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Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol as an indictment of nineteenth century industrialization and economic social classes. The following is a modern take on the tale exploring a different issue. Yes! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own, the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time before him was his own, to make amends in! “All of the Bill of Rights shall be sacred to me and I will defend every free man’s right to keep and bear arms!” Scrooge repeated as he scrambled out of bed. “Oh, Jacob Marley! Heaven be...

Michelle Berry runs a private day-care service from her home on the outskirts of this city, the birthplace of General Motors. "The Berry Patch," as she calls the service, features overstuffed purple gorillas, giant cartoon murals, and a playroom covered in Astroturf. Her clients are mostly low-income parents who need child care to keep their jobs in a city that now has a 26% unemployment rate. Ms. Berry owns her own business—yet the Michigan Department of Human Services claims she is a government employee and union member. The agency thus withholds union dues from the child-care subsidies it sends to...

Santa came early on Christmas Eve 2009 for the embattled Democrats of the Senate who passed the Obama Healthcare bill as expected. Being forced to buy healthcare by the U.S. government will hardly be seen as a gift from Santa by the citizens of this country and even now, some republicans are planning to test the constitutionality of the bill. Special sweetheart deals for Florida and Connecticut are overshadowed by what may be the most expensive and openly public bribe in U.S. history for the state of Nebraska. The Corn Husker’s are mostly insulted by Sen. Nelsons last minute deal...

In The Taming of the American Crowd: From Stamp Riots to Shopping Sprees, I argue that unlike the kind of crowds that have surged across the pages of American history and unlike crowds in certain other parts of the world, today's American crowds seldom even figure in the news. We have crowds of shoppers, spectators, and travelers, but these are ill-prepared to act as one. Then, in April 2009, when Taming was well along in Monthly Review Press's publication process, some American crowds did begin to make the news. On April 15, thousands of angry Americans attended Tax Day "tea...

Synopsis: 6 Southern states will gain seats in the US House of Reps after 2010 census. Texas will gain the most. Link below

Hilarious news items from the future such as Hillary Captured and Barack Claims To Be Lost Imam fill the future news section of the game that this article reviews. With real T.V. Interviews and Radio clips of the founders, one by Breitbart TV, the man who exposed ACORN, the game is decidedly anti-Obama and anti-government and was created by a combination of Liberty loving Ron Paul Supporters and Conservatives.

For Democrats like Harry Reid, who called them "evil-mongers," and Nancy Pelosi, who called them "unAmerican," the NBC News poll must have hit like a sucker punch at a Georgetown wine-and-cheese. The Tea Party movement, those folks rallying against spending last spring and Obamacare in the summer town halls, are viewed more favorably than the Democratic Party. Forty-one percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement, to 35 percent for Obama's party. Only 24 percent view Tea Party activists unfavorably, while 45 percent hold a negative view of the Democrats. While Tea Party types played a...

The democrat's Supreme Court ruled abortion was legal throughout the United States despite state laws regulating individually by "inventing" (re-defining) a patient's "right to privacy" in medical terms. That is, by re-defining the natural "right to privacy" for matters between a doctor and patient as a reason for REMOVING a specific specially-selected form of medical treatment (abortion) from state regulation in Roe vs Wade by a narrow 5-4 vote on ideological lines, the socialists/democrats on the Supreme Court moved medicine from state control to national control. Well, more accurately, they moved it from state control into national "illegal to control"...

Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that Congress has the authority to mandate that people buy health insurance and that there is no constitutional limit on Congress’ power to enact such mandates, adding that this unlimited authority stemmed from the Commerce clause of the Constitution. And apparently 59 other Democrat senators agree with her. It is my understanding that the intent of the commerce clause is to assign the responsibility of regulating commerce (the transportation and trading of goods with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes) to the central government, taking the law-making responsibility for...

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey likened the Senate's passage Thursday of landmark health care reform legislation to the first chapter of a book. The next, much shorter chapter will be completed possibly as early as January, after Senate and House conferees work out the differences between each chamber's version of the bill and the final legislation is signed into law by President Barack Obama. But the succeeding chapters of health care reform, much like the history of the Social Security and Medicare programs, could take years, even decades to write, Mr. Casey said. "Some of the things we thought would work...

The Senate’s passage of a massive health-care reform bill yesterday morning was greeted by partisan applause by Democrats, but President Obama noted that “we now have to take up the last and most important step and reach an agreement on a final reform bill that I can sign into law.” We don’t expect reconciling the House and Senate versions will prove all that difficult, but another aspect of Obamacare that deserves closer examination is whether it passes constitutional muster. Republican senators Jim DeMint of South Carolina and John Ensign of Nevada this week offered an amendment stating Congress lacks power...

WASHINGTON -- With the front line of defense for unemployed Americans crumbling, the jobless are facing potentially reduced benefits, and businesses -- possibly higher taxes. So far, 25 states, including California, New York, Texas and Michigan, have run out of unemployment insurance money and have borrowed $24 billion from the federal government -- loans that are interest free. By 2011, 15 more states will have exhausted their jobless trust funds and need $90 billion in loans to keep handing out benefit checks, according to federal projections. The federal government, however, is already up to its eyeballs in red ink, finishing...

Australian Cardinal George Pell rejects silence in the face of adversity. He has raised a cry to battle the global anti-discrimination laws that threaten religious freedom the world over. In a speech delivered to the Australian Christian lobby on November 20, 2009, he spelled out the details of his concerns. In his conclusion, he drew attention to Britain, where the situation is already far worse than in Australia, and to the United States, which is just beginning to experience the first effects of state-sponsored religious intolerance. There was no mention of Canada, no doubt because the Cardinal is unaware of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g3RjpEt5To

What I am about to share has little political relevance. It is simply a candid expression of my gratitude and a testimony to how anything can happen in this glorious experiment called America. Last Christmas, because I was selected by my congressman to decorate an ornament for the White House Christmas tree, my wife Mary and I were invited by Laura Bush to a reception at the White House. The White House sent me a six by six inch silver plastic ball with specific instructions. The theme of my design must reflect my state (Florida) in a red, white and...

FAIRBANKS - A Fairbanks lawmaker has proposed the Alaska Firearms Freedom Act, which seeks to stop the federal regulation of guns and ammunition made and sold within Alaska. Republican Rep. Mike Kelly said federal rules should only apply to firearms sold across state borders, where the U.S. government has constitutional authority to regulate interstate commerce. The bill easily passed the state House of Representatives in April after picking up 11 co-sponsors. It now sits before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Its chairman, Sen. Hollis French, D-Anchorage, said he will schedule a committee hearing this winter. The bill could place Alaska into...

If the healthcare scam gets signed into law the democrats have only one option to save their stinking party of prostitutes. That will be the passage of the immigration reform bill and having 20 million new democrat voters with payouts in hand (our money of course) to vote for the democrat ticket. When you throw in ACORN, SEIU and the New Black Panther Party you will begin to see the whole taco. So, we witnessed the fall of freedom and the democrats in the senate applauded after the vote, conservatives whined. Merry Christmas everyone and may God turn his favor...

U.S. Senate candidates in Illinois walk carefully when discussing gun control, with most stressing support for the right to bear arms even if they favor some restrictions. Gun ownership has been an ongoing issue in federal elections in Illinois, with officials trying to reduce violence in Chicago - where handguns are banned - on one side, and downstate hunters and sportsmen who oppose restrictions on the other. Five Democrats and six Republicans, along with a Green Party candidate, are vying for their party's nomination Feb. 2 to run for the Senate seat once held by President Obama. Some of the...

First it was Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat suggesting that firearms ownership should be regulated like driving and car ownership, and now the newspaper’s editorial page has blamed the “Second Amendment crowd” for “some responsibility” in the shooting of two Pierce County sheriffs’ deputies. The editorial also mentions the slaying of four Lakewood police officers, a vicious crime perpetrated by a career thug who got leniency from a governor and at least one Pierce County judge. There is nothing in the Times editorial about how two dead gunmen – David Crable and Maurice Clemmons – were able to skate through...

A unique business is opening in Fernley early next month. Already set up with an office on U.S. Highway 95A near Main Street, the Defensive Pistol Institute is accepting applications for classes in safe gun use. Owner Cal Eilrich, a Fernley city councilman and member of many shooting organizations as well as the owner of a local shooting range, is offering his expertise to teach the art of handling firearms. “The classes are set up for a number of things from introductory to firearms to the National Rifle Association (NRA) basic pistol course. There are all sorts of levels of...

Things look bleak right now. But as the saying goes "it's Friday, but Sunday's coming..." And I hope this cheers people up a bit...

[You may have to play around a bit to get the video to operate. Make sure you click "Full Program" or you might just get a 2-minute clip.] This 30 minute video (including about 17 minutes of Q & A) from several months ago is Richard Epstein's analysis of the bill proposed by the House. But the main regulatory features of that bill are the same as the one just passed by the Senate. The gist of Epstein's lecture is that the total effect of these insurance regulations is to kill private health insurance, so we will eventually all end...

This is a tough time of year for eco-friendly global planners. In Copenhagen they tried to put together a deal to save the world's forests while we rode around with millions of Christmas trees tied to our car roofs. Among the ruses that came out of Copenhagen, they called on rich countries to pay poor countries to not cut down their trees. In other tree news, Alternative Consumer magazine says we should stop buying Christmas trees and just draw holiday trees on old shopping bags. Here's the green prescription from Alternative Consumer for family fun during the holidays and how...

-snip- 'Twas the night before Christmas and at the White House; Our Commander was sleeping, and so was his spouse. They'd gone to bed early to ward off the blues; In hopes that the new year would bring them good news. Progressives were snuggled, asleep safe and warm; While dreaming of government health care reform. But I in my doldrums, and sleepless with fears; Had just nodded off with a couple of beers. When out of my TV there came such a clatter; I put down my brewski to check out the natter. Away to the boob tube I flew...

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Six senators, including former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), when asked if it is morally right to take tax dollars from pro-life Americans to pay for health insurance plans that cover abortion, did not answer the question directly, but instead expressed their thoughts about the Senate health-care legislation. The Senate health-care bill at present mandates that the Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary make certain that at least one health-care plan in the government exchanges -- where people will use tax money to buy health insurance -- covers elective abortions. At the U.S. Capitol, CNSNews.com...

Many Americans will learn in the upcoming months and even years that while painful elements of the bill such as Medicare cuts and perhaps higher taxes on wealthy Americans would take effect quickly, the subsidies to help lower-income people buy insurance would not be introduced for three years under the House bill and four years under the Senate version. That could prove to be a liability for Democrats, an opening that Republicans, who have been in lockstep opposition to the bills, are sure to exploit. “They face a significant ‘expectations gap’ because people’s health care costs are going to continue...

Obama's health care bill, the poisoned Kool-Aid making its way through the Senate, will not confer any of its supposed benefits on Americans until 2013. But they will find themselves chafing at its restrictions and paying its taxes immediately after the law takes effect. This odd juxtaposition of "suffer now, benefit later" is the byproduct of the administration's sleight of hand in specifying 10 years' worth of cuts and taxes in the legislation, but deferring its benefits for the first four years. By comparing six years of spending with 10 years of taxing, it managed to appear deficit-neutral under the...

WASHINGTON -- The spirit of Christmas seems to have escaped Congress, maybe even the country. Have you ever encountered such mean spiritedness and political conniving as are now on display on Capitol Hill? In the past, we have had great philosophical divisions in the struggle for civil rights, especially when southern legislators ran the show. In praise of democracy, fortunately they lost. And of course there also was the "red scare" fomented by Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., in the 1950s when he led the commie-hunting movement that ended up victimizing government officials, academia and Hollywood. We recovered from that, too....

Now that we have been painted into a corner with the passage of this Constitution-trampling explosion of government, we have only 4 options left before things get ugly: 1) Vote them out in 2010. This option requires much patience and will not actually mean anything unless those elected actually reverse all the spending, bailouts and takeovers. Most likely, Democrats will be punished for a few years while Republicans ride the tidal wave of public outrage into office, at which point they will throw us some symbolic scraps from the table, rather than making a serious commitment to uprooting federal tyranny....

http://newamrevolution.posterous.com/

As we approach the celebration of Christ's birth, I am reminded of the words of John Quincy Adams. On July 4, 1837, he spoke these words: "Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? ... Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the...

Commander Fitzpatric railroaded video attached

In keeping with the tradition of the holidays - the minds at MSNBC, the place for politics if you're of the lefty persuasion, decided rate the top 10 political stories of the decade. And leading this gang of masters of political journalism universe was "Hardball" host Chris Matthews, who on the broadcast of his Dec. 24 program, announced that conservative activism, mainly the tea party movement was the eighth biggest story of the decade - but labeled "angry white voters" (emphasis added). "Welcome back to 'Hardball' - our number eight political story of the decade, angry whites at town hall...

George W. Bush is gone from Washington but his legacy, like an abandoned toxic waste dump, lingers on. Like President Franklin Roosevelt before him, President Bush helped redefine American freedom. And like Roosevelt's, Bush's changes were perversions of the clear vision the Founding Fathers bequeathed to us. What did freedom mean in the era of George Bush? In Iraq in September 2004, the U.S. military constructed Camp Liberty, a tent compound to house Iraqi detainees next to the Abu Ghraib prison. (The torture scandal and photos had been revealed in late April.) Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller declared that Camp Liberty...

Paul A. Ibbetson Here is the 12-22-09 epsiode of the Conscience of Kansas radio program with Tim Carney, author of Obamanomics, political mind and song writer, Roger Weber, and Larry Halloran of the 912 project. Enjoy the political reading of "The Night Before Christmas."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reports a ten percent drop in murders during the first six months of 2009, while at a time US gun sales are going through the roof, according to reports obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police. Meanwhile, gun sales to private citizens soared almost 30 percent during that same period. Gun rights advocates claim that these numbers are further proof that there is no correlation between gun ownership and violent crime, state officials from the Second Amendment Foundation, a civil rights group. Further, the SAF contends that the increase in private citizen gun-ownership...

HELENA - This cowboy wasn't about to let a crook rustle him out of a good truck. A Kalispell man chased down the thief who stole his pickup truck and held him for police despite being stabbed twice in the arm. And he kept his cowboy hat on the whole time, said Kalispell Police Detective Kevin McCarvel. The man started his Ford F-250 diesel pickup late Monday afternoon to warm it up before leaving work. But when he walked out of the office at about 5 p.m., he saw his truck being driven away, McCarvel said Wednesday. The truck owner...

"REPLY OF THE APPELLANTS TO THE OPPOSITION TO THEIR MOTION FOR ORAL ARGUMENT Opposing our motion for oral argument the appellees assert in a quite conclusory fashion that all three reasons of Rule 34(a)(2) are met here. (Doc No.12200734) The first prong that they assert is true here is that the present appeal is frivolous. This is so because the judge below found that the case was frivolous. That finding, based largely on “blogging and twittering” and “vetting” on the Internet by America’s “vigilant” people, was not supported by any actual legal authority. In fact the assertion by the judge...

Over ONE MILLION copies sold! On the NYTimes Bestseller List for 19 weeks, 12 weeks at #1!Buy it… read it… live it!“Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” --Mark Levin in Liberty and TyrannyWelcome to “The Levin Lounge”… Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

The Obama administration pledged on Thursday to back beleaguered mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac no matter how big their losses may be in the next three years. Treasury also said it would not require the two agencies to reduce their portfolio size next year, in a move that would allow them provide even greater support for the housing market as it begins to recover from its worst slump in decades. The Treasury Department said it made the changes to assure markets it was fully behind both Fannie and Freddie and to give the agencies more time to...

When Senator DeMint engineered, and Republican Leader McConnell actually objected to the appointment of the conferees, he was really handing the ball off to the left wingers — progressives if you will — and now they have their shot to either hold their own clan members who are against the Senate compromises and force them to vote No, or have their policy demands be ignored and take the crumbs from Senator Nelson’s and Senator Lieberman’s table. Now, because of the Senator DeMint’s objection, unless the House votes for the Senate bill unchanged — which is highly unlikely (see below) —...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   New York: Town of Rhinebeck Reschedules Vote on Anti-Gun Proposal!   Wednesday, December 23, 2009   Please Contact the Town Board Today!The Town of Rhinebeck Town Board has rescheduled a vote on a comprehensive zoning plan that includes provisions which potentially impact local shooting ranges.  The vote has been rescheduled for Tuesday, December 29 at 6:30 p.m.If passed, strict limitations on the amount of noise emanating from ranges would be put in place.  Ranges would not be permitted within 900 feet of a property boundary, public trail or park, public or...

The Superhighway to Serfdom 23. Dec, 2009  Written by: Brian Roberts Comments (6) In 1944, nobel prize winning economist F.A. Hayek wrote The Road to Serfdom to describe the typical path tyrants use to lead free people from freedom to servitude. It’s not as long of a road as you might expect. In fact, it’s easy to see that America is on it and the pedal is to the floor. If you haven’t seen the illustrated road to serfdom, spend 5 minutes here: http://mises.org/books/TRTS/ (I’d guess we’re probably on step 9 or so.) The founder’s were fully aware of the road...

Ben Nelson Attacks Pro-Life Advocates, Defends Pro-Abortion Compromise Washington, DC -- Facing an enormous backlash for becoming the 60th vote for a health care bill that his language allows to fund abortions, Ben Nelson is striking back. In comments both on and off the Senate floor yesterday and today, Nelson lashed out at pro-life advocates and is defending his much-maligned compromise. http://www.LifeNews.com/state4677.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 24, 2009 Contact: AARP Media Relations, media@aarp.orgAARP Thanks Senate for Passing Health Care ReformAssociation looks forward to improving legislation in conference committeeWASHINGTON—AARP CEO A. Barry Rand released this statement after this morning’s passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The vote allows members of the House of Representatives and Senate to begin merging their respective bills and enact health reform legislation early in the New Year. “This morning the Senate brought us closer to meaningful health care reform than we have ever been before. Passage of the Senate health care reform bill clears the...

Barry, Harry, & Nancy: Ascent of the gods (excerpt) David Horowitz said nearly a decade ago that the Left (liberalism) was akin to religious faith (The Art of Political War, p.192). BadEagle.com first called it all Communism. That is to say, Marxism, Socialism, Leftism, Liberalism, and Progressivism were all the same. These labels were simply a series of disguises, each designed to make tyranny more acceptable in Western society. Today, conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter simply call it the Democrat Party.

The announcement by Alabama Rep. Parker Griffith that he is switching to the Republican Party is just the latest warning sign that the Democratic Party -- my lifelong political home -- has a critical decision to make: Either we plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come. Rep. Griffith's decision makes him the fifth centrist Democrat to either switch parties or announce plans to retire rather than stand for reelection in 2010. These announcements are a sharp reversal from the progress the Democratic Party made starting...

A walking path along the Naugatuck River. A better public safety communications system in Enfield. More than $28 million to support local homeless assistance programs in Connecticut. Those are just some of the projects for which U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd recently helped win federal funding. And that laundry list of goodies doesn't even include the possibility of $100 million for a new University of Connecticut hospital that was slipped into the health care overhaul bill last weekend. The politically vulnerable Democrat has been criticized for using the promise of federal money to bolster his chances of winning re-election in 2010....

In nearly its final act of the year, the US Senate on Thursday approved a $290 billion increase in the nation's borrowing limit, a move that sets up a contentious debate about the federal government's largesse early in 2010. The additional $290 billion in borrowing ability lifts the total public debt the federal government can hold to around $12.4 trillion and will allow the government to keep borrowing through February. The House passed the measure last week. The Senate vote was 60-39, and was almost exclusively along party lines. Generally a vote on raising the debt limit requires only a...