Time to Erase the U.S. Department of "Education"

It has only been around for thirty years, consumed hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money, and yet our government educational system seems to be turning out more morons than ever before.

Not only that, but this parking lot for otherwise unemployable bureaucrats is promoting things that are not a little hostile to my concept of freedom and liberty by using our tax dollars to push the written works of America-hating commie scum such as Saul Alinsky and Cloward Piven, to name just a few.

It's time to pull the plug on one of the most useless (not to mention dangerous) federal agencies in existence.

Via Doug Ross at directorblue.blogspot.com:

You may be surprised to discover that the Department of Education did not even exist until 1980.

Yet, over the last three years alone, the Department has spent roughly a third of a trillion dollars with copious amounts of 'Stimulus' spending sent directly to the bosses of the teachers' unions.

I think even progressives would agree that the Department of Education has been an abysmal failure. Hundreds of billions of dollars were spent in just the last few years alone with literally no measurable effect.

But the progressives claim they need more money.

I disagree. I recommend we excise the entire Department of Education and save tens of billions of dollars a year. Whatever they're doing isn't working and has never worked. And the United States survived just fine for over 200 years without an Education Department

You can read the rest at this link.

I am hoping (perhaps somewhat naively) that the 112th House of Representatives is serious about getting a handle on out-of-control spending and cutting out much of the fat that has built up in the federal government over the years.

It seems to me that the Department of Education is as good a place to start as any.

Then they can turn there attention (and their knives) to the EPA, DoE, PBS, NEA, FCC, IRS, and a whole host of other federal agencies that are nothing more than places for fat-ass bureaucrats to park their over-fed behinds for forty hours a week, and that have no constitutional basis for existence.

If the repubs have the stones to do it.

They'd better, as the near-term survival of this republic is at stake.

(h/t: Boortz.com)

Creeping Tyranny Confirmed: N.Y. Town Bans Smoking on Sidewalks

If you smoke and are planning a trip to Great Neck, N.Y. any time soon, you had better refrain from lighting up on a sidewalk in front of a business, because it could end up costing you $1000.

Via myfoxny.com:

GREAT NECK, N.Y. - A village on Long Island's "gold coast" is banning smoking on public sidewalks in front of businesses. Violators could face a $1,000 fine.

The Great Neck village board approved the ban Tuesday night. It claims to be the first municipality in the state to enact such a restriction.

Mayor Ralph J. Kreitzman says the ban was enacted after officials got complaints about smokers standing outside stores in the village. He says the law will also benefit pedestrians who might have been subjected to second-hand smoke.

Kreitzman says, "I have no problem with people smoking. They just shouldn't do it in a place that harms other people."

Kreitzman tells Fox 5 that, despite the hefty fines violators could face, the ban is not an attempt to raise money for the village.

The mayor says code enforcement agents will be out to look for violations and he hopes the police will also help with enforcement.

One smoker told Fox 5 News, "I'm waiting for them to ban smoking in my yard, at my house, is it going to go that far?"

The law apparently has a loophole. It is not illegal to smoke in the street.

Neighboring New York City is currently considering a smoking ban in parks and pedestrian plazas.

There are local governments already passing laws to ban people from smoking inside their own domiciles.

How long will it be before the government starts telling people they can't light up on their own front porch?

This used to be a free country. I don't know what happened to it, but if the American sheeple don't soon wake up and pull their heads out of their asses, our chances of ever getting that country back are going to go up in smoke.

Creeping Tyranny?

There were approximately 31,000 laws passed by state legislatures in 2010 - and that doesn't include what was passed by the 111th Congress on the federal side.

There are actually some pretty good laws in the mix. One example is a law passed in Iowa which makes it more difficult for local sheriffs to deny concealed carry permits.

But knowing government as I do, I am guessing the bulk of the laws passed across the fruited plain are just more restrictions on freedom, liberty and commerce. One example here are laws passed in both St. Louis and St. Louis County that prohibit smoking in bars and restaurants.

Yep, the tyranny of the pleasure police marches on.

You can read about it at this link.

Dinesh D'Souza: How Obama Thinks

Via Forbes.com:

Barack Obama is the most antibusiness president in a generation, perhaps in American history. Thanks to him the era of big government is back. Obama runs up taxpayer debt not in the billions but in the trillions. He has expanded the federal government's control over home mortgages, investment banking, health care, autos and energy. The Weekly Standard summarizes Obama's approach as omnipotence at home, impotence abroad.

The President's actions are so bizarre that they mystify his critics and supporters alike. Consider this headline from the Aug. 18, 2009 issue of the Wall Street Journal: "Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling." Did you read that correctly? You did. The Administration supports offshore drilling--but drilling off the shores of Brazil. With Obama's backing, the U.S. Export-Import Bank offered $2 billion in loans and guarantees to Brazil's state-owned oil company Petrobras to finance exploration in the Santos Basin near Rio de Janeiro--not so the oil ends up in the U.S. He is funding Brazilian exploration so that the oil can stay in Brazil.

You will find the whole thing at this link.

So far, this is the best article I have seen yet that comes close to explaining what and who this nation voted to send to the White House in November of 2008.

See also the White House response here.

My take is, given the derision displayed by the White House over this, Mr. D'Souza must have hit pretty close to the center of the target.

(h/t: Everybody who emailed this to me)

John Stossel on the Lunacy of the ADA

Creeping tyranny brought to us by George Bush 41.

As usual, Stossel nails it most securely.

I wonder if the repubs will have the balls to dismantle any of this freedom-destroying insanity should they actually regain the majority?

I shan't hold my breath waiting for it.

Guv'mint Stoopidity Raht Heas in Geowjia

If you are a farmer in Dekalb County, you better not grow more than the government thinks you should be, else the crop NAZIs will be hauling you into court.

Somewhere along the way, this country took the wrong fork in the road and swerved into the land of rapidly mounting tyranny.

I hope we can start finding our way back to the right road starting this November.

We'd better.

Outrage! Daisy Khan's $12K Taxpayer-Funded 'Hate America' Tour

Okay, so it's only a mere $12,000 of our tax money, which doesn't even rate a spit in the ocean in the overall scheme of things, but it is what that money is funding that infuriates me.

This, coming on top of another taxpayer-funded outrage involving this woman's jihad-supporting, camel-washer husband, is appalling beyond words.

Suppose during WWII our tax dollars had been used to send Heinrich Himmler on a fund-raising tour to raise money for the NAZI death camps while trashing America, or to send Vice Admiral Nagumo around to raise money so that the Japanese could replace the carriers we destroyed at the Battle of Midway while also trashing America.

The American people would have had a collective conniption over it, and probably would have demanded the immediate arrest of the government officials responsible, if not the outright impeachment of FDR himself.

Today, we sit and watch the GWOT equivalent as our government uses our tax dollars to send a couple of jihad supporters to trash America in front of our enemies, as well as probabaly raise money for their trophy Mosque, and mmany of the American people yawn and reach for the TV remote.

Assuming the American sheeple actually do wake up from their slumber and vote the commies and their RINO enablers the hell out of congress come November (and I say the chances of that are still only around 50/50) , We the People need to pressure the next congress to start cleaning some serious house.

They can start with the idiot bureaucrats at Foggy Bottom, right after dragging Broom Hilda up to the Hill and grilling her in an effort to determine whether or not she has totally lost her mind. 

The idiot far-left's shameless pandering to the jihadists and their enablers who are working for the destruction of America is bad enough, but using our tax dollars to do it is not only reprehensible, in my opinion, it's not a little treasonous, either.

What Happens When Government Teaches Kids to Drive?

We get more hair, teeth and eyeballs on the highways and byways of America.

Via wishtv.com:

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Indiana lawmakers say they are puzzled by a study that shows teenagers who take driver's education classes are more likely to crash than those who do not take the classes.

The Indiana BMV released the study that it says shows current drivers under 18 who took driver's ed had nearly four times the crashes than those without the training.

Some lawmakers say it might be time for an overhaul. The state's drivers ed program has not changed in the past 30 years.

But the BMV says the numbers might be skewed by the fact that teens with driver's ed get their permits earlier and have more time on the road.

The above was originally posted here.

Heh, government can't even run a lemonade stand. I have no clue why the parents of America's teens think it can teach their kids to drive safely.

There Is Stoopid, And Then There Is Government Stoopid

And only Government can be this stoopid.

Via tampabay.com:

But government regulations are requiring that their headquarters on the beach be made handicapped-accessible, even though the only people who ever use the two-story building are the lifeguards.

Another example of your tax dollars at work.

"It's odd. Obviously no one here is handicapped. No one in a wheelchair has ever asked to come up here," head lifeguard Donovan Burns said during an interview on the building's second floor. He noted that disabled people can borrow fat-tired beach wheelchairs from the lifeguard station for free, but those are stored on the ground floor.

The little yellow building near Pier 60 has to be brought into compliance with the state building code and the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

You will find the whole thing at this link.

This is still further evidence (as if we needed any) supporting my long-held belief that America has become too stupid to survive as it was founded.

Yet Another Turd Found in the Bowels of CommieCare

Via CNNMoney.com:

NEW YORK -- An all-but-overlooked provision of the health reform law is threatening to swamp U.S. businesses with a flood of new tax paperwork.

Section 9006 of the health care bill -- just a few lines buried in the 2,409-page document -- mandates that beginning in 2012 all companies will have to issue 1099 tax forms not just to contract workers but to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year.

The stealth change radically alters the nature of 1099s and means businesses will have to issue millions of new tax documents each year.

Right now, the IRS Form 1099 is used to document income for individual workers other than wages and salaries. Freelancers receive them each year from their clients, and businesses issue them to the independent contractors they hire.

But under the new rules, if a freelance designer buys a new iMac from the Apple Store, they'll have to send Apple a 1099. A laundromat that buys soap each week from a local distributor will have to send the supplier a 1099 at the end of the year tallying up their purchases.

You can read the rest at this link.

So, just how is that hopey-changey thingy working out for you stoopid Obamabots?

I can tell you this, it is sucking big hairy ones among intelligent Americans.

They Are Coming For Your IRA's

Via Boortz.com:

So how's that working out for Argentineans? Back in 2008, Argentina decided that it really didn't want to let the financial crisis go to waste. So the wealth redistributionists thought that this would be a great time to seize all private pension funds! Remember that? The government nationalized $30 billion worth of assets under the guise of "protecting" the people from the perils of a volatile capitalists system.

Less than two years later, what is the government doing with that private money that it has now seized? It is using those nationalized pension funds to finance its current spending. How do you like that? From what we can put together from the Spanish reports in La Nación, the government is funding its overhead costs with billions from the guarantee fund for the nationalized pension system. So the government seizes these private pension funds and then "borrows" the money to cover its overhead costs, promising people that there funds will be there when they are ready to retire. Meanwhile, Argentina keeps spending and debt continues to rise. Sounds like a Ponzi scheme to me!

You do know, don't you, that at this very moment the Obama administration is conducting studies on the possibility of seizing or gaining control over your pension plans ... much like they did in Argentina. Just something to keep on your radar screen.

I have been warning about this for years, yet I usually get nothing but blank stares in response - the exact same blank stares I got back when I said ObamaCare was most likely going to pass.

As I have been saying for eighteen months, we are under a rapidly-advancing communist coup, and the communists are serious.

Damned serious.

More Nanny State Nonsense

Via CNSNews.com:

A bill introduced this month in Congress would put the federal and state governments in the business of tracking how fat, or skinny, American children are.

States receiving federal grants provided for in the bill would be required to annually track the Body Mass Index of all children ages 2 through 18. The grant-receiving states would be required to mandate that all health care providers in the state determine the Body Mass Index of all their patients in the 2-to-18 age bracket and then report that information to the state government. The state government, in turn, would be required to report the information to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for analysis.

The Healthy Choices Act--introduced by Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee--would establish and fund a wide range of programs and regulations aimed at reducing obesity rates by such means as putting nutritional labels on the front of food products, subsidizing businesses that provide fresh fruits and vegetables, and collecting BMI measurements of patients and counseling those that are overweight or obese.

You will find the rest at this link.

One common trait among virtually all totalitarian governments throughout history is the idea that children belong to the state rather than the parents.

I see this as just one more lurch in that direction.


(h/t: Drudge)

Stoopid Obama Supporters

Via mcclatchydc.com (emphasis mine):

Questions reflecting confusion have flooded insurance companies, doctors' offices, human resources departments and business groups.

"They're saying, 'Where do we get the free Obama care, and how do I sign up for that?' " said Carrie McLean, a licensed agent for eHealthInsurance.com. The California-based company sells coverage from 185 health insurance carriers in 50 states.

McLean said the call center had been inundated by uninsured consumers who were hoping that the overhaul would translate into instant, affordable coverage. That widespread misconception may have originated in part from distorted rhetoric about the legislation bubbling up from the hyper-partisan debate about it in Washington and some media outlets, such as when opponents denounced it as socialism.

You can read the whole thing at this link.

Somehow, it doesn't surprise that the moochers, leaches and ticks who dwell among us are too stupid to understand that CommieCare doesn't actually "kick in" for another four years, even though it is going to kick our asses economically in terms of increased taxes, fees and penalties during the time leading up to it.

After all, these are the brain-dead idiots that voted this Kenyan commie into the White House in the first place, thinking they were going to be getting even more goodies from the taxpayers, like free heath care, and a lot of other things.

I have felt over the last several years, and particularly after the last election, that this country has very possibly become collectively too stupid to continue in the form of it's founding.

This is just further evidence supporting that view.

God help us.

Why November Matters

How do goober-cheeses like this idiot get elected to congress in the first place?

FBI Raids in Three States

Via Foxnews.com:

ADRIAN, Michigan -- The FBI said Sunday that agents conducted weekend raids in three states and arrested at least three people, and a militia leader in Michigan said the target of at least one raid was a Christian militia group.

The raids took place in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio, the FBI said. Federal warrants were sealed, but a federal law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity said some of those arrested face gun charges and officials are pursuing other suspects. Some of the suspects were expected in court Monday.

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Berchtold confirmed the FBI had been working in two southeast Michigan counties near the Ohio state line. FBI spokesman Scott Wilson in Ohio said agents arrested two people Saturday after raids in two Ohio towns.

A third arrest made in northeast Illinois on Sunday stemmed from a raid Saturday just over the border in northwest Indiana, both part of an ongoing investigation led by the FBI in Michigan, according to a statement from agents in Illinois.

It wasn't clear what prompted the raids, but Michael Lackomar, a spokesman for the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia, said one of his team leaders got a frantic phone call Saturday evening from members of Hutaree, a Christian militia group. They said their property in southwest Michigan was being raided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to Lackomar.

You will find the rest of the story at this link.

Detnews.com has more on this here.

My friend Eowyn at Fellowship of the Minds has still more here.

I don't know what to make of this as yet, as there isn't much information available. More will probably be coming out tomorrow after those who were arrested make their court appearances.

This could be a legitimate law enforcement operation by the feds, or something else.

One thing is certain: I am going to be very interested in seeing exactly what laws these people will be alleged to have violated.

I am quite sure I will not be alone in that.

(h/t: Everybody who emailed this story to me)

It's Time to Disarm IRS Goons

This is beyond ridiculous, and not a little scary.

Until we can get the FairTax in place and put these tyrannical government goons out of a job for good, the least we could do for public safety in America is take their guns away from them.

People who are this unstable, federal agents or not, have no business being armed.

Remember, if CommieCare becomes law, these are the exact same government goons who will be the Comrade Chairman's enforcers.

If that doesn't scare the hell out of you, what will?

On a related note just what, exactly, does the Federal Department of Education need with twenty-seven shotguns?

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.

Hmm, I wonder if this is to intimidate all those home-schoolers out there when the government decides they are resisting unduly?

(h/t: My buddy Earl)

Feds Move to Increase Internet Control

As I have noted previously, the federal government, under the guise of "cybersecurity," is moving toward taking increasing control of the Internet. That effort is now being aided by legislation currently being crafted by Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine).

Via thehill.com (emphasis mine):

According to an aide familiar with the proposal, the bill includes a mandate for federal agencies to prepare emergency response plans in the event of a massive, nationwide cyberattack.
The president would then have the ability to initiate those network contingency plans to ensure key federal or private services did not go offline during a cyberattack of unprecedented scope, the aide said.

[...]

Privacy groups are nonetheless likely to take some umbrage at Rockefeller and Snowe's latest effort, an early draft of which leaked late last year.

When early reports predicted the cybersecurity measure would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency," online privacy groups said they felt that would endow the White House with overly ambiguous and far-reaching powers to regulate the Internet.

You will find the entire article at this link.

Given that the Internet has become such an integral part of life in America, and realizing that a determined cyberattack could severely damage our nation, I am not suggesting that the federal government has no role in this area. After all, defending this nation is priority #1 for the federal government.

What I am concerned about is government abuse, given that we hear more and more about abuses of power being carried out by government agents all the time, and not necessarily those employed by the feds.

I am not all that comfortable with this kind of power being put in the hands of one person, regardless of who they are, and that goes double, or even triple, given who is residing in the White House at the moment.

Somewhere a line needs to be drawn between defending cyberspace and protecting the privacy and freedoms we are constitutionally guaranteed, yet I freely admit I am not exactly sure where that line needs to be placed. I am, however, quite sure I don't want the likes of Jay Rockefeller and Olympia Snowe being the ones to draw it.

Sadly, this crucial issue hasn't gotten anywhere near the play in the public arena that it should, given the serious implications involved.

Hopefully that will change as this legislation makes its way though congress.

What a Dying Private Sector Economy Looks Like

Just press the Play button.

Scared yet?

Creeping Freedom and Liberty

Via Jeremy Lott at Real Clear Politics:

I first began to see the full scope of these victories last month when I had lunch with a serious libertarian historian of campaign finance law. It was the eve of the Citizens United decision, which would effectively scrap most restrictions on independent campaign spending by individuals, groups, and corporations. He told me that if the ruling came down as expected -- and it did -- then he might have to find himself a different line of work. Mission accomplished.

The lawsuit that tore down most of our restrictive campaign finance laws was brought by a conservative filmmaker with an ax to grind against Hillary Clinton. The basis of arguing against that law was laid out by libertarian legal scholars who pointed out that the free speech clause of the First Amendment ("Congress shall make no law...") is clear. Libertarians argued that the case against prohibiting corporations from taking part in campaigns was specious. It didn't matter if it was an individual speaking or people speaking corporately. The real rub was whether the government can silence speech.

And they painted the argument that money isn't speech as a bit of liberal naivete. After all, money makes the mass exercise of speech possible. Wendy Kaminer wrote in The Atlantic that "as a practical matter, money is speech" and, the clincher, "Few reproductive choice advocates would insist that money isn't choice."

As with the First Amendment, so with the Second. The 2008 Heller decision, which finally and unambiguously stated that law abiding U.S. citizens have a "right to keep and bear arms," was the result of several lawsuits, included one launched by scholars associated with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, and argued by libertarian lawyer Alan Gura. Cato thought its role in the case so important that it commissioned the book Gun Control on Trial.

You will find the entire article at this link.

While these may be small victories against ever-advancing government tyranny, they are victories just the same, and I find them to be not a little encouraging given this nation's often seemingly steadfast determination to imitate the Roman Empire in committing suicide.

I have often said that America was founded by people who were essentially libertarians, and if this nation is to be saved, it will be libertarian principles that ultimately save it.

There may be hope for America yet.

(h/t: Boortz.com)

Photo credit: ncrider.com.

Boortz Government Outrage Page

Things that will really, really piss you off:

Pa. school official defended in webcam spy case

5th-Grader Says 'Gifted' Standards Unfair

Michael Steele's spending spree angers donors

Make sure you have plenty of Mylanta/Tums/Rolaids on hand - and maybe a healthy supply of adult beverages, too. You're gonna need them.