Dismantling America

[Little-Acorn]

Thomas Sowell is one of the most intelligent, perceptive writers I have ever read. His ability to get to the nub of the matter and express it plainly and straightforwardly, is without peer.

And here he does a better job of pointing out the overall affect of the Obama administration on this country, than any other author.

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http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2009/10/27/dismantling_america

Dismantling America

by Thomas Sowell
Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Just one year ago, would you have believed that an unelected government official, not even a Cabinet member confirmed by the Senate but simply one of the many "czars" appointed by the President, could arbitrarily cut the pay of executives in private businesses by 50 percent or 90 percent?

Did you think that another "czar" would be talking about restricting talk radio? That there would be plans afloat to subsidize newspapers-- that is, to create a situation where some newspapers' survival would depend on the government liking what they publish?

Did you imagine that anyone would even be talking about having a panel of so-called "experts" deciding who could and could not get life-saving medical treatments?

Scary as that is from a medical standpoint, it is also chilling from the standpoint of freedom. If you have a mother who needs a heart operation or a child with some dire medical condition, how free would you feel to speak out against an administration that has the power to make life and death decisions about your loved ones?

Does any of this sound like America?

How about a federal agency giving school children material to enlist them on the side of the president? Merely being assigned to sing his praises in class is apparently not enough.

How much of America would be left if the federal government continued on this path? President Obama has already floated the idea of a national police force, something we have done without for more than two centuries.

We already have local police forces all across the country and military forces for national defense, as well as the FBI for federal crimes and the National Guard for local emergencies. What would be the role of a national police force created by Barack Obama, with all its leaders appointed by him? It would seem more like the brown shirts of dictators than like anything American.

How far the President will go depends of course on how much resistance he meets. But the direction in which he is trying to go tells us more than all his rhetoric or media spin.

Barack Obama has not only said that he is out to "change the United States of America," the people he has been associated with for years have expressed in words and deeds their hostility to the values, the principles and the people of this country.

Jeremiah Wright said it with words: "God damn America!" Bill Ayers said it with bombs that he planted. Community activist goons have said it with their contempt for the rights of other people.

Among the people appointed as czars by President Obama have been people who have praised enemy dictators like Mao, who have seen the public schools as places to promote sexual practices contrary to the values of most Americans, to a captive audience of children.

Those who say that the Obama administration should have investigated those people more thoroughly before appointing them are missing the point completely. Why should we assume that Barack Obama didn't know what such people were like, when he has been associating with precisely these kinds of people for decades before he reached the White House?

Nothing is more consistent with his lifelong patterns than putting such people in government-- people who reject American values, resent Americans in general and successful Americans in particular, as well as resenting America's influence in the world.

Any miscalculation on his part would be in not thinking that others would discover what these stealth appointees were like. Had it not been for the Fox News Channel, these stealth appointees might have remained unexposed for what they are. Fox News is now high on the administration's enemies list.

Nothing so epitomizes President Obama's own contempt for American values and traditions like trying to ram two bills through Congress in his first year-- each bill more than a thousand pages long-- too fast for either of them to be read, much less discussed. That he succeeded only the first time says that some people are starting to wake up. Whether enough people will wake up in time to keep America from being dismantled, piece by piece, is another question-- and the biggest question for this generation.

 

[Richard Savage]

Re: Changing America

There is nothing more characteristic of human nature than its resistence to change. There is a strong preference for the familiar; and old habits, however bad, are hard to break - they persist in the face of perversity. Jefferson observed in the Declaration of Independence that mankind was more disposed to suffer evil than abolish its accustomed forms. But to change requires more than just independence of mind or spirit, it requires courage; for there is no action that is more deliberate or more daring.

 

[Greco]

If the Republicans hadn't been such toadies, defending, rationalizing, justifying and excusing away blunder after blunder from George W. Bush they wouldn't have been crushed in two consecutive national elections. Then they wouldn't have to be so fearful of the "dismantling of America".

Elections have consequences, and Republicans delivered Congress, the Senate and White House to the Democrats. Your favorite author's rant is based on opinionated, ideological interpretations. It's not fact, it's opinion. He intentionally slants his opinion for the benefit of the ignorant with insertions about Bill Ayers and Jerimiah Wright. If he had a strong case to make, he could easily have done it absent of the absurd "pallin' around with terrorists" garbage.

He's free to rant, you're free to drink the kool-aid. The rest of America is free to recognize it for what it really is.

 

[Little-Acorn]

Re: Changing America

There is nothing more characteristic of human nature than its resistence to change. There is a strong preference for the familiar; and old habits, however bad, are hard to break - they persist in the face of perversity. Jefferson observed in the Declaration of Independence that mankind was more disposed to suffer evil than abolish its accustomed forms. But to change requires more than just independence of mind or spirit, it requires courage; for there is no action that is more deliberate or more daring.

I fully agree.

The tendency to go along with what our elected officials are pushing, is deeply ingrained in the American people. Only when EXTREMELY unworkable or undesireable programs are unveiled, do they start to protest and petition their government - a right guaranteed by the Constitution, but seldom used.

Here we are seeing one of the rare times when large masses of people are rising to speak out against the unconstitutional programs pushed by the present administration. These programs are nothing new - they have been pushed time and again, by the same leftists, at least since the 1920s in this country, and even longer elsewhere.

Kudoes to the American citizens who are "breaking out of the mold" and telling the government that these programs - from nationalizing Health Care to taking over private companies to pretending there's some reason to think man can affect the planet's climate (and spend ourselves into bankruptcy in a fruitless attempt to do so) - are unacceptable and must be dropped. As you said, it takes courage and dedication to make such "upstart" behavior to stick. But their standing up to the "same old solutions" offered by an increasingly leftist government, could not come at a better time.

The country has its share of problems that must be fixed. But the "solutions" being pushed by the present leftists, are worse than the problems, and worse than doing nothing. The best course will be to fix the problems in a positive way. But first we must flush the present "solutions" out of the system, so we can make sure the country won't be hobbled and badly damaged by the unworkable programs offered by today's short-sighted leftists.

 

[Greco]

Re: Changing America

"from nationalizing Health Care to taking over private companies to pretending there's some reason to think man can affect the planet's climate"

What a crock!

There are no measures being crafted to "nationalize health care". None. It's never been advocated, even discussed by Congress, the Senate or the president. It's either a poorly crafted lie on your part, or a stunning display of ignorance.

There is no "pretending man can affect the planet's climate". It's a scientific fact. You may make the choice to be a science denier, but that doesn't alter the reality, just your chosen perception of it.

 

[Dr.Who]

Re: Changing America

"from nationalizing Health Care to taking over private companies to pretending there's some reason to think man can affect the planet's climate"

What a crock!

There are no measures being crafted to "nationalize health care". None. It's never been advocated, even discussed by Congress, the Senate or the president. It's either a poorly crafted lie on your part, or a stunning display of ignorance.

"National health insurance is health insurance that insures a national population for the costs of health care and usually is instituted as a program of healthcare reform. It may be administered by the public sector, the private sector, or a combination of both. Funding mechanisms vary with the particular program and country. National health insurance does not equate to government run or government financed health care, but is usually established by national legislation."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Health_Care

And yes P. Obama without any doubt at all wants a national health care system and more he wants a government run universal system.

"I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care plan." Obama

Here is the link and a video:
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/08/11/obama-lies-on-single-payer-dis

 

[chestnut]

Re: Changing America

"from nationalizing Health Care to taking over private companies to pretending there's some reason to think man can affect the planet's climate"

What a crock!

There are no measures being crafted to "nationalize health care". None. It's never been advocated, even discussed by Congress, the Senate or the president. It's either a poorly crafted lie on your part, or a stunning display of ignorance.

There is no "pretending man can affect the planet's climate". It's a scientific fact. You may make the choice to be a science denier, but that doesn't alter the reality, just your chosen perception of it.

So climate change is not debatable. That's not true just because Obama and liberals say so.

There is no evidence!! It is a sham!

You democrats are hillarious. You want to excoriate big business and those who make money and prey on those less fortunate.

What do you think Al Gore is doing. He's making millions on this hype. If it is such a worthy cause, then why is he trying to make so much money?

Who do you think will be affected most by the cap and tax legislation. You think the less fortunate will be able to afford higher gas prices, higher food prices, higher electricity bills.

This man made global warming nonsense is a hoax just to find another way to control us.

People aren't buying it

Why hasn't the current administration even considered nuclear energy, or offshore drilling?

Because they are not serious. It will be many many years before the solar or wind can replace our current use of coal.

How about natural gas? That is in abundance. They don't want to because they want to control.

Democrats are ok with Govt control and less freedoms, but many of us that are not affliliated with that party, do not agree with it and will not listen to the hype.

As far as posting reports from the UN panel on climate chagne... don't bother. They are partisan. They want this to pass so they can transfer wealth to the other nations. I

 

[Greco]

You always delight in establishing your ignorance. Rather than waste time going item by item with your uninformed baloney, I'll just give you one example.

You asked about offshore drilling. There isn't much oil available in offshore drilling. The wells are predominantly natural gas, which we already have a massive surplus of. In Texas and Oklahoma there are tens of thousands of gas wells already in, capped because the gas is selling so cheap. When the price comes up, all they have to do is start pumping it to market.

You wouldn't always come across as such a fool if you'd just make the smallest effort to learn something before you spew out your absurd "facts".

 

[chestnut]

You always delight in establishing your ignorance. Rather than waste time going item by item with your uninformed baloney, I'll just give you one example.

You asked about offshore drilling. There isn't much oil available in offshore drilling. The wells are predominantly natural gas, which we already have a massive surplus of. In Texas and Oklahoma there are tens of thousands of gas wells already in, capped because the gas is selling so cheap. When the price comes up, all they have to do is start pumping it to market.

You wouldn't always come across as such a fool if you'd just make the smallest effort to learn something before you spew out your absurd "facts".

You wouldn't appear to come across as a $hitead if you would respond to the posts without all the drama and personal attacks.

You failed to answer anything of the questions, just attack the offshore drilling argument.

 

[Greco]

I didn't attack offshore drilling. I merely illustrated this was another example of your ignorance, not knowing why you whining about.

 

[chestnut]

No one whined.

I was responding to the Global Warming Hoax, which it is. You quickly changed to subject and targeted one thing I said instead of staying on topic... which is par for the course from the libs.

 

[Little-Acorn]

You wouldn't appear to come across as a $hitead if you would respond to the posts without all the drama and personal attacks.

Relax, chestnut. If little greco were required to back up his assertions with facts, and weren't allowed to hurl gratuitous insults and slurs at conservatives, he'd have nothing to say on this forum at all.

Give the poor kid a break.

 

[TheFranklinParty]

You always delight in establishing your ignorance. Rather than waste time going item by item with your uninformed baloney, I'll just give you one example.

You asked about offshore drilling. There isn't much oil available in offshore drilling. The wells are predominantly natural gas, which we already have a massive surplus of. In Texas and Oklahoma there are tens of thousands of gas wells already in, capped because the gas is selling so cheap. When the price comes up, all they have to do is start pumping it to market.

You wouldn't always come across as such a fool if you'd just make the smallest effort to learn something before you spew out your absurd "facts".

So, if natural gas is so plentiful and cheap, why not give a tax credit for natural gas automobiles? New, or conversions, would provide more jobs and national economic growth. Now that is change, but the politicians wouldn't wouldn't gain wallet share, so it won't happen.

By the way, the almost all current car models could be converted with very little effort.

 

[Greco]

Geez... it's not "changing the subject" to cite what you said and showcase it for the moonbattery it is. You brought it up. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum can be soooo amusing.

 

[Greco]

"So, if natural gas is so plentiful and cheap, why not give a tax credit for natural gas automobiles? New, or conversions, would provide more jobs and national economic growth. Now that is change, but the politicians wouldn't wouldn't gain wallet share, so it won't happen.

By the way, the almost all current car models could be converted with very little effort."

Good point, we often wonder the same thing. Several weeks ago a representative of the Natural Gas industry appeared on a news program, I can't remember which one, and addressed this issue. He was blaming his own industry. According to him they didn't do a very good job of working Congress to push the issue and they're now having to play catch up.

The current cost of a natural gas conversion for a vehicle runs about $600 to $900, but that's not the problem. The availability of being able to re-fuel is the issue. Very, very few gas stations have the product available. That area would have to be developed before it would become a practical, for the masses, alternative.