CRUZ: “Fahrenheit 451” Democrats

◼ Banning speech with a constitutional amendment is playing with fire - Washington Times

I have three questions for my Democratic colleagues in the Senate: Should Congress be able to ban books? Should Congress be able to ban films? Should Congress be able to ban groups such as the NAACP, the National Rifle Association and the Sierra Club from speaking?

The answer to all three questions should, unequivocally, be “no.” But, sadly, 46 Democrats in the U.S. Senate are supporting a constitutional amendment to repeal the free-speech provisions of the First Amendment and give Congress carte blanche power to regulate political speech.

It’s all because a group of conservative filmmakers made a documentary film in 2008 about then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that did not speak favorably about her record. Forty-four Senate Democrats are now supporting a constitutional amendment from Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico to stop Americans from showing movies like the one Citizens United created during the 2008 election.

Forty-six Senate Democrats are willing to rewrite the Constitution to take away the right of Americans to speak or create art that is critical of politicians.

Forty-six Senate Democrats are actively working to silence political criticism ahead of the next presidential election.

They are the “Fahrenheit 451” Democrats.

Never before has Congress tampered with the First Amendment.

When a similar proposal was considered in 1997, the famed liberal lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy, reminded his colleagues that never before had the Bill of Rights been amended and “now is no time to start....”

The American middle class is caught between two rebellions. One by an urban middle class elite that would like a more closed and regulated society and another by a rural middle class that would like a more open and less regulated society, with the suburbs split in the middle.

◼ And This is Revolution - Daniel Greenfield/Sultan Knish

Don't bore us with your puritanical facts

◼ The New York Times is receiving pushback from its constituents for having the audacity to explain that changes in marriage patterns are playing a huge role in the growth of income inequality. - Paul Mirengoff/Powerline

...The recent study on mobility by Pew (pdf)... found, for example, that 54 percent of today’s young adults who grew up in an intact two-parent home in the top-third of household income have remained in the top-third as adults, compared with just 37 percent of today’s young adults who grew up in a wealthy (top-third) but divorced family.

This means that even after one control for income, which tends to be lower in single parent families, children still fare better if their parents stay together. Moreover, according to University of Virginia social scientist W. Bradford Wilcox, other research suggests that the children of never-married single parents tend to do somewhat worse than the children of divorced single parents....

◼ TWO CLASSES DIVIDED BY “I DO” - Paul Mirengoff/Powerline
◼ The NYT article called Two Classes Separated By ‘I Do.’ - Jason DeParle/NYT
◼ New York Times, Stop Moralizing About Single Mothers - Katie Roiphe/Slate

Robin of Berkeley: The Road to Hell

◼ While trying to change the world may seem harmless enough, in reality it is playing with fire. - Robin of Berkeley/American Thinker ◼ robinofberkeley.com

...the Bay Area, and all of California, is going to hell in a hand basket. California dreams big, as in a Dream Act of funding the tuition of illegal aliens -- all while the state goes belly up. But everyone knows that Berkeley is Berkeley and San Francisco is San Francisco. The country expects lunacy from these parts.

But what is so troubling is that the left's shenanigans are no longer confined to experimental locales, like Berkeley. With Obama and the left seizing power, ridiculous and even dangerous schemes are being foisted on the mostly unknowing public.... More at the link.

Is there any place for a flying car in a low flow toilet culture?

◼ The Flying Car Culture - Sultan Knish

...Flying cars don't have much of a place in a society with emissions standards, mandatory child seats, heavily taxed gasoline and government motor companies. They have even less of a place in one that banned the lawn dart, requires photo ID's to purchase cough syrup and treats toothpaste as a weapon. America has gone from a nation that idealized freedom and treated the car as a vehicle of autonomy to one overrun by central planners still dreaming of the perfect national rail system that no one will use, because unlike its graceful forebears, but like everything overseen by the humanitarian bureaucracy it will be designed to crush the human spirit. ...

When you take a bulldozer to traditional values, what takes its place is bulldozer ideology, the expedient virtue of bulldozing things and the virtue of whatever rises in their place. Once you believe in the bulldozer, then you must also believe in whatever mess follows in its wake, otherwise you are forced to take a long hard look at the virtue of the bulldozer. And once that happens, you are one step away from becoming a reactionary clinging to traditional values.

◼ All the Morals of a Bulldozer - Sultan Knish

...Like well trained Oceanians, it depends on audiences in colorful Keffiyah scarves and ironic t-shirts who rise eagerly for the daily Two-Minute Hates, shouting against racism, patriarchy, carbon, oil, corporate personhood and logos, gun rights, animal testing, heteronormative bathrooms and any of the endless list of things to be outraged by, without the ability to apply their denunciations to a moral code....

Bulldozer values call forth explosive faux moral tantrums at anything that stands in front of the bulldozer. These tantrums can be seen on the late night news, on the front page of the New York Times, which long ago stopped relegating its moral tantrums and special pleading to the editorial page, on liberal blogs and a thousand other places. They don't however represent moral or ethics, only the virtue of the bulldozer-- the virtue of power.

The country must know about Romney's dog riding on top of the car. Why? Because it shows that Romney is a bad person. They must not know about Obama eating dogs, because it might make him 'wrongly' seem like a bad person. The only consistent value here is that of the bulldozer. Obama is driving the bulldozer, and so he must be protected, just the same way that the media protected Clinton in his own private war on women and their right to say no to being groped or propositioned, because back then he was driving the bulldozer. When Clinton briefly got in the way of Obama's bulldozer, then the media bulldozed him....

It's not just the entitlements. Everywhere you look in the bloated federal leviathan, all is waste, all is excess.

◼ Hookers bring Secret Service to its knees - Mark Steyn/OC Register

...I've written before about the U.S. government's motorcade culture. Just last month, it cost U.S. taxpayers half-a-million bucks to fly Obama and David Cameron to Dayton, Ohio to pretend to enjoy a basketball game. I've attended previous "Summits of the Americas" and G7 meetings and other international confabs, and always heard the same story wearily retailed by representatives of the host nation – that the money-no-object Yanks are flying in a bigger and more disruptive presidential entourage than everybody else put together. At this point, the local official usually rolls his eyes, and mostly, but not always, leaves the thought unspoken:

"Americans! What do you expect?" The Queen routinely turns down requests from visiting U.S. presidents to reinforce the garden walls and replace the windows of Buckingham Palace – for an overnight stay. When the U.S. was the richest country on earth, the mad excess used to impress in a crude kind of way: If you've got it, flaunt it. Now it's the Brokest Nation in History: America hasn't got it, but still flaunts it; which is kind of pathetic....

America's Crisis of Character

◼ The nation seems to be on the wrong track, and not just economically. - Peggy Noonan/Wall St. Journal

People in politics talk about the right track/wrong track numbers as an indicator of public mood. This week Gallup had a poll showing only 24% of Americans feel we're on the right track as a nation. That's a historic low. Political professionals tend, understandably, to think it's all about the economy—unemployment, foreclosures, we're going in the wrong direction. I've long thought that public dissatisfaction is about more than the economy, that it's also about our culture, or rather the flat, brute, highly sexualized thing we call our culture.

Now I'd go a step beyond that. I think more and more people are worried about the American character—who we are and what kind of adults we are raising.

Every story that has broken through the past few weeks has been about who we are as a people. And they are all disturbing.

Not-So-Smooth Operator

◼ Obama increasingly comes across as devious and dishonest. - Peggy Noonan.Wall St. Journal

Something's happening to President Obama's relationship with those who are inclined not to like his policies. They are now inclined not to like him. His supporters would say, "Nothing new there," but actually I think there is. I'm referring to the broad, stable, nonradical, non-birther right. Among them the level of dislike for the president has ratcheted up sharply the past few months....

Events of just the past 10 days have contributed to the shift. There was the open-mic conversation with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in which Mr. Obama pleaded for "space" and said he will have "more flexibility" in his negotiations once the election is over and those pesky voters have done their thing. On tape it looked so bush-league, so faux-sophisticated. When he knew he'd been caught, the president tried to laugh it off by comically covering a mic in a following meeting. It was all so . . . creepy.

Next, a boy of 17 is shot and killed under disputed and unclear circumstances. The whole issue is racially charged, emotions are high, and the only memorable words from the president's response were, "If I had a son he'd look like Trayvon." At first it seemed OK—not great, but all right—but as the story continued and suddenly there were death threats and tweeted addresses and congressmen in hoodies, it seemed insufficient to the moment. At the end of the day, the public reaction seemed to be: "Hey buddy, we don't need you to personalize what is already too dramatic, it's not about you."

Now this week the Supreme Court arguments on ObamaCare, which have made that law look so hollow, so careless, that it amounts to a characterological indictment of the administration. The constitutional law professor from the University of Chicago didn't notice the centerpiece of his agenda was not constitutional? How did that happen?

College Students Grade Obama

Rick Santorum: Unleashing America’s Energy

◼ link - Rick Santorum at RedState

President Obama’s flat-out rejection of the Keystone Pipeline is radical, irresponsible, and dumbfounding. Sadly though, It is yet another example of this President’s capitulation to the radical environmental fringe which puts our economy and national security at risk. Our nation needs to become energy independent and this pipeline would have been an important step in that direction. Instead of an estimated twenty thousand jobs going to Americans – those jobs will go to our international competitors like China....


We need a leader who understands that we must unleash our domestic energy production to enhance our national security and grow our economy. Unlike sending a man to the moon, this is not rocket science. Countries like Brazil, France, and Canada have largely achieved self sufficiency through biofuels, nuclear energy, and natural gas and oil respectively. Now is the time to unleash our great energy resources to expand American job opportunities, strengthen our national security,and preserve and grow our status as the leading economy in the world.

I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist

◼ 545 vs. 300,000,000 People - Charley Reese(Orlando Sentinel)/Godfather Politics

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them....

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red.

If the Army and Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it’s because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan …

If they do not receive Social Security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way.

There are no insoluble government problems.

GOP war of all against all?

◼ There still exists a possibility that, come Jan. 20, 2013, we could have a Republican Senate and House, and a Republican president. - Patrick J. Buchanan/Human Events

But there is also a possibility that a Goldwater-Rockefeller-type family bloodletting could sunder the party and kick it all away.

America is bored with Barack Obama. The young and the minorities are still with him but exhibit none of the excitement or enthusiasm of 2008.

Moreover, we have been through three years of 23-25 million unemployed or underemployed. Our national debt is now larger than the national economy, approaching Italian proportions. The class warfare rhetoric is beginning to grate. A huge majority believes the nation is on the wrong course.

Who wants four more years of this?

Democratic hopes for 2012 hence hinge on that party's ability to portray the Republican alternative as unacceptable if not intolerable. And the Republicans have begun to play into that script.

The GOP field of candidates suddenly seems headed to a finale that will call to mind the last scene of Hamlet, the dead and dying everywhere, but no Fortinbras to restore order in the house.

◼ Complacent Conservatism Is Allowing America To Slide Into The Abyss - John Hawkins/TownHall

Conservatism is more relevant than ever to American life, but much of the conservative movement has grown complacent, lazy, rigid, and out-of-touch. Too many conservatives went to D.C. to make a difference and hung around to make a few bucks. Too many conservatives have given up on moving America to the right and are now content to just hold the line so we don't move any further backwards. That's one of the dirty little secrets on the Right; real grassroots Tea Party conservatism FRIGHTENS a lot of conservatives, especially the ones in D.C. It's not so much because they disagree with the sentiment, but because they've become so demoralized that they instinctively recoil from any meaningful effort to move the country to the right, rather than just stopping the movement to the left.

Interview with James Delingpole - Part 1

Why the GOP is dying in California

◼ When your political enemies give you a gift, you ought to take it. - Steven Greenhut/OC Register

We all know that California's Democratic Party is running the state into the ground fiscally, given how beholden its legislators and elected officials are to public sector unions and how devoted they are to expanding government and raising taxes. The state needs some political competition, but a major court case reminds us why the state Republican Party is a useless vessel that's incapable of broadening its base and changing the state's political trajectory.

On Thursday, the California Supreme Court began hearing arguments in a lawsuit brought by defenders of the state's redevelopment agencies (RDAs) who are seeking to overturn recent laws that essentially shut down those agencies. Gov. Jerry Brown isn't often right, but he was on target when he proposed shutting down these central planning agencies that primarily dispense corporate welfare to big businesses and drive small property owners off their land so that big-box stores can prosper.

Brown's plan wasn't perfect. It allowed the agencies to buy their way back into existence as many of them have since done. The law wasn't passed entirely for the right reasons. Brown and legislative Democrats had typically supported RDAs, but were looking for quick ways to close the state's gaping budget hole. As Bloomberg reported, "The governor and supporters of the law said the redevelopment agencies have become little more than slush funds for private developers, and they want the tax money generated by new developments to be diverted from the agencies to local schools, law enforcement agencies and other services."

When your political enemies give you a gift, you ought to take it.

Instead of taking it, California Republicans actively opposed the governor's plan and shamelessly sided with the people who run roughshod over everything the GOP is supposed to stand for. Forget all the talk about property rights, limited government, free markets and family values....

Republicans should be standing with the small property owners and business people – often working-class people and minorities – who want to pursue their dreams and not be bullied by these urban-renewal agencies. They should be standing up for fiscal responsibility and against debt and subsidies. Instead, they have stood up for the Armani-suit-wearing developers and bean-counting bureaucrats who treat private property like pieces on a monopoly board. It's shameful and a reminder of why the GOP is dying in California.

It's Time to Talk Turkey About Income Inequality

◼ 390 years after the first symbol of gratitude created by Europeans on this continent, Americans are locked in a bitter conflict of ingratitude. The tug-of-war over the turkey wishbone is now a polarizing class struggle.

The dividing line is the loaded phrase “income inequality.” It’s all about who eats and who pays.

On one level, income inequality is real, and growing. Yet as a bedrock and urgent political issue, it’s pure hokum, cooked up in the socialist faculty lounges and the back rooms where the government unions pull the strings of puppet pols. The aim is to hijack emotions and grow the government pie so favored voters get a bigger slice.

It has surprisingly wide appeal. People from the vagabonds playing drums in Zuccotti Park to the billionaire mayor of New York who rousted them, Michael Bloomberg, say income inequality is a big problem....

Having given up on the meaning of America, which is about expanding opportunity and liberty for everyone, income equalizers are pitting Americans against each other in a fight certain to make losers of us all.

The world of reality has its problems, so it is understandable that some people want to escape to a different world, where you can talk lofty talk and forget about ugly realities like costs and repercussions. The world of reality is not nearly as lovely as the world of Liberal Land. No wonder so many people want to go there.

◼ Alice in Liberal Land - Thomas Sowell/Human Events

Listen Up, Boomers: The Backlash Has Begun

◼ “Talkin’ about my generation”: the Who song once expressed the hope and self confidence of the Baby Boomers as they reached biological if not emotional maturity.... - Walter Russell Mead/the American Interest

Talking about our generation is not going to be as much fun for the Boomers as it was in those long distant days of infinite promise. My generation has some real accomplishments under its belt, especially in the worlds of science and technology. And we made important progress in making American society a more open place for people and groups who were once excluded. In every field of American life, there are Boomers who have made and are making important, selfless contributions: in hospitals, in classrooms, in government, in business, in the military. You name it and we are there.

But at the level of public policy and moral leadership, as a generation we have largely failed. The Boomer Progressive Establishment in particular has been a huge disappointment to itself and to the country....

Anwar al-Awlaki: Assassination of an American Citizen?

◼ al–Awlaki was a key player in the Ft. Hood Massacre, 9-11 and other failed attacks in the US. But what we never got with this thug was a trial and a guilty verdict - Strata-Sphere

◼ Anwar al-Aulaqi gets new designation in death - Greg Miller and Alice Fordham/Washington Post

U.S. officials have given Anwar al-Aulaqi a newly elevated designation on the day of his death by drone strike, describing him as “chief of external operations” for al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen.

The new title, cited by officials at the White House and the CIA, reflects Aulaqi’s evolution from Muslim cleric to alleged terrorist plotter, as well as a desire by American officials to persuade the public that the extraordinary killing of a U.S. citizen overseas was warranted.

◼ Anwar al-Aulaqi had ties to Falls Church, Virginia mosque; under scrutiny by investigators for its connections to terrorist cases - William Wan/Washington Post

Barack Obama has done the United States a great, though unforeseen, favor. He has brought to light, as no one else could, many of the pernicious assumptions of our culture from the last half-century. He turned theory and “what ifs” into fact for all America to see, experience, and, yes, suffer through.

◼ The Great Obama Catharsis - Victor Davis Hanson
...From Here On Out - Had McCain been elected, or had Obama proved a canny Clinton triangulator, we would never have gotten out of the bipartisan rut of massive borrowing, growing government, higher taxes, and unionized public employee regulators. But with Obama as the great liberal deliverer and with the masses scared to death of Him, the next president will inherit an America in catharsis. The future is uncertain, but at least now, after our cauterizing, we have some sort of chance to return to the old principles that might save us. Read, and Bookmark, the whole thing