural trends in America or get out in front of these trends and set the course, whether they are going to meekly follow the destructive course set by Democrats or man up and lead America in a better direction.