Bloggers push politics aside in fight against FEC

March 19, 2006 | John Reinan

This might be the first time Freepers and Kossacks have agreed on anything. From the conservative website Free Republic to the liberal Daily Kos, Internet users of all ideologies are uniting in opposition to federal regulation of political blogs.

As early as this afternoon, the Federal Election Commission will publish regulations that, for the first time, could put limits on what bloggers can do and say in support of political candidates.

The FEC is trying to define the line between offering political opinions and operating as part of a political campaign. The full commission is expected to vote Thursday on the regulations.

Meanwhile, Congress is considering two separate bills aimed at a similar goal: clarifying the role of bloggers in delivering political messages and using the Internet as a fundraising tool.

At issue is the growing power of the Internet, which has allowed activists to promote candidates and raise money for them without the kind of rules that long have governed similar activities by political parties, individual campaigns and traditional contributors.

The Internet has been exempt from campaign finance regulations. Last year, however, a federal court ruled that the Internet could no longer be excluded.

(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...

A Decomposition of the Liberal Mind: Neo-Socialism

This is a repost of an article I posted some months ago.
Posted with permission of the author.

____________________________________

Gary Schneider
gschneider@americasvoices.org


July 18, 2003



"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
-- Norman Thomas, Socialist Party Presidential Candidate in 1940, 1944 and 1948, co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Whether through design or happenstance enabled by apathy, this country is increasingly becoming a nation created more in the vision of Karl Marx than that of Thomas Jefferson-and most of us have nary a clue. The principles of individual religious and economic freedom, protection, property ownership and laissez faire government have given way to religious oppression, government-forced redistribution of the wealth, deliberate promulgation of government dependence and a pronounced degradation in our cultural and political discourse. Indeed, from the creation of a newly-ordained proletariat (the anointed "oppressed groups" by the Left) to the systematic and efficient redistribution of wealth via the levying of a multitude of ("progressive") taxes, Socialism is alive and well in America.

The obvious corroboration to this perspective is our progressive tax system. Though originally unconstitutional, the levying of taxes has been a part of American national heritage starting with the Revenue Act of 1791; and upon the enactment of the 16th Amendment in 1913-which gave Congress the authority to lay and collect taxes on income-our fate was sealed. Though all developed countries require some form of taxation to sustain the functioning of their governments, the collective tax burden of Americans has now increased to a point where the average family now pays more in taxes than they do for food, clothing and shelter (Source: Americans for Tax Reform). And through a various mix of Income, Consumption and Payroll taxes, Americans can now look forward to working about 150 days a year just to cover Federal taxes alone. For some additional perspective, at the turn of the (20th) century Americans only worked about 20 days to cover their federal taxes (Source: Tax Foundation/CNN Lou Dobbs MoneyLine, "Bush signs tax cut into law" - Aired May 28, 2003).

But what is perhaps most disconcerting is not the dramatic and consistent increase in the amount taxes owed by Americans over the years, but rather the disproportionate application of the tax burden (the proportion of "regressive" to "progressive" taxation), for this is where the true economic battleground for the soul of America takes place. Socialist doctrine states that what is earned by any one individual should be dispersed as needed to others who have less until economic parity is achieved. Now logic (that somehow still seems to escape the Left) and history tell us that this theory in practice acts as a disincentive to innovation and productivity and, in turn, stifles economic growth and the improvements in standards of living and individual freedoms that necessarily follow.

Representative of how far down this path to perdition we are, recall that currently the top 50% of tax payers (Average Gross Income >$27,682/year) pay about 96% of Federal Personal Income Taxes; conversely, the bottom 50% are responsible for only about 4% of the Federal income tax burden. Broken down further, the top 25% pay around 84% and the top 5% account for well over half (56.4%) of Federal Personal Income Tax paid (Source: Tax Foundation, "Newest Data Show High-Income Taxpayers Earning and Paying More" - November, 2002). This gradual and sustained shift of the tax burden to a small minority of taxpayers is patent Socialist policy-and Liberals want to confiscate and redistribute more. If provided with the opportunity in the next election, you can expect they will push to further shift the cost of an already oversized government to those they choose to consider rich while offering more voter bribes, in the form of new government handouts to their constituencies.

"Rich" is typically defined as any individual or family with a net income that puts them in the top 20% of earners (an adjusted gross income of about $67,000/year); and of these, nearly one-third are small business owners reporting business income. Recall that small business owners are America's leading source of employment. (Source: Tax foundation, "Own a Business? You May be Rich", May 5, 2003).

It is fair to say that Liberals will not be satisfied until they have effectively bought a majority of their voters by relieving them of their tax responsibilities and garnishing them with more government handouts paid for by a small minority of Americans. If, or when this occurs, it will be nearly impossible to enact any tax cuts of consequence, while making it easier to raise them.

Nevertheless, in this (still) free American society, governmental policy requires the popular support or acquiescence of the people in order to be enacted or sustained-and support for most Liberal-Socialist policies can only be acquired and sustained through the exploitation of class envy, fear mongering, factual or historical revisionism and Constitutional subversion.

Constitutional subversion, though, is perhaps most critical to the Left because Socialism, almost by definition, is unconstitutional. Having recognized this strategic truth, Liberals have undertaken to manipulate and divide the hearts and minds of Americans.

On this point, it is worth noting the uncanny correlation between the key positions and constituencies of the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party USA as represented in their "Principles":

*

"Socialists struggle for the full freedom of women and men to control their own bodies and determine their own sexual orientation."
*

"People of color, lesbians and gays, and other oppressed groups need independent organization to fight oppression. Racism will not be eliminated merely by eliminating capitalism."
*

"The cleanup of the contaminated environment and the creation of a nuclear-free world are among the first tasks of a socialist society."
*

"No oppressed group has ever been liberated except by its own organized efforts to overthrow its oppressors…. They can grow only in the course of popular struggles, especially those of women, labor, and minority groups. The Socialist Party works to build these organizations democratically."

Ironically, though, the very groups they claim to be advocating for are those that they are exploiting.

Foundational to Socialist doctrine is that oppressed groups ("proletariat") rise against their oppressors, as that is the key ingredient to inciting activism toward a Socialist system. Therefore, the promulgation of the perception of oppression (to pit one group of Americans against another) is critical-and we witness this during nearly every election cycle or major policy initiative.

I do not contend that there is some nefarious, smoke-filled back room conspiracy out there plotting to convert America to a Socialist state; rather, I contend that a conspiracy is not necessary. Socialist policy is now an institutionalized element of America's political structure and mindset. Many, if not most, Americans who subscribe to such Liberal policy are unwitting in their complicity to it; having fallen victim to the mind-numbing propagation of lies, revisionism and singular perspective with which they are inundated.

But imagine for a moment if Liberals were, without mitigation, allowed to be successful in implementing just a few of their pet policies, programs and perspectives:

*

The top producers (individual and corporate) would pick up nearly 100% of tax burden.
*

An entirely government-owned and -operated school system (no school choice).
*

Government-paid childcare.
*

Socialized medical coverage.
*

The eradication of religious perspective in public and political discourse (thus, our Founder's perspective).
*

The acceptance of the U.S. Constitution as a "living document" ("the transportation into the Constitution of the principles of a Liberal culture that cannot achieve those results democratically". Robert Bork, "The Tempting of America")
*

The repeal of the Second Amendment.

This translates to a (near) complete Socialist state, a neutered populace and the assured decline, as proved by history, of a once great nation.

By 1970, Norman Thomas and Gus Hall, the U.S. Communist Party Candidate, both quit American politics, agreeing that the Republican and Democratic parties had adopted every plank on the Communist/Socialist party platform and they no longer had an alternate one on which to run. (Source: telemanage.ca).

It remains up to us whether or not they turn out to be unquestionably and irreversibly prophetic.

Additional resources:

Communist Goals, by Chuck Morse, May 9, 2003, Newsmax.com.

The grand deception, by J.R. Nyquist, September 06, 2001, Worldnetdaily.com (see J.R.'s website here for his writings since September 2001).

Is national sovereignty history?, by Geoff Metcalf, October 1, 2000, Worldnetdaily.com
For your analysis, by Geoff Metcalf, October 25, 1999, Worldnetdaily.com.

A Decomposition of the Liberal Mind: Neo-Socialism-Part I

Weekend Jokes

A big city lawyer went duck hunting in rural Texas. He

shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer's field on

the other side of a fence.


As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer

drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing.

The litigator responded, "I shot a duck and it fell in this

field, and now I'm going to retrieve it."

The old farmer replied, "This is my property, and you are

not coming over here."

The indignant lawyer said, "I am one of the best trial

attorneys in the United States and, if you don't let me

get that duck, I'll sue you and take everything you own.

The old farmer smiled and said," Apparently, you don't

know how we settle disputes in Texas. We settle small

disagreements like this with the "Three Kick Rule."

The lawyer asked, "What is the Three Kick Rule? The

Farmer replied, "Well, because the dispute occurs on my

land, first I kick you three times and then you kick me three

times and so on back and forth until someone gives up."

The attorney quickly thought about the proposed contest

and decided that he could easily take the old codger. He

agreed to abide by the local custom.

The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and
walked up to the attorney. His first kick planted the toe of

his heavy steel toed work boot into the lawyer's groin and

dropped him to his knees. His second kick to the midriff

sent the lawyer's last meal gushing from his mouth. The

lawyer was on all fours when the farmer's third kick to his

rear end sent him face-first into a fresh cow pie.

The lawyer summoned every bit of his will and managed to

get to his feet. Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket,

he said, "Okay, now it's my turn."



The old farmer smiled and said, "Naw, I give up. You can

have the duck."

__________________________________________________________________


Three guys: a Canadian, Osama bin Laden, and Uncle Sam are out walking together one day. They come across a lantern and a genie pops out of it.

"I will give each of you each one wish. That's three wishes total," says the genie.

The Canadian says, "I'm a farmer, my dad was a farmer, and my son will also farm. I want the land to be forever fertile in Canada."

With a blink of the genie's eye, *POOF* the land in Canada was forever made fertile for farming.

Bin Laden was amazed, so he said, "I want a wall around Afghanistan, so that no infidels, Jews, or Americans can come into our precious state."

Again, with a blink of the genie's eye, *POOF* there was a huge wall around Afghanistan.

"Uncle Sam" (A former civil engineer), asks, "I'm very curious. Please tell me more about this wall."

The Genie explains, "Well, it's about 15,000 feet high, 500 feet thick, and completely surrounds the country; nothing can get in or out - it's virtually impenetrable."

Uncle Sam says, "Fill it with water."

___________________________________________________________________


A Marine squad was marching north of Basra when they came upon an Iraqi terrorist, badly injured and unconscious.

On the opposite side of the road was an American Marine in a similar but less serious state. The Marine was conscious and alert and as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Marine what had happened.

The Marine reported, "I was heavily armed and moving north along the highway here, and coming south was a heavily armed insurgent. We saw each other and both took cover in the ditches along the road.

"I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein is a miserable, lowlife scumbag, and he yelled back that Senator Ted Kennedy is a good-for-nothing, fat, left-wing liberal drunk.

So I said that Osama Bin Laden dresses and acts like a frigid, mean spirited woman!" He retaliated by yelling, "Oh yeah? Well so does Hillary Clinton!"

"And, there we were, standing in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us.

____________________________________________________________________


A young cowboy walks into a seedy cafe in Prescott,
AZ. He sits at the counter and notices an old cowboy
with his arms folded staring blankly at a full bowl of
chili.

After fifteen minutes of just sitting there staring at
it, the young cowboy bravely asks the old cowpoke, "If
you ain't gonna eat that, mind if I do?"

The older cowboy slowly turns his head toward the
young wrangler and in his best cowboy manner says,
"Nah, go ahead."

Eagerly, the young cowboy reaches over and slides the
bowl over to his place and starts spooning it in with
delight. He gets nearly down to the bottom and notices
a dead mouse in the chili. The sight was shocking and
he immediately pukes up the chili into the bowl.

The old cowboy quietly says, "Yep, that's as far as I
got, too."

___________________________________________________________________


Ten Rules for Dating My Daughter

Rule One:
If you pull into my driveway and honk you'd better be delivering a package,because you're sure not picking anything up.

Rule Two:
You do not touch my daughter in front of me. You may glance at her, so long as you do not peer at anything below her neck. If you cannot keep your eyes or hands off of my daughter's body, I will remove them.

Rule Three:
I am aware that it is considered fashionable for boys of your age to wear their trousers so loosely that they appear to be falling off their hips. Please don't take this as an insult, but you and all of your friends are complete idiots. Still, I want to be fair and open minded about this issue, so I propose this compromise: You may come to the door with your underwear showing and your pants ten sizes too big, and I will not object. However, In order to ensure that your clothes do not, in fact, come off during the course of your date with my daughter, I will take my pneumatic nail gun and fasten your trousers securely in place to your waist.

Rule Four:
I'm sure you've been told that in today's world, sex without utilizing a "barrier method" of some kind can kill you. Let me elaborate. When it comes to sex, I am the barrier, and I will kill you.

Rule Five:
In order for us to get to know each other, we should talk about sports, politics, and other issues of the day. Please do not do this. The only information I require from you is an indication of when you expect to have my daughter safely back at my house, and the only word I need from you on this subject is "early."

Rule Six:
I have no doubt you are a popular fellow, with many opportunities to date other girls. This is fine with me as long as it is okay with my daughter. Otherwise, once you have gone out with my little girl, you will continue to date no one but her until she is finished with you. If you make her cry, I will make you cry.

Rule Seven:
As you stand in my front hallway, waiting for my daughter to appear, and more than an hour goes by, do not sigh and fidget. If you want to be on time for the movie, you should not be dating. My daughter is putting on her makeup, a process that can take longer than painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead of just standing there, why don't you do something useful, like changing the oil in my car?

Rule Eight:
The following places are not appropriate for a date with my daughter: Places where there are beds, sofas, or anything softer than a wooden stool. Places where there are no parents, policemen, or nuns within eyesight. Places
where there is darkness. Places where there is dancing, holding hands, or happiness. Places where the ambient temperature is warm enough to induce my daughter to wear shorts, tank tops, midriff T-shirts, or anything other than
overalls, a sweater, and a goose down parka zipped up to her throat. Movies with a strong romantic or sexual theme are to be avoided; movies which features chain saws are okay. Hockey games are okay. Old folks homes are better.

Rule Nine:
Do not lie to me. I may appear to be a potbellied, balding, middle-aged, dimwitted has-been. But on issues relating to my daughter, I am the all-knowing, merciless god of your universe. If I ask you where you are going and with whom, you have one chance to tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I have a shotgun, a shovel, and five acres behind the house. Do not trifle with me.

Rule Ten:
Be afraid. Be very afraid. It takes very little for me to mistake the sound of your car in the driveway for a chopper coming in over a rice paddy outside of Hanoi. When my Agent Orange starts acting up, the voices in my head frequently tell me to clean the guns as I wait for you to bring my
daughter home. As soon as you pull into the driveway you should exit your car with both hands in plain sight. Speak the perimeter password, announce in a clear voice that you have brought my daughter home safely and early, then return to your car- there is no need for you to come inside. The
camouflaged face at the window is mine.

__________________________________________________________________

On a tour of Alaska, the Pope went to the mountains for some sight seeing.
He was cruising along when suddenly there was a frantic commotion just at
the edge of the woods. A helpless Democrat environmentalist, wearing a"
Save the Whales" T-shirt was struggling frantically, trying to free himself
from the jaws of a 10-foot grizzly.

As the Pope watched horrified, a group
of Republican loggers came racing up. One quickly fired a .44 magnum into
the bear's chest. The other two reached up and pulled the bleeding
semiconscious Democrat from the bear. Then, the three loggers threw the
bear onto the bed of their truck while the other tenderly placed the
injured Democrat in the back seat.

The Pope said to the loggers, "I give you my
blessing for your brave actions! I heard there was a bitter hatred between
loggers and environmental activists, but now I've seen with my own eyes
that
love overcomes differences."

As the Pope drove off, one of the loggers said, "That was the Pope. He has
access to all God's wisdom."

Another logger said, "He may have access to all God's wisdom, but he sure
doesn't know anything about bear hunting..... By the way, is the bait
holding up okay or do we need to go back to town and grab another one?"

___________________________________________________________________


Three Arkansas surgeons were playing golf together and discussing surgeries they had performed.

One of them said, "I'm the best surgeon in Arkansas. In my favorite case, a concert pianist lost seven fingers in an accident, I reattached them, and 8 months later he performed a private concert for the Queen of England.

The second surgeon said. "That's nothing. A young man lost an arm and both legs in an accident, I reattached them, and 2 years later he won a gold medal in track and field events in the Olympics."

The third surgeon said, "You guys are amateurs. Several years ago a woman was high on cocaine and marijuana and she rode a horse head-on into a train traveling 80 miles an hour. All I had left to work with was the woman's blonde hair and the horse's ass. I was able to put them together and now she's a senator from New York.

___________________________________________________________________


A Somali arrives in Minneapolis as a new immigrant to the United States.
He stops the first person he sees walking down the street and says, Thank you
Mr. American for letting me in this country, and giving me housing, food
stamps, free medical care and free education!" But the passer-by says "You are
mistaken, I am Mexican".

The man goes on and encounters another passer-by. "Thank you for having such a beautiful country here in America!" The person says "I no American, I Vietnamese."

The new arrival walks further, and the next person he sees he stops shakes his hand and says "Thank you for the wonderful America !" That person puts up his hand and says "I am from Middle East, I am not an American!"

He finally sees a nice lady and asks suspiciously, "Are you an American?" She says, "No, I am from Russia!" So he is puzzled, and asks her, "Where are all the Americans?"

The Russian lady looks at her watch, shrugs, and says... "Probably at work!"

Hostettler asks Legion to help confront ACLU

Courier Press

Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., called veterans who belong to the American Legion to fight again, "to defend our sacred liberties."

"This battle will be fought with letters, e-mails, phone calls and personal visits," he said.

The enemy? The American Civil Liberties Union.

Hostettler was speaking Tuesday to 700 members of the American Legion who are in Washington for an annual convention. Tuesday afternoon, many of them went to lobby their representatives, and Hostettler's bill, the Public _Expression of Religion Act, was on their list of requests.

Hostettler told the crowd that Gibson County's Ten Commandments display challenge began because "a local strip club owner said he was offended. If he meant it troubled his conscience, the monument is a benefit to the community."

Chuckles rippled throughout the hotel ballroom, and then applause.

Ultimately, the display was held to be constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But often it goes the other way. Hostettler said, "The more cases they win, the more this false right is reinforced."

Hostettler told the group he has failed to get the bill made into law in four consecutive congressional sessions, and this is the fifth time he's tried.

"We need to pass PERA, and we need to pass PERA now," he said. He urged American Legion members to spread the word to their friends that they oppose "the ACLU and their minions who would enrich themselves at the expense of our Constitution."

Hostettler closed the speech by saying although the ACLU wouldn't like him saying so, "May He (God) continue to bless the United States of America."

This is important legislation that needs to be passed. YOU need to contact YOUR Representative and tell them to support this. You can read about PERA here. Now, seriously, contact your representative. You can find their contact info here.

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