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Arthur Brooks, the still relatively new president of the American Enterprise Institute, has a remarkable piece in the Opinion section of the May 23 edition of The Washington Post, titled “America’s New Culture War: Free Enterprise vs. Government Control.”

He nails it. For starters:

“This is not the culture war of the 1990s. It is not a fight over guns, gays or abortion. Those old battles have been eclipsed by a new struggle between two competing visions of the country’s future. In one, America will continue to be an exceptional nation organized around the principles of free enterprise — limited government, a reliance on entrepreneurship and rewards determined by market forces. In the other, America will move toward European-style statism grounded in expanding bureaucracies, a managed economy and large-scale income redistribution. These visions are not reconcilable. We must choose.”

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Yesterday, Quincy, Illinois served as the latest stop on The One’s perpetual campaign trail. He believes that if he talks often and long enough, the words which he reads from his TelePrompTer will somehow morph into reality and suddenly all of America will start to chant “Yes We Can”.

Meanwhile, the rest of us have to live in this strange world commonly referred to as “reality”.

During his canned stump speech, The One took a risk and unplugged himself from the TelePrompTer and spoke “off the cuff” for a few minutes about his effort to reform the way Wall Street does business. I’ll omit – for the sake of brevity – a discussion regarding The One’s non understanding of basic business principles.

Here’s a taste of The One’s off Prompter remarks:

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I suppose passage of the health care infringement reform gives the US govt license to regulate the American diet. ObamaCare is just a means to an end. As if incurring a fine for noncompliance or picking up the tab for everyone else weren’t bad enough; Big Brother needs to further dabble with menu items and eating habits. I guess they think we’re too stupid to do it ourselves.

Take for instance the salt issue. Earlier this week the FDA announced its plans to regulate the amount of salt in processed foods (a.k.a. a lot of the stuff you buy at the local grocery store). The government interfering in our lives again? I know. Hard to believe.

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In case you missed it:

Fifty three percent of likely Arizona voters are concerned that the state’s tough new law targeting illegal immigrants will also be used to violate the civil rights of United States citizens.

The majority of them support it anyway.

Such is the state of the state of Arizona, where frustration is the official state emotion and our official nickname?

With one stroke of a pen it was changed Friday from Grand Canyon State to Police State.

Read the rest.

The University of Virginia’s political prognosticator Larry Sabato is out with an interesting nugget this morning: State Attorney General positions are the grooming grounds for governorships. He writes, “There’s an old joke about the National Association of Attorneys General—their registered name is supposedly the National Association of Aspiring Governors.”

In Virginia three of the last seven governors have been AGs. In part, this is because Virginia has a very short ballot, electing only the lieutenant governor and attorney general in addition to governor, and the governor is limited to one consecutive four-year term. (Virginia is the only state remaining with such a prohibition.) The other statewide elected officials are naturally considered in line for the statehouse, and they often run flat out for four years to get the promotion.

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Barack Obama promised the most transparent administration in history. In his Memorandum on Transparency and Open Government, he commits to “creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.” The full document on openness in government can be read at WhiteHouse.gov.

I guess that only applied back when Obama still believed everyone loved him. And it certainly doesn’t apply when one of Obama’s core base groups is protesting him! Didn’t they get the memo?

Americablog posted the below video of capital police closing Lafayette Park (next to the White House) to prevent reporters from covering a “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” protest.

So, when do we get to the transparent part?

So, President Obama has decided to open up areas of the eastern Continental Shelf and a small section of the Gulf of Mexico to oil/gas exploration.

This is very good news. The President says it is designed to “reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” and also to “produce jobs.” He further added that it would be unwise to “ignore reality”–one presumes he means the reality that we still need oil in the short term, even though we want to switch to some other energy later on.

This is good news and we can all applaud his decision.

The bad news is he’s doing it not because of the obvious need for oil-based energy, but to try to “bribe’ Republicans into supporting his cap-and-trade legislation.
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As you all know (and possibly never want to hear again), this is THE week for the Congress to pass the healthcare bill.  Yes, yes, I know we’ve heard that before, but I’m really hopeful that this is it.

Do you want to know how you can stop the insanity?  I have the solution (somewhat borrowed from Dick Morris).  Call members of the House and tell them to vote no.  Morris has compiled a list of House members that voted for the healthcare bill in November and are in jeopardy of losing their seats come November.  Use the phone numbers provided and call them.  You don’t have to be one of their constituients to give them your opinion.  You may not be able to vote against them, but you can always threaten to support their opponent through donations, media, etc.

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Michael Bennet – D Colorado is introducing a new bill forcing reform on earmarks, Lobbyists and procedure changes to get Congress back to work.

Specifically, Bennet’s Plan for Washington Reform would:

Salaries, Spending, and Perk
* Freeze congressional member pay until there are 4 quarters of job growth
*Freeze congressional office budgets until there are 4 quarters of job growth
* End the health care subsidy for Members of Congress until health care reform passes and eliminates discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, doesn’t cut guaranteed Medicare benefits, increases coverage, and is fully paid for
* Require full payment for the seat and disclose of those traveling with a Member of Congress on a charter jet
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The key question is – “do what?” That’s the critical fork in the road we face: can the currently elected cadre of leaders composed mainly of Boomers manage the affairs of state prudently, or do they tank the very country they have siphoned from over the last 60 years?

I’m on the leading edge of the Xer age. And I’ve been convinced since my early years that things will not perpetually get better and better and better in our country, especially not with choices, patterns, and lifestyles that do not reward thrift, restraint, modesty, and patience. When I examine my elder brethren, I am left wondering if their lasting legacy upon this great land will be one which will resign them to the doghouse of historical judgment.

Boomers are poised to leave a determinative mark on their country. The question is what kind.

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If you live in Dallas and you’re free on February 27th at noon you have been invited to attend the Dallas Tea Party one year anniversary. Oh – and if your name is Keith Olbermann, you’ve been given a personal invitation.

Just in case you are not aware of the history of Social Security let me inform you of the facts.

Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security Program (FICA) and promised:

1.) That participation in the Program would be completely voluntary.
The program is no longer voluntary.

2.) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into the program.
Now you pay 7.65%. (plus your employer pays 7.65%)

3.) The money the participants elected to put into the program would be deductible from their income tax each year.
This money is no longer tax deductible.

4.) The money the participants put into the independent ‘Trust Fund’ rather than into the general operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program.
Under Johnson the money was moved to the General Fund to be spent.

5.) The annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income.
Under Clinton and Gore, Up to 85% of your Social Security can be taxed.

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month, only to find out that we are getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid to the Federal government to ‘put away’, you may be interested in the following:
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So what did you think about the President’s first SOTU address? Was it as pleasurable as root canal?

Weigh in, PD gang, with what you heard and saw. We know he gives good speeches; but did he “ring the bell” yet again?

Lost in the frenzy of recent events (The Underwear Bomber, the ObamaCare vote, The White House Party Crashers, Harry Reid’s Slip of the Racist Tongue, etc.) is the fact that crude oil pricing has been steadily increasing of late and is now in the mid-$80’s, and is likely headed to triple-digits soon. Gasoline prices now stand over a dollar higher than last year at this time (currently around $2.80/gal) and appear ready to break the psychologically-important $3.00/gallon barrier very soon.

There is no coverage of this in the news. There is no media attention whatsoever. But when gas gets too high, the Liberal Elite Media (LEM) will once again—predictably—be fanning the flames of the “Big Oil is ripping us off” storyline.

This is totally and intentionally misleading. Crude oil pricing (and therefore U.S. retail gasoline pricing) can be influenced to a very large extent by Presidential/Congressional actions. Traditionally, summer gasoline pricing maxes out about $.80 /gal higher than winter lows, so summer 2010 pricing looks headed into the $3.60/gal range.

It’s not “Big Oil’s” fault. It’s largely the fault of President Obama and his Democratic majorities in Congress.

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I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that most of the folks on PD disagree with Obama’s plan for Afghanistan.  Instead of focusing on why you disagree, rate Obama on the following his delivery and content. Did he inspire confidence and did he articulate a clear plan?  However, if you do agree with his plan, I think we’d all be interested in your reasoning.

Earlier this year when Rush Limbaugh told Sean Hannity that he hoped President Obama’s policies would fail, many conservative Americans understood exactly what he meant and were in complete agreement with him. After all, what conservative free market capitalist would ever believe Obama’s socialist policies would do anything but destroy America. However, the problem in agreeing with Rush is that the only thing that will eventually fulfill a hope for President Obama’s policies to fail is for the economy to continue to falter.Regardless whether conservatives believe the stock market is in some kind of weird “up” cycle or the most recent GDP numbers truly reflect the current economy, or that any other positive economic reports and projections are just propaganda, they must reluctantly agree that it will be a real dilemma for them if the economy does begin to rebound amidst President Obama’s policies.

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How does New Orleans grow?
With silver bells and cockel shells,
And working girls all in a row.

And a cool $300 Million from pimp daddy Reid.

Is the Obamanation about to sell out this country to the environutjobs? Listen to Lord Monckton’s speech on the United Nations Climate Change Treaty that is scheduled to be signed in Copenhagen in December 2009. Could it be that the marxists and comunists are using this as another step to destroy this country by using the “Climate Change” crowd as a means to an end?
You decide.

In case you missed, here’s our very own East of Eden taking her message to a national radio audience. You won’t want to miss her story.

http://www.jasonfwright.com/audio/EOFonGlennBeck.wma

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