Nancy Pelosi proves that it is possible to give “tells”, even if your face can’t move and you are an accomplished liar. First, the “she made an utter fool of herself” part, because any chance to point and snicker at Pelosi is A-Okay with me. While giving a speech to the National Association of Counties, Pelosi said the following:

“You’ve heard about the controversies, the process about the bill…but I don’t know if you’ve heard that it is legislation for the future – not just about health care for America, but about a healthier America,” she told the National Association of Counties annual legislative conference, which has drawn about 2,000 local officials to Washington. “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it – away from the fog of the controversy.”

Pelosi is basically saying, as the Left tends to do, “You silly rubes! You just don’t realize how super awesome it is and how smart we are. We can’t wait around for you common folk to figure it out, so we’ll just ram it down your throats without any of your pesky input. Just be grateful that you still have tonsils in those throats, no thanks to nefarious tonsil reaping doctors and evil Republicans!”

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I had heard some rumblings a few weeks back because of the ACORN “pimp & pro” sting by O’Keefe & Giles the little nuts were bugging out. Getting out of town. Slinking into a hole. But even cockroaches and snakes have to come up for air every once in awhile, so what is really happening is they are “rebranding.” Doing a makeover. “Flipping their houses.” Only a lot of them are the same house.

I’m sure the “poison fruit of the oak tree” hoped we wouldn’t notice, but do they really think we are that stupid? Apparently so.

A couple of weeks ago I went to ACORN’s webpage and printed out a copy of the listing of all their offices in the US. And started making phone calls. I started with the six offices listed in Ohio. Phone numbers for Akron, Dayton, Toledo and Cincinnati are disconnected. Columbus says “mailbox full” but didn’t identify who they were. Only the Cleveland office answers and identifies themselves as “Cleveland Acorn.” And since I don’t live far from Toledo, I took a drive to the address in downtown listed at 316 N. Michigan. The office is empty. No sign, no nothing.

Then on to other parts of the country. Miami, Vegas, New Orleans, San Bernadino & Oakland CA numbers disconnected. San Diego says “leave message” but no identifier. Detroit & Rhode Island ACORN in Providence answer & identify them as ACORN offices, but “please leave a message.”  The Dallas office answers as The Texas Organizing Project. hmmmm…The LA office number answers and states “ACORN is no longer operating in LA.” hmmmm….Remember this for later, guys.

Then I ran into an article on Big Government written by Matthew Vadum, who has written tons about ACORN. There Vadum states that ACORN in New York has a new name of New York Communities for Change. And that California ACORN has “rebranded” as ACCE, or Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. Come on, give me a break. But research tells me h/t on this actually goes to lib blogger Norman Oder of Atlantic Yards who beat Vadum by a couple of hours.

ACORN, ACORN, ACORN. I was so sick of hearing about them. So just like Scarlett O’Hara I told myself “tomorrow is another day” and I set this aside for a few. Then today I was alerted, h/t to Jesse Hathaway, about an e-mail he received from ACCE in California. I tracked it down on their website.

January 23, 2010
Los Angeles ACCE Members Join LA Councilmember Richard Alarcon to Introduce New Standards for Banks Doing Business with City

Remember earlier in this post I told you I called the LA ACORN office and got the “ACORN is no longer operating in LA” message. That was less than two weeks ago. Look at the date on the above: January 23, 2010. I cross-checked the address listed of 3655 South Grand Ave with the address listed for LA’s ACORN office I printed out a couple of weeks ago. Ohhh,,, my gosh! Same address!!

Who would have thought. We even have one of the “usual suspects.” SEIU.

The only thing changed here, folks, is the name and the color of their t-shirts, which are now “yellow” instead of their usual “red.”

Notice the name of LA Councilman “Richard Alarcon” in their post. Don’t know him. So I asked Brockway because he lives in the area if Alarcon is a “crook.” So h/t to Brockway in providing me with this interesting little tidbit on Alarcon from ABC news. Seems that Alarcon is being investigated because he supposedly registered to vote giving an address for a home that is not his residence!

Who would have thought. ACORN is known for fraudulent voter registrations, has been indicted in several states, has bugged out in many areas because of the “pimp and pro” scandal. Now they have reopened in many areas with different names, but are still up to their old tricks. And now apparently their “modus operandi” has rubbed off onto an LA Councilman.

To Councilman Alarcon. If you are reading this post. I dare ya to refute the above paragraph.

Thanks.

Crossposted. Crossposted.

The Blue and Gray comes from the colors of the uniforms worn by the union army (blue) and the confederate army (gray) during the war between the states. The confederate states were all in the southeast quadrant of the US, and the union states were the northern states and Oregon and California. The confederate states had less freedom for its inhabitants which included slaves. That was then.

Now, William P. Ruger and Jason Sorens have published a paper, Freedom in the 50 States. This document just about flips the map on the states with less freedom(gray) and states with more freedom(blue). The following is a summary of their findings.

We develop and justify our ratings and aggregation procedure on explicitly normative criteria, defining individual freedom as the ability to dispose of one’s own life, liberty, and justly acquired property however one sees fit, so long as one does not coercively infringe on another individual’s ability to do the same. This study improves on prior attempts to score economic freedom for American states in three primary ways: (1) it includes measures of social and personal freedoms such as peaceable citizens’ rights to educate their own children, own and carry firearms, and be free from unreasonable search and seizure.

We find that the freest states in the country are New Hampshire, Colorado, and South Dakota, which together achieve a virtual tie for first place. All three states feature low taxes and government spending and middling levels of regulation and paternalism. New York is the least free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California, and Maryland. On personal freedom alone, Alaska is the clear winner, while Maryland brings up the rear. As for freedom in the different regions of the country, the Mountain and West North Central regions are the freest overall while the Middle Atlantic lags far behind on both economic and personal freedom. Regression analysis demonstrates that states enjoying more economic and personal freedom tend to attract substantially higher rates of internal net migration.

The authors of this study have put the data online, and one is able to adopt their own weights to see how the overall freedom rankings change. LINK

Pia Varma is a candidate for the US House seat in Pennsylvania’s 1st district, and she has some excellent thoughts on the subject of freedom.

Freedom! That word once started revolutions. There was a time when people pretty much understood that freedom was so precious that nothing and no one should have the power to take it away. America was founded on that basis. No matter your race, gender, religion or social class, as a human being no one could take your freedom without your consent. But individual freedom cannot exist without individual responsibility. That means you own the consequences of your choices: profit and loss, success and failure, happiness and sadness. But that was then, this is now.

Today, millions of Americans have been led to believe that they can have the good without the bad. They never bothered to think about the costs though. Like eating in a fine restaurant, we never see the bill until the meal is over. Even better if someone else is paying. So we vote for nice sounding policies and the people who promote them all because the costs cannot be seen or they are supposedly paid by someone else. But any immediate benefit we get will fade and at the next election cycle we are back at that table begging like Oliver Twist, Please Sir, May I have some more.

Every day, more and more Americans are lulled into relying on the government to solve their problems. They never realize that the cost of doing so is their freedom. No matter how bad the government makes their lives, they still trust that someday it will get better. The sad part is, they genuinely believe that they are safer under that false blanket of protection.

In a free market businesses are forced to provide product and services demanded by the consumer. The consumer controls the quality, quantity and costs. If he does not like the services at one company, he simply fires them and goes to a competitor. But when the industry is in the hands of a monopoly, as is the case with education, the consumer, in this case parents and children, is forced to accept what is offered. Sure you can opt for private school but this option is only available to a select few.

A private business competing in an open market has to listen to its customers or risk closing its doors. Public schools don’t have this problem. Incentives matter.

Government has a duty to prevent those things which can be prevented, but we as individuals have a duty to ensure that we do not become the victims of our own security. More government, more agencies, more money has not, cannot and will not make life perfect.

The two maps below are what the US looked like in 1861, and what, according to the report, the US State Overall Freedom Ranking reveals today. I colored the 17 most free states blue, the 16 least free states gray, and the 17 states in the middle light green.

Cross-posted at The Minority Report

I recently wrote about the US history that is not taught about some famous American market entrepreneurs. That really is just the tip of the iceberg. In every period of our history there are statist biases being taught to students in classes. Larry Schweikart has written a book that includes a list of lies that can lead to a bitter attitude about this country being formed by the students. It is important to know who wrote your history textbook, and what kinds of bias are evident.
The American Textbook Council is an independent national research organization established in 1989 to review the history and social studies textbooks used in the nation’s schools. Since its foundation, the Council has achieved a prominent place in national discussions and exchanges about history textbooks and the social studies curriculum through its many bulletins, studies, and reports. The Council’s many projects, evaluations of history textbooks and social studies curricula, and efforts to educate the nation about the civic implications of multiculturalism have earned it a reputation for integrity and fairness.
The Council endorses textbooks that embody vivid narrative style, stress significant people and events, and promote better understanding of all cultures, including our own, on the principle that improved textbooks will advance the curriculum, stimulate student learning, and encourage educational achievement for children of all backgrounds.

To give some guidance to educators who need quick assistance and a place to begin, the history textbooks listed below that have been adjudged in content and design satisfactory or superior to their competition in previous Council bulletins and studies are marked with a plus (+). Textbooks that have been adjudged grossly deficient or inaccurate in reviews are marked with a minus (-). Unmarked textbooks are of mixed quality. Each of the following textbooks is identified alphabetically by publisher, first designated author, and abridged title. BL denotes a book that has been backlisted, i.e., it is no longer actively sold as “new” yet is for sale as inventory. Such books are gradually being retired or may be niche sellers with enduring popularity.

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has on its web site a link to reviewers’ findings of some of the textbooks listed. Instead of ranking the textbooks with a (+)or(-) these reviewers assigned a letter grade ranging from C+ to F for the textbooks. The table below shows their results.

The meager research I have done on this subject leads me to thinking that the choices for schools in choosing history textbooks are between barely acceptable and completely unsatisfactory. The direction in education in the US is to move toward more uniformity and standardization, and less control by each state. I think that this is a very bad idea, and I applaud Alaska and Texas for refusing to take federal dollars in exchange for losing control of education standards.
There are progressives in both the Republican and Democratic Party who want to attack anyone opposed to the national takeover in education as being someone who doesn’t care about all the children getting an excellent education. This line of attack should be answered by informing them that the more local the government the more caring exists. There are so many programs and plans that are talked about in Washington, DC that have absolutely nothing to do with duties and enumerated powers that are listed in the US Constitution for the federal government. They will attack anyone who opposes their programs as someone who just does not care about things that are very important to people. They miss the point of the opposition. Opposition is not because something is not important or because we don’t care about people. The opposition is because the local government has the authority to run programs not listed by the US Constitution. The tenth amendment does spell this out fairly well.
The bottom line for me is that I would want my history lessons to come from American Journey.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The hoopla over 1st amendment rights are upheld. Great ruling the opposite would have been a huge leap towards communism. I think the real argument going forward is the education of the populace. We have shown that as a nation we see the agenda that has been unleashed upon a free people but the question remains, where does the first line of defense start???  We know it is in the schools. A corporation can have the freedom to speak out as much as the individual but let us look at the power structure behind that right.

I reference Global warming propaganda and the total bull crap alliance between corporate owned media and government. ( By the way I know in the minds of these people it was lets direct the economy towards GREEN JOBS and that will sustain close to full employment.)  The public would rather be informed. With an informed public the Statist group has to understand that the argument has to be rational, not just spin.The only defense to this crap is an educated public ( school system) and a free press. which continues to loose readership due to the same previously mentioned relationship.

So the biggest fear to the global socialists would be that the greatest economy of the world would educate their children in American Ideals and the rationality that underpins our Republican  form of government. The control of a globalist form of government would never be tolerated by a free people armed with the philosophy of Individualism and natural rights. history bares this out. The teachers union,media and the federal government along with various others have been culpable in the deadening of our society. I see it in the eyes of the 24 year old college students that uphold the current administrations view of wealth distribution as if their putrid declaration was a right to decide without regard to 350 years of common law. As if the thought process of the central planner abrogated the rights of contract law and the natural right of man in a free society to reap the benefit of his labor.

What the socialist mentality advocates is that the re-numeration you reap for 20 years in business by fiat should be turned over to the MOB, (NOW YOUNG SOCIALIST GO PLAN YOUR FUTURE) The philosophy is based on theft. You would have to live in fear because you will never know who could take it away. Without the rule of law that upholds the right of ownership meaning property there is no country.

Wake up little masters on the universe to the idea YOU HAVE NO RIGHT the way you try to frame the argument. Be men first than you can argue.

According to the Greenville News the Lt. Gov. of SC Andre Bauer recently proposed a somewhat novel idea for the state’s free and reduced lunch programs.

Bauer is running for the state’s Republican nomination for Governor of the state, and in a town hall meeting said that government should take away the assistance if parents did not pass drug tests, or attend parent teacher conferences.

I think this is a bold statement by Bauer and a strategy conservatives should take a look at. Let’s think about this in pragmatic terms. The social welfare state is here to stay and there will always be honest people who need assistance. Wouldn’t it be worthwhile to actually tie assistance to simple standards which law abiding and responsible citizens would have no problems meeting. Under this strategy you give the liberals little to complain about.

You can’t argue that the assistance isn’t being given, you just have to invest in yourself as much as you are asking other people to invest in you via their own money.

Twitter: @AshleyGarry

Read the story from which this post was based here:
(http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20100123/NEWS/1230308/Bauer-equates-%E2%80%98stray-animals-to-people-in-speech-on-aid-to-needy),

Now that ObamaCare has passed the Senate, it is time for Democrat leaders to retire behind closed doors to craft another secret vapor deal.  The media, Republicans, and average Americans are banned from this meeting to determine the future of health care.  Democrat leaders will secretly craft an ObamaCare bill that they think can pass in both the House and Senate.  This is yet another example of the self proclaimed ”most transparent White House in history” being non-transparent and delivering the functional equivalent of a lump of coal into your Christmas stocking.  Merry Christmas America - you will get nothing and like it. 

The Wall Street Journal reported today that Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid will go back behind closed doors to write a final ObamaCare bill:

Look for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to try to circumvent the traditional conference committee process by which the different versions of health care reform passed by each house will be reconciled. If so, it will be the latest example of violating principles of transparency and accountability in the single-minded pursuit of legislative victory.

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