A Good Read

By Dennis Prager

(DennisPrager.com)

 

I have been broadcasting for 31 years and writing for longer than that. I do not recall ever saying on radio or in print that a president is doing lasting damage to our country. I did not like the presidencies of Jimmy Carter (the last Democrat I voted for) or Bill Clinton. Nor did I care for the compassionate conservatism of George W. Bush. In modern political parlance compassionate is a euphemism for ever-expanding government.

But I have never written or broadcast that our country was being seriously damaged by a president. So it is with great sadness that I write that President Barrack Obama has done and continues to do major damage to America. The only question is whether this can ever be undone. This is equally true domestically and internationally.

Domestically, his policies have had a grave impact on the American economy.He has overseen the weakest recovery from a recession in modern American history.He has mired the country in unprecedented levels of debt: about $6.5 trillion" that is 6,500 billion" in five years (this after calling his predecessor unpatriotic for adding nearly $5 trillion in eight years).

He has fashioned a country in which more Americans now receive government aid" means-tested, let alone non-means-tested" than work full-time. He has no method of paying for this debt other than printing more money" thereby surreptitiously taxing everyone through inflation, including the poor he claims to be helping, and cheapening the dollar to the point that some countries are talking about another reserve currency" and saddling the next generations with enormous debts. With his 2,500-page Affordable Care Act he has made it impossible for hundreds of thousands, soon millions, of Americans to keep their individual or employer-sponsored group health insurance; he has stymied American medical innovation with an utterly destructive tax on medical devices; and he has caused hundreds of thousands of workers to lose full-time jobs because of the health-care costs imposed by Obamacare on employers.

His Internal Revenue Service used its unparalleled power to stymie political dissent. No one has been held accountable.

His ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were murdered by terrorists in Benghazi, Libya. No one has been blamed. The only blame the Obama administration has leveled was on a video maker in California who had nothing to do with the assault.

In this president's White House the buck stops nowhere.

Among presidents in modern American history, he has also been a uniquely divisive force. It began with his forcing Obamacare through Congress" the only major legislation in American history to be passed with no votes from the opposition party.

Though he has had a unique opportunity to do so, he has not only not helped heal racial tensions, he has exacerbated them. His intrusions into the Trayvon Martin affair (If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon) and into the confrontation between a white police officer and a black Harvard professor (the police acted stupidly) were unwarranted, irresponsible, demagogic, and, most of all, divisive.

He should have been reassuring black Americans that America is in fact the least racist country in the world" something he should know as well as anybody, having been raised only by whites and being the first black elected the leader of a white-majority nation.

Instead, he echoed the inflammatory speech of professional race-baiters such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

He has also divided the country by economic class, using classic Marxist language against the rich and corporate profits.Regarding America in the world, he has been, if possible, even more damaging. The United States is at its weakest, has fewer allies, and has less military and diplomatic influence than at any time since before World War II.

One wonders if there is a remaining ally nation that trusts him. And worse, no American enemy fears him. If you are a free movement (the democratic Iranian and Syrian oppositions) or a free country (Israel), you have little or no reason to believe that you have a steadfast ally in the United States.

Even non-democratic allies no longer trust America. Barrack Obama has alienated our most important and longest standing Arab allies, "Egypt and Saudi Arabia". Both the anti "Muslim Brotherhood and the anti-Iran Arab" states have lost respect for him.

And his complete withdrawal of American troops from Iraq has left that country with weekly bloodbaths. Virtually nothing Barrack Obama has done has left America or the world better since he became president. Nearly everything he has touched has been made worse. He did, however, promise before the 2008 election that, "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America."

That is the one promise he has kept. What does it take for the American people to WAKE UP?

THE PRICE OF LIBERTY IS ETERNAL VIGILANCE!

RINO'S

Click here: » Smoking Out RINOs: The Much Needed Political Realignment » Commentary -- GOPUSA  

What the Tea Party has fought, and what it and the GOP elite are at odds over. 

IRS Reg Proposed

Follow this link:

IRS Press Release

The write up seems innocuous.
If you are a member of the target organization you might want to comment to the IRS.

Telephone NOW !!!!!!

SILENCE INDICATES CONSENT Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

Telephone Blast Take action. Silence indicates Consent Citizens of New Jersey Call these legislators now. A470 in committee now. Contact the members listed below and tell them to vote NO on the ridiculous foreclosure scheme and to stop meddling in the housing market! This reckless legislation would authorize the State to borrow billions of dollars to purchase foreclosed homes throughout the state-then use the properties to fill the state's 'affordable housing' quotas, including housing them with drug addicts, ex-cons, and sex offenders. Watch 30 second video then call. NJ Foreclosure Madness http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOcBqy2SrKU&feature=youtu.be Assembly Housing and Community Development Thursday, February 20, 2014 - 2:00 PM Meeting - Committee Room 9, 3rd Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ. Contact these committee members now! Tell them to vote NO on the outrageous foreclosure scheme! Legislator (click to e-mail)              Phone# Asm. Jerry Green (D-22)  - Chair         908-561-5757 Asw. Mila Jasey (D-27) - Vice-Chair    973-762-1886 Asm. Angel Fuentes (D-05)                 856-541-1251 Asw. Maria Rodriguez-Gregg (R-08)   609-654-1498 Asm. Robert Clifton (R-12)                   732-446-3408 Asm. Jason O'Donnell (D-31)              201-436-0961 Talking Points for A470 Establishes the "New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act"; provides expedited process for foreclosing abandoned residential properties. Last Session Bill Number: A2168   AcaAca (2R) S1566 (4R) This is unreal. One of the most outrageous proposals of the last legislative session is back.  On Thursday, the Assembly Housing & Community Development Committee will take up the "New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act", Bill A470. This reckless legislation would authorize the State to borrow billions of dollars to purchase foreclosed homes throughout the state-then use the properties to fill the state's 'affordable housing' quotas, including housing them with drug addicts, ex-cons, and sex offenders. AFP fought this bill hard last session by exposing the facts about this offensive and outrageous piece of legislation. And you may remember our hard-hitting YouTube ad above. The voices of activists like you were instrumental in convincing Gov. Christie to issue an absolute veto of the foreclosure bill. You and I will defeat this bill again.  But first, the members of the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee need to hear from you! Contact the members listed above and tell them to vote NO on the ridiculous foreclosure scheme and to stop meddling in the housing market! On To Victory, Info above Reprinted from American For Prospertiy New Jersey Chapter A470 Establishes the "New Jersey Residential Foreclosure Transformation Act"; provides expedited process for foreclosing abandoned residential properties. Last Session Bill Number: A2168   AcaAca (2R) S1566 (4R) Green, Jerry   as Primary Sponsor Singleton, Troy   as Primary Sponsor Jasey, Mila M.   as Primary Sponsor Wisniewski, John S.   as Primary Sponsor Quijano, Annette   as Primary Sponsor Wimberly, Benjie E.   as Primary Sponsor Giblin, Thomas P.   as Co-Sponsor Coughlin, Craig J.   as Co-Sponsor Chivukula, Upendra J.   as Co-Sponsor Eustace, Timothy J.   as Co-Sponsor Conaway, Herb, Jr.   as Co-Sponsor Sumter, Shavonda E.   as Co-Sponsor Garcia, Carmelo G.   as Co-Sponsor Lagana, Joseph A.   as Co-Sponsor http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2014/Bills/A0500/470_I1.PDF ACLG-NJ Ron Bass ronbass2010@comcast.net 917-709-0039

Some would have you believe that unemployment is dropping

Click this link to the Washington Post and see the reduction in the labor force. The pool has shrunk by approximately 2.8% in the last couple of years. It's not a good story.

A lawyers opinion, What is your opinion?

Notre Dame Professor on Obamacare

Obamacare Should Remind Us We Are Not 'Subjects,' We Are People

Laura Hollis is a professor at the University of Notre Dame

She is an attorney and teaches entrepreneurship and business law at the University of Notre Dame. She resides in Indiana with her husband and two children.

 

The unveiling of the dictatorial debacle that is Obamacare absolutely flabbergasts me. It is stunning on so many levels, but the most shocking aspect of it for me is watching millions of free Americans stand idly by while this man, his minions in Congress and his cheerleaders in the press systematically dismantle our Constitution, steal our money, and crush our freedoms.
The President, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid (with no small help from Justice John Roberts) take away our health care, and we allow it.

They take away our insurance, and we allow it.

They take away our doctors, and we allow it.

They charge us thousands of dollars more a year, and we allow it.

They make legal products illegal, and we allow it. They cripple our businesses, and we allow it.

They announce by fiat that we must ignore our most deeply held beliefs – and we allow it.

Where is your spine, America?
Yes, I know people are complaining. I read the news on the internet. I read blogs. I have a Twitter feed. So what?

People in the Soviet Union complained.

People in Cuba complain.

People in China complain (quietly).

Complaining isn't the same thing as doing anything about it.

In fact, much of the complaining that we hear sounds like resignation: Wow. This sucks.

Oh well, this is the way things are. Too bad.

Perhaps you need reminding of a few important facts.

1. The President is not a king. Barack Obama does not

     behave like a President, an elected official, 

     someone who realizes that he works for us.

     He behaves like a king, a dictator – someone who

     believes that his own pronouncements have the

     force of law, and who thinks he can dispense with

     the law's enforcement when he deigns to do so.

 

And those of us who object? How dare we? Racists!
And while he moves steadily "forward" with his plans to "fundamentally transform" the greatest country in human history, he distracts people with cheap, meaningless trivialities, like "free birth control pills"! (In fact, let's face it: this administration's odd obsession with sex in general -

Birth control!

Abortion!

Sterilization!

Gay guys who play basketball! -- is just plain weird. Since when did the leader of the free world care so much about how people have sex, who they have it with, and what meds they use when they have it? Does he have nothing more important to concern himself with?)

2. It isn't just a failed software program; it is a failed

    philosophy. People are marveling that

    Healthcare.gov was such a spectacular failure.

    Well, if one is only interested in it as a product

    launch, I've explained some of the reasons for that

    here. But the larger point is that it isn't a software

    failure, or even a product failure; it is a philosophy

     failure.

I have said this before: Obama is not a centrist; he is a central planner. And this – all of it:

the disastrous computer program,

the hundreds of millions of dollars wasted,

the lies, the manipulation of public opinion,

the theft of the public's money and property,

and freedom (

read insurance, and premiums, and doctors) -- IS what central planning looks like.

The central premise of central planning is that a handful of wunderkinds with your best interests at heart (yeah, right) know better than you what's good for you. The failure of such a premise and the misery it causes have been clear from the dawn of humanity. Kings and congressmen, dictators and Dear Leaders, potentates, princes and presidents can all fall prey to the same imperial impulses: "we know what is good the 'the people.'
And they are always wrong.

There is a reason that the only times communism has really been tried have been after wars, revolutions, or coups d'état. You have to have complete chaos for people to be willing to accept the garbage that centralized planning produces. Take the Soviet Union, for example. After two wars, famine, and the collapse of the Romanov dynasty, why wouldn't people wait in line for hours to buy size 10 shoes? Or settle for the gray matter that passed for meat in the grocery stores?

But communism's watered-down cousin, socialism, isn't much better.

Ask the Venezuelans who cannot get toilet paper. Toilet paper. ¡Viva la Revolución!

Contrary to what so many who believe in a "living Constitution" say, the Founding Fathers absolutely understood this.

That is why the Constitution was set up to limit government power.

(Memo to the President: the drafters of the Constitution deliberately didn't say "what government had to do on your behalf.") They understood that that was the path to folly, fear, and famine.)

3. Obama is deceitful. Just as the collapse of the

    computer program should not surprise anyone,

    neither should we be shocked that the President

    lied about his healthcare plan.

    Have any of you been paying attention over the

    past few years?

    Obama has made no secret of his motivations or

    his methods. The philosophies which inspire him

    espouse deceit and other vicious tactics.

    (Don't take my word for it:

    read Saul Alinsky.) 

    Obama infamously told reporter 

     Richard  Wolffe, "You know, I actually believe my

    own bullshit." He has refused to be forthcoming

    about his past (where are his academic records?).

    His own pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, 

     told author Ed Klein,

     that Obama said to him, "You know what your 

     problem is? You have to tell the truth."

Did Obama lie when he said dozens of times, "If you like you plan, you can keep it. Period!"? Of course he did. That's what he does.

4. The media is responsible. And had the media been

    doing their jobs, we would have known a lot of this

     much, much earlier.

The press is charged with the sacred responsibility of protecting the people from the excesses of government. Our press has been complicit, incompetent, or corrupt. Had they vetted this man in 2008, as they would have a Republican candidate, we would have known far more about him than we do, even now. Had they pressed for more details about Obamacare, Congress' feet would have been held to the fire. Had they done their jobs about Eric Holder, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandal, NSA spying - or any of the other myriad betrayals of the public trust that this administration has committed, Obama would likely have lost his 2012 reelection campaign. (A fact that even The Washington Post has tacitly acknowledged. Well done, fellas! Happy now?)

Instead, they turned a blind eye, even when they knew he was lying, abusing power, disregarding the limits of the Constitution. It was only when he began to spy on them, and when the lies were so blatant that the lowest of low-information voters could figure it out that they realized they had to report on it. (Even in the face of blatant, deliberate and repeated lies,The New York Times has the audacity to tell us that the President "misspoke.") They have betrayed us, abandoned us, and deceived us.

5. Ted Cruz was right. So was Sarah Palin.

    The computer program is a disaster.

    The insurance exchanges are a disaster.

     What's left? The healthcare system itself.

     And this, of necessity, will be a disaster, too.
     Millions of people have lost their individual 

     insurance plans. In 2015, millions more will lose

     their employer-provided coverage (a fact which the

     Obama administration also knew, and admitted

     elsewhere).

The exorbitant additional costs that Obamacare has foisted on unsuspecting Americans are all part of a plan of wealth confiscation and redistribution. That is bad enough. But it will not end there.

When the numbers of people into the system and the corresponding demand for care vastly exceed the cost projections (and they will, make no mistake), then the rationing will start. Not only choice at that point, but quality and care itself will go down the tubes. And then will come the decisions made by the Independent Payment Advisory Board about what care will be covered (read "paid for") and what will not.

That's just a death panel, put politely. In fact, progressives are already greasing the wheels for acceptance of that miserable reality as well. They're spreading the lie that it will be about the ability of the dying to refuse unwanted or unhelpful care. Don't fall for that one, either. It will be about the deaths that inevitably result from decisions made by people other than the patients, their families, and their physicians. (Perhaps it's helpful to think of their assurances this way: "If you like your end-of-life care, you can keep your end-of-life-care.")

6. We are not SUBJECTS. (or, Nice Try, the Tea Party Isn't Going Away). We have tolerated these incursions into our lives and livelihoods too long already. There is no end to the insatiable demand "progressives" have to remake us in their image.

Today it is our insurance, our businesses, our doctors, our health care.

Tomorrow some new crusade will be announced that enables them to take over other aspects of our formerly free lives.

I will say it again: WE ARE NOT SUBJECTS.

Not only is the Tea Party right on the fiscal issues, but it appears that they are more relevant than ever. We fought a war once to prove we did not want to be the subjects of a king, and the Boston Tea Party was just a taste of the larger conflict to come. If some people missed that lesson in history class, we can give them a refresher.

The 2014 elections are a good place to start. Call your representative, your senator, your candidate and tell them: "We are not subjects.

You work for us. And if the word "REPEAL" isn't front and center in your campaign, we won't vote for you. Period."

 

Is there an excise tax on exercise equipment?

Received a memo the claimed there is an excise tax on exercise equipment. I went to this site 
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p510/ch05.html:
I found a great list of taxes per the IRS.
See also: http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-470541.html
As well as: http://www.newjerseyhunter.com/forums/73-general-comments-information/142876-medical-exise-tax-obama-care.html

WHAT NEXT?

Forcasting the approaching end?

NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE FINALLY GROWS A PAIR.

 

 

Finally............................the truth even from the most liberal.  A must Read.....

 

 

WOW! Newsweek COVER!!! It is their last cover before they fold. Also read the article at the end.   Wonderful article!!   AMAZING!!! The Cover of Liberal Newsweek Magazine:   Finally, Matt Patterson and Newsweek speak out about Obama. This is timely and tough. As many of you know, Newsweek has a reputation for being extremely liberal. The fact that their editor saw fit to print the following article about Obama and the one that appears in the latest Newsweek, makes this a truly amazing event, and a news story in and of itself. At last, the truth about our President and his agenda are starting to trickle through the protective wall built around him by the liberal media....   I Too Have Become Disillusioned   By Matt Patterson (Newsweek Columnist - Opinion Writer)   Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election of Barack Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon, the result of a baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps to the witch craze of the Middle Ages. How, they will wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's largest economy, direct the world's most powerful military, execute the world's most consequential job?   Imagine a future historian examining Obama's pre-presidential life: ushered into and through the Ivy League, despite unremarkable grades and test scores along the way; a cushy non-job as a "community organizer;" a brief career as a state legislator devoid of legislative achievement (and in fact nearly devoid of his attention, less often did he vote "present"); and finally an unaccomplished single term in the United States Senate, the entirety of which was devoted to his presidential ambitions.   He left no academic legacy in academia, authored no signature legislation as a legislator. And then there is the matter of his troubling associations: the white-hating, America-loathing preacher who for decades served as Obama's "spiritual mentor;" a real-life, actual terrorist who served as Obama's colleague and political sponsor. It is easy to imagine a future historian looking at it all and asking: how on Earth was such a man elected president?   Not content to wait for history, the incomparable Norman Podhoretz addressed the question recently in the Wall Street Journal: To be sure, no white candidate who had close associations with an outspoken hater of America like Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill Ayers, would have lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama was black, and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberal Dom to have hung out with protesters against various American injustices, even if they were 'a bit' extreme, he was given a pass. Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass - held to a lower standard because of the color of his skin.   Podhoretz continues: And in any case, what did such ancient history matter when he was also so articulate and elegant and (as he himself had said) "non-threatening," all of which gave him a fighting chance to become the first black president and thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest?   Podhoretz puts his finger, I think, on the animating pulse of the Obama phenomenon - affirmative action. Not in the legal sense, of course. But certainly in the motivating sentiment behind all affirmative action laws and regulations, which are designed primarily to make white people, and especially white liberals, feel good about themselves.   Unfortunately, minorities often suffer so that whites can pat themselves on the back. Liberals routinely admit minorities to schools for which they are not qualified, yet take no responsibility for the inevitable poor performance and high drop-out rates which follow. Liberals don't care if these minority students fail; liberals aren't around to witness the emotional devastation and deflated self-esteem resulting from the racist policy that is affirmative action. Yes, racist. Holding someone to a separate standard merely because of the color of his skin - that's affirmative action in a nutshell, and if that isn't racism, then nothing is.   And that is what America did to Obama. True, Obama himself was never troubled by his lack of achievements, but why would he be? As many have noted, Obama was told he was good enough for Columbia despite undistinguished grades at Occidental; he was told he was good enough for the US Senate despite a mediocre record in Illinois; he was told he was good enough to be president despite no record at all in the Senate. All his life, every step of the way, Obama was told he was good enough for the next step, in spite of ample evidence to the contrary   What could this breed if not the sort of empty narcissism on display every time Obama speaks? In 2008, many who agreed that he lacked executive qualifications nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills, intellect, and cool character. Those people - conservatives included - ought now to be deeply embarrassed.   The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of clichés, and that's when he has his Teleprompters in front of him; when the prompter is absent he can barely think or speak at all. Not one original idea has ever issued from his mouth - it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that has failed over and over again for 100 years. (An example is his 2012 campaign speeches which are almost word for word his 2008 speeches)   And what about his character? Obama is constantly blaming anything and everything else for his troubles. Bush did it; it was bad luck; I inherited this mess. Remember, he wanted the job, campaigned for the task. It is embarrassing to see a president so willing to advertise his own powerless-ness, so comfortable with his own incompetence. (The other day he actually came out and said no one could have done anything to get our economy and country back on track). But really, what were we to expect? The man has never been responsible for anything, so how do we expect him to act responsibly? In short: our president is a small-minded man, with neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job. When you understand that, and only when you understand that, will the current erosion of liberty and prosperity make sense. It could not have gone otherwise with such an impostor in the Oval Office.   Wonderful article!!