Blood Money: The Business of Abortion

A surprising point is raised in this movie trailer that grabbed my ears: Could socialized medicine result in the building of large abortion clinics and increase the number of abortions?



And one other point that equally grabbed my attention: Abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women. [bloodmoneyfilm.com]

LifeSiteNews provides more background on the film that the website does not (emphasis added):

...

The original title of the film had been "The American Holocaust." However, as filming progressed, the filmmakers found that the business aspect of abortion kept coming to the forefront.

"As I traveled around the country last September doing all these interviews with various pro-life leaders and women who had had abortions, the money part just kept coming up."

...

Kyle says they hope the movie will inform people about the business aspect of abortion and the effect that abortion has on women.

"People are making millions upon millions of dollars off the murdering of innocent babies," he said.

"Abortion has consequences to it. It's sold as a quick fix when you're in trouble. You can go and have an abortion and the problem goes away. Well, we know from countless women that the problem does not go away. Women have long term consequences that they are going to have to deal with for years and years."

The movie also aims to encourage pro-life people to work towards an end to abortion.

"This is all about getting the truth out there to save babies. We want to motivate people to do something, even people in the pro-life community. We have thousands of people out there who are pro-life but who really don't take an active part in it. We want to motivate them to do something."

Out of everything in the movie, the interviews with women who have had abortions are the most poignant for Kyle.

"The women talking about their abortion experiences were the most difficult to get through when doing the interviews. I've sat with this footage countless times going through it and it still affects me."

Kyle says that his interview with Carol Everette was especially powerful for him. Everette, who used to run abortion mills in Dallas, has since become a noted pro-life speaker and advocate of unborn children's rights.

In the preview for the movie released Friday on Youtube, Everette says, "We would give them [young girls] a low-dose birth control pill they would get pregnant on or a defective condom. Our goal was 3-5 abortions for every girl between the ages of thirteen and eighteen."

"Blood Money" still does not yet have a distributor, but Kyle is hopeful that through the support of pro-life advocates the film will gain the attention of one. In order for this to happen, though, he says that people need to register at the website or watch the preview on youtube to show their support.

...

Not a popular topic, especially since it's not a big election year. It's been conveniently pushed to the back burner. But, it is worthy of keeping at the forefront of our nation's discussions, especially in light of ObamaKennedyCare.

Buzzards Circling? Predictions for Defeat of Dems Emerge

It's been a bit depressing lately for me, given all this ObamaKennedyCare mess and the scandalous "czars" appointed by Obama ... and no real MSM coverage showing all sides of all issues. Then, if you watch Glenn Beck, you get even more depressed and a bit freaked out about America's future. Sigh!

But, luckily today I read something that brought a smile to my worried face and thought I would share the gift. Josh Kraushaar offered a bit of upbeat news yesterday over at Politico (emphasis added):

Experts see double-digit Dem losses

By: Josh Kraushaar / August 31, 2009

After an August recess marked by raucous town halls, troubling polling data and widespread anecdotal evidence of a volatile electorate, the small universe of political analysts who closely follow House races is predicting moderate to heavy Democratic losses in 2010.

Some of the most prominent and respected handicappers can now envision an election in which Democrats suffer double-digit losses in the House — not enough to provide the 40 seats necessary to return the GOP to power but enough to put them within striking distance.

Top political analyst Charlie Cook, in a special August 20 update to subscribers, wrote that “the situation this summer has slipped completely out of control for President Obama and congressional Democrats.”

...

At the mid-August Netroots Nation convention, Nate Silver, a Democratic analyst whose uncannily accurate, stat-driven predictions have made his website FiveThirtyEight.com a must read among political junkies, predicted that Republicans will win between 20 and 50 seats next year. He further alarmed an audience of progressive activists by arguing that the GOP has between a 25 and 33 percent chance of winning back control of the House.

“A lot of Democratic freshmen and sophomores will be running in a much tougher environment than in 2006 and 2008 and some will adapt to it, but a lot of others will inevitably freak out and end up losing,” Silver told POLITICO. “Complacency is another factor: We have volunteers who worked really hard in 2006 and in 2008 for Obama but it’s less compelling [for them] to preserve the majority.”

...

Turnout levels may also work in the GOP’s favor: House Democrats who narrowly won election in 2008 on the strength of high turnout among African-Americans and young voters probably won’t be able to count on that same level of enthusiasm next year in a nonpresidential election.

...

Silver also pointed to the role of health care legislation, which he said is increasingly looking like a no-win situation for House Democrats.

In his view, if a compromise bill is passed without a public option, the liberal base will become upset and may not be enthusiastic heading into the 2010 midterm elections, where their support will be critical. But if Democrats pass legislation without any assistance from Republicans, the party risks incurring the wrath of independent voters looking for a bipartisan solution. And if no health care reform at all gets passed, the administration and vulnerable members will have spent political capital without getting any results on the administration’s signature issue.

“If you pass a health care bill it doesn’t make you popular, but if you don’t sign any legislation it makes things even worse,” Silver said. “You can’t put the genie back in the bottle. I don’t see what the exit strategy is for the White House. Once they went down this path, they’re going all in here, and you can’t take that bet back.”

...

Indeed, those upcoming battles — on health care reform, energy legislation and economic regulation — will be crucial to the fortunes of targeted House Democrats.

...

Already, many Democrats representing conservative-minded districts have distanced themselves from the national party’s leadership on the most controversial measures. Forty-four Democrats split from their leadership to oppose the cap-and-trade energy legislation — most of them falling in line with the economic interests of their districts.

...

There. Feel better? Maybe just a little? Hmmmmm ... time to add one of those "countdown to Obama being booted out of office" clocks.

Reefer Madness in the Democratic Party??

Leigh Scott over at Andrew Breitbart's Big Hollywood makes an interesting observation about Liberals: Could the Left be so far detached from reality due to possible mass use of marijuana? Check it out (emphasis added):

Mr. President, Please Don’t Bogart the Blunt

by Leigh Scott

After a long day at work on a commercial shoot, I decided to unwind with a little internet and cable television. Politics and punditry are my hobby, not my main source of income, so I indulge in a little cable news and internet sites as time permits. I’ve always felt it important to see the world outside the “echo chamber” of like-minded folks, so my television sits for far too many hours on MSNBC and the Huffington Post is bookmarked on my browser.

What struck me from a few hours of watching leftist television and reading leftist gobbledygook is how far detached from reality these people are. It’s not a simple case of them having a few points wrong, or looking at things from a bizarrely biased perspective; they truly make statements and cling to ideas that have no basis in reality. As conservatives struggle to find apt metaphors to explain their opponent’s mindsets and delusions, I think I may have figured it out.

The left in our country is high. Completely stoned out of their minds.

Living and working in L.A., one encounters more stoners on the average day than they do illegal immigrants. I’ve worked with stoners. I’ve dated stoners. I’ve lived with stoners. I know stoners inside and out and I can tell you, without a doubt, that the Democrat Party is completely crunked.

Stoners always think that they are smarter than they really are. Copious amounts of THC trick the brain into thinking that the most banal thought is somehow a stroke of genius. Just watch a bunch of stoners debate philosophy and metaphysics. The most ridiculous comments take on the gravitas of a Stephen Hawking thesis. Morons think that they are Michio Kaku after a towering bong hit.

Stoners live for the moment. They are all about feelings, not facts. They possess a detached sense of cause and effect. I recall one specific episode when I came home and tore into my stoner roommate for not having his share of the rent. His solution to his lack of rent was simple. See, the real problem wasn’t his lack of money, but my reaction to it. I was far too stressed about the situation. What we should do, to solve the rent problem, was grab a couple of drinks at the Cafe Formosa on Santa Monica and then head over to Crazy Girls, a local gentleman’s club. After that excursion, I would calm down and stop harshing his gig over the unpaid rent.

Six Coronas and two lap dances later, I wasn’t as furious. We both felt better. To the stoner, everything was fixed. Problem solved! Unfortunately, the rent was still unpaid. My loser roommate still didn’t have a job

Stoners never emerge from their stupor. Part of being a true “wake and bake” stoner is the ability to remain faded. True stoners never snap out of it. I’ve dealt with coke heads and alcoholics, but stoners are a different breed. The alkie and the base head will go on their binge, then apologize profusely for their conduct; until, of course, the next time they go on a bender. The pot head always exists in a dream like world of cannabis induced euphoria. They do not see their drug addiction as a problem, but instead, as a heightened sense of being and awareness.

Lastly, stoners never have their own money. Remember those Chili’s leftovers you were planning on eating? How about those delicious Red Baron frozen pizzas? Chances are good that your stoner roommate ate your food while you were at work. Sure, they promise to “hook you up” as soon as they get a chance to go to Ralph’s, but it never happens. Stoners have a bizarre, communal logic that dictates that everything exists for the collective. Your pizza, your stash, your girlfriend all exist for the greater stoner good. To demand private ownership of anything is an offense to the “stoner code.”

With this in mind, how can one not see the recent doings in Washington as anything but massive cannabis abuse? Cash for clunkers? Stoner logic. Stimulus package? Stoner logic. Government run health care? Stoner logic. Cap and trade? Stoner logic.

I can picture Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer lying on a bean bag, listening to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and watching The Little Mermaid, dreaming up domestic and foreign policy. ”You know who those town hall protesters remind me of? Nazis, man. They’re freakin Nazis.” (Cough. Cough. Giggle. Giggle). “What if we give money to people to buy new cars and we smash their old cars?” ”Dude, that’s totally awesome, because we just watched Dude, Where’s My Car?”

You’d be hard pressed to find any other rational explanation for a large group of people who discard decades of historical evidence, common sense, and basic moral decency other than massive amounts of reefer.

I think the whole Socialist, Communist, Nazi analogy is stretching it a bit. Michael Moore wishes he had the self discipline of a Joseph Goebbels. Nancy Pelosi wishes that she was as dynamic as a Heinrich Himmler. Barack Obama would love to have the focus of a Kim Jong Il, but man, it’s tough to stay on track when the Discovery Channel is running Shark Week and Doritos just unleashed that new buffalo wing sauce flavored tortilla chip. Have you guys tried those yet? They’re the bomb.

Conservatives are gearing up to do battle with an army of statist fascists, but we are really up against Cheech and Chong.

Obama is no Stalin, or even FDR. Face it, he’s Jeff Spicoli.

“It’s our time, Mr. Hand.” Hey, wasn’t that one of his campaign slogans?

Sadly for us, we live in a world where stoner nonsense is taken as gospel by the media and a large segment of the population. I think it’s fair to say that Obama captured the stoner vote in 2008, but few of us expected him to govern from inside a giant ganja cloud.

The best way to deal with stoners is to simply let them go about their business, but don’t trust them with anything important. Ever. My stoner roommate was a source of endless entertainment, but we were smart enough to never trust him to pay the cable bill. We need to get these Crunkensteins out of power as quickly as possible.

If we don’t, everything goes up in smoke.

"Crunkensteins!" This dude rocks, maaaaaaan!

Green Czar Van Jones: His Revolutionary Activities

Matthew Vadum of The American Spectator has an interesting bit of Obama's Green Czar Van Jones' bio:

Van Jones and His STORMtroopers Denounced America
the Night After 9/11

Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM), the revolutionary group formed by self-described "communist" and "rowdy black nationalist" Van Jones, held a vigil in Oakland, California, "mourning the victims of U.S. imperialism around the world" on the night after Sept. 11, 2001.

The reason this is important is because Van Jones is now President Obama's green jobs czar. He does not appear to have distanced himself from his past communist activities and is now part of the Obama administration's push to turn Sept. 11 into a National Day of Service focused on the promotion of the radical environmentalist agenda.

The vigil was reported by World Net Daily which excerpted parts of a history of the now-disbanded group.

Apparently, after the WND article was posted online, the website on which the original document was posted was overwhelmed by visitors and unavailable. I found the article in the "Way Back Machine" website (web.archive.org), an archival resource. The 2004 document, called "Reclaiming Revolution: history, summation & lessons from the work of Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM)," may be found on the archival site here. (In case that becomes unavailable, the document "Reclaiming Revolution" is available at the link embedded in this sentence.)

Jones also founded the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, which joined in the vigil according to an Ella Baker Center press release from 2001. The press release contained this passage that quoted Jones:

"Anti-Arab hostility is already reaching a fever pitch as pundits and common people alike rush to judgment that an Arab group is responsible for this tragedy," said Van Jones, national executive director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. "We fear that an atmosphere is being created that will result in official and street violence against Arab men, women and children."

"Reclaiming Revolution" also blamed the U.S. for 9/11. A passage on page 45 (27 of the PDF file) reads:

That night, STORM and the other movement leaders expressed sadness and anger at the deaths of innocent working class people. We were angry, first and foremost, with the U.S. government, whose worldwide aggression had engendered such hate across the globe that working class people were not safe at home. We honored those who had lost their lives in the attack -- and those who would surely lose their lives in subsequent U.S. attacks overseas.

Michelle Malkin discussed STORM and "Reclaiming Revolution" on the "Glenn Beck Program" on Aug. 25.

Again I ask: If Bush had hired a bunch of "czars" without officially appointing Secretaries, requiring congressional approval, can't you imagine how much the Left and the MSM would be hollering and swarming all around? Where's the shock and outcry against Obama's czars????

Again, Obama gets a pass from the press!

Tim James: Former NBA Player Real Life American Hero

Wow! What an amazing story I just read on FoxSports! Forgive me for posting the entire article, but it's too good not to!

Ex-NBA 1st-round Pick James now serving in Iraq

MIAMI (AP) - Tim James apologized for being late. A rough day at work, said the Miami Heat's 1999 first-round draft pick. Vehicles broke down, problems flared up, and he simply fell behind.

"It happens," James said. "Even here."

Even here - on the front line of the Iraq war.

A former NBA player who often wondered about his true calling, Tim James is now a U.S. Army soldier, a transformation that even many of the people closest to him never saw coming.

"I got my degree, lived the life I was able, have my freedom and became a professional athlete," James said last week from Iraq. "I'm the example of the American dream."

James is at Camp Speicher, the massive base near Tikrit, 85 miles north of Baghdad, not far from Saddam Hussein's hometown and where insurgents still are a perpetual threat. For Miami Northwestern High, the Miami Hurricanes, three NBA teams and some foreign clubs, he was forward Tim James. For the Army, he's Spc. Tim James of Task Force ODIN - short for Observe, Detect, Identify, Neutralize.

In layman's terms, he's part of the unit tasked with watching and catching the bad guys before they plant bombs.

So long, charter jets, enormous paychecks and Ritz-Carlton hotel stays.

Hello, 130-degree afternoons, 12-hour work days, $2,600 a month and 50-caliber machine guns.

"In life, we all have different desires and needs," said Leonard Hamilton, James' college coach and now the coach at Florida State. "With the passion he has, he had to go fulfill this. I'm in total support of Tim and what he's doing. He's at peace. All we can do is hope he comes back safely."

James spent years thinking about the prospects of a military career. Drafted 25th overall by the Heat, James' NBA career barely registered a basketball blip: He appeared in 43 games for Miami, Charlotte and Philadelphia, never starting and never scoring more than seven points in a game.

So he went to play overseas, making a fine living in Japan, Turkey and Israel. By 2007, his playing days were done. After months of deliberating, he made the difficult decision that would take him away from his family and 5-year-old son, whom James still tries to talk with by phone every night. Even so, Tim James Jr. doesn't understand where his dad is.

"I think of myself as a patriot," James said. "I wanted to give back to a country that gave so much to me."

On Sept. 12, 2008, he enlisted. The training was brutal, even for a 6-foot-8 basketball player whose athleticism had drawn raves since junior high school. James slept outside in frigid night air, scaled seven-story towers, endured 10-mile marches ("with full battle rattle, as they say," he said), and learned how to take apart and reassemble his weapon.

He never questioned if he was making the right decision.

"I have no doubts," James said. "I have no regrets. Not one bit."

His 12-month deployment to Iraq started in late July. On his second night there, James was awoken from a sound sleep, completely startled.

Machine gun fire. The sound of war.

Understandably, it took a while for him to fall back asleep.

"It's a pretty impressive thing that he's doing, making the transition from where he was then to where he is now," said James' captain, Curtis Byron. "Such a small percentage of U.S. citizens are in the military or are veterans, doing their part to protect the nation's freedom. Putting that life behind you, setting aside any thoughts you had before about the military, that's impressive."

Byron said James didn't tell most members of his unit that he used to be an NBA player. James not only didn't want the attention, he didn't want to be treated differently than anyone else.

"He's very humble," Byron said. "To him, it's not a big deal at all."

Oh, but it's a very big deal to the Heat.

They preach family inside the Heat complex, and even though James played only four games, he's forever part of the Heat family. Rob Wilson, the team's director of sports media relations, helped arrange for two boxes of T-shirts and posters to be sent to Iraq as a morale booster. They should get there this week, unless sandstorms delay the arrival of mail - a common occurrence.

Included in that package is an 8-minute, 31-second DVD, with greetings to James from several members of the organization. Another DVD from the Heat is already in the works, and the team is already planning to honor James at a home game this season.

"I just want to wish you good luck, man," Heat captain Udonis Haslem, who wears No. 40 to honor two of his idols who had that number - his father and James - said on the DVD. "God bless you and keep doing what you're doing."

"Stay focused," said Heat center Jamaal Magloire, a former James teammate. "Never let your guard down and get back to us safe."

"You're not like any other basketball player out there," Heat assistant coach Keith Askins said.

Since 2006, Miami has given a center-court tribute to soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan at every home game, a program Heat president Pat Riley developed and called the HomeStrong initiative.

He said he cannot wait for James to get his due.

"The work we do, while being important to us, is made possible by the efforts of our soldiers in the Middle East," said Riley, who coached James in his lone season with the team.

James can't discuss specifics of his mission, although Byron said the unit should not face "the direct threat" of enemy action.

The stakes are higher than any basketball game, for certain, but James says he can still draw the parallel between fighting on the court and fighting for his country.

"I've been in the heat of the moment on the court in the fourth quarter, tie game, and yes, you would think that's a battle," James said. "There's nothing I hate more than losing. To be here, risking your life, it's definitely another level. It's like a scouting report for a game. All you can do is try to execute your mission. A loss here, that could be a lost life."

What a real-life patriot and hero!

Socialized Medicine: Libs Ignorant of Huge Problems in Other Countries

We hear it all the time: "Europe and Canada have fabulous health care systems, so why can't we? We need to follow their models." However, proponents of ObamaCare fail to point out or are just plain ignorant of the problems that exist is those "utopian" systems.

Take this huge scandal that broke earlier last week in the UK:

'Cruel and neglectful' care of one million NHS patients exposed

One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain, according to a major report released today.

By Rebecca Smith, Medical Editor
Published: 12:01AM BST 27 Aug 2009

In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with 'neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel' treatment.

The charity has disclosed a horrifying catalogue of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff.

The Patients Association said the dossier proves that while the scale of the scandal at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust - where up to 1,200 people died through failings in urgent care - was a one off, there are repeated examples they have uncovered of the same appalling standards throughout the NHS.

While the criticisms cover all aspects of hospital care, the treatment and attitude of nurses stands out as a repeated theme across almost all of the cases.

They have called on Government and the Care Quality Commission to conduct an urgent review of standards of basic hospital care and to enforce stricter supervision and regulation.

Claire Rayner, President of the Patients Association and a former nurse, said:“For far too long now, the Patients Association has been receiving calls on our helpline from people wanting to talk about the dreadful, neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel treatment their elderly relatives had experienced at the hands of NHS nurses.

“I am sickened by what has happened to some part of my profession of which I was so proud.

"These bad, cruel nurses may be - probably are - a tiny proportion of the nursing work force, but even if they are only one or two percent of the whole they should be identified and struck off the Register.”

The charity has published a selection of personal accounts from hundreds of relatives of patients, most of whom died, following their care in NHS hospitals.

They cite patient surveys which show the vast majority of patients highly rate their NHS care - but, with some ten million treated a year, even a small percentage means hundreds of thousands have suffered.

...

And check out this report John Stossel did regarding ObamaCare ... er, KennedyCare I guess they're now callin' it:

ObamaKennedyCare proponents love to prop up other countries' health care systems as fine examples of socialized medicine, ignorant of the problems that exist in those systems.

Ted Kennedy: Yet Another Tribute

Have you OD'd yet on all the laud and praise of Ted Kennedy yet? Now, I would never wish such a suffering-filled end to one's life and do feel bad about the nasty cancerous tumor in Kennedy's brain, but I just can't get past this question: Why the hell did this guy's career not end decades ago with the Chappaquidick incident?!? If it weren't for him being a member of the Kennedy Dynasty, he would have been convicted and jailed, and he would have seen an end to his political career.

Here's another story our beloved and unbiased MSM isn't covering ... and didn't cover when the information was first released in 1992: Teddy's dealings with the Soviets back in the 80s to bring down President Reagan. Peter Robinson of Forbe's reminds us of this treasonous act (emphasis added):

Ted Kennedy's Soviet Gambit

Peter Robinson, 08.28.09, 12:01 AM EDT

Considering the late senator's complete record requires digging into the USSR's archives.

Picking his way through the Soviet archives that Boris Yeltsin had just thrown open, in 1991 Tim Sebastian, a reporter for the London Times, came across an arresting memorandum. Composed in 1983 by Victor Chebrikov, the top man at the KGB, the memorandum was addressed to Yuri Andropov, the top man in the entire USSR. The subject: Sen. Edward Kennedy.

"On 9-10 May of this year," the May 14 memorandum explained, "Sen. Edward Kennedy's close friend and trusted confidant [John] Tunney was in Moscow." (Tunney was Kennedy's law school roommate and a former Democratic senator from California.) "The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov."

Kennedy's message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election. "The only real potential threats to Reagan are problems of war and peace and Soviet-American relations," the memorandum stated. "These issues, according to the senator, will without a doubt become the most important of the election campaign."

Kennedy made Andropov a couple of specific offers.

First he offered to visit Moscow. "The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA." Kennedy would help the Soviets deal with Reagan by telling them how to brush up their propaganda.

Then he offered to make it possible for Andropov to sit down for a few interviews on American television. "A direct appeal ... to the American people will, without a doubt, attract a great deal of attention and interest in the country. ... If the proposal is recognized as worthy, then Kennedy and his friends will bring about suitable steps to have representatives of the largest television companies in the USA contact Y.V. Andropov for an invitation to Moscow for the interviews. ... The senator underlined the importance that this initiative should be seen as coming from the American side."

Kennedy would make certain the networks give Andropov air time--and that they rigged the arrangement to look like honest journalism.

Kennedy's motives? "Like other rational people," the memorandum explained, "[Kennedy] is very troubled by the current state of Soviet-American relations." But that high-minded concern represented only one of Kennedy's motives.

"Tunney remarked that the senator wants to run for president in 1988," the memorandum continued. "Kennedy does not discount that during the 1984 campaign, the Democratic Party may officially turn to him to lead the fight against the Republicans and elect their candidate president."

Kennedy proved eager to deal with Andropov--the leader of the Soviet Union, a former director of the KGB and a principal mover in both the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution and the suppression of the 1968 Prague Spring--at least in part to advance his own political prospects.

In 1992, Tim Sebastian published a story about the memorandum in the London Times. Here in the U.S., Sebastian's story received no attention. In his 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, historian Paul Kengor reprinted the memorandum in full. "The media," Kengor says, "ignored the revelation."

"The document," Kengor continues, "has stood the test of time. I scrutinized it more carefully than anything I've ever dealt with as a scholar. I showed the document to numerous authorities who deal with Soviet archival material. No one has debunked the memorandum or shown it to be a forgery. Kennedy's office did not deny it."

Why bring all this up now? No evidence exists that Andropov ever acted on the memorandum--within eight months, the Soviet leader would be dead--and now that Kennedy himself has died even many of the former senator's opponents find themselves grieving. Yet precisely because Kennedy represented such a commanding figure--perhaps the most compelling liberal of our day--we need to consider his record in full.

Doing so, it turns out, requires pondering a document in the archives of the politburo.

When President Reagan chose to confront the Soviet Union, calling it the evil empire that it was, Sen. Edward Kennedy chose to offer aid and comfort to General Secretary Andropov. On the Cold War, the greatest issue of his lifetime, Kennedy got it wrong.

Peter Robinson, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University and a former White House speechwriter, writes a weekly column for Forbes.

How quickly we forget. How easily we overlook.

Tea Party Slandered Again: Still No Intelligent Response from the Left

Again, I continue waiting for an intelligent and thoughtful response from Liberal supporters of ObamaCare. Those of us in opposition to ObamaCare and who voice our concerns, questions, and dissent still hear only nasty, ad hominem attacks. Obviously, they have no intelligent reply and are, as usual, just spouting mindless propaganda dribble. Accusations of racism continue, with this latest incident a few days ago in California (of course) where town hall attendees' cars their cars left with flyers left on their windshields. [Source: Marooned in Marin]

Flyers Depicting "Teabaggers" as KKK Hanging Obama Found On Cars After Moran/Dean Town Hall in Reston

Welcome Gateway Pundit, Weazel Zippers readers.

UPDATE: No response from Restonian as to the URL found at the bottom of the flyer. Moe Lane at RedState (who linked here and to others picking up this story) has a copy of the original flyer found and a cached link to the URL, and it's a Leftist website.

In an unprecedented show of arrogance and disregard for the electorate, Democrats have called American citizens who dare to dissent from Obamacare unAmerican, a paid mob, political terrorists, brownshirts and Nazis, among others.

Now, opponents of socialized medicine and the Obama agenda are being depicted as Ku Klux Klan members who want to lynch Barack Obama. That's the message of this flyer which was found on cars outside the parking lot at South Lakes High School in Reston on Tuesday night, after the town hall meeting with Jim "I Like To Hit People" Moran and "Screamin'" Howard Dean.

Image and text from Restonian blog.

A number of people left last night's polite and information-packed "town hall" meeting in Reston to find these stuffed under their car windshields. We've cropped out the URL at the bottom to avoid giving these folks any more attention than they deserve.

The flyer was mentioned in the comments section of the Washington Examiner story on the town hall.

There were KKK flyers on the cars in the parking lot when we left. Why the hell does racism figure into this? Is it because the people opposed to health insurance reform don't have logical arguments at their disposal, and so they're just stuck with creating flyers designed to scare people?

I don't know what the URL was on the flyer, which Restonian was referring to, but the image is not a drawing by an opponent of Obama. Instead, it was drawn by a Leftist cartoonist in Washington DC, named Mike Flugennock. ...

I'm not sure who put the flyers on some of the cars at the town hall, but given the obvious origin of the flyer, (as well as a recent incident in Denver) I would not be at all surprised if someone within the liberal community in Reston, possibly a local Democrat Party/"Astroturfing for Obama" activist was behind placing this bigoted flyer on the car windows. Knowing from the last election of the mean-spirited, hateful nature of some who volunteer for the Hunter Mill area Democrat Party towards anyone who disagrees with them, I wouldn't put it past them. This is a slanderous lie based on tactics straight out of Saul Alinsky's playbook, intended to silence opposition to "Dear Leader" Obama. It is also a sign of their political desperation. They're losing the debate and thus resort to playing the race card, questioning our patriotism, silencing media critics and acts of vandalism nationwide.
...

Obviously, proponents of ObamaCare have no intelligent reply to the questions and are, as usual, just spouting mindless propaganda dribble. Resorting to nasty attacks is particularly embarrassing for their side and does, indeed, show desperation. Where are the answers?

BUYcott Tuesday in Support of Whole Foods

Here's an opportunity to show your support for Whole Foods' CEO John Mackey by participating in the BUYcott to be held this Tuesday, Sept. 1st. This from St. Louis Tea Party:

Whole Foods Tea Party BUYcott

by Bill Hennessy on August 29, 2009
in ACTION

When: Tuesday, September 1 at 5:00 p.m. 6:00 p.m.
Where: Whole Foods–Clayton and 141 in Town and Country. [map link]
Why: We’re shopping Whole Foods to support a compassionate capitalist. Whole Foods CEO

MORE

John Mackey, one of the most generous CEOs in the country, wrote a WSJ op-ed describing his vision for a free-market healthcare reform package. Because the big union bosses stand to make billions of dollars from tax payers under ObamaCare, the unions are joining with socialists and other radicals trying to destroy John Mackey.

This Week’s Sales: click

If you live far from a Whole Foods, do this:

Buy a Gift Card (here)
Have the card delivered to a food pantry as a gift
Forward the email receipt to gina-at-stlouisteaparty-dot-com.

***********************
Here’s our email to the Town and Country store management:

St. Louis Tea Party Supports John Mackey

On Tuesday, September 1, the St. Louis Tea Party coalition will hold a Tea Party BUYcott of Whole Foods in Town and Country. This means we’re bringing hundreds of new customers to your store to do their weekly shopping.

Please expect unusually large volume and media attention from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday. We do NOT want to inconvenience anyone in the process, of course. The idea is to help your quarterly numbers, not hurt them.

We will also collect receipts from the BUYcott to prove to your board of directors the power of our purchasing.

Thanks,
Bill

MORE: St. Louis Tea Party’s original “buycott” from 8/15

[Click here to see my original post about Mackey's op-ed piece earlier this month that landed him in hot water with ObamaCare supporters.]

Quincy Tea Party 9/12: Mark Your Calendars!

Because I went MIA last week and missed out on all the "fun" with the Tea Party demonstrations nationwide on Aug. 22nd, I have vowed to keep my antenna up, my radar on Doppler, and my ear to the ground (goin' old school with that one!). There will be many tea parties again around the country on Sept. 12th.

I'm monitoring St. Louis Tea Party Coalition's website. At this time, they are endorsing participation in a big, tri-state area Tea Party in Quincy, Illinois. Perhaps this is a perfect venue, given that the state of Illinois is celebrating Lincoln's bicentennial. In fact, they're calling it "Lincoln's Legacy: Patriots on the Prairie" and will be held 1:00-6:00 p.m. at Washington Park. Here's what they have on the agenda:

Quincy Tea Party

When: Sat, September 12, 1:00pm – 4:30pm

Where: Quincy, Illinois (map)

Description: Our goal with this event is to create a rumbling never before seen in this part of the country by rallying thousands of concerned citizens from Quincy and the surrounding area to attend our Tea Party event. The local movement was started by some Quincyans who have a vision and believe that the American people still run the show. Their goal is to rally thousands of area citizens around our cause with the goal that our government not only gets the message from New York, Washington, and Atlanta, but Quincy as well. We will rally numbers of a magnitude that will require local media coverage at our event. Let’s show the nation that the Tri-State area won’t accept less than our forefathers provided for us in our Constitution.

Our Message:
1. The spending must stop!
2. We won't allow the government to tax us into oblivion without the proper representation granted to us by our Constitution.
3. Our children have the right to chart their futures without paying for our past.
4. Most importantly - to let the world know that we are the "Silent Majority, No More"

Speakers include: Andrew Breitbart, Tucker Carlson, Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) Jim Hoft (Gateway Pundit) Dana Loesch (97.1 FM) Kevin Jackson (author, "The Big Black Lie") Mo. Senator John Loudon PLUS Comedian Tim Slagle Live music St. Louis Tea Party wants to bring 5,000 people to Quincy. Get on board NOW!

I remember hearing Hoft, Loesch, and Jackson speak at the Tea Party in St. Louis on April 15th and enjoyed their speeches immensely.

Click here for a link directly to the good folks in Quincy.

Glenn Beck: No Free Speech for YOU!!

Are you aware of the current "scrape" going on between Glenn Beck and his advertisers? Due to comments he made last month, when he called President Obama a racist and said he believed that Obama had deep-seated hatred of Whites, many advertisers are pulling their commercials from his show.

"Coincidentally," Beck has exposed that the organization behind the boycott, Color of Change, has a co-founder who is presently Obama's "green jobs Czar" -- Van Jones. This "appointment" (and I use that term very lightly, given that "czars" don't have to go through an actual congressional review like Secretaries) has a very controversial past involving having left prison an avowed Marxist who was a leading member of the Marxist group STORM: "Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement."

Here's the headline on Color of Change's website:

"Stop Glenn Beck's race bating"

Fox's Glenn Beck recently said President Obama is "a racist" and has a "deep-seated hatred for white people." Beck is on a campaign to convince the American public that President Obama's agenda is about serving the needs of Black communities at White people's expense. It's repulsive, divisive and shouldn't be on the air.

Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy In Media yesterday came to Beck's defense (emphasis added):

Glenn Beck Closing in on Van Jones

AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | August 25, 2009

"Is Glenn Beck finished?" is the headline over an article on a left-wing website, insisting that a campaign against Beck's Fox News Channel program has cost him 36 advertisers and that his show may be cancelled as a result. The campaign against Beck is being waged by a group called Color of Change, whose co-founder, Van Jones, is now Obama's green-jobs czar.

Not coincidentally, Beck has repeatedly singled out Van Jones for criticism, citing evidence of his communist past. The source of this evidence is New Zealand blogger Trevor Loudon, the same researcher who originally unearthed the fact that Obama's mysterious mentor "Frank" in Obama's book Dreams from My Father was Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis. We confirmed that identification with a separate source and ran with the story last year, even obtaining the 600-page FBI file on Davis. It also came out that Davis was a sex pervert, doper, and pornographer.

The Obama campaign eventually confirmed Frank's identity but tried to play down his relationship with Obama. Most media gave the scandal a ho-hum.

Trevor Loudon, who deserves far more credit than he gets for smoking out the communists in and around the Obama Administration, broke the Van Jones story back on April 6 and has run several follow-ups. Among other things, he revealed that Jones was a leading member of a Marxist organization known by the acronym STORM, which means Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement. A 96-page history of the organization mentions how several STORM members had traveled to Cuba in the summer of 1999 as part of the Venceremos Brigade. This is the group that was originally sponsored by the Castro regime and the Weather Underground.

To add to the mystery, it turns out that "Van" Jones is not even his real name. His real first name is Anthony; he says he changed it because "Van" sounded cool. Various accounts say that he has been arrested twice.

Aaron Klein of World Net Daily then wrote a story on Jones, citing Loudon's work. Since then, Beck and others have seized on it. Now, some more of this fascinating story can be told. I have been engaged for months in a series of Freedom of Information Act requests with the Obama Administration for information about Jones and how he was hired.

It seems clear that Jones has undergone, with powerful sponsors and benefactors, an extreme makeover. Beck, to his credit, is trying to peel away the protective cover. He needs our support to remain on the air and pursue this story. The trail will most certainly lead beyond Jones himself.

...

[Go to Kincaid's full article to read his account of his FOIA requests and apparent cover-ups.]

But how did Jones get HIS job?

Glenn Beck deserves enormous credit for trying to answer this question. He should not be forced off the air for trying to get answers.

How effective have the boycotts by Beck's sponsors been? The AP reported on Monday that a total of 33 Fox advertisers, a dozen more than a week ago, had pulled their ads from Beck's show:

The Clorox Co., a former Beck advertiser, now says that "we do not want to be associated with inflammatory speech used by either liberal or conservative talk show hosts." The maker of bleach and household cleaners said in a statement that is has decided not to advertise on political talk shows.

The shows present a dilemma for advertisers, who usually like a "safe" environment for their messages. The Olbermanns, Hannitys, O'Reillys, Maddows and Becks of the TV world are more likely to say something that will anger a viewer, who might take it out on sponsors.

They also host the most-watched programs on their networks.

"This is a good illustration of that conundrum," said Rich Hallabran, spokesman for UPS Stores, which he said has temporarily halted buying ads on Fox News Channel as a whole.

Beck can bring the eyeballs. With the health care debate raising political temperatures, his show had its biggest week ever right before his vacation, averaging 2.4 million viewers each day, according to Nielsen Media Research.

He was actually on another Fox show July 28 when he referred to Obama as a racist with "a deep-seated hatred for white people." The network immediately distanced itself from Beck's statement, but Beck didn't. He used his radio show the next day to explain why he believed that. He would not comment for this article, spokesman Matthew Hiltzik said.

Luckily for Beck, he has a huge fan base that is also supported by defenders of free speech, even though those defenders might not necessarily like what Beck said about Obama. There are a number of online groups encouraging people to write the boycotting companies and ask them to reconsider. The writers can also threaten their own little boycott if they wish. One such group is DefendGlenn,com, which provides the public with e-mail addresses of companies and offers suggestions for civility in writing.

Obama Is No Abe Lincoln

So I said to him, "Barack, I know Abe Lincoln, and you ain't Abe Lincoln."

You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away
people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them
what they could and should do for themselves.

....Abraham Lincoln

Hummer Dealership Starts Selling Guns & Ammo

OK, I couldn't pass up this story, given that it's about this blog's namesake: The Hummer! There is a local car dealer, Jim Lynch Hummer, that has taken to selling guns and ammunition. From KSDK News Channel 5:

KSDK-- Jim Lynch Hummer in Chesterfield has some new inventory.

It includes tactical rifles, handguns, shotguns, and ammunition.

Lynch says he began realizing about two years ago he was going to have to sell something besides, or in addition to, Hummers.

"It slowly started going down," said Lynch. "And then with the fuel prices, sales really took a big dip. And again with the economic crisis."

So Lynch was looking for a product that would mix well with his Hummers. He opted for the sportsman's angle.

"Well a lot of our Hummer owners were gun owners, already," said Lynch. "So we had a very favorable response. Didn't have enough business to keep this big, beautiful building going with the decline, so we decided we needed to do something else. And the guns fit in with our customer base... a lot of sportsman, a lot of outdoorsmen, and they've loved it."

Lynch said he had to get a license from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in order to sell weapons. He turned to his current staff to make those sales.

"We were lucky enough we had some people that had been in the gun business, before. We had a retired police officer who worked in the parts department that had been a gun dealer and had been a competitive shooter. We hired one gentleman that had been with Glock for eleven years as a regional rep. He retired from Glock, came to work for us."

Lynch's customers seemed to agree that guns and Hummers go together.

Graham Hill said, "I think it's pretty awesome, to be honest. I think he's got a lot of interesting pieces and some guns I've not seen anywhere else."

Jim Prichard was asked if he was there for guns or Hummers.

"Guns," said Prichard. "I am a gun enthusiast, and their prices are comparable to other shops in the area."

Russell Henderson admired Lynch's supply of ammunition.

"They've got a great selection. Got a great selection of ammo I haven't been able to find in other places," said Henderson. "More common ammo, the 9mm, it's getting harder to find. The 38-special is hard to find, just because it's getting more popular. And they have a good selection of it here."

Lynch's website is gunsandhummers.com.

This will hack off the Libs, won't it? Hee, hee!

Political Correctness Hits British Public Sector

Political Correctness has reared its ugly head in the UK. Check this out from Times Online:

Quangos blackball ... oops, sorry ... veto 'racist' everyday phrases
Chris Hastings

It could be construed as a black day for the English language — but not if you work in the public sector.

Dozens of quangos and taxpayer-funded organisations have ordered a purge of common words and phrases so as not to cause offence.

Among the everyday sayings that have been quietly dropped in a bid to stamp out racism and sexism are “whiter than white”, “gentleman’s agreement”, “black mark” and “right-hand man”.

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has advised staff to replace the phrase “black day” with “miserable day”, according to documents released under freedom of information rules.

It points out that certain words carry with them a “hierarchical valuation of skin colour”. The commission even urges employees to be mindful of the term “ethnic minority” because it can imply “something smaller and less important”.

The National Gallery in London believes that the phrase “gentleman’s agreement” is potentially offensive to women and suggests that staff should replace it with “unwritten agreement” or “an agreement based on trust” instead. The term “right-hand man” is also considered taboo by the gallery, with “second in command” being deemed more suitable.

Many institutions have urged their workforce to be mindful of “gender bias” in language. The Learning and Skills Council wants staff to “perfect” their brief rather than “master” it, while the Newcastle University has singled out the phrase “master bedroom” as being problematic.

Advice issued by the South West Regional Development Agency states: “Terms such as ‘black sheep of the family’, ‘black looks’ and ‘black mark’ have no direct link to skin colour but potentially serve to reinforce a negative view of all things black. Equally, certain terms imply a negative image of ‘black’ by reinforcing the positive aspects of white.

...

When will this PC nightmare end?!?

Global Warming: A Pseudo-Religious Cult?

Jim Guirard over at American Thinker raises a very good question: whether the global warming movement has taken on "worrisome attributes of a pseudo-religious cult." [Emphasis added.]

The Branch Carbonian Cult
by Jim Guirard
[click here for original article]

The Global Warming Movement (AGW) has taken on the worrisome attributes of a pseudo-religious cult, which operates far more on the basis of an apocalyptic "belief" system than on objective climate science.

Since this worldwide Movement and its strident policies of Less Energy at Higher Prices (in order to achieve reductions in everyone's "carbon footprint") are at the heart of America's enormous energy shortfall, it poses a national security threat of major proportions.

And in this context, the AGW Crusade should be understood in a "Know Thy Enemy" frame of reference -- perhaps not in terms of a fully conscious or intentional enemy of the American people at a time of war and economic crisis but as a deadly threat to our economic stability and national security, nonetheless.

Kingdom of the Cults

Here, therefore, in far more detail than any routine allegation of "cultism" conveys, are no fewer than ten of this AGW ideology's very specific characteristics, many of whose roots and lock-step influences can be found in Walter Martin's and Ravi Zacharias' definitive, award-winning 2003 book, "Kingdom of the Cults:"

1. Leadership by a self-glorifying, manipulative New Age Prophet -- in this case, former Vice-President Al Gore, though he is rapidly being supplanted by President Barack Obama.

2. Assertion of an apocalyptic threat to all mankind.

3. An absolutist definition of both the threat and the proposed solution(s).

4. Promise of a salvation from this pending apocalypse.

5. Devotion to an inspired text which (arguendo) embodies all the answers -- in this case, Prophet Gore's pseudo-scientific book "Earth in the Balance" and his more recent "An Inconvenient Truth" documentary.

6. A specific list of "truths" (see the Ten Commandments listed below) which must be embraced and proselytized by all Cult members..

7. An absolute intolerance of any deviation from any of these truths by any Cult member.

8. A strident intolerance of any outside criticism of the Cult's definition of the problem or of its proposed solutions.

9. A "Heaven-on-Earth" vision of the results of the mission's success and/or a "Hell-on-Earth" result if the cultic mission should fail.

10. An inordinate fear (and an outright rejection of the possibility) of being proven wrong in either the apocalyptic vision or the proposed salvation.

Prophet Gore's (and now Prophet Obama's) Ten Commandments

With this half of the AGW Cult's self-definition now clearly established, here is the other half -- its Ten Commandments of "Thou-Shalt" and "Thou-Shalt-Not" absolutes -- designed for keeping its devoted cultists in lockstep support and its intimidated detractors in retreat:

o Thou shalt have but one Mother Earth (Gaia) Goddess before you

o Thou shalt not worship false Prophets -- especially sun cycles, ocean cycles, volcanic influences and "Objective Science" in general

o Thou shalt never doubt catastrophic depletion of the so-called "Ozone Layer"

o Thou shalt not doubt man-made "Greenhouse Gasses" as the primary cause of GW

o Thou shalt condemn such doubters as "Extremists" and "Criminals Against Humanity"

o Thou shalt minimize, ignore and deny any and all environmental good news

o Thou shalt avoid benefit-cost evaluations of AGW solutions and never admit error or falsehood about anything

o Thou shalt continue opposing all Nuclear and new Hydro power, despite their non-GW attributes

o Thou shalt promote "zero-carbon-footprint" policies of Less Energy at Higher Prices, except for heavily subsidized ethanol

o Thou shalt engage forever in "Eeeekology" and "Eeeekonomics" (scare-tactics ecology and economics) and never, ever vote Republican

Finally, since this AGW juggernaut seems to have brainwashed a majority of Americans, most of the media and academia, a majority of the Congress and even many churches into a mind-set of support for its pseudo-religious scam, a recent Wall Street Journal's recent conclusion that this represents a "Mass Neurosis" of a cultic nature seems alarmingly accurate.

Truths to be Ignored or Denied

On the more climatically correct side, all that is needed to begin the collapse of this house-of-cards scam is yet another list of certifiable facts and truths -- one which will disprove much of the Cult's mission, tactics and alleged "solutions" -- namely,

(a) the fact that while Arctic ice may (or may not, of late) be receding, Antarctic ice has been increasing for about 40 years

(b) the fact that global temperatures have been on a slightly decreasing trend since 1998,

(c) the fact that Mars (which features no man-made factor at all) is experiencing "global warming," as well,

(d) the fact that Antarctic "ice shelves" which occasionally break off, float away and melt at sea, do not raise ocean levels at all,

(e) the fact that several of the "hottest years" on record were in the 1930s and 1940s, when CO2 levels were much lower than today's,

(f) the fact that ever more scientists assert convincingly that atmospheric CO2 is a lagging consequence, rather than a triggering cause, of alleged global warming,

(g) the fact that all earlier glacial and inter-glacial periods were clearly caused not by man but by solar, ocean and volcanic cycles and "natural" fluctuations,

(h) the fact that di-hydrogen oxide (H2O) molecules -- water vapor -- and methane molecules are 20-30 times more heat-retentive than CO2 molecules are,

(i) the fact that termites worldwide expel about as much "greenhouse gasses" into the atmosphere as does all the burning of fossil fuels by human beings,

(j) the fact that even if all Kyoto-type limits on CO2 were obeyed by all nations, the estimated net impact by 2050 would be less than half a degree F -- with a ruinous cost-to-benefit ratio of thousands to one, when the standard requirement is no more than one to one.

Conclusion: Since every such Prophet-led, scare-mongering, pseudo-religious conspiracy needs a properly descriptive name, and since this one's primary concerns over alleged depletion of the so-called "ozone layer" over Antarctica have shifted to a panic over CO2, instead, a fitting name for this cultic gaggle might be the "Branch Carbonian Cult" --

o "Branch" because it is a radical offshoot from the main body of science-based environmentalism;

o "Carbonian" because of its professed fear of carbon dioxide as a primary cause of AGW; and

o "Cult" because of its self-evident structure and practices -- which are in full accord with most elements of the typical religious cult, Branch Davidian or otherwise.

Recess Rallies Against ObamaCare

Sorry, folks! I was so hunkered down getting ready for a new school year that I was MIA this week and missed the very big deal of nationwide protests against ObamaCare yesterday (8/24)!!! But, I'm sure you had your ear to the ground and were aware of what was going on ... while I was scrambling like a chicken with my head cut off. Now that I've come up for air this weekend, I've been getting caught up on the goings-on yesterday. Here's a collection of some good stuff about the Recess Rallies!

According to KSDK News Channel 5, there were more than a thousand Recess Rallies planned around the country yesterday, and all were planned by The Tea Party, a "group committed to top the "so-called Washington takeover of the medical industry. People turned out to voice their wishes outside Rep. Russ Carnahan's and Senator Claire McCaskill's offices.

First, here's a Marine vet, David Hedrick, that let his representative Brian Baird have it at a town hall meeting in Clark County, Washington:



Second, check out this video posted over at the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition. He received it from a local grade school teacher. The video was produced by "Doctor X", an anesthesiologist ... and the singer of this humorous little diddy:



Meanwhile, Conservatives for Patients' Rights has released an ad to be aired while the Obamas are on vacation in Martha's Vineyard:



And Bob Parks of Black & Right has posted a poll by Rasmussen showing that the President's approval rating continues to decline with 41% strongly disapproving.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 27% of the nation's voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -14. These figures mark the lowest Approval Index rating yet recorded for this President. The previous low of -12 was reached on July 30.

Prior to today, the number who Strongly Approved of the President’s performance had never fallen below 29%. Some of the decline has come from within the President’s own party. Just 49% of Democrats offer such a positive assessment of the President at this time.

At the other end of the spectrum, today’s total for Strongly Disapprove matches the highest level yet recorded. The 41% mark was reached just once before and that came one week ago today. Seventy percent (70%) of Republicans now Strongly Disapprove along with 49% of those not affiliated with either major party.

[Click here for more from Rasmussen.]

Let's wrap this up with a thought from Sen. Joe Lieberman who voices the same thing I've been wondering: Why don't we wait on the issue of heath care until after the economy has recovered a bit?

LIEBERMAN: Morally, everyone of us would like to cover every American with health insurance but that’s where you spend most of the trillion dollars plus, or a little less that is estimated, the estimate said this health care plan will cost. And I’m afraid we’ve got to think about putting a lot of that off until the economy is out of recession. There’s no reason we have to do it all now

A pretty good idea, especially after Friday's report by Reuters that the Obama administration was off by some 2 trillion dollars in its deficit estimate. Now the 10-year budget deficit is projected to be approximately $9 trillion, up from $7.108 trillion. TRILLION!!!!!!