Ramirez Cartoon That Just Nails It

By Michael Ramirez

(h/t: IBD)

The Heritage Foundation has weighed in on the decidedly negative impact on our nation's economy that Cap & Trade (Waxman-Markey) would have should it pass and be signed into law. On June 22, Ben Lieberman, Senior Policy Analyst for Energy and Environment in the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies at The Heritage Foundation, testified before the United States Congress:

Overall, Waxman-Markey reduces gross domestic product by an average of $393 billion annually between 2012 and 2035, and cumulatively by $9.4 trillion. In other words, the nation will be $9.4 trillion poorer with Waxman-Markey than without it.

It should also be noted that the costs are not distributed evenly. Low-income households spend a disproportionate share of their incomes on energy, and thus would be hit harder than average by Waxman-Markey. Of course, the bill has provisions to give back some revenues to low-income households, but it is likely that these rebates will amount only to some portion of each dollar that was taken away from them in the first place in the form of higher energy costs and higher costs for other goods and services. Waxman-Markey also disproportionately burdens those states, especially in the Midwest and South, that still have a substantial number of manufacturing jobs to lose, as well as those that rely more heavily than others on coal for electric generation. In addition, because the bill raises energy costs, it hurts rural America much more than urban America. Rural Americans, farmers and non-farmers, spend an average of 58 percent more on energy as a percentage of income than their urban counterparts, and those costs would go up.

You will find the entire text of his eye-opening testimony here.

I find it mind-boggling that supposedly intelligent Americans would be pushing something that would essentially wreck our economy and cost us millions of jobs.

It really causes you to question the true motives of many in our government.

ObamaCare Video

The people at Reason TV have put together a short video that gives us a glimpse of what life with ObamaCare would really be like:



(h/t: Ed Morrissey @ HotAir)

Crap & Tax Must Be Defeated

Yeah, I know the switchboards are overloaded and shooting off blue sparks now, and the email boxes are full, but keep trying anyway.

If you are unsure who your congress critters are, or how to reach them, go here and type in your zip code.

According to a tweet from Washington reporter Jamie Dupree, the vote will take place between 5pm and 6pm ET today. There is still time to stop this lunacy.

This hideous bill is insanity on a scale even I didn't think was possible. If ObamaCare alone doesn't turn America into a third world country, Crap & Tax most surely will. No real American who values freedom and liberty would ever support such an economy-killing measure as this is.

Any congress critter who votes for it should be drummed out of office and frog marched, at gun point, to the nearest international airport and given a one-way ticket to North Korea.

If the democrats (and some fence-straddling idiot republicans) aren't stopped cold, these morons are going to destroy our country, and that damned soon.

Ramirez Cartoon Catch-Up

By Michael Ramirez

(h/t: IBD)

Happy Flag Day!

Evangelical Group Banned From Tulsa Housing Project

This despite a SCOTUS ruling in 2001 affirming that religious groups had the same rights as any other citizen's groups when it comes to the use of public institutions:

For more than 70 years, the Missouri-based Child Evangelism Fellowship has worked with underprivileged kids, not only to convert them to Christianity, but to improve their lives through education and after-school activities. In one program, fellowship missionaries visit prisons and sign up inmates' children for Bible study programs in an effort to keep them from winding up in jail themselves.

And for more than two decades, the fellowship has hosted a religious-themed summer program in Tulsa's tough housing projects, designed to keep children from falling victim to the temptations of drugs and crime.

But recently, the fellowship was told that it was in violation of a long-standing policy prohibiting religious instruction on public housing property, said Larry Koehn, who heads the organization's chapter in the city.

"They said they have a policy now whereby we can't come in and talk about God or Christ," Koehn said. "We can come in and play games and talk about moral things, but we can't mention the name of God."

You can read the entire Fox News story here.

Sadly, it appears Christians are becoming more and more marginalized in today's America.

A Couple of Recent Michael Ramirez Cartoons

By Michael Ramirez

(h/t: IBD)

June 6th, 1944

Sixty-five years ago today, the largest amphibious invasion force the world has ever seen assaulted Adolf Hitler's version of Fortress Europe. The first allied boots that actually landed on French soil hit the ground many agonizing hours before the waiting Germans even saw the first inkling of the masses of landing and assault craft coming at them over the channel horizon.

By the end of the day, approximately 5,500 Allied soldiers, including around 2,500 Americans, would be dead. Five American soldiers would be in line for a Congressional Medal of Honor, one of which was the son of a former president and the highest ranking American soldier to land on the beaches of Normandy on that historic day.

By midnight, the German beach defenses had been breached, the Allies were moving swiftly inland, the Soviet Red Army was driving on Germany from the east, and Hitler's vaunted Thousand Year Reich had just under eleven months remaining.

Cornelius Ryan, in his excellent written account of D-Day, named it The Longest Day. For those who participated in it on either side, it most assuredly was.

An excellent video concerning D-Day:



From the German perspective:



Eisenhower's pre-invasion speech to the troops:



FDR's D-Day address to the nation:

San Diego County Backs Off Permit Requirement for Home Bible Study

I previously mentioned the sad saga of Pastor David Jones and his wife's run-in with San Diego County bureaucrats over the fact that they were holding regular Bible study sessions in their own home.

I am happy to report that this lunacy has stopped, as the bureaucratic powers-that-be have seen the error of their ways and have backed off their ridiculous demands for a major use permit and threats of escalating fines:

"I want to offer my apology to you, your wife and your congregation for the unfortunate events of the past several weeks," said the letter from Walter F. Ekard, chief officer of the county. "My review of the situation shows that no administrative citation warning should have been issued and that a major use permit is not required for the Bible study you have in your home."

The letter continues:

"Our Code Enforcement Officer incorrectly made the finding based in no small measure on unclear language in the zoning ordinance," Ekard continued. "I have already issued several directives to county staff. First, I have asked the Department of Planning and Land Use and our county counsel to conduct a thorough review of ordinances regarding all assemblies to clarify that meetings

such as you are holding in your home may continue without regulation."

You will find Bob Unruh's entire WorldNetDaily article here.

Mr. Ekard, in his letter, did go on to say that this was, "in no way an attempt by San Diego County to infringe upon your religious freedoms."

I'm not sure I'm buying that given the nature of the inquisition Pastor Jones' wife underwent.

At any rate, this is one instance where an American citizen stood up to government insanity and successfully asserted his constitutional rights. Perhaps the next government bureaucrat will think twice before doing something similar to someone else in the future.

Who am I kidding?

Excellent Cartoon Video: Make Mine Freedom

Is Our 44th Potus Out-Communizing the Communist Hugo Chavez?

First, it was Vladimir Putin, current Prime Minister of Russia and a former head of the Soviet KGB, who tried to warn us about the evils of Marxism, then another Russian, along with the Chinese Uighur terrorists, identified Obama's actual political orientation.

Now, even the communist Hugo Chavez himself is fretting that our freshly installed 44th POTUS might actually occupy a spot on the political playing field that may be further to the left than even his own.

No, I'm really not kidding (bolds are mine):

During one of Chavez's customary lectures on the "curse" of capitalism and the bonanzas of socialism, the Venezuelan leader made reference to GM's bankruptcy filing, which is expected to give the U.S. government a 60 percent stake in the 100-year-old former symbol of American might.

"Hey, Obama has just nationalized nothing more and nothing less than General Motors. Comrade Obama! Fidel, careful or we are going to end up to his right," Chavez joked on a live television broadcast.

You will find the entire Reuters article here.

That little sawed-off runt of a tyrant-in-the-making might think all this is funny, but we, the sadly dwindling number of Americans that still love and revere true freedom and liberty, not to mention our country, are not the least bit amused.

There is still no sign as yet that the American Idol-watching sheeple of this nation, who could probably tell you the exact number of warts Simon Cowell has on his ass, are any closer to catching on to what is happening than they were three months ago.

Perhaps they will catch on when the check-point shack goes up at the entrance to their subdivision, and is manned 24/7 by an armed person sporting a green shirt.

Video: Don't Tell Me Guns Don't Prevent Crime

The would-be armed robber was truly fortunate the store clerk didn't turn him into wallpaper.

(h/t: Boortz.com)

Is Obama "Justice" Department Trying To Dilute the Votes of Me and My Fellow Georgians?

It certainly appears that way, despite the fact that 77% of us here in Georgia feel that people should have to demonstrate that they are, in fact, U.S. citizens prior to voting.

I don't suppose the fact that Georgia is currently home to a sizable number of illegal aliens would have had anything to do with the Justice Department's decision, would it?

Naww, 'course it wouldn't.

If we have reached the point in this nation that the federal government is actively working to allow illegal aliens to vote in our elections, we may as well lock the doors, turn off the lights, and roll up the sidewalks.

Cartoon of the Week

By Michael Ramirez

(h/t: IBD)

I Shed No Tears for the American Mengele

What follows is a slightly edited version of something I posted elsewhere earlier today:

As a libertarian, I believe very strongly that all human beings have the God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That especially includes those who exist, but who are not yet born into this world, and cannot speak for themselves.

This nation, under the bogus guise of “human rights,” and (let’s be honest here) as a matter of shallow, selfish convenience, has deprived that right to over 40 million of its own citizens. Any nation that would willingly commit genocide at that level, against its very own citizens, has a profoundly corrupt soul.

As I see it, there are only two acceptable reasons for taking the life of another human being. One is in defense of oneself, one’s family or some other innocent person. The other is in a time of war. Any other time, barring a tragic accident, is murder.

I realize that there are times when terminating a human pregnancy is necessary, but what Tiller was doing was outright infanticide. It matters not if the birth mothers were depressed.

Big deal. I get depressed sometimes, to, but I don’t go out and kill an innocent child over it.

As I see it, Tiller’s “profession” was in no way different than what Joseph Mengele was doing in Germany in the 1930s and 40s. Many in Germany supported what Mengele was doing, and sadly, far many more here in America support what Tiller did.

How does that make us any better than the NAZIs, or the Japanese, for that matter, who were themselves conducting hideous medical experiments on the Chinese?

Yes, what Roeder did was wrong, very wrong, but as we said back in the ‘90s, shit happens. The law provides a mechanism to deal with these situations, and it will do so here.

At the end of the day, it changes nothing. Abortion is still murder. It’s as simple as that. The fact that it may be legal matters not at all, and I am not interested in hearing whatever lies those who support this hideous procedure have conjured up to convince themselves that it is okay to take the lives of unborn human beings.

Remember, the NAZIs carried out over 11 million "post-natal" abortions. We executed a lot of those who participated in the slaughter after the war.

We currently live in a devolving, sick, twisted society-one in which we who support the right to life for our fellow human beings, and who happen to love our country, and revere its founding document, are considered extremists, if not outright terrorists, by not only our own government, but perhaps even a majority of our fellow citizens.

I honestly do not believe this society, or this nation, has much time left.

In what time we do have left, I’ll be damned if I am going to allow myself to be coerced, or otherwise intimidated into silence on any issue, and if Barack Hussein Obama, the SCM*, and the DHS don’t like it?

Tough.

BTW, I was adopted at the age of four weeks in 1964. I was lucky. Had I been a little later coming along, I very well could have wound up like this.

*State Controlled Media (what we used to refer to as the MSM).