Or knock me over with one.

Not that this is any big surprise, or anything, but lo and behold, as The Right Perspective reports, Obama’s choice for energy czar just happens to be a card-carrying socialist.

Oh… not just any socialist, mind you, but Carol M. Browner is a member of the “Commission for a Sustainable World Society,” an offshoot of the organization “Socialist International.”

I’ve often observed that far from being a group of well-meaning tree-huggers, the radical environmentalists see environmental issues as one of the primary vehicles from which they can slam more and more of their radical political agenda down our throats; which more than explains why they cling to their environmental dogma a hell of a lot more than conservatives cling to “guns and religion.” This despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.

So is it really any surprise that Barack Hussein Obama, who cut his teeth under the tutelage of such leftist luminaries as Bill Ayers and Saul Alinsky, would actually appoint socialists to help run his administration?

Ya get who you vote for.

It has long been known that PA-12 Democrat Congressman Jack Murtha has been living high off the hog with regard to earmarks that have been given to his military contracting buddies. As a matter of fact, he’s making such good money from his beneficiaries that he wants to streamline the earmark process: He plans to bypass advice by members of the military altogether:

The House’s top defense appropriator has pledged to help strengthen the role of the Pentagon’s comptroller in an effort to curb lobbying by the military services for their controversial programs.

Why should he listen to the military, as the military itself doesn’t provide Jack with campaign contributions.

As I’ve stated before, Jack Murtha does nothing without there being something in it for Jack Murtha. To Jack Murtha, the military is merely a tool he uses to keep his fat backside in power, or to advance his political career, a/la his slanderous declaration of guilt toward the Haditha Marines.

I don’t know; perhaps I’m a bit too cynical. I’m absolutely positive that there is no lobbying going on when Concurrent Technologies receives a taxpayer-funded porkbarrel contract to the tune of $200 million dollars… or is there?

Yet, the Murtha situation is very troubling when you look at CTC’s Form 990. With the exception of three individuals listed on the schedule of officers and directors, all have contributed to Murtha’s congressional campaigns since 2002.

[SNIP]

The Times also notes that CTC has paid somewhere around $500,000 to a lobbying firm. The lobbying firm’s executives and clients have contributed over $1.2 million to Murtha in campaign contributions (the Times refers to these as donations) since 1999, according to the Times.

So we have a congressman who was a driving force behind the creation of this tax-exempt entity. That same congressman is earmarking significant amounts of money to that organization. Those who are in control of the organization (several of whom receive significant salaries from CTC) contribute large amounts of money to the congressman’s campaign. We can only wonder how the entity distributes the federal grant money within the local community.

I mean, with sweetheart deals like that, why should Murtha even bother to take the time listen to those pesky military folks who actually know what they need?

I mean, there’s gold in them there earmarks, right, Jihad Jack?

(Cross-posted at Murtha Must Go!!)

While the Obamessiah may have been somewhat successful in selling the American electorate on the possibility of a neo-socialist government, the chances of a permanent left turn in American politics, if Chavez’ Venezuela is any kind of harbinger, are slim to none.

Frontline on PBS has an interesting show online called The Hugo Chavez show, which, wittingly or unwittingly, chronicles a host of paralells with and harbingers of what may come with an Obama administration.

In The Hugo Chávez Show, FRONTLINE producer Ofra Bikel and Ofra bike racks travels to Venezuela to offer an illuminating portrait of the Venezuelan president. Through interviews with former government officials, Chávez associates and ordinary Venezuelans, FRONTLINE chronicles Chávez’s ascent to power and his efforts to use the powers of the presidency to stay there.

The film also reveals the key role of the media—or, rather, Chávez’s savvy use of the media—in his rise to power.This report begins by introducing viewers to Aló Presidente—or “Hello, President“—a weekly televised show that often runs five to eight hours and features Chávez speaking directly to the people, explaining government policy and mixing in a smattering of songs, poetry and whatever else strikes his fancy.

“Chávez is easily caricatured because he can be funny; he can seem buffoonish on his Aló Presidente,” journalist Jon Lee Anderson tells FRONTLINE. “He sings; he gets involved in wordplay. … He’s probably the world’s first virtual president in the age of the communication revolution.”

Given the press’ coronation of “The One,” allowing him to amble about the campaign trail without delivering anything more than a softball, I believe that Barack Hussein Obama may well be the world’s second virtual president.

FRONTLINE investigates beyond the boundaries of the president’s show, discovering grand schemes that remain unfinished and a host of public officials blamed for any dissent. FRONTLINE interviews Nelson Mora, a committed community organizer who dared to raise questions about a government relocation plan and was subsequently humiliated by the president on live television. “At that moment, I felt bad. I closed my eyes and felt tears,” says Mora. “And I said, ‘My God, why does the president treat me like this, the commander in chief, the leader of this process?'”

Joe the Plumber, anyone? WGN Radio, anyone?

More paralells in the piece abound:

Yet it was Chávez’s keen grasp of the power of the media that propelled him to power, observers say. FRONTLINE recounts how Chávez got his first taste of the media limelight when he participated in a failed 1992 coup. Much to his military compatriots’ surprise, Chávez—who was commanding the group’s forces in Caracas—agreed to surrender in exchange for a chance to go on the air and address his comrades and the people. The failed coup would send Chávez to prison for two years, but the media exposure planted the seeds of a folk hero in the making.

“Chávez failed militarily, totally,” says Alberto Barrera, author of the international best seller Hugo Chávez. “But he triumphed in terms of public relations. The public Chávez who was born was born not out of a military or political victory, but out of the ratings.”

And the paralells get even more creepy:

Upon his release from prison in 1994, Chávez began laying the groundwork for his eventual rise to the presidency in 1998. The Hugo Chávez Show recounts the highs and lows of Chávez’s 10-year tenure. His political successes included pushing through laws that sent Venezuelan society veering to the left and injecting billions of dollars in oil revenue into socialist government programs.

But here’s where the rays of hope start coming in:

Cracks are also showing in Chávez’s much-vaunted revolutionary programs. In The Hugo Chávez Show, FRONTLINE speaks with workers in various socialized cooperatives who say Chávez’s government has failed to provide needed resources, or even to pay them for the work they have done.

“I am among the poorest people in Venezuela,” says cooperative worker Maria Rengifo. “The president has to know, in order to form a cooperative, we have to have income. … He has to know what’s going on. Why aren’t they functioning? Why aren’t they producing? Why isn’t there anything to produce?”

Welcome to Socialism/Communism 101, Maria. And welcome to Obama’s vision for America, my fellow Americans (whether or not you voted for him).

With frustration building and food shortages common, Venezuela’s crime rate has soared, with murders, robberies and kidnappings for ransom occurring frequently. “It’s shocking to come nearly a decade on and see that most of what Hugo Chávez was railing in anger about being left with—a failed society, misery, insecurity, unequal distribution of wealth—is still here,” Anderson tells FRONTLINE.

Obama voters (and unfortunately, the rest of us) are about to suffer a similarly painful lesson as Captain Candyman maneuvers the U.S.S. United States on a decidedly port-wise list.

Hopefully the American electorate’s tolerance for sea-sickness will be decidedly more short-lived than a decade, and a righting of the ship will take place in four (or perhaps even only two) years.

Meanwhile, sit back, and enjoy the “show.”

The National Black Republican Association has called on Barack Obama to apologize for years of systemic racism–in the Democratic Party:

We, black American citizens of the United States and the National Black Republican Association, declare and assert:

WHEREAS, the healing of wounds begins with an apology, and the Democratic Party has never apologized for their horrific atrocities and racist practices against black Americans during the past 150 years, nor held accountable for the residual impact that those atrocities and practices are having on us today,

WHEREAS, as a result of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot Commission Report of May 31, 2006, the North Carolina Democratic Party issued a unanimous apology on January 20, 2007 for the Democratic Party’s 1898 murderous rampage against blacks,

WHEREAS, inner-city minister Rev. Wayne Perryman wrote a book, "Unfounded Loyalty: An In-depth Look Into The Love Affair Between Blacks and Democrats", and filed a lawsuit against the Democratic Party on December 10, 2004, but, after admitting their history of racism under oath in court, the Democrats refused to apologize,

Continue reading →

From here:

LONDON (AP) — Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs.

And eliminating the need to kill embryos, as well.

For years now, the pro-abortion crowd’s mantra is that we need embryonic stem cell research to cure diseases. The Democratic Party Platform, to this day, reads:

Pursue embryonic stem cell research

Pres. Bush has rejected the calls from Nancy Reagan, Christopher Reeve & Americans across the land for assistance with embryonic stem cell research. We will reverse his wrongheaded policy. Stem cell therapy offers hope to more than 100 million Americans who have serious illnesses-from Alzheimer’s to heart disease to juvenile diabetes to Parkinson’s. We will pursue this research under the strictest ethical guidelines, but we will not walk away from the chance to save lives and reduce human suffering.

Interestingly, that little tidbit is located in the part of the DNC platform that deals with abortion.

In other words, the whole embryonic stem cell debate is a move by the pro-infanticide faction of the democrat party to keep the abortionist’s foot in society’s door.

The dirty little secret, the gorilla on the dining room table of which no one dares speak, is that embryonic stem cell research has shown absolutely no promise toward curing disease, as embryonic stem cells have been proven time and time again to be unstable in nature, at times even causing cancer-like symptoms in subjects.

If the pro-baby killing crowd is to find justification for their ghoulish predelictions, they’ll have to look elsewhere. Embryonic stem cell research ain’t gonna cut it.

As much as Obama will never admit it, Zombietime makes the case for why it is so.

Pork over Principle.

The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat, truly living up to its name, has once again thrown its scruples (if it had any to begin with) under the bus to try to resuscitate Jihad Jack Murtha’s sorry political career. After falsely labeling William Trower Russell as a "carpetbagger," the two-bit call-girls on the editorial board of the Tribune-Democrat go on to say,

• He is virtually a one-issue candidate, repeatedly attacking Murtha on his comments concerning Marines in Haditha, Iraq.

Yeah, I know… it’s no biggie that Jack Murtha put 8 Marines and their families in a state of living hell for over two years with false accusations (for his own political aggrandizement), without so much as a subscription to the Jelly of the Month Club for the trouble he put them through. It’s no big deal that he, an elected official sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States, threw their Constitutional right to the presumption of innocence out the window. Yep… the same guys who put their lives on the line to defend that very Constitution. But yes, I know. Pork over Principle. The lemmings at the Tribune-Democrat go on in a lame, rambling attempt to rationalize their "principled" decision to back Jihad Jack:

For some politicians, “experience” simply means too many years drawing a comfortable salary and nice benefits on taxpayer dollars without giving much back. That is not the case with Murtha, who has provided leadership and sparked the development of new programs in key areas, especially in the health-care arena: • He helped increase funding for Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where service personnel returning from combat are treated for their injuries.

Yep… Jihad Jack cares so much about those who defend our country that he refuses to apologize to the Haditha Marines–not even to Justin Sharratt, who just happens to be Murtha’s constituent!

They go on to say, • He has increased awareness and helped fund programs aimed at two of our region’s deadliest afflictions: Breast cancer and diabetes.

Pork, pork, pork, and more pork. There are beyond a doubt more pork projects with Jihad Jack’s name in the Johnstown area than there were buildings with Caesar’s name during the height of the Roman empire. The Tribune Democrat then employs some feigned indignation at Murtha’s arrogance against his own constituency:

We have been troubled by Murtha’s statements in recent weeks about racism in his district. He first said that “western Pennsylvania is a racist area,” then tried to clarify that a week later by saying there are a lot of “rednecks” in the region. We would like to see our congressman use better judgment and not attempt to lump all of his constituency into one category.

Yeah, I know. Pork before Principle.

And, beyond all of that, Murtha’s social positions reflect those of his region much more so than those of his party. He opposes gun control and is pro-life, both positions that put him in step with most voters in our region.

Yep. Pro life and anti-gun control. I wonder if that’s why he was pal-ing around with the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Code Pink. If Jihad Jack Murtha is so "in step" with how he sees most voters of PA-12, I wonder if he sees a "racist" or a "redneck" when he looks in the mirror. Likewise, I wonder if the editorial board at the Tribune-Democrat see the same thing when they take a shave in the morning.

Further, would most voters in PA-12 have the temerity to play judge, jury and executioner to those who defend freedom without the benefit of due process? Somehow I doubt it.

But then again, Pork over Principle, right?

Once upon a time, when there wasn’t an election on the line, the editorial board at the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat wrote:

We can’t accept the congressman’s earmark dollars with one hand and brush off his alleged transgressions with the other. When he steps in mud, or when others throw mud at Murtha, we all get dirty. That’s why, when questions are raised about possible improper activities at a Murtha-created organization, we get anxious. And when a watchdog group rates our local congressman as being among “the most corrupt” lawmakers in Washington, we are embarrassed. We don’t like being characterized as folks who support questionable activities, or who endorse troubling behavior by our elected officials.

Yet when the rubber hit the road, the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat found it fit to swallow their embarrassment and sell whatever remained of their principles to once again endorse a decidedly crooked politician to represent their readership in Washington.

Pork over principle, I guess.

(Leo Pusateri is the founder and editor of Murtha Must Go!!)

Michele Bachmann is being raked over the coals and skewered by democrats and their willing media accomplices. For what? Why, for telling the truth about democrats, of course:

REP. BACHMANN: It’s important because we look at the collection of friends that Barack Obama has had over his life, and usually we associate with people who have similar ideas to us. And it seems that it calls into question what Barack Obama’s true beliefs and values and thoughts are — his attitudes, values and beliefs with Jeremiah Wright on his view of the United States —

MR. MATTHEWS: Okay —

REP. BACHMANN: — which is negative; Bill Ayers, his negative view of the United States. We’ve seen one friend after another. It calls into question his judgment, but also what is it that Barack Obama really believes? And we know that he’s the most liberal senator in the United States Senate, and that’s just after one year after being there. He’s the most liberal. Joe Biden is the third most liberal. You’ve got Harry Reid who’s liberal, Nancy Pelosi who’s liberal.

MR. MATTHEWS: Right. What’s the connection?

REP. BACHMANN: You have a troika of the most leftist administration in the history of our country.

MR. MATTHEWS: If you have liberal views, does that mean you have anti-American views? What’s the connection? I don’t get the connection. What’s the connection between liberal and leftist and anti-American?

REP. BACHMANN: Anti-American is the point, because —

MR. MATTHEWS: I mean, if you’re liberal, are you anti-American?

REP. BACHMANN: Well, the liberals that are Jeremiah Wright and that are Bill Ayers, they’re over-the-top anti-American. And that’s the question that Americans have. Remember, it was Michelle Obama who said she’s only recently proud of her country. And so these are very anti-American views.

And so Bachmann gets called on the carpet for stating the obvious. To be fair, it was Chris Matthews who brought the term, "anti-American" into the interview, but so what?

• When the Senate Majority Leader, a Democrat, gets up to the podium and proclaims, "The Iraq war is lost!" in an effort to counteract any positive consequences of an upcoming change in strategy, is that pro-American?
• When "Jihad Jack" Murtha scores a propaganda victory for Jihadists who are killing our soldiers by unjustly and without evidence labelling Marines "cold blooded murderers," is that likewise pro-American?
• When an entire party, in the name of politics, tries to undermine the efforts of our troops in harms’ way during wartime, is that pro-American?
• When Obama’s long-time self-confessed mentor and pastor of over 20 years stands in the pulpit and screams, "G*D DAMN AMERICA!" is that being pro-American?
• When another long-time Obama Associate, William Ayers, bombs the pentagon and other targets, and later regrets only that he didn’t cause more murder and mayhem, is that also pro-American?

Congresswoman Bachmann, you owe no one an apology. What we need is an apology from a biased mainstream media who carries no compunction against serving up a three-day long intensive anal exam against a common citizen known as "Joe the Plumber," yet for the past two years has refused to do even a cursory examination of the life of a man who wishes to be President of the United States.

What we need is an apology from a biased media, who supposedly thrives on the First Amendment, who turn the other way when their candidate, rather than answer critics, sends goons out under the guise of "truth squads" to silence them.

What we need is an apology from a Party whose financial malfiesance in the name of "fairness" got us into a behemoth financial disaster the likes of which made Enron look like a parking ticket.

My fear is that fellow Republicans, if not Michele herself, will go weak-kneed and try to distance themselves from the truth, when the truth itself is needed, now more than ever. Truth is a great disinfectant, and you can tell that the truth is being told when democrats scream, complain, and scurry for cover like so many cockroaches running after the kitchen light is switched on.

It’s about freaking time that anti-American democrats were called out for just what they are, Anti-American.

And you’ll get no apology from me for saying that.

 

Cause it’s not going to be anything resembling a fair contest.

It seemed that the Ohio Secretary of State (who just happens to be a democrat–go figger) disallowed any observers in their “vote early, vote often” program. Despite the fact that the State Supreme Court finally disallowed the SOS’s edict, this went on for a couple of days:

Michelle Malkin has another example of voter fraud waiting to happen, if it hasn’t already occurred.

To the leftward leaning people of this board:

With the lack of scruples evident on your side, whether it be from ACORN, or even from willing elected officials who are complicit in enabling conditions for fraud to occur, aren’t you beginning to feel a bit dirty?

Do you really want to “win” elections in this manner?

Is the paucity of substance regarding your side’s policy positions really that significant such that you must resort to abject fraud in order to advance them?

And don’t insult my intelligence with your tired, “You can’t prove anything!” line of B.S. You know damn well what’s going on.

Is this really what you’re made of?

Don’t know about you, but when I think about it, it literally makes me physically ill.

Sucks to be you.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: While agreeing with the sentiment that it must suck to be a Democrat, I wish to disassociate myself with any contention that Ohio will fall to Obama…Obama and his Democrats will make a full court press to steal the State, but I believe that the good people of Ohio – including many Democrats – will rise up on election day and swamp the voter fraud efforts.

This same level of accountability needs to be demanded of every member of Congress and/or the Senate who was complicit and willful in forming the policies that led us to largest government takeover of a private sector in our nation’s history:

As I’ve stated before, it’s not just the CEO’s who need to be perp-walked and frog-marched.

Barney Frank and Co. presided over a travesty of fiscal mismanagement of such exponential proportions so as to make Enron look like farting in church by comparison.

We need to hold our elected officials to a higher standard. To not hold them to account for their malfiesance would be to say, in so many words, that we have ceased to live in a land of the people, by the people, and for the people; and have rather moved on to a "brave new world" of the elites, by the elites, and for the elites.

God help us if we continue to allow these "good deeds" to go unpunished.